Chapter 27: Deep Blue Port, Cleared
The gentle night veiled Rast.
Though the curtain of night appeared so faint, it seemed to isolate the entire world.
All the sounds, light, and colors that once belonged to the world of Deep Blue Port were now barely perceptible.
Rast sank into this quiet night.
His body was shrouded in darkness.
The numbness from his crushed limbs slowly faded as feeling returned.
The wounds that had covered his body disappeared completely.
Even his once-dried-up spiritual energy had been replenished.
Even the Iron Cross, which had once been rooted deep in Rast’s soul—constantly tormenting his mind with violent desire—melted away like snow upon touching the night, vanishing without a trace.
This sensation was quite unique.
Compared to the healing and purification he had experienced before, this process was more akin to “rewinding.”
It wasn’t healing the injuries.
Rather, the moment the night touched Rast, the time during which he had been wounded, fractured, and infected by the Iron Cross plague had been erased.
His body returned to its original, pristine state.
Rewinding time—it sounded unbelievable.
But recalling the information Shiltina had revealed to him earlier…
As the Creator of the Nightworld, the Silent Lord who had witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations—Deep Blue Port itself was merely a historical remnant recorded within the Nightworld.
To the Nightworld, rewinding a small fragment of time seemed a trivial matter.
With his once-chaotic thoughts gradually cleared by the rewind, Rast began reviewing the information displayed on the azure light screen in his mind.
Most of the information wasn’t hard for Rast to understand.
In his previous life, he had worked for the game company as the developer in charge of the Nightworld module.
After learning the truth about Deep Blue Port from Shiltina, Rast easily grasped most of the content shown on the light screen.
Just as Shiltina had speculated—
After obtaining the token and successfully completing the task of this historical remnant, Rast, as a qualified individual, had also been chosen by the Nightworld.
He had become a 「Night Traveler」.
His Sequence Long Path was the Tower.
According to Shiltina, this sequence had been lost in the real world, with only faint traces remaining in historical records.
His Rank was also easy to interpret.
According to Shiltina, a Rank of 19 meant he was now just one step away from reaching the second tier.
And the reason he could reach such a high level despite lacking any extraordinary knowledge inheritance, and without knowing how to act or train—
Rast speculated it stemmed from the hundreds of years he had spent looping within Deep Blue Port.
Compared to Shiltina’s 「War Chariot」, the 「Tower」 sequence obviously emphasized more on the spiritual and soul aspects.
During those tens of thousands of reboots, Rast’s physical body hadn’t strengthened a bit, but his spirit had undergone constant tempering and had retained the growth.
And now, the mission reward he had obtained upon clearing the Deep Blue Port Remnant—
A unique skill and crest equipment.
Rast’s thoughts stirred.
In the next moment, the azure screen in his mind shifted.
【Heart of Steel Forging】
【Category: Inherent Skill】
【An endlessly repeating day, a cycle without end—this is no blessing for humanity, but the most despairing of curses. Even the truest of emotions, the fiercest of ideals, will ultimately decay, deteriorate, and turn into dust under the weight of endless time.】
【So, within this heart that continues to drive a shattered body forward—untouched by the Evil God’s corruption or the reversal of the Iron Cross—what truly lies hidden...?】
【Skill Effect: Your soul resistance increases by 50%. Any corruption, decay, beguilement, mental manipulation, hypnosis, or mind-reading abilities targeting you will be greatly weakened, and will backfire on the user.】
…
【Iron-Crested Moon】
【Category: Crest Equipment】
【This heavy-hitting revolver fought alongside you through countless years. From the slums’ alleys to the spires of the City Assembly, it bore witness to your battle through tides of black iron, until you once again saw the pale moonlight.】
…
【Sevenfold Perspective】
【Category: Crest Equipment】
【A hunt in the rain—seven lines piercing through eyes, scope, and mind. Only the finest of snipers can wield this breech-loading single-shot rifle. And its legend continues still.】
…
Starlight shimmered in the dark night.
Each ray landed in Rast’s palm, transforming into two glowing crests.
They gradually faded into his body.
However, Rast felt he could summon those two crests at any moment.
The revolver and sniper rifle rested silently in the space of the crests.
A mere thought, and the weapons would fall into his hands.
According to Shiltina, the rewards given after each Nightworld clearance were determined by the overall task evaluation and the clearance process.
Most of the time, the rewards would be related to the experiences within that historical remnant.
Perhaps it was due to this experience—
These two firearms that had accompanied Rast for countless years had, like Shiltina’s rapier 「Shimmering Morning Star」, ascended to become crest equipment.
After reviewing the mission rewards—
Only one last piece of information remained on the light screen.
Rast focused his attention on the two lines of flickering azure text.
【Detected existing Nightblade bound to Traveler’s Mental World. Matching process aborted, initiating reconstruction of existing Nightblade】
【Nightblade Reconstruction Complete】
【Your Nightblade: "The Fool’s Library"】
According to Shiltina—
Each Traveler of the Night, once chosen by the Nightworld, would receive a blessing known as the 「Nightblade」.
It was granted based on their soul’s essence and the scenery of their Heartscape.
However, his Nightblade’s generation had been interrupted.
Because—
「The Fool’s Library」
He softly murmured the name.
According to the description, this was his own Nightblade.
It had not been bestowed by the Nightworld, but had originally been bound to his soul.
In the next moment, a brand new world unfolded before Rast’s eyes.
It appeared to be a pitch-black tower.
Rast stood at the tower’s base, in the center.
Before him stretched boundless darkness.
Only in the farthest distance did faint starlight flicker.
Within the deep darkness stood twenty-one pale stairways.
They extended upward from the ground beneath Rast’s feet, rising all the way to the tower’s summit—to the far ends of the void.
Rast looked around and carefully observed each of the twenty-one pale stairways.
At the base of most of them stood an illusory doorway.
Golden chains crisscrossed around these doors, seemingly sealed by some unbreakable shackle.
Only two stairways lacked those golden chains and illusory seals.
When Rast set his gaze upon those two stairways, faint lights gathered upon them.
The lights formed into two illusory cards.
The backs of the cards depicted a tower struck by lightning and a kingly chariot pulled by two lions—one black, one white.
The front of each card displayed a portrait.
One showed a girl in a red-and-white knight’s outfit, a rapier sheathed in silver at her side, her chestnut hair flowing freely.
The other showed a tall figure in a black-hooded cloak, a revolver hanging from his waist.
Both card portraits looked extremely familiar to Rast.
Because the first was Shiltina.
And the second—was himself.