Anchor

"Qian, what are you standing around for? Come help!"

The same scene, the same words, yet Jiang Qian felt an inexplicable resistance.

After all, he had just witnessed his entire family's tragedy with his own eyes.

The tragedy had still happened!

Jiang Qian tossed the fruit knife onto the picnic mat, threw out an excuse, then turned and ran toward the parking lot!

"Find the culprit and prevent every tragedy from happening." Jiang Qian repeatedly mulled over those words, trying to stop that damned truck from crashing into his family's car before the drunk-driving incident occurred!

If the collision had been a pure "accident," then as long as the truck did not hit their car, neither his mother's accident nor the later incident where they were screwed over by that lousy driver would happen.

Even if the crash had been a "factor" compounded by his own actions, stopping it at the source was still a way to prevent the chain reaction that followed...

By then, he had reached the T-junction in the parking lot. He could not determine from which direction the truck had charged over and struck his family's car.

As Jiang Qian hesitated, Jiang Yang's voice came from behind him.

"Jiang Qian, what are you doing? Mom told me to call you back."

There was a way!

Given what Jiang Qian knew of Jiang Yang, he was the perfect man for this "sabotage" job.

Jiang Qian walked toward Jiang Yang and got straight to the point. "You came at just the right time. Help me watch for a vehicle at this intersection—a yellow truck, license plate XA05052... If you stop that truck, you can have all my allowance next month!"

The task was clear, the information was complete, and the price had been plainly stated.

Jiang Yang had been about to argue, but when he heard the words "all my allowance," he hesitated.

After a brief pause, he began to haggle. "Hey, doing something this rotten is gonna get me chewed out."

What was a scolding? With your temperament, if you go three days without a beating, you start itching for one... Jiang Qian studied Jiang Yang's reaction and held up two fingers. "Two months' worth. No more."

"Deal!" Jiang Yang agreed boldly.

Just like you. As long as there's money involved, you can't even be bothered to ask why... The anxiety in Jiang Qian's heart eased slightly.

Kids were so easily satisfied!

There was no time to lose. Jiang Qian repeated the license plate number twice and described the truck's appearance. Once he was sure Jiang Yang remembered, they headed to opposite sides of the intersection to stop it.

"Hey, be careful!"

"You're so annoying!"

Watching Jiang Yang's spirited retreating figure, Jiang Qian sighed and sprinted toward the other side...

He had only run about fifty meters when an earsplitting roar erupted behind him!

The truck had appeared on Jiang Yang's side?

Jiang Qian immediately spun around and ran back toward Jiang Yang!

But before he had gone more than a few steps, he watched helplessly as that familiar truck came barreling through the intersection!

The out-of-control vehicle knocked Jiang Yang down, dragged him beneath its wheels, and continued another dozen meters before swaying to a stop by the roadside.

The driver got out cursing. The moment he saw the person, he collapsed onto the ground in terror and wet himself...

Wen Han, who had come looking for her two sons, happened to witness the horrifying scene. She screamed and ran over, but before reaching Jiang Yang, her legs gave out and she fell to the ground, bursting into inconsolable sobs!

Jiang Qian froze where he stood.

What was happening now?

Jiang Yang was dead...

Could it be that as long as I tried to do something, tragedy would happen...?

That hypothesis was being proven.

But if I did nothing, how was he supposed to prevent the final accident?

Jiang Qian questioned himself.

An immense pressure enveloped him.

His mother's sobs and the deep-blue hues of the Choice poster converged in his mind, making him dizzy.

The familiar notification sounded right on cue!

[About to enter the viewing segment]

[The film Choice is adapted from the trial taker's real experiences. You will play yourself in this film and receive an immersive peak experience.]

[Find the culprit and prevent every tragedy from happening.]

[Scene 4—Action!]

"Again..."

A familiar, gentle voice called to Jiang Qian. "Qian, what are you standing around for? Come help!"

Just like the beginning of every tragic cycle.

Jiang Qian lowered his head. The white blade in his hand gleamed brightly.

It gradually overlapped with the white boat plunging into the whirlpool in his mind...

Against a deep-blue background, a massive whirlpool issued a dizzying warning. A white sailboat had burst into it, like a sharp knife piercing the center of a target.

"Breaking the deadlock, the culprit..."

Jiang Qian's pupils suddenly contracted!

"Every tragedy came because I tried to change the past and avoid it. As long as I began making an effort, something would happen..."

He clenched the fruit knife tightly. His gaze held the excitement of sudden realization, along with the tension of an approaching storm!

Find the culprit and prevent every tragedy from happening...

"The one responsible for the tragedy is me!"

The fruit knife's tip slowly aimed at his own chest.

So this was the way to break the deadlock?

In the dim, silent instance world.

AS1741, "Whispers of the Inner Demon"—

A "Do Not Disturb" sign hung outside Screening Room No. 2.

Inside, several voices of entirely different styles whispered among themselves.

"Will he die?" a deeply affectionate voice asked.

"If he makes the wrong choice, yes," replied a voice as mournful as if its parents had died.

Within the enclosed, shadowy space, Jiang Qian's sleeping body floated in midair, held aloft by countless tentacles that occasionally tugged at and scratched his clothes and body.

The mournful voice hidden in the darkness belonged to the owner of those tentacles.

"You look like you've already treated him as a dead man, haven't you? Ahahahaha, heeheehee..." An exaggeratedly delighted voice suddenly rang out, as though this matter thrilled him beyond measure.

"I believe he will follow the script I set for him, ending this tragedy—and his own life."

The mournful voice sounded certain of victory.

"I have planted a Heart Anchor in his heart. It is only a matter of time before he seeks death. After struggling in pain, he will eventually make that choice."

"How did you do it?" The deeply affectionate voice revealed an alluring thirst for knowledge.

"Haha, that's my secret technique!"

The mournful voice rose, becoming ever more seductive.

"The key is this: give him hope that he can change the ending of a tragedy already destined to happen. Then let him understand through repeated efforts and failures that the outcome cannot be changed! Whoever tries to change it will only accelerate the tragedy!"

"Through thought and verification, he will eventually reach one conclusion: the person who would stop at nothing to break free from tragedy is the culprit! That's right—himself."

The mournful voice trembled excitedly, as if showing off its masterpiece.

"At the end, he will tighten his grip on the knife in his hand. That is the little gift I designed for him: a little white boat! Heh heh, the little white boat plunges straight into the whirlpool, breaking the chaos. That is the 'Heart Anchor' I planted in him."

"He will heed the voice in his heart and use that knife to end his pathetic life..."

The deeply affectionate voice interrupted it. "Suicide is no small matter."

The implication was that it did not believe someone could easily muster the courage to point a sharp blade at their own chest.

"Under the impact of intense grief, a person's willpower becomes too fragile to withstand a single blow. Even their judgment falters."

"When he repeatedly witnesses the deaths of his loved ones yet can do nothing about it, when he deduces that he himself is the culprit, when he mistakenly believes that only turning the blade on himself will clear the instance, he will act."

The mournful voice spoke with absolute certainty, utterly convinced of its own scheme.

"Unless he's a pervert. Ahahahahaha..." The exaggeratedly delighted voice laughed even more wildly than before.

"Yes, unless he is obsessed with slaughter and cannot bear to leave the cycle of death."

Jiang Qian, floating amid the countless tentacles, had his eyes tightly shut.

His body temperature was gradually dropping, his face growing paler. The signs of life that marked him as human were slowly fading...

"What a pity... If he just, just dies like that, we won't get a chance to meet him!" The owner of that voice seemed to be burning with desire, to the point that it could barely speak coherently.

But no one paid it any attention.

Most trial takers met similar ends.

Yet the deeply affectionate voice remained especially interested in the matter and continued asking, "What is the correct course of action?"

"You mean, how can the trial taker survive?"

"Yes!"

"Impossible."

"Tell me, please~" The deeply affectionate voice's pleading was always difficult to refuse.

The air fell silent for a while.

The mournful voice revealed the answer. "Do nothing. Do not try to change anything."

"Do nothing?" The deeply affectionate voice seemed stunned, then marveled at the other's cunning. "You repeatedly remind him to find the culprit and prevent the tragedy, but in the end, the correct course of action is... to do nothing?"

"That's right."

The mournful voice said complacently.

"So almost no one will be willing to sit and wait for death! When a person possesses the power to change reality, they will not let something harmful to themselves happen again."

"On the other hand, he will consider the possibility that the final tragedy means failure in the instance, so he will be even less likely to risk testing this path."

The mournful voice grew increasingly smug, like a devil who saw through human nature.

Unfortunately, the area around it remained completely silent. It did not hear a single word of praise.

"Still don't understand?" The mournful voice had clearly lost its patience and said sorrowfully, "Sigh! What a waste of brains. You're not even as smart as a trial taker."

"Whose brain isn't as good as mine?"

In the dim room, Jiang Qian, who had been "floating" in the air, had opened his eyes. His expression and tone were calm as he allowed the tentacles to hold him up.

The mournful voice let out a startled cry!

It quickly withdrew the tentacles holding Jiang Qian, as if tossing away a hot potato! This caused Jiang Qian to land on his butt without any warning.

"..."

"Y-you, when did you wake up?!"

The mournful voice was both shocked and furious, at a complete loss after being slapped in the face on the spot.

Jiang Qian pushed himself up from the floor.

Exhausted and weak, he simply sat cross-legged on the ground to speak with the voice. "Probably... when you mentioned 'perverts'?"

"..."

"Oh, right. Were the ones chatting just now friends from the next rooms over?"

Clearly, the other three "spectators" had already scattered, rushing back to their own territories to prepare for battle.

"I cannot answer that," the mournful voice said warily.

"Thanks, but I already know."

The first instance is now over two-thirds complete. Thanks to:

Book Friend 20180525234038802

valleyhunter

And all the recommendation votes from my dear readers~