One of Them Wasn’t Human

The Dreadful Radio wouldn’t be so bored as to offer something useless. That was for sure. After all, the Dreadful Radio had always been adhering to the tradition and principle of "story above all". Everything against the story would be guided back or fixed forcibly.

Therefore, the appearance of duplicates must have a reason. They couldn’t just show up for nothing.

If the reason for their appearance was known, it would be a crucial progress for completing the tasks.

So this time, Su Bai was observing and thinking ever since his duplicate showed up and from the moment they talked. It couldn’t be just a delay of the game or something like a test. Besides, the duplicates were not that capable. Even if they were equally strong, Su Bai could definitely beat them. They wouldn’t stand a chance unless their originals were caught in some special accident. But they just wouldn’t hunt as a team. Instead, they came after their originals respectively, one to one, which was thought-provoking.

However, as a result of Su Bai’s constant observation and thinking, when the duplicate took out the staff, an idea flashed into Su Bai’s mind.

And he seized it!

And he finally figured it out!

When did he get the staff?

Just now!

To be exact about the timing, it was after Dreadful Radio’s reminder and the appearance of the duplicate!

Then in what way was the duplicates created?

They should have been replicated according to the state of the originals before the reset. Su Bai remembered that the first time he met his duplicate, he had somehow become something else like a vampire because of his ptomaine breakout under the blood leech’s attack, and his capability had dramatically improved.

And then, Dreadful Radio’s reminder sounded in his mind and the next moment, his duplicate found him. But this duplicate had no zombie blood in him.

That actually indicated that the duplicate was a copy of the original before the last reset, instead of a dynamic copy that could get updated synchronously. There was a time lag.

Then, according to Su Bai’s memory, this duplicate he met should be himself with both states of vampire and zombie, as the last time he went to the river.

Everything had been going on exactly as Su Bai had speculated. But when the duplicate took out the staff, Su Bai paused in astonishment.

A duplicate was actually a shadow of himself before the last reset, or a template. Then if the duplicate owned the staff, that could simply suggest one fact: Su Bai had already obtained the staves before the last reset!

But that was not what Su Bai remembered; it was self-contradictory.

However, due to the special conditions of this story world, there was one possibility that could perfectly explain it:

Su Bai, who had gone through the reset, didn’t realize that something had happened and even happened many times before he knew—

Since the beginning of this story world…

…he had already been reset.

He was no longer a real participate of this game. Instead, he had almost become a supporting role, or an NPC. The others were participating and resetting while Su Bai could only take it without option.

That felt just the same when he was looking at Fatty and Ego.

He was laughing at others while he himself only knew a little bit more than them.

Fatty and Ego had no idea that Su Bai had gone through all this, therefore Su Bai had believed that he was dominating. But the fact was, in someone else’s eyes, maybe Su Bai was nothing different from Fatty and Ego in Su Bai’s mind.

He was going through the same reset again and again, in which he had already got the staves from Fatty and Ego but lost the opportunity to get across the river. As a result, the three people who had gone across the river got to remember everything, but the others including Su Bai were all forced to forget.

That was the fact. And this time, it wouldn’t be wrong. But at the same time, it was so terrifying.

Su Bai’s hands were shaking. He still couldn’t calm down even till now, but he knew what he should do. Since he failed to go across the river last time, then he had to succeed this time!

He could not let himself forget and reset; he’d rather let someone else go through that.

Now, he was running out of time.

Su Bai lifted his emerald staff and smashed towards his duplicate, and the duplicate also lifted his emerald staff and smashed at him. Both staves were enhanced with their blood, so they were exactly the same; they hit each other and exploded!

"Ouch…" Su Bai took a deep breath. His right arm was almost torn into pieces. It was messy and bleeding badly.

The duplicate was even worse; his body was covered with wounds and it was not easy for him to keep standing.

Su Bai lifted his left arm and dripped his blood onto the other azure staff. Then he smashed it towards the duplicate who was proud but could hardly stand.

The duplicate roared, but at the next moment, his body was smashed by the second staff in Su Bai’s hand.

His body parts spread all over the place, looking miserable.

It seemed that he had only gotten one staff last time—the emerald one, but no azure one. That was why the duplicate only had one staff. And that was the reason why the duplicate could be killed so simply.

Taking a quick look at the body parts, Su Bai gripped the staves in his hands. The role of these duplicates were "hints". The source of the river triggered this "reset game". On one hand, as the real dominator of the game, Dreadful Radio was glad to see this, but on the other, it interfered and offered the audiences an opportunity to avoid being killed without even knowing what was going on with repeated resets. It was an opportunity for the audiences, but also a move to make the story more possible and funny.

Su Bai was running fast. This time, he didn’t hesitate or stop. Though there was some time before daybreak, Su Bai couldn’t relax at all.

Last time, he had only one staff, the emerald one; so it couldn’t be hard to kill the duplicate with no staff, and it wouldn’t have taken long. But he still failed to be one of the three people to cross the river and was forced to forget. This time, he had more time, would it be different?

Finally, Su Bai arrived at the riverside, where he had been.

There were already three people await.

One of them was the girl with black hair. She was standing beside the water with bare feet; she seemed cozy as if she was playing with the water or looking at her reflection.

The other two were western men. One was Jack, the leader among the western guys in this story world; the other guy was thinner, and Su Bai had met him, even killed him—he was the elfin enhancer.

Three people already; Su Bai was the fourth one to come.

The three early-arrivers looked at Su bai at the same time as if he was a crasher.

"You are late," said the girl with black hair.

Jack and the elfin enhancer blocked Su Bai’s way. Apparently, no one would give up such an opportunity.

The girl shrugged and said in a troubled voice, "There’s no room for one more."

It seemed that the three early-arrivers were ready to fight against the fourth person at a time.

But such tension disappeared as Su Bai said, "Okay, then I’ll wait for the next one."

Then Su Bai walked to a slope in distance. It was far enough from the river, but both parties could still see each other clearly.

"Next one?"

Jack and the other western guy looked at each other; they were surprised and confused. Did the oriental young man mistake this as a bus? If one left, just wait for a next one.

Would it be so easy?

Just then, the sun began to rise.

A purple aura showed up from the water in this area. The girl with black hair was the first one to go into the river; she merged into the aura and vanished.

Su Bai stood up and walked towards the river.

Jack watched Su Bai’s steps while he walked backwards into the river and then vanished as well.

The elfin enhancer walked into the river with his arrow on the bow pointing at Su Bai. Then he disappeared into the aura.

From the beginning to the end, Su Bai was walking slowly; he didn’t get there until all the three spots were occupied. However, when Su Bai walked into the water, the purple aura, which had almost vanished, started to gather again and gradually cover Su Bai.

A figure emerged from under the water, coldly staring at Su Bai.

"You knew?" The voice was full of anger and unwillingness.

"You’ve underestimated the wisdom of humans, as well as the capability of humans. Even though you keep making amends everytime…

"This game…

"…will still fall apart eventually."

Su Bai remembered Sophia’s gesture before she died. Three fingers, then two.

The number of qualified people was limited to three.

But…

Every time, among the three people…

…one was actually not human!