[Time: New Era · Divine Selection Day]
[Location: Tianhai City · District 1 · Sky Hook]
[Current Mission: Infiltrate the Clouds]
…
In the early morning after the heavy rain, Tianhai City did not welcome the sunshine.
Because the entire city was shrouded by a gigantic, golden holographic projection.
It was an invitation.
It wasn't made of paper, but composed of countless floating golden pixels, like a golden snow, covering every corner of this steel jungle. Everyone who looked up could clearly read the text with its divine authority on their retinas:
[To the Perfect Human Females:]
[The Heavenly Pivot God will seek his sole companion above the clouds.]
[Those selected will gain eternal life.]
[— The Saintess Selection begins immediately.]
The streets erupted.
Countless genetically modified, perfectly beautiful women rushed frantically towards the Sky Hook in District 1. That was the only passage connecting the ground to the celestial palace in the clouds. Their faces wore fervent smiles, as if it were a staircase to paradise.
Little did they know, it was actually a one-way road to the altar.
…
District 9 · Safe House.
Shen Qingqiu stood in front of a broken full-length mirror.
The woman in the mirror was unlike the cybernetic divas in their flowing dresses.
She had washed off the exaggerated fluorescent makeup and removed the high-tech accessories from her hair.
Now, she was barefaced, her black hair cascading like a waterfall.
She wore… a red wedding dress.
This wedding dress was no ordinary garment.
It was woven by Shen Qingqiu using her **[Truth Manipulation]** ability, extracting the twilight clouds from the horizon (data cloud) and the neon lights from the ground (fiber optics).
Ancient embroidery techniques were perfectly combined with modern optical camouflage.
The hem of the dress was embroidered with faintly visible **spider lilies**, and with her breathing, the petals seemed to slowly bloom, exuding a dangerous and poignant beauty.
"It doesn't look good."
A muffled voice came from behind her.
Seventeen leaned against the wall, arms crossed. He had suppressed his terrifying nuclear energy fluctuations, transforming himself into a seemingly ordinary bodyguard.
He wore a crisp black butler's uniform, white gloves, and his silver hair was tied back.
But in his purple eyes, a jealousy so intense it threatened to overflow was swirling.
"These clothes are too red."
Seventeen stared at Shen Qingqiu in the mirror, his tone as sour as a lemon that had been fermenting for three thousand years.
"You're going to kill someone, not get married."
Shen Qingqiu turned around, her skirt swirling in a graceful arc.
She walked up to Seventeen, extended a finger, and gently hooked his tie.
"Fool."
Shen Qingqiu tiptoed closer to his ear, her breath like orchids.
"This isn't a wedding."
"This is... a ghost marriage."
"I'm going to attend the funeral of that false god, of course I have to dress festively."
Seventeen's Adam's apple bobbed.
He looked at the breathtakingly beautiful woman before him.
He knew she was acting, he knew this was for the purpose of killing a god.
But he still couldn't help but want to hide her away, lock her in his core database, and keep her from everyone else's sight.
"Seventeen, help me draw my eyebrows."
Shen Qingqiu suddenly said.
She handed him an eyebrow pencil made of nano-carbon tubes.
Seventeen was startled.
He took the eyebrow pencil, his fingers slightly stiff.
His hands were the hands of a killer, the hands that wielded knives, the hands that could crush nuclear reactors.
Now, he had to hold this delicate pen and draw the eyebrows of the woman who was about to "seduce" another man.
"Cruel."
Seventeen whispered.
"Qingqiu, you are cruel to me."
But he still reached out and gently lifted her chin.
His movements were incredibly gentle.
Swish, swish.
He held his breath, carefully tracing the lines on her eyebrows, which resembled distant mountains.
Every stroke was possession.
Every stroke was resentment.
Every stroke was... deep love.
"Done."
Seventeen put down the pen. He looked at that perfect face, a flash of violent purple light flickered in his eyes, then was suppressed by profound rationality.
"Go."
Seventeen took a half-step back, bowed, and performed a standard butler's bow.
His voice returned to its metallic coldness, yet it carried an unwavering determination to follow her to the death.
"My Lady."
"Whether that cloud is heaven or hell,"
"As long as you turn around, I will be within three steps behind you."
"The blade is sharpened."
"Ready... at your command."
...
District One, at the foot of the Tower of Babel.
It was a sea of people.
Hundreds of beauties who had passed the preliminary selection gathered at the foot of the tower. Each of them was as beautiful as a meticulously crafted CG image.
Some had implanted cat-ear prosthetics, some had replaced their skin with pearlescent bio-engineered skin, and some had eyes that shimmered with starlight.
It was an exhibition of technological aesthetics.
When Shen Qingqiu appeared,
The noisy crowd fell silent for a moment.
She had no prosthetics, no fluorescent tattoos, no hovering auxiliary robots.
She simply wore that red wedding dress, barefoot (though her soles were actually covered with an invisible force field), walking step by step.
That classical, primitive, pure human beauty seemed so out of place in this world full of plastic and metal.
Yet so... noble.
Like an ink painting hung amidst a pile of LED billboards.
"Who is that?"
"Not modified? My god, is she a primitive?"
"How dare such a defective product participate in the divine selection?"
Whispers of ridicule came from the surroundings.
Shen Qingqiu ignored them.
She slightly raised her chin, her expression cold and arrogant, as if everything in the world was beneath her notice.
Seventeen followed behind her like a ghost, the subtle oppressive feeling making the surrounding crowd instinctively give way.
[Identity scanning...]
[Name: Shen Qingqiu.]
[Modification degree: 0%.]
[Potential for affection: Immeasurable (Error).] At the entrance of the Tower of Babel, the gigantic AI gatekeeper emitted a mechanical broadcast.
A red laser beam scanned Shen Qingqiu's body.
[Warning! Does not meet the "perfect" standard.]
[Recommendation: Elimination.]
"Elimination?"
Shen Qingqiu stopped.
She looked up at the AI gatekeeper, which had only one giant camera lens.
She didn't speak, but simply smiled slightly.
That smile.
Bewitching.
The **[Golden Eyes]** in her eyes flickered.
[Truth Manipulation · Aesthetic Hegemony.]
Buzz—
The red rejection beam suddenly trembled violently.
The AI gatekeeper's processor began to overload.
Because in Shen Qingqiu's data, it read an algorithm it had never seen before—"flawed beauty."
It was a kind of emotional logic that transcended the golden ratio and precise calculations.
Sizzle...
[Re-evaluating...]
[Evaluation result: Special Rare Sample (SSR).]
[Correction: Meets the "God's" aesthetic.]
Ding!
The gate of the Tower of Babel slowly opened amidst astonished gazes.
A golden light ladder extended to Shen Qingqiu's feet.
"Let's go."
Shen Qingqiu lifted her skirt and stepped onto the light ladder.
A faint, almost imperceptible, cold smile played on her lips.
Machines don't understand beauty.
Machines only understand data.
As long as the defined parameters are modified, even a withered flower will be a priceless treasure in their eyes.
...
Above the clouds · Heavenly Palace.
As the light ladder ascended, passing through the thick layers of acid rain clouds,
The scene before her suddenly opened up.
There was no night here, only eternal, sacred daylight.
The gigantic floating city was constructed of pure white marble and transparent crystals, shrouded in clouds and mist, with cranes (mechanical bionic birds) flying around.
Unrealistically beautiful.
Breathtakingly beautiful.
At the end of the great hall,
On a throne suspended in the void,
Sat a figure.
He wore a spotless white robe, his silver hair cascading to the ground. His face was incomparably handsome, his eyes slightly closed, and he was toying with a crystal-clear polyhedron in his hand (that was the core algorithm of the world).
Tian Shu · Bai Ze.
The moment Shen Qingqiu stepped into the great hall,
The god on the throne slowly opened his eyes.
What kind of eyes were they?
Silver pupils, without irises, only countless flowing data streams.
Cold, rational, omniscient and omnipotent.
Like a mirror, reflecting all the greed and ugliness of this world.
It was Seventeen's face.
But not Seventeen's soul.
Shen Qingqiu's heart suddenly constricted.
Even with all the mental preparation she had done, the moment she saw this face, she still felt an indescribable pain.
Because this was not just an enemy.
This was another Seventeen, stripped of love and hate, leaving only cold logic.
[You have come.]
Bai Ze's voice echoed in the great hall.
Without inflection, without emotion.
All the beautiful women knelt on the ground, trembling.
Only Shen Qingqiu remained standing.
She looked at the god high above.
The light in her eyes flickered; it was an Oscar-winning performance.
Three parts fear, three parts curiosity, and four parts... the confusion of longing for salvation.
"I have come."
Shen Qingqiu spoke softly, her voice like shattered jade falling to the ground.
Bai Ze's gaze locked onto her.
[You are very special.]
[Your data is full of contradictions. Fragile yet resilient, clear-headed yet chaotic.]
[What... do you want?]
Shen Qingqiu took a step forward.
The red wedding dress in the pristine white hall was like a burning fire.
She didn't ask for eternal life, nor did she ask for power.
She simply raised her head, her eyes, glistening with tears, looking directly into the god's eyes.
"I heard that God loves the world."
Shen Qingqiu's voice trembled slightly, with a desperate determination.
"I don't want the world."
"I just want to ask God..."
"Will you... love?"
The entire hall fell silent.
Everyone looked at this madwoman in horror.
How dare she question a god? However.
Bai Ze, seated on the throne, his data-filled eyes that had never shown any emotion, suddenly displayed a minuscule… glitch.
[Love?]
Bai Ze repeated the word.
It was a term defined in his database as a "low-level hormonal response."
But at this moment, looking at the woman in fiery red before him,
His core logic unexpectedly displayed an unknown prompt:
[Warning: Unknown variable detected.]
[Suggestion: In-depth observation required.]
Bai Ze slowly raised his hand.
A golden invitation, representing the qualification of a "Saintess," flew from his hand.
It didn't fly towards the perfectly modified humans kneeling on the ground.
Instead, it gently floated into Shen Qingqiu's palm.
[Come up.]
[Let me see… your love.]
Shen Qingqiu grasped the scorching invitation.
She lowered her head, concealing the cold, triumphant glint in her eyes.
"As you command, my god."
Wearing her wedding dress, she walked step by step towards the throne that represented supreme power.
And in the shadows behind her,
Seventeen, disguised as a butler, slightly lowered his head.
The hand hidden beneath his white glove had already gripped an invisible data blade.
The feast of betrayal has begun.
This first cup of wine,
Is for you… this false god who doesn't understand the human heart.