Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1365 - 16: The World Burns in My Colors (7)
11:50.
A blue-haired youth stands on the ice field.
He bears three pairs of fish-fin-like wings, with long blue hair fluttering and his face adorned with scales resembling blue gemstones, holding a blood-soaked mass of flesh in his arms.
In front of him is an underground refuge, with iron stairs leading down below.
The people of Luowasha built underground refuges in many places to guard against the apocalypse. But these are just psychological comforts. Even if you hide thousands of meters underground, you cannot survive the Red Sun.
Lu is alive because he luckily picked up the divinity of the Ocean Angel Najasha, which grants some resistance.
After devouring Najasha’s divinity, the rejection response wasn’t as intense as it was for Lü Shu. But he felt his emotions becoming increasingly violent, with Najasha’s voice of seduction constantly accompanying his mind.
After finding the fallen body of Demon Line Su Ming’an, he embraced the remaining blood and flesh, waiting for Su Ming’an to "grow" as he had done before in the sea.
But for some reason, this time Su Ming’an never "grew."
"Swoosh, swoosh." He treaded the snow, his nails deeply embedding into the flesh.
Along the way, he saw no other Survivors; only piles of frozen ashes remained on the streets, as if the entire civilization had turned into frozen statues. Whether it was the once-dominant Dragon Clan or the humble and timid Leeks Tribe, at this moment, they were the same.
He tried to find Survivors, searched a thousand shelters... but no one answered his calls.
Before him is the 1012th refuge he found.
Going down the iron stairs, he saw an iron door, long rusted and broken, with cold winds endlessly blowing in.
Pushing the door open, inside the room were three human figures huddled together, two larger figures sheltering a smaller one beneath them.
Their bones had already melted away, only the vague position of their embrace was discernible. The frost had frozen their near-melted bone shapes at the final moment.
The Red Sun rarely destroys items, so most objects around the skeletons remained, such as a bear bracelet, a silver ring, children’s drawings... all left beside the three skeletons.
Lu squatted down, picking up the drawing where brushstrokes were still visible. It was a drawing of a little girl standing between mom and dad, holding a feather pen. On the top of the drawing, a heavy X was crossed over the Red Sun.
Beside it, a line of small squiggly Luowasha script read: [I want to be the greatest Creator, I want to be Sique Olivius! Soon, I’ll erase the Red Sun! Mom and Dad don’t be afraid! We will be safe here ヽ(｡◕‿◕｡)ﾉﾟ]
"..." Lu’s shriveled purple fingers rubbed the paper.
Something buzzed in his heart.
Not disturbing the three skeletons huddled together, he turned to leave.
This was not the first time he’d seen such a scene. In fact, he had seen many along the way.
There were the skeletons of the Wolf Tribe and the Sheep Tribe, not devouring each other, huddled together as if breaking through the food chain’s constraints. There were also the skeletons of the Tiger Clan and the Deer Clan holding hands, waiting peacefully until the very end. Many large skeletons, layered and piled tightly together, upon finding a gap, one would see a tiny skeleton sitting inside...
High Dimensions are ruthless, deities indifferent. From the perspective of the Universe, the World always seems insignificant.
The feather pen of Sique Olivius is so vast, with one stroke, life blooms, the whole World is a piece of rubber candy to be molded as one wishes.
But when he walked among the people and witnessed their final moments, he realized how immense and profound this apocalypse was.
11:52, Lu discovered another refuge.
But from this refuge came the sound of singing.
—Are there people still alive, singing together?
How is this possible?
Except for Su Ming’an and a handful like Sique who are in the know, the vast majority don’t know the World will reset, assuming this is the apocalypse, and by 12:00 when the polar night falls, any survivors clinging to life will freeze to death. Even Lu himself believes he has only a few minutes left.
But, someone facing Destruction singing at the top of their voice?
The singing was growing louder, drifting out with the cold wind:
"Wingless bird, oh bird,
"What do you use as wings?
"And to which Paradise do you fly?
"From what is that Paradise made?
"Of suffering, tragedy—or brilliantly radiant Death?
"I sing of tragedy and Death, personally penning sorrow,
"Awaiting the brilliance of Destiny or that momentary folly.
"It should only Create, without having to gaze upon...
"It should only grant it a Soul, without having to empathize with its fall...
"It should only wait for the exhibition of its ultimate brilliance, without having to mourn its life’s end...
"Wingless bird, oh bird,
"What do you use as wings?
"And to which Paradise do you fly.
"And would that Paradise be,
"Like a library..."
...
Lu walked inside.
He initially thought he would see a group of pampered High-class Races, or maybe Clerics with strong Faith.
—But he only saw a group of raggedly dressed men and women.
Their hair was disheveled, faces sallow and thin, lips blue and purple, belonging to different races.
In the face of Destruction, racial divides seemed trivial.
The reason they were alive—was a white-haired, red-eyed girl. She sat serenely in the center of the crowd, holding a Little Sun in her hand, its warmth protecting the people. If she were to let go, these people would freeze to death immediately.
Hearing footsteps, the girl looked at him: "Sit down, let’s wait together for the last nine minutes."
"Qin Si?" Lu exclaimed in surprise: "You’re still alive? How can you protect these people?"
Qin Si is but a healer on the leaderboards, how can she protect so many?
Lu had heard the system notification "Teammate Qin Si has died." Yet Qin Si appeared alive here, what on earth is her true identity?
Qin Si said flatly: "Anyway, after eight minutes, you all will forget everything, knowing all this bears no meaning. Why not share the food in your arms with everyone."
Lu clutched the flesh in his arms tightly, shaking his head.
At this moment, Qin Si seemed had a sense, suddenly looking beyond the thick walls towards the direction of the polar region in the north.
"..." Her red eyes flashed with gravity.
In that instant, Lu’s heart also faintly sensed a foreboding, though he didn’t know what it meant, just felt as if something was slipping away.
The sky flashed with a beautiful aurora, myriad morning stars glistening brightly.
"Qin Si, what are you looking at?" Lu asked.
"Looking at a little greedy cat," Qin Si said.
"Little greedy cat?" Lu couldn’t understand.
At this moment, a few players among the group screamed: "Su Ming’an’s life signals have disappeared! Damn! What happened!!"
"What?" Lu immediately rushed over.
A middle-aged male player got up and pulled out a compass: "This is a tracking item, able to record a player’s life status. I had looked at Su Ming’an from afar and had bound it to him earlier. Just now, his life signals were still glowing, albeit faintly, but now they’ve suddenly gone dark!"
Lu suddenly stood up and looked towards the northern direction, intuition telling him he should head there.
"You cannot go," Qin Si, however, said: "Your body has already reached its limit, taking a few more steps outside, you’ll collapse."
"I have to go anyway." Lu’s wings unfolded. Regardless of who Su Ming’an was, he couldn’t sit by and do nothing.
But as soon as he stepped onto the ground, he felt as if his entire body had frozen, a sense of death looming over him. In the last few minutes, the extreme cold had reached such a degree that made it hard to take even a step.
Lu could only return underground, looking at Qin Si.
"Who exactly are you!?" Lu questioned.
"Go back and memorize the names of the Twenty-seven Gods of Luowasha." Qin Si shook his head and pushed an empty palm to shove him into a room: "Have a good rest, stop running around."
"Bang!"
The door slammed shut; Lu kicked it immediately, but the surface of the door was covered in a layer of red-gold brilliance that he couldn’t break through.
"...Don’t waste your effort; she’s placed a confinement spell, with your strength it will never open, just like me, peacefully wait for the end at midnight." a voice came from behind.
Lu turned, seeing a purple-haired youth sitting quietly on a chair, wearing a silver mask, revealing a pair of golden eyes, dressed in a black military uniform with gold tassels, lounging lazily against a statue of the God of Inspiration.
"Purple hair, golden eyes, aren’t you... Sique Olivius?" Lu said in astonishment.
"Do you only recognize people by hair and eye color? Just because the hair and eye colors are the same, does one have to look the same?" The World Master tapped his knuckles on the table impatiently and said, "I am the World Master, Wenjun."
"So it is the World Master, your notorious name, I’ve heard a bit about." Lu said.
"What about notoriety? What about fame spread across the continent? Isn’t it still only shrinking in this tiny room, waiting for everything to end." The World Master shrugged.
Lu was anxious but couldn’t go out, could only stare at the clock on the wall.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
Time had not stopped, continuing to trickle down.
The singing outside the door became louder, ordinary lives singing high to death.
"Puff."
At this moment, Lu heard the sound of flesh being pierced, and he immediately looked at the World Master vigilantly.
He saw the World Master extend his right hand, insert it into his own chest, tear open the flesh, revealing a pounding heart, and use a feather pen to write on the heart.
Lu was shocked: "What are you doing?"
The World Master ignored him, blood flowing down his skin, completely oblivious. After a moment, he stopped writing, satisfaction reflected in his eyes.
He was one of the few aware of the reset, this was a method he researched over a long time to retain some memory — soul transcription. He seemed to be writing on the heart, in fact, he was writing on the soul, writing only a few keywords. With every reset, these keywords would leave certain ink marks on his soul, and enough resets transforming quantity into quality, would allow him to realize from the keywords, further awakening certain memories.
At this moment, the World Master looked at Lu, suddenly asked:
"...Sea Emperor, if given the chance to redo your life, what kind of person would you want to be?"
Lu didn’t understand why the World Master suddenly asked such philosophical questions, thought about it, and told the truth: "Perhaps... I would stay away from the first gun I picked up when I was four. And you? Would you try to change?"
"If given the chance to redo it." The World Master looked at the ink marks on his heart, most keywords being [cold, ruler, power holder, decisively fierce, disdain for substitutes, grass-root’s uprising]: "I would still be a cruel person, a World Master notorious throughout Luowasha."
Only by holding weapons in hands can one live well.
This is what he realized through struggling from the bottom of Luowasha, the survival law. So, each time he engraved keywords for himself, never deviated from this "persona."
To this day, even he couldn’t distinguish, among countless resets, whether this "persona" came from his true nature or these self-written "personas" reshaped him?
"Haven’t you tried to change a bit?" Lu seemed to understand something: "For example, in the next times, help us. Or not being the World Master but rather Wenjun."
The World Master sneered: "Not needed. Weakness only leads to destruction."
But seeing the flesh in Lu’s arms, the World Master’s eyes darkened, added a few strokes to the keywords on his heart:
[Focus on Su Ming’an].
This was a task worthy of attention. Perhaps it could help him change something. But he faintly felt that this would be an extremely dangerous keyword.
But, it didn’t matter. He simply felt... very intriguing.
They sat quietly in the room, the second-hand ticking.
11:58.
Time still had not ceased.
...
"Ta, ta, ta."
The Inorganic God arrived under the World Tree.
The World Tree swayed its crystal-colored branches, its canopy lush like a cover, hanging down thousands of twigs. Even under the apocalypse, the World Tree remained vibrant.
Chaotic bloodstains scattered around, some left by Su Rin, some by Xiber, some by Su Ming’an... 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
The Inorganic God gazed at the World Tree, its body making "click-clack" sounds, surrounded mechanical liquid condensing into a huge cannon, aimed at the tree bark, fiercely firing!
"Boom——!!"
A colorful black burst out from the cannon, intermingled with flashing flames, blasted the bark, revealing the scenery inside.
Inside the tree, sword marks crisscrossed, scorched marks everywhere, clearly experienced a great battle, leaving hardly any intact branches.
But at this moment, the battle had long since ended. A broken Golden Sword lay on the ground, a few blood-stained fragments of long robes floating in the wind, the Giant Dragon’s corpse blood flowed throughout the ground.
The Inorganic God stepped inside.
Seeing an outsider enter, the World Tree’s branches rushed forth, attempting to resist the Inorganic God’s approach, only to be blown away by the Inorganic God with a single palm.
The Inorganic God walked straight to the center of the World Tree, "click-clack-dada" several giant cannons appeared on its body, coldly said:
"World Tree, hand over the World Origin — from now on, Luowasha is under my control."
The World Tree trembled, clearly unwilling.
Just as the Inorganic God was planning to act, the Boss Rabbit pushed through the leaves and came forward.
"Chomp chomp chomp..."
It was chewing on a golden eyeball, eating with relish.
