Chapter 317: Game Pool

Inside the warehouse.

Kneeling on the floor and holding his head in a ball, Mu Ke muttered to himself quickly and with a disorganized look in his eyes, "Forget it, forget it, forget it all!"

Mu Ke was surrounded by a dozen or so used-up water pens and tons of shredded paper filled with writing.

The handwriting on these scraps of paper was very neat and fluent at first, but later on it became messy, as if the person who wrote these words could barely keep his mind clear at first, but later on he lost his mind and could only draw randomly.

On the front of each sheet are oddly shaped forms, and on the back are hysterically drawn distorted clown mask designs.

These tables are comparative tables, and the content of the tables is very strange.

What is meant by a comparative table? It is a table that compares and distinguishes the differences between two things that look similar, such as comparing a banana and a plantain, or a kiwi fruit and a kiwi fruit.

And Mu Ke writes these comparison tables, comparing not things, but two people.

He is comparing the difference between [Bai Liu] and [Bai Liu].

Mu Ke's comparison table is very detailed, from appearance, biography, origin, he is like writing a chronicle of all the things that have happened to Bai Liu and Bai Liu, and then compare them one by one.

Mu Ke muttered, "Not the same, Bai Liu and Bai Liu are not the same."

"Bai Liu saved me ......" Mu Ke scratches his hair as he double takes, "but Bai Liu saved me too."

"Bai Liu is just an ordinary employee who used to be bullied by me, he won't do as much to hurt others as Bai Liu did ......"

Mu Ke's brain kept flashing back various details and memories.

Bai Liu smiles at the manipulation of Zhang Gui to death, cheating Mu Sicheng's soul at the most critical point of the game, using Liu Jiayi's weakness to get her to join the team, embracing the bruised, trance-like Tang Er without a trace of emotion in his eyes, and softly whispering, "I'm sorry for everything that has happened to you".

Give me your soul, and let me atone for those Bai Liu.

Bai Liu lifted his chin emotionlessly, looked down at Mu Ke with downcast eyes, and said softly:

[If you keep being so useless, I'll abandon you.]

[I don't want worthless followers, Mu Ke.]

Bai Liu is known to do things that hurt people, he doesn't do them in the first place just because he's an ordinary guy stuck in an ordinary position with no status or ability.

But if Bai Liu is given the same identity, status, capital and ability as Bai Liu ......

Mu Ke bowed in agony and gasped, "...... What the hell is the difference between them?!"

Daniel's memory of the languidly smiling Bai Liu and Mu Ke's memory of the diffidently smiling Bai Liu's faces gradually merged.

No way!

Mu Ke's heart skipped two wild beats and he choked and coughed.

The clown guy believed in Bai Liu with a fervor that drove Mu Ke crazy, even if it was only in his memory.

Mu Ke's memories are eclipsed by the Joker's wild and colorful onslaught of memories. Mu Ke gradually forgets his parents, his school, the people he has crossed paths with since he was a child, and everything is twisted into the way Daniel remembers it.

Mu Ke felt himself being consumed by Daniel's memories.

His parents turn into Daniel's aloof father who towers over him, his school turns into a wide-open giant shooting gallery, and the people he's ever socialized with change from his hypocritical and polite peers at the mall to the enemy party that beat him up.

Mu Ke felt his presence being squeezed out of him by Daniel, little by little.

Memory gradually turns Mu Ke into another Daniel, and the only thing that remains in Mu Ke's memory that is his own is Bai Liu.

If Bai Liu is Bai Liu, then what's the difference between Mu Ke and the Joker who have the same memories?

Mu Ke's heart raced, and he covered his arrhythmic heart with a wide-open mouth to gasp for air, his lips purplish, as a sensation bordering on colic forced Mu Ke to come to his senses again.

He panicked, looking around at the tables on the floor, trying to find the difference between Bai Liu and Bai Liu.

"It's not the same, it's not the same at all." Mu Ke takes a deep breath, his eyes reddening, and convinces himself, "Bai Liu, Bai Liu has short hair, Bai Liu has long hair, they're not the same from the outside."

"Mu Ke," Bai Liu outside the door knocked again, his tone was still calm, but his tone changed from the first time of consultation directly to giving orders, "Don't make me say it a third time, open the door."

Mu Ke's shoulders shook as he subconsciously obeyed Bai Liu's order, staggered to his feet, and opened the door.

Outside the door, long-haired Bai Liu looked at Mu Ke with no expression on his face: "Do you still recognize me?"

Mu Ke looked at Bai Liu's long hair in a near stupor, his hand shaking uncontrollably as he opened the door.

In an instant, all the memories that could not be forgotten were confused together.

Mu Ke slowly dropped to his knees and covered his twisted, grimacing face, the pain from the rapid beating of his heart forcing Mu Ke to bend over and gasp for air, breathing so hard that he was on the verge of dry heaving.

Bai Liu calmly swept a glance at Mu Ke, who was curled up on the ground, and walked into the warehouse, then closed the door, and then crouched down on one knee, picked up a few pieces of shredded paper on the ground and looked down.

"So you're trying to differentiate between me and Bai Liu." Bai Liu lowered his eyes, "...... It's all come to this, the other parts of the memory have been swallowed up, right, leaving only my existence."

Bai Liu casually found an abandoned step in the warehouse and sat down, he clasped his hands in front of him and leaned forward to help Mu Ke, who had fallen to the ground, up.

Mu Ke looked up at Bai Liu in a trance and couldn't help the clownish, maniacal grin on his face, his expression twitching like a spasm, but in the next moment it was hidden by Mu Ke's own panicked hand, his voice sobbing as he exited, "Don't look at me like that! That's not me!"

"Is it because your memory is so good that there is absolutely no way to forget the memories that the other party instilled in you?" Bai Liu was not affected by Mu Ke's emotions and inquired in a calm tone.

Mu Ke bowed his head like a small child who had done something wrong, "Yes."

Bai Liu lowered her eyes, "I can indeed find a way to erase that memory for you, but if it's just erased, you'll be terrified when you encounter the Joker again, won't you?"

"After all, even if it's erased, you've been overcome by his memories, which you escaped."

Mu Ke's shoulders shook, and he bit his lower lip without speaking.

"Why was it consumed by the Joker's memories?" Bai Liu inquires, "Doesn't Mu Ke have a purpose for his existence?"

Mu Ke remained silent.

Bai Liu continued, "People who have a meaning to their existence, who know what they are, who know what they live for, can hardly be erased by the existence of another."

"No matter how strongly that person's presence affects you, how similar he seems to you, he and you are not the same person."

Bai Liu handed Mu Ke, who had his head hanging, the scraps of paper filled with comparison tables and spoke flatly, "It's like me and Bai Liu."

Mu Ke looked up in consternation.

Bai Liu looks at Mu Ke: "Doesn't Mu Ke have a meaning to his existence? Friends, relatives, lovers, career, material things?"

Mu Ke hesitated for a long moment, slowly slumping his shoulders, less tense, and narrating out of breath:

"Because of my illness, I didn't have many friends growing up, they were all afraid of hurting me, and making friends with me was a dangerous thing to do, my parents have always been good to me, and have tried with all their might to save me, and have done their best to provide for my every need, but because the doctors said early on that I most likely wouldn't live long... ..."

Mu Ke was quiet for a moment and said, "So they looked at me like they were waiting for me to die."

"I haven't liked anyone either, it feels like they could live a long time and be just two worlds away from me."

Mu Ke slowly clenched his fists, "...... was so jealous of these people who could live a long, healthy life that there was no way to like them."

"Material things and careers ......" Mu Ke paused, "Everyone's been so good about dying that they've long since given it to me without stint."

Mu Ke was quiet for a long, long time as tears rolled down from his reddened eyes, and he raised his hand to wipe them away, suddenly bursting out in tears and laughter:

"...... People who have predicted their own death from birth seem to have no point in existing."

Bai Liu leaned against the steps, dragging his jaw and half-closing his eyes, "If you compare it to a stock, because it's going to die soon, no one wants to invest their feelings in a stock like yours that's destined to lose money."

"You are a worthless short stock, and in this case you met me who was willing to believe and invest in you, so you clung to me as if you were grasping at the last straw, and through my affirmation of being, you sought the value of your own existence by getting emotional back in me."

Bai Liu looked at Mu Ke flatly : "And that, you are the same as the clown who lends his certainty of existence to Bai Liu, so in your inability to distinguish between me and Bai Liu, you have difficulty in justifying yourself and Daniel, is that right?"

Mu Ke responded hoarsely, "Yes."

"Look up at me, Mu Ke," Bai Liu said in a commanding tone, "look at me and tell me what Bai Liu and I have in common."

Mu Ke subconsciously obeyed Bai Liu's order and tilted his head to Bai Liu, his voice trembling, "You all like money."

Bai Liu gave a faint hmmm.

"Use everything to get what you want by any means necessary."

"Very good at games."

"......"

"...... now have long hair."

Mu Ke stated shakily, his eyes hazy as he felt himself drifting into a blended mind, unable to tell the difference between the real, long-haired Bai Liu in front of him and the Bai Liu in Daniel's memories.

"Long hair?" Bai Liu scanned Mu Ke thoughtfully and suddenly smiled, "I remember your skill weapon can be taken out in the central hall."

Mu Ke nodded though he didn't know what Bai Liu was going to do and pulled his dagger out of the panel.

"Come here." Bai Liu ordered with downcast eyes.

Mu Ke went over there with the dagger.

Without any expression on his face, Bai Liu quickly took Mu Ke's hand in his left hand, and with his right hand, he wrapped it around the back of his neck to tie up the long hair that hung down behind his waist, and then taking hold of both Mu Ke's hand and the dagger in his hand, Bai Liu made a stroke upwards without the slightest pause.

Long hair was cut in unison.

Mu Ke held the dagger that had cut Bai Liu's hair with a blank expression.

"Now I don't have long hair." Bai Liu raised his eyes, bits of broken hair falling over his shoulders, "Mu Ke, remember, if you choose to exist for Bai Liu, then never confuse me with Bai Liu."

"Because I'm the one who invested affection and recognition in you, not Bai Liu."

Bai Liu says calmly, "I don't like the idea of making my own investments while someone else receives the appreciation of the property for me."

"You are far more worthy of existence than you think you are, Mu Ke."

Mu Ke fell to his knees as if frozen, holding Bai Liu's severed hair in both hands, the memories of Daniel fading fast.

...... Bai Liu and Bai Liu are not the same.

Bai Liu will abandon worthless believers.

But Bai Liu won't.

A true God will give incompetent believers, a whole new value.

Bai Liu bowed to stand up holding the stand, he didn't know where to find a leather band from the warehouse to hold it open with three fingers, the other hand combed upward from the back of the neck along with the skin, grabbed the loose black broken hair into a bunch in three or two times, and tied a ponytail that was not too high and not too low with a light look.

Some of his less than honestly broken hair hung on either side of his forehead.

Bai Liu pushed open the door to the warehouse and turned his head sideways in the light that rushed in, his eyes were pale, and across his forehead was a backlight of broken hair that made it hard to see, and his shirt was covered with blood that hadn't dried yet.

"Mu Ke, sort yourself out mentally and come out to the meeting, the league is about to start."

Mu Ke clenched his teeth as he called out to Bai Liu, who was about to leave, "...... But there's no way for me to completely get rid of Daniel's memories affecting me for the time being! Is that okay?"

In an almost terrified whisper, he asked, "Don't you have to ...... replace me during league play?"

"Will this influence shake the meaning of your existence for me?" Bai Liu asks.

Mu Ke was stunned and immediately replied, "Absolutely not!"

Bai Liu withdrew his gaze and turned back around, pushing the door away without looking back, "Anything that can't shake the significance of your existence will eventually be transformed into the value of your existence, it's just that there will be an unstable process in between."

"Personally, I don't hate the process."

The door was closed, and in the warehouse Mu Ke sat quietly, holding in his hand the long hair that Bai Liu had cut without hesitation, and muttering and repeating Bai Liu's words, "...... Anything that can't shake the significance of my existence can be transformed into an enhancement of my value ......"

"As long as Daniel's memories can't consume me ......" Mu Ke's pupils trembled as he looked at the long hair he held in his hands, "I can find all the memories about the league inside and come to make myself stronger!"

Mu Ke put her long hair over her wildly beating-to-pain heart and choked back tears and laughter.