The Director was answered with a sigh.
The sigh was soft, yet it sounded like a breath finally released after being held in for far too long.
Then Su Bai heard the Administrator's voice again-
"You have already run the simulations. In fact, before inviting Mr. Su here, you had already run countless simulations. Among those innumerable futures, there were... indeed some good outcomes. You simply refused to acknowledge them."
"But none of those simulated futures were what I wanted." The Director's voice sank, as though his entire being had been dragged into a crushing obsession.
"But they were precisely what I wanted." A strange feeling crept into Mr. Fish's tone, as though he had finally breathed a sigh of relief. "You know that perfectly well, too."
Su Bai had had several memorable encounters with Mr. Fish. In each of them, Mr. Fish had always been respectful and businesslike, yet there had also been a cautious desire to make a few covert moves where his superiors could not see.
Whenever they spoke, Mr. Fish seemed to have something tugging at his limbs. However steady his tone, he always conveyed a sense of being tethered, liable to be yanked back at any moment.
But now, for the first time, Su Bai sensed a little... freedom in him.
It was like someone who had always been kept on a leash finally getting the chance to decide where to go.
"Sir, at least for now, this humble servant... I don't want to be alone anymore." Mr. Fish's voice grew ever gentler.
Not long after he finished speaking, Su Bai's surroundings changed again.
This time, the battlefield was gone, as was the Blood Sea that had filled the sky. He stood in a pitch-black space, every direction seemingly coated in thick ink. He could