The End of the Entire World

"Money?"

"You want money before I've even had my way with you? That's downright uncivilized. Sure, I give to charity all the time..." He Li laughed theatrically, folding her arms as she moved closer to Xu Ye.

"Big sis Li, I just want to borrow some money." Xu Ye stared wide-eyed, unsure what this shameless woman was thinking now. He pressed his palm against her forehead and pushed her away.

He Li cheerfully pinched his cheek. "Tell me how much. You should get a pretty sizable bonus this time. I'll just deduct it from that."

"Twenty thousand." Xu Ye thought for a moment, then added, "I owe some people money. I need to pay them back."

He Li's expression shifted slightly.

She had tried to investigate Xu Ye's background more thoroughly that day, only to discover that nearly everything was classified. There was very little she could find out, which made her quite curious.

"Sure. I'm free today, and I don't need to go back to headquarters. I'll drive you."

He Li twirled her car keys.

So this was what it felt like to have someone powerful backing you, Xu Ye thought.

A long while later, the red sports car pulled up at an ordinary apartment building. Xu Ye counted out five thousand, then hurriedly opened the door and got out.

He knocked on an apartment door. A few seconds later, a thuggish young man with dyed blond hair opened it, swearing with a cigarette dangling from his lips.

The moment he saw Xu Ye, he impatiently snatched the bills from his hand and counted them, clicking his tongue. "Why are you so late this month? Are you fucking trying to starve me to death?"

"Be on time next time!"

Bang!

The words had barely left his mouth before he slammed the door shut.

Xu Ye stood dazed for a moment, but said nothing. Instead, he smiled, as though a weight had lifted from his chest.

It seemed that only by doing this could he put the lingering thoughts of this body's original owner to rest.

"Goddamn it, what's he so smug about? You gave him money, and he still treated you like that. Pah!" Alice clawed and snarled at the door, but it was useless. She couldn't affect reality.

"Since I've taken over someone else's body, I have to repay his debts for him," he said firmly.

Xu Ye walked out of the apartment building.

He Li had taken everything in, but said nothing. Following the address Xu Ye gave her, she drove to the next destination.

It was a nursing home with peaceful surroundings, but its residents were all elderly people whom ordinary nursing homes refused to accept.

Most of the elderly residents here suffered from some degree of mental illness.

Xu Ye handed ten thousand to the director. He didn't dare go inside for a visit and hurried away.

The third stop was on the outskirts of Night Spirit City.

The car passed through rundown streets littered with puddles, mud, and garbage, then drove past tightly packed, dilapidated houses. Under the ill-intentioned gazes of a group of drunks and thugs, the red sports car stopped in front of a residential complex that was at least reasonably clean.

With the remaining five thousand tucked against his chest, Xu Ye strolled inside. The old man at the gate glanced at him and waved him through without stopping him, clearly accustomed to his visits.

Turning into one of the apartment buildings, Xu Ye quickly made his way to the eighth floor.

He knocked on the door.

No one answered.

After a moment's thought, Xu Ye crouched and slid the money through the gap beneath the door, one bill at a time.

Only after he had pushed all five thousand through and made sure he hadn't missed any did he leave with peace of mind.

Once he got back into the car, He Li finally couldn't help asking, "How did you end up owing so much money at your age?"

Xu Ye gave a rueful smile. Piecing together the original owner's memories, he considered how to phrase it. "Five years ago, my house caught fire. The rescue team risked their lives to go in and save us, but the fire was too fierce. My parents and my little sister didn't survive. I was the only one they got out."

"But four members of the rescue team died too."

"That thug-looking guy earlier lost his dad. After his dad died, his mom left too, so he ended up living alone."

"An old lady in the nursing home lost her son in that fire. She lost her mind when she heard the news. With her son dead, she had no family left, so she had to move into a nursing home."

"And that last household used to be a happy family of three. But the woman's husband died saving me. She came to Night Spirit City with her child to make a living on her own. She works two jobs a day."

"I'm the only one left in my family, but I still have to compensate them. I couldn't think of any other way except money. So all these years, I've been tutoring while going to school, and giving them everything I earn. It's the only way I can feel at peace."

He Li fell silent for a long time after hearing this. Looking at the young boy, she felt a surge of pity.

She hadn't expected him to be borrowing money for something like this.

He was kindhearted and responsible. Someone like him ought to make a dependable teammate.

Xu Ye, on the other hand, felt much more at ease, though he couldn't help reflecting on it all.

In his previous life, his family had been happy, but short on money. Remembering how his parents had forced smiles for others every day while trying to borrow money to treat his heart condition made him feel deeply uneasy.

The original owner of this body had lost his family and suffered even more, yet he had still worked hard to keep going so he could compensate the families of those rescuers who had died.

Fortunately, their personalities were quite similar.

They were both the sort to find joy amid hardship.

To outsiders, they seemed sunny and optimistic, sometimes so optimistic that they came across as a little unhinged.

But only they themselves knew that all of it was simply a way to keep living as best they could-or rather, to keep others from worrying about them.

See? Even if my heart condition could kill me at any moment, even if my entire family was gone, I was still living my life.

Living it well.

Seeing tears glimmer at the corners of He Li's eyes, Xu Ye pulled out a tissue and handed it to her. "Since I'm so pitiful, how about you just write off the money you lent me?"

"Get lost-"

He Li laughed as she scolded him, drawing out the last word.

"Oh, right. Where am I going to live? I've been staying at school, but that probably isn't suitable anymore." Xu Ye changed the subject. He didn't want to keep dwelling on sad things.

"The captain already arranged a place for you. It's the apartment building where the incident happened yesterday."

"The place with the Heavenly Dao distortion?" Xu Ye asked in surprise.

People had died there, an Aberrant had appeared, and the Heavenly Dao was distorted. There were illusions in the stairwell and Mirror Spirits in the mirrors that liked to choke people.

"Yes, that place."

He Li explained, "Ordinary pollution incidents almost never involve Heavenly Dao distortion, but polluted worlds at Horror Level or above have a high chance of being accompanied by it."

"Heavenly Dao distortion can't be reversed."

"In those places, inexplicable supernatural phenomena appear. And as time passes, the area affected by Heavenly Dao distortion keeps expanding... It can't be reversed, stopped, or eliminated..."

Xu Ye listened in shock. In disbelief, he said, "Then doesn't that mean..."

Despair and desolation showed on He Li's face. "You're right. Our world is heading toward collapse. Sooner or later, those areas of Heavenly Dao distortion will spread into every corner of this world."

"This is the end of the entire world."