Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 920 Thumbelina (The End)

Xu Han: "..."

Damn it! Are they ostracizing him again?! That's going too far! Can't he even try to lighten the mood?!

When Thumbelina opened her eyes again, there was less confusion and fear in them, replaced by a sense of vicissitude and determination that had accumulated over countless years.

She turned to Yu Shijiu and the others, and bowed deeply under everyone's gaze.

"thank you all."

Thumbelina whispered, "Without you, 'we' might have been trapped in this painful cycle for countless years without escape."

As she spoke, the collapse of the surrounding caves completely stopped.

No, to be precise, the cave itself began to melt.

The mud that forms the walls and ceiling is slowly becoming transparent, revealing the real scene outside—not the icy snow they encountered when they entered the cave, but a warm field belonging to spring.

Sunlight streamed in through the transparent "walls," warm and real, while the fragrance of flowers and grass after the arrival of spring dispelled the lingering sweet, rotten smell in the cave.

"This is..." Xu Han stared in disbelief.

"This is the real world."

Thumbelina said softly, “The hole never existed under the real snow... It was a ‘cage’ built in the collective subconscious of all ‘Thumbelinas’. Now that the cage is broken, the truth is revealed.”

She walked over to Yang Hua, who hadn't spoken a word, squatted down, and looked at his bewildered face.

"I'm sorry, are you feeling very sad right now?"

Yang Hua stared blankly at her, "Sister Fang...she really..."

“Her pain is similar to our pain. She was unwilling to be the only one who escaped hell, so she always held onto the illusion that she could come back and save girls like her.”

Thumbelina's voice was very soft, like the first warm breeze of spring.

"But her strength alone is not enough, so she needs some external 'variables'—that is, you—to break the balance."

Thumbelina stood up as she spoke, looked at Yu Shijiu, and her eyes showed worry.

"Does the injury on your hand still hurt?"

Yu Shijiu moved his left arm.

The mutation on his arm had stopped; the hair no longer grew, and the peristalsis under the skin had completely disappeared. Although it still maintained a slow, fading semi-mutated state, the feeling of being eroded and controlled was completely gone.

“It’s stabilized,” Yu Shijiu said hesitantly, “but it seems like I can’t go back to my original appearance.”

"The essence of pollution is the burrow of an old field mouse."

Thumbelina said, "Now that the burrow is destroyed, the power has lost its source, but the changes that have already been made cannot be reversed. However... this may not be a bad thing."

She pointed to Yu Shijiu's left arm, somewhat apprehensively: "The power in this arm is still very strong. If there is a way in the future, you can choose to completely purify it, or you can choose to... try to control it."

Upon hearing this, Yu Shijiu looked down at his furry beast paws, his fingers opening and closing, a hint of interest flashing in his eyes.

"That sounds good."

Yu Shijiu muttered something to himself, then suddenly looked up at Thumbelina in front of him and laughed.

"But Thumbelina, may I ask you a question?"

Thumbelina, who had just gained her freedom, smiled good-naturedly: "Of course."

Chen Yi and An Jie: "..."

Their expressions changed, and their hearts sank inexplicably, as if they had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

"Shi Jiu—"

Chen Yi opened his mouth to shout—

"Do you know you're just an NPC in a game instance?"

Yu Shijiu asked Thumbelina curiously.

An Jie and Chen Yi: "..."

Having roughly cured He Lingling, Xu Han, who was sweating profusely and feeling dizzy, exclaimed: "?! ...

What?! What did Yu Shijiu just say?!

Didn't Dawn Games already reform the system, stating that NPCs have a 60% or higher chance of knowing your true identity? But even if they know, Yu Shijiu can't just blatantly ask them directly, can he?!

Xu Han felt that his still somewhat groggy brain had been jolted awake by Yu Shijiu's fright.

Thumbelina: "..."

Her face showed a blank expression, or rather, a helpless and sighing look.

After a moment, Thumbelina nodded. "I know."

Yu Shijiu was taken aback, and then, as if realizing that he shouldn't have said that, he pursed his lips, unsure of what to say.

"I know I am just a fictional character created by the creators."

Thumbelina looked somewhat dazed. "It feels like I've been cut in half. One half tells me I'm real, while the other half tells me I'm just a tool used to advance other people's storylines."

"Doesn't that sound a little strange?" Thumbelina smiled gently. "But I have to accept it myself, and besides, I'm free now, aren't I?"

Yu Shijiu looked at her, his gaze traveling from her smiling face to her drooping wrist.

Thumbelina wore a straw bracelet with yellow flowers on her thin, delicate wrist.

It's still in the state of a dandelion in bloom, a little wilted, but you can still vaguely see the green vitality hidden within.

"Yes."

Yu Shijiu also laughed, his almond-shaped eyes crinkling into crescents. He took something out of his system backpack and handed it to Thumbelina.

Thumbelina was taken aback. She looked down and saw the boy open his palm, revealing what he was holding.

It was a green orange with a rough-looking peel.

"It tastes good, sweet and sour."

Yu Shijiu smiled and said, "It was a gift from a very kind uncle. I don't have many left, so I'm giving one to you."

Thumbelina looked at the green orange handed to her and smiled as she accepted it.

"Okay, I will always remember that you gave me a green orange."

The smile in Yu Shijiu's eyes slowly faded. He couldn't help but think of the middle-aged man who went to apologize to his daughter, but ended up dying with her.

And then there's Xuexue, whom he has been forcibly suppressing and unwilling to think about.

The boy's heart skipped a beat for no reason. He shook his head and said to Thumbelina.

"It's better not to remember it forever."

Having too clear a memory isn't necessarily a good thing, especially for humans.

Thumbelina asked, puzzled, "Why? Beautiful memories should be remembered forever."

She smiled shyly as she spoke, "This is the first time someone has given me something without any cost whatsoever."

After saying that, Thumbelina seemed to have thought of something and suddenly opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself, saying, "By the way, I wanted to ask you, do you really not like girls? Or are you just teasing me?"

Yu Shijiu, whose memories were interrupted: "..."

He paused for a few seconds, then said sincerely, "...I'm not kidding, really, I really like men."

Thumbelina sighed in disappointment, "That's really disappointing."

Yu Shijiu: "..."

Among the people behind her, He Lingling, who had just woken up, covered her still-bleeding eyes and weakly asked:

"So...we've cleared this dungeon?"

Before she could finish speaking, the long-delayed system notification sounded in everyone's ears:

[Detection indicates that the core of the instance has been destroyed by a player named Youhua.]

The hidden main quest "Help Thumbelina gain her freedom" has been completed.

The plot point of "breaking the Thumbelina marriage cycle" has been achieved.

[Calculating exploration progress...]

[Guild "Alive" Exploration Progress: 52%]

[Guild "Eye of All Things" Exploration Progress: 48%]

Congratulations to the guild "Living" for winning the Thumbelina dungeon in this guild competition!

[Warm reminder: The game instance will close in 60 seconds. All players inside the instance, please prepare accordingly.]

"we won……"

Xu Han pushed He Lingling next to An Jie, sat down on the ground with a thud, let out a long sigh, and then jumped up as if he remembered something.

"Wait! The dungeon is over! What about Shi Jiu's arm? And Yang Hua—"

Xu Han's voice stopped abruptly.

Anjie and the others pursed their lips and turned to look at Yang Hua, who had survived the game all by himself.

Yang Hua was sitting with his knees drawn up, staring blankly at the spot where Thumbelina was, his eyes a little red, for Fang Youhua, and for himself.

Thumbelina, who was being watched, hesitated for a moment, then put away the green orange and said something to Yu Shijiu.

Yu Shijiu had no objection and made a casual gesture.

Thumbelina then walked over to Yang Hua and gently touched her head.

Are you still sad?

Thumbelina asked softly, "If I remember correctly, the sister who had a similar experience to me shouldn't really be dead."

As one of the rare NPCs to awaken in the game's dungeons, Thumbelina remembers certain game rules very well.

Fang Youhua didn't die; she was just temporarily eliminated.

Yang Hua looked up when she heard this, and blinked hard. "I know... I'm just feeling a little sad."

"Are you feeling unwell?" Thumbelina sighed upon hearing this. "But you're still alive, so you shouldn't feel too bad, right?"

Yang Hua: "..."

She was clearly taken aback by Thumbelina's words, her red-rimmed eyes filled with disbelief.

How could someone as gentle and kind as Thumbelina suddenly say something like that?

Anjie and the others, who were not far away, laughed.

Chen Yi smiled and said, "It seems that Shi Jiu is smarter than all of us, knowing that Thumbelina's true personality is not like the one in the story."

"...Thinking about it, it makes sense," Xu Han said, recovering from his shock and nodding seriously. "Thumbelina in the story is like a gentle little egg—cough, I'm not insulting her! It's just a description! Just a description!"

Anjie and He Lingling: "..."

He Lingling rolled her eyes listlessly, this time she didn't have the energy to be sarcastic towards Xu Han.

Anjie said calmly, "That's still much better than your egg."

Xu Handan: "..."

...Why has Sister An become so sharp-tongued? Sister An wasn't like this before! Sister An always treated him like her precious darling...

Xu Han was indignant, her pout so deep it could plow two miles of land.

Yu Shijiu touched his hairy, half-receded left arm and interjected with a smile.

“I’m not that smart,” Yu Shijiu said, scratching her face somewhat embarrassedly. “I just feel that fairy tales don’t do a very good job of describing Thumbelina.”

In short... Thumbelina in the story shows almost no major emotional fluctuations. The only part that shows Thumbelina's unwillingness to accept her fate is the scene when Swallow runs away from the wedding.

It was precisely because of this that Yu Shijiu found Thumbelina's eventual agreement to marry the Lilliputian king so strange.

How could someone who has just escaped hell so quickly accept a marriage proposal from a man they barely know or have only just met?

Even if a man is very handsome, you should still think it over carefully, right?

Moreover, the king of Lilliput might not even be really good-looking... after all, they're not living a real fairy tale.

Over there, after a brief exchange with Yang Hua, Thumbelina turned to look at An Jie and the others.

Are you leaving now?

Anjie and Chen Yi exchanged a glance, then looked at Yu Shijiu and He Lingling.

He Lingling's eyes had returned to normal with Xu Han's help, but her face was still as pale as paper, clearly indicating that the aftereffects of overusing her abilities were significant.

She nodded first: "We should go back now, the guild tournament is over."

Yu Shijiu also swung his left arm and smiled, his eyes crinkling: "I also need to go back and figure out how to get rid of this thing."

As they spoke, the countdown in everyone's ears entered its final ten seconds.

Thumbelina's eyes dimmed slightly, but she still waved to the group, smiled, and turned to walk towards the spring field.

Sunlight shone on Thumbelina, who was facing away from them. Her pale yellow skirt fluttered in the spring breeze, and golden particles of light from her straw bracelet danced around her like dandelion seeds.

"Goodbye."

Thumbelina turned back and said softly, with sincerity and reluctance, "And thank you for giving 'us'... the freedom we've always dreamed of."

ten.

Nine.

Anjie pursed her lips, her expression somewhat complicated.

Eight.

Chen Yi and Xu Han watched in silence as Thumbelina turned around and smiled.

seven.

six.

He Lingling, leaning on Anjie's shoulder, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

five.

Four.

Yu Shijiu looked at his mutated, hairy left arm, then looked up at Thumbelina's receding figure, and suddenly spoke:

"Thumbelina, if this kind of thing happens again, you'll probably run away from your wedding again, right?"

three.

two.

Thumbelina didn't turn around, but she raised her hand and waved to indicate that she had heard.

One.

The "Thumbelina" dungeon for this guild tournament is now closed.

The white light instantly engulfed everything in the sea of ​​flowers.

----------

Dawn Games, Guild Tournament Results Livestream Plaza.

The soft white light gradually dissipated, and five figures appeared on the teleportation platform in the center of the hall.

It was An Jie, Chen Yi, He Lingling, Yu Shijiu, Xu Han, and Yang Hua, who was still in a daze.

"came back……"

Xu Han looked around at the densely packed audience of players, some sitting and some standing, and felt as if he were in another world.

Players from many other guilds in the live stream square saw them appear, and in an instant, whispers mixed with suppressed excitement rose up.

"It's the 'Living' guild!"