Outside the city, Ning Busan stood on a small earthen slope, gazing at the apocalyptic scene before him, his heart entirely untroubled.
His intuition told him that he was not a person who slaughtered indiscriminately.
Since he had left himself the instruction to massacre the city, either everyone inside was evil, or they had never truly existed in the first place.
Before long, two clumps of eerie green soulfire came drifting over, wobbling as they flew.
The edges of the soulfire were already blurry and dim, looking as if they might go out at any moment, yet they stubbornly clung to a tiny flicker of light.
Ning Busan felt he should say something. After holding it in for a long time, he finally squeezed out, “Your vitality really is tenacious!”
Leo was too exhausted to even tell him to scram; his soulfire flickered listlessly.
Inside the city, thick smoke billowed and flames raged, the cries and wails sounding like a dirge of despair.
Outside the city, the two culprits stared at each other.
Leo couldn't stay quiet for a second and couldn't help but ask, “You went ahead and blew up this city while knowing absolutely nothing. Weren't you afraid your judgment might be wrong?”
Ning Busan pointed to the words carved on his arm. “If I know nothing, then I must trust myself. By following the instructions I left for myself, I will definitely find the answer.”
“You trust yourself that much?”
“Don't you trust me too? Otherwise, why would you help me?”
Leo snorted huffily and asked, “What do we do now?”
Ning Busan leaped down from the earthen slope. “The explosions have stopped. Let's head back and see if anyone slipped through the cracks.”
Blow up the entire city and kill everyone.
Since it was everyone, he couldn't let a single survivor escape.
Leo said angrily, “I just ran out of there, and now you want me to go back? Do you have any idea how tiring it is for me to fly back and forth like this?”
Ning Busan thought for a moment and said sincerely, “How about you rest here instead?”
The two clumps of soulfire instantly whooshed onto the top of Ning Busan's head. “That won't be necessary. Can't you just carry me?”
The veins on Ning Busan's forehead throbbed slightly. “Get off me!”
“No way!” Leo promised, “Don't worry, I can control the temperature. I won't burn your hair off.”
“Is that the point?” Ning Busan snatched him off his head and stuffed him into his pocket.
Leo's vision went completely dark; he couldn't see a thing.
Well, this wasn't too bad either.
...
The City of Steam.
Ning Busan's gaze swept across the surroundings. The once-bustling streets were now reduced to ruined buildings and collapsed steel scaffolds.
Yet, amidst this wasteland, the temple seemed to be covered by an invisible barrier, still standing towering and completely unscathed, its spire pointing straight toward the sky.
There was clearly something fishy going on.
Ning Busan saw the shaman standing atop a high tower, his black robe fluttering wildly in the howling wind.
“Ning Busan—” The shaman, still wearing his signature brass mask, walked toward Ning Busan step by step, his expression incredibly twisted as his teeth ground together. “You destroyed the City of Steam! Even with your memory tampered with, you actually managed to do this!”
Ning Busan frowned. “You were the one who tampered with my memory?”
The shaman was about to go mad with rage.
He had established the temple and guarded it to prevent anyone from discovering the secrets of the identity cards and the furnace.
But he had never expected that Ning Busan would flip the table entirely and blow up the whole city.
In this city, people could die, but their corpses had to remain.
As long as the corpses remained, they could start a new cycle through the furnace.
But now, not only were the people dead, but even their corpses were gone!
Ruined!
Everything was ruined!
The City of Steam was completely gone!
This pocket world was also on the verge of collapse!
It was all Ning Busan's fault!
The shaman's eyes were cold and crazed, a cruel smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Ning Busan, you destroyed the City of Steam and ruined this pocket world. Since that is the case, let it become your grave!”
Cracks appeared in the sky, as if a giant hand were churning it up at will.
Ning Busan quickly leaped up, dodging a massive gear that plummeted from the high tower. The gear smashed into the spot where he had just been standing, and the ground instantly caved in, revealing a bottomless darkness below.
“Flee, struggle... but you cannot escape!”
The shaman's laughter echoed through the collapsing city, filled with the playfulness of a cat teasing a mouse.
Ning Busan: “...”
He suddenly began to wonder: was everything he had done really right?
Before his memory became muddled, could he have anticipated that after blowing up the City of Steam, the city would actually undergo a secondary collapse?
The ground began to shake violently, and massive fissures split open. Ning Busan's body swayed as the ground tilted, and he was about to fall into a crack.
Right then, Michael flew over, his wings flapping, and scooped Ning Busan up, carrying him to safety.
Michael stuffed two identity cards into Ning Busan's hand, his brow furrowed. “I've tried every method, but they can't be destroyed at all.”
Leo darted out of Ning Busan's pocket, his two clumps of soulfire surging as the eerie green flames instantly incinerated the two identity cards.
Ning Busan's eyes gradually grew deep.
He muttered, “As expected, this pocket world is built on rules. Only when this pocket world collapses will the rules lose their effect.”
Only then would they be able to use magic.
The shaman was still roaring madly, “You have no idea what you've done! The City of Steam had a chance to become the beginning of a new world, but you ruined everything!”
Ning Busan frowned and said in a deep voice, “The dead are already dead. By forcing them to stay, you are only trapping them in a loop within a segment of time.”
“My teacher once told me that all those who attempt to alter time and space will ultimately be consumed by it.”
The shaman said disdainfully, “Then your teacher must have been very weak.”
Ning Busan: Where are your manners?
Ning Busan narrowed his eyes. “You are able to use magic outside of the rules. Is the Crown of the Divine King in your hands?”
The shaman sneered, “I am the Crown of the Divine King.”
Ning Busan was taken aback for a moment, then said decisively, “Impossible!”
In Ning Busan's imagination, the Crown of the Divine King should come with its own holy light and be encrusted with sparkly, bling-bling diamonds. How could this old geezer have anything to do with the Crown of the Divine King?
Rate on N.U.
