The audience grew restless, though most of them were even more confused.
They finally understood that the biggest riddle-speaker was actually Su Nian!
There had to be some deeper meaning behind the way she wrote this.
But they just couldn't understand it!
Damn riddle-speaker!
But before they could fill the screen with question marks, the next passage appeared.
Their doubts were justified, but Mei really hadn't died here.
Still, that was Su Nian's fault too. She had made her audience paranoid.
They were guessing where the next knife would fall...
It was starting to feel like Genshin leakers using multiple accounts to play prophet.
That was, guess every possible place a knife might be inserted, and eventually one guess would come true, turning them into a real prophet.
Once popularity rose, drama naturally followed.
Just as Raiden Mei was about to perish, Aponia finally appeared.
"Mei, experiencing death... is precisely a part of your destiny."
Raiden Mei's goal had been to force Aponia out, and now she had indeed appeared.
"At last, we can witness each other's existence... with the same state of mind. Without experiencing despair, you will believe it cannot be defied..."
"Enough. The time promised by fate has yet to arrive."
To protect Mei, she used the Law of Retribution to drive Chijie away.
"Aponia, do you want to die again?!"
"Chijie." Aponia's tone changed.
Her voice had originally been like ASMR, incredibly hypnotic, but those two words sounded like Guanyin Bodhisattva calling out to the Monkey King.
Chijie could only rage helplessly before leaving in resentment.
So that was how the problem had been resolved?
So Raiden Mei hadn't merely been seeking death?
It seemed they could finally see a few clues?
Now, the true mastermind and ultimate boss, Aponia, had finally made her proper entrance.
Nice. Guanyin calling the Monkey King instantly gave me a mental image. You really understand childhood.
[Please] stop speaking in riddles.
Was she really that strong? Even Chijie couldn't resist her? The power scaling went up every episode.
They haven't fought. Being unable to fight and being unable to win are two different things.
If the process of a prophecy wasn't absolute and only the outcome was correct, then if Aponia's prophecy went wrong, would she kill Mei herself to preserve her own accuracy?
Holy shit, you actually figured that out, genius?!
We'll know once Su Nian finishes writing! My prediction might not be right.
GKD, hurry up and reveal the truth! I want to know what the hell is going on!
Yet the story continued to pull them along. Mei had also more or less grasped Aponia's prophecy and the fate she spoke of.
Even Vill-V had said Mei ought to have been the Herrscher of Reason.
Aponia rescued Mei from Chijie's hands and brought her to Paradise Hall.
This time, she did not linger for long. After Raiden Mei once again asked about Aponia, she seemed to have reached a definite answer. All that remained was verification.
The Deepest Place concealed a secret. Rather than saying Aponia had foreseen Raiden Mei's inevitable death, it was more accurate to say she knew Mei was pursuing that secret and wanted to kill her to prevent it from being exposed...
The Truth Behind the Ten Days of Death
What? Someone had lied? You could play it like that?!
Emmm, it was so brain-burning that I forgot "lies that can be deduced" were also part of a battle of wits...
Damn, this is way too good. I could never think of this, yet Su Nian wrote it without even hesitating? That outline had nothing to do with this story either!
God among gods!
That evil woman dared to show herself? Raiden Mei must beat that woman to her knees and make her spit out the entire truth!
But Psychic Flame Chasers were Civil War Gods! She could casually dismiss Chijie, so could Mei win?
Mei: I will win. I'm a Herrscher!
Fast-forward to: I failed to make Lady Aponia use her full strength. I'm really sorry... (2.5 Meis)
It was too brain-burning before, so I couldn't get a word in. Is my chance to participate finally here?!
Once the audience realized there were lies hidden in the words, the most baffling point in the entire plot—why Aponia wanted to kill Mei—seemed to suddenly become clear.
If Aponia had used "selective truth-telling," or "seven truths and three lies," or "complete lies" from the very beginning...
Then the nonsensical parts would become easy to explain.
Now, it seemed Aponia's prophetic outcome was real, but some information within it remained slightly unclear.
That was the unknown process.
Otto had plenty to say about that.
He was an honest villain.
Sometimes, telling only the truth could achieve the same goal, and it was even easier to make people unable to distinguish truth from falsehood.
Those three possibilities could also send the battle of wits in entirely different directions.
Now, the truth of why Aponia wanted to kill Mei was obvious.
There was definitely some incredible secret hidden deep within Elysian Realm!
Could that be the truth Raiden Mei had been seeking?
All truths would eventually surface.
Otto was beginning to feel a little worried, but he wasn't worried about the plot, nor was he worried that Su Nian would fail to control it.
Would this somewhat complicated story of The Past's Paradise soon reach its conclusion?
Based on what Su Nian had written so far, as long as she maintained this standard, her name would definitely spread far and wide.
But there was still one flaw. A fatal flaw.
That was...
There wasn't enough to read! Who was this little bit supposed to satisfy?! Give us more!
If other fans saw this, they would think they were being looked down on!
Otto wished he could directly give Su Nian some technological assistance. What limited her now was absolutely not her ideas, but the limits of human typing speed.
Fortunately, the other contestants couldn't see the program's livestream.
Otherwise, every last one of them would be cursing their mothers!
It was one thing for her to write Kevin's storyline in such a natural, logical way. Though difficult, it was still... still barely acceptable.
People with talent who loved writing and worked hard could produce something at this level after a few years.
It might take a while, but it wasn't impossible for them to stand beside her.
But who could have imagined it?! Su Nian was now using Kevin's story as a framework, filling the main text with puzzle pieces while also fitting in the corresponding main plotline!
She had barely paused at all during this battle of wits.
And this was supposed to be reasonable?
Even the true main plot of The Past's Paradise was so brain-burning! They couldn't understand it, yet every clue fit together naturally.
To people as skilled as Otto and Welt, this could only be considered outstanding.
But for ordinary contestants, it was already an insurmountable heavenly ladder.
Even if they were all gifted talents of Shenzhou.
Compared with Su Nian, they were dim and colorless.
This one brilliant aspect alone was enough.
She utterly crushed the results of her peers. Her fellow writers had all become mere background, with only two or three people able to catch their breath beneath her domineering rule.
Was Su Nian even human?
Sherlock Holmes reincarnated, huh!
If they saw it, they would definitely complain like that.
After all the buildup from the earlier plot, everyone's passion, which had been suppressed for a while, burst free as their confusion faded away.
Their enthusiasm only became more intense.
As the truth continued to unfold, more words appeared on the computer screen.
Aponia, someone who could see fate yet could not alter its outcome in the slightest, had truly become a slave to fate.
Raiden Mei, former champion of the "I Can't Do Anything" Grand Prix.
Their collision was also a collision between two beliefs...
Today was the final day of the prophecy, the tenth day. Raiden Mei came before Aponia and voiced all her deductions.
Her predicted death and her intention to enter the Deepest Place were one and the same.
Aponia readily admitted that she had indeed played a small word game. After their fates intersected, both were cut off, and no fate beyond that point could be seen.
There were only two possibilities: Raiden Mei had died, or Aponia had destroyed The Past's Paradise. But the latter was clearly impossible.
"Perhaps there is one explanation you forgot to mention, Aponia. What if I... erased you?"
The battle between them was about to erupt once again.
Griseo provided her assistance, while Raven successfully persuaded—kidnapped—Klein into giving Mei buffs... Aponia fell backward.
Raiden Mei defeated Aponia.
But after a flash of light, everything returned to the beginning as though nothing had happened.
Aponia was still kneeling there, maintaining her posture of prayer.
But the power Raiden Mei had expended was undeniably real.
Invincible.
Raiden Mei couldn't defeat Chijie, and Chijie was restrained by Aponia. There was no reason Mei could fail to defeat Chijie yet manage to defeat Aponia.
The Law of Retribution was simply too overpowered.
Still, this was also a commonly used illusion technique in some works, and the audience saw echoes of those stories in it.
A trip back to the Sharingan war, is that you, Sasuke?
Wasn't it Infinite Tsukuyomi?
This is Gold Experience Requiem. You will never reach the truth of defeating me!
When did you get the illusion that I hadn't used Moon Reflection Water Flower?
It's over. It feels like the thirteen Flame-Chasers are about to revive, and Mei is about to join the battle.
So? Kevin: Excuse me? I'm not dead yet!
It was full of déjà vu.
Compared to deduction, most people still preferred something more straightforward.
Combat was awesome!
Before you continue