C32 (2/2)

”Perhaps —” I was about to continue to push the donkey along the slope, but I was interrupted by 43.

”— Why it doesn't matter anymore. Other than me, everyone else has turned to dust.”

”Did you see that door?” 43 asked lightly.

I did see a door as the blue liquid plunged into me.

Something behind that door seemed to summon me.

”P...” 2... 7 … ” Lina finished writing another set. Flipping it over was the word ”brush” on the ”calligraphy paper”.

Pen? I racked my brain to think back quickly, as if I had never seen chalk since I moved in.

Could it be that I remembered the sequence of the decoding?

But I don't have the time to think about that --

”Door? Oh! ”I saw it …” I quickly composed myself.

”Then what did it take as a 'sacrifice'?” 43 He tilted his head and looked me up and down.

”What do you mean?” I don't understand.

”Don't you know? Don't you have a memory of God? ” Alpha revealed an expression of doubt: ”You must contribute something in order to reach the 'door'. ”Look at me …”

43 slowly opened his arms. His expression was one of neither joy nor sadness:

”It took my time.”

Time?

He pulled back his sleeves. They were covered with wounds, some of which were already very faint, some of which looked as though they had just been sewn together and were bleeding.

”Before I arrived at the door, it showed me all the time of my life — from growing up to getting old to dying. ”Since I returned from the 'door', the time in my body has stopped.”

”I will never grow old again, and I will never feel the passage of time. My body will forever be frozen at a certain moment in the past — from the moment the Spring of Life farm is destroyed, my body will never grow up, and the wounds on my body will never scab.”

”What did you see before you reached the door?”

I think back to those few seconds --

I saw a drop of blood, a drop that was infinitely enlarged and eventually turned into a universe.

”I think I saw a drop of blood. But I don't know what that means. And no one — did you get a part of your memory of God when you were injected? ”

”Yes, it told me its name.” 43 smiled.

”Then its name is …”

”Well, one last question,” 43 interrupted, clearly not wanting to answer either. He opened the bolt skillfully and asked:

”Have you opened the door?”

In the silence, there was only the sound of the gun being loaded.

After I answer this question, my head will explode the next second.

”I …”

”Forget it, I actually don't care about what's behind the door at all —” Alpha laughed as he raised his spear, ”I ah, other than this world, I don't want to go anywhere else … I am a monster created by this world. ”

Almost at the same time, I translated the last two sets of passwords written by Lina:

The word ”other” and the word ”to be able to forget”.

Peter.

Peter, that's a familiar name. Was it the blind kitten that survived?

Lina exerted all her might to tell me these two words, chalk, Peter.

Where did I see chalk?

and my brain was working so fast, I thought about all the people I'd ever seen --

My home, Lina — Alpha — Maria — Johnson — Real — Dream — 608 — 610 — Corridor — —

Why is chalk the key — chalk — in class — drawing when you were a kid — drawing!

Put the gun on my head.

I closed my eyes.