PGVCW 77

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

​Chapter 77: Time Reversal and the Miracle of Blue Star

​The Truth of Time Reversal

​Time reversal?

​Inside Nüwa Base, the members of the Five Tongs Squad—having slept soundly out of sheer exhaustion following the massive battle—awoke to staggering news: their very own Wang'an had single-handedly raided the main headquarters of the Corrupters in this world.

​007 had successfully materialized as a human.

​They had even managed to locate the contingent of martial artists who had been forcibly abducted from the Cangming World.

​And now, they learned that the death of the Corrupters' deity would trigger a total temporal reversal.

​Qiu Zhuang: "...I only slept for a single day, didn't I? It's not like I slept for several decades, right?"

​Lin Ke was perhaps the only calm one among them. Possessing a perpetual air of composure—as if he wouldn't mind even if the sky collapsed—he rapidly zeroed in on the core issue:

​"So our own previous time reversal was also caused by this deity?"

​Cai Cai's face darkened. Ever since the temporal reset occurred, Blue Star had been tirelessly searching for the root cause, yet no one could have anticipated that the true catalyst was the demise of the Corrupters' god rebooting all timeline branches.

​"If that is truly the case, then that entity can genuinely be designated as a deity."

​Yuan Ning's expression was equally solemn.

​Time was universally recognized as the single most difficult domain to command. One might exploit loopholes, but absolute mastery required divine power.

​Back in the Magical World, the God of Light—who had gathered thirty hundred million units of faith energy into a single vessel—had been completely incapable of manipulating time, managing only to catch a fleeting glimpse of historical memories.

​Consider the implications: an entity capable of completely controlling time was overwhelmingly powerful. Even if a warrior braved every trial and successfully executed the deity, the very next second, it would simply drag all worlds back to the starting line to begin anew.

​Qiu Zhuang scratched his head in perplexity: "Then how are we supposed to defeat it?"

​Cai Cai was already setting her mind to work: "Perhaps we could capture the deity and seal it away. Just like sealing a demon in xianxia dramas—locking it at the bottom of a deserted volcano, plastering the surrounding walls with containment talismans, and suspending flying swords overhead for spatial suppression."

​Xia Wang'an gave Cai Cai a metaphorical nod of praise: "I think that's a fine idea."

​"However, I still intend to slay it—permanently."

​The existence of the Corrupters had become an intolerable thorn in her side, and Xia Wang'an's life creed had always been to leave no remaining threat alive.

​Commonly known as: vengeance never waits overnight.

​At the moment, however, her fragmented memories were causing her quite a headache.

​"I only recall that I decimated the Corrupters' organization and slew their deity, but I cannot remember a single specific detail."

​In fact, when reflecting on the majority of her decade-long experiences from her past life, her mind invariably returned a complete blank.

​Take the God of Light, for instance; upon seeing the deity, she experienced a sense of familiarity and closeness, yet possessed zero concrete memories of their past interactions.

​The only pristine memory she retained was her initial origin in the Cangming World.

​Forgotten Memories

​As for 007, it had vanished in her past life long before Xia Wang'an ever stormed the Corrupters' main headquarters.

​Therefore, regarding that specific chapter of her past, Xia Wang'an had only her own cognitive reserves to rely upon.

​She knit her brows tightly, and as her thoughts probed deeper, a sharp, piercing pain shot through her skull.

​"Wang'an!"

​Noticing her distress, Cai Cai rushed forward to support her, but another figure had already stepped beside Xia Wang'an.

​007 was still learning to navigate human facial expressions, yet those clear, pure eyes involuntarily radiated deep concern and tender solicitude.

​He raised his hands—a stunning pair of long, powerful, kinetic hands constructed from intelligence dossier templates.

​Yet his movements as he massaged Xia Wang'an's temples were modeled precisely after the standard recording officers. He had even combined the distinct acupressure techniques of two separate recording officers into a unified routine, executing it with absolute, one-to-one precision.

​Cai Cai stood frozen: "Why is it that the moment I look at 007, I feel like I'm looking at multiple people at once?"

​007 interpreted this as a high compliment.

​However, he had no time to accept praise at the moment, focusing all his efforts on comforting Xia Wang'an: "Host, if it feels painful, please do not force yourself to think about it."

​Xia Wang'an comfortably rested her head back into 007's hands, enjoying the massage, though a trace of doubt lingered between her brows.

​"Why did I choose to forget those memories in the first place?"

​She had never doubted for a moment that those missing memories were deliberately buried by her own choice.

​The sharp headaches were merely her subconscious acting out of instinct to prevent her from probing deeper.

​After all, aside from Xia Wang'an herself, no force in existence could restrict her.

​Furthermore, whatever she set her mind to achieve, she invariably accomplished.

​So, what had been her objective in choosing to forget?

​Unable to unravel the puzzle, Xia Wang'an simply dismissed the thought.

​"Even if time resets after slaying it, so what?"

​She let out a cold sneer, appearing more like a villain than anyone else present: "If slaying it once fails to finalize its death, I shall slay it twice, thrice, uncounted thousands of times. Eventually, a strike will land that kills it permanently."

​So what if time reverses?

​Xia Wang'an did not share the intrinsic dread or hesitation of ordinary individuals when confronting an "immortal" entity.

​The phrase "intimidation by difficulty" simply did not exist in her dictionary.

​Nor did she harbor any intention of coexisting peacefully with the Corrupters, allowing their lingering presence to menace her home realm.

​Her decisive declaration instantly revitalized the spirits of the squad members, whose morale had previously dipped.

​"Precisely! It's impossible for that entity to possess infinite temporal resets indefinitely! If it truly possessed absolute omnipotence capable of reversing all spatial-temporal dimensions at will, why would it go through all the tedious trouble of having the Corrupters invade worlds one by one?"

​"Immortality" did not equate to "unbeatable." Once this core distinction was demystified, the group—who had been temporarily dazzled by the illusion of a deity's absolute immortality—experienced a sudden moment of total clarity.

​Lin Ke even offered an insightful perspective: "If I were in the deity's position and possessed absolute power, obliterating worlds wouldn't require such convoluted effort; I would simply shatter everyone's temporal timelines directly."

​Xia Wang'an nodded in agreement, adopting the hypothetical perspective and contemplating it with genuine sincerity: "If it were up to me, I would simply take up my blade and slice those worlds open one by one. In fact, I could even slice one open right now."

​Fortunately, she refrained from uttering "How about I demonstrate slicing open a world for you all," smoothly archiving the topic under "Resolved" before transitioning to the next item on the agenda.

​"Very well, now we can coordinate a plan on how to repatriate Rong Luo and her cohort back to the Cangming World."

​Interdimensional Diplomacy

​Meanwhile, headquarters had once again been thrown into a whirlwind of intense activity following the massive wave of intelligence reports.

​Among all the bustling sectors, the department drawing the most intense spotlight was undeniably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

​A specific distinction was required here: the Xia Kingdom currently maintained two distinct diplomatic divisions.

​One Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed relations with terrestrial nations across Blue Star, while the secondary Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled interdimensional diplomacy with external realms.

​Yet although the Interdimensional Diplomatic Division had been established at the very inception of the "Savior Project," strictly speaking, this marked their very first official operational deployment.

​The entity they were hosting was a female dignitary towering a hundred meters tall, possessing the morphology of a gargantuan spider, alongside a youth who bore human features and possessed an chronological age of fifty years, yet whose physical appearance was permanently locked at sixteen.

​The assembled diplomats: "..."

​The silver lining was that the Cangming World shared an identical linguistic dialect with the Xia Kingdom, sparing them the necessity of communicating via sign language.

​"Her Highness cannot currently maintain total suppression over her bestial instincts; she prefers not to return home just yet."

​Ever since Xia Wang'an brought him to Blue Star, You Mo's emotional state had remained perpetually exuberant.

​Seated within a pristine, orderly conference room, he gazed through the clear glass partition at the vehicles and aerial transports sweeping past outside.

​Due to the elevated vantage point, the pedestrians below appeared as tiny as ants.

​Yet each of those "ants" moved with precise structural division of labor, fulfilling their respective roles to compose the harmonious, orderly landscape unfolding before You Mo's eyes.

​"Your realm is truly extraordinary!!"

​A Sanctuary Preserved

​Perhaps because he had been raised as the youngest member among the Cangming contingent, coupled with his frozen youthfulness, You Mo possessed a vibrant, energetic demeanor that bore zero resemblance to a middle-aged individual in his fifties.

​His eyes sparkled with brilliant fascination as he articulated his astonishment: "I have traversed numerous human realms, yet not a single world compares to yours."

​Perhaps struggling to assemble the precise terminology, he paused for a considerable duration before finally finding the right words: "Tranquil—yes, tranquility! Everything in your realm is so wonderfully tranquil."

​You Mo had visited dimensions possessing technological infrastructures far surpassing Blue Star's; the alien species causing Blue Star such severe grief were considered trivial matters in those advanced domains. Yet without exception, no matter how elevated their technology proved to be, whenever a global cataclysm descended, host governments inevitably failed to endure for long.

​This operational collapse stemmed either from intrinsic helplessness or the covert sabotage of the Corrupters.

​In summary, virtually no world mirrored the Xia Kingdom—confronting an apocalyptic crisis while successfully preserving the vast majority of its pre-disaster social order.

​"Your apocalyptic cataclysm initiated seventy years ago! Heavens above, to preserve such a high tier of human civilization across seven whole decades... this is the absolute first time I have witnessed such a marvel!"

​Adversity into Advantage

​The officials seated inside the conference room had never viewed their achievements as particularly magnificent; a few even displayed quiet solemnity:

​"Perhaps the dimensions you visited possessed small baseline populations to begin with. Our nation once boasted a population of 1.6 billion, yet today, we number merely two hundred million."

​You Mo shook his head emphatically: "No, this represents a monumental achievement! The cataclysms striking each world are tailored specifically to exploit their vulnerabilities; across most realms possessing populations in the tens of billions, preserving a mere fifty million survivors is already considered an exceptional victory."

​In the Magical World, a vast population had survived primarily because the God of Light had continuously sacrificed his divine essence to hold back the dark faith energy.

​Even so, compared to three centuries prior, that realm's population had suffered a catastrophic collapse.

​The Xia Kingdom, conversely, had not only preserved a substantial living populace, but maintained immaculate societal cohesion.

​"By standard logic, the apocalyptic threat striking any given world represents a crisis beyond the native technological capacity to resolve. Yet observing your current state, your realm's technology appears to have suffered minimal disruption from the cataclysm."

​"There was an impact," Xia Wang'an interjected, looking up from where she sat assembling a plastic model kit nearby. "When the cataclysm first struck, our technological baseline was far different from what you see today."

​You Mo instantly adopted an expression that said Ah, now this matches the script I know.

​"To what extent did your technology regress?"

​"It didn't regress; our technological progress experienced a monumental leap forward following the cataclysm."

​You Mo: "??"

​At this point, a senior scientist overseeing technological integration provided a brief explanation: "The initial crisis that struck our realm was an orbital bombardment of meteors. The impact destroyed human settlements and introduced alien species; simultaneously, the vast majority of Blue Star's natural resources—including our oceans—vanished entirely."

​"Under those conditions, humanity was stripped of structural housing and hunted relentlessly by alien species. The most dire factor was that plant life suffered severe corruption, leaving us with zero food supplies."

​Listening to the account, You Mo could not help but cast a sympathetic look: "I have traversed dozens of worlds, and the sheer severity of your initial crisis easily ranks among the top ten most tragic."

​"How did you resolve it afterward? Was it through this..." He glanced toward Xia Wang'an, not daring to speak her name directly: "Did she bring back technological frameworks from other realms?"

​"Wang'an indeed saved our world, but our technological breakthrough occurred because our researchers successfully extracted novel elements from the meteoric debris. Reorganizing our scientific research around these unique elements, we pivoted our technological direction and achieved an unprecedented leap forward."

​You Mo: "...You extracted scientific elements from the very meteors that brought your apocalypse?"

​"Indeed," the senior scientist remarked with a touch of nostalgic reflection. "After all, back then, Blue Star possessed virtually no alternative natural resources. Fortunately, we had an abundance of extraterrestrial meteoric material—vast quantities of it, in fact."

​He domain-muttered softly: "If the Corrupters ever discovered that the meteors intended to annihilate us ended up serving as the foundational stepping stones for our technological advancement, they would surely be infuriated to tears."

​Xia Wang'an gently snapped the arms of her figurine into place.

​She turned her head to look toward You Mo, her tone cool and decisive...

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