"I sense the aura of energy..."
The joy on the Main God's face had barely surfaced before it was replaced by terror. This wasn't the kind of energy he wanted! It was the presence of that man—the one who had brought him nightmares and destroyed countless divine realms!
Chao Musheng had just reached the school gate when he received a call from Secretary Liu, informing him that Su Chenzhu had left work early to pick him up. He waited at the gate for a while, but when no call came, he decided to dial Su Chenzhu himself.
His phone lagged for a few seconds before the ringing tone finally connected. As he waited for Su Chenzhu to answer, Chao Musheng stepped out of the school gate and turned left—the main entrance didn’t allow parking.
The call was picked up after just a few rings.
"Chaochao."
The voice on the other end sounded slightly distorted, as if the signal was poor, crackling with static.
"Secretary Liu said you were coming to pick me up?" Chao Musheng walked leisurely. "I’ve already taken leave for the afternoon classes. Just meet me by the sycamore tree path next to the school’s main gate."
"Alright." Su Chenzhu shot a sidelong glance at the Main God, who no longer bothered hiding behind a human disguise. "I’m dealing with a minor issue here. I’ll come as soon as I’m done."
"Fine..." Chao Musheng’s voice trailed off as he stopped in his tracks, staring ahead.
Under the sycamore tree, one car had been reduced to scrap metal while another had its bumper crumpled. A grotesque figure clad in a monster costume stood blocking Su Chenzhu’s path, dragging a filthy, ugly tail behind it. Its body was covered in black eyeballs, a revolting sight.
That disgusting costume… it felt vaguely familiar.
Two luxury cars wrecked, and this hideous creature standing right there—yet no one had come to gawk?
That was strange.
"We are the same kind!" The Main God, sensing the killing intent radiating from Su Chenzhu after he hung up, scrambled to reason with him. He turned to look behind him, only to find the rift he had come through had vanished without a trace. "Across countless spaces and dimensions, worlds perish and are reborn, but not all of them can give birth to gods."
"If you spare me, I swear I’ll never invade your world again! I’ll even give you a third—no, half of all the energy I harvest from now on!" The Main God retreated as Su Chenzhu took a step forward, desperation creeping into his voice. "I can swear it by the Law of Consciousness!"
"Energy you harvest from now on?" Su Chenzhu frowned. "You still plan to steal from other worlds?"
"The strong prey on the weak. What’s wrong with a god taking energy from lesser worlds?"
"If there’s nothing wrong, you wouldn’t need to send so-called 'players' to raid dungeons, using their hands to siphon energy for you." Su Chenzhu’s voice dripped with disgust. "Thieves and robbers shouldn’t call themselves gods. You’re nothing but a vile creature born from greed and sin."
"Who said gods have to be kind?!" The Main God’s countless eyes widened in fury, his tentacles curling. "You were just born luckier than me—your world spawned civilization. But don’t forget, civilization breeds humans who grow arrogant, who defy the divine. If not for them, your world wouldn’t have birthed that 'vitality' meant to protect humanity—the very force that threatens gods like us!"
The worst part? That vitality, born from the human world, was even more powerful than him.
At first, he hadn’t noticed that man’s existence—no god would tolerate an uncontrollable being emerging in their own world. But then, that man began dismantling his dungeons.
The landslides that were supposed to happen never came. The school destined to become a haunted graveyard thrived instead. Every anchor he planted in this world failed to take root.
"You despise the civilization humans created, yet you covet the energy born from its brilliance." Su Chenzhu raised a hand and swatted the Main God to the ground. "Enough wasting my time. I have a boyfriend to pick up."
"Do you even realize what your 'boyfriend' is? He’s a once-in-a-millennium prodigy among humans, the embodiment of vitality born from the collective will of countless beings!" The Main God rolled like a ball, battered and bruised. "He exists to be the enemy of gods!"
"You—a god—have fallen in love with the very being who can destroy you! Have you lost your mind?!"
You traitor! You’ve betrayed the divine order!
He’s your natural counter—don’t you know that?!
The Main God seethed, recalling the tentacles that had been torn from him and the dungeons forcibly shut down. Fear and hatred for that man warred within him.
But his "heartfelt advice" did nothing to slow Su Chenzhu’s movements. Instead, another gale of wind slammed into him, leaving him powerless to resist.
"Cough—!" Every eye on the Main God’s body turned blood-red, bulging like malignant tumors on the verge of bursting, desperately seeking a way to survive.
Meanwhile, in the infinite space where players resided, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble violently, as if something was about to erupt.
[Attention all players: A dungeon will commence in ten seconds. Prepare yourselves.]
A massive photograph appeared on the screen in the player lobby—a strikingly handsome young man.
[Eliminate this target. Successful completion rewards: immortality or return to the real world.]
Immortality?
Going home?
Every player’s eyes burned with hope as they stared at the screen.
"Isn’t that—?!" Brother Hu gaped in shock.
Chao Musheng!
What the hell happened outside? Why was the Main God mobilizing all players to hunt him down?
Did Chao Musheng dig up the Main God’s ancestral grave or something?!
[Dungeon countdown begins: Five, four, three—]
The system’s voice cut off abruptly. The players exchanged bewildered glances. After a long silence, someone finally spoke up:
"Did… did your system just crash?"
"Mine went silent."
"Same here."
They turned back to the screen—only to find the image gone. All dungeons had vanished, leaving behind nothing but a black void.
"So… are we still entering the dungeon?"
"How?"
"Where did the Main God and the system go?!"
Unnoticed by the others, members of the Anti-Main God Alliance quietly slipped their signal jammer remotes into their pockets.
High-intensity, full-spectrum signal jammers—Xiaojuan’s prized possession, bought after scrimping and saving, then smuggled back into the infinite space. Worth every penny.
Er Qiang, You Jiu, and Qi Shi stood in a corner. No one knew they had been secretly planting wireless remote-controlled jammers all over the place.
"We probably spent all our 'heroic act' dungeon rewards on these things," You Jiu muttered to Qi Shi. "Do you think Xiaojuan and her golden thigh can win?"
"They will." Qi Shi’s gaze remained fixed on the now-defunct screen. "The Main God is desperate enough to sic all players on Chao Musheng. That means it’s out of options."
"If the Main God dies… can we go home?"
"I don't know." Qi Shi raised his head, the light above him growing dimmer by the second, as if darkness would swallow the place at any moment.
Rather than struggling to survive day after day in different dungeons, he’d rather perish together with this infinite space that had trapped countless people.
"Even if you kill me, you won’t end up any better," the Main God rolled on the ground in circles. "One day, you’ll end up just like me—doomed to a miserable fate."
Thud!
The Main God’s body crashed into a phoenix tree before slamming heavily onto the ground.
"Su Chenzhu, back then I took half your life. Now, even if I die, I’ll curse you—"
A foot stomped hard on its face, denting its round, plump features.
"Chao Musheng!" The blood-red eyes covering its body stopped rolling, its fury and hatred replaced by terror.
"Chao Chao?" Su Chenzhu’s expression was frantic, his face as pale as paper.
Had he… heard everything?
"So this is the little trouble you ran into?" Chao Musheng kept his foot firmly planted on the creature beneath him, sparing it only a brief glance before looking away in disgust. "I feel like I’ve seen you in my dreams many times. Turns out you really only have one tail."
"That’s my divine appendage!"
"Divine?" Chao Musheng pressed down harder. "You look like a parasitic virus. How dare you call yourself a god?"
He lifted his gaze to Su Chenzhu.
This version of Su Chenzhu was nothing like his usual self—his pupils gleamed gold, his entire body radiating a murderous aura, devoid of any trace of human warmth.
"Ugly?!" The Main God squirmed under Chao Musheng’s foot like a helpless rat. "This is the perfect divine form!"
Who was this lovesick fool, draping himself in human skin?
"Su Chenzhu," Chao Musheng ignored the creature and turned to him. "What is this thing?"
"A thief who can’t stand the light." Su Chenzhu strode toward Chao Musheng but hesitated a few steps away, his voice timid. "Chao Chao…"
"I heard everything you said earlier." Perhaps the situation was too absurd, but Chao Musheng remained surprisingly calm. So the fortune-teller back then hadn’t been lying—he really did have some connection to a god.
"Fighting is no time for unnecessary chatter." Chao Musheng glanced down at the thing beneath his foot. "The weirder it looks, the faster it gets judged. But this thing isn’t a protected species, so killing it shouldn’t count as breaking any laws."
"You can’t kill me! If I die, countless people will die with me!"
"Brother Chao!"
Xiaojuan and Wan You rushed over. Xiaojuan’s face was covered in dust and sweat, looking utterly disheveled. "It controls too many people."
"Ah, so you’re not just a thief—you’re also a trafficker." Chao Musheng turned to Wan You. "Is this the ‘god’ from your story?"
Wan You nodded blankly. Brother Chao seemed… unnervingly composed?
He stared at the thing under Chao Musheng’s foot. So this was the Main God?
Ugly, weak, more pitiful than a sewer rat.
Was this the creature that had forced countless players in the infinite space to be torn from their families?
Wan You couldn’t describe the emotions swirling inside him—anger, disbelief, resentment—all merging into one indescribable realization.
The Main God, feared and revered by players, was nothing more than this.
Su Chenzhu spoke. "It was born from the fear and greed of countless worlds. As long as living beings fear death and harbor desires, things like this will keep appearing."
"We’ll deal with the future later. But it just said it hurt you before." Chao Musheng stomped on the Main God a few more times. "Knowing I’m your natural enemy, you still dared to bully my boyfriend?"
"If it weren’t for him back then, would I be so weak that you can stomp on me like this?!" The Main God tried to sever its tail to escape, but Chao Musheng had its body pinned.
"Him beating up a trafficker like you counts as righteous justice." Chao Musheng found the eyeballs on the virus ball disgusting. Noticing Xiaojuan glaring at it with clenched teeth, he waved her over. "Hit it if you want. Don’t hold back."
Xiaojuan didn’t hesitate. She charged forward, raising her shovel and smashing it down on the Main God.
She’d wanted to do this for a long time.
"What are you standing there for?" Chao Musheng beckoned to Su Chenzhu, unable to move while keeping the virus ball pinned.
"Chao Chao." Su Chenzhu hesitated, unsure how Chao Musheng saw him now, but he tentatively reached out his hand.
"Your hands are so cold." Chao Musheng cupped his icy fingers, then gently brushed the corner of his eye. "Does it hurt?"
He already knew—the god in Mr. Chen’s story was none other than Su Chenzhu.
"No." Su Chenzhu’s eyelids fluttered slightly, the gold in his irises fading back to their usual amber.
"Your collar’s wrinkled." Chao Musheng chuckled, smoothing it for him. "Before heading home tonight, let’s stop by the supermarket at the entrance. Dad said he forgot to buy drinks."
"Chao Chao!" Su Chenzhu’s eyes lit up. "You’re still taking me home to meet your parents?"
"Who else would I take?" Chao Musheng interlaced their fingers. "There’s a lot I still don’t understand, but you can explain it to me slowly later."
"Okay." The wounds on Su Chenzhu’s hands had already vanished. He carefully pressed Chao Musheng’s palm against his chest. "The thief was wrong about one thing. You’re not my enemy—you’re the salvation that appeared in my endless existence. Because of you, I learned to love the beings of this world."
If Chao Chao’s destined fate was to slay a god, then he would embrace it willingly.
Chao Musheng was born from love and hope, so he loved this world.
"Who’d believe a trafficker’s words?"
Chao Musheng felt a heart beating—just for him.
Wan You shivered in the corner.
Xiaojuan smashing the Main God with a shovel, Brother Chao calmly flirting while stepping on it, and then there was him—utterly helpless.
"It’s not dead yet?" Chao Musheng looked down, noticing the virus ball’s eyes still rolling.
"Ordinary people might not be able to kill it." Xiaojuan handed the shovel to Chao Musheng. "Brother Chao, want to give it a try?"
"How could I? I’m not one for violence." Chao Musheng tapped the virus ball’s head a few times with the shovel, denting half of it.
The Main God didn’t even make a sound.
"It’s dead?" Wan You couldn’t believe it—the Main God had died so easily.
"Going by the usual tropes, the villain’s probably faking it." Chao Musheng lifted his foot, and in the next second, the Main God’s countless eyes snapped open. Using its last appendage as a sacrifice, it forced open a spatial rift.
"It’s escaping!"
The Main God didn’t care how pathetic it looked now—it bounced up, trying to leap into the rift.
Su Chenzhu raised a hand, and the rift vanished.
Wan You and Xiaojuan exhaled in relief. Thank goodness Su Chenzhu, despite being lovesick, hadn’t dropped the ball at a critical moment.
"Spare me!" The Main God lay on the ground, voice trembling. "I swear I won’t—"
"Villains die from talking too much." Chao Musheng tapped the shovel against the Chief God's mouth. "If I was born with the fate of slaying gods, then the only god destined to fall by my hand is you."
"As long as I'm here, you won't live."
The wind howled around them, as if the world itself had frozen at his words.
The Chief God, who had been thrashing wildly just moments before, suddenly withered like a dried husk, its body shrinking and distorting until it became nothing more than a moldy, desiccated hide.
"The Player Space!" Xiaojuan's face paled. If the Chief God was dead, what would happen to the players trapped in the Infinite Space?
"When a human trafficker dies, the people they kidnapped should return to their own worlds." Chao Musheng felt as though he had stepped into some absurd mythological tale.
"R-really?" Xiaojuan stared blankly—then why was she still here?
She whipped her head around to look at Wan You. "Can you still contact those servers of yours?"
Wan You pulled out his phone and dialed.
"The number you have dialed is not in service."
"Not in service..."
The phone numbers of the female players who had been stranded in this world were now disconnected.
So why were he and Xiaojuan still here?
"Brother Chao... did you already suspect that something was off about me?" Xiaojuan murmured, her gaze fixed on Chao Musheng.
No wonder he had never questioned her, even when she kept switching jobs.
Chao Musheng smiled. "You know, lately I keep running into people who stare at others like they’ve got words floating above their heads."
Xiaojuan faltered. "Brother Chao..."
"Whatever questions you have, save them for tomorrow. Right now, there’s something more important I need to do."
"More important?" Xiaojuan was dazed. Wasn’t turning the Chief God into a dried-up hide important enough?
"Taking my boyfriend home to meet the parents." Chao Musheng crushed the shriveled hide under his foot, grinding it into dust. "Fate and gods can wait till tomorrow."
He scooped the remains into a plastic bag.
"Right now, I’m going home with my boyfriend."
Xiaojuan and Wan You turned to look at Su Chenzhu—whose eyes held no one but Chao Musheng.
Of course. To the players, this might have been a world-shaking event.
But this was Chao Musheng’s world. What mattered most were his family, his lover, and the life he cherished.
The sun dipped westward as Chao Yin and Father Chao kept glancing toward the door.
The scent of chicken soup wafted from the kitchen, and the neighbor’s dog trotted upstairs as usual, settling by the entrance to nibble on chicken breast, its tail wagging lazily.
"Dad! Mom!"
Chao Musheng’s cheerful voice echoed down the hallway.
"I brought my boyfriend home! Is dinner ready?!"
The couple turned in unison to see their son walking toward them, hand in hand with Su Chenzhu.
The setting sun bathed the hallway in gold, casting its light over the two of them.
