The Only Player in Infinite Terror

Ling Qi watched this familiar yet unfamiliar scene quietly, and held Erii's soft little hand tightly.

For some reason, Ling Qi, who should have been fearless, suddenly felt afraid. He was afraid that this game, which was more real than any other game before, would end.

In the game, he was an invincible player, but after logging out and returning to the real world, he was just an ordinary loser among the masses.

In the game, no matter how powerful he is, it's all fake.

In reality, there is no supreme god, no genetic lock, and no extraordinary beings!

The cold, hard laws of cosmic physics are like a cage and chains, ruthlessly imprisoning every soul that yearns for freedom.

"I hope the development team will find the bug later. Even if they have to fix it, at least let me finish this game first," he prayed silently.

Seemingly sensing that Ling Qi was preoccupied, Erii, who had been quietly listening, tilted her head and looked at Ling Qi with concern in her beautiful eyes.

Those large, expressive eyes seemed to be asking, "Are you alright?"

Ling Qi gently patted her small hand: "Don't worry, I'm fine."

As a veteran player, Ling Qi is quite good at telling little lies.

After adjusting his mindset, he skillfully used his prepared rhetoric to deceive Zheng Zha and the others: "Do you remember what I said before? I am a player from outside the box."

"Strictly speaking, the original name of your world should be 'Infinite Terror,' which is a novel."

"And the game I play is adapted from this novel."

"However, the novels and games I'm talking about are not the same as the novels and games you're familiar with."

"I was short on time before, and I described it that way to make it easier for you to understand."

"Beyond the world is a void sea, where countless 'boxes' are born every moment. Each box is a multiverse, and each multiverse contains infinite worlds."

"And we players are beings that transcend the multiverse."

"Player is a term I like. Other beings call themselves transcendent, surpasser, or upper-level narrator. Some call themselves above the sacrificial path, great beings, or omniscient and omnipotent beings. Others call themselves Pangu, Da Luo, Tai Shang, Yuan Shi, Dao Guo, and so on."

"But what we're called doesn't really matter, we're all at the same level."

"We are eternally free in all time and space; we exist in all time and space, yet we do not exist in all time and space."

"For us, a multiverse is like a novel, a movie, or a game, because we can see all the possibilities at a glance."

"Some people call it fate or destiny, but I prefer to call it plot."

"It's always boring to stay the same. In order to find some fun, or to put one's own ideas into practice, or to explore whether there is a higher level to reach."

"Many of us will simultaneously use a bit of our true spirit to create an incarnation in countless worlds, allowing the incarnation to change the original plot of the world and create more possibilities."

"The avatar is part of our main body. To our main body, it is like a controllable game alt, but it usually does not carry much power."

"This is both to make our gaming journey more interesting and to show respect for the masters of those worlds—those beings who are at the same level as us."

When visiting someone's home, you should respect their rules; this is the basic etiquette of social interaction among us.

"If we compare the world to a game, the creator of the world is like the game administrator, who has the right to kick out players who don't follow the rules from the game server."

"This won't affect the players' main gameplay at all, but it will be very embarrassing."

"And saving face is one of the few things we still care about."

"Getting back to the main point, 'Infinite Terror: Re-creation' is, as the name suggests, a game multiverse created by a certain upper-level narrator based on the multiverse of the 'Infinite Terror' novel."

"That is, the multiverse we are in now."

"So, if you're asking whether you're computer-generated data?"

"Then I can answer you very clearly, no."

"You are you, living beings with wisdom and thought, and you have your own will."

"If you're wondering whether everything about you—your past, present, and future—is predetermined?"

"I can also answer you, yes, but that was not the intention of the creator of your world."

"From the moment a multiverse is created or is born, if there are no beings of our level to interfere, then everything until the moment that multiverse perishes is already predetermined."

"The cycle of formation, destruction, and emptiness of a multiverse constitutes one kalpa."

"Although there are countless world lines and countless possibilities in between."

"For example, in some timelines, Lori might not have died of a terminal illness, Zhan Lan might be a successful writer, and Brother Jie might have opened a veterans' barbecue restaurant after retiring from the military."

"In that timeline, your lives are without tragedy, so you will not enter the God Realm out of despair."

"But for us, as long as no one can escape this calamity, there are no variables, only the predetermined fate."

"This predetermined fate becomes destiny, becomes the setting, becomes the plot, and ultimately all vanish into nothingness and illusion."

"Your past and present are preordained, and your future should also be preordained."

"But now that I've come, the predetermined future must be changed according to my will."

"My arrival as a player also proves one thing: your Creator is also happy to see the future changed."

"He is pleased that I, as a player, bring about change to this world, whether that change is good or bad."

Zheng Zha's brain was overloaded with too much information, and he looked like he was lost in thought, as if he was contemplating life.

Perhaps because of her profession and the fact that she had read a lot of religious texts, Zhan Lan was slightly better and had some resistance to such boastful talk.

She was skeptical.

But if Ling Qi is lying, wouldn't that mean he might just be a virtual program on a computer?

If Ling Qi wasn't lying, then wouldn't everything be meaningless?

A single-minded person becoming blocked at both ends is an example of this.

As "old folks" from 2007, they had never encountered the sophisticated concepts that Ling Qi had summarized and refined from various online novels of later generations, and at this moment they were completely fooled.

Zhang Jie laughed, breaking the silence: "I think I understand. In short, as long as we follow you, Ling Qi, we will definitely be able to create a better future for ourselves."

"For us, we were already at the very bottom of the pit, so no matter which way we went, it was all going up."

"The villagers of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, who followed him, all became successful and prosperous as long as they survived to the end."

"Besides, Ling Qi, you are such an incredible being. Working for you, even if you just leave us a little something behind, we'll benefit immensely!"

"What an incredible opportunity!! Even a pig could ascend to heaven in one step and become an immortal ancestor by default. It completely overturns many of the fundamental truths of the world!"

Zheng Zha understood now and nodded repeatedly, saying, "Brother Jie is right, that's what I thought too!"

Looking at these two idiots, Zhan Lan suddenly thought of Matthew, the black captain who was fooled in the Resident Evil universe.

This moment is just like... that moment back then.

That big, dark guy was completely fooled by Ling Qi in the previous mission world, and in the end, he still believed Ling Qi's claim of being a senior executive in the company.

What Ling Qi said cannot be disproven, but it also cannot be proven to be true.

No matter how you look at it, isn't this a bit too exaggerated? All that talk about transcendence and the multiverse...

She wanted to say something more, but suddenly realized that she was the real idiot.

Does it matter whether Ling Qi's words are true or false? It doesn't matter at all!

Even if Ling Qi isn't the so-called transcendent being he claims to be, he's probably at least a legendary immortal or god-like being.

Otherwise, how can you explain how he knows so much about everyone else?

Moreover, even putting all that aside, based on the strength Ling Qi has shown so far, if he wants to do something, apart from Zhang Jie who is no longer hiding his strength, no one else is able to stop him.

If you're so self-righteous and jump out to question others as a so-called "smart person," aren't you just courting death?

Even if Ling Qi is a mentally ill person with cognitive impairment, he is still an incredibly powerful mentally ill person, and for my own safety, I should obey him.

Zhan Lan felt incredibly regretful; she shouldn't have brought up this topic.

But it's too late for regrets now; all we can do is try to salvage the situation.

So, the words that were about to come out of her mouth turned into agreement: "That's right, that's exactly it, so I suggested that Ling Qi be the leader of our Zhongzhou team, because he is dedicated to doing things for everyone."

Ling Qi noticed that Zhan Lan's expression was off, but he didn't care and smiled confidently: "Good, very good, excellent! I'm going to reward you handsomely!"

"At least in this game, as long as you follow me, everyone can have a place in the pantheon."

Ling Qi wasn't lying about this. In the past games, as long as he wasn't playing a farming game, even if he encountered an accident and failed halfway through, he would reload the save and start over, leading the Central Continent team all the way to the final battle.

By the end of the final battle, even the weakest member of the Central Continent team would have four gene locks and an S-level enhancement, which would basically guarantee them a place as a beginner saint.

Ling Qi looked at Erii and found that Erii's eyes were sparkling, clearly indicating that she unconditionally believed everything Ling Qi said.

"07-sama, you're the best! (*^▽^*)"

She held the small notebook up to her chest.

Seeing that the atmosphere had calmed down, Zhan Lan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly changed the subject, asking, "I noticed that Erii hasn't been saying anything. Is there something wrong with her throat that even the God of War can't cure?"

Ling Qi shook her head: "No, it's related to her ability. She can speak, but she can't speak."

"Because her words have power. You are too weak right now. Once she speaks, you and Zheng Zha will probably be torn to pieces."

After saying that, Ling Qi turned to Zheng Zha and said, "Zheng Zha, I have already exchanged for internal energy cultivation manuals and various materials. After you have finished exchanging and learning them, we can exchange them with each other."

Zheng Zha nodded readily: "No problem, this way we can save some money on the side quests and reward points needed to redeem them."

Ling Qi smiled and said, "Brother Jie, Zhan Lan, don't stand on ceremony. After Zheng Zha and I finish using the cultivation manuals and various materials, you can directly exchange them for NZT-48 and the Scholar's Touch Spell Scroll to learn."

"Although you are all in the back row, which is the category of mental power users and you generally don't need to participate in close combat, the Human Kingdom can greatly enhance your physical fitness, thereby improving your survivability."

"Imagine this: the enemy thinks you're all ranged squishy characters, but when they finally manage to get to you, they find that you're not as weak as they imagined. They'll definitely die with their eyes wide open in disbelief."

Zhan Lan said cautiously, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate? These were all redeemed by you, yet you're sharing them with us for free."

Ling Qi's tone was calm, yet carried an undeniable authority: "Don't be shy. You and Brother Jie are both mental power users, so you need to exchange for skills like mental power scanning and mental power chains, which requires consuming a lot of side quests and reward points."

"These skills are powerful and important to our team, but they don't enhance you personally much."

"Furthermore, unlike Brother Jie, you, Zhan Lan, have not been strengthened. You have almost no combat power in the early and mid-game, making it difficult to obtain many side quests and reward points in the mission story world."

"So even for the sake of fairness, it's necessary for the rest of the team to allocate some resources to you, so just accept it without worry."

"Even if we take a step back, we are teammates, partners, and a team. In the future, we will need to face the enemies and dangers in the mission storyline together, risking our lives."

"From this perspective, we should support and help each other even more."

"However, I must make this clear upfront, so don't get the wrong idea, I'm not a good person at all."

"The reason I'm nice to you is simply because your expected level of performance has met the standards I set for my teammates."

"The Central Continent team only has twenty positions in total, and I absolutely cannot accept that useless players occupy precious player positions."

"Since you have chosen me to be the leader of the Central Continent Team, then from now on, who can join and who cannot will be decided by my word."

"As for those unqualified newcomers... in ordinary mission worlds, we can let them fend for themselves. In team battle worlds, we need to protect them in safe places to prevent them from feeding kills to the enemy's reincarnation squad members, which would greatly reduce our team battle gains."

"Who's in favor? Who's opposed?"

"Feel free to raise any opinions."

"I am a very democratic and magnanimous person, and I would never retaliate against someone just because they oppose me."

Zheng Zha pondered for a moment before getting up to offer his opinion.

Zhang Jie, who was sitting next to him, glared at him and pulled the kid back to his seat.

I asked you to give your opinion, and you actually did? You have no tact.

Zheng Zha realized what was happening and gave an embarrassed smile.

As for Zhan Lan, she was sitting upright with her eyes fixed on Ling Qi.

loyalty!

Ling Qi took everything in and nodded in satisfaction.

Very well, among the four people who attended the first general meeting of the Zhongzhou team, he finally established his absolute leadership position by using both persuasion and force.

Zheng Zha? Zhang Jie? Zhan Lan?

The three giants of the Central Continent Team in the early stages of the original work have all fallen into his trap!