Translated by: La0o9
Edited by: VindiFan#1
On the arena, the tiles where people werenât standing all flipped around, revealing numerous items on the ground.
They were all sorts of armor and weapons.
Daggers, long swords, short swords, sabers, scimitars, great swords, halberds, spears, sledge hammers, war axes, iron poles, throwing knives, helmets, armor, visors, armguards, war bootsâŠ
The items littered the entire giant arena.
A few quickly picked up what they could, and others began to imitate them.
More and more people were picking up the items.
A few were simply picking them up to imitate others and have something to use, others were specifically looking for things that they can use.
A Professionist first picked up a shield, then reached for a cold-looking Blade.
He was originally a Blade user, so he was able to tell that this Blade was quite a good weapon.
But when he reached out, it was already taken by another person.
Looking up, the Professionist noticed it was only a fat old man.
With a kick, the Professionist knocked the old man down and stole the Blade.
He was about to leave, but then remembered something
âThe only KingâŠâ he muttered.
Then he drew the Blade and slashed.
The old man was only able to raise a scream before dying.
This action sparked a chain reaction, as everyone here stopped their hands and silently stared at him.
Being stared at so many people, the Professionist nervously stepped back.
But the old announcer voice was suddenly heard again, praising him.
ă The first point of our entire arena, scored by Professionist Chen Qi. Let us see what reward shall he receive! ă
He got a reward for that?
Everyone was stunned, staring at the Professionist called Chen Qi.
Chen Qiâs expression was cold, but you could almost tell he was also a bit excited standing there.
Suddenly, a flame rose from his Blade.
It was like the flame had bounded itself onto the Blade itself, not dissipating no matter what.
The old voice spoke again: ă Congratulations! Due to him being the very first challenger to score, his weapon has received the blessing of fire âââheâs now in the lead! ă
Chen Qi swung the Blade, the flame on it spreads out.
A middle-aged man who was standing too close to him got caught in the fire, screaming.
The middle-aged man had to drop down and roll for a while for the fire to be put out.
But at that point, his arm had already been burned off while he himself was already close to death, not able to do anything but lie on the ground breathing his last.
âAhahaha, such a powerful Blade!â Chen Qiâs face showed madness.
He stepped forward and slashed towards the middle-aged man.
Another scream, blood splattered everywhere.
ă The second point! ă the old voice was heard again, ă Chen Qi had scored the second point! ă
ă Let us see what reward he shall receive again! ă
Chen Qiâs shield that he picked up before suddenly sprouted sharp spikes emitting intense cold.
ă What a surprise! It can attack, it can defend, the unstoppable shield! ăthe old voice announced with a gloating tone.
Chen Qi excitedly laughed, then suddenly raised his shield and attacked another person beside him.
The person was pierced by the spikes and immediately lost their lives.
The old voice couldnât wait to speak again.
ă Chen Qi! What a true warrior! Heâs getting closer and closer to becoming our King of the Arena! ă
ă Take a guess, what equipment shall he received this time? ă
But at this moment, no one could sit still to watch anymore.
There could only be one survivor in this challenge.
And Chen Qi is becoming stronger by the second.
Occasional screams were raised from all corners of the arena.
A few Professionists were quickly moving around killing people, as if they were tigers being whipped and provoked by someone.
A young girl was crying, begging: âPlease donât kill me! I donât want to die, I thought this was only a game!â
Rip!
A flame rose up, the girlâs body was bisected with a single slash, dropped to the ground and died.
Chen Qi held his flaming Blade, passing her corpse and went towards the next frightened middle-aged man.
The screams of terror and pain were getting louder, spreading around the entire place.
Corpses littered all over the arena and blood soaked the ground red.
âBastard!â Zhang Ying Hao opened his eyes.
âWhat kind of fucking game is that, even the art of killing is being turned into nothing but a pointless slaughter!â he cursed it loudly.
âThis thing, if the final reward truly is eternal life, then it will certainly make everyone go mad without a doubtâ very rarely, Liao Xing was being serious.
âThatâs right, there would always be some people who are at the end of their ropes, some who thinks theyâre more special than anyone else, they want to use this shortcut to make themselves eternalâ Gu Qing Shan replied.
âThe stronger someone gets, the bigger their desire is to become more powerful, not to mention the ultimate lure as eternal lifeâ
He sighed, dejectedly shaking his head: âThis is irresistible, you can never remove the peopleâs desires to receive eternal lifeâ
âThis arena is also untraceable, unless you specifically sign up to join it, you canât even enter it no matter what you do âââthere is no method to destroy itâ
Gu Qing Shanâs mood was becoming worse.
The Game of Eternal can eat peopleâs souls to make itself stronger.
Even though thatâs the case, because it had to cross worlds to get here, the game cannot interfere with the worldâs Laws so quickly, it canât directly harvest the power of souls from this world yet. (1)
But when the arena extends invitations to everyone before, those invitations are actually Contracts in disguise.
To accept entering the arena is the same as signing a contract with your soul, if you win, you get to leave with your rewards, if you lose, you lose your soul.
In the arena, the souls of every single person who died in battle were eaten by the game.
Then as the game became stronger and stronger, it will gradually change its rules, to make the maximum amount of participants grow larger and larger, the killing and deaths in the arena become more and more gruesome, until the end, when it turns the planet itself into a giant arena.
Fighting and killing will break out everywhere.
And the âeternal lifeâ that it promised âââis a simple play of the word.
If a human is slowly turned into some sort of demon, their lifespan will naturally increase, a few of them actually has almost infinite lifespan.
But demons are a war-mongering species, this is a nature thatâs already carved deep into their souls. What demon is able to keep its life long enough to live an eternal life in all that warring?
In the past life, so many people went mad for that fake eternal life because the people who received the gifts of eternal life really did stop aging, a few of them even became visibly younger.
Within 3 years, the demonic seeds had already silently changed everyone who carried them without anyone knowing.
For the first 3 years, all winners of the Game of Eternal felt no change and no difference.
Everyone country poured all the resources they had into verifying that. Even after using the Holy Churchâs Godâs Chosen Skills, they found no anomalies.
It was then that everyone was sure that this was eternal life in the truest sense.
And in those 3 years of madness, countless people went into the game, only to get killed by people stronger than they were, and their souls eaten by the game.
Not only Professionists but even normal people, all the politicians and aristocrats, everyone thought of countless methods just to get their hands on an âEternal pillsâ.
In the face of eternal life, nothing else matters, even their country is only second in priority!
Three years later, when the winners of the Game of Eternal started to demonize, when the truth was finally known, the world population had decreased to be a mere 1/3rd of what it used to be.
This was partially due to Worlds Apocalypse Online already existing in those 3 years, so people were able to travel to the other world and gain a steady method of becoming more powerful. A few people saw hope in that, so they stayed calm, limiting the amount of people who entered the Game of Eternal.
But right now, Worlds Apocalypse Online is still nowhere to be seen, only the Game of Eternal had shown itself.
Does he have no choice but to wait half a year for Worlds Apocalypse Online to launch?
But thatâs too late, once the Game of Eternal life had eaten enough human souls, it will start to evolve again and again.
At that time, it will come up with innumerable ways to tickle human desires, so that more and more people are lured to and die on the arena.
Human civilization will collapse under the lure of eternal life.
Is this world finished?
Gu Qing Shan stayed silent.
âHack, the fuck is you thinking about, just look at yourself!â
Liao Xing looked at him and scoffed.
âHm? What?â Gu Qing Shan didnât raise his head and only replied.
âLook at yourself, what kind of a man are you supposed to be?â Liao Xing scoffed again.
âWhat a dog shit mouth, if youâve got nothing better ââ-â Zhang Ying Hao couldnât help but want to shut him up.
âLet him speakâ Gu Qing Shan raised his head and stared at Liao Xing.
Liao Xing then stood up, walking in front of Gu Qing Shan and looked down on him.
âHe called me dog shitâ Liao Xing glared, âbut I feel like youâre more dog shit than I amâ
Ye Fei Li frowned, stood up and asked: âSo youâre looking to die huh?â
âNo, just let him speak, I want to hear what he has to sayâ Gu Qing Shan stopped Ye Fei Li by raising his hand.
âYou dog shit, I donât know what you want to do, but as soon as a problem occurred, you instantly became so dejected and disappointed âââwhat part of you is a man?â Liao Xing kept going.
He grabbed Gu Qing Shan collar and lifted him up.
âI escaped from the coldness of space to return here and look for a place to sponge off, but you instead showed me this damn funeral of a fa?ade?â
âLooking at you, if I didnât know better, I wouldâve thought youâve already went through countless apocalypses or something! What a joke!â
âSo what if the apocalypse is here, weâre all men, if we die then we die, what use does showing that wet rag of an appearance does?â
âI!â Liao Xing slapped his chest, âI fought again an entire nation by myself, lived in the coldness of space for over 30 years, but Iâm still here, living happily, but what about you!â
Gu Qing Shan grabbed and pushed his hand away, smiling wryly: âMr. Liao, weâre differentâ
âWhat do you mean different!?â
âYou escaped for 30 years, but Iâve not been able to escape for even a single dayâ
Gu Qing Shan kept smiling, but seems to have regained his spirit.
He put his hand on his shoulder and said: âBut anyways, thank youâ
âPehâ Liao Xing scoffed, âif my wives and kids werenât dependent on your Merits to live, I wouldnât even bother with your sorry assâ
He spat, then went back to lie on the sofa.
Gu Qing Shan still insisted: âMr. Liao, thank you very muchâ
Liao Xing waved his hand impatiently, saying: âIf thereâs a problem then think of a solution, if you need my help and say it, donât just show that damn funeral face. If everything goes wrong, then we can only die once anyways, what is there to fear!â
âWell saidâ Gu Qing Shan agreed, then quickly left the room.
Zhang Ying Hao and Ye Fei Li exchanged looks, then also left.
Gu Qing Shan didnât stop, walking all the way until the top of the mountain outside the mansion.
The rain has stopped falling for a while.
The night sky was filled with stars, similar to a vast and ever-extending river of fate within the darkness.
Looking downwards, the light of the capital city was shining, as the entire place emits a warmth of vitality.
In the dead of night, the wind was blowing through the leaves, the sound of waves crashing into shore, occasionally there was even a sound of flying vehicles passing through the sky, but they were all heard very clearly.
Gu Qing Shan just stood silently atop the mountain.
Zhang Ying Hao approached and threw a bottle of wine over.
âThat thing is already over 30 years old, I feel like you need it right nowâ Zhang Ying Hao said.
âThanksâ Gu Qing Shan opened the bottle and took a big gulp.
Then he gave it to Ye Fei Li.
Taking a sip, Ye Fei Li frowned: âI still like juice betterâ
âIf youâre not drinking then give itâ Zhang Ying Hao took back the bottle and took a big gulp himself, glaring: âThis is very precious, this bottle here costs over 100,000 Confederate Creditsâ
âAh? That expensive?â Ye Fei Li lifted his eyebrows in surprise, âgive it, Iâll take another sipâ
Zhang Ying Hao mumbled while he passed the bottle over and turned to look at Gu Qing Shan.
âBack to business, this unknown son of a bitch that successfully lured peopleâs desires âââthe 18,000-ish people in there right now are definitely dead, but I donât believe in what itâs saying, because paying for your own eternal life by sacrificing others, that doesnât make senseâ Zhang Ying Hao said.
âThis is eternal life weâre talking about here and you can still stay that calm?â Ye Fei Li was a bit shocked.
âWhen facing life and death, a hitman must stay absolutely calm, not to mention the hidden boss behind all those hitmenâ Zhang Ying Hao puffed his chest.
Ye Fei Li thought about it, then spoke: âIf thatâs the case, we can just ignore it and watch things play outâ
âWe canâtâ Gu Qing Shan smiled wryly, âonce the worldâs civilization collapses, more and more cracks will form in the minds of people, and when that happens, itâll be too late to stand up again, the world can only fall into the abyssâ
âBut itâs such a strange thing, we canât even touch it, let alone fight it, how do we deal with something like that?â Zhang Ying Hao said.
âNot to mention, eternal life is the ultimate goal and desire for everybody, you can stop 1 person, but how do you stop everyone?â
âThatâs exactly why I felt helplessâ Gu Qing Shan felt his head hurt so took the bottle and drank another gulp.
Ye Fei Li was still not used to the taste, puckering his lips as he spoke: âDonât feel down, you seemed to deal with the Man Killer Fiends well enoughâ
âAnd how exactly did I deal with Man Killer Fiends?â Gu Qing Shan casually asked.
âYou used a Man Killer Fiend to deal with Man Killer Fiendsâ Ye Fei Li pointed at himself and laughed.
Gu Qing Shan was stunned.
âWhat⊠did you say? Can you repeat it again?â He slowly turned and looked at Ye Fei Li.
His eyes look like it saw some sort of rare treasure, but also like he was looking at some benevolent god.
Ye Fei Li was a bit scared by the look in his eyes, so he unconsciously took a step back: âI said, you dealt with the Man Killer Fiend, quite wellâ
âNot thatâ
âAh, I said you used a Man Killer Fiend to deal with Man Killer Fiendsâ
Gu Qing Shan silently nodded.
Then he kept nodding, his eyes lighting up.
He bit harshly at his lip, as if thinking about something extremely important.
Both Ye Fei Li and Zhang Ying Hao just stared at each other, a bit unsure of whatâs happening.
Suddenly they heard Gu Qing Shan slowly muttering to himself.
âRight⊠it can be doneâŠâ
âIf the game isnât here to do that, then I will stand against it myselfâ
He raised the bottle of wine, raised his head and drank it all down in one breath.
Seeing him like that, Ye Fei Li and Zhang Ying Hao both loosened a bit.
When Gu Qing Shan put the bottle down, they can still hear him mumbling.
âThatâs right⊠we canât let it grow⊠we have to stunt its growthâ
âI have to do this, otherwise humanity will all dieâ
After saying so, Gu Qing Shanâs air seemed to change.
He seems to have gotten an indescribable fighting spirit.
Just like how he was in the cultivation world, taking a sword in hand, ready to wrestle for his life with the unknown.
âImpartial Goddess, where is the S.W. Divine Temple?â he asked.
[Currently above capital airspace] the Holo-Brain lit up as Impartial Goddess answered.
âVery well, bring me up thereâ
[Sir, do you have something to do?]
âNo, YOU have something to doâ
[What are your orders?]
Gu Qing Shan spoke: âFollow my lead, let the two of us create a new eraâ
(1)Laws: as in common laws of the universe, things like âfire is hotâ or âthe speed of light is constantâ