Daily Disposable Persona - CH 91

“Which evil god did you become?” Yog-Sothoth asked. He was in an excellent mood.

The mighty Lord of Time and Space never feared a challenge, or, to be more precise, nothing had ever challenged him. From the very beginning of his existence he’d been equipped with the ultimate cheat, the ability to see and know everything. There were no questions in the universe Yog-Sothoth couldn’t find or questions the answers to.

But this… was just so interesting.

“Well…” Zong Yan coughed lightly. “I became the Lord of R’lyeh. I don’t know how it happened. I woke up as his half-self.”

Half-self?

The man’s long, golden eyes narrowed slightly. A strange gleam of light flickered inside.

“But I don’t really know what’s going on. I returned to this body after I used a card.”

Zong Yan’s eyes were closed. He was in the dark and there was an inexplicable hand that kept making trouble on his face, but he tried to ignore his feelings of insecurity. “It’s possible that in a few hours the time limit for this persona card will run out, and I’ll go back to that body.”

Although he wasn’t sure why, Zong Yan had a vague hunch that when the Astrologer card’s three-hour time limit passed, his soul would exit this body and return to the Lord of R’lyeh in the distant past.

The knowledge was like a warning bell constantly reminding him: you’re not an ordinary human anymore.

You’re an evil god, an evil god with weak emotions; an evil god who’s evil by nature, one of the lords of R’lyeh.

You should relinquish everything that’s human….

There’d never been an evil god with as many unnecessary feelings as Zong Yan.

“I see.”

The Lord of Time and Space nodded slightly and secretly sent a message to his other avatar, then smiled without saying a word.

Yog-Sothoth hated when other people meddled with his things, even if the other party was his son in terms of kinship.

Evil gods didn’t recognize such relationships with each other, unless it was the Lord of the Universe who wielded absolute power over all other Outer Gods.

The only eternal truth was power.

The space suddenly grew quiet again, returning to its normal state of utter silence.

Yog didn’t think there was anything unnatural about the quiet. The end of time and space was always still and tranquil. There was only the occasional soft sound of one timeline colliding with another.

The probability of a collision was extremely small, but when it happened, there was a possibility that a displacement might occur between the timelines. Many intelligent creatures had been forced to make a fantastic and thrilling journey across time as a result.

It wasn’t especially rare. In the history of Earth, people from the 19th century had suddenly appeared in New York in the 1950s. In addition, an American plane from 1955 once landed in 1990, thirty-five years after its disappearance. The passengers on board thought it was a normal flight. When the plane landed, they met their relatives only to discover that their baby had grown into an adult, and their wife or husband had grown old. There were also cases during WWII when pilots flew missions that mysteriously traversed time and space.

As for why these misadventures were so thrilling, it had to do with Yog-Sothoth’s enemy, the Tindalos clan. Their favorite activity was hunting time travelers and catching them one at a time: crunch crunch R.I.P. Without the slightest intervention from the Lord of Time and Space, the timeline was restored to its previous condition.

The Lord of Time and Space’s fingertips drifted across the corners of the black-haired teen’s mouth. The latter was startled and instinctively took a step back.

The gray-haired evil god’s eyes deepened a few shades, but he didn’t say anything. Instead he withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened.

“What are your plans now?”

Zong Yan felt a little flattered.

The mighty Lord of Time and Space had always been a dictatorial evil god. Whether it was deciding to give Zong Yan a tutorial or moving into the same house, he never asked Zong Yan what he thought.

“Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention something.” While the black-haired teen’s eyes were closed, Yog could easily read Zong Yan’s thoughts from his expression. “When you traveled to prehistoric times, modern time continued to flow. However, the rate at which time flows is not the same.”

Zong Yan’s pupils shrank. “What?! Then my college entrance exam—”

He’d spent months in R’lyeh. Was the college entrance exam already over, like he’d feared???

Zong Yan almost couldn’t catch his breath. His chest heaved violently up and down.

Yog: “Let me see. It seems your winter vacation is about to end.”

The next sentence almost made Zong Yan leap into the air.

“Do you want to return to modern times?”

At first Zong Yan wondered if he was hallucinating. It was true that the evil god in front of him possessed the most beautiful and stylish true body in a crowd of evil gods who all had hideous tentacles, but that didn’t change the fact Yog-Sothoth was an evil god by nature!

How could any evil god be so kind as to do charity? Zong Yan had never seen or heard of such a thing, especially since this was Yog-Sothoth, the evil god who once pressed down his head and forced him to learn physics.

“… At what price?”

The temptation was so heavy that Zong Yan pressed his lips together and began to consider what he might have to give up to please the all-knowing and all-seeing Lord, so as not to miss his scheduled college entrance exam.

He wasn’t a child anymore, and evil gods had no conception of mercy. As long as the request didn’t touch his bottom line, Zong Yan told himself, he’d ruthlessly agree to anything.

… Even if the other party took advantage of a difficult situation and made him join his cult. Zong Yan would put up with it for the sake of the college entrance exam. In order to succeed a grown man sometimes had to swallow his humiliation and shoulder a heavy burden. It might be a little awkward for a cultist of Yog-Sothoth to be the chief of MU, but who hadn’t done a little betraying or informing before?

The gray-haired evil god hooked the corner of his mouth. “There’s no price.”

No price?

Zong Yan thought he’d heard wrong. “No price? What do you mean?”

He instinctively opened his eyes, only to be forced to close them again by the millions upon millions of brilliantly glowing lights. Tears automatically streamed from his eyes, meandering down his cheeks.

“If you wish it, the Lord of Time and Space will not deny any of your requests.”

The evil god’s cold fingers touched the corners of his eyes. Slowly, almost compassionately, he traced the tail of Zong Yan’s eyes, sliding from the hollow beneath his eyebrow down to his eyelids, wiping away the tears that had escaped, as if he were playing with a work of art.

Zong Yan could hardly believe it, but when he thought about it he decided that those who were barefoot had nothing to fear from people who wear shoes. If Yog was really up to something, there was no reason for him to say a bunch of nonsense here. After deciding this, Zong Yan felt more at ease.

“O! Almighty Lord of Time and Space, thank you for your amazing generosity and compassion. Your radiance illuminates the Earth like the sun, bringing solace and warmth to my long dried-up and desperate heart.” Zong Yan delivered a few insipid, cultist-inspired lines, then asked apprehensively, “What do I need to do?”

Yog gave an inscrutable smile. “You’ll know when the time comes.”

—

Time passed quickly. After half an hour, Zong Yan felt a familiar pulling sensation in his body.

“I’m leaving now,” he finally said.

He couldn’t have said why, but his mood was a bit complicated.

He’d given himself a lot of mental training and reinforcement to accept his new identity as an evil god.

After all, what reason did he have to be dissatisfied? When other people died, they were really dead. At least he got to continue on with a new identity.

Shouldn’t that be enough? It was like reincarnating without drinking Meng Po soup—it was good just to be alive.

But it was still a little sad. An evil god might be incredibly powerful, long-lived, and good-looking, but Zong Yan still preferred to be an ordinary human.

If he’d wanted to remain an evil god he wouldn’t have taken the risk of using the Astrologer card. He would have continued to live as the king of R’lyeh 350 million years ago—eating well, sleeping well, living forever, and never aging.

Even if he couldn’t have what he wanted.

Then, just as Zong Yan was ready to accept his fate and new identity, Yog-Sothoth told him he could bring him back to modern times.

Zong Yan had no reason to doubt him. The other party was the Lord of Time and Space. For him it was a trivial problem.

It was just that… There was no reason for it, right? How could you possibly explain why an evil god would suddenly find himself in a good mood and decide to be merciful and do charity?

This time darkness surrounded Zong Yan, but not because he couldn’t open his eyes. The darkness of having his soul drawn away swallowed him up again.

Perhaps because he’d experienced two trips across the timeline, Zong Yan adapted more quickly this time. His mood and expression were calm.

By the time Zong Yan was able to move his body again, he looked up and saw the stars were still shining.

When he looked down, he saw his dark gray robe. The gold ornaments on the hem mingled with his long, dark green hair.

The colossal feeling of power surged through his bones and blood, chilling yet familiar, spreading and extending its tendrils into every corner of his body.

This was the power of an evil god, and it was very different from that of the Astrologer.

He’d returned to the past, 350 million years ago.

It was almost like using the Astrologer card, and his short journey to the ends of time and space, had been a dream.

Ah… He’d forgotten to ask why his body was inside Yog’s.

Zong Yan froze for a while, then sighed.

It wasn’t that he thought the evil god was lying, exactly, but when a hero suddenly turns into an evil dragon himself, his feelings about evil dragons will become complicated.

For example, Zong Yan had come to understand, to some extent, the evil god perspective on tiny ants.

“I don’t know if what Yog said is true. If it’s really possible to go back, I still want to be a human.”

The young evil god with long, dark green long hair reached out his hand. He attached a little divine power to the tip of his finger and sliced through the dimensional barrier in front of him.

A rupture immediately appeared, created by the evil god’s power. Outside was an endless expanse of vivid blue sky and ocean.

Zong Yan walked out barefoot, stepping onto nothingness.

Was the war between R’lyeh and Carcosa over? Who won, Hastur or Cthulhu? Which of them would he see when he went out?

And then he saw him.

An evil god with gray hair, wearing a trench coat, hovered outside the rift in space. On his face was his usual faint smile.

“Come on, let’s go back.”

The Lord of the Gate extended his hand to Zong Yan, and the vast and mysterious axis of time suddenly emerged from the void, creating thousands of brilliant streamers of light beneath them.

The timeline under Zong Yan ended right at Yog-Sothoth’s feet.

TL Notes:

difficult situation – 趁火打铁 – strike the iron while the fire is burning, take advantage of the fire

betraying or informing – from 二五仔 – two five sons – Cantonese slang for informers or betrayers. Previously noted in Ch. 45

those who were barefoot had nothing to fear from people who wear shoes – 自己光脚的不怕穿鞋的 – A common saying: People who have nothing aren’t afraid of a person who has a lot. A person with nothing to lose has nothing to fear and will usually win in a conflict

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