“You mean to say…” Wei Xicheng looked at the man who had just placed a light kiss on his forehead. The hazy moonlight cast a faint glow on his tall and slender figure.
“Yes.” Yu Beiyan nodded and turned to gaze at the beautiful scenery outside. “Time passes both too quickly and too slowly. I can no longer remember how long I’ve been trapped in this virtual world. But the fortunate thing is, I still remember who I am.”
“You’ve always remembered?” Wei Xicheng’s expression turned a little strange. After all those worlds, had this man been pretending to be clueless just to fool him?
“Not exactly.”
Hearing this, Wei Xicheng’s expression softened a little. If this person had been toying with him the entire time, the consequences would have been severe. He glanced at Yu Beiyan’s sharp, well-defined profile. The lover who had followed him through multiple worlds turned out to be someone bound to a system just like him. This realization gave him an unexpected sense of belonging. In worlds like these, people with the same origins and fate were often each other’s only solace.
But why was it only now that this man had regained his memories?
With that thought, Wei Xicheng voiced his question.
Yu Beiyan chuckled, took Wei Xicheng’s hand from his side, and placed it in his palm. The two stood side by side as his deep, magnetic voice was carried to Wei Xicheng’s ears by the wind.
“Before meeting you, I truly didn’t want to remember. After meeting you, every moment became a precious memory—I want to treasure every second I spend with you.”
“Speak in human language.” Wei Xicheng’s ears turned slightly red. On the Sunset Peak, the willow branches swayed, and the cool breeze carried a refreshing chill.
“Being forced to complete missions was unbearable, so I found a way to destroy my system.”
“My system lost its function out of nowhere—was that your doing?”
“Probably… I’m not sure.” Yu Beiyan smiled. “I just traveled through enough strange worlds to figure out a few tricks. As for the actual principles behind these systems, I don’t fully understand them either. Maybe it’s not just us—perhaps others have been bound too, and we just happened to meet.”
“How did you know I had a system?” Wei Xicheng stared at Yu Beiyan, his intense gaze making the latter uncomfortable enough to turn his head. The people on Sunset Peak were gradually dwindling, and the night was growing darker.
“My system was already destroyed. In parallel worlds, I can only exist as a spiritual energy entity. The only way to recover my complete memories is through other people’s systems. When we first met, I sensed it. But at the time, I didn’t know it was a system—I was simply unconsciously drawn to you, and without realizing it, I injected my energy into your system so you could help me store it.”
“So, you were only interested in my system.” Wei Xicheng pulled his hand out of Yu Beiyan’s grasp, crossed his arms, and looked at him with clear, transparent eyes. But the slight smile at the corner of his lips betrayed his good mood.
Ignoring the fact that Yu Beiyan lost his memories in every world, just the countless worlds they had accompanied each other through was enough for Wei Xicheng to trust the man’s character.
“That’s not it.” Yu Beiyan chuckled and pulled him into his arms, but after thinking for a long time, he still couldn’t figure out how to explain it in a way that would satisfy the little one in his embrace.
“So, you remember everything now? Did you drain the extra energy from my system?”
Yu Beiyan shook his head, his tone regretful. “No. Your system upgraded on its own and extracted all the energy. This time, I was able to recall all my memories because…”
He paused, organizing his thoughts before continuing, “When your system upgraded, I found this world. The main AI controlling this game has an enormous database. I managed to integrate part of my memories into it. Since neither of us are truly human, we can use this world to collect more energy…”
Images of all the ways they had “collected energy” in past worlds suddenly flashed through Wei Xicheng’s mind. He swallowed hard. “Are there… other ways to collect energy?”
Seeing Yu Beiyan smiling at him without answering, Wei Xicheng instantly knew—whether or not a second method existed, this shameless scoundrel was never going to tell him.
The distant lights cast a warm atmosphere over the night. The few remaining players lingering on Sunset Peak had long forgotten that above them stood a powerful figure and his NPC.
The two were standing close together, and with the NPC’s enhanced vision perks, the night didn’t hinder Wei Xicheng’s eyesight at all. He could clearly see Yu Beiyan’s face—smooth skin, deep and well-defined features, carrying a hint of aggression under the dark night.
He reached out and touched Yu Beiyan’s cheek. “Is this how you really look?”
“Mm, my skin isn’t this good.” Yu Beiyan tilted his head slightly, causing a few strands of his hair to brush against Wei Xicheng’s face. Surprisingly, a ticklish sensation spread through him—not just from where the hair touched, but from deep inside, making him feel a little uncomfortable.
“Can we still go back?”
Speaking of his real life, Wei Xicheng finally voiced the question that had been lingering in his heart for so long. In truth, he didn’t have high hopes, nor did he feel much anticipation about returning. After experiencing so many different lives in parallel worlds, he had almost become accustomed to his current existence.
But reality and the virtual world were ultimately different. In reality, he had friends and family, whereas here, he had nothing.
Thinking about that, he glanced at Yu Beiyan. If this man hadn’t appeared, he might have wandered aimlessly through parallel worlds for countless years, until he eventually grew weary of it all.
That thought alone filled Wei Xicheng with fear.
When someone loses passion for everything, life becomes meaningless—just a hollow existence, no different from a walking corpse.
Looking back, Wei Xicheng realized how much he had changed. His passion for acting had waned slightly, his attachment to Yu Beiyan had deepened, and his once calm and indifferent heart had been revived with new emotions. The once dull and detached personality he had developed over time had gradually warmed again in these past few worlds.
And it was all because of this man.
Yu Beiyan seemed to sense his gaze and smiled faintly but didn’t answer his question.
At that moment, all the players on Sunset Peak suddenly vanished. Yu Beiyan lifted his NPC and leaped into the air, landing effortlessly on a large rock at the peak.
Wei Xicheng could feel the weight of his own body—it was funny how, apart from the initial pain of being killed, all his other senses remained intact. Even now, he could distinctly feel the coolness of the stone beneath him and the burning warmth from Yu Beiyan’s body.
“Xicheng, I want to see your real face.”
Yu Beiyan gazed at the person beneath him. Since they were both chosen by the system, the faces they wore in each world couldn’t possibly be their true appearances. The Wei Xicheng in the last world had also been a traveler, meaning the current face—Mu Shuyang’s—wasn’t really his.
Yu Beiyan wanted to know the real him, from the inside out.
“What if I’m ugly?” Wei Xicheng suddenly asked, his expression serious.
As an acting student, Wei Xicheng knew he had a good-looking face. But at this moment, he suddenly wanted to scare Yu Beiyan a little. Maybe it was just a mischievous streak in him—he wanted to know that what Yu Beiyan liked was him, not just a face.
“You’re overthinking it. The system doesn’t pick ugly people as hosts.”
Yu Beiyan responded just as seriously.
Wei Xicheng, who had been expecting a heartfelt reassurance: …
Alright, he shouldn’t have had any expectations in the first place.
“The system selects people who meet certain standards to complete its assigned tasks. Whether it’s appearance, temperament, intelligence, or learning ability, everything has to be above average for someone to qualify as a host.”
Yu Beiyan looked at Wei Xicheng’s blank expression and couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “So don’t worry, I won’t dislike you because of your looks.”
“Great. And how do you know that?” Wei Xicheng gritted his teeth. This man was really getting better at making people angry. Worse still, he always left him speechless, unable to argue back.
“After I destroyed the system, I absorbed part of its information.”
…
Wei Xicheng still assumed he had the same average, clean-cut face of a detective NPC. He wiped his face and muttered, “I’d love to change it, but I can’t.”
“Just picture your real self in your mind.”
Yu Beiyan’s gaze didn’t waver as he watched the person before him. A thin mist seemed to cover Wei Xicheng’s face, and as that veil gradually faded, the first thing revealed was a pair of starry, beautiful eyes.
A delighted chuckle slipped from Yu Beiyan’s throat. Before the mist had completely disappeared, he had already found that familiar softness and pressed against it.
The wind was gentle, the night was still, and a whispered “I finally know you” drifted through the serene beauty of Sunset Peak.
Wei Xicheng gave the man on top of him a little push, his heart filled with complicated emotions. Though he always returned to his original appearance in the system’s space, this was the first time he had ever revealed his real self to someone else.
Yu Beiyan lightly nibbled on Wei Xicheng’s lips, pressing against them gently. “If we could go back, would you want to?”
“Mmm… yeah.”
To say he didn’t want to would be a lie. Even though reality didn’t necessarily feel any more real than this world, at least in reality, he had a sense of existence. He wasn’t just a wandering soul drifting endlessly through space.
“Alright.” Yu Beiyan’s voice was soft, followed by a more aggressive kiss.
Wei Xicheng was caught off guard, and any questions he had vanished from his mind.
Yet, his heart felt as though it had been coated in honey.
As if all the loneliness and hardships he had endured were meant to lead him to this moment—to this person, who reignited his hope in life.
And that was a beautiful thing.
Author’s Note:
sigh (ಥ﹏ಥ) I gave this world the wrong name—it should’ve been The Most Dramatic NPC in History.
You guys said the last chapter felt like a finale and scared me for a moment. Do I really seem that short and fast to you guys?!
