Chapter 264

Chapter 264: Chapter 261: "Hatred"How could I let it go?"

Su Ming’an replied blandly, his tone neither sad nor happy.

Shadow made a gesture, signaling him to turn off the live stream.

With a flick of Su Ming’an’s finger, a "snap" flashed, and the audience, who were still furiously cursing Mizushima Haru, were instantly kicked out.

"You just want to dominate Zhai Xing, don’t you?" Shadow said, "...Let me be honest with you, this kind of thing, you can achieve it by slowly climbing from the Ruler’s position, there’s no need to pursue a perfect pass deliberately."

Su Ming’an fell silent.

"You know quite a lot," he said.

"This is guessable," Shadow said. "The Ruler is the highest rank of special identity; climbing all the way up, this kind of wish is nothing—besides, you already possess the ability to dominate Zhai Xing. By the end of the year, no one can defeat you."

Su Ming’an did not speak.

Shadow was right.

His current strength actually placed him slightly above everyone else.

To dominate a realm, and even later a planet...combined with his identity as the ruler, were all achievable.

But the problem is,

the problem is...

...but his wish,

was never, ever about dominating Zhai Xing.

As he fell silent for a short moment, Shadow’s gaze also began to shift slowly.

The wall clock chimed crisply, "tick-tock," as time passed second by second.

Su Ming’an clenched his fists.

"Bang—!"

A loud noise.

The wooden door was kicked open by a young man carrying a great sword in one hand, holding a girl whose limbs had been severed.

"Big brother, I’ve chopped off this thing’s limbs and the instance indeed hasn’t reset," said Mo Yan, his voice laden with a sense of killing intent.

As he entered the room, an extremely strong smell of blood also radiated from him, droplets of fresh blood from his blade dripping onto the floor, and the hollow body of the girl in his hands trailing out a massive stream of blood.

"Now I understand why you wanted to kill Suzune and Zhuang Guo right at the outset...disgusting, truly disgusting. She could actually kill Dong Xue from a distance..."

Mo Yan wasn’t aware that Dong Xue’s death was due to the explosion of the pendant, but he knew it must have been caused by Suzune.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have crazily charged at them before the last instance reset.

"She detonated Dong Xue’s pendant," said Su Ming’an in an extremely bland tone. "She is Mizushima Haru."

He had already visited Xia Luoyang’s office and received his reminder, so mentioning that Suzune was Mizushima Haru didn’t seem abrupt.

Mo Yan’s expression froze for a moment.

Always admiring the top god, his expression now turned completely cold.

"Mizushima Haru, so weak?" Mo Yan himself could hardly believe it; after all, he had subdued the opponent without much effort.

Su Ming’an squatted down, locking eyes with Mizushima Haru, who was glaring at him.

"I’ve already understood, Mizushima Haru," he said. "The prerequisite for you detonating the bomb—to have limbs, and moreover, there’s a distance limit."

Otherwise, during her last instance reset, she wouldn’t have needed to run towards them; staying in her own room would have been enough.

Detonating the pendant obviously had a distance limitation.

Moreover, she hasn’t detonated it yet...which means detonating the pendant requires limb manipulation.

Mizushima Haru stared at him.

There was pain in her eyes, but more than that, there was indifference.

"You’ve already lost, Su Ming’an," she said, "Although I don’t know how you figured me out earlier and wanted to strike me down, the pendant will always explode on schedule... You won’t see the sun on the third day of the instance."

Su Ming’an chuckled.

The chuckle made Mizushima Haru’s scalp tingle.

"You know, Mizushima Haru," Su Ming’an said, "Your infinite rebirths give you endless opportunities to detonate the pendant, but they also bring you endless pain."

Mizushima Haru’s pupils constricted.

"...When I was in the Fifth World, I learned quite a few methods of torture." Su Ming’an looked at his fingers, watching a smear of blackness emerge at the tips, "Following Laine, you’ve become my second experiment."

He touched her left cheek and then gently infused some mana points. Sёarᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Ah—!"

A sharp scream rang out.

Su Ming’an withdrew his hand.

Mizushima Haru’s cheek, now corroded with a small hole, slowly oozed black blood. She seemed to want to cover her face, but a snake-like stream of blood still flowed slowly from her terrifying round wound.

"Even if you do this to me, the pendant will still explode on the second day—" she roared.

Su Ming’an’s fingers pressed down again.

Mizushima Haru’s screams sounded once more.

Then, under her horrified gaze, Su Ming’an’s fingers slowly moved in front of her eyes.

"...Sometimes I really wonder," Su Ming’an said, "to what extent a person can hate someone. And as the object of such hate, I also wonder if there’s something wrong with me."

"...You, wait, don’t, don’t..." Mizushima Haru stared at the black fingertips less than three centimeters from her eyes, her entire body beginning to tremble.

Blood flowed profusely from her hollow body, and even though her life force was tenacious, she was now starting to weaken.

"I eventually realized," Su Ming’an stared at his fingers, "...it’s not that I have a problem."

"The most important thing is to deal with those who think I have a problem."

As he spoke, he slowly pressed his finger down.

A heart-wrenching scream erupted.

Su Ming’an watched the pretty girl’s eyes slowly sink, watched the dark-hued blood flow from her eye sockets.

"—Su Ming’an! You—you really don’t care about your reputation—doing this to me in front of the whole world—"

Su Ming’an closed his eyes.

"...No," he murmured, "On the contrary, they will only feel pleased—because they have naturally put themselves in my perspective."

While facing Mizushima Haru’s fearful and resentful gaze, he smiled calmly.

"The vast majority of them... those who stay in my live stream, have grown accustomed to seeing the world through my eyes."

"They have gotten used to thinking from my standpoint."

"They won’t doubt any word I say, they won’t question any of my intentions."

"—Because they’ve watched all along, what I do is always right, the path I take is always successful."

"So," he chuckled, "...they will gradually cease to think and join the mass of the , becoming a natural part of it."

"Because by just watching, anything can be gained, anything can happen."

"Then thinking becomes meaningless."

"Now," he whispered, "I have become the most among them—I have become the only individual who can act freely, speak freely, in this environment of hundreds of millions—do you know what this means, Mizushima Haru?"

Mizushima Haru’s expression gradually showed fear.

She listened, trembling all over.

"Even if they are reluctant to admit it, they like to vent their dissatisfaction and differences through mocking internet slang," Su Ming’an said.

"But in the grand scheme of things, these billions of people will always be unified with me."

"Under the spotlight, everyone’s eyes are watching my direction, and every word I say will be clearly conveyed—and the will and philosophy of the masses will naturally be driven by herd mentality and dependency."

"They gradually get used to their gazes always following me. No matter what I say, they can only listen. No matter what I do, they can only watch."

"And sometimes... just a word of the vaguest meaning can have the most powerful impact."

"I have become a true, intellectual ’Lighthouse’—and they are forever intricately linked to me."

"The gaze of billions of people... there was no platform of such a massive scale in the previous world."

"In such an environment, whatever I want to convey becomes incredibly easy—whether it’s harming Ancient Martial Families, calling for everyone to boycott them, or issuing some global command..."

He spoke and paused.

As he started speaking again, his smile was more pronounced:

"So that’s it, that’s why you are so afraid, why you want to eliminate me so badly, isn’t it?"

"You’re truly terrifying," Mizushima Haru’s words trembled: "Su Ming’an... we can’t let you continue brainwashing like this. You absolutely cannot, you must not become the ruler of everyone!"

"Brainwashing." Su Ming’an said. "Is that what you define me as?"

"Look at yourself now!" Mizushima Haru gritted her teeth: "Like a madman—you don’t even realize it. Do you really think you’re a qualified leader?"

"If it were not for you in this instance, I wouldn’t be like this," Su Ming’an said.

"Are you complimenting me?" Mizushima Haru was stunned.

"I am still condemning you, Mizushima Haru."

Mizushima Haru’s teeth chattered.

Despite her high tolerance for pain, excessive blood loss was gradually draining her strength.

She gradually became speechless.

Fortunately, she closed her eyes and ignored Su Ming’an any longer.

Anyway, by the next day, the instance would reset, she would come back to life, and as long as she didn’t remove the explosive pendant, the other party would eventually be dragged to death here...

Thinking this, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her neck, as if something had hit her.

A cold liquid was injected, accompanied by an ant-like gnawing pain. Her body trembled violently, shaking like someone with epilepsy.

"What did you inject me with?" A bad premonition emerged in her heart.

"Strengthener, a drug that quickly restores blood levels." Su Ming’an put down the needle in his hand,

then raised his pitch-black hand.

"Let’s continue," he said. "You see, you still have one eye."

Mizushima Haru’s eyes widened.

In front of her, the pale-faced young man under the light looked no different from a demon.

Watching that finger slowly approach, she shuddered violently and then screamed, "Don’t, don’t come closer!"

You’ve been hiding for so many years, just stand firm a little," Su Ming’an said.

"I’ll tell you how to remove Dong Xue’s pendant, just, just don’t come any closer—" Mizushima Haru’s voice trembled.

Su Ming’an smiled.

"I thought you were a revenger enduring humiliation and bearing burdens. I didn’t expect you couldn’t even last a minute," he said.

Mizushima Haru gritted her teeth and squeezed the words from her throat: "..."

"I didn’t catch that," Su Ming’an extended his hand.

"...The pendant! There’s a hidden clasp on the back, press and pull it apart with force, and it will disconnect!" Mizushima Haru immediately raised her voice.

Su Ming’an nodded.

Then, his fingers, without pausing, pressed down further.

"Ahhhh—!" Mizushima Haru screamed with heart-rending agony.

As black blood flowed out, her other eye also vanished within its socket, making her face appear incredibly terrifying.

"I, I already told you—" she wailed in pain.

Su Ming’an: "I don’t believe it."

As he spoke, he withdrew his hand, then pressed on her right cheek.

"Please, please, don’t—"

The girl’s exceedingly miserable voice echoed in the room, traveling far into the corridor.

Mo Yan, who was standing nearby holding a sword, had his mouth shaped into an "O."

Mo Yan was utterly stunned.

Ever since Su Ming’an approached Mizushima Haru and began saying those words, he had slowly entered a stupefied state.

He couldn’t imagine... such terrifying words coming from his brother’s mouth.

...Was it to scare Mizushima Haru?

But why was he beginning to feel frightened too?

"Mo Yan."

He was standing there when he heard his brother call him.

"Ah... Ah!" He quickly responded.

"Go to Dong Xue’s room, bring her here, and according to what Mizushima Haru said, remove her pendant," Su Ming’an said, "If it can’t be removed, or if the pendant explodes again... I’ll just do it again, no problem. I have plenty of mana points, enough to make hundreds of cuts on her body, so don’t be afraid she’s fooling me."

"Ah, alright." Mo Yan wiped his sweat and turned to run.

This was the first time he had seen his brother be so savage... He had never witnessed such a scene even when watching his father deal with prisoners in the dungeon at home.

Mizushima Haru was crouching on the ground.

Her black hair, like water snakes, blended into the blood, turning her entire body a dark red.

"...Su Ming’an," she said, looking up, struggling immensely, "You’ve already been driven mad by this instance."

"Probably not yet," Su Ming’an replied.

"No, you should be glad you are mad now," she snarled, revealing blood-stained teeth, "...because if you can act like this without being mad, then you’re already done for."

Su Ming’an sighed.

"...Why do you hate me so much?" he said softly.

Mizushima Haru remained silent.

"...It must be more than just hatred," Su Ming’an said.

Mizushima Haru still did not respond.

"A competition because of special status?" Su Ming’an asked, "Like—killing me and you ascend to Ruler, that kind of competition?"

Mizushima Haru shuddered.

Blood flowed from her two hollow eye sockets.

In the grayish tones, it resembled a horror film in progress.