"Right. Earth keeps rewinding this world over and over until it gets the result it wants. It set the Upper Class People and the lower-class at each other's throats, blew up what was still a barely workable relationship, and in the end polarized things into what we have now." This was the conclusion Gu Mian and Lu Yi had come to last time.

After speaking, he glanced at Slaughter next to him, but because the other was wearing a helmet, Gu Mian couldn't see his expression.

It was a long time before Gu Mian finally heard Slaughter's voice coming down from the eyeball above his head: "Yeah… yeah… why didn't I think of all this from the start…"

There was a bit of a quiver in his tone, and what he said sounded a little off.

The little eyeball on the tree branch had already come down. It seemed to want to land on top of Slaughter's head to have a rest. It buzzed around Slaughter's head twice, but just couldn't find a place to set itself down.

Slaughter's entire head was encased in a round helmet, and the round eyeball would just gurgle and slide right off if it tried to sit on it.

So it took a step back, so to speak, and rolled its gaze over to Gu Mian's head.

Gu Mian's hair was very fluffy, looking soft and warm, perfectly suited for a round little thing to perch on.

The little eyeball stared at the top of Gu Mian's head with some hesitation, very much wanting to land there.

Gu Mian noticed its gaze, turned his head, and gave it a kindly smile. The little eyeball took one look and flew off in fright.

"I should have realized sooner…" Slaughter, holding his head, was still muttering to himself.

Gu Mian had just opened his mouth to ask him what he meant by that when he saw a large swath of light appear ahead.

He turned to look. A few searchlights were set up in the distance, illuminating an area, and beneath the searchlights was something strung together that looked like a fence.

These "Iron fence" segments were linked together into a large arc, and you couldn't see where the fence ended at a glance.

They seemed to encircle the entire forest.

And every so often along the fence, a gun barrel protruded; the noise from earlier had likely come from these barrels.

He saw his little companions standing still outside the fence, not moving forward anymore.

Right, what Gu Mian had wanted back then was for everyone to charge up together and knock over the Upper Class People.

But he swept his gaze around and didn't see any other Upper Class People here; the only one was still in his own hands.

With that in mind, he looked again at the gun barrels jutting out from the Iron fence.

These weapons had to be automated; once they detected a living creature nearby, they would wake up and extend, shooting any creature that wandered close to death.

If he hadn't heard the gunshots at the very beginning and had just driven the delivery truck straight through, he and the mechanical dog would probably already be riddled with holes.

Right now the gun barrels were all drooping, in sleep mode; when Slaughter came out, he had given them a ceasefire command.

Gu Mian asked the person beside him, "It's just you here?"

"Yeah, just me;" Slaughter was also looking at those drooping gun muzzles. "Because of how special that statue is, it's not suitable to station too many people here. Just now you asked me why I'm wearing this helmet—this helmet is for isolating consciousness."

Isolating consciousness…

By now the two of them had crossed that automated firing line and entered the forest.

As soon as he stepped in, Gu Mian saw that underfoot was a smooth stone path, leading straight ahead.

On both sides of the stone path stood street lamps for lighting.

The big trees on either side were very dense, their branches and leaves overhead almost completely blocking out the sky so that not a single ray of moonlight from outside could get in.

If it weren't for the street lamps, this place would definitely be pitch-black right now.

Gu Mian followed the path with his eyes, but couldn't see where it ended.

The two of them continued walking forward.

"After we unearthed that statue and realized this world might have gone through countless reloads, some people fell into a panic;

'Oh! We Upper Class People spent so long finally separating ourselves completely from that lot of lower-class people. If everything suddenly rewinds and the lower-class get to rise up, wouldn't all our efforts be for nothing?'—someone said that at the time."

Gu Mian had discussed this with Lu Yi back in the Circus instance.

At the very beginning, the relationship between the Upper Class People and the lower-class, while hostile, was at most like that between landlord and the exploited.

But now, the gap between the Upper Class People and the lower-class was wider than the gap between humans and dogs.

The two sides were now completely separated.

But that Upper Class Person Slaughter mentioned was clearly overthinking it; Earth controlled the Paradise World's rewinds precisely to intensify the conflict between the Upper Class People and the lower-class, to widen the rift between them.

Even if it rewound again, the conflict would only deepen. The lower-class were never going to get a chance to turn things around.

However, the Upper Class People didn't know about this; only Lu Yi had vaguely guessed it.

"When they saw that statue itself could be immune to the world's rewinds, they wanted to move it out to study it, to see if they could find a way to stop the world from rewinding. Deep down, they didn't want time to roll back;

"But no matter what methods they used, they couldn't move that intact statue an inch, so they had to settle for second best and transport those fragments out instead;

"They took the fragments out to study them, but didn't figure out anything at all. Someone suggested they could try remaking those fragments into new statues and placing them all over the world. Maybe once the statues were spread across the globe, they'd bless this world so it would stop rewinding…

"Of course, this place still needed someone to guard it, in case anything happened to the most precious intact statue inside. My status was very high, and I volunteered to stay here; naturally, no one had any objections."

"Your status was very high?" Gu Mian repeated.

Slaughter froze for a moment, clearly not expecting Gu Mian to start discussing something like status with him.

He spaced out for a bit, then answered, "Yeah, my status was very high. I was almost one of the very first 'Upper Class People'. The Upper Class People–lower-class division plan was my proposal, and that slaughter game you once took part in was also my idea."

When he said this, there was a deep powerlessness in Slaughter's tone, as if someone had their hands around his throat and had forced him to do all this.

Gu Mian also found his statement strange.

Coming up with a plan to divide Upper Class People and lower-class, and creating a bloody, brutal show like the slaughter game—just from the deeds alone, Gu Mian would definitely have thought this man was utterly deranged.

Yet the person who had pulled off such glorious achievements was currently being held at Saw-point by him, looking every bit like a pitiful, demure "good housewife," with no sign of a madman anywhere.

Truly, you can't judge a book by its cover, nor measure the sea with a bucket.

The good housewife continued, "Very soon, while guarding this place, I discovered other unusual things about that statue. I'm someone who dreams a lot, and my first night here was no exception. That night, I dreamed that the lower-class people launched a fierce uprising—they were finally going to resist the Upper Class People;

"In the dream, countless wars broke out between lower-class and Upper Class People, and in the end the Upper Class People were defeated. I dreamed that the leader of the lower-class led a group of them into my residence, and with one stroke cut off my head. I was so terrified that I woke up immediately, and the moment I opened my eyes I got scared all over again by what was in front of me. You have no idea what I saw…"

Gu Mian knew the function of that intact Evil God statue was probably something along the lines of "wish fulfillment."

"When you opened your eyes, you saw your own body without a head?" he guessed.

Slaughter's helmet moved a little; Gu Mian figured his head was probably shaking inside.

"I saw that lower-class leader from my dream standing at the foot of my bed, holding a blade and grinning at me."

The little buzzing eyeball finally found a good spot. It hovered back and forth a few times over Slaughter's shoulder, then carefully landed on it.

The smooth suit fabric sank into a shallow dent under its weight. The eyeball tilted left and right, and only when it was sure it wouldn't roll off did it fold its wings away.

Only then did Gu Mian notice several small holes on the back of the eyeball; Slaughter's voice was coming out from there.

"When I saw him, I even thought I was still dreaming. I pinched my thigh hard, and the stabbing pain made me realize everything in front of me was real, that I was already awake;

"Luckily, he didn't slice my head off with one stroke like in the dream. He just stood there smiling, like a mannequin, not moving at all. I questioned him, shook him, and he didn't react."

Shadows flickered on the ground.

Gu Mian looked up to see several moths circling the streetlamp. One particularly bold moth beat its wings and threw itself at the blinding light, its hot blood seemingly surging toward the brightest future.

With a dull little thud, it drifted down like a leaf, swaying side to side, and landed by Gu Mian's feet.

Gu Mian lowered his head to look at the moth. "You questioned him? Shook him?"

How strange.

Most people's reaction wouldn't be "questioning" and "shaking."

Gu Mian tried putting himself in Teacher Slaughter's shoes. If Teacher Slaughter woke up to find a lower-class person about to cut off his head, he would most likely be scared out of his wits and curl up against the wall, scared stiff yet still mouthing off.

He'd probably say things like, "What do you think you're doing, you lowly lower-class?" "Just wait till they rescue me, you'll be sorry," and so on.

This kind of "shaking" action rarely happens between strangers.

Gu Mian had seen in dramas where the male lead shakes the female lead while demanding, "Why don't you love me?"

But he'd never seen a male lead grab some random passerby by the shoulders to shake and question them.

"Yes, but he was like a statue, not moving at all. I had no choice but to tie him up and put him in the corner. That day, I kept trying to make him speak, or at least move a little, but he didn't twitch a muscle;

"I was worried and anxious, and only fell asleep again near dawn. Guess what? I dreamed of him again. I dreamed he sliced my head off with one stroke again. I woke up in terror, and as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw him standing at the head of my bed, grinning at me with the blade."

What a never-ending nightmare.

"I thought he'd broken free of the rope, but when I looked over at the corner, I found another him there, still tied up and exactly the same;

"Then I thought I had to still be dreaming. I pinched my thigh hard, wanting to wake myself up, but the pain once again told me I wasn't dreaming. Tell me that's not bizarre—two identical people in my room, even the curve of their smiles was exactly the same. It was terrifying!"