CHAPTER 1015: CHAPTER 1012: [FIRST REWIND.]

The waves were too strong at sea, and the lifeboat had begun to rise and fall, so they had to lighten the load. He cut off the Shadow State, at least his mental state would be better.

The young girl lay in the narrow lifeboat, her damp hair like a stranded fish.

"Cut my hair," Alice said.

Su Ming’an cut her long, dark hair to shoulder length. The weight of the waterlogged hair was indeed significant, but it was far from enough.

"Cut more," Alice said.

"It’s useless; hair doesn’t weigh much," Su Ming’an said.

"Cut it... the hair is too long, it’s inconvenient to escape." Alice insisted. So, Su Ming’an continued cutting until her hair was ear-length. Her hair, which she had grown for more than ten years, just floated away in the seawater.

Even so, the lifeboat continued to sink.

With a splash, Su Ming’an jumped into the sea. The instant coldness of the water made his whole body shiver.

"You lie down, I’ll float behind," Su Ming’an said as he held weakly onto the lifeboat. His whole body had the defense of Equipment, at least he wouldn’t be swept away by the waves.

Alice requested to take turns getting into the water. Now that she was away from those priests, her senses gradually returned, and she could hold on for a while.

Time at sea seemed long, and by nearly two in the afternoon, they both knew one thing clearly — every four hours, the Orderly would be forced to sleep for an hour, which meant that the person floating on the sea would drown.

At this time, it was Alice floating on the sea, her arms trickling with blood due to maintaining her posture for so long. There was nothing but the sound of waves in her ears, too quiet, making one feel dizzy.

"Alice, let me go down," Su Ming’an said calmly.

"..." Alice lowered her head.

She knew the only choice was to let Su Ming’an drown; Su Ming’an still had Cloning. It was the most rational choice.

Her fingers loosened, gradually losing strength, and blood floated on the sea as a few ominous streaks of red in the silent blue.

His throat was also extremely hoarse, but he just held her hand, pulling her up.

At the moment of jumping into the sea, Su Ming’an’s emotions were very calm, drowning was a longer process compared to other deaths, but after fainting, it shouldn’t be too painful.

Approaching two o’clock, a buzzing sound gradually came from the sea.

"...what is that sound?" Alice asked softly.

Su Ming’an looked up — he saw a small mechanics fishing boat moving towards them from above the sea, like the rising sun.

The fishermen hesitated for a moment upon seeing them. Alice shouted at the top of her lungs, almost tearing her vocal cords, "Help... help..." pouring all her energy into the shout.

The fishermen discussed for a moment: "The weight won’t work; we can only save one. The two of us need to operate the boat!"

"Alice, you get on the boat," Su Ming’an said.

As long as Alice was safe, he could reincarnate, it wasn’t that important.

He controlled the Puppet Threads, pulling her directly onto the fishing boat, while he lay on the lifeboat, slowly closing his eyes.

"Detective... detective..." she kept calling for him.

The fishing boat slowly went away.

At two in the afternoon, the forced sleep came.

...

When Su Ming’an opened his eyes again, he was lying on a damp beach, not knowing the longitude and latitude. Although it was three in the afternoon, the moonlight already hung high in the sky. A black cat crouched beside him, licking his face.

The lifeboat seemed to have been grounded, washing him ashore while he was unconscious.

His whole body was sore, yet he found another person lying next to him.

Alice lay next to him, the waves surged over them and receded, her arms and thighs were full of wounds, with bloody flesh.

"I won’t let you die." Alice turned her head, her eyelashes still wet with water.

Moonlight spilled over them, her eyes were full of bloodshot veins.

She said that after a big wave hit, they both ended up here. Su Ming’an found it hard to believe such luck. But when he asked Du, Du said Alice wasn’t lying; they were indeed miraculously washed ashore. He could only keep the doubt in his heart.

"I’ve thought for a long time, I still want to become the Goddess. Because an ordinary girl simply can’t survive." Alice lay there and said.

Su Ming’an raised his hand and looked at the broadcast on the watch, seeing Burg Castle ablaze, with scenes of blood and flesh flying, brutally tragic. He closed his eyes, not thinking about anything for a moment, just lying there quietly.

...Goddess.

...Alice.

The watch "dinged," Noel told him that he could go to the Church. Noel had already planted a backup plan in the Church, even if Su Ming’an went now, there would be no problem.

"Are we leaving the sea?" Alice asked.

"Yes, let’s go." Su Ming’an sat up.

Her expression was very mournful; perhaps such a Destiny was indeed not worth cherishing for her. Yet her gaze held a kind of longing — as if she was looking towards a distant, another era.

Like someone caught in the depths of thorns, longing for a ray of light in the darkness.

——That was the distant future, the future of a grand reunion at the end where all protagonists were happy.

——And that future still needed them to walk towards it.

Their gazes met for a brief moment, Alice’s pupils still a beautiful purple. Then she actually broke into a smile through her tears, her laughter merging into the sound of the waves. For a moment, Su Ming’an only heard the rustling sound, her laughter no longer there, the sound of the sea no longer there, her curved eyebrows like the sound of nature kissing him.

"At that time... will we meet at the end?"

Her voice was like the wind.

——I will burn all of myself to light the road to your future.

——Even if your most important person isn’t me, even if I am not your main concern.

——But I still wish, wholeheartedly wish, hope that you can live long, hope that you can have a long time... life after life, eternally and forever.

"Let’s go," Su Ming’an said.

The low wind sounds, the high tide sounds, amidst the rhythm of unmatched sounds, the two figures on the beach slowly stood up.

"Crunch, crunch."

Like that snowy night when they first met, the detective held the little girl’s hand, walking step by step through the snowy streets.

"Thump, thump."

Raindrops slid down, brushing against their boots, until they melted into the sand.

"After becoming the Goddess, no one is by your side, no one keeps you company," Su Ming’an said.

"Yes."

"Unable to speak, unable to express, unable to trust. Because anyone could potentially harm you."

"Yes."

"Once you embark on this path, you can never turn back. Even if you turn back, you’ll be crushed by the weight of the world and your own guilt."

"I know."

Raindrops fell slantwise on their shoulders, like lightly drifting white snow.

And he firmly held the hand that hung by her shoulder.

When Su Ming’an arrived at the Holy Church, thousands of knights and priests stood in the square. The moment Su Ming’an stepped in, all eyes turned towards him.

The Deity descended from the high platform, bathed in white radiance. Mizushima Kawa Sora and the Green Bird followed to the left and right. On the eaves of the church, several figures stood staggered, including Noel and others.

It seemed as if everyone was gathered here, waiting for some fateful chime of destiny.

And Su Ming’an raised his head high—

On the platform, there was a pitch-black Prophecy Stone Wall.

——That was the thing he came to break.

He reconfirmed the [Immortal’s Talisman - Expansion] in his backpack, held Alice’s hand, and walked into this pure white Holy Land.

Su Ming’an’s gaze met the Deity’s, and they spoke simultaneously, their voices almost indistinguishable:

"——It ends here."

"——It’s not over yet."

...

Su Ming’an began attempting to revert time.

In the first timeline, he rushed directly at the Prophecy Stone Wall, intending to break it with his white tentacles and the rule that "the Deity cannot act directly," but all the believers fearlessly blocked his way. At the moment he succeeded in breaking the Prophecy Stone Wall, his health dropped to zero.

In the second timeline, he negotiated with the Deity, requesting to break the Prophecy Stone Wall. The Deity verbally agreed, but then took the opportunity to trap him; fortunately, the bomb he had planted inside his body exploded, allowing him to revert time successfully.

In the third timeline, he requested an alliance with Mizushima Kawa Sora present on site. She did not activate the instant death rule to kill him, but she also did not agree to the alliance. So he chose to leave with Alice, but midway through, Alice died from weakness. Her high fever, combined with her soul leaving her body, meant she couldn’t hold on for long.

Before she died, she held his hand tightly and repeatedly told him not to be sad, that it wasn’t his fault.

In the fourth timeline, Su Ming’an did not go to the Holy Church but directly turned back to find Li Mingyue. The church in Dao Ya City was already empty, and even Xiao Jingsan and Chao Yan couldn’t be contacted. He stood in the quiet city, carrying the fever-stricken Alice on his back, with the foggy sky pressing down on him, feeling an impulse to collapse.

"..."

He took Alice to a clinic, but the doctors avoided him, fearing being implicated with this "Goddess abandoned by the Deity." Only Lv Shu, who remained in Dao Ya City, could help take care of Alice.

"What are you doing now? You seem to be in a lot of pain," Lv Shu asked confusedly.

"..." Su Ming’an looked at the foggy sky outside the window: "Fate Simulator."

...Is his repeated reverting action any different from playing the "Fate Simulator"? Trying to achieve a good ending across different timelines.

In the end, Alice still died.

The Deity must have tried to force Su Ming’an to use Little Su to revert time, remotely shattering Alice’s soul mark. Her passing was incredibly sudden; one moment Su Ming’an was tucking her in, the next, her breathing was gone.

The world spun around, and Su Ming’an stood silently over Alice’s corpse, then looked at his reflection in the mirror.

He touched his fingers to the mirror, lightly tracing his face; he couldn’t quite make out his features, whether his hair was white or black, or where the live broadcast room’s chat had gone.

In the fifth timeline, Su Ming’an and Alice lay side by side on the beach. This time, he didn’t hold her hand to leave, because they literally had nowhere to go.

The waves constantly covered their bodies, like caressing two cold, wet corpses. Su Ming’an closed his eyes, wanting to sleep, but suddenly sensed a shadow above.

"... How many times has it been?" asked the owner of the shadow.

Su Ming’an’s eyes snapped open—he was sure it was his own revert time, as the Deity hadn’t ambushed him previously, unlike triggering Little Su’s revert time. So, for this person to ask like this...

"... The first time," Su Ming’an replied.

In everyone’s eyes—this was merely his first timeline, without triggering Little Su’s revert time. No one would know how many times he had truly died.

Su Ming’an saw clearly who it was—Su Wensheng.

Su Wensheng stood beside him, casting a shadow. In the five timelines, it was the first time Su Ming’an had encountered Su Wensheng by the sea, perhaps Su Wensheng had been following him all along.

"Is that so? The first time?" Su Wensheng pinched his chin: "I do retain your memory from reverts, but those memories aren’t clear, only subtly hinting that you’ve reverted. Now, I indeed feel you haven’t reverted, but... you look truly exhausted. Yet you say, it’s the first time?"

"... Yes, the first time," Su Ming’an said.

"But I feel your state is hard to maintain any longer," Su Wensheng said. "Let me point you a path. If the Holy Church isn’t a viable direction, seek assistance from Huo Muli’er Nation’s Hei Que."

——Hei Que.

Su Ming’an had heard the name. A king holding one of the three elements of becoming a god, "Sword of Destiny."

"Why are you helping me?" Su Ming’an asked.

Clearly, Su Wensheng’s stance earlier was to have Su Ming’an pledge allegiance to the Deity.

"Because the worlds are merging, and ’I’ am changing too. I’m gradually developing a desire to help you." Su Wensheng crouched down, and for the first time, his expression was gentle.

"I don’t quite understand," Su Ming’an said.

Su Wensheng leaned closer to his ear and said: "[The opening of the Tower will gradually consolidate the worlds and fuse them. Similar Originals will gradually influence each other. So, in other worlds, the good ’Original Su Wensheng’ will influence my nature as the evil ’Original Su Wensheng.’ You can understand it that way.]"

Su Ming’an’s pupils widened instantly.

... So that’s it.

... That’s what it is.

... He had considered dozens of possibilities but never imagined "world consolidation" was one of them.

"This is the deepest secret. I’ve made a pact with the Deity; if I tell you these things, I’ll die for leaking. So, please save me next time." Su Wensheng continued to whisper, blood already trickling from his mouth.

"Even if I trigger Little Su’s revert time, the Deity will know you told me this, and you’ll still die..." Su Ming’an said.

Su Wensheng’s index finger wavered slightly.

His black earring gleamed, looking extraordinarily bright.

"It’s not Little Su’s revert time."

... If it’s not Little Su’s revert time, then what is it?

Su Ming’an looked into his eyes, and in those almost identical black pupils—he saw his reflection in Su Wensheng’s eyes. They were remarkably similar people, even in their thought processes.

People whose thought processes were very similar—

Might understand Su Ming’an’s predicament.

Su Ming’an immediately understood what Su Wensheng meant—if it’s not Little Su’s revert time, then whose revert time is it?

Without needing many words, he pressed down the shock in his heart and immediately pressed his fingers against his temple.

At the moment of death, he heard Su Wensheng’s clear laughter, as clean as the sky.

"Go, go."

"You shall become the kindest ’you’..."

"You shall become the most evil ’you’..."