I don't want to.

Flesh Sublimation only described sacrificing hair and the like, which counted as one sacrifice, while the Omniscience Path involved two sacrifices: the first sacrificed two negative emotions, and the second sacrificed the frontal lobe.

The girl had mentioned before that Emperor Trist divided superhumans into thirteen ranks, so this [Path·Omniscience·Part Two] should have provided two methods of advancing through sacrifice, meaning it could take someone to the second rank.

Elliot looked at the two [Path] cards, hesitating for a moment.

Why did he feel... both of these [Paths] were pretty good?

Both clearly involved sacrifices to evil gods, yet neither seemed particularly dangerous. Although [Path · Flesh Ascension · Part One] offered limited power, it involved no loss whatsoever. All it took to grow stronger was time, so it ought to be the sort that shone in the very late game.

[Path·Omniscience·Part Two] cost some emotions, but those were negative emotions!

The emotional control gained in exchange was extremely practical, too.

The second rank did sacrifice the frontal lobe, but what it granted in return was genuine superhuman intelligence.

Elliot had read that patient's file. Before the sacrifice, the patient had been nothing more than an ordinary person, yet afterward, he could participate directly in the doctor's research. The two had even become collaborators.

If removing your frontal lobe could get you a doctorate, wouldn't hordes of people flock to it even on Earth?

Besides...

Elliot looked at the girl's card.

Ultimately, she was just a game character. What did it matter if he sacrificed her "emotions" or her "frontal lobe," or even more?

Vanessa was also considering the two Paths.

Although she couldn't see the cards, she had roughly pieced together the outlines of these two Paths from the books in the attic.

If the decision were hers...

Of course-she wouldn't choose either!

It was still sacrificing to an evil god, after all. Although there were theoretically no side effects, what if something went wrong?

Vanessa was a coward and didn't want to take any risks. She didn't have much need for power, either.

If she absolutely had to choose, she would probably choose to sacrifice to that "Shengtuo" entity.

After all, sacrificing to the other one would only make her a little smarter. Vanessa didn't think she needed to be any smarter-she already had two degrees, and she could still starve to death.

Her superhuman intelligence told her to choose superhuman strength.

After weighing his options repeatedly, Elliot finally pushed [Path·Omniscience·Part Two] toward the card slot.

His reason for choosing it was practical: it offered two ranks of advancement, while Flesh Ascension currently offered only one.

More importantly, Pulu's method of growing stronger by sacrificing hair and nails over time offered too little improvement and took too long.

This game didn't have a fast-forward button. That Pulu had spent a year sacrificing just to gain a little regenerative ability. Was he supposed to wait a year, too?

Of course he needed to get stronger as quickly as possible!

The side effects weren't so important by comparison.

The [Path] card gradually slid into the slot, but Elliot's gaze fell elsewhere.

It was somewhere he had barely touched. At the edge of the long table, the Difference Engine had a scanner opening. This was where the old butler Conrad inserted newspapers to scan them.

Scanning...

Elliot narrowed his eyes.

Vanessa's hands began moving on their own. She knew that being's final choice.

"Sacrificing emotions and the frontal lobe...?"

Honestly, she didn't think this was a bad thing.

She was weak to begin with, and that weakness often made her life worse. Despite having two degrees, she had still ended up on the streets. Vanessa knew how pathetic she was.

If she discarded that weakness, surely she could become someone more capable?

For some reason, Vanessa remembered that other "her" who fought with the Nail-Headed Club.

Cold, ruthless, brutal, bloodthirsty.

Perhaps that was her true self. She would cast off this weakness and welcome a better Vanessa.

Stronger, colder, better suited to this world.

The girl slowly lowered her head, burying her face in shadow, but her fingers never stopped, continuing to draw the final lines of the ritual swiftly and precisely.

Suddenly, she spoke.

"I... don't want to set foot on this [Path]."

"The books here, this ritual... they were that old man's final gifts."

"I don't really care whether I lose part of my brain. Someone as pathetic as me should have died in the freezing rain long ago. I loathe my weakness. I loathe my incompetence."

"But if I sacrifice even my brain, will I still be myself? Will I still bring that old man bread? Will I still be able to care about those people weighed down by suffering?"

"If I stop caring about them, if I become another version of myself, then... will I still deserve this gift of kindness?"

Her hands stopped.

Elliot stared at the brass character tabs on the Difference Engine.

The metal tabs were cold and rough, yet what they spelled out was the girl's hesitation.

Elliot simply watched that line of tabs, as though he could see through the machine and meet the eyes of the girl on the other side.

He couldn't tell when it had happened, either, but he seemed to have unconsciously stopped treating her as a game character.

Instead, she was a living soul.

She was cowardly, content with the status quo, lacking the courage to change her fate, born fit only to be weak, to serve as his marionette.

But she was alive.

Too many people in this city lived like walking corpses, like bodies quietly awaiting burial. They were already dead, merely waiting in line to be buried.

But what about the girl on the other side? Even through the cold Difference Engine, even with nothing but a simple sketch for an outline, her struggle, her fear, her hesitation at this moment all carried a vividness that made his heart tremble.

Being alive wasn't anything important. Living people were worth less than dead ones, perhaps even less than parts taken from the dead. The girl's soul and flesh, her dreams and efforts combined, might not be worth more than the bread on his table that he paid no attention to.

But Elliot still stood up and pulled out that [Path] card.

The card had already been swallowed halfway. It tore as he forcibly pulled it out, leaving only a ragged half.

Looking at the card, he suddenly let out a relieved breath.

For some reason, even though he was playing a game, even though the girl was the one standing in the altar, Elliot had almost sacrificed his own feelings.

"Heh..."

"The most important thing about playing games is having fun."

"Before I transmigrated, I spent every day anxiously chasing the strongest builds. Now that I've transmigrated, I'm still supposed to chase them?"

"Then didn't I transmigrate for nothing?"

"And besides..."

Elliot looked at the scanner opening. He suddenly had an idea.

Vanessa's hands began moving again.

The light faded from the girl's eyes. She bit her lip, but in the end, she still said nothing.

This was her fate to begin with, wasn't it?

Why would someone being controlled imagine she could still make her own choices?

Vanessa watched her hands swiftly draw the ritual. Just as she was preparing to accept her fate, her eyes suddenly widened.

"Wait, isn't the recipient of this ritual written wrong? Who is Sun Wukong? Is he an evil god, too?"