Chapter 561 - 33: A Friend of a Friend Is Still My Friend

Was it worth it? Was it? Worth it? It...

The echo reverberated.

In the room with an Exorcism Power of 195, silence was the first response. No one answered.

Then came the sound of someone furiously slamming the desk. WHAM!

"This is ridiculous! Was it worth it or not? Of course it was worth it! I led this bunch of ungrateful citizens through the end of the world! I crushed the tide of the Undead! I worked my butt off developing the Maze, farming and storing food until the warehouses were about to burst—and you’re asking me if it was worth it?!"

"Okay, I enforced a 12-hour workday, made people drink soup when there was no food, scrimped and saved on materials, and even planted informants among the populace to sniff out enemy spies... but there’s no doubt I’m a good girl!"

"I was responsible for the survival and continuation of the human race right to the very end, and you still have the nerve to question my morality?!"

After the desk’s HP was reduced by 5, Shao Shuangyue, who had been so excited before playing, collapsed into her chair like a burnt-out salted fish. On the verge of tears, she muttered, "This game is trash, I want a refund... Ah, it’s been over two hours. I can’t get a refund..."

But after her initial anger, her masochistic curiosity took over. "What kind of crappy Neutral Ending is this? Don’t tell me there’s a Happy Ending and a Bad Ending too? Does that mean there’s a True Ending?"

"Trash game, let me see what you’re really all about!"

It seemed that for Shao Shuangyue, this game was far from over.

As for the final question, Su Zhou didn’t have much of an opinion. ’It’s a game company from Earth, after all. Those people have never been through an apocalypse. How could they possibly understand the despair and helplessness of the masses, or that feeling of just giving up and letting everything go to hell?’

’I’m different. I’ve actually lived through it, so of course I know what kinds of choices people will make in that situation.’

Of course, the most important point was that he, Su Zhou, was just watching from the sidelines.

He’d experienced it through a video playthrough, a mere spectator. He’d never been hassled by those unruly citizens or poured his heart and soul into it, so naturally, he couldn’t comprehend Shao Shuangyue’s rage at having her choices questioned.

Besides, to be fair, when he was in the Reincarnation World, he’d been revered and worshipped the entire time. They even built a statue of him there. He hadn’t dealt with so many troublesome people and all their crap, so his impression of Naisel City was actually quite good.

If nothing else, the thick layer of Desire Power on the Blade of Annihilation was still continuously nurturing its quality.

After watching this game stream, Su Zhou’s most important takeaway was the content of the game itself.

’This information disturbance is completely different from the one from the Divine Wood World,’ Su Zhou mused. ’Rather than a reenactment of my actions in that Otherworld, it seems to be describing another possibility.’

Speaking with Yara in his mind, Su Zhou frowned. He said, somewhat perplexed, "A possibility where I didn’t get deeply involved in the fate of Naisel City, where I stood by and did nothing about the atrocities of the Water God’s followers, and only focused on investigating the truth of the Maze."

Unlike the Divine Wood World, the corresponding game that appeared for it contained a lot of information that even Su Zhou didn’t know. The anomaly it presented was the understanding of the world’s full picture as perceived by an Apocalypse who had received the world’s information.

This time, however, it was a different kind of anomaly, one where the course of events was completely different.

’Of course, that choice wouldn’t be surprising either. If I hadn’t been robbed by that group of bandits right at the start, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the situation with the natives of that world. But working backward from the final result, if I hadn’t interfered in Naisel City, I never would have been able to successfully sever the cycle of Reincarnation and usher in a New Era.’

This was the conclusion Su Zhou had reached on his own.

"It’s a deviation value."

Yara’s reply to Su Zhou’s confused query was brief.

But after a moment’s thought, it elaborated, "Your arrival, in fact, is a complete anomaly for a world."

"And the transmission of information relies on a kind of inertia... It doesn’t necessarily spread exactly according to your actions, but rather follows a sort of inherent trajectory. Of course, if you make a big enough change, the trajectory will also be replaced. It’s like how, even in this game, if you follow the storyline, you still end up fighting the Water God and the Wind God. Only the process and the cause are different."

"How should I put it?"

Finally, Yara used itself and the many myths of the world as an example. "It’s like... how there can be a single prototype, but in different myths and legends, this prototype takes on countless different forms. Sometimes, after many years of being passed down, an originally male Immortal God becomes a female in folklore. The reverse is also true; an originally female Deity might eventually become male."

There were many such examples, but on an Earth World where organized religion had been severed for a millennium, Su Zhou’s knowledge on the subject, while present, didn’t go that deep.

Still, it wasn’t impossible to understand.

"It’s just like how a message gets distorted when it’s passed along, right?"

Su Zhou could understand the concept of information distortion. After all, it was common for a message passed between a dozen people to sound completely different by the time it reached the last person.

So it was undoubtedly natural for the deviation in information transmitted between worlds to be even more severe.

Sitting behind Shao Shuangyue, watching the young woman grit her teeth and pump herself up before clicking ’Start’ to begin a new game, Su Zhou mused to himself, ’It seems I’ll have to be careful the next time I cross over to another world. My actions, even well-intentioned ones, could bring about strange variables for that world.’

’Information has gravity. The Extraordinary has gravity. And a Powerhouse, naturally, has even more gravity. If only two Powerhouses existed in a world, they would inevitably meet, whether to talk or to fight to the finish.’

And as long as he, Su Zhou, didn’t go to one of those worlds that had never experienced a severing of Spiritual Qi and was teeming with old monsters, he would definitely be considered a Powerhouse, capable of stirring up trouble in a region, or even across the entire world.

In that case, it wouldn’t matter where the original center of the world’s conflict was...

Because wherever he was, that would be the center of the world’s conflict!

But by the same token, the world’s trajectory would also change because of him, and Su Zhou couldn’t be sure if this change would be for the better or for the worse.

’Come to think of it, I wonder how the Divine Wood World is doing now. How are Zhou Buyi and the Grand Master?’

At this thought, Su Zhou couldn’t help but think of the Divine Wood World again. More than two years had passed since then. He himself had gone from High-level Awakening to Initial Stage Commander. The Demon Emperor he once had to struggle against could probably be annihilated now with just a single breath.

It was, after all, the first world he had ever crossed into, so Su Zhou paid close attention to it. But with no DLC for the game ’Dark Wolf: Calamity of Undeath’ in sight, he had no way of indirectly learning about that world’s situation.

"I’ve decided." He grabbed another chocolate stick and crunched it down. With this thought, Su Zhou nodded slightly. "In a little while, I’ll go back to the Divine Wood World to check on things!"

"Conveniently, I’ve also advanced to the Commander Tier. The Spiritual Power I possess is enough to supply one basic Teleportation."

Having made his decision, Su Zhou stopped watching Shao Shuangyue play her game. It was like eating chili peppers—doing it occasionally was stress-relieving and satisfying, but overdoing it wasn’t so great. After all, you wouldn’t want to be spiced to death.

It wasn’t that he was bored and slacking off on his Cultivation to watch someone play games. The main reason was that Cultivation at the Commander Tier, compared to the Extraordinary Tier, wasn’t so focused on arduous training.

’At Tier One Extraordinary, after remodeling all the Spiritual Qi Organs in the body, even the most mediocre Cultivator with the most ordinary aptitude will leap to become a true prodigy of Cultivation. Innate Talent originating from the physical body becomes more or less useless by the time one reaches Extraordinary High-tier. Of course, I’m an exception. It’s like I cultivated a second time on the foundation of a Perfect Body, making my Spiritual Qi Organs even stronger than normal.’

’But in any case, at the Commander Tier, the most important thing isn’t the accumulation of pure power, but the analysis of one’s own Divine Techniques, and the understanding and reorganization of one’s own strength.’

In other words, before the Commander Tier, a person’s Cultivation is like following a textbook, like taking classes at a university. But after reaching the Commander Tier, it’s like being a graduate student, a PhD candidate, or even a professor—you have to start researching your own related field of knowledge.

The tier above that, Overlord, requires becoming a Powerhouse whose word is law in their related field. Only then can they be called an Overlord. The tiers beyond that, Immortal and Creator, require one to pioneer a completely new path, or even create a new Extraordinary Domain.

Su Zhou’s analysis of his own Divine Technique, Evil-Devouring Demon Lord, had long since reached a limit. The Wish Power Divine Techniques and the Wish Soul were his results. In a sense, although his power accumulation was only at the Initial Stage Commander level, his conceptual understanding had already surpassed it.

Furthermore, his Wish Power Divine Techniques had fused with his Curse and Grudge Divine Techniques, giving birth to a ’True Soul’.

Su Zhou had a premonition that as long as he swallowed this True Soul, not only would he gain the brand new Divine Technique ’Fire of Sin,’ but his original Divine Techniques would also be enhanced, and his strength would immediately jump a full tier!

However, Su Zhou felt that the time was not yet right. The Desire Power from the Beast God Realm was still pouring endlessly into that tiny stalk of wheat. He planned to wait until the flow of Desire Power began to slow and the True Soul’s power had matured to its absolute limit before consuming it.

’Green apples, green oranges, and green bananas are tasty in their own right, but in the end, I still prefer them ripe.’

Su Zhou was also keeping an eye on the Spirit Beast family who had given him that stalk of wheat. They were living quite well, and were even spreading worship and faith in Su Zhou throughout the Beast God Realm. For reasons of their own, the officials had not prohibited this.

They even deliberately merged Su Zhou’s image with the image of the punisher who had disciplined the stubbornly resisting Divine Beast Families, turning him into a Punishment God capable of stopping children from crying at night.

Perhaps, in addition to being praised in the Reincarnation World, he would also gain the title of Punishing Evil God in the Beast God Realm.

Just as he was walking out the door, preparing to find Shao Qiming to chat about some Cultivation matters, Su Zhou suddenly remembered that Shao Qiming didn’t seem to be home today.

"Shuangyue, where’s your brother? He’s not exactly the type who likes to go out."

So he turned back and asked the young woman.

"My brother? If you don’t know, how would I know?"

How could a young lady who heard nothing of the outside world, and thought only of playing games, possibly know her own brother’s whereabouts? But after thinking for a moment, Shao Shuangyue managed to dig up a memory. "Wait, I remember now... Yesterday, when he was helping me with my homework, he said someone asked to meet him today? I think it’s an acquaintance from online... It seems like they were the one who asked him out."

But that was the extent of her memory. She shrugged and went back to her game. "I have no idea what online friend. Hasn’t he just been playing with us lately?"

"An online friend, huh."

Su Zhou nodded at this, not thinking much of it. He even felt a little pleased. ’Looks like Qiming’s personality has gotten more lively since he recovered. He’s even being asked out by people... Next time, I’ll have him introduce me to them.’

’After all, a friend of Qiming’s is a friend of mine.’