[Main God World·Server 250]
Noel paced by the street, staring at the "No Answer" on the communication panel, feeling a bit worried.
...Su Ming’an had not been answering his calls.
Logically, it was not the ti for the other party to sleep. Why had he not been answering?
Noel had been anxious for a long ti, from the afternoon until the evening, before he finally received a reply asking him to teleport into a personal space.
He chose to agree. With a flash of white light, he was teleported to Su Ming’an’s personal space.
The place was extrely simplistic, featuring a plain wooden desk, a narrow single bed, and a floor where there was barely room to stand...
...and Su Ming’an sitting on the bed, his head bowed.
"Su Ming’an?" Noel suddenly noticed several syringes on the table.
The syringes were bright red, still containing traces of a blood-like liquid, as if recently injected. Noel’s expression imdiately tensed; he realized these were the ntality Stability Elixirs Su Ming’an had ntioned before.
"...Are you alright?" Noel imdiately squatted down, staring directly into Su Ming’an’s eyes.
He saw a pair of calm eyes.
There was no turmoil, no sadness, no pain, not the slightest hint of negative emotion.
He heard Su Ming’an’s faint voice.
"...I’m fine," Su Ming’an said. "The elixir is very effective... I feel very relaxed."
"What happened this afternoon?" Noel felt sothing was wrong.
Su Ming’an reached out and started throwing the used syringes, one by one, into a disposal bin.
The disposal bin had an automatic trash-cleaning function. After he discarded the syringes, it looked as clean as new.
He stared blankly at the disappearing syringes in the bin, rembering the things he had just seen.
[The Truth of the World].
Na, or rather the entity behind her, showed him an...illusion.
A very realistic illusion, as if reliving events that had happened in the past.
From the mont the world ga started,
when the city stood still, when people froze, the mont he walked out of the café,
the scene changed.
At that mont—he saw Zhai Xing, riddled with holes, like an apocalyptic wasteland.
The hustle and bustle of the city paused at the start of the ga, as if a beautiful illusion had suddenly disappeared, revealing to him a scene of apocalyptic ruin.
The rest, those six billion people who were not supposed to be taken into the ga due to the pause in ti, were nowhere to be seen.
...It was as if he had toppled the Black Wall that had long hindered them but found nothing outside. Zhai Xing was left empty, devoid of people even after the world ga ended.
It was as if—the World Ga had possibly been held more than once, and they were the seventh batch of participants.
The previous six batches, those six billion people...were gone, all destroyed due to failing to et the progress bars in the previous six iterations of the World Ga.
He was suddenly shaken to his core by this conjecture. Just then, Na appeared beside him, whispering quietly—
"...This is quite good, isn’t it?"
"Even if you only beco the deity of a billion people, you’d find it interesting, right? Exclude those sixty billion who have already failed, and you might be the first batch to succeed...?"
Her voice was very low, but those beautiful, slender eyes revealed a concentrated observation.
Seeing this, Su Ming’an imdiately chose to reverse ti.
His extrely fearful posture had already been seen by the organizers, and he could not leave any cause for concern.
After he rewound ti, he cald his moods, preparing himself to see that apocalyptic scene again, and was teleported to that void once more at Na’s invitation.
—But at that ti, he discovered the scene had changed.
It was no longer the "six billion people disappear, Zhai Xing turns into apocalypse" scene. Instead, it changed to "Zhai Xing ascends dinsionally, all people rapidly evolve into high-dinsional beings, begin to fight among themselves, kill each other, and finally all perish."
He imdiately realized sothing.
He noticed Na just floating not far away in the void, intently observing him.
Seeing this, he reversed ti again.
The third ti he reversed ti, he ca here, and sure enough, he saw yet another scene.
Logically, [The Truth of the World] should have only one instance. The truth is the truth; how could there be so many different truths, so of which are completely contradictory?
Each ti he reversed ti, the [The Truth of the World] he saw was different.
...Unless, these are not truths, but rely illusions.
Otherwise, he would not see different versions of "the truth" in different iterations.
He quickly figured it out.
—Na was playing a [Schrodinger’s Cat] ga.
In which a cat is enclosed in a chamber with a poison, and if a nuclear particle decays, releasing the cyanide gas from the poison bottle, the cat will die.
And nuclear decay is a random event—thus, the cat remains in a state of being simultaneously alive and dead. Only by opening the lid can one definitely know whether the cat is dead or alive.
Upon opening the lid, it signifies a state of "decision," not rely "observation" — whether people decide to lift the lid to check, determines the life and death of the cat, altering its state.
Thus, before he stepped into that void, before he observed the so-called "truth of the world," this "truth of the world" was uncertain. It would generate an ending automatically, based on the slight differences between his rewinds, like stride differences, walking speed, and even the number of breaths taken, among other variables, much like a mapping function.
Therefore, each round he saw was different.
It had nothing to do with truth or falsehood; it was rely an auto-generated scene.
And Xiaona could thereby judge whether he possessed abilities beyond the norm, such as "prophecy," "deduction," or "rewind," by observing whether he was surprised by these changes.
...This made him panic.
She was testing him in this manner.
She was crossing tilines and world lines, testing him with the slight discrepancies in his potential attitudes.
Xiaona’s thod of probing was almost identical to Noel’s.
Although Su Ming’an’s suspicion of Xiaona’s intentions was only a guess, even if there were just a slight chance it was true...
"—Su Ming’an, Su Ming’an?"
Noel waved his hand in front of his eyes, and he looked up.
His back was drenched in cold sweat.
The so-called "truth of the world" he saw in this round was a scene where "top players completely collapsed, and the progress bar for humanity could not et the standards." Thus, the panic and fear he displayed right now... should pose no problems.
It matched his true emotional state at the mont.
He shouldn’t expose the fact "he had used rewind, and thus saw a different ’truth of the world’".
Last round, he saw "humanity finally eting the points requirent, with the organizers being extrely friendly to humans, even suggesting that Boss Rabbit ca to save humanity" as the "truth of the world." This positive "truth" certainly didn’t match his real panic, and would easily reveal his possession of exceptional abilities.
But now it should be fine.
He rewound six tis, saw through Xiaona’s intent, and masqueraded as soone without abnormalities.
He slightly lowered his head, and even began to feel nauseous.
He uncontrollably bent over, his hands propped on the bed, and retched a few tis, suddenly realizing it was an adverse reaction to the ntality stability elixir. He had taken too much dication in a short ti, and his body had not yet adjusted to it.
"Cough, cough, cough...ugh..."
A severe dizziness began to assault his mind. He lowered his head, his body leaning forward, pressing on his chest and abdon, trying to relieve the nausea.
While retching, a thought unexpectedly surfaced in his mind — his current emotional state was quite appropriate, very consistent with soone who had just seen a negative "truth of the world"; he should not expose himself.
Despite his mind being a ss and his body feeling extrely unwell, he could still put on an act based on the possible setup by Xiaona...
Was this a kind of instinct?
...Quite a ridiculous instinct.
Noel imdiately helped pat his back.
"Su Ming’an, is your ntal state like mine now?" Noel said, "Your condition is clearly worse than mine, you even said it was okay earlier..."
"Stop patting." Su Ming’an said.
A person who felt like vomiting absolutely should not be patted on the back. Noel continued to pat vigorously, and now it really made him want to vomit.
Noel imdiately withdrew his hand, looking sowhat embarrassed as if he had been burned.
"What did you experience this afternoon?" Noel withdrew his hand, pondered for a mont, "Were you also invited by the organizers to a place?"
Noel knew that many players with special statuses had been invited by the organizers to a place. He himself had just gone a few days ago.
But before they left that place, they had signed an agreent not to disclose what they had seen; any attempt to do so would automatically mute their voice.
Seeing Su Ming’an’s condition, Noel thought that maybe Su Ming’an had been invited to that place.
Su Ming’an took a breath.
"Yes." he said.
He suspected that the place he and people like Noel went to was not the sa.
But he could guess — this was probably a segregating move by the organizers against humanity. For example, tempting Edward to beco soone with a special status. Or persuading Noel to embrace higher dinsions and completely abandon humanity. Or perhaps, using the resurrection of a sister as a lure to persuade Mizushima Kawa Sora to give up on achieving a perfect pass, and so on.
The organizers could not directly intervene in the ga, nor could they forcibly interfere with any player’s actions.
Thus, they were extrely adept at using other ans to divide humanity.
...For example, creating a so-called "truth" illusion to shatter your ideals.
...For example, inviting special players to a place, seducing them through words, targeting human weaknesses.
It was getting increasingly difficult.
...Too difficult.
Su Ming’an had long known not to place hope on others, which is why he insisted on going it alone.
And now, this feeling beca even more apparent.
—He couldn’t even guarantee that a single person shared his mindset, possessing the resolve and ability to truly go on.
At that mont, a sudden wave of intense drowsiness struck his heart.
Humans needed sleep, because in this state, they gained physical rest and spiritual tranquility.
The ntality stability elixir he had just used seed to be giving him an opportunity to rest.
His eyes beca hollow, his body involuntarily fell to the side.
Noel imdiately pulled him back, letting him collapse onto the bed.
"...Let ," Su Ming’an said, "sleep for a while."
His condition had always seed normal.
His emotions had always been stable.
He wasn’t like Noel, who was so exaggerated that he couldn’t see any color, nor was he like Edward, who had intense, mad, collapsing emotions.
But after using the elixir, he suddenly realized...
So patients don’t realize they are ill.
...Just like a madman always thinks they are normal.
Noel softly said, "Su Ming’an, I don’t know where you just went, nor what you saw. But I think, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Since we have already tried our best, let’s be a bit more optimistic..."
Listening to Noel’s very soft words, Su Ming’an closed his eyes.
"...Good night," Noel said.
...
Su Ming’an occasionally had lucid dreams.
The feeling of controlling one’s own dreams, being able to learn and think within the dream, was fascinating.
Sotis, he would et his father. He would chat with the father he imagined in his dreams, as if it could dispel all hardships.
Sotis, he would also rember his grandmother. His grandmother would give him candy and protect him so that no one would scold or strike him.
As he slipped into the dream, gradually, his consciousness beca fuzzy.
...Did he still have consciousness, or had he already fallen asleep?
He couldn’t see anything clearly; everything was a mix of black, white, and gray.
He couldn’t hear any sound, as if the world had turned into nothingness.
He had a nightmare.
He dreamt that Zhai Xing was destroyed, that everyone had long died, and the World Ga was just his dream.
He dreamt that he was not himself but a clone sent down by a higher-dinsional being, his mories, will, and ideals were aningless, just fabricated thoughts.
He dreamt that his death rollback was given by the organizers. They toyed with him like an ant, watching him struggle in the cyclical death for their amusent.
He dreamt... even if he struggled to the end, fought to the last, he couldn’t save Zhai Xing, the human progress bar didn’t et the standards, and everyone died together. Those with special identities could not return to being human and disappeared along with the ga into the dust of the universe.
In the end, he finally dreamt of a rather fulfilling ending.
He saw himself gradually fill the progress bar, collecting one Pattern Mark after another for a Perfect Pass, saw the return of his native land, the rebuilding of hos, and saw smiles reappear on people’s faces.
...Then he walked away without looking back, vanishing forever from people’s sight, his form gradually fracturing, disappearing like lting snow.
This deathly pain was so familiar that it evoked a feeling akin to "nostalgia."
—So much so that when he opened his eyes, he still saw visions of his ultimate death.
The alarm clock Noel had left on the table was ringing "ding-dong," and the current ti was eleven in the evening.
Su Ming’an, with a snap, turned off the alarm clock, blinked his eyes, and suddenly found the world seed much brighter.
The bright indoor light, the yellow-brown carving of a despicable figure, the bright white walls...
The layer of haze that had always clouded his vision had dissipated with this sleep. Even his current mood was very stable, without that uncontrollable trembling sensation from the afternoon.
The elixir was very effective; as long as one could bear the adverse reactions, it really did have a healing effect.
He cald his breathing, quickly dispelling the nightmarish images from his mind, and opened his personal panel to start using points.
Since the end of the Eighth World, he had not used any points, just to add points at the last mont for the best decision-making.
Now it was eleven in the evening, he had slept through the afternoon, and in one hour, he would enter the Ninth World.
As he had purchased a 60 Points ntality Elixir in the afternoon, he now had 796 points available.
He opened his mail and first collected a Special Easter Egg gift of one equipnt upgrade right.
Considering for a mont his poor mobility in Shadow State, he chose Water Realm Boots, upgrading this Red Level equipnt to Purple Grade.
...
[Water Realm Boots (Purple Grade): "Let the fullness of the ocean surge into my chest... burning hot within my embrace."
Jumping Power: SS (highest)
Running Speed 30%
Special Ability (Stabbing): Active Skill, kick forward, dealing 50 (fixed damage) 8* Strength Value damage, has a special destruction effect on obstacles and barrier-type spatial items.
Special Ability (Chang Ge Row): Passive Skill. You gain the ability to walk on water, which slightly increases the rate of physical strength consumption when used.]
...
After upgrading, Water Realm Boots gained an additional destruction effect on spatial items.
The most satisfying was the upgrade to SS Jumping Power, the highest standard in the World Ga.
He crushed three Skill Ascension Stones he acquired from the main quest of the Eighth World, choosing to upgrade all to "Space".
After upgrading to [Space lv.6], indeed, new spatial skills appeared.
...
[Space lv.6:
Long-distance Spatial Displacent: Each use consus 30 Mana Points. After five uses of Spatial Displacent, you must wait half an hour to recharge.
Spatial Vibration: Utilize spatial vibration for long-range attacks against enemies (increased power).
Spatial Concealnt: Continuously consus Mana Points to create a concealed space that cannot be detected by beings weaker than you (except for ultra-specifications skills).
...
The improvent in spatial skills mainly focused on "Spatial Displacent," whose mana consumption was significantly reduced from 120 points to 30 points, and the number of uses increased from three tis within one hour to five tis within half an hour. Even in a Bright State, he could maintain high mobility without falling into an embarrassing situation where no mana was available.
Then there was the new skill, Spatial Concealnt. Ming’an had heard about this skill on the forums, which was similar to a domain.
...Now, he finally possessed a domain-type skill.
A domain could exist in a certain area permanently, even pulling others in to hide together. This would provide a significant error margin for his perilous strategy progress, and combined with his Spatial Comprehension and Lamb Barrier, perhaps he could explore so new gaplay.
He spent 50 Points to replenish the magazines of two Purple Grade guns, using the rest of the Points to increase dinsions in his attributes.
In Bright State, he added 60 points to Strength, bringing his Strength to 140 points, and a passive skill called "Strength Suppression" appeared, allowing him to suppress all attacks below 100 points of Strength, enjoying priority in sword swings.
In Shadow State, he wildly added 60 points to ntality, raising it to 217 points, considering the Sanity Points replica was too terrifying, high ntality ant high resistance.
Moreover, each point in ntality Attribute contributed 20 points to the Mana cap, and Mana Points indicated the total potential damage, hence higher was better.
He wished to continue adding points, but he had reached the limit. Fourth Rank players could only add so many Attribute Points; further additions would have to wait until Fifth Rank.
He did not touch the remaining 146 Points, keeping a buffer of Points intact.
After completing all this, his Combat Power soared from 2650 to 3000, a significant increase.
This wave in the Eighth World almost equaled the combined gains of his earlier two worlds.
...Thus, the gap between the top-ranked players and regular players was only going to widen, as distinct as clouds and mud.
Subsequent to that, he briefly chatted with a few friends, telling Noel not to worry, asking Lv Shu to return his cat, and telling Lin Yin to rest well.
At this mont, the world chat was bustling with phrases like "The Ninth World is finally here!" "Grandpa is green again!!" "Adventure players, go for it!" "In this situation, will anyone really make a move?" "Predicting a fantasy world next, if wrong, I’ll stand upside down eating Lv Shu!"
He sat on the bed with his eyes closed, breathing deeply, adjusting his state.
Each ti in the World Replica, he was walking on a wire, dancing with danger and death.
...May this instance be slightly smoother, a bit more earthly.
As he waited, ti ticked slowly towards midnight.
...
[2022/01/18, 0:00]
"Ding-dong!"
[Rest ti is over—Dear players, welco back to the World Ga!]
[The Ninth World: City of asurent·Acto. A global open-type ten-thousand-player instance/specific developnt-type instance.]
[Participating players: 329,801,928 people!]
[The City of asurent will be copied into 32,980 identical replicas, each injecting about 10,000 players to participate in the ga!]
[Since it’s the ninth ti entering the ga, players will no longer learn a common language, automatically deducting 10 Points to learn the Ninth World’s common language!]
[——The world begins!]
...
His vision was engulfed by a transporting white light.
"——Two hundred years ago, the [Dawn] AI, based on human temperant and psychological state, divided humans into eight persona types, scientifically quantifying human talent for establishing a new order..."
He heard a gentle male voice.
But that voice... it seed to be coming from his own mouth.
As he realized this... the voice stopped.
He blinked and saw a large classroom... and a sea of heads.
People sat in the classroom like obedient students, looking up at him earnestly and admiringly. Judging by the number of students, there were at least one hundred and fifty and upwards.
He looked down and found himself sitting on a chair at the podium, apparently in the middle of teaching a lesson.
After he regained control of his body, the voice lecturing from his mouth naturally ceased.
...What’s happening?
What kind of possession is this?
He blinked, and the classroom fell into an eerie silence for a while.
Suddenly, he saw a young teaching assistant next to him, who walked up looking worried.
The young teaching assistant nervously supported him, looking at him as if he were a greatly respected great man:
"...Are you alright? Is your body okay?"
Seeing Ming’an looking sowhat bewildered, the assistant restrained his movents and gently shook his shoulder:
"...Dr. Acto?"
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