Honkai, why do you only play high-end games?

The girl was a little confused. Bloodstained? Me?

"Oh? Did you forget? Haha, you are such a kind and well-meaning person."

The gray snake tilted its head slightly, glanced at her with its scarlet artificial eye, and knew her condition well, and spoke meaningfully.

"..."

The girl felt humiliated.

"It doesn't matter. Since you've already forgotten so much, you'll also forget what happens next."

Gray Snake's voice was calm, like a ruthless judgment.

"What did you say?"

The girl was a little confused, but then she reacted quickly.

"You want me to forget my father?"

The girl realized this and began to struggle desperately.

"You might as well kill me!"

The girl swung her other hand, which had been hidden in her sleeve, fiercely at the gray snake. In her palm was a pair of ordinary scissors.

This is the last chance!

"A life that has passed away is not worth cherishing."

The gray snake remained calm, completely ignoring this tiny, powerless blow. He simply exerted a little force on the hand holding her, and the girl froze, losing all her strength to struggle.

"This is a ladder built of flesh and blood, used to climb the tower of sand called 'life'... Child, this is the curse called 'rebirth'."

Gray Snake's voice was as calm as ever.

“…Heh…Heh…”

"Hahaha……"

The girl chuckled as if resigned to her fate, as if mocking her own presumption, and then muttered to herself in a trembling voice,

"So... I'm so valuable?"

The gray snake said nothing, but just led the girl slowly forward.

"Hehe...So, you won't kill me, right?"

The girl seemed to have completely accepted the reality, and her voice gradually became lighter.

The gray snake continued to lead her forward. Although he didn't say anything, his attitude was self-evident.

"Haha, so that's how it is..."

The girl suddenly jumped up with joy, and her face, which had been lowered, suddenly lifted up, showing an extremely bright smile to the gray snake, as if she was really welcoming her "new life" and cheering for her own fate.

"Okay, I accept it!"

However, from under the smiling eyes that were narrowed into an arc, huge tears kept rolling down, one after another, like a torrential downpour, falling only on this somewhat childish face.

"Well, you'd better pray that I never remember..."

"Otherwise, I swear..."

"One day, I will kill you!"

The voice was no longer bright and cheerful, but instead as shrill as a ghost.

However, the gray snake remained calm, holding the girl's hand even gently, but coldly ignored the girl's tiny hatred and curses.

"Remember your anger today, kid."

Gray Snake said softly,

"Remember how small you are today, too, child."

"Because this is 'life', the truest form in this world..."

Chapter 105: Thousands of Calculations

There is an interesting saying:

There are only five people between anyone and the President of the United States.

This sentence does not mean that you can get close to someone; it just states the fact in a very subtle way -

The whole world is an interconnected whole.

The only difference is that some people have a close connection with things, while others have a weak connection with things.

Therefore, there are no truly isolated incidents in the world.

If I were to describe it metaphorically, the world is like a huge and sloppy domino game.

Some tiles are so tightly packed and so complexly connected that even a slight push on one of them can trigger a chain reaction like a landslide or tsunami in a very short time, causing the entire area to collapse in an instant.

Another domino is arranged extremely sparsely, so that a domino that is accidentally knocked over cannot reach the other dominoes. Even if one or two dominoes are knocked over, it is difficult to attract other people's attention.

There are also some dominoes that seem isolated outside the game and seem insignificant; but in fact they are like the fuse of gunpowder. It only takes a period of conduction to transfer its potential energy to the center of the game bit by bit.

Then, there will always be a moment when it will accidentally touch a domino in a critical position, and with just a light touch,

"Snapped"

Everything in this game will fall...

Gray Snake, as an observer who has been observing the development of human civilization for 50,000 years, has always been looking forward to this social experiment called "Domino".

"Only change can bring progress," said the gray snake.

And this is what Lin Wei has always tried his best to avoid.

All along, he just wanted to be a quiet spectator, keep a relatively safe distance, and not be harmed by this fragile world.

Not causing trouble for the world is the greatest contribution you can make.

"Give me a chance, I want to be a good person..."

In his spare time, Lin Wei once used a line from a movie he had seen before to describe his mentality to Yae Sakura in a slightly joking manner.

Even if he wanted to be kind to others, it didn't mean that Lin Wei would be like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

Because Lin Wei discovered that he had left some traces and ties in this world after all.

These traces and ties, like an invisible thread, tightly wrapped around Lin Wei, pulling him step by step towards the center of the stage.

In response, Lin Wei made a big cross in front of him.

"Don't touch me!"

Despite internal resistance, Lin Wei understood that since it had already happened, hiding from it was pointless. Even if she managed to survive, it would still make her life filled with fear and anxiety.

Lin Wei had understood this truth as early as last year, on the morning when he discovered that no matter how hard he tried, he could not escape the erosion of collapse.

It was a heart-wrenching realization.

That is why when Lin Wei decided to join in, he would no longer hesitate, but instead go all out to try to control the development of the entire matter in his own hands.

Only in this way can Lin Wei have the confidence to control the changes brought about by himself to the smallest extent and cut the Gordian knot.

Then, he retired after achieving success and went back to enjoy his leisurely life of fishing at the beach when he had nothing to do.

At this moment, Lin Wei was unaware of the series of changes happening in the distance.

"Strange, why can't I get in touch with you?"

After several attempts to communicate with Dr. Anti-Entropy went unanswered, Lin Wei gradually realized that something was amiss.

It happened at this time, which was too much of a coincidence.

"Things are a bit troublesome..."

Lin Wei put away the communicator and couldn't help frowning. He couldn't believe that such a coincidence could happen.

Who could be the one causing the trouble?

Gray snake, it can only be you!

Lin Wei went through the long list in his mind and quickly locked on the most likely target.

but……

"What is his purpose? Is he trying to prevent himself from merging with Anti-Entropy and use this method to cooperate with the Jackal?"

Lin Wei stroked his chin.

"Or is it that his real purpose is exactly the opposite, that anti-entropy is his goal, and I am the interference he wants to eliminate?"

"And if that's the case..."

Lin Wei continued to think along the line of thought, and the hand stroking his chin could not help but stop, and his eyes narrowed tightly.

"The jackal is actually a bait to attract my attention?"

But that’s not right?

If Gray Snake took action for Anti-Entropy at this point in time, then why was Anti-Entropy safe and sound in the original world line? They didn't even know of his existence until Gray Snake showed up on his own initiative?

Lin Wei stood up, took out a piece of paper and pen from the side, spread them on the table, and listed the clues he knew one by one, examined them one by one, and then crossed them out one by one.

Yaezakura sat quietly by the side, just watching Lin Wei's hands fiddling with paper and pen, and his eyebrows tightly locked together, without moving or saying a word.

She knew that now was not the time to interrupt his thoughts.

"...Sakura, at this point in time, there shouldn't be anything important happening in the world, right? Except for the impending collapse of Manila."

A bystander sees more clearly, and Lin Wei wants to hear Yaezakura's opinion.

After all, her identity and memories are no secret to Yaezakura.

Before Ling returned, before Fu Hua got her memory back, this was even a secret that Yae Sakura kept to herself.

Yaezakura thought about it and shook her head.

Lin Wei continued asking without even raising his head.

"...Do you think the collapse of Manila is related to anti-entropy?"

Even though he asked this question himself, Lin Wei felt that the possibility was not high.

The reason is simple: Cocolia caused the Great Collapse in Changkong City in order to use the Conquest Gem to create the Herrscher of Thunder.

Later in the timeline, after obtaining the Serenity Gem, her actions in Singapore were also intended to obtain a new Herrscher, but she was stopped by Fu Hua after Otto intervened.

However, the collapse of Manila was indeed a devastating disaster, but no new Herrscher was born; this style is more like a successful version of Sky City, and is very different from the style of Anti-Entropy.

Even the suspicion of the World Serpent itself had been ruled out by the Jackal himself.

Ying thought about it and did not answer directly, but asked another seemingly unrelated question.

"If the jackal was bait, when should she have come to your attention?"

The cool and pleasant voice was like a flowing spring, which instantly made Lin Wei's thoughts clear.

He gently put down his pen, took the paper in his hand, folded it in half, and then tore it in two.

"Ying, you're right. I'm just being too picky..."

Lin Wei smiled gently and burned the scraps of paper in her hand into ashes.

"Even if the jackal is really my bait, I shouldn't have discovered her now. It's too early."

Knowing too much information too early may give you the advantage of foresight, but you may also unconsciously fall into the "curse of knowledge."

"not to mention……"

It was because he knew the existence of the Jackal and Otto, and understood their plans, that he decided to join forces with Anti-Entropy.

"The Jackal doesn't know about Otto's existence, and the Gray Snake probably doesn't know either!"

After coming out of the dead end, Lin Wei's thoughts suddenly became clear.

"Otherwise, if Otto's hiding here is discovered, then Youlan Dell will not be able to hide safely!"

Yulan Dell was all over the world before, and the image of one person suppressing global collapse was too high-profile. The existence of such a person was like an elephant in the room, and once it was noticed, it would be difficult to hide.

So, if you think about it the other way around, it's easy to come to the opposite conclusion - the only reason she was able to hide was because Otto wasn't exposed, so no one would think in this direction.