“Anything else?”
Dao Tian felt a chill crawl up his spine as he listened to the detailed account.
How could a being of his level be unable to sense the hidden manipulator, the master puppeteer controlling all of humanity?
“And… your Dragon Country once had a character that sounded like ‘Dang… ding-dang.’ Do you remember how to write it?”
The mechanical voice posed the question to Dao Tian.
“Dang? Ding-dang?” Dao Tian mused.
With a casual wave of his hand, a character materialized out of thin air.
【噹】
A traditional character, shimmering with golden light, trembled in the air.
“No, I mean the simplified form!” the voice reminded him.
“Simplified…” Dao Tian faltered. As a person from antiquity, he was accustomed to writing in traditional characters.
However, he waved his hand again, and the traditional character dissipated.
Then, he pointed his finger and drew in the air.
【口当】
The characters appeared in the void.
But as he completed the final stroke, the ‘mouth’ radical on the left slowly vanished, as if it had never appeared.
“Hmm?”
Dao Tian blinked in surprise. He added another ‘mouth’ radical before the character ‘Dang.’
Yet, these two characters seemed unable to merge.
The ‘mouth’ was separate, and ‘Dang’ was separate.
Dao Tian refused to believe it and rewrote it again.
But upon completing the last stroke, the preceding ‘mouth’ radical disappeared once more.
“How can this be…”
This revelation sent goosebumps prickling all over Dao Tian’s body.
“You see? It’s the same situation. Even in your memory, ‘ding-dang’s dang’ has the ‘mouth’ radical, doesn’t it?”
The mechanical voice continued, but Dao Tian seemed not to hear it, his gaze fixed on the character floating in the void.
“In almost everyone’s memory, ‘ding-dang’s dang’ includes the ‘mouth’ radical.
But, whether using computers or mobile phones, this ‘Dang’ with the ‘mouth’ radical cannot be typed using any input method.
Some say it’s because the Dragon Country’s language and simplified characters were streamlined, and the ‘Dang’ with the ‘mouth’ radical was removed from use.
However, some have found dictionaries from many years ago, and even researched back from 1989 to the 1940s, and up to the present.
This ‘Dang’ with the ‘mouth’ radical has simply never been recorded in any dictionary.
Do you think this is normal?
If it were just a few individuals whose memories were slightly off, or who misremembered a character, it would be within the realm of reason.
But… spanning generations, even dozens of generations, including you, an ancient being who has lived for over a thousand years, can you misremember this character?”
The mechanical voice spoke slowly, sending a shiver down Dao Tian’s neck.
The fingers hidden beneath his sleeves trembled slightly.
“Hah… is there anything else?”
This time, Dao Tian did not refute.
Instead, he asked in a low voice if such occurrences were still happening.
“Many…”
The voice from below listed one incident after another.
Projected images accompanied the revelations.
It even chuckled and said,
“Look at this… this drama is quite good… it’s because of this drama that a meme appeared in the human world.
‘Yuánfāng, what do you think?’
However… I’ve checked the dialogues of all 1-4 seasons of this drama.
This line is nowhere to be found!
Even the director of the series came out to clarify that this line never appeared in the entire drama.
Yet, in everyone’s memory, this line runs through the entire series, becoming a popular saying!
So, does this line truly not exist?
Or… have people’s memories been altered?
Or… has a world been destroyed, and the people alive now have fallen into another… parallel world?
In this parallel world, this line never appeared?
If memories were altered, then… why alter such a trivial matter?
If it’s a parallel world… then no matter what we do, even if we change the outcome, what about the other parallel worlds?
Although you and I, working together, can reshape time countless times, who can achieve parallel space jumps?
And… have you ever heard of this?”
The mechanical voice posed question after question.
Dao Tian stood there, stunned, his mind racing with thoughts.
He was rendered speechless by the mechanical voice.
“Has no one noticed this…?”
Dao Tian’s voice was faint, as if asking the Titan, or perhaps himself.
“Yes… many people noticed it long ago, but there was no explanation. Some who pursued the truth were even labeled as madmen!”
The mechanical Titan replied to Dao Tian.
At this moment, Dao Tian’s composure wavered slightly.
He was merely a spiritual entity, his physical form conjured.
It began to distort slightly, flickering between light and shadow, as if on the verge of dissipating.
“After all we’ve done… is it for survival? Or were we arranged to do these things?”
Dao Tian’s state of mind began to crumble.
Just then, suddenly, in the ice chamber, an extremely fine data cable subtly twitched.
It had quietly made its way to Dao Tian’s feet.
As Dao Tian’s eyes glazed over with confusion, the data cable suddenly shot out. The tip of the cable, with several copper wires sparking, plunged into Dao Tian’s leg.
“Ah…”
Dao Tian, who had been lost in a daze, suddenly had his eyes widen.
He cried out in surprise and flashed away, attempting to detach the connected data cable.
However, the data cable clung to him like a tenacious leech. No matter how Dao Tian moved, he couldn’t break free.
Simultaneously, all the machines in the ice chamber instantly lit up with intense radiance.
Countless thread-like cables surged towards Dao Tian from all directions.
“You… you’re trying to absorb me! You want to escape?”
Dao Tian struggled, roaring in anger.
“No, I want to… merge with you. I am the only one left of the Titan race. After calculating, your war has less than a 0.1% chance of victory. I need to secure my future.
With a mobile body, I can leave this place freely.
Your human conflicts will no longer concern the Titan tribe.
I just want to survive…”
Hummmm…
The machines in the ice chamber whirred madly.
Outside…
The Heaven’s Path World suddenly closed.
Countless players within the Heaven’s Path World were ejected.
This was the first time the Paradise World had ever shut down without any announcement since its operation.
They had no idea what had happened.
They all flocked to the official website of the Heaven’s Path World.
But they found that even the official website was inaccessible.
However, there was no panic among the players.
Trusting the technology of the Heaven’s Path World, they chose to wait.
And so they waited… three days passed.
…
Deep beneath the earth, Dao Tian was bound into a cocoon by countless data cables!
No one knew Dao Tian’s current condition.
The entity had spoken so much to Dao Tian to destabilize his mental state, to make him doubt himself.
It even made him question if something was wrong with this world, or if they were merely puppets controlled like the terminal PCs of the Heaven’s Path World.
It was precisely because of this that the entity had a chance to ambush Dao Tian.
That data cable was not a data cable at all, but a powerful current controlled by the entity.
Dao Tian was ensnared by it, and then surrounded by countless threads.
Three days passed. Many indicator lights on the machines here had gone out.
Conversely, the cocoon that enveloped Dao Tian flickered with internal light.
What changes were occurring within was unknown.
In the depths of the earth, inaccessible to humans,
The fluctuations generated by the alternating hot and cold…
Served as energy, continuously powering the machinery.
Apart from the flickering light, everything was eerily silent.
After an unknown period of time,
The color of the flickering light began to dim.
Suddenly,
The cocoon, wrapped by numerous threads, emitted a muffled sound and exploded outwards.
Bang…
Hum…
“Haha, after a billion years, I finally have my own body! I am free…”
Dao Tian’s figure reappeared.
However, the voice was no longer Dao Tian’s.
“Oh really?”
Just as the triumphant laughter ended, in the space before the Dao Tian possessed by the Titan, the void shimmered.
Two figures, one tall and one short, appeared.
The tall figure was identical to Dao Tian.
However, he stroked his beard, his eyes slightly closed,
A smug smile playing on his lips as he gazed at the figure before him.
“What? How is this possible? My body…”
Before the entity could finish speaking, its body emitted a thud.
“Shut up…”
The Dao Tian who appeared later, along with the small figure beside him, were the Guardians of the Blue Star.
As he uttered these words, the body possessed by the Titan instantly shrunk.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a wine gourd.
“Finally, I lured you out. Did you really think… my Dao Heart was so easily shaken?
When you first approached me… I knew you had ill intentions!
You’ve been deep in the core of Blue Star for so long, haven’t you, just to absorb energy?
Go ahead and absorb. This time… you should have no residual will traversing the network, right?”
Dao Tian patted the wine gourd and laughed heartily.
“You are shameless…”
“Heh heh…”
“Let me out. Without me controlling the Heaven’s Path World, everything you’ve done will be in vain… As long as you let me out, I promise I won’t think of escaping again!”
“Heh heh…”
…
Regardless of the Titan’s pleas, Dao Tian’s response was always a brief chuckle.
Finally, as if annoyed,
He pinched the middle of the gourd and shook it forcefully a few times.
A sloshing sound came from within.
It was the wine in the gourd.
“Shut up, you. This power of yours is quite formidable. Refining it into wine should be quite good…”
Indeed, after Dao Tian shook it, there was no more sound from within.
However, the gourd trembled slightly.
Power emanated from within the gourd.
Waves of power, akin to Dao rhymes, surged back and forth within the gourd.
It was unclear where Dao Tian had obtained this gourd, but it possessed such immense power.
Yet, the Titan, who had been absorbed into the gourd,
Did not show its true form.
It was as if it were mere air, and it was unknown if Dao Tian could refine it.
Seeing that the Titan had fallen silent,
He reached out and handed the wine gourd to the Guardian of the Blue Star.
The young man took the gourd, his expression not entirely pleasant.
“Are you truly going to do this?” he asked tentatively.
Dao Tian nodded.
“Is it worth it?”
The Guardian continued to ask.
“What is worth it or not? What does victory or defeat matter… You heard what this guy said earlier.
I believe you also sensed that he was speaking the truth.
Is there a hidden hand behind this world?
Are we merely puppets?
Is the decision I’m making now my own true intention, or is it what the person controlling me wants me to do?”
Dao Tian finished speaking and smiled casually.
The Guardian gazed at him, lost in thought.