CHAPTER 1018: CHAPTER 1014: [#&%￥@......*￥$#@]

[When Su Ming’an asked about Xiao Jingsan, the Deity said that Xiao Jingsan was just a stranger, here to guard you. Nothing ever happened between you two.]

[The Deity said that the Tenth World’s process is only fourteen days, and today is the first day of the replica activation.]

[The Deity said that they were the first person Su Ming’an saw after entering the Tenth World.]

...

In fact, as early as the Seventh Day of the replica—the Deity had already shown similar abilities. Back then, the Deity locked Su Ming’an up, making him believe it was the first day of the instance activation, making him think that he had never met Xiao Jingsan and others.

But later, Su Ming’an regained clarity and remembered it wasn’t the first day of the instance. He thought everything was fine.

However—

This was just a box within a box.

When he remembered that the "Seventh Day" was not the "First Day," how could he be sure that the "First Day" in his mind was the real "First Day"?

When he first opened his eyes and saw Xiao Jingsan drawing blood beside the bed, how could he know if it was their first meeting?

...

[The Deity broke the silence: "You really haven’t changed. I thought this time when we met again, you’d talk about some other topics."]

[Su Ming’an sighed inwardly, realizing that Su Wensheng used to love preaching too.]

[During this time, the Deity kept looking at him quietly, eyes like solidified ice crystals, occasionally flashing with nostalgia.]

...

On the second day of the replica activation, Su Ming’an met the Deity at the church, and the Deity said these words to him.

—But in the memories obtained later, Su Wensheng never had preaching experiences.

So, the "one who used to love preaching" wasn’t Su Wensheng, it could only be—

Su Ming’an himself.

Or rather, the Su Ming’an from the "previous time".

...

[The tentacle buzzed slightly, transmitting a wave of mental fluctuation: "This necklace is a farewell gift, They let me give it to you."]

[The tentacle placed a necklace on Su Ming’an. The necklace was looped with a cord, hanging a wooden eye that seemed alive, constantly trembling.]

[Su Ming’an felt a shiver down his spine.]

[...Them? Could it be the Deity? But he’d never met the Deity—had Su Wensheng ever met the Deity?]

...

On the second day of the replica activation, in the "Louyue Nation", a tentacle monster by the sea gifted Su Ming’an the Eye of the Old Days.

—A "farewell gift".

Initially, Su Ming’an thought it was because Su Wensheng had met the Deity before, but as more information became available, he believed it was because an Old God had met the Deity. However, he gradually realized neither answer was correct.

The individual the Deity wanted to give the gift to—was himself, Su Ming’an.

They indeed had "met before".

Before the world restarted.

During those repeated journeys that Su Ming’an had already forgotten—they genuinely "met before".

On the sixth day of the replica activation, Su Ming’an agreed to become the Deity’s Angel, and the Deity seemed extremely excited.

...

[Su Ming’an felt dizzy, as the ritual proceeded, blood-red patterns gradually appeared on his pure white tentacles, like heavy chains.]

["I’ve always been waiting for you... really, I’ve always been waiting for your return..." During the ritual, the Deity tightly grasped his shoulder, suddenly saying this.]

...

Su Ming’an understood why the Deity was so excited.

In previous journeys, Su Ming’an probably rarely agreed to the Deity. And the Deity’s goal was precisely this.

However, this time, the Deity still failed because, at the last moment of the Angel ritual, gifts from Chao Yan, Li Mingyue, and Xiao Jingsan protected Su Ming’an, allowing him to choose one among them and escape the Angel ritual.

Amidst the dwindling flames, Su Ming’an saw the text on the Prophecy Stone Wall, shimmering with a shell-like fragmented shimmer in the firelight.

...

[February 10th, 827 of the Old Days, Su Ming’an had not yet met the conditions of rebirth as the Exotic Species King. Therefore, using brainwashing methods to erase the current memory, start the "next" journey.]

[This journey was almost identical to the last time, he did not change the "predetermined destiny".]

[The replica countdown reset: Twenty days.]

...

"So... what day is it really in the replica activation today?" Su Ming’an looked at each eye-piercing line of text, his pupils seemingly burned.

Since the start of the instance, everyone has been emphasizing the concept of "the twentieth day"—only by reaching "the twentieth day" can everything end, only by reaching "the twentieth day" can one see the Shadow in the sky, only "the twentieth day" can complete this instance, just wait by the Deity’s side until "the twentieth day" and everything will be fine.

The Basic Quest of the instance also shows: [Survive, live until the twentieth day.]

Even the requirements for a Perfect Pass show: [Achieve the highest positional rank within twenty days], [Ensure Chao Yan does not die within twenty days], etc., constantly emphasizing this "twenty days" concept.

...

["My dear Wensheng. From this step onward, you can no longer turn back—turning around and spending a peaceful twenty days in the small town now is your last chance."—a hint from the Main Quest.]

["Within twenty days, I’ll stuff you into a white cat plush and kick you like a ball."—From Su Ming’an’s own words.]

["No matter what you say. I will ensure he safely makes it through these twenty days, after everything ends, I will safely send him out of this world."—From the exchange between the Deity and Xiao Jingsan.]

["Su Ming’an, you’ve finally discovered me. Only you and I are the players above the chessboard, and once you reach the twentieth day, we shall meet."—From the Shadow in the stars above.]

...

Everyone is emphasizing the "twentieth day", and due to inertia in thinking, the players also assume the duration of the Tenth World is twenty days, thinking the instance will automatically end once it exceeds twenty days, as previous instances were like this.

However, this "twentieth day"—will it really arrive?

It has never been stressed that it refers to the "duration of the replica".

With a beginning and end forming a circle, every time Su Ming’an approaches the Prophecy Stone Wall, his memories are washed away, and he is sent back to the first day of the instance activation, and everyone’s state returns to the first day. As for the time afterward, it has been cut off from thin air, leaving only an unreachable void.

—He can never cross this time node.

Just like in White Sand Paradise, the entire duration of the instance is limited. Even if you restart the instance timeline repeatedly, time outside the instance flows normally. You keep returning from the eighth day back to the first day, while time outside the instance has spent these eight days again and again.

The duration of the Tenth World isn’t explicitly indicated, but it’s likely not to be long. If much time has elapsed outside the instance by now, then Su Ming’an will never reach the "twentieth day" of the Tenth World.

Amidst the faint glow of the flames, the deity approached him, and the world seemed to turn silent; apart from the sweeping fire, nothing else could be heard.

The flames spread between the air, resembling an inverted long river, with sparks floating around them, resembling a starry sky suspended above the ground. Su Ming’an turned around and looked the deity directly in the eyes without any hesitation.

"This world has two layers of rebounds," Su Ming’an maintained his composure. "The first layer is Little Su’s rebound. This is rooted in my identity, and it is a rebound you can be aware of."

"The second layer is the major rebound of the world line that you initiate. Each time I approach the Prophecy Stone Wall without satisfying certain requirements, the world line’s major rebound activates, returning to the first day of the instance activation. It’s like... the major rebound of Jiu Shen’s world. My memory will be wiped, which is a change in causality, not a cognitive block; even activating the Eternal Dawn skill won’t help."

He hadn’t mentioned the third layer of rebound—the third layer is his own death rebound, which has become blurred within these two layers. He had previously relied on whether the deity was blocking his rebound point to distinguish it, but if the deity deliberately created illusions...

Then it would indeed be indistinguishable.

The three layers of rebounds exist within the Tenth World. As he gradually grasped this information, he had already reached the end of this timeline.

The threads of destiny have woven a complete web, just waiting for him to fall into it.

He recalled the words the deity had said when they first met:

...

["Destiny cannot be ’killed’. From the moment you stepped into this world, from the moment you saw Xiao Jingsan by the bed, everyone’s fate was already sealed—you would only become my ’assistant’, not my ’enemy’."]

...

——From the moment you saw Xiao Jingsan by the bed, everyone’s fate was already sealed.

When Su Ming’an first opened his eyes on the bed in the Louyue Nation and saw Xiao Jingsan, the major world rebound had already triggered. It was not his first time entering this place; his perception had been confused, and everything he saw had been subtly adjusted by the deity.

Whether it was the strange voices he heard on the first night of the instance—[Don’t dream walk! Don’t dream walk! Don’t $#*!], [Number One Player...], [World Game...]

Or the frequent occurrences of feelings both real and illusory.

——All were effects produced after the world’s major rebound.

...

["So," Xin Yue suddenly paused, "Alliance Hierarch, if you see something others can’t see, hear something others can’t hear, please don’t probe deeper—just pretend you didn’t see anything, hear anything."]

["Eyes need not see, ears need not hear," Xin Yue said. "Be a foolish wise man—in this world, those who see too much will definitely go insane."]

...

Xin Yue should be a person of the deity.

She’s likely like Su Luoluo, a "projection" fabricated by the deity.

Su Ming’an suddenly realized—he finally understood why Xin Yue repeatedly emphasized on the first day not to listen to strange sounds. When she held him tightly under the moonlight, comforting him to stay calm, she thought she was caring for him, yet she hadn’t considered that this care was also an implication rooted in her by the deity.

——Those weren’t strange sounds at all; they were likely hints left by him or his teammates during the last journey. Pointers meant to alert him—this isn’t the first time.

Eyes need not see, ears need not hear, thus no one remembers what happened before. "Number One Player", "World Game", these terms are clearly remnants from the last world rebound; otherwise, they wouldn’t have echoed in his ears on the first day, becoming an illusion.

...

Additionally, on the first day of instance activation, Su Ming’an already experienced a feeling as if looking at flowers in the mist.

[Su Ming’an sat down. Staying here was pointless, even his teacher’s level was far inferior to his, it was better to go back and play the second Chapter of the game. He always had a very strong sense of strangeness, and a haze occasionally flashed before his eyes. Everything seemed like looking at flowers in the mist.]

...

On the fourth day of the instance, when Shadow was rescuing someone at the execution ground, the same feeling of unreality occurred.

["Hmm...?" When lifting the knife, Shadow hesitated slightly. He vaguely felt that Mizushima Kawa Sora on the platform had a sense of unreality, including many people around him, but this feeling quickly vanished.]

...

On the fifth day of the instance, when Su Ming’an looked into the mirror, he detected that even his appearance began to appear illusory.

[When passing by a mirror, Su Ming’an felt his reflected self flicker, revealing white hair, but when he looked directly into the mirror, his hair remained pitch black.]

...

——These are all inconsistencies left by the world’s major rebound.

That’s why, in the beginning, the deity was so confidently certain he could not kill destiny.

"How many times has it been..." the deity said, "But during your last journey, you should have left yourself some kind of clue—after all, even if the world line returns to day one, some things will remain."

Su Ming’an spoke slowly:

"——It is not true.

——Do not believe this world line."

This was a sentence that appeared before Su Ming’an on the fifth day of the instance.

It wasn’t likely a clue he had left for himself.

——It was probably left by Noel.

With Noel’s wisdom, he must have sensed the mechanism of the world’s major rebound. Noel might also have used various methods attempting to leave information for the next time.

This information bypassed the translation mechanism, appearing before the still-confused Su Ming’an in English form. Yet perhaps important pieces of information were intercepted, so Su Ming’an didn’t fully grasp the meaning of the sentence at the time.

Su Ming’an raised layers of white tendrils, blocking out the encircling firelight.

All the information passed through his mind once again, leaving him with only one goal at this moment.

——He must stop this world’s major rebound. He can’t allow himself to return to the beginning completely ignorant again.

What capital does he have to overturn the situation?

——Death Rebound.

Su Ming’an stared at the deity.

Now, in his eyes, the deity was no longer a generalized instance boss, but an enemy equal yet with full threat level, suppression force, and dominion power.

"Earlier, you should have received a message from Noel telling you to... head to the sea first," the deity said softly.

"..." Su Ming’an stared at it.

"Regrettably, that message was sent by me," the deity said.

"I know," Su Ming’an said. He had already figured this out.

"Your aim... was to trap the rebound timing, making my time on the sea prolonged, so now even if I resorted to the final measure—rebounding... I would most likely only rebound to the sea, surrounded by water and unable to escape easily, allowing you to subdue me effortlessly... right?"

"Correct answer." The deity smiled gently, yet the smile sent a chill deep into his bones.

——It had even anticipated actions like "trapping the critical rebound timing, restricting Su Ming’an to rebound after being limited to a certain location," blocking his retreat fully.