Night World Players

Chapter 67 Is this really the ending you want?
Gray had a very long dream.

In her dream, she was not living after the cataclysm.

Instead, they lived before the Cataclysm... There was no Iron Cross, no evil gods, no beast tides and alien races, and no pollution that could erupt out of control at any time.

People live and work in peace and contentment, and do not need to worry about whether their homes will fall tomorrow. They only need to care about their future, studies, and work...that prosperous old era that only exists in the descriptions in books.

And Grey's own parents are not dead either.

On a winter night, the family happily sat around the fire and enjoyed dinner.

The aroma of the food lingered in her nose, and the fire gave off a warm wave of heat, adding a bit of warmth to her originally cold body.

only--

When Gray finished half a bowl of porridge in small sips, she called her mother softly, wanting her to taste it too.

The figure that turned back in response to his call was not the gentle face he had expected.

A huge iron-gray cross mark ran through the woman's originally gentle face.

She looked down at Gray in front of her, her lips stretched into a hideous arc that a normal person could never achieve.

No.

Not just my mother.

And my father, brother...

A clearly visible, hideous iron-colored cross brand appeared on everyone's face.

They all turned their heads at Gray's call and stared at her with their faces etched with iron crosses, with exaggerated, hideous curves at the corners of their mouths, like those of circus clowns.

The former family members walked slowly towards Gray step by step with that weird smile on their faces.

……

"No!"

"do not want!"

Gray struggled to sit up from the bed, waving her hands wildly as if trying to grab something, but in the end she grabbed nothing.

There was still fear and confusion in her eyes, and she was gasping for breath.

After a long time, the confusion in Gray's eyes slowly faded away.

This is Dongshui Town, and I was taken in by the mayor...

I have lived here for more than a year. Everyone in this town is very nice to me. Unlike the other cities where I wandered before, they did not reject me as a wanderer.

If this kind of life can continue forever——

So even if I can't join the shore watchers, it should be a pretty good thing to live in Dongshui Town forever.

Thinking of this, Gray's mood gradually calmed down.

But then.

She noticed something a little unusual in this small room where she had lived for more than a year...

White silk thread.

There were white silk mixed with blood everywhere, covering the sky and the sun, as if one was in a spider's nest.

"what happens?"

She sat up from the bed in a daze, put on her clothes, and looked at the room where silk threads were everywhere.

Also, throughout the mansion, on the corridors, there were cocoons woven with silk threads.

Most of the cocoons have been broken open and there is nothing inside.

Only a few cocoons were still intact, but they had inexplicably dried up.

She gently reached out and untangled the silk threads entangled in the shriveled cocoons...

next moment.

Gray's pupils suddenly contracted.

Inside the shriveled cocoons were dried-up corpses.

There are animals like mice and cats...

There are also thin human figures.

Not all creatures are qualified to be made into puppets by the blood mist... Some weak lives die in the woven dreams, and their bodies are ruthlessly abandoned by the blood mist.

……

Gray recognized the thin, withered figure from the clothing.

She was also a girl adopted by the old mayor. She was always in poor health and therefore often needed care from other children.

Just hours ago, Grey had fed her and talked to her.

But now she has turned into a shriveled corpse, and the last bit of nutrients in her skinny body has been squeezed out by the bloody thread and turned into nutrients for the mastermind behind the scenes.

"Do not……"

"Do not……"

Gray's voice was shaking.

Her memories began to sting, forcing her to cover her head and run in fear down the corridor towards the door.

Maybe, something happened at home...

With such a lucky thought in mind, Gray staggered out of the door.

Then she saw it—all the streets, all the houses...

What came into view were the silk threads mixed with blood, as well as the dry and broken cocoons with shriveled corpses revealed inside.

It covered the sky and turned the entire Dongshui Town into a spider cave.

However, the most devastating thing was the scene in the night sky.

Above the small town shrouded in fog, in the dim sky, where the moon should have been, was now replaced by a distorted red sphere.

The hideous flesh and blood formed a weird red moon, which was constantly wriggling and surging.

Shattered memories flashed back in my mind.

Gray remembered this strange bloody moon.

She had seen this kind of scarlet moon in the towns she had wandered through before, when half of the strongholds were destroyed by disasters.

And every time this strange red moon appears, it means that the safe haven she has finally found will be destroyed, her past life will be shattered, and Grey will have to start a new wandering.

She had lived in Frozen Water for more than a year...longer than any other town she had wandered through before.

In Frozen Water Town, in the home of the kind old mayor, Gray also felt the long-lost warmth...

Apart from her hometown which had long since become blurred in her memory, Dongshui Town was the first place where she felt the warmth of home.

She had thought this place was different from the other towns she had wandered through before.

She thought she could live here for a long time...even if she couldn't go to the Shore Watchers' headquarters, because she was already satisfied in Frozen Water Town.

but--

That enchanting red moon coldly shattered the girl's humble dream.

Frozen Water Town is about to be destroyed.

The kind old mayor who took care of her like his own daughter is also gone.

And Grey will wander alone again.

Do not--

Think carefully, why is it that every time I go to a town, the originally peaceful human town is destroyed by disasters, whether it is the red moon, the iron cross, or something else...

Why am I the only one who can survive unscathed every time?

This was something she had never thought about before, or rather, she was unwilling to think about it, and as a little girl, she subconsciously wanted to avoid it.

But at this moment, when her naive longings and fantasies were shattered once again, she had to start thinking about this problem again.

Could it be that the root of all this is——

It's all me?
I killed my parents with my own hands.

Killed the old mayor and all those kind people in Frozen Water Town...

"don't want……"

"don't want……"

"No!"

“I obviously don’t want this!”

The girl's screams echoed throughout the town covered by blood mist.

And in that shrill cry——

Things around her.

Whether it's the ground, the house, or even the flowing breeze and light.

Everything was distorted and frozen in an instant.

On the town's clock tower, the clock hand pointing to midnight suddenly trembled.

The tea in the cup went from steaming to boiling hot, and then quickly poured back into the pot. The flickering candlelight went from dim to bright, and then from bright to pitch black.

Suddenly, shadowy figures appeared on the empty street, and the people walking there moved stiffly.

It was as if a film reel was being replayed; all the scenery and everything began to slowly flow backwards at an extremely strange pace.

Even the blood moon in the sky began to flicker.

Sometimes it appears as a bright and flawless moon disk, and sometimes it turns into a twisted, wriggling ball of flesh and blood, constantly alternating between the two states.

However, the next moment.

"Deny everything that is happening before your eyes."

"Deny the disasters you have brought to others, the beauty you have encountered, and everything others have done for you."

"It is also denied..."

"Myself named "Gray"."

The clear voice penetrates this distorted time.

It rang clearly in Gray's ears.

"Just deceive yourself and forget everything, forever sinking into a daydream with only you."

"We are trapped in the illusion of the past, and therefore can no longer reach the future."

"Is this really—"

"Is this the ending you wanted?"

(End of this chapter)