“I don't know either?”
Yaxiu scratched his head and asked, “If I choose 'I don't know,' does that count as a correct answer?”
“Of course,” the Watcher replied with a chuckle. “Who says 'I don't know' can't be an answer?”
*Before you showed up, 'I don't know' certainly wasn't an answer.*
*Though after you arrived, I wouldn't even be surprised if a perk like 'Eliminate One Wrong Answer' popped up in this wooden cabin.*
The Empress criticized inwardly, thinking to herself: *With a bunch of blatant insiders like this, how could an amnesiac quiz ever be run properly?*
Upon hearing that “I don't know” was officially sanctioned, Yaxiu felt a weight lift from his shoulders. If he had no other leads, he would simply pick “I don't know.”
He could be said to be thoroughly justified—after all, he genuinely didn't know.
Yet compared to the mundane “I don't know,” the other two extraordinary options were utterly insane. Yaxiu felt as though his pre-amnesia self had possessed the power to crush the Great Dao itself.
First: Become a chess piece and sacrifice the world!
Second: Gather wishes and upend the world!
The former was the Chaotic Evil path, while the latter was the Lawful Good path. Regardless of the route, both meant Yaxiu had laid his hands upon a weak, helpless world, prompting one to sigh at just how plagued with disasters the world truly was.
Even Denzel stopped paying attention to Diya, shocked by the information revealed in Yaxiu's question. “Knight... you... were reborn?”
“No use asking me; I have amnesia,” Yaxiu spread his hands. “If losing one's memories counts as a rebirth, wouldn't this be my third one?”
Sonia quietly slipped over to Yaxiu's side, tightly wrapping her arms around his, and cooed in a cloyingly sweet tone, “My dearest knight—”
Goosebumps erupted all over Yaxiu. “Off, off! What are you doing?!”
“Aren't we lovers~?” Sonia tilted her head, acting cute. “We've lost our memories, so we need to properly rekindle our feelings~”
“Didn't you just say we were breaking up?”
“That's just a little couple's banter. Without a little bickering, how could life be lively?”
“Didn't you say I cheated on you?”
“The truth has come to light! The mistress was Little Sister's mistress, not yours. So you're still my loyal lover.”
“Didn't you say I was most likely a bad person and that you were planning to abandon the dark and step into the light?”
“What a coincidence—I just happen to like bad boys!”
Yaxiu saw right through her. “You're clearly only latching onto me because you think I might be some big shot!”
Sonia arched an eyebrow. “So you mean you don't want to get back together with me?”
“Hmph!” huffed Yaxiu, acting tough.
“Come to think of it, we still share the blessing of Shared Life. Since our love is gone, maybe I'll just trigger it in a moment so we can make a clean break with no lingering attachments...”
“Speaking of which,” Yaxiu suddenly said, “why do you think we fell in love in the first place?”
“Huh?” Sonia blinked. Though she didn't know what Yaxiu was plotting, she caught the faint scent of a scumbag.
“I'm certain it must have been love at first sight, my senses swept away by your beauty.” Yaxiu took Sonia's hand with utmost devotion. “Thank goodness for this fortunate amnesia. Miss, now that we're meeting for the first time, may we start anew?”
“You're clearly just afraid of being dragged down to death with me.” Sonia huffed, but couldn't help bursting into a giggle. “Didn't you guess that we were a couple who dated for years and hit a slump, and didn't you even suspect you'd had an affair on the side? Now that we have amnesia, why not just take this chance to end this tangled mess—”
“Why end it? Come on, let's get back together, repeat our mistakes, and torment each other.”
Yaxiu spoke with deep, brimming affection, as if they truly were a couple from an idol drama who had been through an epic romantic marathon of endless breakups and makeups without missing a beat.
Just as Yaxiu and Sonia were matching wits like seasoned masters, a cough suddenly sounded from the side.
“It looks like you two could keep chatting for a very long time,” the Watcher remarked. “How about answering the question first?”
*“Huh!?”* the Witch grumbled via private message. *“Why interrupt them? I love watching them flirt! I'm so curious to see their faces once they get their memories back... You're the Watcher, after all—surely watching this doesn't make you feel awkward, does it?”*
*“As if. Even if they threw down right here and got wildly tangled in complete intimacy, I'd only complain about lacking snacks and drinks for the show. How could I feel awkward?”* the Watcher replied. *“Still, while I'm not feeling awkward, the one next to you is already uncomfortable enough to grip her hilt.”*
The Witch glanced toward the Sword Princess. Currently, the Sword Princess had her head lowered; no one could see her expression, only her right hand caressing the ruby hilt, as though stroking some dog head waiting to be severed.
Yaxiu turned his gaze toward the two options that brazenly proclaimed his unmatched might.
“The World-Ender who sacrificed the world; the Savior who reversed cause and effect...” Yaxiu mused. “Two crucial preconditions appear here: the Four Pillar Gods and the sorcerer manual. But neither of them has appeared in any of the previous questions.”
“In other words, these two options can't be judged using existing information; they can only be deduced through my personal character.”
“Isn't that simple?” Sonia asked. “Do you think you lean more toward being a World-Ender, or a Savior?”
Once that question was raised, not only Denzel, but even the Sword Princess and the Witch looked over. In an instant, Yaxiu became the center of the wooden cabin, as though his answer would tilt the scales in everyone's hearts.
Oblivious to the tension, Yaxiu lowered his head in thought, then gave a resounding clap.
The clap echoed, and with it, the dust settled.
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?” Sonia froze. “Isn't it easy to guess? Just look at whether you'd rather save people or kill them to reach a conclusion.”
“Then what about you?” Yaxiu countered. “If it were you, do you see yourself as a savior willing to spend a thousand years for a single sliver of hope, or a world-ender daring to sacrifice hundreds of millions of lives?”
“The question wasn't asked of me—”
“According to your logic, if you lean toward good, you're the savior; if you lean toward evil, you're the world-ender. Wouldn't that be easy to guess?”
*You're actually turning my own words against me...* Sonia dearly wanted to answer Yaxiu with steel in her voice, but the words caught in her throat, as if whatever she blurted out would become a ticking time bomb bound to her.
Spending a thousand years... Though she didn't know how long she had lived, a thousand years was certainly an immense span of time, wasn't it?
Hundreds of millions of lives... Though she didn't know whether she had ever killed anyone, wasn't the figure of hundreds of millions far too horrifying?
Seeing Sonia's hesitation, Yaxiu turned to ask Denzel, “What about you?”
“World-Ender,” Denzel replied without hesitation. “I don't like wasting time.”
“See? That's just how it is,” Yaxiu spread his hands. “Character determines memory, and memory shapes character. If I truly were someone who had done either of those things, my personality would certainly match that choice. Whether enduring a thousand years of time or bearing the sins of hundreds of millions of lives, it would inevitably be deeply engraved upon my soul, distorting my perception and shaping my thoughts.”
“More importantly,” Yaxiu looked toward the Watcher, “I know very well that even with my memories restored, I couldn't possibly possess the resolve to make such a choice.”
“I smell neither the foul stench of mountains of corpses and seas of blood on myself, nor the mellow fragrance steeped in seven bitternesses and eight sufferings.”
Witch: *“Sword Princess, can you smell it? We can't smell anything at all—”*
Sword Princess: *“I can.”*
She cast a cold glance at the Witch, then looked toward the back of the Watcher: *“I just can't tell whose scent it is.”*
Chapter 312