Chapter 319: May the Aurora Never Fade

Club K glanced back.

"Master often said that to truly understand a person, you shouldn't just look at what they say or what they look like, but at what they do... If it weren't for him, Aurora City would have become a breeding ground for Calamities by now. You don't even know what kind of person he is, so why do you think he'll definitely pose a threat to humanity?"

Hong Xiu was slightly stunned, falling silent as she looked at the sleeping Chen Ling.

"Also," Club K said lightly,

"The affairs of the Twilight Society are not for outsiders to interfere with."

Club K left without looking back, her solemn black suit disappearing at the end of the ruins.

Hong Xiu stood where she was, looked up one last time at the sea of cyan and blue aurora, as if wanting to engrave it in her heart forever, and turned to walk in the opposite direction...

……

On the other side.

Among the ruins of Aurora City, a charred body lay on the earth like a corpse, covered in freezing frost and snow, with no signs of life.

But as the seawater, which seemed to have no thickness, spread through the city and slowly soaked beneath him, black incantations came back to life on the surface of his skin. The frost and snow on his body began to melt, and faint breathing reappeared in the bitter cold.

"Where... am I..." Zhao Yi's consciousness was blurred. In his half-asleep, half-awake state, he opened his eyes a crack.

Incantations swept across his eyeballs, seeing only two figures walking slowly toward him at the end of the charred earth. Zhao Yi couldn't see their faces clearly; he had even lost the ability to think, feeling his body heavier than ever before.

A strange palm lifted his head. The next moment, a beam of light as bright as a flashlight shone from the blurred darkness, as if someone were checking his eyes.

"This degree of fusion... is it natural fusion? No... I can't smell the blood of Calamities; it seems to be artificial fusion..."

"Could the Aurora Base have broken through the experimental bottleneck of artificial fusion?"

"The Aurora Base's research on fusion shouldn't be nearly as advanced as ours. And if they had really mastered artificial fusion, they wouldn't have ended up in this state... I think this kid is just an accident."

"The most critical thing is, I can't even smell which kind of Calamity he's fused with... It seems like he has a bit of every kind of Calamity from the Forbidden Sea? What is this? You can't even mix them like this, right?"

"To be able to withstand this degree of fusion without mental breakdown, his willpower is top-notch."

"I only came to collect some Calamity corpses to take back for research, didn't expect an unexpected joy... Take him back. He's a good seedling with the potential to become a 'Holy Apostle'."

"So heavy... This guy doesn't look big, why is he so heavy?"

"I told you, the Aurora Base's fusion technology is too backward, prone to causing fusion distortion. Take him back, inject him with a few new serums, and teach him to control his own power; he'll recover sooner or later... Huh, he seems to be waking up?"

Zhao Yi felt himself being carried on someone's shoulder, bouncing constantly. In a daze, he opened his eyes a fraction...

Someone patted his shoulder and grinned:

"Little comrade... welcome to the glorious evolution."

……

Aurora City ruins, underground.

Han Meng bit on a bandage, wrapping the treated wound on his knee bit by bit, and let out a long sigh.

With the surface facilities completely blown flat, the Aurora Base had lost the vast majority of its power supply. The dark corridor was deathly silent, as if only Han Meng was left here.

He leaned against the wall, looking at the elevator shaft sealed by rubble, his eyes filled with complexity.

*Tap—tap—tap...*

A slight sound came from the other side of the corridor. Han Meng was slightly startled and looked over, frowning.

The light of a kerosene lamp dispelled the darkness at the end of the corridor. A figure leaning on a cane and carrying a kerosene lamp walked slowly toward him.

It was a disheveled old man, exuding the twilight of old age, only his eyes remained deep and mysterious, seemingly flashing with the starlight of human destiny... He stopped beside Han Meng, bent down slowly, and placed the kerosene lamp in his hand on the ground.

"...I thought there was no one left in this base." Han Meng said in a deep voice.

"The top scientific researchers have already boarded the Realm Train and left. I sent the others back to the surface. If nothing goes wrong, they've all turned into aurora by now," the old man's voice was extremely calm. "Now, I'm the only one left in this base."

"Is that so? Then you surrendered pretty quickly."

"That is the fact," the old man shook his head. "With Hong Xiu and Tan Xin both betraying us, even if all the Enforcers in Aurora City were added together, they wouldn't be their match... Since that's the case, preserving scientific talent as much as possible is the most beneficial decision for humanity."

"Then why didn't you go to the surface? Turning into aurora, at least there's a chance to come back."

The old man didn't answer immediately. He leaned on his cane with both hands, standing silently outside the halo of the kerosene lamp. After a long while, he said hoarsely:

"I... grew up in this base since I was a child. Before I was thirty, I dreamed of going to the surface to take a look... By the time I was forty or fifty, I was no longer curious about anything on the surface. Later, I lived in the dark room for another thirty years... At eighty, I no longer have the courage to step onto the surface.

My whole life has been entrusted to the Aurora Base; even if I die, I should die here."

Han Meng stared at him blankly, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Could there really be someone who lived their whole life in this cramped underground base? Han Meng couldn't imagine how he had endured this life, or what had supported him all the way to this day.

"Don't look at me like that," the old man closed his eyes.

"Only by being sealed underground, without seeing the glory above, can one completely discard emotion and humanity... Hundreds of thousands, millions of people, are just a number to me. Only by simplifying and quantifying everything can one make the most beneficial decision for humanity at any time, like a machine.

Every generation of leaders of the Aurora Base has come through this way."

Han Meng fell silent. He withdrew his gaze from the old man. He didn't actually have any hostility toward this leader who initiated the "Reappearance" plan. Moreover, the prosperity of the Aurora Realm for the past few hundred years had been built by leaders just like him.

Han Meng walked straight toward the elevator shaft sealed by rubble.

"What are you going to do?" the old man asked.

"Return to the surface." Han Meng crushed the coal in his hand and reached out to the distance. A pistol flew automatically from the warehouse into his palm. "I can still fight."

The old man shook his head. "The explosives have been detonated, and Aurora City has long since become ruins... Those who should have left have left. Now there are only Calamities above. With your Tier 5 strength, you're just going to your death."

"That's still better than waiting to die here."

"The Aurora Realm has disappeared, and there are very few Enforcers left in the world... Do you want to die meaninglessly in the Gray Realm, or wait for a certain day to arrive and become an Enforcer who protects humanity?"

Han Meng stopped. "What do you mean?"

The old man reached out and pointed to the base beneath his feet.

"Although Aurora City is gone, there are enough supplies in the Aurora Base to support hundreds of people for a hundred years... You can stay until one day your strength is enough to allow you to walk through the Gray Realm to the next realm, and then leave."

Hearing this, a glimmer of light appeared in Han Meng's eyes, as if he were seriously considering this question.

"Of course..." the old man smiled, "you can also keep this dying old man company and chat occasionally. I also know quite a few secrets about the Red Star... I've been hiding in the dark room for thirty years, and it's been a long time since I've talked to anyone like this."

After deep thought for a long time, Han Meng took one last look at the sealed elevator shaft, as if he had made up his mind, and took a deep breath...

"Fine." He nodded.

"I will use my own strength to walk to the next realm... That day won't be too late."

……

*Rumble—!*

In the cold gray world, a train engraved with mysterious runes whistled across the surface of the Forbidden Sea.

As the ancient characters on the train and the surface of the tracks flashed, not a single Calamity approached. Steam drifted from the front of the train as it carried the last embers of Aurora City, charging straight toward the direction of the next realm.

Inside the train carriage at this moment, there was a deathly silence.

Whether they were top scientific researchers of Aurora City or political figures from all sides, they all looked silently at the deathly silent ruins gradually receding outside the window, their hearts filled with mixed feelings... They were the survivors of this realm and the witnesses who had seen its demise with their own eyes.

Only when the aurora dissipated did they truly realize that the peace and prosperity in any realm were merely a fleeting illusion... The Aurora Realm was not the first to be destroyed, nor would it be the last. Even if they escaped this ordeal, what about the next time?

In this gray, desolate world, where exactly did the future of humanity lie?

In this oppressive and silent atmosphere, a woman sitting by the window quietly opened the notebook in her hand.

The front of the notebook was a reporter's daily records and analysis of various cases she had encountered, while the back contained a lengthy exposition on a certain plan. When she turned to the last page, it was a piece of inner monologue similar to a soliloquy.

“……Yes, I don’t know how far humanity can go in this catastrophe, but I believe that we will never stop moving forward……”

“……Aurora City was a failure, but it was also a success. Our souls will accompany the aurora, remaining forever above the Aurora Realm, and the three hundred years of effort we have put in for humanity will become a torch in the grand relay of human survival, lighting the path ahead……”

“Now, we pass the torch on……”

“The next realm, the realm after that…… as long as the trains still roar in steam, as long as the sun still rises from the east, as long as the kites in the children’s hands still fly in the sky…… one day, we will survive the cold winter.”

“Finally……”

“May the aurora never fade.”

……

……

Volume One, "The Player in the Play," End.

Next Volume, "Painting the Crimson Face."