Chapter 581: The Evil God's Game

Wang Shun's head snapped up and he looked over to see Bai Liu walking out of the boarding area in one piece, without a scratch on him.

The moment he saw Bai Liu's eyes, the smile on Wang Shun's face froze.

Meanwhile, the presenter on the big screen waved his hand vehemently: "The system has determined that the winner of the league is -"

"-The Wandering Circus!"

"Let's congratulate the Circus President and Tactician, Bai Liu!"

There were screams and cheers from the crowd, many of whom were so excited that they took their clothes off and waved them onto the field, not knowing what was going on in the game, but simply being lustful gamblers, betting on the right side of the game to win and feeling genuinely happy to have doubled their points.

The whole room was on its feet, and someone put two fingers in his mouth and whistled, in a shrill voice, laughing as he did so: "Wandering Circus! Gods forever!"

" Bai Liu, awesome!"

"Team Brand New Man is in the final!"

"Not exactly your standard brand new guy, but it's pretty strong, they've got a lot of quality newbies, and that assassin and that thief are both really good."

Laughter came from all directions, while Bai Liu stood motionless at the exit, staring into the eyes of a rigid, motionless Wang Shun, with no trace of popularity left in his eyes.

Water dangled from the ends of his hair.

Wang Shun opened his mouth, his face blank, and he looked behind him at the empty, closed boarding gate, and stopped incomprehensibly.

Where are the other two?

Stray Circus, and two unlisted players?

He wanted to ask, but always felt that he was being cruel to Bai Liu with this question, but Bai Liu seemed to read his eyes and lowered his eyes and answered his question in a very soft voice: "They didn't manage to log out."

"...... soul was completely shattered away."

The moment the words came out of Bai Liu's mouth, Wang Shun shuddered violently, his tears falling only now, and he could only keep, incomprehensibly, repeating, "How could ......"

"How so?!"

Lu Yizhan looked very slowly towards Bai Liu, who must have had a very strange expression at the moment, a mixture of fear, confusion, pain -

-and the odd look of frustration.

Bai Liu looked at him, as calm as the surface of a lake where no ripples could be made by falling rocks, and then looked at Lu Yizhan in a quiet and peaceful manner, and then said in the tone of voice that he would not want him and Fang Dian to go to his room in the future when he informed him that he would live alone when he graduated from university.

" Lu Yizhan, I'm going to be an evil god."

"Keep standing in my way and I'll really kill you this time."

Lu Yizhan's heart was empty, very lightly empty, like a feather falling to the ground, a bubble floating up to the sea, and he thought that at this moment he would cry, he would shed tears, he would break down, but when he really came to this moment, he could not feel any emotion.

It was as if he had waited a long time for the sword hanging over his head to finally fall, only to find that it had rusted itself, a very dull and painful lynching, nowhere near as painful as he had first thought.

But it does leave one dazed, mind blank and unable to think.

-- it was like 317 world lines, and he felt the same way when he saw Cen Buming pointing his gun at those people.

He had expected this day to come, he had long seen in [the future] that there was this scene, he had even watched literally as the sword fell and killed him, only he was resigned to it and so was resisting with all his might the future that God had given them.

But at this moment, Lu Yizhan felt very deeply that the illusion of peace, which he had tried so hard to maintain until now, had finally disintegrated in this moment.

The real world, at dawn.

Mu Sicheng sits hollow-eyed at the bus stop outside the school, not far from a car that is driving out of control towards him, the dazzling light of its headlights illuminating the side of his face.

He was wearing those monkey headphones, his eyes out of focus and a key clutched in his hand.

--Not the key to his dormitory, but the key to Bai Liu's rented house, where he had planned to live in the future.

Because he didn't want to go home or be alone, he wanted to stay with his friends.

He wanted to stay with Bai Liu.

So Bai Liu gave him the keys and said with a calm face that the rent was one thousand five hundred a month, and he angrily cursed the other man for his lack of conscience and snatched the keys away.

The dazzling light of the headlights approached him.

Serenity Villas.

The nanny pushed open the door, ready to clean as usual, and was a little stunned to see Muke lying on the bed; she remembered that Young Master Muke had gone out last night, and had smiled and said that he would not return tonight because he had something important to attend to.

Why are you back all of a sudden?

" Young Master Muke?" The nanny inquired tentatively and softly, "When did you get back?"

Muke suddenly flips off the bed, covering his heart and curling up into a ball, his lips have turned a reddish-purple colour and his whole face is clenched in pain.

The nanny's face was instantly white with shock and her scream woke everyone up, "Get a doctor!!!"

" Young Master Muke is having a heart attack!!!"

"Help!!!"

After a flurry of soldiers, the family doctor in his crooked clothes looked at the heartbeat monitor next to him with a grimace, "How did it suddenly deteriorate like this?!"

" Muke was so much better before!!!"

Muke in bed, wearing a simple breathing mask, his eyes drifting out of focus, he struggles to turn his head a little to look at the photograph on his bedside table -

--It was a group photo, or maybe that's not the right word. He had secretly saved and printed out a drawing of the Quan family photo from Fang Dian's circle of friends and put it in a frame.

Muke looks at each person in the frame and finally his eyes rest on Bai Liu's portrait and he smiles very lightly, his eyelids dropping down.

...... has had things in his life that would make him feel happy before he died.

Enough already.

The doctor looked at the zeroed heartbeat with a horrified face, "Hasn't the ambulance come yet!"

Residential building.

Xiang Chunhua pushes open Jiayi's bedroom door and she looks at the bulge on the bed for a moment, "Jiayi?"

-- Didn't they say they were going to play in the game today and specifically warned them not to go into the game to watch, that it would affect her, distract her and make her play badly, so why did they come out on their own?

Game over?

But Jiayi usually finishes the game at Bai Liu's place before being sent back by Bai Liu, so why did she log out of the bedroom today?

Does it mean a race?!

Xiang Chunhua's heart fluttered, a sense of foreboding came over her, she took three steps and lifted the covers, then her pupils shrank, her face went white and her voice was sharp: " Jiayi ?

Liu Jiayi cowered in the cup, shivering, apparently unconscious, huddled in a tiny ball with her doll, her shoulders and body trembling, her eyes covered in blood and bleeding all the time, her fists against her side, her mouth whimpering very softly.

"Brother, I'm in pain ......"

" Bai Liu, I'm in pain ......"

"Don't hit me, don't hit me ......"

" Liu Fu!!!" Xiang Chunhua wrapped Liu Jiayi in a blanket and shouted anxiously, "Call a car, let's go to the hospital!"

" Jiayi is injured!"

The taxi arrives at the entrance to the hospital and stops. Xiang Chunhua rushes to the emergency department with Liu Jiayi in his arms, Liu Fu anxiously at his side, as they run past the stall selling red bean cakes.

A sweet fragrance wafting through the air.

At the entrance to the neighbourhood where Tang Erda lives, Su Yang sorts out the things Tang Erda left behind at the Heretics Authority and did not take with her.

" Tang Erda." Su Yang knocked softly on Tang Erda's door, then frowned, "Not in?"

I don't think so. At this hour, it was just the time when Tang Erda, a guy with a regular routine, got up for his morning walk. He didn't see Tang Erda downstairs for his morning walk and thought that he had brought his things up because Tang Erda hadn't gone out.

Su Yang was about to go downstairs, drop his stuff off at the doorman and call Tang Erda to pick it up himself, when he turned around and, out of an instinct that comes from years of dealing with danger, Su Yang thought he smelled ...... blood.

He turned his head and his expression froze as he looked towards the closed door.

Su Yang quickly went downstairs to inform the security guard and asked him to open the door with the spare key Tang Erda had left at the property.

" Team Tang!"

Bai Liu logged out of the game from his rented house and he was surrounded by people who wanted to chase him and ask him a lot of questions, but that's how he logged out.

A man sits motionless in his chair in the study.

Tang Erda's and Spades' coats are still on the chairs, Muke's books are on the floor, and on the table are the fruit plates that Liu Jiayi brought in and Mu Sicheng knocked the melon rinds off the table.

Bai Liu's mobile phone vibrated and he picked it up, and Su Yang's anxious voice came through.

"Bai Liu, are you home? I suspect that Team Tang was attacked by a heretic, he was very badly injured, I took him to the hospital under the administration of the Heresy Board and he is being resuscitated now."

"His number one emergency contact on his phone is you, he has no family or other friends that he contacts regularly, and right now he's in serious condition, can you come over for a minute?"

"I'll send you the address."

Bai Liu was quiet: "Good."

Within a second of putting the phone down, it rang again, and Bai Liu picked it up with Xiang Chunhua's panicked voice on the other end.

"President Bai, Jiayi has been injured! We took her to the hospital, but we don't know what her injuries are, the doctor is looking at her, can you come over?"

Bai Liu paused, "I'll be right over."

Before he could hang up this phone, a new call came in.

"Hello? Are you Mr. Bai Liu, the parent of Mu Sicheng?"

"I am his counsellor, we can't contact his parents at the moment, the first emergency contact on Mu Sicheng's mobile phone is you, he had a car accident this morning, his situation is very urgent, he is being rescued, can you come over quickly?

"Hello? Mr. Bai Liu? I'm Master Muke's butler, he's had a heart attack!"

"I would like to ask you if you know of any triggers for Master Muke's heart attack when you were with him recently? The doctor said that if he doesn't get it under control, Master Muke is going to ......"

It was a very strange state, Bai Liu could calmly pick up the phone and put it down again, map out the address of the hospital he received and the route he would take, then put the phone down, stand up on his desk and even add a coat, Bai Liu looked up at the familiar and unfamiliar things in the orange light in front of him.

The cozy picture these things made up gradually disintegrated in Bai Liu's eyes, disintegrated into something he could not understand, like something unreal that dazed him a little -

--did it really exist?

These people ...... these people who were leaving him, who were dying, had really been all around him, in this narrow room, laughing and joking, turning to him and smiling, saying, Bai Liu --

--We'll be with you until the end of the game.

Has ...... ever been?

Or is it all just a self-projected fantasy of emotional satisfaction for him, a human being considered by all to be a psychopath, a monster, a heretic, because he has been excluded from the mainstream of society?

For example, he sees a sunny and lively university student Mu Sicheng on the street, a well-groomed and sophisticated young master Muke in his private styling studio, the most talented child Liu Jiayi advertised on TV, and a serious-looking Tang Erda on a mission passing by.

And he's just a ...... gloomy and withdrawn monster who self-imagines this scene because he fantasizes and wants to be friends with these people.

--his high school homeroom teacher would tell him that a monster like you can only make friends through fantasy.

Maybe he did.

It would be nice if it were really a fantasy.

Bai Liu thought as she lowered her eyes.

He had always hated his high school homeroom teacher, but at the moment, he was really thinking that it would be nice if it was all, as Xu Wei had said, really all in his head.

Bai Liu took the keys and went out the door.

Three days later, the game was on.

Bai Yi cautiously poked Spades, who was upside down: "...... That, Bai Liu, how is he?"

Spades was quiet for a long, long time before he replied sullenly, "I waited for him at home for four days."

"But he hasn't been back for the last four days."

"He didn't come home and he doesn't know where he went."

"I feel like he doesn't want to see me."

"So ......" Bai Yi sighed as he sat next to Spades, glowering for a moment before speaking softly, "That's right, it's going to be a long time with a death in the family... ..."

"There are crematoriums to go to, filings to be made, relics to be disposed of, ID cards to be cancelled and funerals to be purchased, there's a lot of process ......"

"When my family died ...... I was also too busy to go home and didn't want to go home and see anyone."

The meeting room fell into silence.

Bai Jiamu leaned against the wall in silence as he reluctantly found a way to say, "Where is the Reverse God, have you seen him?"

Bai Yi shook his head, "I don't know, the Reverse God hasn't been back in the game since that day. "

"He told me he was going to take care of some work stuff and would definitely be back before the final." Bai Yi let out a long sigh, "But that face, it was as ugly as a dying man."

Bureau of Heresy, First Bureau, main entrance.

Lu Yizhan is followed by Liao Ke, who stands longingly and pauses with his head tilted.

Liao Ke let out a long sigh, "You're going to revert to being a first team captain and deal with Cen Buming yourself, aren't you?"

"Well." Lu Yizhan was quiet for a long time, "I made a deal with him."

"If he did do something that crossed the line, I would have tried him myself."

Lu Yizhan walks in.

Meanwhile, the Hinchmani family hall.

It was nighttime, and the hall was lit up like daylight with all sorts of accessories, with men and women coming and going in formal dresses and formal attire, talking intimately, distantly or demurely on the dance floor with an ineffable nobility and a carelessness towards the next person.

Hearts in the corner, dressed in a long dress gown and wearing white lace-trimmed gloves above his elbows, raised his glass of red wine to the man in the suit next to him and then took a sip, in a light tone.

"Although I don't know why you asked me to bring you here, I hope you don't regret what you've done yourself."

Bai Liu raised a glass of red wine and returned it to him in a gentlemanly manner, his tone calm: "Why do you think I'll regret it?"

Hearts paused, "Because I have a feeling you're not very sensible, right now."

"In a way I can understand your irrationality, but to this extent I'm still a little surprised."

Hearts was quiet for a moment before he looked over at Bai Liu who was sipping his wine with his eyes downcast: "I thought you ......"

--didn't care that much about them.

At least not enough to care enough to offer to come to him for help to bring to Daniel's bar mitzvah in the Hinchmani family, looking as if he was going to do it himself in reality.

Hearts helped secure an invitation to the bar mitzvah and brought Bai Liu into the Hinchmani family as a male companion, as promised, and then Bai Liu and he waited in this corner for the party to begin. something more dangerous filled in the gap."

Bai Liu quietly sipped his wine as he looked up at Hearts and smiled very lightly, "Thought I was what?"

With this smile, something very dangerous about Bai Liu dissipated and became clearer to Buming, but became more uncomfortable to him.

Hearts shook his head, "...... nothing."

" Jiayi is really all right, isn't she?"

Bai Liu replied with a very light smile, " Jiayi is fine, she is recuperating in hospital."

Hearts stared steadily at Bai Liu for a moment, then withdrew his gaze and nodded, counting that he had heard.

--nothing to see.

He couldn't see anything.

Hearts had tried three times before the banquet to find out about Liu Jiayi, but Bai Liu's smile was unmistakable and Hearts was unable to find out anything.

At the end of the game, after Hearts was sure that Liu Jiayi was injured, he tried to search the hospital where Liu Jiayi was, but he didn't know where Bai Liu had hidden her and Hearts couldn't find her. He chose to accede to Bai Liu's request and negotiate with him, asking him to tell him about Liu Jiayi.

But all I got was a message - [Jiayi is fine, recuperating in hospital] and nothing more.

Hearts looks down at his reflection in the red wine glass and takes a very light sip.

Liu Jiayi's injuries must have been related to the mad clown, and with Phoebe also threatened by the clown, he was ready to take on Daniel himself, when he didn't expect Bai Liu to approach him about coming to the Hinchmani family.

As soon as Hearts saw it, they knew what Bai Liu was up to.

He was starting ...... to cross certain lines that he had always abided by.

The guests around the room burst into a clamour and leaned around the corner of the terrace, and Hearts looked back, leaning over to Bai Liu and explaining softly, "The party has begun."

From the flower-filled staircase came Daniel, dressed in a plain white suit and a small green bow tie, his hair moussed back to reveal his trademark features and beautiful apple-green eyes, but his own expression was less beautiful, one of rage, irritation and a kind of bewilderment as if he had been kicked in the face by someone who was at a loss.

It was as if something had happened that he could not understand in the extreme, as if the person for whom he had been pursuing had abandoned him.

Bai Liu's eyes were averted as if he hadn't heard them, and he didn't understand them either, but Hearts was fiddling with his bracelet, his eyes half-closed, his rosewood lazy, and then the bracelet suddenly lit up, and Hearts' expression sank.

--This is the signal for the connection between Phoebe and Hearts.

Sending this red warning signal means Daniel has made a move on her.

-- Daniel really wants to kill Phoebe for power at this birthday party.

"It's about to get messy in here, Phoebe's ready to fight back." Hearts raised his eyes as his tone turned icy, "I might not be able to care about you later, so if you can't block it, get in the game."

"I'll go to Phoebe first."

Bai Liu looked up at Daniel on the platform and replied in a soft voice, "Yes."

Hearts took a deep look at Bai Liu and finally said nothing and turned to leave.

As Hearts notes, however, the hall below quickly became chaotic when Daniel appeared, and conversations among the guests became bizarre, with everyone sizing each other up and trying to figure out what the other was up to, Daniel seemed to find the scene boring and his clothes constricting, so he went up to the first floor to change and make a scene.

Bai Liu also took advantage of the chaos to go up to the first floor, he followed silently behind Daniel who was about to change his clothes and called out to him in a soft voice, " Daniel."

Daniel was changing his clothes when his unbuttoned hand stopped and he turned his head incredulously, his eyes shining and his voice rising noticeably, "Godfather!"

"You've come to my Bar Mitzvah!"

Daniel took two steps and stopped at the safest three metres of Bai Liu's distance. He tilted his head as if hoping Bai Liu would touch him and half-kneeled with great reverence, his right hand clenched in a fist against his chest in reverence, his tone one of anticipation as he finally landed on his feet.

"I knew you still needed me."

"None of them are worthy to serve you on your path to godhood, only I, only a believer who can serve you as a god, can follow you!"

Bai Liu lowered his eyes to Daniel's becoming frenzied expression and he curled his lips, not a light in his eyes, "As your bar mitzvah gift."

"-want to come into the system with me and play a game for once, Daniel ?"