"You are not the new ending... you have failed..."
"Then don't break the fourth wall, you clever little thing."
"You still... lack a bit of heat."
The chaotic voice echoed at the edge of Ron's remnant consciousness. Its words had actually reached the ears of Herta, Fu Xuan, and the others as well, but they could only hear it as the sound of a gentle breeze, like a quiet murmur within the world...
They couldn't discern the meaning within these words. To their ears, these words were a truly "meaningless" existence.
But in truth... a meaningless existence still exists; it is not the same as a non-existent void.
The words spoken by this so-called Aeon who represented the "antithesis of existence" were successfully understood by Ron, their meaning transmitted into his ears.
But his consciousness, which was already on the verge of complete dissipation, was clearly in no state to ponder these things... He could only maintain his awareness, his perspective following the light as it fell upon the apex of the Tree of Existence, watching everything that transpired there...
But the chaotic, malevolent current swept in.
That dim cluster of stars, twinkling with one point of light after another, blinked its irregular, elliptical eyes. The faint starlight transformed into a flowing river of darkness, surging upstream along that brilliant pillar of light. In an instant, it swallowed the Guiding Spirit Lantern, completely inundating it...
Ron's remaining consciousness was already fragile. In that instant, under the washing of the cold and heavy river of starlight, it was ground into a plume of ethereal dust, completely melting into the sea of stars, becoming the most meaningless fundamental particle in this cosmos.
---o---
And that humanoid figure, outlined by black and white threads, tugged at the countless fine strings held in its hands, manipulating everything in this sea of stars, controlling every last detail of the Tree of Existence...
Endless black and white threads pierced through the void, first seeking out Nanook of [Destruction].
The Arbiter of Destruction desperately tried to escape these fine black and white threads, as if he could no longer tolerate this manipulation of his existence, but he was powerless to escape them. In just an instant, these threads crossed the endless fire and lava and, completely unscathed, pierced into the countless vital points on Nanook's [Destruction] body.
The seven orifices, the joints, the fingertips, the spine... countless points that could influence Nanook's [Destruction] actions and control his body were pierced by one or more black and white threads. In a flash, every joint and vital point of Nanook of [Destruction] was brought under its control.
This giant figure, sketched from black and white threads, needed only to move its fingers slightly, and the black and white threads emanating from its hand would pull upon all of Nanook's [Destruction] joints and vital points, completely seizing control of his every action.
And that is precisely what it did... The gray-white threads had already completely pierced every joint and vital point on Nanook's [Destruction] body. Then, the threads tensed. With just a slight lift, the next moment, it pulled upon every joint and vital point of this Aeon of [Destruction], bringing his actions entirely under its control.
The power of Terminus, the Finality was, as always, awe-inspiring... Nearby, HooH of [The Equilibrium] retreated indifferently. The reality behind him shattered into crystalline dust, revealing the branch of its Path, formed from a turbid gray mist. With just one step back, it instantly crossed over and returned to its own Path.
On the scales in its hand, the white weight had originally managed to reverse some of its decline, gradually lifting the black weight bit by bit. But in the instant that chaotic, turbid, malevolent current washed over and drowned the Guiding Spirit Lantern, the white weight lost all of its mass, rising completely to the very top.
The black weight had now pressed the scale all the way down, representing the current "state of equilibrium"...
And after Nanook of [Destruction] was completely turned into a marionette for Terminus, the Finality, his eyes began to flicker with a dim, cold, dark-gold light.
He slowly lowered his head. His gaze, directed at the Xianzhou [Luofu], grew cold, no longer like it was before, when even in the midst of his divine battle with HooH of [The Equilibrium], he still had to pay attention to the Xianzhou [Luofu], to prevent the aftershocks of their battle from harming it and causing the great ecumenopolis to fall to ruin...
He stretched out his hand, gently opening his palm.
In the palm of this Aeon of [Destruction], wisps of dark-gold were coalescing. This dark-golden energy gathered into a ball, and one could even see a boundless, vibrant dark-red light faintly revealed within it...
He merely opened his hand, and an infinite power and molten rock began to gather around this energy ball, gradually making it impossible to see the ball of energy in Nanook's [Destruction] hand, leaving one unable to discern its nature.
But how much power did Nanook of [Destruction] hold in his hand, and what did it mean... Regardless, it was a power the Xianzhou [Luofu] could not possibly bear.
Nanook of [Destruction] opened his palm, aiming it at the not-so-distant Xianzhou [Luofu]...
The power that had been directed at HooH of [The Equilibrium] now fell upon the Xianzhou [Luofu]. The scorching hot mass of dark-gold and lava fell upon the ship in an instant, and in the next moment, the terrifying power that [Destruction] should rightly possess was unleashed—
In an instant, the dark-golden heat swept over the entire Xianzhou [Luofu]. The minds of Fu Xuan and Herta had yet to even react, still worrying about what would happen to the Guiding Spirit Lantern, which was made from Ron, now that it had fallen into that turbid, malevolent dark river. In the next moment, all their thoughts came to a complete halt.
The dark-golden light shrouded their eyes, and at the same time, burned away their everything...
The Xianzhou [Luofu] and everything upon it were, in that instant, thoroughly incinerated by the sudden inferno that erupted from the turbid, cosmic dark river.
The reality that had been completely torn open by the lines of light from the Guiding Spirit Lantern, split in two to reveal the Tree of Existence itself, now began to stitch itself back together, gradually shielding the inner side of the world from the outer.
Everything vanished at this moment. It was as if nothing had changed, as if no Aeon had ever come to this star system...
But what was supposed to come had truly come.
The Xianzhou [Luofu] was completely reduced to ashes at this moment. Everything in this simulation... came to a complete end.
The image on the screen faded away.
---o---
Cold. A vibration...
Ron felt a subtle sensation, as if his consciousness had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. An endless, world-encompassing pressure was pressing down on his senses, forcing his consciousness into a powerless stupor, wallowing in this infinite pressure.
But he did not truly sink...
After Ron's consciousness was completely worn away by that dim, turbid, malevolent current, a powerful force successfully yanked his spirit from the endless abyss, pulling his mind from the bottom of an ocean bearing the weight of an entire world, successfully extracting him, bit by bit, from the simulation—
And returning him to his physical body in the real world.
"Urgh..."
The moment he came to, as all of Ron's senses returned to his body, he felt an extremely disorienting pain.
He had sacrificed too much in the simulation. Ron had gambled his own life, burned himself, and his consciousness had been thoroughly ground away. Although these pains had already been experienced in the simulation, now, returning to reality, as his consciousness fully reawakened, he was able to find these extremely clear and terrifying memories once again in his mind.
Although it had all become just a memory, it was still deeply etched in Ron's mind, making it impossible for him to forget this terrifying pain...
But Ron was no longer who he was before, the one who experienced death for the first time by proxy.
In the last simulation, he had already successfully died once, thoroughly experiencing the cold and terror of death...
Although the torment Ron experienced in this simulation was far, far greater than the pain of being pierced through the heart by Nanook of [Destruction] in the last one, all things are difficult at the start. After having successfully died once, even though this second death was far more painful than the first, Ron was not greatly affected.
He was just momentarily dazed. Then, he came back to his senses, suppressed the faint nausea that arose from dying, and stared intently at the simulation screen before him, watching as the simulation gradually came to an end and the final tallies were calculated...
The border of the light screen turned a brilliant, iridescent color. Within the frame, new text gradually began to appear—
[You forged the Guiding Spirit Lantern, using all your strength.]
[You gave your all, and the light emitted from the Guiding Spirit Lantern shone upon the Veil of Fate. A brilliant golden flame began to burn upon it, while black and white threads gradually descended, rising from the long river of fate to form the shape of a hand.]
[Terminus, the Finality was finally about to enter the stage... In the next moment, It would completely crush you, preventing you from breaching the Veil of Fate and seeing what lies upon the Tree of Existence.]
[Time was not on your side. Even though the Veil of Fate already showed traces of being burned by the brilliant golden light and was on the verge of being breached, Terminus, the Finality was also about to arrive. In an instant, It could use a single hand to completely crush the Guiding Spirit Lantern.]
[But the brilliant Light-Arrow shot forth. With Fu Xuan's sacrifice, it landed precisely on that radiant point of light, and together with the Guiding Spirit Lantern's pillar of light, it instantly broke through that seemingly indestructible Veil of Fate, tearing open the disguise of this reality...]
[You have completed Phase One of the "Plan Entry: Piercing the Veil", "Sharpening the Blade".]
["Plan Entry: Piercing the Veil" has advanced to Phase Two, "Piercing the Veil".]
[You have completed Phase Two of the "Plan Entry: Piercing the Veil". You have successfully pierced the Veil of Fate and glimpsed all that exists upon it...]
The text on the light screen faded, and a new simulation option appeared:
[You have completely finished the "Plan Entry: Piercing the Veil". This great undertaking, which was originally supposed to be divided over multiple simulations and require long-term accumulation to forge, has been thoroughly accomplished in this single instance, but you used only one simulation.]
[Because you used only a single simulation to complete a Miracle Plan, your ability has been acknowledged by the Life Simulation Game...]
[For this reason, you will receive a special choice—]
[The Miracle Plan is not actually complete. It has only broken the veil and has clearly not reached the final position this plan could extend to.]
[After the current Phase Two of this Miracle Plan, there is actually a hidden, special phase...]
[If you continue to extend the plan according to its design and complete it, perhaps this miracle will forge an even more brilliant splendor and achieve an outcome you could have never imagined...]
[...but it comes with immense difficulty and danger. Even with simulation after simulation, there is a chance of complete failure.]
[Do you cash out now, or pursue the miracle?]
[Now, you must make a choice for this...]