C100 — Once a Player

When the water splashed across the server’s face, the Cross axe struck him directly between the eyebrows, activating the “digging” skill.

To make the server appear more human, the Butterfly had only manipulated his subconscious—it hadn’t fully turned him into a follower.

Although it was the server who transmitted the contamination to Director Liu via the drinks, Director Liu’s level of corruption was clearly deeper—he had reached the level of a dependent, whereas the server was merely a follower.

If the server had been a dependent, Mu Sichen would have seen the signs right away.

The “digging” skill purified the dream contamination inside the server, restoring his awareness. But the abrupt return of consciousness caused severe cognitive dissonance, making him act like a madman.

Even though the Butterfly had been driven out, the server’s mind had suffered serious damage. He would need long-term psychological therapy to gradually recover—though it was just as likely he’d remain trapped in this broken mental state forever.

Even a “Self” sticker from the real world would only soothe him for 24 hours. After that, the chaos would return.

But if a self-totem on par with those from the game could be created to turn the server into Mu Sichen’s follower, then the power of Self could truly restore him.

And right now, Mu Sichen just happened to have the conditions to create such a totem—a by-product of the Cross axe’s “digging” skill.

But how could he craft a self-totem equal to one from the game world?

And how could he use that power in the real world?

Mu Sichen looked at the running faucet still soaking the bartender’s hair, and placed his hand under the stream.

As water flowed over his palm, a self-totem gradually began to form.

With one hand still holding the bartender down, Mu Sichen gently raised his other hand. A self-totem, about 50 centimeters in diameter and made entirely of water, floated in his palm.

The squad members who had been watching the drama unfold: “…”

He Fei, overexcited, started pounding frantically on Cheng Xubo’s back and howled, “Holy shit! Brother Mu is so cool! How the hell did he do that?! I want to use my banishing skill in real life too!”

Cheng Xubo was equally amazed, gripping He Fei’s hand in excitement.

Perhaps because of the bar’s unusual environment, in that instant, everyone inside could see the totem in Mu Sichen’s hand. Those who had been about to flee stopped in their tracks and raised their phones to start recording.

When the self-totem appeared, even Dan Qi and Lin Wei were left speechless.

No matter how much experience they had, this was the first time they’d witnessed something like this. It was like a scene from a supernatural movie suddenly playing out in real life. Their eyes were locked on Mu Sichen, who—under the effects of alcohol and double contamination—looked completely different from his usual self.

Their gaze carried admiration, awe, and even a budding sense of devotion.

Fortunately, Lin Wei had strong professional instincts. After being stunned for a few seconds, he snapped back to his senses and immediately said to Dan Qi:

“I’ll seal the front door. You take the back. Contact the local team and claim a mass brawl broke out—lock down the whole bar. Cut the network and shut down the nearby signal towers. Not a single image from today can be leaked!”

Then he glared fiercely at Mu Sichen.

These supernatural ability users—couldn’t they look around before showing off their powers in public?

After issuing the orders, Lin Wei noticed that Dan Qi hadn’t moved. Annoyed, he gave him a push.

Only then did Dan Qi come back to reality. He gave Lin Wei a resentful glance and said,

“Why do I have to guard the back door?”

The front door had a clear view of the bar counter, but the back door was behind it—he wouldn’t be able to see anything Mu Sichen did from there.

Lin Wei replied, “I’ll make a high-def copy of the bar’s surveillance footage later. You can rewatch it every day if you want.”

Dan Qi finally headed to the back door.

Just as he left, Mu Sichen softly muttered, “Purify.”

The water totem wasn’t floating in the air on its own—it was suspended by a stream of water, connecting the totem to Mu Sichen’s palm.

It was this very stream that lifted the totem above the server’s head.

Still in a state of mental disarray, the server looked up and stared blankly at the totem.

Then the water totem dissolved into a gentle stream. The server opened his mouth, and the stream automatically flowed into it.

After drinking that mouthful of water, the server’s expression gradually relaxed.

He no longer struggled with his confused perception of reality. He remembered everything, but now he accepted his current self.

The server looked at Mu Sichen—who was still firmly pinning down the bartender—and immediately scrambled over with obsequious enthusiasm.

“Mayor, master, sir, Jade Emperor, Buddha, god, deity—is there anything I can help you with?” he asked.

Then, as if puzzled by himself, he added, “Weird… why did I call you ‘mayor’?”

This string of titles even made the drunken Mu Sichen glance over at him in confusion.

“Do you need anything?” the server quickly flashed a full eight-tooth smile. But this wasn’t the mechanical smile of someone in the service industry—instead, he scrunched all the flesh on his face together, widened his eyes, and radiated a greasy sort of flattery and friendliness.

Mu Sichen’s lips twitched. “You’re greasy. Step back.”

“Right away!” the server instantly backed off, scurrying far out of Mu Sichen’s line of sight, terrified of being a nuisance.

The server was saved—but the bartender was beyond help.

Now completely soaked, the bartender’s condition was much clearer to Mu Sichen.

Countless roots were spilling out from the bartender’s body—and they were his own.

His blood vessels were feeding these roots. They siphoned energy directly from his flesh and blood, transforming it into airborne contamination, which then spread to everyone in the bar.

Mu Sichen didn’t yet know what purpose the bartender had for constantly diffusing this pollution, but one thing was certain: the bartender was done for.

From previous battles, Mu Sichen knew that the Cross axe treated followers with relative mercy—its “digging” skill purified their pollution and restored their sanity.

But when it came to dependents like the Feather-Eyed one and the others, the crossaxe immediately triggered “Wrath of the Crossaxe”, entering a power-accumulation mode and showing no mercy.

Once someone became a dependent, they were no longer truly human. Purification was nearly impossible. They had to be destroyed.

But this was the real world. The bartender still looked like a regular human. Mu Sichen didn’t want to be responsible for a death.

So he just held him down, unsure of what to do next.

He reached into the bartender’s pants pocket and pulled out a phone.

Grabbing the bartender’s hair, he forced the man’s disheveled face to unlock the screen and opened the messaging app. Sure enough, he found a chat history with Zhuo Huaichu.

Just as he had suspected: if Zhuo Huaichu wanted to communicate in the real world, someone had to send messages on his behalf.

That “someone” had always been this bartender.

“You sent these?” Mu Sichen asked coldly.

Despite being completely subdued, the bartender still wouldn’t shut up. He sneered, “That was my Lord’s spirit descending upon me—a warning to you.”

“Divine descent? Dream on, you lunatic!”

Thinking of Yang Yunyun, Mu Sichen didn’t hesitate and punched the bartender square in the face.

 

A mere bartender—how could he possibly invoke divine descent?

The only time Mu Sichen had ever witnessed a true divine descent was when Yao Wangping sacrificed his life to summon Qin Zu. For a god-level monster to descend outside its own domain, it required a soul offering as a sacrifice.

The bartender’s current state was more like Zhuo Huaichu using a totem to control his mind, temporarily manipulating his body to send messages.

If that was the case, then the totem should be somewhere on the bartender’s body.

Mu Sichen clenched his hand slightly and tore off the bartender’s suit jacket.

Watching from the sidelines, He Fei shrieked and immediately ran up to the bar counter, pleading with Mu Sichen, “Chenchen, I know you’re emotionally stirred right now because of that drink—but come on, we can’t be this desperate, right? You’re usually too repressed, and being a bit S or a bit A is fine—but this? This is not okay.”

“Move,” Mu Sichen said flatly.

There was a kind of irresistible command in his voice. He Fei immediately backed away several steps, crouching in the corner with the server, the two of them holding hands, staring at Mu Sichen with four wide eyes.

“Please, carry on,” He Fei muttered.

But the bartender’s upper body revealed no totem at all. Could it be on his lower half? That would go against Mu Sichen’s theory.

If one wanted to control someone’s mind, the totem should be located on the head, chest, or spine, places that connect to consciousness. The lower body wouldn’t be able to control the whole person.

He’d already checked the head—no totem there. That was why he had torn off the bartender’s jacket.

But if it wasn’t on the upper body, where was it?

Thinking about the bartender’s disgusting ability, a terrible idea occurred to him—could Zhuo Huaichu’s power be working through the lower body, using it to control the brain, with the totem imprinted there?

That left Mu Sichen a bit conflicted.

He glanced down at the bartender’s pants—and then noticed something alarming: the roots extending from the bartender’s legs had grown longer, and at some point, they had infiltrated his own legs, seemingly trying to take root inside him.

“What is this?” Mu Sichen asked.

“Hahahahahaha! Just noticing now? But it’s already too late!”

The bartender, who had been pinned down this whole time, suddenly burst into laughter. “You really thought I had no way to deal with you? I’ve endured your beatings patiently just to let these roots take hold inside you—so you can experience the bliss of becoming the Origin! Only He can save this world!”

Mu Sichen only had to think for a moment before he understood.

It was still related to that drink—“Origin of All Things.”

After drinking it, the pollution of the Origin had entered his body.

Even though Mu Sichen could suppress that pollution with his personal energy and the power of Self, preventing it from taking over his mind, the energy of the Origin had still merged with his body.

That energy was now attracting the roots from the bartender, drawing them in like a magnet—allowing the bartender to transfer them into Mu Sichen’s body.

“Transfer…” Mu Sichen chuckled.

So this, too, was one of the abilities granted by the system to players.

The roots had already wrapped around his legs and were climbing toward his waist—but Mu Sichen remained calm. He didn’t rush to remove them. Instead, he turned his attention back to the bartender’s phone.

“Y-You’re not panicking?”

The bartender laughed for a moment, then faltered when he saw how composed Mu Sichen was. He began to panic. “Why aren’t you freaking out?”

“Why would I?” Mu Sichen said coolly.

“This is just some petty dependent-level pollution. Do you know how much corruption I’ve already endured to get this far?”

In the early days, when he lacked enough energy, he had borrowed the powers of Qin Zhu, Big-Eyes, and even Shen Jiyue. He’d been so deeply polluted by Shen Jiyue that he almost became one of the Moon’s devotees—nearly summoning Shen Jiyue’s true form into Tongzhi Town.

Mu Sichen had wondered what kind of move the bartender would make—but in the end, it turned out to be nothing more than transferring the power of the Origin, attempting to quietly pollute him, and he even got caught midway through the process.

With the power of the otherworldly energy leaking from this bar, Mu Sichen could purge the pollution from his body at any time. He was allowing the roots to spread not out of helplessness, but to locate the totem inside the bartender’s body.

He was convinced that the bartender had survived this long while continuously releasing pollution not because he was strong, but because there was a constant energy source inside him, sustaining his life and feeding the roots in place of his own vitality.

Mu Sichen intended to seize this Origin totem, store it in the library, and—once the Butterfly problem was resolved—he would go find Zhuo Huaichu.

For Yang Yunyun, and for himself.

The bartender’s phone had many folders. While chatting casually, Mu Sichen opened them one by one.

Finally, in a folder titled “Bygone Days”, he found two apps:

My Ideal Town game app

A game pod app

Mu Sichen opened the game app and saw that the ID wasn’t Zhuo Huaichu —it belonged to someone named Li Suyuan.

He picked up the bartender’s torn clothing and pulled out the name tag. Sure enough, it read: Li Suyuan.

“You’re a player too?” Mu Sichen asked.

He had assumed Zhuo Huaichu was the only player—he hadn’t expected the bartender to be one as well.

Mu Sichen then tapped the game pod app—only to find it was permanently disabled.

So the bartender was a player who had returned from the game world, and no longer needed to go back?

“What’s going on with you people?” Mu Sichen asked.

“I was one,” the bartender replied with a soft chuckle. “Now I’m a devotee of the Origin, left behind in this world to await His descent. One day He’ll return, end everything, and give this world new life.”

“You’re brain-damaged,” Mu Sichen said coldly. “Forget it—I won’t ask anymore. I’ll see for myself.”

He turned to Chi Lian, who was standing beside the bar. “Put your hand in the water and focus on lending me your power temporarily.”

“Alright.” Chi Lian obeyed and placed her hand in the water.

Mu Sichen scooped up a handful. As the water touched his palm, it transformed into a scissor-shaped blade made of water. He used it to snip one of the root stems connected to his waist, and with the “cut and paste” ability, he pasted the root onto his left eye.

The root burrowed into his left eye, and Mu Sichen covered his right. A flood of images immediately filled his vision.

It was as though his line of sight had followed the root into the bartender’s body.

He saw countless roots flowing with his bloodstream, all converging at the heart.

And there, etched upon the pulsing heart. was a glowing Origin totem.

A vision appeared in Mu Sichen’s mind:

The bartender knelt in a flower-filled town, slicing open his own chest with a knife.

A hand reached out and planted a seed into his chest.

The seed quickly sprouted, taking root within his body. The totem of the Origin began to form across his heart.

The power of the Origin healed the wound on his chest, saving the bartender from death.

Once the wound had completely closed, the bartender bowed his head deeply, pressing his forehead to the ground.

His mouth moved—silently, reverently.

Mu Sichen read the movements of his lips:

“Waiting for you.”

“Give everything.”

“Anything… I’ll do anything.”

The vision vanished. Mu Sichen opened his eyes and used a water crossaxe to sever the root attached to his left eye.

Now he knew the totem’s exact location—and he also understood what Zhuo Huaichu’s gift really was.

Zhuo Huaichu had given him three gifts.

The first gift was Yang Yunyun. The mutation on her body allowed Mu Sichen to gain the support of Lin Wei, which meant he didn’t have to act cautiously in the real world. He now had a powerful backer—even after causing a huge commotion in a bar filled with over a hundred guests, someone would still help him clean up the mess.

The second was the location of the Butterfly. Through this bar, Mu Sichen could eliminate the Butterfly’s power in the real world and never again worry about people dying in their dreams, like what happened with Boss Liu.

The third was the Origin Totem.

Killing Li Suyuan, carving out his heart, and retrieving the totem would be Mu Sichen’s ticket to Origin Town.

Everything Zhuo Huaichu had done—had truly been to help him.

But Mu Sichen couldn’t bring himself to commit such a cruel act in the real world. He had a feeling that once he crossed this line, he’d never be able to come back.

 

Staring at the bartender, Mu Sichen asked, “Do you know you’re a gift from Zhuo Huaichu to me?”

“What right do you have to speak His name so casually?” the bartender snarled, glaring fiercely. “He’s the true god—He used His own body to bear pain, to protect us players drowning in despair. To die for Him—I would do so gladly.”

Mu Sichen was bewildered. “You’re a player too. You should understand how I feel. You should know how precious human life is. Why would you help Zhuo Huaichu do something so cruel? Do you know how much Yang Yunyun suffered before she died? And how much pain her family must feel now, after receiving the news?”

The bartender’s expression didn’t waver. Instead, he asked, “And what do you know? Ask that Lin Wei—how many totem-related cases has he dealt with in the past six months? You think before you came along, before the Butterfly, who was it that stopped these incidents from spreading?”

“Do you remember when you first contacted Him?”

It was after He Fei, who had been contaminated by the little octopus and had gone a bit unhinged, entered the company as an intern. Mu Sichen, wanting to monitor whether He Fei could function normally at work, looked into Zhuo Huaichu’s account.

 

Before that, though Mu Sichen had added Zhuo Huaichu as a friend the first time he left the game, the two had never contacted each other —not until He Fei’s internship.

The company where He Fei interned had been corrupted by the Butterfly, which was why Zhuo Huaichu took notice. He wanted to cleanse the contamination there.

Because of that, He discovered Qin Zu’s pollution on He Fei’s body—and that was when Zhuo Huaichu’s gaze finally fell upon Mu Sichen.

That was the beginning of their connection.

“We’ve been protecting this world all along,” the bartender said. “But how could protection come without sacrifice? For our ultimate goal—Yang Yunyun could die. And so could I!”

With a sudden roar, the bartender broke free from Mu Sichen’s hold. He lunged toward the bar, pulled out a fruit knife, and stabbed it into his own chest.

The knife clearly wasn’t that sharp, yet his chest split open like tofu.

There was no blood.

No gory scene.

Only a body left with roots and bones, and a still-beating heart.

“This is the gift He meant to give you. Take it.” The bartender said with devout reverence.

“I won’t,” Mu Sichen whispered.

Even if he couldn’t go to Origin Town, he wouldn’t fulfill Zhuo Huaichu’s will by personally killing the bartender.

At his words, a fan-blade shape formed within a stream of water, and it spun rapidly and kicked up a waterspout.

The waterspout enveloped Mu Sichen, cutting off all the roots connected to his body, and also cleansing him of all Butterfly and Origin contamination.

Even the alcohol began to wear off. Mu Sichen turned to the bartender and said,

“With your abilities, you should be able to heal yourself. When your wounds recover, I’ll purify the rest of your contamination. If you can’t survive without it, that’s your own consequence to bear. But I won’t take your heart. I won’t end your life.”

Now that the crossaxe had cleansed his internal pollution, Mu Sichen could once again create a water-based Self Totem.

He opened his palm, and the Self Totem gradually took shape.

But the bartender gave a bitter, twisted smile.

“What He wants to give you—you have no choice but to accept.”

Right after speaking those words, the roots all over his body suddenly bloomed with countless flowers —and from his heart, a giant blossom unfurled.

The stamen of the flower bore the shape of the Origin Totem.

The bartender’s body, like a withered leaf, began to dry, crack, and disintegrate into powder at the slightest touch.

All that remained was a massive, bizarre, black-and-red flower, blooming wildly at the center of the bar.

 

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