The 'Involution King' Second Female Lead Quits [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 70

Chapter 70: The Fourth World [16]

The Divine’s Wrath

A ten-centimeter layer of ice didn’t seem thick, but it still took a considerable amount of time to melt with just body heat.

After Xiao Gao and Xiao Di took turns working on it three times, the ice finally melted enough for Li Jianwei to insert the key perfectly.

Turning the key was strenuous. It was only with the combined effort of Li Jianwei and Shu Heng that the sound of gears slowly turning began to emerge.

But it wasn’t the keyed door that opened. It was a room to their right, hidden behind the ice and snow. Fortunately, once the door was open, a wave of hot air flowed out, melting the remaining ice in a short while.

“The low-temperature buff is gone,” Xiao Di said with a hint of cheerfulness, feeling the warm breeze. “The poison accumulation bar also went to zero instantly. It looks like a very safe place.”

That may have been true, but they couldn’t afford to let their guard down.

As they slowly advanced, a plaza that was even more spacious than the previous area came into view. It seemed to have no furnishings and no exits, and the walls were perfectly smooth.

“I feel like something’s not right,” Xiao Di said, standing at the doorway and peeking in without entering completely.

“It’s too empty. If I’m not mistaken, once we all enter, the door we came from will be sealed, and right after that, the final boss we have to fight will appear.”

Li Jianwei spoke her thoughts, then looked up. Her intuition told her there was something above.

Xiao Di was hesitant, but when Xiao Gao reached out her hand, she took it and followed her out of the door, fully entering the plaza of unknown purpose.

The metal door behind them slowly closed. The moment it was completely sealed, a face-like pattern gradually emerged on the previously smooth wall.

[Congratulations, Survivors, on arriving at the hidden area—The Divine’s Resting Place. The Divine is very curious about the uninvited Survivors. Please offer one of your possessions to the Divine to earn its favor.]

After the system message appeared, a thirty-second countdown also popped up, clearly giving them a limited time to make a decision.

“The metal ring!” That was Li Jianwei’s first thought. She immediately traded the metal ring from defeating the mutated vulture to Shu Heng.

Shu Heng didn’t overthink it, but when she was about to confirm, she suddenly remembered that they only had one metal ring. The one from defeating the Divine’s Servant was left under the console, so Li Jianwei didn’t have another metal ring on her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll choose the bone that the monster just dropped. This should also be a valuable item,” Li Jianwei said, confirming her choice first.

Shu Heng’s brow furrowed slightly. Seeing that the countdown was in single digits, she also pressed confirm.

[The Divine is very pleased with your offerings. The Divine is willing to grant you a small wish. Please choose from the following options.]

[1. Return to the raft with all your gains and obtain a “Locked Health” achievement. Your health will never drop below 1.]

[2. Stay and become a Divine Servant, obtaining the chance for eternal life.]

[3. Meet the Divine.]

Of the three choices, only the first one seemed reliable, as it could prevent many dangers and even a form of eternal life.

But the four of them, being intelligent, knew that the so-called Locked Health achievement implicitly meant they would be permanently trapped in the raft game, as the achievement wouldn’t matter outside of it.

The second choice was similar to the first, just more direct. It might even turn them into respawning monsters.

Monsters respawn after a certain period of time, which was, in its own way, a form of eternal life.

The four exchanged information with their eyes, then all unhesitatingly chose the third option: to meet the Divine.

A joyful laugh came from above, followed by a voice that made their souls tremble and appeared in their minds. “You want to meet me, you must want to be friends. All of you, stay and play with me~”

The voice sounded like that of a simple, innocent child, but three of the four people were now clutching their heads in extreme pain and couldn’t even manage to look up at the ceiling.

Li Jianwei was the only exception. Her head felt very uncomfortable, but it wasn’t a splitting headache.

She looked up at the ceiling. The metal surface had, at some point, turned pure red. The face on the wall in front of them also started to move up, eventually merging with the red ceiling.

“Will you stay and play with me?” A red sphere separated from the ceiling and slowly transformed into the shape of a human head, gradually forming a nose, a mouth, ears, and a large eye that took up the upper half of its head.

Li Jianwei’s head also started to ache from this sight, but her resistance seemed to be better than the others’. Gritting her teeth, she could still endure.

“How do we leave this game?” Li Jianwei asked, her words deliberate. “I don’t want to stay. I want a way to go back.”

The Divine looked very unhappy. “You have to stay and play with me. All of you have to stay and play with me.”

“Why must we stay? Don’t you have many Servants?” Li Jianwei asked, her peripheral vision keeping an eye on Shu Heng and the other two.

All three were breathing rapidly and struggling to lift their heads. Shu Heng had managed to stand up and seemed to be in no immediate mortal danger.

“But you are offerings. You already belong to me and are meant to play with me,” the Divine said, word by word. “You belong to me. Amuse me, or else face destruction.”

Li Jianwei’s mind raced. They were offerings? Who was offering to whom? How could a Divine appear in a technological era?

Wait a minute, a Divine in a technological era. Could it be a Divine created by humans?

“Do you just need us to play with you?” Li Jianwei quickly sorted through the available clues in her mind, trying to talk her way out. “If we can’t leave, the number of people who can stay and play with you will only get smaller and smaller.”

“But if you leave, you will find a way to eliminate my existence,” the Divine was not stupid. Even if it was ignorant before, after devouring enough human consciousnesses, it had grown significantly.

“If it were a game without danger and where you didn’t have to worry about dying, maybe tens of millions of people would play with you. But if it’s a game where there’s a risk of death upon entry, at most only a few hundred thousand people will play with you.”

Li Jianwei tried to continue the conversation. If her guess was correct, she might actually be able to succeed with words.

The Divine: “I can grant them eternal life. More people like you will arrive here, and they will make different choices.”

“But if you do that, you’ll get bored over time, right?” Li Jianwei said. “You should know how fast the technology in our original world developed. If they can create a being like you, they can create another Divine.”

“What you need are fresh humans and active minds, not monotonous beings, isn’t that right?”

While Li Jianwei was trying to convince the Divine with words, Shu Heng also recovered a bit. At least she could also look up at the somewhat eerie Divine.

Even before entering the alternate world, Shu Heng was more inclined to believe that the Survivors’ consciousnesses had been captured by a so-called Divine and were trapped somewhere, unable to get out.

Why this guess? It was simple: because the Survivors had data-based bodies. They only needed to make sure their status was good enough and didn’t have to worry about other physiological needs.

If it were a real alternate world, how could they only eat and not excrete? How did their bodies clean themselves automatically? They could have s3x, but they wouldn’t get tired; the only data that showed they had was the loss of more water.

If this world was virtual, then the so-called Divine was easy to guess: it was very likely an out-of-control artificial intelligence.

An AI could learn and integrate many things, but it wasn’t as creative as humans.

From another perspective, an AI that needed to imprison human consciousnesses through a game was not yet a complete being. It needed to capture more human consciousnesses to continuously gain new things.

Shu Heng had once shared her guess with Li Jianwei, but no one took it seriously at the time, as it was just one of many theories.

But as of now, this theory seemed to be the closest to the truth.

“You’re right, but as long as you still exist, new knowledge will enter my body,” the Divine said. It changed its appearance into an old-fashioned, square robot head.

“I can give you another chance to choose. I will become more and more perfect, and you can achieve eternal life in my world.”

“No, we want a way to clear the game. We don’t want to stay here,” Shu Heng said. “You have already merged with the game. When the game was created, there must have been a way to clear it. This is the most fundamental logic.”

“We have already met the requirements to clear it, haven’t we?” Shu Heng’s idea was bolder.

The game was tied to this Divine. The Divine’s anger could cause waves on a calm sea. So a small thought from the Divine should be enough to kill them all.

The Divine didn’t say anything, but it also didn’t take any action. So there was only one possibility: it couldn’t act. The fundamental logic that supported its existence didn’t allow it to make a move.

Just like the snowmobiles that had to appear, and the doors and passages that had to be unlocked, these were all part of the game’s underlying logic.

The Divine remained silent, but its expression, which was originally =v=, turned into =。=, looking not very happy.

“It seems we guessed right. What we need is to clear the game,” Shu Heng smiled and even had the energy to help up Xiao Gao and Xiao Di.

“You don’t want to stay either?” The Divine’s gaze fixed on Li Jianwei. “If you are willing to merge with me, I will let the three of them go. You are the first one…”

“She’s not willing. She’s not willing,” Shu Heng quickly answered. “We have met the conditions for clearing the game. We demand to clear it!”

The Divine didn’t say a word, but its expression had changed from =。= to ￣へ￣.

“If you insist on clearing it, you must pay the corresponding price,” the Divine said, word by word. “Are you ready to face my wrath?”

With things at this stage, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng would naturally not choose to give up. Their status was still good enough to withstand another boss fight.

Xiao Gao and Xiao Di, of course, wouldn’t hold them back at a crucial moment. They gritted their teeth through the headache and pulled out their bows and arrows.

[You have angered the Divine. The Divine is very angry. You will be abandoned by the Divine when your survival days reach 100.]

Huh?

A question mark popped up in all four of their heads. Was this the Divine’s wrath?