Drowning Man from the Future

Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu's unprecedented expression, and held his head for a moment before he began to report, "...... I've rendezvoused with Jiayi and the others, and on the last floor, there is a diagram of the ship's construction, so let's go down to take a look?"

Because Bai Liu's not right, his voice started to soften.

"Let's go." Bai Liu converged back to his sight, advancing towards the lowest level, halfway there, he suddenly uttered, "Mu Sicheng, the other party's siege is focused on me."

Mu Sicheng was shocked, "What, it's you? Then we need to talk to Tang Er quickly, and move the focus of protection from the main attack to you ......"

"No." Bai Liu looked up to Mu Sicheng , "The main focus of protection will be you, I have already negotiated with Tang Er."

Mu Sicheng was anxious, "But the siege focuses on you! You know Tang Er hit that main attacker on the field will completely take your orders first, he'll believe whatever you say, and he won't doubt you at all if you say the siege is on us!"

"When the other side surrounds us, we won't be able to stop them!"

"Even if the focus of the siege is on me, I won't be able to stop it when the time comes." Bai Liu's tone was very cold, so cold that it brought out a sense of threat, "Neither you nor any of the team members can ever put protecting me first."

"I know you're impulsive, with sharp movements and fighting sense, and fast moving, and when it comes to that, you'll be the first to come at me to block the knife, so I'm warning you in advance, absolutely not."

Mu Sicheng was still trying to speak when Bai Liu looked at him with eyes so dark that no light could penetrate them:

"Mu Sicheng, that's an order."

"Are you going to disobey the tactician on the field?"

Mu Sicheng opened his mouth and finally gritted his teeth and said, "...... I know."

So what the hell happened, and why is Bai Liu so ...... nervous.

Mu Sicheng had never seen Bai Liu play the game so tightly, even full of hostility, even when he was on the line of life and death, this guy could still talk and laugh, but now the game had not even started yet, it was as if he had seen something extremely scary, and there was not a single expression on his face.

This is just ...... a game ah, the worst result is just to admit defeat and walk away.

Bai Liu walked forward, he was rarely a little glad that he was wearing such cumbersome thick clothes, or else with Mu Sicheng's keenness, he would definitely be able to notice that his hands, which were placed in his clothes at the moment, were trembling.

But from Bai Liu's expression, it is impossible to tell that he will be like this, calm to no waves, anyone would think that he can still anticipate the whole situation, control the whole situation.

In fact, he didn t understand why his hands were trembling, why his heart was beating so fast, and why he was so ...... afraid when he guessed what Bai Liu was going to do.

Don't die.

Bai Liu heard some voice inside himself say very softly, a very soft, juvenile voice - Aren't you a monster.

Don't die on me, Sheta.

[You're the only friend I've got, the only one who'll come near me anymore.]

Bai Liu took a very hard breath as he turned his head sideways and raised his hand to slightly shield his eyes from Mu Sicheng's expression, clenching into his hand to force himself to calm down and not be carried away by fear as he began to analyze.

This is already outside the world line, then this is not a game, there is no option to exit the game, he just can't talk to them yet, this extreme situation will make this group of people fight tooth and nail to keep him ...... And there's a rather dangerous uncertainty about this outside the world line scenario - -

-- Bai Liu can log into the ship at any time, as it is located outside the worldline and logging in does not interfere with the worldline.

If Bai Liu were to take on Bai Liu single-handedly, he wouldn't be afraid, but there's more than just him here, there's ......

There are ......

Bai Liu closed his eyes as he remembered the smile of Bai Liu in the fifth building, smiling and holding his soul sniper rifle up and aiming it at the others:

[Having feelings makes you weak, Bai Liu.]

Mu Sicheng pushed open the door, a kind of warm dampness came in, mixed with the warm color of light, Tang Er frowned and looked at him with worry, Mu Ke handed him a cup of warm tea, and Liu Jiayi's words just opened stopped.

"What's wrong with you?" She sensed something and frowned, "You look terrible, Bai Liu."

"Not quite adapted to the environment here." Bai Liu accepted the warm tea and took a sip as he let out a light laugh, dropping his eyes as if nothing had happened and digressing, "The airship construction diagrams are somewhere, I'll take a look."

Liu Jiayi stares suspiciously at the side of Bai Liu's face, and Mu Ke looks on without turning his eyes; they obviously want to ask more questions, but Bai Liu quickly brings their attention to it.

"This airship, it's constructed on four levels." Bai Liu looked at the diagram of the ship hovering over the maneuvering board, looking from the bottom up, then tapped the last layer, "Here we are, the fourth layer is a production line for some monsters, and further up, some core heretics."

Liu Jiayi's eyes landed on Bai Liu's face without moving as she opened her mouth to analyze, "I suspect that this is the backend of the system."

"I saw the label on the box."

Bai Liu's fingers paused for a moment, and he quickly and calmly picked up, "That's my point as well."

"Not only that." Tang Er fought his brows tightening, "I also suspect that this is Bai Liu's world line archive point."

"Look at this picture, you guys."

Tang Er hit scratch on the ship's diagram and a brand new layer surfaced, a layer with the locations of 658 Earths next to various notes and archival instructions.

"...... This should be the world line we're in, there's no archive point yet, it's still in the middle of the game run." Tang Er hit took a deep breath and tried his best to calm down before continuing his analysis, he clicked on the previous [Earth], "But here, here, it's all already in a game over state."

"Bai Liu has all but contaminated these world lines with heresy, and these world lines are all game over and archived."

"I don't think so." Mu Ke looked to the floating chart and tapped the desktop to ask a question, "If the game in these worlds has ended and gone into an archive point time stop, then there should be nothing left of these world lines, nothing needed, then why were those assembly lines still producing props and heretics in a steady stream when we came up from the fourth floor, transporting them to these supposedly game-ending of the world lines?"

"There is only one reasonable guess."

Mu Ke looked up at Bai Liu, who had been silent : "That's the game in these world lines, it's simply not over yet."

"Impossible." Tang Er hit quickly shook his head in denial, "At the time I left each worldline, the entire worldline was heavily contaminated by different heretics, and most of the players in the game have been turned into monsters left behind in the game, and game operations have ceased."

"I watched the game operations stop and confirm our side's failure before I was allowed to jump to the next world line, and with the whole world being heretical at that point, and everyone in reality generating pain and basically being contaminated with heresy to the point of being delirious and a monster, there was simply no point in continuing to run the game to harvest the pain, either, Bai Liu. "

"Is that so?" Mu Ke seemed enlightened, "If that's the case, then what's with all these props and heretics that are still being transported towards these already archived world lines?"

Liu Jiayi stared at Bai Liu, his eyes narrowing a bit, "Bai Liu, do you have any ideas?"

"My thoughts are that-" Bai Liu's tone was flat, his head lowered so that his expression was unreadable, "the game between [Prophet] and [Evil God] did end in these world lines, and [Evil God], as expected, contaminated the entire world line with its own derivatives to smuggle heretics to contaminate the entire worldline, and all of these worldlines ended with the [Prophet]'s defeat."

"But [the Evil God's] game in these world lines is not over."

Tang Er hit realized something, and he snapped back to what the one he met in the fifth building [Tang Er hit] had said to him-

--After you've left, time still flows.

The suffering of all is still continuing and cyclical, an endless offering to God, with no moment of cessation.

"I was once puzzled as to why a heresy like [Dry Leaf Rose], which drains everyone's life force, would be placed in every worldline." Bai Liu continued in a calm tone, "It is clear that this thing does not conform to the principles of the [Evil God], [Dry Leaf Rose] causes people to die, and those who die can no longer produce pain or value."

"His preferred heresy would be one that sustains one's base vitality and keeps one awake, harboring a certain faint hope that cannot be given up, and thus endlessly generating suffering."

"--like the Golden Country?" Mu Ke asked softly in return, "Because they know that Georgia is watching over them, the people will always have hope and wait for Georgia's return, right?

"Uh-huh. "Bai Liu's fingers on the console curled up, his tone lowered, "Without hope, there is no pain, and without having gained, the loss is numbing."

"The amount of pain that dry leaf roses can cause is indeed colossal, but only for a period of time; at a later stage, everyone grows numb."

"Later, I understood why He still allowed [dry leaf roses] to appear and spread."

Bai Liu lifted his head and gazed intently at the 658 images of the Earth suspended in the air: "- because He can make time go round and round."

"All He needs to do is set the archive point at that moment when everyone is in the most pain, and then when everyone is about to go numb, re-tick the clock and jump to that archive point, so that time loops, and a constant stream of pain arises from those inside."

"This mechanism sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

"Isn't this ......" Mu Ke looked incredulously at Bai Liu, "--a copy of the game? "

"So the copy we log into every time isn't a copy of any game at all, but some place in the middle of one of these contaminated world-lines where an archive point has been placed and is looping over and over?!"

Bai Liu closed his eyes, "...... Yes."

"Those heretics and props that were transported there, the heretics were used to reset the copy and then re-distribute the contaminated copy to keep it the same as it was before, and the props weren't distributed to the people in that world line, but to the players who logged into that world line [game copy]."

"-that is, ourselves."

"The game of [evil gods] continues in an even more brutal way in the world lines where these [prophets] lose their matches."

"It's the same with our own world line, if we can't win the game, [the evil gods] will set up copies of other world lines that are cycling through our reality in the same way."

"No wonder ......" Mu Ke sat back in his chair in a trance, "No wonder it's like that."

"And Bai Liu's nastiness doesn't stop there, right?" Liu Jiayi's face was also very ugly, "We also encountered some NPCs in the game that jumped out of the loop, most of them were people who had traded with the Evil God, so all of these people are real, and they have the memories of the loop, and are being tormented by the source."

"--That's how they deliver pain to the evil gods because of their dealings with them afterward, isn't it?

--The ever-looping seven-day game, the increasingly realistic and authentic NPCs, and the main game characters who jump out of the loop after trading with the Evil God, trading with the Evil God with hope in their hearts, only to become more and more agonized in the end, and tormented in all sorts of ways after being logged in by the player.

Dr. Ice Age, Alex from the forest frontier, Zombie Taoist from Yinshan Village, Xiao Kui from the Evil God Festival ......

"If we lose the game with the Evil God this time." Liu Jiayi looked straight at Bai Liu, "It will also turn into such an NPC in someone else's game, right?"

"No." Bai Liu looked up, the pupils of his eyes dark, his tone clear, "You won't."

--Because it's, like, the last world line.

"This system airship, is equivalent to a large transit center, transferring players from the 658 worldline we are in, to copies in other worldlines, and after the game is over, transmitting them back and distributing rewards and points at the same time." Bai Liu quickly continued his analysis, "Not only that, this ship is also equivalent to a large heretic smuggling ferry."

Tang Er was very sensitive to "smuggling heretics" and he quickly looked at Bai Liu: "How?"

"While I was here, I paid attention to the source of the assembly line that produces heretics for this ship." Bai Liu calmly continued, "It was not produced using some sort of raw material, but was extracted up from the middle of the void from various worldlines."

"That is, Bai Liu first contaminates the worldline with heresy, after the heresy has been produced in a steady stream in that worldline, and then extracts the heresy from that worldline with a system backend, stores it in this huge system backend spaceship, and then contaminates the next worldline with the heresy stored in that spaceship as it moves on to the next worldline. "

"The equivalent of all the failed world lines that have become Bai Liu's heresy production factories."

Bai Liu looked towards Tang Er, whose face was so dark that it could not be described as a fight:

"That is to say, as long as Bai Liu has a worldline in his hands that continues to function and produce heresy, then he will be able to continually use the system's backend to extract heresy from that worldline, and then distribute the heresy as rewards to players who log on to other worldlines, and use the players of the new worldlines in those games to smuggle the heresy out to the new worldlines. "

"As long as there are games out there, and there are players who will enter the game out of desire, the Heresy Authority will never be able to house enough of the heretics he smuggles in."

"Even if you kill Derivative Bai Liu in every worldline, the largest smuggling system backstage ship outside of this worldline still exists, you can't stop the heresy from spreading, before He said that killing Derivative Bai Liu the game is over, but it's not really true, Bai Liu has misled you."

"He lied to you; derivatives are not the key at all."

"Bai Liu has been cheating from the very beginning."

Bai Liu was quiet for a moment, "As long as the game exists, and this system exists in the background, you will never win against Him."

"Then how about blowing up this system backend?" Mu Sicheng, who had been hugging his chest and leaning against the side, coldly spoke up as he looked straight at Bai Liu, "Blow it up, the system doesn't exist, the game doesn't exist, and it's all over."

Bai Liu icily vetoed, "No."

"This system backend, it should never blow up."

Mu Sicheng tsked in annoyance, "Didn't you say that with the existence of this system backstage, you can never win against Bai Liu? Why can't it blow up?!"

Liu Jiayi and Mu Ke looked over at the same time, and Tang Er hit a pause, his gaze condensed, "This system is full of heretics on the backstage, best destroyed."

Bai Liu shifted to meet the men's gaze, his breathing unsteady for a moment, "...... Show me your assigned identities in this game."

Mu Sicheng, still angry at Bai Liu for having been threatened by him earlier, hadn't said anything, but now that Bai Liu asked, he replied, "I've shown it to you."

"I'm the guard here number 0004."

Liu Jiayi extends the panel, "I'm the 0601 guard."

"I'm guard 0005." Mu Ke raises his hand.

"I am a guardsman of 0002." Tang Er hit looked to Bai Liu, "Our job as guardsmen is to escort you this you get control of the ship and become the captain of this ship."

Bai Liu watched the panel displayed in front of him with one wrong eye, trying his best to control his emotional response, his breathing and heart rate, not to show any sign of weakness in front of these people.

[System Alert: Player Tang Er fights Mu Ke Liu Jiayi has been stripped of his player status after he jumped out of the world line.]

[Re-verification of identity.]

[Real ID: 0658 Worldline Transportation Product, Humanoid Heretic, No. 0601/0005/002]

[Rose Hunter Blood Witch Assassin]

[System ship backstage soul storage location - level one.]

[System Warm Tips: Only real players can see the real, the world you see with monsters is not the same.]

Bai Liu slowly looked around the circle and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something - Because in the determination of the backend of this system, players are also heretics, that's why your skill identities are called monster books.

You're monsters too.

Your souls ...... are also bound to this system backend.

So the system backend, no bombing.

"Let's follow the flow of the game first." Bai Liu held the cup of warm tea as he looked down at the ripples in the water, his voice was soft and inaudible, "Let's win the game and get out of here first."

...... hands stop shaking.

Any more shaking is going to be seen.

"Okay." Mu Ke followed Bai Liu's words down, he looked at Bai Liu's bloodless lips and couldn't hide the worry on his face, "Bai Liu, are you seasick?"

"A bit." Bai Liu choked out a cough with a clenched fist and continued to look at the hover diagram as calmly as ever, "We've learned all about the two layers of construction diagrams underneath this ship, and the second layer seems to be full of documentation for the various world-lines from the descriptions of the archive points and world-lines specific information."

Mu Sicheng snorted, "Bai Liu This idiot is quite idle, memorizing a whole layer."

"The archive points of the world line should of course be properly recorded, this is very important documentation." Tang Er looked over to the second level, his brows had been furrowed and not dispersed since he saw the picture, "When I inherited the [Prophet] privilege before, I saw amongst a top-secret file that the Heresy Handling Bureau also had an archive point."

"It's an archive point for recording [prophet] parties."

Tang Er hit looked to Bai Liu: "You've seen that archive."

"- Heresy 0001, named [Future]."

"That's said to be the archive point where [the prophet] recorded it."

"But I've never seen it." Tang Er hit a deep gaze, "Because even the prophet who recorded these [archive points] said that it was the [future] that would be maddening after looking straight ahead."

"[The Prophet] said that hunters are absolutely forbidden to watch [the future]."

Bai Liu asked, "Why?"

Tang Er hit a pause, "Because something terrible will happen."

"This, right here, is the ship's maneuvering room, right?" Liu Jiayi fiddled with the console, zoomed in on the picture, and pointed to the first top compartment at the topmost level of the ship, "At the top of the ship, labeled Level 0, there's a large door underneath it, and we're supposed to be looking for the key to open this door and get in to seize the ship's control here."

"But this ship is a straight ladder design, somewhat similar to the Heresy Authority." Tang Er said as he hit stared at the ship's construction diagram, "To get to Level 0, you have to go through Level 2 and Level 1 first."

Bai Liu looked towards that airship construction diagram, and after a moment of silence, he put down his teacup and propped himself up on the tabletop, "Let's go then."

"Go to level 0."

Mu Ke glanced at the teacup, which still had undissolved ripples in it.

He pursed his lips and looked up at Bai Liu's departing back.

The second level of the ship, the archive point and world line information reserve room.

Cen Buming realized where he was almost instantly after logging into the system ship, he sneered at the misleading information given on the system panel and quickly ordered, "Head for the upper levels of the ship!"

He wanted to see what this bitch Bai Liu had recorded.

Cen Buming gritted his teeth, and in his ears came Lu Yizhan's calm voice as if he had already seen everything-[Don't intervene anymore senior brother].

[The future, maybe not what you thought it would be, but all in all, not a BAD ending.]

What does he know about this guy who has turned his back on his original intentions over and over again?

Obviously a prophet, only dared to piecemeal through their skills to peer into the script of the gods, get a bunch of bullshit poetic prophecies, can't even read them, obviously in the hands of the [Future] such a powerful and great heresy, can clearly see the [Future] fragment, but actually used by Lu Yizhan as an archive point, once the world's future has not even seen it?

Cen Buming wants to see it, but Lu Yizhan seriously stops him from seeing it. Cen Buming is so angry that he beats up Lu Yizhan, who still lets him beat him up, but firmly refuses to let him see [The Future].

Later Cen Buming also gradually learned to ignore the existence of this heresy.

Cen Buming listens to all the good and bad endings Lu Yizhan tells him as a joke, he doesn't believe a word of it because he knows Lu Yizhan ......

The only future that has been seen -

--is his own future.

[Senior Brother, I am actually quite weak as a person, and I dare not look at the future of anyone who has crossed paths with me.]

[I don't want to be a prophet at all, I fear that everyone's future is not what I expect it to be.]

[I'm afraid I can't save anyone.]

Lu Yizhan stood beside the drill ground, the wind blowing the uniform he wore as captain of the first detachment back and forth, and Lu Yizhan turned back to him with an arched eyebrow and a smile:

[But I've seen my own future.]

[That's a good future.]

Cen Buming moved forward towards the topmost level, and he said coolly, "One more level up."

"Don't look out the window, it lowers your mental value."

Cen Buming walks past the huge, transparent windows that shimmer with fluorescent light, his head bowed and his lone figure stretched long across the floor.

--long enough to practice a line with the shadows cast into the cabin by 685 world lines.

Outside the window of the spaceship you could see the stars flowing, silver-blue broken dust surrounding each earth, slowly flowing in space, as if the jellyfish in the deep sea surrounded the falling prey, the halo of light that flashed out, obviously very beautiful, like an aquarium in the aquarium was deliberately created by man to create the beauty of the landscape, but just give a person a kind of sense of drowning after entering the deep sea.

It always makes people feel as if they can't find a place for their own existence in this vast and boundless universe, and they can only keep sinking and sinking, unable to find a place for the ship to land.

It's like the eternal night at the poles, the mountain villages forever hidden in ghosts, the darkness before the fireworks of the annual festival-

--Sunk the mermaid's wishing sea.

"Won't you take a look two levels down, Captain?" A member of the team asked softly.

"Don't bother looking." Cen Buming strides forward without looking back, the Heresy Authority's team badge on his shoulder shimmering in the silvery-blue light, his tone calm and cold, "They're just heretics and monsters who use nothing but destruction."

Cen Buming walks up to the elevator that leads to the first floor, he pauses for a moment, reaches down and pulls the straight staircase open and steps inside.

"In this game, just move forward."

"Click--"

"About to enter the first level."

The elevator runs upwards and then stops, the moment it opens, Cen Buming, who is walking in front of all of them, looks up and his expression and movements stop for a second or two as he takes in the construction of the first floor.

--The dark corridors, the faint smell of seawater, the labeled heretic shelters on both sides, the heretics hiding in the shadows, agitatedly trying to get closer.

It's exactly the same as the bottom of the Heresy Processing Bureau, exactly.

--The so-called [Humanoid Heresy] Shelter.

Cen Buming paused for a few seconds, then lifted his step and stepped out of the elevator, "Let's go."

The other three members of the two teams were wary of this environment, although they had not gone down to the bottom of the Heretic Authority, but this looked like a common configuration for the Heretic Authority to house heretics, and had turned their heads to look at Cen Buming in a serious tone, "Captain, this is the same as ...... the environment in which we are working same."

Daniel followed him curiously, surveying the first level of the ship with amusement, "So this is where your weird cyclops works?"

"No talking about the captain like that!" A member of the team got angry and tried to argue with Daniel.

Daniel's eyes narrowed and he was about to draw his gun when Cen Buming barely shifted his eyes as he flipped over with one hand and pressed Daniel's hand on the gun behind him, dropping Daniel to the ground.

Cen Buming's eyes looked down, his right foot on Daniel's struggling shoulder, that hawk-like right eye held a warning and murderous intent, his voice low and hoarse, "You can call me whatever you want."

"Cyclops, blind in one eye, whatever, whatever."

"But don't let me see you pull a gun on my crew."

"Or else--"

"And you killed me?" Daniel answered with a careless, playful grin.

"I'll just kill Bai Liu," Cen Buming said indifferently, "one second before you're about to meet him, engage him, and have him recognize your abilities."

Daniel's expression darkens completely, and he stares at Cen Buming sorrowfully for several moments before putting the gun he's holding away, Cen Buming withdraws himself to his feet, and Daniel pats the dust off of himself, tutting in annoyance and boredom as he asks, "... . why are we here?"

"Can't we just go down and kill the crew and show the Godfather what I can do?"

"Until you find the key and master the secret to getting through this game." Cen Buming looked cold, "Even if you put a gun to your godfather's head, he won't give you a second glance."

"He's not as attached to his players as you might think, Bai Liu cares more about winning and losing the game than the inconsequential circus members."

--After all, it's a brute in another worldline that can casually collapse its own crew with a Soul Shattering Gun just because it doesn't work well.

"...... That's true." Daniel stroked his chin and smiled with some pleasure, "Not important just right."

"I don't want the Godfather to have something important that will only hinder him from moving forward."

"...... those crews, don't shoot them until you have to." Cen Buming moved forward and opened his mouth abruptly, "That's an order from the tactician."

Daniel looks oddly into the side of Cen Buming's face whose expression is unmoving and raises an eyebrow, "I thought you didn't like them?"

Cen Buming didn't say anything, he looked away somewhat unpleasantly, examining Daniel with one half-lidded eye, his tone low, "-that doesn't mean I want you to kill them with a soul-crushing gun, either."

"And only when it's not necessary."

Cen Buming's tone returned to indifference as he gripped his right hand, which wore a death ring, "I'll kill them myself if I have to."

The silver-colored ring was cold and cutting, and gripping it tightly felt like gripping a razor blade with an uncomfortable sharpness.

...... He clearly logged into this game with Bai Liu with the mindset of an execution.

But I don't know why, but when I saw this corridor, Cen Buming remembered that night again - the night Bai Liu was beaten by Tang Er and captured by the Heretic Authority, and Lu Yizhan used his captain's license to enter the last floor to stop Bai Liu, who was about to unleash all the heretics.

At that time, Cen Buming received a notification that someone had used the Seer's access and rushed back.

He rushes to the last floor as well, and then looks indifferently at the screen as Lu Yizhan raises his hands in front of Bai Liu, who has his gun raised, and says If you're going to do this, you'll have to kill me first.

At that moment, Cen Buming was even looking forward to Bai Liu shooting Lu Yizhan, he was standing by, he could have saved Lu Yizhan's life, and at that time, Bai Liu had crossed the line, it was reasonable for him to arrest Bai Liu, the heretic who had caused such a big mess tonight, and also intentionally shot innocent people, Lu Yizhan had no reason to stop him. Yizhan had no reason to stop him.

He no longer had to get into this logical paradox of [the other party must have done something bad in order to be executed] with Lu Yizhan, this one-dimensional idiot.

The game ended at that moment as well.

But Lu Yizhan just waited, just held up his hands and waited for Bai Liu to put down his gun. From Cen Buming's point of view, he could see the light in Lu Yizhan's eye sockets, his hands were trembling, his voice was trembling, but Lu Yizhan still smiled: "I said, until you really do something wrong, I will never pull the gun on you. I'll never pull a gun on you."

"--In that case, if you're really going to do something bad, then please kill this incompetent me before you actually do it."

Cen Buming knew Lu Yizhan's hesitant attitude toward Bai Liu, but at that moment, Cen Buming saw that, in addition to Lu Yizhan's shaking hands--

-- Bai Liu's hand, gripping the gun, is also shaking.

The shaking was so slight, so subtle, that Lu Yizhan, a fool standing at close range, wouldn't necessarily be able to notice it, because Bai Liu's expression was just too calm.

But Cen Buming found it, he even found it, the shrewd and wary cold-blooded monster who double-checked loyalty even to the team members whose souls he possessed, and even struck them down at the slightest sign of betrayal, even if, with his attention focused entirely on Lu Yizhan, Bai Liu hadn't realized that there was another of him hiding in the shadows of the place.

This is incredible.

--like the first time Cen Buming met eighteen-year-old Bai Liu, bruised and wet, climbing out of the wishing fountain on the school hill and rescuing a classmate who harbored ill will toward him.

Bai Liu was unconscious by that time, but he held onto the hand of the classmate for dear life and didn't let the classmate drown - and it was the hand of a classmate he harbored murderous intentions for.

This is the first time Cen Buming has shown mercy to a derivative of Bai Liu.

Cen Buming hides silently in the shade of a tree, watching Lu Yizhan step forward to carry Bai Liu, whose mind is already fuzzy, whose hand rolls helplessly off Lu Yizhan's shoulder, looking only about half as wide as Lu Yizhan's, so weak that he looks like a small animal that has lost its nest and has no shelter.

At that time, if Cen Buming wanted to kill Bai Liu, he probably didn't even need a gun, he only needed to go up and push him off Lu Yizhan's shoulders, and Bai Liu would fall on the ground by himself, curl up into a ball, and freeze to death silently on the hill behind this school.

Lu Yizhan dropped Bai Liu off at the mountain gate, then hurried back to deal with the aftermath of the heresy in the wishing fountain, bowing with folded hands and asking Cen Buming on his way out, "Please watch over Bai Liu for me, and see that he gets back to the dormitory properly."

Cen Buming, his hands clasped over his chest and his face full of indifference, rightfully wanted to refuse, but Lu Yizhan raised his head and looked straight at him, "Bai Liu, as the number one person you want to execute, don't you want to observe and get to know him better?"

"I don't really want to know more about the prisoner I'm about to execute." Cen Buming turned his head coldly.

"At least until the execution." Lu Yizhan, however, was very insistent, "Let's see if he's the one you really want to execute, shall we?"

Cen Buming was quiet for a long time as he was pushed forcefully up the hill by Lu Yizhan, following the deflated Bai Liu and watching him go back to his dormitory.

Eighteen year old high school student, thin shirt, walks one step and wobbles twice, chokes and coughs every now and then, needs to rest against the wall to keep walking ......

Cen Buming withdrew his eyes irritably, a strange and violent emotion rushing through his heart.

For a moment, he even wanted to rush down and question Bai Liu, why did you stop when you clearly wanted to kill that stupid fatso who was bullying you?

Why do you have to make such a mess of yourself!

Why did you let me see this side of you?

Bai Liu, ...... such as he is, is too much like a human being, and there is no way he can treat him as a heretic.

Cen Buming didn't have the means to kill the monster as brutally as he would have killed the guy who would shiver in the lake because of the cold, who would bury himself in Lu Yizhan's shoulder and weep silently, who would pull his bullying classmates back from death, who would have shaky hands in the face of his friends with his gun drawn--

--He had no way to kill this living, breathing, emotional, tearful, painful Bai Liu.

But will ...... people really change?

So many world lines, and in each of them, so many heretics who did the same wrong things and victimized countless people, died again and again under his gun, revealing their ugly faces from sinking into lust-

--Not to mention the aggregate of desire itself, a derivative of the evil god Bai Liu.

...... Just by changing their name and having some meager emotional connection, do people really change that much, even against the original purpose of their birth?

Cen Buming had no way of trusting, he couldn't be like Lu Yizhan, that idiot, who had the ability to trust a monster after more than six hundred world-lines had passed, he could only be vigilant, kill, and snuff out all danger in the cradle-

--This is why Hunter was born in the first place.