Love Code At the End of The World

The spacecraft passed through the water curtain, coming out in the back of Hagrid Island. Below us a boundless paddy field stretched into the horizon, its golden rice plants swaying along with the sea breeze. The waterfall’s current slowed here as it poured down over terrace after terrace. Water descended through the layered pools, converging in the lake at the bottom.

The lake and the pools fanned out like an array of varying-sized mirrors under the sun, embellishing the island and the mountain cliffs as they shimmered.

“Wow...” Xing Ya seemed to only know how to say ‘wow’. She had obviously never been on a spacecraft, let alone driving one.

As the spacecraft began to climb in height, its huge shadow covered the paddy field below. The people of Hagrid Island busy working in the field looked up simultaneously and were surprised at the sight of us.

“Hi, we are here!” Xing Ya waved at them excitedly as though they could see her greeting them.

A navigation map appeared on the console, indicating that the exit was under the sea. There was actually a door under the sea.

“Turn around.” My hand pressed and slowly turned on the console. 

The people of Hagrid Island ran out of their rooms and stood at their balconies and the beach, craning their necks to look up at us. The grandma watched us from her seat on the platform at the peak.

“What’s your grandma’s name?” I asked casually.

“Our grandma’s name is Yin Yue,” Xing Ya answered.

I was surprised. Yin Yue? Silver Moon City!

Suddenly, I felt Xing Chuan’s gaze on me. However, he immediately averted his eyes when I glanced at him.

The Xing Chuan in Silver Moon City was smart. Since they shared similar genes, I reckoned that it would only be a matter of time until this Xing Chuan found out about Silver Moon City.

“Prepare to dive.” As my hand slid downwards, the spacecraft tilted into a dive. Slowly the spacecraft entered the water, descending into the underwater world. Colorful fishes that swam before me. Suddenly, Ghostie waved in front of me.

I was startled.

He began to swim forward. He seemed to be leading the way.

I followed behind him. A sudden burst of vigorous bubbles rushed up in front of me, almost blocking my field of vision.

When the bubbles dispersed, the navigator in front of me showed that the tunnel had opened. Yet all I saw before me was still the same boundless sea in front of me, with no exit in sight. 

Suddenly, a huge sea snake swam past us. However, as it passed by us, its head actually disappeared. In the dark blue sea, I had to rely on the sea snake to find the door, which was located precisely where the huge sea snake was still visible.

I smiled. “Advance at full speed!”

With a forward push of my hand, the spacecraft plunged forward at once and sped towards the surface. *Whoosh!* We burst out of the water and charged into the sky. Sunlight poured onto my face and I seemed to smell the air of freedom.

Driving the spacecraft above the clouds gave me a sense of familiarity I hadn’t felt in a long time. At the end of the day, I still couldn’t bear to part with the outside world.

I had transformed from refusing to accept this reality, to accepting this reality, to finally treating this world as my home. I couldn’t bear to give up the outside world. Even though it was broken and cruel, it was filled with my memories.

So, I would not stay in Hagrid Island, this piece of heaven.

Gradually a landmass appeared in the distance. There was nothing at all on the land, which stretched away into a familiar faint redness near the horizon. I knew that we were reaching the border of the radiation zone.

Xing Chuan stood up in shock. He stared blankly at the shattered barren ground below us. In this boundless wilderness, there was not even a single living blade of grass.

I stopped the spacecraft. There would be radiation if we went any further.

Xing Ya got to her feet too as she stared in shock. “There’s really nothing…”

“I’m sorry…” Xing Chuan suddenly said to me. He lowered his head. “We were the ones in the wrong…”

I glanced at him, then pointed at the far-off layer of red. “If you see the soil turning red, it means that we are close to the radiation zone. You can’t go any further, so let’s go back. There’s nothing more to see.”

Xing Chuan and Xing Ya became quiet. They had wanted to come out but there was really nothing in the outside world.

When they got off the spacecraft, they were still quiet. Being able to leave Hagrid Island had been their wish. However, now that they had gone out, they were burdened with sorrow. To them, it must have seemed as though there was only Hagrid Island left in the entire world.

When I had been in Noah City, if it wasn’t because we’d discovered simulated blue crystals, the me back then would have been under the same illusion that we were the only ones left in the world.

Only after visiting Blue Shield City, did I then realize that there were still many survivors and livable zones besides us.

The grandpas and the engineers were astonished. They said that they’d never expected the outside world to be completely destroyed. Ever since they had first come to Hagrid Island, they had never left. They had been completely isolated.

They brought me to the energy core, where they had installed a new set up that would allow me to use my blue crystal energy. They knew that I’d brought a simulated blue crystal with me.

To the outside world, being able to carry a simulated blue crystal with me was an extravagant luxury

The stars tonight were dazzling. I would be heading to Naros on Tomorrow the next day.

Naros had been a technology town.

Before the end of the world, it had been a truly wonderful technological city, consisting of three layers in the sea, land, and air. They’d had the highest elevator in the world that directly connected the depths of the sea to the high sky above. However, at the end of the world, the sky layer had crumbled to the ground, while the land area had been largely explored already as it was located in a level four radiation zone instead of the center of the radiation zone.

Only the layer on the sea bottom had yet to be explored.

At the end of the world, there was hardly anyone who scouted the bottom of the sea. Firstly, the operational requirements to scout underwater was higher. Secondly, there were too many mutants at the bottom of the sea. Water ghosts were one of the biggest threats. Thirdly, it was difficult to maintain light at the bottom of the sea.

I sat on Xing Ya’s bed. Her arms were hooked around my neck. The moonlight shone on my body, dusting a thin silvery layer of light over us.

Over the past half a year, I had missed Noah City the most because I’d lived a calm life in Noah City too. Xing Ya also reminded me of Arsenal from time to time.

“I’d really like to go for the mission with you tomorrow.” Xing Ya leaned on my shoulder in envy. “Luo Bing, just what kind of story do you have behind you?”

I kept quiet, my eyes on the rippling moon reflected on the surface of the sea.

“Luo Bing, don’t go, okay… What should we do if you leave…” Xing Ya hugged me tightly. “If you were a man, I would marry you. You can’t just leave…”

I chuckled and raised my hand. The ring on my finger shimmered under the moonlight.

“I know that you are married but didn’t your husband…”

“I have two husbands.”

“What?!” Xing Ya exclaimed in surprise. She let go of me and gaped at me as she covered her mouth. “Really? Two rings means two husbands?”

I smiled and shook my head. Taking off the ring that Raffles had made for me, I tilted it under the moonlight to show the inner surface of the ring. “Look. There are three names engraved here. Mine, Harry and…”

“Raffles…” Xing Ya read it and glanced up at me in surprise. “There are really two!”

I wore my ring again and pointed at Harry’s ring. “This is Harry’s ring.”

“Why can you have two?!” Xing Ya looked at me with envy.