He turned around and saw the teenage boy sitting beside him.
Just like the boy who coldly watched the massacre amidst the raging flas, just like the monster who knelt blankly guarding that girl's body.
He turned his head and looked at Lynn, his eyes seeming to shimr with moisture.
He was ordinary, not particularly tall, just like every peer around you and —commonplace and sowhat thin.
But Lynn knew at a glance.
He was the protagonist of this script, he was Wang Tao, he was the character Lynn was portraying.
"What exactly is this..."
Lynn asked hesitantly.
Wang Tao turned his head, gazing into the distance at the back of the girl sitting in the front row.
He closed his eyes and whispered, "This is a scene that has remained in my mory. Many things have blurred, but only this mont, I could never forget no matter what."
Lynn quietly watched the young man beside him, then turned to also look at the girl in the front row.
Tranquil and peaceful.
The girl's back was as beautiful as a painting, a dream one couldn't bear to part with.
Wang Tao lifted his head, his eyes seeming filled with the vicissitudes of life.
"This should be the past. Painful mories always make people desperately forget, but beautiful mories get constantly embellished, then flash through your mind again and again."
He turned to Lynn, looking at him gently, and said:
"Thank you."
"Thank you for bringing back to this mont, even if just briefly, it's enough."
Lynn frowned, also sat down, and looking at him said:
"Actually, my ability didn't really succeed, did it?"
Wang Tao lifted his head, a slight smile appearing on his face, and shook his head.
"Is it so ability that can recreate the past? Actually, you should have known the answer all along. This is ultimately a script, no matter how hard you try, it cannot be changed."
"But during those ten minutes, I could strongly feel your desire to make up for my regret, which is why I wanted to thank you."
He reached out and patted Lynn's shoulder with a smile.
"Though regrets are hard to nd, in reality, I've already embarked on a path filled with hope. Like you, I'm also striving to heal everyone's wounds."
"Even if just for a mont."
...
Outside.
Everyone trembled as they looked at the Eighth-Level Veteran's face.
Even the Head Examiner showed a shaken expression, staring blankly at his face, unable to speak a word.
Because...
Because the face of the young man nad Wang Tao in the scene was almost identical to the Senior before them.
Only he appeared more weathered, more aged.
"This... what exactly is..." The Head Examiner opened his mouth, unable to conceal the shock in his heart.
The middle-aged man said nothing, he just lifted his head, watching the young man in the scene as if looking at his past self.
His eyes seed misty with moisture, yet also filled with the weariness of ti, like the sea turning into mulberry fields.
Only, at so point, his hand had clenched tighter.
...
In the classroom.
The two sat side by side, feeling the warm breeze blowing in through the window.
Lynn's eyes reflected his face as he said, "You an, you've already escaped from that cycle and the Devil's grasp?"
Wang Tao nodded, smiling, "Yes."
But that wasn't a pleasant mory.
After that massacre, because of the curse left by his mother, he and the Devil beca trapped together in a ti loop.
Countless cycles, repeating endlessly.
And the resulting resentnt and hatred kept accumulating, growing increasingly intense.
Until the resentnt and hatred reached a critical point, they, along with the classroom and all the vengeful spirits within, were dragged into this Dark World.
He lifted his head and said, "I was lucky because shortly after being dragged into this world, I t a Night Doctor Senior from the City of Night."
"That Senior was accidentally drawn into that Death Loop, but as an outsider, he wasn't greatly affected. He could have left."
"But he didn't. He used every thod to break the curse my mother left behind. He wanted to redeem , and also cleanse the hatred in my heart, so he kept trying."
Saying this, he lowered his head, slowly clenching his hands.
"But he really wasn't strong. Under the accumulated hatred, the Devil's projection could almost crush him."
"Yet he still refused to leave..."
...
Outside.
The middle-aged man watched the scene in the display, gradually clenching his fist, slowly closing his eyes.
As if those sealed mories were being carefully unearthed layer by layer.
He refused to leave...
He said he was a doctor.
His ideal was to heal the wounds in this Dark World, to give every compatriot dragged into this hell a better destination.
He had only just beco a Night Doctor.
That was rely an insignificant incident he encountered accidentally during a mission.
He could have completely ignored it.
But he still acted.
Everyone listened to the narration in the scene, looking at the weathered Veteran beside them with closed eyes.
They stared blankly, unable to connect him with the protagonist in the script.
But it seed...
What they were describing.
Was his experience.
...
"I was saved."
At the desk, Wang Tao lifted his head, gazing at the ceiling, his eyes full of reminiscence.
"When the mbers of his team arrived, they found shattered amidst the ruins, but they didn't find that Senior."
He slowly reached out as if trying to grasp sothing, clutching at the air.
But caught nothing.
"I was redeed."
"But he lost his life."
"So I kept asking myself, was it worth it? I was just an insignificant soul, while he was a Night Doctor with a bright future. Even if he saved , I could die at any ti..."
His eyes stared emptily ahead.
"Was it worth it..."
Then ca a long silence.
Lynn's eyes reflected his face as he said, "What's your answer then?"
Wang Tao took a deep breath, reached up to rub his temples, and when he opened his eyes again, his smiling face seed to glisten with tears.
"It took a long ti to understand that truth."
"There's never any question of worth. He simply worked hard to do everything he believed was right, and when all this gets weighed on a scale, it loses its aning."
"He wanted to redeem , so he did it, that's all."
Lynn looked at his tearful smile.
Beneath this darkness.
He seed instead bathed in light.
Lynn knew.
He had found his own path.
The corners of Lynn's mouth lifted, and he extended his fist toward him, saying:
"Ah! I'm also striving in that direction, though perhaps I can't do as well as the Senior you described."
Wang Tao also smiled and extended his fist, bumping it with Lynn's, saying:
"No, you've already surpassed the vast majority of people."
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