Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 784 - 782: ’Queen of Hearts.

Chapter 784: Chapter 782: ’Queen of Hearts.

Like in the garishly colored hall of a disco frequented by middle-aged and elderly people, Su Ming’an kept his gaze focused, shielding it from the dazzling lights surrounding him.

The barrage of comments in his livestream was more frantic than mad dogs:

[Don’t go! Su Ming’an, don’t leave!]

[The Ruined World, this godforsaken place doesn’t even have a spring, and people die all the time. I’d call the Ninth World the most heart-breaking world.]

[I still want to see you complete the Tenth World! I want to see the fantasy instance!!]

[Then I want to see a gender-swap instance! I want to see Disney Princesses, Shu Bao as the Red Heart Empress.]

[I want to see Teletubbies, Lv Shu as the flower, me dumping manure.]

[...Do you guys really think Lv Shu can come back?]

[Can you guys be serious? There’s a BOSS fight, the Deity is right in front of us, and you’re discussing dumping manure? I just want to curse you out... Why not include me in that.]

[Shu Bao enthusiasts will eventually assassinate all of you (sinister crawling.jpg)]

[...]

"What are you looking at?" the Deity, noticing Su Ming’an’s gaze, said indifferently.

Su Ming’an shifted his gaze away from the barrage, now wasn’t the time to pay attention to these sick comments.

Little did he know, the Deity continued staring into his eyes, coldly saying:

"Looking at the barrage? What are they saying, urging you not to stay? Or are they verbally persecuting Lv Shu?"

Su Ming’an’s gaze flickered, suddenly feeling as if the fourth wall had been broken.

"When they need you, these viewers praise you higher than anyone else, calling you ’Hero,’ ’Number One Player.’ When they don’t need you, they imagine you might cruelly rule over them," the Deity said. "Their reluctance to let you go simply stems from not wanting to lose the Points you carry. If sacrificing you would yield them higher Points, they would definitely abandon you. You know these truths better than I do."

Su Ming’an remained motionless, neither challenging nor agreeing.

Shockingly, in his livestream, people began to argue against the Deity through the void:

[You’re talking nonsense! You’re despicable!]

[This bastard Deity I really want to kick, a pretentious jerk.]

[What they said is not wrong, if the Organizers one day say that killing Su Ming’an is the only way to clear the World game, wouldn’t you act? You’d merely scream your lungs out like the people in Ruined World and then pick up weapons to fight.]

[No! I genuinely love Su Ming’an! Love love love love— a kiss, a kiss! Mwah mwah mwah.]

[If you genuinely love him, you wouldn’t be in the livestream.]

[Cereal, join group number: 246158...]

...

"What are you looking at now?"

The Deity’s gaze, always fixed between Su Ming’an’s eyes, seemed to accurately guess the audience’s reactions through an invisible dimensional barrier.

"Nothing," Su Ming’an said.

"I think... the current audience, are probably some in disagreement with me, some in agreement. Or they’re selling discs, selling tea, selling paraphernalia..." the Deity speculated about the livestream’s reality.

"Since you know this much, you should also know my answer," Su Ming’an said.

The scope of the Deity’s involvement was extremely broad: war, policies, human nature, dimensions, even the World game and instances, so predicting his answer shouldn’t be difficult.

"I want to hear you answer me personally," the Deity said.

"Then I’ll answer you," Su Ming’an’s voice rose like a spiraling wind: "I refuse to stay."

"Even with such a rabble?"

"Even with such a rabble."

What Su Ming’an left unsaid was—he didn’t have the level of universal love required to cherish such a rabble. However, amongst this rabble, there were people like Yuanyuan, Noel, Lin Yin, and Mo Yan.

"As expected," the Deity, hands in pockets, turned to Lin Guang: "Talk’s broken down, take action."

Under the glamorous disco lights, Lin Guang, with his head bowed and half his face appearing as if it was covered with a thick layer of oil paint, made it difficult to discern his underlying emotions.

When the Deity grew somewhat impatient, Lin Guang finally spoke.

"I think I want to persuade him some more."

"Don’t waste time, Su Ming’an will not agree. In no World instance has he ever agreed to stay," the Deity said, glancing at his wristwatch.

The next moment, Lin Guang, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, suddenly bristled: "You clearly promised me before—if I initiated Emotional Resonance, you could make him stay. And now you won’t even give me time to persuade! Why should I cooperate with you, what will I get if he dies!"

Upon hearing this, the Deity snickered, looking at Lin Guang as though he were a mere animal: "It’s not that I didn’t give you a chance, if only you had been a bit more ruthless, if only you had pressed harder during the Emotional Resonance, could Mu Team have woken him?"

Su Ming’an was startled—it turned out Lin Guang had held back during the Emotional Resonance?

He watched the two in front of him—Lin Guang glaring angrily at the Deity, and the Deity maintaining an indifferent countenance, though impatience was faintly visible. The two, one cold and the other fiery, were well suited for a comic dialog.

After hearing the Deity’s words, Lin Guang grew even angrier, his eyebrows nearly flying off his face: "Otherwise? If Emotional Resonance had shattered him, who would I look to for music? You haven’t given me the paint I wanted, and to this day, I haven’t completed a single painting; I have hundreds of pencil drafts, not one of them fully colored!"

The Deity casually said, "Bringing up trivial matters for accounting, truly an ungrateful dog. Let’s see how the people in the World game describe you... a Samoyed? Exactly, just a dog."

Lin Guang, always grasping the wrong focal point, retorted: "I’m better than a Samoyed!"

The Deity said, "You really compared yourself to a dog."

Su Ming’an silently watched the two argue, feeling like an outsider. On a night that was meant for a climactic duel influencing the fates of two worlds, he found himself watching a stand-up comedy routine.

"Take immediate action, you lost the bet, remember," the Deity moderated his tone.

"Wait a minute."

"We can’t wait any longer, people are starting to wake up," the Deity said, looking out the window at the night and the ongoing live broadcast of the other world: "You don’t have to kill Su Ming’an, but you must at least stop him from escaping."

Lin Guang’s facial muscles twisted, hesitation flashing in his eyes.

At the sound of the "click-click" of a hose being dragged, Su Ming’an immediately activated Spatial Displacement.

After landing, he turned around and saw hoses surging from the direction of the elevator, like an overflowing red sea.

"Click" "Click" twice, they didn’t attack Su Ming’an, but instead took a detour and connected to Lin Guang’s back. Like pythons gnawing at his back.

Su Ming’an recalled how Lin Guang had always been connected to these crimson hoses back in the City of Gods — what had Lin Guang been using them for at that time?

Was Lin Guang constantly experiencing Emotional Resonance?

How could that not drive someone mad?

"Boom—!"

The moment Lin Guang connected the hoses.

Suddenly, Lin Guang turned around, lifted his foot, and suddenly kicked the smiling deity next to him out. Only the "crash-crash" sounds of shattering glass were heard, and the deity, thrown in a head-over-heels pose, was kicked out, breaking through the glass on one side and disappearing into the high-altitude night sky of the building.

Even before being kicked out, the deity’s face still bore a confident smile, not expecting to be suddenly ejected by Lin Guang.

Amid the buzzing of the building, the noise of rain beating against the glass from outside seemed distant. The distant night sky hid the thunder, like a bowed dragon.

The cold wind and rain poured in through the broken window, and water gradually accumulated at their feet. Lin Guang withdrew his leg, his face expressing a sense of relief.

Su Ming’an looked out through the broken window into the vast night sky. It was so dense that not even the twinkling lights of the city-states could be discerned, the thick curtain of rain obscuring the view, and as for the deity, it was unknown where he had fallen.

"..." Su Ming’an, holding the Spatial Vibration, felt slightly awkward, not knowing whether he should launch this attack or not.

At last, Su Ming’an could only say, "Good kick."

This probably wasn’t Lin Guang and the deity falling out, that kick from Lin Guang was likely just to vent fury, not a real desire to sever ties.

"Are you happy?" Lin Guang’s chest heaved violently, his face flushed with the release of pent-up emotions. He looked at Su Ming’an.

"Kick a few more times." Su Ming’an nodded.

"Okay, when he comes back, I’ll kick him again," Lin Guang said. "How many kicks will make you stay?"

Su Ming’an shook his head, "This isn’t a math problem. Zero times any number is still zero."

Lin Guang continued, "You don’t want to stay... is it because this isn’t a good ending for you? You seem to always be fixated on a perfect ending."

"Of course, that is my mission," Su Ming’an said. In a sense, this was also his mission for surviving in the world.

Lin Guang’s gaze trembled slightly, like inches of daylight gradually disappearing into the night. He clenched his fist tightly, the white cords on his wrist ringing "ding-dong."

"What about the process?" Lin Guang asked. "Before this ending... the passersby in your life? The passersby in these dozens of instances over just twenty days?"

Su Ming’an was slightly startled.

...Had Lin Guang suddenly become enlightened?

Previously, Lin Guang couldn’t understand anything — he couldn’t comprehend even what "love" was, like a foolish, confused buffoon. Now, he even grasped the concept of World Replica.

As time went on, it seemed that Lin Guang was indeed becoming more and more "complete."

Whether it was his practiced smile, the thousands of paintings drawn day and night, or these words, all were becoming increasingly akin to those of a normal person.

But it was already too late, whether it was the two or three days left of instance time, or the historical process of the final Chapter now. For Lin Guang’s slow progress, it was already... too late.

After this night, it would either be the birth of dawn or the onset of an eternal night. There would be no middle ground. Their tug-of-war had reached its end, and it was impossible for both sides to have their desires fulfilled. A beautiful ending for one side would only be a nightmare for the other.

"Do you like good endings?" Lin Guang asked.

"Of course." Su Ming’an said.

"But I have read many books from Dragon Country. In the Water Margin, the heroes were recruited by the Imperial Court. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I never saw the Han Dynasty endure. In Blessing, Xianglin’s Wife lost her child and herself died in despair. Why does literature always favor tragedy?" Lin Guang asked.

Su Ming’an was truly shocked.

—He thought "Teletubbies" was the extent of Lin Guang’s understanding; who would have thought that Lin Guang could actually comprehend books?

"In literature, tragedies are the most memorable. That’s why scholars always prefer to write tragedies, making them unforgettable. In this way, the words remain eternal in their minds," Su Ming’an said. "A happy ending is certainly delightful, but who would remember it for long?"

"I would."

Lin Guang suddenly said.

He stepped closer, with his hand on the cross-collar of his Han attire near his heart. The bruises on his neck seemed to have been deepened a few times, growing more severe.

"I would remember," Lin Guang said. "If it were up to me, I would still hope for a good ending."

"But that’s impossible," Su Ming’an said.

"Why is it impossible?" Lin Guang’s voice raised, his oppressive presence growing stronger. His eyes bloodshot, he stared intently at Su Ming’an, his voice choking up: "Why is it impossible? You have never understood me, Lewis."

Cold wind filled Su Ming’an’s ears.

He saw a scarlet butterfly fluttering slowly in the air, once, twice, like a flickering flame.

It settled on Lin Guang’s shoulder, accentuating his somber black Han attire. The butterfly’s eyes were hard to see, but Su Ming’an felt, at that moment, it was also looking at him.

"—Why should I understand you?" Su Ming’an just glanced, then forcibly withdrew his gaze, not following the scarlet butterfly.

Lin Guang fell silent for a moment, then slowly said:

"Over the years, I’ve been thinking every day how to genuinely experience positive emotions."

"Humans worship you yet oppress you, always sacrificing you, wanting you to jump off the edge of the world, wanting a counterfeit to usurp your place."

"Yet you always end up saving them again and again... you have always said love is to die, yet when I tried to die, I felt nothing but pain."

"I live in this world and every moment of every second is excruciating. This place is a hell to me; only you are familiar to me."

"Over these decades, I have saved many people on my travels... children who lost their parents, displaced refugees, pursued mercenary groups. So many people, so many that I can’t even remember them all."

"I have saved so many, but not a single one has come back to save me."

"If friendship is redemption—"

Lin Guang’s voice trembled:

"Will you save me once, please?"