Mr Love: Dream Date Chap 24 Till the World Ends

Chapter 24 continues from where the previous chapter left off. Victor and you were on a time crunch to make it for the cruise ship that was leaving port in less than 1 hour. According to your conjecture, the ship would also be the launch location of the satellite that would cast the entire world into an endless winter. Spoilers ahead!

It was now 15 minutes before the ship would cast off and it seemed like you were still some ways from your destination. Caught up in your worries, you didn’t notice that Victor had been eyeing the rear view mirror for quite some time. It seemed like a fleet of sedans were in hot pursuit. Ruling out BS operatives, you surmised that these must be the traitor’s minions who had been summoned to stop you from boarding the ship. Victor tried his best to lose them but in the end was unable to do so as the lead car crashed into the back of your car. In a final desperate move, Victor swung his car to park horizontally across the road, cutting the path into two. He then pushed you out of the car and told you to make a run for the ship while he did his best to hold off your pursuers. You were concerned for his safety but his belief in you and your ability to save the world gave you the courage you needed to run as fast as you can towards the port.

The empty dock greeted you by the time you made it there. You saw HMS Victoria disappear over the horizon and your heart sank. However you quickly slapped your cheeks and told yourself that there was still 30 minutes to the start of the performance. All was not lost yet. Suddenly you heard an alarm sound overhead and an announcement asking all personnel to evacuate the port area. Looking up there was an assembly of helicopters bearing the NW name on its side. They were gathering en masse to stop the satellite launch wherever it was to take place. Clenching your fist, you ran towards the dock control station with the only trump card left.

Thankfully the control station was empty and you quickly accessed the PA system. Announcing your presence in the control station to the NW officers and that you have the key to resolve the Eternal Winter situation. Before you could speak further, the door to the control room was blast open and Gavin rushed in to turn off the PA system. He gripped your hand tightly preventing you from making any other movement. In a harsh voice, he reprimanded you for making such as a rash action to reveal your identity to everyone and throwing yourself into danger. He repeated his promise to help you find your friend and told you to just stay out of the situation. You told him with cold determination that you cannot deny the Queen role that you hold. Though it scares you to take a step forward, both the Queen and you are one and same. By not fulfilling your duty as Queen, you would not only sink this world into disaster, you would also never be able to restore the bonds with those you love.

Sensing your reckless determination, Gavin finally released his hold on you and radioed his colleague to bring you onboard HMS Victoria. Gavin himself would need to head towards the satellite signal tower so he wouldn’t be able to accompany you further. You thanked him in your heart for the faith he has placed in you.

As the helicopter approached HMS Victoria, a growing uneasiness fills you while clutching the key to Black Cabin around your neck. Since leaving BS HQ, the Black Cabin seemed to be rejecting you. Even if you are the only person who can now stop the world from sinking into an icy end, how will you trigger the power of the cube when the time comes? Fretting over this and wondering if you should seek help from Lucien, you finally contacted him. He picked up the phone within a few rings as if he was expecting you to call. You told him your fears and asked if he had any advice. He replied simply that the reason you have yet to be able to operate the Black Cabin was because you haven’t fully accepted your identity as the Queen. The moment you recognise it would be the moment your true powers will be unleashed. Before you could ask him further, your communication was cut by the radio command that you were descending onto HMS Victoria.

The moment your feet touched the deck, you were immediately mesmerised by a serene enchanting melody wafting from the performance hall. It had such an alluring draw that you soon found yourself swaying uncontrollably along with it. The helicopter pilot didn’t have the chance to know what was happening before he fell into a slumber, lost control of the helicopter and plunged it into the icy cold waters. The splash of water broke your trance momentarily and you hurried towards the performance hall. As you looked in through the glass window, you were horrified to see the audience all similarly swaying and moving along to Cyril’s piano concerto as if they were mindlessly being controlled. You found yourself drowning in your subconsciousness, flooded with a multitude of inner turmoil and emotions conjured by the events of the last few months. Cyril beckoned you with the beauty of his perfect world.

As you continued to swim around in this dreamless state, you were somehow roughly jolted to consciousness. Lost between two worlds, you half-opened your eyes to stare at those familiar eyes as you mouthed the name Kiro. Then you heard him command you to awaken. Instantaneously you were broken out of your trance and found to your horror that you were swaying dangerously close to the edge of the ship. If Helios had not stopped you in time, you would have plunged into the murky depths. You hurried after him thanking him for saving you. Putting all the information you have gathered together, you surmised that he was here to get rid of the traitor.

Ignoring your desire to resolve the situation as the Queen, he kicked open the double doors to the performance hall and aimed his pistol at Cyril who was still calmly playing at the piano, as if oblivious to your presence. As the piano piece hits it climax, Helios let loose a bullet at Cyril but it rolled harmlessly to the ground, blocked by an invisible force field. After Cyril completed his performance, he bowed elegantly towards the crowd and the hall cleared of the audience leaving only the three of you. Cyril walked over to you and welcomed you on board the ship.

You fired a series of questions to Cyril about his intentions but he ignored you as he walked towards the bow of the ship. You had no choice but to follow after him. Cyril then thanked you for the kindness you showed him with the vending machine. His tirade caught you off-guard. He added that thanks to that he was open to other possibilities of the world. However the path he has chosen is what he thinks is best for this world. It is not that he hated people, it is just that he felt that the world was advancing too fast and men was not catching up. He cited that a people who couldn’t understand or control these new powers would indeed pose a grave danger to the world. Hence he has decided to slow everything down by freezing them perpetually. You realised then that Cyril wasn’t some psychotic maniacal Evolver. He truly believed in his convictions.

However you too had your own perspective of matters. You wielded the key to the Black Cabin in your hands and tried to will yourself to enter the area to no avail. Cyril smoothly took the cube from your hands and using his powers encased the key in ice, then handed it back to you with a gentle smile. As you looked on in shock, the winds around you started to swirl violently and the temperature dropped drastically. In a matter of minutes the portion of the sea you were at had frozen over and you noticed that a tower was rising out from beneath the sea. It was the satellite launch tower!

Cyril handed you the remote control to the satellite launch. You were puzzled by his action – why hand over the key to his victory when he so clearly has won? As Queen, he wanted you to make a decision on the fate of this world, though he did explain that this being a dream world of his making, whatever your decision would have no effect on the real world but rather to pique your interest to know what would happen in his perfect world. You refused to give in to his reasoning. No matter how slow mankind was to progress, the right of free will should never be stripped from them to live only in an unrealistic world. Cyril shot you a icy look and said that those who have no ability to judge had no right to make decisions. You recognised that though Cyril may be a traitor to the Black Swan, he still shared the same ideology as them.

The moment you made up your mind and handed the control back to Cyril, affirming that you intend to walk a different path from him, you started to resonate with the Black Cabin. The ice that had frozen over it had melted and lines of white energy started to trace along it contours. Before you know it, your consciousness was sucked into the Black Cabin again. Once again, you witnessed the never-ending cycle of your birth and death of a multitude of timelines. You were now ever more sure of the future you wanted as you stepped through the portal.

From this point forth, the story branches into four subplots depending on which love interest you choose to go with. No matter which character you chose, you will finally be reconciled with them because they would be exposed to the multiple timelines that exist within the Black Cabin, and thus every possible emotion and experience shared with you in the various lifetimes. With encouragement from them in their own ways, you summoned up all your courage to permanently resolve the Eternal Winter issue. You will need to use your Queen’s power to unify all the timelines into one to prevent the birth of new branches where a Black Queen is created to cause chaos. By doing so, you would however seal your fate to live only one instance of life, where death would now be permanent.

You walked through every portal within the Black Cabin shutting them as you went along until there was only one left. As you finally walked through the final door with your love interest following behind you, a cut scene appears. It shows that Cyril had been defeated, skewered by crystal shards shot out by the Queen. As Cyril breathed his last, his powers over the world broke, returning you back to reality. In this last reality where nobody knew that the ending would come to this.

I had been quite hesitant to finish writing the summary for this last chapter as I knew it was going to be a good 3 months before the release of the next arc. It is a surprisingly short chapter where the crisis finally comes to a close with the help and support of the four guys. In the previous chapter, I had assumed that we have already broken out of Cyril’s dreamscape since the world was no longer perfect and yet it appears here that you’re still in his dream? Confuse much. In any case, the last part of the chapter is really quite philosophically deep. Different cultures across time have conflicting views about life after death – some believe that death is terminal, some believe in reincarnation, some in eternity.

As a Christian, I believe that the human soul lives on eternally even after physical death, hence that in itself is not our final destination. However it doesn’t get reincarnated into a different life but rather spends eternity in the presence or absence of our one Creator. In which case, the MC in the story chooses the path towards unifying the various timelines into a single one, one where every decision now counts. If we know that we can always loop back if we make a mistake, where is the beauty of decision making and living out the consequences of our actions? Can’t wait to see how the story progresses.

I recently learnt that Mihoyo, the developer of Genshin Impact, will be globally launching their otome/detective game called Tears of Themis on 29 July! The game revolves around the MC and four love interests as they go around solving crimes ala Ace Attorney style. Having played Genshin Impact for the last 9 months, I have high hopes for this game in terms of variety of events, puzzles and animation. However I will hold back on commenting on the storyline and character development for now. I do hope that it will have an engaging storyline as deep as MLDD and characters that you would really love. Having seen the character introductions, I see stark similarities between them and MLDD’s guys so it does feel a bit copied. I really like Lucien’s characterisation a lot and I would loathe for any other game to make a copy of him. As for BGM, MLDD’s BGM still wins hands down thanks to VK. I can listen to his compositions all day and still not get tired of them. Anyway it’s 8 days countdown to the game launch! It’s the first time I get to be there right when a game is launched as I missed it for Sleeping Princes, Genshin Impact and Mr Love. As an OCD collector, this is really like a dream come true.