Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 322, Sequence 0, The Supreme One

Deep in the underworld.

The frenzied knowledge abruptly recoiled from its dissipated state, reforming into a blurry, fragmented image of light and shadow, seemingly broken and incomplete compared to before.

The fragmented shadow, half of its body tinged with an ethereal halo, looked as if it had suffered an irreparable catastrophe, completely devoid of its former madness and the tangible quality that seemed capable of bursting the brains of anyone who looked directly at it.

Mad knowledge has become lifeless, dead, and utterly destroyed.

The Hermit looked up at the war fog that had somehow dissipated from Salinger.

The fog of war has replaced the "knowledge" of the "Hermit" that was created by fusing the flames of destruction with the authority of the Grim Reaper in order to fight against the Red Priest's fire of destruction.

"It failed."

The "Hermit," whose voice was flat and whose specific characteristics were impossible to discern, looked at his body, which had been severely injured the instant he came into contact with Salinger and the Primal Witch after his suicidal attack.

The primordial witch was simply waiting for Him to walk right into her trap.

Indeed, the deeper symbolism of the Red Priestess and the Primordial Witch allowed the Primordial Witch to use the power of "Destruction Catastrophe - The Origin of Calamity" to a limited extent, without needing to truly become the pinnacle of both paths of calamity.

From within the mist, the graceful Primordial Witch slowly emerged, a smile playing on her lips, her long hair cascading down, each strand distinct.

"It seems that we still have the advantage."

The Hermit's eyes flickered slightly.

He attempted to repair his physical structure once again, which had been destroyed by the symbol of the Cataclysm of Destruction. Unfortunately, the Primal Witch and Salinger had used a special mystical connection to form an unstable "Cataclysm of Destruction: The Origin of Calamity," which pierced through half of his body and destroyed his core knowledge.

The damaged gap is beyond repair; it seems this is indeed the only way forward.

"No wonder, Salinger and the Primordial Witch, one a half-mad quasi-Old One and the other a Sequence 0, dared to provoke the Pale Calamity at the end of the Fourth Age and fight against the Seven Gods."

If we had such a trump card, we could certainly give it a try... but the result was quite clear: the Seven Gods were still the stronger one.

"So."

The Primordial Witch, Chik, moved her thin lips slightly, smiling as she looked at the "Hermit" before her. The Hermit's image was reflected in her ocean-blue eyes.

"It seems we can't reach an agreement, is that right? Hmm, actually I'm quite curious about what kind of person you are underneath this facade..."

The Primordial Witch Chik paused slightly at this point, then her smile widened. "Not going to resist?"

The witch's black flames and curse arrived in an instant. Just as the primordial witch had said, the Hermit did not make a final, desperate struggle. Under the primordial witch's curse, the Hermit's physical structure was destroyed, and his form became distorted and faded.

He is just an image from a gap in history, why should he risk his life here?

It's like they think killing Him would be the real victory, it's ridiculous.

What exactly are you guys burning about?

"Historical projection?"

The primordial witch's expression changed.

It's no wonder He was surprised, after all, what the "Hermit" had just shown was far beyond what historical gap images could achieve.

The diviner's manipulation of the historical fog cannot extract anything unique. Sequence 0 contains three Sequence 1s and uniqueness, so it is naturally included here as well.

But that was just a disguise created by the system using the power of the Wilderness of Knowledge.

In the hands of the angel king, who has the authority to "fool" and "mistake," such disguise is almost impossible to see through.

The "hermit" you see has both the rank and the strength of a Sequence 0, so isn't he a Sequence 0?
Deceiving the real from the fake, turning the rotten into the miraculous—this is precisely the specialty of the mysterious three paths.

"Is someone nearby with the means of a diviner? Antigonus?"

Salinger's hoarse voice came from behind Chik.

"No, not Antigonus."

Chick's eyes flickered slightly, and he almost immediately noticed the grafting traces left behind where the "Hermit" had disappeared, traces originating from the mysterious servant.

The next second, the god who controlled the disaster ignited the grafted mark, and the curse followed the grafted trajectory, directly cursing the ancient scholar who was manipulating all of this!
But even faster than Him came wave after wave of dark, frenzied, sun-singing attacks from all directions.

The Sun Scepter utilizes a combination of extraordinary abilities from the five paths of omniscience and omnipotence. Although these abilities only involve the angelic level and cannot exert a strong influence on true gods, Tang chose this magical item instead of other more destructive sealing artifacts because the Sun Scepter itself is special.

The Sun Scepter possesses a unique and extraordinary ability: reinforced by the Wilderness of Knowledge, it can activate something within a certain range.

"The sun rises," a filthy sun emerging from the chaotic sea.

The enemies Tang is now facing are the pinnacle of the two paths of calamity, the spiritual imprints revived within him, originating from the primordial God.

The original God is the chaotic sea, the old day corresponding to the five paths of omniscience and omnipotence.

How can we not take advantage of such a relationship?
The black sunlight that had just cooperated with the "Hermit" in launching the suicide attack contained some pollution from the "Chaotic Sea".

If you spend enough time with God, He really might come to life!
"Furthermore, why do you believe that the symbol of natural disaster can erase the authority and symbolism of the 'Hermit'?"

As the black sunlight once again shone through the land, Tang launched a full-scale, all-encompassing bombardment of all regions shrouded in the fog of war.

This was to further stimulate the resurgence of the mark of the primordial God, to cause trouble for Salinger and the primordial witch, and also to complement a piece of "mad knowledge" left in Salinger and Chick by the "Hermit".

“We come from a future that has changed due to the overlap of Euclidean space and the River of Eternal Darkness. Our existence in the past is also equivalent to a destiny from the future.”

In the future, Salinger falls, and the uniqueness of Death is sealed in the mausoleum of the Raging Sea. The Byron Empire loses control of the Star Plateau and the Pass River Valley... The Primordial Witch is severely injured and defeated by the combined forces of the Seven Gods during the Pale Calamity...

This vast amount of information was interspersed within the "Hermit's" mad knowledge, but most of it had already been destroyed by the symbolism of "Destruction Catastrophe - The Root of Calamity," rendering it ineffective. However, there was one thing they could not destroy, or rather, the fact that they did not leave upon first seeing the "Hermit" and Nicholas, but instead made contact with them, already foreshadowed their inevitable fate.

"Why does the Hermit exist here?" "Why is the Angel King of the Thief's Path different now?" "Who can break into the depths of the Underworld and have a close blood connection with the Underworld King Salinger?"...

Everything, everything, will evolve into mad knowledge due to "destiny," spreading, corrupting, and dissipating within Salinger and the Primordial Witch, ultimately hanging them on the long river of fate and the future, turning them into puppets of destiny.

Cognition, consciousness, and memory can all evolve into the most insane form of knowledge.

"This is what a hermit is like, a great being standing at the pinnacle of the path of those who seek the secrets."

Tang's pitch-black pupils, like the deep sea, were now filled with subtle, dazzling light.

He watched as the historical images of the "Hermit" returned to the mists of history, a smile playing on his lips, without any intention of stopping them.

This is precisely the value that the "hermit" embodies: using death to intensify this madness of knowledge.

What? Use your authority to erase this part of the memory?
Of course, it is possible. Salinger controls "death," and the Primordial Witch controls "destruction." It is entirely possible to eliminate these insane ideologies.

But the question is, will they do that?
"These things are both pollution and intelligence. If we destroy them easily, Salinger and Chick will face the complete erasure of their memories, leaving them bewildered, caught off guard, and completely unaware of what they are doing or who they are fighting against. In this state of ignorance, they will continue to fight the God War with me."

Of course, if this part of the crazy knowledge is destroyed, based on the interconnectedness of knowledge, it will fall into a vicious cycle of "What is this... Amnesia spray, spray it... What is this...", so it's better to just bear it.

After all, mad knowledge is linked to mad knowledge through grafted authority. If only a part is cleared out, the remaining mad knowledge will once again grow wildly in them, with poor results, one after another.

Therefore, Salinger and Chick are left with only two choices: clean up or not clean up.

But either way, they're all wrong, aren't they?
"This is a more interesting way to play."

Tang looked at his own system that had run back with the graft and the curse from the primordial witch that followed. He first used the Euclidean space to cleanse the curse, then glanced at Azik Axe, who had closed his eyes and was consciously avoiding the war of gods, before descending from the Euclidean space to the real world.

Deep within the underworld, where black sunlight and the fog of war emanate, a humanoid figure, resembling an old television set with strangely distorted layers, appeared.

This figure, radiating distorted layers like an old, faulty television set, pulled a complete version of the "Hermit" out of the mists of history, and then grafted the system onto it.

The previous "hermit" is gone, so let's bring in another one.

The Gou family may not have any other skills, but they are masters of being disgusting, aren't they?

Nikolai appeared behind him, pulling his hat brim down low.

“I will take the lead from now on, and you will assist me.” Tang’s sun scepter disappeared, and in contrast, he gave off a completely different feeling from his usual role as a mysterious servant.

Nikolai nodded, his light brown eyes glancing at Tang's current state before he quickly took a few steps back, distancing himself from Tang and the "Hermit." His figure instantly transformed into a series of transparent insects with twelve segments, dissipating into the air.

With the indiscriminate pollution from the black sunlight, Salinger clearly went even more insane.

When this deity saw Tang and the "Hermit" appear once again, the iron-black color in His eyes became even more intense, and He reached out His hand with a sharp and intelligent demeanor.

In an instant, the earth seemed to tremble, and even the air seemed to die.

The black, ominous force, a symbol of death, struck Tang in the next moment, but Tang neither dodged nor avoided it.

The Primordial Witch's gaze sharpened as she looked at the object that appeared even more blurry and had a strange aura, as if it were something she had been exposed to. An ominous premonition swirled in the deity's mind.

This was more unsettling to Him than the feeling He had when He saw the "Hermit".

"Salinger, retreat! The attackers are not behaving!"

But Salinger was like an enraged lion, completely deaf to the cries of the Primal Witch. The iron-black in his eyes grew even darker, and the corners of his mouth turned up higher and higher, his madness overflowing.

"Die! Die, all of you! Return to the realm of death! Return to the eternally dark riverbed—!"

Tang also had a smile on his lips.

Salinger's attack reached him and engulfed him.

Then, there was a burst of light.

A dazzling light, a radiant light.

“After the ‘reader’ (Sequence 9, Reader) sees the ‘protagonist’ (Sequence 8, Destined Person) of the story, he comments on the direction of the story, comments on the personality, habits and abilities of each character in the story, forms a fixed impression, and labels them (Sequence 7, Critic).”

"As the story unfolds, he becomes immersed in it, but as a reader, he is also an outsider and has no power to change the direction of the story (Sequence 6, Outsider). He objectively observes the multi-line development of the story and learns about things that the characters do not know through the narration (Sequence 5, Narrator, also known as the Detective).

"He realized that the things the characters in the story didn't know were the true thread of the whole story. He read the whole story, wrote out the timeline, and studied it carefully (Sequence 4, The Time Scholar)."

"He felt heartbroken and helpless for those tragic characters who had no idea what was happening. He was powerless to stop what was about to happen in the story. He realized that all the characters were just an indispensable part of the story, insignificant yet important, and their only role was to drive the story forward."

"In this story destined to be a tragedy, everyone in the story is merely a puppet of fate (Sequence 3, Puppet Master). He is just a spectator, only able to observe and unable to intervene (Sequence 2, Observer)."

"And everything in the story, everything in it, is ultimately just a plot that is bound to happen, for the final, predetermined ending (Sequence 1, Predestination)."

"Therefore, the one who reads the whole story is the 'Supreme One'."

Sequence 0, the Supreme One.

Vast swathes of light sliced ​​through the space and time here, countless dazzling lights shimmered, and fragments of stories, like old television screens with malfunctioning connections, became pieces that flew rapidly through the air.

The Euclidean space swallowed Salinger and the Primal Witch.

In the "ocean of light" composed of fragments, Tang raised his eyes and smiled brightly.

"Welcome to my divine kingdom."

(End of this chapter)