Welcome to Rewind World Game

"Shaoqing, what are immortals, what are fairies, you should have some guesses in your heart, right?" Xiao Jingsan spread his hands. He was wearing a robe like clouds and mist, like the wind swaying a jade tree, snow wrapped in a beautiful bud, really exuding some immortal aura.

Su Ming'an looked at the fairies around him, suddenly realizing that the fairy aura on them wasn't that awe-inspiring, but merely the air of ordinary people. It was Su Ming'an and the others' reverence for Penglai Fairy Island that initially gave rise to almost a faith-like feeling towards these fairies.

In other words, Xiao Jingsan was doing the same thing as the present-day deities—making people spontaneously generate faith in gods/immortals.

There were no gods/immortals in this world. It was only the strong power of belief from many believers that turned them into real gods/immortals.

Gods are products of human faith and expectation.

Once Su Ming'an discovered that these immortals weren't worthy of awe, their halos would naturally disappear, and he would no longer feel like worshiping them.

"Xiao Jingsan, I do understand now." Su Ming'an said slowly, "At first, I thought it was strange. Clearly, 'Louyue Nation' was just an ancient style game, with not a very advanced power system, even my Fifth Rank strength could beat everyone. Why was there a setting of 'Penglai Fairy Island'? How could there truly be omniscient immortals? Now I realize, this is your 'god-creation plan', Xiao Jingsan."

"There are no naturally born immortals in this world. It's your fabricated stories and myths, your intentionally spread rumors in the folk, making everyone sincerely believe—there are indeed immortals in this world."

"You fabricated the legend of Penglai Fairy Island, built an ordinary island to look like a fairy island. You wore clothes resembling immortals, gilded yourself with a golden facade, and donned the title of 'Immortal'."

"You colluded with the Louyue Royal Family, having them constantly release fictional stories about immortals, stirring up the masses' longing for immortals, leading Jianghu youths to flock toward the immortals. You used enticing words like immortality and strength as bait, spreading them through folk rumors, making people revere immortals. Even if they have never truly seen an immortal. Even if immortals don't really exist."

"Once your plan is completely successful, and everyone truly believes you are an immortal, you will indeed become the 'Immortal' you fabricated."

"—In the worldly rumors and longing, you transformed from an 'apple' to a 'pear.'"

Mo Yan was shocked and looked at Su Ming'an: "Big Brother is so smart! You could even think of that!"

Su Ming'an's mouth twitched slightly, isn't this kind of reasoning quite normal?

Seeing the gleaming emotion in Mo Yan's eyes, Su Ming'an still nodded "Mm."

Xiao Jingsan listened and sighed: "Brilliant. You have almost deduced all of my actions; I did do these things. Shaoqing, people are so foolish—any matter, no matter how absurd or ridiculous, as long as it's spread by enough people, as long as enough people believe, repeatedly circulated and emphasized, it will become a 'truth' in the eyes of the world."

Su Ming'an said indifferently: "There were originally no gods in this world, it's the sight and reverence of people that eventually turned someone into a 'god.'"

Xiao Jingsan, hearing this, applauded and laughed heartily: "Exactly like the Number One Player?"

He clapped his hands, and the surrounding fairies gradually gathered, blocking the path of Su Ming'an and the others.

Now, Su Ming'an and the others also clearly saw the essence of these fairies—what kind of ethereal fairies are these? They are merely ordinary humans invited by Xiao Jingsan pretending to be fairies. They donned white clothes and dresses and applied cold makeup resembling immortals. Clearly just cosplay, but under 'collective unconsciousness' and the spiritual influence of reverence for immortals, people would subconsciously accept that these were real fairies.

Mo Yan glanced at the fairy who had led them earlier and was surprised—her face was full of wrinkles and acne. Clearly, when he first looked, the fairy's face was smooth as jade.

"We were just... affected by collective unconsciousness," Mo Yan murmured.

Finally realizing the terror of the word 'accept,' Mo Yan noticed that in this world, as long as you accept, you will be bewildered, and you can only see what you want to see.

The fairy wasn't eternally youthful; it was just that Mo Yan thought she was a fairy from Penglai Fairy Island from the start, making him only see her perfect face. Now, realizing she wasn't a fairy, he could see her real appearance full of acne.

... It's actually like this.

This feeling of truth being revealed made Mo Yan break out in cold sweat, shivering all over. A chill surged up his spine, filling his brain.

Seeing isn't believing, and hearing isn't either.

Once bewildered, unless the truth is revealed, you will be oblivious to your own foolishness. 'Acceptance' and 'faith' are like two mountains, unscrupulously altering your cognition, forcing you to continually reinforce ideas far from reality.

—When an apple's appearance is that of a pear, society recognizes it as a pear, and most people say it's a pear when they see it, then it truly becomes a pear.

This change is real.

Sweat dripped down Su Ming'an's forehead; he finally understood the difficulty of this instance. Seeing isn't necessary, nor is hearing, because what you see may not be real, what you hear may not be real—only your firm understanding is the sole rule and anchor for the five senses.

At this moment, looking at Penglai Fairy Island again, it was no longer in its ethereal state. The Peach Blossom Forest was just an ordinary peach blossom forest, and the white mist was just ordinary mist, not any celestial peach or fairy mist. All the awe-inspiring, enchanting atmosphere disappeared the moment he came to the realization, revealing its original, ordinary appearance.

This is just an ordinary island.

It was only upon landing that they believed this was a fairy island, feeling the celestial aura and fascination, seeing the imagined fairy trees and mist.

"But you only guessed half of it." Xiao Jingsan laughed.

"Half?" Su Ming'an was alert.

"Regarding everything about the fairy island, you almost got it all right, but there's one point you didn't guess." Xiao Jingsan smiled slightly.

An alert rose in Su Ming'an's heart; he sensed Xiao Jingsan might take action: "Xiao Jingsan, you should pay attention to the situation in the present world."

This sentence implied—Xiao Jingsan, I'm a member of the Old Day Church, we were riding in a chariot together to save people this evening, and now you're going to take action against me in the game?

However, Xiao Jingsan merely shook his head: "You may have misunderstood; the current me is not the present world Xiao Jingsan. To put it in a way you understand better, the current me is the NPC Xiao Jingsan in 'Louyue Nation.'"

... Huh?

Su Ming'an understood—Xiao Jingsan meant that he was now the NPC of 'Louyue Nation,' not the real-world Dream Patrol Family's Xiao Jingsan.

This is a game NPC acting on its own, not a real-world Xiao Jingsan possession!

"Go!" Su Ming'an grabbed Mo Yan's hand, summoned the mechanical wheel, and jumped onto it with Mo Yan. The sense of danger in his heart had grown extremely severe, and he didn't want to keep bickering with Xiao Jingsan.

The mechanical wheel was modified from Tretiya's mechanical wheelchair, theoretically only holding one person, but adding one more person could still fly.

"The first Dream Patrol Family..." Yi Zhongyu whispered softly.

After jumping on the mechanical wheel, Su Ming'an hesitated for a moment and reached out his hand to Yi Zhongyu. If it's three people, it's overloaded but can still barely fly.

All of this happened in a flash, with the movements of all three people being extremely swift, and in the blink of an eye, the mechanical wheel was about to soar into the sky.

"Ah..." Xiao Jingsan sighed, "Why do you want to escape."

He raised his hand slightly, like the conductor of an orchestra.

In the next moment,

Su Ming'an and the others witnessed an incredibly shocking scene—

One, two, five, ten, fifty...

Tentacles flying all over the sky.

Numerous purple-black tentacles simultaneously grew from the backs of the fairies around, like sprouting seedlings breaking through the soil, wildly thrashing in the air. The fairies instantly revealed hideous faces, their bodies starting to swell like monsters.

"They're all exotic species..." Yi Zhongyu murmured.

The "fairies" of Penglai Fairy Island were all exotic species.

According to a previous statement from the guide Fairy Lady: [It is the Immortal who created us, allowing us to serve him on the Fairy Island.]

Then, for Xiao Jingsan, who created these exotic species, could he be—

Su Ming'an's heart pounded wildly, cold sweat covering his back. At this moment, he suddenly met Xiao Jingsan's gaze. The young man with black hair and eyes was smiling, as frivolously as ever. It was the same smile he gave when Su Ming'an first opened his eyes and met his gaze.

With his eyes drooping and long brows slightly raising, the young man's teasing eyes seemed to say—[Your Highness, have you understood it now?]

"Exotic Species King..." Su Ming'an said.

In the "Girl's Dream Project," the Main Quest required—the Exotic Species King was about to rise; they had to eliminate the Exotic Species King.

In the present world, rumors spread—that the Exotic Species King was about to rise; people had to quickly find the Exotic Species King.

In the "Louyue Nation," the Exotic Species King finally appeared before Su Ming'an.

Even though the Exotic Species King still looked like a young man, maintaining an elegant and handsome human form, seemingly not fully revived, and lacking the powerful strength of the Exotic Species King. But this young man's reckless act of deceiving the world, and his bold and wanton nature, made Su Ming'an realize—this person possesses a matching character and ambition with the Exotic Species King.

Should this person truly awaken into the Exotic Species King, capable of rallying all exotic species, it would certainly be a terrifying disaster.

"You are not the Exotic Species King yet, correct?" Su Ming'an said softly. No matter how he looked, Xiao Jingsan seemed to be human, and the Mirror of Foretime also recognized Xiao Jingsan's human identity.

Su Ming'an also tried assessing Xiao Jingsan's strength, at most Fifth Rank; even if he hid his true strength, it wouldn't be that high. If he were truly the Exotic Species King, his power wouldn't be so weak.

"Hmm, I'm not the Exotic Species King yet." Xiao Jingsan replied with a smile: "Isn't that why I brought you here?"

Su Ming'an suddenly understood Xiao Jingsan's true intention.

—It turned out that Su Ming'an himself could allow the Exotic Species King to awaken fully in Xiao Jingsan's body.

—No wonder Xiao Jingsan went to such pains to bring Su Ming'an to the Fairy Island.

Though he didn't know the mechanism, Su Ming'an definitely couldn't let Xiao Jingsan succeed.

"Snap, snap, snap—"

Purple-black tentacles clawed up the mechanical wheel, like tall seaweeds, desperately dragging the wheel down. Su Ming'an instantly activated the [Jet Mode], white steam puffing downwards, the entire mechanical wheel burst into full power, frantically ascending.

Under Xiao Jingsan's command, the exotic species wildly raised their tentacles, attempting to keep Su Ming'an. Su Ming'an's view was completely obscured by purple-black tentacles, and the mechanical wheel swung left and right, struggling in the vine-like forest.

"The downward force is too strong! The height can't be lifted up!" Mo Yan chopped off several tentacles but found that the mechanical wheel's height hadn't increased at all, constantly being pulled down by countless tentacles.

Yi Zhongyu also continuously used talismans to blow up these tentacles, but there were just too many. Xiao Jingsan had prepared too long for this day, not allowing Su Ming'an to escape.

"Brother, push me down! This wheel is overloaded, losing one person can make it fly higher!" Mo Yan chopped off a tentacle and shouted back.

He didn't actively jump off, worried his brother would waste time saving him, only hoping his brother would push him down.

"..." Su Ming'an clutched the Sword of Yarman, slicing through the tentacles. He used a floating cannon for an explosion, but the tentacles were too many, wave after wave. A few tentacles brushed against his arm, and blood flowed out.

"Brother!" Mo Yan shouted again, seeming to urge Su Ming'an to make a decision.

Su Ming'an was silent, his gaze sweeping past layers of tentacles, looking towards Xiao Jingsan.

"You see, Li Mingyue was right back then."

Xiao Jingsan's eyes drooped slightly, his dark pupils reflected the blood-stained Su Ming'an, his expression showing a hint of desolation: "Shaoqing, being kept in the High Tower and bled—isn't that considered your luckiest ending?"

Su Ming'an didn't respond, reaching out to grab Mo Yan who almost fell, saying lightly: "I don't believe in endings, nor in 'luckiest' anything."

Xiao Jingsan looked at Su Ming'an, suddenly remembering the former Eldest Prince Su Shaoqing.

...These two were truly alike.

Proud, burning, solemn, wholeheartedly for the people, filled with a desire to benefit the world.

Holding the hand of a palace maid, reading a book under vermilion palace walls, with childlike aspirations, reading day after day.

Holding a white fox, writing policies for the country and people in front of wax lamps, with the most sincere ideals, writing night after night.

But the Eldest Prince didn't know, this world does not consist only of great men and common people. Some ideals can't be achieved just by striving. All those expectations, those written by his own hand, ended up as ash in the palace's corners, and he became a burnt-out candle among the bronze platforms.

Tears not dry, person already gone.

He seemed to see the Eldest Prince again, an even more idealistic Eldest Prince.

An incurable idealist.