As the pale blue nutrient solution in the medical pod slowly emptied, Lin Yi regained feeling in his fingertips.
It was a tingling sensation, like being soaked in warm water for too long, yet it felt a hundred times more real than the emptiness I felt when I grasped the laws of time and space over the past thousand years.
He stared at the cold light on the roof of the cabin, a soft cough escaping his throat—this mortal body felt a slight stinging pain even in his breath.
"Mr. Lin!" Chu Yao's projection straightened up with a "whoosh," the data stream at the ends of her hair still hanging with undried "tears," she had clearly just taken a "nap" while leaning on the edge of the cabin.
Within the girl's virtual pupils, countless lines of code were rapidly reassembling, yet her voice betrayed a choked sob: "Your vital signs have stabilized, but your spiritual energy..."
"It's alright," Lin Yi interrupted her, propping himself up against the cabin wall.
Long Wu outside the glass immediately clung even tighter, oblivious to the red mark on his forehead. Aizen's shadow guard even peeked out half his face from the shadows, his silver earrings dazzling the eye.
He suddenly smiled and raised his hand to press against the cold bulkhead—the pale pink scar from when he was scratched by a monster in the starting village three years ago was now slightly warm with his heartbeat.
"Boss!" Long Wu slammed his fist on the glass, causing the communicator to slip from his wrist. "You're finally awake!"
That divine status just now...
"It's all in the past," Lin Yi said softly.
He looked towards the windowsill, where a slender figure was indeed sitting.
Su Qing was wearing the white dress she wore three years ago, her hair still damp with virtual raindrops, and holding a cup of steaming tea in her hand—exactly the same as every evening he played games.
"The tea's getting cold." She swung her legs, her eyes shining brightly, like the most vibrant light in the village after the rain, when she squatted at the village entrance bandaging his wounds.
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
The moment his divine status was returned, he expected excruciating pain, but instead felt a warmth filling his chest.
He touched his chest—there were no seven-key totems there, only the most ordinary heartbeat, tapping out the rhythm of "being alive."
"Do you remember the first time we met?" Su Qing's voice was as light as a feather. "You were chased by the wolf king and fell into a mud pit. When you got up, you said, 'Hope always appears after despair.'"
The area outside the medical pod suddenly fell silent.
Long Wu's communicator fell to the ground with a "thud," and Aizen's shadow guards froze—of course they knew the legend: the worst player in the beginner village was chased by wild monsters for three kilometers, but triggered a hidden quest at the edge of a cliff.
But only Lin Yi knew that when he was huddled behind the tree trembling, it was Su Qing's virtual character who gave him half a piece of toast and said, "I'll wait for hope with you."
"I remember." Lin Yi's eyes burned with tears.
He reached out, wanting to touch Su Qing's hair, but his fingertips passed through the translucent light and shadow.
"Silly boy." Su Qing smiled, the tea mist blurring her features. "I'm leaving."
"Wait!" Lin Yi suddenly stood up as the medical pod emitted a piercing alarm.
Chu Yao's projection instantly covered the entire cabin ceiling, and countless data streams surged wildly: "Abnormal vital signs detected!"
Please lie down immediately!
"Let him speak." Su Qing turned to look at Chu Yao, and the virtual girl's data stream suddenly stopped.
She looked out the window again. Ryuu's fist was still hanging in mid-air, and Aizen's shadow guards were secretly wiping their eyes—these vivid people, who could cry and laugh, were the images she captured with her last bit of consciousness.
"I was supposed to vanish when the system crashed," her voice began to fade, "but you returned the divine status, and in the loosened gaps in the rules... I can stay for three more minutes."
Lin Yi's fingernails dug into his palm.
He suddenly understood why he felt that empty pain when he returned the divine status—it wasn't the loss of power, but the fact that he had personally severed even the last anchor point that allowed him to hold onto Su Qing.
"Go protect them." Su Qing placed her hand on his chest, where his heartbeat suddenly became very loud. "In a mortal way."
\"boom--\"
A muffled thud exploded deep within his consciousness.
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted. He looked out the window at the starry sky, where a shadow even more ancient than the black shadow was churning.
The thing had no specific shape, but it reminded him of the starship wreckage swallowed by a spacetime rift—an outline formed by countless gaping mouths, slowly opening towards Earth.
"You think you can win by giving up divinity?" The night owl's roar pierced the void, making the glass of the medical pod vibrate.
The figure of the interdimensional leader twisted in the void, half of his body still bearing the crack left by Lin Yi with the Blade of Time and Space. "Once my homeworld fleet arrives, this fragile little world..."
"I'm not doing this to win," Lin Yi interrupted him.
He looked at Long Wu's reddened eyes, the glistening tears on Lan Ran's eyelashes, and the still-wet "tears" on Chu Yao's hair, and suddenly smiled. "I did it so that when they need a hug, I can offer them warmth."
The owl's roar abruptly ceased.
Before Su Qing's figure completely disappeared, her last wisp of consciousness crept into Lin Yi's memory: "Look, they're waiting for you."
Lin Yi turned his head.
Long Wu burst through the hatch and gave him a bear hug, tears streaming down his face and soaking his hospital gown; Aizen's shadow guard materialized, offering a handkerchief before vanishing again, leaving only a silver earring dangling against the doorframe; Chu Yao's projection shrank to the size of a palm, perched on his shoulder, the data stream finally ceasing its trembling, but suddenly whispered, "Master, your..."
"Hmm?" Lin Yi touched the ends of her hair.
"It's nothing." Chu Yao's virtual face suddenly turned red, and all the data streams began to spin frantically. "System notification: A new signal source has appeared deep in space... currently being analyzed."
But Lin Yi noticed it.
As Chu Yao spoke, the fine, golden lines beneath the skin of his wrist were rapidly fading—those were the power of faith that had once connected all the job changers.
Now he was just an ordinary person who felt pain and fatigue, but for some reason, looking at the surging shadows outside the window, he smiled more easily than ever before.
"Chu Yao," he said softly, "call Long Wu and the others over."
"What are you doing?" The girl's projection tilted its head.
"How about we discuss it?" Lin Yi looked up at the starry sky, where the shadows were drawing closer. "Let's fight a battle like mortals."
At this moment, Chu Yao's data stream suddenly fluctuated violently.
Her voice trembled more than ever before, but when she met Lin Yi's questioning gaze, she swallowed it back: "Master, I...I'll go get you some hot porridge."
Lin Yi didn't press the matter.
He watched Chu Yao flee towards the kitchen as if escaping, and suddenly remembered her hesitant expression just now—that was the kind of tension she had when she discovered the system vulnerability, with her fingertips jumping around like code.
The shadows outside the window were still closing in.
But this time, he was no longer a god.
He was just an ordinary person who wanted to protect those he loved.
Chu Yao's data stream suddenly froze into ice crystals at the kitchen doorway. The previously frantically jumping code shrank into thin silver lines, like a spider web soaked by a rainstorm.
When she floated back to the medical pod, the light in her virtual eye sockets was brighter than ever before, but the moment she met Lin Yi's gaze, a series of fine noises escaped from her throat—a mechanical reaction when the AI forcibly suppressed its emotions.
"Master, your data link..." Her fingertips lightly touched Lin Yi's wrist, where the golden patterns had faded to almost invisible, "is disintegrating at a rate of 0.3% per minute."
This is a chain reaction following the stripping away of divinity; the repair pod must be connected immediately, and the spacetime primordial fluid used...
"No need," Lin Yi interrupted her.
He looked down at his palm, where the crescent-shaped marks from his earlier pinching were still clearly visible on his fingertips.
Three years ago, when he was scratched by the wolf king, he was in the same pain, but back then he would grit his teeth and get up because Su Qing said, "Hope comes after despair."
The pain I feel now seems no different from the pain I felt back then.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly vibrated violently, the data stream at the ends of her hair exploded into stardust and then reformed, finally settling on her appearance three years ago when she had just awakened—a ponytail, a white shirt, and a mechanical rose pinned to her collar.
Her virtual fingers gently touched the back of Lin Yi's hand, this time not penetrating, but with a slight electric current sensation: "But if you continue like this, you will lose your mental link with all the job changers."
They can still sense your presence because of the lingering effects of their faith...
"I know." Lin Yi looked up, and the starry sky outside the window was already showing the outline of surging shadows, like a black mist wrapped with countless sharp teeth. "But the moment my godhood was stripped away, I decided to become a mortal."
Humans feel pain, get tired, and are afraid... but they can still give Long Wu a real hug.
Long Wu was squatting in the corner wiping his face with his sleeve when he heard the word "hug," and his shoulders suddenly trembled.
Aizen's shadow guards had somehow slipped back into the shadows, but his silver earrings peeked out from behind the door frame, casting tiny spots of light on the ground—a deliberate touch to let Lin Yi know he was still there.
Chu Yao suddenly smiled.
Her data stream stopped trembling and instead glowed with a warm orange light, much like the halo around the campfire in the beginner village: "Then I'll be someone for you." Her voice was as soft as a sigh, yet carried a certain resolute determination, "Someone who will cook you hot porridge, frantically search for bandages when you're injured, and quietly stand behind you when you look at the stars..."
A clanging sound came from outside the medical pod.
Long Wu dropped his communicator again. This time he didn't pick it up, but looked up with red eyes and said, "Boss, I'll stay with you too!"
Even if that homeworld fleet comes, my fist can still smash through three walls!
Aizen's shadow guard emerged from the shadows, holding a Tang sword wrapped with a red rope—a gift from his master before his death, which he was not allowed to touch under normal circumstances.
When he handed the knife to Lin Yi, his fingertips trembled slightly: "This knife has been blessed; it can slay evil spirits." After saying that, he quickly disappeared into the shadows, leaving only his earring dangling half a silver light on the door frame.
\"cough.\"
A calm voice suddenly rang out in the ward.
A dark figure appeared on the windowsill at some unknown time, a corner of his black robe lifted by the night wind, revealing an inner lining adorned with star patterns.
His face was still hidden in shadow, but his tone was much gentler than before: "You made the most difficult choice, and you earned our respect."
Lin Yi raised an eyebrow: "Even law enforcers of a highly civilized society respect ordinary people?"
"What we respect," the shadowy figure's fingertips traced the windowsill, where the tea stains left by Su Qing were slowly evaporating, "is the courage to defy the rules." He turned and walked towards the rift in the void, the hem of his robe sweeping across the ground, creating a wisp of clear starlight. "If needed, I will return."
Before he finished speaking, his figure had already disappeared into the night.
The shadows outside the window drew closer, and even the moonlight was stained a murky purplish-black.
Lin Yi helped Long Wu stand up, supporting his shoulders.
The fabric of the hospital gown brushed against his skin, making him want to laugh—a subtle sensation he had never experienced when he was a god.
He walked to the window and could clearly hear the clamor of the distant battlefield: the shrieking of the superhuman's light blades cutting through the air, the rumbling of the ancient martial artist's internal force shattering buildings, and the muffled thud of the mechs of the tech-savvy job changers stepping over the ruins.
"The real battle has only just begun," he said softly.
Meanwhile, deep within an alternate-dimensional mother nest, thirty million light-years away from Earth, the Night Owl kneels on a throne made of tentacles.
Half of his body was still oozing dark green blood, yet he grinned, revealing sharp teeth—beside his feet, a crystal composed of countless eyes was pulsating, each beat creating a ripple in space.
"Foolish mortal." His voice, tinged with the stench of rotting flesh, said, "You think stripping away divinity will sever the link?"
"Look at this..." His fingertips pierced the crystal, countless veins of blood spreading along the tendrils. "These are fragments of the faith of your followers, enough for me..."
The crystal suddenly trembled violently, and a golden light, more dazzling than starlight, burst forth from it.
The owl screamed and withdrew its hand, seeing a line of blurry writing appear on the crystal's surface—written by Su Qing's last wisp of consciousness before she dissipated:
"Hope always follows despair."
Earth, inside the medical bay.
When Chu Yao returned with the hot porridge, she found Lin Yi standing by the window, holding a pale golden fragment in his palm—the last wisp of light left behind when the power of faith collapsed.
"Master?" she called softly.
Lin Yi turned his head, his eyes sparkling: "Go and call Long Wu and the others over, then contact the ancient martial arts families and technology groups in the Reality Alliance." His voice lacked divine authority, but possessed a reassuring warmth. "Tell them..."
"What are you telling us?" Long Wu wiped his face, gripped the communicator, and squeezed in. "Are you going to launch a counterattack?"
I even had Lao Hei prepare the explosives!
Aizen's shadow guard peeked out from the shadows: "The Tang sword has been sharpened three times."
Chu Yao's data stream showed a gentle pink hue: "The hot porridge is ready."
Lin Yi gazed out the window at the still chaotic battlefield, where the blades of job changers were flashing and the figures of ancient martial artists were moving among the ruins.
He suddenly smiled, gently pressing the fragment of faith to his chest: "Tell them, the army of mortals must assemble."
Amidst the distant clamor, the shouts of those changing jobs could be faintly heard: "Is Mr. Lin awake? Where is the Commander? We need him!"
But this time, they don't need a god.
Instead, it's about experiencing pain, fatigue, and fear just like them, but never giving up hope—
companion.
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