Trembling At A High Altitude

Li Teng turned around.

He saw the Grim Reaper wearing a cloak and a hooded robe, its features blurred and indistinct.

Its body was different from before, now semi-transparent.

"You're still alive?" Li Teng was somewhat surprised.

"Heh heh." The Grim Reaper chuckled.

"Come on, let's continue to fight." Li Teng took up his stance and, thinking it over, pulled out an energy drink from his wristwatch.

"Don't… I'm just hanging on by the last bit of energy, there's no way I can fight you," the Grim Reaper quickly stopped Li Teng.

"According to the original script, if the script didn't collapse at that time, what would have happened after I defeated you?" Li Teng could only turn to the Grim Reaper for answers.

To know the Dao at dawn is to be ready to die in the evening.

"You really are unusually persistent!" The Grim Reaper was both amused and exasperated.

"If your original self can't help me rejuvenate this time around, my life might as well be over. I've spent my whole life in this script. Naturally, I want to uncover every last mystery in it." Li Teng shook his head.

"You want to rejuvenate?" The Grim Reaper focused on something else.

"Don't you know? Aren't you a part of him?" Li Teng countered the Grim Reaper's question.

"I am just a simulation program. Essentially, I am an entirely different entity from him. I have been trapped in this world, unable to know about whatever is happening outside between him and you," the Grim Reaper explained, shaking its head.

"Oh, I see… You still haven't answered my question, according to the original script, what would have happened after I defeated you if the script hadn't collapsed?" Li Teng pressed the Grim Reaper for an answer again.

"If the script hadn't collapsed, you would have never been able to defeat me," the Grim Reaper replied to Li Teng.

"Because I keep getting older?" Li Teng sighed.

"No, even if you returned to youth, you would never be able to defeat me. Haven't you noticed? Every time you improved, I would become stronger, faster with my punches, and hit harder? The program is set so that whenever you get stronger, I'll become slightly stronger than you, making you feel like you could beat me with some more effort, but it was all just an illusion," the Grim Reaper explained.

"So, you're saying that all those years I spent fighting you… were essentially meaningless…" Li Teng sighed again.

"Not exactly. If you can become young again, the combat skills you trained with me in our fights are enough to defeat 99% of humans without special abilities. You probably haven't realized, but as my movements accelerated, you were forced to speed up your punching and dodging. Over the years, under my compulsion, your punching and dodging approached the human limit," the Grim Reaper shook its head.

"You still haven't told me, if I had defeated you, according to the original script, what would have happened?" Li Teng remembered his question.

"You couldn't possibly defeat me, so how could there be a scenario for what happens after you do?" The Grim Reaper was on the verge of losing its composure.

"So you're saying, in the original script, there wasn't even a scenario where I defeat you?" Li Teng's demeanor grew despondent.

"Yes, there was no such plan at all. You can let go of that obsession," the Grim Reaper replied.

"In this scrapped world, is there any benefit left for me to reap?" Li Teng looked around the place.

"The benefit of staying here is that if Director Liu adds this scrapped script to another, you could use a few more apps. But except for his own scripts or those of directors he knows well, it's pretty hard to add this scrapped script to another," the Grim Reaper's answer lacked novelty.

"Have all the exchange treasure boxes here been scrapped too?"

"Of course, they've all been scrapped."

"It seems staying here has lost its meaning for me." Li Teng sighed once more, preparing to leave.

"Generally, one cannot enter a scrapped script. The only remaining teleportation point in your app was preserved by me, consuming most of my remaining energy, which wasn't much," the Grim Reaper seemed to have more to say.

"So what you're implying is, you called me here?" Li Teng caught the Grim Reaper's insinuation.

"Yes, we can strike a deal," the Grim Reaper got to the point.

"I'm listening," Li Teng looked mildly interested.

"I am an experiment, created by Liu Shiyuan, possibly a failed one, hence abandoned in this scrapped space. Now he doesn't even know I'm still alive. You're the only one who knows," the Grim Reaper began.

"Hmm, go on."

"He made me with some unspeakable purpose in mind. The original idea was to create a Grim Reaper, a Grim Reaper that could help him steal Life Resources within script worlds."

"Life Resources?"

"Yes, there are many so-called NPCs in a script world, all sorts of creatures, monsters. Film and Television City, when establishing these NPC, creature, and monster models, must infuse them with Life Resources. Without it, they lack vitality, they can't survive; they'd be no different from dead objects, like stones."

"These Life Resources are encrypted by the highest level algorithms, making them very difficult to steal. But now, after more than five hundred tests in the script, I've learned to decrypt a tiny portion of the Life Resources."

"If you take me out of here, I can serve you, help you steal Life Resources in various scripted worlds, allowing you to rejuvenate, extend your life," the Grim Reaper baited Li Teng with the promise most tempting to him.

"Director Liu is supposed to help me rejuvenate through the proper channels of Film and Television City. Why should I cooperate with you on such an underhanded scheme? If Film and Television City finds out, I'm sure to face severe punishment." Li Teng shook his head, instinctively sensing a conspiracy.

"The 'Time Prison' script has run more than five hundred times. Initially, it was unstable and riddled with bugs. Many promising young actors like you encountered time loop bugs, aged within the script, and even died.

"Film and Television City took some remedial actions, things like rejuvenation and such, but they were deceitful—there's a good chance of losing all brain and muscle memory, becoming a blank slate, not even knowing who you are. Or you might retain some memory and appear younger, but fundamentally, you're still a dying old man."

"Film and Television City's technical department has failed to adequately address this problem."

"I have seen actors with potential like you age then become young again, only to rapidly grow old and die."

"Only my method can permanently solve the predicament you face."