Chapter 214: Rose Factory

Wang Shun moved his chair back a little, putting some distance between his heart and the tip of the civilized staff before speaking carefully, "...... I see a cobbled-together, fragmented psalm."

"Scattered psalms?" Charles raised his eyebrows imperceptibly, "That doesn't seem like the usual prophetic style of this succinct [Judge Against the Gods], so what? What kind of psalm is it?"

Wang Shun took a deep breath, he cleared his throat, and said:

"The Evil One boasts that there will be men adrift in his shadow,

The man in the shadow is 14 years old.

So the Evil One gave this man a spine, a heart, and an emblem.

Boasting that this man will be its only believer.

The man in the shadow is 24 years old.

Then the evil gods fell in the snowy plains, and the spirits of the faithful drifted in the deep sea.

The spine, the heart, the emblem, all broken.

The Evil God Changes.

The man in the shadow is 30 years old.

He wanders, he wanders, and the clown crouches before him, and laughs, and asks the man in the shadow, where he is, and where he has returned.

The man in the shadows says that when the sun is three-quarters gone, an old man will come looking for me, cold and stiff.

And the clown said, If thou art already stiff and dead, I will crush thy soul, that thou mayest fall with the gods in the snow.

The man in the shadow is forty-one years old.

God dies and he lives, and through evil lives forever."

After saying that, Wang Shun swallowed a bit of saliva and looked at Charles with nervous eyes : "You can test me with the scales, I'm not talking nonsense, there are some Ground Fang Ke energies that I don't remember very well, but this is indeed what I saw at [Judgement of the Adversary God]."

"I don't doubt that." Charles retracted his civilized staff and swept a glance at Wang Shun, "I rather doubt that this prophecy you speak of speaks of Bai Liu, such vague poetry can be interpreted from all angles, and I could also say that this poem speaks of someone else."

"You say this prophecy speaks of Bai Liu, is there any other evidence?"

Wang Shun was quiet for a long time and let out a long breath helplessly, "...... No more."

"So you actually can't figure out if this prophecy is about Bai Liu, right?" Charles lightly sat up on his desk and idly crossed his legs, "So you were lying to me just now to convince me to invest in Bai Liu?"

Wang Shun opened his mouth, but admitted, "Yes."

"Lying in front of me to a gambler who is ten times better at it than you are is not a very wise thing to do, Mr. Pepsi." Charles picks Wang Shun's lowered head up with his civilized staff and flashes a very satisfied smile, "But I liked the lie you just told - that sounded like it would have totally fooled a whole bunch of ignorant and impulsive gamblers into placing a bet on Bai Liu, and it was a pretty gambler-worthy lie."

Wang Shun looks at Charles in consternation.

"Bai Liu I'm invested." Charles nonchalantly retrieved his civilized staff and pulled it downward into a lush bouquet of roses handing it to the still dazed Wang Shun.

Wang Shun took over headlong, "So, President Charles, what do we do now?"

Charles jumps off the table, "Now?"

He straightened his lapel and smiled ravishingly, "Of course we're all dressed up to greet Mr. Dark Horse, who we're running to the finish line in a field of roses."

With that said Charles turned to look at Wang Shun sitting in his chair and shook his head in a less than satisfied manner, pulling the civilization wand that had just turned into a rose from his chest again and stroking it downwards, the civilization wand that was about a meter long instantly turned into a wooden stick that only measured thirty centimeters - it looked a bit like a magic wand.

"For a future spokesman and oracle-spreader for the Bai Liu Warriors, you look a little too plain, Mr. Pepsi." Charles nodded his wand disdainfully at Wang Shun's plaid shirt and jeans-typical programmer attire.

"It's hard can be hard to convince people with a costume like that - you come from a championship team."

Wang Shun hadn't reacted yet, "--what propaganda spokesman and oracle dispenser?"

"Simply put, it's a toolman who tricks people into placing bets and voting for Bai Liu's team." Charles explained courteously before a wave of his wand caused Wang Shun's entire body to disappear.

Charles swept Wang Shun, who was subconsciously covering the lower half of his body, from top to bottom and whistled with a raised eyebrow, "Nice figure."

"--Why can you change my appearance settings at will-?!" Wang Shun was dumbfounded, and he still didn't dare to remove the hand covering the key area.

With another wave from Charles, Wang Shun spun around in place, transformed from top to bottom - a delicate little polka-dot bow tie, a three-piece suit with vest and strappy pants in taupe, hair slicked back with mousse throughout, and brown shoes that showed just five centimeters of cotton white socks.

"This set is for you for reference - I have more retro tastes, I hope you like it." Charles puts away his wooden staff and gestures for the spinning Wang Shun to follow him, "Now go and build up the momentum for our new warband."

Wang Shun scrambled to keep up-- Charles didn't know how to pick out the clothes for him, just one look at the suit and it was just the right size, which also made it a bit difficult for Wang Shun, who was used to loose fitting clothes, to move around, and while chasing after him, he asked, "How do I build up the momentum? Bai Liu seems to have been stuck into dimensional space by the King's Guild deploying a [Shield], and will fall into [No Man's Land] unable to come out!"

"If it falls into [No Man's Land], it's going to be very difficult for Bai Liu to compete - there's no way for him to get the votes of the general audience, and then he won't even be able to sign up."

"Your guild's [Shield]?" Charles pondered slightly for a second or two, "Then Bai Liu guess it's hard to escape falling into [No Man's Land]."

Wang Shun's face instantly fell, "President Charles, there's nothing even you can do?"

"But I don't think falling into [No Man's Land] is a bad thing." A meaningful smile appeared on Charles' face, "I remember Bai Liu seems to have just won himself a small guild, numbering no more than five hundred."

"It's not very impressive for a champion team to have only that much guild size." Charles absently stroked the ruby on the top of his civilization staff with his index finger, "Mr. Pepsi, perhaps I know the history of the establishment of the top ten guilds here better than you do - dropping into [No Man's Land] may have been an opportunity to form a grand guild, remember Paradise□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□? "

"-That association full of beggars was built on players who escaped from No Man's Land." Charles said.

Wang Shun was reminded of this by Charles, and as if he thought of something, he fiercely looked at Charles with a horrified expression, "Chairman you can't be thinking of- But that would take too much money! At least tens of millions of points!"

"I don't lack money, I'm the richest player in this game." Charles looked up at Wang Shun, the smile on his face deepening, "What I enjoy is the thrill of a big gamble - and what gamble is more fun than a once-a-year league in the system?"

Charles said lightly.

A few tens of millions of points are just ...... Wang Shun dizzily followed behind Charles.

--------

In-Game.

The stragglers follow Bai Liu's lead and head for the interior of the Rose Factory.

They were stuck in the doorway of the room that looked like Heretic 0001, which was also the access to the processing point inside the Rose Factory.

In fact, with Tang Er Ta's force value is not impossible to directly violent breakthrough, but considering Taville's heart is hanging attached to the wall pipe, direct violent breakthrough is likely to tear Taville's heart, so Tang Er Ta still stopped at the doorway, did not continue to sweep in.

But the key to the door was on the body of the factory worker hiding inside, and there was no way to open it without forcing a breakthrough.

Tang Er looked to Bai Liu: "How do I get in?"

"It's simple - remember that test?" Bai Liu held up a bottle of the original perfume and smiled as it dripped down the doorway, "- let the heart open the door for me."

In the test, Taville's heart reacted so violently to Bai Liu's pouring of the original perfume that even a single drop shook the suspended glass case, and now Bai Liu is pouring a whole bottle like this--

--The entire room began to roar and sway in less than a second.

Along with the clicking and tearing of disconnected mechanical pipes, the panicked running and shouting of the factory workers inside came through the door seemingly unnoticed:

"The heart is beating too fast!!!"

"Open the gates and release the water-!!!"

"It's too late - the whole glass case blew up!!!"

"Wow..."

After the crisp sound of shattering glass, in the midst of a tumultuous, noisy, bustling commotion, Bai Liu closed his eyes and held his breath as he pressed against the cold iron door-

--- He heard a heart beating violently.

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

It's the same as Bai Liu's heartbeat right now.

The light pink rose protoplasm seeped through the cracks of the door, and the door seemed to be dumped by the excess liquid and gas pouring out, and began to bulge and distort outward, the locking ring buckle shaking and tugging and distorting, and finally couldn't stand it anymore, and collapsed with a loud bang, front-side down.

A tsunami of raw liquid and aroma swept out.

Bai Liu, who stood closest to the door, was drenched from head to toe in the blood-like protoplasm, and he lifted his wet lashes to look into the room.

Leaking and crumbling cooling pipes spattered around in a blood-soaked frenzy, broken glass on the floor was soaked in pinkish red gas and translucent liquid, and the crackling purple-blue electric current could even be seen climbing around along the pipes next to the electric switches.

The

So Bai Liu stepped forward, he tilted his head back and plucked the fruit - the moist heart throbbed in his hand as if it was about to run away at any moment, Bai Liu lowered his eyelashes to observe the heart, a drop of the original liquid dripped down his eyelashes onto the heart.

The heart suddenly beat two times faster because of this drop of original liquid.

Bai Liu tightened his hand to clutch this heart and smiled.

--So that's what it feels like to hold Sheta's heart in your hand.

Very - very wonderful.

---------

What kind of a sight is it to put a heart back into a person's chest cavity?

Whether in reality or in the game, Tang Er fight had never seen such a bizarre, such an unbelievable scene.

Not to mention the fact that Bai Liu, the executive officer in this case, had a peculiar smile on his face that made Tang Er want to pull out a gun and arrest him right away.

--as if the heart had been dug out with his own hands.

The ribs retracted inward, the heart was covered protectively by the lobes of the lungs, the pectoralis major muscle grew and closed along the point of attachment, and finally the skin was covered flawlessly-smooth, white, and healthy, as if nothing had ever happened to a body lying in front of Bai Liu, the chest rising and falling slightly up and down.

Its eyelashes fluttered slightly.

"Let's get out." Liu Jiayi took several precautionary steps back after Bai Liu assembled the Taville, "It's going to wake up, and it's going to have a much bigger impact on us."

The group exited the room again as if they had arrived, well trained, and thoughtfully closed the door behind them, leaving space for Bai Liu and the soon-to-be-awakened Taville.

Bai Liu leaned back on what was left of the glass cabinet's shattered frame with his legs bent, tapping on the system panel in a rare moment, and after paying to mute the service on his little TV, he turned his head over to look directly into Taville's face, and spoke to himself first:

"I know you're awake, Sheta."

Taville's lashes fluttered twice more, but still didn't open.

Bai Liu had his hands on Taville's sides, and he simply lowered his body closer to Taville, his eyes still not falling on Taville's face, and the two of them got closer and closer, eventually almost to the point where they were nose to nose.

"You can even pretend like that, can't you?" Bai Liu placed one hand on the back of Taville's neck, lifting it slightly upward while lowering his eyes to look at Taville's unglossy, light-colored lips - a gesture that was meant to be kissed down.

"Any more pretending and I'm going to do something even worse to you." Bai Liu whispered.

A second before the kiss, Taville finally raises his hand to cover Bai Liu's approaching lips, he raises his eyes very shallowly, those silver-blue eyes that Bai Liu knows so well reappear in front of him, and he asks Bai Liu rhetorically with a very pale expression, "Didn't you ask me to do this to you when we first met again? "

"Is this thing outrageous?" Taville sat up straight and moved closer to Bai Liu.

Bai Liu instantly pulled away from Taville, he turned his face to the side and took two deep breaths before turning back to Taville and questioning him calmly, "You do remember me, so what were you pretending to be when you first met me?"

At the thought of him asking Sheta to kiss him as soon as they met- Bai Liu calmly pinched his palms, maintaining a shameless shell of impassivity.

Is there anything more awkward in this world than when you don't remember your best friend and then when you meet them, they press up against each other like they're drunk and boink you?

There is, that is, you've just spelled a completely naked him.

Bai Liu tried to keep his eyes on Taville's face.

Taville looked up at him as if she didn't think she'd done anything wrong, "You didn't remember me, so I politely introduced myself and we got reacquainted."

"Then what were you pretending not to be awake for?" Bai Liu pretends not to notice as he removes his own protective suit to cover the lower half of Taville's body, before his tone returns to normal and he presses calmly, "What are you so vain about?"

Taville was silent for a long time and replied seriously, "I'm not sure why, but I sensed you were angry."

Bai Liu clasped his hands over his chest with a smirk and swept a sidelong glance at Taville, "Did you? I don't think so."

Taville: "......"

"Sorry." Taville apologized quickly.

Bai Liu was just about to say I'm really not angry, you don't have to apologize, Taville leaned forward, embraced him, and whispered very, very softly in his ear, "Maybe you're really angry right now, it's slightly out of place, but I'm really, really happy about it,"

"You finally remembered me." Taville said, "I thought you had forgotten me on purpose out of fear."

Bai Liu's shoulders couldn't help but loosen as he lazily whispered back, "So what is it about you that I should be afraid of?"

"Everything - I couldn't die, my rotting right hand and tail, tied up in a church as a prayer symbol for sucking blood, a dismembered body and a heart that kept beating even after it was disembodied." Taville's voice had a clear, ice-like quality to it, but to Bai Liu's ears it felt like it melted and became as soft as water, "I'm glad you don't fear me even if you don't remember me."

"I missed you."

Taville buried his head deeply into Bai Liu's shoulder, he hugged him very hard, his tone was very religious: "Every time I wake up, the first thing I see is you, the slumber isn't even scary anymore."

Bai Liu's pupils contracted slightly when Taville said [I miss you].

His palms open and he slowly places them on Taville's shoulders, hugging Taville back very gently.

Bai Liu is not used to such intimate gestures, but Sheta is an exception; they have slept together for a long time, familiar enough to be indistinguishable from one another, two monsters who do not fit the definition of a human being surviving in the world disguised as humans by that meager emotional connection to one another.

But it's been far, far too long since the last time they were able to recognize each other clearly as who they are, ten years of losing all memory for Bai Liu, and an unknown number of cycles of unstoppable torture for Taville.

After leaving each other, they are irrevocably made strange by these [long] distances apart, and they can never regain the familiarity they felt at the time.

These [long ago] are so deadly, even more terrifying than distance, time, life and death, so terrifying that from then on, each time they reunite they are even stranger than the first time they met.

One party doesn't remember, one party condones the other's lack of memory, and allows the strangeness to continue - if those memories of Sheta's "death" are scary to Bai Liu, Taville is willing to be the only one who remembers forever.

Even if he had to start over every time they reunited, he didn't feel like it.

But the moment Bai Liu saw Sheta's silver-blue eyes, the past was like a bird returning to its cage, and Taville landed on his shoulder and cried softly, the old friend that Bai Liu had finally pieced together and found back, leaning on his heart with that cold, Bai Liu's all-too-familiar body heat.

This Bai Liu was a monster that had been lost for too long, his eyes huddled in loneliness as he lay in the blood-water baptismal tank, and in the next moment, Bai Liu appeared before him, and Sheta gazed at the suddenly appearing Bai Liu in motionless silence, with shimmering moonlight spilling out of her silvery-blue eyes.

That look was extremely light, extremely airy, extremely beautiful, extremely incredible, like a god seeing another god coming down.

--And that's the look Taville just gave him.

Bai Liu's lips parted and his voice was so soft that it was almost an air tone:

"I ...... miss you too."

Bai Liu closed his eyes as he let himself soak in the rose scent that was about to mesmerize him on this guy, and took the other man's hand in a self-absorbed grip, but with a distinct smile in his voice:

"I've been thinking about you since the moment I remembered you."