Extra Chapter, One
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
The Maertons produced quite the convincingly human cyborg bodies for Xü Beijin and Lin Qin. It’s a perfect replica of the couple’s body and appearance in the game.
Including even that scar on Xü Beijin’s left arm.
In the game, the scar was actually almost faded, only noticeable to those keen of eye.
The wound was quite terrifying when it was inflicted, but medicine and healing in the game is also terrifyingly effective.
In any case, now Xü Beijin has a light scar on his left arm.
It’s something that has always been on Lin Qin’s mind.
Countless times, when Xü Beijin looks at Lin Qin, he’ll notice that his little apple is looking at him – more specifically, at his arm.
Xü Beijin doesn’t actually mind it——Scars are men’s honour!
Proof that he once helped save the world. It’s neither ugly nor painful. It’s a simple memento reassuring him he’s escaped from that period in the past.
Lin Qin clearly thinks otherwise, however.
They finally sat down to talk about it once, and Lin Qin says, “I am always reminded of how you appeared in front of me all drenched in blood. I felt like my heart stopped beating.”
Xü Beijin retorts, “you didn’t even have a beating heart back then.”
Lin Qin “…”
He narrows his eyes, staring at Xü Beijin.
Whenever Xü Beijin talks to him like that Quarrelsome fellow did to his mates, he stares at him with this ‘I’m angry but I’m not going to say anything’ face.
It amuses Xü Beijin to no end.
“Really, little apple, something like that is never going to happen again.”
“Of course…” Lin Qin declares with certainty, “never again.”
It’s really a trauma Lin Qin may never forget, but he’s also confident it will never happen again.
Because the Maertons made the cyborg bodies for them perfectly, meaning it replicated the data for the body truthfully, reflecting his absurd strength and fighting prowess.
There are even places and occasions when Lin Qin has to carefully control the strength he put in.
Once, Lin Qin actually managed to poke a big hole in the plank lining the side of their bed. He didn’t notice, and Xü Beijin only realised the next day.
Xü Beijin was extremely worried then, afraid his own cyborg body will have holes just like that one because of Lin Qin.
Lin Qin is always quite careful, though, except that one time because he was really, out of control.
The Maertons recreated their bodies too faithfully, from the data in the game to the senses and such in the game.
It makes them appreciate immensely how the times have changed. Technologies in the universe have developed to a point fantastically indistinguishable from magic.
Well, mainly Xü Beijin.
Lin Qin didn’t know what the outside world was supposed to be like.
He never wanted his memories back.
They’ve never heard from NE again. Xü Beijin suspects the AI is still stuck in an infinite logic loop somewhere, out of order, forever.
The AI’s database is still inside the game ‘Escape.’
In fact, they can still log into the game. It’s just entirely deserted.
It’s quite likely no humans would want to visit there ever again. Xü Beijin only makes the occasional trip inside to access NE’s database.
There is quite a lot of stuff in there, mostly the memories that were removed from humanity at large by the Fy’ecas. Only NE’s database still contains them.
While some people elected not to retrieve their memories, many would still wish to remember their past, even if it meant disaster and ruin.
So Xü Beijin makes the trip for them, sometimes, to gather memories to-order.
Lin Qin would go with him.
“Just a simple job in the Tower and you still have to tag along, huh?” Xü Beijin would ask.
“I’ll be with you whatever you’re doing,” Lin Qin answers earnestly, solemnly, and adding, “I also don’t want you to be back at the Tower alone.”
Xü Beijin, surprised, asks, “why?”
Lin Qin thinks about it for a while, but ends up just giving him the good ol’ “my instincts say so…”
He really doesn’t want Xü Beijin back in that vast, empty, quiet, rotting Tower.
He feels like it makes Xü Beijin uncomfortable, and just imagining him there alone is worrying to him.
That’s why he must accompany him.
Though trying to dig deeper into this mental state merely confuses Lin Qin. He doesn’t know how to put it into words.
Just saying it’s his instincts firing is adequate, sure, but he knows there are deeper reasons.
When Xü Beijin is at the bottom floor of the Tower, inside his old bookstore——He no longer needs to access NE’s database via Liang Zhiyi’s brain anymore——And is looking for the memories he needed, Lin Qin suddenly says, “and maybe, just because it pains me to see it.”
“Pains you?” Xü Beijin asks about it afterwards, “as in, you feel pity for me?”
“If only we met earlier,” Lin Qin says, touching Xü Beijin’s left arm again, and continuing, “then you might not have needed to live alone by yourself on the bottom floor all that time.”
Xü Beijin is quiet for a while, looking at him, then he tells Lin Qin, “no, you came into my life at just the right time.”
Lin Qin seems confused, asking, “why?”
Xü Beijin’s life, before the streaming system, has always been without the light of hope.
He thought it was the end. The world was ending. Everything was hopeless. They’ll spend the rest of their miserable lives in this all-devouring Tower.
Xü Beijin doesn’t like to think back to those days, but he has to acknowledge that he was mentally depressed and gloomy back then.
It was the stream, and the coming of hope, that turned his mental state back around.
That’s why Xü Beijin wouldn’t want Lin Qin to meet him as he was. At least, he thinks, he definitely didn’t deserve to be liked as he was in those days…
Actually, if they did meet back then, they likely would not have ended up together.
Since Xü Beijin just found Lin Qin annoying and unreasonable.
It was only through sheer coincidence and circumstances, while Xü Beijin continued to chase after the light of hope, with Lin Qin incidentally doing so with him, that they ended up together.
Thinking about it, it really was a shockingly smooth development.
The Fy’ecas never caught on with what they were doing. All the people still awake in the Ultimate Nightmare made the exact same choice. NE really fell for his little deception…
And he really has his little apple as his beloved.
Xü Beijin leans over to kiss his confused lover, and tells him, “I meant that, if you came before me earlier than back then, you would not have liked me, and I would not have liked you.”
Lin Qin furrows his brows, clearly upset at the thought, saying, “what? How could you know? You and I are naturally destined for one another.”
Xü Beijin finds it amusing, but he doesn’t want to argue.
Although he does certainly think that he doesn’t exactly deserve love and romance before the streaming system, but he also finds the persistence, almost childish stubbornness of him cute.
But Lin Qin seems to have been more upset than he thought.
That night, they had the serious talk.
Xü Beijin was confused when Lin Qin dragged him to the sofa to sit and said he has to ask something, but then Xü Beijin understands.
Lin Qin is asking, “you said I wouldn’t like you before that, then how were you back then? How do you know I wouldn’t like the you from back then?”
He seems to have unhealthily fixated on that question.
Xü Beijin looks at him, thinking, and then gets why Lin Qin needs an answer.
It’s because Lin Qin thinks he loves Xü Beijin wholly and completely.
There is no past, present or future Xü Beijin. Lin Qin just loves him entirely. He himself didn’t have a past, so he doesn’t think of it the same way Xü Beijin did.
But Xü Beijin was now telling him Lin Qin would not like Xü Beijin in the past.
Lin Qin is still asking, “why is that? I think I will like you equally. What was the difference between past you and present you?”
Besides being a bit hilarious, Xü Beijin also finds himself a little touched by this.
He explains, “I meant… that the past me didn’t have the same personality that I do now.”
“How so?”
“I used to be more, let’s say pessimistic?”
Xü Beijin describes himself that way.
“Aren’t you always pessimistic?” Lin Qin gives an answer immediately, “I’m used to the pessimism, so your reason is overruled.”
Xü Beijin “…”
Is it just him or is the bad little apple dissing him indirectly?
He gives him an accusatory look.
It’s not the first time he’s thought this way, but every time Lin Qin would dispel those doubts with his amazingly earnest attitude.
This time is no exception.
Then Xü Beijin says, “I wasn’t ready to fall in love in the past.”
Lin Qin mumbles, “but that wouldn’t stop me from liking you… Overruled! Next!”
Almost like an unforgiving judge, he is asking Xü Beijin to describe any and all reasons that might have caused Lin Qin to not like the past Xü Beijin.
Every single reason Xü Beijin comes up is met with a firm ‘overruled.’
In the end, Xü Beijin has already dug himself deep in a pit of self-loathing, but Lin Qin is still having none of it. Flustered, Xü Beijin can only say, “why don’t you tell me what kind of me you wouldn’t like then?!”
Xü Beijin is really getting speechless now after listing all these strikes against himself without Lin Qin conceding.
Lin Qin thinks about it for a while, and says, “there isn’t. I will like you how ever you are.”
Xü Beijin’s eyes widen.
Lin Qin then thinks some more and says, “yes, I definitely like you whenever and ever. You said the past you had all these bad qualities, but I think that they are all your good qualities.”
Xü Beijin is silent for a long time before just saying, “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”
“What is a beholder?” Lin Qin, who had no idea of culture back on Earth, is curious, “is it related to ‘Beijin’ or something?”
Xü Beijin “…”
Never mind. He really shouldn’t even have debated the issue with his little apple… what a waste of time…
It’s just a fact that Lin Qin loves him, from the past to the present, and will love him forever and ever on.
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