Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 535 Reasons for Creation
"..."

The voice of the white-haired boy echoed in Xinlailai's ears, making him silent. After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Bell Crane in front of him. His dark pupils reflected the other's face, which was slightly younger but had long lost its childishness. He said in a deep voice:
"Are you sure you want to know the answer?"

He did not ask why the other party asked him such a question.

This is no longer the world of Dicuo, and the other party is no longer the young man in the original work who has never truly experienced the death and separation of his companions, but a man who has witnessed with his own eyes how the world is shattered, how the people close to him lose themselves under the erosion of the abyss, and finally chooses to stand up and resist.

Some doubts may have already arisen in the other party's mind, but it was not until this moment that the other party finally made a decision in his heart.

"Ah."

Bell Crany stared at Sinlailai and met Sinlailai's oppressive gaze. There was no sign of wavering in his red eyes.

"In that case, I will not dissuade you from doing anything. The only thing I can advise you is to be mentally prepared."

Xin Lailai looked at the expression on Bell Crane's face, lowered his eyes slightly, and did not ask if he was ready or anything, and continued directly:

"Just as you guessed, I, the Death Bearer, Yamu, and Daoji, the 'legendary adventurers' you mentioned, are indeed not from this world. Not only that, but all your memories of us are actually wrong. Except for Daoji, I and the others actually arrived in this world the day you saw us. There is no such thing as being active for hundreds of years and witnessing all kinds of legends and myths."

The calm words fell, and when Bell Crany heard Sinlailai's story, especially the statement that he had never been to the Earthly World in the past, he couldn't help but be stunned, and a look of confusion appeared in his red eyes.

"Wait...wait a minute, Brother Black Sword, you said that all the records about you are wrong, but..."

"It's simple, because the memories you have about us were false from the beginning. Think about it yourself. According to your memories, there should be a lot of traces or actual contact records left by the so-called 'legendary adventurers' in this world. But in fact, before we officially appeared in front of you, has there been even one person in this world who said that they had actually seen or come into contact with the so-called 'legendary adventurers'?"

"Can……"

When Bell Craney heard what Xin Lailai said, he subconsciously wanted to refute something, but when it really came to his mouth, he found that he could not refute what Xin Lailai said at all.

"How is it? You have absolutely no idea? And if I'm not mistaken, you already have the answers to these phenomena in your mind, guesses, but you're just not sure."

Xin Lailai stared at the white-haired boy in front of him. In his silence, he spoke the words that stirred up a storm in his mind in an unusually calm tone:

"Bell Craney, the world in your memory, including the underground city we are standing on, is actually just a derivative created by a certain existence according to a certain story. You are actually the protagonist of that story, supporting the core existence of the entire story. As for the memories of us in your and Ota's minds, they are actually just false 'settings' added to your memories by the existence that created your world in order to make you better accept the appearance of people like us."

The indifferent voice exploded in Bell Crany's mind like rolling thunder, setting off huge waves, stirring his thoughts, and throwing his mind into chaos.

He had thought that the man in front of him did not belong to this world, and suspected that the cognition in their minds might have been forcibly added by the other party using some magical "ancient relics", but he had never thought about this subversive, crazy, and even suspicious result of the ravings of a madman.

However, Xin Lailai did not stop talking, but continued:
"I think you must have been very curious and puzzled in the past. Why do we know so much about this world? Why can we easily tell the black dragon's weakness and do so many incredible things?"

"That's because for us 'legendary adventurers', most of the things that happened in your world are actually stories that already have an ending, just like the heroic stories you read. For us, you, Aisi, Ota... and even anyone in your memory, are just characters in this story. We know better than you what kind of future you will go to without us, and what decisions you will make at what moment. For us, although your world really exists in the world, it is just a derivative between falsehood and reality."

They...are all derivatives between reality and falsehood?

Bell lowered his head and looked at his hands. A sense of absurdity and emptiness inexplicably arose in his mind, as if everything in front of him was gradually fading away and his body was gradually becoming illusory.

"As expected, I am being too direct...?"

Xin Lailai looked at Bell Crany's reaction, his eyes moved slightly, and his eyelids drooped habitually.

One's own world is fake; oneself and the people and things one knows are created. This fact undoubtedly brings an enormous impact to anyone.

Objectively speaking, he should have chosen to reveal all this to the other party in a more tactful way, rather than using such a cold and even cruel description to tell the other party the reality.

only……

Xin Lailai looked at Bell, who had his head lowered and was obviously in deep self-doubt and nihilism. A trace of entanglement flashed in his eyes. Just as he was hesitating whether to speak up to pull the other party back, Bell Crane's voice, which sounded like a young boy but also gave people an unusually mature and steady feeling, suddenly came:

"Brother Black Sword, can I ask you another question?"

'? ! '

Faced with the sudden question, Xin Lailai, who was immersed in thought, raised his head in some surprise, and then he noticed that Bell Craney had sat up from the ground at some point and was sitting opposite him.

This guy, could he really...

A feeling of expectation and curiosity swirled in Xin Lailai's mind, but he suppressed it the next second. Then he quickly adjusted his demeanor, nodded slightly, and said calmly, "Ask."

After hearing these brief words, the white-haired boy nodded, took a deep breath, and finally asked seriously:
"Brother Black Sword, I want to know, in your world, which story came first, our world? Or did our world come first?"

Which came first, the original work of the derivative world or the derivative world?
Hearing Bell's question, Xin Lailai was slightly startled, as if he didn't expect the other party to suddenly ask such a question, but out of politeness, he still answered very seriously:

"In terms of order, your story was first born in the world where the Death Keeper and I were born, and then the existence behind us came into being... To you, it can be understood as something like a 'god', and it was He who created your world based on these stories."

The derivative worlds of Paradise are all created by Paradise based on works in the real world. This is common sense in Paradise. Although the creators themselves may no longer be alive, with the intervention of Paradise, these works will still be circulated in the real world again and again, and the authors' names will not change at all.

This is also why some contractors, after experiencing some rather shitty derivative worlds, often find that they cannot find the original authors of that world when they want to send some "gifts" in the real world, because those authors may have passed away hundreds of years ago, but their works have been passed down under the influence of Paradise, and people in the real world have always believed that they were created in the last ten years or so.

"That's it..."

As Sinlailai finished speaking, Bell Crane, who had been tense, suddenly let out a long sigh. The expression on his face suddenly relaxed, and he fell back as if relaxed, lying on the soft floor. A hint of nostalgia and recollection appeared in his red eyes, and he murmured in front of Sinlailai's stunned gaze:

"If that's the case, even though it still feels a little strange, this world... is really lucky, right?"

Lucky…?
Hearing Bell's words, Xin Lailai was stunned. For the first time, a look of bewilderment appeared in his dark pupils. But before he could figure out why the other party said that, Bell, who was lying on the carpet, continued:
"Brother Black Sword, do you know that some of the stories in the Heroes' Tales are also false?"

"For example, "The Knight of Goulagon", "The Hero of Godel", and some other stories. Although their stories are recorded in the heroic tales, everyone knows that the heroes in these stories do not actually exist."

"But even so, I still like these stories and the characters in them. Sometimes I even fantasize that they really exist and I can participate in their stories."

"Although I don't understand what the completely real world you mentioned is like, I think that in your world, not all stories can be selected by the 'God' you mentioned and created into a real world, right?"

"As long as I think about it this way, even if my heart is extremely confused, in the end I will still feel that... we are really lucky, right?"

"If there is no 'god' that Brother Black Sword mentioned, then I and Miss Ais might just be like those fake heroic tales, forever circulating as fake stories in your world. No one would really believe that there is a person named 'Bell Crany' in the world, just like no one would believe that there is a 'Knight of Guragon' in the world."

"Although I don't know why the 'God' chose our story, I think... no matter what the reason is, it must be because this story has something that He likes, so He did this, right?"

"After all, it is because the 'story' is exciting enough that you want to turn it into a real 'world', right?"

Bell Craney murmured, looking at the rock wall in front of him, his mind involuntarily imagining what the scenes would be like if the stories in his memory came to life, and a gentle smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

It is because the 'story' is exciting enough that we want to turn it into a real 'world'...

Xin Lailai couldn't help but stand there in a daze as he listened to Bell Crany's story. For a moment, an indescribable emotion rose from his chest and quickly spread to his whole body.

He looked at the boy in front of him, and in a trance, he seemed to see different figures overlapping with each other, there were Tanjiro Kamado and Sakonji Urokodaki who had become distant memories, there was Julius whose words of advice still echoed in his mind, there was Soragi Renka who burned himself to become a wild god, there was Hiruko Kagetsu who was laughing crazily with a mask on, and there was Satomi Rentaro who had blue flames in his eyes, there was also Ainz Ooal Gown who sat alone on the throne and whose depth was hard to see, and the short and fat man who looked a little fat but whose voice could make demons tremble with fear, and finally, he saw a figure that was extremely familiar, but inexplicably felt a little strange:
——He was a black-haired young man with wounds all over his body. His right hand and left foot were both severed, and his entire face was covered in blood. He was struggling to lean on a broken black giant sword, and his bloodshot pupils contained a ferocious but unyielding look like a ferocious beast.

That is himself.

Is it 'exciting' enough?

Xin Lailai looked at the distant yet near scene in front of her, and looked at 'herself' in the scene. She subconsciously reached out her hand, wanting to touch 'her' body, and then...

"Brother Black Sword?"

Wow——! !

A doubtful voice was heard, and the picture in front of him suddenly shattered. The 'self' in front of him quickly turned into Bell Crany, and he stretched out his hand at some point, as if he wanted to touch the other person's face.

"…Sorry, I was a little distracted."

Xin Lailai came back to his senses and coughed lightly. He withdrew his arm without changing his expression, looked at Bell, and said with a gentle smile on his face:

"Originally, I was a little worried that you didn't have the qualifications. Now it seems that I was a little too arrogant."

Xin Lailai said, shaking his head in self-mockery, and at the same time changed his sitting posture from cross-legged to a more casual one, with his right hand on his knee, his eyes slightly lowered, staring at Bell Craney, and said in the other's puzzled look:
"Bell, let me ask you, do you...want to save Aisi and the others?"

……

(End of this chapter)