Chapter 221
The cloaked figure stared silently at Xie Xubai, his embarrassment and rage clearly visible on his face. If gazes could materialize, Xie Xubai would probably have been torn to pieces long ago.
The game was going badly, the psychological standoff plummeted, and even his hidden identity was forced to be exposed.
One can imagine how furious he must have been.
Based on Xie Xubai's experience, as long as such an irritable and easily angered person can be pushed to the point of explosion, then the opponent's collapse and defeat will not be far off.
However.
After a few heavy breaths, it suddenly closed its eyes and chuckled without warning.
It wasn't the kind of laughter that comes from extreme anger; it was light and cheerful, with a hint of appreciative mockery.
The cloaked figure reached up and wiped his face, like a mask being changed in a play, as if the cognitive interference covering him was being torn off.
“ta” became “他”.
Her naturally beautiful features are as if bestowed by the gods; her eyebrows and eyes are gently curved, shimmering with light, just like the lingering mist and rain of Jiangnan in June, soothing the heart.
Xie Xubai knew this face all too well; he would look at it in the mirror every morning.
But it's definitely not this gentle smile that exudes an air of wickedness.
With Xie Xubai leaning over half the chessboard, the cloaked figure also moved closer.
The two closed the distance rapidly, almost seeing each other's reflections in each other's pupils.
Xie Xubai forcibly split his soul and absorbed a large number of memory fragments in a short period of time, which greatly stimulated the cloaked man whose true nature was exposed.
Due to various factors, both of them appeared pale and sickly.
The cloaked figure suddenly reached out, abruptly turning downwards to grab Xie Xubai's throat.
Xie Xubai tilted his head and stepped back, dodging the attack.
The cloaked figure wasn't embarrassed at all. He casually propped his cheek with his empty hand and said slowly, "Yes, I originally wanted to reveal my identity a little later to create a small surprise for you and your friends. But you're so eager to acknowledge me. If I didn't comply with your wishes, wouldn't I be unromantic?"
His demeanor changed, his personality changed, as if he had become a completely different person in the blink of an eye.
At this moment, Xie Xubai could finally confirm that the sense of disconnect he had repeatedly felt from the cloaked man was not an illusion.
The personality I saw before was arrogant and unable to handle stimulation, but now...
Suddenly, Xie Xubai caught a glimpse of a surging black mist out of the corner of his eye.
Bang!
A transparent barrier rose around the cloaked figure, withstanding the murderous blow from the evil god's husk. The collision generated a violent aftershock that rippled outwards in a circular motion, causing the entire ink-wash space to tremble.
Xie Xubai quickly called out, "Yan Shuo!"
The black mist bared its fangs and claws, its disgust for the cloaked figure relentless—it disliked imposters and subconsciously feared the impending conspiracy against Xie Xubai.
The cloaked figure suddenly spoke: "Seeing this face makes you angry, doesn't it?"
He raised his chin, met the golden-red vertical pupils of the evil god's body, and said with a smile, "What if it's like this?"
Like magic, the cloaked figure's attire transformed into a silver-white military uniform in the blink of an eye.
Large patches of blood seeped out from his chest, a glaringly bright red.
His already pale face rapidly turned ashen, cold sweat poured down his face, and his breath gradually became lighter, almost imperceptible.
The cloaked figure smiled at the evil god's body, revealing a gentle and optimistic smile, and said weakly, "Using me alone to give everyone another chance is a very good deal..."
boom!
The pupils of the evil god's body shrank suddenly, and unimaginable pain surged forth like a tidal wave.
His soul seemed to fall into a cold, desolate abyss, and the surrounding noise receded like the tide.
Someone was lying in His arms, being held tightly in His embrace. He looked down and saw a severely wounded, pale face.
That was Xie Xubai, Xie Xubai who was about to die.
The wound spread from Xie Xubai's chest cavity, and his wounded soul shattered inch by inch. No matter how much power He poured in, He could not save the young man's ever-draining vitality.
He roared and cried out, pleading desperately with all the gods and Buddhas in the heavens, but no one in the vast world responded to his despair.
The young man looked at Him with grief, his lips trembling uncontrollably, and his breath seemed to be filled with an indescribable burning pain.
Pain, sorrow, reluctance, and unwillingness... In less than half a second, the young man suppressed all his intense longing for the world and the many words he wanted to say.
Only a weak, feeble voice remained in the ears of the evil god's body, gently and strongly comforting Him even in His dying moments.
Don't cry, sweetie, don't cry anymore.
It's okay. Using me alone to give everyone another chance is a great deal.
You will meet many wonderful people, don't be sad...
Upon seeing this, Xie Xubai immediately recalled that dream, his expression changed drastically, and his first reaction was to look at the body of the evil god.
Even when Yan Shuo was still conscious, he could not bear Xie Xubai's death, and his body, which acted entirely on instinct, could not withstand it for even half a second. A terrifying pressure suddenly erupted from his body!
The black mist condensed into thick tentacles, sweeping across every corner of the ink-wash space with immense force. The shadowy figures were ferocious, like a horde of demons dancing wildly. The space trembled under the strain, and the fish monsters at the bottom of the lake were terrified.
The violent tremor reached Xie Xubai's feet, and the scene before him shook violently, making it difficult for him to sit still.
No kidding, the space right in front of us is just a hair's breadth away from complete collapse!
Xie Xubai swiftly manipulated the golden light to encircle the enraged and out-of-control evil god's body, hurriedly saying, "I'm still alive! Yan Shuo! I'm not dead, I'm right here! Right in front of you!"
The evil god's body did not respond the first time, but after being pulled a second time by Xie Xubai, it finally trembled and lowered its head.
Unexpectedly, the cloaked man opened his mouth and revealed a shocking secret: "Xie Xubai, looking at how energetic you are now, who would have thought that your soul was once shattered and almost couldn't be saved?"
Xie Xubai paused slightly, looking at him coldly.
The cloaked man grinned at him.
"No recollection at all? Of course. Just as Stephen doesn't know how much determination you made before using the Devouring ability for him, you also don't know that the Evil God rushed into the void to confront the Outer God in order to snatch your soul fragments back from the system."
"Those are living, breathing Outer Gods, not some little simulation in a game. They stand eternally in the universe, manipulating the laws of dimensions with ease. After a fierce battle between the evil gods and them in a higher-dimensional universe, guess what?"
"Your mistress had almost half of her divinity," the cloaked man said sarcastically, "and just like that, it's gone."
"What's even more pitiful is that when He returns, barely alive, carrying your soul fragments, He discovers that your soul cannot withstand even the slightest taint of evil power. Moreover, His power is always violent and cannot be pieced together at all."
He could only drag his wounded body to take you to heaven and earth, asking the four righteous gods for help. However, the true forms of the righteous gods have a natural suppressive power against evil spirits, and being exposed to them is like being burned by raging fire...
"Heh, if the evil god were at his peak, of course he wouldn't care about such an attack. But back then, he risked half his life to save you. Do you think he would still have the strength to withstand the divine power of the righteous god?"
Don't listen, don't believe.
Xie Xubai kept telling himself this, but as the cloaked man revealed those secrets, his fingernails uncontrollably dug deep into his palms, oozing a thick, hot liquid.
"Stop struggling. You can't remain indifferent because you know I'm telling the truth."
A hint of a smile appeared in the cloaked figure's eyes, as if he were enjoying Xie Xubai's pain: "By the way, it was around that time that the system collected your data and then created me."
"At first, the system copied your data exactly, hoping you would deal with yourself. But it didn't work! You were too stubborn; you'd rather self-destruct than become a tool of the system. So the system could only make some minor changes to the original data..."
The cloaked figure made a point with his thumb and forefinger, then suddenly raised his hand, making a loud "whoosh whoosh" sound, and spread his arms out in a circle, his wide, bright eyes filled with a chilling smile.
"It's really just a small thing! It's just locking you in a virtual simulation room, making you unable to move, and letting you witness your former relatives and friends being tortured. You wish those red-hot irons, steel needles, and buzzing hacksaws could all be used on you. Several times you almost broke down, but for some reason you persevered—why did you persevere? Huh!?"
"Is morality, justice, and order really that important to you? Would it kill you to give them up?! To the entire universe, the human race is insignificant. What's the point of continuing even if we survive for a while?"
The cloaked man roared with a ferocious expression!
However, his madness only lasted for a moment. In the blink of an eye, he regained his gentle and elegant smile, like a moody and irritable lunatic, one second a storm, the next a bright and sunny day.
Perhaps he has already gone mad.
The cloaked figure frowned, mimicking the system's frustrated and exasperated expression: "Then the system realized that it wouldn't work. Even if you're just a copied piece of data, it can't use a virtual data character to bewitch you."
"So it made a few small, tiny, tiny... changes! For example, it thought that you had encountered too much kindness in your life, which is why you like humans so much, so it designed a curse on you, making you a jinx. Anyone who gets close to you will have terrible luck, ranging from injury to death, and thus they will hate you and try to kill you, but it's no use! You painfully blame yourself for all the mistakes, quietly ride your bike for a few kilometers, find a remote mountain and jump off, because you don't want to cause trouble for others before you die."
Good heavens! Are you the reincarnation of the Holy Father? I think that Buddha statue in the temple should just roll down and let you sit on it!
The cloaked figure slammed his hand on the table and laughed mockingly, "Then the system ran out of ideas again. Your soul is too pure! Too bright! It can't deal with you, so what can it do? It can only keep changing you! Changing your background, changing your experiences. Finally, when there was no other way, it thought of starting with the DNA sequence, changing genes, changing personality. When the original soul was completely unrecognizable, I became who I am now!"
The cloaked figure sat in a chair, covering his face and laughing incessantly, his fingernails digging nervously into his flesh, his chest heaving rapidly like a fish gasping for breath.
He quickly calmed down, his eyes were icy cold, but a gentle smile appeared on his lips as he politely bowed to Xie Xubai.
"Then, Xie Xubai, please allow me to reintroduce myself."
He called out Xie Xubai's name, savoring each syllable with tenderness, his bright eyes looking up, filled with a hatred that could devour the world.
"I am the survivor of millions of discarded designs, the Ship of Theseus rebuilt from the original components—"
“You can call me a survivor, or you can call me by my code name, Theseus.”
Xie Xubai remained silent.
His expression was cold and stern, completely calm. If it weren't for the golden light still steadily covering the body of the evil god, he would look no different from a statue.
The cloaked man—no, Theseus—examined the youth's expressionless face from head to toe.
If Xie Xubai's defenses were like armor before, then after regaining his memories, he built an impregnable wall ten thousand meters high.
Aside from the part where he couldn't control his emotions when he heard Yan Shuo save him, it was difficult to discern his true inner thoughts from his face at other times.
Theseus chuckled and sat back down listlessly: "I'm sure you've noticed that the Infinite Game in this life is quite different from before."
"In the past, the invasion wars of the high-dimensional insectoids were just beginner dungeons; ten starships could destroy half the Earth. Now, the trials have not only been changed to a localized game that players can understand, but the difficulty of the levels has also been drastically reduced, all thanks to your final sacrifice."
Xie Xubai finally spoke, pointing out the crux of the matter: "You think that my final sacrifice forced the system to change the rules of the game, or perhaps there is another premise—that I reached the god-level or quasi-god-level by absorbing power, and have the power to fight the system."
"In the first few levels, you really wanted to obey the system and kill me. But later, when I was rescued by the players, you saw that I had hope of becoming a god again, so you changed your mind and arranged for Stephen to appear in front of me. It seemed like you were destroying your own strategy, but you actually wanted me to absorb his divine power and replicate the situation from back then."
"That way you can use me to get rid of the system, and more quickly, let me take it down with me, and eliminate the two guys you hate the most in one go."
Theseus couldn't help but applaud, praising Xie Xubai's intelligence: "It's so easy talking to you."
He raised his chin: "It's also thanks to your lover causing trouble for the system on the other side, otherwise how would I have had the chance to tell you these truths?"
"But why should I do as you say?" Xie Xubai said indifferently, his emotions seemingly unchanged. "Just because you've seen me die so many times, does that mean I have to choose the path of sacrifice?"
Theseus was quite surprised by this rhetorical question, because it contained something he thought would never appear in Xie Xubai, such as self-pity.
Theseus asked with amusement, "Knowing about my terrible past, don't you feel any pity for me at all? Most of my misfortunes are because of you. How can you be so caring and attentive to a complete stranger, yet so heartless to me? Do you hate yourself that much?"
Xie Xubai didn't reply, but stared at him intently, not wanting to miss a single flaw, and said succinctly, "You are very calm, too calm."
"You're so sure I'll go back to my old ways, why? What's the basis for your confidence?"
Xie Xubai's eyes were sharp as a hawk's, capturing the most subtle and hidden mental fluctuation in the air, and he suddenly said: "It's the system."
"What is the system hiding in this infinite game?"
Theseus smirked and reset his cognitive interference: "You really have no secrets from me at all. How terrifying."
If we compare the system to a computer, then Theseus is the external data source that connects to the computer.
Originally, this data source was just a piece of regular code, but during the data verification process, it suddenly developed its own consciousness and became artificial intelligence.
How likely is it that artificial intelligence can spy on core data despite the system's multiple defenses? Is it truly confident or just bluffing?
These things were not revealed by Theseus.
"Want to know what I found? Sure. Just eat some of these guys as I tell you, and I'll tell you."
"Of course, you can choose to do nothing, it doesn't matter." Theseus looked at Xie Xubai with malice, his smile twisted indescribably. "But Xie Xubai, consider this a friendly reminder, this is your last chance. If you miss this opportunity, we'll all go to hell together."
Xie Xubai stared at him for a moment, then asked, "Who do you want me to eat?"
"Who? You've eaten quite a few before, it's hard to list them all in a short time." Theseus pretended to think for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "How about we start with Stephen?"
In the chessboard world, the giant boy took the initiative to approach Xie Xubai. His face, wrapped in golden light, showed no expression, only silent tears soaking the band of light and slowly seeping out from the gaps.
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