TDU Chapter 348
Chapter 348 Myself and I
Upon seeing this {Chen Junnan} enter, everyone’s expressions shifted noticeably.
He appeared uninjured, his overall condition excellent. Noticing all eyes fixed on him, he lost a bit of his composure.
“What’s with the staring?” he asked. “Are you all looking at this young master because I’m too handsome?”
The injured Chen Junnan’s eyes widened, his face drained of color, but he quickly understood. “Isn’t this {Matter Morphing}…? Xiao Chu… you actually resorted to such a crude trick against me?”
The Chen Junnan at the door paused at this, turning to glance at the injured Chen Junnan.
“Huh…?”
Their eyes met, and both were clearly stunned.
“You… that…” The Chen Junnan at the door pointed toward the injured one, his expression dazed. “What the hell? Isn’t that me?”
The injured Chen Junnan furrowed his brows, struggling slightly for breath. “You’re… still pretending?”
“Me?” The one at the door blinked. “This young master, ‘pretending’? Then who the heck are you?”
Kim Wonhun paid no attention to the two and placed the bundle he’d brought in front of Chu Tianqiu, then bent down and whispered softly, “Ge, he suddenly appeared in the basement nàyàng…”
“I’m aware,” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “No need to say more.”
Kim Wonhun acknowledged and took his place behind Chu Tianqiu.
“You ask who the heck I am?” the injured Chen Junnan gritted his teeth, enduring the searing pain as he wobbled to his feet. “You’re trying to play this ‘real or fake Monkey King’ game with me, huh?”
(TLN: Referring to Journey to the West sequel ep.02, I linked the video below as footnote[1]. It’s similar to the three spider man meme, where no one can figure out who’s the real Wukong.)
The Chen Junnan at the door took a few steps forward. “What f*cking ‘real or fake Monkey King’ nonsense, are you the Six-Eared Macaque?”
(TLN: The Six-Eared Macaque is a major antagonist and one of the most powerful characters in Wu Cheng'en's fantasy novel ‘Journey to the West’, best remembered for closely impersonating Sun Wukong (Journey to the West sequel ep.02).)
The two Chen Junnans locked eyes, both feeling uneasy about the bizarre situation.
“No need to argue,” Chu Tianqiu interrupted with a smile, breaking their standoff. “You both are real.”
“What?”
Everyone in the room was stunned. Both Chen Junnans turned to look at him.
"My sincerest apologies," Chu Tianqiu said with a faint smile to the injured Chen Junnan. "What I said earlier about you being an impostor—it was a deliberate provocation. I do hope you won’t take offense."
“What… do you mean?” the injured Chen Junnan asked, his expression conflicted as he pointed at {himself} standing before him. “Where exactly did you get this thing from?”
“With the help of {Reverberation},” Chu Tianqiu answered with a smile. “I have temporarily mastered a method to give you all eternal life and deathlessness.”
“Eternal life and deathlessness…?”
“This Chen Junnan…” Chu Tianqiu gestured toward the man at the door, “was created by me using a certain {Reverberation} ability.”
“Xiao Chu, do you even know what you’re saying?” The Chen Junnan at the door’s expression turned cold. “You’re saying this young master was f*cking created by you?”
“Easy now,” Chu Tianqiu chuckled. “This power creates a completely new you—think of it like cloning. There might be a few memory inconsistencies between you two, so take a moment to talk and get your timelines aligned.”
“What…?” Both Chen Junnans frowned. “You’re implying… we’re both real?”
Yun Yao, Yan Zhichun, and Xu Qian scrutinized the two carefully. Apart from their injuries and complexion, they were truly indistinguishable.
Even their micromannerisms and tones of voice were identical; neither seemed fake.
“Well? At a loss for words?” Chu Tianqiu turned toward the injured Chen Junnan. "If you have nothing to say, then you may as well die without regrets. There's another Chen Junnan now to take your place. You're obsolete. Let death take you calmly."
The injured Chen Junnan stared helplessly, eyes wide, his face a portrait of dazed confusion. Never in his life had he known such a feeling—only now, on the brink of death, did he first experience a desperate, all-consuming will to live.
He felt that the person before him, though identical in every way, was not him.
Even if they were indistinguishable, even if every memory, every inch of flesh matched perfectly, that person still wasn't him.
“No… this isn’t right…” Chen Junnan trembled as he reached out, grabbing Yun Yao’s arm. “Sup—Superstar… this can’t be right, can it? I am me… and he is him… You shouldn’t just discard me like this, should you?”
Yun Yao could clearly feel Chen Junnan’s helplessness, but there was nothing she could do.
The old Chen Junnan was destined to die, while the new Chen Junnan was destined to live.
“Chen—Chen Junnan… you…” Her lips trembled for a long moment before she could only offer a hollow reassurance, “You’ll be fine…”
“‘Fine’ my ass!” Chen Junnan shouted with every ounce of strength left in him, then pointed at the version of himself standing before him. “He… you all…”
He struggled to form words, but nothing came out in the end.
“I get it… I’ve become a burden, haven’t I?” Chen Junnan slowly lowered his head, gasping for breath. A chill ran through him, his head spinning badly. Though he’d died countless times before, this ache in his heart was something new.
“What a domineering power…” Chu Tianqiu said to himself, laughing under his breath. “No wonder I was so resolute in ensuring you triggered {Reverberation}…”
Struck by the depth of Chen Junnan’s misery, Yun Yao faced Chu Tianqiu with fierce reproach. “What exactly have you done?”
“Did I not make myself clear? With the lives of all {Passage to Heaven} members, I sought out a path.” Chu Tianqiu said with conviction. “Henceforth, death shall cease to be your dread.”
“You seriously expect us to accept this?!” Yun Yao’s finger jabbed toward the two Chen Junnans.“To abandon dying teammates and then create an entirely new {replicas}?!”
“What’s wrong with that?” Chu Tianqiu replied. “Go ask that lively Chen Junnan standing there ‘if he’s fake’? Aside from lacking today’s memories, what part of him isn’t Chen Junnan?”
The Chen Junnan by the door snapped back angrily, “What the hell are you talking about? Who gave you the right to create me?”
“But this is really wrong!” Yun Yao protested. “This… this seems—”
“Unethical?” Chu Tianqiu chuckled. “Looks like we’ve traveled back to the 1960s when cloning technology first emerged. Do you regard the clone as nothing more than a {tool}, an {animal}, or a legitimate {person}?”
“That’s exactly the same problem…” Yun Yao murmured, dazed. “This ability is far too bizarre. If we rely on it to escape—”
“That’s why I call you selfish…” Chu Tianqiu took his glasses from his shirt pocket and donned them, then said, “You yourself are resurrected through that principle every time you die, yet now that I replicate someone while they’re still alive, you call it unethical?”
“I—”
Ole Lu and Auntie Tong, who had been silent for a long while, exchanged a glance. They too sensed something unsettling about this ability. Though they had no idea how Chu Tianqiu had acquired it, if there truly was a way to replicate teammates at will, the entire {Passage to Heaven} would inevitably plunge into chaos.
Even conceding that every replica complies, who can guarantee how many will escape? And when they do, is it truly oneself or just a clone?
TL Note: What do you think? If someone made an exact copy of you, with all the memories intact, and they escaped, would it count?
PR Note: It’s a human Ship of Theseus!
Footnote:
[1] Journey to the West sequel ep.02, english subbed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DafSxSuITMs
