Chapter 433: The Creator

The silhouette in the bathroom suddenly paused. Nangong Mengli seemed to stiffen for a moment before she turned off the faucet.

A pale, slender arm reached out of the bathroom, snatching the towel hanging on the wall.

By the time she stepped out, the pure white towel was already wrapped around her body. Translucent water droplets slid down her smooth thighs and landed on her bare feet.

Rubbing her damp hair, she said calmly, "Peeping isn't exactly gentlemanly behavior."

"Sorry," Su Mu replied flatly, his tone lacking even a sliver of apology.

"I just want to confirm one thing. How long has it been since we last saw each other?"

"Over half a month. You've been missing for more than half a month since I gave you the Twelve Swords of Royal Power. Any other questions?"

"No."

"Then could you please step out? I need to change."

"Alright."

Su Mu exited Nangong Mengli's folder.

In the bathroom, Nangong Mengli simply began drying herself and changing her clothes.

Inside the computer room, Su Mu made a rough estimate of the time. He had only been in the Land of Origin for an hour, yet half a month had already passed on the outside. It seemed a single day in the Land of Origin equaled an entire year in the outside world.

Is this the secret of the Land of Origin? Then why would the Mad King delete his account and start over?

To Su Mu, even if the world was just a computer simulation, the Mad King had no reason to delete his account and start from scratch. Could he simply not handle the shock, so he killed himself?

He felt that was unlikely. Although he had never met the Mad King, judging by what he had learned from Shangguan Chen, the man wasn't that kind of person.

He tried searching for the Mad King, but couldn't find any trace of him.

Su Mu's eyes narrowed slightly as a certain possibility occurred to him. He opened the Recycle Bin. Sure enough, it was filled with countless folders.

Search: Mad King.

Ding!

A Mad King folder popped up.

It seemed everyone who died ended up in the Recycle Bin. In that case, if he dragged them out of it, wouldn't they be resurrected?

Opening the Mad King folder, he saw that the code inside was no longer refreshing or scrolling; there was only a long string of cold, lifeless characters.

Su Mu surged his spiritual power into it, but this time, he saw no images.

Is it because he's already dead? What if I move him out of the Recycle Bin?

Using the mouse, Su Mu dragged the Mad King folder out, intending to drop it onto the desktop. However...

Thud!!

A massive red exclamation mark appeared on the screen, immediately followed by a pop-up window: [Warning! Warning! Duplicate file detected. Choose to overwrite?]

Duplicate file?

A search just moments ago hadn't brought up the Mad King, yet pulling him out of the Recycle Bin now resulted in a duplicate file warning...

Staring at the [Yes] and [No] options, Su Mu felt a vague premonition. Perhaps his own folder duplicated the Mad King's, because the Mad King was his past life.

If he overwrote the folders, would he turn into the Mad King? Or would the two of them merge?

After a moment of thought, Su Mu ultimately clicked [No].

He then shifted his gaze to the only program he hadn't opened yet—My Computer.

Click, click...

He double-clicked the mouse, and a pure white window popped up.

Inside, there was no C drive, D drive, or anything of the sort. Instead, there was a tiny pixel figure. Its face was blurry, but judging by the twintails on its head, it appeared to be a young girl.

The pixel girl looked as if she had just woken up. She slowly stretched lazily on the screen, then tilted her head to look out at Su Mu.

A red question mark popped up above her little head.

Finding it amusing, Su Mu clicked on the question mark.

A dialog box popped up: "Hello there. We meet again."

Again? Could she be referring to the Mad King?

Su Mu was absolutely certain this was his first time visiting the Land of Origin and his first time seeing the pixel girl. If she said they were meeting again, it could only mean she had once met the Mad King.

He began typing into the dialog box: "Who are you?"

"My name is Xiao Yuan. It's the name the original you gave me."

Su Mu quickly typed a reply: "Hello, Xiao Yuan. Could you tell me a bit about your identity?"

Xiao Yuan: "My identity is very complex. According to your human understanding, I can be considered a system spirit, an artifact spirit, or even a dream manager."

Su Mu frowned slightly. He changed the question: "Then what is this computer?"

"To describe it in terms you can understand, it's essentially the origin of the dream."

"Are you saying this world isn't constructed from virtual code, but is actually a dream?"

Xiao Yuan tilted her head and replied, "Is there a difference? Whether it's code or a dream, both are illusions in the end."

Su Mu thought about it carefully. Put that way, she had a point. Both were indeed fake, though there was still a slight distinction between code and dreams.

As if sensing Su Mu's thoughts, Xiao Yuan replied again, "The essence is exactly the same; only the form of expression differs. If you aren't used to it, I can just change its appearance."

Instantly, a burst of blinding white light erupted from the Old-Fashioned Computer. The cramped room abruptly faded into nothingness, as if breaking down into countless atoms before they reconstructed in an entirely different way.

When the white light dissipated, the scene before Su Mu's eyes had drastically changed.

He found himself floating in a vast, mysterious, and profound starry expanse. All around him were brilliant galaxies, magnificent nebulae, and spectacular stars.

And the computer had transformed into a white Jade Disk.

It floated quietly at the center of the universe. The very concept of its size seemed blurred. Staring closely at it, one moment it appeared infinitely massive, dwarfing a star, and the next it shrank infinitely small, like a speck of dust.

Countless mysterious and profound runes flowed across the white Jade Disk, seemingly containing the origin and end of all things.

"How about this look?" A lively, cute ancient-style girl materialized above the Jade Disk.

"Xiao Yuan, is this the computer's true form?" Su Mu asked.

Xiao Yuan shook her head. "No. Its appearance can change in thousands of ways; it can take the form of anything in the universe. Its existence is simply beyond human comprehension. The only reason it took the shape of a computer was to make it easier for human understanding.

"Oh, right, this was actually what the previous you requested! The previous you seemed more accustomed to using a computer to understand it.

"But since you don't like the computer now, it will manifest as a divine artifact instead."

A flash of realization crossed Su Mu's eyes. No wonder it was an Old-Fashioned Computer—the technology in the Mad King's era wasn't as advanced as it was today.

"Then what was its original form?"

Xiao Yuan smiled. "When it first appeared, this world didn't even have a concept of form, so I have no way to describe or define it."

"Who created it?"

"The Creator."

The Creator?

"The God who created this Dream World?"

Xiao Yuan shook her head. "No. The dream you live in was created by the God of Nightmares. The Creator I'm talking about is the entity who created endless dimensions, time and space, the real world, and even Gods themselves. All things originate from the Creator."