Chapter 414: First World Line

Cen Buming was discharged from the hospital the next day and was admitted back, this time with Lu Yizhan in the same ward.

The two men stared at the ceiling with their eyes open, staring from darkness to dawn without a word, and could faintly hear the noise of soldiers and cries coming from outside the door of the ward:

"Third detachment, second squad, killed in action!"

"Where did the men of the 5th Regiment of the 1st Battalion go?!"

"New regiment, second team. Third regiment defected!"

Lu Yizhan eventually fell asleep, exhausted by the background noise, and was awakened by Cen Buming's urgent shouts, Lu Yizhan was too dazed to realize that he was in the same ward as Cen Buming, and that he had heard someone hoarsely shouting Yu Fu's name in his sleep.

He subconsciously sighed inwardly, rolled over and covered his head with the quilt, thinking that my roommate is having metaphorical team sex dreams again.

But the metaphorical team is dead.

Lu Yizhan woke up in a flash at this sudden thought, as if he had jumped from some peaceful routine into a nightmare, fully awake with a cold sweat on his back.

He slowly turns his head over, to look at Cen Buming in the other bed, eyes closed, brow furrowed, forehead sweating, looking like he's having a nightmare.

I don't know what Cen Buming dreamed of, his voice was dry and hoarse as he kept calling out Yu Fu or Team Yu, his hands clenched and unclenched one by one, as if trying to hold on to something, and tears slipped from the corners of his eyes.

"Team Metaphor ......" Cen Buming murmured hoarsely with a sobbing voice, "Don't die."

"Lu Yizhan, don't you die ......"

Lu Yizhan was quiet for a long, long time, and calmly answered Cen Buming's dreamy words, "Well, I don't die."

When Cen Buming went back to sleep, Lu Yizhan tossed and turned, unable to sleep, the bandage over his left eye still leaking blood, and the doctor's strict warning not to move, but Lu Yizhan couldn't sleep, so he got up and started wandering around the infirmary.

There were injured team members everywhere, and a strong smell of disinfectant filled the corridors, but that still couldn't cover the strong smell of blood.

Lu Yizhan hears the wounded team members whispering:

"The exodus heretics are basically under control ...... things should be over."

"The leader of the traitors of the second team, the captain of the second team, has been captured and will be tried tomorrow by the party itself."

"...... The captain of the second team is a contemporaneous member of the Fang team, right? I remember the two of them being quite affectionate before."

"The contemporaries who have the best feelings with the Fang team are the Yu team, right? Eh ...... now one defected to be tried and one ......"

"...... Don't talk about it, Team Yu died and Team Fang was seriously injured, I won't know what expression to use to pass by Team Yu's medical office from now on."

Lu Yizhan's footsteps stop, and he turns toward Yu Fu's medical office.

The area around Yu Fu's medical office was quiet and empty, except for the door, which was slightly ajar. Lu Yizhan was just wondering who had opened Team Yu Fu's office with a key when he heard Fang Dian's hearty laugh coming from the office:

"Yu Fu, I've come to see you for my injuries, I was particularly badly injured this time, that animal from the second team almost cut off my arm, I was thinking that it's lucky I have you, or else this broken arm would probably have to be unattachable."

"When I was a trainee, that animal and I always fought, and you were the one who helped me and him with the stitching, and every time you moved gently and softly, and then sewed both of us to the point of grimacing, haha."

"Tomorrow." Fang Dian's voice paused, the amusement in her voice fading, "I'm about to cut that animal's head off."

"He betrayed the Heresy Authority."

"The fool who said he laid down big words with us about getting into the second team and slaying the evils of the world defected over to Bai Liu."

Fang Dian's voice gradually lowered, "Yu Fu, what do you think he was thinking ...... He obviously hated Bai Liu so much, hated the heretics so much, but yet he said with me that it was absolutely impossible to finish killing the heretics, and it was absolutely impossible for Bai Liu to overcome such words. "

"He said ...... I was taking the lives of the Heresy Handling Bureau's second team members to fill this black hole of heresy that was impossible to fill, and he asked me if I knew how many second team members had to die every time I went out into the field, and he called me a cruel bitch."

"He yelled at me, questioned me about the know-nothing's, even insulted them as team members interfering with their own fucking ordinary lives is a life, and the lives of so many teenagers and twenty-somethings on Heretic Authority Team Two is not a life?"

"He asked me why I should sacrifice the lives of these team members to save the lives of worthless ordinary people."

Fang Dian's voice was so light that it was almost inaudible, "Yu Fu, you're a doctor, you've been saving people's lives, tell tell tell me, I can't figure it out ......."

"Why would a man develop such hatred for the object of his salvation?"

Lu Yizhan's knock on the door stalled, and he didn't know whether to go in or out.

A gust of wind blows the door open from the inside and Fang Dian looks back, "Who?"

Lu Yizhan: "......"

Is it his luck? It always comes up with this kind of thing.

But when Lu Yizhan saw Fang Dian's current appearance, all the chaotic thoughts in his head suddenly emptied and became blank.

Dian Fang's hair was loose, her black damp semi-long hair half covering her face, her face and lips were incredibly pale, her nose and the corners of her eyes were slightly reddened, and it looked like she had just cried, with tears in the corners of her eyes.

She was suspended with a triangular bandage on her left arm, a captain's uniform draped over her shoulders, lined with a somewhat wider blue-and-white-striped hospital gown, not bunched up board upright in a full set of regulation uniforms, which made Fang Dian look quite a bit thinner.

Opposite Fang Dian is a white coat with Yu Fu's badge on it.

Fang Dian just now seems to be pouring out her confusion over this lost garment.

The dim light of the dawn, striking against Fang Dian's shoulders, no longer gave Lu Yizhan the oppressive feeling he had felt when he first met her.

It just felt ...... like the omnipotent party was going to shatter in the coming sunshine the next moment.

"It's Xiao Lu." Dian Fang laughed again, "I heard you hurt your eye, why don't you take a good rest and stroll here?"

Lu Yizhan clenched his fists, he lowered his head and opened his mouth, "The deaths of Team Yu and Team Dong are all because of me, Team Fang, I ......"

"There is no need to say sorry." Fang Dian calmly interrupted Lu Yizhan as she gazed placidly across the room at the empty white coat, "This matter traces back to Bai Liu's fault, my fault, and any accident in this world that caused you to take on the fault of both of their deaths."

"But it's not your fault, Lu Yizhan, you're a victim too."

"One thing to keep in mind when playing games with that Bai Liu guy is that it's not winning that counts as winning for us." Fang Dian looked back to Yu Fu's white coat hanging on the wall, his tone soft, "It's the most people who survive that counts as a win for us."

"Yu Fu did it perfectly, and the fact that you survived is the best kudos she can get for winning the game."

Fang Dian smiled through her teeth as she walked over and patted Lu Yizhan on the shoulder where her long hair flew in the light and became shiny again, "You've done well."

"Keep doing this well, Lu Yizhan."

Lu Yizhan's fists were clenched until his fingertips turned white, and he held back a choked sob as he exclaimed, "Yes, Fang!"

The following day, the second team of rebels were all tried, and both Lu Yizhan and Cen Buming stayed in their wards.

Cen Buming stared blankly at the ceiling, Lu Yizhan felt that if this went on, this guy might go crazy, so he started a conversation, "What kind of rules do you think Bai Liu plays games?"

Lu Yizhan had thought that Cen Buming would not answer him, but Cen Buming answered almost as soon as Lu Yizhan opened his mouth.

"The laws of disgust." Cen Buming replied with a double take.

"Eh ......" Lu Yizhan tried his best to keep the conversation going, "How's that for a disgusting method?"

Cen Buming godlike snorted, "Those three to kill the metaphorical team of the division, the traitor ...... disciples, thought they would not be remembered by the others, Bai Liu will erase the memory of everyone, but Bai Liu this guy of all people is naturally excluded from the audience. "

"The memories of our two viewers weren't wiped, so we ended up coming out and identifying the three traitors, and they deserved to die anyway."

Cen Buming, who identified the traitor, took the initiative, and Lu Yizhan assisted him with details.

Lu Yizhan was quiet for a moment, "These three men from the second detachment, they're on good terms with you, aren't they?"

"Bai Liu did erase the memories of the others, as long as you don't say anything and I don't say anything, these three [traitors] won't be found out by anyone, and they don't have to be sent to judgment now, they can live."

"And Bai Liu even wiped the memories of these three traitors, who themselves didn't know they had done such a thing, and when they were identified by you thought you were deliberately framing them, and kept looking at you in shock, thinking it was you ......"

Cen Buming clenched his back teeth and didn't say anything, and Lu Yizhan was quiet for a moment before continuing:

"I don't feel like they're bad, and maybe they wouldn't have done what they did if Bai Liu hadn't forced them to choose, and in the end they didn't do anything bad, and if you don't identify them, they might slowly turn around ......"

Cen Buming placed on the bed his fists clenched, he hammered hard on the bed and turned his head to stare at Lu Yizhan with bloodshot eyes : "But what's done is done!!!"

"Even if they forget themselves, even if everyone forgets, I remember!!!"

"Would it be fair to the dead Captain Yu Fu if they were spared! Is it fair to all the team members who were seriously injured and killed in this accident?!"

Lu Yizhan was quiet for a long time, and the only sound in the hospital room was Cen Buming's ragged panting, before Lu Yizhan spoke very calmly, "But they haven't done it yet, and they didn't cause these things, it was Bai Liu."

"Team Metaphor did this because they wanted them to survive too, and it always felt wrong to me to punish them for something they didn't do."

"But it's done in my mind!" Cen Buming retorted viciously, "Lu Yizhan, I sure do still hate you."

With those words, Cen Buming jumped out of the hospital bed and left without looking back, slamming the door behind him.

He was alone with his back to the constant gunfire coming from the other side of the courtroom, his head down and walking at a frantic pace, his shoulders shaking with each gunshot, and he ran as if he were running from this gunfire, through the wards, the training grounds, and finally to the Heretic Intake.

Cen Buming stopped panting, his expression blank.

One of the members of the detachment guarding the Heretic Shelter recognized Cen Buming and asked him what he was doing here. Cen Buming was silent for a long time, and he said, "I'm coming over, to see the metaphorical team."

The team member manning the guard was a bit confused, "You came to the Heretic Shelter to see the metaphorical team?"

Cen Buming opened his mouth as he remembered that these regular team members didn't know anything, so he switched it up, "...... I'm here to see the heretics that the metaphorical team has taken in [0573]."

The guard hesitated for a moment as he glanced at Cen Buming, remembering what Fang Dian had said about not treating the remaining Team Two members too harshly, and added, "...... Because of what happened earlier, and for safety's sake, until we've thoroughly investigated what happened to Team Two. Anyone from the second team who wants to enter the Heresy Shelter is going to need direct approval from Fang Dian to get in."

"But you're only half a member of the second team now because you're in the assessment period for entering the [Crucible Judgment Army], and you also took the initiative to report your own defecting member, so if you're in a hurry and want to go in, you can go in in handcuffs restricting your movement, depending on whether you want to or not."

Cen Buming was silent for a long, long time before he slowly held out his hands and said in a muffled voice, "You copy."

Led by the gatekeeper, Cen Buming walked through several switchback corridors, was blindfolded, and approached the heretic [0573].

The team member, who was also wearing an eye patch to avoid being seen by [0573], said, "As a reserve member of the [Crucible Judgment Army], you have a fifteen-minute observation period for each of the red high-risk heretics, after which I will forcibly dispatch you."

Cen Buming, wearing a black blindfold, nodded as the team member left the mouth and he pushed open the door to the room where [0573] was being held and stepped inside before removing the blindfold.

[0573] is housed in a one-way visible glass box, which means that the Cen Buming can see its movements inside the glass box, but it cannot see the Cen Buming outside the glass box, which provides a certain degree of safety for the observer.

Cen Buming looked at this heretic without a word, and after a long interval he reached out his handcuffed hands to touch this glass case gently and asked dryly:

"Team Yu, do you want them to live?"

"...... I did that, did I do it wrong?"

Inside the glass case, more than half of the eyeballs on the eye-tunnel food were closed, and the fat body fell together in a certain rhythm, as if in deep sleep.

Cen Buming slowly bends his body and presses his eyes closed.

This one-sided glass, if pressed close enough, would allow the heretics inside to sense what was outside, and sure enough, all the eyeballs of the heretics inside opened their eyes at once and squirmed inside the glass case.

The glass case was slowly opened from one of the latches inside with a thumping crunch, and the eyeball heretic inside slowly stepped out.

Cen Buming took a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began to back away slowly, then held up his hands and stood still, his voice trembled a little, "...... Metaphorical team, you know how to open this glass case, you still retain a certain amount of consciousness right?"

All the eyeballs on the eyeball tun food blinked slowly as if thinking about what Cen Buming was saying.

"If Team Metaphor thinks what I'm doing is wrong." Cen Buming's eyelids fluttered lightly, his voice calmed instead, "I'll open my eyes later, you parasitize me."

"On the count of one, two, three--"

Cen Buming opened his eyes.

All the eyes of the giant eyeball tun food closed, it didn't hurt Cen Buming, but rather all the eyeballs twitched as if they were trying their hardest to open, but were suppressed by itself.

Then slowly, one of the eyeballs growing at the end of one of the tentacles in its body was toppled out, and slowly reached out to the motionless Cen Buming.

It was an eyeball that didn't flutter, it was peaceful and quiet and tightly closed, as if it simply didn't want to open up to hurt anyone who saw it, and so preferred to remain unseen itself, sleeping in the body of a heretic.

--That's Lu Yizhan's left eyeball that was taken away.

Now the metaphorical team wants to give it back.

"I will exchange this eyeball with you." Cen Buming looked up slowly, tears trailing down his face, "Please metaphorically take my eyeball."

The moment he took Lu Yizhan's eyeball, Cen Buming's left eye was empty, and tears and blood slid down together.

--So this is the pain that Team Yu and Lu Yizhan feel?

Cen Buming brings back Lu Yizhan's eyeball, and a confused and unresponsive Lu Yizhan is rushed into the operating room, ready to borrow the powers of some supernatural heretic to see if he can get Lu Yizhan's fallen eyeball back.

And Cen Buming walked to the courtroom alone with his freshly bandaged, bleeding left eye.

As pigeons startled by the sound of gunshots spread their snow-white wings across the morning sun, Cen Buming watches calmly with his one remaining right eye, then walks towards Dian Fang, who has just come out of the courtroom after his execution.

"Team Fang." Cen Buming tilted his head to Fang Dian, "I want to stay on team two."

"I renounce my admission to the [Army of the Cross Judgment]."