Chapter 1012: The Fictional Actor

A pair of hollow eyes slowly opened in the dimness.

Chen Ling lay flat on the theater floor, his spread-out red opera robe looking like a blooming, demonic flower. Having digested all the confusion in his mind, he crawled up slowly, stiff and powerless, like a zombie...

His gaze swept across the surroundings. Pairs of mocking, scarlet eyes were staring at him from the darkness of the audience seats, just as they always did.

Under the pale light, his messy black hair cast shadows on his face. He gave a miserable smile...

Chen Ling had never existed.

From the very beginning, he was a part of [Mockery], a plain and unremarkable "audience member"... His personality, his memories, everything he thought he was, were nothing more than a "character" crafted by the Red King.

The Red King had granted him self-awareness, successfully triggering infighting within the Mockery Calamity. As long as he stood on the stage, the "Chen Ling" personality would control the entire Mockery Calamity, turning it from an unbeatable world-ending threat into a living, breathing human...

"Turning a 'world-ending threat' into a 'human'; turning the natural enemy of the Opera God Path into a disciple under his own tutelage..."

"Master... Teacher... Or, the Red King..."

"What a... brilliant layout."

Chen Ling’s chapped lips curled slightly. He looked at everything on the stage, laughing and crying by turns, as if insane.

How should he view the Red King?

As the "father" who granted him self-awareness and saved him from the sea of suffering among the audience... or as the invisible hand that manipulated his fate, treating him as a chess piece?

Chen Ling didn't know... He truly didn't know.

The time spent at the Ancient Opera Treasury had been his most cherished past; in this era, only that place had given him a sense of security.

His senior brothers taught him the secret arts of the Opera Path, and his Master taught him [Painting the Vermilion Face], allowing him to maintain himself under the impact of Mockery... Chen Ling was very grateful to the Red King. Even if he wasn't the Chen Yan who had apprenticed back then, in his heart, he had truly accepted the Red King as his teacher—his real Master.

But now he discovered that the Red King’s actions seemed to have another interpretation...

Having Chen Yan apprentice to him, binding himself to the Ancient Opera Treasury in advance; letting himself go to the Ancient Opera Treasury when he felt lost, teaching him [Painting the Vermilion Face]—it was all nothing more than wanting him, the personality capable of controlling the Mockery Calamity, to gain a greater advantage, so that he would always remain under his control.

Was he a disciple, or a chess piece? Chen Ling could no longer tell...

But it didn't matter anymore.

Everything about him was fake anyway—he was fake, his family was fake, his past was fake, the God Path was fake... Did it matter if the Red King's attitude toward him was real or fake?

Regardless, he was just a fictional product.

Creak—creak—

Chen Ling stepped onto the stage floor, the slight creaking sound perfectly clear in the dead silence.

The red opera robe swayed under the spotlight. He was like a soulless puppet, slowly walking to the edge of the stage... The ink-like darkness was like an abyss, shrouding the surroundings, and pairs of expectant scarlet eyes stared at him like a writhing tide.

As long as Chen Ling took one more step forward, he would leave the stage and fall into the abyss...

Once the "Chen Ling" personality voluntarily abandoned the stage, all the other "audience members" would scramble onto the stage, and the true power of [Mockery] would be unleashed.

Within one minute, the Silver King would be dead without a burial place;

Within three minutes, the Wuji Domain would become a forbidden zone for life;

The scarlet ruler of the Ghost Mockery Abyss would descend upon the world, all remaining human domains would be shrouded in the haze of death, and even other calamity zones in the Gray World would tremble because of it...

This was no delusion; this was a future that would truly happen. Chen Ling knew very well that the Mockery Calamity, once freed from his restraint, was fully capable of doing this.

It was the king of "world-ending threats," the absolute strongest existence in both worlds.

It is no exaggeration to say that the survival of humanity rested on Chen Ling's single thought at this moment...

But at the same time, this time he would never be able to return to the stage. Everything belonging to "Chen Ling" would sink forever; he would forget everything and become one of the countless "audience members" once again.

This time, even the Red King couldn't save him.

"...Let it be destroyed."

Chen Ling closed his eyes wearily, like a wanderer trekking alone through a forbidden desert, radiating despair from soul to body. Life and death no longer mattered to him.

He was too tired.

The sleeves of his red opera robe spread out under the spotlight. Just as Chen Ling was about to take that step, a voice sounded urgently in his ear:

"Wait!"

It was Yao's voice.

Chen Ling stopped his movement subconsciously... He had almost forgotten that there was another soul in his mind.

"If you jump down now, there will be no turning back." Yao's voice was extremely solemn.

"Regardless of whether your past is real or fake, after becoming 'Chen Ling,' everything you experienced was real, wasn't it?

Zhao Yi, Han Meng, Xiao Jian, Wen Shilin, the Aurora Lord, Huang Suye, Liu Qingyan, Sun Bumian, Jiang Xiaohua, Chu Muyun, Bai Ye... In their eyes, you are Chen Ling, a flesh-and-blood Chen Ling!

Your existence is not without meaning...

A created actor can still have a life of their own."

Familiar faces flashed through Chen Ling's mind. In those hollow eyes, a faint, weak spark of life called "hope" emerged.

He kept his head bowed, standing at the edge of the stage for a long time, before speaking hoarsely:

"...It's different."

"How is it different?"

"I am a 'world-ending threat,' and they are humans." Chen Ling paused for a moment. "From the beginning, we were opposites... The me they came into contact with was not me."

In everyone's eyes, Chen Ling was just Chen Ling, but the current Chen Ling knew very well... he was the Mockery Calamity.

Humans and world-ending threats have always been mortal enemies. When they find out he is the Mockery Calamity itself, everything might change. The past where Chen Ling had invested genuine feelings had all become fake; he didn't want to experience being abandoned by everyone again.

"So what if you are a 'world-ending threat'? Will you kill them?"

"I..."

Chen Ling looked at the dense mass of scarlet eyes before him, those gazes filled with pure malice and mockery. He shook his head slowly. "I don't know..."

"I think you need to give yourself a chance... and give this world a chance." Yao said patiently.

"Perhaps, everything isn't as bad as you think."

Chen Ling fell silent.

He stood at the edge of the stage, a faint glimmer flickering in his gray eyes, like a desperate person about to drown, constantly searching for that vine he could grab onto...

He was looking for a reason... a reason for even a fictional Chen Ling to keep living.

Random fantasies didn't help Chen Ling find a reason, but Yao's words gave him a glimmer of hope. Perhaps everything wasn't as bad as he thought...

After an unknown amount of time,

Chen Ling slowly took half a step back.