Welcome to Rewind World Game

[You have entered the final stage: World Chessboard.]

[High-dimensional beings have issued an invitation for a final battle. Do you accept? (If not accepted, the war will proceed according to the normal world invasion process, meaning all life in The World of Old Days will resist the Black Mist, with estimated deaths exceeding two billion people.)]

[Representative of The World of Old Days' civilization, Su Ming'an, please provide an answer.]

...

[Representative of The World of Old Days' civilization, Su Ming'an, has accepted the invitation for the final battle.]

[This battle is the concretization of the "World Origin" concept. Each Chess Piece is composed of causal lines, representing different parts of The World of Old Days. Every action you take will affect this world's lifespan, potential, destiny, and future. This battle mode is unique to the high-dimensional beings, offering a grand world perspective. Unlike a microcosmic battlefield, a single action affects the entire system. Proceed with caution at each step.]

["Chessmaster, if one day your every move will guide 'ten thousand world lines', 'tens of millions of causalities', and the 'billion odds of Pangala Return', how will you act?"]

...

[You can choose one teammate to accompany you onto the battlefield.]

"Noel Agnini."

...

[Selection complete, the battlefield has been activated.]

[Su Ming'an, your position is—King (Red Side).]

...

The mirrored surface of the world is glowing, with ten thousand timelines standing firm at this moment.

For the first time in a millennium, the Nine Serenities reappear in the world. Deep blue and azure blend at midnight, as Pandora's Box opens its eyes underground.

In the grand twilight of midnight, millennia of history instantly converge. The mysterious bird above the Nine Heavens, the mist-laden giant city, the boiling Jiang Shui hanging upside down... Ancient legends, once limited to mere words, are painted across the sky, akin to a slowly unfolding landscape scroll.

Above the sky, countless suspended threads interweave, forming a vast starry chessboard. Human Self-Rescue Alliance, City Guardian Department, Old Day Church, Union Government, wandering mercenaries, the general public... They look down, discovering a shimmer of light emerging from within them, rising to the sky and forming into Chess Pieces on the starry chessboard.

This seems to signify—that their significance has been wagered on the chessboard.

When the Chess Piece they represent makes a move, their causal lines and destiny lines will also change, thus affecting the overall world situation.

—This is the battle method of high-dimensional beings.

Similar to the principles of the Dream Patrol game, it turns abstract concepts into concrete means, allowing the battle between high-dimensional beings to be resolved in a seemingly game-like manner. Dieying chose chess among all game methods.

In reality, this is also an extremely brutal duel, just seemingly without bloodshed. This is a—[Causality] war.

...

After accepting the final battle, Su Ming'an stood above the starry sky, a deep red scepter appearing in his hand in an instant. The snow-white fur draped over him, the deep red robe flowing to the ground.

At the edge of his vision, a blue figure stands there, wearing a similar deep blue robe, facing him.

"High-dimensional beings really are romantic," Su Ming'an murmured, "even fighting relies on chess."

Even from a great distance, Dieying heard this clearly and responded, "This is merely the embodiment of [Causality] concretization. Afraid you can't handle the bloody scenes of death, so they use capturing pieces to replace living beings, the chessboard to replace a vast battlefield, and Chess Piece clashes to replace the tug of causal lines. To make the final battle seem less brutal and bloody."

"Afraid I can't handle it?" Su Ming'an shook his head, "...That really is an interesting reason."

...

[Blue Side represents: High-dimensional beings. Red Side represents: The World of Old Days.]

[Calculating all resource conditions of the high-dimensional beings... approximately 25,000 Rock, calculation complete. Calculating The World of Old Days' area... converted to 30,000 Rock, calculation complete.]

[25000:30000=5:6]

[The civilization resource holding ratio for the Blue Side and Red Side is 5:6.]

[Therefore, the Chess Piece capability ratio for the Blue Side and Red Side is set to 5:6.]

...

Su Ming'an understood.

It's equivalent to gamifying this final battle. All civilization resources, authority strength, and World Origin total held by Dieying... are all converted into a single value. The World of Old Days undergoes a similar conversion process. Finally, a 5 to 6 ratio is derived.

The value of The World of Old Days is higher than Dieying, which is normal. After all, The World of Old Days includes many immobile elements, like large areas of abandoned land, as well as many elderly and vulnerable people. These would all factor into part of the civilization resource value.

...

[Forming the chessboard...]

[Chessboard has been formed, with a size of 8*8.]

...

In the next moment, Su Ming'an felt a solid touch beneath his feet as the chessboard formed. No longer needing to float in the starry sky, he stood on the starry chessboard.

The position he occupies is E1, the King's position. Dieying is at E8, directly opposite him. Since the chessboard is exceptionally large, each square is stretched out considerably, making it impossible for him to see Dieying in the distance, with the edges of the board nearly out of sight to the naked eye.

From Su Ming'an's perspective as the origin point, the coordinates are cross-counted with ABCDEFGH and 12345678, meaning his left side has A1, B1, C1, D1, and his right side has F1, G1, H1. Directly ahead is E2, and so on.

At this moment, the chessboard is entirely empty, with no Chess Pieces present.

The white and black squares on the board aren't purely black and white, flowing with the colors of the Star Sea, seemingly revealing many scenes from the world. He cast a casual glance and saw that square B4 displayed the real-time situation of the Human Self-Rescue Alliance headquarters, square G3 showed the Union Government headquarters in the middle of a meeting, and square H4 depicted the military forces on the front lines preparing to deploy...

"World" chessboard, so it seems.

The chessboard is indeed... the world.

A seat rose behind him, and he instinctively sat down, placing the deep red scepter in front of him. In a daze, he felt... this scene was strangely familiar.

...

[Please note.]

[Both sides have 16 Chess Pieces (8 pawns, 2 chariots, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 King, 1 Queen).]

[Since one side represents high-dimensional life and the other represents a world, the representative meanings of the two sides' Chess Pieces are significantly different.]

[Red Side, please familiarize yourself with the representative meanings of your Chess Pieces. (These meanings are unknown to the opposite side, and you likewise cannot know the meanings of the opponent's Chess Pieces.)]

...

[A1 Chariot: Represents political causality related to The World of Old Days. Such as the causality of twenty-six great kingdoms and thirty-two independent cities. Moving this piece represents acting upon a collective population of 4.62 billion, affecting policy implementation efficiency and progress, the pollution rate of major coastal cities, and the speed of population growth or decline.]

[B1 Knight: Represents the economic and ecological causality of The World of Old Days. Such as the Dream Patrol Family and the causality related to the Dream Patrol Game. Moving this chess piece represents moving the actions of the Dream Patrol Game and a total of 1.8 billion people. It influences the progress of the Black Mist on the front line, the production speed of Dream Patrol Spirit Points, the accumulation speed of emotions, and the fusion speed of the timeline.]

[C1 Bishop: Represents the causality related to the livelihood of The World of Old Days. Such as the causality related to the Holy City and the Millennium Plan. Moving this chess piece represents moving the actions of the twelve Principals and all related personnel. It influences the opening progress of Nine Serenities, the position of the Holy City, the coverage area of The Republic, the rear support situation, and the survival situation of civilians.]

[D1 Queen: Represents the causality of the myriad timelines of The World of Old Days and the high-dimensional Ta Wei. Moving this chess piece represents moving actions related to the Pangala Return, The Original Binding, the changes of the era, Mobius Ring, and the Fate Projection Room. It influences the overall situation.]

[F1 Bishop: Represents the military causality of The World of Old Days. Such as the causality related to the four organizations Human Self-Rescue Alliance (HE), City Guardian Department (GAD), Holy Alliance Army (MM), and Old Day Church (LM). Moving this chess piece represents moving military actions involving a total of 900 million people and influences the progress of resource extraction, the speed of resource transportation, and the position of the rear front line.]

[G1 Knight: Represents the scientific research causality of The World of Old Days. Moving this chess piece represents moving the health and lifespan conditions of a total of 120 million scientific researchers and 3.6 billion civilians. It influences the Special Medicine, Ark Project, Newborn Project, medical efficiency, and the supply situation of vaccines and drugs.]

[H1 Rook: Represents the cultural causality of The World of Old Days. Moving this chess piece represents moving the cognitive understanding of a total of 7 billion civilians. It includes myth compilation, Rule Book, historical unsealing progress, and Dieying Bewilderment degree.]

...

Su Ming'an looked at these words, feeling the immense weight of every single character.

He took a deep breath; it was the first time he commanded an entire civilization so directly.

"Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!" Crimson red light flickered like burning flames. Four chess pieces (Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen) appeared on his left, and three chess pieces (Bishop, Knight, Rook) appeared on his right.

Their texture was not wooden chess pieces, but images of chess pieces formed by the condensation of clusters of causal lines. Inside the chess pieces flowed billions of red threads, like transparent jellyfish.

As long as he slightly moved the Scepter, he could influence the movement of the chess pieces, thereby affecting the billions of causal lines inside the pieces, and subsequently impacting the entire world under the causal lines.

He glanced downward.

On the ground, a deep red glow surged from everyone's bodies, with a thread stretching out from each person's heart, shooting straight into the sky. It was like 7 billion crimson meteors rising from the ground, flying towards the sky, trailing a long, swaying red tail, entwining the pieces on the chessboard, controlled by the Scepter in Su Ming'an's hand.

On one end were the hearts of all living beings, on the other was Su Ming'an's Scepter.

In the Human Self-Rescue Alliance, Li Yuxuan's heart was connected to the F1 Bishop, and the countless comrades around him in the Human Self-Rescue Alliance were also connected to the F1 Bishop.

Yi Zhongyu of the Dream Patrol Family, his heart connected to the B1 Knight. The people around him, Norse, Mu Tianrui, Jiang Yuxin, and others from the Dream Patrol Family, were also connected to the B1 Knight.

As long as Su Ming'an moved the Bishop or Knight, these people would inevitably be entangled by the causal lines, causing unknown changes that would affect their past, present, and future. It was not just movement on the board but actual changes in the causal lines.

—Only now did Su Ming'an finally realize the meaning of this chess game.

The causal war between civilizations, a war observed from the high-dimensional perspective, transcends time and space.

In the far distance, Dieying lowered her gaze and smiled faintly, looking remotely at Su Ming'an.

At this point, the first line of chess pieces had fully appeared, and it was time for the second line of pieces to appear.

...

[The first row—A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, H1 are in place.]

[The second row—A2, B2, C2, D2, E2, F2, G2, H2 are 8 pawns.]

[Different from the first row, each pawn in the second row requires independent command.]

[Please appoint a general for each pawn piece, allowing the general to individually control the pawn and assist you in completing the overall command.]

...

The crimson light flickered, "pop, pop, pop, pop," eight light sounds, and a row of crimson pieces lined up in front of Su Ming'an, totaling eight from left to right.

Su Ming'an lowered his gaze in contemplation; his position was at E1. Thus, he had to appoint a strong person for E2, as E2 was directly in front of E1 and could protect him. Meanwhile, the diagonal D2 and F2 also had to be trustworthy people.

But unexpectedly, before he could speak, the appointments of the generals had been completed.

...

[Detected you have arranged the corresponding persons in charge for various domains.]

[Appointments completed: A2 Yamada Machiichi, B2 Lu, C2 Su Rin, D2 Mo Yan, E2 Chang Ge, F2 Isabella, G2 Boris, H2 Lv Shu.]

[The eight generals will have a certain degree of independent command authority. When you are unable to attend to the overall situation, they will act autonomously.]

...

...So that's how it is.

Su Ming'an blinked.

Because each chess piece has a different meaning, the pieces most suitable for the generals to exert their abilities are different. For example, D2 represents the causality related to the Ancient Martial Families, which is most suitable for Mo Yan to command. G2 represents the causality related to religion, which is most suitable for Boris to command (really?).

This distribution is also fine, not considering the position on the board, just performing duties accordingly.

But suddenly, he thought of something.

...

["First, I name Yamada Machiichi 'A'." Su Wensheng sat in the hall, looking at the display screen in the hall, fiddling with a flower, muttering to himself:]

["Name Lu 'B'."]

["Name Su Rin 'C'."]

["Name..."]

...

This was on the tenth day of the instance when Su Ming'an entered Nine Serenities; it was what Su Wensheng said. At the time, Su Ming'an found it inexplicable and didn't understand what Su Wensheng was talking about.

Looking at it now... there were already signs earlier on. At that time, Su Ming'an did not realize that this naming method had the possibility of [International Chessboard Horizontal Coordinates].

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H... exactly eight.

Yamada Machiichi, Lu, Su Rin, Mo Yan, Su Ming'an, Isabella, Boris, Lv Shu.

Exactly eight, perfectly fitting the standard ranks of an international chessboard—eight ranks and files. A tide of eight sides covering all.

Coincidentally, since Su Ming'an is the King, he cannot become a pawn piece. Replacing Su Ming'an is the nighttime player on Su Ming'an's body—Chang Ge. This correspondence remained flawless.

Is it a coincidence? Or... a destiny of some kind? Even at that time, was Deity and earring Su Wensheng already considering the endgame?

Su Ming'an's brows slightly furrowed...

...

[Please let the eight pawn generals take their positions.]

...