From the end of the world

Chapter 260 The Girl Praying 2
All the chosen ones have an invisible connection with the virtual realm, and the Lord of the Divine Seal, who is the master of the virtual realm, can use this connection to decide the life and death of all the chosen ones.

However, there is an exception.

that's me.

"At the end of the last virtual realm gathering, it seemed that I was the only one who was not affected by the power of the Lord of the Divine Seal..."

I recalled the scene at that time. Strictly speaking, there was one person who seemed unaffected, and that was Number 7. Although most of the chosen ones in the virtual realm consciously concealed their true identities, Number 7 was the most mysterious among them. Her position - or her position towards the Lord of the Divine Seal and the competition for the fragments he proposed was always unclear, and I could never figure out half of her details.

Even the four Xuanming and six, who were the Great Impermanence, had some reaction to the death illusion imposed by the Lord of the Divine Seal, but she was as still as a pool of stagnant water. I couldn't tell whether she was completely unaffected like me, or was just good at pretending.

"Yes, I noticed that, too." Little Bowl No. 2 continued my words, "That must be because your connection with the Void Realm is very shallow, so the Lord of the Divine Seal cannot control you as he pleases. However, if the connection is deeper, the matter will be different."

"Every time I enter the virtual world, my connection with it deepens. Perhaps if I enter it a few more times, I will become something that he can do whatever he wants." I came to this conclusion.

"Not only that, if we trade with the Lord of the Divine Seal on this basis, it is very likely... no, it will definitely lead to a further deepening of the relationship." No. 2 Little Bowl said seriously, "Mr. No. 3, have you collected the second... or even more fragments of the Divine Seal?"

"I've collected the second one," I said.

If you eat food from the underworld, you will become a resident of the underworld.

Similarly, proposing a deal to the Lord of the Seal in the virtual world and obtaining the desired information from him will also shorten the distance between oneself and the virtual world. The "exchange of information" itself has the ritual nature of recognizing the existence of others. In some places, there are also folk tales that when encountering ghosts on the road at night, one must pretend not to see them, otherwise they will curse and kill them.

"Transaction" is a ritualistic behavior that goes to a higher level. In this process, the nature of my existence will inevitably move closer to the other party's field. This is something I can more or less foresee with my knowledge of mysticism.

"So, are you planning to propose a deal to the Lord of the Divine Seal?" she asked.

"Yes." I said.

“…Mr. Three, none of us know what the Lord of the Divine Seal wants to do with us. And once he wants to do something in the end, even human gods like Four and Six will not be his opponents. You are the only one who is out of his control, and perhaps only you have the capital to fight against him.” She said, “I don’t know what information you want to exchange with the Lord of the Divine Seal, but can you really not give up?”

Unfortunately, I don't plan to give up. The true identity of the Great Impermanence who tried to kill Ma Zao, or the whereabouts of Chang An's soul - I must at least return to the real world with one of them. Perhaps doing so will put me at an irreparable disadvantage when I have to fight against the Lord of the Divine Seal in the future. I will pay a price for it, but I am ready to accept the price.

Furthermore, even if I don’t make a deal now, my connection with the virtual world is destined to deepen day by day until my life and death fall into the control of the Lord of the Divine Seal.

It's not that I plan to sit and wait for death. I don't think that reaching that point will necessarily lead to a dead end. No. 4 Xuanming and No. 6 may have already realized their situation, but they did not show any frustration. In the end, they were just standing at the same "challenge difficulty" as them, facing the behemoth of the Lord of the Divine Seal.

Seeing how confident and courageous they are, should I still be afraid of falling into the same position as them?

These thoughts may have been transmitted to No. 2 Little Bowl's mind through the telepathic connection, or perhaps she saw this with her ability to read people's expressions. She whispered, "...Indeed, even if you don't propose a deal, your connection with the Void Realm will continue to deepen... But I may have a way to curb this trend."

"Do you have a solution?" I was surprised.

"My prayers are strengthened by the power of the fragments of the divine seal, and can even send Sister Ma Zao back to the past. So, of course, I can help you as well," she said.

If the source of the Lord of the Divine Seal's power is the Divine Seal, and the connection between the chosen one and the virtual realm also has the same properties, then the power of prayer in the No. 2 small bowl may really be able to have an effect on it.

"Since you can exert such power, why don't you use it on yourself?" I wondered.

"Because I don't really want to die, Mr. Three." Her voice revealed optimism. "Whether my prayers can bring about a miracle depends on the strength of my heart. And I'm a little tired of continuing to live in this world.

"But I don't want Mazao-nee to die, and I don't want you to die because you could make Mazao-nee happy. I hope you can live happily forever.

"As long as I pray with this intention, I think I can definitely bring about a miracle."

As she spoke, she gently wrapped her hands around my left hand, like a prayer gesture. "It's just that Mr. No. 3 and I haven't really met or gotten to know each other. Even I can't reset your connection with the virtual world under these conditions, but at least I can help you curb the trend of your connection deepening automatically..." She said, "Even so, you still don't plan to give up?"

I couldn't help but be moved by her feelings, but my decision remained unchanged: "No."

She sighed slightly, then said, "Well, can you tell me what specific deal you're going to propose? Maybe I can help you with some advice."

"Thank you."

I began to explain to her the problem I was having while continuing to observe the changes in the distance.

While I was talking to No. 2, another person entered the rock seat area. The tall female figure was undoubtedly No. 7. As always, she walked to the rock seat on the far right with an arrogant attitude, and then sat down as if it was a matter of course. Even if the others saw her, they didn't bother to approach and talk to her.

From number one to number seven, everyone is here.

This seemed to be the signal to start. No. 4 Xuanming turned his head and looked at the Lord of Divine Seal, and said bluntly: "How long are you going to put on airs there, Lord of Divine Seal? It's time to explain the purpose of summoning us."

"..."

As if awakened by these words, the Lord of the Divine Seal slowly lowered the arm that was supporting his head and glanced at everyone on the field.

He didn’t seem to mind No. 4’s tone, and said in a majestic voice that sounded like the resonance of countless people singing in chorus: “—This call to you is just a routine meeting.

"You can exchange the information you have about the fragments of the Divine Seal here, or you can ask me for a deal and exchange the fragments of the Divine Seal for the information you desire."

No. 4 Xuanming reconfirmed: "As long as I give you the fragment of the divine seal, all your questions will be answered, right?"

"I've said before that I know most of the things that happen in this world. On the other hand, even now, there are a few things that I don't know."

The Lord of the Divine Seal did not try to hide the fact that he also had things he was not capable of doing, and answered quite frankly: "For example - the things you are thinking about now."

"Oh, then tell me what I'm thinking about now." No. 4 Xuanming said.

"How to kill me completely, how to find my true body, or why the end of the world is coming and how to solve it..." said the Lord of the Divine Seal. "Even I have to be alert to answer these questions. There is no way to solve them while sleeping."

No. 4 Xuan Ming was not surprised and continued, "So what about these questions?"

As he spoke, he raised other questions one after another. He did not ask the Lord of Divine Seal to give an answer, but just wanted to confirm "whether it can be answered". And the Lord of Divine Seal did not mind, and actually confirmed it.

The questions that No. 4 Xuanming wanted to confirm were all puzzles that I had considered solving with the help of the Lord of the Divine Seal in the past. The number seemed large, but in fact, they all revolved around the cause, nature, and solution of the doomsday from different angles. As expected, the Lord of the Divine Seal denied all of them.

Even questions that seemed unrelated to the end of the world would still be rejected, because most of them were just playing with words, only changing the language and logic, but the core remained the same. The concept of "end of the world" seemed to have some kind of forbidden magic. Once it was used as a goal, even the Lord of the Divine Seal could not take action for the time being.

Is the Lord of the Divine Seal really unable to answer? Or is he unwilling to answer? Once I thought that he might be the culprit of the doomsday, I couldn't help but think about the latter possibility.

The question No. 4 Xuanming asked seemed to have severely dampened the spirit of the Lord of Divine Seal in front of everyone, but this was obviously not his original purpose. He then changed the direction of his questioning, seemingly no longer wanting to know what the Lord of Divine Seal could not answer, but to test what he could answer.

This time, the Lord of the Divine Seal basically gave a positive answer. Knowledge about resurrecting the dead, knowledge about modifying the past, knowledge about becoming the strongest in the world, knowledge about upgrading human civilization to interstellar civilization... There was a lot of knowledge that sounded far more "high-end" than "Doomsday", and it seemed that everything was within his control.

No. 4 Xuanming remained calm, and at the end, he asked this question: "-So, what exactly is amnesia?"

“I am currently unable to answer questions related to the end of the world,” replied the Lord of the Divine Seal.

(End of this chapter)