Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 337 - Three Hundred and Thirty-Four: "But My Hair Has Turned White

Chapter 337: Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Four: "But My Hair Has Turned White

Su Ming’an went back to his room and immediately fell asleep.

Due to the nightly challenges involving the Demon King and the Brave, he was severely deprived of sleep.

However, he hadn’t been asleep long when he was suddenly awakened by noises outside.

"— to ensure the safety of the Eastern District... Royal City... taxation..."

"I beg you... please... if... we..."

The noise outside grew louder and more intense, giving Su Ming’an a headache.

He initially didn’t want to deal with it, but the noise outside only grew louder, even mingling with faint cries and the sound of smashing, accompanying loud angry shouts.

He sat up abruptly, rubbed his eyes, and his wristwatch suddenly lit up.

"Good afternoon, master! It is now three twelve in System Time, I will play some soothing wake-up music for you..."

"Shut up," Su Ming’an said.

The light from the wristwatch immediately withdrew, and the music that had just started also silenced.

From the wristwatch came a timid voice: "Master, you haven’t named me yet."

"Name yourself," Su Ming’an said as he got up from the bed to listen to the commotion outside.

"But master, how can I possibly name myself..."

"Then you’re called Alone," Su Ming’an said offhandedly.

Alone was the name of a goldfish Su Ming’an used to have.

The smart wristwatch seemed quite happy with the name.

Su Ming’an walked to the door, listening to the noise outside.

"Sir, the three percent tax is already life-threatening, can you please bring it up with the Royal City, four percent taxation is really..."

Su Ming’an pushed open the door.

The incident was taking place not far down the street, and because the residents’ pleas were too loud, it was even audible through the drafty door.

On a cobbled street littered with rags and garbage, a tall man stood in the middle, a cigarette dangling from his mouth; behind him were several guards in Royal City uniforms.

"You dare defy the orders from the Royal City?" the man bellowed at a crying woman on the ground: "The barriers are weak, the storms are rampant, and adding one percent tax is already merciful of them. You parasites, who only think about your own lives, should have limits to your selfishness!"

The man stepped forward, snatched the jade bracelet from the woman’s wrist, ignored her pleading, turned, and walked away, leaving parting words:

"The day after tomorrow is tax collection day, you vermin better remember to pay up on time! Pulaya supports no waste!"

Behind him, the uniformed guards blocked the woman, and with a shove from each, the woman ended up lying beside the building.

"Mom, mom..." a little girl in tattered clothes supported the coughing woman.

Behind them was a leaky shack.

The nearby residents also helped the woman, patting her back, telling her to calm down.

"Kasana, don’t be sad, everything will get better..."

"The father of my child just went to sea, how dare they just rob us overtly, we’ve lived in Pulaya for generations, how have we become vermin..." the woman sobbed and coughed, evidently unwell for some time.

"Kasana, that’s the way people from the Royal City are, we can’t do anything... why don’t you visit the tavern we told you about before? They might be able to give you some money to help you through this tough time..."

Under the residents’ persuasion, the woman’s expression kept changing.

Finally, looking into her daughter’s timid eyes, she nodded with difficulty.

The tavern that people spoke of seemed like a terrifying place to her.

Su Ming’an leaned against the door frame, watching the scene unfold nearby.

It appeared the locals had had enough excitement, and went about their own business, and the crying woman also got up and headed out to the street.

In the room next to Su Ming’an, an old lady was working the sewing machine, which creaked and emitted the soft friction of thread and fabric.

The room wasn’t soundproof, so sounds from inside easily came out.

It seemed the family was having a conversation.

"...Mom, stop worrying about me..."

"...How can I not worry, you’re my daughter, don’t worry, even if the old man can’t get the medicine, you and Lele will be fine."

"...Why bother..."

"Don’t worry about it, just lie down, I’m thinking of getting someone to send this family photo over..."

Su Ming’an wasn’t one to eavesdrop, he turned around, planning to go back to his room to catch up on some more sleep.

At the window, however, the sound of the sewing machine suddenly stopped.

"Hey, I see who’s standing by the door... young man, young man, hey, Su Rin’s family!"

As Su Ming’an turned around, the old lady’s voice came from inside the window.

When he looked her way, the old lady stopped her sewing.

She folded the fabric and clothes she held, waved to him through the window.

Su Ming’an hesitated for a moment, then walked over. To his surprise, the old lady opened the door to let him in.

The house was small but appeared very clean, as if it had been meticulously cleaned. The dining area and the inner bedroom were only separated by a screen, from behind which came intermittent coughing.

When Su Ming’an entered, the old lady’s granddaughter Lele came out holding an empty bowl that had contained medicine, furrowing her brow slightly at him, apparently quite wary of him.

"Lele, I’m going to talk to this young man," said the old lady.

Lele pouted and turned back to the area behind the screen.

Sitting next to the sewing machine, the old lady carefully straightened the clothes in her hands.

"Young man," she lowered her head and said, "Have you signed up for Soul Hunt yet?"

"..."

"You didn’t come back last night, so I knew you must have become a Soul Hunter... Don’t be nervous, I’m not blaming you," the old lady said as she smoothed the fabric with her thinly skinned hands. Her fingers brushed against a box beside her, then she pulled out a thin needle: "Thinking that the Maritime Banquet is about to start, I wanted to ask for your help."

"It’s fine," Su Ming’an said, "Just say it."

Communicating with the locals was beneficial for gathering information, and he didn’t refuse.

The old lady grinned, her smile wide.

She squinted her eyes, put down the needle, and then found a photograph that looked like a painting.

The photograph seemed to have been made using a special technique, exceptionally blurred, the faces unclear, only vaguely showing a family of four standing in it.

Her somewhat trembling fingers caressed the black and white photo before she handed it over to Su Ming’an.

"Young man, you are from Su Rin’s family, a good young man," she said. "I’m old now, can hardly move anymore, and can only spend my days and nights in this small house..."

Su Ming’an took the photo.

"I want to ask you to take this photo to the Central Soul Hunter Department," the old woman said. "After the Soul Hunters die, their photos are kept at the Central Soul Hunter Department. I thought, although the old man can no longer return, I wanted to fulfill his wish to have this photo of him and our little Her preserved together...This is the clearest photo I have found; I hope their faces can still be seen clearly..."

Su Ming’an took a look.

The photo was blurry, and even the faces looked as if they had been rubbed away, completely indistinguishable.

"It’s clear enough," he said. "I will submit it to the Soul Hunter Department."

He took the photo; the old lady seemed to want to say something more.

After putting on her glasses with trembling hands, she began moving her needle.

"You have been back these days, and you must have seen," she said softly. "This Pulaya is no charity hall. It’s not a place where everyone can live well."

Su Ming’an remained silent.

"The situation you just saw, with the Royal City imposing taxes, we can’t do anything. If a family doesn’t have a young and strong member, living is just being a parasite, a burden..." the old lady said. "I even saw a Knight of Light coming to our neighborhood last night; probably even the church can’t tolerate our impoverished district anymore..."

"Knight of Light?" Su Ming’an guessed probably Sherrod had come looking for him for a mission last night, but unfortunately, he was still in the Southern District with the Soul Clan. "It’s probably not the church. They don’t seem to care about these things."

"Is that so?" the old lady laughed. "More than sixty years ago in Pulaya, during that time of the most scarce resources, the hardest times, when Su Rin had just ascended to Cloud City and hadn’t yet managed to establish the barrier...The first one who advocated abandoning the residents to save resources was the church."

As she spoke, the fingers holding the needle gradually clenched tighter: "Back then, life here wasn’t so tough... My old man was a man of old culture; back then, he would talk about literature, history, and the local customs of Pulaya. Even working as a public speaker or writing newsletters, life was barely manageable..."

"He loved to show off, and his favorite activity was being a second-line team leader for the Soul Hunt at night, helping to search for clues. I always advised him, told him it was like a suicide squad, but he still loved doing it, kept it a secret from us, lived like he was part of an underground team, so stubborn, no matter how much I pleaded, he wouldn’t listen..."

"Later, after our daughter Jiajia fell sick, he ascended to Yun Shang City, said he was going to look for medicine."

"Our whole family waited. Waiting for him to come down, waiting for him to bring the medicine back."

"...We waited until our granddaughter Lele was born, until little Her sacrificed himself, but he never returned."

"I still remember how radiant he looked when he left, every year he would send us letters, asking us to wait, and we did."

"Waited until my hair turned white, my eyes could no longer see clearly, until I can barely sew anymore."

"...Finally, there was news from him."

"He said I didn’t need to wait for him anymore."

"But I had already waited until my hair turned white."

Perhaps because she had found someone to talk to, the old lady’s words were a bit rambling.

She truly seemed unable to see clearly, a faint whiteness spreading in her pupils, the needle she held between her fingers, struggling half the day to thread into the eye.

"You don’t have to worry too much," Su Ming’an said. "I’ve seen the rules over at the Soul Hunter Department, relatives of sacrificed Soul Hunters are supposed to receive financial support and care, looking at your circumstances, it seems like the Soul Hunter Department hasn’t noticed. I’ll go there tomorrow to bring it up, and let them send down the assistance, your living conditions will improve a lot."

Hearing his words, the old woman fell silent for a while.

She put down the needle, and covered his hand.

Her hand that covered his was a bit cold, much colder than normal people, like ice, and after a moment of silence, she continued to smile.

"Thank you for that," her voice was very soft. "With this help, Jiajia and Lele will live better."

Lateя, the old woman held his hand and spoke a lot more to him.

She said that the situation in the Eastern District was indeed bleak. The Royal City had raised taxes, and residents could no longer sustain their lives. To support their families, they had no choice but to join taverns that swindled outsiders, trafficking slaves to make money to feed their entire families.

Others, just to get some money from foreigners, would seduce them intentionally, using their bodies as capital to survive.

There were also those who would take on the task of cleaning battlefields and organizing the dirty, exhausting work of the districts, braving the risk of remnants from the Soul Clan, venturing into such war zones to transport corpses for compensation.

Some acted out of desire, some out of coercion, and others out of familial obligation. But all of them were doing it to survive in this damned world.

The chaos just now was exactly like that. The woman who had her jade bracelet stolen had, for the sake of her child, been forced to decide to join one of those conscience-debasing taverns.

Through the old lady’s words, Su Ming’an gradually remembered the chaos he had encountered when he first arrived in Pulaya.

Slave taverns that cheated outsiders, overly enthusiastic women, clean and tidy districts, bodies covered with white cloths...

All phenomena that seemed irrational at first, gradually seemed reasonable amid the old lady’s deep, hoarse voice.

This was a world where people had to harm each other to survive.

Humans and the Soul Clan, the Soul Clan and the Soul Clan, humans and humans.

People, in this pathological mode of surviving, stray from their hearts and coexist with pain.

Enduring humiliation and sneaking a survival.

...Is this really just a fictitious game instance?

...

The old lady’s conversation with him lasted a long time.

She told him that being weak is not something shameful. Life does not necessarily have to pursue something; as long as one can live without regret.

She told him that after becoming a Soul Hunter, he should not violate the basic rules or overreach for anyone. The Royal City had its reasons for raising taxes, and people at different levels see different things.

She told him that what people should focus on is not to gain pleasure or avoid pain, but to see the meaning of life. One will find the answers to one’s problems in their lifetime.

She told him to cherish those years that now seem incredibly free.

She told him that wisdom could also represent strength and that humans inherently possess infinite possibilities.

She told him to live well.

"...Anyway, don’t be afraid, you’re still young, and your path ahead is long. Even if you see a lot of darkness and many injustices along the way, you should prioritize protecting yourself... The Soul Hunter Department is not a place of cannibalism, and the Royal City has its own considerations. You must not be shortsighted or impulsively stand for justice... Only when you ascend higher, see further, can you understand that some things are not as simple as they seem," the old lady, holding his hand, said hoarsely: "Su Rin, child of the Su family... you’re a good young man, now a Soul Hunter, you will fulfill your dreams."

Su Ming’an nodded.

He had grown up in a not-so-happy family, and apart from his father, no elder had spoken such truths to him.

Listening to the old grandmother’s rambling words, he inexplicably felt comforted.

She would talk to him about past events, household stories, common human conditions, her life’s experience, her lifetime of stories, and talk about her son, little Hel, and how cute he was when he was young.

Her voice was gentle, and her tone was soft, like a flowing stream. Listening, his originally tense mood relaxed considerably, and some of his numb emotions began to soften.

For the first time since the beginning of the game, he felt cared for by an elder.

He sat there for a long time, for about two or three hours, as the sunset slowly spread across the windowsill like a band of light, there was a knock on the door.

The old lady let go of his hand, stood up, and opened the door.

There, standing in front of the house, bathed in the sunset’s glow, was the handsome Knight of Light.