This behavior is addictive. She tried it when she was fourteen or fifteen. But she couldn't afford anti-inflammatory medicine, so she stopped later.

But now, the long-lost silence returns again, and she is silent amidst the gradually increasing pain.

Only at such times does she feel like she's breathing normally, not with a layer of gray over her eyes, or a mask choking her breath.

Like the embrace of returning to the mother, the surroundings are full of the texture of water, and a haze envelops her ears.

...

[Didn't you notice? Sometimes during her livestream, she suddenly acts abnormal, as if having an episode, although she quickly resumes smiling.]

[Now that I think about it, it's scary. She won't really be sick, right...]

[Young people can't handle pressure well, tsk tsk.]

[Another name added to the God Sealing List.]

[Hehe.]

...

"Happy birthday to you..."

"Happy birthday to you..."

In the dim, empty room, the girl hums this song again. At eighteen, she hummed it with Su Ming'an. Now, she finds herself alone in a strange time, needing to sing it herself.

Today is her nineteenth birthday.

"Happy birthday to you..."

She treated the knife wound, took out a photo, and kissed it gently.

...

[She was so popular before, probably has some shady backing.]

[Haha, backing? More like selling out! The data shows she's just a civilian, what backing could she have? The only thing she could offer is...]

[How can you say that...]

[Brilliant! That explains it. Her figure is indeed nice...]

...

"Happy birthday... to you..."

It was a photo of a middle-aged woman, carrying a vegetable basket, standing by the school gate, smiling kindly.

The girl kissed it, gently pressing her forehead against the photo, softly murmuring:

"Mom..."

"Mom, save me."

The photo was black and white.

...

The room is silent.

No response.

...

Su Luoluo still has to continue livestreaming. Such overwhelming negative emotions surged towards this end of the causal line, she needs to observe the reactions on Shadow's side.

Facing a screen full of curses, she smiled at the camera: "Next, let's take a look at the Witch's Epic game, everyone follow my camera..."

A barrage of rotten egg gift effects smashed onto her, her expression unchanged, still smiling. Sometimes she thinks her only talent is probably her false smile.

If she just told the truth, she wouldn't suffer this much, but it would mean all her previous efforts were for nothing.

At this moment, facing the overwhelming malicious words and a few kind ones, the girl finally understood something had changed — it's the sugar-coated layer called maturity covering her bit by bit, the thing called disguise wrapping her in one coat after another.

The cost of sinking is too high.

She cannot stop.

Her heart swells slightly, like something is pressing on it. She couldn't shed a tear.

...

But she didn't expect there would be an even worse result.

Someone unknown instigated the United Group and the military, due to the United Group investing too many promotional resources in her, to shift the blame, they pinned the mistakes on her alone.

As for whether she was right or wrong,

who cares.

She ran away.

Ran away from that apartment.

Two hours after she escaped, several soldiers broke open the apartment door, aiming their guns inside, finding nothing but dead rats and blades on the floor, with a screen still spewing malicious words.

"How did she run?"

"...Now who are we going to bring back for judgment?"

They were dumbfounded. Never expected a girl could escape from encirclement.

Afterwards, people kept searching for traces of Miss Demon King, wanting to subject her to judgment.

During the second test of the Dream Tour game, many people participated. But due to the risk involved, some experienced mental breakdown while playing, which should have been the deity's responsibility, yet people blamed all these mistakes on "Miss Demon King" — surely it was her lingering actions during the first test that resulted in people's deaths!

These seemingly absurd scenarios were happening for real. Everything was sliding towards an unavoidable direction.

Until that day —

Someone spotted traces of Miss Demon King at the edge of the black mist.

According to eyewitnesses, Miss Demon King seemed to be talking to someone, a shadow in the starry sky. Though the meaning of the starry sky was unclear, people soon realized this shadow was likely the invader.

Indeed, Miss Demon King was in contact with the invader.

This revelation confirmed a thousand malicious guesses at once.

In the black mist, Su Luoluo looked up, conversing with Shadow.

"...Would you like to join me? Su Luoluo." Shadow gently said: "The people you want to save are as simple-minded as diodes. They don't care about the truth, only the preferences of deities and higher-ups. As long as they can please the deities, they can say anything."

"The world you imagine isn't beautiful. The internet you're eager to immerse into is actually scarier and dirtier than anywhere else."

"When you stand in the spotlight, people behind the screen can discern malicious intent in your every move. Just a spark can ignite a sweeping firestorm."

"Look up, Su Luoluo, the vastness of the stars and sea surpasses them all; the universe above you is the ultimate of everything, these voices will eventually be buried in the dust of millions of years, not even one-millionth the size of a planet."

"Join me. The reason you do these things is simply to be liked by people, right? I'll take you to better and farther places... I'll take you to a more beautiful world."

Upon seeing Shadow for the first time, Su Luoluo was thrilled — she put herself in such a miserable situation just to meet Shadow, to converse with Shadow and thus observe the changes of the causal line, to further speculate on Shadow's location.

She won the gamble, Shadow indeed came to tempt her.

The goal was finally achieved, yet Shadow threw out such enticing bait.

Su Luoluo's lips trembled.

She couldn't deny, Shadow's words are very tempting. If she nodded, she wouldn't lose anything, but shaking her head would lead to an obvious... dead end.

...The starry sea...ah.

No one doesn't long to be a traveler among the universe, free, immortal, unrestrained.

She seems to hear an incredible fairy tale again, recalling what she said at the very beginning.

[...I'm just a coward.]

[...I'm just a lazy bum who loves to idle around. I'm incapable of doing anything.]

...

Yes, she's a coward.

A coward gets hurt even by cotton, let alone the weight of thousand keyboards, she couldn't bear.

"...How about it?" Shadow patiently asked her, like a gentle, seductive Big Brother.

She opened her eyes.

...Maybe her hands were shaking.

[Dirty], [Chicken], [Trash], [Scum], [Disgusting patient]... Words swirled in her mind, she had dreamt hundreds of nightmares. In her dreams, she stood nude in the spotlight, words pouring in and piercing through her.

She's not some great person; sometimes she also thinks, "Let the world be destroyed! Yay! Let all humans die!" She would also fantasize about jumping off a high building and smashing into pieces.

But every time she wakes up, seeing her mother's photo in her hand, her nose would turn sour, and the suicidal thoughts in her mind are all abandoned.

...Actually, sometimes, there's just a mother between her and death.

...

"But if that's the case... Mom and Dad would be sad."

...

She thus rejected Dieying.

Surprise flooded Dieying's eyes, as if unable to understand the meaning of "Mom and Dad," or why someone would reject the stars and the sea for such an absurd reason.

Not for the Honor of saving the World, not for the favor of the Deity, not for the gratitude of billions of humans—just because...

...Mom and Dad?

"Aren't your Mom and Dad gone?" Dieying said.

"But, the Mom and Dad of billions of people would be sad." Su Luoluo said.

"People treat you like this, and you still worry about their Mom and Dad?" Dieying asked.

"Some parents haven't done anything wrong; they don't even know what the internet is... And, Little Cloud's parents... would be sad too."

She didn't know what she was saying. She didn't even know if Su Ming'an's parents were still around.

But, if mom's underground, she would indeed be sad.

"Because... the sunset, the sunflowers, the deck chair, the sunrise, the big house... they will all be there." She said vacantly, while shedding tears and uttering words she herself did not believe: "Love, likes, fans... they will be there too... all of them."

"When I was little, relatives looked at me with pity, thinking that in this life I could never afford a big house, but now, I can live in a very, very big house, it's called the Old Divine Palace, more luxurious than any house in the World..."

"And I can still... oh yes, I can make drifting sand Mahjong. I will make drifting sand Mahjong that doesn't overturn, I will trim the pictures well, use less mica powder, the oil won't spill either..."

"After trimming, the knife will be sterilized, I will take good care of the inflammation, and apply band-aids, in short, there won't be any problems..."

She didn't know what she was saying.

Like a patient with a mental breakdown, muttering. Even the most powerful High-dimensional being couldn't understand the logic in her words.

She actually leaned towards agreeing with Dieying, because she was a selfish coward, a bit of fear would make her hesitate, yet she couldn't make up her mind.

...

Because, if she left.

She sniffed.

There would be no sunset...

...

The horizon was stained with a smear of sunset red, it was evening.

Beyond the Black Mist, yellow sand spread far and wide.

Dieying fell silent, as if contemplating how to persuade her.

Su Luoluo gazed at the beautiful sunset. For the first time, she discovered that as long as she stood within the Black Mist, in a place where the sun could not reach, she could see an exceptionally pure sunset. Because it was separated by a layer of Black Mist, it appeared even more striking.

Its appearance...

Like a "pollution-free sunset."

A sharp cry came, a lone eagle sliced through the sky, traversing the golden twilight.

The sunset was like a weary Traveler, slowly sinking into the embrace of the mountains, the clouds were tinged with a light golden hue, as soft as a watercolor painting. Su Luoluo gazed at this beautiful sunset, tears suddenly glistening in her eyes.

"Su Luoluo, you..." Dieying began to speak temptingly.

At this moment, distant footsteps suddenly echoed, the sound of iron boots scraping. Dieying immediately looked toward the outside of the Black Mist, and Su Luoluo, noticing Dieying's expression, followed suit in confusion.

—She saw dense crowds of soldiers.

People wearing military armor and robes, staring at her in the Black Mist, their eyes full of disdain.

—So, it was the military who had located her position and come to hunt her down.

"She really is the lackey of the Invaders...", "Good thing we caught her here...", "Quick, kill this Demon King..." The voices gradually spread.

Su Luoluo's heart suddenly ached.

Suddenly, she seemed to hear a faint sound—as if the friction of Causal Lines, when each thread collides…it makes such a sound. The Causal Lines were retracting on their own.

Buzz, buzz.

...like Destiny frantically and bewilderedly crashing at this moment. The sound of Causal Lines contracting echoed in her ears, she didn't know what "cause" was manifesting here, and what "effect" was being netted here.

Had she participated? What had she witnessed? What kind of chaotic ringing of Destiny's bell was striking at this moment? What sound was it supposed to send forth?

Buzz, buzz.

The Causal Lines pulled tight—what on earth, was blooming like a flower, bearing fruit?

"Rustle, rustle, rustle."

A long-haired woman stood on the yellow sand, staring straight at Su Luoluo in the Black Mist, her eyes sharp as an eagle. She was a General of the army, surrounded by ten thousand military Talisman bearers.

"Whsh!"

The long-haired woman's spear pointed directly at the Black Mist, aiming at Dieying beside Su Luoluo.

As a General of the army, Agnes needed to confirm one last time, for she was a General, she had to confirm if this shadow from the stars was indeed an Invader, if Su Luoluo was being wronged.

"—Who are you—"

"—Why aide the Demon King!!!"

She shouted at Dieying.

Dieying laughed.

In Su Luoluo's confused eyes, Dieying held Su Luoluo's hand, feigning an intimate posture:

"Do you all... call her the Demon King? Is anything we have done greater than a single glance from a Deity?"

In Dieying's words, she clearly classified her as an ally.

People were more convinced that Su Luoluo was Dieying's lackey.

"Do your actions in the Dream Tour game deserve forgiveness?" A man with a military cap next to Agnes shouted: "Demon King! Would we fall into this situation if you were willing to change a little? So many people died, all because of your game!"

Su Luoluo listened.

She didn't know what kind of expression she should show.

Evidently, the game's second test wasn't her responsibility.

Maybe she should forcefully push Dieying away, declaring her refusal to ascend to the High Dimensions. Perhaps she should burst out her emotions, cry out loud. Maybe she should reveal the truth, vent all the suffering of these days.

But somehow, she felt very tired.

...Very tired.

That kind of... fatigue she felt every time she cut herself. A weariness that no matter what she does, she couldn't see the end... myriad Emotions flashed through her heart.

Finally, she didn't know what expression she froze on.

So,

In people's eyes.

The notorious, utterly evil lackey of the Invaders—slowly, naturally, plainly...

Revealed a...

One belonging to "Miss Demon King", most natural, most common...

The most false, most real...

...

—[Smile].

...

[—The First Destiny Movie.]

["Do your actions in the Dream Tour game deserve forgiveness?" A man with a military cap next to Agnes shouted: "Demon King! Would we fall into this situation if you were willing to change a little? So many people died, all because of your game!"]

[The Demon King listened, merely smiling faintly, emotions unreadable.]

[The causal web was just about to finish, she could not reveal the truth in advance. This should count as "Growth".]

[She thought,]

—Now, "Miss Demon King", she can be considered grown up.

...

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