CHAPTER 1033: CHAPTER 1030: "I AM YOUR FRIEND.

"Who are you?" Su Ming’an’s expression remained unchanged.

The deity cannot intervene in Dao Ya City without possessing the Godfather.

The deity stared closely at Su Ming’an, seemingly observing whether he had memories.

If Su Ming’an didn’t have memories, then these actions completely deviated from his inherent behavior. But if Su Ming’an retained memories, it wouldn’t make sense—there was no reason why he should be able to retain memories, not a single reason.

"..." The deity was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled, "I am your friend, Su Ming’an."

This smile was extremely formal yet appeared to be perfect. From the beginning, Su Ming’an noticed that the deity’s humanity was very faint, unlike Su Rin, a deity who ascended later.

"We are friends, and I am also your neighbor. Wherever you want to go next, I will accompany you," the deity said.

"Is that so? Are you my friend?" Su Ming’an looked up.

It was as if they were communicating through an invisible barrier. The deity was half-believing and half-doubting his memory circumstances, and he also couldn’t explain why he could retain his memories. Due to the State Preceptor’s active sacrifice, Su Ming’an didn’t need to explain the cause and effect, which left the deity unable to know Su Ming’an’s current state.

In the upper right corner of Su Ming’an’s view—the live broadcast room was no longer visible.

This was a good thing. In the tenth loop, the live broadcast room disappeared several days later. At that time, he thought his spirit was so worn out that he couldn’t see the live broadcast comments anymore. But in fact, quite the opposite—the moment he couldn’t see the comments was when he was most clear-headed because the fake comments had finally disappeared.

Su Ming’an got up and pushed the door open under the gaze of the deity—

A young girl stood in front of the door, her pupils a dim purple. She wore long sleeves and jeans, with the brim of her hat casting a shadow low on her face.

"Little Ginkgo." The girl smiled at him, "Have you had lunch?"

...You’ve changed your form of address again, Su Luoluo.

Su Ming’an gazed at her.

Little Blue Sky, Little Stream, Little Cloud...

She was like a toy active in the fingers of the deity, the person Su Ming’an saw first in every loop. Her purpose was only to guide Su Ming’an’s actions, even though she herself didn’t know this. The free soul never belonged to her.

Each time, each time... her identity would change according to the deity’s will; sometimes she was family, sometimes a neighbor, sometimes a childhood friend. Her short life was dominated solely by the deity’s desire for what image Su Ming’an should see.

"Yes." Su Ming’an responded.

"Little Ginkgo, where are you going?" Su Luoluo leaned over.

"To the church." Su Ming’an said.

They went to the church, with the deity following from a distance until the moment they pushed open the church door, Su Ming’an saw Lv Shu in a black priest’s robe.

"Lv Shu!" Su Ming’an called out.

"...Su Ming’an?" Lv Shu turned his head.

"—Take action!"

Su Ming’an moved quickly and decisively, even Su Luoluo beside him didn’t react. The Judgment Balance flashed, and the blood-red light shone above the deity’s head.

Lv Shu didn’t understand the situation but seeing Su Ming’an take action, he immediately drew the Black Blade and followed, slashing towards the deity.

—Su Ming’an knew that the deity’s strength wasn’t strong, with a combat power of only four to five thousand. When possessing someone else, it couldn’t exert its full strength.

Judgment, Spatial Vibration, Gravity Suppression, Floating Cannon, Mantis’s Blade Edge, Lv Shu’s Blade Technique... in the brief second, extremely terrifying damage exploded, blood-red numbers flickered continuously, instantly engulfing the deity.

The sky pressed down with a somber hue, the dust gradually dispersed, the deity lay on the ground, his body covered in countless wounds, blood streaming like a river.

His eyes were very calm, even though he possessed immediate pain perception, he seemed not to feel the pain.

"So you remember," he said.

"Remember what?" Su Ming’an wouldn’t admit he had memories. As long as he didn’t admit it, there was no evidence.

The deity didn’t dwell on that issue. He simply said calmly, "I don’t understand."

Su Ming’an approached him. At that moment, Su Ming’an felt a slight pain in his head, and he vaguely sensed... he and the deity should have a stance outside of this, more than just the relationship between "Player" and "Boss," but should have some deeper, closer connection...

"I don’t understand why you want to help the people of this world," the deity continued, "They are my test subjects, for a greater goal. Only you and I are on the same side of the line. These people are insignificant, yet you resist me for them, again and again."

His voice was very light, not due to his injuries, but due to some hidden emotion.

"A greater goal—is it to create a new world? Or to protect another civilization? Or perhaps to create a new divinity?" Su Ming’an said lightly, "These reasons are insignificant to me. My mission is only to save the world."

"Is that so? Is it really so," said the deity, "Did the ’Main Quest’ dominate you?"

"’Responsibility,’" Su Ming’an replied.

The deity seemed to chuckle, his voice light as a faint cold snow.

"Some lives are higher on the food chain than others, just as humans slaughter cattle and sheep, the high-dimensional can deal with the lives of the low-dimensional, as the gap between them is greater than between humans and animals. You have already stood at the top of the food chain, able to easily handle them, yet you still cling to them... perplexing to me."

"I do not cling," Su Ming’an said, "But I also do not slaughter."

"People offer you flowers out of reverence, people want to shackle you out of fear... it’s the same emotion. Your clinging and your slaughtering will only lead to the same result... because everything has already happened before..." The deity’s voice grew softer, the blood flowed more.

Until his eyes shifted slightly, replaced by gentle eyes.

"Wensheng?" Li Mingyue said softly.

"It’s Ming’an," Su Ming’an said.

Little Hong flew over, beginning to heal Li Mingyue.

Su Ming’an looked towards Lv Shu, now the only certainty was that Lv Shu should be himself. He asked Lv Shu to take care of Li Mingyue, while he left Dao Ya City.

At the Old Day Church, he met with Xiao Ying. With the permission of Xiao Ying and Xiao Jingsan, he obtained all of Xiao Ying’s memories.

"Ding dong!"

[Detected that there are already five memories in your mind, opening the "Soul Transference System."]

[Current Memories: Unknown Era·Shadow, Present·Xiao Jingsan, Louyue Nation Era·Li Mingyue, Louyue Nation Era·Liu Xuanxuan (?), Present·Ming Luo (?)]

...

Su Ming’an felt a tightness in his heart. He hadn’t expected that the memories of Liu Xuanxuan and Ming Luo, who were deceased in the tenth cycle, would also be counted. Perhaps the system determined that he could retain the memories of the deceased from the tenth cycle.

He looked at this newly activated "Soul Transference System."

A voice echoed beside his ear.

...

["A thousand years ago, General Qin said, if the data of all people is stored in the brain of an immortal person, as long as this person lives forever, it’s equivalent to everyone living forever. This one person—equivalent to the sum spirit of a civilization."]

["As long as this person does not die, civilization will remain eternal."]

["We held out for decades under the attack of deities and created the largest hard drive (or perhaps calling it a ’talisman’ is more appropriate? Though General Qin preferred the term ’hard drive’, despite it sounding overly technological and somewhat incongruous), and implanted it into the soul of the ’Old God.’"]

["At the same time, we utilized the authority of the ’Word Spirit’, using all extant resources as ’energy’ and everyone’s hopes as ’faith’, to write Matrix Orders for our descendants — when we perish, our information will be stored in the next generation’s mind via the hard drive. Even if they are erased from history by the deities and forget everything, our information, preserved in the cold text, will eternally exist, becoming their latent ’past’; even if the world turns cold and numb, the embers of the old days will never vanish—"]

["We will all pass, but the old days will be eternal."]

["When the level of world fusion deepens, some will automatically trigger the ’hard drive’ within them, allowing us to possess them. Even if we are not life at that time, just... a persona simulation? Or perhaps a new existence model?"]

["The largest hard drive we created is placed within the soul of the ’Old God’ — when the ’Old God’ awakens a millennium later, it will inherit everyone’s ’hard drive’, from the bygone years — awakening us."]

["All hard drive data can be imported into It, It is the interface for all hard drives, and all hard drives — are us."]

["The long river of time will not stop for anyone, and human life is as fleeting as a moment in the universe, not even comparable to an ancient tree. However, when all life can be permanently preserved as text, then an era will completely flow back to another era."]

["We cannot see the future, but the next generation, the next next generation, even people a thousand years later — they will."]

["Even if by that time the world has changed beyond recognition, when our personas awaken, we will face what kind of era — Primitive Age? Ancient Age? Witch Age? Sword and Magic Age? Western Fantasy Age? Steam Age? Or Technology Age? Interstellar Age?"]

["History is obliterated, and any era might arise from the ground. We might even witness the coexistence of the ancient and interstellar ages. That would be... an exciting scene."]

["Dear Old God, when you hear these words, please remember — awaken us from the dust-sealed history of a thousand years —"]

["Perhaps you have been fighting alone for a long time before hearing these words. You might have felt lost and helpless as the entire world goes against you, as the entire world’s faith is your enemy. You might find no trustworthy comrades, no allies willing to awaken history, and you might have reached a dead end."]

["But, deity, please remember, you have not come to this era alone, we — those of us from a hundred or even a thousand years ago — are your support, your ministers, your soldiers, your... family."]

["You are not alone. An entire era stands behind you. We cross the long years, standing by your side."]

...

In that instant, beside Su Ming’an’s ear, it seemed as if illusory "Heart’s Blood" earrings trembled, blue and red colors flowing, faint red lines like vivid blood vessels pulsing with the rhythm of a heartbeat.

Everything seemed to emit a "tick-tock" like the ticking of a clock, as if countless figures stood behind him.

...He was not actually alone.

Previously, he had always tried not to kill, which resulted in him never triggering this soul transference mechanism. If not for the reset, he wouldn’t have accumulated enough memories of five people.

He looked at the detailed explanation of the Soul Transference System:

...

[Everyone retains their own "hard drive" from their previous life; you retain the hard drive with the largest memory. You can collect all the deceased’s memories and emotions, storing them in your "hard drive."]

[Detected that you possess skills from the Ninth World — Biochemistry Level 10, Mechanics Level 10. When resources are sufficient, you can infuse the memories and emotions of the deceased in your mind into a bionic body, bringing them to "rebirth" in reality.]

[As long as you remember them, they are immortal.]

[—You alone are equivalent to a civilization’s hard drive.]

...

His head ached severely. Xiao Jingsan’s memories were manageable, only spanning a few decades. However, Shadow’s memories were exceedingly long and filled with extremely negative emotions, making his head feel like it was going to explode.

To the point where he couldn’t fully read through Shadow’s memories, only capturing fragments of moments.

"—Your current positional rank is not enough, don’t try to read the memories in detail, you’ll be overwhelmed." Shadow’s voice echoed in his mind, startling Su Ming’an.

Su Ming’an then realized— these deceased ones were indeed completely stored in his mind.

However, the others remained silent for now, with only Shadow’s voice present. Su Ming’an reached out his hand, and five points of light appeared on his palm, one of them being Shadow.

Although Shadow’s memories were chaotic, Su Ming’an found the resurrection conditions for the Exotic Species King.

—My revival requires my will to scour the land, requires the Immortal’s Talisman to shape my soul, requires the Sword of Destiny to rest upon my being, requires the Eye of the Old Days to gather emotions.

—My friend, Old God, please call my name, and with my strength, counter the Sword of the Old God.

"I see..." Su Ming’an muttered to himself.

The main reason for falling into a dead end — whenever Su Ming’an approached the Prophecy Stone Wall, he would be reset. Just like this phrase: [On February 10, 827 of the Old Day, Su Ming’an had not yet fulfilled the conditions to resurrect the Exotic Species King. Use brainwashing methods to erase the current memory, begin the ’next’ journey.]

Therefore, as long as he meets the conditions to revive the Exotic Species King, the world reset will not activate. This is the only way to break the deadlock; otherwise, he could never pass this point.

Now it seems, there is just one condition for the Exotic Species King’s resurrection that is lacking.

—[My will scours the land.]

...

[Little Su resets: By the seaside, 4 o’clock in the afternoon. (This key time point has been reset: 2 times.)]

...