Original subtitles

The elevator's almost at the top.

Guan Chao will be back in reality soon.

[Sigh]

Looks like I'm the only one left working.

Oh,

Boss.

Where did Ran Deng's halo go?

You actually remembered that?

Color me impressed.

Of course I did.

It's important!

Exactly.

It's important.

Don't move.

This Arc Gun isn't very powerful,

but it's enough to knock me out.

You're not going to shoot?

I didn't want it to come to this.

Put down the Burning Stone.

You're still hung up on that so-called end of the world?

You don't believe me?

Of course I do.

You're always right.

But instead of spending our time saving the world,

we could...

do something that actually matters.

Like what?

Explore someplace beyond this world.

Somewhere unknown.

Then what happens 30 years from now,

when the end of the world comes?

By then, we'll be long gone from here.

What about everyone else?

[Sigh]

You...

Look at Earth from space.

Everything is just tiny specks.

And those tiny specks...

What difference does it make if they exist or not?

Besides,

even if you really prevent the end of the world,

no one will believe you.

Thank you.

You saved me from boredom, once.

Huh?

What are you talking abou—?

But if I could start over,

I'd never create the Burning Stone again.

If this shot...

could send time back to before it all happened,

that would be nice.

Long

long ago,

I developed an infinite energy source that burns forever.

The Burning Stone.

A lot happened after that.

But...

what I want to tell you

is the story before all that.

For a while,

I couldn't get excited about anything.

- Hey! - Huh...

Let's have a race!

Huh?

Whoever makes the Arc Gun first

buys the other a drink.

My friend said

time is precious.

We should make use of it.

We kept competing to invent things.

In the end,

I invented this

one-of-a-kind energy source,

the Burning Stone.

And then...

What are you doing?

I also made the End-of-the-World Calculator.

It predicted

the end of the world would come in 10,950 days.

So I decided

to find the cause of the end of the world.

It took years.

And finally,

I found it was because a little fish jumped out of its tank.

I fixed it.

Now what should I do?

So...

I spent years making you, too.

Yi.

I

don't have much time left.

You

are my last invention.

What do you think

the point of living is?

Life = ?

Flower.

Water.

People.

This is nice.

It feels like this moment

is shining.

The meaning of life

lies in things that shine.

In response to your question,

this is the result of my data analysis.

I see.

I think

I'll take a break.

Go find those things that shine.

Yi.

Well, aren't you something?

Leader!

The hollows...

The hollows have stopped forming!

Ow...

This is reality?

There's a familiar scent here.

The Burning Stone.

Is that you?

Or...

Aah!

Hm?

Aah...

That's K7's logo.

The Burning Stone...

is hidden inside a fragile robot

living an ordinary life?

Are you...

a robot?

Yes.

K7 made me.

So...

the Burning Stone—

The Burning Stone is my power source.

Why?!

Where's K7?

I don't know.

Not long after making me,

K7 left.

Before leaving, K7 gave me one final task.

"Go find those things that shine."

So...

I searched for a very, very long time.

But none of them felt right.

Until...

Remember when we crashed into each other

by the river?

The accident caused an electrical blast

in my main processor.

Not even the star R136a1 burns brighter than that.

But...

in the end, nothing changed.

So

for the first time, I doubted

whether the answer I was seeking

even existed.

Life equals...

describing one concept with another.

Can that really count as an answer?

I think

K7 left me a word game.

Maybe K7 didn't want me, over all that time,

to have nothing to do.

Nothing to do...

That really is a terrifying state.

It's dead.

For the first time, I wanted to do something.

Maybe...

I could keep it?

Now,

it can stay in this painting forever.

What should I do next?

Maybe...

I could...

As a robot,

I'll live until the end of the world comes, won't I?

Oh. 1 year left.

I thought my life would last forever.

But there are still so many things I want to do.

Get them!

Guan Chao.

Before the end of the world,

what do you want to do most?

They're way too fast!

[coughing]

Oh no.

We lost them!

All right.

Come in.

Hm?

Okay...

The Burning Stone can power it for a while.

This

is the End-of-the-World Calculator.

It predicts

the end of the world will come in 6 minutes and 17 seconds.

6 minutes...

You've got that gun, right?

According to my analysis,

if I give you the Burning Stone

and you activate the gun,

we can prevent the end of the world.

But doesn't that mean you'll die?

Yes.

And you still buy drinks every day

and... go fishing?

Yes.

Was that another result of your data analysis?

No.

I go fishing because I want to.

No.

You could spend that time

looking for another way,

so it wouldn't at least...

Wouldn't what?

[Sigh]

Forget it.

You wouldn't understand.

Sorry.

- I didn't mean— - Why wouldn't I understand?

Because I'm a robot?

Actually, I think

humans are hard to understand, too.

K7 used to always say

we should use the Time Gun to go back to

before the Burning Stone was invented.

But in the end,

the Burning Stone became my power source.

If only back then,

I'd said more to K7.

Hm.

I lost.

You win.

Why'd you stop?

Because K7 said you're

the most important friend.

K7...

What else did K7 say?

"Go find the things that shine."

[Sigh]

Interesting.

A genius's creation, all right.

What a shame.

K7

could've made something far greater.

Why make something greater?

Because...

so your life won't be meaningless.

What's meaningless?

Well...

I can never explain it to the likes of you.

I give up.

Guan Chao.

Let's move.

What are you two up to now?

Let's prevent the end of the world.

Kid.

Uh?

Are those hollows nothingness, or regret?

Whatever they are,

tomorrow will still come.

The future is still a long way off.

I don't care how it happens,

as long as I get what I want.

Time is precious.

Goodbye.

K7.

Thanks to your masterpiece,

I'll explore the real unknown

with my own eyes.

That...

Is that—?!

Leader did it!

Absurd Justice!

You're still the same.

You can't do anything right.

You couldn't prevent the end of the world.

You couldn't do a thing about Yi's death.

And you still couldn't get the Burning Stone.

But,

Guan Chao,

you still have time.

I was born for this.

The Time Gun...

With my current power,

I can only stop time in this area temporarily.

But as long as you're here,

we still have a way.

You...

What exactly are you?

K7 never managed to create me.

You created me.

I am your final BUG Being.

This...

isn't reality yet?

Why is the halo...

here?

When did it start?

Which part was real?

Where did reality begin?

When will...

this nightmare end?

It ended a long time ago.

You're still here

because

I've overwritten reality.

Just as Fang Tang said,

you're already dead,

Guan Chao.

Someday, I'll die too.

But not now.

I guess it'll be a long time from now.

I want to leave here.

Go somewhere far away.

Where should I go?

Someday, I'll die too.

But it feels like I haven't done anything yet.

[coughing]

Trust me.

Let me use your halo as my power source.

You're a BUG Being.

Is this a memory layer?

This is all a delusion.

I have to defeat you.

[cough]

[coughing]

There's no shame in delusion.

Everyone wants to control their own fate.

Even if it means denying and distorting reality.

- Especially before death. - [coughing]

Guan Chao,

stop wasting your life on concepts

like right or wrong.

Go create the ending you want.

This is...

This is time.

People are born upon it, then sink,

until they're completely submerged.

The other side

is time that hasn't passed yet.

Pao Pao.

Qin Wang.

Heng.

Yi.

Once you're fully submerged,

you'll die.

But it's all right.

You're important to me—you're my creator.

I'll take you higher.

Don't let go.

Higher.

Higher.

Higher.

Everyone wants to hold on to time,

but time can't be held.

See those black dots constantly changing?

Being submerged is only a matter of time.

And yet,

as long as I exist,

time will stand still for you.

You won't die.

And the future won't come.

Just pull the trigger,

and I can take you to any moment in your life.

Back to your childhood home.

The hospital where you were born.

Your high school classroom.

The street you walked home from grade school.

The stairs where you skinned your knee.

The roof of that bus you all liked to hang out on.

Just pull the trigger,

and I can return to any moment.

Any moment.

Don't worry.

Here,

the distance between you and time

is perfectly safe.

But...

from that far away,

you couldn't touch the little flowers.

Their texture.

Their scent.

Their warmth.

Their hardness.

Their dampness.

You've been here so long,

but you've never touched your own world, have you?

Have you ever wondered

what it would feel like to touch it?

I...

I remembered

something that has nothing to do with this.

Back when I was in school,

I used to wait for people by the side of the street.

When I got bored,

I'd start running my fingers over

the leaves on the bushes nearby.

I don't know why,

but after all these years,

I still

remember the rough texture

of the leaves on those bushes.

The smell of that afternoon.

Its warmth.

Like...

time never passed at all.

And the feel of that leaf

exists only in that moment forever.

I know I can never go back.

Even if I could,

it wouldn't be the same feeling anymore.

Looks like you've made your choice.

Goodbye.

Goodbye,

Guan Chao.

Time Gun.

Finally, send me back there.

To the moment

I've wanted to return to all along.

Even if I'm the only one there,

that's okay.

Countless times, I've imagined

going back to this moment.

Starting from here,

changing everything.

I always think about

what you said that day.

"Boring?

All of this

matters so much."

But...

it's been too long.

So long that I'm not sure

what exactly

you said.

You believe in something as fragile as memory.

They

will all be destroyed by time.

"Is this

a miracle?"

"Or maybe

this is the only ending.

Who knows?

An 'unexplainable miracle'."

Ah, it's finally over.

That took forever.

Feels great.

Work's been killing me lately.

Finally, I can read some comics.

This place is way more comfortable.

Hm?

Looks like someone's coming.

Well, great.

Ran Deng's halo has become an energy source.

It's now part of established reality.

It can't be brought back to the Bureau.

Your hands-off attitude

is why this became such a mess.

There were a few complications,

but we did everything we had to do.

Guan Chao's BUG Beings have all been collected.

The Time Gun's affected field

has been fully restored too.

[Sigh]

I'm the one cleaning up after you.

Ah.

Here he comes.

Gotta go.

Another person

is about to be forgotten by people in reality.

That's the fate of collector.

But

he's one of the lucky ones.

Oh!

[Coughing]

So dusty!

How long has nobody been here?

There's a bed in here?

Could someone really have lived here?

What's that...

a painting of?

Someone still doesn't want to forget you.

A humanoid memory object.

Welcome to the Memory Administration Bureau.

You are now

a full-fledged collector,

Guan Chao.

Everyone says

they don't remember anyone named Guan Chao.

Maybe that end of the world

was Guan Chao's end of the world.

I think

we won't see each other again.

But

I've decided

to always remember you.

Hello?

Don't call again.

The old Vindicator is gone.

Now,

I'm the Vindicator of the Great Absurdity!

Maximum speed exceeded!

Speed has reached five times light speed!

Breaking past the Hubble volume!

Redshift effect disappearing!

Leaving the observable universe!

Background radiation nearly gone!

Space ahead is turning into endless darkness!

Godspeed,

Leader.

This is nice.

It feels like this moment is shining.

Have I arrived?

It's been so long since I had a dream.

This is

the edge of the universe.

What's that?

A row of windows?