Chapter 188 - - ’Thanks for the invite, just got back

Chapter 188: Chapter 186 - ’Thanks for the invite, just got backThe familiar ceiling, the faint scent wafting through the air.

As he gradually opened his eyes, he saw a vase with white daisies blossoming atop.

The emblems on the walls resembled the uplifted tail feathers of a phoenix, their edges reflecting a golden hue that dazzled the eyes.

Su Ming’an’s vision was blurred, as if veiled in mist, perhaps due to his long sleep, and he felt his entire body weak as he tried to move.

He slowly turned his head.

A pair of crystal-clear, translucent eyes were gazing at him, brewing a wine-red tranquility that was intoxicating.

A doll-like, exquisitely beautiful little girl, with her hands clasped, sat at the doorway. Beneath her red and white lace skirt, her legs clad in long socks were pressed together.

Broad swaths of daylight streamed through the window, illuminating everything brilliantly. The girl, bathed in the light, slightly lowered her eyelids as if she melted into the light.

She quietly watched this way, as if she had been waiting here for a long time.

"You’ve awakened."

She smiled gently, suddenly breaking the silence. As she lifted her skirt to curtsey, Su Ming’an experienced a strong sense of déjà vu.

It was as if he was enveloped in an emotion shut off from the outside world. He breathed in the floral fragrance in the air and heard her voice gently echoing through the room.

"You look very well," she said with a smile, her eyes sparkling with increasing clarity, "...truly very well."

Su Ming’an sat up, suddenly feeling a strange sensation rising within him.

It was like something that had troubled him for a long time had vanished in an instant.

When he got up and dressed, he realized — his body was no longer cold.

It was as if all the coldness had been completely dispelled overnight. Seeing the sparkling sky outside the window, he faced the wind, feeling a warmth akin to a soothing spring breeze.

The cold that had been entwined around him, persistently plaguing every corner of his body, had disappeared. He stood in front of the bright window, looking down at the wasteland below being rebuilt.

The high buildings hidden in the mist were gone; below were people working, no longer carrying ceremonial tables and benches but bricks and stones for rebuilding homes.

He watched this scene, realizing — everything had truly ended.

His memories, somewhat fragmented due to intoxication, were gradually awakening. Only now, as he looked at the familiar yet strange scene before him, did he fully grasp — today was the eleventh day.

He was no longer the ignorant self of the first cycle. By his side, Hui Shuhang, too, would no longer face despairing choices, nor would he pull him to jump out of the window, escaping the sacrifice of fate.

He still remembered the image of her, dissolving like feathers right before his eyes.

...It’s over.

He turned aside. This time Hui Shuhang did not help him dress.

Perhaps she had realized long ago that Qin Wang had died.

The moment Su Ming’an opened his eyes, Qin Wang had already entrusted everything to him, waiting for the successor to fulfill it.

And so had Holy Initiation... those two sacrifices who died before the dawn had crafted such a blissful, HE-esque ending together, though through different means and still with sacrifices.

"The tasks you assigned, I have completed them all," Hui Shuhang said softly.

"...Ah?" Su Ming’an looked at the landscape below, still a bit foggy in his mind, "What tasks?"

Hui Shuhang looked at him with a different kind of gaze, "You shouldn’t have agreed to the Second Commander’s request, no matter how eager she was."

Su Ming’an knew she was referring to the drinking.

After being forced to drink at the high school graduation and collapsing instantly, he knew he should never touch that stuff. But considering this was a world game and his attributes had increased significantly, he thought a sip wouldn’t be a problem...

But, unexpectedly, he had collapsed. With absolutely no resistance at all.

He kept recalling what had happened after the sacrificial ceremony the day before. He let Shadow help him share the malice, suppress the evil, had Hui Shuhang arrange a room for Qingqing waiting outside, and then... then...

Then it was a blur.

What on earth had he done?

He glanced at the barrage.

Su Ming’an realized.

Yesterday, it seems he did instruct Hui Shuhang to capture those who had been inconsistent in their words and actions or underwent a major personality change over the past ten days.

...Right.

He had completed the game perfectly, his identity tasks and storyline were all over, and he now had a full five days to deal with these players.

He glanced at the faction leaderboard, where the values and rankings had stabilized, displaying only a large blood-red text at the top, "Revolutionary Army Victory", and underneath, written in smaller characters:

This probably referred to the total number of players still alive. Nearly four thousand people remained, which, compared to previous instances, meant the survival rate was quite high in this one.

However, this was likely also related to the world line he had advanced.

Through the barrage, he learned that other parallel instances had reached the eleventh day with fewer than a thousand players left.

If Qin Wang’s summoning formation failed and there were no players to possess him, Qin Wang would awake too.

In other world lines, Qin Wang rarely had the chance to live until the tenth day. Players possessing him would try various methods to test this high-ranking NPC or get tangled up with Hui Shuhang, and face assassination from the students he once spent his days with, completely unguarded.

Some players, taking advantage of their identities, would lure him out of the square. In the icy wilderness, even if Hui Shuhang arrived in time, Qin Wang’s body would be damaged, and he would not live until the tenth day.

Once Qin Wang died prematurely, or if there was no blood left for the formation experiments, the progress of the experiment would significantly slow down. Subsequently, all individuals without abilities would die—because the pace of the Talent Bloodline Awakening Formation couldn’t meet the standards. To maintain greater stability, more people had to die, including many players whose original identities were those without abilities.

On the tenth day, some of these players were still fighting or farming, completely unaware of what happened at the central square and died out of the blue. Returning to the Main God Space, they were baffled until they checked the forums’ expert guides and cursed the pitfall of the instance.

Of course, there were successful world lines as well.

For example, the world lines of Noel, Eni, Mizushima Kawa Sora, and Edward had successful instances.

For instance, in Noel’s world line, although Qin Wang still died, Noel employed a method that advanced the research process of the Talent Bloodline Awakening Formation, dispelled much of the malice from many people, saved many lives, and achieved a HE.

As for Mizushima Kawa Sora, it was even more outrageous; she personally contacted the still-living Qin Wang, researched the awakening formation, and then developed a new mutated formation. With the system’s score’s aid in microtransactions aggressively forwarding the progress, she achieved an outcome similar to Noel’s.

Besides these intellectual routes, there were also some straightforward brute force routes.

Such as Edward... he actually contacted the Revolutionary Army directly from the start, worked both inside and out, and wiped out the Regular Army. He didn’t even wait for the tenth-day ritual and destroyed the square’s ceremonial formation.

This also counted as an alternative method of clearing the game, as Edward only needed to survive until the fifteenth day. Perfect pass was only related to his own identity task. As for the destruction of the ceremonial formation, it would take another dozen days to rebuild, but Edward didn’t care if more people would die because of this delay. Once the fifteenth day arrived, he would leave, unconcerned with whether there would be any problems thereafter or if this continent would need a future.

Not all world lines ended happily.

In many world lines, the contingencies of Holy Initiation and Qin Wang were never shown, and were violently destroyed by players likened to the fourth day of disaster. They switched sides between the two factions repeatedly, colluded with adversaries using their high-ranked identities, or did everything possible to assassinate the nobles of the opposing factions. They only knew that Qin Wang was weak but had high Contribution Value; killing him would shoot their own rankings up, uncaring what he was doing. Holding various magical props, they’d assassinate someone then teleport away, utterly disregarding the mess left behind.

Assassinated, frozen, poisoned, cursed... In other world lines, Qin Wang’s ways of dying were varied, with players employing myriad tactics. Even if someone who killed Qin Wang was then killed by Holy Initiation who arrived in pursuit, there were still many who successfully went into hiding after the murder.

After Su Ming’an reviewed the outcomes of these other routes through the barrage, he fell deep into thought.

He wondered, after fifteen days had passed and the instance truly ended, what would this world... become?

Was it just a parallel world, or purely a game instance fabricated by the organizers? After he left, what would become of Hui Shuhang and those altered-fate NPCs, as well as those NPCs that had once been possessed by players?

His gaze was a bit unfocused, and Hui Shuhang assumed he was just looking at the scenery, never speaking up.

Not until Su Ming’an asked, "What about those who were captured?"

"Since some buildings have been completely destroyed, I’ve taken them into custody. The room you’re in now was also conjured up by me to allow you a good rest," Hui Shuhang said. "There’s no basement or prison here, and transferring these people to another city would be troublesome, so I had the army encircle them outside the barracks, waiting for you to go."

"How many people?"

"Four hundred."

Su Ming’an thought about it; four hundred... that number was a bit low, it seems there were still probably over three thousand players yet to be discovered.

He guessed that the Points and Equipment obtained through forceful robbery wouldn’t be completely taken back to the Main God Space, otherwise, all the Points trading systems would break down upon his return. The Organizers wouldn’t possibly encourage such behavior in plot-driven instances, where robbery could yield much more than painstakingly searching for clues. If so, what Player would focus on the storyline instances?

He had tried wearing the Equipment robbed from others, such as the Mist Chain, which he successfully wore without any reduction in effectiveness. There were also props looted like the Blood Bottle and Space Teleportation Stone, which could be freely used—this demonstrated that robbing Equipment and Props to wear oneself was feasible, but whether they could be traded upon returning to the Main God Space was doubtful.

Otherwise, Edward wouldn’t have only had a Combat Power of 1200, soaring to three or four thousand wouldn’t have been impossible.

As for the Points robbed, bringing them back completely was even less likely; he had now robbed nearly a hundred players and had more than a thousand Points on him, almost as much as he had accumulated from his previous five worlds. These Points definitely couldn’t be fully taken back, otherwise the entire strength system would be in chaos, and anyone who robbed his way through these fifteen days could become the Number One Player.

He had tried using robbed Points to buy things in the Main God store, like Blood Bottles, which was not feasible unless he used Points earned through missions.

It turns out you can’t exploit loopholes in such competitive world-type instances. But the Equipment and Props he robbed could indeed be used by him, though it wasn’t a long-term solution.

"Then take me to see them," Su Ming’an said.

He knew the world forums were definitely in chaos now.

This action of using a high status to capture players was not something only he was doing; through the barrage, he knew that many players, including Edward, were doing the same, and this was a huge setback for many players wanting to "help each other" with "kindness" in the Otherworld.

These players, full of enthusiasm who entered the fray, after experiencing the death judgment of the underworld on the tenth day, then suddenly being captured and blackmailed, would chill anyone’s heart.

This kind of question is all too common.

The top-ranked players are still alright, after all, the higher the rank, the greater the weight, and the gathering of resources, although criticized, doesn’t attract as many direct attacks. Just the superfans’ guardian teams alone have infinite combat power in quarreling, capable of fiercely counter-attacking others.

But those players who were not very high in the rankings, or those who weren’t very powerful but suddenly obtained a high status, their actions of doing the same led to widespread condemnation. People criticized them for not being very powerful to begin with yet taking away others’ Points for concentration on them, arguing that if they suddenly died one day and all Points were lost, it would be better to distribute the eggs in several baskets.

...However, those accusing others of taking Points aren’t any better.

While they criticize others for seizing Points, many more accuse them, saying, "It’s a competitive world, not everyone is a saint, what’s so wrong about seizing Points!" And then more sanctimonious and dualistic people join the debate, with endless views like "Thanks for the invite, I just returned and got robbed," "Thanks for the invite, ordinary Player, I think there’s nothing wrong with seizing Points, it’s the law of the jungle," "Law of the jungle my banana watermelon hammer! We’ve said not to lose human decency!" Outstanding academics, former top university students, former anthropologists, former certain grassroots leaders... various "debate experts" express themselves, saturating every corner of the forum with their saliva.

Many who had just gotten motivated to display their grand plans, who had dodged the death judgment, never imagined that their own brethren would strike against them... After returning, naturally, they were extremely furious, their combat power in quarreling maxed out, beginning to throw various accusations at others, stirring the forum into murky waters.

Such a world of massive competition is fascinating and grand, but also breeds countless contradictions.

...Just by listening to these barrage descriptions, Su Ming’an could roughly imagine what that broken forum would look like.