Super Righteous Player-Chapter 1229 - 267: Nightmare: Undying Sun, Cleared!

Annan whispered, "The remaining part... is beyond my ’perception’ to comprehend.

"If I’m not mistaken, the rest is for you to tell. Because you are my teammate. That’s why the first sub-mission is to find you—because we were originally on the same side."

As Annan spoke.

The building had completely dissolved in the fire, even the ground was melting away.

He and Dark Annan stood back to back in a gray void.

Ripples spread lightly beneath their feet.

"Ah... so you’ve seen through me after all."

Dark Annan chuckled softly: "Don’t you think that if we had teamed up from the start... this nightmare would have been boringly simple?"

This was also the first time she laughed out loud.

In but a brief moment, the image of Annan changed.

The old lady in the wheelchair had turned back into the original Annan without notice.

His long white hair draped over his shoulders, his body bare. The musculature of his firm chest, reminiscent of a growing boy.

Annan stood up from the wheelchair, and it dissipated beneath him.

But when Annan turned around, he found that Dark Annan had not changed at all.

"Because I am different from you."

Her smile faded, resettling into calm: "I am but an echo from the past.

"I am a part of this nightmare."

"If you tell me the answer..."

Annan whispered: "It would mean the end of this nightmare."

The girl continued: "And it would mean that I will disappear completely. If I don’t tell you, you’ll have to stay here with me forever."

"Not disappear," Annan said seriously, "but return."

"Do you want me to return?"

"I respect your choice."

Annan answered: "Because I respect the choices I’ve made."

Dark Annan laughed lightly: "You’re insane.

"All you have to say is ’yes’, and I would merge with you. Why are you being so polite with me?"

"That’s the difference between me and you, my other self."

Annan whispered: "My heart is not yet frozen, so I allow myself some capriciousness.

"I wish for everyone to reach a happy ending. I hope to eradicate all misfortune in this world.

"——Of course, that includes my own happiness, and my own misfortune."

Annan responded deliberately: "If it were the me who had just arrived in this world... I would probably have said things like ’I’ll do what no one else does,’ ’If nobody sacrifices, I will.’

"But the me now, can proudly declare—I don’t even agree to ’sacrifice myself alone’ for the happiness of the whole world. What I want is a perfect, complete ending. No one can be left out——including myself."

"...That’s hardly rational, my other self. Too naive."

The girl smiled helplessly: "There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world."

"To have or not, let’s try before we decide. As for being rational..."

Annan clenched his fist and struck his chest.

He declared solemnly: "I am the ’Madman’, my other self.

"I’m not one who looks for a way out of the impossible, but one who breaks through all impossibilities!

"As for the common people——

"Their expectations have nothing to do with me.

"Saving this world, rewriting all misfortunes... It’s not for their praise, nor to carry their expectations.

"From beginning to end, I fight for myself——"

"——A capricious savior."

The girl whispered softly, seamlessly continuing.

She finally revealed a serene smile: "As expected. I really... haven’t changed at all."

"Just as I thought."

Annan raised an eyebrow: "You could smile. You have positive emotions."

"I was just a piece of memory, unafflicted by the curse of a heart of winter."

The girl waved her hand, unconcerned: "Just a little unwilling..."

She walked over, locking eyes with Annan for a long while.

"What are you unwilling about?"

After a moment of silence, Annan asked.

The girl’s lips curled up slightly: "Of course, it’s the fact that——

"’The main character who says such cool lines can’t be me.’ In an RPG, I’m probably cast as that Sage-like old man."

She shook her head, finally speaking: "Listen well.

"If the place I saw is the first layer, and the site of the fire is the second layer, and this void where we are is the third layer..."

"This nightmare has a fourth layer, right?"

Annan was not surprised.

He chuckled: "When I named it the ’first layer, second layer’, rather than ’outer world, inner world’, I had already guessed."

"Then why don’t you guess, whose nightmare is the fourth layer?"

The girl retorted.

"Then I’ll just make a random guess," Annan said with a smile, "I guess...

"—It’s still the repairman, right.

"The man he personally killed must have been his father, who had become a deserter."

Annan smiled faintly, his voice much softer: "Otherwise... who would trust someone as ordinary as him so much and treat him so well?"

As Annan’s voice settled.

The endless fog in this grey world dispersed once again.

It was still the time of dusk.

The sun hadn’t set yet, and the slender young man was accepting an invitation, visiting a merchant’s house.

"This merchant has always taken special care of his business. He even enthusiastically offered to introduce him to a job, to work in his own company... But the repairman, with his pride and wariness, never accepted this kindness with no apparent reason."

The dark Annan narrated softly: "Due to a runaway experience in his youth, he was reluctant to work for others again... preferring only to accept ’repair orders’. Every time the merchant tried to leave him more money or invite him over for a visit, he would silently help out with some physical labor."

"Through the relics he sent out, the merchant had long recognized his own child.

"But having lived incognito as an exile for this period, he had already started a new family, with a new wife and children under a new identity. Similar to his past cowardice of fleeing from the Battlefield... He didn’t know how the repairman felt about him, thus he never dared to acknowledge his own child."

"Perhaps due to the bond of blood, his daughter liked to play with the repairman a lot, so as a mother, his wife also trusted this honest and upright young man quite a bit."

In a dining room almost identical to that of his "sister’s house," a young wife, young enough to be the repairman’s sister, enthusiastically served food to the quiet and shy young man;

The merchant was having a lively conversation with the young man, chatting about the latest lucrative trades;

The little girl was clamoring for the young man to hold her and was scolded by her mother...

The sunset outside the window had not yet fallen.

It still hung in the sky, but it looked so pale.

It couldn’t light up anything, nor cast any shadows. It couldn’t even find the direction of the setting sun.

"It’s like the ’repairman’ himself."

Annan whispered: "He is that sun. He could fix the most complicated watches, mend pipes and electrical appliances... but he couldn’t mend a person. He couldn’t even mend himself.

"That Undying Sun...

"Is his ninth projection in this nightmare."

How he wished... that the sun on that day could never set.

Never to reach the night.

The scene shifted.

A middle-aged man with stubble and a haggard face was captured and brought to justice.

He was hung on the gallows.

The entire world in his eyes was just like the sunset of that night.

"Father..."

He murmured silently.

[Find the True Worldline (Completed)]

[Main Quest: Sunset (Completed)]

In Annan’s eyes, the final task was finally complete.

And then, the repairman and the sunset fell together.

—Can you tell me a story, Father? You never told me about your past.

In a trance, the repairman had such an illusion in his mind.

He felt like being lifted up by someone, placed upon their lap.

A gentle, vaguely familiar middle-aged voice started behind him.

"Because my story... only began after you were born."

The middle-aged man’s voice overlapped with that of the dark Annan.

And on the other side... the dark Annan holding Annan from behind was also saying the same thing.

"Though the old days have set, a new day will eventually rise. I am that sun that is bound to set."

The dark Annan’s voice gently echoed in Annan’s ear: "For the arrival of the new day... for the dawn to come. I am willing to die for your birth."

Annan didn’t look back, simply gazing at the slowly setting sun, gently holding onto the hand of the dark Annan around his waist... which gradually became transparent.

In the moment the sunset fell.

The voices of Annan and the dark Annan overlapped:

"So...

"—My story begins with the rise of the new day."

Annan firmly grasped the dark Annan’s hand, only to clutch at thin air.

A sudden sense of vast emptiness flooded his heart... followed by fulfillment.

The memories of the past he had forgotten flowed back into his heart.

Annan slowly closed his eyes.

After the dark Annan had completely vanished, the night had already shrouded the sky.

I don’t know how long it had been.

On the other side of the sunset.

The new day symbolizing dawn gradually brightened—

—slowly rising.