My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 375 The Destruction of the World, the Birth of Rated 1001 (7,000 words, seeking monthly votes)

Looking around, the movie theater was dimly lit, filled with a smell that was a mixture of lemon slices and disinfectant.

The audience seats were empty, except for Ji Minghuan and the Prophet. The faint light from the screen shone down, illuminating their faces.

The two sat in the middle of the second row. They looked alike and sat in almost the same posture, except that Ji Minghuan had an extra serving of popcorn and a cup of cola. The cola even had ice in it, like a gift of comfort from the prophet.

Ji Minghuan held up the popcorn bucket and plastic cup in his hand, glanced at them speechlessly, and then turned his head away.

He leaned against the armrest, silently watching the prophet.

The prophet did not turn around, but silently watched the screen. His eyes remained so dim and unfocused from beginning to end, like a silent, lonely lake.

Ji Minghuan remained silent for a while, then looked away, gently shook the plastic cup in her hand to make sure there was water inside, and took a sip of cola. Then she looked up and silently gazed at the giant movie screen.

At this moment, what is shown on the screen is a corner of Old Jingmai, and the roadside sign is painted with a map of Old Jingmai Street.

In a street corner, the Father of Puppetry and the straitjacket-clad boy known as "Starcaller" stood side by side amidst the sea of ​​fire. The former wore an oversized black trench coat, and his face was wrapped in dense bandages.

The boy in the straitjacket lowered his head, his pupils filled with a terrifying light.

He suddenly raised his hand, and at that moment, a bright and dazzling beam of light shot into the sky, passing over the utility poles, billboards, and rooftops of the old Jingmai neighborhood.

Finally, it rose to the very top of the sky, splitting in an instant into countless meteor-like pillars of light before crashing down.

One of the beams of light landed precisely on a three-story residential building. It was the home of Gu Qiye's family. The film suddenly paused at that moment, frozen in time at the instant the meteor struck the roof of the building. The roar of the meteor tearing through the sky ceased abruptly, and the large screening room was once again enveloped in silence.

Ji Minghuan remained silent.

The prophet remained silent.

The light emanating from the top of the giant screen illuminated the faces of Ji Minghuan and the prophet in the darkness, their dark pupils reflecting the same image.

"First of all, is this the scene you predicted?" After a moment of silence, Ji Minghuan spoke.

“If I remember correctly… I’ve already denied it, but you can think of it that way too,” the prophet said slowly. “Essentially, there’s not much difference.”

Ji Minghuan placed the cola in the groove of the armrest, looked down, and glanced at the popcorn in the bucket.

He asked casually, "So in the scene you predicted, Kong Youling and I were adopted by Gu Zhuo'an and Su Ying?"

"Yes, Su Ying adopted you."

"Then, the destruction of the old Jingmai neighborhood was delayed by a full six years, finally taking place in 2021?"

“Yes, that is, one year from now,” the prophet whispered.

"In the Old Jingmai neighborhood incident you predicted, the person who died in this family wasn't Su Ying, but someone else?" Ji Minghuan asked casually.

“That’s right…someone else died.” The prophet paused for a moment, then said in a low voice.

Ji Minghuan lowered his head, picked up some popcorn from the bucket, and put it in his mouth.

"Who...is the dead person?" he asked.

"Don't you understand?"

"What do you want to say?"

"Why was the planet destroyed... and why was it destroyed within your restraints?" The prophet clasped his hands together and spoke slowly, "With your abilities, you should have easily come up with this possibility. There's no need to run away. Whatever it may be, only by facing it can you accept it and change it."

Ji Minghuan scratched the bridge of his nose, took a deep breath, and placed the popcorn bucket on the groove of the other handrail.

Then, resting his chin on his hand, he slowly turned his head. "Just say it directly, there's no need to beat around the bush," he said, staring at the prophet and emphasizing each word.

The prophet interlaced his fingers and placed them together in front of his abdomen.

"The name in your mind is the answer," he said slowly, lowering his voice.

"Kong Youling".

Upon hearing the name, the prophet fell silent for a moment, offering no reply, but simply looking up at the movie screen. At that moment, the movie began. However, the camera suddenly shifted, switching to the interior of the three-story residential building.

At the same time, the prophet spoke:
"On that day, it wasn't 'Gu Wenyu' and Gu Zhuo'an who went to the supermarket. Because in this timeline, Gu Wenyu was never born; he's a person who never existed," the prophet said. "That evening, Su Ying and Gu Zhuo'an went to the supermarket to buy groceries, while their four children stayed at home... that is, you, Kong Youling, Gu Qiye, and Su Zimai."

As Ji Minghuan listened to the prophet's whispers, he silently looked up at the movie screen.

If the prophet's prediction is correct, the time shown on the screen is indeed 2021, which is one year from now. At that time, Ji Minghuan will be 13 years old, Kong Youling will be 12 years old, Su Zimai will be 17 years old, and Gu Qiye will be 20 years old.

The camera focused on the living room on the first floor of the three-story residential building. Gu Qiye was wearing a beige casual shirt, sitting on the right side of the sofa, resting his chin on the end of a ballpoint pen, and gazing at the advanced mathematics problem book in his hand, deep in thought.
Ji Minghuan and Su Zimai were squeezed on the left side of the sofa, both looking unhappy.

The siblings bickered as they watched the old-fashioned television. The show playing was an animated series called "Cowboy Bebop."

After a while, Su Zimai snatched the remote control from him, pushed his head away, and changed the channel to watch "Shugo Chara!" on Star TV.

At this moment, Kong Youling was alone in the second-floor bathroom. Her body was soaking in the bathtub filled with bathwater, with the lower half of her face submerged in the water, and her red eyes were looking at a comic book.

She often saw Su Ying do this while taking a shower, and over time she started to imitate her.

The last rays of the setting sun shone through the bathroom window and fell on Kong Youling's face. Her eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and her snow-white hair was dyed a flowing gold.

Shortly afterward, the Star Summoner activated his power, and a deafening roar echoed from the sky outside the house.

In the living room, Gu Qiye paused for a moment. Then he looked up from his study materials and caught a glimpse of a shooting star with a crimson tail descending from the sky.

In that instant, Gu Qiye's pupils contracted to their maximum. He immediately roared, got up, grabbed Ji Minghuan and Su Zimai from the sofa, rushed out of the living room, quickly passed through the entrance hall, and almost immediately ran outside.

But then Gu Qiye heard the name that Ji Minghuan had been calling out, and he remembered that the white-haired girl was all alone in the bathroom on the second floor.

Gu Qiye was about to turn around when she saw a beam of light descend from the sky. At that moment, the entire residential building was enveloped in a meteor-like light, and the world fell silent.

The scene cuts back to the bathtub. Kong Youling, tired of reading, puts the comic book aside and closes her eyes to soak in the bath. A moment later, when she opens her eyes, a shooting star has already passed by outside the window.

In an instant, fiery red and snow-white light intertwined and filled her pupils.

"So beautiful..." the white-haired girl murmured silently, her lips moving slightly. The next moment, the figure in the bathroom turned into a cloud of blood mist, and the entire building vanished in the light.

Despite being mentally prepared, Ji Minghuan's pupils still contracted slightly upon seeing this scene, and his lowered bangs immediately obscured his eyes.

"You're something else... Do you really have to show this to me?" he asked.

"Otherwise what?" Restricted Level 1001 asked calmly.

Ji Minghuan took a deep breath, quickly regained her composure, and asked softly, "If you hadn't interfered with the future, would this scene from the prophecy have come to pass?"

"Correct."

"So I should thank you for getting me and Kong Youling into the Salvation Society?" Ji Minghuan chuckled softly. "Stop talking nonsense... How are you going to prove that what you're saying is true? You've been talking to yourself the whole time, why should I believe you?"

“Because you will soon find out that I have no reason to lie to you,” the prophet said calmly. “I am about to die. As a dead man, I am completely naked.”

Ji Minghuan remained silent.

After a long pause, he asked, "Why did you die? What was the reason?"

"Let's not discuss that now; I'll tell you later," the prophet said.

Ji Minghuan rolled her eyes and looked up at the movie screen. "And then? The Great Riddler, what happened after that?"

"She died before your eyes, and your powers awakened. Without the limiter, from the moment you awakened with hatred and rage, you were already an unstoppable monster," the prophet said. "And after that... you lost control."

"Out of control?"

"To be precise, your superpower went out of control, and then many people died..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the images on the movie screen began to play slowly. However, this time it was in black and white, like an old-fashioned retro film reel, and there was no sound at all, making it even more oppressive and dull than a silent film.

Ji Minghuan rested her elbow on the armrest, propped her chin on her hand, and watched the movie in silence.

At this moment, what appeared on the screen were mostly fragmented and disjointed images. But as the prophet had said, most of the people appearing on the screen were people that Ji Minghuan knew.

He knew these people's backgrounds, personalities, and experiences. Because of this, he could naturally deduce from these fragmented and incomplete images what they were doing, or even what they were thinking.

This film tells the story of Caesar, the prince of the miniature garden, who killed his brother and mother, obtained the White Scepter from the old king, and inherited the position of King of the Miniature Garden. He then led the royal court, headed by Li Qingping and Lucy.

In order to fight against the almost rampaging and bloodthirsty restricted-level superhumans, Caesar led the Royal Court team to the Eastern Kingdom and joined forces with the leader of the Lake Hunters, Lin Xingshi.

They also contacted the United Nations, and at the tripartite meeting, they reached a cooperation agreement with twelve people from Rainbow Wing.

Thus, the Royal Court Team, the Lake Hunters, and the Rainbow Wings, representing the three most representative organizations of the Oddity Envoy, the Exorcist, and the Superpowered Person respectively, have united together for the first time in history.

Meanwhile, the Salvation Society mobilized the children who possessed mythical fragments of wonder. Sun Changkong, Shang Xiaochi, and Wu Qingjie were among them, and even Mario, Julius, and others made brief appearances on screen. This was an unprecedentedly large-scale battle.

But all of them failed. It was a one-sided slaughter, without a doubt.

On the screen, the boy sat on the glacier playing Minesweeper on his phone. Even though he was facing a group of the world's top ability users, he never looked up.

Just like God, high above, mocking everyone.

Finally, the restricted-level superhuman released only one machine, which moved forward alone, its body surrounded by a black and white halo that transformed into an unprecedentedly large chessboard.

On the chessboard, a vast army of thousands of pieces, like a colossal kingdom, with kings, knights, soldiers, and queens, each piece as magnificent as a giant from ancient Greek mythology. They stand shoulder to shoulder with the clouds, and from afar, they resemble towering mountains.

On the opposite side of this magnificent shadow, in the sky above, there are figures clad in golden armor, with pointed snouts and monkey-like faces, riding on auspicious clouds of five colors; others are shrouded in thunderous roars, with wings of light spreading across their backs.

Above the glacier stands a colossal tree that reaches straight into the sky, its endless branches spreading out and filling the heavens.

At this moment, the white-haired boy was riding a sled across the ice dome. Beside him was a red dragon with outstretched wings, and on top of the dragon's shadow stood the figures of the royal court team. The leader was wearing a suit and had a pigtail on his head.

On the other side of the sky, a huge dragon boat flew by, with a 50-meter-tall blue and white metal humanoid figure suspended below it.

At this moment, ten figures stood on the dragon boat. Some of them wore red robes and sat cross-legged on the shoulders of a golden six-armed Buddha statue, while others stood gracefully on the top of a miniature moon...

Underground, some people, draped in crimson lion shadows, broke through the ice and moved forward; some wore Nuo masks and transformed into bizarre giant beasts; some held compasses and summoned a giant cauldron; and some waved folding fans to summon strange celestial phenomena.

Even with numerous participants, and the chessboard transforming into a battlefield resembling that of ancient demons, it was all in vain. They struggled and clung to life, yet the colossal chess pieces, with their supreme power, swept away everything in the world with overwhelming force.

In no time, the challengers on the chessboard were all gone.

The machine, its entire body radiating a black and white aura, retrieved the chessboard, leaving only their heads behind for amusement.

At this point, the restricted-level superhuman finally deigned to look up from his phone.

He glanced listlessly at the scene on the glacier, where dozens of neatly severed heads were laid out, like fish heads on a chopping board.

In the movie theater audience, Ji Minghuan took a deep breath, his right hand, which was supporting his chin, trembled slightly, and the image on the screen was reflected in his pupils.

Dozens of heads fluttered in the swirling snow, appearing and disappearing intermittently. The red stains on their necks blended into a bloody rain, a scene so cruel it was horrifying, yet somehow also pleasing to the eye.

Then, the restricted-level ability user withdrew his gaze and summoned his other body, a shadow completely wrapped in black bandages. The black restraints danced in the wind, pulling the heads on the glacier upwards toward the sky.

It was like a grand sacrificial ceremony.

In the screening room, the movie screen froze at that moment. Ji Minghuan, sitting in the audience, fell silent. The prophet also remained silent, only glancing at his expression.

After a moment, Ji Minghuan asked, "If what you're saying is true, then the black pupa didn't exist in that timeline, right? So why would something like the restraint belt appear?"

"The Black Chrysalis doesn't cease to exist; it's just that the background of the machine has changed. He is no longer Gu Wenyu, nor a member of that family," the prophet said slowly. "A restricted-level ability user creates a machine that is also restricted-level. At the same time, each machine is given a unique meaning the moment it is created—you used the Black Chrysalis to steal all the abilities in the world, used Agubaru to devour all the fragments of strange tales, used the chess player to destroy all the Skywalkers in the world, and at the same time... you turned all the demons and exorcists into your own pawns."

He paused for a moment: "And all of this is in order to find a way to save Kong Youling."

Ji Minghuan remained silent; this did indeed seem like something he would do.

After a moment of silence, the prophet lowered his voice, "In the end, even if you search the entire world for all the abilities and kill all the ability users, until only ordinary people remain in the world, you still won't find a way to bring people back to life."

He looked up at the screen. "Because the only one who could pull souls out of hell was killed by you in the beginning... so you couldn't steal his ability, and that's the only ability you missed."

An overlooked ability? The person killed at the very beginning?
Ji Minghuan lowered his head, pondered for a moment, then let out a long sigh and gave his answer, "The Father of Puppets?"

Restricted Level 1001 nodded.

"Yes, his ability is to turn the dead into puppets, giving them consciousness and memories. But because he killed Kong Youling, you killed him at the beginning of his awakening, instead of choosing to let Black Chrysalis reclaim his ability."

Ji Minghuan remained silent for a long time.

"And then... what happened next?"

"What happened after that is obvious. The final outcome was just like what we just witnessed," the prophet whispered. "The Earth disappeared... and you sat alone on the moon, watching it all fall apart. Your restraints will fly to other celestial bodies in the universe to help you continue searching for a way to save Kong Youling, but it will all be in vain."

He looked up at the movie screen, which was a vast, desolate, pale white star. The boy sat alone on the moon, idly playing with his fingernails.

Sometimes he tilted his head and drew circles on the surface of the moon with his hand; sometimes he stared blankly at the cratered blue star; sometimes he lay sprawled on the ground, watching the stars twinkle in the universe and meteors streak by with their brilliant trails of light.

Everything was so beautiful, yet so illusory, so hazy that it made one want to strangle oneself.

Finally, as if growing weary, the boy straightened up and, facing the blue planet, slowly raised his hand. Then, he clenched his fist. At that moment, thousands of restraints flew out from his sleeves and enveloped the entire planet.

In the movie theater, Ji Minghuan didn't bother watching the scene and instead lowered his head, his bangs obscuring his eyes.

The prophet whispered, "A long time after you destroyed the Earth, you began to create your fourth machine. The fourth machine you chose in that timeline is different from the one you chose now... You should still remember that."

Unit 4? Ji Minghuan lowered his head, then suddenly raised an eyebrow.

He recalled the template he had encountered a few days earlier when creating his fourth game machine. At that time, the first available character template was named "The Immortal," with the ability of "immortality."

Restricted Level 1001 glanced at him and then continued, "As a restricted-level ability user, if you were not affected by the limiting agent, you could deactivate your mech and gather the abilities of every game mech for your own use."

He paused, "And this... is what is known as 'Unit Zero'—using the body of a restricted-level ability user as the final game unit, thereby recovering the abilities of the previous four units."

Upon hearing this, a series of terrifying conjectures suddenly exploded in Ji Minghuan's mind, like an unstoppable flood, almost drowning his thoughts.

Those possibilities he had long considered but desperately tried to avoid had become reality in this very second. After a moment of silence, Ji Minghuan spoke, his voice almost hoarse:
"So... on the moon, my future self became Unit Zero, absorbing the characteristics of Unit Four, the 'immortal being.' And thus gained the right to be immortal."

“Yes.” The prophet nodded. “And many years later, you drifted aimlessly in the universe, always maintaining the appearance of a 13-year-old. In order to find Kong Youling, one day you suddenly thought of a way.”

"return to the past."

Ji Minghuan lowered her voice, her lips moving slightly.

The prophet remained silent for a moment.

“That’s right… going back in time,” he said slowly. “But that’s a feat that could turn the entire universe upside down. Even if you’re restricted, it would cost you countless amounts of money to do it, and you wouldn’t even be able to decide which point in the past you’d go back to.”

"And the price you paid was almost all the supernatural abilities, celestial beings, and fragments of strange tales within you—enough to fill an entire planet," the prophet said. "In the end, to protect yourself, you left two mythical fragments within yourself: the 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven' and 'Zeus'... along with the ability of 'immortality'..."

Ji Minghuan pursed her lips.

The prophet continued, "Since you cannot decide when you return, it is not strange that you could travel back to the beginning of the world."

“But I know I am immortal,” Ji Minghuan said. “No matter which point in time you travel to, you can live until the year Kong Youling appears.”

The prophet nodded silently and lowered his eyes.

He said, "Finally, when you open your eyes, you are in 1910. You have lost all your memories and forgotten your name. That's when the Salvation finds you... and they give you a new name."

Ji Minghuan lowered his head, remained silent, and his face twitched slightly.

"Now that I've said this, don't you understand... what is this name?" At this point, the prophet slowly turned his head and looked at his face expressionlessly.

"Restricted Level 1001, that's the name the Salvation Society gave me."

Ji Minghuan spoke without raising his head, his lips moving slightly, his eyes glancing around.

The prophet remained silent for a very long time, then said, "Yes, that is the correct answer."

"So, everything you just said wasn't a prophecy, but something that actually happened, and your identity is..." Ji Minghuan paused, "...me from the future, the restricted-level superhuman who has already destroyed a world once."

After saying that, he looked up at the prophet, or to put it another way, in this context, it would be more appropriate to call him "Rated 1001".

“Yes, that’s the truth,” said R-rated 1001. “Actually, we are two people now. Everything you have experienced has shaped you, and similarly, everything I have experienced has shaped my personality. I don’t think it’s necessary to equate us with one individual.”

After he finished speaking, he slowly stood up from his seat in the screening room. At this moment, the surrounding scene suddenly changed, and what was in front of the two of them was that bizarre and colorful corridor again.

The corridor stretched as far as the eye could see, its walls adorned with blurry images resembling old film reels. Yet, each image seemed to record memories of R-rated 1001.

"I know you have many questions," said Rated 1001 calmly. "I'll tell you what I've done over the past hundred years..."

After saying that, he turned to look at Ji Minghuan, who was still sitting in her seat, and asked, "Aren't you coming over?"

"Why did you send me to the Salvation Society?" Ji Minghuan didn't bother to look at him and said in a low voice, "I hope your reasons can convince me, otherwise I will still have doubts about your words, even if you die right in front of me, I will not listen."

"Okay, I'll try my best."

"Okay, I'm all ears."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ji Minghuan slowly stood up from the red chair and followed the restricted-level 1001 forward.

(End of this chapter)