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Chapter 1624 Final Chapter: Crossing the Sea [53] "The Great Sage Yang Mermaid and the Unsincerous People Arrive (10)"

2021 9 Month 22 Day.

Inside the Ark, in the central command hall, politicians, scientists, military personnel... all stared intently at the colorful planet on the screen.

"First attempt at fusion!" The speaker was a blue-haired man with long hair named Ludwig.

call--

The ark approached the colorful planet.

Below the command platform, two men gazed at the star map.

“I said, if we had succeeded on the first try, we wouldn’t have had to wander anymore.” Blake, a tall man with blond hair and a cigarette between his fingers, said with a bitter smile, “…We couldn’t hold on any longer. All that crying, resentment, opposition… Back then, we put the world game into a billion cycles, and the hundred million people we brought out resent us. Why did we lead them away from their homes…”

Wearing his detective hat, Locke silently stared at the approaching, colorful planet, muttering, "People tend to remember the brightest and most dazzling things. If humanity triumphs in the future, history will surely record: heroes won their homeland, a hundred million people resolutely ventured into the unfamiliar universe to create a life for the remaining billion people. Those hundred million people are great pioneers. However, what history doesn't consider is... that the people involved may not have wanted to be so 'great.' They just wanted to stay in the world and play the game, rather than risk their lives to escape into the vast universe. They simply had no choice."

Antetria led Su Ming'an to the command center and looked at the huge screen.

Back then, the top ten players led a hundred million people to flee to the universe, riding the white miniature world "Rovasa" to find new life. They found a colorful planet called "Mirror of Creation" and successfully merged with it, transforming it into "Rovasa Mirror of Creation"—this is the history that Su Ming'an is witnessing.

"I never imagined that my little world, which is like a dazzling glass bead, would turn out to be like an ark." Su Ming'an looked around.

He realized something—his own little world had been fully developed, with abundant resources, immense potential, and a suitable environment, while Hui Bai and the others had hastily entered the universe, lacking sufficient resources; even carrying a hundred million people would be a stretch. Therefore, instead of transforming into a complete planet, it was converted into a military ark for maximum efficiency. Each person occupied only a small personal space, food was rationed, movement was strictly restricted, and there were even hierarchical access levels (A, B, C, D)...

Compared to the freedom of the small world, this is a rather harsh world, built on a backdrop of helplessness.

As he walked along, Su Ming'an rarely saw a smile on people's faces.

“…The Ark has a hundred floors, and we live on the top floor,” Antetolia murmured. “We’ve been wandering in space for too long, and the resentment of those on the lower floors has been building up for a long time… Yes, they only get one tube of tasteless nutrient solution a day, how can we expect them to be happy?”

Su Ming'an's current identity is Su Qing, the clone of Su Ming'an from the first World Game. Su Ming'an himself did not choose to board this Ark, but sent his clone Su Qing on board. Su Qing, along with Hui Bai and others, constitutes the twelve seats on the Ark, possessing the highest level of authority.

"Fusion!"

"Frequency adjustment in progress..."

"Border infiltration in progress!"

The first attempt at fusion went unexpectedly smoothly, and people erupted in cheers.

“Let’s go. What follows is a long process of integration, which will take at least several months,” Antetria smiled.

“Hmm…” Su Ming’an turned around.

As he walked out, he felt someone brush past him. As if driven by a sixth sense, he turned his head instantly and saw a young man with long blue hair, bright silver eyes, beautiful face, and a feminine appearance. He possessed an androgynous beauty, and his whole being was like a fragile piece of glass.

Su Ming'an's mind raced, and he immediately covered his forehead as if he had a terrible headache.

"What's wrong?" Antetolia looked over anxiously.

"I slept for too long, my head hurts so much... Is it because of the injury I was injured before? I feel like I've forgotten a lot of things..." Su Ming'an murmured. Of course, this reason was made up. Anyway, Su Qing had been through a lot of storms and must have suffered a lot of injuries, so any excuse he made would be reasonable.

“You were indeed injured before,” Antetolia said without suspicion. “Go back and rest, get some more sleep.”

"Who is that?" Su Ming'an pointed to the blue-haired youth in the distance, who looked like glass.

“Ah. It’s him, a member of the expedition team. He should be heading to the Spectral Star for exploration within three days,” Antetria said. “He’s also a top-ranked player, Casadia.”

...Cassadia!
Su Ming'an's eyes widened in shock—this was the person who betrayed humanity, turning the peaceful world into a terrifying and dangerous two-dimensional multi-race world. Casadia achieved godhood through this, but relegated humanity to the bottom of the food chain, subjected to the humiliation of countless dragons, demons, angels, and other races. If it weren't for Casadia, Rovasa wouldn't be in such danger as it is now, but rather a normal, peaceful modern world.

Unfortunately, this is just a dream; history cannot be changed.

Antetolia took Su Ming'an's hand: "You just woke up, what do you want to do next? Join Ludwig and the others in the planetary fusion, participate in Edith's experiment, or come with me to conduct research on the lower levels?"

She tapped her hands together and suddenly laughed, "Look at me, I forgot you just woke up again. You should go back and rest, and have a good dream. Edith has been having a deep conflict with Huibai because of the experiment, and I can't drag you into it."

Her smile was healing and warm, unlike Noel's, without any sharp edges or thorns, soft and not dazzling, more like warm cotton than the sun.

"I'm going back to rest first." Su Ming'an needed some free time.

"Hmm. Do as you please. May your dreams be warm and peaceful every night." The blonde girl turned and left gracefully.

Su Ming'an returned to his room, turned on his personal computer, and entered the forum module. The forum was peaceful and quiet, suggesting that the internet was under strict control. He found a helmet under the bed and, upon closer inspection, recognized it as an old acquaintance—the Dream Patrol Helmet. He then found several discs, also familiar titles—"The Kingdom of the Moon," "The Girl's Growth Project," "The Witch's Narrative Poem"...

"I see. Personal space is cramped, and real life is extremely oppressive, so people's only form of entertainment is holographic games," Su Ming'an pondered.

He worried that if he stayed immersed in this dream for too long, the outside world would be turned upside down. Suddenly, when he looked up at the mirror, he saw something unusual.

A line of text gradually appeared on the mirror: 【*&@()*！ &#！ 】

Someone outside is secretly sending me a message!

Su Ming'an immediately reached out and drew on the mirror: "[You're writing Martian script, let's speak Chinese]".

The mirror paused for a moment, then displayed a line of text: 【Su Ming'an, I am Su Lin.】

As expected, only Su Lin, who possesses the authority of the soul, can communicate through dreams.

After some communication with Mars, Su Ming'an learned that the flow of time in dreams differs from that in the outside world, giving him ample time to pull Su Liujin out of the dream world. Su Lin is responsible for finding his younger brother from the Lin clan, while Lu Shu and the others are helping Shi Ying win the protagonist's championship; there's nothing to worry about.

"...That's really reliable." My friends.

Su Ming'an smiled and swiped his finger: [Thank you].

A line of text appeared: "[It's for my own benefit]".

Soon, another line of text appeared: [Xiaoxin, Mother Shen may be in Kui Shi Ni. The sparrow recognizes the five people around her; contact her again.]

[You mean, the Mother Goddess might be watching this dream?]

[Rose, you've discovered the tonic; it's become conspicuous. This layer of the dream is relatively shallow; try to use divine power for the tonic. The nest will protect the mud.]

【it is good. 】

……

While divine power couldn't be used, it didn't preclude the use of one's own technology. Su Ming'an immediately employed three-domain techniques, hacking into the Ark's internet.

He searched for Su Liujin's location—logically speaking, how could a Turritopsis dohrnii, born in Rovasa, appear on the Ark? It was puzzling.

“99th floor, room 8329…” Su Ming’an located several suspicious rooms.

He swiped his card to leave, and his highest level of access allowed him to proceed without hindrance, quickly reaching his destination.

—What comes into view is a huge laboratory.
Su Ming'an stood at the entrance of the laboratory, momentarily unable to breathe.

What lay before him was not the pristine white research facility he had imagined, but a vast, magnificent space, as expansive as a sea of ​​stars. Countless enormous, transparent culture tanks stood like ancient, towering trees, extending upwards and disappearing into the soft light of the dome. Floating within each tank was a white-haired boy or girl, curled up like unborn gods, rising and falling in the pale blue nutrient solution.

Thousands upon thousands of scarlet tubes were inserted into the back of their necks from the top of the canisters. Knowledge, emotional simulations, moral integrity... a massive amount of information was continuously injected into their sleeping brains.

Thousands of researchers in white coats walked across the metal walkway, their faces blurred by the cold light.

"Number 7341, neural connection failed, cognitive module crashed, executed obsolete program."

"Item No. 8902, the body's rejection reaction has reached the critical value, and we are preparing to recover useful tissue."

"Number 1001, vital signs stable, knowledge transfer complete. Ready to proceed to the next stage of willpower tempering."

Su Ming'an held his breath. He saw a boy in a culture tank suddenly convulse violently, his silver-white hair dancing wildly in the liquid. Then, a robotic arm extended from beneath the tank and precisely scooped the boy out. The boy's body was shrinking and degenerating at an alarming rate, eventually reverting to a mangled mass of embryonic tissue, throbbing and struggling, before being casually tossed into a recycling channel labeled "Biological Waste."

On the other side of the laboratory, there were several successful cases—several white-haired teenagers with vacant eyes and flawless bodies were carefully removed by robotic arms and placed into more advanced storage tanks filled with golden liquid, like collectible works of art, awaiting an unknown future.

Using flesh and blood as the material, knowledge as the fire, and will as the anvil—they were actually trying to forge a god.

Su Ming'an gritted his teeth, realizing that he had seen a truth he had never encountered before.

His heart pounded heavily as he followed a subtle intuition and walked step by step toward the very center of this "artificial divine kingdom".

The researchers on both sides saw the S-level authorization that was flashing with gold on his chest and stepped back, not blocking his way.

There stood the largest culture tank, more magnificent than any of the others, like a colossal pillar supporting the heavens and the earth. Inside the tank, the boy, his hair as white as snow, floated quietly, his face serene, as if immersed in an incredibly beautiful dream.

It is Su Liujin. It is the Great Emperor.

Although the white-haired boy looked exactly like the other boys, Su Ming'an felt that this was the Su Liujin he knew.

Su Ming'an pressed his fingertips against the cold glass jar, a chill running down his spine. He gazed at the "walking corpse" inside, oblivious to all the cruelty, a faint smile playing on its lips. The magnificent adventures of his past dreams flooded back—

……

That majestic royal city was originally his experimental platform that imprisoned him;

The scepter that gleamed in the little king's hand was actually a stun gun used for punishment.
Those thrilling "Holy Grail" battles were actually just cold, mechanical training.

Those arrogant and vividly alive enemies were actually countless silent mechanical arms and bullets.
The candy that heals wounds is actually a syringe used to sustain life.
The sacred fruit that the young king casually conjured, granting him power, was actually the blood that had been extracted from him…

The so-called "finger gun," "lucky draw," and "sunfish" are nothing more than fantasies formed by knowledge and images instilled from the outside world...

All the splendor and sweetness are merely a thin veil covering the cruel truth, a carefully woven, beautiful dream intended to soothe tormented souls.

……

An indescribable sorrow gripped Su Ming'an; his voice was as soft as a sigh, trembling as he murmured:
"So...that's why you don't want to wake up?"

"You know that what awaits you upon waking is not truth and freedom, but a more terrifying and profound confinement. It's even an unbearable pain, the fear of being cut open and drained of blood day and night, and possibly being discarded, turning into a blurry, fleshy embryo..."

"Do they want you to become the future ruler of the realm? Or a perfect AI? Or flesh and blood used to create gods? That's why you said: 'Everyone wants me to become good, great, and a saint, but only you teach me how to be evil.'"

“Your birthplace wasn’t Rovasa at all, but on the Ark… You were thrown into the sea by humans later… Something happened afterward, and that’s how you became the Su Liujin I remember.”

"When you were holding me as we fell, were you thinking, now that someone has come to take you out, can you finally find freedom and happiness?"

"Great Emperor."

In a daze, the corners of the boy's serene mouth in the jar seemed to turn up even more. The smile was pure and radiant, piercing through the thick glass, piercing through the boundary between reality and illusion, and clearly reflected in Su Ming'an's eyes.

A cheerful and familiar voice, as if transcending countless dreams, resounded directly in his heart:
……

"Yes, my friends! These people are all my subjects! Look at them, aren't they all striving for me and praising me highly?"

"I am their 'little king,' and they all love me! Don't be sad for me, don't worry about me, my friends!"

……