This Is Not the End of the World 011

He suddenly froze, then looked up at the sky. "Looks like we've stirred up some major trouble."

"Huh?" Little Hei looked up. A massive black cloud churned in the sky, and a giant hand reached out from within it.

It only felt itself being grabbed by Fang Zhiyi, a sentence brushing past its ear.

"Go! I choose you!"

"Fang Zhiyi! Fuck you!!!"

Despite the cursing, Little Hei had no choice but to fly right toward that hand.

Its tiny body expanded rapidly, growing several times its original size in the blink of an eye. Facing the giant hand that was invisible to mortals, Little Hei opened its mouth wide and bit down on it.

On the outskirts of the city, a car was driving toward downtown.

"This damn weather. Looks like there's going to be a massive downpour. Oh God, there's thunder too."

From the driver's perspective, he only saw several bolts of lightning strike straight down at a single spot. It scared him so much he slammed on the gas pedal, nearly crashing into the roadblock ahead.

Fang Zhiyi had long since vanished from where he stood.

He felt as though he were floating in mid-air, the surroundings unnervingly quiet.

A suction force pulled his body upwards. As he rose higher and higher, Fang Zhiyi glanced down at the ground, and that single look left him stunned.

There was a car on the ground, but right now, in his eyes, that single car had turned into a continuous string of cars. He could clearly see where the car had come from, where it was going, and even the moment it nearly hit the roadblock.

He also saw countless identical "people" walking back and forth here, including that group of idiots who had released the virus. He saw them from the moment they got in the car to when they got out, and then entered the research institute...

"The fate of humanity is decided from the very beginning."

A muffled, heavy voice came from behind him.

Fang Zhiyi turned his head and saw a white-bearded old man.

"I know your kind, obsessed with invading other worlds and causing havoc." The old man carried a terrifying aura of oppression. He waved his hand. "Because of your meddling, their trajectories have now been erased."

Saying this, he looked at Fang Zhiyi. "Originally, you were supposed to die in your own country, but your trajectory deviated from its destined path."

"Are you people treating the world like a game?"

Fang Zhiyi stared blankly below. For the first time, he saw it so clearly: everyone's entire life appeared in his eyes like a strip of film. It was just that after he destroyed the research institute, the trajectories of these people were cut short. Everyone's life stopped at this very moment.

"Old timer, don't try to scare me. I've seen plenty of Heavenly Daos much stronger than you." Fang Zhiyi slowly turned his head back. "So what if the fate of humanity is predetermined? It can still be changed. The way I see it, the one treating the world like a game is you, not me."

The old man stared into Fang Zhiyi's eyes. He was expressionless, neither angry nor pleased, but unusually calm.

"I watch the rise and fall of humanity, its development, and every person's past and future," the old man said. "But you are a bit different, intruder. That is because I cannot see your past, nor can I see your future. Are you truly even alive?"

Fang Zhiyi rolled his eyes. "Starting to lecture me on philosophy now, are we? You..." He suddenly paused, struck by a possibility. By traveling through various worlds with Little Hei, he had long transcended the realm of ordinary humans and thus broken free from those so-called trajectories. Otherwise, he would be just like the people below, from birth to death, vividly alive in every single moment, with the him of the previous second and the him of the next second existing simultaneously.

"It seems you understand, intruder. All of this was not arranged by me, but is the cyclical nature of humanity. No matter how many times humanity is destroyed, they will always walk this path. It will always be these same people, following the exact same trajectories. Humanity has always existed, just existing in every single phase."

The old man's tone was calm, but Fang Zhiyi could hear a sense of weariness in it.

"They can live in every moment, but you—when you die, you are completely dead. You are a monster with no future and no past." Though his tone was calm, a tangible sense of oppression enveloped Fang Zhiyi. "By doing this, you have obscured everyone's future. You are the monster bringing disaster. Of course, if you leave right now, I can still repair the world trajectory you damaged."

"Old man, you really don't mince your words, but I don't blame you."

The old man slightly raised his eyes.

"You've probably seen enough of it, haven't you? These people struggling to survive, dying tragically... you must have watched it countless times." Fang Zhiyi met his gaze without a hint of fear. "Spouting all this nonsense at me for so long, don't you just find it boring? Watching the same movie back and forth for this long, you should have gotten sick of it ages ago."

Fang Zhiyi had figured something out. Thinking back to the Heavenly Daos he had offended in the past, why did some turn a blind eye to his actions? Why did some, despite striking him with lightning, rarely take direct action against him? And then there was that one time when a Heavenly Dao seemed to want to tell him something...

In a sense, the Heavenly Daos of these worlds were just like the humans living in them—they were all prisoners! Compared to the ignorance of humans, the Heavenly Daos had to watch everything unfold before them. Every person was like a book, from the first page of their birth to the last page of their death, everything had already been written.

And the intrusion of himself and Little Hei had altered certain fates within these worlds.

"Heh, hehe." The old man suddenly laughed, letting out a muffled chuckle that didn't seem to belong to his body, ringing so loudly it made Fang Zhiyi's ears hurt.

"Intruder, you are different from the other intruders. When facing me, they either apologized or chose to leave. Of course, they didn't actually leave... I am starting to look forward to your future now."

Fang Zhiyi frowned. Just how many transmigrators had this old man killed? It wasn't impossible; some Heavenly Daos were quite twisted.

Suddenly, a loud boom echoed, and the transparent walls began to shatter inch by inch.

Little Hei squeezed in through the cracks like a hooligan. "Motherfucker, whoever you are, get out here! Come fight your grandpa for three hundred rounds! You think you can play me with just one hand?"

But in the next moment, the old man vanished from where he stood.

Fang Zhiyi felt his body plummeting rapidly. Falling from this height would definitely kill him!

But when he grabbed his head to brace himself, he realized he was still sitting at the entrance of the research institute. Outside, the wail of police sirens had already begun to sound.

Fang Zhiyi couldn't care less about anything else. He picked a direction and started to flee. If he got caught and thrown in jail, it would be a massive humiliation.

Before long, Little Hei appeared beside him again.

"That thing slipped away too fast!"

"Stop bragging. You probably couldn't even beat his single hand."

"Who says! I can definitely handle one hand!" Little Hei was a bit defiant. "By the way, what was it blabbering to you about?"

Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "Just a wretched old man who wanted to see some new content but was too proud to beg me for it."

Little Hei looked somewhat bewildered.