My youth story cannot be a knight war

Seeing the other person's fingers poking at the hem of her skirt, Baruba picked up her skirt expressionlessly and moved it away to prevent the expensive designer skirt from being poked with holes by the naughty kid next to her.

After she moved her skirt aside, her white fingers slowly poked down, poking a hole in the ant and the floor tile below, with the entire finger immersed in it.

"Gadoru..."

Daguba, not paying attention to the previous names, muttered the last one, his eyes once again filled with excitement. He then pulled his finger from the ground, leaving a deep hole in its place that revealed a view of the floor below. The edge of the hole resembled asphalt that had just been burned by high temperatures, sticky and emitting a foul smell of white smoke.

"He did seem to have said before that he had gained the same power as KUUGA, right?"

Shaking off the black stains stuck on his fingers, Daguba looked up curiously at Baruba who was so close to him. His eyes sparkled with a strange luster under the moonlight, as pure and flawless as a newborn seal.

"So, can he become the Ultimate like me and Gamio?"

"Now? I'm afraid it's not enough."

Baruba narrowed his eyes when he heard the last name in his words, and his voice became cold for some reason, like the ice and snow blowing from the northernmost part of Hokkaido.

"Gadoru's power hasn't changed much yet, so he can't be given the name 'N' yet... but if he can pass his own game, then he should be able to do so."

"Or are you more looking forward to fighting Gadoru than KUUGA or Daguber?"

"I like them all~ As long as they let me fight, it doesn't matter who they are, but if I had to say who I'd most like to fight... after all, old friends are the best~"

"but……"

The smile on Daguba's face slowly faded, the light in his eyes gradually disappeared, his dark eyes were like two deep black wells, so empty that it made people feel inexplicably uneasy, and even his excited voice became quiet.

"KUUGA is still too weak. Although he is gradually recovering his former strength, it is still not enough."

"I don't want to fight such a weak Kuuga. I want to fight the strongest one, a stronger one than before. And I have to become stronger too, so~"

"...Do you wish to summon the 'Ultimate Darkness' directly within your 'Kikiru'?"

After hearing His words, Baruba's eyes involuntarily glanced in one direction, which was the direction of Nagano Prefecture.

"That might be a bit difficult. After all, besides you, there's only one completed 'key' right now, and it's sealed away."

"I've seen that seal. It's different from the ones we've endured before. It was created specifically for beings who reach the 'Ultimate'. It's imbued with restraining energy. Even you, now, probably can't break it... It seems that after we were sealed, those Lindo already knew how to summon the 'Ultimate Darkness'."

"The seal's power will last at least a hundred years. During that time, we'll probably just have to wait. Or perhaps you want to wait for Daguber and Gadoru to become 'N'? That could serve as a backup 'key'."

"No need~"

Daguba slowly turned in circles, looking up in the moonlight. His face was young and handsome, and half of it was shrouded in shadow. He looked like...

An evil spirit awakened from the darkness.

"Since I can't break it now, I just need to become stronger~!"

Baruba shook his head and said softly.

"It's not your game stage yet. And even though you have the power to kill other players during their games, it's meaningless with your current strength. The Lindos alone can't make you stronger...???"

Baruba suddenly sensed something was amiss, and her eyes widened. This was the first time she, usually aloof, had shown such a dramatic emotional upheaval in front of others.

"you……"

Looking at the smiling young man in white in front of him with disbelief, Baruba's eyes trembled slightly for a moment, and his pair of white hands clenched into fists.

"You, do you want to..."

"That's right~"

Daguba touched the tips of her ten slender fingers together, tilted her head to look at Baruba, and smiled brightly with the corners of her mouth.

But facing this familiar smile, Baruba felt a chill creep up her cervical spine. For the first time, she felt as if she had never fully understood the boy's inner self.

She knew the other person's nature very well, but she had no idea how terrifying the madness that extended from that nature was - children could do anything to get the toys they wanted, because they had no idea what the consequences of their actions would be.

The king of the Gurongi clan in front of him, whose body and mind are like a child, is definitely the most terrifying typical negative example in the history of the world. In order to be able to fight with his chosen enemy to his heart's content, he can do anything and completely disregard the consequences.

"Since Lin Duo is not allowed, then——as long as it's not Lin Duo, it's fine."

"Right~?"

Golden light flickered in Daguba's eyes, like an opened Pandora's box.

2. A Future Swallowed by Darkness (6K)

In the old classroom, the second hand of the clock hanging on the wall passed through the Arabic numerals one after another, and the ticking sound echoed in the silent space of the classroom. On the blackboard in the classroom, there were formulas written in the ugly handwriting of the math teacher. In the empty space on the left side of the blackboard, the words "Only one hundred and twenty-five days left to the college entrance examination" were written. The bright red font looked annoying.

This classroom, which should have been full of students, now only has one person sitting there, and he is sitting in the last row, farthest away from the blackboard, showing his true nature as a campus hooligan.

Xu Guoliang held the "Book of Controlling All Living Beings" in both hands, sitting upright facing the blackboard. His expression seemed like a student who was listening attentively, but in fact, what he was doing was a far cry from listening to a lecture.

The driving book held in his hands emitted a faint white glow. He looked straight ahead, but did not take in any of the scenes in the classroom. If someone were sitting in front of him at this moment, they would be able to see tiny golden symbols and numbers flashing in Xu Guoliang's eyes, like the codes that appear when a computer is being programmed.

He was looking at something, but not the class beauty who was supposed to be sitting a few rows ahead, nor the math formulas written on the blackboard. What Xu Guoliang was looking at was the future.

The world he opens up is about to become a real world, and it is the future of the story of the "supporting characters".

As time passed, the golden characters in Xu Guoliang's eyes became more and more dazzling, and the speed at which they flashed became faster and faster, like a river formed by melted gilt, and its flow carried noble majesty and mystery. It could only be said that Xiaoshuai's appearance and temperament rose sharply against the backdrop of this atmosphere.

Amid the flow of golden characters, it was difficult for humans to understand what he saw at this moment. Countless scenes flashed by, and countless people and things were edited into frames of film. Xu Guoliang watched these films quickly switch from both sides of the perspective, and fine beads of sweat gradually seeped out of his forehead.

Xu Guoliang saw a lot, which is something that people in the world today would never see.

He saw Kawasaki Saki mopping the floor tiles in the shop where only one person was, with a silent expression. As she mopped, clear water drops fell to the ground. There was an exquisite cake on the table behind her. There were four chairs beside the table, but she was the only one there.

He saw the white Kuuga collapse helplessly to his knees, transforming back into Zaimokuza Yoshiki in a tattered windbreaker. He struggled to hold his fallen body up, his face covered in fine cracks like broken porcelain glued back together. Lights of various colors seeped through the cracks, and his unfocused eyes stared with resignation at the powerful enemy standing before him.

He watched as Kousaka Kyosuke put on the G1 system with a determined look in his eyes. Golden characters blossomed from the display screen, and black armor covered his body before breaking apart one by one. A twisted and ferocious shell replaced his human form. He howled in pain, his voice like thunder.

He saw Akiyama Mio standing on the rooftop of Kitauji School, staring blankly at the cold and beautiful woman in a white dress across from her. The glimmer in the depths of her clear eyes trembled as she saw another person who was similar to her but different from her.

He saw Ebina Hime and Zaimokuza hugging each other in the laboratory, tears soaking his windbreaker, and they talked about their longing for each other since childhood, and finally chose to remember this unforgettable love with a deep kiss;

He saw Yukinoshita Yukino holding the only photo of the four members of the Service Club, with a stack of old manuscript paper in front of her. Her dark blue eyes, which had always been calm and resolute, suddenly shattered silently, tears welling up in her eyes, and she burst into tears alone in the office...

Countless possible futures turned into data streams that poured into his mind. In this world line, humans would have to wait at least another half century for technology to develop before they could produce a super artificial intelligence computer. Even then, its computing power would be far from comparable to Xu Guoliang's current one.

But in the end, as these possible futures develop to the end, they all move towards a similar trajectory.

The young man in white smiled and raised his right hand. The golden Kibolon magic stone emerged from his waist. His ultimate form, as terrifying as the demon Tuo, was revealed for the first time in this era. The blazing fire consumed everything.

The Pyramid of Light silently crumbled under the erosion of the black fog. The old coffin, enveloped in the fog, rose to the mountaintop and then exploded. A tall black figure slowly rose from the mist. It raised its head and roared from the ancient past toward the sun at the other end of the sky. The boundless black fog engulfed the entire world, including the sun.

Go past these last two scenes, and then—everything returns to zero.

Boundless darkness enveloped everything. No light could be seen, and there was no hope. All that could be heard were people's desperate wails and sobs. Tears and blood became the only background colors of this world.

The darkness surged in, filling Xu Guoliang's vision...

"..."

Xu Guoliang silently stopped using his abilities, lowered his head in the position he had sat in for three years, and held the "Book of Controlling All Living Beings" tightly in his hands. His back was bent very low, and when viewed from the side, he looked like a defeated dog with its spinal cord removed.

With a ticking sound, round drops of water fell onto the classroom floor, creating a scarlet splash. Then, the liquid continued to drip, drop by drop, and soon a small pool of red appeared on the floor tiles.

Xu Guoliang gazed down calmly at the pool of blood beneath him. A red streak streaked from his right eye down his face, finally pooling behind his pointed chin and dripping. His right eyeball was now severely bloodshot. Aside from the iris, the entire white of the eye was completely stained crimson, a sign of overuse and the backlash of his abilities.

There was a constant sharp pain in his right eye, like a knife cutting and squeezing, but Xu Guoliang seemed to be completely unaffected by the pain. He did not even utter a groan of pain. He sat there in silence with his head lowered, like an exquisite stone sculpture.

After sitting there for an unknown amount of time, Xu Guoliang gently reached out and took off his glasses from his nose and gently placed them on the seat next to him that belonged to his old friend.

“——Fuck you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

After taking off his glasses, the calmness he had just displayed seemed like a brief illusion. The silent Xu Guoliang suddenly became furious, his brows raised, and his fair and handsome face at this moment had a ferocious aura comparable to that of a lion or tiger. His bloodshot right eye gushed out the most ferociousness in the world.

Xu Guoliang grabbed the lower edge of the table in front of him. The raging flames gave him unprecedented strength. Normally teased by his roommates as someone unable to even hit a goose, he lifted the table and flung it toward the classroom window. With a resounding crack, the window glass was shattered by the table. The immense force of the impact stuck the table to the window sill, even bending the frame.

If this were a normal school, Xu Guoliang's actions would likely result in a major disciplinary action, a school-wide reprimand, a parental visit, and a month's suspension from boarding. However, no matter how similar this place was to the school he remembered, it was ultimately a fabricated illusion created by Xu Guoliang, a place where he could do whatever he pleased.

Let alone smashing a window, even if he had 3D-printed a giant photo of the then-dean of deanhood, who was so hated by the students, and hung it on the school emblem, no one would have been able to stop him. And in fact, Xu Guoliang had already done so.

Looking out of the classroom window, in addition to the boys' dormitory in front and the girls' dormitory on the left, there is the classroom office building on the right. A school badge as tall as two people is hung on the top of the office building, and at this time, a huge photo that is extremely eye-catching is hung on the school badge.

The naked headmaster and his beautiful lover were wrapped in a sheet on the big bed, and next to the bed stood the vice-principal, who was over 45 and had started to go bald. He was looking at the headmaster's cheating partner with a wonderful expression. The partner was his lover, who was almost 20 years younger than him. Next to the vice-principal was the former headmaster, who was over 50, completely bald, and had a murderous look on his face, because the headmaster's cheating partner was his wife, who was almost 30 years younger than him.

This picture, "Campus Girls' Circles Are Really Chaotic," was created over a year after Xu Guoliang took the college entrance exam. Although he'd already graduated by then, he'd been using a fake account to hang out in the campus forum, pretending to be a new junior student, amusing himself by seducing the adorable, nagging younger students. One day, he saw this picture pinned to the top of the school forum by someone, and was immediately struck by its beauty. With a finger speed comparable to Qiao Ye's, he took a screenshot and saved it before it was deleted. Whenever he felt down, he'd take it out and enjoy it, admiring the former principal's wife's beautiful skin. The former principal's cuckoldry had turned his melancholy into joy.

But now, after seeing this painting, he could no longer be happy. The smile completely disappeared from his face, and only boundless anger and deep despair remained in his heart.

He gasped and retracted his throwing hand, then sat down dejectedly on the only remaining chair between his legs, holding the driving book in one hand and covering half of his blood-stained face with the other.

Xu Guoliang couldn't help but feel angry and desperate, because of the future of this world line he observed. This wasn't the first time he had used his ability to control books to observe the future.

——859, this number is the number of times he has observed the future before. If this time is added in, it just makes a whole number.

But no matter how many times he observed, the ending Xu Guoliang saw in the end did not change at all - the future of this world line was eventually swallowed up by darkness.

And this number does not mean that Xu Guoliang has only observed the future a few times. This is the number of times he has used his ability. Every time he used the Book of Control, he made more than one observation of the future. At the beginning, he would still remember it, but after the number of observations exceeded five digits, Xu Guoliang was too lazy to remember it - because the final outcome did not change at all, and all he saw was darkness and despair.

For who knows how many times, Xu Guoliang had become fed up with this unchanging outcome. He thought that the existing variables might not be enough to change the future, so he did something amazing.

He used his ability to control books to find his own isotope in a different time and space in this world, and then added this isotope as a new variable to the initial calculation of this "story", giving his isotope various guidance in the dark, allowing him to meet Yoshiki Zaimokuza, Kyosuke Kousaka and others, and even found a way to help him find the Yamadam prototype belt that Gulindo and others hid near Kurogane, becoming the second Kuuga.

Therefore, the combination of protecting humanity has grown from the original duo to an iron triangle. He, Zaimokuza and Kousaka became comrades-in-arms who were entrusted with life and death. In order to protect humanity, they joined forces to fight the Gurongis. And because of Xu Guoliang's joining, the casualties caused by the Gurongis were much less than before, and there was even a record of killing without casualties.

When Xu Guoliang saw this, he thought his idea was correct, and that as long as he, as a new variable, joined in, the story might really have a happy ending. However, what happened afterwards dealt him a heavy blow mentally, making Xu Guoliang realize how naive he really was.

In this world line, because of his hidden sister complex, Xu Guoliang developed a romantic relationship with Hirasawa Yui's sister, Hirasawa Yu, despite Kosaka's death gaze on the criminal... and this incident eventually became the fuse for this world line to go to the Bad End.

Because of his joining, the development of events changed drastically compared to the original. Hirasawa Yu, who had survived the massacre, died at the hands of Jaraji in the end. After losing his best friend, Xu Guoliang lost his lover.

This caused his heart to be gradually eroded by boundless hatred and darkness, and this darkness broke out in the subsequent battle.

In the battle where Gooma awakened Gamio, the darkness in Xu Guoliang's heart completely erupted. Under this passionate emotion, the prototype belt turned him into the runaway nascent ultimate form of Kuuga, repeating the tragedy that happened in the ancient times.

After losing control and tearing Gooma into pieces, he met the awakened Gamio. The result can be imagined. The prototype of the Ultimate cannot be said to be a mantis trying to stop a chariot in front of the real Ultimate, but it is also a comparison between the Hiroshima Little Boy and the Tsar Bomb.

Xu Guoliang was killed in this battle by Gamio, his belt shattered. In his final moments before collapsing and fading into eternal sleep, he saw his new friend stumbling towards him, his clear eyes almost completely engulfed by darkness...

Xu Guoliang was awakened from his observation in this way, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses.

Because of his ability to control the book, Xu Guoliang couldn't observe his counterpart from an observer's perspective, but could only synchronize with the other person's mind from a first-person perspective. In other words, he essentially experienced firsthand the experiences of his counterpart in this calculated world line.

Or perhaps it could be said that it was actually what was happening in a certain world line that he had observed. The joy of making two new friends, the thrill of falling in love for the first time, felt so real to Xu Guoliang after he woke up from his observation that he couldn't convince himself that it was all just a lie.

Of course... this also includes the fear and pain endured in the subsequent battles, the hatred and despair of losing his lover, the sadness when he died in the final battle, and the guilt when he witnessed his friend's end because of his own death.

Later, Xu Guoliang reflected on his past and felt that his relationship with Ping Zeyou in this worldline might have been the root of the problem. So, despite the lingering emotions in his heart, he resolutely chose to abandon this first love of his life and began observing again for the sake of the world. However, during this observation, he would never again encounter the girl who had made his soul throb.

Hirasawa Yu thus survived Jaraji's hands...but the ending could not be changed. After skipping a bunch of complicated processes, what Xu Guoliang saw at the end of his observation was still the familiar darkness.

He didn't know how many times he had tried this, but as he observed one possible world line after another, all Xu Guoliang gained in the end was inner despair.

Xu Guoliang once believed that the people in the story couldn't change the ending because their abilities couldn't transcend the story itself, but that perhaps he, outside the story, could change it all. The ironclad reality shattered his ridiculous arrogance.

When he inserted himself, who had never existed in this story, into it and finally got the same ending as if he had never existed, Xu Guoliang suddenly realized a truth - when an observer outside the story chooses to enter it, he has actually become a "character in the play".

And how could the characters in the play possibly resist the ending that had already been written in the script?

He even received extremely cruel punishment for his reckless actions, because not only did he get and then lose his lover, but Xu Guoliang also witnessed his friends and the world going to the end together time and time again, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

Xu Guoliang did not go crazy, not because he was mentally strong - but because before he went crazy, he had used the driving book to delete all memories of these observations except for the first few times, thus avoiding the end of his soul and personality being worn out by repeated cycles of despair.

But even the memory of those few observations had already caused severe damage to his spirit. The feeling of being unable to save the people he cherished was too painful, even just once was suffocating.

In the end, Xu Guoliang simply gave up and directly observed a new world line. He even went so far as to stuff all the memories of the previously observed world lines, including those that he had deleted or sealed, into the other party's mind through the control book - as a result, the self in that world line went crazy.

This caused Xu Guoliang in that world line to super-evolve on the spot and become a super-sublimated version of the Ultimate Demonic Riddler. From then on, every word he said to people was not a single word of human language. The degree of his obsession made Fujimiya and his son kneel down to worship him, Kamijou Daichi was shocked, and Yuri was silent after seeing it.

Because his actions were too enigmatic and he had no need to explain himself to others, Xu Guoliang finally had a fierce conflict with the intolerable Kosaka. Even Zaimokuza, who came to mediate, was irritated by his riddles. He transformed and joined the battle, and finally used a friendship punch to wake the crazy man up. After lying on the ground for a long time, he chose to pour out all the truth to the two people next to him who were also scarred, and regained the friendship and understanding of his friends.

This world line may be the one with the best development among all the world lines with the existence of "Xu Guoliang", because in this world line he completely overcame the darkness in his heart for the first time and completely controlled the ultimate power of the newborn.

But the result remained the same. Xu Guoliang, who had mastered the nascent ultimate power, and his two friends defeated Gooma, and then fought against Gamio, who had just awakened and had not yet fully recovered his strength. With the help of Miou, the sister of the previous Kuuga Riku, they successfully sealed the other party.

And then… Xu Guoliang, having previously shielded Zaimokuza from Gamio's fatal blow, succumbed to the injuries sustained, ending his story in this worldline surrounded by his friends. Exiting the first-person perspective, Xu Guoliang returned to the observer's perspective.

...But what he saw at the end of this most hopeful world line was still darkness.

This was also the last world line he observed as the variable "Xu Guoliang"... and the time was just now.

After observing again and again, starting again and again, Xu Guoliang went from being slow and awkward in the fight at the beginning, facing the fear of Gurongi, to being clean and efficient in the fight, fighting those monsters between life and death, and being on the brink of death without any fear. His strength developed from being the last among the three to becoming the undisputed number one among the three and the undoubted strongest guardian of mankind. The extent of his growth was enough to amaze anyone who knew Xu Guoliang.

But in the end, he could not change anything. All the efforts and sweat, all the sacrifices and bloodshed, in the end, could only repeat the same cycle again and again.

Xu Guoliang's hand, which was covering his face, tightly grasped his hair. He finally understood now.

Just like a spring flowing down a mountain, it may change its course or even diverge due to human intervention, but it will never change its direction of flowing "downward." So, regardless of whether or not I exist in the "story," the outcome remains the same.