289 The Future He Chooses (3)

At the very least, they didn’t have to continue eating corpses.

William looked at Floral and asked, “Tell me, have the two ancient gods, the Matriarch and the Father of the Wilderness, awoken since I disappeared?”

Floral nodded and replied, “Here’s the thing. The Oak Council tried to awaken the Matriarch shortly after you vanished. They hoped that by resigning the original contract, they could bring the Matriarch’s will back to life. Mr. Nehe was tasked with this mission, and he almost succeeded, but during the ritual, he discovered that the history of another timeline had been tampered with and interrupted the ritual. This information was left behind along with Mr. Nehe’s legacy.”

“In other words, this information was left behind along with Nehe’s legacy?”

“That’s right.”

Floral’s expression was calm.

“Wh What?”

Ebony turned his head stiffly and looked at William with an ashen face. He pleaded,

“But, weren’t you the one who banished the Lady of Starvation to the Moon Realm and fought her incarnation alone, rejecting the help of the Matriarch and the Father of the Wilderness?”

William looked lost in thought for a moment.

The history Ebony had mentioned was partially correct.

The fight against the BOSS, transformed by the Lady of Starvation in Currere, was no ordinary battle. This BOSS had a sinister mechanism that blended seamlessly with the game’s plot. Every time the players engaged in combat, the Lady of Starvation would cast a spell that drained their HP and mana, lowering their maximum limit. If the players failed to defeat the BOSS within a specified time, their HP and mana bars would quickly plummet to a dangerous level.

The two ancient gods, the Father of the Wild and the Matriarch, had come to the player’s aid, granting them the power to remove these statuses.

William remembered that clearing this level would award players with an achievement called “Sweeper.” Only a mere 3% of players had earned it in the past.

William himself had first cleared the game’s difficult mode without the blessings, but in the end, he chose to continue the game with a normal difficulty save for a more immersive experience.

After all, sacrifice and regret were also part of the game’s theme.

However, if what Floral said was true, this seemed to make sense

Had his choice to solo the BOSS actually been used by the Lady of Starvation to create the timeline where Ebony existed?

He shook his head and met Ebony’s gaze.

The other party looked to him with a desperate hope, as if he held the key to their salvation.

“The records passed down from generation to generation state that you rejected the help of the Matriarch and the Father of the Wilderness, is that true?”

Ebony asked, hoping against hope that William could prove Floral’s claims to be false.

“Yes, I did reject Their help and defeated the Lady of Starvation’s Void Incarnation alone” William said slowly.

But before Ebony could let out a sigh of relief, William continued, “But I also accepted Their help and defeated the Lady of Starvation’s Void Incarnation alone.”

Looking at Ebony’s stiff expression, William said solemnly, “In the end, I chose this future and made it my present past.”