I Have a God Simulator

Layers of mist enveloped everything. There was no sky or ground, no oceans or mountains. It was impossible to know when it would rain, or if a clear sky would ever arrive.

This was the world as Cancong saw it.

Its unnecessary parts had been excised, leaving it unable to perceive the world’s contours. Everything was a hazy, indistinct fog.

At first, it would still try to guess—perhaps that clump of mist was a person, or that swirl of clouds was a rock or a tree. In the end, even this kind of imagination was cut away by generations of Cancong.

’Anything besides my mission objective is superfluous. I don’t need to see it, and I shouldn’t think about it.’

It was the sentinel from Dragon Residence, assigned to guard the Nine-Grain Pillar.

Its job was to monitor the stability of the Nine-Grain Pillar’s passages and ensure only Pioneers could enter or exit. That was all.

The only things Cancong could see clearly were the Nine-Grain Pillar and the Pioneers.

The massive and intricate Totem of the Nine-Grain Pillar was carved onto a special stone platform, casting nine shadows that shot straight to the Skyline.

At the end of each shadow was a black miasma shaped like a Sun, where nine Golden Crows stood guard. Behind them were nine different passages.

That was a place only Pioneers could tread.

Cancong had seen members of the Dragon Race soar out from the Sun’s shadow, stretching their bodies in a new world. It had also witnessed human Pioneers stepping through the gateway to a foreign land, never to return.

The more it saw, the more its mind tended to wander.

To better guard the Nine-Grain Pillar, Cancong excised all its unnecessary thoughts—the Pioneers it had seen, the rumors it had heard, the events it had witnessed, its interactions with different groups, the changes in the land, the shifting of the stars... It carved all these from its body and fashioned them into vessels for storing memories.

It named these vessels Memory Bodies.

Cancong preserved them carefully, waiting for the day it would be relieved of its duties to fuse them all back into its body.

However, the sudden explosion of the Nine-Grain Pillar changed everything.

The other two Pillar Congs disappeared.

Cancong could feel that the explosion had utterly annihilated them.

Even the highly resilient Pillar Congs did not survive the abrupt explosion.

Cancong, however, had been splitting off and creating a new body for its Rebirth, and thus escaped the disaster.

But its past—the Memory Bodies buried nearby that recorded generations of Cancong—was also erased in the cataclysm, leaving behind nothing but strange drawings of little people on the ground. They were no longer Memory Bodies, merely a few laughable and crude traces.

Cancong guarded the ruins, waiting quietly.

’Dragon Residence must have noticed the anomaly. The Dragon Race Pioneers will surely repair it. It won’t be long before a new Nine-Grain Pillar appears.’

But neither the Nine-Grain Pillar nor the Dragons ever appeared again.

Cancong waited for a long time, until a Divine Being arrived. He was a boy, his silhouette clearer than that of an ordinary person, and he looked short and small.

The boy squatted on the ground, hugging his knees as he spoke to it. "I heard you can’t go home using the Divine Tree anymore. Is that right?"

Cancong did not answer.

’A sentinel cannot converse with loiterers.’

The boy wasn’t annoyed. He lingered around Cancong, telling it about all sorts of interesting anecdotes and major events he had seen.

He said that the Dragons in this world had suddenly grown very weak. They were dying off quickly; some Dragons would even crash into mountains mid-flight, causing the peaks to collapse and triggering great floods.

He also mentioned that the adults were all talking about how Dragon Residence might have encountered some devastating catastrophe, causing the Divine Tree to crumble as well.

The boy drew a little figure resembling Cancong with a piece of charcoal and said, "This is me. With me here, you won’t be so lonely. To be honest, I can’t go home either."

He muttered to himself, "I’m from another world on the Divine Tree. Our world is very small and very warm. It has lots of interesting insects. I love playing with insects, but it’s too cold here."

"Without the Divine Tree, I can’t go back either."

The boy squatted on the ground, drawing insects one by one with his dirty hands. "In the future," he said, "I’ll build a Divine Tree, and then we can all go home."

Cancong retorted, "That’s impossible. Only the powerful Pioneers of Dragon Residence know how to build the Nine-Grain Pillar."

"How will we know if we don’t try?" The boy had an almost naive stubbornness.

"It can’t be done."

Cancong gave a simple response, then asked, "Your father is a Pioneer. Can you ask him what happened?"

"Him? He went back to his homeland. The Divine Tree is destroyed, so he can’t cross over." The boy shook his head.

Only then did Cancong understand.

’So this child shares my fate.’

"I’m going to build a new Divine Tree!" the boy declared, standing up.

He flashed a cheerful smile and spread his arms wide.

Butterflies, bees, and many other flying insects swirled around him as if paying homage to their King.

"I’ll make it so everyone can go home! Everyone will be so happy then, right?"

"What’s your name?" Cancong asked.

"I don’t have a name."

The boy said, "In my homeland, you don’t get a name until you’re an adult. I think your name is nice. Can I use your name?"

"Until I think of a name for myself, can I use yours?"

Cancong agreed.

Not long after, the boy found a type of white insect that could spin fine silk. He named it Can. For this insect was just like Cancong: it could transform, it could envelop the past, and it could be reborn from solidified days of old.

Soon, the Era changed.

Cancong was bound by Rule Power and fell into Stagnation.

In its memory, the other Cancong would forever be that boy surrounded by countless insects.

「When it recovered, several thousand years had passed.」

Cancong did not excise the memory of this namesake.

’He was another Cancong, another self.’

Now, this was all it had left.

After many Era Updates, the world had changed tremendously. It was as if the Pioneers had all vanished.

Cancong finally managed to find a Pioneer, only to be nearly imprisoned by them with an Artifact. The Pioneers of this world had become exceptionally anxious and frantic, making them extremely dangerous.

It escaped from them.

In a museum, Cancong saw the Shang Bronze Divine Tree, a replica of the Nine-Grain Pillar.

It was almost certain that this was the handiwork of the other Cancong.

The Bronze Divine Tree looked almost identical to the drawing Cancong had first made for the boy, including the Golden Crows guarding the branches, the Dragon Race coiled at the base, and the three loyal Pillar Congs protecting it from below.

Unfortunately, it could never replace the Nine-Grain Pillar.

Suddenly, Cancong felt it was being watched.

It fled and hid, and with the help of two friendly Divine Beings, it learned about the current state of the world. It thanked them for their help and then continued its search for a suitable Pioneer.

Finally, it found Luh Yao.

At the same time, it was also targeted by another Pioneer. That person dispatched the Apostle Xing Bird, which pursued it relentlessly, forcing it to remain in hiding.

To pinpoint Cancong’s location, Xing Bird even descended a dimension, attempting to capture it alive.

Cancong had to shed most of its body to escape.

But even so, it was on its last breath.

It only had seven days of life left.

The 65th generation of Cancong was about to die, and the 66th would be born anew.

In its final moments, Cancong wanted to store its last memory—everything about the boy—in a safe and stable place.

The only one it could trust was the Pioneer it had only recently met, Luh Yao.

After hearing Cancong’s request, he readily agreed.

"If the next generation of Cancong meets me, I’ll have it come and read this memory."

"Thank you. Thank you so much. The memory is in the mark on your arm."

Cancong was filled with gratitude.

In Luh Yao, it saw a shadow of the boy Cancong from the past. He possessed the same calm and focused demeanor of the classic Pioneers; even if his place to Sail from was crude, he still found joy in it.

To show its gratitude, Cancong said, "If there’s anything you need my help with, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will tell you everything I know."

"I only have seven days of life left and I’m heavily injured, so it’s difficult for me to move. Please forgive me for only being able to speak with you like this."

On the other end, Luh Yao said through the mark, "Then you should get some rest."

He suddenly thought of something. "Right, does Dragon Residence have a lot of Dragons?"

"Yes, Dragon Residence is the largest settlement of the Dragon Race in the World-Dimension Space. Many brilliant Dragon Race civilizations were established there. It is a vast and wondrous multi-layered world."

"In that case, what’s the best way to teach a young Dragon?"

Luh Yao said, "It’s like this: I have a young Dragon, but its self-study results aren’t great. Its Dragon Language Magic is still very crude... Is there any way to help it improve its learning abilities faster and better?"

Cancong suspected it had misheard.

"You said... you have a Dragon?"

"That’s right."

"A real Dragon? The kind from the Dragon Race, not a Sub-Dragon, Dragon Descendant, or a Dragon Species?"

"A Dark Sun Dragon. Does that count as a pure-blooded Dragon Race member?"

"It does!"

Cancong was instantly energized, its previous despair vanishing completely.

"Are you still at your place of Sailing? I’m coming to find you right now!"

"Huh? But didn’t you say it was hard for you to move?" the other party asked, confused.

"It’s fine! I’ll crawl my way over if I have to!"

Cancong said excitedly, "The bloodline of the Dragon Race is the greatest memory bank! It preserves a vast amount of important information about Dragon Residence, including its coordinates. We Pillar Congs are life forms created in imitation of the Dragon Race... I’m coming right away! Wait for me!"