novellk Chapter 1694 - Finale · Across the Shore Arc [37] ·
Chapter 1694 - Finale · Across the Shore Arc [37] ·
Bei Wang uses his special identity as an "Inscriber" to manifest tasks before everyone’s eyes—...
[Task: (Role-play as a Citizen)]
[Task Content: Please role-play as an ardent citizen at the awards ceremony in the Royal Capital Seventh District, creating a lively celebration atmosphere.]
[Task Reward: A piece of Dream Energy.]
...
[Task: (Role-play as a Wraith)]
[Task Content: Please role-play as a Wraith performing good deeds with Xi Ting on the southern coast. Exhibit harmonious coexistence between different races, creating a warm and loving atmosphere.]
[Task Reward: A piece of Dream Insight.]
...
Millions of tasks are delivered through dream silk, and the receivers will understand their tasks in the "dream."
Task publication requires rewards, but Bei Wang doesn’t have that many rewards. So, he considers himself like an ice cocoon, extracting strands, and uses his energy, insights, and techniques as rewards, stuffing them little by little into each task. Fine cold sweat continuously seeps from his forehead, his body trembles, his face ashen.
However, he cannot afford mistakes nor does he wish to make any.
"Jingle... Jingle..."
The earrings on his ears tremble; he won’t disappoint his friends’ expectations.
...
Steam Plain, a thousand meters underground.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A man with messy blue hair leans against an old sofa, dark circles under his eyes, as his fingertips move rapidly over a virtual keyboard, creating after-images.
"Tsk, why did I agree to this job, am I the only proficient hacker in the World Game? Where’s Eleven?" Laine irritably scratches his head, "Where did Boris go..."
The hacker hideout is deep underground, surrounded by buzzing radiators and constantly flickering indicator lights.
"Dawn System, make sure your signals don’t glitch, these crappy networks can’t hold my performance."
A cold voice emanates from the screen: "I was once a Second-level God here, there won’t be any issues."
"Alright, I know you’re a Conceptual God."
Laine’s task isn’t frontal attack; it’s infiltration.
On one hand, he uses pre-prepared masses of "zombies" and fake information sources to extensively distribute performance information across Luowasha’s public network, providing real-world support to the Dream Realm.
On the other hand, like a ghostly signal relay station, he assists Qin Ze’s dispatch work, providing Bei Wang with feedback from performances around various places.
...
[World Channel · Line Three (Current receivers: 218391128 people)]
[I Love Lü Family Mansion: Who triggered this large-scale role-playing task? When I opened my eyes, it popped with an interface, even ice-blue, different from normal system tasks!]
[Great Zhou Empress: It’s said some with special identities can issue tasks, Su Ming’an has issued tasks before as well.]
[Sixth Circle: My head is dizzy... A lot of people around me have fainted, and red rain is still falling.]
[Passing Wind: Stay away from those who wake up after fainting, they might not be the same people.]
[Mars: Eh? I befriended one of them, I feel she is quite nice...]
[Yu Yubai: Wait! I received a hidden task here! The system told me I comprehended a temporary skill: Group Atmosphere Encouragement... Where did this skill come from?]
[Hell Three-headed Cat: It should be transmitted by Bei Wang via the dream network.]
[Altria: It’s impressive what the big shots can achieve now.]
[Bing Hua: Does anyone know what’s going on on the "past" world line there? I see the live comments constantly mentioning "trials" and "source points," many players seem to be participating.]
[Pineapple Islander: Anyway, we have global tasks here too, no need to involve ourselves in those. Players remaining in the Main God World will be joining those.]
[Sad Spicy Rabbit Head: How many battlefields are there now? Three, I think.]
[White Night Residence: Four. Each battlefield has a lot of people, under the World Tree, outside of the Abyss, within trials, and here. Though I’m not clear on what each battlefield is doing, the key is to follow the big shots and collect points.]
[Gradually Decayed Lamp: Charge, charge, charge!]
[Flipped Garden: Charge! Get my Italian cannon out!]
[Maple Listening to Rain: I want to go home! Charge!!!]
...
"Eastern District Group Three, the crowd’s Emotional Value is insufficient." An encrypted message flashes across Laine’s screen.
"Approved. Resource pack ’Joyful Emotions’ has been dispatched." Laine says.
The more centered the dispatch, the more Laine realizes that, in the eyes of high-dimensional beings, civilization is like a game where various "resource packs" can be added for fine-tuning. Not excited enough? Then add elements of "happiness, pleasantness, joy." Lack of order? Then remove elements of "chaos, evil, fear."
Once you peel off the complex and exaggerated appearance, the core of a civilization is so simple and unpretentious. Like making a delicious cabbage stew, too bland then add salt, too salty then add water.
"It’s truly eye-opening..." Laine murmurs.
"Report, some Naga Priestesses reject humans and are opposing our performances." A message comes through.
"Received. I’ll dispatch ’Background Story Supplement Pack: Najasha’s Forgiveness’. Qin Ze, I need you to review it."
"Got it, bro." Qin Ze’s lazy voice comes from a separate channel.
Laine licks his dry lips, takes a big gulp of energy drink, as the glow from the screen reflects in his weary yet sharp eyes.
This is a battle without smoke.
"Boris, you bastard, where have you gone..." Laine sighs plaintively, "I’ve grown accustomed to him babbling in my ear, without his recitations, my ears aren’t used to it..."
...
Central Control Room.
Qin Ze focuses intensely.
The huge circular screen displays the map of Luowasha and constantly scrolling communication logs.
Qin Ze is a casual player, profiting handsomely from selling notebooks and merchandise. He originally never intended to participate, but he found more and more loopholes in the rules as the Main God World progressed, as though the World Game is growing weaker.
His keen acumen sensed trouble, and he stealthily transferred his assets by exploiting the loopholes, entering through Lin Yin’s transfer line. He aimed to glean final benefits, at least ensuring some self-preservation post-World Game.
As the genius child in "The Genius Child of the CEO Father," his young age meant that whatever he did wouldn’t raise suspicion. Unfortunately, Luowasha was different; this place was very odd. No matter how old you are, as long as you’re weak, you might get eaten; the survival of the fittest was vividly displayed.
Fortunately, he got in touch with his bodyguard, Laine, just in time, spending a considerable price to hire Laine. However, there was a twist: Laine was suddenly pulled away by Yamada Machiichi to perform in a play, and he too was unfortunately drafted into the production.
"I’ve never seen a kid with such a commercial mind, planning skills, and organizational ability... No! Even adults with decades of work experience can’t compare!" Yamada Machiichi crazily praised Qin Ze, talking about "world duty," "many hands make light work," "the world needs talents like you" and so on... coupled with considerable task points, Qin Ze was forcibly roped in as command and control.
—Qin Ze was merely considering the benefits, not for any other reason!
In the end, once he started, he found the workload to be astonishingly high, managing actors from the whole world, to the point of dizziness... Qin Ze wanted to run, but there was nowhere to run; the big iron gates at the entrance were closed! This sinister Yamada Machiichi intentionally didn’t want people to escape. Helpless, Qin Ze could only bury himself in work; this was his first time making a losing deal, truly "losing respect late in life."
"There should be some lines added here!" Behind Qin Ze, three Mayfly-like creatures were noisily arguing.
One was a small creature covered in lips, another was a steel creature wielding an iron hammer, and a floating soybean from which a single blue drop of water emerged.
These three creatures were exactly the most prominent species of Luowasha—Meme Talker, Hammer Iron Man, and Soybean Man.
As followers of the God of the Internet, they appeared in various situations. Qin Ze subdued them, having them help with decision-making.
"Who understands, family! This performance is so awkward it makes my toes curl up into a three-room apartment!" The lips of the Meme Talker smacked on each other noisily.
"What do you know?" Hammer Iron Man immediately retorted, "You simply don’t understand Luowasha! Without Yamada Machiichi as the host to announce, how can we determine where the narrative anchor point is? What if it accidentally shifts to the ’past’ and ends up with Su Ming’an? Now 99% of the players are still on the ’current’ world line; we’ve created so much hard work to barely keep the narrative anchor here. If it gets boring here, the narrative anchor will definitely go find Su Ming’an!"
Soybean Man spun around silently, and on its head appeared a sweat drop.jpg. The blue droplet mocked evenly, exasperating those who saw it.
"What do you mean? What do you mean? Do you think this lousy play compares to the thrilling Source Point Trial on Su Ming’an’s side?" Meme Talker asked.
"So what? My goodness sister, are you mistaken! The anchor point is indeed on our side." Hammer Iron Man said.
A melon-eating.jpg slowly emerged on Soybean Man’s head.
Qin Ze couldn’t stand it any longer. While he was burying himself in hard work, these guys kept chattering. Frustrated in his heart, he shouted, "Enough! Stop saying useless things! Shut up!"
"Cracked! Really cracked!" Meme Talker immediately followed up.
"So this is cracked? Hee hee hee."
"Boom——!"
Finally, they quieted down.
This group of online beings fears nothing except power outages; Qin Ze pulled the wires connecting them, and they finally quieted down.
Qin Ze sat back down, looking heavily at the screen.
Feedback kept coming.
"Commander Qin! Feedback from many areas has returned!"
"The strange Red Rain is too heavy, and many people are unconscious. Most of those who are not are players; with the World Channel and Bei Wang’s quest, it’s very convenient to coordinate."
"We need to construct a multi-layered story system, such as Bei Wang’s ’Witch’s Epic,’ Yamada Machiichi’s ’Can the Mechanical Maid Dream of the Jellyfish,’ and Anthony’s ’I Really Don’t Want to Save Luowasha...’ if they agree..."
"But if they do that, the main quests of players at the top of the leaderboard would fail..."
"Are you talking about the [Write a Manually High-Scoring Story for the World Tree] main quest? Forget it! We don’t want any rewards! We’re not following the World Game system anymore! We’re following our own pace!"
"Wow, that’s cool."
"Not listening to the game anymore? Damn! That’s exhilarating to hear."
"Stop talking nonsense, move it!"
"Understood!"
Qin Ze’s gaze scanned over the lights on the screen, with hundreds of thousands of activated individuals, players linked into a vast network via Bei Wang’s dream. He had to consider not only "what to perform," but also "who will perform," "where to perform," and "how to perform without being abrupt." The abilities, personalities, and willingness to act of players varied widely; the local inhabitants’ cultural backgrounds, faiths, and perceptions were vastly different. His job was to ensure that this grand play involving millions of actors had no obvious flaws.
"Let’s go..." He took a deep breath.
"Let’s go."
"We’ll prove that..."
"We can also help."
...
Source Point.
Su Ming’an and Lu walked together for a while, their figures becoming increasingly blurred...
Gradually, stardust swirled, and Su Ming’an saw the familiar buttons [Forgiveness] and [Betrayal].
This time, he matched with a pretty, black-haired girl, her eyes bright and full of life.
——Awakener, Bai Chun.
"I often hear Mom talk about you." Bai Chun walked to the front of the buttons, smiling cheerfully.
"What did Ms. Lin say?" Su Ming’an said indifferently. He definitely needed to know Lin Wang’an’s whereabouts and what she was planning.
"She says you’re a good kid; she often listens to several pieces you play on the piano, humming along... She really loves you."
"And then?"
"She often cooks your favorite dishes for me, like steamed ribs with powder, braised eggplant, crispy chicken..."
Su Ming’an remained silent.
...These are not at all his favorite dishes.
"Oh, and she also taught me to play the piano! Though she often sighs when she faces me, saying I’m not as good as you. Ming’an, when you have time, you can teach me too." Bai Chun said, blinking her eyes.
"Does she hit you?" Su Ming’an said indifferently. He still ended up asking this question.
"No, she’s very gentle, how could she hit children?"
"Even when playing the piano, she doesn’t?"
"She only sighs at me; of course, she wouldn’t hit me," Bai Chun laughed. "If she broke my hands, how could I play the piano? She definitely wouldn’t hit me."
Su Ming’an: "..."
Is that so.
Why, after leaving him and starting a new life and family, did she become gentle?
Why was she only like that towards him?
What did he do wrong?
What did he do that wasn’t good enough?