005's words contained too much information, and Charles was a little overwhelmed for a moment.
The other party knew from the beginning that this moment would come, and that was why he rushed to collect the so-called flowers she mentioned before destruction.
"Time has no meaning to us. Is it difficult to predict the future? Can't you do it yourself? It's just a matter of time."
"Do I have the ability to predict the future?" Charles recalled the doomsday scene that appeared in his mind from nowhere.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, Charles himself had this kind of omen from the very beginning. Anyone he sees now has various shadows on him, some of which are from the past and some are from the future.
When Nini, a friend of his daughter, was helping her find her father, she made use of this afterimage.
Moreover, these afterimages will become more and more as he gets closer to the gods.
"That is to say, you already knew that I would come to you, right?"
005 neither nodded nor shook his head, but continued speaking.
"Of course, because you have never accepted this power, you cannot fully master it. If you want to gain my current vision, then you must fully embrace this power."
"Hug?" All the sensory organs that should have been removed from Charles' huge island body quickly grew out and reabsorbed the surrounding knowledge.
But soon, Charles stopped this suicidal behavior. Maybe he could become a god and gain the ability to predict everything, but then he would probably not be himself anymore.
Seeing the various sensory organs growing like trees on the island quickly withering, 005 said, "Since you don't want to accept this power, you shouldn't have chosen that wish at the time."
"You either become a god or a human. It's impossible to be half of both."
Feeling that the topic was gradually going off track, Charles immediately got back to the point.
"I have my own thoughts on this. Let's get back to the previous topic. Facing the inevitable demise of mankind, are you really not going to take action?"
005 shook his head slightly.
"First, since I already have my humans, why should I stop them? Second, just like I said, I can't stop them. I am just a small fragment of the real me now. I am too weak now."
"Since you already know what will happen in the future, don't you plan to protect yourself? If 003 and 002 wake up, you won't be able to escape." Charles tried to persuade him in other ways.
"Why should I protect myself? I am not really here. I am not important. And please stop disturbing the revelers. Normally, I am easy to talk to, but I sometimes feel bad."
005's body gradually became transparent and it looked like he was about to leave.
Seeing that his backup plan was about to fail, Charles still refused to give up.
If there are other allies in the entire Earthsea, then 005 will be unable to avoid it.
"Since you keep talking about fair trade, how about we make another deal? I still need wishes. What do you need this time?"
005 stood there thinking for a while, then gently raised her right hand which was wrapped in black bandages, and the wriggling black-scale tentacle appeared in her hand.
"Did you know? This tentacle contains a piece of your memory. It was one of the three wishes you wished for in my hand."
005 shook his head slightly. "I need the most desperate experience, a sweet love, and an unforgettable yearning. If you give me these three, I can give you an extra wish."
"Of course, I still have to say it again, my strength is very weak, and my wish can only do what I can do."
Charles understood the other party's subtext. By asking for a wish, the other party could help him unconditionally, but only once.
Although there are many restrictions, it is better than nothing. At least summoning 005 this time was not in vain.
"So? Are you willing to make a deal with me?" 005 asked again.
Charles nodded. "Well, I agree. Let me think about which paragraph to start with."
"I'm not in a hurry. You can take your time to think about it." 005 gently bent his legs on the ground and lay sideways in the air, as if there was a swing in the air.
Charles, with his back stuck to the sofa, looked at 005 in front of him, and the room suddenly became quiet.
Charles thought about it for a long time. He had experienced many desperate things in Earthsea, and he really needed to think carefully about which one was the most desperate.
After pondering the phrase for a while, he carved the six Chinese characters "the most desperate experience" on the table in front of him with his fingers.
"It took me eight years to finally find the sea chart in Sodom, and another two years to find the Island of Hope. When the dazzling sunlight shone on me through the cracks in the sky, I felt that everything I had experienced was worth it."
"At that time, I was full of hope, as if all the misery of the past would be gone and I would soon be reborn, but I was wrong."
Charles' eyes froze there, without blinking.
"Do you know what the most desperate experience is? It is to give the only hope to someone who has nothing, and then grab his own hands and force him to crush this hope with his own hands."
"It took me a long time to finally reach the top of the sunlight, but what appeared before me was not the huge, dazzling sun on the surface, but Dawn 1, the first generation Foundation's activated nuclear fusion experiment. That place was not the surface of the earth, but a living area dug out by the Foundation."
"At that moment, reality seemed to play a joke on me. All my efforts in the past ten years to find the surface were nothing."
Although so much time has passed and the humanity in his heart has diminished a lot, Charles still feels the same when he thinks back to that day.
“This is the most desperate experience in my life.”
005 raised the right hand that was caressing the reveler and patted it gently. "Not bad, I like it very much. So what's next?"
The unforgettable longing was engraved by fingers beneath the most desperate experience.
Charles raised his head slightly at a 45-degree angle and began to recall again.
"What I can't forget is my family. They are my parents and my sister. They are also the motivation for me to return to the surface and to save the surface now."
"You know what? My dad is very funny and loves to tell jokes, but his jokes are not funny at all. Every time he tells a joke, my sister and I will laugh at him."
(End of this chapter)