Reading to this point, the diary was essentially finished.
Because there wasn’t much substantive content left after this.
Only a Chang-ghost’s self-pity and remorse, along with some thoughts and ideas for his new book.
Even at a time like this, he’s still thinking about his book. Are authors these days really this dedicated?
Yan Huang found it both pitiful and laughable.
He scrolled the mouse all the way down, straight to the very bottom.
Wait…
The content at the very bottom seemed different from the large repeated section in the middle.
May 30, 2122, clear skies.
I can finally die, after I complete my work.
The only work of my life, Tang Xin’s.
A work I wrote by stacking sins upon time.
Unfortunately… everything related to this place can only be published with their permission.
But it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m about to die.
Yan Huang was stunned.
Tang Xin knew he was going to die?
Then… what about him just now, weeping and begging for ten more seconds?
Yan Huang felt he needed to take a look at what exactly Tang Xin had written.
He exited the diary.
While searching for Tang Xin’s “only work of his life,” he also organized the information revealed in Tang Xin’s diary.
Actually, it was already quite obvious.
Just as he had seen, the “Geniuses” in this town were all Monsters born from “Hatching.” They would display extraordinary abilities in various fields and become the “ideal child” that parents hoped for.
The “Genius Stone” was a sacred, inviolable existence to the people of this town.
Yan Huang had heard Father Xie say that it was because of the Genius Stone that Hatching Town had become what it was, allowing their town to continuously produce “Geniuses” in various fields.
Then—
Did the Geniuses create the Genius Stone, or did the Genius Stone grant the Hatching of Geniuses?
But based on the information he currently had, there was far too little about the Genius Stone.
So little that it was suspicious.
This was clearly a major feature of Hatching Town, and with so many contradictions surrounding it, Tang Xin had been here for so long and served as a Chang-ghost for so long—there was no way he knew nothing and recorded nothing.
That didn’t match his diary-writing habits.
Either he intended to play the accomplice to the tiger to the very end, disregarding everything to survive, abandoning his authorial habit of writing every trivial detail into his diary.
That was clearly impossible, because… at the end of the diary, his words revealed a sense of liberation.
He was waiting for the day of his death.
He just didn’t want to die before that day came.
So, he definitely wouldn’t be willing to omit such important information.
Unless—someone had deliberately deleted it.
At that moment, Yan Huang found a folder titled “New Life.”
He opened it.
—People treat their tough shells as powerful shields, sealing away everything called truth, catering to the standards defined by the world. And so there are excellent templates, and so there is growth and new life.
—This book is dedicated to the last six months of my life.
—Tang Xin, “New Life”
The document was three hundred thousand bytes in size, meaning… three hundred thousand characters. There was no way he could finish reading it in a short time.
But fortunately, Tang Xin had compiled a table of contents for himself.
The table of contents leaned heavily toward fantasy, and Yan Huang could tell at a glance… he was writing about something with pointed intent, and perhaps… the protagonist in his stories was himself.
Among the list of chapters,
Yan Huang found what he was looking for.
The words he had once seen on the desk in his room.
—Ritual.
—Chapter 17: The Mysterious Ritual.
He curled his lips, quickly scrolled down, and locked onto Chapter 17.
At the same time, he swiftly locked onto the key phrases.
[At the end of every month and the beginning of the next, they hold a sacred ritual, praying that the deity they worship will grant them the Strength they crave. They know full well this is a descent into the abyss, yet they resolutely cast themselves into it, trading for so-called glory and splendor.]
[The conditions of the ritual are: one wish, one submission.]
[When the ritual succeeds, those whose edges have been worn smooth will finally be reborn.]
Yan Huang’s heart gave a sudden lurch at this point.
The deity they worship?
The Genius Stone?
The thought struck Yan Huang almost instantly.
Thinking about it now,
whether it was Father Xie and Mother Xie’s initial reaction to the Genius Stone, or Tang Xin’s reaction in his diary to the Genius Stone being slandered,
it all pointed to one sign.
They didn’t merely regard the Genius Stone as a local landmark of honor.
Their behavior toward the Genius Stone was more like that of—devotees.
A fanatical devotee.
Faith tolerates no defamation; those who defame will surely suffer the Backlash.
Yan Huang took a deep breath, wanting to continue reading to see if the text revealed any other information he needed.
Unfortunately, there was none.
And when he moved the mouse, instinctively scrolling to the very bottom,
he discovered… this was an unfinished piece.
At the end, a period was missing.
A [The End] was missing.
Yan Huang had once exchanged ideas with an author friend and knew that if a book didn’t have [The End] at its close, then it couldn’t be considered finished—there were still countless possibilities.
No wonder… no wonder Tang Xin had just begged for ten seconds.
He still had regrets.
His book wasn’t finished, hadn’t been given its final period, hadn’t been marked with [The End], and then he died.
Tang Xin had poured too much into this book.
From the very first day of the diary, this future famous author had planned to complete his new work.
Every day after that, perhaps the recorded events were sometimes the same and sometimes different, but… his new book consistently appeared in the diary.
Even his becoming a “Chang-ghost”
was nothing more than a bid to gain more time to finish his new book.
Yet even so, he couldn’t complete it.
His progress bar remained stuck at 99.9 percent.
What a tragic thing that was.
He had piled up sins to buy time for his writing.
His life ended with his writing.
Yan Huang took a deep breath.
In the end, he chose to help this ridiculous and pitiful “future famous author” write the final stroke.
Yan Huang drew a period for Tang Xin’s story and wrote [The End].
The story was finally complete.
“A famous author who piled sins into time to build a safe fortress, creating the one and only masterpiece of his life that no one would ever know.”
“Heh, what a ridiculous, pitiful, and hateful man.”
“Next life, don’t wander off.”
“…”
Just as those words fell,
unexpectedly,
all the text in the computer transformed into golden light, gathering together one speck after another.
In the pitch-black room, electronic bytes transformed into bridges of light, each character falling into the palm that Yan Huang instinctively held out.
They coalesced into a thick book.
【Congratulations, Player “Yan Huang,” on obtaining the item “Tang Xin’s New Book.”】
【Item: Tang Xin’s New Book】
【Quality: Unknown】
【Item Description: Tang Xin is a future renowned author dedicated to fantasy adventure. Unfortunately, he has no future. Within his new book lie countless wondrous records. If a Player witnesses fifty percent of a Monster’s information in an Instance, they will successfully unlock one hundred percent of that Monster’s information display.】
Currently recorded:
《City of Incubation — Child (Unhatched)》
《City of Incubation — Genius (Hatching)》
《City of Incubation — Genius (Complete Form)》
At this moment, the livestream’s bullet comments skyrocketed, even exploding.
People were completely unable to stay calm.
【Holy shit? Another item! And it’s even an Unknown-quality item… Knowing fifty percent unlocks one hundred percent information, this is… a Frontier-blazing Artifact, holy crap!】
【Is the streamer thinking of selling? I’ll buy it for 100,000 points! This is… he just wrote a period and typed “The End,” and got this Frontier-blazing Artifact. His luck is way too good!】
【Sell my ass… I’ll just replay 《City of Incubation》 myself!】
【Wait… why has the 《City of Incubation》 Instance been sealed?? This… what’s going on? Could it be… the Deceiver is on the True End Route? Holy shit?! The City of Incubation actually has a True End Route??】
Everyone was dumbfounded… They knew the City of Incubation inside and out—no one had ever successfully achieved the True End Route.
And plenty of people had cleared this Instance—over seventeen million of them! But not a single one had ever achieved the True End ending.
That was precisely why the City of Incubation was called the hardest Instance!
And now, Yan Huang was walking the True End Route?
And the progress bar was already past halfway!
Otherwise, the Instance wouldn’t be sealed…
Damn!
If Yan Huang really did reach the True End Route, and if he succeeded, there would be no more City of Incubation Instance in the future. Then that one-of-a-kind Frontier-blazing Artifact in Yan Huang’s hands would belong to him alone!
Everyone’s hearts churned with mixed emotions, feeling only that this was utterly absurd.
This was… let them go in and suffer instead! They could endure that suffering!