Collapse Iron: I just transmigrated! You want me to save the Black Tower?!

The Star God of Destruction has not been upgraded, and the concept of the Great Lord of Annihilation does not yet exist.

After thinking these two points through, Jiang Jiu looked at Lai Gushi again.

"...Senior, I'm inexplicably a little angry right now. Why don't you just die first?"

Laigushi: "..."

It's like making a wasted trip.

Jiang Jiu was indeed somewhat dissatisfied.

Lai Gushi didn't care and paid little attention to Jiang Jiu's occasional remarks about wanting to kill him.

He somehow found a bottle of strong liquor and presented it to Jiang Jiu when Jiang Jiu was slacking off.

Jiang Jiu raised an eyebrow.

"I was just saying, and you actually have it?"

Just as Jiang Jiu reached out to grab it, Lai Gushi pulled his hand back.

Are you an adult?

"......ha?"

Jiang Jiu was speechless: "You geniuses would care about these things? I'm five hundred years old, come here!"

"No drinking, no drinking—" Jiang Jiu glanced at Lai Gushi, "Never mind, I'll drink it myself."

Jiang Jiu took the wine jug and poured himself a mouthful.

The moment the strong liquor slid down my throat, a familiar, almost forgotten burning sensation exploded in my throat.

It wasn't the taste, it was the pain.

"cough......!"

Jiang Jiu squinted as he choked, but chuckled softly.

"That's really good."

Lai Gushi looked at him, remained silent for two seconds, and then spoke.

"The concentration of this liquor is 9.7 times that of standard liquor. Normal organic life would be in danger if it ingested more than 50 milliliters."

"Really?" Jiang Jiu wiped his mouth and took another sip.

"Unfortunately, the word 'normal' has nothing to do with me."

As a self-destructive individual, his pain threshold is raised to a very high level, and ordinary injuries can hardly make him feel anything.

But this spicy stimulation that acts directly on nerve endings brings an almost luxurious sense of presence.

This feeling is a reminder that I am still alive.

Can you still feel anything?

Chapter 152 Your concern is understandable, but you shouldn't care.

Jiang Jiu drank for a while, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lai Gushi staring straight at him.

"What, you want some too?"

He asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Lai Gushi shook his head.

"Based on analysis and data calculations, you appear to be only a teenager."

Jiang Jiu was speechless: "...What are you being so meticulous about? Fine, fine, nineteen, you're an adult, okay?"

This is so boring...

Jiang Jiu gulped down the strong liquor, the burning sensation spreading from his throat to his stomach, giving him an almost masochistic pleasure.

In fact, he had already sentenced this timeline to death in advance.

So it doesn't matter what I do.

Lai Gushi silently watched Jiang Jiu, offering neither advice nor comment, but simply observing.

A genius suspected to be from the future, possessing multiple destinies, does many things that are puzzling.

For example, why should we prevent a potential future "disaster"? And when we realize that this disaster is caused by ourselves, why do we show leniency because no one breaks the boundaries of our knowledge?

Or, to put it more directly, why is it that someone who is clearly an intellectual genius, who clearly understands best how to define existence, is a self-destructive individual?

These questions, when combined, become the last, simple question.

Why do people crave the sensation of "pain"?

The wine was quickly emptied.

Jiang Jiu shook the empty wine bottle and placed it on the table.

He propped his chin up, half-lying on the table, his eyes lowered, staring blankly at the empty wine bottle.

"Your liquor... is really strong."

After a brief analysis, Lai Gushi determined that the slight delay in vital signs indicated intoxication, but the probability of complete loss of consciousness was less than 7%.

"Your current state of intoxication will likely last for about forty-two minutes. Would you like some hangover soup?"

Jiang Jiu ignored him and just stared blankly at the empty wine bottle in front of him.

After watching for a while, he suddenly chuckled softly, a laugh tinged with self-deprecation.

"Forty-two minutes...tsk, that's pretty precise."

He turned his head, his gaze somewhat unfocused, and looked at Lai Gu Shi: "You're just an android now, why are you calculating this? Are you afraid I'll go on a drunken rampage and tear this place down?"

“There is such a possibility, although it is less than 3.1%,” Lai Gushi answered truthfully. “Calculating in advance helps in preparing countermeasures, and I have not always been an android; I was once human as well.”

"Solution plan...humanity..."

Jiang Jiu withdrew his gaze and raised his hand to press his brow.

He certainly hadn't lost his mind; he was just suddenly a little confused.

“Zandar,” Jiang Jiu suddenly spoke, his voice soft, more like a self-question than a question, “You said… geniuses don’t care about the price, right?”

Lai Gushi replied, "In terms of common sense, yes."

"What about... those who aren't geniuses?"

Jiang Jiu's voice became even softer. He stared at the empty wine glass on the table, somewhat dazed.

"What about those ordinary people who weren't geniuses, those who were caught up in the genius's experiments and became the price to pay?"

And... what about me...?

"Do they deserve to die...?"

Am I going to die...?

He paused for a long time, so long that Gu Shi almost thought he wouldn't continue.

"...I've seen a lot."

Jiang paused for a few seconds, then continued, "Destruction...rebirth...destruction again...one line, then another..."

"I don't know how many innocent people have lost their lives."

He twitched the corners of his mouth, wanting to laugh, but didn't.

He didn't know what he was saying, nor did he know why he was saying it.

It's a mess.

"Geniuses pursue truth and break boundaries, while star gods dwell high on destiny and look down upon all living beings... Everyone seems to have grand goals, profound understandings, or... simply want to do it."

There was a hint of incomprehension in his voice.

"What about those who just wanted to live ordinary lives but were inexplicably dragged into genius experiments that supposedly broke the boundaries of their intellect, or... like me who got involved just to complete a mission?"

"Why should I...?"

He spoke softly, but it was unclear who he was asking.

Ask Zandal? Ask yourself? It seems like neither.

"Why should ordinary people have to pay the price for the achievements of geniuses? And why is it that the so-called inevitability, breaking the boundaries of intellect... these things, always come at the cost of those who didn't intend to do anything, or perhaps just wanted to live?"

"You care a lot?" Lai Gushi asked in return.

"Shouldn't I care?"

Jiang Jiu looked up at Lai Gu Shi: "No one has the right to easily take another's life, but I wield all sorts of chaotic powers, jumping between different timelines, killing this one, stopping that one..."

"Sometimes I can't even tell whether I'm preventing disasters or becoming another genius who creates them?"

“I used to tell myself it was for a bigger goal, to stop the end times, to…save more people.”

He chuckled and shook his head: "How many have I saved? How many have I killed? Some call me a savior, some say I'll die a horrible death. To be honest, I can't help but laugh when I hear it."

“I know very well that I am not worthy of this title, and I do not have such big goals.”

Alcohol allowed these thoughts, which he usually suppressed with reason, to surface. He didn't really care much about them, but he just couldn't understand them.

He rarely thinks about these questions because they are meaningless.

He hesitated, gave up, and even questioned, but it seemed he had no choice.

Therefore, he can only abandon one timeline while thinking of a so-called better solution, and then move on to the next timeline.

Just like now.

How ridiculous...

Lai Gushi listened quietly. He did not try to refute with logic, nor did he offer any explanation or comfort with the so-called necessary sacrifice. He simply waited calmly for Jiang Jiu to finish speaking.

After a long silence, as Jiang Jiu fell silent once again, staring at the table with his head down, Lai Gushi spoke.

"Your concern is valid."

Jiang Jiu paused for a few seconds, then couldn't help but laugh: "After listening for so long, all you come up with is this 'I should care'?"