Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 286 I Heard Your Wish

At the moment when time completely stops, the activity of thought also falls into a state of complete stillness.

However, before that, Ethan saw several fleeting images, none of which were related to him in terms of the scenes or the people involved; they were definitely not his memories.

"So, this is the 'other side'?"

someone asked.

They awoke on the muddy ground of the desolate countryside, where even the biting cold seemed incredibly real. These people made the same reaction as Ethan when he traveled through time—looking down at their hands to confirm whether everything they had experienced was real.

After all, when you wake up from your sleep and suddenly find yourself in a completely unfamiliar place, your thoughts will be a jumbled mess.

However, unlike him, these people seemed to know why they were there.

Their "time travel" appears to be voluntary.

Ethan carefully observed the actions of the people around him. Their voices were intermittent; some people's mouths seemed to be constantly talking, but no sound could be heard. The howling of the cold wind, however, was particularly clear. He could only guess at how these people viewed this place and why they had come here from their expressions.

The first closed beta testers of the game?
The game developers promised them a world that would give them a 100% realistic tactile experience.
No, that's not right.

Ethan quickly dismissed the idea. Their expressions didn't suggest they were facing a groundbreaking virtual game; there wasn't a trace of excitement on their faces. The leader was a middle-aged man with a serious expression, who seemed to be analyzing their current situation to the people who had come with him.

No game enthusiast would show such a somber expression when faced with a groundbreaking game.

Ethan, being a game enthusiast, has a lot to say on this.

He still remembers the first time he came into contact with online games. Even though the game was old and many of its designs were a bit immature, and the gameplay was just so-so, he can still recall the excitement of entering a strange world.

He will first spend some time learning about the class and core combat patterns, then transform into a small animal killer, following in the footsteps of the quest NPCs and bringing annihilation to the wildlife around the town.

Exploration and the acquisition of experience, equipment, and abilities are also essential parts of the game's enjoyment.

In fact, if Ethan hadn't thought he had "traveled through time" but was actually experiencing a large and realistic fantasy world game, he definitely wouldn't have stayed in Riverwood for two years practicing fireball spells. That would have been far too pathetic for a player.

Ethan observed silently for a while longer and finally understood where this strange feeling came from.

These people seem to be here to work.

The middle-aged man was the leader. Before the work started, he explained the details of the work to them. The expressions of the other people were no different from those of miserable workers who had worked overtime all night yesterday and were called to work overtime again early in the morning by their department leaders.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, hey—"

Someone patted "Ethan" on the shoulder from behind. It was a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties and had just started working. She seemed to have lost interest in listening to her boss's speech, so she whispered to the person closest to her. Her face was full of curiosity, and she asked mysteriously, "I heard they say you're an archaeologist?"

"Ah, um."

Ethan didn't move, so the body's owner gave a somewhat awkward response.

"Really!"

The younger sister's eyes lit up. "They also said you've been to ancient tombs. Is it like in the novels, where there are lots of treasures hidden down there, but also lots of traps? You might accidentally trigger poison arrows, fire traps, and so on. Oh, and zombies too! If you rashly open a coffin, the corpse inside will turn into a zombie and jump out!"

"...It's not that exaggerated."

Ethan's voice sounded very uncomfortable; he seemed to be a gloomy man who wasn't used to interacting with women. But he also knew the deeper reason—everything the man had just admitted was a lie, or, to put it more politely, a "high-EQ" explanation.

He has indeed been to countless ancient tombs, but archaeologists are not the only ones who do this job.

He was a tomb raider.

The amount involved is enough to warrant a life sentence or even the death penalty.

The young woman in front of me seemed to have just graduated and, having left the ivory tower, still held many beautiful dreams about the world.

"Did you study archaeology in college? Why did you choose this major? Was it because you wanted to travel all over the world? Haha, I had a classmate who did just that."

The naive question, however, was like a sharp knife stabbing into Ethan.

In reality, "he" never went to university, and the reason he did this job was very simple: he was short of money.

He had considered quitting several times, but he was used to spending money extravagantly and had become addicted to gambling, seeking extreme mental stimulation at the gambling table. If he ran out of money, he would borrow from loan sharks, and when he could no longer repay, he would go and "do something big".

He wanted money, more money than he could ever spend.

Ethan heard this most genuine desire from the body's heart. As for the reason for joining this strange "closed beta test," it was simple: someone had caught him red-handed.

The "last job" didn't go very smoothly. When they were collecting the spoils and preparing to leave, a conflict arose over the division of the loot, and someone died.

This incident made the news not long after it happened, and it was said that a special task force was set up in the area. The goods they had acquired could not be sold for a while, and just then, their gambling addiction kicked in again.

As always, he lost all his money, and when the casino's debt collectors came knocking on his door, "he" made a foolish decision.

He wanted to use some of the treasures that he hadn't had time to resell to pay off the debt.

But this time, his good luck seems to have run out.

The casino did not grant his request, but instead became very interested in his tomb raiding skills.

As more and more "details" came to light, Ethan realized that these people all had ulterior motives.

They gathered here not to experience a groundbreaking game, but to fulfill a request made by the "boss".

At least they didn't feel like they were playing a game, but rather that they had entered a place similar to a "god's space," where the "department leader" was giving them final instructions not far away.

"Don't die easily, we don't know what you will experience after death."

The fleeting memories end here, followed by endless darkness.

In the depths of that darkness, a voice seemed to be calling to him, and their "main quest" sounded simple: they needed to find someone here.

The person they were looking for was waiting in the deepest part of this darkness.

“Mr. Song Xian, I have heard your wish.”

Time shifted again, and at some unknown moment and place, the mission was completed.

The reward was far more generous than he had imagined.

He wants money, more money than he can spend.

"Then, how about I grant you the ability to turn lead into gold?"

It was on that day that "he" understood something.

God truly exists. Following the voice's guidance, Ethan moved forward in the pitch-black space, gradually understanding everything, including the fundamentally irreconcilable conflict between the Golden King and Merlin.

They had everything in this world, receiving gifts far exceeding money. Their "adventure" did not end when they found the goddess; instead, it began a new chapter. However, their good fortune was short-lived, and different voices and doubts arose among them.

Is this kind of life really meaningful?
Can they bring everything they gain here back to the real world?

But they have to go back; in the real world, there are people waiting for them to come home.

But such words could not sway the King of Gold.

No one knew better than him that what awaited him on the "other side" was likely the police, endless imprisonment, and even a peanut.

More arguments emerged from the depths of darkness, each ending in discord.

"Family? Why get so hung up on such a trivial thing?"

The Golden King could never understand Merlin's thoughts. "Quickly give up such ideas. What kind of women do you want? How many children do you want to have? What kind of people do you want to raise them into? What kind of life do you want to give them? Isn't it all just a matter of a word?"

Whenever a conversation could not continue, Merlin would bring up that one sentence.

—I am different from you; I have a reason why I have to go back.

What an idiot.

This may be a case of people with different values ​​not being able to work together. The King of Gold did not understand why someone insisted on distinguishing between illusion and reality. In his view, whichever side was more advantageous to him was "reality".

However, he understood one thing—a principle he grasped on his very first day in the industry.

If someone gets in your way, kill them.

He didn't intend to dwell on what impact Merlin's return to "reality" would have on them; he didn't want to take any risks. The only problem was that getting rid of a "colleague" wasn't easy. The goddess's blessing had descended upon them equally, and he had to find a way to make the goddess take back her blessing.

So, as Merlin began researching how to leave this world, the Golden King also began investigating him.

How can we entice Merlin to anger the goddess?
The mystery was solved when the goddess suddenly disappeared one day. Since then, the guild has been investigating the goddess's whereabouts. They sent investigators to various different planes and eventually discovered some special planes. They found traces of the goddess in those "abnormal planes".

Those "abnormal planes" seemed to have a very special meaning for the goddess, and when she witnessed the catastrophe that Merlin's investigation brought to the planes, a plan formed in the mind of the Golden King.

If Merlin were to be guided to cause a catastrophe in those planes that hold special significance for the goddess, what would the goddess do?

The surrounding darkness gradually dissipated, and the argument between Merlin and the guild members had long since ceased.

He walked step by step into the constellation of stars; this was not Ethan's first time here.

After the turmoil in the capital came to an end, he followed Winter's guidance to this place. There was a witch here who looked exactly like Winter, a witch who seemed to be from a different timeline.

However, what "he" sees now is a completely different scene.

He only saw a silhouette among the stars. Immediately afterward, his head throbbed with pain, and he collapsed to his knees, exhausted. The stinging pain in his eyes was driving him crazy. He had no doubt that if he looked at it one more time, his eyeballs would pop out of their sockets and roll to the ground.

That audience lasted only a few seconds, yet it brought him the most extreme pain.

However, the plan is progressing smoothly.

Just as "he" envisioned, arbitrarily altering the timeline would inevitably provoke the goddess's wrath. For reasons unknown to some guilds, the goddess wished that the history of each plane would develop according to its original trajectory.

Everything that followed unfolded according to "his" plan.

This special plane became Merlin's tomb.

Only "he" knew that Merlin was already dead before the cursed spear pierced his heart.

The goddess took back everything she had given Merlin, turning him back into the fragile mortal he had always seen.

The intense pain severed the resonance between thought and consciousness. By the time the Golden King regained his senses, time had already begun to flow—the same strange phenomenon had occurred on the day Merlin died.

But apart from him, no one knew that the goddess had ever come.

The Golden King looked eagerly at the stone steps. At this moment, just like at that time, someone else was walking the same path as Merlin, and his fate was self-evident.

He also witnessed the entire process on the day Merlin fell.

Only a fool would risk their life in a place like this.

Only those who survive will have the last laugh.

Everything was according to his plan.

However, the next moment, the expression on the Golden King's face froze.

He saw Ethan, and for the first time, he saw the face of the goddess.

With long white hair and ruby-like eyes, she stood very close to Ethan, almost embracing him tightly.

In the brief moment their eyes met, she even defiantly stuck out her tongue and lightly licked Ethan's lips.

This……

Why is that?
Ethan is clearly a heinous criminal who disrupted the timeline and inherited Merlin's will!

But that scene did not last long. The King of Gold's vision was cut off, and it seemed as if something was falling off his face. Gradually, he lost feeling in his hands and feet, and his body, which was immersed in the golden pool, lost feeling as well.

He was melting, becoming one with the scalding liquid yellow metal.

"Finally we meet."

At the same time, Ethan heard this sound.

So close, I could feel their warm breath in my ear.

"As a reward for finding me, I will grant you one wish."

The voice in my ear said truthfully, "I heard your wish."

……

?

Ethan pondered for a moment and suddenly realized a problem.

Wait a minute, he hasn't made a wish yet!

(End of this chapter)