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The same answer as five months ago no longer caused Qi Yang to lose his composure and rationality as it had before.
The smile on his lips deepened, but to S1, it felt increasingly chilling.
S1 opened his mouth and was about to say something, when suddenly a warm, wet kiss silenced all his words.
Moonlight filtered through the thin clouds and cast a bright, silvery glow on the pitch-black sea.
It tried to bring light to the surface, but the boundless ocean swallowed it and devoured it into darkness.
The kiss was as light as a feather, causing S1 to keep his eyes open as he watched Qi Yang close his and tremble as their lips met.
A salty taste flowed through their touching lips, and S1 froze, unsure of how to respond.
His heart ached so deeply that even the pain from the depletion of the life essence in his brain felt like a kind of bliss.
That pain, triggered by the drop of cold tears, spread from the deepest part of his heart that caused every cell in his body to convulse in agony.
It was a maddening pain, one that he couldn’t escape, a pain that made even breathing feel like torture.
By the time S1 regained his senses, Qi Yang had already let him go.
By the time S1 regained his senses, he realized that, at some point, his own tears had begun to flow down his cheeks.
Qi Yang, however, lowered his head, took a deep breath, and said, "Since you like me, can you help me go back?"
S1’s lips twitched, but he found himself unable to speak.
Receiving no response, Qi Yang slowly exhaled as his still-functional left hand clenched tightly.
He closed his eyes and smiled as if resigned to his fate. "You abandoned me, yet you made me live forever. You left me here, yet you made me watch a version of you that isn’t you and live on forever."
The night wind howled desolately, and Qi Yang’s voice sounded particularly distant.
"The Mutated Beasts are heartless. I once thought you at least understood hatred, but now it seems... that’s all you understand." Thin tears streamed from his tightly shut eyes and wetting Qi Yang’s pale, bloodless lips. "S1, your revenge... is truly... too successful."
S1 suddenly felt that the emotions of the man before him were alarmingly abnormal.
He couldn’t help but reach out to grab him. "Yang, don’t be like this. I’ll give you anything you want, except going back!"
The moment S1’s hand was about to touch his sleeve, Qi Yang forcefully shook it off.
He raised his thin, handsome face with his eyes wide as he shouted, "Since you chose this path, then let us return to the beginning! Why won’t you let me leave? Why do you arrogantly keep me locked here?"
S1 was startled by Qi Yang’s actions, at a loss for what to do. "Yang..."
"S1! Enough! I don’t know what you’re thinking, or what kind of person you think I, Qi Yang, am in your heart. Have you had enough? Have you enjoyed yourself enough, and now you can just toss me aside? And then, with a face as pure and innocent as ever, say ‘I like you’?"
S1 tightly bit his lower lip, slightly afraid of Qi Yang's current state because his keen intuition made him vaguely sense—
He wanted to die.
"Who do I truly love? Who is the S1 I know? Who is the real S1? Who do I want to kill? Who wants to kill me?"
"Yang, don't be angry. Whatever you want, I can satisfy you..."
"I want to fuck you to death!"
S1 was stunned: "Okay... okay."
His response had no effect.
Instead, Qi Yang could no longer hold back the sobs in his throat.
That trembling, pitiful sound escaped from his throat, and tears streamed freely down his cheeks.
He laughed and cried: "Five months, five months! I once spent four months studying you, but I failed. This time, I spent five months, and you still won! I've lost everything. I can't find any hope of bringing you back!"
Though he laughed as the tears continued to flow.
His white lab coat was tattered and torn while barely hanging on his body and revealing Qi Yang's emaciated, pale skin and bones.
He kept crying, yet he kept laughing while staring at S1 with a gaze full of hatred and despair, as if he wanted to devour this Mutated Beast before him.
Seeing Qi Yang in such a wretched state, S1 felt as if his entire body had been drained.
He wanted to comfort this person but didn't know what to say.
He wanted to tell him, "If you want to leave, then go", but he couldn't even speak.
It felt as if his blood was boiling.
At this moment, it seemed that the one truly suffering wasn't Qi Yang, but S1.
He suddenly bent over, and a large mouthful of blood gushed from his mouth.
"What's wrong with you!"
The earlier argument seemed like an illusion as Qi Yang widened his eyes in horror and watched the endless stream of blood flow from S1's mouth.
It seemed as if his blood would never stop as his blood stained the already dark sand and stones even blacker.
S1's body convulsed, and his condition appeared far worse than when Qi Yang had struck him down five months ago.
The urgency of the situation instantly calmed Qi Yang.
He immediately asked, "Why has your injury suddenly worsened? Did I say something just now? If you're troubled, then..." His voice abruptly stopped. Qi Yang was stunned for a moment, then slowly curled the corners of his lips: "It's fine if you die like this. I'll accompany you. Once dead, there are no more responsibilities or obligations..."
"Yang..."
A blood-stained hand trembled as it touched Qi Yang's cheek.
The stark contrast between the glaring red blood and his nearly translucent pale skin made Qi Yang slowly close his mouth and stop speaking.
He looked up, but his gaze suddenly fell into a pair of deep, dark eyes.
Those pupils were as cold and fierce as ever, but at this moment, for some reason, Qi Yang seemed to see a gentle, lingering look in those inorganic eyes.
The gaze was too forgiving, making him feel utterly at a loss and unsure of what to do.
"S1....."
"Yang... cough..."
Just as he spoke, more blood gushed from S1's mouth.
Qi Yang maintained the composure of a scientist, but he couldn't hide the trembling fingers as he wiped the blood from S1's face.
"Yang..."
"Shut up, don't speak!"
"Yang, I don't like you."
"If you keep going like this, you're going to die, and yet you still say..." Qi Yang suddenly closed his mouth, realizing only now what the Mutated Beast had just said. After lowering his head in silence for a long time, Qi Yang abruptly looked up with his expression calm as he stared at S1: "You're truly disgusting."
"I love you."
Qi Yang sneered: "You really are disgusting."
S1's face had grown even paler due to excessive blood loss.
His already fair complexion now clearly revealed the tiny blue veins beneath his skin, as if his entire body were being drained.
"Yang..."
Qi Yang coldly glanced at him, then suddenly picked up a sharp stone from the ground and, without hesitation, swiftly made a deep cut on his right wrist.
"Yang!!!"
Qi Yang raised his head as his icy gaze mercilessly swept over S1's panicked face. He snorted coldly: "You're so tough, even in this state you probably won't die anytime soon. But that's fine, at least I won't have to see you die—it would surely be even more disgusting."
As if mustering strength from nowhere, S1, in a final surge of energy, grabbed Qi Yang's right wrist, but he couldn't stop the gushing blood.
His tense expression didn't last long before he suddenly relaxed: "Hmm, with your healing ability, you should recover quickly."
Sure enough, when he let go, Qi Yang's wrist had almost stopped bleeding.
But!
The next second, Qi Yang raised the stone again and slashed it fiercely across the nearly healed wound!
"Yang!!!"
Due to the intense pain and excessive blood loss, Qi Yang's body twitched slightly.
He looked up and smiled: "In your current state, you can't stop me. Don't worry, I'll definitely die before you. Since you hate me so much, you can do whatever you want with my corpse—beat it or torture it, it's up to you."
At this point, S1 no longer seemed anxious. He furrowed his brows with his dark pupils fixed on Qi Yang: "Why... are you doing this?"
Qi Yang smiled and retorted: "You abandoned me, and now you're asking me why?"
"I didn't abandon you. It's just that you didn't need me." As S1 spoke, his voice gradually faded under Qi Yang's increasingly cold expression.
Over the past five months, he had already understood the other's feelings.
He had also long known who Qi Yang needed, but the reason he hadn't appeared was because...
"I'm recovering." S1 sighed deeply.
The blood that had been flowing from his lips had completely stopped, but the wounds inside his body were still bleeding faintly: "The blow you gave me was too severe. That night, I forced the wound to heal temporarily, but it was still fatal, and... it's gotten worse."
The wound on Qi Yang's wrist had stopped bleeding, but he stared blankly at S1 and no longer harmed himself.
"It will probably take another six months for me to appear normally in this form. But I couldn't wait any longer."
He couldn't wait.
He had watched helplessly as Qi Yang walked down a path with no return, and he simply couldn't wait any longer!
If it were anyone else, he believed that the other personality would have been able to stop it. But...
This was Qi Yang.
In this world, there was hardly anything Qi Yang couldn't accomplish if he set his mind to it.
Even S1, despite his resistance, was captured by Qi Yang for research without any means to fight back.
Therefore, he couldn't stand by and watch Qi Yang make this decision.
He had to intervene, even if it meant worsening his injuries, which left him in such a disheveled state.
The cold, desolate night grew even chillier as the two injured men stood together on the isolated island.
The night's cold seeped through Qi Yang's sleeve, causing the terrifying bloodstain on his right wrist to slowly coagulate before eventually forming a dark red scab.
Compared to Qi Yang's condition, S1's situation was far worse.
He wiped the blood slowly trickling from his mouth with his hand.
Although the bleeding had lessened, it still couldn't stop his complexion from growing increasingly pale.
The amount of blood lost was a clear indication of how dire his internal condition had become.
His desperate attempt to intervene had forced him to extract a significant portion of the life essence that nourished his cells and aided his recovery, leaving his already depleted life force even scarcer. Yet, he seemed utterly oblivious to the increasing emptiness within his body as he stubbornly fixate his gaze on the expressionless man before him.
After a long while, Qi Yang let out a dazed sigh and suddenly asked, "What's wrong with him?"
The bleeding had completely stopped, and with S1's intelligence, he naturally understood Qi Yang's question. He replied in a low voice, "At first, it was just a virtual personality created to deceive myself, but... once it was formed, it was no longer virtual."
S1's voice carried far in the vast space, and an awkward silence lingered between them for a long time before S1 suddenly asked, "Do you... like him?"
"Yes."
Qi Yang's straightforward answer made S1's fingers dig tightly into his palm.
He narrowed his eyes dangerously and his tone was fierce, "Then I'll kill him."
"Isn't he you?"
This answer left S1 speechless.
Another wave of even more oppressive silence filled the air, as if it were about to solidify.
"Let's not go back."
Qi Yang's sudden statement left S1 completely stunned. After a long pause, he finally asked, "You don't want to go back?"
"Now, the overall situation has been settled. There can be many Qi Yangs among humans, but there's only one S1 among the Mutated Beasts. If neither of us returns, the balance of power, which was in your favor, will shift, and humans and Mutated Beasts will be evenly matched."
S1 studied Qi Yang intently for a long time.
After confirming that the pale-faced man before him wasn't joking in the slightest, he let out a soft sigh and said, "You don't need to worry. The Ice Age is coming, and neither of us can avoid it. The war won't start for another 100 years."
In truth, Qi Yang had already sensed the unusual climate from the increasingly cold weather.
Now, hearing this news from S1 made it all the more clear to him.
This answer pleased him greatly.
"A hundred years from now, we won't be able to control anything. By then, I'll be dead, and you..." The voice abruptly stopped. Qi Yang looked up at the Mutated Beast in a daze, then murmured softly, "Perhaps you... won't be dead yet."
S1 slightly furrowed his brows. "I will die. After you die, I will definitely die." His tone was resolute, as if he had already foreseen his own demise.
Qi Yang gazed intently at the other's solemn expression. After a long while, he suddenly burst into laughter.
The laughter carried a sense of relief after enduring countless hardships, and a calmness that came from abandoning and forgetting everything after endless torment.
"Alright, you will die."
Why would he die?
Because they lived together, and they would die together.
Just like in that world without Qi Yang, where S1 sat idle for three years and ultimately chose death.
What killed him was never the cruelty of life, but...
The endless loneliness.
Because of loneliness, two lonely souls clung to each other for warmth.
No one could replace Qi Yang, and no one could replace S1.
Only Qi Yang, with his overwhelming strength, could conquer S1 when it was weak, and only S1, with its complex and peculiar research, could deeply bind Qi Yang.
Strength and cruelty.
Used to conquer the strong.
When the world no longer holds anything worth clinging to, the strong have only two paths left—
To bring the world down with them.
Or to let themselves vanish into ashes alone.
Translator:
And the full text is now done! I'm happy that Qi Yang and S1 have a happy ending.
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