That night, the wind was exceptionally cold.

The Holy City didn't have many beautiful places, only a park filled with phoenix trees and ginkgo trees.

Su Ming'an sat down on a long bench and suddenly heard the system's voice. He opened the exchange shop.

"Ding dong!"

[You have advanced to (Fifth Rank, Level 4) Player.]

[Faction Contribution Value Ranking:]

[No.1: Su Ming'an (32,182 points)]

[No.2: Mizushima Kawa Sora (16,122 points)]

[No.3: Noel (15,162 points)]

[No.4: Lv Shu (10,119 points)]

[No.5: Eli (8,627 points)]

[No.6: Agnes (7,821 points)]

[No.7: Lu (7,762 points)]

[No.8: Fannie (6,981 points)]

...

[You can use current faction contribution values to exchange for items.]

[Skill: Polar Light (Contribution Value: 15,000 points)]

[Skill: Sleeping Spell (Contribution Value: 10,000 points)]

[Skill: Flame Curse (Contribution Value: 5,000 points)]

[Prop: Judgment-class Humanoid Mecha (Contribution Value: 20,000 points)]

[Prop: Mentality Flower Crown (Contribution Value: 15,000 points)]

[...]

The experience gained by the transmigrators would give Su Ming'an about 2%, so even if he just sits there, the experience points would keep increasing segment by segment.

He stared at the exchange shop for a while. 15,000 points could exchange for a skill, and 20,000 points could get an evolvable red-grade weapon. But after his gaze wandered for a long time, he finally saw a grand prize:

...

[World Tree Seed (Purple Grade): "A melancholic voice, singing to me in the night: —'I love you.'"]

Type: Special Part Heart Equipment.

Effect: Alters your innate traits, giving you a life affinity characteristic. You'll have a higher affinity with others and easier to be favored by primordial spirits and the world.]

Note: Those who are favored must shoulder great responsibilities, be cautious.]

...

This item was priced at 30,000 contribution points, which was enough to show its importance. Su Ming'an had never seen equipment for the heart area; it should be something akin to magical elements. It could enhance charm and luck, and maybe have some subtle effects...

Just then, a line of red text silently popped up:

...

[Extra tip for the Ruler: Equipping this item will give you a higher status in future instances.]

...

Su Ming'an suddenly understood.

—This was likely an item to change the innate character. Just like how The World of Old Days intended to foster Su Ming'an's original form, when Su Ming'an changed himself, the characters he could possess would also change. If he equipped this item, he should be able to possess a character with "higher life affinity," as not every world would have Su Ming'an's original.

This was a strategic item.

Su Ming'an also thought of an operation—if he could put on and take off this equipment, he could put it on once, see what role he becomes in the instance, then reload and take it off, enter the instance and see what role he becomes again. In this way, he could have a choice of possession targets.

If not for the Ruler identity giving him this tip, he might not have realized this point.

... By the way, what is the World Tree? An important element in future instances?

He exchanged for this "World Tree Seed." After equipping it, a gleaming blue light merged into his chest, seemingly changing something in the unseen world.

"... Hm?" Su Luoluo looked over.

"What's wrong?" Su Ming'an asked.

"I just feel like the little cloud seems somewhat cuter now." Su Luoluo quickly blurted out her true thought, then hurriedly corrected herself: "No... I should say, it seems... gentler now... looks like..."

Su Ming'an also noticed a stronger life aura about him, even higher than that of the Eligibles. It seemed to be a double-edged sword; the vast life aura could attract ill-intentioned people, just like those high-ranking officials coveting the Eligibles.

So, could he cultivate his own forces like this? The Eligibles could bleed to make others stronger; the World Tree Seed had a similar effect…

"God!" Suddenly, a sunflower was handed to him.

A little boy grinned and handed the flower to him: "For you! This is the most beautiful sunflower I've found! Just like you!"

Su Ming'an understood why there were always children playing nearby. Whenever he visited the park, those generals would send their children to play, trying to build a relationship with him. These children must have also been instructed to please the deity.

But the children were innocent. Many of them didn't even have ulterior motives, only wanting to make him happy.

Su Ming'an accepted the sunflower, its golden petals spreading comfortably, appearing brighter than the streetlights even on this black night: "Am I golden?"

His clothes were clearly white, and his hair was black.

"Golden!" The little boy was truly joyful: "Just like the sunlight in the Holy City!"

Su Ming'an twirled the flower stem slightly, advising the boy to quickly go home, and the boy left hopping and skipping.

The leaves fell on Su Luoluo's hand, where she was weaving a large silvery web, like interconnected puppet threads. This was the Causality Authority.

She closed her eyes, sensing, as her hands played over the net of causality, creating ripples as if gazing, probing, and contending with some unknown existence—an unassailable war, uniquely hers.

Su Ming'an waited for half a moment when Su Luoluo suddenly opened her eyes, her cheeks flushed red, her breath rapid and coughing as if she might cough out her internal organs.

"Cough... cough cough... ugh..."

Her eyes were bloodshot, streaked with red lines. The girl's face was pale, her body trembling like a person in a mental collapse.

"Su Luoluo!" Su Ming'an immediately cut his finger, feeding her his blood. The darkness in her eyes gradually settled, and her painful trembling slowly subsided. Her brows twitched slightly as she slowly looked up.

Then, she revealed her habitual, teasing smile:

"It's nothing... I sensed the presence of Dieying. The causal lines he controls are too dense and vast. I barely probed, and he nearly traced and destroyed me."

She had suffered a massive mental wound.

Climbing on the causality net was, after all, to gaze straight into the abyss; a slight mistake meant being devoured. She was just an ordinary human, and under the vastness of the universe, she didn't even compare to an ant. That was why Su Ming'an always believed she couldn't do it.

But her first exploration of the causality net encountered Dieying's peeping, and she withstood it.

——It's like giving an ant a machete. Even if it can hold the machete and indeed hurt people, its probability of self-destruction is far higher than others.

"Forget it." Su Ming'an said.

Su Luoluo was silent for a while: "...Then if I give up, I'll return to that cold palace and become a frightened game anchor again."

Su Ming'an's pupils slightly contracted.

"If I give up... All year round, Little Yun Duo, you won't come to me, not even once, never... Cough, cough, cough..." She started to cough violently again:

"I'm not blaming you, it's right that you don't come to me. But I don't want to... just watch... I want... to play an important role. I kind of want... to become a superhero in this world..."

"I don't want to... don't want to be that... high school student who only likes their own posts... unnoticed... dark, ordinary, mediocre..."

Tears appeared in her eyes.

This made Su Ming'an's palm stop.

...She believes that only when she plays a role will someone be willing to love her. Because before this, indeed no one has ever loved her.

And a Deity couldn't pay attention to someone without strategic significance all the time, she was right. Even though they were friends, the distance would only grow wider.

"I have a request... Can you promise me?" Su Luoluo recovered, despite the splitting headache, she still stared into Su Ming'an's eyes.

Su Ming'an inwardly shook his head.

...You cannot promise her.

...You know what she's going to ask for. You've heard this kind of request from many people, it's almost like... a last wish.

"What do you want to say?" But he still spoke up.

By his side, there were always speeding trains passing by, they went forward without hesitation, showing him a smile, but pushed him away during crises, never attempting to wait for him, just actively falling off the cliff.

He couldn't pull these trains, they were willing, and indeed their contributions couldn't be done without. All he could do was witness, was commemorate.

But this feeling of loss, he had never gotten used to it.

He knew what awaited Su Luoluo if she continued on, it was almost an outcome that one could see at a glance, needing no judgment—when humans face high-dimensional beings, anyone could think of the result. In this invisible causality test, high-dimensional beings could make countless mistakes, but humans could only afford to make one.

But in the conversation, they both seemed to deliberately ignore this point.

"Promise me first." The Demon King Miss emphasized.

"Tell me what first." The Deity shook his head.

"Promise me first."

"Tell me what."

"Are you a broken record?"

"Aren't you too."

"Reflect your repetition."

"Reflection ineffective."

The back-and-forth dialogue repeated for more than a dozen rounds, it was almost like children bickering. Su Ming'an was almost about to laugh—how could it be this absurd? Faced with a death line so close to someone, facing their own fate, they could still bicker like children. As if the impending destruction didn't exist.

The girl took a deep breath, raising her hands as if surrendering, pitifully saying: "Alright, reflection ineffective. I surrender, I'll say it."

She leaned to his ear, her hair slightly swayed against his ear, carrying a sunny smell, not sure which kind of shampoo.

His expression was dazed for a moment, instinctively wanting to push her away, but then felt it was unnecessary, as actions between friends were often very simple.

"...I know, eventually, there will be a time when the mental trauma exceeds my threshold, and the malice of a shadow will accumulate more and more. I will gradually become dazed, listless, irritable, and even like a different person. So I might show a mindset of regret, avoidance, but that's not my true thoughts." She said in a low tone:

"At that time, force me."

"Force me to continue weaving the causal line, force my consciousness to actively sink into authority, don't let me... really escape like this."

Su Ming'an's pupils trembled.

The soft hair brushed against his ears, tickling, making his whole body involuntarily tremble—he didn't know if it was because of the tickling or something else.

She's trying to cut off her own retreat.

——Because she is a coward, just a salted fish without any willpower.

She knows herself to be lacking in willpower, sure to retreat. She found doing homework annoying, didn't want to brave the scorching heat or harsh cold to learn skills, and after listening to online classes for a while, she lowered her head to doodle. She understood herself too well.

So she said it in advance, not to let her retreat, to not waste her Causality Authority.

Su Ming'an looked into her eyes.

She didn't look at him, but rather over his shoulder, gazing at the sunflower field not too far away. The golden flowers raised their heads to the sky, blooming brightly and brilliantly, even if the clouds were thick and there was no sunlight.

Just like her eternal smile.

"...Don't be too serious." Su Luoluo muttered to herself: "I'm not bearing the responsibility for some grand sense of duty, responsibility and such; I just want, just want... to be special."

...

[Su Luoluo froze for a moment: "You mean, the plot of the 'Dao Ya City' map is over, he's going to fly to a higher, farther place, and I'm like a starter NPC in a newbie village, is that so?"]

...

——Because she doesn't want to be an NPC in the newbie village anymore.

She wants to become the protagonist of her own life.

She reached out, gently embracing him, incorporating his pain into her arms.

"...I'm still very immature. Even though I'm an adult, I'm still like a child. It feels like I wasn't ready to grow up, then suddenly just grew up." She whispered in his ear: "I'm very sorry for making you worry."

"By the way, Little Yun Duo, can you put your hand... over my eyes, just for a little while."

He didn't know why, but he still placed his palm over her eyes.

He waited for a while, and soon his palm became wet.

"..." His pupils contracted slightly. His palm instinctively wanted to move away, but still stayed motionless, like a warrior guarding the city wall.

The girl's crying was soundless, except for the dampness in his palm and the slight trembling, it didn't expose her vulnerability.

In the empty park, beyond the reach of surveillance cameras, she could finally stop smiling.

The warmth transmitted through her eyelids and his palm was a kind of filling warmth she had never experienced before, like something sprouting new shoots, filling the part of her life that was always missing something.

He quietly sat with her in the park, until the snow covered their shoulders, until she dried her tears and walked back alone. Until the net woven by the causal line grew larger at her fingertips.

He gazed at her back, not catching up, but walked in the opposite direction—he had other tasks to do.

At the moment of turning, it was as if he heard something shatter.

Their figures intertwined for a brief moment, quickly separating in both directions, heading towards the unknown nine hundred and ninety-seven years, until the end of the ark.

...

That night, the wind was unusually cold, the snow remarkably heavy.

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