Nightmare Temple

The door leaps forward, completely engulfing the grinning Fang Dian as the air billows out and a polka dot butterfly hair tie falls.

Bai Liu falls slowly from the cluster of spheres, a ball of light is suspended from his body, the ball of light slowly floats away, Bai Liu reaches out his hand in disbelief, he sees the shiny black leather glove appear on his hand, he hears Bai Liu's laughter in his head:

[You have fully integrated me.]

[Now you're a new evil god.]

[Next, fuse the desires of derivatives from other worlds, and you'll become stronger.]

"Fusion ...... turns out to be like this." Bai Liu lowered his eyes and looked motionlessly at this polka dot butterfly hair tie that had fallen at his feet, "Those derivatives, all of them, like me once, are your carriers right?"

"Those derivatives also once won the game, wanted to become gods, and you did make them gods as if you had made me a god, but soon, after they merged with your consciousness, or desire, they were consumed by you."

"What you're looking for, is not some new evil god, it's just a new carrier."

You could say yes or no." Bai Liu replied with a soft smile. Bai Liu replied with a soft smile, "I just couldn't find any carriers that could really keep me from devouring them, they all sank too easily into my derivative desires.

[If you can really make me disappear, I'd appreciate it.]

"I won't try to fuse the desires of those derivatives." Bai Liu raises his head, he waves his hand, countless world threads scatter around him, he points at the first one, the pupils of his eyes light up with a halo, "I will not be your new carrier either."

"The game of the so-called evil gods will end with me."

Bai Liu's voice was a bit startled: [What are you going to do?

Bai Liu looks up, "I'm going to load all the world lines, the original archive points you set up, and kill all your derivatives before it all starts-"

"-including myself."

The silver-blue light kept overflowing from Bai Liu's body, and those world threads that had been protected by Fang Dian until the end had gathered around Bai Liu, the warm halo of light illuminated Bai Liu's face, which seemed to have a lot of expressions, but also seemed to have no expression at all, only a calmness that had long ago thought of a good ending for itself.

Bai Liu reaches out his hand, he drags up a worldline, the light of this worldline has become mostly cloudy, suspended in Bai Liu's palm it swings restlessly from side to side, trying to pass through Bai Liu's body to reach the other side of the door, Bai Liu dips his eyes and probes his hand into this worldline, he holds something.

[SYSTEM ALERT: Evil God Bai Liu is loading world line reset point 001.]

[So it turns out.] Bai Liu laughed softly, [You wanted to become an Evil God in order to get the initial reset points for each worldline from me, to gain the power to reset all the worldlines... I'm curious, with all the archive points on the ship I gave you, how did you guess that I hid the initial reset points in the worldlines...]]

"Because ......" Bai Liu looked up at the world line, "they all tell me not to be afraid of parting, that we will eventually be reunited."

"Then there must exist something, something to start over with."

"And this is a game, and the only thing the game can restart is a reset."

Indeed. Bai Liu said with amusement, [But Bai Liu, you have to think about it, a reset can indeed start the game over again, as well as bring their shattered souls from this universe back together again.

[But one's memory doesn't reset.]

[After you reset, they've been stripped of their player status again and are just a bunch of NPCs, so they won't remember you as a player anymore, and any traces of you having existed, the memories others have of you, will all disappear with you, never to be found again.]

[- including their feelings for you.]

Isn't this what you want most now? After the reset, the friendship that Mu Sicheng, Mu Ke, Tang Er fight, Liu Jiayi have for you, the affection that Fang Dian and Lu Yizhan have for you, and even the love that Taville has for you will all disappear, and you will even be regarded as an enemy because of your identity as an evil god.

[Are you going to guard them alone by yourself with 658's little memories that no one cares about after they've been reset?]

[That's not very fair.]

The muddy 001 world line encompassed Bai Liu into it, and he slowly fell to the ground, this was the scene where the duel began in the 001 world line, and across from him was the Positive Cross Judgment Army and Bai Liu that the temple was facing off against.

Bai Liu saw the youthful Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian who embraced him, he stood still where he was and watched the scene for a while, soon he was spotted, a group of people stared in shock at the second Bai Liu who appeared in the temple, Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian quickly drew their heavy swords and aimed them at him with hostility in their eyes: "Who are you?"

[You see, human feelings are so fragile.]

[If they don't remember you, they won't have feelings for you.]

Bai Liu said with a smile.

"But I remember." Bai Liu looks up, "I won't forget."

Bai Liu looked over to the Bai Liu who was in the process of agreeing on a contract with Fang Dian and drew his firearm, aiming it at him, his tone calm and unruffled, "I'll never forget it."

"It is these things that have transformed me from a derivative of you, to Bai Liu."

You're really crazy. Bai Liu's voice took on a smirk, "Is this the way you came up with to kill me? Make yourself my final carrier, make sure I don't have the ability to create new carriers, and then kill all the carriers, although it's true that I won't exist anymore, you yourself will also cease to exist.

"Then cease to exist." Bai Liu drops his eyes as he doesn't look behind him at the Heretic Authority that has become boisterous and surprised, "I am not a fan of a world where gods exist."

Bai Liu pulls the trigger, and the moment the bullet passes through Bai Liu, Bai Liu also looks like he has been hit, and his body is thrown back, and he is violently shaken.

His shoulders appear chafed to the naked eye, and Fang Dian and Lu Yizhan look on in consternation at the evil god who has struck him down, and want to go up to him and ask something, but Bai Liu paddles out the door, opens it, and turns away.

The next second, the world flickered into darkness and shut down.

[System alert: Worldline 001 is erasing player Bai Liu's game traces and is resetting.]

......

[System alert: Evil God Bai Liu loaded into world line reset point 006]

The moment the fourteen year old Bai Liu was about to extend his hand to deal with Wu Ruishu, Bai Liu coldly extended his hand and threw out his poker card, knocking away Bai Liu's right hand that was about to deal.

At the same time, Bai Liu's right hand begins to shatter and the statue of Wu Ruishu in the temple begins to awaken.

Bai Liu watched Lu Yizhan tremblingly slap Wu Ruishu s confused face, lowered his eyes, and turned away.

[System alert: World Line 002 is erasing player Bai Liu's game traces and is resetting.]

......

[System Alert: Evil God Bai Liu loads 0317 World Line Reset Archive]

Bai Liu was at the window when he asked to play Truth or Dare with Lu Yizhan, and the moment Cen Buming pulled out his gun, Bai Liu pulled out his gun as well, aiming it at Bai Liu, who was smiling and playing the game in the interrogation room inside.

Meanwhile, Cen Buming's file record was silently erased from the Heresy Authority archives.

Bai Liu chafed and spread to her back.

[System alert: World Line 0317 is erasing player Bai Liu's game traces, resetting.]

......

[System Alert: Evil God Bai Liu loads 0369 World Line Reset Archive]

In the league arena, the moment Daniel goes berserk and shoots Su Yang, Bai Liu draws his whip and knocks Daniel's gun away, and at the same time pulls out his Soul Crusher gun and aims it at Bai Liu next to him.

The match ends early, Tang Er fights with a pale face, and embraces Su Yang after the rescue.

Bai Liu's shattering spread to his thighs and arms, and the Tang Er hit record in the Heretic Authority disappeared.

[System alert: World Line 0369 is erasing player Bai Liu's game traces and is resetting.]

......

[System Alert: Evil God Bai Liu loads 0658 World Line Reset Archive]

Bai Liu arrives at the orphanage ten years ago, where he meets his fourteen-year-old self before he met Sheta, eating alone, reading alone, and keeping church alone.

[Do you really want to kill him? Bai Liu inquired with a soft smile in Bai Liu's brain, [Those Bai Lius before were indeed all inferior derivatives, smuggling many heretics that polluted the world.]]

[But this one before you, you should know better than anyone.]

[It's just an ordinary human child.]

Bai Liu stood in the back of the church, he looked down at this child sitting alone in the first row of the church to read by himself for a long time, fourteen-year-old Bai Liu is reading the storybook of the skinny long ghosts and shadows that storybook, reading very seriously, but there is no one next to him, only fragmented green shade through the church windows fell on his written, a kind of hazy interlaced sense.

Fourteen-year-old Bai Liu turned his head as if he realized someone was there, and he saw Bai Liu, who raised his gun and pointed it at the other man.

How would the fourteen year old behave when faced with someone who wanted to kill him for no reason?

Bai Liu could no longer recall, he only vaguely remembered that he always fantasized that someone would come to kill him, and then he would ......

The little Bai Liu in front of him looked at him quietly for a moment, then closed his eyes.

"Are you here to kill the monster I am?"

"Then you kill it."

...... himself would accept someone killing himself.

Because he was a monster, it was normal for him to be killed, he wasn't supposed to exist in a world without his own kind, that's what everyone around him at fourteen years old told him, and he took it so for granted.

No one cared about him, no one understood him, no one ...... loved him.

Bai Liu placed the gun on the tabletop of the church, and he sat down next to little Bai Liu, turned the first page of the storybook, and whispered with downcast eyes, "I'll finish the book with you."

"Watch and then kill you."

Little Bai Liu sat over obediently, he paused, stole a glance at Bai Liu sitting next to him and whispered, "Can you watch it twice before you kill me?"

"I loved this book."

Bai Liu was quiet for a moment, "Yes."

He turned his head sideways and looked calmly at little Bai Liu who had pushed the book to his side to share with him, and thought - In the next ten years, many people will come to your side and read books with you.

They love you and will cook you delicious food, play the most dangerous scary games with you, huddle with you in a cramped room to keep you warm, and give you every birthday, and you'll look like a beautiful family in your most hated fairy tale book, and you'll spend long winters amongst steaming hot pots and you'll never be alone again.

But I'm sorry.

I'm going to take them out of your [future], away.

As the storybook turned to the last page for the second time, Bai Liu drew his gun and aimed it at little Bai Liu, who stiffened and closed his eyes shakily, then Bai Liu lowered his eyes, and slowly he turned the gun upside down and aimed it at his own head, his voice soft and calm: "Indeed, he was not wrong."

"I'm the one who did the wrong thing and shouldn't exist."

"Bang--!"

Gunshots were fired.

[System alert: World Line 0658 is erasing player Bai Liu's game traces and is resetting.]

All the world lines reset, Bai Liu's shell was like a tree that withered in a moment, and in just a moment, his shell dissipated into a field of fallen leaves, and he turned into a drifting soul, sinking downward, downward.

He sank into the middle of silver-blue space, slowly descending, and descending again, in deep oceanic space, and a halo of light illuminated Bai Liu's face, and he opened his eyes in disorientation, and he saw the system backstage spaceships suspended in the middle of the universe, and the backstage spaceships no longer circling around them, all of them resetting and becoming pure white 658 worldlines once more.

My carrier is your soul. Bai Liu's laughter once again resounded in Bai Liu's ears, [As long as your soul is not destroyed, I will always exist].

[Do you have the courage to destroy your own soul so that you can disappear with me?]

[But if you destroy your own soul, there won't be anyone to guard the door to protect these freshly reset world lines from contamination, oh.]

Bai Liu turned his head, he looked at the deepest part of the universe was an ancient carved door that was still open, a steady stream of silver-blue dust spilled out of that door trying to contaminate those reset world-lines, Bai Liu floated down, he gripped the pull ring of the carved door and took a deep breath trying to pull the door tight.

...... Just a little bit more, as soon as he pulls tight, this game is over.

[...... How did I get such a stubborn derivative as you, there is no way this door can be closed.] Bai Liu spoke with helplessness and a sigh, [Just like the door of human desire, there will never be a moment to close it, and it needs to be guarded at all times to keep heretics and monsters from overflowing.]]

[You have shattered all the carriers and cannot absorb the power of desire; with the energy you have now, there is no way to close the door; forcing the door to close will only fracture your own soul.]

Bai Liu closed the door with all his might, and his soul became deflated as a result, his voice raspy, "...... There are ways to close it forever."

"Didn't you tell me that in the witch copy?"

"[The moment a brave and agonized soul leaves the body, it turns into a jewel, a jewel that fills in the cracks of desire.]"

"Now my soul, is it not such a thing, and this door, is it not a crevice of desire?"

Bai Liu fell into silence, and after a long interval, he said softly, [It's just a theoretical approach.]

[If you do that, you really don't exist in the world line at all, Bai Liu.]

[Your soul will be turned into the key that closes this door, and will exist on the door forever, but you have consciousness, you have memories, you have feelings, and you will be turned into the living gold of the Golden Land, the group that fills the hourglass with just ten years of agony, and you, a soul that has been turned into a key, you will be so consistently agonized with desire for millions, and millions, and billions of years- -]

[- It's just to save the humans who have given you a little bit of meager affection, and that's really not fair to you.]

[It's not a fair deal.]

"But feelings, originally is not something that can be traded fairly." Bai Liu laughed very softly as he reached out to touch the door, a halo of light wavering in his eyes, "I think it's enough that it's worth it."

At the moment Bai Liu's hand touched the door's handle, another hand also held Bai Liu's hand, Bai Liu stopped moving as if he was electrocuted, he looked at the hand in a daze, and then someone hugged him tightly from behind.

"I'm sorry." Sheta embraced Bai Liu's soul as he shed a tear, "I'm too late."

"I'm sorry." Sheta repeated the three words very softly, "I'm sorry I remembered too late, that I was stupid and made you wait too long."

He turns back from the past and finally remembers everything, but the moment he sees Bai Liu's soul, he knows that things are irreversible.

Bai Liu has become the new Evil God.

"It's too late to say I'm sorry." Bai Liu let go of his hand, he tilted his head back, embraced Sheta, closed his eyes, and said very softly, "I'm leaving you."

"No!" For the first time, fear was visible to the naked eye on Sheta's face, and he couldn't stop the tears from falling, suspended in the air as droplets.

Bai Liu, however, smiled, his forehead pressed against Sheta's, brushing the tears from his face, his tone soft, "You're scared too, Sheta."

"Then how come you didn't know I'd be scared too when you left me in the first place?"

Sheta looked up, tears dripping from her jaw, her voice trembling softly, "I'll stay with you."

"I'll keep the door with you."

"You can't accompany me." Bai Liu quirked the corners of his mouth very shallowly, "I don't want you to accompany me."

"I want you to wait for me."

"I want to torture you, I want you to know how painful it was for me to wait for you in the first place, I want you to know that I'm somewhere in the depths of this universe but you can't come to see me, I want you to live a happy life but not be happy when you think of me."

"-I will collect pain from your hands like an evil god."

"I haven't charged anyone with pain since I became an evil god, and you are my only believer when you sacrifice pain to me."

"God will fulfill any wish of the only devotee."

Bai Liu lowered his eyelashes very gently, he closed his eyes and kissed Sheta, who embraced him in tears, unwilling to let him go:

"So pray devoutly."

Bai Liu crashed into the door, his eyelids drooping as his soul attached itself to a crack in the door:

"...... We will be reunited eventually."

The door closed and a violent silver-blue glow erupted from the other end of the door.

[System tip: Evil gods change, the door double-sided world is about to reset ...... reset failed ...... reset again ...... detected that the door is closed, can not be reset ......]

[Warning! Warning! Door has been blocked, system unable to take in energy from the other side of the door, low on energy, shutting down soon ......]

[Gaming system shut down.]