"But what about the person who was deleted?" A'Dai asked, his voice muffled, as though it had rolled out of his chest. "He can't even feel 'happiness' anymore, can he?"
"Right." Huo Yuhao nodded. "He can't even feel the 'absence of feeling.' Because the very attribute of 'feeling' was zeroed out along with him. He won't hurt, won't regret, won't rejoice. Nor will he appear in anyone's dreams. This is the 'concept of nothingness.' He became a null value the world had never computed. A null value has no feelings. He exists only to hold a place. To firmly hold that place of 'life' for Kallen."
"It sounds like a cleanup mechanism of the Tree," Zhou Weiqing said coldly. "It turned Otto into an empty shell and stuffed him into the world's wound. Then it used that shell to replace Kallen's 'death.' So, in essence, Otto didn't die. He was taken away by the world. It didn't even grant him the treatment called death."
"Right," Tang San said. "Death is a right. At least it means you once lived. But Otto doesn't even have that right. When he handed himself over, he effectively gave up both 'being alive' and 'having died.' He went from existence to nonexistence. This isn't sacrifice. Sacrifice still has glory. This is being reduced to zero. It's a delete key you pressed with your own hand."
"Then why did he say that this time, truly, not even his existence would remain?" Xiao Xiao asked.
"Because he'd calculated it long ago," Huo Yuhao said. "He knew how the Tree would handle him. He knew what he would become. That's why, while he could still speak, he said this time it was real. It wasn't a belated realization. From the very beginning, he'd written this ending into his