Chapter 210

"What did you bring again today?"

Su Mian looked at him amusedly, took the bag in his hand—it was a very delicate cream puff cake, with a logo drawn in edible jam on the front, seemingly a souvenir cake from a big brand.

"Buying red wine comes with it," Si wore a dark gray wool coat, with a scarf of the same pattern as Su Mian's around his neck, though it was dark blue.

He opened the car door for Su Mian, who chuckled, "How much more wine are you going to buy? The graduate school can't hold any more."

That was the experimental site; a group of people, to accommodate the arrival of the National Security Council's chief, forcibly emptied half of the sample cold storage to use as his wine cellar.

Speaking of the National Security Council, Su Mian couldn't help but bring up what happened after New Year's Eve.

The National Security Council, officially the International Council for Biotic Homeostasis and Evolutionary Security (ICBHES).

Su Mian was very curious how he obtained this identity, so when she casually brought it up once, Si told her.

"Do you still remember the bookstore boss you guys found running a black shop before?"

Su Mian certainly wouldn't forget; stealing human players' memories was only to let herself know more, and the answer certainly wasn't limited to that.

Originally, that bookstore boss was found running a black shop outside the rules and was to be erased.

Later Si kept him; the boss, moved, also told him to call him whenever he needed help.

Absorbing so much knowledge from the human world was to prepare himself to go to the human world; he could no longer stay in the Inner World.

So, when Su Mian and the others saw him, he had already been shuttling through spacetime tunnels for who knows how many years; to avoid being discovered as an alien, the bookstore boss lived very cautiously on Earth, and even aside from himself, no one knew he had been to Earth.

After Si broke through the spacetime barrier, the boss immediately gave him a false identity.

"The National Security Council's chief just passed away; with this identity you'll get along swimmingly on Earth, but remember, you cannot use your serpent form in the human world."

Thus, Si came here, sensing Su Mian's location through her pendant, and rushed over without stopping.

As for why Su Mian has been running around for all these days, it's because they still have one thing left undone: changing the rules to increase the survival rate.

The person holding real power in the Inner World is not the Lord God, as mentioned before, but the Twelve Two-Hour Periods Arbitration Group; the mindset long cultivated is that humans and arbitrators are opposing sides.

And arbitrators are low‑dimensional creatures; stating that outright would surely provoke the gods' displeasure.

What they need to do is persuade the gods of the Arbitration Group to change the deeply entrenched rules, in a less cruel way, so more humans can survive and let human evolutionary genes endure forever.

Just as Su Mian once said, a world created by humans ought to benefit humans, not destroy them.

Zi had already compromised when he first took Si in serpent form; I don't know whether he was shaken by this stubbornness or if his consciousness originated from Su Mian's father.

In short, he compromised, and none of the remaining zodiac gods are easy to deal with.

After discussion, the two decided to try persuation before force; Su Mian would use each zodiac's traits to convince them, and if they disagreed, Si would step in.

Chou was the second zodiac god to agree very quickly; Su Mian moved him with just a brief theory.

"The Ox God in charge of 'plowing' emphasizes sowing, raising, and harvesting; you should know best that if a field keeps only the three strongest plants each year and removes the rest, the land grows poorer, genetic diversity thins, disaster resistance drops, and when a real catastrophe comes, humanity won't be able to hold out."

"Isn't fairness what you care most about?"

Chou remained silent for a long time, but eventually compromised.

Among the remaining zodiac signs, the Monkey Shen is the most scheming; no matter what you say, you can't persuade him, and despite repeatedly going to the Temple to find him, he cunningly hides.

When the two were about to leave, a sound made them turn back; in short, they were being played around in circles.

A glance from Su Mian let Si know she was angry; he directly blasted the hall with divine fire, gave that stinking monkey a good beating, and got him to agree no matter what.

You appeared the most gentle, sitting motionless on the throne every day, occasionally going on missions, letting Su Mian seize the chance to steal your egg and take it into the instance.

The two played everywhere with the eggs—having water fights, racing, playing hide‑and‑seek, and even making flower garlands for the little eggs.

Soon after, the chicks hatched; none of them recognized You, and they all followed behind Su Mian and Si, calling them dad and mom.

When You returned from the mission, he was practically speechless with bitterness, mentally exhausted to the point of nearly fainting, and immediately compromised, after which the two returned the egg.

Those horrifying deeds reached Hai's ears; frightened, he ordered people to clean up the mud puddle, rolled in it for a while before recovering, and even before Su Mian and Si arrived, he was scared into agreeing.

The two "magic pills" thus traveled south and north, dating on one side and threatening the major zodiac gods on the other, finally gaining the gods' approval.

They gathered again at headquarters, watching this perfectly matched pair open the forbidden‑rules book in the Temple.

Su Mian reached out and touched; the characters glowed with a gilded light as her hand moved.

"The alien who once wrote this book is the bookstore boss."

Su Mian was somewhat surprised, "Really? It's him?"

Si nodded, "The one who thinks he understands humans best is not human."

I don't know whether this refers to the alien who wrote the book or the nightmare of one who has monopolized the Lord God's position for hundreds of years.

When the words fell, he handed over the brush from the treasure pavilion; the brush was covered in incomprehensible runes, and it warmed slightly in his hand.

"Now you hold this supreme power; the rest of the era is yours to write."

Su Mian stared at his eyes, as if she saw again that man who once went his own way, lifted her to the Saintess position, standing beside her, praising everything she possessed, except last time, Shi Shi did not stand with her at the peak, but this time they stood side by side.

Zishi, leaning on his cane beneath the circular platform, coughed twice, "Amending the Rule must not be too outrageous; after the revision, I still need to review it."

Su Mian nodded, picked up her brush, and dipped it in ink.

"After each Instance ends, the player chosen by popular vote will no longer be directly eliminated; instead, 10000 points will be deducted."

"When ZhenduanFang wins, the earned points are no longer evenly split; instead, a tiered plus custom system is adopted: the closer one is to the core of the truth, the more points they receive, while bystanders who merely watch, although victorious, still lose, and those who perceive the finest details, though few, gain much."