Chapter 224 The Finale

I slowly walked towards the shadow.

Why was I interested in this particular shadow, you ask? Because it was a shadow of me.

People were very familiar with themselves, so when I saw the shadow in the fog, I knew that it was me. But when I looked closer, I found that “I” was crawling on the ground.

In the past, I conducted a lot of research to find out some information. There was a time in my life when many people who looked like me appeared in the world. They used an irreversible disguising method that involved surgery to take on my appearance forever. So far, I hadn’t been able to discover what the purpose of this was. I didn’t even know where these Wu Xies came from.

Zhang Haike had been hunting these people down. He had even collected a lot of “my” heads and soaked them in formalin. When he saw me for the first time, he almost cut off my head to make sure I was real.

After a little analysis, I knew that someone was using my face to do something. I initially speculated that it might be the Wang family snooping around for information on Uncle Three and Xie Lianhuan’s overall plan. But this irreversible disguising method was actually modern cosmetic surgery. Moreover, I never realized that someone was pretending to be me in order to do something. I just happened to find a photo and videotape during my investigations that had someone who looked exactly like me doing strange things.

Among the various puzzles I had dealt with over the years, there had always been a barely discernible string hovering in the background. It wasn’t as interesting as the mysteries surrounding Poker-Face, the Zhang family, and the bronze door, but I still remembered it very deeply.

The calligraphic style I had learned from childhood was Shou Jin Ti (1). But unlike other people who copied calligraphy from ancient books, I had been copying the calligraphic style of a person named Qi Yu.

This was a detail deliberately designed by either Uncle Three or Grandpa, but I always wondered why they would want me to copy someone else’s handwriting. I figured the only possibility was that they hoped someone would think that I was Qi Yu instead of Wu Xie.

And there appeared to be a lot of people in the world who were pretending to be me.

Combined with the events in the South Sea King’s tomb, there seemed to be some kind of special connection between Uncle Three and Qi Yu.

But what was it?

I slowly walked towards the fog and came to a narrow room. I saw an unkempt man crawling on the ground and an old-fashioned video camera on one side of the room.

I had seen this scene before. This was the image in the videotape that Chen Wen-Jin had sent me.

There was no one behind the camera, but there was a window. I went up to the window and saw a group of people standing behind it. They were looking very seriously at the “me” crawling in the room, but I couldn’t see their faces clearly.

I had always thought that this place was the sanatorium, but I was surprised to find that when I carefully looked through the window at the texture of the wall, I found that this place wasn’t the sanatorium at all.

This was a warehouse in Warehouse Eleven.

I turned to look at the “me” on the ground and saw a line of words on “my” arm. That line of code looked very familiar—it was Warehouse Eleven’s code.

Only the “goods” in Warehouse Eleven would have this kind of code.

I broke out in goosebumps as I looked at this man, suddenly realizing that this “me” turned out to be a good in Warehouse Eleven. He was stored in an unknown location in Warehouse Eleven’s huge underground warehouse.

I carefully examined the code on his arm and found that it matched Uncle Three’s code that I had discovered at that time.

Uncle Three put this “me” in Warehouse Eleven?

Was he still there now?

I looked down at him. His eyes were blurred and unfocused and he seemed to be mumbling something.

I bowed my head to listen carefully and suddenly heard him laugh. He quickly turned to look at me, almost as if he could see me. I was completely shocked. Impossible! These are just my memories. He can’t see me at all.

His murmuring suddenly became clear, “We’re all here. After listening to the thunder, come and try to find us.”

Everything around me instantly became like an air current and started to dissipate. After it disappeared, I immediately felt cold, and the sensation of the coffin liquid and coffin wall around me instantly returned. I started coughing violently.

I noticed that it was bright all around me as I sat up from the coffin. I immediately felt nauseous and began to cough up countless red pulp-like things. I coughed these chunks up for more than ten minutes before I finally stopped.

I turned and looked around, only to find that all of Boss Jiao’s people had come down, the Wang family’s leader was standing off to the side, and Fatty, Poker-Face, and Black Glasses were standing beside me. The coffin was surrounded by explosives, which was probably why they weren’t fighting.

I turned to look at Boss Jiao and saw him slowly stand up. When he turned to look at me, his eyes were calm but fanatical. They were definitely completely different from before.

“Two bosses, how was your honeymoon?” The Wang family’s leader asked from a distance. “Do you have answers to all of your questions?”

I looked at Poker-Face. He handed me my pants and shoes, so I put them on before climbing out of the coffin. Boss Jiao continued to stand there because no one dared to approach him. “Where I want to go is under our feet?” He suddenly said.

Everyone looked at each other while Boss Jiao looked at his feet. In our earlier analysis, the level under our feet was the last floor of this huge tower. In the cult’s measurement system, this layer was an infinitely deep layer with no end. It was called Nirvana’s Tranquility, and was said to be the end of everything.

“You all follow me,” Boss Jiao said as he turned his focus to his team. “I already know everything.”

After he said that, Boss Jiao looked at me and said, “You asked the wrong question, just like I did my first time. You’ll come back again, Wu Xie, but there’s no hope. I won’t give you the chance to listen to the thunder again. You’re worthless to me, you can leave.” He looked at the remnants of filth on my lips. “The only luck you’ve got going for you right now is that you probably won’t die. But you’re not done yet. The thunder has taken away your illness.”

I touched my chest, but it didn’t feel special or anything.

Boss Jiao looked at the Wang family, “After we go down, you have to blow this place up. I don’t want anyone to listen to the thunder except for me.”

“How do you know we’ll do it?”

“Come here.”

The Wang family’s leader frowned, paused for a moment, and then walked over to him. Boss Jiao whispered a few words in his ear. The Wang family’s leader looked at him and then backed away in surprise.

Boss Jiao continued to look at me. He was just about to speak again, but Fatty suddenly headbutted him. Boss Jiao screamed and covered his head while Fatty yelled at him, “You say you know everything, but you know nothing!” While Boss Jiao was holding his head in pain, Fatty looked up, grabbed him, and then said to everyone, “Let me tell you something. It would’ve been fine if you were honest, but you beat our Master Hua like this, killed so many members of the Mystic Nine outside, and now you’re pretending to be some grand master. I’m onto you.”

Boss Jiao suddenly patted Fatty’s stomach with a special frequency. Fatty immediately let go and looked at Boss Jiao in horror. He suddenly became enraged and moved to punch Boss Jiao, but I looked up and stopped him. I knew that Boss Jiao’s action just now was a little move Yun Cai used to pull when she and Fatty were playing around so long ago.

Boss Jiao straightened up and looked at me before slowly climbing out of the coffin. He walked barefoot to where his clothes were lying on the ground, his feet covered in blood. He put on his clothes and shoes and whistled a few times until all of the reeds around him shook. Then, a tunnel entrance appeared on one side of the cave wall.

He walked in without the slightest bit of hesitation.

The Jiao team followed him in quick succession, leaving only us and the Wang family members behind in this space.

All of the Wang family members looked at each other and then passed by us, following them to the last floor. I looked at the tunnel entrance, but none of us moved.

“Did you find out what you wanted to know?” Fatty whispered in my ear. “Did you find out where your Uncle Three is?”

I already knew where Uncle Three was, so I nodded and looked up while hooking my arm around Fatty’s shoulder. “I’ll tell you when we get out.”

I looked at Poker-Face and saw that he was putting on his equipment. He wasn’t looking at me at all, so I glanced at Black Glasses. I didn’t know whether Xiao Hua was alive or dead, but I knew that we couldn’t delay.

I knew a lot of things now, but nothing seemed to have changed.

“It’s not over.” I thought of that code, but I decided to take a break first.

We went all the way up and started heading for home.

To make a long story short, I walked for such a long time that time and space seemed to overlap and my mind went blank. I didn’t realize that I had come back to the real world until I got into the car.

I seldom come back from an adventure so sober. The journey back was very difficult, and I was even more tired than when I had first come here, but I was very sober the whole way. Xiao Hua lost a lot of blood and was in a coma the whole time. Fatty kept saying that we should just set off the explosives and kill all those people directly, but I was too tired to say anything.

After Xiao Hua woke up, I talked with him a lot and learned more details about what had happened. But it’s not easy to explain them here.

I didn’t go back to Hangzhou because I didn’t want to face my Uncle Two. I just wanted some peace and quiet as I dazedly thought about everything that had happened during this time.

The series of events that arose from Uncle Three’s text message weren’t that complicated compared to the events I had experienced in the past.

Boss Jiao didn’t want others to hear the thunder like him, so he pulled a lot of strings from behind the scenes. But I wasn’t interested in the information he had heard at all. In short, the people we wanted to save were saved, and I knew where Uncle Three was going.

According to Black Glasses’ investigation, the so-called “thunder containing the voice of heaven” may be an explainable phenomenon. He found that any sounds of thunder reflected by Mute Village’s special terrain could form similar sounds. It was just that the question of whether the familiar thunder I heard in Hangzhou was also an illusion caused by the mountains in Hangzhou is a mystery.

I didn’t know whether all the things I saw were things from my memory or were actually given by the thunder, but I did know that the puzzle wasn’t somewhere else. It was in Warehouse Eleven.

I’ll just take a break before I set off again.

**

[Afterward: The Sound of the Providence]

Thank you all for your support. I know it ended in a hurry, but I’ll be able to revise it as soon as possible.

I’m sorry for using an old pit, but if we ended with a new pit, it seemed as if it would be the start of another ten years. We’re all exhausted.

As I fill in one pit, there’s one less old pit to fill, which somehow makes me feel sad.

“Restart” is like a draft, but the first part is finally finished. The prototype is there, the clues are clear, and there are many shortcomings and mistakes.

Generally speaking, I’m really not suitable for serialization since it’s of this quality.

I’m still a traditional person who ponders over every word in the room, so it may be better to take out of my hands.

But the advantage of serialization is that it’s fun. When the physical book is published, there’s a second round of fun because the plot is more rigorous and clear.

I’m a little tired, so the formal ending will be left for tomorrow.

Any dissatisfaction or regret will be left to the physical book.

Many people ask if there’s a New Year’s extra, but I won’t answer today. People who have already eaten have no appetite, so today’s answer won’t be accurate. I’ll have to think about it after a few days’ rest.

Anyway, thank you for your understanding, and thank you for your company.

Please continue to pay attention to my WeChat official account, I’m only 35 years old and still have a lot to write.

There are two more parts to “Restart” and “World” isn’t finished yet.

Since I’m in Xiamen, I can have two drinks tonight as I sit by the sea and enjoy the breeze.

<Chapter 223> <Table of Contents><Chapter 225>

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TN Notes:

(1) Slender Gold Script

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I just….o(TヘTo) I’m so happy lol. After an arduous 3+ month adventure, we’re finally done with Part 1!!! (Yes, I know. We still have the postscript but merebear has to work tomorrow and should be in bed lol). After the postscript is part II which is actually 2 chapters and some random extra. Part III is the Black Glasses Mute Village adventure (I keep getting them mixed up, sorry!). After that will be the Reboot “trial reading” chapters that the author has made. They…don’t fit in with the plot like you would think so I will put them on their own page under the “Restart” tab when I get there. Thanks for sticking with me this far you lovely souls! I love your comments and feedback!!!