My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 374 The Truth About the Destruction of the World, Restraint Belts and Earth (5000 words, requesting monthly votes)

Inside the cell, a mercury-like color spreads from the walls in layers.

This hazy color flowed across the floor like moonlight, or like ink dripping onto a blank page, and soon permeated the entire space.

Finally... even the chair beneath Ji Minghuan was not spared, and was stained with the same color.

At that moment, the figure known as the "Prophet" stood motionless at the entrance.

The metal door behind the prophet was tightly closed, showing no signs of having been opened, which seemed to prove that the prophet did not enter through the main entrance.

Ji Minghuan rested his chin on his hand, seemingly nonchalant, yet he was wary and serious as he scrutinized the prophet.

Clearly, the scene in which the prophet appeared this time was different from the last time.

The prophet Ji Minghuan saw last time was like a fleeting shadow, but this time, the one appearing before him was undoubtedly a living person... The other person's breathing, the other person's slight movements, the empty eyes, everything was so real.

A moment later, the prophet who had been standing still moved.

He limped over, leaning on an old-fashioned cane, dragging his tattered, gray-white cloak across the silvery-white floor, his back slightly hunched.

Beneath the brim of his hat, a pair of dark, deep eyes stared intently at Ji Minghuan, unblinking.

It would be a lie to say that Ji Minghuan wasn't intimidated by the other side's display of force.

It's that damn timeout again, and that ghostly, sudden visit to the door. If I had to say, even the Salvation Church isn't this terrifying.

So, in this empty, lifeless cage, Ji Minghuan pondered in his mind who this powerful being was, while curiously and warily observing the other party.

For some reason, as Ji Minghuan looked at him, she suddenly felt that his eyes were very familiar, as if she had seen them somewhere before. This strange sense of familiarity lingered.

Ji Minghuan suddenly blinked, realizing that he was not alone and helpless.

Then, on a sudden inspiration, he held his forehead and tried to access the mental library in his mind.

But he soon discovered that even inside his library, everything was silent.

The setting sun cast a red glow, its crimson afterglow filling every corner, while the entire library remained empty.

In that familiar corner, the afternoon tea cups, reading glasses, and books were all lying on the floor. Red tea had spilled from the cups, staining the floor red, but the figure of Red Dragon Welsh had vanished.

Even Ji Minghuan was slightly taken aback by this scene.

You should know that the shadow of the Red Dragon Welsh had been with him for more than half a month, and this was the first time he had entered the library and found that the other party was not there.

"How did he do that?" Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow and murmured incredulously, "Even my mentor and Kong Youling couldn't arbitrarily tamper with my mental space. What on earth is this thing?"

Despite having mentally prepared himself beforehand, he still hadn't expected the prophet's abilities to be so terrifying, exceeding even the realm of humanity.

The other person had almost completely shut out all conscious thought. At that moment, the entire world consisted of only the two of them.

This was an absolutely private conversation, and even the time was forbidden from entering.

Therefore, the mentors were unable to observe this scene through the monitoring equipment afterwards, and at most they could only discover that Ji Minghuan's position suddenly changed within a second.

"Damn it, could it really be R-1001?" Ji Minghuan thought to himself, his eyes twitching slightly. The number flashed through his mind almost immediately.

Immediately afterwards, the Bloodline descendant, sipping afternoon tea with his chin resting on his hand, casually recounted the faces of the past.

If it really is R-1001, then Ji Minghuan's inner peace will be completely shattered. Another R-1001 in the world, this may be the only existence that can truly threaten him.

Thump, thump, thump thump...

The prophet's footsteps were light and slow, drowned out by the sound of his cane tapping the floor. At that moment, a pair of black leather boots stepped on the floor. It was hard to tell what era this person was dressed in; it was far too old-fashioned.

A moment later, the other person slowly walked over and sat down across the table.

Ji Minghuan sat calmly in the chair, leaning back, and observed the other person for a while. This person was about 1.7 meters tall, a little over half a head taller than himself.

The two sat on opposite sides of the table, looking at each other.

“I know… you don’t like it here, so let’s go somewhere else to talk,” the prophet said hoarsely.

"Can you take me out?" Ji Minghuan asked. "Since you were able to come in, taking me out should be a simple matter, right?"

“I cannot… As for the reason, I cannot tell you for now.” The prophet shook his head and lowered his voice, “But I can let your spirit accompany me for a while.”

Before Ji Minghuan could say anything, his vision suddenly went black, and his consciousness seemed to fall into an endless ocean, being dragged deeper and deeper by the pressure of the seawater.

In the end, all that remained in my field of vision was a blank expanse of blue.

This feeling was exactly like when he first created a game character...

same.

Ji Minghuan opened her eyes in a daze, not knowing how much time had passed, and her pupils contracted slightly.

He was standing in a narrow corridor, surrounded by complete darkness, both beneath his feet and above him.

Ji Minghuan touched his body. He was still wearing that pure white hospital gown, but he didn't even know what he was standing on. He only knew that the soles of his feet felt as cold as ice, as if he were standing on top of an Arctic glacier.

It was so cold it felt almost hot on my feet, and my soles were slightly numb.

He looked up, staring ahead with a strange expression.

At this moment, the two sides of the corridor were a chaotic scene just like the time tunnel that the train demon had once passed through. Back then, when Ji Minghuan controlled the black pupa to sit inside the train demon and looked out, he experienced the same visual shock.

Strangely, every scene on both sides of the corridor was so familiar, so familiar that it was almost as if something was about to burst forth from one's mind.

In the darkness, his heart pounded faster and faster, as if a million tiny figures were kicking and thumping, giving him no chance to stop and catch his breath.

"Where is this..." Ji Minghuan's lips moved slightly as she murmured to herself, almost word by word.

The prophet stood silently in a corner of the corridor, about ten meters away from Ji Minghuan. He was tilting his head, silently watching the scene in the corridor.

"How should I address you?" After thinking for a moment, the other person turned to look at Ji Minghuan and spoke.

The prophet's voice broke the silence of this chaotic world.

His voice was somewhat hoarse, like someone whose throat had been burned. Perhaps it was because his face was wrapped in gauze, or perhaps his voice was naturally like that.

"What's wrong with you?" Ji Minghuan finally asked.

"What's wrong?" The prophet remained motionless, his entire body covered by a tattered cloak.

"What else?" Ji Minghuan tilted her head and frowned as she said, "It's because you tipped off the Salvation Society, causing me to be locked up in that godforsaken place for over a month. And then you suddenly jumped out and asked me, 'What should I call you?'"

"Oh, then I'll call you... Ji Minghuan?"

"Okay, thank you for telling me. My name is Ji Minghuan. I am truly grateful."

"You're welcome."

The prophet spoke in a low voice, turning his gaze to the west side of the corridor. His eyes were empty and calm, and his voice was devoid of any emotion.

Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment.

He thought to himself, "Why does this person look so dull? Could he be some kind of robot or android?"
"So who are you?" Ji Minghuan asked. "What is your purpose in coming to find me?"

“I have been looking for you for a long time,” the prophet said slowly. “It took me many, many years… to finally find you.”

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm...do you remember the white-haired girl in your library?" the prophet asked.

"Could it be..." Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow.

His consciousness sank as fast as it could, entering the interior of the mental library, where he found the white-haired, red-eyed rag doll in a corner.

“That thing… is actually an informant I planted in your mental world, essentially a surveillance device,” the prophet whispered. “I know that you won’t resist it if it appears before you in the form of Kong Youling.”

He paused for a moment: "Even if you find it strange, you wouldn't erase that existence from your mind; you would just leave it there, right?"

"That's too sneaky." Ji Minghuan snapped out of her daze and stared at the other person. "You actually tried to fool me by using the appearance of that penguin?"

"Um...I'm sorry."

The prophet was quite frank in his apology.

"At first I thought that shadow was something my subconscious was creating, but then again... I guess I was too confident. I never thought anyone could tamper with my mental world, otherwise how could I have been fooled by you?"

Ji Minghuan recalled a series of details, muttering to himself. Thinking about it now, he realized how strange it was. Kong Youling's phantom had indeed appeared in his library out of nowhere one day, and even Kong Youling himself hadn't understood what was going on.

At this moment, Ji Minghuan felt even more strongly that the prophet's origins were extremely mysterious.

“Actually… you don’t need to put on airs in front of me. I know you better than anyone else.” The prophet suddenly sat down. “There’s no need to pretend to be a child, and there’s no need to be so loud and boisterous.”

He paused, then said calmly, "Be quiet, just be yourself."

After a long silence, Ji Minghuan looked up at him and asked, "How did you do that? Even psychic ability users can't break through my mental defenses."

“Don’t rush…we can talk slowly, there’s plenty of time,” the prophet murmured. “I will disappear in fifteen minutes at most. Before that, we can explain everything, everything that has happened so far.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a halo of light, like that of the midnight sun, suddenly enveloped the entire corridor.

A blinding glare pierced his eyes, and Ji Minghuan instinctively raised his arm to shield his forehead. A moment later, when he came to his senses, the entire corridor had undergone a dramatic transformation.

He silently raised his head from his arms, and what came into view was a pockmarked star, its surface radiating a cool white light.

Looking up, one sees a vast and boundless universe, with twinkling stars, and a shooting star trailing a beautiful tail of light as it streaks through the endless darkness.

If he's not mistaken, then what's under his and the prophet's feet at this moment should be called the "moon."

Ji Minghuan and the prophet were sitting together on the top of the moon. The prophet silently looked into the distance of the universe, while Ji Minghuan looked around and occasionally reached out to touch the moon's cratered surface, which made him shiver from the cold.

"Do you see it?" the prophet suddenly said.

"See what?"

“Some things will happen,” the prophet whispered.

Ji Minghuan paused for a moment, then looked at the prophet.

Then, following the prophet's gaze, he looked towards the west of the moon. That was the direction of Earth. But Ji Minghuan was slightly taken aback; he didn't see a blue planet there.

Instead, they saw giant, pitch-black snakes.

At this very moment, thousands of giant snakes writhe in the universe, almost forming a huge, black sphere.

Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that they are not snakes at all, but rather enormous ribbons. They encircle a blue sphere, devouring every corner of it.

"Restraint belt?"

Ji Minghuan stared at the writhing black sphere and almost blurted it out.

“Yes, those are restraints, and what is surrounded by them,” the prophet whispered, “is the earth.”

The two of them suddenly fell silent.

They simply watched silently as the planet was devoured. In the end, the satiated black restraints spread across the universe, heading to distant lands, entangling one celestial body after another.

Only the moon beneath their buttocks escaped unscathed.

"What's going on?" Ji Minghuan asked in a low voice. "Is this the scenario you predicted? Did I destroy the world?"

"I lied to you."

"What the hell?"

"This is not something that will happen, but... something that happened in the past." As he said this, the prophet slowly removed the layers of gauze wrapped around his face, revealing a handsome face.

Ji Minghuan's attention was originally focused on the restraints flying in space, but when he caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye, he slowly turned his head to look at the other person's face.

What came into view at that moment was the face of an Asian boy.

The other person looked to be around 13 to 14 years old, with dark eyes, pale skin, and a fairly prominent nose.

Strangely enough, no one in the world is more familiar with this face than Ji Minghuan. Whether it's the facial features or the overall shape of the face, everything is so familiar, as if he has seen it a thousand or a hundred times.

No, rather, it's more like...

He himself, a year or two older.

Ji Minghuan's pupils contracted slightly.

A long silence enveloped the two of them. Ji Minghuan stared blankly at the other's face, as if looking in a mirror.

"You are……"

After a moment, he opened his mouth, but could not utter a single word.

However, a terrifying thought was exploding in his mind.

The thoughts in my mind were like a ball of yarn rolling off the dining table, spreading endlessly forward until, in the end, only lines remained, filling the blank world.

Finally, the prophet's voice tore through the silence.

“Let me reintroduce myself,” he said. “Rated 1001, that’s the code name the Salvation Society gave me, and it’s also the name I use now.”

"It's really you."

“You probably guessed it by now,” the prophet said.

"why?"

"The reason was stated from the beginning: you will destroy the world," the prophet said.

"But why would I do that?"

Suddenly, the scene before my eyes changed; it was no longer an empty planet, but an empty movie theater.

Ji Minghuan and the Prophet were sitting in the audience of the movie theater, with a popcorn bucket in their left hand and a can of iced cola in their right.

A documentary film is playing on the movie screen, showing a living room in a residential building, filled with the aroma of everyday life.

"This is...?" Ji Minghuan looked up at the familiar living room. "Gu Wenyu's house?"

The prophet remained silent.

On the giant movie screen, six figures are eating around a table, among whom a white-haired girl stands out.

Ji Minghuan recognized all six people on the screen; one of them was himself, and the other was Kong Youling.

As for the other four...

"In the original timeline, you and Kong Youling were adopted by the same family."

"adoption?"

The prophet nodded. "That's right. There are four people in the family that adopted you. The mother's name is Su Ying, the father's name is Gu Zhuo'an, and they have a son and a daughter; the son's name is Gu Qiye, and the daughter's name is Su Zimai."

He paused for a moment: "In that timeline, the destruction of the old Jingmai neighborhood did not occur on May 15, 2015, but on May 15, 2021, which is a year from now."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Ji Minghuan muttered.

The prophet continued, "On May 15, 2021, before that, this was an ordinary, happy family. Gu Zhuo was just an ordinary office worker; Su Ying had been separated from the exorcist family for a long time and had severed ties with her father; Gu Qiye had not awakened any superpowers, and he excelled in school and was admitted to the most prestigious university; Su Zimai was also studying hard and ranked among the top students in the local high school."

He was silent for a moment, "And with your help, Kong Youling secretly concealed her psychic abilities and pretended to be a normal child; at that time, you were just an ordinary 13-year-old child."

Ji Minghuan was stunned.

"But on May 15, 2021, in the old Jingmai neighborhood, the puppet father of the Salvation Society released the 'Star Summoner,' which destroyed the old Jingmai neighborhood, accidentally injuring countless people and killing countless innocent people."

The prophet's words ended there, and at the same time, the movie scene changed.

The image shown on the screen at this moment is a distant view of the old Jingmai neighborhood.

It was supposed to be a pleasant evening, but a beam of light, like the sun at midnight, shot into the sky, tearing through the twilight and the colorful clouds, before splitting into countless shooting stars that crashed down from the heavens.

Finally, like a torrential downpour, it scattered throughout the entire old Jingmai neighborhood.

Watching this scene on the screen, Ji Minghuan's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and he couldn't help but swallow. He lowered his head and thought for a moment, then asked:
"And then, Su Ying died?"

"No, it's clearly the same event... but in that timeline, Su Ying didn't die."

At this point, the prophet paused for a moment. Then he continued:
"On the contrary, another person died in this incident."

(End of this chapter)