Chapter Twenty-Three Past Life and Present Life

  (Second update is online)

  When Joanie was still a nerd, he was called Xia Xiao San.

  No one is born a nerd, and not all nerds can live alone in their own world without worries.

  Home is an attitude, a kind of solitude, a state of being that is sometimes visible and sometimes invisible in the world.

  Xia Xiaosan's parents were successful people, they had a house and a car in the city, and they didn't have a mortgage. Their work was going well, their emotions were full. Both of them were good-tempered people, but also very casual, which made others feel helpless. Xia Xiaosan was one of those people, because he was not satisfied with his own name. However, this dissatisfaction only lasted until the months before he turned seventeen, after that, Xia Xiaosan never complained about his name again.

  Rainy night, car accident.

  Xia Xiaosan shed a lifetime of tears in those days.

  His parents left behind a spacious house, a large sum of money and the compensation for personal accident insurance. Disaster does not come singly, in the past the most loving uncle of Xiaoxiao San contracted a serious illness, his life hanging by a thread. At the last moment of his life, he who had no worries gave Xiaoxiao San his final love - a legacy. Thus, Xiaoxiao San became a young multimillionaire.

  Also lonely in reality.

  He then started staying at home all day.

  According to him: countless people struggle their whole lives for just this income, why should I still go down that difficult road?

  However, this hedonist still retained a last bit of sobriety. So he stayed home instead of squandering the money - when splurging becomes a form of entertainment, it means life has become empty and hopeless.

  Play the games you want to play, read the books you want to read, chat with friends, PK with enemies, and care about current events. Dedicate some love until exhausted, go out for a hike, and fall off a cliff.

  All along, Xia San has been showing a rational and humorous image to others. All along, he had set up a layer of protection for his heart. The Smiths gave him the warmth of home again, making him accept them from the bottom of his heart, liking them, and regarding them as his new biological parents. This layer of defense opened up to them, but at the same age, he encountered the same thing again.

  After Xia Xiao San's death, he was called Joanie.

  Joni felt dizzy, a familiar sorrow surged up in his heart. His tears fell silently as he stared blankly at Ondara, then turned and ran quickly towards the blacksmith's shop.

  The entire artisan district was shrouded in an aura of death, terrifying and oppressive. People from the outside had a mind to visit, but they did not dare to come in, and could only gaze from afar. The Earl's soldiers were shuttling back and forth on this strange land, investigating every thread and clue in each case.

  Joni paid no attention to them and strode straight into his family's blacksmith shop. He saw the soldiers searching everywhere, he saw the two corpses on the ground in the backyard. They were Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

  Old Smith did not die peacefully. His eyes were wide open, his mouth was agape, as if he was still shouting something before his death. There was a patch of dry blood on his chest, and his throat had been cut by someone, with the blood having already dried up. He fell at the door of the house, still clutching his iron hammer in his hand.

  Mrs. Smith fell on the way to the outer room, and was stabbed from behind with a short blade, the wound was severe, and the fresh blood had dried up, but it clearly showed the severity of the injury. Like her husband, she also had her throat cut, and the blood splashed onto the ground in front of her, forming a strange pattern.

  Joni began to choke back a sob, then started to weep, and finally he knelt down on the ground, holding his head in his hands and wailing.

  The soldier realized that Odara was Joni's attendant and guessed the relationship between Joni and his master, so he didn't disturb them and quietly left the room, leaving Joni alone to cry silently.

  When there's no one around, when the sorrow is overwhelming, people will let their guard down, take off their masks and be themselves freely. Joanie always thought that so-called rationality and humor were just masks she put on for herself. She actually was a...

  When he cried thinking of this problem, he suddenly had no answer.

  He felt that behind the mask was a person who seemed to be crying, a faceless person.

  Joony, who had always been calm and composed, even in the face of death and reincarnation, was thoroughly flustered. On this day, he lost his second set of parents; had he also lost himself?

  Heartbroken, desperate, bewildered.

  When Odara walked into the backyard of the blacksmith's shop, he thought he saw a young man immersed in grief. The youth sat between two corpses, hugging his knees and staring blankly ahead. His large sword had been removed from his back and thrown aside. There were dry tear stains on his face, and only emptiness in his eyes.

  Audrey wanted to comfort Johnny, but after some thought, she felt it was a bit cruel to tell someone who had just lost both parents to be strong. She hesitated for a long time, sighed, and turned around to leave.

  Johnny just sat there, his mind in a muddle. The confusion came from the loss of a loved one, and also from doubts about himself. Every time he tried to think about things rationally or talk to people, he clearly felt that he was forcing himself. But when he tried to look at the world in a more emotional way, he again felt his own discomfort. Looking back, those joking remarks were all said on purpose, but thinking twice, there was a sense of natural formation.

  Jonny's mind was in disarray.

  The sun sets in the west and the moon rises in the east, Joanie stands as still as a statue.

  Then he fell asleep.

  He arrived in a desolate city, where rioters and zombies roamed everywhere. An old man ran up to him: "Sir, please save me!" Johnny said without hesitation: "Follow me, don't get lost."

  The scene shifted and he found himself in front of a businessman. He heard himself speaking, "I've heard you have information about this matter, is that right?" The businessman replied, "That's correct, but the information isn't free, you'll have to pay the price. I had a batch of goods go missing at the dock, you help me get them back and I'll tell you everything I know."

  Jonny hesitated, and at this moment, a dialogue box appeared in front of him: "1. Okay, I'll go now. 2. It seems that I was too polite to you just now, tell me now! Otherwise, you will pay the price."

  Even in his dream, Joony realized that this was a scene from the game. He still chose 1 without hesitation.

  The screen jumped again, and he stood in front of Mephisto, still with the familiar question: "...... you, how do you choose?" This time, Joanie didn't speak, he looked at the familiar armor on his body, as well as the double-handed greatsword in his hand. This time, he wasn't any role, he was just himself.

  "Mortal, answer me! How will you?" The demon was apparently growing impatient.

  Joni lifted his head, a smile at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were firm: "I'm going to eliminate you, and then... return to my peaceful life." As he spoke, Joni thought of his parents, in both this life and the previous one. He closed his eyes, tears slipping out of his eyelids.

  When he opened his eyes again, there were tears in the corners of his eyes, and he was lying in the backyard of a blacksmith's shop. The sun hung in the air, casting dazzling rays that forced Johnny to close his eyes again. He covered his eyes with his right hand, although his face was still solemn, but a knot in his heart had been untied.

  He thought he had found himself. Maybe the mask had grown into his own face, or maybe he had mistaken his face for a mask all along. Who is Joanie? Who is Xiaosan? Just a kind-hearted and humorous otaku, that's all. It was always like this, why bother pretending to be someone else?

  If a bad person does good deeds all his life, then he is a good person.

  Recalling his past experiences playing Winter's Night, countless neutral starts, after a series of plots and choices, all ended with various good conclusions. Joanie felt that no matter what, he was a good person.

  To be specific, I am a good person who hopes to live a peaceful life.

  But the peaceful life was gone. Jony gazed at his parents' corpses. He wanted to take one last look at the parents who had raised him, but he couldn't bear to see their miserable deaths. He picked up the large sword on the ground, stood up, put it back on his back, bowed his head in mourning for a while, and turned around to walk out of the door.

  If a peaceful life is no longer available, then after everything, I will create a new life for myself. Joanie vowed in her heart.

  And this so-called "everything" begins with revenge.