Chapter 507

Chapter 507: Chapter 504: "You’re Simply Not Good Enough."——Su Ming’an!"

Beneath the high skies, the woman, whose entire body blazed with sacred flames, loudly interrogated the "Evil God’s Followers" entrenched in the mire below.

She interrogated, questioning where the sister she had always cherished had gone. Why she hadn’t returned, why she had lost all contact.

Although her words were phrased as questions, her tone was one of absolute certainty. As she lifted her longsword, her eyes swelled with blood-red fury.

And Su Ming’an lifted his head, his eyes filled with deep exhaustion.

Gazing at the black-haired, deity-like "Judicator," his vision grew somewhat blurred.

Through the figure that shared similar features, he seemed to see a tiny shadow, desperately running towards him in a deep corridor.

That shadow, with red-rimmed eyes, unleashed an angry roar at him. Her shadow began to merge with Mizushima Kawa Sora’s in the skies above, their similar yet distinct faces becoming indistinct at this moment.

His eyes started to glaze over, with voices from his memories incessantly echoing in his ears, and even his five senses began to hallucinate uncontrollably——

Even though his SAN value was still at 65 points.

Nevertheless, the intense hallucinations that spread over his senses like fleeting light now dominated his every sense.

He heard her voice.

That voice of the foolish pioneer, who had died before his eyes like a silent gravestone.

She laughed shrilly, manically, with tears mixed with blood rolling down her cheeks—her face, with one eye pierced by Oblivion Cave, was filled with mad pleasure.

He watched her, missing an eye, her face covered in ghastly scars, and her body drenched in blood, as she ran desperately towards him, and saw the Dong Xue Necklace explode in her hands.

Atop the necklace, the ruby shone like her bloodshot eyes, reflecting his image clad in a doctor’s white coat.

It suddenly shattered,

"Crack——!"

Gemstone fragments danced like stardust.

And yet, reflected in this starry sky, there was still nothing in his eyes.

That shadow, she screamed, she roared, as though this would allow her to vent all the sorrow and anger of her failed assassination attempt.

Word by word, sentence by sentence, she proclaimed her righteousness.

Every one of her deeds, represented justice.

All her actions, including the assassination of him, who was "unqualified," shouted out for humanity’s future.

She indulged in her argumentative nature, her ignorant zeal, condemning him, "the aberration."

She unabashedly roared out her desire to redeem Zhai Xing, her voice full of righteous indignation within the White Sand "Paradise."

She claimed,

She was the Brave who had come to assassinate the Demon King,

The constantly shifting dark shadows assailed his tense nerves. His fingers trembled uncontrollably, slowly losing sight of the actual scene before his eyes.

The shadow collapsed to the ground. Her naïve righteousness had thrust her into a pit of fire; she became one amongst the abyss burying countless pioneers.

Before dying, she cursed him,

She said,

Congratulations to him.

This shadow, at last, vanished.

Colors that polluted like light flit across his violently trembling vision. The aftereffects of the last cycle’s Metamorphosis were too severe, and his fingers involuntarily clutched at his chest.

Fingertips digging inwards, he felt an impulse to tear open his own chest, to escape the pain with death.

"——Su Ming’an, is this your admission? Was it really you... who caused the death of Haru?"

Not far away, that "sister" questioned him with a tone identical to the illusion’s.

At this moment, the distance between the solitary islands became unfathomably far for him.

"Mizushima Kawa Sora." Someone seemed to be speaking with Mizushima Kawa Sora: "The state of the Number One Player is off, looks like he’s been affected by the instance’s SAN value."

Another woman’s voice came through: "Su Ming’an has entered a state of madness, he seems to have no reaction to our words."

"After all, he’s part of Evil God’s side. That tentacle monster must be affecting a person’s mental state," someone said.

"This seems like the Number One Player’s downfall. I’ve never seen him like this. Now is a good time to eliminate the threat; he’s almost fully Metamorphosed."

They communicated, various voices mixing together, the crowd growing larger.

Players looking to collect points from the battlefield approached swiftly. Some had even summoned powerful NPCs, set on besieging the tentacle monster.

Under the call of the world quest "Exterminate the Evil God," they rushed over at astonishing speed, their emotions unprecedentedly high.

Among the players, some had cast the "Group Flight" Skill, flying together above the skies in union. Centering around the apex players such as Mizushima Kawa Sora, they slowly approached the central Stone Fortress.

Now was the best opportunity for them to cooperate in exterminating the tentacle monster, to avoid a catastrophic group failure. They didn’t care where Mizushima Kawa Sora’s sister had gone; they only needed the guise of "exterminating the Evil God."

In light of their interests, the top-ranked players appeared especially indifferent, their eyes only fixed on the Contribution Value and Points brought by their missions.

At this moment, their front line was rarely so unified.

Belonging to the World Tree Guild, known as the "Heavenly Adjudicator," wielding "Odin’s Eternal Spear," Anthony was the first to arrive.

From the rear, the peak player "Proud" Lu, wielding his Purple Grade weapon "World Staff" with the "Metal Construct" effect, made an appearance.

The United Group’s representative player, known as "Eagle Eye," Zhong Xi, slowly approached with the scent of gunfire, armed with a heavy sniper rifle.

The Dragon Troop, with "Armor Wearer" Sean completely encased in light armor, lifted his head that was adorned with protective goggles.

They exchanged information with each other, excavating the plot.

Looking down at the pitch-black pollution below,

they once again confirmed—

Indeed, that heretic named Xiber had really summoned evil monsters.

Indeed, that deity known as Jiu Shen,

...was truly an Evil God.

Players gathered in the sky, clad in various garments, each brandishing their own weapons.

The sight of the top twenty players coming together was indeed a rare spectacle which thrilled the viewers, who immediately took screenshots and recorded the scene to discuss and debate on forums, showing support for their favorites.

Following the players were many NPCs from within Qiongdi, such as powerful elders from various tribes, guides with special authorities, members of the Heretic Tribunal, and some ordinary people of Qiongdi filled with a sense of justice who had come forward voluntarily.

"Phew..."

Mizushima Kawa Sora breathed heavily, with the air during Qiongdi’s disaster period carrying a scorching scent, making each of her breaths release a small mist of warm vapor, fogging up her glasses.

She looked down at the disaster-like tendrils below with a look full of disgust in her eyes.

At her side, the Prophet Atlanda approached her.

"Mizushima Kawa, looking at the current situation, the Number One Player is about to undergo metamorphosis," said Atlanda.

"Yes, I can see that," she replied. "He... he could very well have killed Haru. I absolutely must kill him myself."

No one could understand her love for Mizushima Haru.

Even though she always acted indifferent towards Mizushima Haru and found her too spaced-out, not serious enough, unlike a sister of hers—

...but that was merely the disdain that exists between the closest of people.

Because they were close, she could tolerate all her sister’s little schemes, and she had kept searching for her ever since she lost contact with her.

In the Fifth World, before Mizushima Haru said she was going to find Su Ming’an, they had an argument.

Mizushima Kawa Sora said there was no need to look for Su Ming’an; from what she saw, this Number One Player was still passable. If it were Noel, someone so inexplicably strange, he wouldn’t be better than Su Ming’an.

But Mizushima Haru only said that the United Group wanted her to go, and since her sister had no objection to the conditions proposed by the ancient martial arts side, if she went, her sister’s status could be more secured.

And so, she went.

In the Fifth World, in Ming Hui, in that noble’s room, Mizushima Haru was crushed into a bloody pulp by Hui Shuhang’s gravity. She was mocked by viewers, called foolish, impure, without dignity, and dying a meaningless death.

She became a clown in the eyes of most, pointed at and ridiculed by the public.

Then she never returned, and she never showed up again.

But in the interval period, Mizushima Kawa Sora received a message from nowhere. The message was from Mizushima Haru, saying she had received a mission to find Su Ming’an.

She said, "Sister, you watch, I will win back this homeland taken by high-dimensional beings,"

...completely.

Afterwards,

Mizushima Kawa Sora never received another message from her.

However, during an instance in White Sand Paradise, Mizushima Kawa Sora’s chest, at a certain moment, abruptly ached for an instant.

That pain was extremely clandestine, like someone had heavily laid a kiss upon her heart. It was as if something had permanently vanished from her life.

"Mizushima Kawa," a voice from Atlanda came from beside her.

He leaned close to her ear, lowered his voice almost to an inaudible whisper:

"I know, Su Ming’an is right before our eyes, and we have a very good chance of killing him. But this is the pinnacle of competitive gaming, and even if a player dies, their strength isn’t erased. His death this time would merely result in a loss of face and diminished reputation, but it wouldn’t affect his actual strength in the slightest."

Mizushima Kawa Sora was slightly taken aback.

"So, I suggest..." Atlanda spoke softly, "...we don’t rush to kill him."

Mizushima Kawa Sora, looking at Su Ming’an caught between the tendrils, suddenly realized—Atlanda had a good point.

If Su Ming’an wasn’t killed by them, his condition would inevitably lead to metamorphosis soon after.

Metamorphosis pertains to a psychological impact that is difficult to recover from. It is a type of permanent damage, akin to those who wander life hazily like mentally disturbed patients.

If, if they let Su Ming’an undergo metamorphosis, allowing him to lose his divine wisdom...

Then.

Then would this unstable threat be... eliminated?

Mizushima Kawa Sora’s eyes shone faintly.

Despite knowing the importance of Su Ming’an under the current circumstances, she still couldn’t trust him; she wasn’t sure whether this Number One Player, who held a significant weight, would deliberately fail at the last moment for some reason.

Many of his pathways to success revealed outright strangeness, and he was the only one who could communicate directly with Boss Rabbit, the highest-ranking ’Ruler’.

The World Game had only started three months ago, and the overall human Points progression bar was advancing well, looking at the pace, they could even achieve the 100% target ahead of time.

And he held the attention of a billion people.

In such a fervent environment, whatever message he wanted to convey, it would be incredibly easy. Many people had already grown accustomed to following him forever, no matter what he said, they could only listen, watch, accept.

If left unchecked, in the later stages, the "Number One Player" could pose a challenge, making unreasonable demands of them, such as worshiping him as a deity, calling on everyone to act against them, issuing some kind of world-wide command, or even executing some people who had crossed him...

By then, they would no longer be able to lose him—he would possess an extremely terrifying amount of influence.

At that time, with his high rank,

...he could hold all of humanity hostage.

Mizushima Kawa Sora broke out in a cold sweat.

She suddenly turned around and shouted loudly to the restless players:

"—We shouldn’t rush to kill Su Ming’an."

As she uttered these words, even she did not notice the abnormal, strange smile creeping onto her face.

Unaware, her vision in the upper left corner displayed a bright orange bar that was only at 30 points.

"—Everyone, we shouldn’t rush to kill him!"

She repeated, standing in front of everyone.

Her black hair was tinted by the blazing white flame light, as if bathed in a splendid glory descending from the heavens.

Her chest heaved violently, the scorching air of the disaster period filled her lungs, her face bearing an unusual flush.

Facing everyone, she cried out:

"—Right now we’re not all here, attacking carelessly is dangerous, let’s wait a moment first, until a few important NPCs arrive, then we can take action. I remember the Young Tribe Leader of the First Tribe hasn’t appeared yet, his identity as the Son of Bai Shen is sure to be crucial for us to confront the Evil God—"