Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 429 - 287: Before the End of the Competition (Part 3)

Chapter 429: Chapter 287: Before the End of the Competition (Part 3)

Malin felt a headache coming on—he had just been chatting with Faye when abruptly, a wave of sleepiness overcame him, and the next thing he knew, he woke up sitting on a bench by this street.

A strange city in ruins, twilight, deserted.

Standing up, Malin walked down the street, and in areas where buildings were relatively intact, he keenly observed—these areas formed an arc, and he was inside the arc.

Malin carefully walked a few dozen meters further inside and saw the melted streets, the twisted, deformed rubble... This must have been the world after a nuclear war, the era of the Great Destruction, where the creators of this planet finally annihilated each other.

How pitiful for the innocents of this entire planet.

Looking at the tiny shadow on the wall, Malin sighed inwardly.

Then, he heard the sound of pebbles rolling. Turning his head, Malin saw a naked, emaciated yet potbellied... humanoid creature.

It could no longer be called human; its body had no hair, its hideous shell was covered with broken skin, revealing the flesh underneath.

Malin stood right in front of it, but the pitiable creature carried on as if it hadn’t noticed Malin at all, sniffing around and gradually moving further away from him, using its hands and feet.

Malin reached out his hand and found it passed through the twisted streetlamp.

Spiritual Body?

With that question in mind, Malin simply followed the monster. The closer he got to the Epicenter, the more he felt the distortion in the air. Perhaps the massive energy of the explosion had torn a gap between planes, allowing this world to come into contact with Subspace, ultimately changing everything on this world.

Malin saw the skinless monster and watched as it finally found a large rat among the ruins... much like the giant rats he had seen in Carterburg.

Clutching the rat in its jaws, the creature quickly weaved through the ruins, until it flipped over a pile of debris, and there Malin saw a small family nestled among the ruins that hadn’t completely collapsed—a female similar to the creature and a few younglings. They had no fire and were eating the rat raw.

Watching all this, Malin suddenly began to understand why the steps of the Sage Sequence related to the old era were so secretive to outsiders not belonging to the Sage Sequence.

Because witnessing this tragic scene was unbearable even for them, and someone from the past like Malin would also feel a trace of sorrow.

Thinking this, Malin turned and left.

Walking down the streets, Malin soon noticed a place resembling a subway entrance.

He made his way down, passing through the half-open iron plates, the stairs littered with fragments of skeletons, and came upon what seemed to be a ticketing platform, scattered with broken bones. Further down, the bones were even piled up.

Malin did not go any further. He passed through the rust-marked door, which cut off everything outside. In this small room, a skeleton sat in front of a small table with tea sets on it, and the tea cup, long since dried up, still had some dark tea residue.

Two chairs were beside him, one holding another skeleton. It seemed they had died from poison, while another skeleton’s skull had a hole on the side, in conjunction with the decaying heap on the floor that looked like a gun...

It had the smell of the wasteland.

As Malin thought this, he bent down to pick up the weapon. Just as his hand was about to touch it, a self-warning made Malin stop and turn around; he saw a Chaos Fear Monster on the metal door.

This Chaos Fear Monster seemed to be aware of Malin’s presence, but it seemed unable to see Malin who was so close. This made Malin frown, so he turned around, facing the fear monster. He stooped and moved his hand near the gun, and suddenly the fear monster howled as if it had seen Malin.

Then Malin quickly withdrew his hand, and the fear monster paused for a moment, as if Malin had disappeared from its sight.

It cautiously surveyed the room, and while Malin wondered if the Chaos Fear Monster was putting on an act, he passed through the wall and saw that the fear monster was still blocking that door—its howls had attracted its companions, who rushed down, but none of them noticed Malin. Together they charged into the small room, tearing it apart.

Malin returned to the surface, and for some reason, he found his way back to that small home, only to discover that the family had been torn to shreds.

Standing by the smallest youngling, seeing half its body gone, watching as it finally stopped whimpering.

Malin took a deep breath.

Then, as if something had been ignited, Malin looked to the left at the ruins. The fear monsters seemed to have noticed him again; they scrambled over the ruins, charging towards Malin, but as they got about ten meters close to him, they began to ignite themselves, eventually turning to ashes.

Malin felt his Spiritual Energy completely activated. He looked to the other side and saw a figure in a blue robe, faceless, charging at him.

Malin raised his hand, and his Spiritual Energy, like a tidal wave, struck the Chaos creature in an instant. Within the next second, the Chaos turned to ash without even the stage of self-ignition.

So this was the era of the Great Destruction, the invasion of Chaos predating the historical records. The history he had seen before was likely also a falsehood.

So, the question arose, who had saved this world?

As Malin pondered this question, he noticed a breath coming from afar. Climbing over the ruins, he saw humans weaving through them.

They were clad in tight, full cover armor, wielding cold and hot weapons. The leader raised his hand upon spotting Malin.

As if he had noticed Malin.

Malin couldn’t understand what they were saying, but no matter; through the linkage of Spiritual Energy, he quickly understood the man’s words.

"Heroic Spirit."

He called Malin this. Malin was silent for a moment, then finally shook his head, "I’m not," he said.

But his voice reached the man’s ears, who turned to his companions, "Do not disturb him, he’s not our enemy."

Eventually, they left, walking around Malin.

Are these the survivors?

Malin watched as they finally disappeared among the ruins.

The next second, Malin felt himself becoming lighter.

Then Malin woke up.

He found himself in Maya’s embrace, surrounded by the breathing sounds of the ladies, with the night sky outside the window exceptionally bright. Through the gauze curtains, he could roughly see the moon, which was extremely round.

Was it a dream?

Malin was somewhat puzzled, then felt it strange—he hadn’t even touched the edge of the Sage, how could he dive deep into Subspace, back to the age of the Great Destruction Era.

Or... Should he ask Lady Anna or someone else who might know about these things tomorrow?

That’s settled then.

With that thought in mind, Malin fell asleep again.

.........

"Has that damn painting changed?!" Zem Mayer burst in through the door and shouted at his assistant, Jiaxi Sheringham—that damn painting had just been given to that great existence in the Mechanical Realm two days ago, and before two days of peace had passed, today came the news that content from the Great Destruction Era had appeared on the painting.

Zem’s first thought was how far the painting was from Malin.

He then confirmed that Malin was in the annex, at least fifteen kilometers away from the painting.

And then new information came—the situation with the painting had improved.

Before, the whole department’s building had been chaotic, but when Zem entered, he found only a very slight whiff of Chaos.

"Gone." Jiaxi said while standing up and throwing a lead helmet to Zem: "We need to check the room and see if Chaos has twisted any of those dangerous artifacts."

"My goodness, will I see the sun tomorrow?" Zem put on the helmet, took the shotgun thrown by his teammate, drank a bottle of Holy Water at the entrance of the corridor, and poured another bottle over his head.

In front of the Greedy Doll’s containment room, Zem saw through the window that the doll had once again left its chair, only this time it was hiding under the chair.

"It’s scared..." Jiaxi said, puzzled.

"Yeah, why would a being of Chaos be afraid of Chaos?" Zem was very curious, but anyway, it was good that it knew fear, so the group moved on to the second room.

In Zem’s imagination, the animated dagger should now be in the hands of the room observer, who was frantically cutting his own wrists.

But the reality was that it lay motionless on the mat.

"Strange, shouldn’t it become more active in the presence of Chaos?"

As Zem said this, he walked into the room with his gun drawn and asked the guard, "Are you alright?"

"Fine, sir... and could you move the gun away a bit, sir."

Zem nodded and then left the room.

The next room was the Magic Mirror’s.

"It didn’t ask any questions today, sir," said the staff member responsible for the Magic Mirror.

"That’s great." Zem nodded, ready to leave the room when he heard the Magic Mirror’s shrill laugh, "That’s because you’re too stupid! Idiots!"

Zem waited a moment, realized the Magic Mirror really didn’t ask any questions, and then left the room.

Meanwhile, in his heart, he cursed the damn mirror with a whole bottle of salt soda.

Arriving at the last door, Zem knocked and then a small child inside opened it.

"Miller, are you okay?" Zem asked, looking at the child before him.

The child in the room shook his head, "Is it still safe here? Should I leave for a few days?" The child said this, looking fearfully towards the other end of the corridor.

Zem turned to look at Jiaxi, and his assistant asked Miller, "Why do you want to leave?"

"Because it’s too dangerous." The child finished speaking and started crying, "It’s much scarier than the last robot, sir."

Zem and Jiaxi looked at each other and finally answered in unison, "You don’t have to go, it’s safe here now."

No sooner had they spoken than they heard a scream from the other end of the corridor, and the two ran over like the wind, only to find that a small figure had been added to the painting.

And there was Miller’s crying from the other end of the corridor.

"It’s not safe at all!" he said.

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