When Su Ming’an woke up, he glanced at the system ti—1am on the second day of the instance, he was unconscious for an hour.
He felt a significant alleviation in his injuries, and his previously heavy limbs had regained agility.
His gaze shifted slightly, and he saw the barrage in the upper right corner crazily scrolling:
[Ming An’an, you’re awake.]
[The death rate for this instance is super low; not many have died so far.]
[It’s a modern urban setting, as long as you don’t ntally collapse in the dream patrol, surviving is not difficult. Su Ming’an was rely unlucky to be born in an abandoned city; most players live in normal modern urban environnts.]
[Looking forward to whether the "deity" of this instance will beco a codian, standing alongside Su Rin’s pajamas, Little Love’s fox cake, and Acto’s white hair as the four deity jokes.]
[Discovered sothing interesting but can’t say it.]
[The Cat and Her is a survival elimination type of ga. Louyue Nation is a choice-based ancient style ga—when will the next ga appear? Why can the ga affect the current black mist?]
[World Independence Association in Main God World has already organized experts to research this issue, judging that it probably relates to world causality. So experts believe this may be a reflection of dreams and reality. Humanity might be able to deduce the mysteries of the world ga from this instance—even so believe we can end the world ga prematurely!]
[Is it really that easy? Impossible, right.]
[Ah? End prematurely, no way, I still want to continue vacationing. I absolutely don’t want to face reality after the ga ends... it’s horrifying.]
[...]
Setting aside these barrages about the world ga, what’s different from previous instances is—the barrage in his vision from the "dream patrol live broadcast room."
The two live broadcast room barrages crazily scroll like snowflakes on the left and right, one calls him "Number One Player," and the other "Number One Dream Patrol Family." One talks about "Tenth World," the other about the "Louyue Nation ga." One discusses the "essence of the world ga," the other the "essence of the dream patrol."
—Their content is similar yet different, giving a feeling of being in a dreamlike daze.
The dream patrol live broadcast room’s popularity has already reached two hundred million. Although everyone only saw the Eldest Prince unconscious for an hour and couldn’t see any other footage, the barrage never stopped, even surpassing the madness of the world ga participants.
[! Wow, awakened! Is this the Number One Dream Patrol Family?]
[In reality, he should be a young male, listen to the accent, don’t know if it can infer current identity.]
[Number One Dream Patrol Family, Union Governnt invites you to participate in a union eting, can grant you the world honor dals and high status. If interested, please add friend AOU2931...]
[Eldest Prince, I like you!! I love you!! Ahhhh!!]
[Cereal, Old Day Church Deity thed, interested ]
[Number One Dream Patrol Family should have at least Fourth Rank peak strength, don’t know if his true identity is a front-line general? Or so nation’s royal family? Anyway, he cannot be an ordinary person.]
[...]
Su Ming’an blinked his eyes.
In front is an unfamiliar ceiling, a waft of dicine fragrance drifting, he lies on a sowhat shabby bed, covered with a thin blanket, outside the window, a drizzling rain sounds. Such a scene, letting him have an illusion of being on the day Ming Hui was fed dicine by Qingqing.
Clothes still stained with blood, wounds have not been treated by anyone, but all over is very strong. Should have been fed so kind of dicine that can recover injuries.
His current ruler’s skill allows him to "choose one previously perfectly passed instance to enter after each instance ends, freely choosing the stay ti." Due to only being able to select one instance each ti, it results in him only being able to choose a most needed instance to return to, instances like Henggang City or Ming Hui are not high priority, he almost never went back to see.
Not sure if after the ruler’s skill further upgrades, will he have the chance to choose multiple instances to return, like this maybe he can return to see Ming Hui.
He slightly turns his head, originally intending to look at the room’s environnt, but got startled.
—A girl with an extrely pale complexion quietly sits at the door, like a dead person.
Under the starlit night, her cheeks are like white porcelain, emanating a high gloss, jet-black long hair enveloping her delicate cheeks, lips vividly bright, like sared with fresh blood. This appearance is terrifying enough, yet she sits silently at the door, blocking the only light source, leaving only a pair of completely still eyes that don’t even tremble, silently staring at the bed-bound Su Ming’an.
"...Is she alive?" Su Ming’an asked.
Though the girl remains motionless, her features are indeed beautiful, pupils deeply set, nose high and straight, like a pale doll. That pair of erald-like jade eyes more akin to natural products, with a color rendering a sense of gentle depth. Makes one doubt whether she is a real existing human.
The girl picks up a bowl of dicine and walks towards him.
Su Ming’an noticed she is wearing a plum blossom long dress, she should be the girl who saved him. She should be a local villager who discovered him collapsed.
"Thank you for saving , are you from the nearby village?" Su Ming’an asked.
The girl nodded, approaching with the dicine bowl.
"Do you live here alone?" Su Ming’an looked at this shabby room; outside should be a small village faintly visible with a few wooden cottages and golden wheat fields.
"Yes. I’m an orphan from the village, know a bit about dicine." The girl said: "I will take care of you until your injuries recover."
Her voice is beautiful, like jade beads, ethereal. Su Ming’an understood, seems to be just an ordinary girl from a secluded village, accidentally rescuing him severely injured.
However, her next sentence left Su Ming’an bewildered.
"Did you finally co to see ?" The girl said.
"Hmm?" Su Ming’an was sure this was the first eting, didn’t know why the girl said this.
"No matter where I go, I’ve always been waiting." The girl said: "I walked under the distant quiet moonlight, conversed with thriving rose thorns. I visited the high and holy cathedral, exchanged gifts with the nuns. I gazed from afar the vine-covered midnight castle, watched white birds take flight, heard the bell tower ring. I traversed long sands and wasteland, lifted clear water in the oasis."
"I once prayed at the pure white angel statue, and saw demons by blood-red lava. I’ve been to bustling towns, traded with everyone at the market. I beca friends with poets, sang ballads with them."
"Finally, I arrived here, chatted with the songstress of the Red Mansion, coexisted with wheat in the fields, viewed the Capital City’s prosperity, and the village’s simplicity."
"Now, I found you."
"Those days, I don’t want to endure anymore. I beg you, call out my na."
This long speech from the girl left Su Ming’an dumbfounded.
—What is this ga npc’s dialogue?
She said she’s been to many places, even abroad. Outside Louyue Nation there are indeed other kingdoms, but they aren’t part of the ga’s main plot line, only pure casual players will go traveling.
But a lone girl from a small village couldn’t possibly have the money or qualifications to travel the world.
"...What do you an? This is our first eting," Su Ming’an asked.
As he drank the potion, the girl’s erald eyes stayed fixed on him, unblinking and deeply focused.
He found that this girl had a sense of being "detached from the world." Even though she was from the village, her shoes didn’t bear a trace of dirt... or even the semblance of daily life.
"Can you say my na?" the girl asked, almost pleadingly. She seed obsessively focused on this question.
In the depths of her eyes was a complex emotion, on the verge of collapse, where despair t hope, burning like flas within her pupils.
Su Ming’an couldn’t comprehend her emotions.
"This is our first eting, I don’t know your na," Su Ming’an shook his head.
He suspected that there might be sothing wrong with this village. People who were near madness often spouted nonsense, with common symptoms being confusing others’ experiences for their own. If there was an Exotic Species near the village, people under its influence could experience hallucinations and believe they had undergone events that never happened—much like how Players might experience illusions when their sanity is low, mistaking the sight of a beautiful ocean.
Could this village girl have been affected by an Exotic Species, causing her to speak of many travel experiences that didn’t belong to her?
Upon hearing Su Ming’an’s words, a sadness like the setting sun gently subsiding into the tides of the sea appeared in the girl’s eyes.
The hopeful flas in her pupils extinguished bit by bit.
Su Ming’an couldn’t grasp the complicated emotions in her eyes, as if they were etched with countless scars of suffering.
She seed to want to say sothing, opened her mouth but quickly closed it again, a hint of confusion appearing in her erald eyes.
"I... I’m sorry," the girl said, holding her head in her hands, shaking it as if desperately trying to stay awake, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I seed to have said so strange things. I haven’t been to those places, please forget those bizarre words. As soone eting for the first ti, I’ve said too many odd things, please don’t mind them."
"It’s okay, I’m just grateful you saved ," Su Ming’an said. He found that the spirit of the people in this instance was concerning.
"No need to thank," the girl smiled.
"Are we really eting for the first ti?" Su Ming’an asked again.
The girl was montarily stunned.
"Of course."
She quickly confird.
Her deanor held an otherworldly detachnt as her black hair gathered on her slender shoulders. She clenched her left hand tightly to her chest, and in that mont, a bitter expression erged, even as she smiled, her lips twitching downward, as if on the brink of tears:
"I’m just... a normal orphan girl from a remote village."
She said this very softly, looking into his eyes.
Su Ming’an couldn’t understand her sorrowful expression.
Smiling as if about to cry.
A normal orphan girl from a remote village wouldn’t have any connection with the Eldest Prince secluded in the palace. The Eldest Prince never left the Capital City, so this had to be their first eting.
But Su Ming’an didn’t lower his suspicions.
"First eting..." Su Ming’an looked at the girl’s face and quickly asked, "Then, I want to ask a few questions... Do we have any of the following situations—first, have we t before in another form? Second, is there an Ouroboros of causality between us? Third, did I return to the past from the future to et you? Fourth, am I a part of you, and you are actually a Deity cultivating as an ’Heir’? Fifth, are we simply ’long ti no see’, and you have actually reincarnated many tis? Sixth, is this world a continuously simulated program, with you constantly seeking a path to salvation and repeatedly encountering ? Lastly, is there any other possibility that we have ’t before’?"
Under the girl’s slightly shocked gaze, Su Ming’an rattled off all the possibilities like bullets, not giving the World Ga any opportunity to dig a pitfall, demonstrating a very high level of skill as the Number One Player.
The two live broadcast rooms were shocked for a while at this scene—who would have thought Su Ming’an could be so adept! Why are you so proficient?
The girl was also taken aback by this series of questions from Su Ming’an, and after a pause, she shook her head: "No."
"Really?" Su Ming’an asked.
Holding the bowl of dicine, the girl paused, and as if making a decision, she asked:
"[I curse you, painless, undying, and immortal]—what’s the next line of this sentence?"
Su Ming’an thought about it; he truly hadn’t heard this sentence: "I don’t know."
Imdiately, he saw the girl’s gaze visibly dim, like a pair of dark green gemstones. Holding the dicine bowl, she turned and left:
"Sir, this is indeed our first eting. Your injuries require sleep to better absorb the dicine, please sleep a few more hours, I will wake you then."
"What’s your na?" Watching the girl ready to head out, Su Ming’an called out.
"My na is... xx." The girl turned her back to him.
In that mont, starlight through the rudintary wooden door illuminated her, her black hair shimring with a lustrous glow, and her slender, tall silhouette appeared inexplicably fragile, as if about to break easily.
Su Ming’an thought he didn’t hear clearly: "Sorry, I didn’t catch that, can you repeat your na?"
"My na is xx," the girl said.
Su Ming’an blinked.
This ti, he was sure—when the girl said her na, it was inexplicably muted. He could only hear a "beep" sound, unable to make out the specific words she spoke.
"Can you write down your na?"
Su Ming’an could only request the girl to write down her na, and she agreed.
But as she inscribed her na on the wall, the letters imdiately blurred beyond recognition, making it impossible to see which characters she had written. Even observing her mouth movents and arm gestures didn’t help Su Ming’an determine her na.
During this process, the girl also seed to be trying. She repeatedly said her na, only for it to be muted each ti. Even if she gestured wildly, using body language to express the words, Su Ming’an would forget her actions the next second. It was the sa for everyone in his live broadcast room.
—Her na was just like—a taboo that couldn’t be touched.
Unknowable, untouchable, unspeakable, unremberable, untransmittable.
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