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Chapter 131 - 129: "Prophet Clue

Chapter 131: Chapter 129: "Prophet Clue

The battle in the center of the square was forcefully halted by the townfolk, and Lv Shu looked at the Mayor who suddenly intervened, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Mayor," Lv Shu began, "how is Su Ming’an?"

Lv Shu had seen the World Forum; on it, people said that he was a world-class bootlicker, someone with strength who nevertheless chose to follow behind others.

——But sometimes he just felt that many people other than himself, were too short-sighted.

People had already begun to theorize what one could gain from a Perfect Pass.

Some boasted of winning until the end, saying their final wish was to put an end to the game entirely, to distance Zhai Xing from these meaningless conflicts. Others said their wish was to drive these aliens away and prevent the detestable organizers from tainting their home.

Though he had lost the qualification to win in the end, he held no regrets about it; after all, he had no pursuit of power.

He just always liked to follow those with a heart of light, which is why he identified Su Ming’an as a good person from the start. A good person harbors light—even after Su Ming’an was doubted by many, he still believed in his goodness.

His fixation was simple and firm; his life was a one-way street.

From beginning to end, once decided, he would not change.

And all those who hinder good people in their path...

His gaze became somewhat sinister; he had long decided what he would do after the end of this world—he would eliminate the trash that stood in the way of good people. He didn’t care about Points, even if it meant being hunted himself.

For example, that Number Three who is strong yet morally bankrupt.

And, the always insolent Number Twelve.

They might be strong, but he also had means of elimination without resorting to direct force.

The things Su Ming’an didn’t want to do, he would do them—the Number One Player should be a shining and magnanimous Player, and he was willing to become a bloodstained Light Pursuer.

"Traveler Number Four?" The Mayor looked over, the dragon head cane in his hand glowing red, clearly separating the two opposing camps: "Number One Traveler? I haven’t seen him, and if you’re wondering why we’re helping you... it’s because my dear son, Boli, has returned."

Lv Shu noticed the werewolf Players whispering among themselves across the way. They seemed to have given up on the idea of fighting him, speculating that Su Ming’an had gone somewhere alone, and they planned to intercept him at the shrine.

"——Well then, my dear Travelers." The Mayor tapped his cane on the ground: "I promised Boli not to let you fight any further today. You can disperse now, and if I find anyone fighting again, I will intervene."

As he spoke, combined with the townfolk behind him, armed with various weapons, he appeared quite threatening.

Lv Shu was the first to leave; he needed to go back to his room.

The safest place might be one’s own house. He walked toward it, while the little Bi on his shoulder seemed to notice something and hopped down.

He saw the small roll of paper that little Bi picked up.

The paper was tightly bound with a rubber band, treated like a precious commodity, with not a single frayed edge.

He took out the piece of paper, and before even undoing the rubber band, he first received a system prompt:

[Received Clue for Level: Prophecy Line]

A sudden chill ran down his spine.

A sort of premonition was rising within him.

He immediately turned off the live broadcast, a hint of hesitation flickering in his eyes.

...He knew this was probably a description of Su Ming’an.

He had no desire to pry into another’s past; the best course would have been to leave it unopened, to simply hand it to Su Ming’an.

...But he couldn’t quite control his hands at this moment.

He watched his hands tremble as they undid the rubber band, slowly unraveling the paper.

His movements were solemn, like a pilgrimage.

He took a deep breath and looked down.

His gaze lingered on the description for a good ten seconds.

"This..."

A myriad of complex emotions flickered across his eyes.

Then, shaking, he rolled the note back up, carefully restoring it to its original condition and placing it inside a compartment of his backpack.

...

Su Ming’an’s eyes fluttered open.

He saw the ground covered in a vast expanse of snow.

He was standing in an alley, an endless cold wind blowing through it.

...It was the same point in time, again.

The mechanics of death rollback had always been a mystery to him.

Even though he had died at different times, the rollback always took him to the exact same moment.

He faintly suspected something—did this mean that if he chose to rollback during a certain time period, he would end up at the same point in time?

He set aside these thoughts for the moment, focusing on the option to "visit the ancestral hall."

Following the mayor’s route seemed to be a dead end; that old man was also complicit in sending Moli to her death. As long as he appeared within the mayor’s view, the mayor would be on guard and use the Dragon Head Cane to restrain himself from saving anyone.

So, if he went to the ancestral hall ahead of time to prepare...

He didn’t go to the street to buy clothes but headed directly towards the direction of the ancestral hall.

——If Dawn represents a moment in time.

This time, he was determined to ensure that she would survive at least until the next morning.

...

Night fell, and the sound of gongs and drums filled the air.

The girl in a red bridal gown ascended the wedding sedan, accompanied by the soaring sound of the suona.

After all the proceedings had concluded, the girl was led into the ancestral hall. She stood for a while, yet her groom was nowhere to be seen for a long time.

She felt a chill spreading through her body and sought reassurance from her father but received no response.

"...Father?"

No sooner had her call left her lips than she felt two heavy forces press down on her shoulders, causing her great pain. Unable to restrain herself, she pulled off the red veil and turned her head, only to find that the kind old man had vanished.

In his stead stood several burly townfolk.

Their hands pressing down on her shoulders seemed to force her to kneel; the other hands holding sharp wooden stakes gave her an ominous premonition.

"Wait, wait..." She had believed that this was where she would meet the beloved deity—this is what her father had told her. Marrying the deity would bless the town with a year of peace; the accursed werewolves would no longer appear, and she would attain her happiness.

...But she had never considered what the process of "marrying" would entail.

Why would other people be present on her wedding night?

[Humans cannot marry a god.]

——Unless one steps outside the realm of "human."

Send her to death.

"Bow to the hall—!"

She heard the high-pitched sound of the suona from outside the door.

The burden on her shoulders suddenly became heavier, as if the beloved townfolk intended to force her to bow down.

In this moment, her mind was clearer than it had ever been.

"——A bow to heaven and earth!"

Her frail body couldn’t withstand the force on her shoulders; she was forced down, her knees buckling. The veil that had covered her head was already on the ground, and the meticulously arranged hairpin was pulled askew. Compared to how she had dressed carefully, wanting to present the most beautiful side of herself to the deity, she now looked a mess.

...She had imagined bowing with her partner, but never like this.

A force pressed down on her head, her forehead knocking against the cold ground; in the chilly winter night, her whole body shivered.

"Wait a minute, wait——!" she yelled, "I want to see my father! I want to see my father, father didn’t say it would be like this——"

It was her own will to marry the deity.

...But now, she felt a hint of confusion. The mayor had said that as long as one firmly believed in the deity and loved with ardor, everyone could find happiness. Yet why would a consensual marriage be conducted in such a manner?

"——A second bow to the ancestors!"

Her body was twisted, forced to bow outwardly, while in a scene that was meant to be a couple bowing together, she faced only a spirit tablet held by the townfolk.

"——The couple bows to each other!"

The strident suona sounded throughout the night.

She saw the cold spirit tablet corresponding to her position.

She managed to read the inscription on the tablet.

[Moli]

It was her own name written on the tablet she bowed to.

...But she was still alive.

Why was she treated as if she were already dead?

She felt like a powerless straw being picked up and dragged towards the center of the ancestral hall; she struggled, turning her stiff gaze towards that direction—

She saw a closed coffin.

A coffin prepared for her wedding night.

She immediately started to struggle frantically; the people beside her seemed to have not expected her sudden surge of strength, and she threw off the grasp of the female villagers like a bird bursting forth with feathers dyed in blood. She had not foreseen her own lunge to be so fierce, with a swath of red silk trailing behind her as she dove towards the coffin ahead, her forehead set to collide with the hard corner of the coffin, like a fiery phoenix on a deathbound dive.

She closed her eyes in despair.

——And then she felt her head gently cushioned by a hand.

"This scene feels familiar," she heard a male voice.

Just as she struggled to stand up, she suddenly heard an extremely loud roaring behind her—

"Boom—!"

She slightly lifted her eyes and saw at the edge of her vision that the blood-red coffin had been shifted open a bit.

Behind her, the shouts of the townfolk had ceased, reverting to silence.

A sense of unreality burgeoned in her heart as she pushed herself up and looked up in an instant to see the young man appearing in the coffin.

A hint of exclamation rose in her heart.

[...Ah, Deity],

[You really did come to save me.]

...

Su Ming’an stopped the spatial vibration and saw a series of system experience prompts:

[You killed the townfolk Wu Dun, Exp+1000]

[You killed the townfolk Bao Xia, Exp+1000]

[...]

He didn’t spare a single one of the people before him, killing them all.

Since he arrived at the temple in the afternoon, he had been hiding in the coffin, and the option had not been triggered.

He had originally thought that at least someone would check the coffin, then he could teleport out when the time came and teleport back in when the opportunity arose, but the coffin hadn’t been opened at all, as if it was specially designed to wait for the "bride".

Currently, he still couldn’t control the spatial vibration very effectively, its range was somewhat large, so he had only chosen to attack when Moli approached the coffin close enough to be within his range.

After killing all the townfolk inside the temple, he glanced at his blue energy, which was still more than half-full, and prepared to kill all those guarding outside as well.

The only threat to him was the mayor’s dragon head cane, which seemed to be something like a rule, as he had been trapped by that cane in the previous loop and hadn’t made it to Moli in time.

Just as he was about to go out, he felt his sleeve being tugged.

"Deity," the girl in the wedding dress looked at him with clear eyes, "you are the God who’s come to marry me, correct?"

"I am not," Su Ming’an immediately shook her off. The townspeople had just been killed by him and this girl continued to firmly believe he was a deity, as if she hadn’t seen anything; he didn’t think this Moli was very normal.

He teleported out immediately and the first thing he saw was Mayor Mitchell with a look of astonishment.

"...Bo Li?"

The old man with white hair raised his head to look at him, his eyes filled with the joy of seeing a long-lost child returning home.

"Child, you finally came back. I was afraid you couldn’t find the house and have been waiting at the town entrance for you. I always believed you would come back..."

"Boom—!"

What welcomed him was a tremendous spatial vibration that shattered his heart and lungs.

Mitchell, with blood oozing from the corner of his mouth and a disbelieving look on his face, slowly fell downward.

From beginning to end, he never understood, how Bo Li, his seemingly obedient child who was occasionally rebellious, could strike against him.

"Bo Li..."

He murmured, tumbling down.

The dragon head cane fell, its blood-red glow plating the white snow.

[You killed (Terrily Town Mayor·Turn·Mitchell), Exp+8000!]

[*You obtained a key item (Dragon Head Cane)]

[Dragon Head Cane: This is the symbol of Terrily’s authority and the tool for devout people to communicate with God.

Using this, you can have short communications with Terrily·God. (This item can be taken out of the single-player instance)]

...

[Ding Dong! You have leveled up to (Second Rank II) Player]

[You have gained 3 free Attribute Points]

[Combat Power: 800+60]

[You obtained Equipment (Dawn’s Fall)]

Su Ming’an stood on the eaves, casually allocating the points according to the original plan.

He hadn’t expected that the mayor wouldn’t make a move against him; it would have been troublesome if the dragon head cane took effect again.

He didn’t have time to look at the attributes of the fallen equipment and immediately pushed the door open to look for Moli.

If the task was to keep her alive to see the dawn of the second day, now all he had to do was wait.

He walked in with the Dragon Head Cane in hand and was then met with a pair of eyes sharp as an eagle’s.

Moli was looking at him.

The clarity in her eyes had vanished, replaced by a snow-bright decisiveness as sharp as knives.

The next moment, the Dragon Head Cane slipped from Su Ming’an’s hand and automatically went into hers.

"Terrily, my dearest believers. They were not supposed to die like this," "Moli" began, leaning on the cane with a cold voice,

"—You killed Mitchell, you killed my dear believers."

A fine layer of fuzz started to appear on the back of her hand.

Su Ming’an stood in place.

"...Possessed, wasn’t I?" He looked at this Moli, who was completely different from before, and realized—this Moli, so different from the earlier one, could actually be the deity that the townfolk worshipped.

He heard the voice-over from Terry:

[—I am the traveling son Terry, returning home.]

[I killed my own father.]

[...To save a girl.]

[The girl’s eyes were pure, she said she wanted to marry me.]

[The girl said I was her god, she was so innocent.]

[But when I discarded everything to protect her, I found that she was no longer there.]

...

"—You have violated the rules, Terry, the betraying believer." "Moli" lifted her chin, smiling coldly,

"However, you are a good townsman."

She said:

"Compared to Mitchell, you might outshine him."

"—Stay, become my puppet." She spread her arms wide, with a layer of fine fuzz growing on the back of her hand:

"Let the whole town die bearing the curse.

Or, stay, become my believer, worship me, have faith in me, and then—

Offer sacrifices to me."

Her laughter was warm, not at all like a solemn deity.

Instead, it was the laughter of a powerful madman wielding authority and desire.

The voice-over continued:

[—The girl eventually married her god.]

[And I, in the end, am just a worthless person who achieved nothing.]

[—I have lost everything.]

[I will take my father’s cane and inherit the entirety of Terrily.]

[The minority submits to the majority, the lesser good to the greater good.]

[Terrily’s absolute justice, perhaps I should learn to abide by it.]

[To protect my dear townsfolk, I need to find new girls.]

...

[—And unknowingly lead them to their doom.]

[You have completed the S-rank mission, Before Dawn, achieving...]

[...]

[Instant Death Resistance activated!]

[Player has not died!]

[Ending process undergoes unknown changes, balancing process in progress...]

[Game process continues, new route has been planned and completed.]

[—You have entered the Perfect Pass route, Hidden Line, Dawn Line, with 40% completion of the perfect pass process.]

He suddenly heard such a voice.

The "Moli" standing in front of him, holding the cane and seemingly about to make an attack, showed a look of surprise in her eyes.

"Why..." she murmured to herself, "how can you resist my curse?"