Chapter 1953 - 1948: Mathematical Euphoria (9)
Chapter 1953: Chapter 1948: Mathematical Euphoria (9)
So that’s how it is. It seems that the people of the City of Bliss are not very familiar with the heinous crime of murder.
Following Kako’s gaze, Fu Qian also noticed the change in Brother Strong, aware that death had completely arrived.
Unfortunately, although Kako was certain of his own evil retribution, he currently didn’t feel any change physically.
Furthermore, the noise and conversation inside the room would likely lead the listeners outside to deduce what happened.
Yet, until now, no one has pushed the door to physically ease a conscience and earn some merit.
It seems the others do not support the idea of opening the door on their own initiative.
So...
"Thank you."
Politely responding to Kako, Fu Qian casually thrust the cleaned candlestick into his chest.
Targeting his own heart was somewhat easier.
Murder and suicide combined, this crime should indeed be unsurpassable, right?
...
Darkness...
Hunger...
Crawling...
Feeding...
Delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continue hunger...
Continue crawling...
Continue feeding...
Truly delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continue hunger...
Continue crawling...
Continue feeding—will die.
Truly delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continue hunger...
Continue crawling—will die
Continue feeding—risk of death
Delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continue hunger—risk of death
...What danger?
What danger...
What danger—SAN Points depleted.
...
It’s hard to measure whether the darkness was long or short, but it ended at some point.
Fu Qian’s first reaction was to take a long breath, feeling the regained concept of vision and the elements within the "picture."
Short steps, a high platform, candles, round windows... still dazzlingly bright, with gold and white intermingled.
This is a very special architectural style, what seems to be a small religious site in front of him.
Yet its color and material inevitably made Fu Qian realize he’s back to the extremely evil—oops, the City of Bliss.
This place really does have buildings similar to small chapels?
Thought entering Paradise, there wouldn’t be such worldly forms.
What a pity, it’s not pure white... it’s not the White Head Church after all.
Like a dried fish thrown back into the water, Fu Qian could feel his brain expanding and swelling, evoking a stream of sighs.
Previously considering the possibility of being watched, Fu Qian deliberately didn’t ask Kako directly about the White Head Church, merely observing along the way, ultimately without any findings.
But this reincarnation, he actually found a church in the City of Bliss, with quite a part of its color in white...
This turn of events, ultimately confirming it’s still not the White Head Sanctuary, how can it not make one groan with regret.
Indeed, although he could feel his body was stiff, Fu Qian was fairly confident his dual-crime redemption was complete.
The reason is simple, this body is clearly human.
Even clothed in an exquisitely gorgeous red and blue robe.
...
Indeed, there’s no way to die and restart.
Fu Qian couldn’t help but sigh.
Though it’s an extremely unique experience, it’s not difficult for him to sort out a few things.
The previous events were simple. After brutally murdering Brother Strong, his guilt-ridden self even took his own life, committing an even graver crime.
Subsequent occurrences proved this as well.
First the Non-human Reincarnation suffering mentioned by Kako indeed occurred, but compared to turning into the Qing horse pulling a cart, the punishment for his sins was clearly much more severe.
Darkness, hunger, crawling, feeding... even only a few remaining concepts were enough for Fu Qian to judge he had turned into an eyeless worm.
But it wasn’t just that his will was trapped in such a frail body, that kind of unimaginable situation immediately extinguished all thoughts of being human, leaving only the most basic instincts.
There’s no sense of being trapped. At that moment, even the level of thinking had almost become that of a worm.
To describe it specifically, it’s like painstakingly memorized words for twenty years being pulled from your mind, leaving only a few pinyin letters for you to piece together based on instinct.
Anything the concept of a worm couldn’t bear was discarded.
...
Only this is worthy of being called the suffering of Reincarnation.
Merely losing a human body, pulling a cart or tilling the land is nothing, let alone in this Paradise where there’s certainly an afterlife.
Recalling those unique feelings in the dark, at that moment Fu Qian sighed deeply, realizing the peril of this journey.
It’s truly nothing trivial, worth considering with the deepest malice.
Even the fact he broke away from that worm path was due to this pessimism.
Being forced by the situation into daring maneuvers doesn’t mean abandoning thought and leaving everything to luck.
Long before committing unforgivable sins, considering the experiences of predecessors, he had already thought about possible responses if truly transformed into an animal.
He wasn’t naively optimistic about simple elements like being unable to speak or restricted actions. Fu Qian even reflected on a brainstorm he had many years ago in a language class, upon reading a story titled "Metamorphosis"—
What if a person truly became an organism too simple in structure? Why would they have the ability to think of themselves as human?
It was due to pessimism about this issue that before piercing his own heart, the last thing Fu Qian did was implant a thought into himself—will die.
There’s something that, if he couldn’t achieve it, he would die.
Even for some simple-structured biological brains, the concept of death should be relatively easy to bear.
If anything could serve as an anchor attempting to awaken human will, then "death" might be worth trying.
But somewhat unexpectedly, this contingency plan for the worst case actually played its role.
Through this strong imprint of death, he successfully inserted some noise into the biological instinct, even triggering more... and ultimately found himself sitting in a sanctuary in human form.
It somehow not only helped him gradually remember "who" he was, but even directly freed him from the suffering of the heinous crime’s reincarnation.
Of course, this brought a question, why?
Why did his alternative "awakening" end the painful reincarnation of being a worm—even though it’s not his original body.
Indeed, seeing just the hand, Fu Qian could tell this body is even younger than the original one.
[SAN Points -1]
As he questioned himself, a new prompt echoed in his consciousness.
[Current task updated: Kill the Ancient Man of Nine Layers Heaven]
Hmm? Not bad at all.