Coronation
The greeting disappeared into the night, and Wa remained motionless without making any response.
But Shang Jingyan knew that He had heard it.
The overwhelming pressure pressed down on her, making her feel like she was trapped in the deep sea, and it was even difficult for her to move. It was like two masters confronting each other, and the one who made the first move would easily fall into the inferior position.
Shang Jingyan held his breath and concentrated, opening up his mental barrier, not knowing how Wa would react.
Wa's gaze made her feel uneasy, and she inexplicably felt that Wa was not only looking at her.
Sure enough, a moment later, a "bang" sound was heard in the air beside her, and a small black ball swayed and appeared.
It's X71!
It couldn't withstand the pressure, and the whole ball was flattened to the ground, almost crushed into a piece of paper.
Shang Jingyan's heart sank, fearing that Wa would do something bad to it.
In fact, at this point, she still didn't fully understand the origins of X71.
The 17X in the illusion was clearly what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to seduce and mislead her. Even if it couldn't stop her, it at least shouldn't help her.
Shang Jingyan guessed that X71 shouldn't even have a place in the illusion. But it insisted on getting involved and even gave itself a name, "Xia Chiyi".
To the brain worm, it is a complete traitor.
When Wa looked at X71, there was blatant disdain and majestic anger in her eyes. It was hard to imagine that just one eye could convey emotions so clearly.
X71 shivered and looked like it was almost dissipating.
Shang Jingyan took a step towards it, extended his mental barrier to protect it, and raised his eyebrows: "This is not good. I failed to win over my subordinates, so I took my anger out on it for finding a better buyer."
Wa's pupils contracted, and the bright red of her irises was so intense that it seemed to be dripping.
“Yan… Yanyan!” X71 spoke with great effort, floating up and sticking to her wrist, “Don’t provoke Him.”
Shang Jingyan touched it soothingly. From the tone of his voice...X71 seemed to have recovered his memory as well? Otherwise, he wouldn't be very clear about Wa's temperament.
At the same time, Tianji's pupil suddenly expanded into a standard circle. Shang Jingyan was caught off guard and saw a kaleidoscope-like pattern appear in his pupil.
In a moment of distraction, the scene around me was completely different!
Another illusion?
The familiar palace, the familiar church. Under the clear sky, countless people looked up in the direction of Shang Jingyan.
Flowers and ribbons make it very lively.
Ah…it’s a referendum election.
If she had not come to see Shang Song and revealed the truth about the virtual world, then this would be the story she should follow as the "game protagonist" now.
Shang Jingyan looked down and found himself standing on a red platform, with Hua Feitian and Su Shudong next to him.
Their figures all exude a sense of unreality, flat and rigid, like mottled oil paintings or wet photographs.
Only she herself is a 3D real person who doesn't fit in.
What about X71?
In the center of the platform was the Pope, who was wearing a religious hat and whose chin was visible. He spoke solemnly:
"The voting begins—"
"I vote for Hua Feitian!"
In the audience, a flat man stood up first and spoke mechanically in a serious manner.
As soon as he finished speaking, a piece of bright red paper flew out of its mouth. It turned out to be its tongue. The red paper flew behind Hua Feitian and automatically folded into the shape of a heart.
The so-called referendum was actually conducted in this form of "vote counting". The whole scene was like a puppet show driven by gears, funny and exaggerated.
"I vote for Su Shudong!"
"I vote for Hua Feitian!"
"I vote for..."
The voting sounded like an aria, buzzing, rising and falling, gradually spreading to the whole world like a wave.
The paper hearts behind Hua Feitian and Su Shudong had been stacked into two tall towers, far exceeding their height.
From the front, they look like two ropes, suspending and controlling them.
Hua Feitian's paper eyes were wide open, and she said nothing; but Su Shudong was very happy and proud, and kept bowing in all directions.
No one voted for Shang Jingyan, and she found that she could not move. Her joints became stiff, her body became heavy, and even her thinking began to slow down, like a rusty machine.
Shang Jingyan tried hard to speak, but no sound came out. Moreover, the color of her fingers was slowly turning yellow and becoming flat from the fingertips.
If this continues, she will become a fake person too.
Shang Jingyan understood why the Vatican was holding this referendum, because once she participated, it would mean that she had given up a certain degree of autonomy in the spiritual world, allowing others to interfere with her spiritual choices.
And the brain worm can use this to devour her will!
It is better to rely on oneself than on others. Shang Jingyan did not bother to save any energy for the next battle and began to release his mental power frantically, trying to break through the shackles.
"I vote for..." However, at this moment, a different male voice suddenly sounded.
He stuttered several times before finally saying, "I vote for... Shang Jingyan!"
The male paper figure was very tall, with slightly curly chestnut hair that reached his shoulders. He was wearing an apron over his home clothes, with a goose clumsily painted on the corner of the apron.
After shouting this, his outline suddenly became much clearer and he no longer looked like a ridiculous dummy.
The audience suddenly became quiet. All the paper figures turned their heads to look at him. It was dark and eerie.
Shang Jingyan was stunned. Is this... Pei Yi?
After she broke the illusion, the rest of the dream builders should have been forced to log out in an instant, and only the residual data should be left in the illusion at this moment.
And because of the collapse of the architecture network, ordinary players probably can't play "Master of the Stars" now - under normal circumstances, this is a serious operational error, and their entire team has to hold a press conference to apologize.
But the one speaking at this moment was obviously Pei Yi's own consciousness!
With a whoosh, a bright red love heart flew out from his body.
Yes, not from his mouth, but from his heart.
Love fell behind Shang Jingyan, and in an instant, Shang Jingyan felt that the stiffness in his body was relieved a lot.
The next moment, the second alien appeared.
In the crowd, a young woman wearing glasses straightened her chest and said firmly: "I want to vote for Shang Jingyan too!"
It was as if a switch was turned on, and similar sounds became more and more common.
"I vote for Shang Jingyan."
"Shang Jingyan!"
“I want to vote for Director Shang!”
Shang Jingyan was shocked, this meant that in the real world they chose to log back into "Stellaris" and become her supporters!
For ordinary people, entering such a turbulent mental fantasy would risk cavitation, but they still came.
In the audience, there were dream builders, internet celebrities, and ordinary players who stood up. Those Shang Jingyan knew and those he didn't knew all showed their support.
The originally noisy sounds were gradually twisted into one and gathered into a torrent.
The players broke free from their paper bodies one after another, revealing their true appearances. Shang Jingyan saw Zu Lingwei with a head full of white hair, and Jiang Yuran, a student audience member she had met before.
The love from everyone's heart piled up into a small mountain, and the surging love almost drowned Shang Jingyan physically.
——Consciousness can be distorted and falsified, but the heartbeats that once occurred because of her cannot be faked.
The votes of the three people gradually became indistinguishable, and Shang Jingyan's votes increased the fastest. Her fingers were warmed up again, and she could move them, and her skin was healthy and smooth.
The "World Will", that is, Wa behind the scenes, seemed to be angry. The sky darkened and a huge lightning-shaped mouth opened up, but it could not stop Shang Jingyan from getting more and more votes.
So, Wa began to forcibly close the voting channel.
"Illegal votes are invalid."
“Illegal voting…”
"Invalid, invalid..."
Shang Jingyan's vote growth was forced to slow down, but at this moment, a small, childish figure suddenly rushed up from the stage.
She has black hair and green eyes just like Shang Jingyan. Her facial features and body shape are as standard as a robot.
Shang Jingyan was sure that he had never seen this child before, but he was immediately sure of her identity: it was X71, "Xia Chiyi"!
Xia Chiyi held a glittering golden crown in his hand, with stars engraved on it.
The paper people controlled by Wa stretched out their hands and tried to obstruct her like crazy, their bodies already twisted beyond normal human proportions; while the players tried to stop the paper monsters, the two sides were in a stalemate.
The little figure had more and more trouble walking. She fell down.
But before she fell, she threw the crown in her hand high up: "Yanyan!!"
Shang Jingyan's hands were finally able to move, and she grabbed the crown without thinking.
The stars on the crown were shining and hot. Shang Jingyan was fearless and put it on his head to crown himself.
The voting outcome has been decided.
A blazing white light burst out from the Star Crown, burning the paper man world to ashes.
Shang Jingyan did not let down her guard, this was only her first confrontation with Wa. Fortunately, with the participation of the players, she regained the spiritual power that she had given up.
Darkness fell again, and she returned to the ruins. Scarlet liquid slowly seeped out of Wa's eyeballs, and heavy rain fell from the sky.
The rain was all over the sky. The raindrops were hot and red like blood, with a pungent smell. The picture was reflected in every raindrop.
Before Shang Jingyan had time to catch her breath, those scenes flooded into her eyes.
In an instant, countless images, countless sounds, and countless information flooded into Shang Jingyan's mind.
She saw countless monsters, following her everywhere, wandering around. Some of them were her own creations, and some were from other people's works that she remembered. But even a horror film director would be equally helpless in the face of real horror. The monsters tore her body apart and devoured her spirit.
She saw that after she failed in her fight against Nuwa, the brain worm would no longer use the gentler method it had before to extract emotions, but would instead manipulate humans and lock them up in holographic game cabins like captive livestock.
The people of the Alliance will forever indulge in fantasy and create beautiful emotions for the brainworms. Such a plot has been described by countless dream builders in literary works, and it will become a reality.
She saw that in the future divided society, people would no longer be grateful to her, but would resentfully refute everything she did as wishful thinking. Without her, the Alliance would not have to face the existence of the brain worms, and naturally there would be no subsequent disasters.
She saw that she had won this time, but the brain worms were not completely eliminated. Humans did not have the ability to do so. Many years later, they returned and the entire human society was turned into a living hell. The brain worms slaughtered opponents, and she herself was the first to bear the brunt. All the black sheep died, and the remaining people were all docile white sheep...
She saw countless futures and countless terrifying scenes, all of which were possibilities simulated by Wa based on reality, and each one made her tremble.
But she couldn't choose not to look, because some of them were the worries that she had been carrying in her heart, and at this moment they were selected and magnified by the brain worm.
Because her mental strength was so strong, she was able to see every sad development at the same time.
Shang Jingyan's forehead was covered with cold sweat. If she could sense reality now, she would know that her body and clothes as she lay in the holographic chamber were soaked with cold sweat.
Wa only let her see these images, but Shang Jingyan understood what He wanted to convey -
Don't you like to create fear?
So what will you do when you find yourself in endless fear?
The fear almost overwhelmed her, forming a traumatic pain. Shang Jingyan couldn't help but hunch over and squat, covering her face and head, tears overflowing from her pupils. She didn't really want to cry, it wasn't her style, but the physiological reaction was really unbearable.
In a scene that was right before her eyes, she saw herself succeed, but X71 was inspired by the brain worm again. They were originally of the same species, so what was so strange about this? So X71 betrayed her and destroyed her mental picture when she trusted it the most.
Anger, pain, sadness, timidity... negative emotions came all at once, impacting Shang Jingyan's reason.
"Don't look!!" X71 shouted. After losing the protection of Shang Jingyan's mental barrier, it could only be crushed to the ground by Wa's intimidation, and tried hard to get closer to Shang Jingyan, "Don't listen to what He said, it's all fake, I will never-"
Its voice was blocked by Wa.
Also disappearing were the sounds that came with the countless images. The world suddenly became silent, with only Wa's eyeballs floating quietly in the sky.
Theoretically, brain worms do not have vocal organs, but Shang Jingyan heard Wa's voice.
"You are different from other humans. You don't need to resist us. Stop fighting now and we can shake hands and make peace."
The distortion was different from what Monk Jingyan had imagined. It was actually a gentle and solemn female voice. But if one listened carefully, one could not distinguish the voice or timbre.
Like Shang Song, like Dai Bole, like Chai Yuanlin, like Zu Lingwei... like all the elders she is familiar with, it is easy for people to fall for him and listen to his teachings.
"Why must you cling to fear? Follow us, child, and you will find everlasting happiness and peace."
Shang Jingyan squatted on the ground with his knees hugged, his eyes gradually losing focus and his expression becoming distracted.
"Permanent, happiness?" she murmured unconsciously.
"The future just now is so scary. If you choose to resist, you will always live in fear."
Shang Jingyan repeated in a low voice: "Live in fear forever."
"And even you are one who succumbs to fear."
Shang Jingyan lowered his head: "Even me, too..."
“Yan Yan!!”
X71 was so anxious that he broke through the pressure, jumped up and down, trying desperately to wake up Shang Jingyan.
Wa is still trying to persuade Shang Jingyan to become one with them, which shows that her ability is so strong that even Wa is not sure she can defeat her head-on.
But if she fell into the spiritual and verbal inducement of Wa, she would never be able to get out of it!
"I am……"
Wa narrowed her black eyelids and encouraged Shang Jingyan to continue speaking. She seemed to have already grasped the victory, and even the air seemed to loosen slightly.
X71's heart sank to the bottom.
However, the next moment, Shang Jingyan slowly stood up, his eyes had refocused, as calm as a deep, dark pool.
She said word by word: "—I am the one who controls fear."
The huge eyeball suddenly froze, and Wa suddenly launched an illusion attack again, but nothing happened.
Hulala——
A group of black crows suddenly appeared on the ruins of the building, a grinning clown squatted on the wall, bright red embroidered shoes dangled in the corridor, and a pale hand stretched out from the mud...
X71 said in surprise: "Yanyan!?"
It turned out that Shang Jingyan had never fallen into Wa's rhythm from the beginning, but pretended to be in a state of decline in exchange for a brief moment of clarity, and then took advantage of that opportunity to take control of this illusion!
The images she once created now fill this place.
"Do you have any other tricks?" Shang Jingyan smiled and said, "It's my turn to fight back."
Countdown to the end!
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