War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 2015 Mission Change
"Rumble--"

Amidst violent tremors and low noises, artificial white light once again enveloped Wei Ran, whose body was charred but whose face was beaming with unrestrained smiles.

When the artificial white light disappeared, Wei Ran once again arrived at the farm in Clara's dream—no, Clara's fake father, no, Clara's fake mother.

"What's the reason this time?" This time, it was Zhao Shengli who asked the question with a serious expression.

"Because I have low moral character and low awareness."

Still lying on the floor, Wei Ran had never felt so exhilarated. He even chuckled in a particularly vulgar way, "I just wanted to see if I could get Mount Fuji out."

“His yield is not enough,” Zhao Shengli said helplessly, “and Mount Fuji is in a dormant period.”

"Yes, that's a real shame."

Wei Ran, lying on the floor, also felt somewhat helpless. "But I still want to try. In the world where I grew up, countless of my compatriots regretted not being able to throw it onto Mount Fuji back then."

"Aren't you afraid of dying?" Zhao Shengli asked.

"If I remember correctly, I got three of those red and blue vortexes in total."

Wei Ran, who had been all smiles, suddenly became serious. "So it's actually three lives?"

“You can interpret it this way,” Zhao Shengli nodded, “you’ve been testing the rules of this game?”

This is not a game.

Wei Ran shook his head and sat up. "No matter what you think, no matter whose face you're wearing, they all died in history, but I found the families of most of them, so they must have existed."

In this respect, I am incredibly grateful for your existence, which allowed me, an unknown person, the privilege of traveling alongside them.

"So will you still do it?" Zhao Shengli asked.

"They paid with their own lives; I only paid with my extra life."

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Wei Ran said with utter nonchalance, "A person's life is as fleeting as a plant's. Flowers and grasses grow leaves in spring, bloom in summer, and bear fruit in autumn. As for whether they can survive the winter, to hell with winter."

The same applies to people. Having an extra life is simply another reincarnation. But if those you care about are gone, if your beauty has faded, and your family has passed away, living alone is nothing but suffering.

As Wei Ran spoke, he patted his butt and stood up. "So one life is enough. I've already completed the game with only one life. The extra life is good to use to verify my long-held suspicions."

"Where will your next target be?"

Lake Biwa

Wei Ran answered enthusiastically and without hesitation, "This time I plan to kill everyone in the cabin and then drop the bombs at low altitude. But to be honest, I haven't thought it through yet. I actually hope to have more time to think, after all..."

"After all what?" asked "Zhao Shengli" sitting opposite.

“I also have friends from the recruitment center,” Wei Ran said sincerely. “If I had a choice, I wouldn’t want to kill anyone.”

"What do you want to say?"

"How about we start from takeoff next time?" Wei Ran asked. "I need some time to think."

"Can"

Sitting opposite him, "Zhao Shengli" readily agreed. On the table between them, the metal notebook reappeared and turned to the page with the red and blue swirling patterns.

As the vortex collapsed, Wei Ran was once again swallowed by the two-colored light, and then disappeared from the farm.

But soon, he was sent back again—this time, he was unusually calm.

When Zhao Shengli said, "You lied to me," he had already transformed into the image of Squad Leader Dao.

"That's right!"

Lying on the floor, Wei Ran calmly replied, "I forced the plane to return to its origin, then dropped it at the takeoff point, using Little Boy to blow up Big Fat."

"Why?" the person sitting opposite asked after a moment of silence.

"I just wanted to see what a world that hasn't been bombed would be like," Wei Ran explained calmly.

"I had no way of predicting this either."

The fake squad leader sighed and finally answered, "In general, with Su Su controlling Asia, the civil war in the rabbit region may end ahead of schedule, but the war of tripping will still happen, and the recruitment of the core will become the male recruitment and the northern core."

If America controls Europe, the chills will be delayed or even prevented.

“But River 57 won’t spread,” Wei Ran said, looking at the blue sky and white clouds above.

"No third country will control River 57."

That's not the world I want.

Wei Ran sighed. "Whether it's selfishness or discrimination, we need that thing."

"If you do it again, you'll be dead," Squad Leader Dao warned.

"I know"

Wei Ran nodded. "I have verified everything I wanted to know. All things considered, Nianci Nunnery should be the little boy's eternal home."

"Including you, there are a total of seven users of this book," said Squad Leader Dao. "You have the best performance among the seven users."

"Why are you bringing this up?" Wei Ran got up again and sat down opposite the other person to ask.

"The purpose of this book is to train sufficiently excellent soldiers," Squad Leader Dao continued.

"It seems an unexpected incident has occurred."

"It's always an accident."

As Squad Leader Dao spoke, he transformed into Clement, and a silver coffee pot appeared beside him.

While extracting the coffee, Clement recounted his dirty laundry as if listing his own shameful secrets: "The first user committed suicide before the end. The second was obsessed with killing and ultimately lost himself in a false world."

The third user fell in love with a man from a different time and space after entering the realm once. Because of this, she repeatedly searched for clues and items to send herself back, ultimately dying alongside the man she loved.

"Where is the fourth user?" Wei Ran asked curiously as he took the eggshell cup handed to him.

"Fourth, he used what he learned in those times and spaces to destroy a civilization."

Clement said helplessly, "And that's how this world, dominated by you, came to be."

"So this is our turn."

Wei Ran said with a smile, seemingly uninterested in the "destruction of a civilization" mentioned earlier.

"Fifth place"

Clement's smile grew increasingly bitter. "That foolish monkey treated me like a god, built an altar, killed a large number of his companions as sacrifices, and then made one wish after another that I had no way to help him fulfill, such as praying for a heavy rain."

"interesting"

"That's really interesting."

As Clement spoke, he transformed into the image of someone Wei Ran had never seen before. "This is the previous user. He stopped at the Battle of Verdun. He killed the person he secretly loved with his own hands and then chose to commit suicide."

"So this is actually a trial without end?" Wei Ran asked after a moment of silence.

“You’ve already seen the end,” Clement said. “I am the end. Being aware of my existence and never being misled by illusions in your eyes and mind is already a success.”

"I'm truly honored," Wei Ran smiled calmly. "So the reward is..."

But it's not over yet.

As Clement spoke, he had already transformed back into Hirano Aoi's appearance. "Go and complete the final assessment, and then let's talk about the reward."

Before he finished speaking, Hirano Aoi handed Wei Ran a cup of coffee, then stood up, gently patted his shoulder, and walked towards the wooden house not far away.

Wei Ran paused for a moment when the other person touched him, and after a moment of silence, asked, "What exactly are you?"

"I'll give you the answer after you finish your final test," Hirano Aoi said, before walking into the wooden house.

Coming to his senses, Wei Ran looked at the table. The metal notebook had been opened again, and the metal quill pen was writing lines of text on the pale yellow pages:
Return mission changed: Filming a nuclear explosion

Is this a case of backing out or deliberately reneging? Is it a change of heart or just letting them off the hook?

As Wei Ran muttered to himself, a white light suddenly appeared, but this time, it gave him nothing.

As the white light began to fade, he also felt a rumbling noise and a slight vibration.

Immediately afterwards, he saw everything around him clearly. He was no longer on that plane. He was still sitting in the equipment bay, but guarding a porthole, and in front of him was the K18 aerial camera from the metal notebook.

At this moment, an exceptionally thick filter was attached to the front of the camera lens. He also wore goggles resembling those used by welders around his neck.

In fact, to avoid causing trouble, his seatbelt wasn't even buckled.

Why bother?
After struggling for a while, Wei Ran gave up trying, put on goggles to expose one eye, and obediently pointed the camera at the Inora Gay bomber in front of him, pressing the shutter again and again from the moment the baby was born.

As soon as he saw light, he immediately closed the exposed eye, switched to the other eye hidden under the welding scope, aimed the auxiliary camera at the light spot, and manually pressed the shutter repeatedly.

Moments later, the shockwave and mushroom cloud appeared at a speed visible to the naked eye, and Wei Ran also stopped filming.

At this point, the neutron flux had already begun bombarding the film, and the intense light had exceeded its limit, making it impossible for him to capture anything.

After silently counting to ten, he started pressing the shutter button again and again, recording the ever-growing void mushrooms.

When he silently counted to "144", the camera began to shake violently, and he had to temporarily stop filming, tear off the filter, and start removing the filter from the lens.

After a short wait, he continued to press the shutter button repeatedly as the vibrations subsided, until he completely lost sight of the scene.

At this moment, the observation aircraft, suspected to be the "Great Artist," had already begun its return journey. Wei Ran sat blankly in his seat, waiting for the situation to unfold.

Finally, the observation aircraft landed successfully on Tianni Island. As he was carrying the huge aerial camera off the plane, he was greeted by Mr. Lao Lunsi.

"Victor, did you see it?" Lao Lun asked excitedly. "Did you take a picture of it?"

“I saw it,” Wei Ran replied. “I also took a picture of it, or I think I did.”

He had barely finished speaking when the two American soldiers sharing his room took away his drone camera.

"I'm going to do my interviews first, we'll have a good drink tonight." After saying that, Lao Lunsi had already disappeared.

After searching for a while, Wei Ran successfully found the jeep in the metal notebook.

Stepping into the cockpit, Wei Ran calmly observed the group photo of the crew members not far away, watching Lao Lunsi chat with each of them.

Finally, he calmly watched as Lao Lunsi and Molly walked over together, and without any hesitation, they sat in the back of his jeep.

"The club, Victor, let's go to the club," said Lao Lunsi, handing a cigar to him and Molly sitting next to him.

"So, what happened to the bet?"

Wei Ran took the cigar, bit off one end, then took out a lighter and lit it, successfully ruining the cigar with its strong kerosene smell.

"Don't rush, we'll talk about this in a bit."

"Although I didn't see it, I guess Jasmine already has the answer," said Lao Lunsi.

"you win"

As she spoke, Jasmine pulled out two plugs, one red and one green, from her bag and handed them, along with the bloodstained card, to Lao Lunsi. "This is the bet."

"How about we give this little gift to that girl at the club?"

Lao Lunsi, puffing out smoke, suggested, "If you have time later, how about you give me an interview?"

"Alright"

After a moment's hesitation, Jasmine accepted Lao Lunsi's invitation. At the same time, Wei Ran drove the car to the entrance of the club.

"Victor"

Jasmine called out to Wei Ran, who was getting out of the car, "Can you do me a favor?"

"What kind of help?" Wei Ran asked, turning his head.

"Please deliver these to Miss Claire for me."

Jasmine handed the two plugs and the card to Wei Ran, saying, "And by the way, please tell her about her brother."

After a moment's hesitation, Wei Ran nodded in agreement, "Okay."

"Thank you," Molly breathed a sigh of relief, then followed Lao Lunsi to a table some distance away and sat down.

"They're treating me like an outsider, so they're wary of me."

Wei Ran pursed his lips, weighed the two plugs and the bloodstained card in his hand, and stepped into the club.

Claire

Wei Ran waved to Claire, who was grinding coffee, and then walked into the small warehouse himself, familiar with the place.

A short while later, Claire walked in and asked in a low voice, her voice filled with anticipation, "Did you bring news of Art again?"

"I can't just come and go as I please."

Wei Ran waved his hand, sat down at the table, and after a moment's hesitation, said, "Claire, I brought a gift from your brother's friend to your brother."

"My brother's friend?"

Claire paused for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Is my brother still alive?"

"I don't know, but I guess he might still be alive, otherwise why would someone send him a gift?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he handed the plug and card he had just received to the other person, saying, "Keep these safe. When the war is over and your brother comes back, give these to him."

"Okay"

Claire said with a hint of disappointment, "After the war is over, if... if he's still alive, I'll give these things to him."

He's sure.

Seeing the white light surging around him, Wei Ran finally sighed and stopped himself from saying what he was about to say.

It's almost over, it's visibly almost over.