— When I first saw him in White Sand Paradise, I never thought he would become the bane of my life.

At that time, I was just a coward who couldn't stand the sight of blood, driven insane by the mental pollution of White Sand Paradise, trembling under the covers. But he walked out from the darkness, bathed in radiant light, and pulled me out of my cocoon.

He said he would send me back to rest, that White Sand Paradise would drive me mad.

His mind wasn't well either, with deep dark circles under his eyes and a pallid face, yet he had no intention of going back to rest.

I mistakenly thought of him as my mother. Because in my memory, only a mother would be so warm.

"Mom, is humanity going to be destroyed? I don't want to go back, I can't go back, I still need to... earn points for humanity..." I cried loudly.

His finger pressed against my temple.

"You're already mad, go back."

"Mom, aren't you going back with me?"

"I won't be going back," he comforted me like this: "One failure doesn't matter, go rest. After adjusting, you still have a chance to try again."

I must have been crying continuously, tears soaking him.

Even though he was in poor condition, he wanted me to rest first. Back then, not many people had a good opinion of him. Many called him pretentious, a saint, a show-off, saying he relied on his force to oppress other players.

But this was originally a competitive instance; why did people only blame him but not the ordinary players who first attacked him?

At that moment, I suddenly understood—indeed the world needs such people. They labor thanklessly, and any action not meeting people's expectations negates all their achievements, as if their previous efforts were all hypocritical, while a villain merely has to give up his knife to become a Buddha.

Because people don't believe someone can be so much nobler than themselves, they tend to pick on good people, craving to prove their poor character, and as long as the good person deviates slightly from their values, that kindness can be criticized as self-congratulatory.

So, I understood why there are fewer and fewer good people in the World Game, while sophisticated egoists are on the rise, because the latter do not have to endure picky moral constraints, nor do they get branded with hypocrisy. It's like bad money driving out good.

I lay on his chest, hearing a heartbeat echoing in his clothes, an illusion that persisted. I didn't understand why, in such a situation where everyone pointed fingers, the eighteen-year-old he was still stubbornly committed to goodness.

His finger pressed against my temple and triggered annihilation.

I finally left that hell called White Sand Paradise.

But I didn't return to the Main God World; instead, I saw a large red-and-white rabbit.

Boss Rabbit said that I was lucky to be selected and had the chance to become someone with a special identity. As long as I agreed, I wouldn't return to the Main God World, but go to a brand new world.

I've seen this kind of rhetoric many times while surfing World Forums. Many players received Boss Rabbit's special identity invitation, and most agreed.

I do have some unusual traits. Though I come from an ordinary Dragon Country family, I hardly feel fear or pain. The doctor says it's an illness. However, when the world undergoes a transformative change, this illness surprisingly becomes an advantage.

After thinking for a while, I still didn't want to abandon my Zhai Star Humans identity. Because if I wasn't a player, I couldn't return home. I wanted to go home in a year, not wander outside the world.

There are people like Su Ming'an. Under his leadership, even though the World Game situation is dire, humanity will eventually unite. Just like the cartoons I've watched, when Rainbow Cat was knocked off the cliff by Pig No Boundaries, Blue Rabbit Palace Master still saved him. The Seven Swords Combined were invincible, so why can't the peak Nine Thrones succeed? Nine is greater than seven, after all.

The eighteen-year-old me was willing to believe in the pure white tower of goodness for humanity. I believed we would triumph in a year.

I calmly said: "I have confidence, if I keep moving forward, I will surely become a strong player. I believe humanity will eventually unite, so I refuse."

What boy hasn't dreamed of being the hero in an animated movie?

At that moment, I seemed to return to my childhood, becoming Young Hero Rainbow Cat, standing with my back against a cliff, hit by a Butterfly Dart but still marching forward, bravely facing the evil called "Organizers."

The moment I refused Boss Rabbit, I imagined I had drawn the Rainbow Sword, its light dancing chaotically, chopping it into pieces. This fantasy made my blood boil, a release of my long-held resentment against the Organizers.

Boss Rabbit just laughed, not caring what I thought. Its rabbit ears swayed wickedly as it showed me a video.

In the footage, my mom... the mom who always reminded me to earn points for humanity... had gone mad in White Sand Paradise. She couldn't withstand the pervasive mental influence and broke down, finally dying in Xia Luoyang.

This was the first occurrence of such a sanity-value instance, and the United Group was unprepared, with medical resources extremely scarce, only able to supply those in high positions. As for my mom... she was wiped out of points, not even comparable to Casual Players.

I saw her crazily wandering the streets of the Main God World, drooling and giggling. Once graceful and beautiful, my mother became like a disheveled hag. Casual Players on the side retreated three feet away, looking at her like they did at flies, murmuring, "Can't we lock up all the madmen returning from White Sand Paradise? What if they hurt others?" "I'm telling you, it's because the United Group is ineffective..."

No one cares about failed heroes, nor does anyone remember the contribution of good people.

Just because heroes fall to ordinary people, just because an organization devoted to charity gradually can't cope, people criticize them as a show, belittling all their previous kindness.

At this moment, the white tower of goodness in my heart crumbled.

I realized that the image Boss Rabbit showed me was skewed towards humanity's evil. There are still many kind people in the world, it just didn't let me see them. But just seeing these evildoers was enough to leave me flustered and at a loss.

...What should Mom do?

...If I return now, I will be a wiped-out ordinary person. I come from a single-parent family, with no reliable relatives, nor friends in high places, and our priority must be very low—how can such an ordinary family get her treatment? She would soon suffer brain death.

Boss Rabbit seemed satisfied with my change of expression. Its soft tongue spat out venomous words: "Dear player... I have some contacts in the United Group with Edward. You know, the noble prince who is thousands of times superior to someone insignificant like you... As long as he speaks, saving your mom would be a mere word; she would even receive the best care and treatment. All of this... it only requires you to nod."

It understands human nature all too well.

Faced with such a binary choice, no one can shake their head.

I couldn't shake my head. It's as if my neck was frozen, my eyes flickering wildly, my lips trembling, unable to utter a word. If I shook my head, it would be a hopeless end I could foresee at a glance.

Edward could save a mother I could never save in my lifetime with just a word. And he wanted to exchange that mere word for my entire future.

We were deadlocked in the void for a long time, my fists clenched and then released, and I shouted:

"——Why are you so fixated on me!!"

"——Why won't you guys let me go——!!"

"——Why! Why must I become someone of special identity, why must I be far from home!! I'm from Dragon Country, don't you know how much Dragon Country people cherish their family and friends? Why must I become a lonely traveler in an otherworldly land! I just want to go home with my mom!!"

I saw its eyeball move slightly, the sheen exuding an inorganic chill, though it seemed close, I read an extreme indifference from its expression.

"Dear Player, you need to understand…" Boss Rabbit's voice dropped two pitches: "It's not that we won't let you go, but we've now bestowed upon you a chance to save your mother. Otherwise, you ought to know what you'll face upon return."

"Chaotic rule, selfish egoistic adventurer players, indifferent escapist casual players, internet's cold spectators. Your mom won't receive any healing; you'd only watch as she gradually suffers brain death."

"The ones who put you in this position are not us, but your fellow humans—they blocked your path from the start. It was they who abandoned you and your ordinary mother. Even setting aside the United Group, those humans only concerned with gossip... aren't worth yearning for."

"Who gave you rebirth, and who is disdainful of your mother?"

Its voice was low; each word pierced my heart, like cold blades thoroughly wounding my insistently benevolent heart, causing my heart to plummet.

I never walked out of the nightmare of that day.

The events of that day replayed over and over in my mind, accompanied by the imagery of the shattered white tower within my heart.

Rainbow Cat was cast to the bottom of the cliff, Blue Rabbit Palace Master couldn't find him.

I began to fear the evil in human nature, even though I once believed in good so firmly.

——If one stops loving, will they not get hurt?

——If one protects themselves, will they not be struck by the things they love?

I made a choice.

I abandoned the Zhai Star humans I once loved—I can no longer believe in "goodness." I cannot gamble my mother's life on the bet of their kindness.

I personally shattered the white tower in my heart.

I agreed to the organizers. My mother soon received excellent treatment, and I stepped alone into a new world, shedding my player identity.

This is a world called The World of Old Days.

I don't know how many instances it will become in the World Game; when I left, the World Game had just reached the sixth instance, White Sand Paradise.

In this world, I was born in the slums and grew up stumbling. In my teens, I became a renowned adventurer. I measured the earth with my own footprints, visited numerous cities, trying to find even a hint of my homeland's scent, even if only a resemblance, to recall the home I could never return to.

But, there was nothing.

Though this world indeed resembled Zhai Xing, with computers and televisions. Ultimately, it wasn't a familiar kingdom, nor could one find the atmosphere of the New Year. At the end of the year, I sat by the window, making fireworks for myself, listening to the crackling beneath the eaves, colorful reflections in my eyes as if I returned to the cozy little house filled with Lantern Festival scents, and my mother walking toward me with braised mandarin fish.

It's so much like Zhai Xing, to the extent that it disoriented me, but I'm acutely aware—this isn't it.

I can never return to the homeland I yearn for.

Fortunately, Dieying above the starry sky learned about my relationship with the organizers, and Dieying showed keen interest in me. He often showed me images of my mother's recovery in the Main God World. I didn't know how he got them; after all, he's a high-dimensional being, possibly observing the World Game.

The monthly interaction with Dieying became my sole reason to keep living. I yearned to see the game situation on Zhai Xing, to see my mother gradually heal, and to see the Number One Player grow stronger... Due to the different flow of time, even if I just watched once a month, I watched smoothly.

The Seventh World Pulaya, the Eighth World Dome...

Time passed gradually; my age reached my early twenties. When I was about to see the Ninth World, Dieying stopped showing me. He said, "If you want to see your mother again, you'll have to do something for me."

I asked, what?

Dieying gave a mysterious smile: "I'll tell you later. As long as you complete the tasks I give you, I can reunite you and your mother safely."

The long-dead seedlings in my heart blossomed into thousands of flowers at this moment.

If so, my mother wouldn't have to remain morose in the Main God World. We could live together, celebrate New Year together, make fireworks, eat New Year's Eve dinner... She has always wanted to come find me.

I couldn't resist this temptation; a child couldn't abandon the mother he loved.

I couldn't bear ending the year without seeing her again.

He understood human nature too well.

No one would refuse such a choice. I agreed to Dieying.

...

Three years before the Heavenly Era, since I was a famous adventurer in a radius of a thousand miles, a guy who claimed to be an "Old God" came to find me, hoping I could be his partner for something called the "Millennium Plan."

The moment I first saw him, I was astounded—why did this guy have Su Ming'an's face?

"Why do you look like this? Don't you have your own face?" I asked in shock.

He caressed his cheek: "What do you know, this is the most perfect face in the world."

I became interested: "Then let's play a game of Russian Roulette. If you lose, you have to tell me why you have this face."

Unfortunately, I lost the Russian Roulette and got myself caught up in it, becoming the Principal of the Millennium Plan.

Year 0 of the Heavenly Era marked the start of the third World Game. It made me feel absurd—I was actually playing a World Game within the World Game. Fortunately, I was a keen player and achieved many perfect passes.

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