Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Newcomer Zone, District 39.
Countless screens filled the area. On each one, humans screamed in terror to varying degrees, and bloody scenes unfolded in numbers beyond counting.
Every minute of every day brought fresh betrayals, murders, and displays of humanity at its most twisted.
Before the screens, blue lights drifted aimlessly like fireflies.
Each blue glow represented the consciousness of a god.
The Gods’ Livestream existed for them. Whenever they paused before a screen, the light in front of it shone a little brighter.
One screen in this district was exceptionally bright.
On it, a red-eyed man ran with all his strength, a horde of charred female corpses close behind. Minor wounds covered his body, and a glaring length of white bone protruded from his left wrist. The scratches on his back appeared to have been inflicted by monsters while he fled.
Several gods laughed. “Ivy Girls’ School? A novice actually managed to return to the source of the contamination. Though from the look of him, he’s about to die.”
“Heh. This is rather interesting. If I remember correctly, the God of Mischief is playing an NPC in this instance. Ah, if only I’d known sooner. I would have joined the game myself. That little thing suits my tastes. At the very least, I wouldn’t have let him die at the hands of those monsters. If he had to die, he should have died by my own hand. What a waste.”
“Hm? He’s looking at the shop. Oh? Interesting. He knows fire can restrain them. Unfortunately, sources of fire are far too expensive in the Ivy Girls’ School instance. He can’t afford one.”
“He has enough for a lighter, at least.”
The gods laughed mockingly as more and more of them gathered around Xiao Huai’s stream.
Only at the moment a beautiful thing was destroyed could tragic beauty reach its absolute pinnacle.
His death was certain to blossom beautifully.
Chaos was the first divine viewer to enter Xiao Huai’s stream, but by no means the last.
Within Chaos’s temple, Xiao Huai’s livestream was the only one being shown.
Chaos lounged upon the divine throne, snow-white hair spilling behind him. His fingers tapped lightly against the seat while his pitch-black eyes remained fixed upon Xiao Huai’s expression.
His face possessed an incomparable beauty, as clear and mysterious as moonlight falling upon water.
An entire universe seemed to dwell within those ink-black eyes, their hidden depths impossible for anyone to fathom.
A tiny mole rested upon the bridge of his high nose, like a black star adorning a clear sky.
The god parted his lips in a faint smile, gentle as a spring breeze. “I made the entire world forget you and forced everything to begin again. Do you find it dull?”
Chaos slowly descended from the divine throne. A group of guards stood around the temple, and the moment they saw him come down, terror seized them all.
“My lord, you cannot leave the temple!”
Before the guards could say more, a small white cat bounded across the sacred water and onto the temple dais. “Lord Chaos, in all your tens of thousands of years, you have never once wished to leave. Are you…?”
Chaos curved his lips. “I want to meet someone. Just how beautiful will he be when he dies? I must stand beside him and admire it with my own eyes when the moment comes.”
The little white cat caught sight of the livestream at the center of the temple, then lowered its head respectfully. “Yes. Everything shall be as my lord wishes. May you return soon. In your absence, Bai Ze will safeguard the temple in your stead.”
Chaos stroked the little white cat’s head and chuckled softly.
The next instant, his divine robes faded away, replaced by a white shirt and black suit trousers.
His snowy hair transformed in a flash into short, ink-black hair. Smiling, he waved a hand.
“Bai Ze, I’ve thought of a name for myself: Lu Yuanshi. Make sure you don’t forget me when the time comes.”
He walked forward and gradually vanished.
Bai Ze assumed human form and knelt on one knee, voice filled with the utmost reverence. “I shall await my lord’s return.”
* * *
In the Gods’ Livestream, more than a hundred gods had gathered to watch a novice’s stream in the Newcomer Zone for the first time in ages.
On the screen, Xiao Huai stopped running upstairs. As though a thought had occurred to him, he leaped from the second floor.
A light breeze tangled in his hair and swept over his shirt. Not a trace of fear showed in his blood-red eyes.
The moment Xiao Huai hit the ground, he rolled several times to absorb the impact.
Fortunately, he had jumped from the second floor rather than the fourth or fifth. Otherwise, the fall might truly have left him half-crippled.
After he landed, even more monsters joined the chase. Xiao Huai ran toward the school cafeteria with roughly five hundred monsters pursuing him along the way.
He stopped looking back. Another glance might have been enough to give him a fear of crowds.
The three-story school cafeteria stood west of the classroom building.
Just as he remembered, the stench of blood permeated the place.
There were not many monsters inside. He vaulted directly through one of the serving windows and discovered a large supply of cooking oil.
Dodging the monsters’ claws, he poured the oil across the floor.
Cooking oil was not classified as an item, so it could not be stored in the system inventory.
Even so, making use of what he found here was far more economical than buying supplies directly from the System Shop.
By the time he had emptied seven or eight bottles in one go, nearly two thousand monsters had flooded into the cafeteria.
Packed together like a horde of zombies, they strained to throw themselves at Xiao Huai.
The nearest monster stood only a meter away. She could have caught him simply by reaching out.
Xiao Huai accelerated sideways, widening the gap between them.
These monsters were not particularly intelligent. Had they known how to surround him, Xiao Huai suspected he would already have been caught.
Instead, they only knew how to chase him from behind, one after another.
Whether that was due to a restriction imposed by the game rules or some other reason, it was good news for him.
Cooking oil splashed and pooled across the floor, glittering like countless translucent pearls.
The monsters stepped into the spreading grease. Their feet slipped out from under them, sending them crashing down and coating their bodies in oil.
Amid the endless roars, a faint smile curved Xiao Huai’s lips.
He sprinted toward the corner as fast as he could.
He cast a quiet glance at the monsters lunging toward him. A match appeared in his palm.
A sly madness gleamed in his eyes.
Every god watching the stream widened their eyes slightly.
Scratch.
The match ignited.
Boom!
The instant the flame touched the cooking oil, fire roared across the floor and spread with terrifying speed.
In an instant, the raging flames engulfed the entire cafeteria. The monsters shrieked in terror and scattered in a frantic attempt to flee.
Thick black smoke billowed through the inferno. The cafeteria became a vision of hell, choked with smoke and scorching air as the flames crackled.
The blaze grew fiercer. Tongues of fire danced wildly, devouring everything in their path.
All the livestream showed was a sea of flames.
The gods began murmuring among themselves. “He actually bought matches. Is this how he chose to die?”
“Ha! Burning to death and taking these monsters with him? What a foolish decision.”
Who could possibly survive such a fire?
They waited for the livestream’s notification tone to announce Xiao Huai’s death, but no alert came even after a long while.
The camera slowly moved forward. When the gods finally saw what the livestream was showing, they froze in astonishment.