I Am God!

Before dawn.

Sha Jin was called out. This time he was asked to go into the city to buy parts for repairing a lighthouse. There was something wrong with a lighthouse on the reef and needed to be repaired.

The old man knocked on the door roughly and shouted.

"You guys, you've only been playing around for the past few days, and you haven't done anything serious at all."

"There must be nothing wrong with the lighthouse and it must be repaired quickly."

The old man roared several times and then returned to the top. He had been keeping watch on the lights all night last night and he hadn't rested yet.

On the quilt spread on the floor, Mustache stood up and yawned. He looked outside and saw that the sky was still dark.

"Is your job so hard every day?"

Sha Jin got up from the oval bed, which was somewhat like a bird's nest. He was used to it: "It's not hard, what are you doing there?"

Mustache: "My mission is very special."

Sha Jin asked: "What does it mean to be special?"

Mustache: "What I do every day is make friends."

Sha Jin asked: "What kind of friends do we make?"

Mustache: "For example, comforting some noble ladies who have suffered from domestic violence, or leading some girls who have been imprisoned at home since childhood and do not know the beautiful sky outside to appreciate the beauty of the world. You know that I like to help others the most."

Sha Jin's eyes changed when he looked at Mustache. He didn't know whether it was contempt or envy.

Or maybe both!

Sha Jin: "Then why did you come here? This place is only one step away from the end of the world, but there are no noble widows or princesses who have been raised in the castle since childhood?"

Mustache: "You know, good people are always unpopular, right?"

"I have obviously done good things and used my kind heart to help those in need, but there are always people yelling at me to beat me and kill me."

Sha Jin seemed to understand.

However, he had no sympathy at all and felt that this kid deserved it.

On the way.

The more Sha Jin thought about it, the angrier he became, and the more he thought about it, the more jealous he became.

Hateful, he also wants to be a "good guy".

While chatting, the two of them flew to Iceberg City.

Sha Jin entered the city and met the tavern owner who had just left.

The other party saw the mustache beside Sha Jin. The other party was well-groomed and even his beard was neatly trimmed.

"Oh, I brought a friend here today."

Sha Jin looked at the particularly well-dressed man with a mustache, shook his head and said.

"He's not a friend, he's from outside. He asked me to take him around."

When he passed by the pharmacy, the clerk of the pharmacy also greeted him. This girl with a little sand gold ran up to him and said excitedly.

"Sha Jin, tell me about the method you mentioned before today!"

Sha Jin smiled: "No problem, I'll talk to you when I come back later."

The clerk in white nodded: "Okay, thank you."

The handsome man with a mustache looked back at the tavern and then at the girl in white in front of him.

He thought thoughtfully: "Sha Jin, no wonder you can't bear to leave!"

Sha Jin was too lazy to talk to this guy: "Don't look familiar to me. Don't expose me. I'm just an ordinary lighthouse keeper. I don't know someone as majestic as you."

Mustache accompanied Sha Jin and saw many people greeting Sha Jin along the way. Sha Jin sometimes helped these people repair simple things.

The small ones have lights and trailers, and the large ones even have windmills and dock rails.

After watching Sha Jin busy repairing a small gas lamp for a long time and finally lighting it, Sha Jin wiped his oily hands on his clothes and wiped the lamp clean at the same time.

An old woman held a gas lantern and kept patting Sha Jin's strong arms. She opened her mouth with only a few teeth and praised Sha Jin. She also took out money to give Sha Jin.

Sha Jin kept waving his hand and did not accept it in the end.

He told the pharmacy clerk about the secrets he had heard about how witch doctors refined witch medicine, and then accepted the clerk's admiring gaze, and then repeatedly told the clerk not to tell others.

Mustache looked at Sha Jin who was busy all the time.

Although he was a little tired and confused about life, it could be seen that Sha Jin enjoyed it.

After all the busy work, I finally bought the parts for repair.

Reef No. 7.

On the lighthouse.

Sha Jin was inspecting the parts inside the lighthouse. He held a wrench and stuck his head out, covered in oil, to take a breath outside.

On the top of the tower outside, his old friend was sitting on it, chatting leisurely with him.

When there were only two of them, Sha Jin couldn't help but talk to the other party about his plan, as well as the preparations and secrets of the mission.

These things could not be said originally. Everyone's tasks and missions were kept confidential, but now that the door has been opened, it seems that they cannot abide by it so strictly.

"That's the legendary adventurer!"

"The Platinum and Breman opened up the Northern Sea Route, discovered the Primitive Ocean, and once passed through the Black Storm to reach the end of the world."

"Can you imagine?"

"Can you imagine what it will be like at the end of the world?"

"No, you must not think of it."

"You haven't seen the horror of the black storm, so you don't know the greatness of the adventurers who can cross there, and you can't imagine the significance of reaching the end of the world."

When Sha Jin talked about this, he became chatty and extremely talkative.

He kept talking about the greatness of the Platinum and the deeds they had done.

It sounds like he is an adventurer, but in fact he has never been on any adventure. He is just a person who guards the lighthouse and guides the ships heading to the primitive ocean for fishing and adventure.

People may know the tower, but not him.

Mustache looked at Sha Jin and asked: "Breman, have you been looking for him all this time?"

Sha Jin nodded and looked at the primitive ocean in the north.

"If he is really an apostle, he shouldn't die so easily!"

"If I can find him, I will definitely know what is in the black storm."

When he said this, Sha Jin's expression changed slightly.

He said.

"I can just..."

"After I have completed the mission given to me by God and the oath I made in front of the statue, I can leave here with peace of mind."

Mustache couldn't help but said: "You guys were killed by things like mission and oath."

"No matter what his oaths and missions are, they are not as important as being happy."

Sha Jin looked at Mustache with some annoyance, just like he did when he was a boy in the academy.

"Oaths are sacred things. If the oaths we make can be broken at will, what is the meaning of our existence?"

Mustache: "The meaning of our existence is to live happily."

There is no way to convince others about your outlook on life.

Mustache no longer argued with Sha Jin about this. Both of them had grown up, and sometimes there was no need to argue for the same result and answer to the end as before.

He leaned lazily on the top of the tower and looked at the end of the sea.

"However, I am very curious about what is in the Black Storm you mentioned."

"Tell me, who is the Supreme God?"

"The legendary master of life, the master of dreams, and the creator?"

"Are they really there?"

Sha Jin: “Isn’t the Creator the Lord of Life?”

Mustache did not answer, but asked a question.

"If the Lord of life is the Creator, the being who created everything."

"Then, who created the Dream Master who is also the Master?"

"It is said in the Holy Scriptures that the Lord of Dreams is as great an existence as the Lord of Life, and is the same supreme god of the same personality."

It was a very simple question that seemed to stupefy Sha Jin.

Sha Jin asked: "Who is the Creator?"

The old friend seemed to know something: "Then you can only ask the most ancient ones, maybe only they can know."

Suddenly, Mustache stood up and looked at Sha Jin with a smile.

He said: "I will find it for you!"

Sha Jin: "Huh?"

The old friend said: "I will go find Captain Breman of the Platinum for you and ask how to enter the end of the world."

Sha Jin waved his hands repeatedly: "No need, you also have your own responsibilities and tasks."

Sha Jin is a person who doesn't like to trouble others, but Old Friend is a person who is difficult to refuse.

"But if you can't go in and take a look, you won't be willing to accept it!"

"I've been here for so many years and done so much."

"You want an answer no matter what, don't you?"

My old friend sighed.

"Sha Jin, you have been such a stubborn guy since you were a child."

"The things and principles we believe in will never change no matter what."

Sha Jin: "Isn't this bad?"

Old friend: "People who are not adaptable, who cannot cunningly use rules and principles to serve themselves, will easily suffer."

"Because what you believe is right and right is belief and truth in your eyes, but in the eyes of others, it is just a tool for profit."

"They use rules and principles to make you pay and sacrifice, and then they use rules and principles to reasonably take away everything you get after giving and sacrificing."

"No one remembers you."

"Others only remember them."

Sha Jin: "As long as you accomplish what you want to accomplish, forget about suffering some losses."

The old friend said helplessly: "Those people will take advantage of your idea, assign all the hard work to people like you, and then sit back and enjoy the benefits."

Sha Jin said: "Someone has to do these things!"

The old friend spread his hands and said, "Listen, this is how hard work falls on people like you."

Sha Jin stopped talking.

He didn't like these words, let alone the cruel reality in them, but he had no way to refute them.

Sha Jin's old friend is a person who thinks of something and will do it immediately.

After just a few words, the two of them were definitely about to break up.

The day of departure.

He stood on the boat and said goodbye to Sha Jin. As the boat sailed farther and farther, he looked at the snow-capped mountains and farmland in the town under the sun.

Looking at the lighthouse, there is also the sand gold that has turned into a black spot.

“What a peaceful place!”

He couldn't help but say: "My old friend, I really envy you."

——

The sun falls into the desert.

The city of magic tools.

The Yiren young man saw a snake man wearing a sacred robe in a small prayer hall.

The young man wore a cloak, and inside he had leather armor engraved with ritual magic arrays and runes. He also had a sword in his hand, and a repeating crossbow inlaid with magic crystals around his waist.

After the young man prayed, the snake man gave him a photo bead.

"Hands of Pain."

"Go represent the gods and kill this traitor."

After reading this, the young man looked up and asked: "What did he do and why did you kill him?"

The snake man said, "You don't need to know why, and you can't ask."

"God and the temple have given you everything. They have given you the way to advance and the qualifications to stay in the temple. They have given you strength and your current status as the Hand of Pain."

"What is required is that you unconditionally obey the will of God and the temple, and eradicate God's enemies and those who betray God."

"Instead of asking... why."

The young man slowly lowered his hand holding the beads: "I understand."

After the young man turned around, the other party still said to him.

"He gave up his responsibilities and mission because he was greedy for life and fearful of death. This is absolutely unacceptable."

"If everyone is like him, when will our great plan be completed."

The young man stood with his back for a long time, and then he said, "I understand."

I understand what he said. It is somewhat similar to what Zeng Shajin said, and he said it with extra force.

Inside the bead held by the young man, a person's face rotates like a magic mirror, stretching, twisting, and changing.

If you look carefully at the person above, you can see that he has a neatly trimmed mustache.

Iceberg Island.

Sha Jin is still in a hurry as usual, repairing the lighthouse on the reef and traveling to and from the sea every day. He goes to the city every few days and is as busy even on holidays.

But compared to before, he had a little more hope.

Sometimes he would think about what his old friend said to him, saying that he would help him find Briman. The other party didn't say much and only said one sentence before leaving.

But he kept it in mind.

However, even though he was looking forward to it in his heart, he always said the opposite: "I should just talk about it!"

Or say: "How can it be so easy to find!"

On this day, the clerk of the pharmacy in the city brought a man to the lighthouse and shouted Sha Jin's name from below.

Sha Jin walked out of the warehouse behind the lighthouse and looked at the two of them.

He looked first at the girl, then at the other person.

From that tall and strong silhouette, he seemed to see the shadow of his past, and his face once again showed an expression of disbelief and excitement: "The third child?"

The other party also smiled: "Brother Sha Jin."

The girl in white looked at Sha Jin and said, "He said he knew you, so I brought him here."

Sha Jin immediately said: "This is a kid from my hometown. Later he said he was going to join the army. Unexpectedly, he came to see me."

He looked at the other person's special attire and the things he was carrying. Others might not be able to tell, but he could tell that they were all props.

The girl in white brought the man and left, while Sha Jin took the young man to the warehouse.

While he was busy, he chatted happily with each other.

"I heard from the second brother that you stayed in the temple and are now an important figure in the temple."

The young man shook his head: "He is not an important person, but he did stay in the temple."

Sha Jin was happy for the other party: "That's good, he's better than us."

The young man didn't say much about his current situation. He changed the topic to the other side: "Second brother, he has been here before."

Sha Jin nodded: "He's here, but he's already gone."

The young man asked again: "Did he say where he was going again?"

Sha Jin shook his head without thinking too much: "He didn't say that. He just said that he would come over to see me when he had time."

Sha Jin looked at the young man and asked with a smile: "Third brother, what are you doing here?"

When the young man heard that the man was not there, he sat down relaxedly and sat on a tree stump used for cutting firewood: "I also have a mission to pass by here, and I stopped by to see you."

Sha Jin nodded happily: "Okay, we haven't seen each other for so many years, let's have a good chat together."

He smiled and said: "I didn't expect that you two would come to see me one after the other. This really makes me happy."

The young man is somewhat taciturn, or rather not good at words.

After a while, he asked again: "How long will you stay?"

The young man said: "I haven't made any plans yet, but there's no rush."

at dusk.

Sha Jin went to inspect the lighthouse again and flew busily to the sea in the drizzle.

But the Yiren young man came to the dock alone and handed a letter to a person who got off the boat.

"The target was not found, but the target may come back," he said.

The other party asked: "Is there something wrong with Sha Jin?"

When the young man heard the other party's question, he looked at the other party intently.

"He is God's most loyal believer and servant. He has been guarding this bitter cold place for ten years for a mission. You have no right to doubt him."

——

A place of light.

An orchestra was playing in an auditorium in a city, and many musicians on the stage were playing various pieces of music, which came together to form a grand chapter.

The name of the music is "Free Choice".

The name should be about praising freedom, it should be as cheerful and unrestrained as the wind, but I don’t know why, apart from the joy and unrestrainedness at the beginning of the performance, it gives people an unspeakable sadness and despair.

First, everyone closes their eyes together.

I felt as if I was riding on a ship, seeing the legendary land of hope and the bright kingdom of heaven on the sea.

I saw the golden light falling from the sky, and all the beauty was in it.

But as the performance continued, the people present seemed to feel that they were being bound and imprisoned in a cage. The kingdom of heaven seemed to have become a bondage, and the eternal beauty turned into despair.

Everyone wanted to struggle out of the cage, but they couldn't wait no matter how hard they waited. They seemed to feel that their hearts were dying along with them, and they were crying out in despair.

After a long wait, I finally saw the light.

at last.

In the peaceful ensemble melody, everyone seemed to see a ship sailing into the distance, heading home.

"Pah pah pah pah~"

At the end of the performance, everyone stood up and applauded enthusiastically.

And above the seats, Sha Jin's old friend happened to be there.

After the curtain call of this grand concert group, the mustache stopped a wingman who came out from behind the stage.

"Hello, Captain Breman of the Platinum, the master who painted "The Lost Kingdom"!"

"Or I can also call you, Briman the Ancient."

Briman looked at the other person: "How do you know me?"

"There are so many people named Briman, how can you be sure that I am the one?"

Mustache: "Because there are so many people named Briman, there will be legends in every generation."

"That's why it's not normal!"

"Besides, Briman doesn't seem like a name that a winged person would choose. What kind of person would be so persistent in giving himself this name?"

"There must be a reason for this!"

Mustache looked at Briman: "Only the most ancient one in the legend, the immortal, would do this!"

"It's just that I didn't expect you to become a winged man this time."

He spent a lot of effort and finally found a clue inadvertently.

He has completed many difficult tasks. This time it was not a task, but he completed it more seriously than all previous tasks.

Briman didn't deny it, he admitted it.

He shook his head: "What does appearance matter? What matters is the heart we have."

"The heart remains unchanged, no matter how the appearance changes, it doesn't matter."

"If the heart is rotten, even if the body is still young, it will be like a tree that has been eaten away."

He said: "I just wanted to be closer to the primitive ocean, so I came here this time."

Mustache didn’t quite understand.

Briman didn't say anything more. He took a few steps forward and waved.

"If anything happens, let's talk about it at my place!"

Briman came to his current residence with a mustache. He changed a set of clothes. When he came to the living room, the mustache was already standing under a painting in the living room.

What was painted in the painting was a ship with many people on it.

The captain with a pipe in his mouth, the somewhat dull first mate, the short second mate, the beautiful ship's doctor and so on.

Everyone looked at the light at the end of the sky with longing eyes.

It's just that the light is very strange, like a belt traveling between the stars.

There seemed to be something under the light, but I couldn't see it clearly.

The light and shadow effect of this painting, as well as the skill and artistic conception expressed are unimaginable, even surpassing the legendary "Lost Kingdom".

Mustache seemed to know the ship: "Platinum."

He turned to Briman and asked: "What did you and your crew see in the black storm, at the end of the world?"

Briman: "You want to know?"

"I'm curious," he said.

Briman: "If you're just curious, I won't tell you."

Mustache said: "I have a close friend who is guarding the iceberg island you once arrived. He has to stay there because of a mission. I hope to find the answer for him."

Briman: "What kind of best friend?"

Mustache said: "No matter when, no matter how long it takes, he is my best friend and my brother."

Briman looked at the painting and looked at the figures on the boat.

He said a little lonely after listening to what Mustache said.

"I also had a lot of friends who were my crewmates and my brothers and sisters."

"We chose to start a great adventure, but we couldn't choose to end it."

"but."

"No matter how long it takes, no matter what time it is, they are still my crew members and my brothers and sisters."

"People like this are worth cherishing because we can never have them again."

Finally, he turned his head.

Briman finally told Mustache some of what had happened.

"A long time ago, the Master of Life created an artifact."

"That's a glass jar for the tenth god of Luhe to hold."

Mustache was stunned by these opening words: "What kind of glass jar needs a god of Ruhe to hold it?"

Briman stared at Mustache's young face and eyes: "Because there is a world in that glass jar."

"That artifact can speed up the time in that world, and can also give those who enter the world the power of near immortality."

Mustache opened his mouth wide and he couldn't understand it at all and couldn't imagine it.

"God put a world into a glass jar?"

Briman: "Don't speculate on the power of the supreme gods. Their greatness and power are beyond our imagination and beyond our imagination."

He turned around and sat on the bench, letting Mustache sit down as well.

He gently picked up a pipe and lit it with a candle.

Then in the smoke, the story of the past was told.

"That was our last adventure and our longest, sailing to the end of the world."

"We passed through the primeval ocean and through the black storm."

"There, we saw the Void Mother and the world in the glass jar."

Mustache: "Then what?"

Briman knocked on his pipe and turned his head to look at Mustache.

"We entered that world inside the vat."

"Then."

He smiled, but Mustache didn't know how to describe that smile, he just felt terrible.

It's not because Briman is scary, but because the years and loneliness revealed behind that smile are scary.

"Been in there for over a million years."

"Actually, I don't know how long it is, maybe close to two million years."

Mustache stood up immediately: "More than a million years?"

Briman lay on his chair and nodded.

He took a drag on his cigarette and said, "Do you know what a person's life will become if he spends a million years abruptly?"

Mustache shook his head. He only felt that this unit was scary, so scary that it made people feel cold to the bones.

Briman said.

"The human heart is like water in a lake, it will be exhausted."

"Unless you have some persistence that is so strong that it cannot be eradicated by time, then you will turn into a river, constantly generating new power to support your heart."

"However, most people's persistence cannot survive the years."

"Their love can last for a few years or ten years and then disappear in life."

"Their hatred can last for decades, even hundreds of years, and eventually it will be scattered in the dust."

"But whether it's decades or centuries, that's all."

"It's nothing compared to a million years, and the difference between a million years and billions of years is even more indescribable."

"Most people say they will love someone forever, but that's because they don't know the meaning of eternity."

Mustache stood there, motionless.

He couldn't imagine what the man in front of him had gone through, how long he had lived, and what kind of life he had experienced.

For the first time, he felt that the gap between himself and another life was not in strength, but in other things.

He looked at Briman and said with a vibrating voice.

"Is this... a divine species?"

He then asked: "What happened next? How did you get out?"

Breman: "The Lord God opened the glass jar to create new species, and when species were born, we came out."

Mustache looked at the painting: "Did the people in that painting come out too?"

"They...are still alive?"

Briman said, looking at the painting as well.

"No."

"They're dead."

Mustache: "How did they die?"

Briman: "While they were in the glass jar, they were already dead. Their hearts had been eaten away."

"All I can do is take them home with me."

"That was their last obsession."

When he said this, Briman, who was always able to remain calm and graceful, showed an expression that he had never seen before.

There was bitterness at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were extremely sad.

"do you know?"

"That tree..."

He swallowed, as if he didn't know what to say.

After a while, he continued.

"A tree stronger than steel!"

"The moment it reached the shore, it withered away in an instant and rotted to the point where nothing was left."

He choked with sobs, unable to maintain his emotions, as if he had lost the most precious thing in his life.

"The fallen leaves all over the sky are floating in the air, drifting towards where we came from."

"Floating towards."

"The place where we set out more than a million years ago."

Mustache looked at Briman, he didn't understand.

“Isn’t it good to live forever?”

Briman turned to look at Mustache and told him seriously.

“What matters is freedom of choice, not immortality.”

"I can choose to embark on this path of eternal life, or I can choose to abandon it and choose another path."

“Just as the Creator gave us.”

"Eternal life that cannot be chosen, and life that cannot die, are the most terrible curses in the world."

At this time, Mustache finally understood the meaning of that performance, and what the music called "Free Choice" actually represented.

Mustache: "Why do gods live forever?"

Briman shook his head: "You did it backwards."

"Gods do not become gods because of their eternal life, but because they need eternal life, eternal life becomes their possession."

"Eternal life is just an incidental thing for gods."

"They have indelible persistence, so they have eternal life, because their ideals and obsessions need the power of eternal life to support them."

It was the first time that Mustache heard such a statement, and he thought about it for a long time.

Then he asked one last question.

"So, you didn't see the Supreme God in the end."

"Is it true that only gods can see the Supreme God?"

Briman shook his head and told Mustache.

"Whether you are a myth or a mortal, it is the same to them."

"The so-called power and authority are completely meaningless to them."

He said.

"Only when you are burdened with destiny will you see the supreme gods. Otherwise, even in myths, you will not be able to see their shadows."

Mustache probably understood.

He stood up, thanked Briman solemnly, then turned and left.

After Mustache left, Briman still raised his head and looked at the painting, which was painted by himself.

Under the candlelight, he smoked quietly.

He no longer has the pride and heroic spirit of the past, and perhaps he will never be able to become a captain again.

Because there is no more crew member in the world who can board his ship.