Looking around the hall, everyone had already fallen to the ground, like prisoners awaiting execution.
Yamada Machiichi, Violet, and other strong-willed individuals still had their eyes open, but most people had closed their eyes and fallen into a deep sleep. They were sprawled everywhere, their weapons soaked in the rainwater.
"Su...Ming’an."
Yamada Machiichi reached out and grabbed Su Ming’an’s trouser leg, gasping in a low breath, "Run away..."
Run.
The farther the better.
It was already hopeless, they couldn’t even stand up. Even if Su Ming’an were powerful, he could not possibly withstand an entire civilization alone, especially with the chanical Army lurking nacingly.
This world was a great deceiver, reversing suddenly at the mont of presud victory, crushing everyone’s joy and exultation under its feet. Yamada Machiichi could not think of any way to break the situation.
"Run..."
Yamada Machiichi repeated the word, unable to say more, his eyes filled with painful emotions.
At this mont, he finally understood what emotional resonance felt like. Billions of negative emotions flooded him like seawater, filling his cranium and chest, leaving him almost incapable of thinking about anything but self-destruction.
...So, this was the painful sensation Su Ming’an had been experiencing all this ti?
...Why couldn’t they even feel that Su Ming’an was usually in pain?
"Clang."
Violet’s fingers trembled, and a blue crystal quietly fell from her sleeve, rolling to a stop beside Su Ming’an— it was a random teleportation prop, capable of helping Su Ming’an escape quickly from this place.
In the current situation, running away was the best option, to flee the scope of the City-State’s emotional resonance. As long as Su Ming’an was still alive, perhaps there was still hope...
But hope was incredibly slim.
A leader who had lost all his companions, fleeing the City-State alone—what could he still do?
The Deity’s step-by-step plan, full of various ambushes and traps. People originally thought that the Dinsional monster with 4500 Combat Power was the ultimate move, not expecting it to be rely a smokescreen. The final "Collective Emotional Resonance" tactic caught them completely off guard.
Now, all the resisters had fallen to the ground, and the Deity was left with only a crippled body. The war between the two civilizations had been prolonged, finally reaching the last mont, both sides were tragic.
"Tap, tap, tap."
Su Ming’an stared at the Deity on the high platform, approaching step by step.
He no longer cared about the noisy whispers around his ears, nor the physiological tears on his face. Every second he reminded himself to stay alert.
He was the only one still able to stand.
He was the only one still able to contact "Team Mu." Although the real identity of "Team Mu" was unknown, if there was any point of breakthrough, it could only be from "Team Mu."
He couldn’t fall, couldn’t submit to the shared emotions of Acto and Beili Sier. Even though he was on the brink of collapse...
He dragged the heavy hose as if he were carrying a massive mountain, his footsteps heavily denting the puddles.
...This war was extrely difficult.
Technological strength, mass cohesion, total survival resources... the disparities between us and them were akin to a chasm. In the first year following the Catastrophe, Ta Wei had already made it so that the people of the Ruined World had no ans of retaliation.
Had Acto not activated the Dawn System in ti and added a firewall, it’s likely that humanity wouldn’t have lasted more than a few years before falling to a scenario of full-scale invasion.
They couldn’t even determine what the essence of Ta Wei was, nor where Ta Wei’s invasion channels were located, the overwhelming technological suppression left them only with the option to flee.
Three Dinsions, Two Dinsions, One Dinsion. The level of safety increased sequentially. Ming’an had once visited the Three Dinsions, where it had already been filled with dark fog, devoid of any rational beings. Now, even the relatively safe Two Dinsions had started to experience widespread invasions of its people. Even the safest One Dinsion had already fallen into Eternal Night, with winter descending.
There was no retreat possible.
Being targeted by such a powerful civilization like Ta Wei, the Ruined World was dood to extinction. Acto, with humanity’s peak wisdom and abilities, had single-handedly dragged the whole of humanity along, forcibly extending human civilization for 102 years, which was already the utmost limit.
There was no way left.
They had reached the limit.
"—Ming’an, do you know why, when you entered the central control room and chose to stop all chanical Armies, only half of the chanical Armies actually stopped?"
From atop the high platform, the voice of the Deity ca.
His voice was like a piercing embrace of millions of emotions, inch by inch entering the ears and brain, carrying a captivating power.
From his tone, one could tell that the Deity was pleased. He had waited a very long ti to successfully guide the situation of the Ruined World to the present. Now, it was ti to harvest the results.
Just like... Cici, who had successfully completed a hundred cycles of reincarnation, pushing the key to 100%.
"... Because they were no longer just chanical Army, but your companions, companions with their own will, no longer controlled by programs, right?" Ming’an tried to think as calmly as possible, "You transferred a part of the human population from your world to this one."
He had felt it strange ever since he first entered the control room, why half of the chanical Army could not enter the dormant state.
The hints had been there from that ti.
The Deity smiled, implicitly consenting to his words.
Around the hall, the "clink" sounding chanical Army looked at the hall filled with humans. Their gazes were particularly spirited, no longer stiff.
"This is a nice world." Seeing the situation was decided, they spoke, "Soon, can we live in this new world?"
"Lord Deity is our Savior, he is our Hero. Once we have all entered this world, I will surely sculpt a statue of him for you."
"My child hasn’t seen flowers for a very long ti. If there were flowers here... that would be really wonderful."
They praised the Deity with the highest words of honor. A larger chanical being took a few steps forward, its pair of red eyes scanning Ming’an.
A mont later, the chanical being spoke with arrogance:
"You are the supre leader of the Ruined World? As you see, your world has lost. Now no one can stop the Deity, and the only fate awaiting you is extinction. But Lord Deity just said, he thinks highly of you, if you surrender to him, perhaps when we collectively enter this civilization, we might spare you alone and let you serve as his toy."
Ming’an turned his head and looked toward the Deity, who still gazed at him gently.
"Deity, am I rely a ’toy’ in your eyes?" Ming’an said.
"Initially, yes. I was too lonely... eting you was like finding a toy that pleased . I don’t want you to die, I enjoy seeing you break down." the Deity said. "But your acts over these decades have changed my mind; your wisdom and effort deserve respect... If you were born in my civilization, you may well have stood at the pinnacle alongside , instead of being buried with this backward civilization of the Ruined World. I respect you now, you can stand by my side."
"So, you had indeed been..." Ming’an recalled the very beginning.
During the Dawn War, Su Ming’an already knew that the voice constantly helping him for no reason harbored ill intentions. Indeed, the deity eventually beca his greatest enemy.
Even those perfect strategic instructions were rely the deity’s deliberate guidance and were not genuinely ant to help him achieve victory in every battle.
"If one is betrayed, that is common; if one is opposed, that is normal; if one is loved, then take it as an extra gift. Not learning to demand, one won’t endure excessive pain. Not cherishing a treasure, one won’t be too sad upon its loss."
At this mont, the deity actually voiced his thoughts, "So, ’we’ have long known that there is no unprovoked help or love in this world."
Upon hearing this, Su Ming’an chuckled, as if affirming sothing.
"There isn’t. I never believed you would help for free."
He stepped forward, walking towards the stage, dragging a long hose behind him like a pair of broken, crimson wings, as Emotional Resonance surged wildly in his mind.
His steps swept past people lying on the ground; they painfully opened their eyes, their gazes still following his figure.
"Don’t ... go ..."
Xi choked on water, coughed, and still managed to emit a mosquito-like voice amidst the struggle.
Rain poured through the shattered window panes, flooding the floor with water. Blood mingled with the water on people’s bodies, a pale red lightly touching the soles of Su Ming’an’s shoes.
"Don’t ... go ..."
Che reached out, his pupils like flas fixed directly on Su Ming’an.
He didn’t believe Su Ming’an would really defect to the deity at such a ti; it seed more like Su Ming’an was gathering strength for a desperate final strike.
He felt sad. Why was it that at such critical monts, no one could stand by Su Ming’an’s side?
Whether it was their first encounter at the combat guild’s tavern, the bloody arrest warrants of the Dawn System, Lin Guang’s live broadcast threats, the concessions at the Beacon gathering place, his solitary entry into the City of Gods during the Dawn War, or everyone hoping he would leap off the edge of the world...it was always so.
Those who fervently loved him, who could bear those hardships for him, had all died. So burned out before his eyes like fire, others jumped into the abyss for him, their last farewells so intense.
The rest were unable to share his burden and instead needed him to save them with all his might.
Che always wanted to try his best to get close to this City Lord, to tell him, not everyone in the combat guild hated him, and there were also good people in The Fringe.
But now even the combat guild was gone...
And even the world was about to be gone...
"..."
Noel lay on the ground, squinting his eyes. Thoughts flickered through his pupils, his fingers still tightly hooked around a thread.
He didn’t speak to stop Su Ming’an, instead quietly lowering his own presence, watching as Su Ming’an approached the deity.
"Tap, tap, tap."
His boots hit the ground, crushing the purplish-red reflections in the water. Su Ming’an approached the stage step by step, the jade-white staircase appearing before him. The deity, sitting in a wheelchair on the stage, was enveloped in a layer of glowing gloss, reminiscent of the delightful sunshine of spring, as if the stage was the warm, safe heaven—
"Su Ming’an," the deity looked down and said, "have you heard of the concept of the ’Laplace Monster’?"
"Hmm?" Su Ming’an responded lightly.
"Suppose there is a hypothetical creature that knows the position and montum of every atom in the universe; it could then reveal the past and future of the universe—that is what the ’Laplace Monster’ is," the deity’s voice unexpectedly mixed with a tinge of sorrow:
"That is to say, as long as there is enough data and powerful computing power, we could predict everything in this universe, including the past and future. This is also the ideology of the City of asurent—to make a ’Dawn System’ that has integrated infinite information, turning it into a godlike ’Laplace Monster.’"
"Theology believes that everything in the universe was created by God, yet it cannot explain what ’God’ really is. If we blend theology with science, could we then suppose that an all-knowing deity is a ’Laplace Monster’ ford from a massive amount of asurent data and calculations, thus knowing everything?"
"Sothing or so phenonon in the world always has a ’cause’. Different causalities interconnect, affecting the whole when a single thread is pulled. If we had enough information and removed a particular cause appropriately, we could alter reality in the direction we desire—then we could beco omniscient and omnipotent."
"...just like what you did to ," Su Ming’an spoke.
"Yes. Just like I did to you, using words to persuade you to avoid causality, leading you to this outco," the deity said:
"What are you trying to say?" Su Ming’an said.
"If I say—our fates have actually already been arranged. Whether accepting, resisting, or remaining neutral, it’s all designed to lure everyone into the trap of this mont. A ’Laplace Monster’ has already calculated our most likely outcos. Whether it’s the rise of the Beacon Army, the collapse of the City of Gods, Ta Wei’s further invasion, or all the developnts that follow...and in the end—you will fail here, and I will take over the Ruined World—I say all this was arranged by a ’Laplace Monster’, would you believe it?" the deity asked him.
Su Ming’an walked to the foot of the steps.
He looked up, recalling what the deity had asked him when they first t.
[What do you think free will is?]
And this question, he still had an answer for.
[Free will is love and death without regret.]
"I don’t believe," Su Ming’an said.
The deity smiled slightly.
"Is that so?"
The deity spoke again:
"So, do you want to know why I call myself ’the deity’? I wasn’t originally nad this."
Su Ming’an looked up at him.
In that mont, the deity’s eyelids drooped, his eyes seed to sweep across tides, gathering countless civilizations subrged by ti.
For a mont, his deep grey pupils seed imnsely like Acros possessive of all emotions.
Gently, decisively, eternally, deeply in love.
"Why?" Su Ming’an asked.
The deity chuckled lightly.
"Because I want to beco like the deity-like ’Laplace Monster’," he said:
"I want to save my civilization on the brink of destruction."
"I want to beco the deity."
"I want to keep them alive."
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