True Apocalypse Game

A mischievous smile played on Shen Feng’s face as he watched Mexico City petrify in the distance. A genuine sense of satisfaction welled up inside him.

It was the satisfaction of destruction and ruin, like popping the bubbles on bubble wrap, crushing cookies in a tin, or toppling a meticulously arranged line of dominoes.

Destructive’s voice came again:

"We are the same. This desire for destruction and ruin is buried deep in your heart. One day, it will burst forth, and you will understand what true happiness is, what the meaning of existence is..."

After a pause, he continued:

"The meaning of existence is destruction. The meaning of survival is death!"

Destructive’s voice carried a seductive, corrupting tone. He clearly wanted to stoke Shen Feng’s inner desire for destruction and pull him over to his side.

Shen Feng let out a dry laugh, shook his head, and said:

"This prankish desire for destruction is a completely different concept from your psychologically dark, twisted, pure evil. For the record, I also enjoy creation... so save your ridiculous attempts to corrupt me. You might be better at being dark and twisted, but when it comes to Hypnosis, your little tricks are a joke."

As if Shen Feng had struck a nerve, Destructive fell silent and said no more.

Shen Feng understood how he felt.

He’d had victory firmly in his grasp, with complete control over his opponent’s life and death. But in the end, he discovered he had fallen into a trap from the very beginning, leading to his instant and total collapse.

’How could he accept it?’

But at this point, Destructive also understood that nothing could be undone.

This powerful Stone Statue Virus was the perfect counter to the zombies; its incredibly high infection rate was simply unstoppable.

Shen Feng stretched, walked out of the hospital, and onto the street. He examined the petrified zombies as he spoke in a nonchalant, offhand manner:

"Seeing as how things are, you’re dead for sure. We might as well have a proper chat. To be honest, I feel a bit bad about this... After all, I’m killing myself."

His tone was completely sincere, with no trace of pretense.

’He really did feel a bit bad.’

After all, even if his counterpart in this world was monstrously evil, they had once shared the same experiences, the same memories, a similar soul.

Things had just taken a wrong turn at some fork in the road, and so they had become different.

A stream of information flowed from Destructive’s Consciousness Field. He seemed to scoff at Shen Feng’s words, saying:

"Hah. Stop the act. You’ll gain immense benefits by killing me, just as I would have by killing you. At this point, why bother faking empathy?"

Although the petrification was gradually spreading across the globe, all the Transfer Towers under Destructive’s control had extremely powerful signal transmission capabilities. Even with only one left, communicating with Shen Feng from Hai City in East Asia was no difficult task.

Hearing this, Shen Feng was taken aback. He said:

"Benefits? What benefits? You’re you, and I’m me. If I kill you, what, am I supposed to absorb your energy? Like in that terrible movie Jet Li made, *Cosmic Pursuit Order*? If that’s the case, that’s just too lame..."

His tone was earnest; he genuinely didn’t understand what was going on.

When Destructive had suddenly shown killing intent toward him earlier, he had simply assumed it was out of pure malice, never considering any potential benefits.

"So, why did you want to kill me?" Shen Feng asked.

’It seems I overlooked the reason for it all.’

Hearing Shen Feng’s words and realizing he wasn’t lying, Destructive was stunned for a moment before giving a bitter smile.

"So, it seems I jumped to conclusions... I should have befriended you, gotten you to lower your guard, and then found an opportunity for a fatal blow... but it’s too late for that now."

Shen Feng felt a pang of regret for this other version of himself. He nodded and said:

"Exactly. ’Plan, then act’ is our usual way of doing things. You must have been too deeply influenced by the Master of the Void, and your mind wasn’t clear since you’d only just woken up. Otherwise, my chances of winning would have been extremely low. But there are no ’what ifs.’ It is what it is."

As he spoke, he walked into a streetside cafe with large, floor-to-ceiling windows. He sat down by a window, lounging lazily in the chair with his feet propped up on the edge of the table, and watched the city outside continue to turn to stone.

Reyes and Colin followed closely behind Shen Feng. Seeing Mr. Shen sit down, the two immediately found some coffee beans and a coffee pot. They rinsed them with purified water from a bottle and began to grind the beans by hand.

Colin chopped up a stool, lit a small bonfire with a match, and prepared to brew coffee for Mr. Shen.

A moment ago, they had been certain they were dead. After all, the monster who looked exactly like Mr. Shen was terrifyingly powerful. Who would have thought that in a sudden turn of events, their enemy would suffer such a swift and total defeat?

Not only that, but the zombies in the street, and even inside the cafe, had all turned into stone statues, completely neutralized. They were ecstatic.

For this reason, their loyalty to Mr. Shen was absolute. They would never leave his side, and had already accepted their roles as his servants.

The aroma of coffee gradually filled the cafe. Shen Feng had chosen a spot with a good view, allowing him to see all the way to the ends of several streets.

He could see zombies in the distance, completely unaware of their impending doom. They continued to wander through the city’s ruins until they too were infected by the Stone Statue Virus and swiftly became lifelike statues.

"Have you ever heard of the Whisperer?" Shen Feng asked suddenly.

Destructive’s voice came again, much calmer this time.

"No. What is that? I think I’ve seen that name in some Parallel Cosmoses, but it didn’t seem important, so I paid it no mind... Those Parallel Cosmoses were interesting, though."

Shen Feng nodded slightly. He had been prepared for this.

After all, the Master of the Void had already achieved great success in this world, so it was natural that the Whisperer would have no part to play.

"Interesting?" he asked, curious. "How so?"

"Hah..." Destructive replied. "Those worlds were all dead Cosmoses. Earth was long extinguished—either slaughtered by mad machines, blown to smithereens, burned into a ball of molten rock by the sun, or turned into a vast Water World... The name ’Whisperer’ was carved on a stone along with some other names. I don’t know what it meant."

A chill went down Shen Feng’s spine. He instantly understood: Destructive was describing worlds where the Whisperer had already succeeded in bringing about the apocalypse!

Destructive fell silent for a moment, then asked:

"Do you... have friends? Are you lonely?"

As if he felt the question was too soft, he immediately added, "You don’t have to answer that."

Just then, the coffee finished brewing. Reyes and Colin brought over a white porcelain cup, presenting it carefully to Shen Feng.

Shen Feng nodded his thanks, took the cup, and took a small sip. He let the rich, smooth coffee slide down his throat before speaking slowly:

"Friends? I have many... Lifelong buddies, uncles and aunts who always looked after me, a naive girl who grew up eating cockroaches in the apocalypse, and even a neurotic, fiery-tempered artificial intelligence..."

As he spoke, a soft smile appeared on Shen Feng’s face.

Then, as he drank his coffee, he began to recount in detail the various experiences he had only briefly mentioned before.

He included all the details of his experiences: Kuafu’s eyeball, Firefly’s glowing tattoos, Ji Jiuyun’s electrical waves, and so on. He also spoke of his like-minded comrades in the Salvation Army, and the sacrifices and contributions they had made.

And of course, there was the mysterious and unpredictable Whisperer, as well as Cthulhu and his Purification Society.

He told it all, bit by bit, drawing Destructive into his story. At times, Destructive would laugh along with Shen Feng, at others he would shout in anger, or express regret over certain events.

It was as if these were Destructive’s own experiences.

Destructive, in turn, occasionally shared some of his own experiences: his life’s regrets, the immense joy of his success in the medical field, the tragic death of Ji Xin, and so on.

Their childhoods had been identical, their paths only diverging later. When they spoke of their time in the orphanage, they would either seethe with shared hatred or burst into hearty laughter.

It was as if they were two old friends who knew each other inside and out.

Time ticked by, and the sky gradually darkened. Reyes and Colin lit the bonfire to illuminate the cafe. They also found some food, and after preparing it, brought it over to Shen Feng.

Shen Feng ate a little and learned that Destructive, back in Asian Sea City, had also emerged from a Transfer Tower to make himself a meal.

Separated by thousands of miles, they raised their cups to each other from afar, sharing a drink in their own way.

After their meal, it was as if they had completely forgotten their brutal fight to the death, forgotten that the Stone Statue Virus was spreading across the globe and would reach Hai City in a day or two. Instead, they continued to talk all through the night.

During their conversation, Destructive even helped Shen Feng analyze the origins of the Whisperer, though they ultimately failed to reach any clear conclusions.

They talked about everything. Shen Feng opened his heart to Destructive, revealing his inner darkness and the many hardships he had endured. Destructive, in turn, confessed to Shen Feng the slight guilt he felt for destroying the world—it wasn’t much, but it was enough to make him uncomfortable.

Shen Feng didn’t rest at all, yet he seemed to feel no fatigue.

No one had ever understood him so completely, just as no one had ever understood Destructive so completely.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye. By the morning of the third day, Destructive’s Consciousness Field had grown much weaker, less than one percent of its original strength.

Yet he sounded calmer than ever as he said to Shen Feng:

"Hah, I can already see the zombies around Hai City starting to petrify. I’m dying."

Shen Feng nodded.

"It’s about time... I enjoyed our chat."

Destructive gave a dry chuckle.

"Me too. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a good conversation... I really am something else... Oh, right. I still haven’t told you the consequences of us destroying each other... It has to do with entropy, you see."