Groundhog Day

“In the second house on the left, a pair of twin brothers became Twisted and began to gnaw on each other.”

“After the older brother ate the younger one, he regained his sanity due to a 【Miracle of Suffering】. The return of his mind only made him more miserable.”

“In the deepest part of the alley to your right, Ms. Susan hid her young daughter in the basement. When she left, she failed to notice the egg of a Twisted Creature in the basement was about to hatch. Her daughter will be its first meal in this world.”

“Walk forward to Aiguyi's most beautiful garden. You'll arrive just in time to see Grandma Victoria trying to feed the Twisted Creatures with her own flesh and blood to protect her three-year-old grandson. But in a moment, the grandson will twist and transform into a monster covered in feathers right before her eyes.”

The nun sat on a bench in 【Dedication Square】. One after another, she slowly recounted stories of sorrow and despair.

Wu Wang just sat beside her, silent.

Honestly, any normal person living in this town would have already sunk into despair.

“Why not run away?” he finally asked, perplexed. “Why not take the survivors to another city while the mutation has just begun?”

The nun simply shook her head.

“There's no escape. This place is already under His gaze.”

“The moment you walk to the edge of town and take one more step…”

“You will be swarmed by countless Twisted Creatures and torn to shreds.”

“The Twisting on the outskirts is even more severe. The creatures have surrounded this place, savoring the people's fear.”

For a moment, Wu Wang was at a loss for words.

You couldn't run, and you couldn't fight. What were they supposed to do?

He looked up at the blood-red sky as countless low whispers echoed in his mind. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head.

It felt a bit familiar.

This power, so bizarre that it could twist a person and drain their sanity, was very similar to the Abyss God.

But only similar.

Wu Wang was certain that the being who had descended with this power was not the Abyss God. The Red Vertical Pupil on his wrist wasn't reacting at all.

He knew that whenever he had encountered the Abyss God's aura in other Instances, the Red Vertical Pupil had grown so greedy it looked like it wanted to crawl right off his skin.

“It's all right. We have plenty of time,” the nun said, noticing Wu Wang's silence. “You can say whatever is on your mind.”

Wu Wang took the cue and turned to look into her eyes. They were filled with sorrow and despair.

“Then why don't you go and save them?” he asked. “Or rather, why doesn't the Lord of Suffering you speak of help His followers?”

Faced with this question, the nun smiled. It was a smile that looked forced and utterly helpless.

“The Lord doesn't care.”

Those four short words made Wu Wang's heart tremble.

This is bad. The Lord of Suffering this woman speaks of… could he be a real god?

He had initially guessed that this so-called 【Lord of Suffering】 was just some Divine Envoy. After all, the Side Quest required him to have an Audience with the Divine Envoy of Suffering.

As things stood, the most powerful being in town was the nun, the high priestess. The Divine Envoy of Suffering could only be the being she believed in.

The reason that being wasn't saving the town was likely because it truly couldn't defeat the entity that had brought the twisted mutation. After all, if that thing was similar to the Abyss God, it would be far above the level of a Divine Envoy.

But the nun's words left Wu Wang lost.

The Lord doesn't care.

Right. What if the being truly just didn't care?

If that were the case, it wouldn't matter whether it was a god or a Divine Envoy. He would have no way to get his Audience.

“What do you mean, we have plenty of time?” Wu Wang asked, setting aside his confusion. “Didn't you say this place will be completely destroyed in seventy-two hours?”

The nun didn't answer him directly.

“You will know when the Day of Extinction arrives,” she said faintly.

“For now, let's go see the suffering of others.”

With that, she stood up. She placed her hands before her lower abdomen, held her head high, and began to walk with a blank expression. It was as if all her previous sorrow had been a sham. This was her true self, a holy figure unshaken by any emotion.

Wu Wang silently followed.

Everything here was too strange. Perhaps, just as she said, he would only get more information when the Day of Extinction arrived.

Heh, extinction?

I am 【Undying】…

Seventy-two hours could be a long time. It was enough for Wu Wang, under the nun's guidance, to witness the misery of several hundred people in the town.

Physical pain, the lingering consciousness and panic after mutating, despair-driven suicides due to the transformation of friends and family… all kinds of suffering were staged here. And this was just in a few short days.

But seventy-two hours could also be a short time.

When the Day of Extinction arrived, the nun led Wu Wang back to the church. She watched as the last residents of the town gathered in 【Dedication Square】. A trace of pity finally reappeared on her face.

“O great Lord of Suffering, your devout followers offer you their final Suffering.”

“We beseech you to send down a miracle.”

“We do not ask for this place to return to normal, but we pray that the Twisted can never escape from here!”

“If someone must bear all this suffering, then let it be us!”

“O Lord! Our Suffering shall bear witness to our resolve!”

The townspeople began to kneel and pray for a 【Miracle of Suffering】. Then, one after another, they began to self-mutilate.

This time, no one held back. They all tortured themselves with the intent of experiencing the greatest possible suffering before they died. Coupled with everything that had happened over the past three days, the misery in everyone's heart reached its absolute peak.

It was a dual suffering of body and soul.

And yet, the 【Miracle】 they prayed for was to have the Twisted sealed within the town forever, preventing people elsewhere from experiencing this same fate.

It was truly ironic. They were trading their own suffering for the happiness of others.

BOOM!

As the collective suffering of the people began to be exchanged for a miracle, the blood-red sky gradually turned dark crimson.

The remaining houses began to collapse, and the faint starlight dissipated, as if bidding the people one last farewell. The roar of the sea came from the horizon, a tsunami sweeping over the town. A scene like the end of the world began to unfold.

But the people were only concerned with offering their suffering.

Bzzz…

The dim sun hanging in the sky… blinked.

This familiar sight startled Wu Wang. That being was not the Abyss God, but it was definitely related to him! Even their entrances were almost the same!

Amid his shock, the extinction descended. The town's buildings visibly turned to ash. The townspeople struggled and writhed under the Miracle of Suffering. It was all so bizarre.

Suddenly, a blanket of darkness enveloped Wu Wang.

His vision, smell, and hearing vanished. All his senses were stripped away. His entire consciousness felt as if it had fallen into a boundless void.

A moment later, an ethereal, calling voice sounded in his ear.

“Wake up… Wake up…”

Whoosh!

He snapped his eyes open.

The familiar, clingy nun. The familiar, dim church. The familiar scenery of the town.

At that moment, Wu Wang suddenly understood why the nun had said they had plenty of time.

It was now, once again, seventy-two hours… until the Day of Extinction.

They would experience all this suffering again. And Wu Wang and the nun would once again face it all, powerless to do anything.

“This is my ultimate Suffering,” the nun said, forcing a faint smile. “Only when an Outlander appears do I return to the church to open the gates to the Suffering Holy Land for you.”

“Before that, I repeat these seventy-two hours countless times, watching the town be destroyed again and again, until the end of time.”

“And now, you will experience this ultimate suffering with me.”

At these words, Wu Wang's heart skipped a beat.

All the other players must have gone to the Suffering Holy Land she mentioned. That meant she was trapped in this loop with him, unable to leave until the next Outlander appeared.

Holy shit! When the hell will that be?!

Besides, the flow of time in an Instance was different from reality. In a sense, what the nun had said was not wrong.

Until eternity.

Shit! Am I really screwed?!

Wu Wang's expression turned grim. This wasn't the Day of Extinction.

This was Groundhog Day.

“Are you ready to head into town again?” the nun asked. “This time, we can go from the other side and witness the suffering of the townspeople we missed before.”

“Don't worry, we have plenty of time.”

“This won't end until you have come to know every brick and tile of this town and have empathized with every single person's suffering.”

“I believe you will be able to fully comprehend Suffering and become a Son of Suffering.”

After a pained expression flickered across her face, the nun turned and walked out of the church. She was the one who had truly experienced this countless times.

But this time, before Wu Wang followed her, he asked a curious question.

“Aside from believing in Suffering, is it against the law to believe in other things here?”

The nun gave him a questioning look.

Seriously, dude? It's the Day of Extinction! Everything is about to be reduced to nothing, and you're here talking to me about laws?

“Of course not,” she still answered.

Wu Wang nodded thoughtfully. He touched a certain key in his coat pocket. The key had appeared there when he woke up.

If he remembered correctly, this Instance was also by the sea.

Could the power of the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】 bring the Mary here? If it could, then the way to solve this Groundhog Day was simple.

He just had to break a specific part of the loop.

In Wu Wang's view, the anchor point of the town's loop was the extinction itself. What if he could prevent it?

When the Day of Extinction disappears, both the being who descended with the power of the Twisted and the one who received so much sacrifice should notice something is amiss, right?

Doesn't care, huh?!

Then I'll just stir the waters and make them even murkier! I'll drag another being down here who can accept faith!

My friends, believing in one god might not be enough.

Let me bring you more faiths!

The faith of the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】…

I am not a Son of Suffering.

I am a preacher of 【Desire】!

Let me see just how strong your desire is. The desire to survive, the desire to save others, the desire to end all of this!