Simulating the primordial era? That's way too extreme.

Chapter 2 Hidden Third Option

Zhao Si: ...

"What, dead again?"

Staring at the phone screen, Zhao Siren was almost numb. So, whether the protagonist is killed or not, he's going to die anyway? Then why did you give me two options?

Destroy it!

Just then, the familiar message popped up again:

[Could we turn back time and return to the choices we made?]

"Why go back? There are only two options..."

After muttering a few words, Zhao Si, under the threat of the paranormal event, still reached out and clicked "Yes".

The page refreshed, and this side story was completely erased, revealing two familiar options... No, wait!

Zhao Si looked over in surprise, only to find that the original two options of killing or not killing had disappeared:

[You have experienced two consecutive future side quests, both with unsatisfactory outcomes, thus realizing that extreme ideologies inevitably lead to destruction, and successfully triggering a hidden option.]

[Regarding the clan's act of slaughtering people under imperial decree, please freely enter your choice ()]

Free input?

Zhao Si was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized:

"Got it, the multiple-choice questions have turned into fill-in-the-blank and short-answer questions, right?"

Why didn't we do this earlier? Before, there were only two options, and both were obviously extreme choices: either surrender and become a traitor, or go with the flow and become the Great Western King. It was too extreme. We should have let the players write their own strategies a long time ago!

"During the heyday of the demon race, I advocated being a lapdog to humans who were only a few years old. Regardless of how the humans viewed me, it would be strange if my cheap father didn't cut ties with me. It was a completely unrealistic and suicidal path."

"And going with the flow will inevitably invite extreme retaliation from the human race in the future. With racial revenge ingrained in their minds, the human race is even more monstrous when it comes to slaughtering the demon race. They slaughtered a full 70% of the living beings, focusing on the principle of exterminating nine generations of relatives. Even the neutral faction opposed the slaughter, which made the demon race thoroughly engrave their hatred for the human race into their blood. Even herbivores that have become spirits will eat people..."

After reading the two side stories, Zhao Si had a preliminary understanding of the entire massacre:

"The cause was that the Demon Court suddenly issued an edict to massacre the human race, which aroused hatred among the human race."

"Then the Wu tribe used this incident to condemn the Yao tribe for going against the will of Heaven and committing massacres, seizing the moral high ground, and taking the opportunity to break away from the Yao tribe, which angered the Yao court and triggered the Wu-Yao War. The high-ranking officials of both tribes were exhausted, giving the human race an opportunity to counterattack."

"In the end, the human race seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack, conquered the Heavenly Court, trampled the bones of the nobles and burned them to ashes, and ascended to the position of the protagonist of heaven and earth. However, they were also extremely vengeful, wantonly implicating others. Regardless of whether there was any killing, they only judged people by their bloodline. They almost wiped out all the demon races, large and small, killing so much that the demon races of later generations were born with hatred for the human race. The descendants of the two races have repeated the cycle of killing countless times..."

"The Six Sages acted as bystanders in the whole incident, without personally taking sides, but for some reason they protected the weaker human race, giving the human race time and space to accumulate strength, and ultimately successfully rebelled against the heavens and destroyed the demons... No, the Six Sages should have been involved, or at least indirectly took sides."

Zhao Si recalled the last few paragraphs of the second side storyline, and the scroll-holding Taoist priest the protagonist saw before his death. Judging from the black and white fish chasing each other on the scroll, it was highly likely that it was the Taiji Diagram, the innate treasure of the Taiqing Sage. The identity of the scroll-holding Taoist priest would then become obvious:

"Xuan Du?"

Among the disciples of Taiqing Sect, besides the Sage himself, there should only be one other Taoist qualified to possess the Taiji Diagram. Moreover, Xuandu is probably of human origin, so he has a reason to participate in the war.

In this way, the Sage Taiqing not only took a human as his disciple, but also spent a lot of effort to cultivate him into a great supernatural being, and even allowed him to use the Taiji Diagram. If this is not considered taking sides, then Zhao Si does not know what taking sides means.

While the Supreme Sage indirectly took sides, did the other five sages also take action?

It's likely they were involved too, especially Nuwa, the mother of humanity. Even if she personally intervened to help her children kill a hundred or so Heavenly Demon Saints, Zhao Si wouldn't find it strange, after all, she's their mother...

Zhao Si became increasingly engrossed in the thought, feeling as if she were playing a puzzle game. Every description in the game's description could serve as a clue to deciphering the mystery, and the puzzle she needed to solve now was precisely related to the cause of the entire incident:

"So the question is, why does Di Jun harbor such deep hostility towards a race that has only been around for a few years, to the point that he would rather offend Nuwa, who has already become a saint, and be accused of wantonly slaughtering innocent people, undermining the legitimacy of the Heavenly Court's rule, and giving the Witch Clan an excuse to become independent, just to kill people?"

Zhao Si is a die-hard fan of the prehistoric fantasy genre of web novels. He's been reading them since he was a child, and he knows the basic plots and settings of the prehistoric world by heart. As for the question of why the demon race slaughters humans, different versions of the prehistoric world setting give different answers:

Some say it's because humans were made from rare and precious materials, which attracted the covetous eyes of many demons, leading to the massacre.

Some say it's because the human race is weak, and the demon race are all socialists, so the weak don't deserve to live.

Others say it's because destiny cannot be defied; humans are born destined to be the protagonists, and they must be slaughtered before they can become the main characters...

In any case, Zhao Si felt that none of the above reasons made sense, because the Heavenly Court was a symbol of the high level of civilization and order established by the demon race. It was a class power institution, and with the demon race as the base of the people, it meant that it had no racial or ethnic attributes at all, because "demon" was not a specific race.

For example, wolf demons are members of the demon race, and sheep demons are also members of the demon race. It is common knowledge that wolves eating sheep is a matter of course. But would the Heavenly Court allow wolf demons to eat sheep demons at will? Obviously not, because they are both "demons," belonging to the same demon race, and both are part of the Heavenly Court's core group. Demons eating demons is just like humans eating humans. No matter what the Heavenly Law stipulates, this is impossible to allow, at least not on the surface.

Wolves, sheep, dragons, and birds are completely different species, yet they can all be classified as demons. Similarly, what about humans? Do humans also fit the definition of demons? The answer is absolutely yes. Humans and other beast demons are essentially within the definition of demons, so humans are also a kind of "demon." To think that humans are not demons or are superior to demons is actually committing the error of human supremacy.

Therefore, setting aside the slight possibility that Dijun slaughtered people because he had cerebral palsy, the Heavenly Court had no reason to massacre newborn humans, unless...

"Unless there is some reason that makes Di Jun expel the human race from the list of demons, classify the human race as non-citizens, and believe that the human race is a great harm to the Heavenly Court and all the demon races, and thus order the massacre of the human race."

Zhao Si pondered this:

"The regime itself is not racial and will not target a particular group simply because of racial differences. Generally, the ruling party or the public will only deliberately target a group when the interests of that group conflict with the interests of the regime's base."

For example, the massacre of the Dzungar Khanate by the Qing Dynasty was also due to the Dzungar Khanate's repeated military incursions against the Qing Dynasty, its conflict with the Qing Dynasty's established strategy of unifying Tibet and Xinjiang, and its repeated provocations of Emperor Qianlong himself.

Of course, the above does not include truly morbidly stupid individuals, since there are indeed leaders and regimes that take pleasure in killing...

However, as the founder of the Heavenly Court, Di Jun categorized all races as demons, which is clearly not the mindset of someone with a brain idiot. At the very least, the prehistoric world under his rule was able to maintain basic social order.

Is it because humans were created from rare and precious materials, or because humans are weak, that we must start a massacre?

This reason is probably not sufficient for Di Jun.

Similarly, there is no reason for Dijun to be intolerant of the Wu tribe. Some prehistoric versions portray Wu and Yao as inherently opposed, which actually falls into racism.

Since the Wu tribe insisted on opposing him even though Di Jun treated all races equally, it could only prove that the Twelve Ancestral Witches were treacherous and ambitious schemers, or that the common people of the Wu tribe were "superior people" who all had their noses on their heads. They were uncomfortable when others were willing to treat them equally, so they wanted to ride on the heads of everyone else and act arrogantly.

In that case, it would be too righteous for the Heavenly Court to wipe out the "Witch Clan Anti-Life Bandit Gang" that was splitting, seizing power, and oppressing all living beings. The Witch-Demon War would directly turn into a war of suppression in which the Demon side had all the advantages of timing, location, and popular support...

Therefore, Zhao Si is very satisfied with the setting of "the Wu tribe rebelling against Heaven because the human race was slaughtered without cause, which led to the outbreak of the Wu-Yao war" in this version of the prehistoric world setting. This makes sense!

In this way, the classic old version of the prehistoric fantasy setting that "the demon race slaughtered humans in order to forge the Demon Slayer Sword" loses its legitimacy, because the demon race originally rebelled because the human race was slaughtered.

"So, why exactly did the massacre begin?"

The more Zhao Si thought about it, the more interested he became. He really wanted to figure out the reason behind the "Primordial Simulator" game, not only because of the personal threat posed by the paranormal events, but also because of his curiosity.

He admitted that he had really gotten into this little game that he downloaded on a whim.

……

(End of this chapter)