"Big brother!"
The first one to rush up was still Mo Yan.
He raised his hands, holding his sword as if it were a precious treasure, with a carving knife resting on the blade.
"—Big brother! Autograph!"
Su Ming’an saw the fake signature that Mo Yan had scratched onto the sword.
"Big brother, you have to sign for , you don’t know how cool you were just now... I’ve recorded everything you said, and when I get back, I’m going to write down all of your remarks in my little notebook..."
Mo Yan rattled on, holding his own sword like he was offering up so kind of treasure.
Su Ming’an’s gaze lingered on the carving knife for a mont, then said, "You want an autograph?"
"Ah, yes! Big brother... even though you’ve beco a deity now, I still hope to call you ’big brother’, big brother... Right from the start, I felt that the sword in the hands of that impostor didn’t look right, nothing like the Sword of Yarman, only the one in your hands looks the part, big brother, you really have to sign for , cover that impostor’s signature, I’m so fed up with it..."
Su Ming’an shook his head gently, about to turn around and leave.
Mo Yan got anxious and hurried up to him, "Big brother, is it that you don’t want to sign next to the impostor’s autograph? Then, then sign on my clothes, I’m not sure if the clothes can be taken back... Anyway, find sowhere to sign! I absolutely must treasure Big Brother’s autograph..."
"Forget it," Su Ming’an shook his head.
Mo Yan bit his lip, looking reluctant and unwilling.
...Did he upset big brother sohow?
Why won’t big brother sign for him...
"I’m not a celebrity," he heard his big brother say.
Then, he saw his big brother turn around without hesitation and walk towards the classroom door.
The others seed to co back to their senses too, and imdiately soone thought to follow.
"Number One Player, Number One Player!"
The female player with the Rose Handgun was the first to apologize, she had been the first to complain about the Number One Player.
"Sorry! Sorry! I really didn’t know that impostor wasn’t you, I..."
After her, many others echoed their apologies, and many expressed their gratitude.
The originally quiet classroom beca noisy in an instant, various words mingled together as people tried to express their urgent emotions.
"Number One Player! I’m really sorry for what I said just now..."
"Damn that impostor, I knew that guy was an extravagant fake, Number One Player could never look like that!"
"I’ve been saying, how could it be the Number One Player who got pinned to the wall and got beaten, nor could it be an ordinary player who could produce such a huge Spatial Vibration..."
"Right, that impostor deserves a beating, teach him a lesson!"
"Exactly! Otherwise just any Tom, Dick, or Harry could claim to be the Number One Player, right, Number One Player!"
"Absolutely, if the Number One Player is inconvenienced to take action, then let us vent for you!"
"It’s all because of that damn guy who attacked first, otherwise with the Number One Player around here, we’d all be done for!"
"Yeah... thank goodness for the Number One Player..."
"Thank you, Number One Player, for saving us... otherwise we really wouldn’t know what to do..."
"Uh... Number One Player!" A player caught up to Su Ming’an, a plea on his face:
"Um... You surely have your own thoughts about the upcoming mission process, right? Could you maybe disclose so information to us... like what we should do next, how to handle day and night... that sort of thing. So for the next few days, we can better cooperate with you and not cause any trouble, right?"
He spoke earnestly, humbly, his eyes filled with gratitude, as if looking at his savior.
But Su Ming’an clearly rembered that this person wasn’t like this before.
This person had stood in a corner, cursing the "Number One Player" who was knocked down with a single blow, saying Su Ming’an didn’t deserve to win in the end.
At that ti, this person’s gaze, this person’s words, he rembered them before he stood up.
But now, this person looked at him as though seeing a lifeline, pleading as if praying to a deity.
Other people were also looking over here, their eyes filled with earnestness, as if waiting for his words.
Even Mo Yan was no exception.
He was holding his deeply-scarred sword, standing there, staring intently this way.
"..." Su Ming’an fell silent for a mont.
"The best way to coordinate with ..." he began.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him, joy spreading across their faces.
"...is for you people to go commit suicide," he said.
Silence reigned.
In the large classroom, people’s smiles froze on their faces, like they were trapped in ice.
"Ha ha... What kind of joke is that..." soone beside him said with a stiff face.
"You won’t last until the end," Su Ming’an’s words were blunt.
Facing everyone’s stiff expressions, he spoke without any concealnt, "Based on my observations just now, except for Lin Jiang, none of you will make it to the fifth day. It’s only a matter of ti before you fall into madness, and if you don’t want to still be a madman when you return to the Main God Space, you’d better commit suicide early. You still have a future."
He was telling the truth.
Even soone with as many ntality Points as him, in these circumstances, was at risk of losing his mind at any mont. Of course, this might be related to his insane decision to venture out at night and his identity as a doctor.
Ordinary Players, if they didn’t think about a Perfect Pass and just obeyed during the day and slept well at night, could actually make it to the fifth day without much risk.
But the problem was, these people were in the sa instance as him.
Would these people within the sa instance as him be content just to scrape through five days without trying other routes?
No.
Human greed is boundless.
When they discover there is light to chase, that they can keep up just by moving their feet, they will not suppress their greed.
When they realize they are in the sa instance as him, that they can board his ship and follow him for more benefits, they will not be content to just stay in their own rooms; they will want more.
Even, to think of human nature’s darker side, would soone set a trap intentionally to drive him mad and then step on his corpse for gain?
So people don’t care about being the Number One Player or not; they only care about their own interests.
In this kind of role-playing ga instance, where true nas are unseen and players’ real identities are unknown, all malice is magnified infinitely.
After many experiences, he dares not probe the depths of human malice anymore.
...Because sotis, that malice is unfathomably deep.
Indeed, he could continue to pretend, even exploit these people’s trust, making them guinea pigs for instance clearance, letting them pave the way with their corpses for him alone.
He would have done so in the past without any psychological burden, but he didn’t want to now.
He glanced at his san value again.
...He really was very irritable at the mont.
Facing Flax, bearing her contamination, and verbally sparring with her had temporarily drained his strength.
These people can just fend for themselves.
"...If you don’t want to commit suicide and are confident in your ability to survive until the end," Su Ming’an said, "then just obediently do as the NPCs say... Don’t let anything like today happen again."
He left behind his final piece of advice.
He pushed the door open, stepped out, and walked towards the stairs above.
A cacophony erupted from behind him, as if the impostor was being beaten.
The people expended their strength in-fighting to their hearts’ content, venting their rage at having been deceived.
They vented their anger through punches and kicks, as if this could give them a sense of satisfaction.
Su Ming’an turned his back on them, climbed the stairs, heading upward.
On the newly-opened fifth floor, he saw the brilliant afternoon sunlight spilling onto the wooden shelves of the library.
...
[Lin Jiang, a girl from an ordinary family in Dragon Country, was nineteen years old and had just started her freshman year of college before the World Ga began.]
[Her mother once told her, "We are noble enough by ourselves."]
["Money cannot asure us, we are more beautiful and valuable than anyone else."]
[She used to think so.]
[Until one ti, when she attended the birthday party of a classmate.]
[She had thought, wasn’t a birthday party just a family sitting around a table, eating so cake, so at dishes, then blowing out candles and having a good night’s sleep?]
[What was there that needed special celebration, that needed so many people to be invited to co dressed up?]
[She didn’t know, she just went.]
[Afterward, she saw a world she had never seen before.]
[The hall was glittering with gold, chandeliers with crystal ornants, and a crimson carpet stretched from the high end down to her feet.]
[In the banquet hall filled with people in formal attire, her beautiful classmate stood at the very top of the stairs.]
[The classmate’s long dress trailed on the ground, and she wore a hairpin adorned with diamonds, like a princess living in the modern world.]
[The princess smiled and approached her, raising her glass.]
[She looked at her own school uniform and sports pants, and suddenly panicked.]
["Why did I co here?"]
[She faced everyone’s mocking gazes and couldn’t understand.]
["...Why is she the princess, and I’m just the ugly duckling there for contrast?"]
["In school, I’m the well-behaved child in the teacher’s eyes, while she’s a poor student with no academic achievents."]
["Why, why here..."]
["Has everything gone topsy-turvy?"]
["Why do people look at with scorn?"]
["Why do they say, this is the outside world?"]
[She ran away.]
[Like fleeing a world that didn’t belong to her, like descending from the clouds into the mortal world. She walked through alleys filled with dirty water, pushed open the creaky door, and saw her mother’s face full of wrinkles.]
[She still rembered the appearance of the little princess’s mother, like a fine lady who never dirtied her hands with spring water, without a single sign of aging on her face.]
[Yet now, seeing her mother, she just felt ashad.]
...
[She gradually changed.]
[It used to be endearing when her mother nagged about neighborhood gossip and the rising price of vegetables, but now it was just annoying.]
[After seeing the high-end desserts in the hall and the sea cucumbers and abalones air-freighted from abroad, she found the stir-fried cabbage on her table hard to swallow.]
[Seeing the little princess wearing a rhinestone gown and branded jewelry, while she wore an oversized school uniform washed over and over, with hair clips three for five yuan from the accessory store, she felt ashad.]
...
[She gradually changed.]
[She no longer cared about grains and vegetables, no longer chatted with her parents about the little things in life, she struggled with her own desolation. Whenever she saw her classmate co to school, she didn’t dare et her eyes, feeling extrely out of place.]
[Her mother said, "Don’t worry about these things, we are noble enough by ourselves."]
[But she couldn’t understand.]
[She hid in the blankets at night, tears soaking up her days and nights.]
[She moved among the crowds, seemingly disconnected from the liveliness, yet unable to stop imrsing herself in it.]
[Finally, during a day of struggle, another "her" appeared.]
"She said, ’You’re truly useless, Lin Jiang.’"
"She said, ’You are extrely ugly, and you don’t dare to face your own inferiority.’"
"She said, ’You might as well continue to feel inferior, and afterwards, I’ll mature on your behalf.’"
[...]
"She said —— I will beco the ’sin’ of your vanity, Lin Jiang."
...
The text lingered before his eyes for a mont.
Su Ming’an leaned against a bookshelf in the library, yawned, and watched as the blood-red words gradually appeared on the panel:
"—— Doctor, oh my dear doctor."
"Do you think, in White Sand Paradise, this child."
"Is determined to be, a being that can be saved?"
"Or...one that can’t be healed, dood to beco discarded societal trash?"
"What this child possesses, is it an unforgivable sin."
"...or is it a past that created such a person, one that can’t be buried?"
...
"Please make your decision tonight."
"Snap!"
It seed he leaned too hard, and the books behind him fell down, making several muffled noises.
Su Ming’an closed the system interface and walked out from between the bookshelves.
The sunset outside the window, through the tall branches and leaves, sprinkled shimring ripples inside.
"..."
He glanced at the system ti, it was five in the afternoon; he had spent the entire afternoon here.
The newly opened fifth floor was very large, much larger than the fourth floor, nearly the size of a library.
He found the architectural structure of this White Sand Paradise very unscientific. The first and second floors were quite narrow, but the upper levels kept growing larger, especially this fifth floor, which was almost larger than the few floors below combined.
The entire floor structure was like an inverted triangle, with the area increasing as one moved upwards.
He had searched the fifth floor all over, but surprisingly hadn’t found any special place. Instead, he ca across a number of players who had also co up. When facing him, they avoided eye contact, not daring to communicate with him, seeming more timid than before.
He knew the reason — these players were afraid he would go mad.
Even before this, these people thought he showed symptoms of madness, Mo Yan not excluded... Even when he felt he was perfectly normal, these people insisted on labeling him as ’mad.’
After revealing his identity, these people didn’t rush to him, perhaps realizing that he was hard to approach.
If not handled well, they might even be forced by him to "commit suicide."
... Anyway, no one dared to express any doubts about it.
After discovering that no one would bother him, he flipped through the books on the fifth floor.
Mo Yan also made a visit. He seed to want to browse the books for clues, but could hardly get through one or two before he had to stop.
Mo Yan said the books were evil, just like that White Sand history the teacher handed out; they made one lose ntality Points just by looking, and were simply impossible to continue reading.
But Su Ming’an had been reading all afternoon and hadn’t felt anything wrong.
Even the contents of the books seed normal, nothing to suggest the onset of madness.
He stepped out from between the bookshelves and found that the entire fifth floor was already deserted.
Perhaps it was the ntality Points-draining books that scared them away, or perhaps it was him, staying here for so long, that did it — no players dared to co up to the fifth floor anymore.
He moved to the other side of the bookshelf, intending to restore the books he had accidentally knocked over, when he suddenly saw a slender figure.
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