Chapter 199: Chapter 199: You see, this is very simple
This is a heartbreaking story, and in fact, almost every one of the Forgotten has such a heart-wrenching experience behind them. Being separated by life and death is one of the most painful things in this world, and the complex situation of undead creatures, where even death may not be the end, complicates a simple farewell into endless twists and turns that plague the mind. Nearly every story related to the undead is far more emotionally compelling than the everyday emotions of the living. For instance, the Little Loli from Dalaran County, unresolved love stories, the tragic story of the father, Zaken, and his daughter, or Mr. Ximen and… but that doesn’t count.
For some reason, whenever faithful love stories are mentioned, I think of Mr. Ximen’s majestic demeanor, which is quite bizarre.
The world is full of misfortunes, and although we claim to be Saviors, even Saviors need public holidays and private lives. We simply cannot save every unfortunate person. Even those angels with halos above their heads don’t have that ability—ones like Alaya are always getting themselves into trouble and waiting for others to save them.
But on the other hand, it’s somewhat justifiable to leave those we haven’t met, or those we are unable to save, to their own devices. However, if we do come across someone we can help, it would be rather unconscionable to just ignore them. This isn’t about being overly altruistic—it’s about conscience and nature, like discovering a bus driver bravely fighting a villain while dozens of men stand by and watch—it’s the same principle. I wish all those bystanders who don’t care about others find themselves in need of help someday.
I’ve always believed that idly standing by in the face of injustice is despicable, but now, sadly, I realize that we don’t even have the courage to shout out any longer—we are worse than despicable.
Actually, what I want to say is, now that I have the ability to slightly improve the situation of the Forgotten, if I were to ignore them just because “they aren’t my people, why should I meddle,” I truly couldn’t live with myself. From the connections over the past few days, I’ve grown somewhat fond of these undead creatures. It’s good to lend a hand where we can, especially with Anwina’s involvement…
Listen, this has nothing to do with increasing Miss Xi’s favorability!!!
They say a good leader is the type who doesn’t do things but tells their subordinates what needs to be done. I consider myself a good leader because, right away, I informed Sivis in Serramo about this “Bringing Warmth to Dark City” plan. I let that responsible big sister Commander deal with the headache, while Anwina and I continued to goof off, scrounging eats and drinks in Dark City.
Three days passed quickly without incidents. Though the Forgotten have a fairly democratic voting system, Sylvanas’ wishes still largely represented the desires of everyone in the Undead Kingdom. So effortlessly, the Forgotten boarded our warship.
I almost said it was like boarding a ‘ship of thieves’.
The night Sylvanas informed me of this, I contacted the various action groups undermining other major clans’ capitals, ready to exchange information and show off the rapid progress on my side a bit.
“A very wise choice,” Sandora commented on the Forgotten’s decision, “They just chose the option most beneficial to themselves. Based on your description, the Forgotten’s situation is truly dire. They’ve probably reached a point where they don’t care about losing anything else. Finding an ally must seem like a godsend to them—however, Ah Jun, you should still be cautious. I suspect many among the undead are blinded by hate. They probably don’t consider anything other than seeking revenge on the living, and most of the rest probably joined the Salvation Army just to gain more benefits and achieve their own goals. We can still try to win over the latter, but the former… it’s best to eliminate them as soon as possible.”
“Of course,” I nodded, “Actually, I might not even need to lift a finger. Sylvanas has already started to eliminate such unstable elements. It seems she’s truly determined or maybe, forced by the circumstances to put all her eggs in one basket. The Witch Demon King of this world might be a bit useless, but those Bloodthirsty Crusaders are something else—speaking of which, how are things on your end? Sivis, since you’ve got Jaina’s groundwork there, you go first.”
“I’m making smooth progress,” Sivis replied meticulously, “Jaina and Sal’s efforts have been quite effective. Despite the deep-seated grudges between the Beastmen and Humans, under the revelation of a ‘Miracle,’ there should be no problem on the Beastmen’s side.”
“Dingdang over here is also doing well!” a soft, delicate voice suddenly joined the Spiritual Connection, and from this voice, I could almost see Little Thing flapping her wings joyfully and shouting excitedly in mid-air. Dingdang’s voice always filled with such vivid imagery.
“Have you settled the Dark Night Elves?” I asked with a faint smile on my face. No matter how head-spinning the issues are, as long as this eternally joyful Little Thing was around, it seemed our spirits would inevitably relax. From this perspective, in an excellent Adventure Team, a carefree cheerleader is absolutely essential.
We are excellent to the point of envy because at least half of us belong to the carefree type.
“Miss Lin and Dingdang taking action, of course, is a guaranteed success,” naturally, this was Miss Lin speaking, “As for you, it seems I had underestimated you before. I thought you’d definitely be idling your time away in Dark City for half a year waiting for us to come rescue you. I didn’t expect you to sort things out so quickly.”
Well, Lin Xue’s “idling time away” was surprisingly true to fact.
“It’s my turn, it’s my turn,” Qianqian suddenly interrupted with a forceful voice, accompanied by a series of suspicious bubbling sounds, “Ah Jun, guess what I found at the bottom of the ocean? Pearls! Corals! Fist-sized luminous pearls!”
…I seriously doubt that this girl has forgotten what she went there for.
“Qianqian, you haven’t been just playing salvage at the bottom of the sea these past two days, have you?”
“No, I incidentally visited Aisala’s palace…”
“Kidding,” Qianqian suddenly giggled, “Our family is rich now, those little things are beneath us.”
I maintained a reserved attitude toward this. After all, I had once plotted with this girl to fill the deck of a Faith-class ship with residential areas and then rent them out at a low price. It’s hard to imagine how our lowly civilians could be so open-minded.
Anyway, the situation at Qianqian’s end seemed somewhat okay, although those Naga, due to years of isolation, have developed a bit of claustrophobic neurosis (a medical term I invented, which received inhumane disdain from Miss Lin), but under Qianqian’s promising picture of “returning to land” and “breaking the curse,” the Naga clearly leaned toward our side.
I later learned that Qianqian had given those fish-tailed beings more than just empty promises. The Twins secretly told me that when many Naga adopted a non-cooperative non-violence attitude, Qianqian, in a fit of rage, publicly transformed nearly ten thousand of the supposedly strongest Royal Guards of the Naga into little fry, which was the key reason why the Naga clan gravitated towards the great Salvation Army.
As for the part handled by my sister and Alaya, it seemed much easier than for anyone else. Light Angels, Divine Warships, my sister even used holographic projection for a grand descent of gods event. So many heavy bombshells on the heads of those human rulers who worshipped the Holy Light; there was no suspense in the outcome. Even issues like forming an alliance with Undead creatures, which could have been the biggest obstacle, were smoothly glossed over. Of course, involving Undead creatures, there were certainly objections, but following Alaya’s perfectly mirrored version of the strongest sophistry I once used to bamboozle Anthony, all opposition was a heinous crime against humanity~~
At last, we all quieted down, leaving the floor to Sandora and Pandora, who hadn’t yet reported their situation. I was quite curious to see what surprises this duo, arguably the most fiercely combative ultimate violent sisters among us, could bring me. One was the Soul Taker, capable of instantaneously enslaving every creature in an entire city, and after transforming, gaining terrifying close combat abilities to fight with Abyss Creatures. The other was a super Loli who could, with a single shriek, blow through the Himalayas. Moreover, this Loli possessed a violent authoritarian attribute completely opposite to her sweet appearance. These two mobile Imperial arsenals combined, whatever sparks they might ignite, could likely blow the Dragon Clan to oblivion.
“The Dragon Clan isn’t too bad,” Sandora began with what seemed like praise. According to the theory of giving a sweet jujube after a beating, since Sandora gave such a sweet jujube, without a doubt, what followed would be a brutally merciless thrashing with a Wolf Fang Club, “They’re just a bit stubborn and quite arrogant. They sincerely do want to protect the world, but that attitude of ‘I’m the Savior, and mortals should just obediently wait for our rescue’ really annoyed me and the little girl. So we used blitzkrieg to capture all the big shots of the Dragon Clan. Now Pandora beats up one of them every six hours on average. I guess they’ll soon realize whose fist is bigger.”
I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead. “You two be careful. The Dragon Clan is quite strong. If they really fight back, you’ll be in trouble.”
“Ha, no worries,” Sandora casually said, “If all the Dragon Clan came after us, the little girl and I might actually have to run. But I’ve already cut off the communication between those unfortunate souls using Spiritual Interference. When we tackle them one-on-one, a Big Lizard or two is nothing to Little Pandora and me.”
I just knew it, letting Pandora, the violence enthusiast, and Sandora, the mischievous accomplice, team up would definitely result in something …