The heaven with eternal daylight suddenly faded into darkness.
Only a light remained at the centre of that boundless dark night.
Gentle, but gorgeous – it could almost be described as a being full of splendor.
It was a singer.
It looked as if he was the only being in the darkness. At this moment, he was the centre of the black night. All audience seats hidden under the cloak of the night were silently floating in the air like planets.
And he was the one and only Sun.
Melodies as magnificent as psalms started flowing out from his lips. The top-tier audio equipment faithfully delivered his voice to the ears of every audience, all intact, as if he had been whispering close to one’s ears.
When the entire song was reaching its climax, a pair of huge white wings instantly spread out from the singer’s shoulders. What a beautiful scene it was – the audiences at the scene held their breaths almost all at once. Many people were so moved that they were in tears, and they didn’t even realize that they were.
Only until those white wings suddenly splintered into a torrent of white light spots and disappeared in the air, did the thunderous hand-clapping sound resonate from all directions across the darkness. Showered in applause and whistles, the singer at the centre waved at the audience, beaming.
The surrounding was still shrouded in darkness, and the singer remained the only light in the dark.
In the darkness, a man sitting somewhere right in front of the singer stood up abruptly.
It’s the best seat in this concert – like a real planet, it could circle around the singer according to its owner’s will, so that the spectator could watch the concert from the best viewing angle during the whole performance.
It’s a seat which, even with thousands of golds spent, would be hard to obtain. But now, its owner had abandoned it. Tossing a final glimpse at the singer who was about to sing the next song, he moved his long legs, and stepped down the dark stairs without looking back. As he moved, a pair of wings almost identical to those of the singer suddenly bloomed behind his back. When they bloomed, a faint, tinkling sound from the frictions of metals could be heard under the snow-white feathers.
No matter how soft they looked like, that pair of wings were obviously composed of metals!
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The owner of the metal wings was about to walk out of the concert. Ahead of him, a sweeping view of brightness had already appeared – white sky, white floor, white walls – it was the eternal daylight this world had been accustomed to.
The moment that the light illuminated his face, this man who had long concealed himself in the dark night eventually revealed his true countenance.
It was a very handsome face, which could almost be described as perfection.
He had silvery white hair and pupils slightly deeper than his hair color. His fine nose bridge was straight and high, under which were a pair of thin lips.
Almost all people who saw him would be stunned, not for his beauty beyond description, but because at least 3/4 of his face and body was glimmering with metallic luster. Like the feathered wings on his back, the majority parts of his body were composed of metals!
The instant he stepped out of the darkness, he turned his head to look back. The singer’s voice was still faintly lingering around his ears, yet he could not see anything in the darkness now from his perspective.
Then he lifted his foot, and left firmly.
“Tbeg Zjpfras, atf olcji qgfqjgjalbc tjr yffc mbwqifafv. Po kf rfa boo cbk, kf klii jgglnf ja atf vfralcjalbc joafg olnf wlceafr. Ccv atfc, joafg j vjs jcv j cluta, sbe klii jmtlfnf lwwbgajilas.” Vfnfgji wfc vbccfv lc wjuclolmfca ktlaf gbyfr delmxis mjwf bnfg. Ktfs xfqa j mfgajlc vlrajcmf ogbw atf wjc mjgfoeiis, klat atflg fsfr oeii bo ofgnbg jcv gfrqfma.
“Let’s go.” Until now, the man finally spoke.
His voice was cold and clear, also resembling metals.
On the twelfth day of the second month in Year 99, the Methentahl Calendar, His Majesty Asheville Methentahl achieved “immortality”. His reign was able to last. After hearing the news, many of his subjects living in the “eternal daylight” even broke into tears. They ran out of their houses one after another, worshiping at the direction of the white tower faraway. They used all kinds of ways to express the fervor and excitement in their hearts.
This day was later regarded as the birthday of His Majesty Methentahl, who did not know his own birthday. People would celebrate this day as a festival.
* * *
One day in Year 349, the Calendar of Chaos
Still in the darkness.
Unlike the artificially created darkness in that concert, the darkness here was real.
A strange faint smell was floating in the air. Even without vision, one could still judge by the sense of smell, that the surrounding environment was unpleasant.
He was standing in front of the Gate.
During the immortal years in which he merged his human brain with smart brain, when he was away from monotonous works, he used to deduce, for countless times, the various scenarios that could happen at that moment. It’s like solving a math problem – He considered all conditions, and the result of every deduction had been the same.
As if he had been chosen by the fate, in whatever scenario, he would always ascend to the supreme throne of power, achieve the so-called immortality, and be trapped in the tedious years.
All kinds of deductions became his only game.
And today is no different from those countless deductions in the past. When he was really standing in front of the Gate, in the beginning, he would always believe it to be a dream, a certain model, a deduction that was excessively true.
Up till this moment, he suddenly remembered. Yes, every time in the past, he had opened this Gate.
All changes in variables he had simulated were after he opened the Gate. He had never thought of choosing “not opening the Gate”.
Because he hated darkness.
He would instinctively believe that “not opening the Gate” meant “death”.
However –
Staring quietly at the Gate in his sight for a moment, the hand he held out fell down.
Turning around, he firmly walked towards the opposite direction.
The various fates after opening the Gate had all been controlled in the palm of his hand. This time, he chose not to open it.
Death. So what?
He had experienced what’s worse than death.
In the dark, he quietly left that Gate.
Before, he started his new fates in front of this Gate. Today, he ended his fate before it.
Author has something to say:
A new story finally begins today.
Although I’m now in a cold, with a sore throat and runny nose, I decide not to procrastinate any longer.
I haven’t thought about the names of the two protagonists of this story. To put it more precisely, their names weren’t on my notes – neither beside Morgan nor under Ji Huan (Translator’s note: the main characters in the author’s two other books). However, the image of Gong – one of the main characters of this story – has been in my mind for a long time.
As early as in 2009.
It’s somewhat incredible that he’s been there for so long.
It is to say that I have always wanted to write him, but I didn’t.
When I was writing There Is No Afterlife, I used to want to overlap his image with that of Olivia, but no, I couldn’t do it…
And then he continued to exist in my mind.
As if within a layer of thick, hard ice, he opened his icy eyes and watched me coldly.
I don’t know who he is, but I have known him for a long time.
At last, I decide to write him out in this story, to return that person in his life back to him. Perhaps, the ice can melt.
And I don’t have to be watched coldly.
It’s a little abstract, but it’s a fact.
Today when I was writing the story, and I turned on the music by chance, the name of the song that I randomly bumped into was “I don’t wanna live forever”.
Just like fate.
So now, the new journey will begin.
As usual, there are no stored drafts nor designed settings. I might be slow in writing in the beginning, just to grasp every character’s temperament. Later it will get better.
As always, thanks for everyone’s support!
Oooo~ sounds interesting. Thanks for the chapter! ❤
OMG I love his name! It sounds handsome and unique to me.
Author’s imagination is so great! OwO
Thank you so much for picking this up!
Interesting owo
hei hei hei~ I’m here from there is no afterlife!
yue xia sang dada is awesome!!!
!!! no wonder the name uabis sounded so familiar!
I’m gonna have to reread no afterlife to find fragments of xiao mei (੭ु｡╹▿╹｡)੭ु⁾⁾
I’ve finished reading the story but I will follow your translations too as a lurker! ︿(￣︶￣)︿