The Nameless Person Behind the Second Door

"Xu Zhou, don't go over there."

Tang San grabbed Xu Zhou's arm.

Ahead of them, the blue-gold lifeform that had emerged from the pool had fully unfurled.

It had no limbs.

Its entire body was made of intertwined vines and roots, with a fist-sized red crystal suspended at its center.

Inside the crystal, countless tiny words swam back and forth.

Line after line.

Their contents could not be made out.

Yet whenever they swept past his eyes, Tang San's expression changed.

Sometimes, he was shocked.

Sometimes, he was puzzled.

In the end, fear appeared on his face.

"I have seen your future."

The blue-gold lifeform spoke.

Its voice appeared directly in their minds. Its gender and age were impossible to discern.

Tang San's fingers tightened.

"What is my future?"

"You will become a god."

"And then?"

"You will kill many Soul Beasts."

Tang San fell silent.

The blue-gold lifeform continued.

"You will establish a new sect."

"You will have many companions."

"You will lose some people."

"And you will kill some people with your own hands."

"Shut up."

Tang San spoke in a low voice.

"You have only seen one possibility."

"A possibility?"

The red crystal slowly turned.

Ripples spread across the pool.

"Everything in this world has a predetermined answer. You came here to fill those answers back in."

Xu Zhou stared at the red crystal, his expression gradually darkening.

At last, he saw the words within the crystal clearly.

They were not the future at all.

They were one incomplete script after another.

Some came from novels.

Some came from comics.

Some came from games.

There was even content Xu Zhou had never seen before.

The same people.

Different destinies.

The same world.

Different endings.

Countless words intertwined, eventually converging into the nameless lifeform before them.

"So it was you."

Xu Zhou released Tang San's arm and took two steps forward.

"All the transmigrators across the continent were brought here by you?"

"Not by me."

The red crystal swayed.

"They wanted to change their own fates."

"They wanted to become protagonists, seize opportunities ahead of time, and step on the original characters to climb higher."

"So you sent all of them here?"

"I merely fulfilled their wishes."

Xu Zhou laughed.

"Fulfilled them?"

He raised a hand and pointed into the crystal.

"You extracted the things each person believed in most from their memories, then pieced them together into a so-called future. Those who had only watched the anime were given memories from the anime. Those who had read the original work thoroughly were given memories from the original work. Those obsessed with fanfiction had fanfiction settings stuffed into their heads too."

"In the end, you made every one of them believe they knew the right answer."

"And that is what you call fulfillment?"

There was no response.

But the pool began to churn.

Lines of blood-red text suddenly lit up across the stone walls in every direction.

[Tang San will become a god at the age of twenty-seven.]

[Tang San will destroy Spirit Hall.]

[Tang San will become the greatest threat on the continent.]

[All of Tang San's opportunities must be seized in advance.]

[Xu Zhou will become the new core of the script.]

[Xu Zhou will ultimately replace Tang San.]

[Xu Zhou will kill all transmigrators.]

Dense words covered the surrounding walls.

Tang San looked up, his expression grim.

"Watch out!"

Dozens of vines burst from the ground.

Xu Zhou stepped back half a pace. The short blade in his sleeve slid free, and he cut through three vines in rapid succession.

Yet the remaining vines did not attack him. Instead, they all rushed toward Tang San.

Tang San raised a hand.

Blue Silver Grass broke through the ground and collided with the vines.

"First Soul Skill, Blue Silver Absorption!"

Blue Silver Grass instantly wrapped around two of the vines.

Tang San was just about to absorb their life force when his expression abruptly changed.

"Something's wrong!"

Those vines had no life force.

Or rather, all their life force came from the same place.

The red crystal.

The instant Tang San extracted a trace of energy, a new line of text appeared inside the crystal.

[Tang San has obtained unknown power. The future has shifted.]

"It's recording our actions!"

Xu Zhou stamped his foot, and Soul Power burst from his body.

"Good. Let it record."

The Script of All Beings behind him opened on its own.

One page.

Two pages.

Three pages.

Dense names began appearing on the previously blank paper.

Behind every name stretched a different Destiny Line.

Tang San.

Xiao Wu.

Yu Xiaogang.

Bibi Dong.

Qian Renxue.

Dugu Bo.

And many others Xu Zhou had never even met.

One of those lines was especially conspicuous.

The ends of every Destiny Line connected to the red crystal.

"It isn't changing the future."

Xu Zhou looked at the lines, finally understanding.

"It's devouring the future."

Whenever a transmigrator firmly believed they possessed the truth, the red crystal gained power from that understanding.

Whenever a transmigrator altered the original plot, the red crystal gained new nourishment.

Everyone's struggles, plundering, and schemes all became fuel for its growth in the end.

No wonder Holy Soul Village had become an empty village.

No wonder all the records around it conflicted.

This was not an ordinary space.

It was the core of the script formed from the convergence of all mistaken memories.

"What do you want?"

Xu Zhou looked up.

"More futures."

The red crystal answered.

"As long as there are enough futures, I can become the true will of the world."

"At that time, everyone will live according to the script."

Tang San sneered.

"According to your script?"

"According to the scripts they believe in."

"What difference is there between that and being controlled by you?"

"There is a difference."

The red crystal slowly rose.

"They will believe it was their own choice."

As soon as it spoke, the entire cavern began to shake.

The red text peeled away from the stone walls, turning into countless scraps of paper that flew toward the two of them.

One sheet of paper landed before Tang San.

It bore only one sentence.

[Kill Xu Zhou and seize the Script of All Beings.]

After reading it, Tang San flicked a finger.

Blue Silver Grass shredded the paper into pieces.

Then another sheet drifted down.

[Xu Zhou has betrayed you.]

[He wants to use you to open the Second Door.]

[You are only his tool.]

Tang San did not even look at them before burning them to ash.

"Xu Zhou."

"Yeah?"

"Are the things these say true?"

Xu Zhou turned back to look at him.

"Some are true. Some are false."

"Then did you use me or not?"

Xu Zhou was silent for a moment.

"I did."

Tang San said nothing.

"From the moment I first approached you, I did intend to use your Destiny Lines to uncover the truth about this world."

"I knew you might gain many opportunities in the future, and I knew you would become the target of many people."

"I protected you, taught you, and worked with you all out of selfish motives."

Xu Zhou paused.

"But I never intended to treat you as a tool."

Tang San raised his head.

"I believe you."

The answer came quickly.

So quickly that even Xu Zhou was taken aback.

"You're not going to ask anything else?"

"If you really wanted to use me, you wouldn't have told me all that just now."

Tang San raised his hand, Blue Silver Grass slowly winding around his wrist.

"Besides, I've used you too."

"I knew you could see destiny, so I kept my most dangerous trump cards hidden."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

Xu Zhou looked at him and suddenly smiled.

"Tang San, you've learned bad habits."

"I learned them from you."

"Well, now you're even pushing the blame onto me."

The two turned around at the same time.

Before them, the red crystal had already expanded to more than a person's height.

It no longer disguised itself as a blue-gold lifeform.

A crack split open across the crystal's surface.

A palm made of words reached out from within.

"You refuse to accept the future?"

"Then stay behind."

"Tang San, you can see your mother."

"Xu Zhou, you can obtain the destinies of all transmigrators."

"As long as one of you becomes the new core."

The Blue Silver Grass froze in midair.

Xu Zhou tightened his grip on the short blade as well.

Ah Yin.

This was Tang San's greatest weakness.

And he himself had indeed longed to possess a complete Script of All Beings.

As long as he became the core, everyone's destiny would be under his control.

He could know in advance who would betray him.

Who would die.

Who would become an enemy.

It was far too tempting.

Tempting enough that Xu Zhou could already hear his own heartbeat.

"Teacher."

Tang San suddenly spoke.

"You said that knowing the future didn't mean you could change it."

"Mm."

"Then what if we don't know the future?"

Xu Zhou turned his head.

Tang San said, word by word:

"If neither of us knows the answer, then no one will be led around by the answer anymore, right?"

Xu Zhou looked at the red crystal.

"What do you want to do?"

"Destroy it."

"After it's destroyed, all transmigrators' memories may disappear."

"Then let them disappear."

Tang San's hand slowly clenched into a fist.

"I don't need a mother written in advance, nor do I need others to tell me who I should become in the future."

"If I want to know what kind of person she was, I'll investigate it myself."

"If I want to protect Xiao Wu, I'll do it myself."

"If I want to establish a sect, I'll decide that myself too."

"As for becoming a god..."

Tang San raised his eyes toward the front.

"Whether I become a god or not, I'll think about it when I reach that point."

Xu Zhou fell silent.

A moment later, he put away his short blade.

"Then we'll destroy it together."

The red crystal began emitting a piercing hum.

"You will regret this!"

"Once the future disappears, you won't even remember why you came here!"

"No one will remember the truth!"

"No one will know who is right!"

"So what?"

Xu Zhou raised his hand.

The Script of All Beings floated before him.

"There has never been a standard answer to any story."

"It's time to turn the page."

He struck the center of the script with his palm.

All Destiny Lines lit up at once.

Tang San released his Soul Power at the same time.

Blue Silver Grass burst wildly from the ground, piercing through the stone walls and winding around the red crystal.

"Blue Silver Domain!"

Blue-gold light spread outward.

The entire stone cave lit up.

The red crystal struggled violently, and the words inside it began to peel away.

Those words fell to the ground and quickly turned into one human figure after another.

Some wore Soul Master robes.

Some held unfamiliar weapons.

Some even remained dressed in modern clothing.

Every one of them repeated the same sentence.

"I know the future."

"I am the one who is right."

"This world should follow my memories."

Xu Zhou looked at those figures, his fingers pressed against the script.

"You can keep believing that."

"But from today onward, no one can decide for anyone else."

Boom!

The Script of All Beings split apart down the middle.

The red crystal let out a piercing shriek.

That sound spread throughout the ruins of Holy Soul Village.

The next moment, the Second Door opened completely.

There was no light beyond it.

Only a vast blankness.

The ground vanished beneath Xu Zhou and Tang San at the same time, and their bodies fell into the doorway.

The red crystal was dragged in as well by the Blue Silver Grass.

Before it vanished completely, a line of blood-red text drifted before Xu Zhou.

[One final question.]

[If you could retain all your memories, would you be willing?]

Xu Zhou glanced at Tang San beside him.

Then he looked at Holy Soul Village as it crumbled apart.

"I would."

The red crystal seemed to light up again.

But Xu Zhou added the second half of his answer.

"But this time, those memories can belong only to me."

"They cannot become someone else's destiny."

As his words fell, the blankness swallowed everything.