Relief, Happiness, and Anticipation

Before long, the other guild members noticed a strange phenomenon.

The army of monsters that had been chasing them from behind began to decrease in number at some point, dropping from hundreds initially, its scale shrinking at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Eventually, only a few stragglers remained, drawn by one of their heavily injured members; their eyes glowing scarlet as they pounced, only to have their heads exploded by a thrusting punch from a street fighter who reacted just in time.

"What... what's the situation?" Golden Beetle looked up blankly.

"I don't know, but that sparkling red is really beautiful." Fei Yueyue pulled her axe out of the monster beneath her, wiping the blood from the blade.

Someone looked on warily: "Is it possible that members of other guilds have already entered the village?"

The man in glasses beside them pushed up his spectacles, the cracked, blood-stained lenses reflecting a shrewd light: "No, there should be a larger source of aggro moving at high speed, drawing all the monsters away from us."

Everyone simultaneously looked toward the dark-red-haired girl squatting in the corner; her face was filled with concern as she pinched a thin blade of grass, dabbing vermilion pigment onto the forehead of the mask in her palm; it was shaped like a yaksha, yet possessed massive spider fangs, appearing both angry and laughing, as ferocious as a demon.

"Is that... the Angry-Laughing Spider Mask?" a man who was clearly interested in the history of Red Heaven blurted out.

Noticing everyone's gaze, Akabane Tsubaki silently tucked the mask away, shrinking her shoulders, "Why are you looking at me?"

In the entire Light-Chaser Garden, Akabane Tsubaki had the highest agility attribute, but the girl clearly had nothing to do with attracting aggro.

At that moment, Xu Xiaoyou's instructions clearly reached everyone's ears.

"Gather at the pier, prepare to pull in the net."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shells continuously exploded around the silver-haired girl; she dodged the bombardment from behind while simultaneously staying alert for gnawers that pounced from street corners and alleys, maintaining her high-speed movement.

"Xu Xiaoyou, what on earth did you do?"

Angelina’s eyes seemed to spew fire as she questioned Xu Xiaoyou loudly over the communicator.

"Why are all the monsters converging toward me?"

Using her keen senses, Angelina captured an anomaly in the wind.

No, even if her senses were dull, she should have realized it by now.

Initially, those chasing her, including that lord, were only a few dozen monsters, but now, nearly all the hostile creatures in the entire town were following behind her.

Distorted faces squeezed into every corner of the street like a tsunami surging across the land; rotting limbs piled into screaming mountains, and countless faces grinning, hating, or weeping rolled within that meat grinder, casting a haze of death over the sky.

There was no doubt about the outcome of being caught in it: being torn into pieces.

"Those who are capable should do more," Xu Xiaoyou answered vaguely. "Continue toward the pier, Anya."

A spear thrown from somewhere unknown pierced through Angelina's back; the health she had painstakingly recovered bottomed out once more, entering a heavily injured state consecutively; Angelina could already imagine how severe the offset in her consciousness sea would be if she died now and left the Oasis.

Perhaps her psyche would be directly devastated.

If she could, she would certainly have logged out of the game to spite Xu Xiaoyou, ruining the other's plan and enjoying the look of frustration on her face.

But she couldn't.

She could not log out or die at this time.

Angelina was certain she could not bear the cost of a severe offset in her consciousness sea; pain was nothing to her, as centuries of time had already engraved pain into this body, making any physical suffering feel numb.

But mental trauma was different; the Heart of Desire within her was still endlessly beguiling her, whispering in her ear. Once her spirit wavered, that damned heart would seize her consciousness in an instant and pull her into the cage of the abyss.

She would endure agony far more intolerable than death, which pain could never hope to rival.

A feeling of weakness spread through her entire body, and Angelina's consciousness began to drift; the entire world in her vision started to spin, and the piercing screams circling her ears faded, replaced by ceaseless whispering and her own heavy panting.

That person had calculated exactly this, using it to threaten and exploit her.

A sense of boundless exhaustion suddenly enveloped Angelina at this moment. She lowered her eyes, and the thought of being swallowed by the black tide behind her—allowing those crazed monsters to tear her apart and letting herself be destroyed—began to sprout in her heart.

Why exactly was she... why did she have to endure loneliness, pain, and endless cold to persist in living?

What was the meaning of her existence?

This question had always plagued Angelina.

Having escaped from that hellish prison, Angelina had been fitted with heavy chains and sharp shackles, becoming a sinner walking across a boundless wasteland bearing various crimes.

Past agony tortured her every moment; even if those memories had become blurred or stripped away by others, her soul would not forget; countless companions had once used eyes full of hope, selfishness, or malice to impose a curse upon her—to live on.

Living was the most cruel punishment for her.

Even if she lived on...

She would not have any happy expectations for tomorrow.

Had she really escaped that hell?

Such confusion arose in Angelina's heart.

What exactly should she do to find relief?

"Anya, we're here."

The girl's voice in her ear interrupted Angelina's thoughts; dragging her battered body, she saw a black sea; if not for the severed limbs and fragments floating beneath the surface, she would have thought this was her final resting place.

Angelina turned around in a daze as a massive number of monsters caught up at that moment.

"Angelina, jump into the sea!" Xu Xiaoyou reminded her.

Angelina watched calmly as those distorted faces lunged toward her.

She stood by coldly as the other guild members who had arrived threw torches in her direction; sparks flew, instantly igniting the pre-laid fuel, and the rising flames surged toward the ships docked at the shore in a flash.

One could faintly discern that the hulls of these docked ships were piled high with crimson crystals.

At this moment, an unprecedented sense of crisis exploded in the mind of the heavy cannon lord giving orders, and its turbid consciousness instantly became clear. It turned back, wanting to roar and command all the rat-men behind it to retreat, but the ships began to burn violently at that moment; golden-red firelight pressed down, and a blinding white light swallowed the world!

Boom—a deafening explosion resounded through the heavens and earth.

The night hung low as the black dome expanded upward; flames roared like dragons rushing toward the sky, and tongues of fire collided and bit at each other in mid-air, shrinking rapidly before expanding at an even faster rate, layers of petals slowly blooming to weave together a brilliant golden rose.

In the distant mountains, the guild alliance, which had been marching at an accelerated pace, was so shocked by this scene that they were speechless.

The sound of something hitting the water was buried by the thunderous explosion.

In the cold and silent world, Angelina opened her eyes; what met her sight were scattered lights floating on the water's surface, and the person who had lunged at the last moment, falling with her into this boundless cold and darkness. The girl's loose long hair looked like crushed gold inlaid in the water, right before her eyes yet so distant, so beautiful and yet unreachable.