People in Yu-Gi-Oh! The hyper-converged audience is also integrated

Chapter 306 The sudden appearance and the childhood sweetheart both fell silent at this moment.
"Who exactly are you..." Li Guanqi stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure before him, his throat dry. "What are you?"

He took half a step back, but his foot slipped and ripples spread out. He swayed before regaining his balance.

The feeling just now was so real: the refreshing herbs, the aching pain of tearing muscles, the cold touch of muddy water, and the fight with Medeus—every sensory memory is incredibly clear.

He turned his head and looked around, his heart skipped a beat. Was this all a dream?

"Rather than what I am," the white paper's voice was soft, piercing through the void, "shouldn't you be more curious about what you yourself are?"

Her head was tilted slightly, and although she wasn't looking directly at Li Guanqi, it was as if she could see through his deepest doubts.

"You built such strong mental defenses for yourself, but you still chose to accept the duel."

"Actually, you also want to talk to me and find out the answer, don't you?"

Li Guanqi frowned, unable to refute.

She was right. At the moment of the duel invitation, he kept hearing the words "don't duel" but he also had another strange impulse, an impulse to talk to her.

"Do we know each other?" Li Guanqi asked in a deep voice.

"Have you forgotten?" Bai Zhi smiled bitterly and began to recount a distant story. "We've known each other since we were little, but we were freaks. The world didn't like us. They always gave us strange looks, their eyes full of disgust."

"Us? Freaks?" Li Guanqi felt a bad feeling when he heard this.

He has always described himself as a model student and an obedient child.

I've been praised since I was a child, and I get along very well with my friends, teachers, and family.

Now you're being told you're a freak?

Bai Zhi nodded and said with a wry smile, "Yeah, we're not welcome anywhere, we can't go to school normally, and we have to hide ourselves whenever we go to crowded places."

She smiled slightly, her smile radiant: "But we've always been together."

"As long as we don't break up, I think it's good."

"Later, we found a place, a place that was willing to accept us—the Academy of Divinity."

"The Academy of Divine Arts?" Li Guanqi's heart skipped a beat. That name, Medeus, did indeed seem to be a card from the [Divine Arts] series...

He remembered the card set, but didn't use it often, and the details were vague.

"Yes. The Divine Arts Academy is different from other places. The dean there is very welcoming to us. He said he sees light in us and that we are the hope for the future. Tuition, room and board are all free."

"And the price?" Li Guanqi blurted out. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

He doesn't believe in kindness without a reason.

"The price?" A cold smile curved the corners of Bai Zhi's lips. "We are the price."

"Blood drawing, soaking, genetic testing... syringes and reagents are our most common toys."

"Do you still remember what the Academy of Arts' mission is?" she suddenly asked.

Li Guanqi realized something and asked nervously, "What?"

“A grand, fusion—” Bai Zhi took a deep breath and looked up at the moon in the sky.

"A grand fusion?" These five words struck Li Guanqi like a thunderclap deep into his soul. His vision went black, countless chaotic images flashed by, and his head throbbed with pain.

He clutched his head tightly, and it took him a long time to recover.

“This is the Academy of Divine Arts, and it’s our life’s dream,” White Paper continued. “But the Alliance doesn’t understand. They attacked the academy with the ridiculous charge of ‘blasphemy.’”

"A century-old foundation was reduced to ruins overnight."

“We were not dismissed as students, but were transferred to the alliance’s research center as the most important ‘research outcome’.”

“We are disliked by ordinary people, but scientists like us. Maybe we are more popular with madmen. We repeat the same life in the academy.”

"Blood draw, soaking, genetic testing"

"Until that day, we met that man, the man who changed our lives."

At this point, Li Guanqi's lips moved involuntarily, and a single word instinctively squeezed out from his throat: "Bai..."

The white paper gripped the guide cane tightly, and she opened her mouth with joy: "You remembered!"

But the next second, her tone changed, filled with an unyielding resentment: "Why him of all! You react so strongly whenever he's mentioned!"

Li Guanqi also found it strange. For some reason, her thoughts naturally drifted into the story she was telling, and then a figure naturally appeared in her mind.

“He was indeed an extraordinary person.” Bai Zhi calmed himself down. “Back then, he was only in his thirties, but he was already the head of the research center. Those white-haired senior researchers all addressed him respectfully as Professor Bai.”

“But he’s just as hypocritical as the League!” Her voice was filled with icy anger.

"The Alliance claims that the research at the Divine Arts Academy is taboo, but they're secretly doing the same thing. And that man too! He talks about respecting life, but what he cares about most is his dying cat!"

"A cat that is both dangerous and vulnerable, which other scientists were helpless against, in the end, we had to rely on them."

"We risked our lives, even at the cost of our lives, to earn the right to participate in the treatment."

"The evolutionary experiment was performed by that man, and we provided the parameters. Fortunately, the experiment was a success."

"His cat evolved into a Hell God Beast, which is what they call an elf, and its lifespan was extended by several hundred years."

“The man was overjoyed. It was the first time we had received his attention, and with his approval, we got our own laboratory.”

"But the research center only gives us one gram of negative cube crystal per month."

Li Guanqi listened intently, unconsciously immersing himself in the story. With a sigh of relief, he asked, "Isn't one gram a month enough? That's already 1.5 million."

“Not enough, far from enough,” Bai Zhi shook his head and said. “Taboo research is very expensive, and it doesn’t produce anything until the experiment is successful. Often, it just yields repetitive and meaningless data.”

"One gram of negative square crystal can only be used for one week."

"For the sake of our dream, the experiments couldn't stop, so we used the excuse of giving the cat a follow-up checkup to keep 'applying' for funding from that man."

"He eventually found out."

"He gave us two choices: either do research on conventional products that could make money, or cut off all our funding."

"We have no choice."

"Who knew that the forbidden technology of the Divine Arts Academy, when used in medical development, would be a money-printing machine with a huge market for application."

"We're making a killing."

“But fame and patents have nothing to do with us. For ten years, we haven’t stepped out of the research lab. The world only knows ‘Professor Bai’ and his great team.”

"But we don't care, as long as we have money, our dreams need money."

"That's how we do it. We make products during the day and study those ethereal things at night: the soul, time and space, and God."

"I don't know how many years have passed."

“Finally—” Bai Zhi’s voice suddenly turned somber, “we have captured a remnant of the ancient god of destruction, Tiera, and heard his voice.”

"I also learned the truth about this world."

She gently touched the water's surface with her guide cane, and a projection made of light appeared out of thin air—a beautiful planet, upon which stood a colossal tree beyond description.

"This is Biantana, and also the Divine Star Tree."

"In a place invisible to the naked eye, at the top of the Divine Star Tree, countless high-energy argon beams are emanating. These high-energy argon beams are like a fence, enveloping the entire world within them."

As the projection changed, countless blue beams shot out from the top of the Divine Star Tree, weaving together to form a net that enveloped the entire planet.

"Look, what does this look like?" the white paper asked. Li Guanqi stared at the planet shrouded in a net of light, a tightness gripping his chest. He managed to say with difficulty, "A birdcage."

“Yes.” The white paper’s tone was eerily calm. “We are all living in a cage.”

"Actually, the first person to discover this was the puppeteer, but no one believed her, just like back then, no one believed us either."

“We told the researchers in the lab about our findings, and told them that we were living in a cage, and that doing product research was useless because we would eventually be stuck at the seventh generation due to the influence of high-energy acetylene beams.”

The sound of the white paper echoed in this void, without a ripple.

“No matter how much evidence we provide, they, including that man, don’t believe us.” She paused, a self-deprecating smile playing on her lips. “They’ve never accepted us; they’ve always treated us like freaks.”

“We don’t care about those vulgar people, but we didn’t expect that man to be a coward too!” Her voice suddenly rose, and her slender guide cane trembled slightly at her side. “Short-sighted wretch!”

"We kindly invited him to participate in the time-space rebirth project."

"But he said that scientists of every era have their responsibilities, and his mission was to enable the people of the Seventh Age to live a good life, and to leave the rest to future generations."

She let out a sneer, her voice full of sarcasm.

"pedantic!"

After he finished cursing, Bai Zhi's voice became dejected.

"Without the help of the research center, we simply cannot solve the world's problems on our own."

"Ten years later, after a series of verifications, the man finally believed us and proposed the Metaverse Project."

"Hahaha, we were right after all—" Bai Zhi suddenly chuckled, his shoulders shrugging slightly. The laughter sounded particularly eerie in the silent night. "That man pretends to be harmless on the surface, but he's actually insane!"

"The metaverse claims to provide entertainment venues and enrich people's spiritual lives, but in reality—"

"Hahaha, it's Noah's Ark, a refuge from the apocalypse!"

"That man is just like us! They both have a desire to blow up the cage!"

When people realize they are living in a cage, they usually fall into two camps: one camp pursues freedom and wants to blow up the cage, known as the madmen of the doomsday camp; the other camp just wants to live out their lives peacefully, known as the cowards of the decadent camp.

Generally speaking, everyone has the potential to be a world destroyer, but in the early stages they act as members of the decadent faction. When they feel their days are numbered, they are likely to turn into world destroyers.

Li Guanqi's heart skipped a beat. What the blank paper said differed greatly from the historical records.

Historical records do indeed describe it as Bai taking the lead in building the metaverse to enrich people's spiritual lives, and therefore it is often referred to as 'great'.

Bai Zhi continued, "The construction of the metaverse requires soul uploading technology. He extended an invitation to us to cooperate. This was the first and only time we shared a common will with him."

"That was the largest project in Biantana's history, the result of 3,000 scientists' 35-year struggle."

"We have encountered countless obstacles and hardships."

"We have succeeded, and we are getting old."

At this point, Bai Zhi's tone softened considerably, and her tense shoulders relaxed: "I have to admit that the man put in more effort and worked harder during the construction process, and his life expectancy was shorter than ours, not even a hundred years old, shorter than his cat's."

Perhaps because death is a serious matter, the resentment towards 'that man' in her voice lessened considerably when she said this.

"On the day he was about to die, we once again invited him to participate in the time-space reincarnation project. If the project succeeds, we and he will wake up two hundred years later."

"When we collaborate with him and contemporary scientists again, we may have hope of breaking free from this cage."

"But he refused and chose to listen to a woman."

"This stubborn, pedantic scientist also had a beloved woman."

"He listened to that woman and chose to face death, but before he died, a group of people rushed over, ready to rob his inheritance."

"He gave his life for the Alliance and for the world, but the world will not remember his good deeds. It will only know that he is about to die and has no value. It will only want to dismember his body."

"Later, his beloved woman died in order to protect this legacy."

"How ridiculous, the first person in history to become the world's biggest clown."

"Finally, the man broke down, and riots broke out in three thousand of his laboratories around the world, with metals flying out of control into the sky."

"Over a billion people were terrified and bewildered, and only we in the whole world knew what was going on."

"Only he, Bai Jian'an, and we know about this."

"When he breaks down, he will completely lose his mind and launch a world-destroying attack, attempting to break the cage at the same time as destroying the world."

"We and Bai Jian'an are responsible for settling people in the metaverse and leaving behind the seeds of civilization."

"But we all know that even if he tries his best, he can't break the cage. To break the high-energy nitrocellulose beam, you need ten million extreme bursts of power, which is something only a god can do."

"His attack will not break the cage; it will only destroy human civilization on the surface."

"But—" Bai Zhi suddenly raised her head, her quiet face contorted, and her pair of dark, pupil-less eyes stared intently at Li Guanqi. "What does the destruction of the world have to do with us!"

"I said no, why did you still..." she said, her voice breaking with suppressed sobs.

Li Guanqi was taken aback by her shout. He keenly noticed that the way the white paper addressed people had changed. Before, it was always "we", but now it was "I" and "you".

"Why did you make a pact with Tiera, becoming a child of calamity..." Bai Zhi's voice trembled, tears welling up in her empty eyes and streaming down her pale cheeks, "Why did you abandon me!"

"Why! Why!" She waved her arms frantically, her composure completely gone, screaming wildly, "Do you think they'll remember you for saving those people? No way!"

"That man doesn't remember you."

"Only I! Only I still remember you!"

Do you understand?

"Only me! Only I remember..."

"I've always remembered..." the white paper cried out, feeling wronged.

“I spent countless negative crystals tracking your soul in the underworld. I begged people everywhere to bring your soul up, but I couldn’t catch it no matter what I did, until the super fusion erupted in the underworld and your light suddenly disappeared.”

"Where have you been? I've been looking for you for so many years, for so long..."

Her cries gradually subsided until she finally crouched down, burying her face in her knees, her thin shoulders trembling violently, and suppressed sobs echoing in the empty darkness.

Li Guanqi stood there stunned not far away. Ever since he and she seemed to have 'broken up' in the story, he hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise. The intense emotions overwhelmed him, making him feel like a bastard who had abandoned his family.

"Who exactly are you..." His Adam's apple bobbed, his voice trembling without him even realizing it.

"A freak, yes."

Although Bai Zhi had said a lot, he still felt that she hadn't mentioned one crucial identity.

"You still haven't remembered..." Bai Zhi sobbed, slowly raising her head, her tear-streaked face filled with despair.

Have you really forgotten me? I am your beloved, we—

She drew out her words, uttering each one slowly and deliberately, her words startling.

“It’s natural.”

Conjoined twins

"do you understand."

"Only I am the one who will love you forever!"

(End of this chapter)