He gave up on this idea.

As long as Su Luoluo programs the system instructions for the Dream Tour game, being a "Causal Programmer" will be enough.

Having her perceive the causality of Dieying is too difficult. Although it will miss some chances to predict Dieying's means, after all, Su Luoluo is just a seventeen-year-old high school student.

... She is still a child who becomes flustered when criticized by the audience, quite immature. How could she possibly judge the feedback causality from high-dimensionals? It's too difficult for her.

On the bench, silence prevailed for a moment, as dry leaves gently fell, merging into a soft pale yellow carpet.

The girl's dim purple eyes reflected the sky, lost in thought.

Glancing at the time, Su Ming'an wanted to leave; he still had some small errands to attend to and couldn't keep sitting with Su Luoluo.

"... Little Cloud," the girl suddenly said.

Just as Su Ming'an was about to get up, he paused, settled back down, and looked at her.

There was a misty dimness in the girl's eyes.

"Actually, I've had many dark histories, which I never told you." She said, "Before I got depression, I did many incorrect things. When I was thirteen, I thought depression was cool, so I deliberately scratched my hand and took photos of the wounds, just to make others worry about me... When I was fourteen, I dressed very exaggeratedly to gain attention, but it was fake, I'm not the type of character I portrayed online, I just wanted others to notice me."

"That was when I realized... that I had always craved attention. Even if it was just on the internet."

"Then I started playing games, slowly accumulated a few fans, most of whom stayed only because of my appearance and voice, it was like having a cyber clown, they didn't care about my soul at all."

"At fifteen, I posted a lot of photos online. To keep up with weekly fashion trends — goth style, exaggerated style, cute style, demon style — but never got more than 10 likes. I tweeted a lot, expressing my views on the world, my daily life, my feelings, but no one replied to me. I used a small account to like my own posts. This went on for... a long time."

Hearing Su Luoluo's narration, Su Ming'an seemed to see a girl, struggling in a vast world, without family, without friends, only reaching out to the myriad people on the internet. She was too ordinary, her looks were unremarkable, her academic performance was not outstanding, and she had no talents to showcase at class meetings, so she could only look at others with envy.

In this vast world, no one cared about the struggles and tears of a female high school student.

He listened silently. Perhaps separated from him for too long, Su Luoluo seemed to be pouring out all the grievances of those sixteen years that no one had cared about. If she hadn't been taken by the Old God, she could have had many peers in the civilian area, but she was taken away. From then on, she could only attend online classes in high school, with the internet as her only connection.

But the internet, for a young and inexperienced seventeen-year-old high school girl, was sometimes unfriendly. From the audience's connection just now, it was evident enough.

So... these shaped who she is now.

A game streamer with just over a hundred fans, a Demon King's lady that no one cares about.

Su Ming'an wanted to say, you're not ordinary, you've been selected for a TE Perfect Pass, how could you be ordinary? But looking at her eyes with a faint sorrow, he realized, she indeed was ordinary, what she did was indeed no different from that of a typical seventeen-year-old girl. Just like Little Mei, they really were just ordinary people, yet were inadvertently swept into a vortex. So inevitably, with abilities and courage lagging, they began to feel frightened.

Su Luoluo, her greatest hobbies were just watching anime, playing games, drawing, and making flowing sand mahjong.

"So..." Su Luoluo said.

She raised her head and gazed at Su Ming'an. The flower-scented breeze swept between them, blowing against the deity's gold and white robes.

The sadness faded from her eyes as she suddenly smiled, eyebrows arched, changing expressions like a mask.

"So, it's really great."

"If I could be cultivated in the direction of Dieying — wouldn't I really be the legendary Demon King?"

Su Ming'an suddenly looked at her. That was a joyful, genuine smile, like a sunflower.

She really was happy.

About her ability to perceive Dieying.

"Cultivating you in the direction of Dieying, due to the sharing of the causality network, would enable you to perceive and entangle similar causality. But the one who gazes into the abyss will also be gazed into by the abyss. When you delve deeply into causality, you will be countered by Dieying. You will be in tremendous pain, even losing your spirit, losing yourself," Su Ming'an said.

So he wanted to give up on this idea. He thought Su Luoluo couldn't withstand it.

But she felt that life finally had something different. That stagnant, monotonous, despairing... high school life.

"Think about it carefully," Su Ming'an said, "This requires a very firm will, now you're just caught up in excitement. Don't waste your Causality Authority."

Su Luoluo no longer insisted, she indeed needed to think it over.

When Su Ming'an turned his head, Su Luoluo suddenly raised her hand, "Matrix Orders — Shala Shala!"

Morning light danced among the branches and leaves, casting a field of golden colors. Under the girl's Matrix Orders, the sky was filled with twirling golden streamers, landing on Su Ming'an's hair. He caught a ribbon; it was brilliant golden, small, like grains of flowing sand. This was a new Matrix Order she created using the Causality Authority, akin to programming system instructions.

But her first programming was such a harmless Matrix Order, merely to summon some golden sand-like streamers.

"... I always felt gold suited you. Warm, dazzling, like sunlight. This is my first time using Causality Authority to perform a magic for you," Su Luoluo said.

"... Mm," Su Ming'an responded.

"In a while, it'll be my eighteenth birthday. On that day, I'll give you my answer," Su Luoluo said.

Su Ming'an brushed off the golden streamers, which shimmered brightly on him. The clear morning light glistened like fish scales.

Initially he wanted to just leave, but he stopped. In Su Luoluo's puzzled gaze, he didn't look back, pointing to the tabby cat lazily sleeping next to the bench, he said:

"You're not a noble Ragdoll, nor a beautiful British Shorthair."

"You are a free tabby cat, not a precious pedigree. So you can do whatever you want."

"In the past, many people told me, you're an adult now, you need to have plans for your life. Without parents at home, you must consider your future. What's the use of studying psychology? It's better to honestly study finance or law, at least you can have a stable job in the future, get a loan to buy a house and get married. Clearly, their own lives were incomplete, yet they required me to always follow the prescribed path."

"But who set the rules, what one must do at a certain age. I know they're speaking from their hearts, psychology's stability certainly isn't as good as those majors, but this is my own life."

"Su Luoluo, I've seen many people who have collapsed and even succumbed to depression or suicide over a single exam. Is it their fault? Or has someone molded them into such a shape that they shatter at the slightest deviation from the mold? Studying, exams, work, marriage, and childbirth seem like just one mistake in any step and it's all over. But life is evidently a very long journey; it's alright to have mistakes."

"You are a tabby cat, you are free, not a cat in a greenhouse groomed down to every hair."

"So, it's alright not to be a Principal, it's alright not to be Miss Demon King, it's alright not to be a white-collar worker, and it's alright if no one cares about you either."

He never looked back at her but instead spoke to the tabby cat on the ground, yawning lazily. Though it seemed half-asleep, unable to understand anything, he spoke to it with great sincerity.

The tabby cat arched its back, only showing him its rear.

For the Deity to be persuading a cat, such a scene in the outside world would surely leave people dumbstruck, even making them doubt if the Deity had lost its mind.

Yet the girl was biting her lip, her eyes utterly flushed red.

She had offered him a beautiful rain of golden ribbons, and he told her not to be anxious, not to be afraid. Even if his words carried a touch of naive idealism, they possessed a rich sentiment rare in adults.

"...I am a cowardly weakling. If I get scared or anxious, can I come... find you again?" The girl spoke softly. Her timidity couldn't be changed with just a conversation, but she felt she could start to transform.

From... becoming the true "Miss Demon King."

To stare into the abyss.

"Of course. I used to think 'congratulations on growing up' was a blessing, Yang Xia's love and hope for Dong Xue, but I think... maybe there is another blessing."

"Miss Demon King, you can never grow up."

Su Ming'an left.

...

The Holy City entered the second year of the Heavenly Era.

Su Ming'an stood on the bell tower, overlooking the land. The distant mountains lay like a sprawling verdant dragon, light snow falling from the sky, the saintly white buildings nearly melting into this January snow.

The New Year was approaching, and people were generally happy. But the New Year in the Holy City was different; the heavy snow symbolized a significant loss of heating resources and also signified that many elderly might not make it through the winter.

Su Ming'an reached out and slowly hung a silver bell on the eave of the bell tower—the eave soared high, already adorned with many items. The Peace Festival, bead chains, nameplates, padlocks, photo clips... these were mostly relics of the deceased. Whenever Su Ming'an caressed the forehead of the dying, they would pour their words of attachment to him and give him their most precious item as a memento of their life to be hung here. Gradually, there were sounds saying that relics hung by the hands of the Deity would naturally protect the living, blessing them with health and peace, prosperity and a bright future through all their lives.

There were also voices saying that the departed do not disappear but transform into stars in the Deity's hand, hanging in the sky. Whenever the stars twinkle at night, it's the departed illuminating the way home for the living.

Su Ming'an let these beautiful voices bear their attachment and hopes, storing each and every person in his mind, preserving their emotions, memories, and abilities, sending them into the long river of reincarnation.

Listening to their regrets. Accepting their wishes. Personally hanging up their relics.

Then, he gazed at these relics hanging beneath the eaves, so numerous they could be described as dazzling. As the evening wind blew, they clinked together like pear blossoms on a thousand trees, chasing and colliding with each other. Peace Festivals, nameplates, padlocks—endlessly overlapping, like a bunch of playful children. Upon careful counting, there were already thousands. This vast number made Su Ming'an feel dizzy... he realized he had personally bid farewell to so many people.

He remembered the end of last year, the coldest time of the year. A bitter wind howled, and Wang Mingming, who had returned from the Ice Age, grabbed onto his sleeve as soon as he stepped out of the time vortex, his face already soaked with frost the color of bitter coffee—the pollution had overloaded.

The young man also seemed aware of his impending death, personally placing a star pendant from around his neck on Su Ming'an's neck, saying:

[This was left by my father. I hope it always protects you.]

[Thank you for always valuing me. Thank you for recognizing my worth.]

A soldier was the father who fought desperately to preserve the observatory a thousand years later and also the father who died in battle for the Deity a thousand years ago. All that was known was his surname Wang, his appearance long forgotten. Now his child was also about to die.

Even though he had said farewell to many people, at that moment, the eyes of the Deity surprisingly reddened.

The relics of a thousand trees and flowers swayed on the bell tower like the eyes of deceased acquaintances, even more vivid than the stars in the night sky. A gust of wind blew, and the Deity placed a hand on the boy's forehead, bending low to say softly.

[I bless you, may your life be bright and healthy, prosperous and peaceful, through all lives.]

The Deity had no power to bless people; this was merely a customary farewell phrase. The Deity was only nineteen, a human, not a god, even the same age as Wang Mingming before him. Yet everyone believed that those blessed by them would surely have good fortune. Gradually, the Deity themselves began to believe they could bless everyone's lives through eternity.

... The Deity herself even began to believe.

The boy then smiled, seemingly satisfied. He gazed into the Deity's eyes, as if seeing bright flames inside, which suddenly blazed with added vigor. He said:

[If there is a next life if I can see you again... I hope to be your right-hand man, even if only to help you for a short while on a journey. Even if it's only... for a little while.]

The Deity answered him that he had done it, that he would be an outstanding young man, boldly speaking out in the face of hideous truths, rescuing a lamb in the rain.

With a "click," the memorial medal from the Star Observatory fell to the ground.

The young man contentedly closed his eyes.

The Deity stood in place for a long time, the black skin vanishing in their palm like broken sand. No one dared lift their head to see the expression on their face.

No one would see their rare vulnerability.

...

This winter was exceptionally cold.

Many who had been bid farewell never returned.

...

...

[TE3 · "Your Utopia with Him" Perfect Completion Progress: 94%]

...

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