Chapter 822: Chapter 822

The undulating waves rocked the ship under the dark night, the dim lights illuminating the silent captain’s quarters.

A blond man in a worn grey-white sailor’s uniform sat on an old metal chair, staring at the tablet in his hands.

His fingers slowly scrolled through the electronic list on the computer.

The list of names slid by like flowing light, many of the photographs dulled in luster, cold black words branded upon those restrained or confident faces.

Soon, the man’s scrolling fingers halted, touching a bright ’identification photo.’

It was a somewhat frail, but upright young man, his gaze filled with anticipation as he looked at the camera.

With a long press of the man’s finger, a floating popup appeared.

[Do you want to mark crew member No. 074 as deceased?]

After a brief pause, the man slowly clicked confirm.

Immediately, the frail young man’s photo dimmed, just like the other blackened photos.

The man continued scrolling down the list, touching the colorful photos, watching them turn into dull grays.

It seemed like only a brief moment passed, yet also as if centuries had stretched by before he scrolled to the bottom of the long electronic list.

His hand subconsciously slid the list again, pulling the gray photos at the end to the center of the tablet, then they naturally fell back into place.

Finally, his finger left the list.

Bright moonlight penetrated the captain’s quarters window, intertwined with the dim light inside.

The dark sea water carried the tiny vessel up and down.

At that moment, the blond man’s wristband vibrated slightly, a lean man’s visage flashing on the projected interface.

The blond man tapped the visage, and a voice naturally played:

"Captain Kevin, we’ve ventured too deep into the Storm Sea, too many brothers have died; lately, the brothers don’t even want to go to sea."

The man known as Captain Kevin reached out to touch the voice response interface, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

Just then, a new voice message came through:

"I know not going to sea leads to threats and even assassination from the security firms hired by United Industries, but the brothers really can’t do it anymore; at sea, we die, ashore, we die, but at least on land, there’s a chance we might leave a whole body behind, right?"

Another new message quickly followed:

"Captain Kevin, our lives are cheap, no noble origins among us, not worthy to dwell in the Cloud District enjoying the master’s life; we too wish to earn this money, to eat this bread, but the brothers simply can’t survive. Even if there’s a slim chance at sea, we wouldn’t risk it."

The voice on the other end didn’t wait for the blond man to respond, or perhaps he never stopped speaking, as another voice message sent:

"United Industries are driving us to death, excavating mines and taking the profits, but when the brothers die, we truly have nothing left, we have wives and children too, we want to live."

Watching these messages, the blond man pressed the record button, slightly opened his mouth, then slowly closed it, finally releasing his hand, scrolling to cancel.

The night returned to tranquility.

Kevin quietly gazed out the window at the moon, leaning back in his chair, muttering to himself, "Teacher Nisen, what would you do in my place?"

His hand gently covered his cheek, knowing this question would go unanswered.

Because his teacher, the famous ’old captain,’ had long been ’taken’ by the Eternal Secret Teachings to that legendary ’Eternal Divine Nation’ that ’never knew hunger.’

Although he felt there were too many deceits in the teachings of the Eternal Secret Teachings and suspected his teacher’s departure involved something odd, he was powerless to do anything.

These crew members, lacking sophisticated equipment, couldn’t even handle the security company hired by United Industries, let alone the powerful Eternal Secret Teachings.

Even the esteemed old captain, who had exceptional influence among all the fleets in Wint City, was easily taken away, leaving him with no power to resist.

Their attempt to challenge the colossal entities of United Industries and Eternal Secret Teachings was as absurd as flesh colliding with a giant, operating machine.

The cold moonlight fell on his cheeks; amidst the undulating waves, he finally took a deep breath.

He then lifted his wrist and pressed the recording button again,

"Gather all the brothers. United Industries won’t let us live—"

Just then, a crisp knocking interrupted his speech.

He immediately released his finger from the record button and switched to cancel.

As he asked, he put down his wrist device, pulled open the drawer beneath the control panel in front of him, and slowly drew a small black pistol, walking towards the door of the captain’s cabin.

There was no response from outside the door.

Taking another deep breath, he leaned gently against the wall, stretched out his hand, turned the doorknob, and opened the door.

A twisted, human-shaped Black Shadow appeared in his field of view.

His breath involuntarily hitched, ready to raise his gun and fire, but then he realized this shadow had a face, and it was eerily "familiar."

He hesitated slightly and asked tentatively.

"It’s been a long time, Kevin."

The shadow watched him and slowly spoke.

Its voice was hoarse and aged, perhaps due to vocal organ issues, with a bit of a sharp tremor.

Meanwhile, a young boy wrapped in a hand-knitted red scarf walked out from behind the shadow, smiling at the man, "Mister Kevin, could you let us come in first?"

An elderly man in a smart suit stood on the towering observation deck, gazing down at the neon city sparkling below.

The howling night wind swept over his head.

He looked up slightly, gazing into the distance.

Behind the brilliantly lit Cloud District was the equally dazzling, incessantly bustling industrial Novite District, followed by the less illuminated Aka District, and finally, the gradually quieting Storm Zone.

From this spot, he could overlook the entire city.

This ancient and grandiose city lay prostrate at his feet.

A voice with a hint of amusement came from behind the elderly man, "You’ve chosen a scenic spot indeed."

"This has always been the best view from this United Industries building,"

Vincent turned back, looking at the man dressed in Mercenary Corps officer’s attire behind him, and sighed somewhat,

"This entire observation deck was my design; when Novite District first separated from Aka District as an independent industrial area, we often watched the factories being built from here."

He sighed as he glanced back at the scenic table and the two chairs beside it, "Skone used to sit on the left chair, and Endir on the right, while I stood behind them."

He lifted his pace and slowly walked to those two chairs, his hand resting on the back of one, "These chairs have remained here, but all these years, I’ve never dared to sit in them."

While speaking, he slowly sat down in the left chair and lightly raised his hand, making an ’invitation’ gesture to the military man.

"And now, you can sit in this chair with peace of mind."

The military man naturally sat across from Vincent.

A middle-aged male attendant came over with a bottle of champagne and poured some into both their glasses.

"Just wait until tomorrow night when the investigation team arrives, and you can rest easy."

The military man raised his glass, taking a sip of the champagne.

"But the night before everything ends is always the longest, isn’t it?"

Vincent simply pinched his stemmed glass, staring at the military man, "Captain Lutz?"

"So Mister Vincent, you’re finally willing to entrust the security tasks to us?"

Lutz looked at the elderly man with a smile,

"I can agree to your terms,"

Vincent calmly looked at Lutz, "But I hope your strength matches what you’ve advertised."

"You can certainly trust us,"

Lutz placed his hand on the table, "We can protect United Industries until the Federal Central’s dispatched troops arrive, and United Industries will definitely not fall to the Eternal Secret Teachings,"

Saying this, the corners of his mouth raised, "After this, you won’t have to see that annoying Eternal Secret Teachings ever again."

Vincent eyed his confident expression and smiled faintly, slowly lifting his glass, "Let’s hope so."

Lutz held his champagne aloft, squinting his eyes, looking between Vincent and the middle-aged man standing behind him, "To our rightful victory."

The howling sea breeze swept across the night sky, and He Ao leapt from the deck, landing on the harbor’s ground, with Black Shadow tightly hugging Kevin behind him.

He Ao quietly watched them until the two separated.

The Black Shadow morphed into a silhouette, gathering at his side.

"I never thought that I could stand on the land of the real world in flesh and blood again."

The shadow took another look at Kate who had walked back onto the deck, then turned to He Ao with a reflective tone.

Normally, a soul would rapidly dissipate once returned to the normal world.

"This world is vast—there are always things beyond our knowledge that make the impossible possible."

He Ao answered softly.

At that moment, the shadow transformed by Nisen was actually the ’Resentment Summoning Creature’ from the Paper Butterfly.

The Paper Butterfly can summon three C-level resentment creatures within its unfolded Domain.

And given the high affinity of pure resentment with souls, He Ao pondered pulling the soul of the elderly man from the pure white space, testing whether he could use these resentment creatures as a vessel for movement.

As an extension of the Paper Butterfly’s power, the resentment not only stabilized the elderly man’s soul, preventing it from dissipating but even interacted with the elderly man, allowing him to reconstruct his body with these resentments.

The only issue was that these resentments could contaminate the elderly man’s soul, so this state couldn’t be maintained for too long.

Nisen nodded slightly, following He Ao’s footsteps, peering out at the distant sea,

"This world’s splendor is always too vast to fully explore. When I was younger, I dreamt of becoming an adventurer, venturing to the deepest parts of the Storm Sea, exploring unknown regions never reached by mankind, searching for other large regions of the Original Federation lost in the annals."

"That sounds quite romantic."

Hearing his remark, Nisen paused, turned his head to look at He Ao, "The things you do are also quite romantic."

"I still hope this romance turns into reality,"

He Ao chuckled, the cold sea breeze brushing against his cheeks, seeping into the gaps of his scarf.

"What do you plan to do next?"

The elderly man lowered his head, staring at the young man in front of him, "Sometimes I feel you’re not a child but rather like an old man like me."

"That would indeed be a good thing,"

He Ao nodded, his youthful voice tinged with slight amusement, "Then I wouldn’t have to call others ’grandpa’ but instead they would call me ’grandpa’, a dignified old man who, just by standing there, makes everyone trust him, and when I stand there, everyone just thinks, ’Who’s that little rascal?’"

"But this ’little rascal’ has earned more respect than this ’old man,’ hasn’t he?"

Nisen bowed his head, staring at the young man’s slender shoulders, watching his hair flutter in the wind, he reached out, gently tightening the young man’s scarf, "This scarf is really well-knitted."

"Yes, it’s very well-knitted."

The shadow in front of him then disseminated.

The time sustained by resentment had ended.WRAP

He Ao turned around, looking at the quiet vast sea.

He raised his bracelet, flipping through the game menu, and launched one of the match-three games.

Skillfully logging in, he clicked on the highest level he had reached and swiftly started playing.

Accompanied by a series of dispersing glows, he soon passed this level.

In the blink of an eye, he passed through over a dozen levels, reaching level 567.

And then he was stuck at level 567.

As the number of moves available in the status bar decreased, yet he still hadn’t met the requirements to clear the level.

In the cold night, the young man’s breath formed a hazy white fog.

A pale palm emerged from the fog, pointing at the game screen and chuckled, "Just swap this one with that one."

The young man lifted his head, looking toward the drifting white fog.

In the mist, a woman in a cotton skirt, holding half a scarf, leaned toward him, her gaze fixed intensely on the screen in his hands.

A chilly wind blew from the sea, dispersing the hazy fog.

Silence enveloped them once more.

When Vili stepped down from the red sports car, she saw only the young man standing in the chilly wind.

Facing the silent night sky, he exhaled a breath of white mist.