Chapter 38 Pretending I've Been Reborn Too: The True Reborn One: Heaven's Justice is Unfair...
With a clang, the longsword pressed against the axe handle. Si Qi lowered his body and suddenly raised his other hand, striking the man's open chin as he roared. The man's head was pushed away, and a loud "boom" resounded in his skull. He immediately lost his senses and fighting ability, and staggered backward.
The audience in the live stream fell silent for a moment, and the chat went blank. No one had expected this outcome, and no one could believe that Si Qi had actually won a head-on confrontation with an elite warrior!
Si Qi casually sheathed his weapon, looked down at the guy who almost fell to the ground, and said contemptuously, "With your skills, you dare to provoke me?"
The original owner of this body was never a good-tempered person. In the past, due to his mother's illness, even though he was repeatedly humiliated and beaten by Yin Chou and his teammates, he never fought back once. He only secretly kept video evidence to use when he turned against them later.
Now that it's Si Qi, who inherited the original owner's temperament, he's even less likely to tolerate it. The fact that he didn't kill him out of consideration for public order, good morals, and the law is the only reason he didn't.
The soldier half-squatted on the ground, his numb palms holding the axe that had almost been knocked out of his hand, his face full of disbelief.
How...how is this possible?!
Could it be that his low health and weakness caused him to lose to Si Qi, a weakling, in terms of strength?
He stood up, looked at Si Qi in front of him who had a cold expression and showed no fear whatsoever, hesitated, and didn't dare to continue attacking for a moment.
He hesitated for a moment, then cautiously asked, "What will it take for you to heal me?"
Si Qi reiterated his previous statement: "Why should I add it for you?"
"You can't just watch me die, can you?!" The soldier's eyes reddened with anxiety.
"Didn't you watch me die before?" Si Qi retorted.
The soldier was speechless, his mouth opening and closing as if he were both ashamed and indignant, or as if he had been pushed to the limit and had no other choice. He said with his neck stiff, "Don't bring up the past with me here. I'm not the only one who said you were kicked out. Besides, you left the team on your own initiative. Nobody forced you to leave."
"My health is so low right now, and I don't have any healing potions. You can't just leave me to die, I'm one of your own!"
"If you don't save me, you're betraying all of humanity, you're siding with a monster!"
"Yes, if Si Qi doesn't heal people, he's an executioner, a murderer! He should be sentenced to death as soon as he leaves the dungeon!" The viewers in the live stream snapped out of their daze and chimed in, "If all priests were like him and didn't heal people, what would become of us?! I think it would be outrageous!"
Si Qi said with disdain: "So, in the end, you just want to get something for nothing."
The warrior shamelessly said, "I don't have any healing skills, so I can only rely on you. If you feel you're at a disadvantage, we can always team up and fight monsters together in the future."
"Then you still get the rewards and experience, and I'll heal you for free and protect you." Si Qi scoffed, "Forget it, you can ask whoever wants this kind of 'good deal'."
"At worst, I'll share some with you later!" the soldier said unhappily. "You don't have any objections now, do you?"
"Si Qi is really good at scheming. A priest has no combat power, he can hide in the back and use his skills to get the warrior's experience and items for free, without taking any risks." Before the netizens even saw Si Qi taking advantage of the warrior, they were already making sour remarks, feeling sorry for the warrior who had not yet obtained the items and experience, and thinking that Si Qi was shameless.
"Who wants to team up with you?" Si Qi's disdain was written all over his face: "Get lost and don't bother me."
"So what do you want?!" the soldier snapped. "Don't push your luck!"
"You don't have any red potions in your space right now, do you not even have any blue potions? Do you not even have any items?" Si Qi was incredulous that this person had made a habit of getting things for free, and even now he still wanted to get something for nothing, using future promises to pay for his current reward, without giving him any real benefits.
"And even if we're in a group, what you give me isn't a handout, it's my rightful share." He corrected, adding, "I'm the only priest in the entire instance. Your life is in my hands now, and this is how you treat someone who needs your life?"
The soldier was speechless. Even if for a fleeting moment he realized that Si Qi's words made perfect sense, his habitual arrogance made it impossible for him to bow down to Si Qi. He felt that his identity had been destroyed and he had become less noble.
"...I'll give you the blue potion." The man grumbled, his voice muffled as he glared at him. "Is that alright now?"
"What do I need from you?" Si Qi said with disgust. "When I give directions to strangers, they know to thank me. But when I save your life in a dungeon, I have to put up with your attitude."
The soldier wanted to overturn the table and turn on Si Qi, but he was powerless against the situation. He couldn't beat him in a fight, and he couldn't reason with him, so he could only endure it.
"...Here's another priest's equipment for you."
He chose to swallow his anger and compromise.
No one questioned why a warrior was carrying his priest teammate's gear. They preferred to let the gear gather dust in the warehouse rather than offer it to their teammate; instead, they felt indignant on his behalf: "Si Qi is going too far!"
"He's using his position as a pastor to extort money from people like this."
"They're clearly teammates in the same instance, why not help them and just watch them die? That's incredibly cruel."
"He's always been this vicious, otherwise why would everyone hate him!"
"...After watching your live streams, I've almost forgotten what the word 'malicious' even means. (wiping sweat) Are you guys serious?"
"If you were in Si Qi's position, would you also be willing to be someone's nanny, working yourself to the bone for free, and then having to put up with their attitude when you ask for payment?"
"Sometimes I really don't understand what you fans are thinking."
"Shut up, not everyone is like you, making selfishness a role model!"
"It definitely wouldn't have been like this if it were An'an!"
"Yes, Si Qi is clearly taking advantage of the situation."
The live stream was filled with sarcastic and mocking remarks about Si Qi. Passersby really had nothing to say to them, and after a few words, they would disappear and go to the live stream from Si Qi's perspective to find some peace and quiet.
Si Qi eventually accepted the other party's gift, but instead of healing the person, he traded him a red potion that a priest class would never need, leaving the person to fend for themselves.
The other party had no choice but to leave with the red medicine, seeing that Si Qi really didn't want to treat him.
One can imagine how intense the curses against Si Qi would become in the opposite live stream at this moment.
In reality, the opposing warrior didn't lose out in this deal. After all, warriors are different from mages; they rarely use mana potions, and the equipment they provided was completely unnecessary for the opposing priest class.
He traded these two useless items for a life-saving red medicine, truly being helped by Si Qi and having his life saved.
But sometimes people are not creatures that can be reasoned with. Putting aside the facts, let's just talk about inner emotions.
They felt that Si Qi had gone too far.
So, amidst the curses and words of comfort from the audience, this person hadn't taken more than a few steps when he saw the elite monster rushing towards him. The warrior immediately turned around and ran frantically towards Si Qi with a look of terror on his face.
It's obvious they're trying to shift the blame elsewhere.
From Si Qi's perspective, everyone in the live stream gritted their teeth: "This guy is a real piece of work!"
"Si Qi just saved him, and the next thing he did was lure the monster towards the fragile priest!"
They were furious and couldn't help but run to the other side's live stream to yell, "Do you guys have any conscience?!"
Viewers in the opposite live stream mocked, "Don't you know what 'working together' means?"
"Warriors seeking priest assistance in fighting monsters is a perfectly normal thing, yet you're making it sound so nasty?"
"Damn it!" A netizen who was almost becoming a supporter of Si Qi cursed angrily: "You warriors only have the nerve to talk about cooperation if they can beat elite monsters. Can you even beat them? Huh? I'm asking you whether you can beat them or not!"
He wasn't afraid Si Qi would be in danger, but the problem was that the other person wasn't either! That person knew he couldn't defeat the elite monster; with only half his health remaining, he wouldn't last long against it. He hadn't even considered fighting. He wasn't turning back to find Si Qi to cooperate; he clearly wanted Si Qi to sacrifice himself to draw the monster away so he could escape!
Sure enough, when the man saw Si Qi ahead, he didn't shout "The monster is coming!" to warn Si Qi to be prepared. Instead, he brushed past Si Qi to the side and ran away without looking back! Leaving Si Qi, a short-legged (low agility) priest, standing there facing the menacing monster.
Viewers in Si Qi's live stream commented: "See? See? What did I tell you? He never intended to fight together; he just wanted Si Qi to die in his place!"
A viewer in the opposite live stream commented: "So what? Monsters in dungeons can kill anyone. Si Qi didn't know to run away, so who can he blame? Warriors are just more survivable than priests, they're just better at staying alive."
"Besides, Si Qi, that scourge, was fortunate enough to be able to shield us from some harm before he died! Even in death, he died with value. Isn't that good enough for him?"
The kind of people attract the kind of audience. No one felt guilty or blamed the soldier for his actions. Instead, they all laughed at Si Qi for deserving it and praised the soldier for his cleverness.
Perhaps when this atmosphere subsides and people look back on this incident, they will feel that something is a little off. But at this moment, when life and death are at stake, people will subconsciously side with the team members they once supported, rather than with the one that everyone hates.
They grinned and laughed, mocking those who stood up for Si Qi, happily sending comments like, "Hehehe, your idol is going to die~~ His mother no longer needs to worry about her son being in danger, he can soon be reunited with his whole family in hell! Aren't you happy~~~"
These statements are a true reflection of the inherent evil in human nature, a real-life scene of demons reveling on earth.
The soldier ran off in a flash, disappearing into the distance from Si Qi's sight amidst the cheers of the viewers in the live stream.
Si Qi didn't intend to chase after him.
His calm expression surprised the group of people who were gloating and wanted to come and witness Si Qi's death.
He stood there, waiting for the monster to approach, then stabbed the hideous, unjustly killed ghost with a single blow, and casually sheathed his sword.
New viewers who came to the live stream to watch the fun: ? ? ? ? ?
What did they see?
"...That monster was definitely at full health, wasn't it?"
"Could it be a bug?"
"Did Si Qi use a prop?"
A long-time viewer in the live stream commented: "Tsk tsk, you blame the powerful items when you're bad at the game, and you can even call a blue weapon a god-tier item."
"To be blind to this extent is truly astounding; you should go to the hospital for treatment immediately!"
The new viewers were still unwilling to believe it: "There must be a problem with the system."
"How could Si Qi kill an elite monster with a single strike?"
"It's definitely a bug!"
"Fine, fine, you'd rather praise the elite monsters for being invincible than see your own compatriots get stronger. Now I know what's going on with you, you traitors, just shut up."
"Anyone with eyes could tell from Si Qi's reaction that he was confident and a master. Only you guys, with two light bulbs on your noses, are purely decorative and not actually connected to the brain."
"..."
The fact that he could easily and effortlessly defeat elite-level monsters was so irrefutable that many people who still found it absurd had to confront the many circumstances surrounding Cheese Qi with skepticism.
Ordinary people can only rely on intuition and guesswork, while official analysis is much more accurate and reliable.
"The abilities Si Qi uses in combat are all consistent with warrior skills. Among them is the 'Thrust' skill that the X country's warrior just awakened an hour ago, as well as many other powerful combat skills whose corresponding abilities have not yet been identified." The analyst speaking showed several clips of Si Qi in combat from the video, each of which clearly showed the marks of rigorous training behind it.
"We reasonably speculate that this is indeed a unique ability of warriors, including skills that we haven't had time to unlock or activate yet, both in the early stages and later," the analyst said. "According to warrior players, skills in the game can be achieved without using mana, relying purely on one's own strength and skill. Si Qi is most likely in this situation."
"This indirectly proves that he was once proficient in the professional system of soldiers."
The analyst spoke very carefully, not directly presenting Si Qi's arguments at the meeting, but instead providing more evidence.
"Through the analysis of his body language, micro-expressions, and word choice by psychological experts, it was found that since Si Qi regained consciousness from his serious injuries, his actions, tone, and word choice have become more assertive. This is a natural characteristic that only someone who is used to taking the initiative and being in charge would naturally exhibit. His gaze towards his teammates carries the aloofness he shows towards strangers, but when he sees the scenes and challenges in the amusement park, he appears to be in a state of contemplation and reminiscence."
"He didn't take many steps when searching for levels; it seemed he already knew where those levels should be."
"Similarly, he is more accustomed to using various warrior weapons such as swords, spears, axes, and halberds, and he is very adept at using each of them. This information is inconsistent with his past experience, and the specific reason has not yet been investigated. Furthermore, he does not have a subconscious conditioned reflex to his priest profession, which is inconsistent with his previous subconscious instant healing skills in the dungeon, and goes against human habitual thinking."
Just like most people who can't see clearly, their subconscious reaction is to blink, rub their eyes, or move closer to see, but nearsighted people's subconscious reaction is to raise their hand and push up their glasses.
These instinctive reactions in the details cannot be hidden.
The analyst continued, "We compared the combat footage of Yin An and Si Qi, and their combat habits overlapped significantly. They would likely react in the same way to a strange monster in a high probability."
He showed a video with a clear left-right split screen, in which Yin Chou and Si Qi faced the same monster and used the exact same moves.
However, it was obvious that Si Qi's actions were more decisive and swift, without hesitation, and the effect was just like the monster's health bar dropping instantly above, a critical hit plus a fatal blow, without any unnecessary movements.
Conversely, Yin Chou, hailed by everyone as a "born warrior," was nothing more than a weakened imitation in front of Si Qi. The movements were the same, the skills were identical, but the effects and reactions were vastly different—the difference between a novice and a master was obvious even to a layman.
Moreover, there were so many high-ranking military officers and research experts present.
They could tell at a glance who the real user of the technique was, since many details don't lie, and Yin Chou was most likely just imitating.
But this goes against the logic of reality.
Yin Chou appeared first; it couldn't be that he imitated Si Qi, who only emerged today, months in advance.
But considering what Si Qi said...
Everyone's expressions were solemn.
“Yin An was not good at fighting before and had been privately taught a lesson by the legitimate sons of other families,” someone said while looking through Yin Chou’s information. “When he awakened the warrior skill and shone brightly in the dungeon, his family expressed their incomprehension and insisted that he was cowardly and had a bad personality, which was completely different from his performance in the live broadcast.”
"Although he has a 'natural intuition' for the supernatural, it is often clear that his 'intuition' is superficial; he knows what it is but not why it is."
For example, sometimes, to kill a fire-type monster, you need to extinguish the medium that causes it to burn. Other heroes need to first find clues, discover ways to deal with the burning flames, then detect the existence of the medium, and only then can they destroy the medium and kill the monster.
Yin Chou's order was different. He first found something that could counter the medium, then encountered a fire-type monster, and then ignored its attacks. Before all the clues were found and before anyone expected it, he directly used something that could counter the medium to kill the berserk monster.
Many people find it unbelievable, but as long as the result is good, they subconsciously attribute it all to "the reason why geniuses are geniuses is because ordinary people cannot understand them".
Even geniuses must follow basic principles, rather than acting irrationally as if they had a premonition.
Yin Chou, in the end, was merely a reincarnated individual, a spectator who hastily experienced one instance and never dared to set foot again. The experience he gained from watching live stream videos was essentially theoretical. He often couldn't be comprehensive, couldn't produce logic that could convince everyone, and could only make superficial imitations.
It was fine before that it wasn't brought up for review and analysis, but now that the big shots are putting it under the spotlight and dissecting it, its true colors are immediately revealed, and many flaws have been discovered.
"—Read from the script."
Some people made this conclusion with a confident tone.
The others nodded in silence, offering no objections.
It seems that, under these circumstances, they have put an end to the matter.
As for whether rebirth truly exists, since we lack concrete evidence and it's not the most important issue at the moment, let's leave that aside for now and instead raise another question that everyone is very concerned about: "Should pastors be supported?"
"The situation of community pastors is indeed not good right now."
"If instant-death attacks really do appear, the presence of priests will be indispensable."
"But there is currently no evidence to prove that the priest has mastered the art of resurrection."
"Dungeons have already appeared, and class skills and magical spells can be used in reality. The appearance of the Resurrection Spell is logical."
“Some rule-based monsters may indeed possess the characteristic of ‘death for violating the rules’.”
"The priest profession is one of the three major professions, and the absence of any one of them could cause problems. We can no longer allow the priest profession to continue to be ignored."
"But the heroes are already struggling to survive, let alone help protect other players..."
"We cannot issue policies by order without considering the wishes of the parties involved; otherwise, it will only backfire."
"I wonder if Si Qi has a better solution... Doesn't he claim to be 'reborn'? Then he should have 'personally witnessed' how future priests developed."
"Regardless of whether Si Qi can provide a solution, given his current combat strength and understanding of warrior skills, we can invite him over to give a lecture to our warrior class warriors."
"Wait, he's stopped."
Someone noticed Si Qi's reaction in the video and subconsciously reminded him, so everyone stopped talking and focused their attention on the live stream.
Perhaps due to exhaustion, Si Qi's physical condition, agility, and strength were all low, but his magic power was soaring. In the end, he was unable to use his priest's body as a warrior.
Having completed another level in one go, Si Qi's breathing became rapid, and he had to find a rest area to sit down and adjust his condition.
During the break, perhaps anticipating the reactions from the outside world due to his behavior, he downed two bottles of blue potion, took a few breaths, and then said to the surrounding air, "It's a rare halftime break, so I'll talk to you guys for a bit."
Viewers in the live stream commented: "Great! We'd love to hear what you have to say."
"I'm really full of questions."
"If you're so capable, why did you behave that way before?"
"And what you said before, about rebirth and all that."
Si Qi paused for a moment, probably to sort out his thoughts, before slowly speaking: "In fact, I don't know why I'm here either."
"As I mentioned before, I slew the evil god and banished the part of its body that descended upon Earth from our world."
"Peace should have been restored to Earth."
"But after that, I returned here, only a month or two after the evil god descended."
Si Qi pondered for a moment and said, "According to our analysis in my previous life, my teammates and colleagues and I are immortal. Even if the evil god is killed, there will still be remnants of his body and energy remaining outside of Earth. It is impossible to kill him completely."
"Perhaps that force reversed time and space, changed the past, and sent people like Yin Chou with their memories to the present."
"As for me, I was brought here by Him in order to save the world consciousness."
Si Qi looked up at the sky, as if he were crossing time and space to meet the gaze of "world consciousness." After a few seconds, he looked away and continued the previous topic: "The reason why I say that Yin Chou was also reborn is because he completely copied my life trajectory. The choice of profession token, the choice of dungeon, the way to deal with monsters... If it is not a deliberate imitation, it is impossible to achieve this level of similarity."
"Some people may question who is imitating whom, but I'm too lazy to argue. Let me be more direct."
"I haven't been to the levels behind the haunted house, but I know the steps to solve the puzzles and the boss's weaknesses."
"The machine room contains various torture instruments from the eighteen levels of hell. You need to find the corresponding level of hell based on the type of torture instrument, and then work backward to deduce the surrounding items that will appear on that level."
"If the attack involves binding or chain-like instruments of torture, then look for things related to chains."
"If the attack is on a frying pan, then look for flesh or bones."
"Different instruments of torture have different time intervals between attacks. Once you find the pattern and the corresponding key to breaking the attack, it will be easy."
The netizens were stunned. Those who were quick immediately clicked on the replay to find the torture instruments that Yin Chou was attacking when he cleared the puzzle room, as well as the broken core of the puzzle. And sure enough, it was true! They immediately came back to report to the netizens in the live broadcast room: "Indeed, the attack at that time was flames that came out of the ground, and what was broken was a candlestick."
Everyone was utterly shocked: "But Si Qi was clearly not in the haunted house at the time, how could he know the contents of the later levels?"
"Moreover, he also revealed the core of the matter that Yin An had stumbled upon by accident."
"I thought about it carefully, and actually, in the previous puzzle rooms, Yin An asked Si Qi some questions. For example, whether Si Qi would prefer to go to the left or the right, or choose blue or white. At the time, I thought his questions were particularly nonsensical... but was he actually using Si Qi's wisdom in solving the puzzles?"
The crowd buzzed with discussion, finding Si Qi's performance truly unbelievable. But that wasn't all. Si Qi went on to reveal the lethal weaknesses of the monsters in the later levels. For example, the starving ghost would expose the gaps in its emaciated ribs, which could be pierced directly to the heart; the unjustly killed ghost was vulnerable to critical hits, and a massive attack could easily kill it instantly. So even if it had high defense and health, it didn't matter. Just target its vulnerable spots, like its neck, which it couldn't protect while moving, and you'd hit it every time.
Compared to Si Qi's well-practiced combat strategy, netizens were left speechless when they saw Yin Chou and the others launching a concentrated attack, causing them to cry out in despair and exclaim, "Why are elite monsters so hard to kill?"
When Si Qi revealed the identities and weaknesses of the mini-bosses in the levels, even those who hadn't witnessed the monsters' deaths believed him almost entirely.
After all, his thinking was very clear, and every word he said was reasonable and well-founded, not just baseless speculation or conjecture.
Furthermore, Si Qi went on to exaggerate even further, describing in detail what levels were in the unexplored areas of the dungeon, and what monsters were in those levels, without pausing for a moment.
Everyone: "………………"
They were starting to believe that Si Qi was a reincarnated person.
Si Qi: "Of course, Yin Chou must know these things too. When you watch his live stream later, you'll see that when he chooses a path, he will habitually go in the direction I mentioned, instead of going to those useless exploration areas."
Everyone: "Although I haven't seen it yet, I have a feeling it definitely will be."
"That's why Si Qi was able to find the checkpoints so smoothly and finish five or six in an hour, because he already knew where the checkpoints were located."
"Isn't it terrifying to think about?"
"The final boss of this dungeon is at the roller coaster," Si Qi continued. "The boss's characteristics are that it can teleport periodically, and it's extremely fast with very high attack power. Every collision will be a critical hit; this is a fixed rule of the dungeon and cannot be avoided. Therefore, you need to stack defensive sets, not health sets. Strength buffs aren't very useful; you need to add agility buffs—by the way, do you guys not have the concept of buffs yet?"
Si Qi belatedly explained, "In the mid-game, priests will master the Blessing skill, which increases maximum health and mana, boosts skill points for stamina, agility, and strength, and grants physical resistance, magic resistance, poison resistance, fire resistance, and immunity to curses... making them second only to mages in terms of skill quantity. Therefore, priests will specialize in many different classes in the late game, such as those who specialize in Blessing or those who specialize in improving their Resurrection skill proficiency. Only by increasing proficiency will the skill effects be better. Well-rounded heroes won't go far in the late game; they must cooperate and coordinate their skills based on their teammates' strengths and the dungeon's attributes."
Netizens were overwhelmed and felt unable to process the sheer volume of information.
The official departments, however, treated Si Qi's words as gospel. Even though their credibility remained questionable, they meticulously recorded everything on paper. If it proved true, it would be an invaluable, genuine dungeon guide provided by a top-tier player!
“Speaking of the later stages of dungeons…” Si Qi looked ahead with a meaningful expression, “You probably don’t know yet, but in the later stages, the number of dungeons will increase until they cover the entire Blue Star.”
"The number of heroes is far from enough to fill the gaps, and the dungeons will overflow into reality because they exceed the time limit."
"Blue Star will eventually fall completely, and the entire Blue Star will be like a giant dungeon. Ordinary people will hardly survive in it, and only those who become heroes in advance will have the power to fight against the monsters."
Although it's cruel, there are some things Si Qi must warn you in advance: "Your wish to hide behind the screen and wait for the hero to bring you peace is impossible."
"Finding a way to enter the dungeon as soon as possible and awakening your class is the only way to survive on your own."
"Becoming a hero and entering the dungeon early to resist monsters is not a misfortune, but a stroke of luck that is one in a million."
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