"Boss, what do we do now?" Xiao Qi asked.
Qing Chen said, "The most important thing to do now is to find the person who controls this army of the dead and kill him."
As the saying goes, to catch the thief, first catch the king. As long as the person behind the scenes is killed, the war will end immediately.
The problem is, shouldn't Duke Storm be the one controlling all of this? But Qing Chen never saw Duke Storm's figure from beginning to end in this battle. The other party was hiding in the shadows, waiting for a moment, extremely cautious!
At this moment, the army of the dead had already rushed to the front of the defensive circle. Wang Xiaojiu tried to use the guillotine to cut off the head of a beast soldier, but how could a beast soldier who had died once die again?
The decapitated beastmen seemed to have no weaknesses; even without their heads, they could still pounce and fight.
"How are we supposed to fight this?!" Wang Xiaojiu's eyes widened in disbelief. Even if she were incredibly violent, she couldn't possibly chop every single beast soldier to pieces, could she?
Most importantly, there are also members of the parent-teacher association among the beast soldiers.
When Xiaoqi and the others saw their beloved comrade-in-arms, who had just died, rushing towards them, they hesitated for a moment!
It's not that they're weak... We all stood shoulder to shoulder through the most difficult 7,000 kilometers, but now we have to fight each other. Even knowing that the other side is no longer their former comrade-in-arms, it's still hard to accept.
In the brief moment of hesitation, the army of the dead had already torn a gap in the northeast corner of the defensive perimeter.
Xiao Er, Xiao Qi, and the others immediately snapped out of their daze and roared in unison, "Wake up! Those who are alive must live on! Don't give up! Don't collapse!"
The remaining members of the parents' meeting then realized what was happening and began to fight back.
However, how could the living possibly win against an army of the dead that outnumbered them several times over and seemed insurmountable?
Someone asked, bewildered, "We probably can't win, can we?"
This war seems to have no end.
They survived the rat horde, traveled seven thousand kilometers through clouds and moonlight, and slaughtered countless orc legions, but the war was far from over.
They groped their way forward in the dark, falling down, getting up, falling down again, and getting up once more.
But... how long will this darkness last?
Xiaoqi replied breathlessly, "What if we can win? Don't give up, how will we know if we don't try?"
Someone asked, "What if you try and still lose?"
Xiao Qi roared as she charged towards a beastman: "Try again!"
Try again...
Try again?
Try again!
In dire straits, the members of the parent-teacher association once again displayed boundless fighting spirit.
Xiao Er fought bravely with a beastman, while Xiao Wu knocked the body of a former comrade to the ground, shouting hoarsely, "Wake up! It's your fifth brother!" But it was all in vain.
They didn't know how to win, but no one admitted defeat.
As Qing Chen fought, he watched these people struggling to survive, and everything seemed so familiar.
One by one, members of the parent-teacher association died, and the defenses shrank again and again. There was no hope, but we never gave up.
In an instant, all of this pulled him back to the lower three districts of City 10's defense line.
At that time, Xiao San was shouting hoarsely behind the defense line, Zhang Mengqian was banging on an iron basin on a high-rise building to warn everyone of the rat swarm attack, and members of the parent-teacher association and refugees from City 10 bravely stood in front of the defense line.
Hold on to the death!
In an instant, those surging memories began to overflow the riverbank like a flood bursting its banks.
Qing Chen quickly extracted useful information from those memories, trying to find a way to survive...
He suddenly realized: "Hold on, there's still a glimmer of hope, we must hold on!"
It was because he saw in his memory many people who should have appeared but had not yet!
Just as Qing Chen was trying to extract more information from his memories, his consciousness was enveloped by a layer of gray mist, which was like a huge maze that he could not break through no matter how hard he ran inside.
Ultimately, he crashed into an invisible wall in the fog of the world of consciousness.
Qing Chen suddenly realized that this was his sealing shackle.
He began frantically pounding on the invisible wall, as if trying to smash everything to pieces, once, twice, but the invisible wall remained unmoved.
Chapter 998, The Final Journey (The End)
On Ginkgo Mountain.
The old man and Zongcheng had already played seven games, and Zongcheng had lost every single one, but he showed no signs of impatience, as if he were completely immersed in the joy of playing chess.
The old man glanced at him: "You lose every time, why do you keep playing?"
Zong Cheng laughed and said, "This is very much in line with my life. I actually envy people like you and Qing Chen. You were born to win. You are good-looking, have good backgrounds, and possess extraordinary bloodlines, while I have nothing."
Zong Cheng: "People like me are destined to fail again and again from the moment they are born. I woke up in that dark and sunless underground base, and I had to be careful of the remaining experimental subjects in the base. It was hell mode from the very beginning. I was born in hell. After finally getting out of there, I didn't know anything. In the first generation of my body, I had a kidney removed in the Ninth District of City 5. After the kidney was removed, I was sold to a black mine to work as a miner."
"After finally awakening my extraordinary abilities and controlling a few miners to escape back to the city, I found that we couldn't even afford to eat. I took a few miners to work in a factory, doing the hardest work for the lowest wages, working 16 hours a day, but we could only afford to eat... You might not believe it, but Qingchen and I actually have the same goal. The reason I set my sights on controlling the whole world is because I want to end the era of you tycoons."
This time, the old man was genuinely surprised.
To be honest, even he didn't expect that the first beating Zong Cheng received upon arriving in the human world would come from the exploitation and oppression of the capitalist world.
Life is divided into stages: childhood, youth, middle age, and old age, among which childhood has the most profound impact on a person.
The oppression of the world by capitalism is Zongcheng's childhood memory.
Who would have thought that one of the most terrifying people in the world today was once so miserable?
That's so tragic!
But the old man simply said, "Qingchen is different from you. He never uses inhuman means to achieve his goals, so even if you have the same vision at the beginning, the results will be completely opposite. Once you have power, you will start to enjoy the convenience that power brings you."
Zong Cheng smiled and said, "That statement is absolutely true. The dragon-slaying boy eventually became the dragon himself. This story seems to apply perfectly to me. In the beginning, I wanted to make money, but I could only use very, very clumsy methods; later, I wanted to control the army, but I was bombed by a single cannon; I wanted to go to the Western Continent to lower the game's difficulty, but I encountered the Fate Master; after returning, I wanted to control the Qing Clan, but I encountered Qing Zhun, who started with a royal flush. It's been too difficult. Can you understand my experience? I feel like I've always been losing, so I've gradually become less concerned about winning and losing, because I know I'll win sooner or later."
"Don't be so confident," the old man shook his head. "Your sudden move is partly because you finally have the strongest power after taking control of the Chen family, and partly because Qing Chen has become the king of the giants. The existence of those giants with telepathic abilities, along with the forbidden syringe, makes you realize one thing: someone has finally gathered all the elements to kill you."
The old man looked up at Zong Cheng: "Are you scared?"
Zong Cheng paused for a moment, then readily admitted, "That's right."
At this moment, a mute servant brought two bowls of vegetarian noodles and placed them in front of the two people.
While eating his noodles, Zong Cheng said, "I've been tricked by you again without even realizing it. Now I remember that Qing Ji disappeared during the first game. Did he go to steal my things? You dragged me into the game just to buy more time?"
The old man chuckled: "Your reaction was pretty quick."
Zong Cheng finished his noodles in two bites and sighed, "I can't tell if this is praise or sarcasm... Are you worried about Qing Chen? I've seen the Western Continent use their final trump card. To be honest, I'm also surprised that they've been preparing for so long, and I didn't expect it to be so terrifying. Now, I'm a little worried. I, the fisherman, may not have the strength to win the final victory."
Even Zong Cheng seemed somewhat wary of that legion of the dead.
Zong Cheng looked at the old man: "Did you guess they would have this trick up their sleeve?"
The old man nodded: "I guessed it."
Zong Cheng exclaimed in surprise, "You could have guessed that?"
The old man chuckled and said, "I made some progress in the Superconducting World recently. Qing Chen went on a killing spree in Multiverse 8, eventually killing Hades and advancing to S-rank Combat Master. At that time, some people said that Hades was actually another S-rank Combat Master who deleted his account and started over, because he wanted to learn the necromancer skills from the Superconducting World to use in reality. But as you know, there is no such inheritance in the Western Continent... So I've been thinking, since there is no such inheritance, what would prompt an S-rank Combat Master to abandon the level he painstakingly gained over 10 years and then spend another 10 years training a necromancer?"
Zong Cheng: "You mean, that Hades is actually the Duke of Storms, who is hiding his identity in the Superconducting World?"
“I didn’t guess it was Duke Storm, but I felt there would definitely be similar methods,” the old man looked at Zong Cheng: “How can you see the battlefield situation? As far as I know, puppets can’t transmit messages to each other out of thin air, right?”
Zong Cheng smiled and said, "Of course, it's not possible between puppets, but it's certainly possible between a puppet and its original body."
When City 10 was sealed off and the puppets were being searched, Zong Cheng's true form possessed a non-time traveler in the surface world. This was the security personnel who tipped off the Polar Night Organization during Qing Chen's last life-or-death ordeal.
Because that is the original body, the syringe is useless to him: the original body is not considered mental pollution.
Now, Zong Cheng's main body has been transferred back to the inner world. He sits opposite the old man without any worries and explains with a smile: "Don't think that killing me will do anything. Even if I die, I will still transfer to other puppets."
After he finished speaking, he looked up at the roof beam, where Qing Ji's son, Qing Wu, was sitting, staring at him expressionlessly.
At that moment, heavy snow began to fall outside, and the temperature plummeted.
The mute servant brought in a small red clay stove and placed it at their feet.
Zong Cheng suddenly said desolately, "You must be very worried about Qing Chen now, but in the past six hundred years, no one has ever cared about me. You have family, but I don't. From the moment I was born, this world has been unfair to me. After I control the puppets, I occasionally use them to hide in the streets and experience family affection, but I know that what is fake is fake."
The old man thought for a moment and said, "That is indeed a pity."
Zong Cheng smiled and said, "Grandpa, we'll see the result soon. Let's wait here together... How about another round?"
"One more round."
...
...
Qingchen walked on and on in the gray fog world, which seemed to have no end. Apart from the gray fog, there were only transparent walls.
The gray fog seemed boundless, and he was like a lonely traveler with no way home.
"Where is this..." Qing Chen pondered, "Is this my world of consciousness?"
He suddenly realized that the indomitable will of the parents' association members was like a key, finally allowing him to see the source of the seal, and the invisible wall was his sealing shackles.
Behind the invisible wall lies his spiritual will, which he sought to smuggle out of the original world.
He stopped and began to pound on the invisible wall with all his might, and the deafening thuds gradually echoed throughout the gray fog world.
No matter how he tried, the invisible wall remained intact.
Qingchen leaned weakly against the invisible wall and sat down, looking at the boundless gray fog world in front of him.
He didn't know how to break the seal, or even how to leave this gray mist world; he felt trapped.
However, at that moment, Qingchen suddenly heard Xiaoqi's voice in his ear: "Try again!"
Those who were once influenced by him are now influencing him as he 'returns to his roots'.
Qing Chen was stunned, then slowly stood up to face the invisible wall and began to punch it again.
Even though it was useless, Qingchen never gave up.
Outside the realm of consciousness, Xiao Qi saw Qing Chen suddenly close his eyes and stand motionless in place.
Even when the beast soldiers rushed right in front of him, Qing Chen seemed completely unaware.