Su Ming’an knew that the mont he entered the Demon King instance, he had beco a cog in the wheels of the future and history.
In his previous actions, he had always adopted the stance of a bystander, unavoidably advancing the Demon King’s actions to fulfill what was known as "predestined events."
As a matter of course, things that had already happened could not be changed.
But, as he dealt with the matters of the future—did he possess the chance to change what was to co?
After all, the events of the future had not yet taken place.
He watched as the Brave’s previously fearless montum gradually faded, as he was surrounded by a tide of puppet creatures, struggling to move forward under their relentless pursuit, until a dialogue box appeared above the Brave’s head—
"Demon King! I’ve seen what you are— you really did play a big ga ... It looks like I wasn’t wrong."
The dialogue box floated above the Brave’s head, and Su Ming’an frowned slightly.
Even though he had guessed that the Cloud City God was the Demon King, and that the despicable man from Heaven, the future himself ascending to Cloud City, he wouldn’t show rcy because of this.
His nightti task was to kill the Brave. If he did not slay the Brave, he would die imdiately, failing the mission outright, with no room for retreat.
So, even though he knew that it could lead to a situation where "I kill myself," he could not let go and not kill.
However, seeing these words from his future self, he felt sowhat strange.
Then, another sentence popped up above the Brave’s head:
"There’s no retreat on the path ahead, or behind... Demon King, you are indeed crafty."
"Whoever likes to be the Brave, go ahead—I’m already tired of it."
Su Ming’an tried to see if he could communicate with the Brave but found that he couldn’t speak.
It was as if he had entered a cutscene, where he could only watch the battle unfold.
Suddenly, he noticed that dialogue boxes started to appear above his own head.
The "Demon King" was conversing with the "Brave."
Demon King: "You’ve co."
Brave: "Demon King, I can help you be freed."
Demon King: "...Only with my eternity do humans have desires and learn to fight among themselves. I have given them all of this."
Demon King: "The Knight of Light from the Oracle and the Grand Wraith King capable of destroying everything have died, no being can suppress , Brave, do you still wish to pass through my soldiers and kill ?"
Brave: "..."
Brave: "Mobius Ring..."
Demon King: "You should understand ."
Brave: "Forgive for refusing, I have no way out."
Demon King: "Is this your will? Or is it the result of you conforming to the ’instance,’ Player from the Otherworld?"
Having been eagerly watching the exchange between the two, Su Ming’an stared at what the Demon King had said, stunned.
Brave: "..."
Brave: "No."
Brave: "I will defeat you, Demon King, even if your soul is well-preserved, it has already decayed."
Brave: "Goodbye, Immortal Demon King."
Demon King: "...Then kill , I hand this right over to you, if you can."
Brave: "..."
Brave: "But if I kill you..."
Brave: "No, I can’t..."
Su Ming’an watched the exchange between the two, then suddenly heard a crisp sound.
"Crack—"
The crisp sound was neither from a toppled puppet nor from this magma-like land.
...It was from the hero who was still hesitating about whether to kill the Demon King.
In the hero’s hands, the sword blade covered in shadows suddenly broke, followed by countless attacks striking his body, and the next mont, his figure shattered inch by inch like glass.
Accompanied by a "crack, crack, crack" sound, the hero’s body fell apart in pieces, and strange black fragnts fell to the ground.
The puppets retreated, laying down their weapons.
Watching this scene, Su Ming’an clearly saw the hero’s death.
The hero died very cleanly, like a torn piece of rag, pathetically weak to the point of bringing tears to one’s eyes.
"..."
Su Ming’an stared at the hero’s corpse, stared at the body of this "future self," yet suddenly a smile appeared on his face.
"It seems I didn’t guess wrong," he said.
He had already understood everything that would happen tomorrow. Who the Demon King and the hero were, was now crystal clear in his mind.
So, this instance was nearly over.
The excited system voice rang in his ears at this mont:
[——Congratulations, Demon King! You have slain the evil hero!]
[You are the great Demon King who guards the castle, and you have achieved another epic victory!]
Listening to the system’s awkward praise, Su Ming’an really couldn’t figure out what was so "epic" about this overpowering scenario.
He didn’t even make a move, and the hero just flat out bit the dust, nowhere near as powerful as previously boasted.
Of course... it might be due to his proper managent these past few days.
[You may continue to pour your wrath upon this world, let darkness engulf it, endless flas scorch the land, and turn the mortal world into a blood prison...]
The system’s voice gradually faded away.
Su Ming’an heard the inorganic system voice, which was from the world ga’s main system itself.
"Ding-dong!"
[You have cleared the nightti instance "Demon King and Hero".]
[Overall Evaluation: SSS! (Highest!)]
[The evaluation has been recorded and will be settled at the end of the world.]
[You have obtained Evolution Gems (Large) *3]
[With this gemstone, you can advance your occupation by one level.]
...
The reward for Evolution Gems was very good; wherever these went, they were highly sought after and hard to co by, one of the main ways for players to enhance their strength.
He advanced his occupation skills to lv.15. The three specializations under Bright State were raised to lv.11, while under Shadow State, he gained [Light Series Resistance], [Dark Series Resistance], and [Water Series Resistance].
All things considered, under Shadow State, he could almost ignore the attacks of mages, and he estimated that once his occupation skills were raised to level 20, he could consider magic attacks as nothing.
If possible, he hoped to raise his occupation skills to level 20 in the Eighth World. Players speculated that this would be a significant watershed, fully revealing the true characteristics of their occupations.
Now he had eight Occupation Points, which were actually hard to co by; they only worked for acts of good or evil that both "he and the other party acknowledged," and there must be a complete process of action.
Back in the Third World, he could easily grab a Wang Xingkong and beat him up for Occupation Points, as the other party was essentially a boss in the instance, with a certain weight. If he were to pull soone from a player group and beat them up now, it wouldn’t earn him Occupation Points.
Only in clear events like rescuing Gerald, killing the Princess, or stopping Sea Monsters from attacking the city could he earn Occupation Points.
As for why he knew that beating up a player wouldn’t earn him Occupation Points...
Because of a very simple reason, "Practice brings truth."
...
Returning from the nightti instance, Su Ming’an sat up from the bed.
Slanting morning light spilled through the window, and he knew it was eight o’clock in the morning.
Today was the final day the instance would be open. By noon, he would ascend to the city in the clouds.
He checked the gold-level equipnt "Noah’s Chain," its second skill had already been unlocked.
He opened the equipnt interface.
...
[Noah’s Chain (Gold Level): "Death can conquer the entire world,
Our love will last, life never fades."
Charm one level (cannot exceed SS)
Spirit 5
Durability: 10/10
Equipnt Requirent: None.
Special Skill (Lasting Radiance):
Effect 1: You can select any player, and let them take all the hostile damage you would receive in the next 3 seconds, cooldown ti one hour.
Effect 2: You can select any player, and take any damage they would receive in the next 10 seconds, cooldown ti fifteen minutes.]
...
Beyond the first damage transfer skill, the second was similar, but its effect was to shield others from harm.
Moreover, ’hostile damage’ in effect 1 ant that actions like jumping into lava to transfer damage were not viable—it could only transfer damage from enemy attacks.
Effect 2, however, applied to ’any damage,’ which ant skill 2 had broader applicability.
He put away the Noah’s Chain and suddenly noticed that the white-haired girl was no longer in the room.
The woodcarving knife, covered in shavings, lay quietly on the table, and a thin layer of wood shavings had accumulated on the floor.
A premonition settled in his heart.
Nailuo’s condition had been rapidly deteriorating. By the ti he entered the instance last night, her eyes had already gone blind—a sign that she was starting to lose her senses.
It was also the last symptom of her life.
If he woke up this morning and could no longer see her, it would be normal...
He pushed the door open and stepped out of the temporary Soul Hunter Departnt built by the central river.
The morning light poured into his eyes.
In Pulaya, where the snow had just stopped, the temperature hadn’t yet returned to its usual warmth, revealing the gentle deanor of early spring.
Brilliant red, kapok-like flowers blood on branches sprouting new buds.
Stepping on the soft earth, he saw slumbering life beginning to stir in this warm bed, showing the resilient forms of life after the disaster.
He saw the girl standing on the hillside.
What surprised him was her fla-like long hair, flowing like fire, still conspicuous among the fiery red kapok flowers, like a red rose blossoming in the wind.
The morning light touched her red hair, faintly revealing strands of white. She suddenly turned around, and in her extrely clear eyes, flickers that resembled flas ca alive, vividly dancing as they t his gaze.
She had the natural beauty and confidence of a novel’s heroine. Her eyes were incredibly elongated, her gaze captivating, her eyelashes so long they seed capable of curling. Like a fla that had suddenly ignited, burning intensely and brightly.
In her hands, she held a bunch of freshly picked flowers.
Upon seeing Su Ming’an, she smiled, her eyes as if recolored, no longer dim as they were the night before.
"Good morning," she said with a smile. "I didn’t expect that I would wait for your return."
Her speech was normal, without stutters or confusion, her hair was the familiar red, like a perfectly normal young girl who still had many years ahead of her.
But Su Ming’an felt no joy at this.
He knew of a term: "deathbed rally."
"The night before last, a man nad Leken recited a poem for ," Nailuo said. "I know I’m not eloquent, but so what? If I can’t write, am I not allowed to learn from others?"
"You know who I am...?" Su Ming’an said.
"Yes, traveler from Another World," Nailuo pressed the paper with the poem into his hand. "If, if you can leave this place, please put this poem with the wooden carving I gave you... together."
"Okay," Su Ming’an took it.
Suddenly, Nailuo turned her head, her expression becoming sowhat distant, "Did you see it?"
"What?"
"Soone has co to pick up," she said.
"..."
He saw an empty space with no one in it.
The girl standing before him seed on the verge of dissipating into the wind.
Even if she barely made it through to the next day, her ti had already entered a countdown that could not be reversed.
Nailuo stood gazing blankly at the empty space, her bright red hair fluttering behind her.
"Traveler from Another World," she said. "What’s your na?"
"Su Ming’an."
"..." She said, "I will rember you forever."
She did not finish her words.
An intense sensation of weakness was tornting her nerves.
She closed her eyes.
She was about to die, a fact of which she was painfully aware.
Therefore, there were so things she would keep to herself, things she would never say.
— She would not say that her initial approach to Su Rin was only due to her family’s orders.
Before boarding the Yate Vessel, the Yate Empire had already harbored suspicions about the Viscount and wanted to lure him onto a ship without knightly assistance to deal with him.
Her family, the Mil, was tasked with assassinations, and that was why she, who seed to be a spoiled young lady, had such accurate marksmanship.
As a friend to Su Rin, she deliberately played the role of an admirer who acted as if only she could love him, all to confuse Su Rin and confirm his plots, deciding whether to shoot him accordingly.
It was also because she ca with a mission that she would venture out on her own in the dead of night, when the Soul Hunter Departnt strictly forbade it, to actively investigate the trace of the Soul Clan, nearly dying in a cabin one cycle.
She would not say.
She would not say that, as battles progressed, she gradually discovered that the Yate Empire also harbored worms within, and she was just a Chess Piece the Empire could abandon at any ti. In contrast, the "Su Rin" she t later on the ship saved her ti and again.
She would not say that it was on that ship that her heart truly stirred.
She would not say that her initial 70 points of favorability towards Su Rin were only on the level of a Friendship Line.
She would not say that it was this "Su Rin," who saved her over and over, who turned her friendship into love, not the previous mission target "Su Rin."
She would not say.
All these things she would never say.
Because she was going to die.
So she’d rather maintain this misunderstanding and not let this traveler from Another World shoulder anything for her.
She could tell that he was far more weary than her, carrying burdens far too heavy, and that he himself had no feelings for her.
She would not impose her own feelings, born out of a heightened emotional response, onto him. She would not indulge in a aningless "Love of Linger."
That’s why, before she died, she would push him away, preserving eternal silence.
And these,
She would never say.
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