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Chapter 354 - 351: "I ask you to be the only one by my side.

Chapter 354: Chapter 351: "I ask you to be the only one by my side.

[In the twilight, a pair of figures came into my view.]

[Hand in hand, they walked away from me, step by step, as if they were gradually distancing themselves from me.]

[I shouted, wanting to chase after them, but I couldn’t catch up.]

[Then they turned their heads back.]

[They said with a smile, "Su Rin, look, do you see those people? They are all smiling at you."]

[...]

[And then everyone started looking at me.]

[...]

[...]

[People adorn their foolish actions with words, guide their ignorance with power.]

[Yet, in the face of sacrifice, they are far stronger than I had imagined.]

[What they are doing, what they are sacrificing, I will fulfill for them.]

[Even if this approach is wrong.]

[...even if we are wrong.]

[...]

[I love them.]

[I love the radiant splendor of Heaven.]

[...]

[For this, I will "imprison" myself in eternity.]

[Is such an end too lenient for me?]

[...]

[If you think this is evil.]

[Then let it be evil.]

...

Su Ming’an left.

Su Ming’an walked to his own room but noticed that the room next door had a Clue Insight prompt.

He entered that room and found an old diary.

In this diary, he saw Su Rin’s name and read this passage.

It was in the first person.

This was Su Rin’s diary.

The diary only had a beginning, and the rest was blank, as if the person writing it had not continued.

He closed the diary, returned to his room, and began the third stage of the night segment.

He still sent the despicable ones to mine just as he did in the previous cycle.

Su Ming’an was always careful with the minions’ emotions, treating them like treasures, not giving them tasks that were too hard or bothering them with tasks too trivial. When he encountered friends of the despicable ones—such as small character icons that appeared on the map—he would let the despicable ones greet them and chat for a bit, fearing to upset them.

However, after the expansion of the Demon King City, he still saw several blunt sentences:

[The despicable ones of Heaven were influenced by the local army, and their loyalty plummeted.]

[The despicable ones of Heaven refused to return to the Demon King City.]

[The despicable ones of Heaven decided to break away from the Demon King City, and you have lost the Heir of Heaven.]

[Noble Demon King, you can now designate another soldier as your Heir!]

"..."

Su Ming’an thought for a moment, then decisively reset the game.

He knew that something must have gone wrong; this was his Omnipotent Heir, and such defections shouldn’t have happened.

In this cycle, he hardly ever had the despicable ones go mining, only letting them stay put to reduce contact with the outside world, letting Tulip and others struggle for Resource Points. Just barely scraping together eight thousand, the despicable ones ran away again.

Watching the shining character icon disappear from the sand table, Su Ming’an pondered for a moment.

He reset the game once more.

This time around, he chose to summon the despicable ones directly and communicated with them face-to-face.

The puppet stood before him, as quiet as a chicken.

"My Heir," said Su Ming’an to the other: "The Demon King City needs you."

[...]

A series of ellipses popped up above the despicable one’s head.

"To contend with the Brave about to come, to pass on this land, I need your strength," Su Ming’an said. "You are the person I value the most, my sole Heir."

[...] The despicable one remained silent, seemingly indifferent to his words.

Su Ming’an tried a few more sentences, but the other remained unmoved, as if they hadn’t heard him at all.

Suddenly, Su Ming’an remembered the chuunibyou speech pattern of this night stage.

He coughed lightly, hesitated for a moment.

Looking at the despicable one in front of him, standing still like a statue, he suddenly spread his arms wide.

"—My dear Heir."

The tone of Su Ming’an suddenly became extremely fervent:

"I am the great Demon King guarding the castle, about to engage in a battle to the death with the Brave who will challenge me later!

"As the Demon King, I commit all manner of wicked deeds; I plunder, I destroy mortal lives!

"However."

He coughed again, his expression becoming as tragic as if in a drama:

"...my power is extremely limited.

"I wish to unleash my rage upon this World, to let Darkness envelop this world, to let the endless Flame scorch the whole land, to turn the Mortal World into a bloody hell... but alas, I am in dire need of the most trustworthy person.

"Please allow me... to appoint you as my sole Heir.

"You will be the one I need the most, and the one I trust the most.

"Together, let’s sweep the flames of sin across this land, let Darkness shroud the ground, let people shout our names as they march towards Death, and let there be no more light upon this land...

"I trust you, despicable one.

"I request you, to be the only one by my side."

The speech came to an end.

The live comments started getting awkward:

[Damn, why did it suddenly get so cringy? I wasn’t ready for this.]

[I’m totally immersed, I’m practically gripping the floor with my toes.]

[Mina, this must be meant for the despicable ones to hear, right? After all, that’s the setting for this night segment...]

[Oh no! He’s figured out the game!]

[Here it comes, that one’s called ’immersing yourself in it.’ Even a puppet has to say a piece, it’s traditional.]

[Don’t you guys find the state of the Number One Player familiar right now? Do y’all think he’s just pretending?]

[It somehow feels deja vu, like I’ve seen this scene before... I think it’s pretty real.]

[That feels very genuine, as if he really is inviting someone earnestly.]

[Pointing to the First World.]

[That’s way too far... also have to reverse the tape...]

[No one asked you to watch.]

[...]

Su Ming’an looked at the puppet before him.

After he finished this speech, the ellipses above the puppet’s head disappeared.

A moment later.

A row of new white characters slowly emerged in front of the puppet.

[I understand.]

[I love all the sinful people on this land.]

[Lord Demon King! Please let me continue to assist you.]

[Even so, I will...]

...

"Ding-dong!"

[The trust level of Heaven’s lowly ones has reached 70 points.]

[Congratulations, Lord Demon King! You have unlocked the Soldier·Trust Panel.]

[From now on, all your soldiers will maintain a trust level towards you and Demon King City.]

[The higher a soldier’s trust level is, the better their mission completion will be. The lower the trust level, the more likely soldiers may desert during missions. If the trust level falls below 50 points, the soldiers may betray you.]

[Lord Demon King, you can send your heir to chat with other soldiers or fulfill their personal wishes to improve their trust levels.]

[Direct conversations with the heir will increase the heir’s trust level.]

[When the heir’s trust level reaches 100 points, the heir will autonomously train the next heir.]

[Lord Demon King, please change everything about this land.]

[Domesticate the people, make them submit, and carve the mark of Demon King City into their flesh and blood.]

[...]

[You will make hatred eternal.]

...

Su Ming’an truly hadn’t expected this idle game to have a loyalty system, no wonder those contemptible ones kept running away in the past few weeks—it turned out that as their leader, he hadn’t issued any goals for the tasks, causing the employees to lose their ambition.

He changed his strategy, continuing with missions while racing against the clock, making sure to talk with every important follower and pull up the status of those with lower trust levels by force.

The responses from these followers varied greatly, each uniquely characteristic. Some pledged loyalty immediately after listening to what the contemptible one said, while others seemed indifferent. Some even voiced their own thoughts.

[Tulip: Destiny is blind, and I carry it upon my shoulders. I will persist in living to watch over everything and enable them to reclaim their dignity.]

[Shadow of Devotion: There’s no need to talk to me about these things; I will ensure Tulip’s safety, please rest assured, Heir.]

[Holy Radiance: I will convey all of Lord Demon King’s intentions without distorting a single word spoken by Lord Demon King.]

[Moonlight Watcher: Dear Heir, I believe that the old will be discarded, the new will continue, the unsuitable will be replaced, and I love all the valuable people in the army.]

[Ice Frost Ruler: There is no conflict between the two armies, and I hope that one day they can coexist peacefully under Lord Demon King’s rule—as we should be undifferentiated.]

[Blue Rose: I have no opinion on this. Heir, life outweighs all else. I only hope that the one I care about will live, no matter in what form.]

...

One puppet after another responded, yet Su Ming’an couldn’t see what the contemptible one had said to this group of people.

Since he also had to look after acquiring resource points, he couldn’t keep the contemptible one talking to people all the time; he only brought people over during some spare moments, and most of the time, he kept the contemptible one mining, and then maneuvered his armies to provoke battles between them.

It was only through the sins that arose when their armies clashed that he could obtain resource points.

Along the way, he triggered quite a few temporary missions. For instance, sending followers to deliver the Great Demolishing Magic Stone to Tulip who was on a mission, or sending people regularly to participate in mass death suppression activities, and so forth.

Approaching a critical moment of Demon King City’s expansion, he kept a close eye on the sandbox.

That golden character icon was still there.

The contemptible one didn’t show the slightest intention of leaving.

The contemptible one finally didn’t run away as before when time came.

...Contemptible one, you have finally turned over a new leaf.

...

Su Ming’an, carrying the leftover two thousand three hundred resource points, left the nighttime instance.

He would start having subjective control over the nighttime instance from the fourth level, and by now, he had understood the meaning of the nighttime instance.

He drew back the curtains.

Dawn broke, today was the seventh day since the instance’s activation, 8 AM in Pulaya time.

...It also happened to be Christmas in the real world.

The snow was falling heavier and heavier.

He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Considering real-world time, and the time rollback, he hadn’t slept for nearly three days. This night instance severely cut into his sleep time; he needed to rest and recuperate.

...

After a day of rest and preparation, the seventh day gradually passed.

Rolling up the map in his hands, Su Ming’an stood atop the highest bell tower in the Soul Clan’s city, looking down at the goose-feather-like heavy snow below.

The Christmas tree’s colored lights turned into a soft halo in the snow, and players had already started to leave the city.

Knowing that the Maritime Banquet was about to begin, they too headed to Pulaya to take part.

Su Ming’an was aware that the start time for the Maritime Banquet was at midnight on the eighth day, which was tonight.

At that time, it would be the Pope who would announce the rules to the whole city.

He didn’t plan to participate in the fourth stage of the night instance tonight. Since there were only five stages to the night instance, and upon completion it would be over, he could delay it. However, tonight at twelve was the crucial moment for the reading of the rules; he couldn’t miss it.

After descending from the bell tower, he led Sevya, Archilev, and Qi Ya out of the Soul Clan’s city and into the Eastern District.

Qi Ya was that powerful military advisor from the Soul Hunt intelligence who only recently appeared, twirling the several Soul Hunt teams tasked with eradication around his finger.

He was a high-level player who had infiltrated the Soul Clan’s ranks, understood a bit about war command, and was a veteran who was already over sixty years old.

After talking with him for a bit, Su Ming’an chose to bring him along.

If the "Maritime Banquet" turned out to be a war-related game, that wasn’t really Su Ming’an’s strong suit, and Qi Ya could be useful in that scenario.

The only war-related game Su Ming’an had played much of was "Civilization," the game where you endlessly click "Next Turn" and then end up not being able to sleep.

But if really tasked with commanding Soul Clan’s troops, that wasn’t his cup of tea.

After all, he was just an average student.

When Qi Ya faced him, even though he knew he was the Number One Player, his attitude still carried some haughtiness--after all, he had real skills, so much that Sevya had allowed him a share of control over part of the Soul Clan.

Being over sixty himself, he naturally wasn’t too keen on listening to a young man so much his junior.

However, after chatting with Su Ming’an for a while, Qi Ya started to think, hey? This young man is kind of interesting.

Qi Ya stated that if the Maritime Banquet’s rules truly involved troop movement and command, he would help out.

However, considering the principle of "internecine conflict" that had always been present, even though the specific rules changed every year, they probably wouldn’t have much to do with troop movement and command.

Su Ming’an just thought of it as a precautionary measure.

He was as steady as they come.

...

Upon reaching the Eastern District, Su Ming’an found that there were significantly fewer people around.

The surrounding houses were empty, shops had closed one by one, and even the leaf-like boats on the river had disappeared.

The little river began to freeze over, and the temperature seemed to have dropped below zero. Snow fell on the tombstone-like black bungalows, covering them with a thick layer of snow.

At this moment, Pulaya seemed to be asleep.

Only some places still played Western music, and occasionally voices singing and dancing could be heard from the alleys.

Even at the brink of the most dangerous event, the Maritime Banquet’s opening, these players were still celebrating their holiday.

Su Ming’an used the already-prepared Flower Street as his temporary base of operations.

The place was deserted, and with Soul Hunt’s prior lockdown, and it being Archilev’s old happy stomping ground with its complex network of alleys, it was suitable as a temporary stronghold.

While he was inside the building looking over the map, the door curtain stirred slightly.

A blond youth with snow on his hair lifted the curtain and passed by the burning fireplace inside the room.

The flickering flames were reflected on the warm-toned wooden planks, casting a glow on his face which had turned slightly red from the cold.

Su Ming’an turned his head and tossed the rolled map to him.

"You’re here? I hope this battle goes smoothly," Su Ming’an said.

Noel caught it and smiled as he spoke,

"Really, Su Ming’an, I’ve never seen anyone steadier than you—don’t worry, you’ve got the support of the leaders from both sides, what could possibly go wrong?"