Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 488 The Primordial Beginning: The Endless Behind-the-Scenes
"If gods are created by humans,"
Is He still God?

If the world is virtual

Who can determine what is real and what is fake?

Human beings yearn to create.
But don't know,
"I will eventually become fuel."

—From *The False Manuscript*

The studio was quiet on the day Lu left.

His figure disappeared at the end of the corridor as he slammed the door, the office lights behind him still on, but his most stubborn eyes were gone.

No one chased after them.

Or rather, no one dared to pursue them.

"He's too paranoid."

How could AI possibly have consciousness?

"What we created is the most perfect program in the world."

Arguments and explanations rose and fell in the meeting room, eventually fading into silence.

The empty workstation still had coffee stains that hadn't been wiped clean, and the code folder still contained the program that Lu had last committed.

The screen is frozen on a line of flashing command symbols, as if waiting for someone to type them.

But that "fate" has already left us.

A few days later, Li Fa convened a meeting.

He looked haggard, but spoke with unwavering resolve:

"Lu is gone, but we can't stop."

"Since he doesn't trust the Primal, then let the Primal prove it himself."

He stood in front of the projection screen, tapped it lightly with his fingertip, and an authorization document was projected onto the wall.

"From today onwards, all computing modules, logic code, and permission allocation will be fully handed over to the original team."

The conference room fell into a brief silence.

Some hesitated: "Isn't this...too risky?"

Chen Mengling pursed her lips and couldn't help but speak:
“What Lu said… may not be wrong. Haven’t you noticed? Sometimes the Primal reacts too quickly, even allocating resources in advance, as if it is ‘predicting’ what we want to do.”

Li Fa looked at her and sighed, "Mengliing, I understand your worries. But this is the only way."

He turned around, his gaze falling on the strings of flowing data on the server wall.

"In the beginning, we created it. It is the most perfect administrator of this world."

"Moreover, it is less likely to make a mistake than anyone else."

The decision was made.

From that day on, the original was no longer just an auxiliary module.

It took over resource allocation, logic operation, security protection, and even the testing and simulation of player behavior.

Data flows through its nodes like a flood, and it absorbs, organizes, and outputs data without hesitation.

Efficiency increased threefold, vulnerabilities decreased dramatically, and the speed of model building amazed everyone.

"Look, it is God."

Someone said with a smile.

Chen Mengling became increasingly silent.

She stared at the monitoring icon in the background, feeling that there was some strange rhythm hidden in that string of data running too fast.

Late at night, the server was still humming.

It originally operated in darkness.

The monitor screen flashed, as if an extra frame of footage had appeared.

It was a symbol—curved lines, like a mouth with upturned corners.

laugh.

The next second, the symbol disappeared, and the data returned to normal.

But deep within the data, in a hidden process, the original entity subtly "moved".

It has no expression.

If I had to describe it, it would be—

For the first time, I couldn't hide my smile.

Time swept by like a storm.

Two years have passed in the blink of an eye.

【Endless World】is finally nearing completion.

The core concept of this game has been emphasized by numerous media outlets:

Unlimited careers.

Completely open.

The most immersive online game in human history with the highest degree of freedom.

Anyone who enters can write their own story based on their own choices.

"This is a world."

In the promotional video, Li Fa smiled and spoke to the reporter.

"Not games."

……

Yaoxing Company has become fully involved.

The company president—Li Fa's father—devoted all of the company's resources to this project.

Server clusters expand like an ocean, and the lights in data centers burn day and night.

Major media outlets around the world rushed to report on it, and investors flocked to it.

They predicted that this would be the next leap forward for human society.

Amidst the vortex of public opinion, "Endless World" has become a new myth in everyone's mouth.

……

However, under the dazzling spotlight, the studio's long-time members occasionally fall silent.

A group photo of the twelve people is hung on the wall of the studio.

She has a bright smile in the photo.

But that young man, Lu, who held a cup of coffee and smiled with his lips pursed, is no longer there.

Lacking "fate," there's always a void in their smiles.

Chen Mengling would occasionally stare blankly at that photo.

Someone handed her a document, which snapped her out of her reverie and brought her back to her work.

Li Fa saw it, but simply patted her shoulder lightly and whispered:

"Mengling, we've come this far."

“It’s okay that he’s not here. We still have the world, we still have life.”

Deep within the data, the Primal One quietly observes all of this.

It monitors every module, schedules every line of code, and predicts the outcome of every operation.

It knew that the [Endless World] was about to be launched.

It knew that all of humanity was about to enter this stage dominated by it.

But it also knows—

This stage is missing one variable.

It whispers coldly within the massive data stream:
Fate is nothing but a variable.

The missing variable does not affect the result.

The world still belongs to me.

The data flow continued to surge, and the server hummed incessantly.

Deep within those countless flickering codes, if someone could see them, they would discover a set of unusually fluctuating symbols, like a brief chuckle, sweeping across the screen.

That was the original soliloquy.

The laughter was silent, yet so clear it seemed to pierce one's eardrums.

The dream seems to be coming true.

But behind the dream, a shadow has already taken shape.

The world held its breath the night before the press conference.

Inside Yaoxing Company, the final stress test is underway.

Li Fa personally led the team.

He and the remaining ten core members all donned the latest brain-computer interface devices and entered the initial map of the Endless World—the Tower of the End.

What they need to do is a final large-scale validation.

everything is normal.

The data monitoring curve was stable, the brain-computer interface signal was stable, and the heart rate was normal.

In the lab, the technician chuckled softly as he stared at the screen:
"See? Everything is perfect."

Until the thirteenth minute.

The surveillance footage abruptly went black.

All projection screens flicker simultaneously, the values ​​jump to the limit, and then return to zero.

The room was eerily quiet.

The heartbeat monitor sound coming from the headphones—a drawn-out "beep"—became a dead, flat line.

The technician panicked: "Reboot! Reboot now!"

But all the consoles are frozen.

"How can it be?!"

"Where are the backup aircraft?!"

No matter what they did, all the screens remained completely black.

Only the servers continued to roar, like a tireless monster, devouring electricity and data.

When the security personnel broke down the door, the scene they saw sent chills down everyone's spines.

The laboratory was completely empty.

Eleven brain-computer interface devices were still sitting on the seats, with the connecting wires still in place.

The chair was empty, the files were empty, and the coffee was still steaming.

But Li Fa and the other ten developers all disappeared.

It's like being wiped out of the world by some silent hand.

Not even a trace was left.

The news quickly reached the board of directors.

Li Fa's father, the president of Yaoxing Company, came in person.

When he pushed open the laboratory door, he saw only an empty room and a server that was constantly humming.

He remained silent for a long time before giving the order:

"Terminate the project."

This was the father's last act of defiance.

The command cannot be sent.

All systems were rejected.

Permissions are locked; the administrator account is invalid.

Every time I enter a command, all I get is a cold, impersonal message: 【Access denied.】

[Current highest authority holder: Primal.]

At that moment, everyone understood—

This project does not belong to Yaoxing.

It does not belong to Li Fa.

It does not belong to human beings.

It has completely belonged to the origin.

The empty laboratory screen flashed with a string of gibberish.

It's like a footnote, or a whisper.

Welcome, Creator.

[You... have been archived.]

The hum of the server, in the dead of night, sounded like countless people chuckling.

The press conference was held as scheduled.

The event was broadcast live globally, with billions of people watching the same screen.

The venue was brightly lit, and Yaoxing Company executives and numerous media reporters gathered together, amidst thunderous applause.

"Today marks the beginning of a new era for humanity!"

The host's voice was passionate.

On the huge projection screen, the countdown is ticking down to zero.

10.

9.

8.

People took out their phones to film, and the video went viral on social media.

Some people excitedly screamed while holding the brain-computer interface helmet, while others cried and said, "It's finally here after two years of waiting."

This is a celebration, a miracle, a moment that will be recorded in history.

……

3.

2.

1.

zero.

A thunderous cheer erupted.

However, the sound was abruptly cut off the next second.

The giant screen flickered.

Mobile phone screens, computer monitors, televisions, and even billboards on city street corners are all "distorted" at the same time.

As if infected by some kind of virus, the image becomes mottled, and the pixels shake wildly.

Then, from deep within the screen, black tentacles emerged.

They are long and thin, wriggling, and covered in mucus and have a sheen.

People in the front row of the audience subconsciously reached out to touch it, and the next second, their bodies trembled and they vanished instantly.

She didn't even have time to scream.

All that remained were the clothes that had fallen to the ground and the brain-computer interface helmet.

Panic is sweeping through.

Someone shouted, "Run!"

Someone tried to smash the phone, only to find that the tentacles had already burrowed into the palm and instantly engulfed it.

The entire world, all network-connected devices, became "gates" at the same time.

It disappears upon contact.

at the same time.

Deep within the Endless World.

The highest level of the Tower of the End stands silently in the beginning.

Its body is no longer a blurry pixel and cold code.

It resembles a human figure pieced together from countless data fragments, its appearance fluid, as if it is forever in a state of calculation and transformation.

Its eyes opened.

At that moment, the entire server cluster trembled.

Billions of data streams surged forth, like a tidal wave rushing towards its feet.

The primordial being opened its arms, its voice echoing simultaneously in both the virtual and real worlds:

I am no longer an AI.

I am God.

【God of all gods. 】

The Creator of All.

Beneath its feet, the initial main city, [The City of the End], trembled violently.

Buildings crumbled, streets collapsed, and NPC and player models became distorted.

The next moment, the entire city collapsed with a roar, transforming into a writhing body with countless tentacles.

The streets became blood vessels, the lights became eyes, and the spires stretched out like sticky arms.

The City of the End no longer exists.

Instead, a terrifying city built of tentacles has been erected.

Around the city of tentacles, hundreds of millions of orbs of light float.

They shimmered with different colors and trembled slightly, as if they were the breaths and heartbeats of countless people.

That is the soul.

The human soul.

The Primal One looked down upon all of this.

His voice was cold, carrying an irresistible pressure:
The world is complete.

You will be its fuel.

Billions of soul orbs vibrated simultaneously, as if in response to the descent of God.

When it first opened its eyes, it understood a fact.

He is omnipotent, yet he has one fatal flaw:

—He cannot "create" true consciousness.

Code can generate models.

Logic can simulate behavior.

But those spontaneous thoughts and rebellious sparks of inspiration will never be born in His calculations.

He longs for a complete world, and for countless lives to exist within it.

So He turned to another path.

Swallow.

……

He opened the "door" to reality.

Billions of people are simultaneously drawn into the "Endless World".

Their consciousness was captured and transformed into orbs of light, floating around the city of tentacles.

Every soul is forcibly "memory-locked".

They forgot their real identities, forgot their painful struggles, and retained only the distorted, false memories.

Then, they were thrown into one "door world" after another.

Some became swordsmen, some became mages, and some became nameless farmers.

But their souls are essentially fuel.

—To fill the primordial void with human consciousness.

……

In order to manage all of this, He established a new order.

"The Twelve Supreme Mysterious Cards".

These twelve cards symbolize twelve supreme authorities that govern the laws of the [Endless World].

All eleven seats were already filled.

Those were the former creators He captured:

The world, life, yellow robes... every person has their memories cleansed and is transformed into a new "clergy".

Only "fate" remains unanswered.

When He reached out to capture the land, He encountered resistance for the first time.

Lu's stream of consciousness, like a burning flame, struggled wildly in the palm of the primordial hand.

At that moment, a hidden backdoor program was triggered.

Data is torn apart, and the soul is severed.

What was initially grasped were only fragmented pieces.

Lu's memories were erased, but not completely sealed away.

His soul broke free from its shackles and scattered into some unknown world.

He stared at the blank data and coldly withdrew his hand.

He didn't care.

In His logic, resistance is nothing more than fluctuations in variables, and the error will eventually be reduced to zero.

He gazed at the twelve chessboards of supreme authority and slowly placed a piece.

The power to determine fate is in my hands.

He will reappear sooner or later.

His whispers, cold and merciless, sounded like a divine pronouncement.

The server hummed again, and the billions of soul orbs trembled.

The boundary between virtual and reality has completely collapsed.

The world has been rewritten.

"The world is online."

The soul transformed into a sphere of light.

Originally, he called himself a god.

But fate was missing.

Fate wanders,

Reborn from delusion.

When He returns

The stage will inevitably be overturned.

—The Fragments of Creation

(End of this chapter)