VAP - Chapter 187
Chapter 187: The Ruler in the Endless Deep Darkness (20)
Then again, Ah Jiu’s reaction was rather thought-provoking. If there was nothing wrong with her human form in the mental space, why would she avoid the subject?
Out of caution—and definitely not cowardice—Yue Du didn’t pursue the topic, but she filed the suspicion away in her mind.
Yue Du suddenly remembered something. Partly to distract the system, and partly out of genuine confusion, she asked, “By the way, when I was dealing with Mr. Geng, my vision seemed to become incredibly clear for a moment. I could even see things I couldn’t before, like resentment and spiritual bodies. Do you know what that was about?”
As she spoke, she raised a hand to touch the corner of her eye. “It’s back to normal now.”
Ah Jiu said, “That was originally your ability. It was just sealed before you entered the game.”
Yue Du recalled the situation, lost in thought. “No wonder it didn’t feel strange when I used it. On the contrary, it felt very familiar.”
“Familiar,” Ah Jiu repeated in a low voice, then asked with a hint of a smile, “Did you feel that way about me, then? When you first entered the game.”
Yue Du answered honestly, “I did.”
This sentence seemed to make Ah Jiu very happy. Yue Du heard her let out a low laugh, and she herself felt the urge to smile.
It was more than just familiarity. When she opened her eyes on that strange pier, listening to that enchanting, siren-like voice echoing in her mind, it took almost all her willpower not to immediately place her complete trust in it.
But as it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered if she had trusted her completely back then. After all, Ah Jiu was worthy of her trust.
The two of them chatted idly for a long time. In the middle of it, Yue Du fell asleep and inevitably entered the mental space.
Ah Jiu was still in her long-haired cat form, but this was clearly no ordinary cat—it was a full three meters tall, with a pair of magnificent feathered wings on its back. It was beautiful and dreamlike, like a creature from mythology.
Before Yue Du could react, a cat’s paw scooped her up and placed her on a soft belly covered in long, snow-white fur.
“Who said a cat couldn’t hold you?” Ah Jiu said, flicking her tail contentedly.
Yue Du: “…” She actually remembered.
Still, petting a giant cat was an amazing experience. She was so blissfully happy she almost didn’t want to wake up, completely oblivious to the fact that this “cat” was also happily petting her.
After spending a full twenty-four hours in the rest space, Yue Du was teleported out. She opened her eyes to a void of nothingness, utterly silent and dark.
She looked around, slightly bewildered. “Is this a new instance?”
“If you wish, you can treat it as one,” came the Deep Darkness Ruler’s smiling voice from behind her.
Yue Du quickly turned around. The woman before her looked like Xuan Jiu, but wasn’t. She wasn’t wearing the black cheongsam with cloud patterns, but a simple, unadorned, classical black robe, like a mage who had survived from ancient times.
“Einser?” Yue Du called out tentatively.
The fragment of the Deep Darkness Ruler opposite her took her hand, lowered her head, and brushed it with crimson lips in a gesture like a kiss. She looked up, her eyes upturned. “Einser or Xuan Jiu, whichever makes you happy. Or you could give me a new name. I would be delighted.”
“Hah, shameless,” Ah Jiu said coolly.
Her tone was so full of disdain that Yue Du’s earlier suspicions began to waver. If the relationship between Ah Jiu and the Deep Darkness Ruler was really what she thought, could this undisguised animosity be real?
“Alright, Einser. This place is…”
“The void outside the small worlds. It is also where my original true form resides.”
The original true form of the Deep Darkness Ruler?
Seemingly sensing Yue Du’s curiosity, Einser explained, “I can’t let you see it yet. It would stimulate your spiritual body and cause you to lose mental control.”
A Yue Du who had lost control would be quite delectable. Her gaze would follow only Her, her feet would always point toward Her, and she would be exceptionally obedient, doing whatever She said, letting Her do as She pleased…
But that wouldn’t do. A person whose rationality was completely depleted, trapped in an eternal loss of control, was no different from being dead. Even if she were docile and devout, she wouldn’t be the real Yue Du. Besides, She couldn’t bear to do that to her.
Einser lowered her eyes, suppressing the secret, soft sigh in her throat.
Just then, the space to the side suddenly twisted and cracked, and a petite figure gradually emerged from within.
It was a humanoid creature not even as tall as a person’s calf. It had short hair, pointed ears, and delicate features. It wore a small, light purple dress and had a pair of transparent dragonfly-like wings fluttering on its back, resembling a flower pixie from a fairy tale.
As soon as it appeared, it bowed slightly to Einser. “I have come in response to your summons. I am at your service.”
Ah Jiu nodded slightly and said to Yue Du, “This is a Fantasy Spirit Witch, as humans call them. You should have seen Its file.”
Yue Du had indeed seen it.
The Fantasy Spirit Witch, weaver of dreams for all living things, master of all fairy tales, myths, and legends. It was a rather special existence among the seven deities of the Deep Darkness Pantheon.
It was the personification of dreams, fantasy, and creation. Its true form was said to be a vast, boundless sea of spiritual nebula, intimately connected to the consciousness of humanity and all other living beings.
The Fantasy Spirit Witch had eyes that were entirely grayish-purple, with no visible whites. It looked at Yue Du, somewhat surprised.
This is a human?
It recalled the summons from the Deep Darkness Ruler, which had emphasized that It should appear in a form comprehensible to ordinary mortals. Was it for this human?
So, the Fantasy Spirit Witch searched the sea of consciousness, reviewing the entire evolutionary history and cultural customs of the human race from its inception to the present. This took less than a second.
Then, It greeted Yue Du in a human language with what was, at least on the surface, exceptional friendliness. “Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” It then extended a right hand covered in fine white scales.
This evil god was surprisingly courteous.
Yue Du couldn’t help but smile, politely shaking its hand. “Hello.”
Einser stared coldly at the Fantasy Spirit Witch’s hand.
The Fantasy Spirit Witch snatched its hand back almost instantly and retreated to a relatively safe distance. It shot a timid glance at the supreme ruler before giving Yue Du an awkward yet polite smile.
Yue Du: “…” It seemed even evil gods were genuinely cowardly.
So the question was, why did the Deep Darkness Ruler summon another evil god? It couldn’t be to get a third for a game of poker.
“What kind of instance would you like to play?”
Yue Du: “Huh?”
Einser pointed a finger in the Fantasy Spirit Witch’s direction. “Tell It what type of game you like. Those game instances were originally created by the Fantasy Spirit Witch. It can make one for you on the spot.”
Yue Du froze, her gaze shifting subconsciously. The moment her eyes met the Fantasy Spirit Witch’s, It bowed quickly. “Please, command me as you wish!”
Yue Du fell silent, unsure for a moment whether to be touched by Einser’s thoughtfulness or to solemnly declare that she didn’t like instances and beg to be let off. All she could manage was a complicated expression as she said, “There’s no need, really.”
Einser just looked at her without speaking. The corners of her mouth were still turned up, but now there was a distinct hint of grievance in her expression.
Yue Du found it hard to bear. “It’s not that I’m wary of you… you. I’m just not very interested in game instances.”
“If you don’t like games… what do you like? What do you want to do? You can tell me,” Einser said, pausing before adding softly, “I will make it happen for you.”
Meeting those deep black eyes, Yue Du found she was completely unable to refuse. Besides, she had no reason to.
She couldn’t help but nod.
Although Einser wanted to grant Yue Du everything she desired, as a fragment of the origin of Destruction, the Deep Darkness Ruler was naturally antithetical to the attribute of “Creation.” Annihilating a city, a planet, or a universe was easy, but creating even a single grain of rice from nothing was asking the impossible of a god.
So, the one who actually got to work was the Fantasy Spirit Witch.
It had been the same when building the evil gods’ game field. If the Deep Darkness Ruler was the investor and administrator, then the Fantasy Spirit Witch was the one-stop shop for game design, art, and modeling. Fortunately, Party A was merely in the habit of controlling everything and had no requirements for game quality, so Party B had let itself run wild and modeled things haphazardly.
This time, however, It obviously couldn’t just phone it in. Given the boss’s usual style of destroying worlds whether She was happy or not, if It got caught slacking off, Its entire nebula body would be scattered.
Having been destroyed along with the old world and reborn with it countless times, the Fantasy Spirit Witch wore a numb expression, embodying the spirit of a true artisan.
With a wave of Its wings, skyscrapers rose from the ground, mountains and rivers materialized from thin air. It was meticulous, striving for perfection, exercising Its divine authority with such rigor and seriousness for the first time in Its existence.
In short, just another god working for a living.
Yue Du’s expression was even more numb than Its.
She hadn’t meant to cause such a fuss; she had only subtly expressed that she was homesick.
The problem was, the Fantasy Spirit Witch had just reviewed all of human civilization, including all sorts of angsty romance literature. Hearing Yue Du’s words, a strange look entered Its eyes, as if It had already concocted a grand drama in Its head about a domineering evil god, an innocent heroine, and a canary trapped in a gilded cage.
Humans were very fragile creatures. If It only built her a house, she might get depressed and something bad might happen. If something bad happened to the human, the boss would be unhappy. If the boss was unhappy, the world would be destroyed…
And the Fantasy Spirit Witch had no desire to reboot along with the world just yet. So It worked even harder, directly recreating the city from Yue Du’s memories. The scope was still expanding outward, looking as if It intended to replicate the entire Earth.
Yue Du: “…”
Although she was stunned by the scene before her, this was really unnecessary.
The Deep Darkness Ruler, however, was completely unfazed. The memory fragments She carried from Her main body included scenes of “The One” creating worlds. Compared to that, the Fantasy Spirit Witch’s use of its power was like a three-year-old playing with building blocks.
She was constantly monitoring Yue Du’s emotions. Noticing that her little cutie didn’t seem particularly thrilled, She halted the Earth-modeling project and asked with a frown, “You don’t like it?”
Yue Du said sincerely, “This is more than enough, thank you.”
Let’s spare the poor contractor, please.
In her consciousness, Ah Jiu laughed with schadenfreude. “Isn’t it both helpless and hilarious? Don’t hold back. Feel free to roast Her.”
Yue Du truly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But helplessness aside, amusement aside, she actually felt a little… touched?
What was wrong with this heart of hers? It was speeding up on its own and turning soft.
Her ears were also a problem, getting hot of their own accord and threatening to spread the heat further.
Get a grip. Is this how a normal person should react? Her rationality seemed woefully insufficient at times like this. Had it been depleted from too much contact with an evil god?
As the “System,” Ah Jiu naturally didn’t miss Yue Du’s strange reaction. She was silent for a moment, then suddenly sighed. “You must love me very much.”
“…”
“Ah, retract that.”
“Retraction invalid. I already heard you,” Yue Du said, her eyes narrowing slightly.
Ah Jiu chuckled lightly. “Then just pretend you didn’t hear it for now. But at this point, whether you heard it or not doesn’t matter anymore.”
In Yue Du’s mental space, Ah Jiu sat on the sofa with her legs crossed. She looked down at the lines on her right palm, then slowly closed her hand, as if grasping the person she wanted to be with forever.
It seems this “game” will end sooner than expected, she thought.
Outside, Yue Du shot Einser a complicated glance, then thought back to Ah Jiu’s light chuckle just now.
It seemed her earlier suspicions were correct.
But confirming it only left her more confused. What on earth was this person trying to achieve by pulling a stunt like this?
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