King of Clubs glanced back,
"Master often said, to deeply know a person, one cannot only look at what he says, what he looks like, but rather must look at what he does... If not for him, right now Aurora City would have already become the hotbed of Calamities. You don't even clearly know what kind of person he is, on what basis do you feel he would definitely produce threat towards humanity?"
Hong Xiu slightly blanked out, looking at the sleeping Chen Ling sinking into silence.
"Also." King of Clubs faintly said,
"Dusk Society's matters, it still isn't the turn for outsiders to gesticulate."
King of Clubs left without even turning her head. The solemn black Suit disappeared at the end of the ruins.
Hong Xiu stood in place, raising her head taking a last glance at the cyan and blue sea of aurora, seemingly wanting to eternally engrave it in her heart, turning around walking towards the opposite direction...
...
The other side.
But along with that seawater seemingly having no thickness spreading inside the city, slowly soaking past beneath his body, piece after piece of black Curse Runes anew came alive on his skin surface. The frost and snow on his body started melting. Tiny breathing reappeared in the severe cold.
"I... this is... where..." Zhao Yi's consciousness was already blurry, half-asleep and half-awake he opened his eyes a crack.
Curse Runes skimmed past on his eyeballs. Only seeing at the end of the scorched black great earth, there were two figures slowly walking towards here. Zhao Yi couldn't see clearly their faces, even having already lost the ability to think. Feeling his body unprecedentedly heavy.
An unfamiliar palm held up his head. The next moment, a flashlight-like bright light beam lit up from the blurry darkness. Like someone was examining his eyes.
"This degree of Fusion... is natural Fusion? Not right... cannot smell the bloody scent of a Calamity, seems to be Artificial Fusion..."
"Aurora Base, could it be they also broke through the experimental bottleneck of Artificial Fusion?"
"Aurora Base's research on Fusion, should be far less perfect than ours to be right. Moreover if they truly mastered Artificial Fusion, it wouldn't go as far as being reduced to this state... I see, this kid should exactly be an accident."
"The most crucial is, I actually cannot smell out what kind of Calamity he fused with... Seemingly every kind of Calamity in the Forbidden Sea he's tainted with a bit? What does this count as? Even a mixed breed cannot be mixed into this appearance right?"
"Actually able to resist this degree of Fusion, and still hasn't appeared mental derangement, his willpower is still top tier."
"Originally only wanted to come collect some Calamity corpses to bring back to research, didn't think there's an unexpected pleasant surprise... Bring him back, he's a not bad seedling, having the potential to become a 'Holy Apostle'."
"So heavy... This guy's body shape doesn't look big, how come he's heavy to this appearance?"
"Already said Aurora Base's Fusion technology is too backward, easily leading to Fusion distortion. Bringing him back to inject a few new Potions for him, then teaching him to control his own power, sooner or later he can recover... Yi, he seems to be waking up?"
Zhao Yi felt himself being carried on a shoulder, constantly jolting. In a trance, he opened a sliver of his eyes...
Someone patted his shoulder, splitting his mouth laughing:
"Little comrade... welcome to join the glorious evolution."
...
Aurora City ruins, underground.
Han Meng bit the bandage, winding up the finished treated wound on his knee bit by bit, long sighing a breath.
Along with the surface facilities being all bombed flat, Aurora Base also lost the absolute large majority of power supply. The dark corridor was dead silent, as if only leaving Han Meng alone a person here,
He leaned beside the wall, looking at the elevator shaft sealed dead by shattered rocks, eyes full of complexity.
Tap—— Tap—— Tap...
Slight sounds transmitted from the other side of the corridor. Han Meng slightly blanked out, frowning looking over.
The Kerosene Lamp's firelight dispelled the darkness at the end of the corridor. A figure leaning on a Walking Stick, carrying a Kerosene Lamp, slowly walked towards here.
That was a disheveled Old Man. His whole body emitted an aged aura of twilight. Only that pair of eyes was still deep and mysterious, seemingly flashing the starlight of humanity's destiny... He stood firm beside Han Meng, slowly bending over, placing the Kerosene Lamp in his hand on the ground.
"...I thought, there already wasn't anyone in this base." Han Meng spoke in a deep voice.
"The top-tier scientific scholars, have already sat on the Realm train leaving. The other people I also released back to the surface. If no accident occurs, right now they all became aurora..." The Old Man's voice was incomparably calm. "Right now, inside this base there is only me alone."
"Is that so? Then you admitting defeat admitted quite fast."
"The fact is so." The Old Man shook his head. "Hong Xiu and Tan Xin simultaneously betraying, even if all Enforcers in Aurora City added up, wouldn't be their opponent... Since it's like this, preserving scientific research talents as much as possible, is exactly the most beneficial decision towards humanity."
"Then why didn't you go to the surface? Transforming into aurora, at least there's still an opportunity to return."
The Old Man didn't immediately answer. His both hands leaned on the Walking Stick, silently standing outside the Kerosene Lamp's halo. After a long time only then hoarsely speaking:
"I... grew up in this base since childhood. Before thirty years old, I dreamed of wanting to go to the surface to take a look... Having reached forty fifty years old, I was already not curious about everything on the surface. Afterwards living in the dark room for another thirty years... Eighty year old me, already doesn't have the courage to step onto the surface.
This life of mine is entirely entrusted to the Aurora Base. Even if it's dying, I should also die here."
Han Meng blankly stared at him, for a time not knowing what he should say.
There actually truly was someone, who would live a lifetime in this narrow small underground base? Han Meng didn't dare to imagine how his this life endured over, and also what, supported him all the way to walk till today.
"Don't need to look at me like this." The Old Man closed his eyes,
"Only by being sealed underground, unable to see the brilliance above ground, can one thoroughly abandon emotion and Human Nature... Hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people, to me are only a number. Only by simplifying everything, quantifying, can one like a machine at any time make the most beneficial decision towards humanity.
Every generation of Leader of the Aurora Base, all came over like this."
Han Meng was silent. He withdrew his gaze from the Old Man's body. Towards this Leader who initiated the "Reappearance" plan, he actually inherently also didn't have much hostility. Not to mention, the Aurora Domain's hundreds of years of prosperity, inherently exactly relied on one by one Leaders like him establishing it up.
Han Meng straightly walked towards that piece of elevator shaft sealed dead by shattered rocks.
"What do you want to do?" The Old Man asked.
"Return to the surface." Han Meng crushed the Coal in his hand. Extending his hand beckoning towards the distance, a Handgun automatically flew from the Warehouse into his palm. "I can still fight."
The Old Man shook his head, "The Explosives have already detonated, Aurora City has already long been reduced to ruins... Those who should leave all left. Right now above only has Calamities. With your Fifth-Tier strength it's only going to deliver death."
"Then that's also always better than waiting for death here."
"The Aurora Domain has already disappeared, the Enforcers still left remaining in the world are very few... Do you want to meaninglessly battle to death in the Gray World, or wait for a certain day to arrive, becoming an Enforcer sheltering humanity?"
Han Meng stopped his footsteps. "What do you mean?"
The Old Man extended his hand, pointing at the base beneath his feet,
"Although Aurora City is gone, but inside the Aurora Base, there are still materials sufficient to supply hundreds of people living for a hundred years... You can stay behind, until one day your strength is sufficient to let you walk to the next Realm in the Gray World, then leave."
Han Meng hearing this sentence, a smear of faint light lit up in his eyes, seemingly seriously pondering about this question.
"Of course..." The Old Man smiled. "You can still accompany me this about to die old geezer, occasionally chat. I also know quite a few secrets regarding the Red Star... I hid in the dark room for thirty years, it's already been a long time not having spoken with people like this."
Deeply pondering for a long time, Han Meng eventually again glanced at the sealed dead elevator shaft, seemingly making up his mind, deeply sighing a breath...
"Okay." He nodded.
"I will rely on my own power, to walk to the next Realm... That day, won't be too late."
...
Rumble——!
In the icy cold gray world, a train its whole body engraved with mysterious runes, whistled skimming past the sea surface of the Forbidden Sea.
Along with the ancient texts on the surface of the train and railway tracks flashing, there wasn't a single Calamity approaching here. Steaming smoke drifted out from the front of the train. It carried Aurora City's final spark, straightly charging towards the direction of the next Realm.
At this moment inside the train carriage, dead general silence.
Regardless whether it was Aurora City's top-tier scientific scholars, or various parties' political dignitaries, they all silently gazed at that gradually distancing dead silent ruins outside the window. Their hearts had mixed feelings... They were this Realm's survivors, and also the witnesses who witnessed its demise with their own eyes.
When the aurora dispersed, they only then truly realized, the peace and prosperity in any Realm, was only merely a short-lived false impression... Aurora Domain wasn't the first destroyed, and also wouldn't be the last. Even if they escaped this calamity, then what about the next time?
In this gray withered and silent world, humanity's future, exactly where is it?
In this kind of oppressive silent atmosphere, a woman sitting at a seat leaning on the window, quietly opened the Notebook in her hand.
In the front of the Notebook, was a reporter's daily record, and various encountered case analysis. In the back however was large-scale elaboration regarding a certain plan. When she flipped open the final page, that was a paragraph of inner text similar to a monologue.
"...Yes, I don't know how far humanity can walk in this disaster, but I believe, we will never stop our footsteps..."
"...Aurora City is a failure, but also a success. Our souls will accompany the aurora, eternally staying in the sky above the Aurora Domain. And the three hundred years of effort we made for humanity, will become the torch in humanity's continuation of this grand relay, lighting up the road ahead..."
"Right now, we will pass down the torch..."
"The next Realm, the next next Realm... as long as the train is still rumbling in steam, as long as the sun will still rise from the east, as long as the kites in children's hands will still fly in the sky... Eventually there will be a day, we will endure past the harsh winter."
"Finally..."
"May the aurora, never fade."
...
...
Volume One, "Person in a Play", End.
Next Volume, "Painting the Vermillion Face".