Perhaps at the beginning, he had once felt the thrill and excitement of being the most powerful "Savior."
But he didn’t know when the motivation that kept him going had become unrelated to his own emotions.
His actions no longer stemmed from personal emotions, but gradually from responsibility.
——Ming’an once told him, this was a kind of "growth."
When had this "growth" begun?
Su Ming’an carefully recalled and suddenly realized that his memories before the start of the world game had become blurred.
In his memories, he might have had many that he dearly missed.
The hard study life in junior and senior high school, the thrill when his essay was first published, the relief at the moment he locked the piano behind the door...
But now recalling these scenes, they suddenly seemed like memories of another person.
They floated in his mind, but could not evoke even a slight resonance in his emotions, as if he were watching a movie filled with someone else’s life.
If one would say the Number One Player was becoming more and more qualified...
...then perhaps this was an exciting form of growth.
The needs of the group required them to have a leader who could handle changes calmly... or rather, a figure always standing in the forefront.
He just needed to stand there, and he could trigger their passion and motivation.
Thus, the past overemotional states of a somewhat petty youth were in fact trivial, because all he observed had entirely changed.
To create a figure needed by the group, one who stands under the spotlight, he was becoming more and more "competent."
He discarded these useless thoughts and took a step forward.
Seeing him approach, the crowd below went wild. They raised their glow sticks and torches, lifted their chins, their eyes shining brightly, like fervent fans seated below a concert stage, like devout believers waiting for the Pope’s speech at the prayer platform.
Even though there were still the fragmented corpses of Carter and others lying on the ground, the smell of blood wafting through this land, this crowd acted as if they were at a party, hopping around next to the bodies, eyes fixed on Su Ming’an, like a group of fans meeting a star at an airport.
Even though they knew standing in such a place could be dangerous, no one ran or hid. Instead, they raised their glow sticks, waiting there with a relentless attitude, as if "dying here would be worth it."
Su Ming’an did not want to waste time on these people; this was just a bad file needing quick clue gathering.
He wanted to teleport past this crowd and leave, but he discovered the distance of spatial displacement was insufficient; even teleporting here would only land him amidst these people, akin to entering a lion’s den and further delaying his time.
Now, only a little over an hour remained, and he still had two important places to visit: The Great Library and the Royal City. If time was insufficient, he might even have to rewind time...
For a moment, he even entertained the idea of killing these people.
After all, this was a bad file; if they died, they died. If he killed them all...
His gaze gradually grew colder as he looked at the people below, as if he was looking at a group of corpses.
The celebrating crowd was still hopping around, completely unaware of the shift in Su Ming’an’s thoughts.
Su Ming’an shifted his state, then raised his hand.
When they saw him raise his hand, the cheerful atmosphere briefly halted.
"...Why is the Number One Player raising his hand?"
"I know! He’s waving at me from afar, ahhhhhh—"
"Wait, this gesture looks familiar; isn’t it like spatial vibration...?"
In Su Ming’an’s hand, a white energy light gradually became visible.
His gaze had now completely focused on the obstructing crowd below.
The crowd began to buzz, some still excitedly screaming, some already quietly retreating; they had sensed that Su Ming’an’s demeanor was off.
A white cross light started to appear in Su Ming’an’s hand.
A gust of wind suddenly swept through his standing place, nearly blowing him, in his shadow state, into the sea.
Dark crows, massive as skyscrapers, pressed against the snowstorm, the blonde youth sitting atop the crows looking sternly at him.
"Care to come up?" Noel asked.
He patted Yinke’s head, and the crow immediately dropped to align with the chariot.
The sea breeze brushed through Su Ming’an’s black hair, and he took a deep breath.
His indifferent emotion gradually converged, and he retracted the energy in his hand, climbed onto the ship’s side, and jumped onto the back of the crow.
"Where to?" Noel asked, turning around like a taxi driver.
"The Great Library," Su Ming’an said.
"Hmm, okay, I’ve been there before." Noel whistled, and the crow immediately flew forward, sweeping across the crowd of people.
Only then did Su Ming’an realize how many people had gathered below, densely packed, almost luring half of the players participating in the competition.
If he had acted just now... it might have triggered a chain of stampede incidents.
Bright red fireworks exploded beside him, and Su Ming’an looked towards the young boy sitting in front of him.
"Su Ming’an," Noel began.
"Just to confirm, has your attitude towards me fundamentally changed?"
"Hmm," Su Ming’an nodded.
Noel laughed out loud.
Even in this segment of time where nothing had been experienced, he was still able to deduce the information Su Ming’an knew through self-awareness.
Moreover, this time the exchange of information was fully encrypted, the kind even the organizers could not detect.
As the number of time rewinds increased, their communication only became smoother.
Su Ming’an relied on his experiences and encounters.
...While Noel relied entirely on assumptions and guesses.
These were two people on different timelines, exchanging information from different time periods through encrypted language.
"Just now, you really wanted to kill those people, didn’t you?" Noel turned his head.
"Yes," Su Ming’an said.
"You can’t start that," Noel said. "At any rate, leave yourself a way out, or else if you fall into an irretrievable situation, that would be bad."
Su Ming’an understood what the other was saying.
In fact, he was also gradually becoming aware of his own danger.
...If he obtained the ability of time rewinding, possessing abilities utterly different from ordinary humans, his way of thinking would inevitably change irreversibly.
He would...subconsciously see others as NPCs in a game save, and might even simply kill someone just "to try if the person would die, after all in the next save they are still alive."
Now that he knew the organizers would not directly intervene in the game, he became even more reckless when in a bad save as he needn’t too much disguise.
Because everything had a chance to start over.
...He had become the only person walking along the edge of the river of time.
Walking on a multi-dimensional path, his way of thinking would inevitably diverge from that of ordinary humans.
Under the dimension of time, everything will become his chess pieces.
To abandon a piece, destroy a piece, capture a piece, for the ultimate goal, he could use these people destined to be rewound in time to do anything he was capable of.
Apart from himself, no one would retain memories from the segment that had been rewound.
Humans are not purely rational creatures; they change, their ambitions expand, and their original intentions gradually falter.
His fellow traveler, Noel, easily recognized this point.
Su Ming’an looked at Noel in front of him.
His golden hair fluttered slightly in the wind and snow, like a little sun lighting up.
"We’re here," Noel said with a smile.
The crow gradually descended in altitude, and the structure of the Great Library was already in sight.
"Aren’t you coming along?" Su Ming’an asked.
"Considering your current situation, I better hurry up and enjoy the cuisine of Pulaya," Noel waved his hand: "Good luck to you."