The image of Lu Yizhan faded into darkness, and a new line of subtitles appeared on the small television:

[Game Mainline Setting Part 3—The Fragmented Intimate Team]

The scene faded in from far away. A round sun hung over the sea, and a misty, gentle fog drifted through the air. The perspective turned inward, toward a towering and solemn divine temple that loomed indistinctly amid the deep-blue sea mist and the fiery light of the sun, mysterious and beautiful.

But this temple seemed to have endured a fierce battle. Black craters left by falling flaming stones were everywhere. Bai Liu recognized them at a glance—the melted marks of Liu Jiayi’s poison corrosion, Mu Sicheng’s claw marks, Tang Erda’s bullet holes, and Mu Ke’s dagger cuts.

These people should have just fought here. Yet for some reason, only Bai Liu was here now. Another strange point was that Bai Liu did not find any trace of his own attacks.

Bone-whip marks were very easy to identify. Bai Liu searched the scene several times but found none. However, traces of the other four people’s attacks were visible everywhere...

It looked as though, in this team battle where everyone had exhausted their full strength, Bai Liu had not existed at all.

Or perhaps his existence no longer held any meaning.

Continuing inward, past the scorched forest thickets and scattered gray-white stones, Bai Liu saw the traces of the four people he had been looking for.

Or rather, “traces” was not an accurate enough word.

They should be called corpses.

There was a bullet hole in Liu Jiayi’s forehead. She lay on her back on the ground, her gray eyes wide open and empty, while the poison in her hand leaked onto the ground and spread toward where Mu Ke lay at an angle.

Mu Ke’s eyes were lifeless. He held only one dagger. The other dagger was buried in Mu Sicheng’s chest, pinning him to a tree. Mu Sicheng’s head was tilted back against the trunk, the claws on his hands hanging at his sides as blood dripped down.

And the owner of that blood—Tang Erda—was leaning against a rock with his eyes closed and his head tilted to the side. His throat was a mangled mess of blood and torn flesh. His hand was still frozen in the posture of holding a gun, but the gun itself was nowhere to be seen.

Bai Liu finally understood why there were no traces of his attacks.

Because this was an internecine battle to the death between team members, and he had not participated in it.

At that moment, he heard an ethereal voice drift out from the clouds and mist behind him, carrying an elusive smile as it echoed through the mountain forest:

“The game of this world line has ended, Bai Liu.”

“You lost.”

The image faded, and the color of the subtitles on the small television turned black:

[Game Mainline Setting DLC—Game Saves of Other World Lines]

The noisy, static-filled image on the small television gradually became clear. On the screen was a pure-white room identical to the one that held Heretic 0001. In the center of the room stood a long table, with five tan file folders arranged in a row on top of it.

Sitting behind the table was a person wearing the uniform of the Heretic Management Bureau. The camera only captured him up to the chest, so his face could not be seen, but the ID card clipped to his chest pocket was visible. It read:

[First Branch Captain]

However, the name written after that was blurred, and Bai Liu could not see it clearly.

This First Branch Captain was organizing the file folders on the table.

The folders were opened, and the documents inside were arranged in order. Bai Liu saw that the serial numbers at the tops of the files were [0002], [0004], [0601], [0005], and [0006].

The First Branch Captain picked them up and reviewed them one by one, allowing Bai Liu to see the specific contents of the documents.

[Heretic 0004: Mu Sicheng]

[Mental Downgrade Process: The process by which a normal human regresses into a monster due to abnormal mental values. During the second semester of the 200X school year in high school, he witnessed his classmate Yuan Qingqing being struck and killed on the spot by Bus No. 11 due to his negligence. Later, under the influence of his university roommate Liu Huai, he entered the game. Because he was unwilling to join any large guild, he was besieged...]

[...Later, under Bai Six’s inducement, he killed Liu Huai, who had betrayed him, in a fit of rage. His desire to steal went out of control, and he became a member of the Wandering Circus...]

[Heretic 0004 Saved Ending in World Line 0237: Assassinated by the Little Witch Liu Jiayi.]

...

[Heretic 0004 Saved Ending in World Line 0412: Three years later, after losing his ability to play due to injury, he was abandoned by Bai Liu. During a pursuit, he was shot to death by Joker and thrown to the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau...]

...

[Heretic 0004 was contained by the Heretic Management Bureau in World Line 0045 and designated as 0004. Under the guarantee of the First Branch Captain—myself—he was released into society in World Line Sequence 0047. In this world line, he has completely integrated into society, transforming from a heretic back into an ordinary human and successfully achieving mental upgrade...]

[In the current world line, Sequence 0658, he has formed a new team with Bai Liu. His mental dimension is stable, with no obvious signs of downgrading into a monster...]

After organizing this file, the Captain continued and opened the next one:

[Heretic 0601: Liu Jiayi]

[Mental Downgrade Process: Congenital blindness. Due to her father’s improper behavior, she experienced a very long period of abuse before the age of six. Her older brother Liu Huai took her away when she was seven, after he entered university, but they still could not escape their father, who followed and harassed them for more than a year...]

[...One day, Liu Jiayi was kidnapped by her father and sold as an adopted daughter to a middle-aged butcher named Li Gou. Liu Huai failed to stop it. During the process, however, Liu Jiayi came into contact with the game player Li Gou and suffered severe psychological stimulation. While Liu Huai was sending her to a welfare home to protect her from further harassment by their father, her intense desire erupted, and she entered the game...]

[Later, under Bai Six’s inducement and assistance, she personally tortured and killed her father and Li Gou in reality. Her desire to torture went out of control, and she joined the Wandering Circus...]

[Heretic 0601 Saved Ending in World Line 0261: Arrested by the authorities while torturing a certain father. After violently resisting, she was shot dead on the spot.]

...

[Heretic 0601 was contained by the Heretic Management Bureau in World Line 0068 and designated as 0601. Under the guarantee of the First Branch Captain—myself—she was released into society in World Line Sequence 0071. In this world line, she has completely integrated into society, transforming from a heretic back into an ordinary human and successfully achieving mental upgrade...]

The Captain read through the folders very quickly. After finishing one, he swiftly opened the next:

[Heretic 0005: Daniel]

[Mental Downgrade Process: Born into the family of an international arms smuggler. Due to family tradition, all children were thrown into gangs to grow up. Their father did not care whether they lived or died—only the children who survived were worthy of respect...]

[At the age of seven, his mother was shot dead on the spot for betraying his father. To teach Daniel a lesson, his father ordered Daniel to film the moment his mother was shot and commanded him to play the video every night before bed during his prayers to God, calling it part of his family education...]

[...At the age of fourteen, Daniel was ordered to lead a group to intercept a batch of smuggled arms. However, those arms were actually Bai Liu’s smuggled heretical goods. Daniel failed the interception. After fleeing home, he was severely punished and was about to be discarded and killed by his father when Bai Six intervened. Bai Six contacted Daniel’s father, gifted that batch of smuggled goods to him for free, and became his father’s partner...]

[Because of this, Daniel survived. Later, as a gesture of goodwill toward Bai Six, his father acknowledged Bai Six as Daniel’s godfather...]

[...Bai Six took Daniel to his side and taught him. Not long after that, Daniel entered the game. A year later, Daniel shot and killed his father, crushed his father’s limbs and skull, and led the entire family to defect to Bai Six...]

[Heretic 0005 Saved Ending in World Line 0107: During a mission, he charged into the Bureau, killed seven of our team members, released one hundred and eight heretics, and was then shot dead.]

...

[Heretic 0005 has been highly domesticated by Bai Six and is extremely difficult to capture. As of the current world line, he has been successfully killed multiple times, but containment has failed...]

When the Captain reached for the next file, he hesitated for an extremely brief moment.

It was only an instant, but Bai Liu still caught it.

—This meant this file was different to the Captain.

Bai Liu’s gaze moved to the document on the table.

[Heretic 0002: Tang Erda]

[Mental Downgrade Process: Originally a member of the First Branch, currently the captain of the Third Branch. His mental state was stable in the initial world line. Later, because the first-generation Hunter began to lose control and mentally downgrade in World Line [0317], Tang Erda was chosen by the First Branch Captain—myself—in World Line [0325] as the second-generation Hunter to inherit the [Prophet] authority, responsible for killing heretics who had already committed crimes and containing those who were about to commit crimes...]

[...Across more than three hundred world lines, he was maliciously mentally polluted many times by Heretic 0006 exploiting his psychological weaknesses. He began to mentally downgrade in World Line [0642]. After persevering through a dozen or so more world lines, his mental state completely downgraded and collapsed into that of a heretic. He voluntarily accepted containment and voluntarily accepted being shot...]

[Due to his low level of harm, under the guarantee of the First Branch Captain—myself—he was not destroyed and is temporarily under observation...]

[...In the current world line, Sequence 0658, Heretic 0002 has formed a team with Heretic 0006. His current mental state is stable, with no signs of further downgrading for the time being...]

Then came the final file. Bai Liu looked at the document numbered [0006].

This document was much thicker than the previous ones, and also much older.

The First Branch Captain remained quiet for a long while before flipping open this last file.

[Heretic 0006: Bai Six (Bai Liu)]

[Mental Downgrade Process: Unknown. It seems that from the moment of birth, mental downgrade was already complete...]

[Aside from the current timeline, no world line has been found in which this heretic’s harmfulness is low...]

...

[Heretic 0006 Saved Ending in World Line 0003: Successfully polluted the world line using heretics. Game over.]

...

[Heretic 0006 Saved Ending in World Line 0407: Successfully polluted the world line using heretics. Game over.]

[Aside from the current world line, every discovered world line has been successfully polluted by Heretic 0006. The current world line is lightly polluted, and the current harmfulness of Heretic 0006 is unknown...]

[In World Line 0006, Heretic 0006 took the initiative to defect to the Heretic Management Bureau for containment. The reason he gave was that simple pollution events were too monotonous and failed to maximize benefits during resistance. Therefore, he needed the Heretic Management Bureau to use its full strength to resist him...]

[Heretic 0006 requested to play a heretic pollution confrontation match against the Heretic Management Bureau, with victory or defeat determined by whether the world line was completely polluted.]

[As long as he loses once, he will voluntarily accept permanent containment. If he continues winning, the Heretic Management Bureau will continue to exist in every world line as an objective hostile tool and benchmark, and combat against it cannot cease.]

[And Bai Six will use the hostile organization known as the Heretic Management Bureau to stimulate the combat capabilities of his team and the productivity of his subordinates...]

[The Heretic Management Bureau agreed to conduct the confrontation match...]

[Heretic 0006 was semi-contained in World Line 0006. Under the guarantee of the First Branch Captain—myself—he was released into society in World Line Sequence 0007. The deployment failed, and the world line was polluted...]

[Released into society in World Line 0008. Deployment failed, and the world line was polluted...]

...

[Released into society in World Line 0658, the current world line. The world line is lightly polluted, and no large-scale heretic pollution events have occurred yet...]

[...Heretic 0006 is suspected to have completed the mental upgrade process and can successfully integrate into society...]

[The outcome of this world line is pending...]

All the images on the small television faded away. The lens was taken from Bai Liu’s eye by Cen Buming.

Before him was a thick metal door.

Cen Buming raised an eyebrow and scrutinized Bai Liu. “Time’s up. What did you see that you still haven’t had enough of?”

“I saw the truth of the world,” Bai Liu said.

Cen Buming looked at him. “That sounds even scarier than [Future].”

Bai Liu smiled. “I agree.”

“So what is the truth?” Cen Buming asked.

Bai Liu said softly, “The truth is that our reality is a game that can be restarted over and over again.”

—

Author’s Note:

I’m here to explain the world-building!

It works like this: the real world is equivalent to a large-scale online game. Whenever a world line is completely contaminated by anomalies, then for Bai Liu’s side—which represents the monsters and evil—it means the game has been cleared, and they have won.

As for the Management Bureau’s side, whenever a world line is contaminated, it means they have lost this large-scale online game.

And every time a game ends, both sides can restart the game and reload. Before loading, a save must be made at the location called [Future], so [Future] is a save point.

Every time the world line restarts, its serial number increases by one. Up until now, the world line has already restarted six hundred and fifty-eight times.

A lot of world-building was introduced here, and there is a very large amount of information. I will explain it all later! You won’t be unable to understand it! It just feels like a lot when you look at it now, but you’ll slowly understand later on!

I don’t think the upcoming plot is that full of angst. It just looks scary, that’s all! It’s mainly that the setting of the anomaly [Future] is meant to be frightening.

Spades will be appearing very soon!