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Chapter 1539: Final Chapter·Sea Chapter [30]·“Where to Begin?”

The travelers saw the yellow forest again.

What comes into view is the beautiful scenery of golden leaves.

They looked towards one of the roads and saw blood all over the place and weeds growing everywhere.

They looked toward the countless roads and saw only broken yellow leaves and dead bones on the ground.

They saw countless, countless versions of themselves standing among the woods, looking up and gazing at the sparse rays of morning sunlight filtering through the mottled leaves.

Click, click——

They walked on countless, countless roads through the woods, leaving behind bloody footprints in the mud. Many roads collapsed as they passed, leaving only the last straight path, untrodden.

It is also the most secretive and narrow road.

The travelers stared at the secret and narrow road for a long time, with regret and yearning in their eyes. They turned slightly and walked towards a road that had long collapsed. This road was covered with their messy bloody footprints, and the leaves were shriveled and rotten, as if they had walked on it countless times.

"Next time, next time..." He dug his fingers into the tree trunk next to him and slowly drew a count mark: "Next time, I will definitely..."

Golden leaves brushed across their shoulders and across the tree trunks.

The tree trunk where they had just left marks was already covered with countless densely packed marks, like cracked palm lines.

……

"Shh! Shh! Shh! Shh!"

There were four dull sounds of blades breaking through bodies.

Su Mingan's sword of Alman, Yueyue's Snow of Kaone, Lu Shu's black knife, and Su Lin's fire sword pierced Noel's body at the same time.

In the center of the countless long crystal beards, where the flowers and leaves intertwined, the fluttering golden hair instantly turned red.

"puff!"

Noel spat out a mouthful of blood, and the blue rose petals on the back of his hand withered away. Four piercing wounds destroyed and shattered his body. The figures of the Lord of the End of All Things and the Seventh Seat flashed for a moment and disappeared from behind him, like fragments of images.

……it's over?

So simple?
Just as Su Ming'an was about to draw his sword, Noel suddenly stretched out his hands and pressed down the sharp edge of Su Ming'an's sword, and blood flowed down his palms.

Noel's face was stained with blood, and the dark blood covered his forehead and the area around his eyes. He stared at Su Mingan closely:
"……I'm waiting for you."

The next moment, the sickle fell, and Noel fell forward. The moment he touched the ground, blood exploded into flowers.

"Bang bang."

Su Mingan clearly felt a puppet string on his chest break, and the other end was swaying empty in the air. He pulled the puppet string apart expressionlessly, letting it dissolve into dust.

Noel's shattered body was at his feet, his blond hair soaked in blood. His last words sounded like a curse at first, but considering his temperament, it seemed abrupt, as Su Mingan had not yet seen his plan.

"...Killed?" Yueyue's transparent figure came over, her clone flashed violently and was about to disappear.

Lu Shu fell to his knees, coughing non-stop.

The confrontation was like lightning and flint. Without Su Mingan's "symbiosis" skill, the entire battle would have been extremely difficult.

Su Mingan moved his feet to avoid stepping on Noel's blood and hair: "...not yet, I want to read Noel's memory."

Under the shattered white light in the sky, the light spot fell on his palm, like a light touch.

He clenched his fist, squatted down, and touched Noel's forehead, which was as cold as ice.

A white light came on, and he glimpsed Noel Akinni's memories.

……

"The great Phoenix is ​​here, how dare you, a rude fellow, snatch my body!"

"Thank you, my name is Lan Qie."

"Use this knife to stab Su Mingan's body, and you can seize his IP... It's time for our destined separation."

"Noel, from now on, we are no longer partners."

"Lord of the World, the Book of the World is inside."

"Su Mingan, choose me."

"Uritilola, can we postpone the Snow of the End this time? Otherwise, Cortana will still initiate the big reset."

"When the petals fall, your life fades."

"Single and double, Alcherev, Sharina... Let's go and stop Su Mingan from making mistakes."

"Alger, you...!"

……

Pictures quickly flashed through Su Mingan's mind, and he closed his eyes, as if he were in those scenes. In particular, Noel's attempts in Luowasha's repeated major resets.

The first time, he died at the hands of the Sea Angel. The second time, he died at the sight of the Demon Mother Goddess. The third time, he failed in his attempt to obtain the Disciple Game. The fourth time, he failed in his attempt to seek help from the World Lord. The fifth time, he fell into a deep sleep. The sixth time, he was severely injured by the Inorganic God...

This person really tried to have the best of both worlds, wanting to fly to freedom and keep everything at the same time. However, later on, Noel gradually discovered that some things cannot be achieved by hard work.

Su Mingan observed the details in depth. From his memory, Noel did not take any action that seemed to have hidden motives. All his actions were completely on the side of the Lord of the End of All Things.

...That's right, that's the right way.

"Hmm?" At this moment, he suddenly saw a memory.

This is a conversation between a blond boy and a white-haired girl. The former has a beautiful face, flaming hair, and slightly immature eyes, while the latter is Qin Si, the teammate who died for unknown reasons in the early stage of the dungeon.

The two sat in a dark castle, on ivory-white high stools, talking face to face amid the aroma of tea.

Su Mingan didn't know where the castle was located, nor did he know when this conversation took place.

"Phoenix." Qin Si said in a cold voice: "Thank you for helping me escape from the world game."

"You're welcome. If given the chance, no one wants to be just a clone." Phoenix showed his dimples, his smile soft and childish.

...clone?
Su Mingan understood that Qin Si was indeed the incarnation of the Radiant Goddess Kritsins. It seemed that Qin Si's death was just a trick to escape from Kritsins' control.

Phoenix leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. "Do you want to go further?"

"what?"

"This castle is one of the bases of the Wheel of Fortune." Phoenix said, "Oppose observation, resist fate. This is our creed."

"Resist...fate?" Qins raised his head.

"Qins, what do you think destiny is?"

"The most likely future is determined by the comprehensive calculation of people's current resources, personal temperament, and the world situation. In other words, as long as the former changes, the future can change." Qins said: "Just like a person born in poverty, with average intelligence and EQ, if there are no other opportunities, he will live a mediocre life, this is fate. But if an opportunity comes, it is called 'going against the will of heaven and changing fate', and what is changed is this 'fate'."

"So you think that destiny is something visible and can be changed."

"Yes."

"What if fate cannot be changed?"

"You support determinism?"

"Hehe... Just like you are Kritsins' clone, you can never surpass Him no matter how hard you try. The best outcome is to become an independent individual and live in exile in the universe."

"I don't agree with the future He arranged for me. I was lurking among the top players, waiting for an opportunity to act. But with your intervention, I am no longer subject to His arrangements. I think I have escaped fate."

"Is that enough?" Phoenix smiled innocently, "Did you really escape?"

How could she be sure that Kritchens couldn't take control of her again?

"We want to kill 'Destiny' itself." Phoenix smiled faintly and said, "This brings me to my friend, Su Mingan's companion, Noel Akinni."

"He asked you to help me?"

"Ah."

"Why did you listen to him?"

"Because he is 'imperfect'."

"What do you mean?"

"If, if there is a golden forest," Phoenix said, "in the most 'perfect' future, on one of the roads, should we take this road?"

Qin Si was silent for a long time, then slowly said, "I think so."

"But is it necessary to do this to be perfect and correct? How can we evaluate the so-called 'perfection'? After all, I have never understood the term 'perfect clearance'. What is 'perfection'? Who evaluates it?" Phoenix said: "[Fifty people died out of a hundred] and [Seventy people died out of a hundred], of course the former is more perfect. However, if most of the people who died in the former are criminals, and most of the people who died in the latter are sages, is the former still more perfect?"

He stood up and said, "In other words, which is more important, the lives of the virtuous and the criminals? Which is right and which is wrong, the killing of the good and the evil? If in a bad ending, many people died, but my lover survived, and in a perfect ending, many people survived, but my lover died."

"Then, why? Why in this 'perfect' world, in order for those people to live, my lover must die? Why on the red scale of the universe, the lives of those who [should have died but survived in the perfect ending] are more important than the lives of those who [should have lived but died in the perfect ending]?"

"In the [Book of the Universe], the perfect paragraph is named 'TE', so 'TE' means perfection."

"But [Book of the Universe], on what basis does it judge our perfection?"

"Why should we follow a fixed path, leading to a fixed direction of perfection, in order to obey 'perfection'?"

After Phoenix finished speaking, Qin Si vaguely understood the pursuit of the Wheel of Fortune behind him.

Rejection...perfect?

Indeed, "perfection" is an unchangeable destiny. To resist perfection is to resist destiny.

But on the other hand, is it right to let fate run wild?

"You remind me of someone." Qin Si said, "He has a longer-term vision than anyone else. He is more aware than anyone else of the fragility and emptiness of this kind of 'perfection', so he chooses to reject it."

"This must be a remarkable man," Phoenix said. "How is he now?"

"He no longer exists."

"does not exist?"

"Yes, he chose to burn himself under the World Tree, along with the causal lines he found in countless reincarnations. Therefore, I can no longer call out his name, nor can I describe him to you - he has disappeared from the description of the [Book of the Universe], and has escaped the fate of being solidified and limited by 'perfection', and no longer appears on the chessboard." Qins slowly lowered his head, his eyelashes trembling: "He embraced eternal tranquility and death. Disappearance, eternal disappearance."

"He is very wise, but I don't envy him. No matter how many times, I will choose to resist rather than turn a blind eye." Phoenix said: "And Noel Akinni——"

"That arrogant guy, he showed me the possibility of ending it all."

"I want to... pursue that 'freedom without TE' with him."

"I'm sorry, I still don't agree with your ideas. I agree more with Su Mingan's insistence on 'perfection'." Qin Si shook his head: "No flag can stand on a castle in the air. Ideals need to be built on the basis of survival. Rejecting perfection will cost you a painful price, because perfection often represents the best outcome of a civilization and is a way to maximize benefits. And in pursuit of freedom, do you know how many more people will die?"

"Well, I don't deny Su Mingan's idea." Phoenix said: "We are just... tired of the endless repetition."

"Repeat?" Qin Si leaned forward. "What do you mean by repeat? How much do you know?"

"Hehe..." Phoenix smiled but did not explain.

He gently took out a bunch of bright red flowers.

Su Mingan, who was witnessing this memory, suddenly opened his eyes wide.

——This is a bunch of Lycoris radiata.

The bright red Lycoris radiata is delicately tied with wrapping paper, with transparent ribbons flying in the air, and the name of the flower shop is written on the corner of the ribbons.

This looked like just an ordinary bouquet of flowers, and Su Mingan was sure that he had never seen such a thing before.

But for some reason, when he saw the bouquet of flowers, he seemed to be standing on a golden beach with crashing waves, looking at the waves overlapping each other and washing away his messy footprints again and again.

——He was sure that he had seen it at some point.

Phoenix held the bouquet of flowers, suddenly raised his head and smiled towards the air.

But from Su Mingan's perspective as a bystander, it was as if Phoenix was smiling at him in this memory.

The blond boy opened his lips and slowly said a few words:

"xxx, xxxx?"

……

My ears suddenly ring, as if my brain is overloaded and can't understand the tones.

The buzzing sound continued for a while, and only then did the sound change from intonation to clear words in Su Mingan's ears -

"Su Mingan."

"Are you watching?"

……

……

Suddenly, a smile appeared on Su Mingan's lips, which grew bigger and bigger.

“Haha…hahaha…hahaha…”

His first reaction was not fear or panic, but joy, like a child seeing something new.

Sure enough, it was not that simple. Noel's plan was not that simple. Noel had expected that Su Mingan would kill him to watch this memory, so he deliberately buried this conversation. As for the bunch of Lycoris radiata, Su Mingan didn't know why he felt familiar with it, but he guessed that there was probably a horrible truth behind it. It was so horrible that people were even reluctant to reveal it.

"Noel, what you pursue is 'freedom', not 'perfection'. But I am just the opposite of you. I still think 'perfection' is better. What should you do?" Su Ming'an thought.

Suddenly, in this memory, Noel Ajinni, who was acting as the "camera", raised her head and seemed to see Su Mingan who was watching the memory.

(End of this chapter)