Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 512 - 509: ’You are, the most important.

Chapter 512: Chapter 509: ’You are, the most important.

Su Ming’an opened his eyes.

The pale, expansive sky hung upside down before him, the whole world silent.

Every time he reset after dying, he felt as though he were still caught in a dream, not yet awakened from a nightmare of despair.

As the wind brushed his face, he remembered her, her hair white with age, her body rapidly decaying, looking at him with that gaze as she fell.

Like the end of a long journey, that gaze held reluctance, regret, remorse.

...but more than anything, it was a calmness that comes with the closeness of death.

She was always close to death, closer than she was to him.

In the moments before she converged with eternal slumber, her eyes lost their usual wild fields, all defiance and resistance seemingly buried deep in the mud with the quietude of the world.

To compromise with destiny, sometimes, does not make one a coward who ceases to struggle.

...This was the best outcome they could achieve, the best possible ending within their power.

Xiber had achieved this.

Her faith was lucid and steadfast, she held the secrets of the ancient deities unknown to others, she had the power to overturn all misfortunes.

Yet she was also within the game. Born from a curse and influenced by Raven from a young age, she was destined to have faith in Jiu Shen.

This faith dictated that she could never reach a perfect ending, never had a chance to break free.

Only faith allowed Jiu Shen to endow her with strength, and only with it could she overpower everything. But because of this very faith, no matter how hard she worked, she could not break the tragic, unsolvable situation tied to "curses born of faith."

One trapped within the game cannot break their own chains.

...Unless she was not alone.

Su Ming’an stood up.

The still illuminating sky reflected before him. Looking up, he could see the figures of players arriving one by one.

The fresh, slightly spicy air filled his chest like a gentle flow of water.

Everything before his eyes was bright, radiant, teeming with life. The world was still awake, not yet extinguished by the vast darkness.

His movements slightly sluggish, he looked up, blinked, turned his head.

Yamada Machiichi and Migael, still in the grasp of the controlling tentacles, had sweet smiles on their faces.

...They seemed to be in the midst of a pleasant dream.

And from the sky came a piercing proclamation:

"—Evil God, today shall be the day of your demise!"

Long hair, sword in hand, the lean and tall woman, from her high vantage point, issued a judgment on the corruption below.

Looking at Mizushima Kawa Sora, who spoke the same lines as in several previous cycles, Su Ming’an felt a sense of irony.

He suddenly felt these people did not seem like living beings but like fixed characters in a script, uttering their lines with each loop and acting according to their rules. And he, like a director outside this world, held the script, watching them perform the same drama over and over.

Just like now, he didn’t need to listen to know what Mizushima Kawa Sora would say next—

"—Su Ming’an, why do you stand amid the tentacles... I see, this time you are the Evil God? Did you cause all these anomalies?"

Meanwhile, players arrived rapidly, circling and surrounding the Stone Fortress.

They could see Su Ming’an entwined in tentacles on the rooftop.

And in the sky, Mizushima Kawa Sora frowned:

"If you are the Evil God, and the players and their Guide are compatible, then it seems indeed you are—"

She raised her hand in which a blazing white flame sword floated, as if to highlight her righteousness.

And under everyone’s gaze, Su Ming’an looked up.

At that moment, his gaze was exceedingly serene.

"Who am I talking to right now?" he asked, "Is it a miss from the Lighthouse who has Perfectly Passed everything or is it a transformed Mizushima Kawa Sora?"

Mizushima Kawa Sora’s pupils contracted slightly, as she had not expected that Su Ming’an, who was on the verge of metamorphosis, still retained his rationality.

"You wish to manifest your ’justice’, and your act of proclaiming judgment seems to demonstrate your mercy," Su Ming’an said, "but your resources are still insufficient to support such actions."

No matter how much rage she intended to sow upon others’ heads, no matter the words she intended to use to malign his actions, and even no matter how many times she used her already deceased sister to exploit, she could not deny this—

To this day, she was still acting in a way that, under the guise of the majority, actually satisfied the private desires of the few.

...So it was,

This was "judgment".

"A person who makes a pact with the Evil God dares to accuse me?" Mizushima Kawa Sora was not panicked, she knew that she had secured the moral high ground and was not worried about what he might say.

She was the Guide of Dian Si, representing the head of the Judicators, endowed with the power to judge all evils. On the other hand, her opponent was someone who publicly consorted with cultists and had not repented to this very day. Even the NPCs understood which of them was superior.

"Even if you say so, you can’t dissociate your relationship with the Evil God," she said loudly.

"I have no intention of dissociating," Su Ming’an said.

The Players surrounding them were stunned upon hearing this.

...What was going on? Was this being laid out openly, no pretense?

This was the fifth day since the instance had opened, and he was declaring himself an enemy to all who remained... Number One Player’s move was too risky, wasn’t it?

Upon hearing this, Mizushima Kawa Sora was initially stunned, then ecstatic. She hadn’t expected him to admit so straightforwardly. If he had argued and used his skills to gain favorability to win over a few people, he still might have had a chance to win.

But now... she only needed to confirm and magnify his stance, and she could settle the situation.

"So, you really are the Evil God’s—" she began.

"—Your shortsighted visions, how can you see the glory of the most ancient God?" he suddenly said.

In the sight of everyone,

Su Ming’an suddenly reached out and grabbed a tentacle beside him.

Under their astonished gazes,

he voluntarily leaned against the unusually contorted tentacle,

embracing it, like that first night when he embraced a ball of fire in the night wind.

Layers of muck adhered to him, and he merged into the darkness, like willingly plunging into hell.

Lu, Isabella, and others who were about to intervene stood stunned, and Noel, who had just arrived, also froze. Mizushima Kawa Sora, who had originally wanted to accuse him, gradually could not understand the scene anymore at this moment.

They stood in the air, as if caught in a brief stalemate, while Su Ming’an brought his face close to the tentacle.

"...They cannot see that you are purifying, that you are saving people," he said, "but it doesn’t matter, I know—we are together only."

His tone became increasingly gentle, like comforting, like whispering softly.

"...They want to deny everything you’ve done for them, but this group of people, whose eyes see only slaughter and victory, truly know nothing."

"The faith of outsiders blinds them, such narrow-minded, comfort-seeking ones can still be self-righteous, enjoying everything you’ve protected them from."

"These traitors who abandoned the Original Faith—They’re truly not worthy of forgiveness from the most ancient God."

"—They don’t deserve to be ’purified’."

"Only the short-sighted indulge in peace, but those under care, like us, do not need those."

"...You are special, the most unique."

"Only you are the profound Awakener of this world."

"There’s absolutely no need to eradicate all the misfortunes for a group that knows only to forsake faith."

"They might only be temporarily bewildered, driven by desperation, perhaps some have their own difficulties..."

"But none of that can erase their blasphemy against this world, their trampling, insulting, and destruction of you. They bully the weak, abuse the vulnerable, indulge in hypocrisy, slaughter the innocent, and yet claim to be just, wielding righteousness as their banner and pursuing their own selfish gains."

"They..."

He had not finished speaking,

when he heard a soft, familiar heartbeat.

A pair of faintly shaking pale eyes appeared before him, glistening with tears.

"Do you not hate me, even though I am a monster, an enemy of the world?" she said.

"You are not a monster, you are the sole believer of the most ancient deity." he immediately said,

"You are unique, the most important."

...

Su Ming’an was not afraid of being accused of how he deduced that the tentacles belonged to Xiber.

Some clues, albeit not obvious, could lead to this conclusion.

He watched her grow from the tentacles, like a flower blooming from mud.

She looked at him, her eyes still clear, her favorability score rising to 75 points.

A child never loved shows their emotions too obviously.

Even to a mere acquaintance met by chance, she wanted to give out everything she had, give you her untouched heart, and the burning passion from her chest.

Yet he could only see the desolation, sterility, and barrenness within her.

Like a slate unwritten upon, like the dried bed of a lake. Silent and cold.

The quiet desert has no flowers.

...how can one demand a child who has never seen a flower to paint one for you?

So,

he would use words, actions, to weave an imaginary flower for her, one who lacked security.

And even if it was just an imaginary flower, such a child would pick it up like a treasure, bury it in her heart, and wait for it to take root and grow.

Like a piece of "sugar" shaped like a stone picked up by the riverbank.

"Dong."

"Dong."

The intense heartbeat resonated in his ears, Xiber had fully awakened.

Yet Su Ming’an’s vision did not blur, his actions were not hindered, he stood by her side like a ’fellow traveler,’ looking up at the increasingly cautious players in the air.

"If they think we are evil deities—then let us be evil." he said, "We are the faction of ’evil gods’ that must win the final victory—self-proclaimed righteous believers, you may slander us for any reason."

Listening to his words, the players reacted differently.

"...has he admitted it?" one player said with a grave expression.

"...he’s already prepared to be against the world in this instance, it seems we also need to unify our frontline."

"...who’s unifying the frontline with you? I’m here to eradicate the evil gods."

Looking at the group of players still discussing "whether to act or not," Su Ming’an looked at Xiber beside him.

She was also looking at him, with an unprecedented clarity in her eyes.

"I can trust you once," she said.

"Then..." Su Ming’an said, "let’s start by killing them."

As soon as his words fell, the tentacles suddenly sprung from the ground.

Before the players could even act, some were caught by the tentacles and pulled into the dark mud.

However, this time, what awaited them was not eternal slumber, but real death.

Watching Xiber’s massacre, Su Ming’an’s expression grew serious.

He suddenly realized, Xiber’s attitude had changed too quickly. She had firmly decided to purify the world, had achieved such a terrifying outcome in the last cycle, and now, because of his few words, she had changed her goal and actually began killing people.

But, she only did what was necessary, killing a few players who couldn’t escape. She didn’t touch the npc villagers at all.

Outside Stone Fortress, people started to flee en masse, even Mizushima Kawa Sora was running desperately.

After everyone had escaped to a certain distance, Xiber stopped sacrificing life force to the tentacle monster, and the tentacles began to retract.

During the retraction process, her hair transitioned from pure white to slightly yellowed, and by the time the tentacles and mud had fully retracted into her body, her appearance had aged to that of a twenty-year-old woman.

The tentacles completely retracted into her body.

"If we don’t purify everyone, we can only choose the path to deityhood," she said.

Unless all were killed, people’s faith could not be erased. If they weren’t killed, the only choice left was to become deities themselves.

Only by becoming deities could they overturn the Black Wall and communicate with the outside world. The world wouldn’t leave them with an unsolvable situation. The outside was the only point that could break the game.

"Let’s go," Su Ming’an said, "The three essentials of becoming a god—authority, faith, power. You already have the authority of prophecy, the seeds of faith are already sown. Let’s win to the end...to obtain the ultimate power."

Xiber nodded.

Her almost transparent white hair bathed in the light, looking as if about to burst into flame.

He watched her step forward, into the sunlight—

...

"Ding dong!"

[You have successfully persuaded Xiber to abandon the route of purifying the world.]

[Perfect Pass·Jiu Shen Line Progress: 65%]

[Information on Jiu Shen Line ending available: HE·Eternal Slumber/TE·Jiu Shen’s Descent/NE·"Perfect" Victory]

[Current ending inclination: TE·Jiu Shen’s Descent]

...

The Prophet abandoned the tentacles and walked into the sunlight.

Even if she might face a worse ending, she still trusted the hand that reached out to her.

The story’s end should not be empty.

This time, it was his turn to lead her forward.

...

...

[In fact, she does not seek nobility or need virtues.]

[Virtues are for ordinary people, representing orthodoxy. They are the medals on a knight’s shoulder, the gold plating on a sword, the lilies in a garden.]

[But their survival,]

[it embodies far greater orthodoxy than anything else.]

[—Jiu Shen·Reincarnation Notebook]

...