If you were to describe You Zhengping’s life during this period in one phrase, it would be—completely lightless. 

In the pitch-black surroundings, he didn’t even know how much time had passed. He also didn’t know where Director Ha and Junjun were. 

Each time he asked how Director Ha and Junjun were, Yu Hua would say, “They won’t die.” If he kept asking, Yu Hua would impatiently say, “I gave them some elementary school homework and dog food.” If he still kept asking, Yu Hua would say, “Do you want to run away from me?” 

You Zhengping would say, “It’s not that I want to run away from you, I just have work…” 

Before he could finish speaking, he would always be cut off by Yu Hua’s exercise tempo so he couldn’t get out a complete sentence. 

After all these years of marriage, You Zhengping was just learning that Yu Hua had always been holding back. Only now did he understand how strong Yu Hua was when he held nothing back and went 100% all out. 

You Zhengping could sense that the husband in front of him really was his lover. Instinct told You Zhengping that there was no so-called parallel world. Yu Hua was Yu Hua. From beginning to end, his “core” hadn’t changed. 

And-and it wasn’t like he was unsatisfied with the intensity and frequency of the exercise. He was just faintly concerned about Yu Hua’s current situation, feeling that his “core” was being stifled by some power and couldn’t truly unfold. 

What had actually happened between level 398 and level 499 to make Yu Hua become like this? 

Become seemingly brutal and cold, indifferent towards everything, but in reality afraid of loss. 

You Zhengping was worried that resisting would make Yu Hua fall deeper and deeper. He could only set aside his worry about the real world, be content with his lot and obey Yu Hua’s instructions, occasionally trying to indirectly ask some questions about time law. 

Yu Hua’s answer was, if this was Guan Shaoguang’s little time world, then the passage of time in the little world would have no impact on the outside world. If this was time travel caused by You Zhengping’s powers, then it was up to You Zhengping’s power to determine what time stream he returned to. It had nothing to do with the present flow of time. 

In other words, even if You Zhengping spent a thousand years in this world, he could still arrive right after the big battle. 

When he received this explanation, You Zhengping actually stayed where he was with a clear conscience. Anyway, he and Yu Hua had been in love and married for so long, and they hadn’t even had a two-person world honeymoon. There was always someone to disturb their dates, and that Maldives vacation had never happened because of his job. Yu Hua had seemed not to care, but You Zhengping had sensed that he was inwardly resentful. So right now, they—could treat this as a honeymoon! 

The only thing You Zhengping was concerned about was whether the honeymoon would run too long. His ordinary person’s body couldn’t live more than a hundred years. After some decades, he would be old and feeble. 

But when You Zhengping quietly questioned him about the time law, Yu Hua laughed coldly in the darkness. 

This period of being unable to sense time or space lasted for some unknown time. Suddenly, one day, Yu Hua said to You Zhengping, “I have something to take care of. You be good.” 

Then the surroundings of the little world changed once more. The pitch-black room turned into a bright, sunny large house. In the next room there was Junjun, biting his pen as he solved a problem and Director Ha next to him, helping him with the answers. 

You Zhengping went over to Junjun. Junjun saw him and politely said, “Good morning, Xiao You-gege.”

“Good morning. About how many days has it been?” You Zhengping asked. 

Junjun picked up his homework notebook, looked at the dates on it, and said, “I’ve done three days of homework.” 

Only three days? Why did he feel like it had been three months? 

You Zhengping checked his body and determined that not much time must have passed. If a very long time had passed, his muscles would have atrophied, and his vision would have worsened. But neither of these phenomena had occurred. The most that had happened was that going from dark surroundings to light surroundings hurt his eyes a little. It was fine when he adjusted to it. 

Psychologically, he also didn’t have the unpleasant feeling of having spent a long time in dark surroundings. It was as though he had instinctively felt that not too much time was passing. 

You Zhengping thought, this was Yu Hua’s little world. He was the master of this world. Yu Hua could control all sense of the passage of time in this little world. If he wanted to keep time from passing, then naturally You Zhengping’s sense of time would stretch out. 

Once he had understood this, You Zhengping felt a faint blunt pain in his heart. 

Yu Hua hadn’t done wrong. He possessed fearsome powers and always wanted to behave unscrupulously, but at the critical moments, he would forever use reason to suppress his impulses; he would never really harm You Zhengping. 

Yu Hua had also given the elementary school student who had crossed to a strange world on his own some homework. He must have known that in strange surroundings, something familiar would calm him down. 

You Zhengping stroked Junjun’s head and said soothingly, “You’re very strong.” 

So young, and he had gone through complicated experiences that an adult might not possess in a whole lifetime. 

Junjun pulled a long face and said, “Xiao You-gege, I don’t know how to do this problem.” 

“Which one?” You Zhengping picked up his homework notebook. His expression stiffened. 

“This solid geometry problem. It wants the area of that little piece,” Junjun said. 

You Zhengping hadn’t grown up in the environment of the standard nine years of compulsory education. He wasn’t very familiar with what students currently studied. But despite that, second graders probably shouldn’t be doing solid geometry? 

“Shouldn’t this…be a subject for high school?” You Zhengping said doubtfully. 

“Uncle Yu Hua said it’s for elementary school,” Junjun said, his face full of innocence. “My math grades have never been very good. I may not have learned this yet. Oh, well.” 

His small shoulders curled up. He looked especially mournful. 

“Awooo!” Director Ha cried angrily. 

Unexpectedly, You Zhengping heard the dog’s cry to mean, “Bastard, is this Yu Hua’s own elementary school?” It couldn’t be that he understood dog language. It was that in Yu Hua’s little world, he could get information directly from the dog’s thoughts.

“Aw-aw-awooo!” Director Ha called at length to Junjun. You Zhengping heard terms like “the square of a” and “the dihedral angle.” This was Junjun’s problem. 

“You know how to solve high school solid geometry problems?” You Zhengping said in astonishment. It had been a pretty good explanation. 

“Aw-aw-awwoo!” Director Ha looked haughtily at You Zhengping. 

—It’s not like you don’t know what my ability used to be. Do you think I could control it if I didn’t understand math, physics, and chemistry? 

That did make sense. Looking at Director Ha strutting around arrogantly and looking down on him from the heights of mathematics, You Zhengping rather wanted to laugh. 

Junjun chewed on his pen for a while, then nodded repeatedly. “I know how to do it. Thank you, Xiao Ha!” 

He quickly scribbled the correct method, steps, and answer to the problem in his Elementary School Math (Yu Hua Edition) exercise book. After he answered, he didn’t forget to show off in front of You Zhengping: “The problems in this book are very hard. Xiao Ha has been teaching me.

“Let me tell you a secret,” Junjun said mysteriously. “I might have superpowers! I can understand when Xiao Ha talks!” 

“Aw-aw-awoo!” Director Ha said sternly. 

—What superpowers? Study hard, you have to get into university. Don’t be a special ability user. It’s a hand to mouth life, and you have to battle with Destroyers. It’s dangerous!

You Zhengping said to Director Ha, “Not bad! So you know how bad the Protectors have it. So Destroyers are very dangerous?” 

Director Ha went stiff. Then it started waving its tail towards You Zhengping and begging for mercy: “Awoooo, woooo.” 

—I’ve already been sentenced to “ten years to start, followed by the death penalty,” what else do you want with me?!

You Zhengping had a grudge against Destroyer 192. At the beginning, if Yu Hua hadn’t stepped in, one of his arms would simply have been blown up by Destroyer 192, and Lian Yufan’s spine would have been fractured to dust. There would have been no way to heal those wounds. Even with the Protectors’ startling healing capabilities, they still wouldn’t have healed. 

But now that he heard Director Ha saying the most desperate words in the most cowardly voice, he actually neither hated nor despised it. 

Remembering the mournful cry of the giant abyss beast in the previous world and Yu Hua’s pain, You Zhengping suddenly thought that Protectors and Destroyers were the same people originally. Only they had been placed in different surroundings and had gone in opposite directions, gradually getting further and further apart. 

Having finished the problem that exceeded his syllabus, Junjun suddenly said, “Xiao Ha, you’re wrong, it isn’t ‘ten years to start, followed by the death penalty,’ it’s ‘ten years to start, the death penalty as the highest sentence.’ Those are different punishments. My dad taught me.” 

“Awoo-awoo-awoo!” 

—Those are your punishments. With me, it’s “followed by the death penalty!”

You Zhengping gripped the scruff of Director Ha’s neck. “Don’t talk about that in front of the child. You’ve been in this little world for three days. Have you seen anything strange? Also, where did Yu Hua go? I have a bad feeling.” 

“Aw-aw-wooo,” Director Ha called to You Zhengping and Junjun. 

—There’s a place that feels off. I’ll take you there. Junjun, don’t go out before you’ve finished your problems. I’m going to have this person walk me for a while.

“Oh, all right.” Junjun gritted his teeth and wrote at top speed. He couldn’t let Xiao Ha look down on his math skills, could he? He had to study hard! 

Director Ha let You Zhengping out of the house at a trot and ran towards the depths of the estate. The sun outside was bright and the weather was fine. It was just the sort of climate Yu Hua liked. 

The estate had more than thirty buildings. After turning a corner at a rock garden, a garbage spot appeared in front of them. There was no garbage in the garbage can, and there was no foul smell. But there was a faint sliver of danger. 

“Aw-aw-awoo!” 

—It’s right here, but I feel that it’s very dangerous. I didn’t dare to get close. I don’t know where Yu Hua went. He didn’t say anything to me.

“Thank you. You go back to Junjun,” You Zhengping said to Director Ha. “Don’t leave the house again. That’s definitely the safest and steadiest place in Yu Hua’s little world.” 

“Awwooo!” 

—I don’t need you to tell me that. 

Director Ha rolled its eyes at You Zhengping and ran back with its tail between its legs. 

You Zhengping stood in front of the garbage spot and tried taking a step forward. He felt an obvious obstruction. He wasn’t going to admit defeat. He kept going forward. 

The garbage spot was surrounded in black mist, a giant beast with its mouth open waiting for someone to walk into the trap. There was a feeling that any intruder would be sure to die. 

But You Zhengping ignored this feeling and insisting on charging in. When he met an obstruction, he braced himself and charged forward, going in by brute force. 

This place was like Yu Hua. It had very little resistance to You Zhengping. It held out a little, then made way for him in spite of itself. 

You Zhengping walked into the black mist and saw countless motes of black dust like smog. He stuck his hand into one of the smaller ones, and an image poured into his brain—

A still young and tender seeming Yu Hua roared to his companion, “I told you, don’t mess around, don’t mess around, so why did you still have to go and touch it? Do you know that because you touched that mechanism, an entire other team was wiped out?! Can’t you listen to me?” 

His companion argued on strong grounds, “I’m also pained by their deaths, but who can guarantee that everything you say is absolutely right? Anyway, there was a voice luring me to touch the mechanism. I didn’t do it on purpose!” 

Yu Hua looked at his companion in disappointment. “I also warned you that there might be lures and you had to resist them. I also told you that one person’s actions involve all the others. No mistake can be redeemed.” 

“But are you all-knowing and all-powerful? What are we supposed to do if what you say is wrong? I need my own judgment, don’t I?” the companion said. 

The team members around them came to intervene. There were those aimed at Yu Hua, but there were also those aiming at the companion who had made a mistake. 

Yu Hua didn’t speak again. Through the black dust, You Zhengping heard his inner voice: “Was I wrong? Am I not powerful enough yet? No, it’s that trust isn’t enough to guarantee that the team will listen to me, not enough to suppress their selfish desires. If trust won’t do, then let’s go with fear.” 

This black dust memory ended. You Zhengping quickly went to look at another, larger grain. The image floated up—

Yu Hua stood in the center of a crowd, looking austere. He said to the protesting companion from the previous image, “I’ve already said that anyone who disobeys my orders will be killing their companions. A life for a life. Go ahead and count, how many people did you kill with your stupidity?” 

“I-I-I didn’t mean to. Spare me, I’m begging you!” The person who had dared to resist Yu Hua before now knelt and begged for mercy, and the people around him didn’t intercede for him again. 

“Orders are orders.” Yu Hua pressed down on his head and applied a bit of pressure with his fingers. The person disappeared. 

Some people looked disturbed. Yu Hua swept his gaze over the crowd and slowly said, “Anyone who doesn’t want to follow me can leave. But my ability can increase my team members’ powers and raise their chances of survival. Those who leave me will have their power reduced to its original one half or one third.” 

The people who had been somewhat dissatisfied quickly drew back their expressions and one by one indicated that they were willing to obey Yu Hua. 

“With the lure of power and the bonds of orders and the intimidation of harsh punishments, I can protect more people’s lives,” Yu Hua thought inwardly. 

The black grain disappeared. You Zhengping walked further inside. This wasn’t black smog anymore; these were larger and larger black stones. He put his hand on a stone half as high as a person and felt even dimmer feelings well up in his heart—

“Are you crazy? You want to establish a kingdom of levelers on the central world, split our points evenly, not let newbies pass levels—what kind of autocratic regime is that? Do you want to be another System?” said a companion that You Zhengping hadn’t seen before to Yu Hua. 

Yu Hua said to him, “You’re controlled by the System and can’t know too much. I can’t explain. But I’m doing this for everyone’s good.” 

The companions laughed and shook his head. “You don’t mean that the worlds are real and that everything we do is helping the System encroach on other worlds? The System has been tricking us all along, our homes are long gone, and we harm the ordinary people of other worlds, right?” 

“You know?” Yu Hua’s eyes lit up faintly. 

“Of course I’ve guessed it. Anyone with half a brain can guess it. Nothing is free.” He pointed at his own head. 

“I’m doing this to protect other worlds and prevent the levelers from continuing to do wrong,” Yu Hua said. 

“Bullshit!” the person said. “The weak are prey to the strong. It’s natural. And it’s not like the levelers don’t get benefits. We have superhuman abilities and lifespans and endless pleasure on the central world. Even if the world ends one day and the System swallows me up, I’ll at least have lived this many years, not like those idiots on the shattered worlds who don’t even know how they died!” 

Yu Hua smiled sadly. “So that’s how it is. What you say makes sense.” 

“I’m glad you understand. Stop clinging to your idealism. You can’t save everyone, so take care of yourself,” the person said coldly. 

Yu Hua put a hand on his shoulder. His expression became grave. He quietly said, “You’re right. I have the power to become another System. All the power of those who have given me their ‘allegiance’ and are under my ‘control’ belongs to me.” 

He applied a bit of pressure with his hand and absorbed that person’s ability. The number of levels on his virtual interface descended nonstop until at last it became one level. 

Yu Hua smiled cruelly. “The weak are prey to the strong? Now you’re weak.” 

Amid this person’s screams and pleas for mercy, he turned and left without any forbearance. 

This Yu Hua now had no inward voice. He had sealed his heart and no longer considered anything. 

You Zhengping’s pulse became faster and faster. He kept going deeper inside. In the end, he arrived in front of a black mountain and put his hand on it—

Yu Hua was inside the little world, quietly watching the scene of his once most trusted companions plotting to kill him during level 500. 

This time, he wasn’t saddened, wasn’t grieved. He picked up a cup of wine and sipped it gently. He quietly said, “If you won’t accompany me in resisting the System, then you can give me your power.” 

Yu Hua had at last understood that on the road to resisting the System, he would always be alone. 

---

Author's Note

You Zhengping: I’ll accompany you.