Lu Xun was left dazed by everything he was hearing.
He was still having a hard time adjusting to his sudden identity as a savior.
“Is there anything else you want to ask?” the man asked.
Lu Xun blinked, his heart sinking as he asked anxiously, “Are you leaving?”
“A savior who has to save the world is a very busy man. To ensure all the gods are exiled, we cannot afford to relax for even a second.” A faint light flickered in the man's lonely eyes. “Do you remember what I told you? If even one of us fails, all the gods will return, civilization will perish once more, and everything we've done will be for nothing.”
“So we cannot stop. We must keep walking this path, over and over, forever.”
Lu Xun's heart tightened, feeling an inevitable sense of sorrow. “That sounds cruel.”
“The suffering of one person is always better than the extinction of an entire civilization.” The man seemed used to it. He pulled a Zhonghua cigarette from his pocket, lit it with practiced ease, and reflexively offered one to Lu Xun.
“I don't smoke,” Lu Xun said, waving it away.
He watched the man smoke. The man looked exactly like him, but he was clearly more mature, with the traces of time etched upon him.
Furthermore, he didn't look like a god at all—just a human who happened to possess immense power. Even with the status of a god, he still couldn't forget the taste of nicotine.
“Is there anything else you want to ask?” the man asked again.
Lu Xun couldn't help but feel melancholy. “ I'm still worried I won't do a good job. Sealing gods and all that... it sounds too absurd.”
“Actually, sealing a god isn't that hard. It's nothing more than weakening them first, then using a celestial body as a cage to lock them up when they aren't paying attention. Isn't that simple?”
“Hey, that's only simple for you! I don't have power as incredible as yours!”
“You want power? It's simple. You need a group of absolutely loyal followers to provide you with Faith Energy. That is the fundamental source of divine power and your own origin,” the man said, adding one more thing, “The cost of resurrecting someone is high. Sometimes, it's okay to let go.”
Lu Xun froze for a moment. He realized the man was referring to when he had resurrected Grinya.
Now that he mentioned it, he really did seem to have a string of bad luck for quite a while after that.
“I know what I'm doing,” Lu Xun said.
The man gave him a deep look but said nothing more.
“Oh, right, I have one more question,” Lu Xun said.
“The prize money from that survey back then... where did it come from?”
The man gave a contemptuous, playful smirk. He held a savings card from the Rural Commercial Bank between two fingers, showing it off to Lu Xun.
Lu Xun: “...”
Dammit, so I was just spending my own money all along!
“Actually, money is meaningless to me now. If you want it, take it. You should be able to guess the password.” The man tossed the savings card to Lu Xun.
Lu Xun held his breath, suppressing his inner excitement to keep from losing his composure.
This was the wealth of a god!
But then a thought occurred to him, and he immediately became wary. “There isn't almost no money left in here, is there?”
“Hey, I'm a god, after all. Isn't making a bit of money easy? Don't you have any faith in yourself?”
“You tell me.”
The two of them shared a smile.
“Goodbye, my younger self. Good luck.” The man's body began to turn translucent.
Lu Xun hadn't adjusted yet. “Is it over just like that?”
“No, this is only the beginning.” The man smiled slightly. “Perhaps we will have a chance to meet again in the future. There are other Lu Xuns from other space-times; I'm sure you'll be happy to meet them too.”
“Do you think I'll be happy to see them?”
“You will be.”
“Then I will be.”
The man gave one last gratified smile and slowly backed away like an actor taking his final bow. With every step he took, his figure became more ethereal.
“Wait!” Lu Xun shouted. “I have one more question!”
The man stopped and looked at him.
Lu Xun asked somewhat sheepishly, “Am I going to have any failing grades this semester?”
The man seemed to recall some unpleasant memories, and his expression turned strange.
“I think it's best if you don't ask.”
“Hey, big brother, saying that makes me really worried! I'm not going to fail a lot, am I?” Lu Xun's face went pale.
“I don't know what your outcome will be. After all, I said you and I will experience different lives, but...” The man shrugged. “Anyway, I ended up repeating a year.”
Hearing this unfortunate result, Lu Xun immediately felt much worse.
Even a god couldn't escape the fate of repeating a year?
Being a god was really pathetic.
“Let's end the newbie tutorial here. I really have to go. Those filthy monkeys won't stay quiet forever; I have to keep an eye on them at all times,” the man said one last time before his figure completely vanished from this world.
Newbie tutorial... Lu Xun was stunned for a moment when he heard those words.
So after all that, his first newbie boss was actually the God of Chaos? He had thought it was that little fatty, Buze.
Well, to his future self, the God of Chaos probably really did only count as a newbie boss.
But if Grinya and the others hadn't bought him time, he wouldn't have been able to arrive in time to tangle with Chaos. Chaos also wouldn't have sacrificed part of its origin power to escape the abyss. What he had faced was, in fact, an incomplete God of Chaos.
He had no idea how strong a true god actually was.
Wait...
Lu Xun stared stiffly at the azure planet.
How was he supposed to get back?
...
Lu Xun didn't know how long he spent fumbling around. Ever since he had accepted the Faith Energy, he had gained a bunch of strange abilities, like a whole set of new features suddenly popping up in a game.
He knew he had undergone a world-shaking transformation, but he didn't know what these new features did.
So, he had to try them one by one.
Most of the features weren't very helpful to him right now.
For example, features like checking follower status, inspecting his backpack, or viewing the map—things that only existed in games—now appeared in his mind.
Regarding follower status, there wasn't much to say about Andrew. His values were stable and his health was good; he was a reliable boy.
But Grinya's side was a bit dire. Her health bar was almost empty, and all her stats were severely weakened. Most concerning was her status effect; it showed that Grinya had already crossed the critical threshold for mutation. In reality, that was no different from death, yet she had stubbornly persevered until now through sheer willpower.
These two were Lu Xun's only direct followers so far, and his bond with them was the deepest. In Lu Xun's follower level system, they were represented by the highest-level red stars.
However, Lu Xun also discovered several other stars of different colors. Although the people represented by these stars weren't his followers yet, they could become his followers at any time.
“Gexi Maierche? This girl can actually be my follower?” Lu Xun's expression was odd.
She had been so enthusiastic about trying to kill him before, yet now she had suddenly become a potential follower. It was a strange feeling.
“Morai Sulin, Ruiya Kata'er. Why does this person have two names? How strange.” Lu Xun frowned.
He looked at the final star. Unlike the previous two purple stars, this one was dim and lifeless.
For some reason, Lu Xun felt a strange sense of solemnity when he looked at it.
“Buze Kritov? It's actually him?” Lu Xun was shocked. He never expected the last person who could have become his follower would be the little boss from his newbie tutorial—the minor villain he once thought would constantly cause trouble for him.
Lu Xun probably wouldn't forget that little fatty, because every time he showed up, he always brought Lu Xun good luck.
But he was already dead.
That dim star meant his life was gone forever, his soul completely burned out, leaving no possibility of resurrection.
Lu Xun's feelings were complicated. After all, he used to simply view these people as game characters, but now he was being told they were all living beings with their own consciousness and lives.
That arrogant little fatty who always had the word 'honor' on his lips was gone forever.
Rate on N.U.
