Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1415 - 66: Noel Is Different

Su Ming’an looked at the World Master, whose emotions were somewhat out of control.

Indeed, no matter how rebellious or resentful, a father is still a father.

"Alright, alright..." The World Master repeatedly said, pressing his fingers against the lower edge of the mask, gradually dissipating the melancholy in his eyes.

He released his hand, revealing slightly reddened eyes, smoothing the hair at his forehead: "Let’s get back to the main topic. Su Ming’an."

No wonder he’s the World Master who struggled so hard to get here, his emotions calmed down so quickly.

Su Ming’an wondered if after he left the hall, the World Master would hide alone and cry secretly while holding Sique’s photo.

The World Master came around emotionally and said, "Su Ming’an, there’s still an hour before the Disciple Game begins..."

Su Ming’an interrupted the World Master: "I’m not planning to participate in the Disciple Game."

The World Master showed a look of confusion.

Su Ming’an said, "Participating in the Disciple Game is meant to uncover the truth of the game and obtain the champion’s reward. But I’ve already figured out the former—the Disciple Game seems to originate from a magical object, picked up by an ordinary person, Boss Tu, and turned into a game. Later, capitalists invested in it, gradually developing it into a behind-the-scenes reality show game sweeping through Luowasha. The World Tree also took a liking to the pirated nature of the Disciple Game, wanting to use the rules of the Universe to erase the unique traits and singularity of the World Game, overlaying the original with the pirated version."

"The truth is already quite clear. The only thing I’m unclear about is what magical object the Disciple Game originally comes from."

"As for the champion’s reward, I don’t care at all. Qi Zhou once won the first championship, but he gained nothing and still had to be your son."

The World Master rubbed his eyebrows: "Hmm, basically all correct."

Su Ming’an said, "I also predict—there’s a direct connection between detaching from player IP and the Disciple Game."

The World Master widened his eyes slightly.

He changed his relaxed posture, slowly sitting up.

Su Ming’an opened up the Memory Palace in his mind:

"I once received information: the principle of the Disciple Game confusing player IP is deliberately placing people with similar IPs together."

"We also deduced: the significance of Xiao Su and the others’ existence was for the behind-the-scenes manipulator to take over our players’ IPs, having Xiao Su and the others replace us. Xiao Su replaces me, Xiao Lü replaces Lü Shu, Little Lin Yin replaces Lin Yin..."

"In the chaotic flow of time, if the World Game mistakenly locates the IP to Xiao Su and the others, we would become complete ’discarded ones.’"

"This principle was also used by the Master of the End of All Things when enticing NPCs to collectively steal players’ accounts. Tian Yu stealing Bei Wang’s account, Phoenix stealing Noel’s account, Lü God stealing Lü Shu’s account... using this ’Original IP Confusion’ method."

"Including later, Noel’s scarlet Backstabbing Blade was an IP confusion weapon. It was meticulously crafted by the Master of the End of All Things to seize my player identity. Only this one is rather special; it doesn’t require original similarity but can still confuse IP."

...

[The Master of the End of All Things said: "This object is named ’IP Modification Blade.’"

Noel quipped: "Such a straightforward name."

The Master of the End of All Things said coolly, "Under the deviation of the Narrative Anchor Point, the tide of time is chaotic, even the World Game cannot guarantee complete control over players, especially when the Red Sun Descends, Luowasha would plunge into intense confusion. Those stabbed by the blade will have their game IP temporarily shielded. Then, they can be replaced."]

...

Su Ming’an continued: "The Master of the End of All Things must have a profound understanding of the World Game to accurately grasp the method of confusing IP."

"However, we need not bother as much as the Master of the End of All Things because we are not looking to steal someone else’s account, but to send our own out." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"In conclusion, about the method of detaching from game IP, my preliminary guess is..."

"—let the small world fuse with the Disciple Game, we become the pirated version ourselves. When our IP thoroughly mixes with Xiao Su and them, the World Game cannot locate us!"

Within the hall, Su Ming’an’s clear voice echoed.

The World Master’s eyes opened wide, staring at Su Ming’an in shock. He did not expect that in a mere ten days, Su Ming’an could deduce to this extent.

He exhaled heavily and then slowly began to applaud.

"...Impressive."

"Your guess matches the information I have quite closely."

"The only two issues are: first, we don’t know what magical object the Disciple Game originates from. Second, we don’t know who the behind-the-scenes manipulator of the Disciple Game is."

Su Ming’an nodded: "So, as long as we find the behind-the-scenes manipulator of the Disciple Game, as long as we control this person, the task is completed."

The World Master shrugged: "Alright, I’ll help you find this person. In exchange for this transaction, what can you offer me?"

Su Ming’an said: "What do you want?"

He originally thought the World Master would ask for power, energy, authority, or similar, but was met with a shocking answer.

The World Master squinted and smiled gently, lips parted—

"—I want your true friend position."

The wind stirred outside the window.

The statue of Virdodo looked down with compassion, the intricate carvings reflecting the golden light of the candles.

Su Ming’an widened his eyes, doubting he heard correctly, but those golden eyes were so determined, making him realize the sincerity of the answer.

"Su Ming’an, I know how good you are to friends, and also ’one person’s success leads others to success.’" The World Master leaned against the statue, his smile carrying a great threat: "Regardless of your ending, you are likely to ascend to High Dimensions, so if I can become your true friend, you certainly won’t neglect me."

"Everything I want—"

He extended his right hand, fingers closed, his mouth curled upwards, eyes burning with the fire of ambition:

"...can be obtained."

The World Master stood up, step by step approaching Su Ming’an, the sound of gemstones cracking underfoot.

...Don’t step on the gemstones!

The momentum gradually drew near, Su Ming’an regrettably thinking of the gemstones on the floor, those are money, if only they could be exchanged for points.

"Your thoughts?" The World Master stood before him, the lights flickering, the silver mask shimmering with gilded luster.

Su Ming’an withdrew his gaze from the gemstones, looking at the icy mask, shaking his head:

"True friends are not objects of trade."

"You can ask me for an oath. Should you encounter issues, I’ll help you. But friendship cannot be exchanged through transaction."

The World Master tilted his head slightly, as if puzzled: "Is that so? That there are things in the world that can’t be exchanged even for benefits, rare."

He grew up in a cold desert, trapped in pollution all his life, having no family nor companions, only slaughter, betrayal, and hatred as company, never understanding what genuine emotions were.

"There are many things that can’t be exchanged for benefits. You can choose another request." Su Ming’an said.

"Then this request will be kept." The World Master looked deep for a moment: "When I need it, I’ll ask you."

Even though he could easily crush the World Master in front of him, Su Ming’an always felt like he was negotiating with a tiger when communicating with the World Master. This vague sense of trepidation was reminiscent of his interactions with the High Dimensions.

If Sique’s golden eyes were lazy and soft, and Qi Zhou’s golden eyes were sharp and dazzling, the golden hue in the World Master’s eyes was deeper and more dangerous. This family of three is truly different.

"By the way." The World Master took a step closer: "I have a method for you to become a god in one step while retaining your emotions... do you want to hear it?"

Su Ming’an suddenly raised his head.

Such a powerful method, if he could grasp it, wouldn’t it be a shortcut?

"You can speak." Su Ming’an eagerly sought information without any hesitation.

What he heard next was the most shocking information about the World Game to date.

...

"At the dawn of the universe, there existed a carrier known as the ’mirror.’ Long ago, someone shattered this ’mirror,’ resulting in endless branching paths.

"Su Qing and Su Jingtang are also a result of this. They are the fine fragments of a shattered mirror, all belonging to ’branches.’

"It’s the increase of entropy that causes redundant branches to constantly emerge. We must correct the flow of time, subtract from these parallel branches, and ensure that the world line is uniquely real.

"The protagonist is unique, and branches are destined to vanish—just like the uniquely real Noel compared to the multitude of failed Noel’s collective shadow. Distinguishing who is the protagonist depends on ’observation.’ The observation anchor point falls on Noel, thus Noel becomes the uniquely real Noel.

"If a thing is never observed in the future, it never existed in the first place. If the effect is wrong, the cause does not exist.

"Therefore, if you want to become stronger, go and devour.

"Devour Su Rin, Su Wensheng, Sique, Su Liujin, Su Qing, Su Jingtang, Su Mianbao, Xiao Su...

"You all were once fragments of the same ’mirror.’ Only by devouring them can you know what the original ’you’ was like.

"Maybe... the original ’you’ would be something terrifying, more so than the collective shadow, because the collective shadow only aggregates the failed Noel, but you would aggregate the successful Su-type Primordial."

Su Ming’an understood.

The World Master’s intention was that at the universe’s dawn, "the initial Nuo-type Primordial" and "the initial Su-type Primordial" existed as similar matrices. Later, the "mirror" shattered, leaving countless fragments. The former gradually split into people like "Noel" and "Noah," while the latter split into those like "Su Rin," "Su Wensheng," and "Su Qing." Since they originated from the same source, they are referred to as the primordial. But they are no longer in the same "mirror," having split into independent fragments that act autonomously and without interference.

This isn’t a concept of "copying" but more akin to "birth." The original "mirror" was the matrix that "birthed" them towards the Four Seas and Eight Desolates.

Their lives and thoughts are indeed autonomous, but they retain the original "collective unconscious" from the source. Like a family being quintessentially Sichuan people, so the children are born with a penchant for spicy food. Or if a family fears snakes, their children are born with a fear of serpentine creatures. This is an innate "universality of spirit," including various associations and imagery.

In short, inheritance.

Like cutting a worm into two halves, each would grow into distinctly different worms.

Therefore, there exist correspondences like Lin Guang and Lü Shu, Bei Wang and Beili Sier, Isabella and Tretiya.

Currently, only the concept of the "Nuo Type Collection" exists, embodied in the collective shadow. The "Su Type Collection" hasn’t appeared, likely because the Su-type Primordials aren’t inclined towards dimensional ascension, and no one has taken the lead to devour other Sus.

Now, the World Master’s suggestion is for Su Ming’an to carry out actions similar to the collective shadow, actively devouring other Su-type Primordials like Su Rin, Su Wensheng, and Sique. Thus, the resultant suture monster would rival the collective shadow.

After all, the collective shadow merely devours the failed Noel and Noah, yet to devour the uniquely real Noel. In contrast, Su Ming’an can devour the uniquely real Su Rin, Su Wensheng, Sique, and others.

The value is entirely different.

The collective shadow devours the void, shadows, and destined-to-be-erased entities. Su Ming’an would devour those real, genuinely existing people.

Once Su Ming’an devours all these Su-type Primordials, it equates to merging all Su-type fragments back into the original "mirror," into the Su Type Collection (Super Su) from the universe’s dawn.

Unknown, could that be a god, a high dimension... or an extremely powerful, terrifying, unnamed, unseeable cosmic entity?

"Synthesize the big watermelon." Su Ming’an quickly sensed a problem: "The key is, there’s one issue..."

The collective shadow is made up of countless failed Noel and Noah.

But the question is—

Where did all those failed Noel and Noah come from?

Su Ming’an recalled the information obtained in the Tenth World:

...

[Su Ming’an.]

[Your world line is the only, real, and definitive world line.]

["Ming" and "Shadow" are Schrödinger’s "possible futures." Only you walk the uniquely real timeline.]

[In one possible scenario for Noel, Noel chose dimensional ascension, and those "failed midway Noels" did not vanish but were condensed onto the collective shadow.]

[However, the truth surely isn’t that simple. For instance, why would those void world lines split from Su Ming’an’s uniquely real world line? This remains an unsolved mystery.]

...

Indeed, why do void world lines exist?

Unless... those aren’t void world lines at all.

—— Were those world lines that once occurred!?

Su Ming’an was startled by his conjecture, his heart trembling as he thought of his death rebound.

If the concept of "parallel universes" truly exists, and these world lines all actually happened, this would be the most unsettling answer.

"... Come back to reality." The World Master’s amused voice halted the spiral of his fearful thoughts.

Su Ming’an lifted his head, meeting the World Master’s eyes, cold as fire.

"Just as you possess the Devouring Authority, making you even more formidable. Su Rin and the others aren’t guarded against you at all; you only need to..." The World Master spread his five fingers and quickly clasped them together: "’Swoosh,’ devour them, and you’ll rapidly grow stronger. No one can threaten you, and your might will dominate the World Game. Isn’t this what you desire—to have the War God Dragon King crush the World Game?"

"If I devour the other Sus, I’ll become the Super Su from the universe’s dawn. My consciousness will also be devoured by the Super Su." Su Ming’an replied calmly.

"You can always trust the character of Su-type Primordials. Moreover, you might still hold the dominant consciousness position." The World Master lifted his eyelids: "Why are you hesitating now? Is it because you can’t bear to part with the other Sus? I saw you hesitate not a bit when devouring Noel."

"Noel is different." Su Ming’an said.

"How is Noel different?"

The World Master seemed surprised that Noel held any particular significance to Su Ming’an.

"Noel isn’t my friend." Su Ming’an said.

"Oh, indeed." The World Master laughed heartily, raising his golden goblet, lifting his head as the crimson wine poured down his throat.

Su Ming’an turned, looking at the distant sky.