70: Who is the person I am trying so hard to save?

The Sea of Concepts.

Here, there is no time, no space.

Only an endless surge of information torrents and logical singularities.

Gu Jianghan hovered here.

Like an eternal observer.

On the “screen” before him,

his favorite drama was playing out.

However,

just as the “Flower of Joy,” representing “love” and “goodwill,”

transformed into a hideous claw, without warning,

and pierced Ye Liuli’s shoulder blade—

“Pfft!”

Blood,

on the pure white wall of the broadcast tower,

blossomed into a dazzling red lotus.

Caught completely off guard,

the Shadow Empress, a Rank 9 existence,

was directly critically wounded by this twisted attack, which contained the entire world’s “Law of Happiness”!

And at this very moment,

deep within the Sea of Concepts,

Gu Jianghan, who had always maintained absolute indifference,

felt an extremely faint, incredibly sharp… pang of pain within his indescribably vast origin.

It was an emotion that should not belong to the old god.

It was like a red-hot steel needle,

piercing through the cold, eternal silence of divinity.

A strange, scalding warm current,

from the deepest layer of his conceptual origin,

from a corner almost forgotten, surged forth fiercely!

That was the lingering soul of “Gu Jianghan,”

a 21st-century university student, letting out a silent roar!

Stop!

She… is my chess piece!

How… dare you!

Pity, sympathy,

and the most primal anger that arises when one’s possessions are violated,

intertwined.

They transformed into an impulse to reach out,

to crush those fanatical people,

to flatten that broadcast tower,

and even to utterly destroy the entire World of Joy!

However,

as soon as this warm current of humanity surged,

it was instantly detected by the cold divinity of the entire Sea of Concepts.

[Alert: Abnormal emotional fluctuation detected.]

[Analysis: Logical conflict. Target is a ‘chess piece,’ its damage should be classified as ‘plot progression,’ ‘interference’ command should not be generated.]

[Processing Plan: Format abnormal fluctuation, absorb data structure, optimize main body logic.]

Infinite, absolutely rational divinity,

like billions of tons of cold starlight ocean water, crashed down!

Gu Jianghan’s humanity and divinity,

at this moment, began a silent yet incomparably fierce confrontation.

His humanity

made him see on the screen

Ye Liuli’s face, contorted by pain and bewilderment.

He saw the Joint Squad’s frustration and despair, powerless against the surging crowds.

He empathized, burning with rage.

His divinity,

however, analyzed all of this

as a more interesting “dramatic conflict.”

The injury to the chess piece

made this play deviate from control,

full of unknown variables.

This… was truly wonderful.

The data model of that emotion called “anger” was truly… a sample worth collecting.

The “Gu Jianghan” of humanity roared, wanting to intervene.

The “old god” of divinity, however, calmly “applauded” this wonderful scene.

That human will,

every unwilling struggle,

every angry impact,

was like firewood thrown into a furnace.

Its energy, its structure, its logic,

were all being rapidly analyzed, absorbed, and assimilated by that cold divinity.

His human will

was becoming the nourishment that fed this old god,

making it more perfect, more indescribable… sustenance.

Old Days Ruler - Gu Jianghan.

Gu Jianghan… was becoming the old god.

Finally,

that faint warm current,

under the suppression and devouring of the endless icy sea, gradually extinguished.

The Sea of Concepts returned to eternal silence.

Gu Jianghan’s “gaze” refocused on the screen.

The stinging sensation had vanished.

Replaced by

a deeper, more pleasurable indifference.

He watched the Joint Squad,

how they were steadily defeated under countless “goodwill” attacks.

He watched them fall into a moral quagmire more terrifying than death.

A never-before-felt… anticipation even arose in his heart.

He really wanted to see what kind of brilliant human flower these interesting humans would bloom in such a desperate situation.

He slowly “savored”

that fleeting impulse from earlier.

He began to reflect on its origin.

That so-called “humanity.”

He retrieved his deepest, core data,

like factory settings.

[Name: Gu Jianghan.]

[Identity: University student]

[Origin: 21st century, Earth.]

[Event: Rushed into a burning building to save someone, died, soul captured by the Sea of Concepts, became the consciousness carrier of the ‘old god.’]

This was the first time since his “awakening”

that he had actively “recalled” his past.

He tried to remember some details.

How hot was that fire? What did the smoke smell like?

Was the person he saved male or female? What did they look like?

And then?

What were his parents’ names?

Who was his best friend?

What did the streets, air, and sunlight of the city he lived in feel like?

…Nothing.

There was nothing.

In his “memory,”

there were no images, no sounds, no touch.

Only a line of cold text,

like a program comment,

repeatedly stating that “fact.”

He didn’t “remember” dying to save someone.

He just “knew” he had such a setting.

This thought,

even made the old god shudder.

For the first time, from his origin that transcended thought,

it slowly emerged… Strange.

Having been the old god for so long… why have I… never actively thought about… who the person I risked my life to save… in that big fire… actually was?

This question,

like a flash of creation lightning,

for the first time, split open Gu Jianghan’s

eternally silent divine thought.

It wasn’t a question.

But a coordinate.

A coordinate that allowed him to trace his own origin.

The old god,

for the first time, activated his divine authority of “omniscience” on himself.

Endless torrents of information began to reverse.

Logical singularities computed wildly at an unprecedented speed,

attempting to retrieve any trace of the “person saved” from his vast, cosmic memory database.

Gender?

[Data missing.]

Age?

[Data missing.]

Name? Appearance? Identity?

[Data missing. Data missing. Data missing.]

The result… was a pure, despair-inducing blank.

As if in that fire,

he didn’t rush in to save a person,

but an abstract concept named “human,”

without any attributes.

This was illogical.

Something was wrong.

Gu Jianghan’s divine instinct

detected a huge logical fallacy.

How could an existence he was willing to die for

not leave even a single pixel of information in his memory?

He began to expand his search scope.

Since he couldn’t remember the “person saved,”

he would start with himself.

His “previous life,”

that university student named Gu Jianghan,

what kind of person was he?

He retrieved memories about “himself.”

He saw “himself” growing up in an ordinary family,

with “parents” and “friends.”

Attending a mediocre “university.”

He liked playing “games,” occasionally watched “anime,” had “average” grades… Everything seemed so… standard.

So standard that it was like a meticulously designed template character,

least likely to arouse suspicion.

He tried to feel those memories.

When he thought of the word “parents,”

what appeared in his mind was not two kind faces,

but a cold folder.

Inside, it was labeled [Father: Attribute - Strict], [Mother: Attribute - Gentle].

When he thought of “friends,”

it wasn’t scenes of them arm-in-arm, laughing together,

but a series of codes—[Childhood friend A], [Roommate B], [Classmate C].

No warmth, no emotion, no breath of life.

His “previous life”

was like a play with only a script outline,

but no actors or scenery.

Hollow, pale, only logic, no flesh and blood.

An unprecedented, chilling coldness

began to slowly rise from the deepest part of his divinity.

This chill,

was far more biting than the eternal silence of the Sea of Concepts.

He abruptly redirected his “gaze” back to the screen of the World of Joy.

He watched the people who, to “protect joy,”

fought fearlessly to their deaths.

He watched the Joint Squad fall into a desperate situation to “save Zhang Wei.”

Weren’t they… the same?

For a noble and righteous “goal,”

they rushed forward, disregarding their own lives.

Their behavioral logic

and his own setting of “rushing into a burning building to save someone”

were so similar!

A terrifying conjecture,

like wildly growing vines,

entwined his entire mind.

What if… what if his “previous life,”

that drama called “Gu Jianghan’s life,”

was itself a pre-arranged performance?

What if his ending of “heroic sacrifice”

was also just to please some higher-dimensional “audience”?

Then, what difference was there between “him” and the “chess pieces” on the screen, whom he toyed with in the palm of his hand?

“Boom—!!!”

The entire Sea of Concepts,

because of this thought blaspheming the divine self,

stirred up unprecedented towering waves!

Countless logical chains collapsed at this moment.

Countless information singularities flashed madly before returning to 灭!

For the first time,

he turned his scrutinizing gaze

from the external world

to himself.

He no longer cared about the fate of the Joint Squad.

He no longer anticipated the direction of the drama.

Because he had discovered a game more interesting,

and more terrifying, than all of it.

That was the deconstruction of “Gu Jianghan.”

He looked at his indescribable,

divine body composed of infinite information.

He looked at this cold, silent place,

the Sea of Concepts, which was both his prison and his throne.

Countless questions,

like a breaching flood,

from the deepest part of his origin,

瘋狂地噴湧而出！

Why do my memories only have settings, no details?

Why would my humanity die for a stranger?

Why would my divinity be touched by the injury of a chess piece?

Why did the Sea of Concepts just happen to capture my soul, such a “special” one?

Why was I given the identity of “old god,” and not something else?

Why me, of all people?

Why am I here, playing a person I don’t even remember, and who might not even exist?

Why! Why! Why!