After realizing that the outside world was still collapsing and the Ark had left a ticket only for him, Gu Yi did not give up.
He immediately returned to the Nihility Realm, using the immense difference in time flow to explore the Wizard World once more.
The Wizard World was a place of both danger and opportunity.
Its unique rules quickly made Gu Yi realize there had to be another power system in the Wizard World—one akin to gods.
They were to the Wizard World what Gu Yi was to the Nihility Realm.
But they were far stronger, because the Wizard World possessed a complete ecosystem and a formidable power system.
[There are two paths before me.]
[One: completely abandon my original world, enter this new world, and rely on the immortality granted by the Nihility Realm to become an existence that looks down on all living things!]
[To become a true god!]
[I choose the second path.]
After that, a long stretch of the suicide note was blank, as if something had been written and violently scratched out.
The reader couldn't organically interpret those erratic edits, so it simply displayed large swaths of blank space.
[I have no time left. There are 67 minutes remaining—which means 67 years.]
[But I have already tried so many times.]
[No matter what I do, I cannot become a Wizard.]
[Why?]
[I possess such incredible power, so why have I failed to become a Wizard time and time again?!]
Gu Yi's words were tainted with anxiety and rage.
Earlier, his thoughts had flowed in long, cohesive passages; now they splintered into short, erratic fragments.
Li Ban couldn't even imagine Du An looking furious and slamming a fist onto a table.
That man always seemed so restrained, as unmoving as a mountain.
[If only someone else had found this necklace back then.]
[I am too hesitant, too weak, too—ordinary.]
[How could someone like me ever be a savior?]
[Haha, and to think I actually believed I was one?]
Another brief blank space followed.
[I finally know the true purpose of "mind-splitting." My odds of becoming a Wizard within sixty-seven years might only be one in a hundred, or one in a thousand. But what if there were thousands of me? Probability might be unreliable, but it's still far better than relying on my solo efforts.]
[So it turns out—this really is my suicide note.]
[Sixty-seven minutes left. Once I do this, there is no turning back. From today onward, Gu Yi will disappear from the world—]
[—]
After this passage—which Li Ban had read before—came another massive stretch of blank space.
Back when Li Ban used the reader at the Northern Base, these gaps hadn't been displayed at all.
But staring at the emptiness now, his mind raced with possibilities.
The Ring World that had been reduced to a single building, the neatly arranged Experimental Capsules in the Laboratory, the researchers going undercover in the Wizard World one after another...
Reading this far, Li Ban finally understood: the Ring World wasn't a real world either.
But neither was it a virtual world made of data. It originated from the special necklace Gu Yi had found; it was a miraculous dimension.
Using the necklace dimension's ability to turn imagination into reality, Gu Yi had constructed a near-authentic world for himself.
His true goal was simply to make himself a Great Wizard, to become a savior capable of rescuing his original world.
Li Ban didn't know how all this had degenerated into the Laboratory resorting to such ruthless extremes, or how Du An had cast aside his own weakness and kindness.
After splitting himself into thousands of individuals, Gu Yi... seemed to have lost himself entirely.
He appeared to have forgotten his original purpose, remembering only the need to obtain the Wizard Embryo Fragments.
Yet obtaining a Wizard Embryo Fragment was still a long, long way from actually becoming a Great Wizard.
In his suicide note, Gu Yi stated that he had 67 years left. How much time had passed by now?
His original world, the one he had so resolutely chosen to shoulder the burden for—was it even still there?
Li Ban exhaled and looked at the final line of text.
[It's all fake! Don't believe any of it!]
Why would such a sentence appear at the very end of the suicide note?
Did it mean the entire note was fake, or was it referring to something else entirely?
The complete suicide note had finally unraveled the secrets of the Ring World.
Yet Li Ban found himself burdened with even more questions.
He raised a hand and retrieved the Mobius Ring Necklace from his Cubic Space.
"Is this the same necklace Gu Yi picked up all those years ago?" Li Ban reached out, attempting to touch the pendant.
But there was no reaction whatsoever.
"Is it because this cheat item belongs to Gu Yi, making my touch useless?"
"No, it isn't."
Suddenly, a crisp mechanical voice rang out beside him.
His eyes went wide as he looked at the reader next to him.
An advanced reader naturally came equipped with a voice feature.
And that voice had just come from its audio system.
"Who are you?"
"I—"
Though the synthesized voice couldn't replicate his true tone, the hesitation and uncertainty felt inexplicably familiar to Li Ban.
"Chen Dong?"
"Sigh... You're right. I am Chen Dong."
Chen Dong's soul truly existed inside this tiny Storage Card!
No wonder Du An had been instantly drawn over the moment Li Ban read the chip back then.
"Are you... doing alright?" Li Ban obviously knew that taking refuge inside a tiny chip couldn't be comfortable, but he needed to confirm Chen Dong's current condition.
"I can only say that I still exist."
Not great, but he wouldn't dissipate immediately either.
Li Ban paused, skipping any further pleasantries, and asked directly, "What did you mean when you said 'No, it isn't'?"
Chen Dong didn't beat around the bush. "The reason the Ring World isn't reacting is because it has already been destroyed."
"To think such an incredible artifact is already destroyed." Grasping the necklace, Li Ban shook his head in pity.
"It's not a pity," Chen Dong replied. "You've already obtained a Wizard Embryo Fragment. Once you become a Great Wizard, this Ring World will be nothing more than a defective toy in your eyes."
Li Ban smiled bitterly. Chen Dong and the others had indeed secured a Wizard Embryo Fragment, but their understanding of Great Wizards was severely lacking.
In fact, it was safe to say that for both him and Du An, their path to becoming a Wizard had only just begun.
"Chen Dong, going from obtaining a Wizard Embryo Fragment to actually becoming a Great Wizard could take decades, if not a century. The sixty-seven years mentioned in the suicide note—"
"It—it doesn't matter anymore." Chen Dong's voice grew noticeably somber.
Hiding within the chip's data, he had clearly read the contents of the note as well.
"Back when we retrieved the fake Wizard Embryo Fragment, I had already realized that... the time limit of 67 years had passed. It was only after I noticed the time that I completely remembered everything."
So Chen Dong had known even back then. Everyone in the Ring World was a byproduct of Gu Yi splitting himself.
Not just Du An, not just Chen Dong—every single person in the Ring World was Gu Yi.
Believing his individual power to be too limited, he had actually turned himself into an entire miniature society.
The Leader, who commanded operations, was resolute and ruthless. The General, who led the vanguard, was brave and calm. And the former Director, who had already committed suicide, was sharp and diligent.
"But Gu Yi probably didn't anticipate one thing. Among all the personalities he split into, one of them firmly abandoned the idea of being a savior. And to achieve that, completely unaware of the truth, he underwent a second split—utterly discarding me, his indecisive personality."
Li Ban shook his head. "How ironic. Gu Yi so resolutely chose to be the savior back then, yet in the end, it was the personality that least wanted to save the world that emerged victorious."
"Did Du An win? But Li Ban, this doesn't appear to be the Wizard World. You've returned from the Wizard World... didn't you snatch Du An's Wizard Embryo Fragment?"
"No, I obtained a different one."
"I see. That's wonderful. That means both of you can survive."
Chen Dong's tone sounded genuinely happy for him and Du An.
"You don't hate him?"
"Perhaps this personality of mine is just too weak. We failed, but I hope the two of you can keep living. Your existence is the final continuation of that world."
"The final continuation?" Li Ban looked at the words on the screen. "Then why does the last line of the suicide note say, 'It's all fake! Don't believe any of it!'?"
"What? That line is in there?" The shock in his voice didn't seem faked.
"Didn't you recover your memories? Didn't you write this suicide note? Have you not read it?"
"It was precisely because I recovered my memories that I didn't read it."
So even Chen Dong, who seemed to know the most, had no idea what that sentence meant?
"Is anyone else inside the chip? What about the Leader?"
"None of them recovered their memories, so they couldn't leave the necklace's world. On the day the Ring World was destroyed, they were destroyed along with it. I am the only one who got out. Originally, I wanted to—leave alongside my world. But perhaps my soul was too weak. When I came out, I couldn't return to my own body and instead ended up inside this chip. Yet now, you, someone who completely lost his past, actually managed to enter Gu Yi's body."
So this was Gu Yi's body? But why hadn't Du An recognized it?
Right, Du An hadn't recovered all his memories.
In his memories, the General was the entirety of Gu Yi.
"Then I suppose no one knows what that last sentence means." Li Ban felt a twinge of regret.
Still, that was a matter concerning the Ring World; it didn't really have much to do with him anyway.
His original goal had been to use the suicide note to figure out how Gu Yi had entered the Wizard World.
Now he knew it was by entering the Wizard World through the Nihility Realm inside the Mobius Ring Necklace, but the necklace had been ruined because of Du An.
Li Ban's heart skipped a beat. "But I've already assimilated the Virus Element Du An put into the necklace's world. Doesn't that mean I have a chance to reopen it and—enter the Wizard World again?"
What would that even count as?
Creating an alt account?
Unless the necklace could also grant Li Ban the ability to split his mind, he would only be able to create one alt account.
There wasn't much point to it. He was better off focusing on leveling up his main account, which had already become a Priest.
The upside, however, was that he could send the alt account to handle suicide missions.
But that was entirely predicated on restoring the necklace's world to a state where he could enter it.
"I'll try to restore this necklace. When the time comes, you can also use it to re-enter the Wizard World."
"I—can do it too?" A ripple of emotion broke through Chen Dong's otherwise steady voice.
The current Chen Dong was exactly like Li Ban had been in the beginning: devoid of a physical body, yet capable of residing within the chip's data.
"Back then, you resolutely sent me back to the Wizard World. Whether I succeed or not, I have to give it a try."