Chapter 49 The Infinite Boss Invites You to "Eat Melon" 49. You...
An endless sky, and a black smiling face gradually filling the entire sky—
This was a terrifying scene that had haunted the minds of all Blue Star people and all Golden Water Star people day and night, and it is now a horrifying sight revealed before Lu Yu's eyes.
As Ji Chengchuan lay dying, Smile Game appeared.
Fear, trembling, and bewilderment are almost like seeds planted in the hearts of all players of Smile Game. When they see it and feel it, the seeds will sprout and grow vigorously.
Lu Yu was no longer a player, but the emotions in his heart had not diminished in the slightest.
But compared to the fear, trembling, and bewilderment, what filled his heart more was anger, hatred, fearless killing intent, and resentment!
Before seeing that smiling face again, Lu Yu never knew he could unleash such intense and profound hatred. This hatred had been buried for so long, so long that he thought he had long since blurred it. But the truth was, it was still fresh, still fiery, still burning with a painful flame that almost tore his chest apart.
A friend's smile, a companion's words of advice, a teacher's sigh, a lover's tears...
Nine years ago, five years ago, two days ago, images flowed through his mind like a stream, so clear they seemed to appear before his eyes.
He had lost so much, and he was so reluctant to part with so much.
The hatred reached its peak the moment it was ignited, and after that peak came endless calm.
Lu Yu calmly gazed at that smiling face, seemingly without thinking anything, only his deep black eyes revealing a sharp killing intent that rolled within their unfathomable depths.
“You don’t seem surprised.”
A smiling face scrutinized the main characters standing in the center, while a cold, mechanical voice came from high above, like the murmur of a god.
"You won't let Ji Chengchuan die easily."
Pei Yanzhi answered it.
The young man stood amidst the void of wind and space, his eyes blazing with murderous intent, yet a smile played on his lips, a smile tinged with deadly coldness: "You were bound to make a move, but I didn't expect..."
I never expected Smile Games to actually come in person.
Yes, Lu Yu and Pei Yanzhi knew that given the secret relationship between Smiling Game and Ji Chengchuan, Smiling Game would inevitably intervene if Ji Chengchuan faced a deadly situation. However, based on their understanding of Smiling Game and their speculation about the current situation, they remained ambiguous about Smiling Game's personal arrival.
They don't believe it will arrive now; it has always been in a state of incomplete recovery and fears attracting the attention of the Blue Star consciousness.
However, anything can happen unexpectedly. In order to guard against such an event, Lu Yu and his team made corresponding preparations for the possibility of the Smiling Game personally arriving.
"Didn't expect me to make a move now?" A smile spread across his face, widening into a large arc. "Actually, I didn't really want to show up now either; it's too unbecoming and lacks a sense of grandeur and mystery. But you've all been too much trouble, and the time has come. Even if I don't want to, I have no choice but to make my move."
"I have to get everything back on track."
Lu Yu, Pei Yanzhi, and Ji Chengchuan, who were in the center circle, along with many other S-level players, had naturally seen this "humanized" side of Smiling Game more than once, but other ordinary players had not.
They stared wide-eyed in astonishment at the smiling face that had spoken, a trembling thought running through their minds.
At this moment, more than a mechanical construct, the Smiling Game seems like a sentient being with independent consciousness, a being that controls and manipulates them at will...
"you--!"
Someone's lips trembled, and they spoke instinctively.
The words were barely uttered when suddenly black smoke billowed out, pollution erupted, and in an instant, before even a scream could be heard, it disintegrated into a pool of stinking, rotten flesh.
A collective gasp of horror immediately filled the air.
"Please refrain from making noise when I'm discussing serious matters; it's a matter of courtesy."
A smiling face swept over the players who had arrived like dumplings being dropped into a pot. The mechanical voice was gentle, but the rotten flesh in the air writhed even more, no longer retaining any consciousness.
Now there wasn't even a gasp.
The players had various expressions, but dared not make a sound.
Lu Yu's expression hardened slightly. While guessing what Smile Game meant by "back on track," he asked, "You've shown yourself now, are you here for a final battle?"
"decisive battle?"
Smiling face seemed to have heard something funny, the corners of her mouth almost splitting to the corners of her eyes, "There has never been any talk of a decisive battle between us."
"What do you mean?" Lu Yu raised his eyebrows.
He suddenly thought of something and tentatively asked, "Did you tamper with the divine fragments?"
"Hands and feet? Not really," the smiling face made no attempt to hide anything. "You've probably already guessed, haven't you? That's right, the third fragment of divine power no longer exists. Five years ago, when your divine power shattered, I took it away. I couldn't fuse with or digest it, but I could, with a little effort, shatter it when it was at its weakest."
"Do you see the ruins of the fallen god beneath your feet?"
“Every inch of its air is made of powdered fragments of divine essence… You didn’t expect that, did you, Lu Yu? Your divine essence will never be complete!”
"What three unclaimed godhood fragments and three story missions? I was just kidding you."
"If there's no carrot dangling in front of a donkey, it will always develop uncontrollable ambitions, won't it? At least for now, look, you're walking on the established path, obediently chasing the fragments of divinity. What a diligent and good donkey, hahahaha... Such a donkey couldn't do anything to me when it had divinity. Now that divinity can never be restored, how can it be compared to me?"
A smiling face bursts into unrestrained laughter.
The vague guess in his mind was directly confirmed, and Lu Yu's heart sank, but his expression remained unchanged. He simply stared calmly at that smiling face: "Since I am a good donkey that walks honestly on the road, then what is your 'getting back on track'? If you want to get back on track, then you must have deviated from it first."
"Or has something unexpected happened that is beyond your control?"
"This unexpected event made you sense the danger, and you had to take action in advance, risking insufficient energy and the possibility of being discovered by the consciousness of Earth, to prevent the 'story' from leading to an ending you did not want to see."
“This accident is related to me,” he said sharply. “Your ‘back on track’ is to get rid of me. But you’re not really that confident you can do it, even if I’ve only fused two fragments. If I had, why would you waste so much time talking to us? Just do it.”
Lu Yu's gaze remained fixed on the smiling face: "Since you're not entirely confident either, why don't we talk? No one says there's no way to have the best of both worlds..."
He felt uneasy and tried to provoke the hidden meaning of the Smiling Game.
“Oh, the analysis above is very good,” a slight smile appeared on his face, “but there’s no need to talk. I know what you’re trying to do: stall for time, wait for the consciousness of Blue Star to awaken, and get more help. It’s too obvious. You think I also have concerns and will go along with your little scheme to stall, but unfortunately, although I am indeed waiting for something, it’s not my concerns, but some preparations to mobilize enough power to kill you.”
A smirk played on its lips: "For example... a massive pollution outbreak on Earth?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the azure planet below suddenly trembled.
Everyone looked down in astonishment.
After a brief moment of silence, thick, dark clouds suddenly exploded in every corner of the planet, and in the blink of an eye, they merged into a vast ocean, engulfing the entire planet.
Blue Star seemed to sense something and began to tremble even more violently.
All the thousands of instances exploded according to their level of contamination.
The earth cracked, the oceans boiled, volcanoes erupted, mountains twisted—all the scenes that one might expect at the end of the world appeared at once, all at once, in an instant.
The blue planet trembled, as if humanity were writhing and convulsing in unbearable pain.
Some force is slowly awakening from the depths of the earth, wanting to open its eyes.
"This is insane...this is absolutely insane!"
The players screamed in terror.
"You dare to do this? Aren't you afraid that the consciousness of Blue Star will awaken immediately?" Lu Yu's expression grew even colder.
How dare Smile Games ignite pollution right now!
A smile crept across his face: "I'm scared, so I'm gambling. I'm gambling on whether you'll die first or it will wake up first. Of course, you can also choose not to die, just watch the pollution erupt on Earth, ignore it, and not purify it. It's no big deal. Anyway, you don't have any family here anymore, so you don't have anything to worry about, right?"
Lu Yu sensed something was wrong, but he could no longer hide it.
He couldn't simply ignore or fail to purify the planet. If he did, by the time the world's consciousness awakened, Earth would have already completely collapsed. Fortunately, he hadn't entirely been unprepared for this situation.
Gazing at the ongoing eruptions and pollution, Lu Yu reached out without hesitation and grabbed in a certain direction.
A wisp of cloud drifted by.
Two fragments of divine power within his body were activated, and the pendant that Pei Yan had hung around Lu Yu's neck the night before flew out—the light of the three fragments of divine power converged, releasing an invisible force of attraction under the guidance of the peculiar patterns.
As if drawn by something, the wisp of cloud suddenly moved. It dissolved, condensed, and changed, transforming itself into a streak of light, both actively and passively, and then disappeared into the silvery-blue sun behind Lu Yu.
Pei Yanzhi's pendant melted away, followed closely by hers.
Lu Yu groaned, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He forcibly fused the pendant and the second fragment of divine power ahead of schedule!
Indeed, the second fragment of divinity they couldn't find was a cloud in the sky.
They searched everything on the ground, even a single grain of sand on the beach, but why couldn't they find it? Mai boldly explored Rainbow Shell Island; the first exploration point indicated its existence, but the second showed it wasn't there. Why? What about the conversation after lunch and the sudden overcast sky during the beach volleyball game?
Because the second fragment of divinity is a cloud.
A cloud that grows closer to the island each day, appearing more distant than ever before.
It is in the sky, so even if it burrows to the earth's core, you can't see its trace. That's why it's easy for Mai Dadan to detect it when he transforms into a bird. That's why after it gets close to Lu Yu, Lu Yu's head is always less illuminated by the blazing sun and more covered by dark clouds.
Yesterday afternoon, after another small group meeting, Lu Yu and his group boldly guessed the possibility of the existence of this second fragment of divine essence, and secretly verified it.
Lu Yu originally wanted to wait for natural fusion, but he also knew that there was a high possibility of problems along the way, so he studied all night and came up with a way to fuse ahead of time from his past memories.
Now, he was glad he had made this preparation, even though such haste had flaws in his divinity, but he couldn't wait any longer.
"Purify!"
Lu Yu spoke in a deep voice.
The flowing clouds returned, rapidly replenishing the silver-blue sun's interior along with the pendant. The sun's light blazed brightly, and its purifying power was immediately unlocked, upgrading from passive to active, its power increasing more than a hundredfold.
Lu Yu stretched out his arms, and the scepter spread out with dazzling light.
His second power of rule, "Purification," was unleashed at full force, transforming into a meteor shower that instantly enveloped the entire blue planet, falling in profusion.
On the ground, people were running around in panic amidst the sudden disaster when suddenly, an unusual light appeared in the sky, and countless silver-blue stars fell down towards them.
High in the sky, endless pollution poured into Lu Yu's body, and his face turned pale instantly, but he was able to hold on due to the surge in purification power.
After Lu Yu left the game, Smiling Game had no way to kill him directly and could only resort to this indirect method. Lu Yu had suspected this, but he didn't expect Smiling Game to actually do it.
Is it really not afraid of waking up the blue planet?
If he wasn't afraid, why was he so cautious before? If he was afraid, why is he suddenly acting recklessly now? Also, with such a commotion, why hasn't Blue Star woken up yet? Five years ago, he remembered it waking up very quickly…
"As expected, killing you won't be so easy."
The smiling face suddenly twisted and rushed closer.
Lu Yu stared coldly at it. The silver-blue sun hung high, and endless destruction and purification turned into chaos, suddenly attacking it, wanting to tear it apart.
The smiling face suddenly surged with black energy, and its core began to emerge under the tearing force of the rules.
Pei Yanzhi also took out the forbidden item, but instead of fusing it, he used spatial power to drive it, cooperating with Lu Yu to frantically attack Xiao Lian, while secretly shifting the position of the already unconscious Ji Chengchuan.
“My divine status is incomplete, but so what?” Lu Yu narrowed his eyes. “You haven’t recovered either. We’re evenly matched. Let’s see who can outmaneuver whom this time.”
Her smile froze for a moment, she stared at Lu Yu intently for two seconds, then suddenly burst into laughter, her dark aura churning: "Good, good, good! It seems you really haven't remembered, then I'm relieved!"
"It tastes just like it did five years ago."
With a cheerful smile, he said, "Extremely arrogant, thinking he can kill me and destroy my core, but in reality, it's just the futile struggle of an ant, a trivial 'plot' that will be glossed over in a few lines."
"Alright, I was planning to play with you a little longer, but you haven't remembered anything, so never mind. Since the pollution of Blue Star isn't enough to crush you, let's add a little more, how about adding a Mercury Star? It's already connected to Blue Star through countless players, you can't escape it even if you want to, unless you abandon Blue Star along with it, would you?"
Yes, there's no way to kill Lu Yu directly, but why be so direct when you want to kill someone? As long as you grasp his weakness, he'll have no choice but to submit to being slaughtered.
As the mechanical voices rang out, the more distant and invisible planet Mercury suddenly shook violently, erupting in cities, forests, and oceans with thick black gas capable of engulfing everything.
The humans of Jinshui were caught completely off guard and plunged into a hellish ordeal.
High in the sky, double the pollution suddenly surged in, and Lu Yu's body shuddered. Blood-red cracks silently appeared in his limbs and bones. The scepter in his hand trembled violently, and the crown, as if being squeezed, made a cracking sound under the unbearable pressure.
Lu Yu's heart sank suddenly.
He could barely cope with the pollution from Earth, but with the addition of Mercury and Venus, he was somewhat unable to digest it.
The Smiling Game actually dared to ignite pollution on Mercury...
"What exactly happened to the world consciousness of Blue Star and Mercury Star?" Lu Yu asked sternly.
The Smiling Game was so brazen that even if Lu Yu didn't believe it, he had to guess that the world's consciousness could never awaken again.
He didn't want his guess to be true; the World Consciousness had never been absent from their plans. This wasn't because they relied on it too much, but because just last night, Lu Yushang had used the power of rules to sense it and communicate with it. Given how cunning Ji Chengchuan and the Smiling Game were, no amount of precaution was excessive.
But... why was his Blue Star consciousness able to respond last night, yet now it's suppressing his heart and remaining silent?
"World consciousness?"
His smile twisted, filled with malice: "To be honest, I really don't know what they're doing, why they abandoned you, or why you haven't woken up yet. If I had to know anything, I only know that you're 'destined' not to beat me. Whether it's an accident or something else, you're bound to 'lose' and 'fail'."
"What do you mean?" Lu Yu vaguely realized something.
"I have no obligation to provide answers to losers." He smiled smugly.
Lu Yu's legs had rapidly disintegrated, turning into black mud, rotten flesh, and wriggling maggots.
Cracks were spreading all over his body.
"...Three, four, five, how much longer can you hold on?"
With a smile, she read the seconds, watching the bloody scene of Lu Yu being destroyed inch by inch by pollution: "I told you, don't struggle, it's useless. No matter what you do, it's useless. This is 'destined'."
Lu Yu stared intently at the smiling face, his eyes pitch black.
Nothing is predetermined. The fact that the world's consciousness has not awakened does not mean they are doomed, as long as... there are more fragments of divinity.
His gaze flickered as he fixed his eyes on Ji Chengchuan.
"You dare!"
The smile suddenly twisted into a grimace.
Almost instantly, the pollution expanded dramatically.
To prevent Lu Yu from continuing to merge, Smiling Game stood firmly in front of Ji Chengchuan, engulfing Lu Yu with even more intense pollution.
The power of rules is at its peak.
Lu Yu's figure suddenly twisted and blurred, and he grabbed at it forcefully without regard for anything else.
Silver blue collides with deep black!
Lu Yu let out a painful roar.
He extended his fingers inch by inch.
The palm, starting from the fingertips, rapidly dissolved, yet its power remained. It was gradually approaching the two remaining fragments, mostly intact, that Ji Chengchuan had not yet fused with.
"Lu Yu!"
The smiling face shrieked: "It's useless! Even if you fuse another hundred fragments, it won't help! The Fallen God Ruins are under my control. You will forever be missing the last piece, and your godhood will never be complete! You cannot defeat me!"
Lu Yu ignored him, focusing intently on the two fragments, his power surging fiercely.
In the final moment, the power of the rules surged forth, drawn by a silver-blue light, about to seize—
But at that very last moment, Ji Chengchuan suddenly raised his hand.
"impossible……"
Ji Chengchuan's eyes were eerily black, and the corners of his mouth twitched up, exactly like the smiling face in the air. "You, and Pei Yanzhi... go to hell, go to hell!"
Lu Yu's eyes flashed with anger, and he grabbed Ji Chengchuan by the neck.
In an instant, the pollution within Ji Chengchuan's body erupted without warning.
Like the last straw that broke the camel's back, in an instant, Lu Yu felt as if he had been run over by a giant oncoming vehicle, his mouth, nose, and chest all making cracking sounds, filled with a fishy, sweet smell.
At that very moment, a pair of hands embraced him from behind.
"Boyfriend, I'm sorry, I broke my promise."
Pei Yanzhi's gentle aura wafted over, suppressing the thick stench of blood around Lu Yu and the relentless corruption within his body.
Lu Yu suddenly turned around.
The young man's chest shimmered with five-colored light, the appearance of the forbidden object that Lu Yu had secretly gleaned from the great prophet the night before when he learned the truth about the misunderstanding.
The young man pressed tightly against Lu Yu's back, his voice as soft as the wind: "I've been feeling uneasy these past two days about the closing of the hunting plan, so..."
So, in the early hours of this morning, I went to Venus behind your back and obtained the forbidden item. It was originally just a precaution, but I never expected it would actually come in handy.
Lu Yu understood what the young man hadn't finished saying.
His pupils trembled, almost dripping blood.
"Inkstone..."
“You promised, we’d fight side by side,” Pei Yanzhi’s amber eyes looked at me, as captivating as ever, “In moments like this, I can’t just stand behind you; I have to step forward, right?”
Lu Yu realized something, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he reached out to grab him, but he was corrupted by the pollution and was fighting against the Smiling Game, so his movements were too slow.
But Pei Yanzhi was quick; he was like the wind, like the mist. The moment Pei Yanzhi reached out, he was already gone, brushing past him and rushing towards the emerging core area of the game.
Lu Yu couldn't catch the wind and let out a broken roar.
The Smiling Game shrieks.
It was fighting against Lu Yu with all its might when, caught off guard, it was pierced through by the sharp blade of space, revealing its core.
Pei Yanzhi glanced back one last time and smiled gently.
This was the path he had chosen long ago.
If it's not needed, he's willing to give it up; if it is needed, he'll go without hesitation.
The forbidden object shone brightly.
That was the remnant core of the consciousness of the White Horse Star world.
After White Horse Star was devoured, it somehow ended up on Golden Water Star, where Pei Yanzhi unintentionally obtained it. World consciousness inherently rejects and suppresses pollution, making it a major enemy of game pollution.
However, the remnant core is ultimately just a remnant core, not the world consciousness itself.
The bright light lasted only a moment before quickly dimming and disappearing from Lu Yu's eyes.
His liver and gallbladder were ruptured, his heart stopped beating for a moment, and he could not hear any sound.
At that very moment, the suppressive force of the forbidden object allowed Lu Yu's power of rules to pierce through the barrier, severing Ji Chengchuan's arm and entangling the two fragments.
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Author's Note: Pei Yanzhi: Is filming wrapped?
Lu Yu: No! I won't allow it! Waaaaah!
Author: [Eating melon] What are you guys doing? The ending isn't until the next chapter!
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