NOVEL NEXT Chapter 85: Endless
Nighttime.
Li Teng groggily awoke.
Although awake, his body was utterly paralyzed.
He felt a thick layer of snow covering his body, freezing his hands and feet stiff, robbing him of all control over them.
A wave of inexplicable sorrow surged in Li Teng's heart.
He realized that his current awakening might be the last flicker of consciousness before he'd never wake again.
But he was powerless to change it.
He couldn't even force himself to stay awake.
He remembered the last time he'd been this weak, he managed to stimulate consciousness by forcefully urinating to tear open a wound, but now he couldn't even perform that action.
To speak plainly, he wasn't fully conscious at that moment, his state more akin to the pseudo-consciousness of sleep paralysis.
Consciousness alert, yet body uncontrollable.
Typically, during sleep paralysis, one's body isn't frozen stiff or weakened to such an extent; once the brain is awakened, it eventually fully regains consciousness. But Li Teng was different; his paralysis was due to a combination of shock, frostbite, starvation, and illness.
Now, he was only left with the ability to think.
It was only through clear, determined thought that he could stave off the rapid descent into darkness.
Human thought is inevitably accompanied by memory.
Remembering the experiences from earlier in life allowed him to reflect on his present and future.
A human life seems very long.
From birth, there's the arduous task of learning all sorts of survival skills.
Turning over, crawling, sitting up, standing, speaking, walking, running...
Just as one masters these survival skills, a lengthy educational journey begins.
Language arts, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, biology, politics, geography, history...
From primary school to middle school, high school, and then university.
Education is endless, with much of it being about uninteresting things.
That's why it feels so long.
Yet sometimes, life feels incredibly short.
Upon reflecting on one's life one day, it's discovered that day after day has been spent doing things one doesn't want to do, and suddenly, there's not much time left.
Li Teng once upon a time.
He wasn't much different from other people his age living in that world.
The same long period of learning, then graduation, job hunting, dissatisfaction with the status quo, gradual loss of direction in society, and a sense of confusion about the future.
He could hardly remember the night before he was kidnapped here, what exactly happened.
The only thing he remembered was that during that period, he continuously pondered life, wanting to figure out its meaning and what kind of life he truly wanted.
He believed he shouldn't just get by without ambition; he didn't want to toil all day for a barely subsistence wage. And by the time he wanted to do something he liked, such as read his favorite web novel or play a cherished mobile game, it was deep into the night, and he was yawning incessantly.
Day after day, with no hope in sight.
His somewhat lofty character, his heedless ways of doing things and working, and his disdain for all sorts of unreasonable rules made him an outcast in that world. The mediocrity that followed his graduation only intensified his aversion to everything he faced.
Of course, he never harbored thoughts of suicide because of this; he just wanted change.
Change himself, seek a different life.
For a recent graduate without family backing, this was not an easy task.
So, for the most part, he only reflected and thought.
During those days, he hadn't answered any 'YES' or 'NO' questions on his phone or computer, yet he woke up finding himself inexplicably atop the metal plate.
But now he began to wonder if it was because of his desire to change his life that all this had happened.
Regretful?
It seemed not.
Did he really want to return to that original world?
Not necessarily.
Because in that world, he had no more attachments.
Thus, his purpose for diligently amassing points here was clearly different from that of others.
He simply wanted to lower the height of the stone pillar so he could return to the ground, without having to live in fear atop the pillar.
Whether or not he would return to his original world when the stone pillar was low enough to allow him to reach the ground seemed to be of less concern to him.
At least not urgently so.
If he could accumulate enough 1,000 points and successfully get back to his former world, to resume his previous life,
maybe the rest of his life would be consumed by an unsolvable mystery.
What on earth was going on with Film and Television City? Who was pulling the strings behind all this?
As his thoughts drifted further away, his consciousness grew increasingly vague.
Li Teng felt that what he should be thinking about right now was how to survive the severe cold of the night and make it to the next day.
Although he tried hard to think, tried hard to stay alert, in the end, the extremely weakened him once again succumbed to the endless darkness.
...
He didn't know how much time had passed.
It seemed like a very, very long time.
Li Teng woke up.
He groaned in pain.
He didn't know how many days he had been unconscious.
Given that he was still on the stone pillar and hadn't made it back to Film and Television City, it meant he had been out for no more than two days.
The fierce sunlight shone on his body.
It warmed him, but couldn't revive his frozen limbs.
His hands and feet were swollen like rice cakes, displaying a horrifying black color.
He had completely lost control of them.
It seemed like he no longer had a fever.
But that wasn't good news.
It was very likely that his immune system had collapsed entirely, and the temperature-regulating functions of his central nervous system had shut down completely; his body might have become a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses to multiply indefinitely.
He felt that the fact he could still be alive, that he could wake up, was a miracle.
Or rather, someone was deliberately creating this miracle.
To torment him.
Was it the fourth or the fifth day today?
He hoped it was the fifth.
If it was the fifth day, then the helicopter should be arriving soon.
Unfortunately, it wasn't.
The scorching sunlight continued to warm Li Teng's body, sustaining his last breath until nightfall.
But the helicopter didn't come.
After nightfall, as temperatures dropped, Li Teng slipped back into unconsciousness.
...
The next time he woke up,
Li Teng was awakened by two mechanical claws.
They grabbed his body like cargo, placed it onto a Metal Plate, and retracted into the cabin.
This time, it was indeed a helicopter from Film and Television City that had come.
Once Li Teng's body was retrieved by the mechanical arms and Metal Plate into the cabin, the cabin door closed and the inside was plunged into darkness.
He knew there was a box beside him, containing bread, biscuits, and drinks that could help him recover.
Unfortunately, his condition this time was even worse than before.
Last time, he was only extremely weak and lacked the strength.
This time, except for his eyeballs, which barely moved, he had lost control of his entire body, his limbs in just two or three days had swelled, erupted and become crippled.
It was now impossible for him to even reach for the bread, biscuits, and drinks.
It looked like if he was to survive until he entered Film and Television City this time, he would have to first visit his old friend.
Although he didn't want to be mistaken for a corpse when he got off the helicopter, Li Teng couldn't hold on for long in the dark cabin, and soon slipped back into unconsciousness again.