The final stage page of the 10v10 game slowly popped up, showing that almost all eight players were at the same score.
Before the page even finished loading, a teammate's confused voice message rang out.
"That's weird, why are there two fewer teammates this time? Is this game even matchmaking like this?"
"Is this a new mechanism? I've seen several posts asking this question on the platform recently."
"It seems so. I'll take a screenshot and ask."
Norton let out a long sigh of relief, and with great satisfaction, he straightened up from the game pod, like a zombie rising from a coffin.
Its pale, tall body moved nimbly, leaving the game pod and sitting on the nanomaterial sofa specially built for the Pale God.
When the noise subsides, quietness takes over again.
Once the addiction to the game is over, the mind returns to the brain.
"Wow... Ten thousand years of technological accumulation and ten thousand years of humanistic thought have brought about an era where stars are shining and vitality is boundless."
Unfortunately, the glory of humankind is like the moon reflected in water, and the brilliance of the universe is like a shooting star on the other side. Such a prosperous era will eventually be buried in the long river of time with the annihilation of the universe, and will ultimately be unable to escape the predetermined curve.
Human glory is like the fleeting beauty of a night-blooming cereus, all the more precious because of its inevitable demise...
Perhaps this is the reason why the three gods of the past acted, and also my final fate Norton!
I love humanity, and I also love Garden of Eden...
A soft sigh echoed in the empty room. Norton sat quietly on the sofa, his body hunched over, with a slightly melancholy air. His golden eyes were filled with confusion and wistfulness, mixed with a deepness that was hard to understand.
Almost a year has passed since the resurgence, and in this short year, Norton's humanity, which had been dormant for thousands of years, has been fully awakened.
It degenerated from a high and mighty, indifferent creator of the universe into an individual with its own thoughts.
But self-thought is a very strange problem.
If Norton is considered as part of the universe as a whole, then his so-called individual free thought is like a parasite that lives in the universe and has seized a certain degree of power.
Because the supreme will is vastly different from individual thought.
His memories include those of his most supreme self, so he naturally understands this so-called distinction.
At the height of his achievement, he would not be moved by the absence of his own thoughts and emotions, nor would he feel any regret for the so-called humanity or the Garden of Eden.
However, when he achieved his individual success, he was driven by his own emotions and desires, which led to a vast difference between his current thoughts and his thinking at the height of his success.
But it is obvious that Norton developed from an individual upwards, and the so-called parasite is the real him.
The so-called supreme being is more like an element that constitutes the universe, stripped of all self.
Therefore, since Norton's resurrection, he has been extremely resistant to returning to his supreme state.
One could even say that his greatest enemy now is not God, but how to prevent himself from returning to the supreme state and back to the state of a cosmic particle.
Unfortunately, even though he could remain in this Garden of Eden forever by virtue of his immortal flesh and blood, the decline of the universe was irreversible, and the end of heat death would eventually come.
Even if he could live forever in this vast universe by virtue of his immortal soul and indestructible flesh, in the end, he would only be himself left.
What difference is there between a solitary Garden of Eden, an eternal solitude, and the so-called supreme state?
Norton stared blankly at the screen decoration depicting white bats, feeling increasingly powerless.
He is ultimately not God. Although he is integrated into the highest realm and the universe, he does not constitute the entirety of the universe. He is more like a dispensable person who uses leverage to move a corner of the universe.
God cannot create what He cannot create, and therefore He cannot destroy what He cannot create. This is the foundation of Norton's immortal soul, and the lever in which he wields power.
But regardless, all the power he possesses now, except for his immortal soul, is a gift from God.
The heat death of the universe is God's expansion, or rather, the instinct of growth. Clearly, Norton could not possibly limit the expansion of the universe and its ultimate heat death through his supreme power.
Even the actions of Shenyin, Jonah, Kuba in the past can be seen as locking the energy of Garden of Eden within Garden of Eden and circulating it continuously, so that Garden of Eden could be the only exception when the universe reaches heat death.
From soul energy to material energy, everything can thrive and multiply in the Garden of Eden.
Unfortunately, all of these divine efforts were destroyed by Norton in the name of fear and ascension.
Now that Garden of Eden has returned to the cosmic system, it will inevitably suffer heat death along with the universe.
Such an ending is neither God's concern nor Norton's concern, but only Norton the Parasite cares terribly.
This is also his greatest source of sorrow and worry, a fear that is constantly buried deep within his heart.
"My power is enough to tear apart the river of time, enough to destroy everything in the universe, enough to annihilate black holes, and to traverse the other side of reality. But ultimately, I cannot reverse the flow of time, nor can I turn back the decay of the universe..."
Norton looked worried.
However, human technology and theories have now developed to a sufficient level, and perhaps this is also an opportunity for him.
" Abraham, contact the Human Federation immediately. I want to establish a space research department to study the annihilation of the universe..."