Hong Jiu crawled out from the pile of rubble and turned to look at Wan Qianhong, who was in an equally disheveled state.
His voice was raspy as he asked, “That young lad... what exactly is his background? He seemed close to you; surely you must know something?”
Wan Qianhong gritted her teeth, using her ability to forcibly suppress several Scavengers who were on the verge of vomiting blood. Without looking back, she replied, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Hong Jiu’s voice rose. “She’s one of yours!”
“She’s been a Scavenger for less than a week. She’s even a sinner.” Wan Qianhong’s voice carried a bitterness she hadn't even noticed herself.
“I don’t know much more about her than you do.”
Hong Jiu fell silent.
A week...
“Then what about that organization she mentioned, the Masked Hermit Society? You don’t know about that either?”
“I thought it was nonsense.” Wan Qianhong finally turned her head, her expression a complex whirlwind of emotions. “Now, it seems it might not be.”
“Dammit,” Hong Jiu cursed, though it wasn't clear who he was cursing.
Li Gui’s laughter interrupted their conversation.
The sound could no longer be called human; it sounded like dozens of people laughing at once, yet also like bone grinding against stone. Everyone’s Sanity began to drop involuntarily.
“Reality... you don’t know what true reality is!” Li Gui’s body had completely lost its human form, leaving only a blurred silhouette surrounded by dense clusters of arms stretching out like sea anemones.
“But now, I can feel what this world is.”
He tilted his head back, and the eyes growing all over his body closed in unison, as if he were savoring some ultimate pleasure.
“This is... God.”
“A Prophet... is this what it feels like to be a Prophet...?”
He lowered his head, and all his eyes snapped open at once, staring at Hong Jiu and Wan Qianhong.
“Stay and feel it with me. Give up those pointless convictions, and you will attain... Reality!”
Hong Jiu, Wan Qianhong, and the others looked grim, remaining silent.
In the Scavenger system, the classification for aberrations goes from Type 1 to Type 5, followed by Scion, Avatar, Paradox, and World-Ender.
Naturally, the rank of an Evil God of the Old Days is above all these; an Evil God is the source of aberration and is not part of the ranking system.
The current Li Gui was undoubtedly an Avatar-class aberration. In terms of human ranks, he had already reached the level of a Prophet...
Hong Jiu took a deep breath, and the flames on his body reignited, burning even more fiercely than before—so hot that his skin began to crack, revealing a dull red glow from within.
Wan Qianhong’s expression shifted, watching in shock as Hong Jiu began to burn his very life force.
“To hell with it.” Hong Jiu grinned. “You think you can take me down just because you burst out of your clothes with a bunch of rotten meat?”
He suddenly turned back to Wan Qianhong and said:
“I bet that girl and her organization did something to trigger this second upheaval.”
“I’m really quite curious, haha... So, hold on just a bit longer. I’m going in!”
He still remembered the look in “Bai Feifei’s” eyes before she jumped.
There was no fear in those eyes.
Only a kind of morbid excitement that even he couldn't quite understand.
Before Wan Qianhong could speak, Hong Jiu had already charged forward.
The flames trailed behind him in mid-air like a long tail, a meteor crashing toward the earth.
...
The moment Bai Feifei touched the heart, the world shattered.
It didn't shatter into stones, but into light.
The light then reorganized into blood.
She then found herself standing in a void.
Beneath her feet was a blood-colored water surface, and above her was a blood-colored sky. There was nothing around her but an endless, dark red.
“You have come.”
A voice echoed from all directions.
It wasn't Xu Mo’s voice, but a strange, low voice that seemed to reverberate from the depths of the earth.
Bai Feifei looked up.
There was nothing in front of her, but she could feel something watching her.
“Who are you?” She thought she would be panicked, but she wasn't. She was very calm.
“I am Reality,” the voice said. “I am the world. I am everything you perceive.”
Bai Feifei was silent for a few seconds.
“Are you that Evil God? The Real World?”
“Evil God... what a foolish title. Is that what you humans call me?” The voice chuckled, the sound light, as if reminiscing about something from the distant past.
“It doesn't matter. Names are unimportant; reality is what matters.”
“What have you experienced, Bai Feifei? Do you remember?”
Bai Feifei was slightly taken aback.
“Your parents left you after you were born. For the sake of some so-called responsibility, they threw you alone into this world.”
“You have lived until today on the charity of others, on the bread occasionally tossed to you by those so-called ‘kind people’.”
“But are they truly kind? They merely use a trivial amount of charity to satisfy their own sense of moral superiority.”
Bai Feifei lowered her head, looking at the blood-colored water at her feet.
“You know I speak the truth,” the voice continued.
“You are angry, aren't you? You just don't dare to admit it. You're afraid that anger will turn you into a monster. You're afraid that anger will make you lose yourself.”
“But anger is reality, Bai Feifei. Anger is what the world truly looks like.”
“So, I have come. I can give you a chance!”
The water surface began to ripple.
Ripples spread out from beneath her feet, and the blood-colored water seemed to rise, covering her ankles, her calves, and her knees.
“This world has never been good to you. Why should you risk your life for it?”
Bai Feifei stood still.
“There is no need to suppress your resentment.”
“This is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“You only need to accept me, accept your true self, and accept the truth of this world. Then you can obtain power. I can make you...”
The seductive whispers continued to ring out as the water rose past her waist and over her chest.
“The way you talk... it’s a bit like him,” Bai Feifei suddenly spoke. “Is this the standard script you all use?”
The voice paused, seemingly carrying a hint of confusion.
“...Who?”
Bai Feifei gave a bitter smile.
“I don’t know why you’re chatting with me. Shouldn't you and He have more in common?”
The Real World: ...
It did not know of Xu Mo’s existence and had no idea who the “He” Bai Feifei spoke of was.
What is this person talking about?
Inside her mind, Xu Mo felt as if his connection to Bai Feifei had been severed. He couldn't control the body and didn't know what was happening.
Watching her Sanity plummet, he didn't have much time left to decide. It was about to hit zero.
Get ready to rewind... he thought.
But just as her Sanity dropped to 1, the number stopped.
Bai Feifei’s body in the sea of blood trembled slightly. Just as her spirit was about to zero out and fall into eternal silence, her eyes suddenly turned blood-red.
Slaughter God Mode.
“I don’t blame anyone.”
Bai Feifei’s voice was calm, her Sanity locked.
“I am simply doing what I ought to do.”
The sea of blood suddenly surged violently, attempting to forcibly swallow Bai Feifei.
But at the center of her brow, a bright light suddenly flared, as if something were guarding her spirit.
In an instant, the space collapsed, and the sea of blood flowed backward!
The mysterious voice in the void never appeared again, leaving behind only a wordless sense of confusion.
“Dual souls? ...Where? ...I clearly sensed nothing...”
A new prompt suddenly popped up on Xu Mo’s game panel:
【Congratulations! Because you passed the willpower trial of the “True Questioning of the Heart,” you have entered a temporary symbiosis with the heart of the Evil God of the Old Days, “Real World.”】
【Achievement Medal obtained: Heart of the World!】
Rate on N.U.
