As the morning light crept over the horizon, the ruins of civilization began to appear across the vast land. Wild, overgrown weeds climbed the cold, dilapidated church, and swift rabbits leaped over broken walls. The loose soil, soaked in snowmelt from the night before, had frozen black and hard.
Standing before this long-abandoned church, under the hazy morning light filtering through the glass dome, a girl cradled a cello. She raised her head to look into the morning light, every strand of her deep blue hair gilded with gold.
Inside the church, pale golden sunlight spilled through every ruined crevice. She looked like an elf wandering through this quiet place, shimmering amidst the floating dust.
The tip of her boot slowly stepped across the shallow grass, bending the blades. The owner of the boots let out a soft, questioning grunt, seemingly unable to believe that such fragile life could grow so resiliently in a place like this.
The girl crouched down, stretching out a slender index finger to gently caress the stubborn grass. A vibrant green magic of life manifested at her fingertips. A gentle, winding stream of water seeped into the soil, and the bent weeds regained their vitality, straightening up. They grew lush and moist, blooming with vibrant flowers.
Before long, the grass beneath the girl became a vibrant cluster of flowers, brimming with life. Her skirt billowed gently amidst the colorful vitality, resembling a newly blooming blue iris.
As it turned out, there were still so many unyielding lives here, longing to be noticed, just like notes waiting to leap across a music sheet.
Sevia thought to herself.
The joy of being surrounded by jubilant life brought a bright smile to the girl's lips. She lightly brushed her dress and brought her legs together. The soft lawn supported her light body, and nature embraced her tenderly in this moment.
She sat on the lawn, playing a melody that had no audience, her slightly raspy voice singing a traveler's ballad.
She was no longer in a hurry to continue her journey. She only wanted to lose herself in the hazy morning light during this quiet time, playing until her strength was spent, singing until her heart was content.
After a long, harmonious stretch of time, Sevia let out a soft breath. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and leaned back against the ruined wall, a satisfied smile on her face.
At the boundary between illusion and reality, the deep-blue-haired girl looked up with a sense of awareness. She watched as a train built of steel materialized from the void, spanning the valley under the cover of the bright morning sun. It crossed a bridge a thousand meters high that looked like a giant's spine, rushing toward the end of the world.
In a single instant, after a long whistle sounded, the steel train began to deconstruct, gradually becoming illusory and transparent. Finally, it dissolved into countless tiny, falling specks of light, leaving only the century-old, barren bridge standing lonely in the valley.
Shimmering stardust fell around Sevia. Through these sparkling fragments, she caught glimpses of many memories that did not belong to her, causing her to raise her eyebrows in slight confusion. Until, at one particular moment, Sevia saw a blonde girl whose face she could not quite make out, wrapping an arm around her waist and inviting her to dance in each other's worlds.
These scattered memories flew into Sevia's consciousness like shattered glass shards. The dull ache made the girl clutch her head in pain as soft, melodious whispers echoed in her ears.
Sevia saw herself wearing black lipstick, hugging her own waist from behind, tilting her chin up, and leaning in to whisper in her ear. The words were full of temptation, enticing her to taste the poison of falling into the abyss.
“Do you want to find your memories?”
“Then hand everything over to me.”
“Relax, just give your body to me.”
“Whether it is building a beautiful Eden or the power to save everyone, I can give it to you.”
“As long as you do not resist me, and hand everything over.”
The dark blue hem of her dress began to rustle restlessly. Pitch-black hands stretched toward the ground, extending all the way to the broken walls, forming a massive silhouette that threatened to completely swallow Sevia.
Wailing lives transformed into countless black hands that erupted from the girl's body, surging into the sky in a chaotic, bewitching frenzy. They destroyed everything in their path with devastating force. Even from a settlement several kilometers away, one could see the sky obscured by darkness.
Her consciousness was repeatedly torn apart, tossing in flames as chaotic thoughts poured in. They turned into pairs of pitch-black hands, dragging her body down toward a filthy mire.
Her will could not withstand this near-mad erosion, developing fine cracks as it verged on collapse.
Her desires began to spiral out of control, and the aura of urban legends seeped into every crack in the earth. Floating landmasses fell into the void, until finally, the tower of her sanity began to collapse. At the critical moment, Sevia's slender fingertips brushed against her conductor's string sword, and she resolutely pressed it to her neck!
As if wary of something, the whispers in her ears and the surrounding shadows retreated back into her body in an instant, like an ebbing tide.
Looking at the withered life on the grass and the ruins of the church that had just been flattened by her loss of control, Sevia lowered her head, her eyes trembling. Notes woven from guilt, lingering fear, and bewilderment played upon the staff of her heart, like the end of a climax transitioning into a gentle melody.
Sevia lowered her eyes to look at the conductor's string sword resting against her neck, her fingertips shaking uncontrollably.
She would only hurt more people.
She could not stay in civilized places.
She dared not imagine the cost of her losing control.
Should she end her journey here?
Countless fragments of memories—beautiful, painful, and blurry—replayed continuously in her eyes like a slow-moving videotape, freezing on the beach where she was reborn.
No, she couldn't stop here.
She had not yet atoned for the sins she had committed.
She had not yet seen the person she yearned for.
She had to find herself and no longer be ruled by chaos.
Sevia reached out to touch the illusory, flickering golden figure, but her hand passed through it, scattering it like dust.
The golden figure coalesced once more, transforming into a light feather that drifted into her heart.
Sevia lowered her eyes and pressed her hand to her chest, feeling her beating heart and the lingering warmth. As if in contact with that light feather, her shattered consciousness reconstituted itself.
Golden sunlight crept over the river valley, spilling onto the pristine white snow. White pigeons perched on the branches, and a hidden musk deer poked its head out from a haystack by the river, its dark, shiny eyes curiously observing the girl.
Her soft hair fell, obscuring Sevia's profile. Having just survived a deadly peril, the young girl stood up and shook the snow from her body. Feeling the anchor point in her heart guiding her forward, she once again found the courage to embark on an unknown journey.
It was time to set off, toward the distant land of ballads and spring.
...
The train roared across the Gobi Desert. The wind and snow howled relentlessly, determined to bury the entire world in a grayscale desolation.
In the dim cellar, several children fell into helpless despair before the man's cold body. They did not know where else they could go; hiding here would surely lead to their discovery.
“Hahaha.”
At that moment, the little girl with dark red hair, who had been curled up in the corner, suddenly burst into laughter. It was unclear whether it was a laugh of mental collapse or relief.
“He's dead. The one who betrayed us is dead.”
“Shut up, Xiao Li,” Owl's voice was cold and numb.
“He's really dead. All of us are safe now.”
“I told you to shut up, Xia Li!” Owl barked.
Xia Li was already beyond saving. Immersed in her own mental delusions, she was still muttering incoherent words.
“He brought it on himself.”
“Wait, maybe he isn't dead yet. He's just trying to trick us, to lure us close, and once those law enforcers arrive, he'll betray us...”
Sparrow and Night Owl had long grown numb to this, but Owl could finally no longer tolerate this girl who continuously brought disaster upon them. Lunging forward, she tackled the girl to the ground, delivered a hard punch to Xia Li's face, and screamed at her in a state of utter breakdown.
“I told you to shut up!”
Xia Li's previously chaotic eyes cleared instantly. Clutching her swollen cheek in disbelief, she stared at the distorted face full of hatred before her. “Big Sister?”
“They were right. You're a scourge! You're nothing but a scourge!”
Xia Li's heart felt as though it had been violently whipped, stopping in its tracks. Invisibly, a pair of hands seemed to tear open her chest, dragging her soul away from her frail body.
“I should never have brought you along in the first place! You're the one who got the doctor killed and slowed us down! If not for you, Uncle Benjamin wouldn't have died! We could have had a better life, and it's all because of you!”
“It wasn't me...” Xia Li waved her hands, struggling desperately, her legs kicking frantically against the ground.
“It wasn't me...”
“You're a fucking scourge, do you hear me? A scourge!”
“I didn't want to leave with you guys.”
“You were the one... who forced your own ideas onto me. I had no choice.” Tears welled up in the corners of Xia Li's eyes. “I clearly said that I wanted to stay back there.”
“Then why did you follow us?!” Owl's vice-like hands clamped hard around Xia Li's throat, tightening her grip.
A suffocating sensation rushed into Xia Li's brain. In her eyes, Owl's appearance began to morph into that of a demon. She struggled to make a few sounds, her little face growing paler by the second as her legs kicked with increasing desperation.
“But you still followed us, didn't you? You still needed someone else to make a choice for you, didn't you?”
Night Owl and Sparrow were terrified by this sudden turn of events. They rushed forward to pull them apart, only to be violently shoved into the corner by Owl.
In that exact instant, Xia Li gripped the scissors she had been holding in her palm and stabbed upward with all her might!
Blood dripped into her eyes, drop by drop.
Xia Li stared blankly as Owl clutched her chest, taking a few steps back before collapsing in the corner of the wall. The savage expression on Owl's face gradually faded. After a dry chuckle, nothing remained but guilt and numbness.
“I'm sorry, Xiao Li...”
“I lost control of my emotions just now. Did I scare you? Don't take what I said to heart...”
“Big Sister? Big Sister?”
Xia Li crawled trembling toward the girl, falling and picking herself up. By the time she reached her side, the girl had already stopped breathing. The front of her clothes was heavily stained red with blood, and her head, which had been raised, now drooped listlessly.
The thick, metallic scent of blood assaulted her senses. To Xia Li, Owl was someone who was truly like family. If Owl hadn't been there to guide and comfort her, warming her through every long night, she would never have survived in that dark, hopeless laboratory until today.
She was beyond saving.
Xia Li could no longer tell if she was in pain or simply numb.
It was she who had killed everyone close to her.
When she turned around, her remaining two companions were staring at her with terror. In their eyes, this little girl with dark red hair, holding bloody scissors with blood splattered on her face, was no different from a demon.
No, she was a natural-born demon!
From the moment of her birth, she was destined to hurt the people around her over and over again, bringing calamity to this world!
Finally, the previous commotion drew the attention of the law enforcers outside. Soon, one of them pried open the cellar hatch, only to witness a scene that sent shivers down their spines.
On the ground, the man's corpse had already gone stiff. In the corner, two children curled up in terror, staring in one direction.
There, a painfully thin little girl curled her body, resting her head against the chest of the girl before her. She seemed to be smiling, as if seeking some sort of comfort in the girl's embrace, while a pair of scissors remained lodged in the older girl's chest, blood continuously seeping out.
They could not even tell if the girl's hair was naturally a camellia-like dark red, or if it had simply been dyed red with blood.
The moment anyone laid eyes on Xia Li, the same thought crossed their minds.
She was beyond saving.
After a moment's thought, Law Enforcer Li Si ordered, “Take them away.”
Just as they were about to step forward and pull Xia Li up, the little girl slowly raised her head. “I'm a scourge. Anyone who comes near me will meet with misfortune.”
In the next instant, an explosion echoed from outside the cellar!
A law enforcer was blasted right across everyone's line of sight.
“What's going on?” Li Si frowned.
“Captain, a group of refugees has broken in! Ah—”
A terrified scream came from the other end of the communicator, followed by the sound of a cleaver slicing into flesh. The atmosphere instantly plunged into an eerie silence.
“Keep an eye on them. I'll go outside to see what's happening!”
After instructing his subordinates, Li Si rushed to the corridor. The scene before him made his pupils contract slightly. A pink-haired girl with a cute bun was fighting like a demon. The cleaver in her hand moved so fast it left afterimages, her intense killing intent forming a stark, jarring contrast with her pure and cute appearance.
The refugees following behind her were all covered in dirt, trembling like cicadas in winter. One of them only dared to poke a fallen guard beside him with a small twig to see if he was completely dead.
“Where is Dark Gold Rose?” Yueyue asked, pulling her cleaver out from a law enforcer's waist.
Li Si was stunned. He thought, What the hell, where did this little demon king come from? Setting aside who Dark Gold Rose is, is there any logical connection between looking for someone and hacking down everyone you see?
“It seems you have no intention of saying anything.” Yueyue shook the blood off her blade and suddenly lunged at Li Si, her bright pink eyes looking exceptionally bewitching against the fresh blood splattered on her cheeks.
No, young lady, do you even realize what you're asking?
A million alpacas stampeded through Li Si's mind. In the blink of an eye, Yueyue was right in front of him, her cleaver whistling as it slashed upward, aiming directly for his vitals.
Forced to defend himself, Li Si engaged. The weapon of a law enforcer materialized in his palm—a long baton wrapped in crackling lightning. With a twist of his hips, he swung it to clash against the girl's cleaver!
“Go, Sister Yueyue!” the player cheering squad behind her cheered.
“Sister Yueyue, smash him!”
Yet, in the very first exchange, the pink-haired girl was blasted into the wall like a discarded rag, unable to get back up.
The players slapped their foreheads in unison.
After all, law enforcers in this instance were elite bosses, second only to the riot suppressors. Their strength, agility, and constitution stats exceeded the average player's by nearly tenfold.
Having taken a direct hit, a heavy injury notification popped up in front of Yueyue's eyes. Her gaze was filled with frustration. Her bones were shattered all over, and she could barely feel her limbs. Just as she was trying to grip her cleaver to fight to the bitter end, the lightning-wrapped law enforcer's baton broke through the smoke, thrusting directly toward her face.
“It seems we haven't taught you underclass folks a lesson in too long. To dare provoke a law enforcer... it really pisses me off!” Li Si sneered.
Is this where it ends?
Yueyue closed her eyes in frustration.
She hadn't even had the chance to look at Dark Gold Rose a few more times.
Damn it, she was so unwilling.
The expected pain never came. Yueyue tentatively opened her eyes a crack, only for them to go wide.
A few strands of blonde hair drifted onto her shoulders. A blonde girl wearing the exact same law enforcer uniform had appeared before her at some unknown point. With a calm expression, she effortlessly blocked the attack, her law enforcer trench coat billowing like battle standard!
“Are you alright?” Xu Xiaoyou turned back to ask.
“Dark Gold Rose...” Yueyue covered her mouth, her eyes sparkling with light.
Li Si roared in his heart: Setting aside where the hell you came from, don't make it look like we're the villains here, okay?!
Rate on N.U.
