Chapter 22: Returning to Original State
I still couldn’t believe it.
The concept of the world itself had appeared before me in a materialized form.
And amidst my surprise, more questions than anything else occupied my mind.
Why would the world specifically come to see me?
“You don’t believe me? I suppose that’s natural. For us humans, you never imagined I could appear before you directly, did you?”
The voice came from behind me.
I snapped back to reality and glanced at the old locust tree where Lou Ling had been sitting before, but no one was there anymore.
Slowly turning and shifting my gaze, I once again saw her figure. Lou Ling was now sitting in a wheelchair, her lower body covered with a red blanket.
Even more absurdly, this wasn’t teleportation, nor was it a hallucination. I had the feeling that she had originally been there all along.
‘…That’s only natural, isn’t it? If it truly is the world, then it’s ‘everywhere,’ isn’t it?’
“For the concept, which was vague and formless, to appear before me in such a concrete form, becoming recognizable, it’s natural to be unable to let go.”
“…Does this girl Lou Ling even exist?”
“Heh, of course not. Rather than that, why would you think she exists? In the previous world, was the person sitting beside you a woman named Lou Ling?”
No…
That’s right, why did I so easily accept Lou Ling’s existence? Even if Li Nai was gone, another person shouldn’t have suddenly appeared to take her place.
But I had never thought of this before. Was I stupid?
A faint smile appeared on Lou Ling’s face, seemingly triumphant, but it felt rather deliberate.
“It’s because this ‘character’ was designed by me. As a chess piece inserted by your side, with no flaws from her origin to her background, it’s normal for you not to doubt it.”
“Because it’s reasonable, I couldn’t doubt it.”
I was truly speechless, unable to refute anything, rendered mute.
It was terrifying, giving me a feeling similar to Miss Shirley… Well, after all, these two were the same existence. One was observing the world, and the other was the world itself.
Please, don’t just appear before me so casually, like some super mastermind behind the final boss. Especially without any warning, it makes me unable to react.
“I just didn’t expect you to truly appear before me in human form. This makes me feel lost.”
“Actually, there’s no need for you to be so surprised. You can consider me a Master of Fate like yourself. After all, the term ‘destiny’ originally refers to me. Or would ‘Fate’ be more familiar to you?”
She is the world, destiny, and Fate.
“I only have two kinds of destiny: one called ’cause,’ and the other called ‘effect’.”
“‘Cause’… ‘effect’…”
That is the most important relationship between all things.
And just as I had this thought, Lou Ling slapped my face directly.
“Essentially, Destiny Power and Causality Power are the same kind of power.”
…So, they are the same kind of power?
“Cause determines effect, past life determines future, things have origins and ends, events have beginnings and conclusions, the causes of fortune and misfortune all complete themselves. This is also destiny, a destiny called ‘causality’.”
“Wait, if Destiny Power and Causality Power are the same, why can we Masters of Fate change the world by using Destiny Power?”
“Because I am the ‘surface,’ and you are the ‘point.’ Do you understand it this way?”
In other words… the world is the surface, and the Master of Fate is the point?
Surface… connected…
Point… Singularity?
Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, I understood!
Causality Power is universally contained within the entire world and is uniformly distributed! But when localized Destiny Power is strong enough, it can affect—
I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself, as if I had finally solved an unsolved mystery—understanding what I was.
I understood the essence of Destiny Power!
And after knowing this, I became even more puzzled as to why the world would appear before me.
“But why would you deliberately become a ‘point’ of existence…?”
“Appearing in this form was not my intention. If it were you, would you arbitrarily shrink yourself and enter your own body? No one would do such a meaningless, foolish thing, would they?”
Using entering one’s body as an analogy.
SF Light Novel
So we are all like microorganisms within her, and she is the mother of all humanity.
Thinking of this, I uttered a sentence that, in retrospect, made me feel utterly foolish.
“Should I call you Mom?”
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.
How to put it, the conversation just died down.
Lou Ling’s previously profound expression instantly turned blank, meaning expressionless, as if her soul had left her body.
Wow… Why am I always like this?! Every time, at the most random moments, I suddenly blurt out something inappropriate… Ah!
As I desperately tried to think of something to say to ease the awkward, uncomfortable atmosphere, I saw Lou Ling, who had been silent until now and seemingly applying pressure on me, suddenly frown. Then, with an annoyed expression, she said to me,
“Get lost! I don’t have a son like you!”
…She actually responded to my foolishness. I’m so touched.
Is she really giving me so much face?
Could it be that the world is actually very easy to talk to?
Lou Ling tilted her head slightly, her eyes as still as a deep well, seemingly not truly understanding why my expression was so complicated.
From this, one could see her difference from humans. It wasn’t that she was emotionless, but that she genuinely couldn’t understand.
Pure Heavenly Dao contains no emotion, it is pure rational existence. That’s why there’s the saying, “Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they regard all things as straw dogs.”
“No, I just didn’t expect you to actually respond to me.”
“That was the answer given by the simulated personality. I was just following it.”
“Simulated personality?”
“That Lou Ling you just met. It’s impossible for ‘me’ to appear at any time, so in most cases, that simulated personality takes charge of this person.”
“So, it was a simulated personality…”
“After all, if I interfered too much in this world… and ended up being bound by causality within it, that would be putting the cart before the horse.”
I see. In that case, it really would be self-destruction.
Miss Shirley had also said that if she interfered too much and got involved in too much causality, she wouldn’t be able to exist for long.
At the time, I couldn’t understand, but now, I somewhat can.
The world deliberately took on a human form to see me, but this couldn’t last for long. Otherwise, if she were bound by threads of causality, she wouldn’t be able to transform back into the ‘Old Man in Heaven’ that people spoke of.
What would happen then? I couldn’t imagine…
The laws would collapse.
Like an Ouroboros, an infinite death loop.
That would be the true meaning of the end of the world.
“You came to see me, even at the risk of this…”
“Why do you think that? You deceived me terribly.”
It was like being cheated out of fortune and lust by a villain, with a resentful tone.
“By using paradoxes to exploit loopholes in the rules, you’ve even made me completely different from my original self. Because of you, I’ve become unrecognizable.”
She couldn’t even say a single ‘sorry.’
If apologies were useful, what would be the point of reason?
Moreover, the so-called ‘reason’ was right before me; she was absolutely correct.
“Masters of Fate exist in every era, like ‘beacons.’ But you are the exception.”
“You shouldn’t exist in this era, nor should you have been born into this world. So, I originally wanted to prevent your birth, but that failed.”
“After that, I wanted to arrange your death, and finally succeeded. But just when I thought everything would return to the right track, everything changed again.”
Only I… alone…
“By the time I understood what had happened, nothing could be changed. ‘Helpless to turn the tide’… Heh, the idiom created by you humans is really fitting here.”
“What has happened cannot be changed. This is the causality I decided upon. I cannot and will not go against the rules I set myself.”
“I realized I can no longer eliminate you. You have become an existence almost equal to me. Being entangled with causality in the previous world has given you immense Destiny Power, enough for you to change half the world.”
“This gave rise to an unprecedented emotion in me. I tried to understand you, to understand humans, and that’s how the ‘me’ before your eyes was born.”
A long confession, telling me about her, the birth of Lou Ling.
I had become an existence that threatened her, so she was born.
“Then, what is your purpose?”
“I need to self-correct and guide the erroneous world back in the right direction.”
In other words, she wants to return the world to its original state?
“You have that thought too, don’t you, Juncheng An? I understand you. You don’t like the current world, where everyone has become unfamiliar. That sense of dissonance you always feel, doesn’t it originate from yourself?”
Me…
“You are unnecessary to this world. Your existence is maintained by paradox. You don’t belong in this world at all… not belong to me.”
Yes, this world has no place for me.
“And you even took the body of the Juncheng An of this world. You feel guilty about it, thinking you shouldn’t exist, right?”
That’s right, I do feel guilty.
“Me too. The direction in which causality and laws are developing now is not what I expected. It’s full of discordant notes, so I must guide everything back to its proper course.”
She felt the same way I did.
“Lanhua’s existence was not erased by me. It was the price she paid for imposing paradox on you. So, returning to the original world will also let Lanhua return. This is also what you desire, right?”
That’s right, this is what I desire. Everything I once had will return to my hands.
She saw through everything.
“But if that happens, the current you will also cease to exist…”
Lou Ling’s expression remained unchanged. She simply stated the fact plainly.
“The current me is an erroneous existence. I shouldn’t have thoughts, nor should I have emotions… I am the world, not human.”
This is the will of the world.
