Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1689 - 32: How Do You Imagine Warming a Heart?
Najasha paused for two seconds, suddenly smiled, tiptoed lightly, and turned around saying, "Let’s go."
Watching her walk a few steps, Su Ming’an followed.
Black water swirled, footsteps rippled open, seemingly water flow, yet not a trace of moisture.
It seemed nothing could be heard around, not just the breeze, even the sound of water was inaudible, as though lost in a vacuum of void, so silent it didn’t even feel like breathing.
Suddenly, Najasha’s voice came from ahead:
"You have the ability to rewrite that past, don’t you?"
Su Ming’an was taken aback.
"You’ve seen it with your own eyes, you’ve personally been involved, that Divine Mountain... You can rewrite it, can’t you." The sea monster ahead half-tilted her head, shimmering scales glistened with a faint light, like crystal stardust.
It seemed the recent intense competition had opened up her heart, she had already acknowledged Su Ming’an, no longer treating him merely as "Little Anan," starting to converse seriously, rather than mocking playfulness.
Su Ming’an knew she was talking about Tao’er.
To prove Tao’er believes in the Good God, the injured Najasha was willing to wait sixty years at all costs without eating humans. However, the black and white confused townfolk killed Tao’er, so Najasha, in order not to die, had to eat humans, "as the townfolk wished" falling into an Evil God.
The only goodness in her heart was killed.
Su Ming’an slowed his pace, while Najasha walked ahead.
Couldn’t see her expression, but it should be a smile, Su Ming’an could hear her rising pitch, sentence after sentence: "She didn’t like rain, so I wove a rainproof pouch for her. She liked beautiful dresses, so I wore them. I was willing to wait sixty years for her to recover from injuries, to rely solely on her faith for survival... But darling, you tell me."
She stopped her steps.
Su Ming’an stopped as well.
The two maintained about one meter apart, in the water, they couldn’t overlap their shadows.
Then, the sea monster turned around, eyes bloodshot:
"...Why is it that people like you always win, and people like me always lose."
Sure enough, the previous competition had agonized the Madman.
She lost once again, this time still to the Protagonist.
"Earlier it was a win-win, neither of us lost." Su Ming’an said objectively.
"But I chose [Forgiveness]." Najasha said.
"That’s why we’re a win-win." Su Ming’an said.
"But I chose [Forgiveness]." Najasha said.
Rich experience told Su Ming’an that at such times, reason shouldn’t be used to speak, when a Madman starts repeating, it indicates the Madman’s about to have a relapse.
He stopped his steps.
She stopped again.
The two stood in the silent black water.
"They say I am Evil God... So I’ll be evil for them to see. I’m no longer waiting. I rush into the rain, her body was very small and heavy... I dragged those cheering people, one by one, into my ocean." Only the low voice murmured,
"Do you know what sound seawater makes when it floods into the lungs? Gurgle gurgle... Like celebrating bubbling champagne. So noisy."
"But I placed those village folk in the deepest ocean trenches, where it’s quiet, only the light sound of water pressure crushing bones... Far more pleasant than their uproar."
Su Ming’an paused for a moment, replied, "You did not [forgive] them."
"Yes, I didn’t." Najasha said, "Because they [betrayed] Tao’er."
"No, you have no feelings for her." Su Ming’an said.
Najasha widened her eyes.
"It wasn’t pity for that human girl that made you fall to this, go insane for her." Su Ming’an shook his head, "You just chose a path to be complacent in your decent into depravity. ’Right’ requires patience, while ’Wrong’ takes only a moment. You live on not to revive her, but for yourself, needing ’revenge for her’ as your excuse to accept destiny, otherwise you’d collapse, unable to face the evil you’ve committed."
His words made Najasha freeze completely at her spot.
She seemed to suddenly understand something, like waking from a confused dream suddenly.
Then she spoke: "Su Ming’an, I knew who you were from the very beginning."
Su Ming’an was stunned.
He had originally planned to forcefully move forward, but Najasha’s words made him stop once more.
"When I was still the Righteous God... Sique instructed me to protect him, I agreed. He asked me to collect materials, I went." Najasha lowered her eyelids, laughing softly,
"Later, I was severely injured, met a common girl named Tao’er, I knew the potential of Righteous God was far greater than Evil God, for my future, I braced myself not to eat humans, beguiled her into believing in me."
"A naive, innocent girl, how easy to deceive! With her as my only belief source, I could survive, as long as I waited sixty years, I could recover my wounds and return to the ocean!"
"In the end, a bunch of foolish townfolk confused by black and white killed her! So, I killed them to avenge Tao’er!"
Su Ming’an shook his head: "No, you’re just deceiving yourself to accept the reality of falling into evil."
Najasha said: "I’d never harmed anyone before, even naively thought the World was lovely, until I fell and had to eat humans."
Su Ming’an said: "You indeed once were naive and kind."
Najasha said: "I thought of Sique, who once promised to revive anyone, as long as I tried hard to gather materials, maybe he could revive Tao’er..."
Su Ming’an said: "But you didn’t actually want to revive Tao’er, you only committed evil to survive."
Najasha said: "I gathered massive inspiration materials, allowed the impoverished to freeze to death in the depths of winter, watched heroic knights die in wars, pushed the pure and innocent Princess like a flower into darkness and corruption... turning joy into sorrow, making perfection flawed—I was gathering materials, I was saving her!"
Su Ming’an said: "You were only committing evil, Sique doesn’t need materials like yours."
Najasha said: "I always choose the most foolish path, clearly ’evil’, yet I always tried in vain to prove I’m ’good’. I clumsily wove pouches for her as if human, quietly improved the land to make her favorite flowers bloom better... I thought time was ample, thought sixty years was but a moment..."
Su Ming’an said: "You live on not to revive her, but for yourself."
The sea monster with crimson eyes gazed at him.
There was jealousy, rage, sorrow in her eyes.
Desperate despair.
Unescapable anguish.
She [betrayed] the goodness she had always held fast to; she also quickly [forgave] herself.
She accepted the fall as a fact of life with "Love a girl" as an excuse, shifting the blame onto others.
She murmured "Goodness," "Love," and "Girl," but in her eyes, there was only "Evil," "Hatred," and "Protagonist."
Najasha’s starlit eyes reflected Su Ming’an: "I met the Master of the End of All Things in a dream, He told me the truth of everything... Ha, turns out Sique he was... turns out he was...!"
Najasha suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The scarlet rolled into the black water, leaving no trace.
Su Ming’an moved forward slowly.
He gently approached the sea monster, strands of hair swaying, softly whispered in her ear:
"...Who is he?"
The voice was gentle, seemingly able to soothe all pains.
Like a kind and friendly psychologist, capable of listening to all brutal and cold truths.
Najasha’s lips opened and closed, almost blurting out. As if hard stones were repeatedly swallowed, tore open blood-streaked wounds over and over.
She intensely stared at Su Ming’an, trying to discern a hint of perfunctory or calculation, yet in the youth’s black eyes, there was only the tranquility of black water.
It was as if a pitch-black stone silently spoke—pour your heart out to me, tell me everything, I won’t hurt you, nor will I reveal your secrets to anyone.
Najasha, please tell me.
"Ha... hahaha..."
The laughter of Najasha seemed to cut across the wounds in her throat, devoid of the beautiful voice of a siren, only sharp like a chainsaw:
"Your eyes... your eyes!"
Su Ming’an maintained his close posture and did not move.
A cold blade was pressed against his chest, yet he did not dodge, keeping his head slightly lowered, maintaining his position close to the siren’s ear.
Then, he felt the collapse of the iceberg.
Perhaps no one had indeed ever treated an Evil God this way, often looking at them with eyes full of fear, hatred, and anger, but Su Ming’an’s gaze was calm.
The iceberg crumbled, magnificently collapsing.
The Number One Player, maintaining his strategy state, was about to hear the answer he desired—
"Sique is actually..."
"Poof!"
Najasha spat out a mouthful of blood.
He stared at his palm in shock, realizing he couldn’t speak the answer, as if restrained by some prohibition.
Yet, Su Ming’an already understood that sometimes the inability to speak an answer was an answer itself. It indicated the high positional rank of Sique, which forbade anyone from answering.
Su Ming’an slowly straightened up and put away his gentle expression.
Najasha’s eyes were blood-red, wiping the bloodstains from his lips, he gave a mournful smile: "[Tao’er swallowed the souls of the townfolk, she survived by becoming a witch, she won’t die in this rain...] You almost changed her fate then! At that time, Bei Wang had already manipulated the story’s version of me. I saved Tao’er just in time, and I sent her to be raised by Li Mingyue, so she survived..."
"But why, why, returning to reality, did the past not change?!"
He covered his cheeks for a moment, suddenly understanding:
"... Ah."
"I understand now."
"Because her death was his anchor. So, nothing changed in that past."
Najasha’s words were disordered, but Su Ming’an understood.
There was a time before when he saved the dying Tao’er through time shuttling, but after leaving that timeline, the past still hadn’t changed, and Tao’er still died. Najasha meant that some covert interference had taken place in that past.
—So, was Sique’s slumber a lie, a deception?
This conclusion made Su Ming’an’s eyes tremble continuously, even feeling unreal.
Yet, clearly, all the farewells were so sincere, all the poems were so heartfelt, could it be false?
Su Ming’an still didn’t want to believe in the possibility of Sique having a conspiracy. All along, he could sense Sique’s sincerity, and his acuity was extraordinary. Could it be someone else’s doing?
"Little Anan." Najasha smiled, he turned, leaning towards Su Ming’an’s ear, softly saying, "I finally realize some people cannot be approached, nor can they be imagined. How do you fantasize about warming a heart made of ink?"
"Until I had to degenerate into an Evil God, until my body was stained with blood, I finally realized my only meaning—to be remembered by people like you."
"I’m destined not to be part of the Righteous Faction, you won’t accept a teammate with sins as heavy as mine, so I appeared before you as a villain from the start."
"You will remember me... remember me... won’t you? I even followed you here. I don’t want you to die. I’m willing to press the ’Forgiveness’ button I never would for you, even if you press ’Betrayal’, I can accept that, then I’d be the ghost beside you, watching over you forever..."
He entwined Su Ming’an’s arm, trying to press him close to his heart, wrapping him up like seaweed.
"If I can’t be a leading role, then let me be a villain without regret... hahahah..."
Su Ming’an closed his eyes.
The deity of the ocean had already fallen into a mad abyss.
Once, he wanted to be a purely good, beautiful Righteous God, until he found the severely injured Sique and, out of jealousy, went down a path of no return. After Tao’er’s death, he was forced into becoming an Evil God just for survival, raising a sea of corpses and blood to collect materials, and eventually, he went completely mad.
Numerous times, the buttons of ’Forgiveness’ and ’Betrayal’ appeared before him. Although already a fallen Evil God, he tried choosing ’Forgiveness’ again and again—why, having fallen to this point, still use the rebirth of a girl as an excuse? Why, being this evil, still fantasize about that massacre never happening, for all townfolk to live?
Skeptic in goodwill, incomplete in evil.
All his actions full of contradiction, were to make Su Ming’an remember him.
Confusion, anger, despair.
The "Protagonist" had already become an "Antagonist" they could never return to.
...
[Back at the ocean, Najasha looked at Tao’er’s disfigured corpse, thinking: I once insisted on not eating people, living only on your weak faith, yet, being a leading role was so hard. Just you wait, when I become an antagonist, I will surely stop all the heavy rain for you, take you to a place sunny every day, give you a dress impenetrable by any swords or guns...]
...
"Splash—splash—"
The door was right before him, Najasha suddenly stepped forward, gently resting both hands on Su Ming’an’s shoulders.
A pair of enchanting, demon-like eyes gazed at him:
"... Can you promise me?"
"What?"
"Remember me."
The blood-red pupils were so sharp, making one feel as though a heart was being pierced.
"I’ve already remembered, it’s hard to forget," Su Ming’an spoke honestly. After all, such a madman wasn’t encountered every day.
"If you promise in the new world, that in the future, you can resurrect me. If, in this life-and-death trial, there’s a situation where sacrifice is needed... I can die for you," Najasha said.
"You..." Su Ming’an felt surprised.
Najasha stared at him: "Save me, Savior. In the future, let me sacrifice for you, cleanse my previous sins, and be reborn as a naive and pure Righteous God. Rewrite me anew... write a cleansed version of me.
"That isn’t you."
"...But that can be me," Najasha still stared at him, eyes filled with insane obsession and darkness. He had been broken, played by capricious destiny, leaving only initial obsessions and his own filth within his mind.
He desperately drew near, clinging to the Savior’s form like seaweed, praying with his life for his help, even if it was disgraceful.
Su Ming’an kept his eyes closed for a moment, then opened them and said: "Alright."
A participant was willing to help, so he had no reason to refuse. The resurrected Najasha would no longer be Najasha, only an innocent obsession. He neither forgave nor pitied him, it was merely a rational and equivalent exchange.
"Is it necessary to leave a name on your ’Ring of Time’ for me to be completely remembered by you?" Najasha glanced towards Su Ming’an’s finger.
Su Ming’an said: "The Ring of Time doesn’t remember wicked people."
"Heh," Najasha chuckled.
He turned around, waved his hand, and walked to the door.
With a flash of white light, Su Ming’an stood still, alone.
His heels seemed glued, his gaze still.
He still couldn’t believe Mr. Magpie, who made tea, added sugar cubes, and played Turtle Soup, was an enemy. The disconnect was too strong; even if it was an act, it couldn’t replicate that kindness and goodwill. Things certainly weren’t that simple, Najasha’s words weren’t necessarily true.
He stepped out.
What met his eyes was a vast expanse of starry sand. The first thing Su Ming’an did was leap onto the airborne whale to prevent his pants from being ripped off by the frenzied crowd. Upon closer look, there were significantly fewer people.
