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Bonus chapter! Thank you to UnholyHuman for the donation! ^^
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The Black Tree Monster devoured human memories, storing them there in the form of a mysterious fluid, which was why he always heard a "gulping" sound.
This flexible black branch could absorb the memory fluid and transfer it.
Gui Sheng naturally wouldn't have taken this item privately; Ning Su had told him to keep it in his little underworld pocket dimension.
At the end of the instance, it suddenly occurred to him: the dark Ling Xiao had said the system extracted his nerves to enhance the Black Tree Monster.
Was this most crucial item in the instance, the Transfer Neuron, related to Ling Xiao's nerves?
Ning Su pinched the soft Transfer Neuron.
The Black Tree Monster had been destroyed by him. The system's reward announcement mentioned the core NPC's demise, meaning the Black Tree Monster was the demon master of the <Shared Memories> instance.
Even though the demon master was gone, this Transfer Neuron should be useless now. Yet, the system's punishment for him—deducting all points and items—was on the same level as if he had taken out a Ghost Master.
This shows that the transfer neuron is an extremely important thing—even if the Dark Tree Monster perishes, it remains so.
It really might be Ling Xiao’s neural derivative.
If that’s the case, then Ling Xiao’s heart is with him, Ling Xiao’s nerves are with him, and it could even be said that part of Ling Xiao’s memories are with him too.
"……"
The system must want to kill him even more now.
He could keep the heart inside his body, but the neuron still had to be returned to Ling Xiao.
The Ling Xiao outside didn’t know any of this—it had to be returned to the other half of Ling Xiao, the one who had extracted the memories.
In the room, Gui Sheng’s commands could be heard as he rode the robot vacuum, along with the sound of the little skeleton hopping onto the window to wipe the glass.
Ning Su lazily turned over on the sofa, closed his eyes, and gripped the transfer neuron.
Ling Xiao’s memory world was as empty and dim as the last time. He was sitting alone under that black tree.
The moment Ning Su entered, Ling Xiao opened his eyes and looked directly at the transfer neuron in Ning Su’s hand.
"I came to return this to you." Faced with this great demon, Ning Su very tactfully handed the neuron over at once.
Ling Xiao, for his part, didn’t stand on ceremony at all and took the transfer neuron directly.
The transfer neuron vanished in his hand.
Ning Su crouched in front of him, watching it disappear, and asked, "Is this your neural derivative?"
"Mm. With some repairs, it can still be used," Ling Xiao said.
After speaking, he fell silent for a long time, staring fixedly at one spot.
Ning Su followed his gaze to the name on his own tie. "……"
When entering Ling Xiao’s memory space, he was wearing the same clothes he had on before entering. He had collapsed on the sofa after returning home and hadn’t changed yet.
Ling Xiao let out a disdainful laugh. "And this is the person with the cleanest memories? Such a nasty possessiveness."
Ning Su: "Possessiveness?"
His beautiful peach-blossom eyes held a pure confusion, and his face, ever since becoming a zombie, naturally carried a certain stillness. To someone formed from dark memories, this appearance was like a foolish rabbit delivered right to his doorstep.
"Yeah." He smiled, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
His fingers pinched the tie, pulling Ning Su a little closer. "Did he very seriously loop the tie around your neck, then right here, tie a firm knot?"
Ning Su was taken aback for a moment.
He had no memory of this and could only rely on his imagination.
But what was frightening was that—perhaps because they were the same person—the scene he imagined was exactly what had happened.
Ling Xiao looked at Ning Su’s slightly stunned expression and smiled with a mix of delight and mischief. “Using a tie with your own name to tie you up and make a knot—doesn’t it feel like you’ve become him, like you’ve become my possession?”
Ning Su’s eyes widened slightly.
Ling Xiao pulled him even closer, tilting his head just enough to avoid bumping noses. “My little treasure, my little rose—is that what you are?”
Ning Su’s gaze shifted. “Just hearing you describe it, I’m not entirely clear about that feeling. Would you be willing to let me try it myself?”
“Try what?”
Ning Su pulled another tie from his pocket—this one with his own name clearly visible at the top.
Ling Xiao stared at the tie for a few seconds in silence, then looked up with a smile. “You want to make me your possession?”
“My body can temporarily belong to you, but not my soul. Is that what you want?”
Ning Su: “?”
He thought for a minute, using his fairly sharp mind and the limited experience he’d gained from a few romance novels.
What kind of playboy line was that?
A high-IQ way of proposing a one-night stand?
Ning Su: “…”
Don’t say things like that with that face!
His ears turning red, Ning Su shot him an accusatory look and stood up a little too quickly.
Ling Xiao lifted his dark, profound eyes, his tone both detached and suggestive. “Weren’t you the one who said it? That you’re my little heart-container, my cosmic rose—why are you getting shy now?”
Ning Su was acutely aware of just how different this Ling Xiao was from the one with a physical body and a handful of pure memories.
This version, formed from dark memories, seemed to embody humanity’s shadow self—his being saturated with bloodshed, violence, and desire.
Ning Su felt a complicated emotion stirring within him. He recognized the danger this version posed, yet he also found the separation deeply cruel.
He was like a man utterly devoid of light.
Ning Su sat back down in front of him and asked, "Last time you said you could send me to your world to take a look. Was that true?"
"You want to go?" Ling Xiao’s smile faded as he asked calmly.
Ning Su nodded. "I want to go. I want to see your world."
He added, "Your world is in the past, right? You can send me to past instances, but can you send me to a future instance?"
"Future?"
Ning Su made a soft sound of acknowledgment. "Haven’t I told you before? I traveled back to when my parents were young. They’re rivals now, and I’m really curious about how they went from enemies to lovers. I also wonder what happened when I was born."
Ning Su shared a few more details. "Their conflict stems from a misunderstanding between them. I’m trying hard to resolve it, but it’s not easy. I’m curious how they managed to clear up the misunderstanding on their own."
Ning Su naturally ended up telling Ling Xiao about these family matters. He didn’t realize how novel an experience this was for Ling Xiao.
The system had tried to use Ling Xiao’s power to sustain the infinite world. From the moment of his first rebirth, it had stripped away all his unpleasant memories.
Every time Ling Xiao was on the verge of realizing something, the system would repeat its tactics, keeping him in a state devoid of dark memories, with few memories at all—adrift in the infinite world as if he was inherently meant to maintain the state of the infinite world.
The memories taken from him time and again were sealed within the Black Tree Monster.
The system believed that by extracting Ling Xiao’s nerves to strengthen the Black Tree Monster, it would become invincible, perfectly capable of locking away Ling Xiao’s memories.
But it didn’t realize that by merging Ling Xiao’s nerves into the Black Tree Monster, all his memories had followed those nerves and coalesced into him.
He was formed from the very memories the system deemed too dark and rebellious for the version of Ling Xiao it wanted. His world was filled with such memories—he had never encountered warm, trivial family matters or minor worries like these.
After Ning Su finished speaking, he noticed Ling Xiao seemed lost in thought and had remained silent for a long time.
Ning Su poked his arm. "Did you hear what I said?"
Ling Xiao lowered his gaze and said casually, "It might be this instance."
Ning Su: "This instance did improve their relationship, but it hasn’t reached the point of fully resolving their misunderstanding, right?"
Ling Xiao chuckled. "What I meant is, without you, their misunderstanding might have been completely resolved in this instance. This instance was cleared by your forceful methods—you didn’t follow the storyline at all. You might not even have realized the deeper meaning of the instance’s name."
