Chapter Six Hundred and Seventy-Nine: The Rules Belonging to Humanity
For the next half month, absolutely nothing happened.
The Abyss Realm was as quiet as ever. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the upcoming day—the public beta release of “Rebellious Immortal Sect.”
Many players were waiting so impatiently that they prayed to be knocked unconscious, just to skip ahead to the game’s public release.
Huo Longyuan was gradually blending into his busy schedule.
He noticed that not just him, but the entire Sang family was bustling around for the game, creating quite the ruckus every single day.
There were familiar faces, like Li Shanyan, Xu Yourong, Qin Xiuyuan, and Long Xiao from the Demon Domain, and even the Eighth Deity Xu Hongyi, who had previously severed causality.
Everyone was tirelessly moving around, focusing entirely on the game.
Meanwhile, the matter of Ancestral Cang seemed to have been forgotten by everyone.
At first, Huo Longyuan worried nonstop about Ancestral Cang’s arrival, leaving him feeling unsettled.
But as he noticed that nobody else seemed concerned, he decided to stop thinking about it and instead threw himself fully into his work.
…What the heck.
If it comes down to it, we can all die together.
Sang Zhe wasn’t worried, so why should he be?
Anyway, there weren’t any better options left.
And so it went.
With Huo Longyuan’s participation, the progress of “Rebellious Immortal Sect” accelerated once again.
As the highly anticipated release date approached, things were getting more intense…
——
——
Later that night, in Sang Zhe’s room.
“Phew…”
Looking at a mountain of messages on the communication device, Sang Zhe took a deep breath and muttered, “Just missing the final boss’s data.”
“I’ve actually wanted to ask this for a while.”
From under the desk, Nian Nian popped up, curiously asking, “Why are you saving the final boss’s data until the last minute? We barely have time to test for bugs!”
“Well…”
Sang Zhe thought for a moment, then teased, “Because I have an idea, but it may not come to fruition.”
“I want to keep this possibility open until there’s absolutely no chance left.”
“Idea?” Si Jingzhu also emerged from under the desk, “Have you finally decided to come down and be the boss for everyone to take out their frustrations on?”
“…You talk too much. Just eat your candy.”
“Ugh…”
Sang Zhe gently pushed the two little girls back under the desk and slowly closed his eyes.
…The strange sensation in his pupils had completely vanished by now.
It seemed the Illusion-Truth Eyes had fully awakened.
Sang Zhe had a premonition. Once he fused the Illusion-Truth Eyes into the mask mode, he would stand at the final crossroads.
If it weren’t for Ancestral Cang, he wouldn’t have planned to awaken so soon.
He wanted to enjoy a good few hundred years in the Abyss Realm, spending time with his wife and children until he had no attachments to the world, then end it all.
But unfortunately.
Ancestral Cang’s incident forced him to start overtime.
“To be honest, I already guessed what would happen after awakening the mask mode.”
Sang Zhe felt a bit helpless but slowly placed his fingertip on his brow.
“…Sigh, better get this overtime done quickly.”
His fingertip lightly tapped.
A mysterious aura spread from his pupils to his entire face.
The mask mode appeared and began to emanate an ancient and weighty presence under this aura.
In the next moment, it felt as if his soul had left his body.
When Sang Zhe opened his eyes again, the surroundings were shrouded in a chaotic light screen.
In this empty world, he stood alone.
Or rather.
In front of him, a figure slowly appeared from the light screen.
A person who looked exactly like him.
“Yo~”
The man smiled and said, “Finally rested enough? Ready to get back to work?”
“…You should know what I want to do most right now,” Sang Zhe replied, slightly annoyed.
The man awkwardly chuckled but leaned close with a pitiful expression: “You can vent, but can we keep it a bit gentle? After all, you’re hitting yourself—”
Before he could finish his sentence.
Sang Zhe’s fist had already smashed his face, distorting it as he fell to the ground.
“Bastard.”
Sang Zhe let out a sigh of relief, grinning, “I’ve been wanting to hit you for ages.”
The First Deity slowly got back up, giving a bitter smile: “No mercy, huh?”
“Stop acting pitiful. The reason I hit you is that you wanted to see what it feels like to be hit by yourself, right?”
The two exchanged glances and laughed at the same time.
“Alright then.”
“Congratulations on reaching the final stage of the system,” the First Deity chuckled, “This should be the Q&A session—however, since you can see me, I’m sure you already have most of your questions sorted out.”
“If there’s really something you want to ask, now’s the time.”
Sang Zhe rolled his eyes: “You know what I want to ask.”
“Ah, since this is the grand finale, you’re probably wondering how to defeat Ancestral Cang, right? In that case, I’ll share a unique skill to fight the final boss—”
“Still not enough hitting, huh?” Sang Zhe’s gaze darkened, “You know I’m not asking about that.”
The First Deity stuck out his tongue and casually turned around.
“You want to ask.”
“…Whether I should use the Illusion-Truth Eyes to revive my mother, right?” His tone was calm as water.
This time, Sang Zhe fell silent.
“Since that’s the case, let me tell you a story.”
The First Deity smiled and said, “Do you know how to create a game?”
Sang Zhe: “?”
What kind of question is that?
“You’re a professional in the gaming industry, right? Can’t expect you to not know the answer.”
After a moment of silence, Sang Zhe spoke slowly: “First, write a rough project proposal, set the direction, then begin defining the settings, and finally establish the underlying logic of the game through programming…”
“Exactly.”
The First Deity chuckled softly: “To create an imagined world, you need many complex rules, complex enough to encompass everything in a world so that it operates according to these rules.”
“However… that’s still not enough.”
“No matter how beautifully made a game is, if it sits on a computer without being turned on, it remains meaningless.”
“And what gives a game its purpose… is the players.”
“The moment players click ‘start game,’ that game truly comes to life.”
“…Creating a world is just the same.”
Sang Zhe blinked.
“You should know that I once devoured the rule power of all deities and demons.”
The First Deity turned around with a smile: “At that time, I held the complete operational rules of the world. I possessed the same creation power as the Primordial Deities.”
“However.”
“When I tried to create a world like the Primordial Chaos…”
“I failed.”
“That was a hollow and boring universe. Even though I established all the operating laws, I could not create one type of rule.”
“…Humans,” he murmured, “who possess emotions and desires.”
“It was then that I finally realized.”
“That perhaps there exists a set of rules independent of the Primordial Deities in this world.”
One that…
…completely belongs to humanity.
