Chapter 264: Humans Are Cheaper Than Dogs x True Eye
A single person sat in the carriage, wearing a golden glazed heaven-reaching crown, carrying a sun wheel on their back. The robe they wore, branded with the sun, moon, and stars reflecting all the heavens, slowly rotated, as if encompassing the entire universe. Just one glance... made Ribéry Garcia dizzy and unable to stand steady...
Rumble rumble... The Sun Chariot rolled past. Accompanied by overflowing golden light, a three-legged gilded giant bird, whose wings spread like clouds hanging from the sky, let out a resounding, bright chirp.
The person sitting in the Sun Chariot had their face hazily obscured by sunlight and mist, making it hard to see clearly. They only turned their head and gave him a faint glance... Ribéry Garcia's knees went weak, and with a "Pfft," several streams of blood sprayed from his mouth, nose, and ears. He then fell stiffly backward, like a thin sheet of paper...
"You..." The man looked at Roy in horror. His hand dropped, and the three playing cards Roy had casually picked scattered like cherry blossoms, carrying residual Nen aura, and covered him...
In this instant, Ribéry Garcia felt his body become so light, so light that he couldn't feel his weight, so light that he floated up. Looking down, he could clearly see himself lying on the ground bleeding from his seven orifices, yet his soul, unknowingly... was flying!
He said, somewhat dazed...
So, "Am I dead?"
"Not yet, but... almost..." Roy watched Ribéry Garcia suddenly spray blood, suddenly fall, then start convulsing as his soul began to separate. While pondering, he felt the karmic connection between himself and the other party deepening sharply, and remained silent. As expected, one should never trust charlatans. He even said there was no risk... If this guy really died because of him, then as the "Effect" who passively killed him, he would invisibly and unavoidably bear the burden of his death, stealing credit from the church, and drawing the attention and resentment of the powerful figures behind the Garcia family...
However,
An outcast daring to kill a noble lord?
This is challenging authority, shaming the church, and disgracing the gods!
Absolutely unforgivable!
Even if this so-called noble lord is also a "blasphemer" who betrayed his own class and committed a felony!
"Hehehe... hahaha..."
"It's good that I die... good that I die..." After being dazed for a few seconds, Ribéry Garcia began to laugh maniacally. Even though laughing was somewhat difficult and his eye sockets even bled from laughing, and his soul floated faster and faster, he didn't care at all. He only felt... comfortable, relieved... as if he had been liberated...
"Cough... cough... That fortune-telling five days ago told me... hope is here... Now,"
Ribéry Garcia held onto his last breath, widening his bleeding eyes, looking burningly at Roy and said, "You... are that variable... are..."
"Gurgle..." The man mumbled, his head tilting before he could finish his sentence, falling into a pool of blood...
Whoosh A gust of wind blew by. Ribéry Garcia's soul seemed to receive some signal and rapidly ascended to heaven.
In the vast, towering forest, only Roy was left looking down at him, saying nothing.
What is "Risk", and what is "Gain"? In the world of "Nen Abilities", without sufficient "Intelligence", one ultimately cannot act recklessly... The boy's waist-length silver hair swayed in the wind, secretly warning himself. He then reached out a hand, attached a gentle layer of Nen aura to it, and waved at the sky... [Magnetic Force: Adsorption]...
Buzz Ribéry Garcia, who was just about to annihilate and vanish, suddenly paused, feeling his body sink. With another glance and a "Swoosh," he fell back, forcefully pressed back into his body by a giant hand condensed from "Nen aura" by Roy!
Buzz Another invisible buzz. The soul trembled and merged with the flesh. Ribéry Garcia could finally feel his body again. Slowly opening his eyes weeping blood tears, he looked at Roy with difficulty and asked, "Why did you save me?"
The boy glanced at him calmly: "I advise you not to speak anymore."
[Sumeru Mustard Seed] deployed.
Roy's hand glowed with a dark light. With a gentle sweep towards Ribéry Garcia, the dark light blazed and suddenly tore open a rift. Under Ribéry Garcia's horrified gaze, it "opened its mouth and swallowed" him directly...
Before disappearing, the man heard the boy say faintly: "Have a good sleep. When you wake up, find a rock to bash your head against and kill yourself, I won't care. Just... you cannot die by my hands..."
"Why?"
"No reason," Roy's palm abruptly closed, restitching the spatial rift: "I just simply don't like owing others..."
"So... you really are not like the other gods..." Ribéry Garcia's last sleep-talk echoed leisurely in Roy's mind.
The boy put away the [Sumeru Mustard Seed], stood quietly for a long time, and laughed self-deprecatingly: "Gods aren't that weak,"
"Weak to the point of being unable to dispel even a minor curse..."
He lifted his foot again and walked slowly towards old Mark and Mrs. Nora, who had half her body gnawed off leaving only half a skeleton. Along the way, he opened his hand and materialized the yellow chrysanthemums plucked from his own garden, gently placing them in front of the two.
"The chrysanthemums picked from my home are not 'dirty', please don't mind."
"As for your granddaughter," Roy flipped his hand and pulled out the leather flask from the [Sumeru Mustard Seed], burying it together with the bones of old Mark and Mrs. Nora. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I have also brought her to you."
"May you all find peace in the afterlife, and suffer less sorrow in your next life..."
"Thank... you..." Vaguely, a gentle voice seemed to echo in his heart.
Roy was slightly stunned, reaching a hand to his chest. Looking up again, in the haze, he seemed to see a family of three, the old couple on either side holding the girl's hand... bowing to him, hearing them say: "If there really is a next life, we won't be human either."
Then they merged into the hazy sunlight and completely disappeared...
Roy just stood there quietly looking forward, silent for a very, very long time...
He suddenly somewhat understood why he saw so many tombstones in his Great-Grandfather's dream domain. Perhaps,
For the owners of those tombstones, failing to rebel was not as satisfying as dying a martyr's death!
The towering forest was serene at this moment...
After a moment, Roy looked up, pinched a ray of sunlight, and sniffed it at the tip of his nose. Coming back to his senses, he looked towards the edge of the forest at Bandle City, established next to the human kingdom, and the shantytown built scattered and skewed around Bandle City... Rubbing his index finger and thumb, as he crushed that ray of sunlight, he began to transform from head to toe, including the clothes and shoes on him...
In the blink of an eye, via [Deception], he transformed into the appearance of Andrew Cooper and sped rapidly towards Bandle City... Getting closer... the trees decreased... Large expanses of plains were exposed before his eyes... The field of vision subsequently broadened... Roy had read from the walkthrough his father Silva gave him that the Uzuki Forest is large enough to contain any topography. Scenery like this plain protruding in the middle of the forest is not uncommon; it is called an "oasis" by locals, an oasis that cultivates crops and nurtures humans...
However, the irony is,
The "oasis" seemingly nurtures "humans", but in reality, it also indirectly cultivates "rations" for magical beasts. After all,
Whether it is an "oasis" or other topographies like "swamps" or "great rivers", they still haven't escaped the scope of the Uzuki Forest, dominated by "Magical Beasts" and "Disasters", where even [Gods] cannot intervene.
Tap tap... Lifting and dropping his feet, Roy merged into the light, his figure flashing... flashing... flashing. Finally, after about five minutes, he saw signs of human habitation, saw fertile fields, and also saw the uneven, tall-and-short scattered, completely unregulated, ragged, and muddy shantytown not far away...
He stopped at the right time, found a secluded corner, and stepped out of the sunlight. Upon entering, his nostrils flared, clearly smelling a pungent odor of feces mixed with muddy water. Hearing the occasional shouts of vendors, beggars begging, children playing, and the neighing of cattle, horses, and mules accompanied by a few whip cracks and curses in the shantytown, he suddenly had an illusion...
It was like suddenly falling from the modern world into the barbaric and archaic Middle Ages!
It gave him a strong illusion of "turning back the wheel of history"!
It was completely contrary to the dark, mysterious, towering, and elf-filled Dark Continent he had imagined!
The boy frowned. Looking up, he suppressed the absurdity and disappointment surging in his heart, slightly adjusted the corner of his clothes, and stepped into the shantytown...
The shouting in his ears gradually became clear.
"Want to eat mushrooms? Mushrooms picked today, fresh..."
"Want children? Selling children, the big one for two silver coins, the small one for one..."
"Hey? Boss, how much for your dog?"
"Male for five silver coins, female for three..."
"Black-hearted merchant! How can you sell it dearer than a person? Let me ask you, a dog can eat shit, can a person? Cheaper? Otherwise... I'll report you to the Security Corps!" "I..."
Bustling and chaotic,
A scene of clamor...
As soon as Roy entered, listening to the people around him and looking at them, every single one, whether vendor, porter, farmer, or servant, was emaciated with sallow faces. The clothes they wore were generally patched. They haggled over a little thing, arguing until they were red in the face...
Combined with the smell of urine and livestock feces lingering at the tip of his nose without dissipating, it instead seemed to intensify and rush into his nasal cavity... The boy held his breath, inexplicably feeling a trace of sorrow and anger!
The Dark Continent shouldn't be like this,
It clearly has a vaster land and rich resources many times more than the island in the center of the lake,
Yet, it presents such an impoverished, destitute, dirty, and muddy situation...
Even though Roy had already learned some intelligence from the spirits of old Mark and Mrs. Nora in advance and made ample mental preparation, but... after witnessing all this with his own eyes, Roy had already understood where the problem lay—
[Gods],
Or those "privileged classes" who formulate "rules" around the [Gods]!
It is them who divide people into grades and ranks, solidify social classes, and seal off the upward mobility channels for the people at the bottom. It is also them... who monopolize "Nen aura" into a resource, further sealing off the slightest possibility for ordinary people to advance to the [Extraordinary]. It is also...
They who don't treat humans as humans, but rather as expendables, concentrating resources and wealth to supply their own pleasure... Resulting in the fact that, although this is the Dark Continent, sitting on countless resources, it is more backward than the island in the center of the lake. Only sparse lights and a few buzzing sounds of dilapidated motorcycle engines can be seen and heard. This made Roy miss the Demon Slayer world.
At the very least, in the Demon Slayer world, evil demons only acted at night. But in the shantytown beneath his feet, Bandle City not far away, and the human empire backed by Bandle City, there are "evil demons" who, regardless of day or night, recklessly walk in the sunlight, extremely ferocious and greedy, "eating people"!
Roy gently touched the "curse" on the back of his hand hidden by [Deception] and took a deep breath. It is hard to say that he himself is not currently among those "being eaten."
The boy recovered his senses, coldly cast a glance at a slave trader hawking children nearby, lifted his foot again, and stepped onto the muddy road. Pfft, dirty muddy water splashed onto his trouser legs, casting a shadow over his heart.
He just walked and looked like this. Deep in his eyes, a red light faintly surged. It was the [True Eye] capable of seeing through all illusions and falsehoods, which he hadn't used for a long time.
Perhaps his physique had improved, and his understanding of "Nen" had deepened. These eyes, inspired by Tanjuro and drawing upon the [Transparent World], with a casual, unintentional sweep, had their pupillary power subtly strengthened a lot. As a result...
Roy could vaguely see a person's current state with his naked eyes, including their "blood qi" and "Nen aura"...
That uncle pulling a cart bare-chested, physique is about 0.3 (Note: Ordinary person is 1), aura nodes unopened, Nen aura dissipating from the top of his head is thin, cannot become a Nen user...
That aunt wearing a headscarf and selling mushrooms, physique is about 0.4 (Note: Ordinary person is 1), aura nodes unopened, Nen aura is also thin, similarly cannot become a Nen user. If placed on the island in the center of the lake, rating is about 0.4F (Note: Ordinary person is F, pseudo Nen user who just opened aura nodes is E). That child rummaging through the trash, physique is about 0.1 (Note: Ordinary person is 1), aura nodes unopened, Nen aura is so thin it's almost invisible, in a state of extreme weakness, clearly starving. And, he's coming over...
Roy stopped his steps, lowered his eyes, and saw a sallow and emaciated little beggar, dizzy from hunger, staggering and bumping into him headfirst. Pushed back by the reaction force, he sat heavily on the ground...
He rubbed his head and looked up blankly. Dazedly seeing Roy's face, he trembled, freezing in terror on the spot. Beside him, a few other children like him took to their heels and ran, screaming as they ran... "Run~ Andrew is back..." In an instant,
The central street of the shantytown fell silent!
The uncle pulling the cart, the aunt selling mushrooms, even those slave traders selling children, their voices noticeably weakened. They looked at him in unison. As his gaze swept over them, they quickly lowered their heads, pulling their carts, rolling up their mushrooms and tossing them aside... treating him completely as... a god of plague!
Clearly, the fear reached the point... of stopping children from crying at night!
"Heh... The 4K gang sure is prestigious..." A faint mutter vaguely escaped from the mouth of that slave trader. Facing the many gazes, Roy's face was calm, unmoved.
He suddenly heard someone call him from behind: "Andrew, the Lord Knight is looking for you."
The boy nodded slightly, lifted his foot, and walked past the little beggar who was already scared silly, silently adding a sentence in his heart... Nen aura is weak, but not lacking resilience. With careful guidance, perhaps opening the aura nodes could be given a try...
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