Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1546: Final - · Guardian of the Shore Arc [31] · “The Savior Answered, ‘I’ll Take You Home’”
It was a story full of ups and downs.
The Deity Ming’an agreed to Su Liujin’s request in the sea, chose to cross the ocean forward, and returned to the first session of the Disciple Game to seek the image of the Supreme Lord.
He transformed into the Demon Lord "Bai Qiu," and learned that the God of Intelligence was a Ruined World Dawn System that chose "reality" instead of "fairy tale," obtaining the Authority of "Observation."
As the increasingly passionate horn sounded, his adventurous steps moved forward bravely and learned about their existence. They were a group of ordinary people scattered across various civilizations, who were lucky enough to be selected by the Lord of Dreams and could observe or even cross to other civilizations through the "mirror." For instance, treating Luowasha as a love game, Little Sister Bai Qiu, or the Little Fortune Star who snatched Hui Zi’s body.
To prevent the disaster brought by their arrival—the Ashen Rain, he "symbiotically" connected with the World Tree, inducing them to possess him, using branches to stab himself, and thus obtaining their memories in an attempt to find the image of the Supreme Lord.
His adventure was bizarre and colorful, contrasting with the more conservative possibility of transforming into a tree. The truth was right ahead, accompanied by so many stories with him.
His road ahead was no longer just about transforming into a tree as the only conservative tragic possibility.
Yes, he still had endless possibilities, he was extremely fortunate to have chosen to move forward, countless better futures awaited him, and he still had the strength to save more people, more people. Even, he had a slight hope that if he worked hard enough, maybe he could survive in the future...
He even saw the incarnation of the Supreme Lord in his dream, a sheep. The sheep showed him a book, containing evaluations of the various instances of the World Game, like a designer evaluating their designed game. The front page of that book had a line:[Return immediately after reading—Chen Qingguang]. Before the dream ended, he was gifted a ruby by the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord said, "This item can give you the power to transcend everything."
Finally, to find the remaining two petal images of the Supreme Lord, he faced two paths.
The first path, to personally kill his familiar teammates, civilians, innocents.
The second path, to follow Bai Qiu’s original plan, find the key to awaken the Demon Mother Goddess to solve the Ashen Rain. Once the Ashen Rain is solved, he could be the final victor of the first session of the Disciple Game, see the Supreme Lord, and obtain the image of the Supreme Lord.
At that time, Ming’an was not yet the Deity Ming’an, not very ruthless and indifferent. He couldn’t immediately harden his heart to aim the blade at his familiar people, so he chose the second path.
——The turning point occurred here.
The generous and passionate adventure story seemed to take a skewed path at this very moment, the golden leaves suddenly piled up with dust.
When the Deity Ming’an began searching for the key, Noel Agnini immediately activated the Snow of the End.
This surprised everyone; was it Ming’an’s action of searching for the key that made Noel feel threatened, so he had to activate the Snow of the End earlier?
The prematurely descended Snow of the End caught everyone off guard.
Ming’an had not yet found the image of the Supreme Lord but had to face off against Noel in the final duel. Ultimately, with Ninth Thrones Divine Envoy Lü Shu, Spiritual Dream-Maker Yuanyuan, Cloud City God, the four jointly killed Noel and saw in Noel’s memory—a bright red Manzusha Flower.
"...!" Su Ming’an nearly screamed.
This Manzusha Flower, he remembered clearly, was the one he bought from that flower shop grandma, with the same wrapping paper.
However, the things he bought, why would they appear in Ming’an’s possibility? Although Noel might also have bought the flower from that shop, the probability was extremely low.
He vaguely guessed the truth, but he still let himself keep looking, until the very end... the sad ending.
If it weren’t sad, Ming’an wouldn’t be Ming’an.
After killing Noel, due to the settlement of the World Game bet, Boss Rabbit would take Ming’an away. Yet, an accident occurred at that instant.
——Noel reappeared.
Of course, he was already dead, yet, this person performed something no one could have foreseen.
This person was very adept at learning and applying; he perfectly replicated Su Ming’an’s previously almost used method—using his body as poison, to poison enemies.
Noel’s death was already extraordinarily peculiar; he descended the Snow of the End early, and then was killed by the four together, as if a farce. Indeed, his death was a trap.
The authority of Seventh Thrones Yuritilola, was "Eternal," or "Fairy Tale." After discussing with Noel, they decided to abandon the body at the cost, retaining only Noel’s soul, shaping it into "Eternal."
Noel Agnini used himself as "poison," and when Su Ming’an used the "Devour" to consume him, Noel’s immortal "Eternal" soul took root in Su Ming’an’s mind, colliding with Su Ming’an’s authority of "Devour."
It’s unclear how Noel persuaded Yuritilola. To balance with the power of "Devour," Yuritilola divided a significant portion of the soul, together with Noel’s soul, to be devoured, with the consciousness of both fighting Su Ming’an.
"Eternal," for life, for undying.
"Devour," for death, for destruction.
If Noel won this soul duel, he would seize Su Ming’an’s body and gain the three authorities: "Devour," "Faith," and a part of "Eternal," achieving total victory.
Secondly, Yuritilola, through this act, hoped to accomplish her wish to leave the World Game. When Noel took Su Ming’an’s body, Yuritilola would be able to withdraw from the body and reunite with her soul, completely free.
This strategy was dangerous; if Su Ming’an simply killed Noel without using "Devour" to consume him, Noel’s cunning plan would have been useless.
However, this person knew him too well, knowing Su Ming’an, wanting to save more people, would never give up any opportunity to enhance himself. Noel carried substantial energy gifted by the Master of the End of All Things and Seventh Thrones.
This person is always adept at gambling with his own life.
Early in Pulaya, he could perform a task of getting Su Ming’an to face poison gas for just a conjecture.
Early in the Ruined World, he could input the Dawn Code for Su Ming’an even knowing the risk of life from identity replacement.
——He once gambled his life so many times to help Su Ming’an.
And now, he continued to gamble his life for the last time, swearing to plan a worldwide conspiracy.
To the extreme for goodness, to the extreme for evil. How wisdom is utilized depends solely on the stance.
Su Ming’an nearly used himself as poison to "poison" Noel. This time, it was Noel using himself as poison to "poison" Su Ming’an.
To fill the final loophole, Noel previously met with the God of Chaos, besides obtaining the Ten-Petaled Blue Rose, also requested the God of Chaos to rewrite his memory. To prevent Su Ming’an from killing Noel and using "Soul Ferry" to learn about the conspiracy between Noel and Yuritilola.
Besides that, he also needed to guard against a person—the Cloud City God holding the authority of "Soul," who was most likely to help Su Ming’an out of the predicament.
The Cloud City God’s strength was probably between Second-level God to First Level God, while Yuritilola was directly not highly combat powerful High Dimensions. She was confident to initially hide from the poisoning from the Cloud City God, but as the toxicity deepened, Noel’s consciousness began exerting force, Su Ming’an’s soul started to change color, then the Cloud City God would inevitably notice.
However, those are things for later.
——So, while Ming’an was still unaware of the harm of this "poison," time continued to flow.
After Noel’s death, Ming’an used the authority of "Devour" to consume the world tree that voluntarily sacrificed. By doing so, he completed the "Kill the World Tree" Ruler’s Quest, which was his last Ruler’s Quest, elevating his Ruler’s authority to the highest level, qualifying him to stand beside Boss Rabbit.
He still couldn’t escape the [Rules] of the bet, still taken by the World Game, but the small world and Eden Garden had already safely sailed, with no regrets left.
Before he was taken away, Lü Shu and Cloud City God were already unable to catch up with the small world. Due to their strong demand, they followed Ming’an back to the World Game.
Ming’an became the Thirteenth Thrones.
With the highest Ruler’s authority, other organizers had no qualification to divide him. Traps laid down by them were all expertly avoided by Ming’an.
Throughout the long years, Ming’an tried to destroy the World Game multiple times, gradually discovering Noel’s soul had taken root in his body.
They started frequently having conversations, fighting for each other’s consciousness rights.
"Noel, is this your choice?"
"Yes, I think it’s very good. This is one of our few win-win endings. You saved most of Zhai Xing’s people, and after I take your body, I will end your suffering and live in your place, finding a way to reach the universe... this is good."
Indeed, this is quite a good development.
"Su Ming’an, you’ve grown very tired. Let me take over; I’ll handle the rest."
"No, I must root myself in the World Game, to watch over Zhai Xing from afar and prevent the World Game from finding Zhai Xing again."
"So you wish to guard them for eternity, living alone for eternity until the end of the universe? Never able to rest, always bearing responsibility, eternal life is the most rigorous shackle... And humans, they think you have died, believe you’ve been divided and devoured by the organizers, and even hold a day of worship for you every year... Heh, you’ve truly become a statue, an emblem only to be commemorated, a deity in the annals of human history."
"I don’t care about these."
"And then? Now count is countless years gone by, perhaps Yamada and they have long since died of old age. Who exactly are you guarding now? Those you don’t even know?"
"Them, their children, their children’s children... countless, countless people."
"..."
"Be quiet, Noel."
"...What if I take over guarding them for you?"
"Hmm?"
"I said, I will protect them in your stead. You’re very tired, aren’t you? I could tell, the moment the World Game ended, something inside you died, every following day has been a torment. So, leave this exhausting task to me, I’ll guard them from afar."
"You’re deceiving me again, Noel Agnini. You just wish to trick me into relinquishing my body, then you and Yuritilola could collude and run off into the universe, never looking back."
"Heh heh... All right, you don’t trust me... then let’s continue to face off, eternally."
"As you please."
"Su Ming’an."
"..."
"Actually, what I said was sincere."
...
Time is hard to measure.
More years have passed, the deity Ming’an found the location of Pulaya, bidding farewell to the Cloud City God temporarily residing in the World Game—no, now it should be called Su Rin.
During the period of struggling for consciousness with Noel, the deity Ming’an often sought Su Rin’s help, Su Rin gradually regained his humanity over the endless years.
"...I can see your soul has changed color." Su Rin said.
"Is it obvious?"
"Black, representing the color of death is gradually expanding, your humanity and desire are slowly being replaced by death. And another part, the gold-red is growing, that is Noel’s consciousness."
"..."
"Do you need me to end your... suffering?"
"No, I will triumph."
"Okay. Then I... will take my leave."
Su Rin has exhausted every method but still could not expel Noel, and now, it’s time for him to disembark.
He ultimately is just a traveler able to stay for a period, impossible to be eternally trapped in the World Game for Su Ming’an. He too has a hometown he must protect.
The kite lingers momentarily, but it must leave.
The deity Ming’an finally wrote Su Rin a letter of gratitude, watching him depart.
——Congratulations on finally returning home, Engineer Su.
Farewell, never to see again, may you gain eternal freedom and joy in your homeland.
Now, around Him remains only Lü Shu, Yuanyuan, and the "lingering" Noel.
"You should leave, Lü Shu."
"I will stay with you."
"There is nothing here, only eternal loneliness, repetition, pain. This place is a cage."
"Therefore, I must stay. I cannot aid you in any matters, but at least my existence can remind you that you are Su Ming’an. The vast universe does not intrigue me, I only wish to share your loneliness, be your anchor, it’s the meaning behind my pursuit."
"But if one day, I am no longer Su Ming’an..."
"I can become your intermediary, or, vanish alongside you."
Lü Shu’s words were unwavering.
Time infinitely stretches in the blurry perception.
The deity Ming’an forgot how long it’s been, one day, He learned news from the Twelfth Thrones Yuanyuan, she dreamt someone from the small world broke through to the high dimensions, found the original location of Zhai Xing, and established a hidden barrier, ensuring safety measured in ages.
The deity Ming’an knows his duty is done. Ages, enough for that blue planet to thoroughly protect itself.
That planet no longer needs Him.
His consciousness becomes increasingly chaotic, the voice of Noel in his mind grows clearer.
"Logically, my consciousness should not surpass yours. You are special, you can resist most high-dimensional corrosion, thus the Master of the End of All Things never attempted to invade you," Noel says: "But, your survival desire wanes... your ideals have been realized, haven’t they?"
Yes.
I have attained perfection, Noel.
I have no regrets anymore.
What drives me to continue, besides Yuanyuan, is also Lü Shu who’s still not of high dimensions, I must protect them.
"Shwaa—"
When did it all begin?
In the "little space" He personally created for repose, all the leaves turned yellow. He favored springtime, so kept "little space" in perpetual spring, but now, the leaves began to uncontrollably fall.
...Lost a long-fighting comrade, lost companions journeying alongside, bid eternal farewell to hometown, the battle-scarred He finally began to wither.
All concludes on that day.
