Welcome to Rewind World Game

Su Ming'an hovered in the air, not approaching Su Wensheng.

"Su Ming'an, I want to make a contract with you," Chao Yan said, "After making a contract, I will share your life force, energy, and faith, so that I can better protect you."

Su Ming'an reached out and shook hands with her.

"You... trust me so much?" Chao Yan asked in surprise.

"Yes." Su Ming'an didn't offer much explanation. Maximum affection, what does that concept mean, only Lv Shu beside him had maximum affection. He had once suspected Chao Yan, but now it seems, she truly was a pure Protector.

Her hand was scorching hot, like the rising sunrise. When Chao Yan let go of his hand, Su Ming'an felt a heat on his chest. He reached out to touch it; there was a wing Pattern Mark.

...

"Ding!"

[You have acquired Chao Yan's shared Pattern Mark.]

[During the duration of the Pattern Mark, you share HP (Health Points), MP (Mana Points), and sensation of pain. Share energy and faith.]

[Your current Health Points increased from 300 to 3200.]

[Your current Mana Points increased from 5640 to 7000.]

[This effect lasts until one party dies or one party actively dissolves the contract.]

...

[Combat Power: 4200+500!]

...

"I'm going." Chao Yan placed her Eye of the Old Days around her neck.

"...Alright." Su Ming'an said.

"Whoosh——!"

In the next instant, his vision was filled with fierce flames. The girl's jet-black hair was instantly dyed a blazing blood-red, and behind her slowly rose wings with distinct layers, like an elongated blood sparrow.

She always looked at him with eyes filled with nostalgia, and a barely perceptible pain. When her hair brushed past Su Ming'an's shoulders, the sky full of blood-colored flames fell towards the sea.

The blood sparrow rushed towards the sea, flames burning the sky. Su Ming'an remembered what Xiao Jingsan said earlier, Chao Yan always fought with Life Burning, only this made her so strong.

"...Su Ming'an."

Su Ming'an did not intend to approach Su Wensheng, but Su Wensheng actively flew up to him.

Under the crimson sky, Su Ming'an met Su Wensheng's gaze.

"Su Wensheng, why did you revive, and for what purpose have you come?" Su Ming'an asked.

"I want you to become your strongest, so you can defeat the Exotic Species King about to be revived," Su Wensheng said, "Therefore, I hope you will complete the remaining Angel Ritual and not dissolve the control mark on yourself. Only by accepting the power from the Deity can you become stronger."

Su Ming'an's palm felt icy cold; what Su Wensheng said was the truth.

"I just enjoy being rebellious," Su Ming'an said, "The more you want me to listen to the Deity, the more something feels off. If the Deity were truly correct, why do Li Mingyue, Xiao Jingsan, and Chao Yan all rebel against Him?"

Su Wensheng gazed at Su Ming'an.

"—So you are determined to start a divine war." Su Wensheng said.

Intense waves rose by the sea, monster tentacles were already engaged with Chao Yan. Her fiery hair fluttered in the wind, arrows rained down like a succession of falling Morning Stars, she shuttled between the wildly thrashing tentacles, like a beautiful and agile fire phoenix.

"—So you are determined to start a war." Su Wensheng said.

He raised his hand, staring at Su Ming'an, "In just the past twelve hours, more than 170,000 people have died because of the divine war you started. They may have died from execution by fire, from gunfights, or from riots. It is you... who brought war to them."

Su Ming'an's fingers tightened slightly, "I know how cruel war is, and I also know their deaths are a signal for rebellion. I cannot consider everyone's thoughts, I'm sorry, these hateful words towards me, I've witnessed them countless times in the Ruined World—a thousand times, a thousand times, a thousand times—"

"Towards me, towards Lin Guang, towards Acto—"

He placed his hand on his chest:

"—People have hated us countless times, even sought to destroy us with artillery."

"Because we started the resistance."

"But the best way to annihilate a race is to erase their history, make them abandon their joys and sorrows, even burn their research papers, condemn the sacrificial Fire Transmitters as traitors. Su Wensheng—we cannot rely solely on spring winds and ballads to confront the darkness, those are far from enough."

"If we don't dare to start even the beginning of the divine war, in the end, humans can only die under the control of the Deity, and their deaths will pass quietly."

The sea breeze ruffled their black hair, dark strands intertwined, Su Wensheng gazed at Su Ming'an with latent sorrow, Su Ming'an returned a resolute look.

"Idealist..."

Su Wensheng said:

"How do you swallow the hatred of billions."

He suddenly reached out, reaching towards Su Ming'an.

Su Ming'an immediately stepped back a meter, but Su Wensheng merely took out a mirror. In the mirror was the situation around the world.

"Look with your own eyes—because of the divine war you started, see what people have suffered." Su Wensheng pointed at the mirror.

Su Ming'an looked up, in the mirror, flames burned in every corner of the city, the iron hooves of the Holy Alliance Army echoed on the ground, human flesh and shattered limbs scattered.

"Lord Disciple, you probably never thought—such a timid and cowardly small country would find the courage to be brave just once in the end, ha ha, hahaha—" shouted the King of Weina Country. Opposite him, Bivis surrounded him with soldiers.

"Weren't you quite obedient before? And now I come to requisition the gilded mines, you dare—you dare to give them all to the Human Self-Rescue Alliance?" Bivis pointed at the King, shouting in anger.

Weina Country was just a small country, previously always supplying mines to the Lailuo Empire, but now Bivis had come, and the King of Weina Country had given the last batch of minerals to the Human Self-Rescue Alliance.

The King stroked his grey-white beard, solemnly placed the crown from the table onto his head, then laughed, "The lifespan of our country could always be seen with the naked eye, constantly oppressed, looted, occupied by you, without a shred of dignity. When the mines are exhausted, eventually your free believers will destroy us, but before the lifespan ends, I made the final decision—our Talisman Family has already migrated to the Human Self-Rescue Alliance, Holy Alliance Army, you can no longer plunder a single needle or thread from us!"

"Foolish—foolish—foolish!" Bivis swung his blade, severing the King's head.

The elder's head rolled to the ground, still smiling even in the end.

Su Wensheng looked at this scene, lightly said, "Su Ming'an, you saw it, this King need not have died. He was swayed by your video, choosing to betray the Deity. If he obediently handed over the last batch of minerals, he wouldn't have died."

Su Ming'an said, "He didn't die, he truly lived."

Su Wensheng squinted slightly without refuting.

He waved his hand, and a new scene appeared in the mirror.

In the independent kingdom of Fugangtu, people rushed into the royal court holding torches, shouting words of "obeying the Old God", uprooting the flower beds, killing all the servants, dragging out the empress, and beheading her to surrender to the Human Self-Rescue Alliance.

The empress was gentle and always obedient to the deities. Even when invaded by other countries, she would only constantly cede territories and pay indemnities. The people finally realized she couldn't protect the citizens and, at this moment, erupted in rebellion, slaughtering her and her offspring.

The young prince cried as he was pierced by the scythes and hoes of the mob. His young face retained innocence, not understanding why people would risk their lives to start a riot for such a reason.

——Since bread cannot fill the stomach, why not eat cake?

——Since poverty makes it impossible to survive, why not worship the deities?

The deities love them so much, arranging a death ending for everyone. If starving every day, then starve to death according to the deity's arrangement, and everyone will surely be happy in the next life.

The little prince didn't understand because he had been instilled with this thought since childhood. So even when he was pierced by the angry scythe, he still didn't understand.

Not understanding, mob, ignorant, crude, heretic.

——Why do you want to start a war?

——Why can't you follow the fate's arrangement and obediently go to die?

——Why do you...

Why can't you be——

"..."

——sheep in the rain?

"The empress is dead! The empress is dead——!"

"Everyone rush in! Rescue all the books about to be burned!"

"——Quick, quick!"

Su Wensheng lowered his eyelids, watching the scene in the mirror, the expressions of the people like a raging flame, even fiercer than the morning sun on the horizon.

"...I've seen that empress." Su Wensheng said, "She didn't want to be an empress, but she was the only heir of the royal family. She hated war, violence, and conflict, her nature very gentle. When I played chess with her one day, she cried and told me, hoping everyone could obtain peace. She would usually help the children in the slums and built thousands of orphanages."

"In the end, she died, and people tore apart all her achievements, her innocent children died in the violence she hated most."

Su Ming'an said, "Hating violence should not be an ideal, but a means."

The silence between the two lasted for a while, and Su Wensheng waved his hand, and the mirror showed a new scene.

At the Holy Alliance Army headquarters, Qingniao overlooked the people below and raised her hand, saying:

"——We must brainwash you, erasing your memories of history."

"Lord Divine Son, you can't. I heard that the memory cleansing technology is not perfect. Over seventy percent of people become fools. We have many important pieces of information in our brains!" A researcher knelt on the ground, shouting.

Qingniao fiddled with the glass pendants beside her ear, listening to the clear sound of their collision with an expression of pity and sighed: "Because you drank the special medicine distributed by the Human Self-Rescue Alliance, recalling past memories. In that case, let our Holy Alliance Army erase these unnecessary memories for you once more."

He caressed the bloody pattern mark behind his ear and sighed, "Rest assured, we won't take your lives. I have a good heart, can't bear to kill."

"Unnecessary memories——the memories with my daughter, the wheat fields my mother and I walked through when I was young, the woolen sweater she knitted for me——are those 'unnecessary memories'?" someone shouted.

"The fairy tale book I read a few years ago, the thoughts I wrote down, can't those... be preserved?"

"Why have we come to this, why do we have to live so sadly..."

Su Wensheng watched this scene, this time he did not comment.

The two watched the scene in the mirror in silence until the roaring and crying of the people intertwined, rustling in the sea breeze.

In the scene, people were escorted into the memory cleansing room, and from then on, they would forget those precious memories, forget who they met as children, what they loved, the hobbies they once vowed to devote their lives to, forget deceased relatives, forget how much they loved them in life, forget where their tombstones were buried, forget their unrealistic yet lifelong sustaining... dreams.

The still-young children would even forget their parents and wouldn't remember where their home was, becoming strangers in life, drifters in time, like uniformly copied bionic humans, with only appearances and names different, everything else... seemed not so different.

Forgetting oneself, forgetting roots, forgetting gratitude and love, forgetting literature, art, and music, forgetting all of human sensibility or rationality.

Forgetting "oneself."

"Do you know where the brilliance of humanity lies?"

In the sea breeze, Su Ming'an slowly spoke.

"Ah." Su Wensheng put away the mirror: "I know… of course I know."

"Is your blood still hot?" Su Ming'an asked.

Su Wensheng placed his hand on his chest, as if seriously feeling it.

"Of course." Su Wensheng's expression was mixed with imperceptible pain: "It hasn't cooled."

"So you still wish to stop me from starting the divine war?" Su Ming'an's voice was also filled with obscurity:

"Could it be you have also... forgotten your 'self'?"

"Su Wensheng, I did not ask them to sacrifice their lives, they just decided to resist according to their will, they no longer wanted to be sheep in the rain, they wanted to come to me."

"I am merely an Awakener, calling myself the Old God, giving them the chance to stand up. If they decide to obey the Holy Alliance Army and never look up again, they could of course survive."

"Why do you condemn me for giving light——for giving people in darkness a spark——and blame all death on me?"

"If they want to hate me, wait until the divine war ends and everyone is saved, then aim their cannons at me."

Su Ming'an pointed to his chest, which faintly burned:

"I can... swallow the hatred of billions."

He was not Acto, not willing to take all the war's deaths and injuries upon himself. He certainly felt sorry for the war, guilty for the casualties, but he wouldn't bear the sins alone, suffering every day.

Deities sought to destroy humanity, but did not start a war, choosing to give people "sweets," wanting them to die in the numbness of candy. Su Ming'an was one of the few who perceived the danger, thus starting the divine war to try to usurp the deities' power, and the war saw casualties because of "Su Ming'an." Hence, humanity deemed it was Su Ming'an who started the war in an "increasingly better era," blaming everything on Su Ming'an.

Candy is poison.

The sheep thought it was red wine.