Overload

Chapter 95

The cold rain left a slightly tingling sensation when it hit his face.

Ji Yushi coughed out some blood which flowed out his mouth and traced down his lips and neck. He knew that this must be a sign that his lungs had been shot. With every breath taken, more blood came out.

He wanted to speak, but he couldn’t say anything.

Someone was applying pressure to his chest. Seemingly realising that it was too late, that violently trembling hand then moved to his cheek and tried to wipe away the blood from his lips.

Faintly, he heard a man crying.

He wanted to say, Song Qinglan, I know now.

Those three little kittens who had accompanied me for eight years were something you gave my seventeen-year-old self who had just started living alone.

—-It was after I left this world.

But every time he tried to open his mouth; more blood poured out. He could clearly feel the pain, but he couldn’t control the blood flowing out.

This was his doomed ending.

His life ended here in 1439.

—–He had returned to the past and became a part of history. It could no longer be changed.

He breathed sharply. He wanted to look at that face again. He wanted to tell Song Qinglan, tell him that in this short, lonely and painful life of his, he was glad he had met him.

Before falling into eternal darkness, he had a strong thought.

He didn’t want to die.

……..

……..

【Warning! Warning! You have deviated from the destination coordinates! You have deviated from the destination coordinates!】

Ji Yushi suddenly opened his eyes.

The red light in front of him flashed and countless bizarre images flashed past his eyes. Amidst the violent shaking, familiar warnings could be heard: “Illegal transition detected! Illegal transition detected!”. He saw that he was in a confined space— It was his capsule!!

What was going on?

The capsule shook violently. Ji Yushi could only grip tightly onto the armrest. His mind had no time to think about his current situation. It only felt like it was about to explode with all the memories stuffed into it.

When everything finally calmed back down, the robotic arm delivered over some nutrient solution. He downed all of it in just a few mouthfuls. He didn’t know where he was.

The gunshot wound on his chest was gone. His rapid pulse and heart rate and the side effects from traversing all reminded him that he was still alive.

After taking a while to catch his breath, he raised his head and saw what was displayed on the transparent panel in front of him. In an instant, he felt a chill run through him.

[? ? p0754%$#37]

[: “”LRR”/’l’89”]

These strings of garbled characters were something he had seen in the Ouroboros mission.

Perhaps others may not be certain whether these garbled characters were truly the same as the ones they saw before, but with Ji Yushi’s superhuman memories, he would be able to recognise it even if it was written backwards!

He opened the capsule and walked out.

The early morning sky was dark grey and there would occasionally be cold wind cutting through the forest. Faint light came from the several silver-white capsules near him.

Someone patted him, “Advisor Ji, how do you feel? Are you okay?”

He looked back. The one who spoke was Duan Wen. Like him, the other person had just left his capsule and looked very normal. He didn’t react differently to the current situation, as if they were supposed to be in this mission that should’ve already been completed a long time ago.

Ji Yushi’s pale face looked like an ice sculpture in the dim light, “……..”

For the first time, he couldn’t make a proper sound.

There were more people now.

Tang Le and Tang Qi quietly discussed something with each other, Li Chun who continued to have no memories in each cycle, Zhou Mingxuan who remembered the previous cycles like Duan Wen, and the tall figure standing beside Zhou Mingxuan currently opening the equipment storage unit.

Wearing a black combat uniform, Song Qinglan’s pair of enviable long legs were outlined, and it gave him an imposing air.

He selected his weapons and equipment, routinely checked Shen Mian, and then looked at the communicator on his wrist, “It is currently 4:43 in the morning. Let’s quickly set off. After arriving at the bookstore, we will split up and go to Golden Crow No.1 and No.2.”

Zhou Mingxuan asked, “Cap Song, we have already figured out the current situation so why are we still going to the bookstore?”

Song Qinglan bent over to pick out something from the storage unit and tossed it over at Ji Yushi.

Ji Yushi subconsciously caught the heavy object. It felt cold. When he looked down, he saw that it was a silver-white pistol. It was his Diamond Bird.

As if he didn’t notice Ji Yushi’s dazed state, Song Qinglan raised his chin and answered Zhou Mingxuan’s question, “Last time we were interrupted by the survivors and didn’t have enough time. Advisor Ji still needs to finish looking for clues in the books and find out what we should do when we arrive at those bases. If we don’t know, no matter how many times we repeat this and no matter how many Team A’s and Team B’s there are, we will still end up dying.”

Team A and Team B?

Ji Yushi was even more confused. Which team were they?

Why did his memory not have a scene like this? Was this just his mind playing tricks or was this reality?

Everyone was allocated their equipment.

Once they were done, they advanced towards the park management office. Duan Wen lowered his voice and explained to the remaining teammates with no memory of the cycles the current situation.

Ji Yushi followed behind everyone.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a blade cutting through the air. With a loud ‘thud’, the dark figure a short distance away from Ji Yushi fell.

It was the drifter!

Song Qinglan strode over and pulled out his military knife from the drifter’s forehead. He casually wiped it clean using the corpse’s clothes and then reattached it to the strap on his calf before walking back, “Advisor Ji, your condition isn’t good.”

Ji Yushi’s footsteps paused slightly. He didn’t know where to start.

Song Qinglan’s expression was really unfamiliar. It was the kind that he hadn’t seen in a long time. Although it didn’t have the distant feeling belonging to those who had only just became acquainted, it was a look that was only limited to a teammate. The gaze that made him feel hot was gone.

He looked at Song Qinglan and the other party’s eyes, nose and lips. They were all something he was familiar with. He remembered the warmth and gentleness when the other party kissed him, he remembered the tight embrace he was in when they skydived together, he remembered the other party’s despair and sorrow before he died, and he also remembered the figure who stood alone in the garden below his place eight years ago.

He also remembered how the other party once knew him so well, how he once solemnly and with great cherish called out his real name through their private channel.

“Sheng Han.”

That was the first time he felt a shiver run through him when he heard that name being uttered again.

“Advisor Ji?”

It was like Ji Yushi had just woken up from a dream.

In front of him, Song Qinglan was looking at him with one of his brows raised slightly. He asked in a polite tone, “Was the last death too unpleasant that you feel psychologically unwell?”

Which one?

Ji Yushi couldn’t answer this question so he could only say, “I’m fine.”

“That’s good. Find me anytime if you have any problems.” Song Qinglan nodded, “The captain’s duties include but are not limited to giving the team members psychological counselling.”

Seeing that he was about to continue ahead, Ji Yushi called out to him, “Wait a minute.”

Song Qinglan looked back and quipped, “You really need counselling?”

Ji Yushi opened his mouth, “Don’t…….you think that something isn’t right?”

Song Qinglan, “In which aspect?”

There was nothing else in those deep, black eyes except for the desire to succeed and clear the mission. It was the same as the Song Qinglan in his memory who led everyone forward time and time again.

Scenes flashed through Ji Yushi’s mind. In just one second, the pain from all the scenes gathering together and overlapping filled his mind.

The dark grey sky gradually brightened. Li Chun even found that the unpleasant smell in the air was familiar.

It was like those cycles they had gone through.

Ji Yushi who was suffering from memory overload felt like his head was about to split. Cold sweat almost completely drenched his singlet. He casually shook his head, “I’m fine.”

Unable to distinguish between memory and reality.

Unable to distinguish between something that had already happened and something that had never happened.

It has been a long time since Ji Yushi suffered from so much pain.

He followed behind the other teammates like a walking dead as they retrieved the keys for the spacecar and even calmly killed a few zombies. From his teammate’s perspectives, he probably seemed no different from the past.

The spacecar filled with their equipment travelled through PU-31’s devastated city.

Groups of zombies rushed towards them with their turbid eyes and pale faces while waving their hands around. They were all mercilessly crushed into pulp by the spacecar.

They arrived at the bookstore at the fastest speed possible. After dealing with the elderly zombie in the bookstore, the copy of <Golden Crow No. 1: Propagation> was stuffed into Ji Yushi’s hands. He had been interrupted by the dark-skinned man last time and wasn’t able to finish looking through the last half of the contents. That part happened to be a brief introduction to the Golden Crow bases and how they worked—–Even though the answer was already in his memories, Ji Yushi still quickly read through it.

He couldn’t be certain whether the answer in his mind was accurate.

And he also didn’t know what the current situation was. He really wasn’t in a good condition.

“Team 3 is about to arrive.” Song Qinglan urged, “We can’t run into them now. We must find a way to leave them clues. Advisor Ji, have you found anything?”

Team 3 was the team that came to the bookstore from the park management office using the spacecar. Along the way, they also crushed Team 1 who had just arrived in this cycle.

In terms of time, they would arrive here very soon.

Ji Yushi, “Does anyone have water?”

Zhou Mingxuan on the side unscrewed a bottle and passed it over, “Here.”

Ji Yushi looked up and saw that his teammates were nervously standing around him while keeping an eye out for zombies. In front of everyone, he took out the box of medicine in his pocket and took two of them in one go before placing the box onto the bookshelf nearby.

Song Qinglan only frowned at his behaviour of taking medication so casually. He looked thoughtfully at the box of medicine on the bookshelf.

Ji Yushi lowered his eyes.

His hands trembled a little.

The person who said he would care about him, the one who claimed to be his family…..Was it all just his imagination?

“Almost done.” He said through his chaotic state, “Let’s go first. I can look at the rest on the way.”

The group quickly set off again and went straight to Golden Crow No. 1.

On the way, Ji Yushi confirmed that the energy transmitters of Golden Crow No. 1 and No. 2 had to be shut down at the same time to completely destroy this colony that shouldn’t exist in this parallel world. It was exactly the same as the answer in his mind.

“We don’t have enough people so we will split up into two groups. Leave as much information as you can for Team A and Team B.”

In Golden Crow No. 1’s security room, Song Qinglan stood in the middle of the crowd and scanned his eyes across everyone before continuing, “Some of you may not have memory of what we said here in the last cycle so I will say it again. As analysed in the last cycle, in order to break through this situation, it is necessary to choose the most suitable point on the circle to extend and cover the previous points. That point is the Team A and Team B who will soon arrive here! Only by constantly letting them find traces left by us before they die and allowing them to avoid dying will we be able to truly clear this. That is why there is only one purpose for us every time we are reborn —– Help pave the way for Team A and Team B! Do you understand?”

Everyone, “Understood!”

Song Qinglan smirked, “Good.”

He counted the heads and the equipment, “Myself, Old Duan and Li Chun will remain in Golden Crow No. 1. Advisor Ji, Tang Qi, Tang Le and Zhou Mingxuan, the four of you will go to Golden Crow No. 2.”

Everyone, “Roger!”

Song Qinglan pulled out his military knife and carved a line onto the ground:

Turn off energy supply of the two bases.

Team 5.

Ji Yushi now understood—-It turns out that they were Team 5, the first team to disappear from the cycle!

No wonder Song Qinglan stared thoughtfully at the box of medicine back in the bookstore. It was because they had already analysed why it could exist at the same time as the box of medicine in Team 3. What he did earlier had accidentally fulfilled the conditions, regardless of cause and effect, but also becoming the cause and effect of each other!

After completing the Ouroboros mission, the memories of their selves in Teams A and B had merged. They didn’t have any memories from their other selves that had disappeared because of the paradox.

Ji Yushi’s felt his scalp go numb.

He didn’t expect that he would be able to witness this moment.

But now….

Why did he return to this cycle?

Or had he never left the cycle in the first place?

*

On the other end.

Song Qinglan had also returned to the Ouroboros mission.

Another traversing warning, another nightmarish PU-31. The first thing Song Qinglan did after landing was to open the door to find someone.

“Cap Song!”

“Is Chun’er going to throw u—–”

“Bleagh!!”

As the teammates joked and complained, Song Qinglan only kicked the door shut when he passed Li Chun’s capsule, “If you want to vomit, vomit in your own home. Who told you to fucking slack off and only sit on the pendulum twice during this long vacation?”

He then strode towards Ji Yushi’s capsule.

The door opened.

The person inside was handsome and slim. Even the act of stepping out of the capsule was very good looking.

Song Qinglan stared fixatedly at the other party’s face. Having that person appear before him again alive and well, he almost couldn’t control himself. Right now, even just taking a breath sent pain throughout his body. But when the other party raised his head and looked over, his heart went cold.

Those beautiful eyes were polite and distant. He was even a little surprised to see him outside his capsule, “Cap Song.”

There was no excitement, no joy, and no trace of shock of coming back to life after dying.

Just like a video playback, Song Qinglan even felt that the situation was unreal. He suspected that the so-called Tianqiong parent system only simply turned time back and there was in fact no time anchor belonging only to him and Ji Yushi set up. Everything here was familiar; it was just one of those countless cycles.

Seeing that he wasn’t moving, Ji Yushi then said, “Thank you for pulling me out of the car.”

JI Yushi was referring to the time when Song Qinglan pulled him out of the car after they ran into the wire fence outside the bookstore.

Song Qinglan couldn’t breathe.

Which cycle was this? The third one? Why didn’t he remember having a conversation like this before?

Only God knew how much he didn’t want to complete this mission. Regardless of which Ji Yushi the one before him was, he just wanted to give him a fierce hug until the other person was almost blended into his own body. The pain in his chest however reminded him that he couldn’t do this. Even if the details and dialogue had changed, he couldn’t change the general direction of this ‘past’. He had to let the mission develop according to how it went in his memory.

Ji Yushi noticed the clenched fists.

He asked, “What’s wrong?”

What’s wrong?

He could fucking see him but couldn’t touch him.

……

Song Qinglan suppressed his irritation, “Nothing.”

He turned around and managed to barely restrain himself from destroying the current situation. Following his memories, he assigned out tasks.

He could only patiently analyse the situation himself. Tianqiong had named this time anchor【Overload】. It referred to the fact that it had exceeded the original mission plan. Having stuffed two people into the original cycle, there was a possibility that he wasn’t reborn into the same cycle as Ji Yushi. He had to wait it out and see.

He had already gone through an even more difficult period, so something like this was nothing.

The person behind him however wasn’t cooperating.

Ji Yushi stepped forward and stood very close to him. Song Qinglan could almost feel the faint cold air coming from his body, “Cap Song.”

Ji Yushi spoke every word very clearly and his voice was also very nice. When he called him like this, it always made him feel special.

Song Qinglan hardened his throat, “What?”

Ji Yushi said, “Go straight to the bookstore. There was a clue I wasn’t able to finish checking.”

Song Qinglan agreed.

They quickly left the forest. The route was the same as what he remembered. Ji Yushi gave the teammates who had not yet figured out the situation an explanation regarding the time anchor and also his initial guesses about the meaning of the rule ‘Death elimination’. Even if it was not the same as what it turned out to be, the current Ji Yushi was still very amazing.

They drove the spacecar out.

At the intersection, they encountered a car that managed to avoid them.

Song Qinglan finally figured out that they were Team 4. In other words, he and the Ji Yushi next to him were Team B in the latter half of the cycle.

The more he thought about it, the colder his expression became—–In the end, he had to continue until the end of this cycle, all the way until he reached Golden Crow No. 2 before he could move to the next cycle.

As remembered, after separating from the rest of their teammates at Runjin Building, he and Ji Yushi found themselves surrounded by zombies on their way to the bookstore and were forced to hide in a power distribution room.

The small and cramped room was completely dark.

The two of them almost had to have their faces pressed against each other to be able to stand properly in the room. Ji Yushi was stepping on his foot.

It was both tolerable and intolerable.

“Advisor Ji.” Song Qinglan turned his head to the side and almost sniffed Ji Yushi’s hair, “You’re stepping on me.”

He could feel Ji Yushi’s body stiffen.

He originally did it to satisfy his own evil desires and wanted to take advantage of Ji Yushi but because of how close they were, his heart was beating wildly.

Before the other party could move his feet, he said, “Don’t.”

Ji Yushi’s actions stopped.

“I’ll give you this opportunity to step on me so that next time you can remember something nice. Don’t always hold grudges.”

As he said this, he tried to see Ji Yushi’s face in the darkness. The current situation reminded him of the last time he was at Ji Yushi’s place. When he came out of the bathroom, Ji Yushi had pulled him down into his posture and kissed him.

Remember something nice.

Don’t always remember who he gave the dice to, how he mistakenly thought he was involved in 4P, and how he liked a pretty little girl in kindergarten.

Unfortunately, the current Ji Yushi wasn’t his one. He didn’t understand the deep meaning behind his words.

Just as Song Qinglan said that, pain came from his foot. Ji Yushi didn’t adjust the strength and just answered, “Oh.”

Alright, it was still too early.

This guy still remembered the fact that Song Qinglan had pressed him against the bookshelf in the last cycle, making his wrist become bruised.

Song Qinglan gritted his teeth, “Having said that, you’re stepping really hard.”

Ji Yushi finally moved his foot away and apologised, “Sorry, it wasn’t deliberate.”

Song Qinglan, “I forgive you.”

Unknown to the others, he was actually willing to be stepped on a hundred times.

It didn’t take long for them to reunite with the teammates in Team 3. After competing with his other self, the two of them and the rest of the team members from Team 3 formed Team B and headed for Golden Crow No. 1.

In a place unknown to the others, Song Qinglan observed the Ji Yushi in Team A.

The moment the other party appeared through the binoculars, his heart also hurt.

Wearing a white T-shirt, the man sitting on the balcony had just been injured and there was a bullet wound on his abdomen. That scene slowly overlapped with that person who was mistakenly shot in the chest.

“What’s wrong?” Someone spoke up.

“Huh?” He lowered the binoculars and looked back.

Ji Yushi next to him asked, “Cap Song, your expression suddenly didn’t look good. Did something happen?”

“No.” Song Qinglan smiled. He looked at the other party’s clean and pale face, “I just wanted to say that we will all return alive.”

……

Later, they got in touch with their other selves in Team A.

The teammates worked hand in hand. Alongside Ji Yushi’s analysis and calculation, Song Qinglan cooperated and turned off the energy transmitters for Golden Crow No. 1.

Towards Cap Song’s sudden cooperation with Ji Yushi to the point that he would do anything he said, the other teammates expressed shock. They didn’t understand what happened between them.

During the call between the two teams, Ji Yushi reminded him, “Cap Song, fourth row, the sixth from the left.”

Song Qinglan subconsciously replied, “Righto, I’m on it.”

As soon as those words were spoken, he remembered how he found the way he and Ji Yushi from Team B interacted a little strange back when he overheard it when he was in Team A.

Even Ji Yushi was a little stunned when he heard his answer. He glanced back at him for a moment.

Ji Yushi however had a tendency to keep to himself. He didn’t say anything about Song Qinglan’s change and just silently continued to calculate, “Seventh row, second from the left.”

Everything seemed to be destined.

Which cycle was covering over which cycle?

Song Qinglan no longer dwelled on this problem.

After finishing everything they needed to do in Golden Crow No. 1, he brought the team to Golden Crow No. 2 to help Team A.

Finally, they returned to the capsule and completed the smaller cycle.

Before the black wall arrived, Song Qinglan made a wish. He hoped that he could be reborn into the same cycle as Ji Yushi.

When Song Qinglan appeared at the new anchor point and faced the Ji Yushi who still didn’t remember everything that had happened between them, he just wanted to curse at the Tianqiong parent system a million times.

Again.

And again.

In each cycle, the person he encountered wasn’t the Ji Yushi he wanted.

Song Qinglan couldn’t control himself anymore.