The Game of Evil Gods

Heresy Authority, Trial Court.

The snow-white marble execution round table was empty all around.

At the center of the execution table was Cen Buming, bound by handcuffs and ankle chains with his hands tied, sitting quietly on the seat of the round table, looking up at Lu Yizhan in front of him, who had changed into the uniform of the first team, and in the mood to taunt him with the words, "How long have you been wearing this."

"The return of the Prophet, such a prestigious event, won't the Heresy Bureau order you a new one?"

Lu Yizhan donned his gloves in silence, he took the gun from the execution table, raised it to Cen Buming , and took a deep breath, "At 6:17 PM, the trial of Heretic 0009 for wounding will be held."

"Trial of the Heretic Name, Generation Hunter Cen Buming."

"Inquisitor, Lu Yizhan, was reinstated three hours ago as Captain of Detachment One."

"Heretic Cen Buming , please answer me-" Lu Yizhan looked straight into Cen Buming's eyes, his gaze had never been so cold and sharp, "Have you been in a game of hurt, or killed innocent people?"

"Did you harbor the heretic Daniel with the intention of using him for evil?"

"Did you play the role of a coercer in this murder, letting the clowns loose to hurt Mu Ke and Mu Sicheng, who had done nothing wrong?"

"Are there moments when you could have prevented a tragedy, but because of your own obsessions, you had to pronounce innocent people guilty, as a way of venting your own resentment and anger at not being able to save the others under so many world lines?"

"Have you, in the course of your reincarnation, been so overwhelmed by hatred that your purpose is no longer salvation, but has become vengeance, and you no longer have the ability to reasonably see the human beings and the heretics around you, to distinguish between them-"

"--Heresy 0009, has everything within your sight been the object of your future execution?"

Cen Buming didn't dodge away from Lu Yizhan's eyes as he replied, "Yes."

"So you should have killed me a long time ago, Lu Yizhan."

"There is no need to provoke me." Lu Yizhan's tone didn't have a single emotional rise or fall, "I won't do anything to kill you because of my own emotions, I'll only judge you for the wrongs you've done."

"Two dead victims, Mu Ke, Mu Sicheng."

"Two victims of serious injuries, Tang Er fought, Liu Jiayi."

"I need to know what you did in this game, why they died, why they were seriously injured, what was your role in it?"

"There's someone else you're missing." Cen Buming looked up, and he said without a ripple, "Bai Liu."

Lu Yizhan's pupils shrank.

He had a premonition ...... that he would really fire this shot today.

Cen Buming spoke clearly and methodically, "I took Daniel into the guild in the beginning in order to shatter the soul of Bai Liu in this world line, and your leaving this guild made me realize that it was no longer possible for you to be on my side, and that I had to kill Bai Liu on my own, but I was required by the rules of the game not to directly interfere in Bai Liu's life, so I chose a compromise yet complete solution to the problem-"

"That would be getting Daniel into the guild."

"But there's no way Daniel could have shot Bai Liu." Lu Yizhan calmly retorted, "Your plan is full of holes."

"Right." Cen Buming looked calmly at Lu Yizhan, "So I told him that if your power is strong enough, and your value is high enough, your godfather will see you, and he will choose to come to you."

"-and the best way to prove your power is to defeat your godfather."

"If you win your godfather in the middle of the tournament and clear out the people around him, he'll surely come to you."

"I am inducing Daniel to kill, and I know that if you touch the people around Bai Liu, Bai Liu will do it to Daniel in reality, and as long as there is any innocent person around Daniel who is implicated in Bai Liu's murder when Bai Liu is doing it to Daniel, then you will not be able to let him go again". I'm not going to let him off the hook anymore. "

"And Daniel's family, to do something to him will definitely implicate others, as long as Bai Liu did it, he also has no way back."

"That was my plan from the beginning."

"From the looks of things." Cen Buming even sneered, "Nice execution of the plan."

Lu Yizhan was quiet for a moment, "You were in the game, what did you do?"

Cen Buming tilted his head as he looked at Lu Yizhan, his face cold, "I put Bai Liu in the well of sinners, to stand by while the Joker shoots and kills, to stall for time to coerce, so that his skill Soul Shattering Shot can be cd'd constantly."

"- Resulted in the serious injury of Liu Jiayi and Tang Er, whose life and death are unknown, and the deaths of Mu Ke and Mu Sicheng."

"Are these ......" Lu Yizhan took two deep breaths, and he opened his mouth with a slight tremor in his voice, "actually what you were aiming for in the first place, or did you unintentionally cause the result?"

Cen Buming was quiet for a long time this time, and he looked at Lu Yizhan with those clear yellow eyes, his tone calm:

"It's what I started out to do and it's what I've led to, and I asked for mercy."

"I fully meet the criteria for your trial. Execute me, Lu Yizhan."

Lu Yizhan gripped the gun, he looked at Cen Buming silently for a long time, seeing that his eyes were red, then he broke the safety of the gun through gritted teeth, "Heresy 0009, the trial is over."

"The result of the trial was, guilty."

Cen Buming closed his eyes.

In-game.

As he was about to pass the level after slaughtering all the monsters, Bai Liu looked at Daniel, who was so happy that he was about to jump up and down, and spoke with a light smile, "Daniel, are you willing to make a deal with me?"

"Of course I do!" Daniel turned around excitedly, "What kind of deal are you going to make with me, Godfather?"

"I'm telling you, tonight, I can kill Phoebe and get the whole family, and I'm willing to give the whole family to ...... if you want."

"Oh no no no!" Daniel quickly contradicted himself, his eyes shining brightly at Bai Liu, "It's a trade is it! I know the Godfather's rules, it must be traded in paper money! No giveaways!"

"Then you can just give me a dollar, FATHER!"

"For one dollar, I will sell you the entire Sinchimani family!" Daniel compared a one.

"No, I don't want your family." Bai Liu's tone was flat, "I want your soul."

Daniel froze, he quickly jumped up and down in ecstasy, "Of course!"

"When do we trade!"

Bai Liu: "Right now."

"Yes!" Daniel knelt reverently on the floor, his head tilted, his eyes all careful anticipation, like that of a child who expects his father to stroke his forehead and praise him for his usefulness, "I am perfectly willing, to offer my soul to the FATHER."

"One point?" Bai Liu looks at him and inquires lightly, "Is that okay?"

"Of course!" Daniel very cherishingly took the point coin Bai Liu handed him, put it away, and then tilted his head with a sunny smile, "This is the best Bar Mitzvah gift I've ever gotten."

"Yes?" Bai Liu lowered his eyes, his eyes obscured from view by his long lashes, "I have another game to play with you."

[System Alert: Player Bai Liu used player Daniel's system panel to use his opponent's Personal Skill - (Soul Shattering Gun)]]

Bai Liu drew out his sniper rifle and aimed the gradually greenish glow at the frozen Daniel, Bai Liu's gaze was devoid of any emotion, "This game is-"

"-I'll fire a shot into the sky, and your bullet will fall back to the ground depending on the judgment, and that shot might kill you."

Daniel is confused and puzzled: "The Godfather?"

But he quickly accepted the move that Bai Liu would shoot him, and he closed his eyes with only a slightly regretful shrug, "If the Godfather thinks killing me is a fun game."

"Then the Godfather will kill me."

"I'm just the property of my godfather, who certainly has the right to do with me as he pleases, and I won't be like those fools who can't recognize their place."

Bai Liu turns the muzzle back around, turning the sniper rifle into a miniature toy pistol, which he puts back into Daniel's hand.

The muzzle of the gun coalesced into a bullet's point of light aimed at Bai Liu, who looked at Daniel, whose expression had momentarily become horrified, and said softly with downcast eyes, "--or it could kill me."

"You take this shot, and guess what this shot-"

"Will it kill you, or will it kill me?"

"Bang--!"

"Bang--!"

The gunfire in the courtroom and in the game started and stopped almost simultaneously.

Bai Liu logs out of the game, Lu Yizhan takes off his bloodstained gloves, and they both pause for a moment before moving on.

The white pigeons at the edge of the courtroom, startled by the gunshots, fly into the sky, and the flowers of the Sinchimani family, hit by a guest from the corner of the stairs, fall to the ground, and everything is messily intertwined into one mass, the broken red of the flowers, and the fragmented white of the pigeons, blending into the same color as blood at the moment when the gunshots finally end.

Behind Bai Liu, there were screams of terror from the customers:

"Daniel shot himself!"

Cen Buming, who was sitting in a chair behind Lu Yizhan, slowly collapsed. Lu Yizhan covered his eyes and slowly adjusted his breathing, recalling Cen Buming's last words to him:

[Elder brother.]

[Only accompanied you to the last world line here.]

[I'm the one who broke my word.

On the sixth day after the semifinals, it is appropriate to be buried.

Mu Ke's funeral was organized by his Guan Jia, organized especially luxurious, but do not know why, also organized especially fast, and from beginning to end Mu Ke's parents did not show their faces, Guan Jia has been asking about some of Mu Ke's life are looking for Bai Liu, such as Mu Ke like to eat, wear what, and like to go to where to play, what did he do before life.

Bai Liu asked why.

Guan Jia wiped his tears and said with some sadness, "Mr. Mu's father has long been ready for Mr. Mu's death, this set of burial equipment and process when Mr. Mu was a teenager, Mr. Mu's father has prepared, just has not been used, now Mr. Mu really .... ...and used it immediately."

"As for Mr. Mu's likes and dislikes, I don't know who to ask but you; Mr. Mu and his parents have never been close, and Mr. Mu's parents don't know what he likes and dislikes, so you're one of the few people he's had a close relationship with, so I can only ask you."

Mu Sicheng's funeral was basically organized by Bai Liu, but Mu Sicheng's parents only appeared in a hurry after the funeral was over.

Mu Sicheng's parents met Bai Liu twice, ate twice, thanked him, said they wanted to settle the funeral expenses with him, and also gave him a red packet, Bai Liu refused, but it seems that the two parents regarded Bai Liu, who organized two funerals at the same time, as some kind of funeral company employee, and insisted on giving him a red packet, saying that they would make sure that their son's funeral was well organized. The two parents took Bai Liu to be an employee of some funeral company.

However, he still had no intention of taking over the funeral process of Mu Sicheng.

Bai Liu realized what was going on, he politely accepted the money and said that if there was no big deal, the two of you could go back and come back until the funeral.

Mu Sicheng's parents let out a long breath, just cried, still with tears on the face to show that obvious ease and relief, as if to leave what a big burden: "We are very busy at work, there is really no way to help him properly organized, the money we here enough, the budget of two hundred thousand or less, you look at it, well organized, be sure to my son! You'll have to do a good job and make sure you give my son a good funeral."

Bai Liu agreed and quietly watched the parents leave.

He could feel that Mu Sicheng's parents had been saddened by Mu Sicheng's death, but such sadness was too shallow, so shallow that Bai Liu questioned himself--was it their sadness that was normal, and my sadness that was abnormal, a psychopath or a monster that would be saddened by his friend's death to the point that he couldn't rest even if he went to retaliate? I'm a psychopath or a monster to be so upset about my friend's death that I can't rest even if I take revenge?

Maybe he really was the monster all along.

And the monster realized at this moment that the feelings of people shedding tears can be so shallow.

Mu Ke's parents also came to see him once, this pair of parents who were dressed very delicately and elegantly sat across from Bai Liu in a reserved and dignified manner, shedding tears in a restrained manner while expressing their sorrow in a subtle way, thanking him for taking care of Mu Ke, and what exactly they said, Bai Liu, who was lost in thought, could no longer remember.

Bai Liu only remembers looking at the boy sitting next to them, who was not much younger than Mu Ke. The other boy's eyes were a bit dull, and his appearance was somewhat similar to Mu Ke's, but unlike Mu Ke's, who always smiled a particularly shallow and gentle smile when he looked at him, he looked at him with some fear.

Or maybe the way he was looking at him at the moment was just frightening.

"Mr. Bai Liu?" Soon Mu Ke's father noticed Bai Liu's sight, his scalp tingling a bit as he stepped in front of his illegitimate son, his tone weak, "Excuse me, is there something wrong with you looking at Mu Ke's brother?"

"He is Mu Ke's brother?" Bai Liu took a sip of water, as if making small talk, his tone was calm, "How come I've never heard Mu Ke mention it before?"

Mu Ke's parents paused in some embarrassment, and then Mu Ke's father cleared his throat and said, "We don't have anyone on our side to go up and give a speech, so it would be a good idea for Mu Ke's brother to go up and give a eulogy for Mu Ke."

"A lot of people from our side of the family will be there, and we'll also take this opportunity to introduce Mu Ke's brother to everyone, who hasn't had any proper opportunity to do so before ......"

Oh, that's what coming to him was all about.

Bai Liu suddenly realized.

It turned out that Mu Ke's funeral was to be used as a stepping stone to announce to everyone the new heir of the Mu family, to proclaim to the world that Mu Ke, the eldest son with heart disease who had been dragging them down for twenty-five years, was dead, and that what stood in front of them now was a new, healthy heir of the Mu family who would not be unstable and would not die young, and at the same time, he hoped that he, the friend of the Mu family, would have the good sense to refrain from doing anything to make the Mu family a successor. things.

Bai Liu put down his glass of water and raised his eyes to the brother, "If you let him show up at Mu Ke's funeral."

"I'll be able to make Mu Ke's funeral, his funeral."

Bai Liu says gently, to the horrified eyes of Mu Ke's parents, "Now I've got two funerals on my hands."

"--I wouldn't mind having one more." Bai Liu said with smiling eyes and tenderness.

So this part of Mu Ke's brother's speech was canceled.

Early morning on the day of the funeral, the hospital within the Heretic Authority.

Bai Liu stood in the corridor, looking towards Tang Er 打 and Liu Jiayi lying on the beds in the ward, they are both wearing ventilators, respectively in the transparent critical rooms on both sides of the corridor, surrounded by a large pile of testing instruments, with all kinds of wiring and magnetic sheets attached to their bodies, blood pressure and heartbeat high and low, fast and slow, with ventilators on their faces, their brows are all wrinkled, and with their uneven breathing, they are spraying mist on the ventilators, which looks very weak. The respirator was spewing a mist that looked very weak.

With Su Yang's help, Bai Liu transfers Liu Jiayi to a hospital within the Heretic Authority as well, which is why Heart can't detect it.

"It's been almost a week since I went into a coma." Su Yang stood in the hallway with Bai Liu, who looked on worriedly, "Why haven't you woken up yet."

"Was it attacked by some heretic and hurt so badly?"

-- Bai Liu's statement to Su Yang that Tang Er fought and Liu Jiayi were both attacked by heretics, which Su Yang did not doubt, did indeed detect fairly heavy contamination values on both of them.

After visiting Tang Er Ta and Liu Jiayi, Bai Liu had to leave for the funeral, and Su Yang helped with the location of Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke's graves, which he described as follows.

"The Heretic Authority has frequent casualties, so it has good relations with many cemetery developers." Su Yang smiled helplessly and bitterly, "I didn't think I could use that relationship for you."

"I thought it was only people from the Heresy Authority that needed to be in constant contact with grave estate agents."

When Bai Liu left the hospital, the sky was already cloudy, he wore a full black suit, only in the chest pin a white paper flower, because the funeral is open air, in order to prevent the rain wet this paper flower, Bai Liu brought a black umbrella to the cemetery.

He had the foresight to bring an umbrella, and it did rain halfway through the funeral.

The people at the funeral began to chatter and clamor, and it was Mu Sicheng's parents who began to complain first, in a low voice that Bai Liu heard.

"Why isn't ...... done yet?"

"Has the bill for the funeral come in yet? How much did it cost?"

"That's not a lot ......"

"Don't you say it, it's just this once, in the future, you don't have to pay Makushi's living expenses anymore, it's equivalent to just giving this money to him in advance."

"Luckily we were already thinking about test tubes when we found out Mak4 was stealing ......"

"Eh, that's it, we don't owe him anything, don't cast yourself into our family in your next life, it's not meant to be."

Bai Liu stood in the rain with a long-handled umbrella, water beads hanging on his long eyelashes, and slowly raised them.

The discussion then begins with Mu Ke's parents, their faces sad and tearful, but their words come out with a strange sense of relief:

"...... Cor is a good kid, after all these years."

"But it's better to be gone, gone so he doesn't have to suffer."

"And we don't have to suffer."

"It's good for everyone."

Bai Liu raised his eyes, his tone flat, with an elusive ethereality and chill through the rain curtains:

"There is no need for a third person other than the deceased at this funeral to feel relief for their death."

"If so, leave."

The funeral was a solemn one, Bai Liu, a friend of the deceased with an uncertain and unfathomable background, made everyone a little afraid of him, Mu Sicheng's parents were the first to leave with their heads bowed in anxiety, Mu Ke's parents would have liked to stay for a little while longer, a little while longer, but under Bai Liu's watchful eye, they also left with numb scalps.

In the center of the two already-placed headstones, only a Bai Liu holding a long-handled umbrella remains.