Chapter 572: Bug Physique

【Attack successful! Disaster Itself's HP reduced by 1 point, remaining HP 9 points!】

Cheng Shuili's hand paused.

That line of text hovered before her eyes, simple and plain, looking exactly like the most common combat feedback in a game.

The Bug Physique could glitch out everything.

Glitching out an HP bar for a creature that didn't have one was reasonable too, right?

Cheng Shuili stared at that line of text and suddenly smiled.

The smile was faint, slight, yet it made every eye on the monster's face narrow at the same time.

"What are you smiling at?"

Cheng Shuili didn't answer. She only lowered her head and looked at the long blade in her hand.

Her face was reflected on the blade.

Eyes crimson, expression exhausted, yet the corners of her mouth curved at a strange angle.

It was the smile of surviving a catastrophe.

The smile of finding life in a dead end.

The smile of someone who had walked too long through an endless night and finally saw the first ray of dawn.

"Bug Physique," she said softly. "Thank you for giving me the Bug Physique."

Cheng Shuili's blade swung faster with every strike, and the prompts before her eyes popped up one after another!

【Remaining HP 3 points!】

【Remaining HP 2 points!】

【Remaining HP 1 point!】

Disaster Itself finally realized something was wrong. It should have been invincible, yet its body suddenly experienced a wave of weakness—the kind of weakness that came with being on the verge of death.

For the first time, an expression of fear appeared on that face covered in eyes.

Those eyes spun frantically, like a startled school of fish, like a churned-up starry sky, like countless dying lives making their final struggle.

"Impossible!"

Its voice was no longer that condescending mockery, but sharp, cracking, and laced with fear!

"You shouldn't be able to hurt me! You shouldn't!"

Cheng Shuili gripped her blade and walked toward it step by step.

Her footsteps were slow, steady, each one treading on the monster's heart.

What did those eyes see?

They saw an ordinary human woman.

Not tall, not strong, without three heads and six arms, without the power to destroy heaven and earth.

But behind her were countless shadows!

Wan Yi's, Xinxue's, Su Rui's, Ailin's, Guanghui's, Qin Wen's, Beichen's, the Rat King's... and countless others whose names couldn't be spoken—systems, beastfolk, and humans who had died in the first round, the second round, and in countless cycles of reincarnation!

They stood behind Cheng Shuili, silently watching it.

"You..." the monster's voice trembled. "You shouldn't exist! You're all dead! All dead!"

No one answered it.

Cheng Shuili only kept walking forward, the crimson long blade raised, then falling heavily once more with absolute resolve.

【Remaining HP 0 points!】

The instant that line of text appeared, Disaster Itself's body froze.

Those eyes that had already closed snapped open again—all of them! Every single one! As if something had forced them open from within, eyeballs bulging, blood vessels bursting, the densely packed eyeballs simultaneously engorging with blood, turning a sea of crimson!

"No—"

"No! No! No!"

Disaster Itself retreated frantically, that blurry body beginning to twist, expand, contract, as if something was struggling violently inside it, trying to break out.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

Crimson blood gushed from every eye, flowing down that twisted face, dripping onto the ground drop by drop, issuing a sizzling corrosive sound.

Cheng Shuili gripped her blade, stood in place, and watched it.

The monster raised that blurry hand to cover its face, but its face was too large, its eyes too many—it could cover this one, but not that one.

Those eyes stared through the gaps between its fingers, spinning wildly, as if searching for an exit that didn't exist.

"I am a god! I am the Creator! I am an eternal existence!"

Its voice alternated between sharp and deep, as if countless people were roaring inside it at the same time.

"You ants! You toys! You... you..."

Its voice stopped, because it no longer had the strength to make a sound.

Light appeared once more, piercing through those bursting eyes, piercing through that twisted face, piercing through that body which had once been so imperious, flowing outward in all directions like countless rivers.

Cheng Shuili stood in place, watching those lights flow past her.

They did not linger.

The players raised their heads once more—reddened eyes, tearful eyes, eyes hoping for a future...

Pair after pair.

Those lights fell upon them—no burning sensation, no stinging pain, only warmth, true warmth.

Amidst the light, Jiang Tang saw her parents, Ailin saw the stranger who had shielded her on the highway, Guanghui saw the brother he thought he would never see again, and Qin Wen saw a person—someone she had always protected behind her, yet who had stepped forward in danger to protect her.

That person said nothing, only looked at her and nodded, as if saying: You did well.

Cheng Shuili saw it too. She saw many people.

Wan Yi, Xinxue, Su Rui, Ailin, Guanghui, Qin Wen……

And there are those whose names she couldn't call out, who died in the first round, in the second round, in countless cycles.

They stood in the light, looking at her.

Cheng Shuili suddenly realized she was tearing up.

She didn't know when she had started crying, nor why she was crying. Clearly she had won, clearly she had killed that thing, clearly everything was over——

"Cheng Shuili."

A voice sounded behind her.

Cheng Shuili turned her head.

Beichen stood behind her, the Rat King at his side.

"It's over." Beichen said.

Cheng Shuili lifted her head, looking at the light that was still flowing; the shadows within the light were disappearing one by one.

But before they vanished, they were all smiling.

Cheng Shuili finally laughed along.

This time, the thing created by the Creator finally killed the Creator itself!

This time, there was no longer "New Game Loading".

After the light pierced every corner, all the players' panels went out simultaneously.

One second, two seconds, three seconds—they did not light up again.

Someone tentatively shouted: "System?"

There was no response.

Someone else shouted: "Panel?"

Silence.

Someone began to laugh, laughing until they cried. Someone knelt on the ground, hands braced, gasping heavily. Someone else huddled together, saying nothing, just holding each other.

Cheng Shuili suddenly saw a panel pop up before her: "Wuya Lao Da, do you have anything to say? You can still send one more global announcement; after a while, it really won't be possible. —Beichen"

Cheng Shuili's fingertip hovered over the panel, pausing for a second.

She recalled the timid version of herself from the first round.

The girl who didn't dare refuse overtime, the girl who trembled in the apocalypse and could only be sheltered behind her teammates—a good-for-nothing.

She also recalled the version of herself just now, holding a knife and stabbing the monster's eye over and over.

Between them lay two lifetimes, countless deaths, and countless lives.

She smiled slightly and began typing: "Everyone, thank you for your hard work."

On every player's panel, those words lit up one last time; after a moment, they went dark forever.

No system, no game, no disaster.

Only the wind, blowing from afar.

Only people, standing in place, staring blankly at each other.

The laughter was sparse at first, but grew louder, eventually merging into a wave that drowned out the wind, drowned out this long, finally ended everything.

【End of text】