Glorious God Throne

Three days ago, on June 16, 2025, in Yao Country.

Carrying a poetry collection and a diary, Bai Yi made his way home.

He placed these two equally thick gifts side by side on the table. The first thing he did after returning home wasn’t to read the diary, but to summon someone – a ghost who had been forgotten for a long time.

A distorted and blurry countdown floated in midair.

Yet the youth’s pupils reflected nothing as he gazed at it.

The suddenly revealed truth answered many previous puzzles. Like a child with a treasure map, he eagerly traced through his memories, seeking out treasures hidden in every nook and cranny. In his eyes, contemplative sparks were ignited by flames of excitement.

“Now that I think about it, there was always something illogical that I was too lazy to investigate deeply before…”

“If saving the world and changing everyone’s fate was such a difficult task, and so many versions of Bai Yi had failed, how did the system so easily retrieve souls of the dead from the nightmare world when it first arrived?”

“If it was that easy, couldn’t other versions of Bai Yi simply retrieve everyone’s souls from the depths of nightmares and bring them back to life even after the world was destroyed? After all, the concept of being alive is subjective, and the concept of a world exists differently for each person!”

Bai Yi recalled the netherworld dominated by spirits and bone demons that he had seen while traveling through endless stellar fragments. If everyone returned to the mortal realm as ghosts, it would just be another state of existence.

“This path that I could think of – surely other versions of Bai Yi must have tried it and failed.”

“So, Adams, what exactly are you?”

Was he a false ghost, completely unrelated to the boy who died in the nightmare world, merely borrowing his name and appearance? Or was he a unique miracle among countless souls unable to return to the mortal realm, a product of accident and unrepeatable luck?

Or perhaps, he was just a hint from the other “Bai Yis.”

– Telling him that nightmares weren’t merely false dreams. That the concept of game instances was also just a false explanation.

The system had always been cryptic yet occasionally providing clues and hints; hiding the truth while irresistibly luring him to explore it, like a cat playing with a ball of yarn, grabbing it then letting it go… This style of the system was, in a sense, very familiar to Bai Yi.

Although he didn’t really want to admit it, it was exactly the same kind of mischievous taste he had when arranging scripts for others.

“…I guess I can only say ‘as expected of me’?”

If there was a stranger behind the system whom Bai Yi didn’t know well, he might have needed more clues and time to explore the truth. But if it was himself, many answers became obvious just by adopting his own way of thinking.

“So… was it a Bai Yi from the previous timeline, who tried but failed to retrieve souls from the destroyed world, gained experience from other timelines’ failures, and routinely integrated his findings into the system, planning for me to continue advancing based on their experiences…?”

Thinking from his own perspective, he quickly had an answer.

“It’s just that when the system descended into this world, it was probably when the physical laws were most violently disturbed, or when some unknown changes were triggered by spacetime turbulence. This soul-retrieving technique, which shouldn’t have counted as either success or failure, miraculously worked once at that moment?”

– And at that exact moment, he had asked the system for a beginner’s gift package, so the system, following the lingering nightmare world aura on him, originally intended to create some items from that world as gifts. Unexpectedly, the imperfect soul-retrieving technique temporarily succeeded due to unknown reasons, and thus retrieved a ghost from that world?

However, even if this was a one-in-a-billion miracle, Bai Yi still felt it couldn’t have been that easy to succeed. He remained skeptical. “Is this Adams truly a ghost of the deceased?”

“…I should probably just ask him directly.”

So, Bai Yi summoned Adams with a thought.

– This ghost had already become an unofficial member of Yao Country’s Special Case Investigation Team, occasionally participating in missions as external support, going to places where human bodies couldn’t reach in time. He quickly became the team’s pet ghost. Since he was in an “dormant state” invisible to most people most of the time, even Li Fufeng and others couldn’t always reach him. So even when suddenly summoned by Bai Yi to work for him for a while, there was no need to worry about his absence being discovered.

“Adams, do you know what you really are?”

The summoned ghost had barely appeared when he heard this incredibly direct question.

The youth by the window turned his chair to sit with his back against the table. Resting his chin on his hand, he looked at the ghost with pure curiosity in his eyes, as if he didn’t understand the concept of subtlety at all, and hadn’t considered whether his question might stir up unpleasant memories.

His expression was like asking: “Dried fish, do you know what you taste like?”

“Eh?” The suddenly questioned ghost clearly blanked for a moment.

The little boy furrowed his brows in confusion, trying hard to think. “I… what else could I be besides Adams? I’m… I’m just someone you rescued from the nightmare world.”

“Do you remember how you died?”

“I…did I die? Yes, I seem to have died. I was killed many, many times…” Adams’ confusion deepened, his expression growing increasingly chaotic. After a moment of revelation, he mumbled almost deliriously, “Then, you appeared. When that bad person was about to kill me, your gaze fell upon me, and under your guidance, I escaped from that terrible killer, and even killed him…”

At this point, a smile that he himself wasn’t aware of appeared on the little boy’s face – innocent, pure, and bright.

He looked up at Bai Yi. “Have you forgotten? I offered that person’s corpse as a sacrifice to thank you, and then, I followed your guidance to come to your divine realm!”

“So that’s how you perceive it.”

Bai Yi’s smile grew wider and wider until he finally couldn’t help but laugh out loud, laughing until tears nearly came to his eyes.

This passive ability to attract followers was truly powerful… By now, Bai Yi no longer found it troublesome, nor did he feel shame or embarrassment at being viewed as divine.

The root of shame and embarrassment came from feeling unworthy. Since he had already decided to shoulder the vitality of an entire world and the fate of infinite worlds, what was wrong with calling himself a god?

He wasn’t playing the role of a selfless savior for the greater good. Although he didn’t care whether others were grateful or not, since he had already performed acts of salvation, it was perfectly reasonable to accept others’ gratitude, reverence, and worship.

Bai Yi’s behavior seemed to cause a misunderstanding for Adams. He looked helplessly at the youth who emanated an air of neurosis, watching that smile that seemed to see through everything, and carefully spoke. “Was the sacrifice not to your liking? I also thought that body wasn’t worthy of you. I’m willing to find new righteous vessels for you…”

“No, this is fine as it is. Righteous vessels, hmm, I don’t lack those.” The term ‘righteous vessels’ sounded strange, but when matched with his alternate identities, it suddenly felt quite appropriate.

Bai Yi wiped away his tears of laughter and returned to his initial calmness. His gaze slowly swept over the floating ghost, like looking at a being he had created with his own hands, with a bright wonder in his eyes. “Strictly speaking, your presence here is indeed my direct creation.”

The little boy’s eyes obviously brightened, as if receiving recognition and praise from a deity. His bright eyes looked at Bai Yi, filled with wet emotions that gave the impression of some soft animal’s cub.

But I didn’t save the real Adams… Bai Yi added in his heart.

– As mentioned before, the nightmare world was a dead world, where everyone had died along with it, falling into the depths of nightmares, with only undissipated obsessions repeating their living lives among the world’s ruins.

“Adams'” memories and awareness clearly didn’t come from the deceased ghost Adams, but rather seemed more like the Adams who had finally cleared the nightmare instance after countless cycles of repetition – the player character controlled by Bai Yi. Therefore, he truly wasn’t a returned soul of the dead, but rather a new existence formed from the fusion of lingering nightmare consciousness and the player’s thoughts when Bai Yi controlled the character.

Compared to the real, deceased Adams… if one had to draw an analogy, he was like a clone with partial memories of the original.

…Although he himself didn’t seem to have realized this point.

And Bai Yi had no intention of revealing it.

So that soul-retrieving technique really hadn’t completely succeeded after all – the current progress was stuck at 99%?

Various thoughts flashed through his mind simultaneously, but Bai Yi set them aside for now, merely smiling at the unknowing little boy and extending an invitation. “Adams… whether you’re Adams or something else doesn’t matter. What matters is that I need you to participate in an upcoming experiment.”

As he spoke, he opened his palm upward, and an invisible, ethereal card slowly materialized in midair.

…Adams obviously couldn’t see it.

“…My other righteous vessel.”

Bai Yi spoke following Adams’ thought pattern. Even though Adams was completely trustworthy, he had no intention of revealing his secrets.

Instead, he now knew how to communicate effectively with him.

He leaned back against the chair, folded his hands on his lap, and calmly looked at the ghost floating in midair, speaking like a true deity issuing an edict to his follower.

“He possesses a special artifact that, after my modifications, can now accommodate thousands of people at once. He plans to conduct a trial soon, selecting those with certain qualifications to become extraordinaries, granting these people extraordinary powers…”

– The “Death Gallery” from the Art Kingdom instance, shaped like a Rubik’s cube, after being purchased with game points and brought to the real world by Bai Yi, not only became scalable but also gained more practical functions under the modification of nightmare crystals.

“That artifact can only absorb physical bodies. I will connect everyone’s consciousness to an illusory spiritual world, using that artifact as a foundation to construct a virtual mental space. I won’t maintain this illusory spiritual world constantly, so I need someone to act as my eyes and hands.”

Adams’ expression clearly became excited, his sparkling eyes brighter than stars. “I would be delighted to serve you!”

In midair, the ethereal card flipped over. Golden ripples spread out, reflecting the youth’s smiling face.

The front of this card looked vastly different from other cards, more like an abstract artwork. Seven-colored flowing light painted the entire card into a spiral like the starry sky. Against this rainbow stellar background, a long-haired young man slightly lowered his head, with eyes as tranquil as the night, his silk-like black hair seemingly about to float off the card.

[Depressing Artist]

[Destroyer and Creator of Art]

[One who stole divine names with a mortal body]

[Heals the mortal realm, yet also depresses it]

We are currently recruiting. CN/KR/JP Translators/MTLers are welcome!

Discord Server: .gg/HGaByvmVuw