TDU Chapter 474
Chapter 474 What Remains of Real
Zhang Chenze listened, her brows slowly knitting together. Chu Tianqiu’s answer matched Yun Yao’s earlier speculation almost exactly, but she had no way to judge its truth.
“I find it hard to believe…” Zhang Chenze exhaled softly. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to doubt you, but judging from your current state… it’s difficult for me to trust your words.”
“True.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “Even I can’t trust myself.”
The expression faded from his face, leaving him all the more inscrutable.
“Even I don’t believe it…that after regaining so many memories, I would go mad in such a short span of time.” Chu Tianqiu raised a pale finger and pointed toward the door. “{Passage to Heaven} exists to give these {Reverberatees} a place to take shelter, yet overnight I came to regard their lives as mere weeds… To the person I am now, all of them are scarcely worth the air they breathe.”
Hearing this, Zhang Chenze tried to place herself in his position. Strangely, she felt it wasn’t entirely impossible to understand.
“Then…what about Xu Liunian?” she continued to probe. “I’ve heard that this woman once became an indigenous inhabitant, then turned back into a participant… Do you have any idea how that happened?”
At the mention of {Xu Liunian}, Chu Tianqiu slowly lifted his gaze. He looked at Zhang Chenze with an icy sharpness before his lips curled into a faintly deranged smile.
“Xu Liunian’s case is far too complicated…” Chu Tianqiu remarked with a laugh. “I can reveal everything about myself, but if I expose Xu Liunian’s identity to you…I will be erased from this world without a trace.”
“Oh…?” Zhang Chenze felt she had seized onto something crucial. “So you mean… Xu Liunian’s identity is so unusual that even you dare not comment on it?”
“That’s correct.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “There is very little I’m able to disclose to you. All I can say is this: Xu Liunian and I are in a partnership.”
“Partnership…?”
“Indeed. Xu Liunian’s identity grants her a singular exception…she belongs neither to the {participants} of this place nor to its {overseers}…she is a {third-party force}.”
Zhang Chenze felt that Chu Tianqiu’s words were drifting further and further beyond comprehension. She could only shake her head and choose a question she could comprehend.
“Then how did she turn back into a {participant}?”
“That…” Chu Tianqiu said, “strictly speaking, Xu Liunian did not turn back into a {participant}. She is now a complete {free person}. But you must also understand… within the entire {End Point}, perhaps only Xu Liunian could obtain such a privilege. No one else can.”
“Because she is a {third-party force}…?”
“Correct.”
Zhang Chenze’s eyes slowly widened. “So you’re saying…no one here can turn from {indigenous inhabitant} back into a {participant}?”
“That’s right.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “I cannot conceive of any method to wrest back a person’s sanity from Vermilion Bird’s hands… and Vermilion Bird would never concede to such an outrageous request.”
“Is…that so?”
“I shall tell you one more thing,” Chu Tianqiu continued. “Xu Liunian becoming an {indigenous inhabitant} was also one of the contingencies she and I devised.”
Zhang Chenze’s gaze, which had only just dimmed, flared anew. “What…?”
“I only recalled the origins of this matter not long ago,” Chu Tianqiu answered. “All the {paths} had been tried, save for the path of the {indigenous inhabitant}. After much deliberation, only Xu Liunian was suited for this task.”
“Ah…?”
“In that Terrestrial Horse racing game of years past, I deliberately gave the wrong answer, causing Xu Liunian to die miserably beneath that vehicle. It was from that moment that she began to live in {End Point} as an indigenous inhabitant, waiting for the day we would meet again.”
“This is madness…” Zhang Chenze said. “You did not even know whether the two of you would ever reunite…”
“No, not madness.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head. “Everyone overlooked one thing—escaping this place is not a plan that can be completed within ten days. We must cast our gaze farther: three years, five years, ten years. And I knew with absolute clarity that I would meet Xu Liunian someday. At that time, she would be able to tell me everything about becoming an {indigenous inhabitant}.”
Zhang Chenze fell completely silent. She knew well that she was still far from the level of people like Qi Xia and Chu Tianqiu.
“Since even becoming {Celestial} does not grant escape… then becoming an {indigenous inhabitant}...does that not allow one to perceive the true intent of the end more deeply?” The more Chu Tianqiu spoke, the more unhinged he became; even his expression twisted further. “Everything is exactly as I thought! How despairing! Xu Liunian believed that during the two years she lived as an {indigenous inhabitant}, she had returned to a normal life… everything she saw was normal!”
Zhang Chenze slowly rose to her feet; she realized that the man standing before her had become dangerous.
“How despairing it all is!” Before Zhang Chenze could retreat, Chu Tianqiu rushed forward and seized her arm. “Every ten days, we can return to the real world… but how can we be certain that it is the real world?!”
“Y–You need to calm down…” Zhang Chenze tried to wrench her arm free, only to realize his strength far surpassed hers. “I understand what you’re trying to say, but don’t lose your composure.”
“What kind of {real world} would remain frozen on the same day, waiting for us to return?! What if we never leave at all?!” Chu Tianqiu continued shouting. “What if everything is a lie?! If, on the tenth day, we all become mindless {indigenous inhabitants} together—if we all go mad together—we would simply believe we made it out!!”
“Chu…Chu Tianqiu… you—”
“How despairing!” Chu Tianqiu’s grip trembled violently, his expression the very image of desperation. “How utterly ludicrous!!”
“Don’t lose your clarity…” Zhang Chenze whispered, “Don’t you still have your own path to tread?”
Chu Tianqiu paused. Then, all at once, he released her arm. He stepped back twice, the expression on his face slowly draining away.
Zhang Chenze, her strength spent, slumped against the wall behind her.
With a face twisted by despair, Chu Tianqiu let out a cold laugh and murmured, “No one should concern themselves with me…let me walk my own path. I won’t hinder any of you.”
Zhang Chenze rubbed her wrist and swallowed hard. “But your current state is not normal…”
“I must erase the memories of everyone in {Passage to Heaven}.” Chu Tianqiu spoke softly. “This place does not need to exist, nor do they need to cling to hope. If everyone learned the true nature of this place…they would all go mad, all become {indigenous inhabitants}. If there is blame to bear…then let it fall upon me alone.”
The sorrow rolling off Chu Tianqiu was unmistakable; Zhang Chenze could feel its weight, yet she had no idea how to console him, for their goals lay leagues apart.
“Yun Yao is also gone…I have nothing left to be attached to.” Chu Tianqiu walked past Zhang Chenze, reached out, and pulled open the door. “Just…help me take care of Qiaoyun.”
TL Note: Chu Tianqiu has finally laid the question out bare: that single day everyone gets to spend in the real world… is it even real?
