Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1575: Final - : Guardian Shore Line - "OE: Death from the Ocean (5)
It wasn’t long before an extremely shocking event erupted in the world.
A few radical faction players who assassinated Luna held her half-severed hand as a banner, shouting "The era of players is upon us, ordinary people are slaves to the players." Such outrageously radical slogans enraged many, yet a few were stirred.
...Players stand high above, becoming nobility without needing to work... Some idle casual players immediately developed a yearning. They hadn’t earned many points and were living miserably; hearing such slogans, they inevitably started to entertain thoughts.
If such an era truly arrives...
Under the surveillance of the Ming’an System, they dared not inquire for information but secretly started changing their mindset, subtly beginning to no longer consider ordinary people as their own kind, waiting for an outbreak opportunity.
One of the leaders of the radical faction, Yuriklu, even raised the banner of "the strong are the masters of the world," striving to deepen the chasm between players and ordinary people.
Lü Shu and others quickly locked on the base of the radical faction players, but this group was clever, using past props and special abilities to build a floating island, constantly concealing their position. Some even suspected the lingering assistance of higher dimensions behind them.
"I’ll go," Lü Shu, being a third-level god, quickly made a decision. He would lead a group of high-combat players in an assault to destroy that sky island.
This assault attracted worldwide attention. After Su Mianbao declared his retirement, coinciding with a transitional period, the reputation of the radical faction soared after Luna’s assassination. This assault would determine the direction of the entire world, shaping the thoughts and destinies of many.
The Sea Emperor retreated to seclusion for boundary advances, Su Rin was predictably missing, leaving Lü Shu as the top combat power. As the one in charge of everything, despite Yu Zhu’s assistance, Lü Shu still felt exhausted.
"...If only that guy hadn’t betrayed," Lü Shu thought for a moment. This is clearly what that person was best at, yet it fell into his hands, the least adept. Although the Union Government was willing to share the burden, some matters ultimately required the judgment of the highest combat power.
The radical faction was so arrogant that there must be a hand from the high dimensions aiding them. Lü Shu and others were aware of this, yet they still decided to walk towards Tiger Mountain, prepared for a bloody battle.
Who would have thought, they charged all the way to the sky island without encountering any obstacles.
The expected props, special skills, divine power, traps... were completely absent.
The group, puzzled, exchanged bewildered looks, then collectively charged into the sky island’s barrier, filled with tension, ready to confront the enemy—
only to witness an unimaginable sight.
"Bang!"
The barrier opened wide, revealing a scene of blood-red.
A mountain of corpses, a sea of blood, blood flowing like rivers, with the ground seemingly overgrown with crimson Manzusha Flowers, the entirety marked by the vivid red of flesh chunks. Even the structures were stained with bright red, countless heads, hands, feet, and bodies shattered in shapeless forms, causing some to vomit on the spot.
Wine glasses shattered all over the floor, flags torn and collapsed, not even a single complete corpse could be seen, only fragmented pieces.
The once populous sky island was now left only with corpses.
In the hellish mountain of corpses and sea of blood, there was only one figure standing there.
He was dressed in a pristine white robe, like snow amidst thousands of blood roses, like an egret above a sea of red, with his left hand flowing with glowing light, seemingly avoiding contamination. His shoes had slight high heels, stepping through the sea of blood without being tainted at all, appearing utterly out of place with the scene.
"Tap."
The heels made a crisp sound, like crystal striking glass.
"Ah... ah... ah!" Sherry, who had never seen such a scene, collapsed onto the ground, trembling all over. She was a luck-type player, never having participated in such massacres.
Even they weren’t prepared for a massacre, planning to kill what they could and capture the rest for judgment. After all, there were too many people on this island, many of whom fought alongside them during the World Game, even as good comrades...
Anthony remained silent, holding his golden spear, not stepping forward until that figure slowly turned around—
revealing a pair of golden pupils.
The five white, gleaming claw tips on his left hand seemed sated with blood, shining with a satisfied light.
The glass-like heel slightly pivoted, revealing a white robe completely unstained by blood.
He had killed so many people, yet remained as pristine as a magnolia.
"A stance is a stance."
"Even if they were comrades who fought side by side during the World Game..." Su Ming’an’s golden eyes were calm as he raised his hand claw, with a surge of immense energy within.
He suddenly clenched his fist, as if crushing something fragile and weak:
"—it won’t stop me from killing them."
"Today they can assassinate Luna, declaring ordinary people as slaves. What if tomorrow, who’s next?"
"Keeping them alive will lead to a thousand times more deaths, even implicating the entire world."
"In the future, if such a situation occurs again, kill without mercy."
His voice was icy, people had never seen such a side of Su Ming’an.
They viewed him from a teammate’s perspective, from a live broadcast room audience perspective, the nineteen-year-old youth in the camera was always calm, serene, powerful. Even if he showed a mad side, by the late stage of the World Game, his external demeanor was quite stable.
His final savior act, willing to sacrifice himself to become the World Tree just to save one more person, was kindness of the greatest kind, gentleness among gentleness, selflessness beyond compare.
As if he had become a perfect god or Buddha image, merciful, just, upright, selfless to the extreme, nailed to a cross to save all living things, like the Holy Son Jesus descending to the mortal world.
So much so that people overlooked the darkness behind the title of ’Savior’.
So much so that people overlooked whether the ’Number One Player’ needed ruthlessness and determination to reach this point, beyond mere benevolence.
The thick smell of blood filled the air, with fragments numbering in the thousands, not to mention those already turned into dust. The time from deciding to attack the uninhabited island to their arrival was only a matter of tens of minutes.
Tens of minutes, tens of thousands of people. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
That is a dizzying efficiency of slaughter.
One can’t help but wonder, if one day he wishes to destroy the world, how long would it take? An hour? A few minutes?
Thankfully, such a thing won’t happen.
Lin Jiang whistled, she was one of the few whose expression didn’t change, very accustomed to such a mountain of corpses and sea of blood. She pranced a few ballet steps, suddenly clutching her lips and said:
"You just said, even if they were comrades who fought side by side, if they cross the line, kill without mercy. What if one day, we are among those people..."
"Su Ming’an... no, Lord World Master, would you kill us?"
Her gaze swept over Lü Shu, Eni, Sherry, Anthony... then slowly returned to Su Ming’an.
Su Ming’an’s pupils were extremely serene:
"I would."
"Hee hee." Lin Jiang got the answer, changed her expression, and laughed: "Luckily, I won’t! I wouldn’t do such a pointless thing!"
She rubbed her neck hard as if there was something very itchy, making it unclear whether she was serious or joking.
In the early days of the World Game, people said the Number One Player killed many players during the game, maybe for competition, maybe for retaliation, maybe as a target. Thus, they believed the Number One Player was cold and ruthless.
However, compared to what they just saw, that was nothing.
—This is what they call the ’Number One Player’, the first time truly killing so many people.
In the past, whom he killed were either NPCs or players who could respawn. For him to aim his blade at so many of his brethren, completely stripping them of the right to survive...
How angry must he have been? How disappointed?
Su Ming’an retracted the "Devouring Claw," his hand returned to normal. He glanced at his clean, youthful hand, indistinguishable from that of an ordinary young man, unable to imagine them stained with death.
"Phew... fortunately, now everyone is safe," Anthony sighed with relief, suddenly shouting, "Su Ming’an, great job! We were all ready to die, didn’t expect everyone to be killed already, thanks to you!"
His words immediately brought everyone back to their senses.
"That’s right, luckily Su Ming’an killed them all, otherwise we would have someone injured or even dead," Mei Yani gently patted her chest.
"Look quickly, that’s a Star Destroyer Cannon... these people even managed to get this thing, lucky they didn’t have time to launch it, if they went for mutual destruction and shot towards the city, how many people would have died!? Millions, tens of millions..." Qiuqiu pointed to an unfilled cannon mouth.
"Thank goodness, luckily Lord World Master took action..." Joy sighed with emotion.
After the initial panic, people gradually came to their senses, expressing gratitude to Su Ming’an. Reasonable people understood the significance of Su Ming’an’s actions. It was not only saving them, but also millions of citizens. However, the visual impact was so great that it took a moment for them to overcome their emotions.
He kills to protect life.
Lü Shu quietly walked to Su Ming’an’s side.
While everyone stood outside the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he alone stepped through the endless bloodstains to approach.
"Next time, don’t do it yourself. Just subdue them and hand them over to the Judgment Court. Don’t let yourself be contaminated with too much causal killing." Lü Shu spoke softly.
Su Ming’an scanned the crowd, not seeing any particularly familiar figures. It seemed that his familiar companions were all busy with their own matters. Upon hearing Lü Shu’s words, he let out a brief laugh:
"...You really have learned a lot."
He was teasing Lü Shu for having read quite a bit of official documents, gaining some political sensitivity, thus able to give such advice.
However, Lü Shu couldn’t hear the laughter in his words.
Su Ming’an was clearly in a very bad mood, whether because of Luna’s passing, or these disappointing humans, this heart-wrenching development...
He had once transformed into a tree, willingly abandoning his life and future, just to save those who were forsaken.
In the end, among the people he saved, some chose the wrong path again, and he had to kill them himself.
One rescue, one kill, one reception, one farewell—how could he feel happy?
Clearly before the World Game started, he was terribly clumsy even when killing fish... Lü Shu remembered Su Ming’an’s frantic appearance in the kitchen during the New Year.
Su Ming’an took out a cloth, wiping his hands. Despite his whole body being frosty white like snow, unstained by blood, he wiped again and again, as if he could never get them clean.
While people searched everywhere, collecting information and useful resources, he stood in place, wiping his hands over and over again...
"Your face...?" Lü Shu looked at him.
Su Ming’an had wiped his hands red, not raising his head: "I thought that wearing a mask was not suitable for getting close, so I used the ’Faith’ Authority to revert to my original face. People remember my true appearance, so I can let myself turn back to my original appearance."
This is the meaning of the ’Faith’ Authority, believing makes it exist, not believing makes it not.
Lü Shu’s expression changed slightly, whispering: "Have you really decided to use the ’Faith’ Authority?"
He heard that after Su Ming’an entered the small world, the ’Faith’ Authority grew stronger as if it had awakened, no longer feeling insignificant as before. Because here is his world, and everyone belongs to his world will, maximizing the activation of Faith Authority.
However, using the ’Faith’ Authority also inevitably means—
Following Xiber’s old path.
Becoming a "Bai Shen."
This was indeed one of the best, timely ways to control the world. However, it also came with many drawbacks.
"..." Su Ming’an closed his eyes, wiping his hands for the last time. When he opened his eyes, his golden pupils had returned to black:
"I won’t use it. I’ll try again, there must always be... a better direction for development."
"Give them one more chance, perhaps... they won’t choose such a radical path. While I was killing, I realized some people had already regretted, some didn’t even know about assassinating Luna, just thought joining the radicals would provide a better life... But, it was too late. To prevent them from launching the Star Destroyer Cannon, to prevent them from someone calling upon the High Dimensions, I could only kill them all..."
"If there was another chance."
He looked up to the sky, the white handkerchief slowly drifting to the ground.
"...Would the sinners not be sinners?"
"Would someone I killed become a good person, standing by the roadside, smiling gently at me when I pass by?"
The handkerchief soaked in blood, turning bright red.
...
Upon learning the radicals were exterminated, the Central Hub quickly sent a thousand-man team, including inspectors, technical managers, associate commissioners, field personnel... to conduct aftermath work.
Resources were transported, instruments dismantled, bodies processed, incidents investigated... People worked rapidly like swarming ants.
Once everything was dealt with, people one by one left the Floating Island, looking up—
In the sky above, the World Master held the brilliantly shining Sword of Yarman aloft. His gaze was sharp like a sword, his form aloof like snow.
"Boom—!"
With one stroke of the sword, Sky Island dissolved completely, akin to a beach eroded by seawater. Thus, the radicals’ main base, along with its people and land, disappeared together.
From Luna’s death to Sky Island’s complete disappearance, merely a day passed.
A few hadn’t had time to celebrate the successful assassination, when the successive news crushed them into silent terror, plunging them into hell.
...
The moment Sky Island shattered, Su Ming’an watched the vanishing island, feeling a sense of illusion.
As if he stood high above the clouds, overlooking people’s struggles, steering them to the right path.
Yet, he hadn’t waited for a "Heaven’s Despicable One," nor would he ever wait for one.
—That was him already, and would forever be him.
He closed his eyes, sheathing his sword.
With a "click," the communicator suddenly buzzed, and Dieying’s voice unexpectedly came.
"Feeling any better?"
"..."
"How about it? Need help? Originally a Source of Civilization, now priced at free." Dieying’s voice rose slightly.
"..."
"Why aren’t you speaking? Bad signal? It shouldn’t be, even if I borrowed your signal, it’s fine... Hey? Can you hear me, it’s Dieying, strange, didn’t I send it?"
"...I’ll try again."
"What? Ah, I heard it."
"...I’ll try again."
"Try what? Didn’t you already know human nature is vile? You’re just like Ya Sa, trusting them too much, always believing evil can be redeemed by kindness. But in reality, bad people are forever bad, their very blood carries the ancient ancestors’ survival and reproductive instincts—’self-serving’ survival genes, ’pleasure seeking and pain avoiding’ neural mechanisms, and wariness of scarcity. Amidst the dissolution of collective will, under mass frenzy or authority’s domain, human’s individual moral sense is as fragile as thin ice, common folks can commit atrocities. Continue like this, you’ll eventually be harmed by them."
"Not the time yet."
"Heh... However, your decisive act indeed is worthy of a World Master, making me reevaluate, it’s fortunate you didn’t spare these people, or I’d really think you’re soft."
"You’re helping me, not wanting me to repeat Ya Sa’s tragedy?"
"What does it have to do with me? Didn’t I say it’s just an investment. When Zhai Xing is destroyed, I’ll wait for you at the universe’s end, great devourer."
"..."
"My only advice—" Dieying’s tone abruptly turned serious:
"[Don’t drown in your ideals, Savior]."
With a "click," the communication ended.
Su Ming’an eyed the communicator, slowly talking to himself:
...
"Man is just a fragile reed, yet a thinking reed..."
...
