Chapter 544 – A Pawn's Struggle before the Promotion Line
Tainted Land
Devil was sitting on top of the blood river, staring at Ancestor Minghe and sweating profusely. The boatman and the ancestor ignored Devil and patrolled the karma strings. However, they told Devil to stay there for the ti being.
Devil was relieved that he wasn't killed or imprisoned like usual. Still, he was sad that he couldn't move on with his scheduled plans in this tiline.
Since everything was against him in this tiline, Devil gave up everything, waiting for the tiline to be reset.
He sighed, thinking of the hard work he had done so far. Everything was for nothing.
Since Devil had nothing to do, he began reviewing and reading the ti records, trying to find the mistakes that he had overlooked.
'Co to think of it, how many tis has it been? 25,000,028th ti? I really ssed up a lot. Should I give up the next universe from the start and live my life to the fullest before it gets reset again? Letting Kishin Douji retains his mory upon death so that he will personally hunt Xie Tian in the 25,000,030th tiline? Welp, I haven't played a long ga like that yet. I might as well play a mind ga for once. What can go wrong?'
Devil's mood got a bit better after he had decided to simply spend his next tiline resting and playing instead of completing his objectives. This was the ntality of an overworked salaryman before a long holiday.
He humd and skimd through the ti records, starting from the previous tiline. He hadn't read ti records for so long since he disliked watching himself fail over and over again. It felt like watching the dark mory that he wanted to forget.
But after long consideration, Devil started reading from the most recent one first to warm up his ntal fortitude.
'Hmm?'
Devil frowned. As soon as he scanned the events on the previous tiline, he found so many anomalies that he didn't rember seeing them.
It happened when one of his soul fragnts manifested and gained sentience. However, this clone openly rebelled against Devil's pre-program guideline, aka Tutorial Quest, from day 1.
Most importantly, that clone reached the 9th-stage within a day and severed the connection between them!
"WHAT THE FUCK?! HAVE NO MORY OF THIS TILINE!! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!"
Devil was so shocked that he exclaid out loud. He was so absorbed in reading through the events that he ignored Minghe and the boatman's existence.
...
Devil didn't notice the faint smile on Ancestor Minghe's face.
The latter secretly sent a voice transmission to the boatman as he glanced at Devil, 'This round is quite amusing. Don't you think?'
The boatman was expressionless, but his ntal voice sounded cheerful, 'That clone on the Calamity Watch List might make this ga a lot more interesting than the last ti. Previously, the ending was terrible. It was a pity that Devil killed that clone before three major forces could settle in a decisive battle. Otherwise, we could have seen how Xie Tian and the clone's disciples played out in the war and finally get a good ending for once.'
'True. How about we allow every ti traveler to retain their mory of this run when we run out of turns? When the next ga starts, it will be mayhem when all ti-traveler regains their mory.'
'Indeed. New Ga Plus with all major ti-travelers sound fun. Let's propose this project to other sages. Should I visit them and tell them what we conversed?'
'Of course. You go and handle it.'
'I promise good results. Hahahaha!'
…
Devil only needed half a day to read the ti record of the 3rd Alter Miaomiao's tiline. After gaining the insight of the previous run, Devil scanned the others for more irregularities.
Soon, he found Samael's tiline and Second Alter's tiline!
Devil had gone through THREE tilines of Alter Mao Miaomiao already. He finally realized his mistakes.
His mory from these tilines was erased because of Samael's curses!
"Damn you, Samael. You backstabber! I nad you that way because you were supposed to be the Bringer of Death to Kishin Douji! Why the fuck did you betray your creator?! And… What the fuck, Xie Tian?! Why did you join the dark side?! That's not in the script!"
The complaints ca out from Devil's mouth nonstop. He was so mad that he wanted to destroy a few planets.
While Devil was screaming and yelling randomly, he sensed that sothing had snapped.
One of the karma strings that had been supplying luck energy to him was gone!
"!?"
Devil needed to gather luck energy to increase his successful chance for crossing dinsions. However, as he had ti-traveled so many tis, the Heavenly Dao of the sages refused to bless him with luck energy no matter how many tis he completed various good deeds.
Devil had planted so many soul fragnts of himself on countless mortal worlds, waiting for a random seed to grow or gain sentient like Miaomiao. Whenever they gained sentient and completed the tutorial quests that Devil had pre-programd them, he would start acquiring luck energy from the clones via the karma strings.
But now, the major luck contributor, Miaomiao, suddenly cut the supply. Even if Devil had secretly injected Dion with the Devil.dat file when Miaomiao completed the murals, he couldn't reestablish the karma string again.
The virus file couldn't locate him anymore. It couldn't transfer luck energy anywhere without the karma thread!
'This is why I hate this Miaomiao. He's too smart and too talented. He's not supposed to learn Lilith's abilities! Was it because of Samael's Will? Co to think of it, that bastard has more than one soul in his body. That might be the reason!'
Devil stood up and was about to sneak away from the Tainted River.
Unfortunately, a hundred bloody hands grabbed Devil's ankles, legs, arms, hands, and body. They dragged him into the bottom of the river.
Ancestor Minghe smirked at Devil, "Stay there until the universe is reset. Your role ends here."
"!!!"
The words of Ancestor Minghe revealed that the sages knew about his ti abilities and previous tilines all along.
"So you knew!"
"Obviously, all sages knew. Do you think we were that oblivious to your sches?"
"Was it you?! Did you always stop my plan when I was about to beco a sage or kill Kishin Douji?!"
Ancestor Minghe didn't answer Devil. He simply waved his hand, watching how Devil sank to the bottom of the Tainted River.
"See you in the next ga, Devil Mao Miaomiao."
Minghe giggled and turned around, walking on the river toward the existence karma of Miaomiao. The ancestor pondered, "If I cut it, that clone will die. Well, since you're so interesting, I'll make you an independent soul."
The ancestor cut a piece of his flesh from his fingertip. Then, he yanked the karma string, pulling the other end from Devil.
The karma string was forcefully released from Devil!
Ancestor grinned as he attached the loose end of karma string to the piece of his flesh. Then, the invisible string slowly pulled the flesh toward Miaomiao, who was in the lower realm.
"Your plot armor is here, Mao Miaomiao's clone. Well, should I call you Mao Miaomiao or Samael from now on?"
…
= Golden Heavenly Goose Planet =
Ding
Miaomiao humd as he rechecked his luck status.
…
Expenditure (Per Day)
Pocket World Upkeep: 1,000
Farming System Upkeep: 200
Quarrying System Upkeep: 200
Mao Miaomiao Soul: 1,000
…
Indeed, the Devil's leeching bot had been deleted. However, unexpected changes occurred.
"Wait a minute. I didn't cut my existence karma. How the fuck does the expense disappear?!"
Miaomiao was baffled. He didn't even touch the karma string, but everything worked TOO well.
Moreover, the na changed. Devil's Soul Fragnt turned into Mao Miaomiao's Soul.
It didn't make any sense!
Miaomiao held his head and paced around his empty mansion. His mind went blank.
Several minutes later, he shrugged, "I don't know how, but screw it. Maybe, I'm that good!"
He turned around and was about to return to his room to rest. He still needed to question Dion about her previous testimony about infinite luck thingy.
What infinite? He had limited luck points!
Miaomiao planned to scold Dion for ssing with the information.
Before Miaomiao could put his thoughts to action, the existence karma string suddenly shrunk into Miaomiao's body, and the piece of flesh smacked his face.
Ding
Miaomiao pinched the small piece of at and stared at it.
"Yikes… SUPER YIKES! Who the fuck forced this shit on again?!"
He hated being manipulated. He finally beca free, but soone wanted to control his life again.
Was he destined to be a pawn forever?
Miaomiao never wanted that. He wanted to break free from this curse and be independent like carefree protagonists.
He took the path of a protagonist because he no longer wanted to be a tool for anybody! Miaomiao had enough being a small-ti villain to be bossed around by random jerks!
Secondly, Heavenly Dao was a big death flag. Most end-ga protagonists refused to beco a tool for the Will of Heaven, and they surpassed its power to beco absolute god, the true top of the food chain.
Miaomiao, as a mortal, was so far away from having the end-ga status attributes. He had yet to touch the realm of an immortal, but the hidden bosses already wanted to ruin his life.
"WHOEVER IT IS, CAN WE TALK? CAN I NOT CHOOSE ANY?"
Miaomiao bellowed, hoping to get an answer from the so-called Almighty Being.
Instantly, Miaomiao heard an archaic voice of an unknown god.
'I didn't an to force you to choose. Sorry if I cause a misunderstanding.'
Miaomiao widened his eyes for a mont. He coughed and adjusted his tone.
"Who might you be? For what purposes are you giving these options?"
'I'm a sage. I'm playing a ga at the mont, and I would like to recruit you to join my side.'
"Ga?! My life is a ga to you?!"
'Sort of. Ever played a modern ga called [Civilization Series]? We usually do multiplayer gas, 100,000,000 sessions at once in one seating. However, we always started each round before the creation of the universe.'
"…"
'So, back to the topic. I'm currently building an empire at the mont, and Kishin Douji is the strongest king of my ga faction. I don't want you to plot or fight against him and vice versa. Will you join my side? We can serve the Heavenly Dao under the sa banner, and I can make you a transcended being, stronger than Dao Gods. Of course, I'll do so once the ga ends, and we get our good endings.'
The blood vessels in Miaomiao's brain were on the verge of bursting. He had mixed emotions about this sage, who treated everybody's life as a board ga.
Still, Miaomiao couldn't afford to be bound by the major death flag, aka Heavenly Dao. No villains ever survived by joining with the dubious power that killed others when they died.
"Can I be a sage if I join you?"
'Ah, that? I can't say. We have limited seats, and the old guys don't want new blood to join us any ti soon. The highest position I can offer is a half-sage. You saw him earlier. It was the grim reaper on a boatman.'
"Oh."
Miaomiao rembered the boatman. He was a lot scarier than Devil.
Still, Miaomiao caught on to the inconsistency in the sage's word. It conflicted with the boatman's testimony.
"The boatman threatened that even Heavenly Dao couldn't save if the sages were to move. Is Heavenly Dao more powerful than you?"
'Ah, that?' The sage sounded reluctant, 'Don't believe in my subordinate. He was only bluffing. The Heavenly Dao keeps and other sages alive, and we can't fight against it. If you serve the Heavenly Dao, not a single sage can touch you since we are barred from harming each other.'
"…"
Miaomiao narrowed his eyes. He found a way to get out of this ss without becoming Heavenly Dao's tool while maintaining his plot armor power.
"What if I work as a rcenary for you, but I don't serve the Heavenly Dao.. I'll be Kishin Douji's ally to help your faction in your ga. What will you give ?"
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