Three lines of text.
Once they had appeared, they lingered for several seconds, then dissolved into nothingness.
Xu Yuan swept his gaze over them and immediately looked disdainful.
He might not know about other things.
But as a world champion gamer, he was certainly more sensitive than most to things like "quests" and "rituals," and better able to see what they really meant. At this point,
to be given a quest description like this
suddenly reminded Xu Yuan of something Xi had once said.
"The Universe releases two kinds of Evil... One is external; the other draws out the Evil within a person..."
He could see the external kind clearly now.
This reconstituted real world, and the quest itself, were forms of "Evil."
Because hidden in the quest was a malicious trap—
"You must do better than your former self."
Do better.
If it came to fighting and killing, what would count as "better"?
Surely, only more savage violence.
For some benefit, for the sake of gaining something, a person would give in to temptation and try to use violence to do "better."
Wasn't that "Evil"?
That was Evil.
So the quest itself was bait.
Running around killing for a reward.
That was plainly committing Evil.
In that case,
the reward for completing the quest would never be the Crown. The Universe would erase his soul and turn his body into a vessel for "Evil."
If he couldn't even see through this trap,
Xu Yuan would feel he had wasted all those years playing games.
"You've got it wrong. I won't do anything for you."
"I've grown since then, so I might do some things differently... But it won't be for you."
He spoke toward the Void.
The black mist slowly parted, revealing the real world of a bygone era