Su Ming’an’s consciousness was sowhat hazy as his limbs were restricted.
With a light tinkling sound, he felt a numbness at his temples. Massive data, like a plunging waterfall, suddenly began to assail his brain, and a cold current of electricity flowed from his head into his limbs.
This sensation, akin to death, felt familiar to him, even carrying a warmth reminiscent of ho.
"Ya... sa."
He faintly heard soone calling him.
Imdiately after, lantations, despair, anger... as if all the negative emotions of the human world had assaulted him at once, entangled like a tangle of threads. He heard a variety of voices—high-pitched, low, fervent, cold...
Soone was crying toward him, their face blurred. Then a second person, a third person... until the figures were endless, and the cold tears they shed joined into great rivers.
They reached out their hands toward him as if to embrace him tightly, yet also seed to want to engulf him.
As if pleading for the help of a "god."
...
["Please! Look at us! Look at us!"]
...
["Everything’s gone, why has it co to this!!"]
...
["He’s back, Xiao Bei is back..."]
...
["Don’t cry, I like it when you smile."]
...
["I vaguely rember, many simulations ago, my eyes weren’t this cold, and my attitude toward life was not as flippant as it is now."]
...
["But why do I have to bear the burden of so many wraiths?"]
...
["But why must I witness such purgatory?"]
...
["If I beco the scale itself, with the world on one side and myself on the other, in a hundred, a thousand ’asurents,’ will there be one ti when the scale tips in my favor?"]
...
["Love... what is love?"]
...
["Yasa—Acto!"]
["Yasa—Acto!!!"]
["You’re to bla for the Century Catastrophe! It’s all your fault!!"]
...
"Cough, cough, cough—!"
Su Ming’an violently opened his eyes, his back drenched in cold sweat.
His limbs were still bound to the bed, and only his head could barely move. The anesthesia had worn off, and he could distinctly feel the rough touch of the straps rubbing against his wrists.
He found it hard to describe the resonance he had just experienced—the despair about the future, profound loneliness, the inescapable bondage... Various negative human emotions pressed down on him like storm clouds.
Different eyes of people—sad, despairing, crying, tear-filled... repeatedly flashed through his mind.
Such intense emotional shock far exceeded his limit; his vision blurred as if stretched by moonlight, leaving only a piercing cold white, and his fingers trembled involuntarily.
A sensation of fabric ca from his chest, as if soone had draped a coat over his trembling body.
"First resonance is over, are you cold?"
A voice reached his ears.
Su Ming’an turned his head, quickly calming down, though his breathing was still rapid.
A black-haired youth sat on the edge of the bed, his deep gray eyes tinted with a faint glow of fire, dressed in a silver-gray vest with his coat already removed. Dizzying streams of data flowed around him like white flowers swirling at his side.
—Yasa Acto had the trait of making everything around him gentle and beautiful. Even the inorganic data seed like flowers around him.
"Are you cold?" Acto asked again, his profound eyes like sunlight shattered into powder, finely sprinkled into his pupils.
Seeing this man, Su Ming’an almost thought the original Acto had returned. In his mory, the original Dr. Acto was a steady, gentle scholar with great love in his heart, and his tone was full of care.
But the faint red in the current Acto’s eyes reminded him—this was that godlike creature.
"What did you just do?" said Su Ming’an.
"Syntonization, resonance, increasing your acceptance of . Don’t worry, I will gradually progress, each resonance will only last a little while, and won’t damage your brain. Invading your body is much more interesting to than invading the Ruined World," Acto said. "This is the first ti, we have a long way to go."
"Invading , you will regret it," Su Ming’an said.
"That’s unlikely," Acto said. "Number One Player... being the leader of your ten billion humans is ten tis more intriguing than leading a billion in the Ruined World."
Su Ming’an’s breathing slowed slightly.
He seed... to understand what the god’s ultimate goal was.
"So you originally wanted to... beco a player?"
—A god from the Ninth World, an NPC, actually wanted to usurp the identity of the Number One Player? Unlike Su Rin’s situation, she was pulled out, but the god actively desired to steal a player’s identity, completely replacing Su Ming’an.
"What if I promise, from now on I can help you Perfect Pass everything?" the god seed to understand the World ga quite well. "Can you hand over your body to ? Look, you’re so tired, so troubled..."
"Impossible," Su Ming’an imdiately refused. He knew the god was powerful, but the words of an invader weren’t to be trusted.
"If you want to beco a player, I have other thods," Su Ming’an said.
"I know, you have the Ruler’s Skill," the god said. "But what I want is your identity as the Number One Player, not to beco a fringe figure like Su Rin."
"Number One Player isn’t any funny title," Su Ming’an said.
Whoever coveted this position, he’s out of luck. Whoever got close to it, even more so. If soone inevitably took the seat, it was outright eight lifetis of bad luck.
Just looking at the audience still laughing in the livestream room, one can tell, this bunch is much worse than the humans of the Ruined World, where few treat the so-called Number One Player with the sa respect given to Acto. Phenona like star-chasing, comparing, originating, falling ill, and ’Crazy Thursday’ were common.
"Hmm..." the god paused for a while, sidestepping the topic.
"You are very wary of , haven’t I treated you well enough?" the god did not raise the topic of ’Number One Player’ again, turning back to the door and saying, "Xiao Ke, bring a glass of strawberry juice."
Su Ming’an turned his head, finally seeing the whole of the room. Old calendars hung on the walls, and not far from the door was an old-fashioned phonograph spinning a record. A light pine scent floated in the air, emitting a refined retro style.
Many glass cabinets were mounted on the wall, containing the Beacon Sanctuary’s red cloaks, team emblems, and even the chanical designs that Su Ming’an himself had drawn over the past forty years. The dim yellow light made the glass cabinets shine, as if returning to that long history.
Perhaps the god was very stubborn about "playing as Acto," preserving all of Acto’s belongings over forty years.
Beside the bed was an ice-white machine, several wires connected to Su Ming’an’s temples, probably the "Emotional Resonance Device."
A blonde, blue-eyed woman walked in, holding a cup of strawberry juice. Acto took the cup and handed it to Su Ming’an.
Su Ming’an did not move.
"Ah, sorry, I forgot you can’t move," Acto said. "I’ll get a spoon to help you..."
Su Ming’an said, "No thanks, I don’t like strawberry juice."
"Is that so?" Acto said regretfully. "I only knew at the dinner that you don’t drink alcohol either. So I specifically went to the City of Gods’ plantation to get so strawberries, thinking of giving you sothing different to drink."
...Su Ming’an rembered, before leaving the City of Gods, Lin Guang ntioned that the City of Gods had many strawberries. It turned out all these strawberries benefited the god.
Acto set the cup aside and suddenly asked, "Do you think souls can age? If a person has spent a long ti in a world, been disabled for a very long ti, when he returns to his own body, will he forget how to breathe, how to stand?"
"I’m not sure," Su Ming’an said.
Acto pondered for a mont, the firelight dancing in his eyes, giving them a honey-like glint:
"There is a scientific theory that humans cannot be immortal. No matter if they are transford into undying machines or have their aging organs replaced, they will inevitably die. It’s because their thoughts have a ’lifespan’; when the lifespan of thought is exhausted, no matter how many years their body might still live, the soul will completely perish.
How much of life can a person’s brain hold? How much emotion can it absorb? If these mories and emotions that don’t belong to him exceed his capacity, will he experience a death from which he cannot be revived? When humans feel the loneliness that brings death, does it an their souls have reached their expiration date?
—Our bodies gradually age and the decaying bodies cause each of us to die within a century. So, is this rule protecting us, preventing us from becoming zombies in immortal bodies?"
When Acto spoke this far, there was a fog-like thick sorrow in his eyes.
The dappled firelight fell on his side face, blurring the edge of his cheek.
"You’re discussing this with a 19-year-old, hoping to get a naive answer?" Su Ming’an said.
"I’m just... very curious why... despite being only 19, you have such strong ntal resistance," Acto said, his eyes flashing with thought. "And, seeing so humans struggle, I wonder why death cannot separate their emotions, could it be because their souls have not reached their expiration date?"
"Because humans, even in death, must love each other," Su Ming’an said.
He didn’t expect Acto’s eyes to flicker as he suddenly leaned in close and whispered softly:
"...Isn’t it unsatisfactory if it’s not extre?"
Su Ming’an was taken aback.
...What is he talking about?
He glanced at Acto’s eyes, which seed quite serious.
...God, how did you suddenly switch from the grand topic of human philosophy to cheesy lyrics? It must be so Dragon Country player who instilled these lyrics in you.
Acto stared at Su Ming’an and suddenly blurted out:
"It’s a pity I don’t have daughters or sons; otherwise, if we ford a marital alliance, perhaps we could beco allies."
This thought process left the viewers stunned. The live stream filled with question marks.
"Is there an inevitable connection between marital alliances and allies?" Su Ming’an was equally puzzled. They could never beco allies; their positions were completely contrary.
"I like reading history books, which say that if two countries want to maintain stable relations, their royal families will marry each other. I thought maybe this thod might be useful to you," Acto reasoned.
Su Ming’an didn’t expect... that a god could have such a ditsy side, originally thinking gods were all-knowing and omnipotent, only to find such a jumbled store of knowledge.
"It’s always been talking; don’t you have anything you want to ask ?" Acto said.
"No," Su Ming’an said. God is quite a nasty character, and asking would only lead him into a trap.
"Really?" Acto looked quite disappointed.
Su Ming’an pondered for a mont, then spoke, "Actually, there’s a very serious question I’ve been curious about..."
"Couldn’t hold back, huh?" Acto showed a smile of anticipation, leaning forward: "Ask away, I’ll answer depending on my mood."
He was curious what kind of question Su Ming’an would ask. Whether about his plans, the strength of Ta Wei’s forces, or the truth about the Dawn System... Of course, he wouldn’t answer any of these questions. He was just playing with him like teasing a cat.
Su Ming’an lifted his eyelids and t his gaze squarely.
Acto’s eyes brimd with anticipation.
"Do you really like white hair?" Su Ming’an asked.
Acto’s expression froze.
"...Is that your question?" he squeezed out the words through his teeth.
"These years, Inner City’s white hair population has been growing, and there you are, tough as nails, not stopping this absurd situation. I guess you must like..." Su Ming’an said.
Acto’s smile vanished.
"Ah, hit the nail on the head," Su Ming’an said.
Dr. Acto’s complexion turned grim.
...
"Ding-dong!"
[npc（?）Favorability: 60 points 10 points! (Friendship Line)]
...
"Warning! Unrest in the Inner City! Coordinates..."
"Warning..."
Suddenly, an alarm sounded from outside. Dr. Acto furrowed his brows and stood up, "I’ll co back to see you later."
A surge of electricity passed, and Su Ming’an closed his eyes, seemingly slipping into unconsciousness again. No one saw his finger twitch slightly, and invisible threads appeared around him.
"Su Rin," he whispered.
...
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Among the ruins, Lin Guang tightly gripped a tall rcenary by the throat.
The fire had been extinguished, and the first-floor hall had beco a smoke-damaged room with four ashy walls. All those beautiful photos and paintings had vanished completely.
Not one was left.
"You demon, we won’t let you off... We saved those children, no one else will suffer your persecution..." the rcenary spat out breathlessly, "And those paintings—deserved to be burned! How dare you curse the City Lord with them!"
Lin Guang stared at him coldly.
"I... didn’t curse anyone," Lin Guang said, "I was just missing my friend, feeling love."
"Love?"
The rcenary found this particularly unbelievable and laughed as he cursed, "Lin Guang—you’re a devil! You’re a mongrel! No one would miss soone like you, and you dare to love..."
A mont of silence enveloped the surroundings.
A "click" sound.
Lin Guang snapped the rcenary’s thigh, blood spurting out. An ear-piercing scream tore through the sky in an instant.
"You will die much more miserably than I, you demon..."
"Lin Guang... haha, Lin Guang!"
The rcenary’s last scream was full of mockery as he struggled for air and then expired.
Lin Guang stood amid the ruins, taking steps forward, his bandages splintering widely, his robe soaked with blood.
He twirled a pistol in his hand, then aid the muzzle at his temple.
...
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
His fingers trembled on the trigger, his eyes like shattered bubbles in the deep sea.
Suddenly, a green mantis sprang out of his pocket and tightly gripped his finger.
He put down the gun.
The bitter cold of winter pierced to the bone, seemingly endless.
...
"...Love?"
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