Chapter 544   – A Pawn's Struggle before the Promotion Line

Tainted Land

Devil was sitting on top of the blood river, staring at Ancestor Minghe and sweating profusely. The boatman and the ancestor ignored Devil and patrolled the karma strings. However, they told Devil to stay there for the time being.

Devil was relieved that he wasn't killed or imprisoned like usual. Still, he was sad that he couldn't move on with his scheduled plans in this timeline.

Since everything was against him in this timeline, Devil gave up everything, waiting for the timeline to be reset.

He sighed, thinking of the hard work he had done so far. Everything was for nothing.

Since Devil had nothing to do, he began reviewing and reading the time records, trying to find the mistakes that he had overlooked.

'Come to think of it, how many times has it been? 25,000,028th time? I really messed up a lot. Should I give up the next universe from the start and live my life to the fullest before it gets reset again? Letting Kishin Douji retains his memory upon death so that he will personally hunt Xie Tian in the 25,000,030th timeline? Welp, I haven't played a long game like that yet. I might as well play a mind game for once. What can go wrong?'

Devil's mood got a bit better after he had decided to simply spend his next timeline resting and playing instead of completing his objectives. This was the mentality of an overworked salaryman before a long holiday.

He hummed and skimmed through the time records, starting from the previous timeline. He hadn't read time records for so long since he disliked watching himself fail over and over again. It felt like watching the dark memory that he wanted to forget.

But after long consideration, Devil started reading from the most recent one first to warm up his mental fortitude.

'Hmm?'

Devil frowned. As soon as he scanned the events on the previous timeline, he found so many anomalies that he didn't remember seeing them.

It happened when one of his soul fragments manifested and gained sentience. However, this clone openly rebelled against Devil's pre-program guideline, aka Tutorial Quest, from day 1.

Most importantly, that clone reached the 9th-stage within a day and severed the connection between them!

"WHAT THE FUCK?! HAVE NO MEMORY OF THIS TIMELINE!! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

Devil was so shocked that he exclaimed out loud. He was so absorbed in reading through the events that he ignored Minghe and the boatman's existence.

...

Devil didn't notice the faint smile on Ancestor Minghe's face.

The latter secretly sent a voice transmission to the boatman as he glanced at Devil, 'This round is quite amusing. Don't you think?'

The boatman was expressionless, but his mental voice sounded cheerful, 'That clone on the Calamity Watch List might make this game a lot more interesting than the last time. Previously, the ending was terrible. It was a pity that Devil killed that clone before three major forces could settle in a decisive battle. Otherwise, we could have seen how Xie Tian and the clone's disciples played out in the war and finally get a good ending for once.'

'True. How about we allow every time traveler to retain their memory of this run when we run out of turns? When the next game starts, it will be mayhem when all time-traveler regains their memory.'

'Indeed. New Game Plus with all major time-travelers sound fun. Let's propose this project to other sages. Should I visit them and tell them what we conversed?'

'Of course. You go and handle it.'

'I promise good results. Hahahaha!'

…

Devil only needed half a day to read the time record of the 3rd Alter Miaomiao's timeline. After gaining the insight of the previous run, Devil scanned the others for more irregularities.

Soon, he found Samael's timeline and Second Alter's timeline!

Devil had gone through THREE timelines of Alter Mao Miaomiao already. He finally realized his mistakes.

His memory from these timelines was erased because of Samael's curses!

"Damn you, Samael. You backstabber! I named you that way because you were supposed to be the Bringer of Death to Kishin Douji! Why the fuck did you betray your creator?! And… What the fuck, Xie Tian?! Why did you join the dark side?! That's not in the script!"

The complaints came out from Devil's mouth nonstop. He was so mad that he wanted to destroy a few planets.

While Devil was screaming and yelling randomly, he sensed that something had snapped.

One of the karma strings that had been supplying luck energy to him was gone!

"!?"

Devil needed to gather luck energy to increase his successful chance for crossing dimensions. However, as he had time-traveled so many times, the Heavenly Dao of the sages refused to bless him with luck energy no matter how many times he completed various good deeds.

Devil had planted so many soul fragments of himself on countless mortal worlds, waiting for a random seed to grow or gain sentient like Miaomiao. Whenever they gained sentient and completed the tutorial quests that Devil had pre-programmed them, he would start acquiring luck energy from the clones via the karma strings.

But now, the major luck contributor, Miaomiao, suddenly cut the supply. Even if Devil had secretly injected Dion with the Devil.dat file when Miaomiao completed the murals, he couldn't reestablish the karma string again.

The virus file couldn't locate him anymore. It couldn't transfer luck energy anywhere without the karma thread!

'This is why I hate this Miaomiao. He's too smart and too talented. He's not supposed to learn Lilith's abilities! Was it because of Samael's Will? Come to think of it, that bastard has more than one soul in his body. That might be the reason!'

Devil stood up and was about to sneak away from the Tainted River.Unfortunately, a hundred bloody hands grabbed Devil's ankles, legs, arms, hands, and body. They dragged him into the bottom of the river.

Ancestor Minghe smirked at Devil, "Stay there until the universe is reset. Your role ends here."

"!!!"

The words of Ancestor Minghe revealed that the sages knew about his time abilities and previous timelines all along.

"So you knew!"

"Obviously, all sages knew. Do you think we were that oblivious to your schemes?"

"Was it you?! Did you always stop my plan when I was about to become a sage or kill Kishin Douji?!"

Ancestor Minghe didn't answer Devil. He simply waved his hand, watching how Devil sank to the bottom of the Tainted River.

"See you in the next game, Devil Mao Miaomiao."

Minghe giggled and turned around, walking on the river toward the existence karma of Miaomiao. The ancestor pondered, "If I cut it, that clone will die. Well, since you're so interesting, I'll make you an independent soul."

The ancestor cut a piece of his flesh from his fingertip. Then, he yanked the karma string, pulling the other end from Devil.

The karma string was forcefully released from Devil!

Ancestor grinned as he attached the loose end of karma string to the piece of his flesh. Then, the invisible string slowly pulled the flesh toward Miaomiao, who was in the lower realm.

"Your plot armor is here, Mao Miaomiao's clone. Well, should I call you Mao Miaomiao or Samael from now on?"

…

= Golden Heavenly Goose Planet =

Ding

Miaomiao hummed as he rechecked his luck status.

…

Expenditure (Per Day)

Pocket World Upkeep: 1,000

Farming System Upkeep: 200

Quarrying System Upkeep: 200

Mao Miaomiao Soul: 1,000

…

Indeed, the Devil's leeching bot had been deleted. However, unexpected changes occurred.

"Wait a minute. I didn't cut my existence karma. How the fuck does the expense disappear?!"

Miaomiao was baffled. He didn't even touch the karma string, but everything worked TOO well.

Moreover, the name changed. Devil's Soul Fragment turned into Mao Miaomiao's Soul.

It didn't make any sense!

Miaomiao held his head and paced around his empty mansion. His mind went blank.

Several minutes later, he shrugged, "I don't know how, but screw it. Maybe, I'm that good!"

He turned around and was about to return to his room to rest. He still needed to question Dion about her previous testimony about infinite luck thingy.

What infinite? He had limited luck points!

Miaomiao planned to scold Dion for messing with the information.

Before Miaomiao could put his thoughts to action, the existence karma string suddenly shrunk into Miaomiao's body, and the piece of flesh smacked his face.

Ding

Miaomiao pinched the small piece of meat and stared at it.

"Yikes… SUPER YIKES! Who the fuck forced this shit on me again?!"

He hated being manipulated. He finally became free, but someone wanted to control his life again.

Was he destined to be a pawn forever?

Miaomiao never wanted that. He wanted to break free from this curse and be independent like carefree protagonists.

He took the path of a protagonist because he no longer wanted to be a tool for anybody! Miaomiao had enough being a small-time villain to be bossed around by random jerks!

Secondly, Heavenly Dao was a big death flag. Most end-game protagonists refused to become a tool for the Will of Heaven, and they surpassed its power to become absolute god, the true top of the food chain.

Miaomiao, as a mortal, was so far away from having the end-game status attributes. He had yet to touch the realm of an immortal, but the hidden bosses already wanted to ruin his life.

"WHOEVER IT IS, CAN WE TALK? CAN I NOT CHOOSE ANY?"

Miaomiao bellowed, hoping to get an answer from the so-called Almighty Being.

Instantly, Miaomiao heard an archaic voice of an unknown god.

'I didn't mean to force you to choose. Sorry if I cause a misunderstanding.'

Miaomiao widened his eyes for a moment. He coughed and adjusted his tone.

"Who might you be? For what purposes are you giving me these options?"

'I'm a sage. I'm playing a game at the moment, and I would like to recruit you to join my side.'

"Game?! My life is a game to you?!"

'Sort of. Ever played a modern game called [Civilization Series]? We usually do multiplayer games, 100,000,000 sessions at once in one seating. However, we always started each round before the creation of the universe.'

"…"

'So, back to the topic. I'm currently building an empire at the moment, and Kishin Douji is the strongest king of my game faction. I don't want you to plot or fight against him and vice versa. Will you join my side? We can serve the Heavenly Dao under the same banner, and I can make you a transcended being, stronger than Dao Gods. Of course, I'll do so once the game ends, and we get our good endings.'

The blood vessels in Miaomiao's brain were on the verge of bursting. He had mixed emotions about this sage, who treated everybody's life as a board game.

Still, Miaomiao couldn't afford to be bound by the major death flag, aka Heavenly Dao. No villains ever survived by joining with the dubious power that killed others when they died.

"Can I be a sage if I join you?"

'Ah, that? I can't say. We have limited seats, and the old guys don't want new blood to join us any time soon. The highest position I can offer is a half-sage. You saw him earlier. It was the grim reaper on a boatman.'

"Oh."

Miaomiao remembered the boatman. He was a lot scarier than Devil.

Still, Miaomiao caught on to the inconsistency in the sage's word. It conflicted with the boatman's testimony.

"The boatman threatened me that even Heavenly Dao couldn't save me if the sages were to move. Is Heavenly Dao more powerful than you?"

'Ah, that?' The sage sounded reluctant, 'Don't believe in my subordinate. He was only bluffing. The Heavenly Dao keeps me and other sages alive, and we can't fight against it. If you serve the Heavenly Dao, not a single sage can touch you since we are barred from harming each other.'

"…"

Miaomiao narrowed his eyes. He found a way to get out of this mess without becoming Heavenly Dao's tool while maintaining his plot armor power.

"What if I work as a mercenary for you, but I don't serve the Heavenly Dao.. I'll be Kishin Douji's ally to help your faction in your game. What will you give me?"