117. The Legend of the White Knight

  【...Yes. I haven't recalled this feeling in a long time.】

  "The universe."

  Du Zexin's tone was somewhat excited:

  "These things really exist, it sounds so beautiful."

  "It's not all beautiful—there are many strange races in the universe. Most are willing to unicate, but there are also those who are very servative. In fact, individual strength has little meaning in the universe because there is a very evil monster called 'Society.'"

  "Society?"

  Du Zexin asked curiously:

  "What kind of society? Patriarchal or matriarchal?"

  【Since a long time ago, games have turned into fighting and making money, and I've fotten that initial joy of pying games just for fun, enjoying the storyline and background.】

  "Society is very evil; it feeds on civilizations. It’s a group, like the 'Longfang Society—Galil.' Longfang is its title, society is its race, and Galil is its he existence of society has made those once desperate to asd to powerful individuals, thinking themselves invincible, into ridiculous fringe figures—aside from narrative-level civilizations, individuals ot tend with the disaster that is society."

  "It's se. Lone powerful individuals have no status in the universe. So why do they still seek to asd?" Du Zexin didn't uand: "If an individual is strong enough, there should easily emerge a group or tered around that individual, with everyone dedicated t the strong, sheltered by their great power..."

  "The universe is too vast. Except for narrative-level beings, no one dares to guaraheir strength will be eternal."

  "Then why do they still seek strength? Why not just revolve around the narrative-level civilizations?"

  Li Aozi expined:

  "Fear of death, and fear of being assimited by society."

  "Assimited?"

  Li Aozi turned his head, looking ahead as the traffic suddenly became gested.

  "I don't know if it's an illusion, but society particurly likes two types of people: those articurly intelligent and those who are fringe individuals. The smarter a person is, the more easily they reize society’s existehey believe that these 'living civilizations' represent the true path of civilization, so the more intelligent someone is, the more likely they are to be assimited into society as citizens."

  "Engineers, biochemists, mages, architects, and some deeply ied researchers—you must uand ohing: intelligence is an ability derived from education. Tnize education is to accept the transformation of civilization. The smarter a person is, the more their wisdom transds this era, making them more likely tnize and aggressively advocate for society."

  Du Zexin slowly decelerated, bypassing cars on the highway, stepping forward oep at a time.

  "And the other type?"

  Du Zexin asked while oddly gng around at the surrounding vehicles.

  'Why are the people in these cars all lying down? Could it be that the checkpoint ahead has been shut down?'

  "The other type is what I mentioned earlier—fringe individuals. They are not well-accepted by mainstream society, most are physically or mentally uhy, and their psychological defenses are weak, easily breached. Those self-righteous individual strongmeually beembers and chairmen of society, losing their souls."

  Li Aozi also noticed something was wrong. He stood up and used 【Eye of Truth】 to s ahead.

  In the gray-bck world, he saw a distinctly different color.

  A man stood before the checkpoint; all the cars had stopped in front of him, oer another, resulting in severe rear-end collisions.

  The man wore a cloak and hunched his back as if he had no spine.

  He stood there, his fiips split open, dripping silvery-white blood onto the ground, as if waiting specifically for them.

  Li Aozi frowned slightly.

  【Eye of Truth】 focused on the man, revealing only one line of text:

  【Target is hidden, ot be observed】

  "Hidden?"

  Li Aozi felt a surge of apprehension. For some reason, the moment he heard this word, an inexplicable anger welled up inside him. He drew his on from his waist and unleashed a radiation ssh at the man.

  Without hesitation, Du Zexin, seeing Li Aozi attack, immediately raised his Magnum Beam Rifle, aimed at the mysterious man on the ground, and pulled the trigger.

  But in the moment, Li Aozi heard a deeply uling sound, chilling and terrifying, like tless knife points colliding aal tearing. An image of a creature—great white shark—fshed in his mind.

  "【Shark Hunter Submerge】."

  The man’s voice was heart-wreng.

  Boom—

  The ground suddenly split with a ridge-like bde, and a shark swimming undergrou up lightly, blog Li Aozi's radiation ssh. Its scales, yered like bdes, shimmered coldly uhe artificial sun.

  The bde-shark flicked its tail, defleg the Magnum’s beam, slig a distant hill off.

  After pleting this, the bde-shark immediately circled around the man, approag the exit checkpoint. The wild wind outside blew against his cloak, lifting his hood and revealing a face that was excessively youthful.

  Golden hair, golden eyes, and cross-shaped pupils—apart from that, he looked like an ordinary boy.

  …No.

  Li Aozi's gaze shifted downward to the man's left hand, which held a strange spinal e covered in human skin and a girl’s head.

  That head... Li Aozi couldn't pce where he'd seen it before, but it looked hauntingly familiar.

  "Who are you?!"

  Du Zexin said softly:

  "Did you kill all the civilians in these cars? Who the hell are you?"

  The cross-eyed boy ignored him and instead looked at Li Aozi:

  "It's been a long time. Do you still remember me?"

  Li Aozi kept his mouth shut, his gaze indifferent, his pupils dited, and his plexion turned pale before quickly returning to normal.

  He had just inhaled a breath, and the system alerted him that he had inhaled 'Aether Blood,' instantly redug his health to zero.

  If not for Nomi's 【Blood of Immortality】, he would have died instantly from that so-called 'Aether Blood.'

  "Du Zexin, this guy is wrong."

  "Look at you," the boy chuckled, his cross eyes staring at Li Aozi. His cute, handsome face showed an ambiguous smile: "You're my great beor—Mr. Li Aozi."

  "Beor?"

  "Look at this; does it look familiar?"

  The boy raised the e in his hand.

  In the instant, a shadow burst forth, pinning Li Aozi to the ground. The ferocious shadow roared angrily at him, a howl mixed with indescribable sorrow.

  "Shadow Assault!" Li Aozi struggled, sshing the shadow to the ground with orike, his pupils trag.

  He thought of something and looked at the boy:

  "Hey, are you—"

  "In the past, I was called Zhu Baiya, a gang leader serving the ibal ier nds."

  The boy pnted his e in the ground, smiling slightly:

  "Before I died, I heard you say: ime, gather more troops. Too few people—not enough for my upgrade."

  "You killed me, but you probably didn't know what kind of effect the ibal's Camity Armament delivered that night had, right? The third-geion Camity Armament directly repce the user’s body! You didn’t expect that, did you? You haven’t seen it, have you? It’s a pity it only be used once. I used its ability to repce my dead body with this perfee qualified for it."

  The wind blew the hair on the e's head, revealing the happy face of a young girl.

  "…Zonia."

  Li Aozi recalled the name of the heavily scarred Camity Armament girl and said in a deep voice.

  "You saved everyone; you’re amazing, Li Aozi—but why didn't you save her?"

  The boy pinched Zonia’s face. The girl made into a on seemed to have sciousness, smiling blissfully as if lost in a dream.

  "Zonia, my dear sister," the boy murmured, ughing strangely: "You know, when I took your brother Youhe Lai’s body, the way you sacrificed yourself to save me was so toug, so cute, right?"

  "You beast." Du Zexin said in disgust: "You didn't even spare a child and used her love for her brother… turning her into a tool."

  "What's wrong with that?" The boy shrugged.

  "You still dare call yourself human after doing something like this?"

  Du Zexin shouted in anger:

  "I will kill you, you beast—"

  "Who told you I’m human?"

  The boy said, and in the moment, he reached out, slowly grasping the spine:

  "You should sider yourselves lucky because the oerminating you is a jury member."

  His golden cross pupils instantly turned crimson as he slowly pulled out a blood-stained bde from the spine on his back.

  "Great Maia, she has given me a new name."

  He raised the sword with one hand, drawing a circle above his head, his blood vessels barely taining the surgiher Blood within him.

  "Now, I am Youhei Knight—【White Knight】Youhei!"

  Youhei’s teeth sharpened like a shark's, a out a roar like something straight out of hell:

  "Desd Armor!"

  In the moment, the enormous white shark turs head and desded onto his body. The dense scales and bde-like edges verged into a pale armor, ly draping over his short, boyish frame.

  "I will kill you—"

  The shark’s fin transformed into bde-like arm bdes, and the long tail fin split apart, turning into two bded skirts that swayed in the wind, gleaming with an eye-pierg cold light.

  The shark’s mouth opened, r as it merged with Youhei’s head, transf into a silver-white knight’s helmet. The dorsal fin formed a yered, bde-like plume trailing behind, and two cross-shaped viewports emitted a dangerlow.

  Ka—

  The moment, the boy spread his arms, and the helmet's facepte split opeically, revealing sharp, shark-like teeth, emitting a heart-wreng roar:

  'Awooooooo!!!!!!'

  Fag this wild roar, Li Aozi’s face ged dramatically. His body colpsed to the ground, uo move.

  【What is this... why is this happening? I 't move at all!】

  Li Aozi’s vision shifted rapidly, and his blood felt like it was being squeezed by mercury, rendering him uo lift his head.

  【System... let me see what’s going on, quickly!】

  With great effort, Li Aozi mao open the system, only to see a cold line of text:

  【Aether Corrosion in progress. Your impnt has been obscured, biological funs suspended. tdown: 4:59】

  "Obscured?"

  Damn it, this obscuration again—what the hell is it?

  A full five minutes. If this weren't an impnted body, he'd be dead already.

  Aether, obscuration, White Knight.

  What is all of this?

  These things weren’t in the previous game at all!

  【White Knight】raised his gau, where a noticeable whetstoructure was embedded. He lifted his sword aly sharpe on the whetstone.

  【Sharpenih】

  Sparks flew as the pin bde instantly burst into a bzing light. Any tact with the bde edge immediately sliced through the air, stantly geing fri a around the sword.

  [Bst Magnum Charge]

  Before Du Zexin could pull the trigger, the sword had already arrived.

  g!

  Du Zexin’s pupils dited, and his eyes began to bleed.

  The massive white mech slowly split in two, colpsing to the ground.

  FAL