Chapter 1 : Chapter 1
Chapter 01:The Peaceful, Happy End of the World
A quick warning up front: this “God-Tier BE Theater” is just for fun and has no connection whatsoever to the main story. It is perfectly normal for the protagonist to act out of character, for the settings to contradict each other, and for the whole thing to lapse into wild nonsense. Please read it in that same just-for-fun spirit.
Also, this BE contains full spoilers for all cases in the second playthrough.
I—
1.【Press the button】
2.【Close the window】
——————
【Press the button】
—In an ordinary galgame setting, there would be no need to think about this at all. If I was not allowed to interfere in the girls’ lives, become someone special in their hearts, and ultimately unlock special CGs with them, then what the hell would I even have transmigrated for?
But... this place was different.
The instant I awakened in this world, 【death】 had already taken tangible form and hung over my head.
If the death called Bingshang Meilulu was still something I could barely hypnotize myself into ignoring, then the death named Baosheng Mage Shaonü made me fully understand that there was no romance here, no youth, no hope.
This was nothing more than a twisted final stage for a group of people who had already died on a social level, their last struggle at the edge of death.
【Master, you have made a choice that belongs to you. I will never question it, because no matter what you choose, you will always be the Master I love most.】
A dialogue box popped up on the screen from the so-called YUKI Love System.
【Perhaps this is the best choice for you after all, Master. In any case, my mission ends here. Then may you, this time, attain a sunlit dream from which you will never wish to awaken.】
After saying that, the strange love system vanished just like that. No matter how many times I refreshed my phone or restarted it, it never appeared again.
For some reason, I felt an indescribable ache in my chest... as though I had completely, utterly lost something precious that I should never have let go of.
【Nikaidou Shiro: Don’t be late for lunch.】
The text from Nikaidou Shiro interrupted that inexplicable wave of gloom. Perhaps the strange sense of loss from just now was simply homesickness, stirred up after transmigrating into another world.
It was a pity my Chinese teacher had not transmigrated along with me. Otherwise, he surely would have been able to analyze with ease exactly what emotion the author was trying to convey here.
——————
Although that AI had said that I “would no longer become the target of murderous intent caused by witchification,” that only made me more uneasy instead. After all, it had offered no collateral whatsoever as a guarantee. I was not stupid enough to believe that simply pressing a button meant I could ascend on the spot to become the chief disciple of the Fengling Yueying Sect.
Because of that, I began deliberately distancing myself from Nikaidou Shiro. During that witchification progress check, I had realized that she was the single most unstable factor among all of them. For my own safety, I should avoid having too much contact with her.
By contrast, Yingyu Emma and Zuobo Milia were excellent choices. During that same witchification progress check, both of them had displayed extraordinarily stable mental states.
More than that, Yingyu Emma and Zuobo Milia each had their own little circles already. By associating with them appropriately, I quickly used the two of them as points of entry and gradually to fit into? Wait cannot Chinese. Need fix.
I quickly used the two of them as points of entry and worked my way into this group of witch candidates.
Everyone gradually grew accustomed to my presence. Although the presence of a boy among them did create awkward moments from time to time, under the way I handled my relationships, those little embarrassments instead became seasoning in an otherwise flat and tedious life.
As for Nikaidou Shiro, Heibu Naiyexiang, and Ju Xueli, I never had any deeper contact with them again. At most, we would nod when we met, or I would simply take out my phone and pretend to check my messages so I could avoid their gazes.
They were too unstable. They would be the greatest variables threatening my peaceful and happy life.
And in truth, that was exactly what happened.
It was on an entirely ordinary day. Lianjian Leiya was still tirelessly leading a group around as they fussed over that stage play of theirs, the one none of them even knew who they were performing for. Sometimes I would sit by as its sole audience member and watch that hole-ridden performance. Sometimes I would even go on stage and fill in for some minor supporting role when a stand-in failed to show up.
While I was temporarily taking over Yingyu Emma’s role during rehearsal, an unsettling scream rang out from the courtyard on the first floor.
When we reached the scene—we saw Zedu Keke, the girl who styled herself as a streamer even though hardly anyone watched her streams and she had no close companions to speak of.
Only this time, she appeared before us as a corpse.
Yingyu Emma and Nikaidou Shiro were locked in the Punishment Room as the primary suspects, while the rest of us had to investigate the evidence and find the real culprit before the time limit ran out.
I took an active part in the investigation, because I did not want a murderous witch to escape judgment. A being like that would undoubtedly threaten my peaceful life as well.
And yet, judging from the outcome, my investigation contributed very little. One could even say that whether I had been there or not made no difference whatsoever to the Witch Trial.
The true culprit—the one whose mind had been eroded by witchification and who had fallen into becoming a witch—was neither Yingyu Emma nor Nikaidou Shiro, but the mysterious sniper girl who had once regarded me as the mastermind behind everything: Heibu Naiyexiang.
Wonderful. One more unstable danger who had been hostile to me was gone. Wonderful.
The only thing that surprised me was that, during Heibu Naiyexiang’s execution, that guard with the headband—the one who had always seemed rather polite to me—suddenly rushed forward and threw herself in front of Heibu Naiyexiang.
Heh. One fewer guard too. This Witch Trial had really been lucky. From now on, my life ought to become even happier and more peaceful.
...Why did I feel as though I wanted to vomit up even my heart?
——————
After Heibu Naiyexiang killed Zedu Keke, everyone sank into depression for a while. But in the end, they all realized that life had to go on.
At that point, the stage play Lianjian Leiya had been tirelessly trying to organize became the bond holding everyone together. They began pouring even more effort into its production.
Costumes, script, stage design, movements—every single person gave it everything they had.
Even though everyone knew full well that performing a play with no audience would be meaningless, not a single person said so aloud.
That illusory dream was the only thing sustaining their sanity, and it was also the necessary condition for me to continue enjoying my calm and happy daily life.
Once the play ended, what would they use to keep numbing themselves then?
No one knew the answer, because in the end even the stage play itself was never performed as scheduled.
—Chengqi Nuoya killed Xiamu An’an.
I went through the motions of participating in the investigation. Went through the motions of attending the Witch Trial. Went through the motions of watching Nikaidou Shiro drag the hidden witch out from among the crowd.
Nuoya... how strange. She had been just like Yingyu Emma, one of the girls who had extended a hand to me when I had first arrived on Prison Island, lost and helpless. So why had I gradually drifted away from her in silence afterward?
At this point, there was no meaning in looking back and trying to remember where that branch in the road had begun.
During the execution, Nuoya seemed to say something, but I did not hear it clearly, and I did not particularly care.
Witches were the enemies that threatened my peaceful and happy everyday life. If that was the case, then they should die.
Once every last witch was dead, the happiness that truly belonged to me would arrive.
I believed that with all my heart.
——————
That peaceful life had still not fully arrived. Witches continued to appear, one after another.
Yuanye Hanna killed Lianjian Leiya. Yuanye Hanna killed Yingyu Emma.
I did not participate in the investigation. I merely watched as Nikaidou Shiro, with an expression on the verge of tears, exposed the witch in the courtroom.
As expected of my demon of law. I had thought you would be the greatest obstacle to my happiness, but in truth, you were the knight who protected it.
I love you, Nikaidou Shiro.
So keep killing witches. Keep purging what is wrong. Keep protecting the cause of justice.
——————
When Ziteng Yalisha came running over to tell me that Nikaidou Shiro had killed herself, I truly was a little surprised.
I had thought “suicide” was an absolute taboo line Nikaidou Shiro could never cross, but it seemed that within this peaceful and happy daily life, she too had managed to grow.
This time, there was not even a Witch Trial. The final two survivors, Ziteng Yalisha and Zuobo Milia, remained in their room resting, while I basked in the sun with the warden in the courtyard.
This was nothing more than the most ordinary kind of suicide. There was no need to dwell on it.
Just keep maintaining it. Maintain this hard-won, tiny little happy daily life.
——————
Zuobo Milia and Ziteng Yalisha committed suicide together. Yalisha’s eyeballs turned into beautiful gemstone crystals.
Although Milia had not become a witch even at the very end, Yalisha had failed to resist her fall.
And so Milia chose to sacrifice herself, to give Yalisha the courage to journey into death together.
How wonderful. Now there really were no witches left. My peaceful and happy daily life had finally arrived.
——————
How many batches of witch candidates had there been by now?
At first, I had to memorize my opening self-introduction in advance. Now I could recite it without even thinking.
I am the gatekeeper of this prison. I am neither a witch, nor the “mastermind,” nor a “government agent.”
I am merely an ordinary person you could find anywhere, someone who only wishes to embrace my own little bit of happiness.
So from here on out, let us all get along well together. Surely, surely we can live a happy and peaceful life.
——————
My feet were already gone, and my left hand was melting too.
From the warden, I learned the truth of what had happened.
Among this batch of witch candidates, there seemed to be one witch whose magic was something called 【Witch Killer】.
A very long time ago, a Great Witch had spread “witch factors” into every corner of the Earth.
And 【Witch Killer】 was a magic capable of killing every carrier of a witch factor.
Was the world about to end? To be honest, I felt no real sense of it. All I knew was that I really did seem to be dying.
That girl had not targeted me with any killing intent, but 【Witch Killer】 had still listed me as one of its indiscriminate targets.
Before my consciousness fully faded, I heard a voice I had not heard in a very, very long time.
For some reason, that voice made me want to cry.
【We finally meet again, Rong.】