The Game of Evil Gods

Wang Shun raised his head sharply, looked over, Bai Liu walked out of the boarding exit mint condition, not a single injury on his body, the smile on Wang Shun's face hadn't yet appeared, he saw Bai Liu raise his head.

The moment he saw Bai Liu's eyes, the smile on Wang Shun's face froze.

Meanwhile, the host on the big screen waved his hand vehemently, "The system has determined that the winner of the league is--"

"--The Wandering Circus!"

"Let's congratulate the president and tactician of the circus, Bai Liu!"

There were screams and cheers from the audience, many of them were so excited that they took off their clothes and waved them on the field, they didn't understand what was happening in the game, they were just gamblers with desire, betting on the right side of the game's final winner, and feeling heartfelt joy for doubling their own points.

The whole place was on its feet, and somebody put two fingers in his mouth and whistled in a shrill voice, laughing as he did so, "The Wandering Circus! God forever!"

"Bai Liu, awesome!"

"Team All-New Man is in the finals!"

"It's not exactly standard brand-new, but it's pretty strong... they're newcomers are so high-quality... that assassin and that thief are so good."

Laughter came from all directions, while Bai Liu stood motionless at the exit of the boarding, and the stiff and motionless Wang Shun stared at each other, with no popularity at all in his eyes.

Water dangled from the ends of his hair.

Wang Shun opens his mouth, his face blank, he looks behind him at the empty, closed boarding gate, and stops incomprehensibly.

Where are the other two?

Stray Circus, what about the two other players who haven't logged out?

He wanted to ask, but always felt that he was being cruel to Bai Liu with this question, but Bai Liu seemed to read his eyes and lowered them, answering his question in a very soft voice, "They didn't log out."

"...... soul was completely shattered away."

The instant these words came out of Bai Liu's mouth, Wang Shun trembled violently, his tears falling only now, and he could only keep, incomprehensibly, repeating, "How can ......"

"How?!"

Lu Yizhan looked very slowly toward Bai Liu, who must have a very strange expression on his face at the moment, a mixture of fear, confusion, pain--

--and the odd look that sure enough.

And Bai Liu looked at him with a look so calm that it was like the surface of a lake where no ripples could be stirred by falling stones, just looking at Lu Yizhan so quietly and calmly, and then with the tone of a university graduation informing him that in the future he was going to live alone, and that in the future he didn't want him and Fang Dian to go to his room, he said:

"Lu Yizhan, I'm going to be an evil god."

"If you continue to stand in my way, I'll really kill you this time."

Lu Yizhan's heart was empty, very lightly empty, like a feather falling to the ground, a bubble floating up to the sea, he thought that at this moment, he would cry, he would shed tears, he would break down, but when it really came to this moment, he couldn't give birth to any emotion instead.

It was as if he had waited a long time for the sword hanging over his head to finally fall, and he realized that the sword itself had rusted, a very dull and painful lynching, far less painful than he had first thought.

But it does make you drift off, your mind blank, unable to think.

--like the 317th world line, the way he felt when he saw Cen Buming turn his gun on those people.

He had expected this day to come, he had long seen in the [future] that there was this scene, he had truly watched even as the sword fell and killed him, it was just that he wasn't willing to do it, so he was resisting with all his might against the future that the gods had bestowed upon them.

But at this moment, Lu Yizhan felt deeply that an illusion of peace that he had tried his best to maintain up to this point had finally disintegrated in this instant.

The real world, the hour of dawn.

Mu Sicheng sits hollow-eyed at the bus stop outside the school, not far from a car that is careening out of control toward him, the glare of its headlights illuminating the side of his face.

He wore those monkey headphones, his eyes out of focus, a key clutched in his hand.

--Not the key to his dormitory, but the key to Bai Liu's rented house, the place where he had planned to live permanently in the future.

Because he didn't want to go home or be alone, he wanted to stay with his friends.

He wants to stay with Bai Liu.

So Bai Liu gave him the key and said with a calm face that the rent was fifteen thousand a month, and he angrily scolded the other party for being heartless and then snatched the key.

The dazzling light of the headlights converged on him.

Serenity Villas.

The nanny pushed open the door, ready to clean up as usual, and was still a bit stunned when she saw Mu Ke lying on the bed, she remembered that last night Young Master Mu Ke was out, and smiled and said that he would not come back because he had something very important to deal with tonight.

Why are you suddenly back?

"Young Master Mu Ke?" The nanny inquired in a tentative whisper, "When did you get back?"

Mu Ke on the bed suddenly flips over and falls off, he covers his heart and curls up into a ball, his lips have turned a dark purple color and his whole face is clenched in features from the pain.

The nanny's face instantly went white with fear, and her screams woke everyone up, "A doctor now!!!"

"Master Mu Ke's having a heart attack!!!"

"Help!!!"

After a moment of soldiering on, the family doctor with his clothes on crookedly looked at the heartbeat detector next to him with a grimace, "How could it suddenly deteriorate like this?!"

"Mu Ke was so much better before!!!"

Mu Ke on the bed, with his improvised respiratory mask, his eyes drifting out of focus, turned his head laboriously a little to look at the picture on his bedside table -

--It was a group photo, or maybe a group photo isn't the right word, but he secretly saved and printed out a drawing of the family photo from Fang Dian's circle of friends and put it in a frame.

Mu Ke looks at everyone in the frame, finally his eyes stop on Bai Liu's portrait and he smiles very lightly, his eyelids falling down.

...... There was a time in his life when he had something that would make him happy before he died.

It's enough already.

The doctor's face was horrified at the zeroed out heartbeat, "Is the ambulance still not here!"

Residential buildings.

Xiang Chunhua pushed open the door to Jiayi's bedroom, and she looked at the bulge on the bed for a moment, "Jiayi?"

--It wasn't that they went to the game to play today, and they were specifically warned that they weren't allowed to go into the game to watch, that it would affect her, distract her, and make her play poorly, so why did they come out on their own?

Game over?

But usually at the end of the game, Jiayi would have eaten at Bai Liu's place before being sent back by Bai Liu, why did he log out of the bedroom by himself today?

Does it say race?

Xiang Chunhua inwardly Ling, there is a kind of unknown premonition, she three steps and two steps to lift the quilt, and then the pupil shrinks, face white, voice sharp: "Jiayi?!"

Liu Jiayi was shivering in the cup, clearly out of her mind, hugging the doll in a tiny ball, her shoulders and body shaking, blood all over her eyes and running down her face, her fists against her side, her mouth crying out very softly:

"Brother, I'm in pain ......"

"Bai Liu, I'm in pain ......"

"Don't hit me, don't hit me ......"

"Liu Fu!!!" Xiang Chunhua wrapped Liu Jiayi in a blanket and anxiously shouted, "Call a car, let's go to the hospital!"

"Jiayi is hurt!"

The cab pulls up to the entrance of the hospital and stops. Xiang Chunhua hurriedly carries Liu Jiayi to the emergency department, Liu Fu anxiously guarding his side as they run past the stall selling red bean cakes.

A sweet aroma wafted out.

At the entrance of the neighborhood where Tang Er Ta lives, Su Yang organizes the things Tang Er Ta left at the Heretic Authority that he didn't take with him, and it's rare for him to be free today, so it's the perfect day to deliver them here.

"Tang Er Ta." Su Yang knocked softly on Tang Er 打's door, then frowned, "Not here?"

It shouldn't be. At this point, it was exactly when Tang Er 打, a guy with a regular routine, got up for his morning exercise. He didn't see Tang Er 打 downstairs who was practicing in the morning, and thought that Tang Er 打 hadn't gone out, so he sent the stuff up.

Su Yang was about to go downstairs, put the things to the doorman, and call Tang Er to let him pick up by himself, in the moment of turning around, out of a kind of intuition of dealing with danger for many years, Su Yang felt that he seemed to smell the ...... smell of blood.

He turned his head, his expression frozen as he looked toward the closed door.

Called Tang Er hit the phone again and again did not connect, Su Yang quickly downstairs to notify the security guard, let the security guard took Tang Er hit the spare key placed in the property to open the door, the door opened, that kind of hidden smell of blood fell to the ground, Su Yang pupils constricted to look at the sitting on the sofa, eyes closed tightly, all covered with blood Tang Er hit.

"Team Tang!"

Bai Liu logged out of the game from his rented house, surrounded by people who wanted to hound him with questions, but he just logged out that way.

A man sits in a chair in his study, motionless.

Tang Er's and Spades' coats were still on the chairs, Mu Ke's books were dumped on the floor, and on the table was a fruit plate that Liu Jiayi had brought in and Mu Sicheng had kowtowed a table full of melon rinds.

Bai Liu's cell phone vibrated, he picked it up, and Su Yang's anxious voice came from the other side:

"Bai Liu, are you home? I suspect that Team Tang has been attacked by heretics, he's been very seriously injured, I've brought him to a hospital under the management of the Heretic Authority, he's being resuscitated now."

"The number one emergency contact on his cell phone is you, he has no family or other regular friends, and right now he's hurting pretty bad, can you come over here for a minute?"

"I'll send you the address."

Bai Liu stilled, "Good."

He puts the phone down for less than a second, and it rings again. Bai Liu picks it up, and Xiang Chunhua's panicked voice is on the other end:

"President Bai, Jiayi is injured! We took her to the hospital, but we don't know exactly what kind of injuries she sustained, the doctor is looking at it, can you come over here for a moment?"

Bai Liu paused, "I'll be right over."

Before he could hang up this call, a new one came in.

"Hello? Are you Mr. Bai Liu, Mu Sicheng's parent?"

"I'm his counselor, we can't contact his parents for the time being, the first emergency contact on Mu Sicheng's cell phone is you, he was in a car accident this morning, the situation is very urgent, he's being rescued, can you come over quickly?!"

"Hello? Mr. Bai Liu? I'm Guan Jia from Young Master Mu Ke, he's having a heart attack!"

"I'd like to ask if you've been with him lately, do you know of any triggers that could have triggered a heart attack in Master Mu Ke? The doctor said that if he can't control it any longer, Juvenile Mu Ke is going to ......"

It was a very strange state, Bai Liu could calmly pick up the phone and then put it down again, planning the hospital address he received and the path he was going to take, and then put down the phone, stood up with the desk and even added a coat to himself, Bai Liu lifted his head and looked at all these familiar and unfamiliar things in front of him in the orange light.

The cozy picture these things made up gradually disintegrated in Bai Liu's eyes, disintegrating into something he couldn't comprehend, like something unreal that made him a little dazed -

-Did it ever really exist?

These people ...... who were leaving him, who were dying, had really once been around him, in this narrow room, laughing and jostling, turning to him and smiling, Bai Liu--

--We'll stay with you until the end of the game.

Has ...... ever been?

Or was it all just an emotionally fulfilling self-projected fantasy of him, a human being considered by all to be a psychopath, a monster, a heretic, because he had been ostracized from the mainstream of society?

For example, he saw a sunny and lively college student Mu Sicheng on the street, a well-groomed and exquisite young master Mu Ke in the private styling room, the most powerful child genius Liu Jiayi advertised on TV, and rubbing shoulders with Tang Er fighting in the middle of a mission with a serious expression.

And he is just a ...... brooding and withdrawn monster who self imagined this scene because he fantasized and wanted to be friends with these people.

-His high school homeroom teacher would tell him this, that a monster like you can only make friends by fantasizing.

Maybe he did.

It would be nice if it was really a fantasy.

Bai Liu thought with downcast eyes.

He's always hated his high school homeroom teacher, but at the moment, he's really thinking that it would be nice if all of this, like Xu Wei said, was really all in his self-fantasy.

Bai Liu took the key and went out the door.

Three days later, the game is on.

Bai Yi cautiously poked Spades, who was upside down, "...... That, Bai Liu, how is he?"

Spades was quiet for a long, long time before answering in a muffled voice, "I waited for him at home for four days."

"But he hasn't been back for the last four days."

"He didn't come home and he doesn't know where he went."

"I have a feeling he doesn't want to see me."

"So ......" Bai Yi sighs as he sits next to Spades, fuming for a moment before speaking softly, "That's right, it's going to be busy for a long time when someone in the family passes away... ..."

"You have to go to the crematorium, you have to file, dispose of your belongings, cancel your ID, and set up a funeral, there are a lot of processes ......"

"When my family died ...... I was also too busy to go home and didn't want to go home or see anyone."

The conference room fell silent.

Bai Jiamu leaned against the wall in silence as he barely found the words, "What about the Adversary, have you seen him?"

Bai Yi shook his head, "I don't know, after that day, the Reverse God hasn't returned to the game. "

"He told me that he was going to take care of some work matters, and that he would definitely be back before the finals." Bai Yi let out a long sigh, "But that face, it was as ugly as dying."

The Heresy Treatment Bureau, the main entrance to the First Bureau.

Lu Yizhan is followed by Liao Ke, who stands after a long absence, tilting his head and stopping.

Liao Ke lets out a long sigh, "You're going to resume your role as captain of Team One and deal with Cen Buming yourself, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh." Lu Yizhan was quiet for a long moment, "I made a deal with him."

"If he does do something that crosses the line, I'll be sure to try him myself."

Lu Yizhan walked in.

Meanwhile, the Sinchimani family hall.

It was nighttime, and the hall was lit up like day, with all sorts of accessories, and the comings and goings were men and women in regulation gowns and formal attire, who talked intimately, detachedly, or demurely on the dance floor, with a kind of ineffable nobility, and diffidence toward the bystanders.

Heart in the corner, dressed in a long dress tuxedo and wearing over-the-elbow white lace-trimmed gloves on his hands, raised his red wine glass in a toast to the man in the suit next to him, then sipped, his tone light:

"While I don't know why you asked me to bring you here, I hope you don't regret what you've done on your own."

Bai Liu raised a glass of red wine and gentlemanly returned the favor, his tone calm, "Why do you think I'll regret it?"

Heart paused, "Because I have a feeling you're not, at the moment, being very rational."

"I can understand your irrationality from a certain point of view, but I'm still a little surprised to this extent."

Heart was quiet for a moment, he looked over to Bai Liu who was sipping red wine with his eyes downcast : "I thought you ......"

--didn't care about them that much.

At least not enough to care enough to come forward and ask for his help to bring to Daniel's bar mitzvah in the Sinchimani family, which looked like it was going to be hands-on in reality.

Heart helped to get an invitation to the Bar Mitzvah, and brought Bai Liu into the Sinchimani family as a male companion, as promised, and then Bai Liu and he waited in this corner for the party to begin, and as Heart watched the side of Bai Liu's face, he could clearly sense that something had been taken away from the man by the last game, and that something even more dangerous had filled the void. something more dangerous filled the void."

Bai Liu quietly sipped his red wine as he looked up at Heart and smiled very lightly, "Thought I what?"

Beneath that smile, that very dangerous thing in Bai Liu dissipated, becoming unclear to look at, but becoming even more uncomfortable to him.

Heart shakes his head, "...... Nothing."

"Jiayi's really okay, right?"

Bai Liu replied with a very light smile, "Jiayi is fine, she is recuperating in the hospital."

Heart stared steadily at Bai Liu for a moment, then withdrew his gaze and nodded, counting as heard.

-Can't see anything.

He can't see anything.

Before the banquet, Heart had already tried to probe Liu Jiayi three times, but Bai Liu's smile was flawless, and Heart could not find out anything.

At the end of the match, after Heart was sure that Liu Jiayi was injured, he tried to search for the hospital where Liu Jiayi was, but he didn't know where Bai Liu had hidden her, and Heart couldn't find it, so he chose to agree to Bai Liu's request to tell him about Liu Jiayi's condition. He chose to accede to Bai Liu's request and dealt with Bai Liu, asking him to tell him about Liu Jiayi's situation.

But the only news I got was - [Jiayi is fine, recuperating in the hospital] and nothing more.

Heart looked down at her reflection in the red wine glass and sipped very lightly.

Liu Jiayi's injuries must have something to do with the crazy clown, plus Phoebe is also threatened by the clown, he was going to take on Daniel himself, he didn't expect Bai Liu to approach him about coming here to the Sinchimani family.

Heart knew what Bai Liu was going to do as soon as he saw it.

He began ...... to cross certain lines to which he had always adhered.

The guests around them suddenly clamor, leaning toward the corner of the landing, and Heart snaps back to attention, leaning over to Bai Liu to explain softly, "The party's starting."

Down the flower-laden staircase came Daniel, dressed in a pristine white suit and a small green bowtie, his hair moussed all the way back, revealing the beautiful apple-green eyes that marked his features, but his own expression was less beautiful, with an air of rage, annoyance, and a kind of bewilderment as if he had been kicked in the face by someone who had done nothing to help him.

It was as if something had happened that he couldn't understand in the extreme, as if the person he had been chasing for had abandoned him.

The people under the stage politely exchanging pleasantries, Bai Liu sidestepped his eyes, as if he did not hear, he would not have understood, next to the Heart a moment without a moment to play with his bracelet, eyes half closed, Rosewood lazy, and then the bracelet suddenly lit up, Heart's expression sank.

--It's a sign of the connection between Phoebe and Heart.

Sending this red warning signal means Daniel has made a move on her.

-- Daniel really wants to kill Phoebe at this birthday party to take over.

"It's about to get messy in here, Phoebe's ready to fight back." Heart looked up as his tone turned icy, "I might not be able to keep up with you later, so if you can't hold it off, get in the game."

"I'll get Phoebe first."

Bai Liu looked up to Daniel on the platform and replied softly, "Good."

Heart took a deep look at Bai Liu and finally said nothing and turned away.

As Heart said, but after Daniel showed up, the hall below quickly went haywire, the conversation between the guests got weird, everyone was sizing each other up and trying to figure out what the other person's intentions were, and Daniel seemed to get bored with the scene, and with his clothes on he was so constricted that he went up to the second floor ready to get changed and make a scene.

Bai Liu also took advantage of the chaos to go up to the second floor, he noiselessly followed behind Daniel, who was about to change his clothes and go down, and raised his eyes and called him in a very soft voice: "Daniel."

Daniel was in the middle of changing his clothes when his unbuttoned hand paused and he turned his head incredulously, his eyes shining and his voice rising noticeably, "Godfather!"

"You came to my Bar Mitzvah!"

Daniel dawdled over and stopped at Bai Liu's safest distance of three meters, he tilted his head as if he hoped Bai Liu could touch him, and half-kneeled with great reverence, his right hand clenched into a fist and reverently pressed against his chest, his tone of voice was one of anticipation that had finally landed on the ground:

"I knew you still needed me."

"None of them are worthy to serve you on your path to godhood; only I, only a devotee who can serve you as a god, can follow you!"

Bai Liu looked down at Daniel's expression as it became frenzied, and he tickled the corners of his lips, not a glimmer of light in his eyes, "As your bar mitzvah gift."

"--Want to go into the system with me and play the game once, Daniel?"