Drowning Man from the Future

"Go ahead and confirm the hatch to level 0." Cen Buming collects his thoughts and calmly orders, "Look at the type of key for the hatch, start searching from the first level, be careful not to run into any of the heretics here, and try not to start a fight until you've encountered an enemy that will consume you."

"Aye, Captain!"

The crew scatters, and even Daniel, the not-so-honest one, after being warned by Cen Buming, starts actively searching for the key.

"Captain, judging from the hatch, the key should be about 10 centimeters long, a reverse cross with a loop." The team member who was confirming the hatch turned his head sideways, "After touching the hatch leading to level 0, a text prompt will pop up, it should be prompting us the location of the key."

Cen Buming looks up, "What's the hint?"

"[Drowned man from the future]." The player said, "-and one more sentence."

"[Judge Against God, Final Judgment Result]."

The pupil of Cen Buming's right eye constricts very slightly, and he turns sideways, looking towards the end of the cloister - where Heresy 0001 is stored.

--that heresy called [Future].

...... The Drowning Man from [the future] ......

Cen Buming's heart beat wildly for no apparent reason as he began to move forward towards the end of the corridor, the halo in his clear yellow right eye dissipating a little, his face an almost uncanny grimace.

Lu Yizhan's soft and gentle voice rang in his ears:

[I want to use the last layer of the Heresy Authority to build a special place.]

[I'd like to use this floor to place a special kind of heresy.]

[-Humanoid Heresy.]

The closer he got to the last heretic, the more disorganized Cen Buming's breathing became, his mind going blank, with only Lu Yizhan's laughing voice remaining:

[The final tier of the Heresy Authority are all humanoid heretics, they are either spiritually downgraded humans or heretics using humans as carriers, they are not ordinary objects or monsters but have been manipulated by the Evil God to become this way, and they cannot be judged in the conventional way, it would not be fair to them.]

[They're people, not monsters.

[...... I wondered if I could treat them in a more appropriate way, by exploring their causes, to prevent them from becoming heretics again in the next world line.]

Cen Buming's eyes shone with a wavering light as he took a deep breath and recalled how he had answered Lu Yizhan:

He let out a cold laugh: [Lu Yizhan, are you always so whimsical? Exploring the causes of heresy, then who will bear the risks brought about by these unstable heresies in the course of exploration?

Lu Yizhan thinks hard and replies, [...... What do you think of the position (of guardian)?]

[Assign (guardianship) to heretics and let the guardian take the risk.]

【Even if you set it up, who would want to take on a thankless position like (guardian)? Cen Buming's expression grew more and more mocking, [I think you're really stupid and crazy, not only do the bad guys want to be saved, but now even the heretics want to be saved.]]

[The Heresy Authority has enough on its plate right now, with heretics popping up all the time, and hosting every one of them requires team members, and you set up the position [of Guardian], who do you have doing it?]

[And heretics are people?]

[Even if the humanoid heretics did start out with a human side, what proof do you have that they can remain human in their consciousness, in their feelings?]

Cen Buming's expression is grim: [Even behind the metaphorical team-carrying eyeball-tunnel food is constantly attacking the team members, devouring the eyeballs of the team members she once wanted to hurt the least, so how can you be sure that these heretics have really always possessed human traits?]

[A humanoid heretic is still a heretic after all.]

[They all end up as complete monsters.]

Cen Buming remembers that moment, Lu Yizhan was silent for a long, long time, then lowered his head and said in a very soft and insistent voice: [...... I'm sure heretics can keep human feelings at bay all the time].

What did you use to determine this? Cen Buming leaves, [with your naïve, overly-imaginative fantasies?]

[The Heresy Disposal Bureau is a place of evidence, if you can prove to me that there really are heretics who can maintain human consciousness all the time without hurting anyone, I will agree to your whimsical proposal.]

Lu Yizhan lifts his head and looks at Cen Buming for a long, long time. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, not a word comes out and he just scratches his head and smiles lightly:

[...... Well, I can't prove it.]

[You're right, the proposal is indeed whimsical; no one would want to be a guardian.]

[Then I'll be the guardian of all the heretics.]

You! Cen Buming is furious, [Lu Yizhan, I really don't understand what you think sometimes!

Are you a spy sent by the heretics? Why do you have to be on the side of the heretics! Why do you sympathize with these heretics so much?

Cen Buming's icy sneer: [I sometimes really suspect that you're a heretic, Lu Yizhan.]

Lu Yizhan smiled with arched eyebrows, he didn't retort: [It could be.]

Cen Buming took one step at a time to the 0001 heretic at the end of the cloister, he raised his head, reached out, and touched the metal-sealed room, and at once a warm luminescence dispersed, the metal-sealed door opened, and the light fell on Cen Buming's trance-induced face.

A pillar made of transparent material was filled with a silver-blue, seawater-like liquid, and in the middle of the liquid was suspended a sleeping soul, who floated quietly as if he were drowning.

He wore the uniform of the first detachment, his smiling eyes were closed, there were very slight bubbles around his mouth and nose, his expression was relaxed and serene, and he had a reverse cross pendant hanging from his chest, about the size of the key to the hatch to level 0.

Cen Buming's expression goes completely blank as he looks to the file of instructions on the electronic screen that pops up next to this pillar, floating in the air:

[Heresy 0001 Name: Future]

[Category: Humanoid Heresy]

[Carrier Body: Soul of Lu Yizhan, the prophet of the generation]

[...... Lu Yizhan, a prophet of the generation, was spiritually downgraded and turned into a heretic in the 658th world line, and was transported to various world lines through the backend of the system, and was imprisoned in the deepest part of the Heretic Authority as Heretic 0001 ......]

[harmless humanoid cult with self-awareness that has been attempting to let others know what will happen (in the future) by showing an unfortunate future to everyone who has gazed upon it in an attempt to get those people to circumvent the future by doing so, but after inadvertently causing people to have seizures, has taken to self-imposed isolation and has begun to discreetly show the future... ...]

[Conceptual Being, no entity ......]

[Process of Creation: Since in the Evil God's game, each world line of the Prophet requires a price of pain equal to the cost of opening the world line, eventually the Evil God chose to charge a generation of Prophets for their pain in this way.]

[He transformed the prophet into (the future) itself, a humanoid heretic that can only exist as a conceptual object, that has emotions and consciousness, that doesn't want to hurt anyone, that wants to save all of mankind, that comes from amongst the final world lines and knows the end of all of them, and so it will try to do everything it can to reveal the future to the world so that the world can circumvent that kind of future.]

[But mankind itself fears (the future) and will fall into madness after glimpsing (it).]

[All it does is struggle feebly, but even knowing the end, the future personified by the prophet will never stop struggling, and it will always exist so painfully because of the hope in its heart, as the unanticipated future itself, imprisoned as a heretic in the deepest depths of the earth.]

[At the end of the game in the 658th world line, regardless of whether the prophet wins or loses, as a result of the deal he made with the Evil God in the beginning, the soul of Lu Yizhan, the prophet of the generation, will be recycled into the backstage of the system, and from then on, Lu Yizhan, the human being, no longer exists in all the world lines, and he disappears completely--]

[ - and his soul, which will exist forever as a vehicle (for the future).]

Cen Buming stopped in front of this description file for a long, long time, not saying a word, then very slowly bowed and hammered the ground hard, his head lowered, his hair hanging down in an unreadable way, and a droplet of water sliding down his jaw.

[I've seen my own future].

Lu Yizhan smiled at him and said, [That's a nice future.]

Where does this count as good!

Cen Buming clenched his teeth, his eyes red, his brain and chest burning with emotion as he struggled to control himself from pulling out the sleeping soul of Lu Yizhan, who was locked in a pillar and beating him.

...... No wonder that guy was so anxious to find Bai Liu to be the next generation of prophet successor from the deer hunters, no wonder that guy kept saying he was nearing the end of his days, no wonder ......

Lu Yizhan, is about to hold out and turn into a heretic, so he's going to pass on what he's got in his hand that hasn't been done yet, before he turns into a heretic himself.

...... Why would he ignore it?

The connection between [Prophet] and [Future], why had he overlooked it? It was clearly right in front of him, but he had never thought of this layer.

Because how could Lu Yizhan, who was never so silly and obsessive, have been spiritually downgraded to the point of, well, becoming a heretic?

How can it be a heresy!

He will be spiritually downgraded, Tang Er will be spiritually downgraded, everyone is spiritually downgraded little by little in the long and desperate 658 world lines, turning into an out-of-control humanoid heretic, this guy is a human being too, so why won't Lu Yizhan?

Of course he does.

Lu Yizhan is the closest [prophet] to the evil god, he is the one who delivers the most pain ......

Cen Buming closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and his hands clenched.

...... The earliest time they took in the heresy of [Future] was in the 0006 world line, and at that time, Lu Yizhan had seen his own [Future].

In other words, this guy knew what was going to happen behind him from the 6th worldline - he would keep losing, losing 657 worldlines, losing until he became a heretic himself.

Lu Yizhan knows everything.

He knew he was going to lose the game from the moment he started it.

But Lu Yizhan didn't say anything, he pretended he didn't see that kind of future, turned around and smiled and told him it was a good future, and then unwillingly, obstinately, and in a desperate struggle to get to the present with a known failed [future], accompanied all of them to the last world line.

After the last world line ends, he becomes [Future] forever.

What the hell were you thinking, Lu Yizhan?

When you entrusted everything to Bai Liu, what kind of future did you see?

What exactly is the future you see in the last thread of ......?

Cen Buming supported his knees and slowly stood up, he looked up to Lu Yizhan's soul suspended in the liquid, emitting a faint fluorescent light, Cen Buming was silent for a long time, and reached out his hand to touch the key of the cross that hung over Lu Yizhan's heart.

--Show me once what you see in the future.

Lu Yizhan.

A cold mechanical voice came from the system ship: [Warning! Warning!

[Touching heresy 0001, about to be contaminated!]

Cen Buming's eyes blossomed into a snow-white halo, and he gripped the Reverse Crucifixion Key tightly, closing his eyes.

Second level of the system ship.

Hearing the system beeps coming from the floorboards, the circus group that had walked up to this floor and was rummaging through the information stopped their movements and raised their heads.

"Cen Buming they're up there." Tang Er hit gazed solemnly at Bai Liu, "Just as you guessed, what do we do next?"

"They didn't come down and have been lingering on the first level, so that basically means the probability is that the key is on the first level." Bai Liu analyzed calmly, and when he saw Mu Sicheng preparing to move upwards, he raised his hand and pressed down, making a stopping gesture that

"But let's not rush up there just yet."

"Wait a little longer."

Mu Sicheng stared at Bai Liu, his tone a little punchy: "What more do we have to wait for?"

Bai Liu a pause: "...... wait for the right time."

Now even Tang Er hit noticed that something was wrong with Bai Liu, he looked over and inquired with a frown; "The right time, what is it?"

Bai Liu's brain runs faster than theirs, especially in the game this kind of suitable for him to play the scene, sometimes he thought of the key point to pass the level, but in a few words and teammates can not explain, Bai Liu often first order first to do things, and then come back to make up for the explanation.

But never has it been so ambiguous ...... at first glance when it comes to stalling for time.

Bai Liu is an extreme tactician who never avoids his opponent's attacks, preferring to win first and strike first, not giving his opponent a chance to counterattack.

But in this copy ...... Bai Liu has been circumventing encounters between the two sides.

Tang Er looked at Bai Liu, he hesitantly wanted to ask, but in the end he didn't get the words out of his mouth.

-- Bai Liu, what are you afraid of?

You're never ...... going to be afraid of the game.

Bai Liu looked up, the same unperturbed look again, "The right time to do it would be after Joker and Cen Buming have exhausted their first skills."

"After that, we can have fifteen minutes of safe offense."

"But how are we going to drain their skills if we don't even go up?" Mu Ke raised his eyes to Bai Liu and softly inquired, "Are you planning to use roaming as bait to go hang the main attacker for two skills first?"

"If that's the tactic, I can go up there and try it."

-- Mu Ke's assassin skills are on the roaming and control side, Bai Liu is usually used for raid reactions, and he was the one who slowed down the two main opponents in the last round, Georgia and Armand, so if you do need to drain your opponent's skills and leave them open, Mu Ke is indeed very suitable for that.

"No." Bai Liu said calmly, "I'll go up and drain the skills."

Everyone frowned at this statement.

"You're the tactician, the core of the team, you can't roam for shit!" Mu Sicheng's tone was impulsive, his eyes darkened as he stared at Bai Liu, "Mu Ke and I can do this job, but you, no way!"

Liu Jiayi also shook her head disapprovingly, "I can follow up and cooperate, opening a Poison Swamp to control the field and make it easier for them to roam, but you, as a Tactician, are not allowed to take the lead in roaming."

"Even if it's really your turn to fight, that's if we all fail."

"It's too risky for you to go straight up."

Bai Liu, with his arms wrapped around his chest, tapped his elbows with his forefingers, dropped his eyes, and didn't say a word.

Sure enough it became what it is now.

They didn't know what their other half's soul was on the backstage of the system, nor did they know that they had been stored as heretics in this airship, which was not originally supposed to be their copy for this round, but rather, when they were passing on to one of the copies of the other world line, and jumped to the backstage of the system as the staging platform, they were intercepted by Bai Liu, who allowed them to forcibly log on to Bai Liu intercepted them and made them forcibly land on this spaceship, using it as their copy for this round.

Bai Liu, the psychopath, is quite purposeful in his actions, and since he intervened to land them and Cen Buming on this ship, he must have some kind of backstabbing waiting for him.

And this backhand is mostly related to the Joker's skill, Bai Liu himself has unlimited access to the Soul Shattering Gun, which is equivalent to having two Soul Shattering Guns on this ship, one of which doesn't have a cd yet, if Bai Liu has landed on this ship as well.

Frankly speaking, Bai Liu is not sure.

That's why he's so eager to get the Wandering Circus out of the way, he'd rather be on his own against Bai Liu.

But therein lies the problem.

Here was the system background, Bai Liu had already determined that the option to exit the game in the system panel was useless, under the premise of not being able to exit the game automatically, Bai Liu had only one option if he wanted these players to exit the game - to actively clear them out.

But ...... Bai Liu is not sure if the conceptual prop created by the system, the medal of immunity from death, is in effect here in the backend of the system.

This is essentially an out-of-game place where props are produced, it's not known if the props have any effect, and if they don't, Bai Liu is killing them by clearing them out.

So that means Bai Liu only has one option - get control of the ship as the system requires and fly this ship to land on the 658th world line and bring them back inside the game lobby or on the ground.

But in the process of getting control of the ship ......

Bai Liu has no guarantee that the people around him do not act, as long as they do, this entire ship with too many risk factors, Bai Liu will land at any time, the ship is hiding the other half of their souls, the Joker's soul crushing gun and Cen Buming who harbors a clear murderous intent against him ......

He was in fear that there was no way to safely take everyone off the ship.

[Emotions that make one vulnerable.]

Bai Liu's pupils shrank, and he heard Bai Liu's frivolous laughter coming from his ears, expanding in layers like water waves.

[You were already strong enough to fight me, but just because you brought these people with you, you've become so weak.]

[They're just a liability to you.]

[Drop the tiredness so you can become strong enough.]

[You can kill me.]

Bai Liu turned his head, Bai Liu's voice disappeared, the universe outside the window was like water ripples, spreading out ripples, as if someone with a smile voice like a stone falling down, smashed out the echo, Bai Liu looked at the vast to no edge of the silver-blue universe, Bai Liu's dark pupils did not have any emotion, he rarely showed an empty expression.

...... this space looks ......

...... It seems like a decade ago that swallowed Sheta's water.

Who is this water ...... drowning today?

Bai Liu's heart palpitated for a moment, he quickly collected all his expressions and turned his head, half-lidded his eyes, his tone flat: "On the field of play, it is the consensus of all to take the tactician's orders as a precondition."

"My tactic is that I'll go up alone first, and after I drain the opponent's double skills, you guys will come back up."

Mu Ke pursed his lips, Liu Jiayi looked strange, Mu Sicheng was so angry that he hammered the fence fiercely, he wanted to say something but held it back under Bai Liu's icy warning look, even Tang Er, who played the main attacker who never disobeyed Bai Liu's orders on the court, frowned and objected, "One person? "

"This doesn't make sense, Bai Liu, even if you go up to draw skills, you should at least bring Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke with you so that it's easier to play together."

"No need." Bai Liu turned around, his back calm as could be, the light coming through the window gilding him with a bright silver-blue halo, "I'll be fine up there alone."

"You guys can come back up after I'm done drawing skills."

[Bai Liu, you're hesitating.]

Bai Liu's laughing voice, far and near, spreads again around Bai Liu, murmuring gently as if in a nightmare--

-[You don't even dare to look back at the look on their faces.]

[Is there such a fear of them drowning on this ship?]

Bai Liu's steps towards the elevator paused for a moment, and in the air Bai Liu's voice continued to chuckle:

[Why the fear?

[About their future, haven't they already read it?]

[I have to be honest with you, that future wasn't something I intentionally showed you, it was a future that another well-meaning guy, who put his best foot forward and went out of his way to show you, wanted you to avoid.]

[- But still you have come here, before this future, guided by fate and me.]

[At this moment, you and they, are drowning people from the future.]

"I won't let a future like that come." Bai Liu stepped into the elevator, and he heard his voice reply very softly, "I won't let anyone drown in front of me again."

"-not even in the future."

Bai Liu retorted with a smile, [But you're just a human.]

[God's destined future, but only God's overthrow.]

[If you want to overturn the future you've seen, there's only one way to do it - become the next generation of evil gods.]

Bai Liu didn't answer, he lowered his head and drew his long whip from his backside, clutched the end and exhaled slowly as the door to the straight staircase closed slowly behind him.

He hadn't turned to look into the eyes of those gazing behind him until that last moment, and if he had to do it all over again, Bai Liu felt he should have.

--After all, that was the last look to see them in one piece.