Slaughter's body swayed a few times, almost losing its footing on the stairs.

He seemed like a frail pretty boy, but here there was no wind, only boundless darkness.

He staggered several times before steadying himself, clearly shaken by Gu Mian's direct words.

"Yes… that's right. When I saw that statue and realized the world kept looping back, I understood. He never exited halfway; I think he succeeded countless times only to be destroyed again, no matter how hard he tried, the world could instantly obliterate everything he did…"

The Evil God's memories shouldn't disappear with each reset, otherwise he'd still be a hero clinging to happy delusions, doing naive, futile work, trying to overthrow Upper Class People and create a beautiful Paradise.

The memories preserved through repeated resets are like a sharp blade, constantly hanging over his head. He worries and fears that his efforts may turn into foam at any moment.

It's almost like a dating game without a save function, when the player finally raises the target's affection to ninety-nine, just one more effort away from a sweet ending, the game malfunctions and starts over.

Enough to drive one mad.

And the "game malfunction" the Evil God experienced happened more than once, possibly over a hundred times.

In these hundred cycles, he was constantly anxious, afraid the world would suddenly reset, turning all his efforts to foam.

Gu Mian could even imagine the other party's mental journey.

The first time, the Evil God led everyone past obstacles, defeated enemies played by teammates, and liberated the world. After the celebration, full of hope, he slept, only to close his eyes and wake up back in Novice Village, with everyone else losing their memory.

He was somewhat broken.

Though unsure of what happened, now wasn't the time to break down.

He gathered the people again to overcome numerous obstacles and defeat the dark. But this time, throughout the process, he was filled with anxious worry, concerned about a repeat of last time. After the celebration, he didn't dare to sleep, waiting with open eyes until dawn. Only when he saw the world unchanged did he rest assured and sleep.

Alright, Fatty could even guess the next part of the plot.

He closed his eyes, opened them, and found himself back in Novice Village.

This time he truly broke down.

It's ridiculous; if he weren't part of it himself, it could almost be a joke to share.

Next was reorganizing his mental state, starting the third time, fourth time… unsure how many repetitions.

Gu Mian believed during this period, the Evil God certainly made various efforts to end the cycle. He might have feared to sleep, worrying that closing his eyes would lead to a reset, maybe even considered suicide.

But all efforts were in vain.

After countless numb repetitions of the "Heroes Battle the Evil Dragon" story, he finally succumbed and chose to exit.

Yet his teammates without memory were still dutifully playing the villain, waiting for salvation.

At this point, the stairs were almost at the bottom, and Gu Mian saw the ground below, where a massive, pure white statue stood in the center. From this angle, Gu Mian could only see its top and the surrounding ground.

The Upper Class People had cleaned the area thoroughly. They laid wooden floors on the ground, and even built a short platform in front of the statue for people to kneel while making wishes.

Slaughter also looked at the statue: "I used to resent him, never understood why he disappeared midway, when we clearly agreed to complete this story together. But he simply vanished, leaving us in this painful torment, it's truly agonizing;

"After seeing this statue, I suddenly realized his pain might not be less than ours. Alone, he repeated the cycles, daily worried he might have to start over again, unable to see any future."

They were now at the end of the stairs, stepping onto the wooden floor.

Slaughter stood before the stairs, gazing at the statue from afar. After a long while, he finally took a step forward: "The statue holds a story, take a look."

A story? Gu Mian followed him and walked toward the statue's base.

The complete statue wore a robe and a crown, not making any superfluous poses, just standing there with its head slightly raised as if looking at the sky.

Gu Mian followed its gaze upward, but above there was no sky, only a dark cavern.

The Evil God's statues seen before had indistinguishable faces, but this one was different.

Despite the dim surroundings, Gu Mian could vividly see the statue's features resembling Xu Xingcheng.

Yet, what was most striking wasn't its features, but the... comics on its body?

Gu Mian saw the statue carved with rows of little figures, no, not just figures, but also simple backgrounds of flowers, trees, and environment.

It's evident the sculptor's technique wasn't exceptional. Even simple stick figures were carved crookedly, though the simplistic visuals could barely convey meaning.

Is this the story Slaughter mentioned?

Indeed.

In this world, only the statue can resist the reset's influence. If the Evil God wanted to leave any message, he could only do so on the statue.

Soon, Gu Mian found the story's beginning.

The comics were carved in a spiral around the statue, from bottom to top, and Gu Mian found the beginning at the statue's robe hem.

At first, three little figures were warmly gathered together, discussing something. Then, one of the little figures picked up a precious sword and separated from the other two, going alone.

These are all stick figures, Gu Mian couldn't tell which was which, but luckily the one who left had the sword, and Gu Mian could distinguish him from the others.

What's next is a simple plot.

Two stick figures committed numerous evil deeds, while the sword-wielding figure descended from the sky to defeat those two evil ones, with the oppressed people celebrating by lifting the sword figure high, seemingly in celebration.

The next scene shows the sword figure once again going off alone.

Gu Mian understood this depicted the Evil God's own story.

The sword figure is himself, and the two villainous figures are the Evil God's good teammates.

This story is really simplistic, just a few scenes sketching out a complete cycle.

Gu Mian patiently continued to look upwards.

The scenes a few circles above were mostly similar, until the picture book reached the waist, and the little sword man broke down.

In this segment of the drawing, after defeating two evil stick figures, the little sword man chose to commit suicide, hoping to end the cycle in this way.

But it was useless.

Next came the heartbreaking scene; he returned to the past once again.

Following this, he tried a series of actions such as starting by committing suicide and running away frantically, but none worked.

The story was drawing close to the end.

The picture book had reached the neck of the statue, and fortunately, Gu Mian's eyesight was good enough to barely see the content on it. This was the last segment of the drawing.

In this cycle, the little sword man once again overthrew evil, then madly killed everyone. Including the two evil stick figures and the people who helped him overthrow evil, he killed anyone he saw, trying to end the cycle by killing everyone involved.

He was already insane.

What a pity.

The subsequent plot was not unexpected; things returned to the beginning again.

Even Gu Mian was feeling exhausted watching, let alone the Evil God who truly experienced it time and time again.

He probably accepted reality too, as this time the beginning directly showed a little man with a crown, no longer the little sword man.

The last scene was the crowned little man standing there alone, looking very desolate.

The story ended there.

Gu Mian looked up at the crown on the statue.

The figure of the crowned man gradually overlapped with the statue in front.

He had changed, no longer the hero representing light, but a traitor who named himself "Slaughter."

Unexpectedly, the Evil God's experience was rather tragic.

Gu Mian thought back to when he just learned from Chu Changge that Xu Xingcheng was a clone of the Evil God, and he was somewhat incredulous.

Xu Xingcheng previously had no memory of the Evil God, was gentle and timid, not at all like the arrogant Evil God in Gu Mian's impression.

Back then, he was puzzled as to why the amnesiac Evil God was so cowardly.

Now it seems his nature was inherently like this, just gradually driven mad through the endless cycles.

Gu Mian immersed in his memories for a while, then snapped back, right, he was here to study the purpose or clues of this statue, after researching he must hurry back to rescue Lu Yi.

The person most familiar with this statue, other than Slaughter, could be questioned for any problems.

Gu Mian turned his head towards Slaughter: "Aside from making wishes, this statue also..."

His voice abruptly stopped.

Gu Mian looked beside him; it was empty, Slaughter had disappeared.

Where did he go?

Slaughter was so close to him, if he left, he would definitely hear something, yet he heard no sound at all, Slaughter just vanished inexplicably.

Gu Mian quickly scanned his surroundings.

The mechanical dog they brought down was still here, but Slaughter's figure was nowhere to be seen.

He then looked upwards.

Stone stairs spiraled up along the cave wall, with a hollow center, from here several loops of stairs could be seen.

But Slaughter was not on the stairs either.

Strange.

Did Slaughter sprout wings and fly away in such a short time?

At this moment, he suddenly heard the sound of something breaking, coming from above.

Gu Mian's forehead twitched; could it be? Could this place be about to collapse?

Considering his understanding of his own luck, this possibility was high.

Thinking of this, Gu Mian immediately grabbed the dog beside him, intending to run up the stairs; he didn't want to be buried here, buried too deep for Fatty to even hear his lament.

Then came an even louder cracking sound, and this time Gu Mian heard it clearly.

The sound came from the statue beside him.

Holding the dog, Gu Mian turned to look at the statue.

Only to see a slender crack at the crown area on its head, the crack snaking downward, splitting the statue's entire face.

Gu Mian felt overwhelmed.

This time he hadn't touched the statue, yet somehow it seemed keen to incriminate him?