After the snow stopped, the area by the city wall was exceptionally cold.
People walked in the surging darkness, like small boats tossed about by the waves.
Su Ming’an turned around and saw a black umbrella at the entrance to the alley.
The cold wind poured into his collar, and the necklace with the photo around his neck jingled.
Under the umbrella, the silent red-haired girl, holding a wooden carving in her arms, watched him calmly.
"Among a knight’s virtues, one is sacrifice," she said. "And after killing the Demon King, a hero cannot return to a peaceful retirent."
She looked at him, her eyes calr than ever before.
"Everyone dies," she said. "Rather than decay over the course of ti or set off on an endless road with no conclusion, it’s better to stop here. At least... soone will rember."
"To make others’ mories your own tombstone is the most aningless act," Su Ming’an said.
He walked past her, hearing her very still voice.
"Rin, the people who pass through your life should not beco shackles of your regret," Nailuo said. "Rember her, always rember her, and then keep going."
"Who are you talking about?" Su Ming’an sharply sensed the deviation in her words.
But Nailuo was like a still tombstone, not eting his gaze.
"The sadness and regret for the departed... do not need to accumulate in your chest, constantly rembered. I’m not asking you to completely forget her, nor am I asking you to suppress your grief," Nailuo said. "She just... wants to go ho."
"Aren’t you fully awake?"
Su Ming’an had already noticed that her state was not right.
The red-haired girl, suddenly turned around.
The thin moonlight after the snow shone on her face, and she stretched out her hand, holding a small wooden carving.
It was a wooden carving of a young man, clearly crafted with care, every edge just right, comparable to a master’s work.
She stared blankly at him and then suddenly revealed a brilliant smile.
"For you."
As if she had suddenly beco soone else, her eyes, which had just retained aloofness and sorrow, flickered with a childlike joy in an instant.
Like sunshine suddenly pouring into her eyes, dispelling the haze within, her smile was so purely luminous, like an uncolored white paper.
She held up her hands as if cradling a child’s beloved teddy bear, presenting the little wooden carving before his eyes.
"For you," her smile widened even more.
Su Ming’an was sowhat baffled; he could not understand how Nailuo had suddenly beco like a person with split personality.
Just a mont ago, she was saying things like eulogies, and then suddenly, she revealed a childlike, silly smile.
He took the wooden carving, and the system prompt appeared.
[You obtained the prop (Nailuo’s Wooden Carving)]
[(Nailuo’s Wooden Carving): A prop without any special added value, clearly sculpted with her utmost care, can be kept in personal space for collection.]
On the wooden carving was inscribed a small ssage:
[When you wake in the quiet dawn,]
[You will see spread my wings and soar.]
...
"Thank you." Since it was a prop after all, albeit of little value, Su Ming’an still accepted it.
As he was about to turn and leave, the smile on Nailuo’s face beca even more radiant.
"Rin," she said with a laugh, "I’ll teach you how to use a spear tomorrow."
"Okay."
Su Ming’an passed by her.
As he passed her, he noticed a strand of white hair at her temple.
"Nailuo, the snow has stopped; you can put away the umbrella. Be safe at night," he said, making a token reminder, and walked towards his house in the Eastern District.
"Okay."
Nailuo turned around, a pair of sowhat bewildered eyes fixed on him.
"But,"
she said:
"... who is Nailuo?"
...
Su Ming’an returned to the Eastern District, where the streets were still quiet.
Since all the residents had moved out, the street was dead right after the banquet ended.
The cold wind poured into his collar as Su Ming’an opened the door to his room and walked purposefully towards the bed.
"Ding-dang—"
The necklace around his neck jingled as Su Ming’an took it off and glanced at its attributes.
...
[Immortal Pendant (Red Level): "Captain, please carry it... to see the world I haven’t seen, to continue the journey I haven’t completed."]
Durability: 0/0 (Due to the "Immortality" feature, this equipnt does not lose durability.)
Equipnt Requirent: Player Su Ming’an (Unique).
Active Skills (Immortality): Can be used on any npc or player on the verge of death to forcibly extend their life for ten seconds. Cooldown ti half a day, can only be used once on the sa person.]
...
This was a piece of equipnt with a special skill, lacking combat characteristics. At special tis, it could serve as a "Combat Continuation" skill to be used repeatedly.
"..." Looking at this line of ssage on the equipnt interface, he averted his gaze.
After organizing his loot, he suddenly felt incredibly tired.
With each instance he passed, he felt as though he was gradually losing sothing. After Sherrod’s death, this sense of loss beca even more pronounced.
It was as if with each second of life, sothing like fine sand was slipping through—this was a sowhat bewildering sensation of panic that he couldn’t stop.
In the upper right corner, the barrage of comnts continued as loudly as before. They seed to be very sad about Sherrod’s death and couldn’t understand why Su Ming’an didn’t forcibly save him.
In their view, life was the most important thing. There was no need to sacrifice their own lives for a group of NPCs.
Su Ming’an no longer looked at these comnts.
He lay down on the bed.
...
The sky was blood-red, its color as dull as ever.
Golden sparks floated in the air; this place was like a mortal hell ravaged by magma.
Su Ming’an opened his eyes and stepped onto this crimson land, with a small sand table floating in front of him by the church door.
Thousands of puppets with different forms appeared before his eyes with a "swish swish" of white light, their array remarkably spectacular.
It was now the fifth level of "Demon King and Brave." He continued his previous actions.
He carefully arranged the battle situation, deliberately inciting war so that the two armies would engage in aningless slaughter, gathering the energy generated from their hatred and deaths to fortify his Demon King City.
But now, he knew,
This wasn’t just so frivolous resource placent ga.
The floating sand table before him, resembling toys,
... was the true historical, bloody, and cruel war that took place in Pulaya.
The little red and blue chess piece-like armored models on the sand table,
... were the lives truly sacrificed in the war.
He watched as the two armies fought, watched as their numbers decreased bit by bit, then increased again... Old soldiers kept dying on the front lines, and new ones kept joining.
[Soul Hunts always die.]
[But there are always people becoming Soul Hunts.]
...
At this mont, he suddenly recalled the words of the old lady who had grasped his hand when he first ca to Pulaya.
All the unreasonable phenona beca gradually logical within the battle on this small sand table.
This was a world where survival necessitated inflicting harm upon one another.
Humans and Soul Clan, Soul Clan and Soul Clan, humans and humans.
People, in this pathological way of surviving, deviated from their hearts, gradually coexisting with pain.
They endured disgrace and lived in desperation.
...Yet there would always be people like Sherrod.
Su Ming’an extended his hand, manipulated the battle situation for both sides, and stoked the fires of hatred.
...
[Their deaths shall not be in vain; I command them, carefully arranging the end for each of them.]
[—I ensure that all strive for a tomorrow.]
...
Above the sand table, two armies faced each other: one clad in red armor, the other in blue.
In the midst of the slaughter, a golden chess piece appeared.
——[Brave].
The Brave had appeared in this land.
A small line of text rested above this chess piece’s head, easy to miss without a closer look.
[Despicable betrayer of Heaven·and his companions]
The despicable betrayer of Heaven had still betrayed.
It was unavoidable.
Because this was a reality that had already taken place.
...
A system voice, high-pitched and eerily enthusiastic, rang out:
[——My respected Demon King!]
[As ti progresses, the "Brave" and his companions have appeared!]
[I trust that after such a long period of preparation, you now possess the strength to do battle with them!]
[You are the great Demon King who guards the castle, please prepare for a fight to the death with the Brave who will co to challenge you!]
[Please, cut down this "Brave"—who dares to overthrow your rule—off his horse!]
[Pour your wrath upon this world! Let darkness envelop the world, endless flas scorch the land, and the mortal world turn into a blood-filled hell...]
...
Listening to the system’s high-pitched voice, Su Ming’an only felt ironic.
"Am I to kill myself?" he said.
The system voice completely ignored his comnt.
It just kept shouting on its own, its fervent emotion seeming to infect only itself.
That was a battle report from the sand table:
[The battle has turned around!]
[With the Brave’s arrival, the two armies have united! Your soldiers (Jin Qiangwei), (Black Devotee), (Holy Radiance) have lost communication.]
[As the Demon King, you play with the mortal world, controlling both sides’ armies—you need to incite them to war, cause their deaths to obtain Sin Value!]
[However, with both the Red and Blue Armies ceasing fire, the number of deaths has drastically decreased, your source of strength is failing, please collect Sin Values quickly!]
[Distance to target Sin Value: 87980 (paused)/100000 (If the target value is not collected before the end of this level, your level will be declared a failure.)]
After finishing this speech, the system voice faded away, and a deep blue option appeared in front of Su Ming’an.
The blue light pulsed, as if tempting him to press it quickly.
He stared at the blue option, motionless, as if trapped in eternal stillness.
Above the sand table, the two armies had stopped their bloody war and seed to have entered a ceasefire.
Behind the sand table, within the simulated city buildings, lights twinkled brilliantly, and fireworks burst in lustrous displays above.
Red and green Christmas lights were strung through the rectangular-like simulated city, from which songs could be faintly heard.
...
"Where the tree tops glisten（The treetops glisten resplendently）~"
"And children listen（Children stop to listen）~"
"——May your days be rry and bright（——Wishing your days to be rry and bright）"
...
He had heard this song in Pulaya, on a snowy night when the Mariti Banquet had just begun.
When Noel walked in from outside, this Christmas song, like flowing creek water, rushed in from the crack of the doorway.
The Demon King represented deities, the sand table represented Pulaya; it was an unavoidable truth.
In this mont, there was no more room for wishful thinking.
He closed his eyes and reached out.
Red sparks danced by his ear, and as he reached out, he heard the Immortal Pendant on his neck jingle sharply.
"Ding——Ling——"
He gripped the swaying photo clip in his left hand and pressed the blue option before him with his right.
The blue light flickered, turning blood-red the mont his finger touched it.
Through the suddenly blood-stained sand table, and the fallen soldiers, he seed to see that skyway sprawling across the Southern District, dyed blood red... and that bridge of corpses extending beyond sight.
The bright red font, dancing above the options, like flowing blood.
...
[To acquire sufficient Sin Value and create a mass of death to et the ultimate Brave——]
[Great Demon King, would you choose to invest a portion of your Sin Value,]
...
[——to launch a Sea Monsters’ attack on the city? (If you do not initiate the attack, your level will be declared a failure, and you will imdiately lose your ga privileges in this world.)]
...
[Yes.]
Su Ming’an gripped the pendant in his hand tightly.
...
The vivid blood color, at this mont, unfolded over the sand table battlefield amidst Christmas music.
"Bang——!"
A gunshot that reverberated in the chest erupted, as if soone had blown a horn of war over the sand table.
In this mont,
he heard the bang-bang of muskets,
the crisp ringing of clashing blades,
the sounds of armor colliding with Sea Monster energy, faint yet successive mournful cries.
Before his eyes, a slender, pale energy, like a rainbow after the rain, gradually stretched out and constructed from one side of the sand table city to the other, like a white line drawn by a pen, slowly reaching to the opposite end of the battlefield.
Its color, from pale to pure white, then from pure white to bright red.
Countless tiny armored figures charged along this white line, shattered, disappeared, leaving behind a pool of bright red blood.
Like a blood-red flag unfurling amidst the white.
Like a white-spined serpent, it gradually beca wider, engorged, as if wrapped in a blood-red garnt, stretching far into the distant blue sea.
A mont later, from the midst of the blue sea, a figure in golden armor leaped out.
Behind him, Sea Monsters following and departing with him, like rolling stars over the sand table.
This scene was very childish, reminiscent of a nonsensical children’s fairy tale play.
However, only those who have truly experienced this bloody war can understand what stories really occurred in this seemingly absurd play.
He had personally initiated this disaster.
Su Ming’an lowered his head.
He opened the photo locket within the necklace.
It was only then he realized that the photo Sherrod had given him inside this necklace was different.
It wasn’t the original photo of his sister Xie Changying with her bright smile.
Instead, it was a warm-toned group photo.
Under the warm indoor lighting, in the distance was a blurry stretch of white buildings.
In the drowsy night, soft lights shimred faintly.
Within the window, steam rose.
Facing the cara, the blond Knight smiling, holding up the engraved gemstone, captured this sowhat blurry photo.
In the photo, Noel, who had given the amber longsword, stood on the left side of the picture. Su Ming’an, the center of the photo, was looking down, focusing on the weapon’s description.
The roasted at glistening golden, floating vague steams.
The face of the blond Knight, close to the lens, is on the right side of the photo, with a secretive thrill of a candid shot.
In the bottom right corner of the photo was the shooting date, just a few days ago.
There were also a few lines of neat, small handwriting, the font tiny and hidden.
...
[Captain.]
[When I give you this necklace, let’s go have barbecue with Changying again, shall we?]
[Even without lemon, the barbecue in Pulaya is delicious.]
[Right?]
...
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