The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1098: Unknown Future

All eyes were suddenly on Gao Yang, their gazes solemn and heated.

Baili Yi stepped forward. “I’ve always known that you would be an important player, Gao Yang. You’ve been on the Board of Causality from the beginning, yet the ripples you created had been negligible—until your awakening.”

“As soon as you awakened, your ripples spread across the board and connected everything, turning dead ends into valid moves. I immediately guessed that you must be the late-arriving Divine Scion of this round.”

He adjusted his glasses. “Even so, I had not deduced a future where fate changed.”

“So you sought me out,” Gao Yang said calmly.

Baili Yi nodded. “I left you a line that you would’ve learned from others. The path you would go down remained the same. I merely gave you a push to make you go faster.”

“The reasons being?”

“I didn’t want you to die to the Malediciton.” Baili Yi’s expression turned solemn. “In the countless futures I’d deduced, there was at least a 50% chance that you would be killed by the Malediction.”

Gao Yang’s gaze darkened. “So you always knew Officer Huang’s child was the Malediction?”

Baili Yi nodded. “I deduced it.”

Gao Yang fell silent.

Baili Yi said with a sigh, “I know what you’re thinking. Had I warned you beforehand, perhaps Officer Huang wouldn’t have died, and neither would have your parents.”

Gao Yang didn’t respond.

Baili Yi smiled bitterly. “My resolve did waver. I had deduced it, and if I had warned you, you stood a great chance of defeating the Malediction while paying a low price, and many new futures would be forged.”

“You are the hope I’ve waited so long for, Gao Yang. I almost changed fate for you. However, I chose to abide by the lesson my mentor had learned in the end.”

He turned to Qing Ling. “Speaking of which, I had to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Qing Ling frowned. Then her eyes widened slightly. “That was you!”

“Haha, so you remember,” Baili Yi said with some surprise.

Everyone turned to Qing Ling; even Gao Yang didn’t immediately catch on.

Qing Ling glanced at him and said simply, “Office at school. Officer Huang said that his wife was pregnant.”

“It was you!” Gao Yang was startled. That day, when the three of them were having a private conversation in the office, Qing Ling had suddenly sensed someone behind the door; when she stabbed through the door, however, she found no one[1].

It turned out that there had been someone on the other side. It was Baili Yi!

“That was me.” Baili Yi lifted the hem of his long white coat. Indeed, there was a small hole left by a blade. “I very much wanted to show up and tell the three of you the truth of Su Xi’s pregnancy, but Officer Huang noticed, and Qing Ling attacked. I immediately turned two-dimensional and attached myself to the door.”

“That woke me up. I was hit with a great fear belatedly. I almost messed things up, wronging my mentor and companions. I almost destroyed humanity’s last hope.”

He looked genuinely grateful. “Thank you, Qing Ling, for making me realize that. Perhaps that was the Heavenly Way’s guidance as well.”

Qing Ling thought impassively, You’re overthinking. That was me eliminating a risk.

“You may hate me, Gao Yang, but please understand: at the end of the day, I’m merely the audience cheering you on, while you are the actors on the stage.”

Gao Yang shook his head. “You did nothing wrong, and you were not obligated to help me.”

“Since you’re merely a spectator, why did you appear now?” Nine Frost asked keenly. “And you stopped Wang Zikai from killing Gao Yang and helped us escape. Did that not break causality?”

“No.” Baili Yi was certain. “I’d deduced the future many times. On the surface, it might seem like I’d helped you, but that wasn’t the case.”

“Wang Zikai is another of my primary focuses. I can assure you that even if I hadn’t gotten involved that night, none of you would’ve died at the hands of Wang Zikai or Gao Xinxin. I had merely helped the existing flow.”

Gao Yang’s eyes widened, his face paler.

“You mean...” Vermilion Bird said with conflicting emotions, “That the two death monsters had let us go on purpose?”

“Based on the result, yes.”

“It means that they care and won’t necessarily be our enemies, right?” Zhang Wei perked up. The fact that his Brother Kai was a death monster had hit him hard.

After a few silent seconds, Baili Yi said noncommittally, “I can only tell you that each monster has their calling.”

Zhang Wei’s smile stilled.

“This may be hard to hear, but I’m gonna say it: don’t hold onto any wishful thinking with a death monster.” War Tiger took a deep drag of his cigarette. “They might have let us go because they both wanted the meal to themselves, because they wanted a greater reward later by letting us go, or because they were up to something else. But it wouldn’t be because they wanted to be our friends.”

Gao Yang didn’t say anything, but he agreed.

Anything could be falsified, but not the system’s warning. Wang Zikai and Gao Xinxin truly wanted to kill him.

“Have you forgotten? I’m God! With me around, the world won’t end!”

“It’s just, I suddenly...really want to kill you.”

“Brother, let us be family forever. Promise?”

“If you die, we’ll get to be together forever. I promise you.”

...

“Gao Yang.”

He started. The ringing in his head faded. He heard Qing Ling calling out to him softly.

She shot him a look, asking if he was alright.

He blinked in affirmation.

Then don’t space out, she chided him with her gaze.

“The game is almost over. There will be little change to the trajectory of the future. Telling you the truth now isn’t going to change causality.” Baili Yi scanned the others. “And there’s one thing: I only deduced the final fight. I cannot calculate the ending of the fight no matter what.”

“However, compared to the despair of always getting a dead end from my countless calculations, an unknown future is the best I can hope for.”

“I only avoided my doom and trespassed to your round by seizing the one unknown ending. An unknown future is where hope lies.”

“Why can’t you deduce what comes after?” Vermilion Bird asked.

“I don’t know.” Baili Yi smiled bitterly. “Perhaps that’s the restraint posed on an outsider. I only understand my mentor’s words fully now.”

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“A life has to direct themselves to their way out. A fate has to lead itself to change.” Gregor repeated the line. It left a deep impression on him.

“Yes.” Baili Yi looked through hooded eyes. “Everyone, you have to fight the final battle on your own.”

“And you?” Vermilion Bird asked.

“Back to the diary.” Baili Yi smiled. “And wait patiently.”

Lying Wood raised his hand, adjusting his glasses with what could either be nervousness or shyness. “Mr. Baili, I have another question. The fact that no one from our round has comprehended Red Eyes, Painter, or Flake Out...is that because of you?”

“Yes, and I’m afraid it’s also because of me that most of the bottom twelve Talents are unable to reach level 4.”

“Then wouldn’t that be you interfering with our causality?” Lying Wood asked worriedly. “Wouldn’t that...lead to a problem?”

“Don’t worry. Consider that a bug,” Baili Yi reassured. “I did occupy the Talents that should’ve been yours, but I acquired them from the Heavenly Way in the previous round. The causality belonged there. In this round, I haven’t acquired any new Talent. My existence reduced the number of Talents and amount of energy the Heavenly Way can allocate, but I haven’t directly interfered with the causality of this round. Outside of the twelve Rune Circuits, each round is independent and complete.”

“I’ll make you an analogy. I’ve taken some ingredients from the chef before they begin to make a meal, but that won’t stop the chef from making good food. Had I taken ingredients from the chef while they were cooking, on the other hand, the impact could be great.”

“Ah.” Lying Wood nodded. “Thank you. I have no other question.”

“I do,” White Dew said, sitting in an elegant posture.

“Go on.”

“Do the death monsters correspond to the seven deadly sins?”

“Yes.”

“What are their abilities? Related to the sins as well?” White Dew asked because she wanted to pick one of them as her opponent; she was planning her grand funeral.

While much of what had been discussed turned her perception of the world upside down, it mattered little to someone who sought death.

Baili Yi didn’t say anything but smile. It seemed that the information could influence their causality and thus must be kept secret.

White Dew returned the smile and didn’t press.

“Can we really defeat the seven death monsters?” Sunny, looking pale and sickly, moved on to worry about the more practical issue.

“Not when they are all together,” Wandering Tune said seriously. “But we should stand a chance as long as we tackle them one by one, right?”

“It’ll be difficult,” Nine Frost said. “Death monsters must be able to sense each other, and they are quick. For example...”

He trailed off.

“For example, the death monster Envy,” War Tiger continued, not allowing them to run from the ugly truth. “We’ve seen how quickly she could arrive at the scene. It took her only minutes.”

“If we’re only prepared to kill one death monster, and several end up coming, we’ll be the one at a disadvantage.”

“Then we stage an ambush and lure all of them to take them down in one fell swoop!” Wandering Tune suggested.

War Tiger turned to Vermilion Bird after a pause. She met his eyes, and they exchanged a resigned smile.

“Wandering Tune,” she said wryly. “You haven’t seen how powerful Pride and Envy are, or you’ll know that the strategy won’t work.”

“Given our current power,” War Tiger rubbed his stubbled chin, “Best-case scenario, I say we can take on three death monsters at a time. And there’s no telling how many will die.”

“How did you do it in your round?” Gao Yang turned to Baili Yi.

“We launched an all-out attack at the most opportune time,” Baili Yi said. “That was the Battle of the Curtain Call.”

Gao Yang immediately caught the key. “The most opportune time?”

Baili Yi nodded. “As my mentor called it—the Three Double-Hours of Heavenly Tribulation.”

1. This happened back in chapter 16. ☜