Chapter 334: Chapter 334: Mind Game, East Sea Debate, and "Sin"'s Response

["Sin"'s identity fully revealed—this is his true self!]

[Is humanity’s strongest still a human traitor? His very existence is the greatest crisis this world has ever faced.]

[The Dragon Nation government owes an explanation. What exactly is his true identity and purpose? We refuse to believe you have no idea who he is.]

[Before dealing with external threats, secure internal stability—hand over "Sin"!]

[An existence that appeared out of nowhere? Maybe "Sin" was originally a creation of the game.]

[The so-called strongest is merely a bubble woven by the game.]

......

Opening any news website at random, every headline is about himself, even Lu Ce can’t handle this.

“Huh?”

“What on earth happened?”

Confused, he opened some posts and compared them with the current game announcements. Only then did he understand—the game had exceeded its limits.

And strangely, it seemed like everyone blamed him for this.

That’s not right. What does it mean to blame me?

Shouldn’t they be thanking me instead?

“Huh? The game limit has been raised, isn’t that a good thing?”

Lu Ce muttered to himself, a bit speechless.

If it truly meant he raised the game limit, wouldn’t that mean more opportunities?

He looked over the posts many times but still didn’t grasp the core idea.

In short, the message was this: this game limit increase is not a good thing for the overall world right now.

It might even cause the world’s destruction, and the scapegoat is being made out to be him.

That’s...

Hasn’t the countdown to destruction started the moment this game appeared?

Someone with power beyond your understanding is right beside you, and yet you feel no crisis?

They’re not seriously only panicking today, are they?

“Heh, this is kind of ridiculous.”

“In reality, it’s just preparing two fronts: internal human conflict on one side, and using you as a scapegoat on the other.” On the other side, the Black Knight, now transformed into a metallic sphere quietly floating in the air, suddenly spoke.

“Hm?”

Lu Ce turned his head toward it.

“When are you going to upgrade to a bigger room? Damn, being a ball here every day—I can only be a ball.” The Black Knight cursed first.

“The truth is, when a major crisis hits, you need an emotional outlet to divert everyone’s feelings.”

“If you really are the game’s mole, then this is the perfect chance to kill you off with a Socratic-style public vote.”

“If you’re human... hmm, the strongest player is in China. Don’t other countries have anything to say? Internal conflict, right?”

The Black Knight spoke very smugly, as if showing off its vast knowledge.

Lu Ce raised an eyebrow and said:

“You, a motorcycle, sure know a lot.”

“Of course, but there’s one thing I don’t quite understand.” The Black Knight turned serious.

“What?”

“Are you human or the game’s mole? I need to know which side I’m on.”

Lu Ce: ...

Too lazy to bother with the nonsense.

Lu Ce took a short break, adjusted his mood, and instead of staying in the game, returned to school.

A bit pretentious to admit, but his current reason for going to school was mainly to familiarize himself with "normal" life and gain firsthand understanding of the current world situation.

Yeah, unsurprisingly, the education system was almost paralyzed.

Upon entering, a Dragon Group staff member stressed the dangers of the upcoming Game 2.0 during a meeting, making sure everyone understood.

Then, vacation was declared.

What caught Lu Ce’s attention was one thing—Xie Antong hadn’t shown up.

And she hadn’t even asked for leave. This person had never had the habit of skipping class casually.

Maybe she was emo. The dosage of drugs she had been injected with this time might send her into an emotional whirlpool again for a while.

Well, as long as she didn’t kill herself.

At that moment, a message came through on her phone, and it was from her!

[Xie Antong: Situation is abnormal.]

[Xie Antong: Personal suggestion, do not reply to anyone’s messages. Before the game starts, do not communicate with anyone on the game platform!]

Lu Ce: ?

He hesitated a little and realized the other side was probably referring to this game over-limit crisis, a huge danger.

But the question was, why send such a message to him?

Actually, since the last game, he had sensed something off about her. It seemed like she might have recognized him somehow.

Though the chances were slim, with her specialty ability, it was hard to say...

Even so, it still didn’t feel right. What was this about?

Maybe she was too emo, mentally unstable?

In the end, he followed her advice—he didn’t reply.

Yeah, no reply to that message.

......

What Lu Ce didn’t know was that Xie Antong was not emo at all. In fact, this was the best state she had been in after many drug injections.

Because this time, all four of them received the divine blessing of the God of Love’s chosen power.

That power smoothed out her emotional side effects and made her unusually calm and natural.

At that moment, she was using a game item to put her phone into a shredder, directly destroying it completely!

She even lit a Spirit-Burning Incense stick, attempting a rudimentary ritual to interfere with the causal links.

She liked machines—those memories stored simply as 0s and 1s by electronic circuits.

Human memories could malfunction, emotions could be manipulated, but machines wouldn’t. Once shredded, they wouldn’t come back.

No one would be able to retrieve the phone in Lu Ce’s hands, and as for herself, she must erase it now!

She did this because her rational mind had keenly sensed something was wrong—some intuition, even.

The worldwide crusade against “Sin” was already somewhat suspicious.

And just now, right after getting off the helicopter and returning home, the first question she was asked was:

“What is your relationship with ‘Sin’ in that game?”

She was stunned. Did it get this direct now?

“Is that person trustworthy? Is he really human, or could he be a fake created by the game?”

“How did you establish contact with him? Could you have been brainwashed by him?”

“Do you know him in real life?”

In the empty hall, these questions came from a machine’s voice. There was no one in front of Xie Antong the entire time.

It felt terrible. Although her family situation was complicated and she hadn’t considered this place home for a long time, coming back to this scene was unexpected.

It felt like an interrogation. Out of the corner of her eye, she even saw six strange devices covered with lampshades.

They were machines scanning the whole body’s blood, hormone levels, and heart rate—she recognized them.

—These were the world’s most advanced, truly scientific lie detectors!

The only reason they hadn’t been widely used in civilian life was their high cost.

And today, they were used on her.

Xie Antong’s face turned cold. A hint of disdain crept onto her lips as she slowly spoke:

“In real life, I do not know Sin. I have never seen Sin’s true form.”

Ding!

Green light, lie detector shows truth, no lies.

“The first time I met him was purely by coincidence, in the game, matched as teammates in challenge mode.”

Ding!

Green light, truth confirmed.

“Our relationship—I just wanted to use a top player, tried to contact him. His reasons are unknown.”

Ding!

Green light again...

“As for trustworthiness, there’s no such thing as trust in the game. I never trusted Sin. Sin probably never trusted me either. Or rather, with his pride in his strength, he doesn’t care about so-called trust.”

Ding!

After this green light, the six lie detector lights flickered slightly, as if the machine was thinking.

These lie detectors probably also had surveillance functions.

“I believe he is human, not a traitor.”

This time, the lie detector did not make a sound but a mechanical voice responded.

“Why?”

“Feeling!”

Ding!

Green light!

Every question was green-lit. Xie Antong’s face was stern but beads of sweat had started to appear.

The mechanical voice sounded again:

“Good, simple questions are over.”

“Welcome home, little princess.”

“‘Sin’ has many problems, and may become humanity’s enemy. Do not contact him anymore. Stay as far away as possible to ensure your own safety!”

Xie Antong nodded without a word.

Once the “surveillance” period ended, she found a safe place, quickly typed out a blind message, and then shredded her phone.

In essence, everything was reasonable.

After all, “Sin” was currently being denounced worldwide.

And her family knew she was “Blank.” In the game, Blank had indeed had increased contact with “Sin.”

But she just felt something was off!

When she saw her family using such devices at the moment she returned, she felt very uneasy.

A vague sense of conspiracy enveloped her. There was no real logic or crisis, but she simply felt uncomfortable.

So, she chose to send that message.

Just as a precaution. Saying it casually wouldn’t hurt.

No matter what, it was her final act of goodwill.

......

Meanwhile, as the outside voices thundered like a tidal wave, the game’s internal community was also fermenting wildly.

The spark for all this was the Dragon Group of China—China’s largest superhuman organization—issuing a statement.

—“Sin” is not a traitor!

—“Sin” is Chinese!

This was the Dragon Group standing firmly in adversity to endorse that figure who had stirred huge waves worldwide.

What shocked Lu Ce most was that he was well aware he had no contact with the Dragon Group!

That they could speak for him at such a time was truly unbelievable.

But this matter was also escalating inside the game.

The already open player communication board, usually useless, finally saw some sparks.

No.6 Chiyo Eine, a frontline player, was the first to challenge, directly pointing the finger at “Sin.”

Since this is a player matter, let players solve it. “Sin” should appear in real life on his own!

This would at least rule out the possibility that he was a game-created fake.

Many other self-interested organizations responded, saying that in three days, there would be a gathering near a small island in the East Sea.

All the world’s top players would hold an offline meetup!

Who has a guilty conscience and who doesn’t would be clear once they show up!

All top players—let’s see who’s really strong.

This event would avoid politics, military, or civilians.

Simply a player “offline event.” As for how to get to the East Sea... if you’re a top player, you shouldn’t have to think about that.

This idea gained unanimous support from millions of players and even got a name—East Sea Debate!

But the Dragon Group of China naturally wouldn’t agree.

They said players’ battles couldn’t be allowed to spill from the game into the real mainland.

So many top players... just imagine how terrifying that would be. No country would allow a bunch of missiles stationed on their border.

But this was supposed to happen in international waters, and all were personal player actions, making it hard to stop.

Sun, who had already reached No.4, also had strong opinions about “Sin.”

He said that in this over-limit game, everyone had a part in the fight. Why is the chief culprit now just “Sin”?

From his tone, he clearly wanted that honor too.

But no one paid attention to such ridiculous demands.

For a time, the chat exploded with noise, both in the game world and reality, all debating that one name.

Finally, one voice ended the discussion.

Because the storm’s center himself finally appeared.

[No.1: Sin: Debate? Want to fight me?]

[No.1: Sin: Fine! Three days later, East Sea, come!]

After sending the message, Lu Ce glanced at his game panel, then threw himself onto the bed.

Come? My ass!

You guys want to go, go ahead. I’m choosing to walk the dog.

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