Chapter 837: "Survival of the Fittest" and "Survival"

Russell couldn't understand it.

Why had he tried so hard, only to end up with such a result?

It was like a summer insect that could never comprehend ice, like a frog at the bottom of a well that would never know how vast the sky truly was. He too had struggled to reach the legendary winter, and had wanted to climb through the rain-flooded well to reach the surface and see the real sky.

But.

It wasn't enough.

He had been deceived by too many people, used by too many people.

Train Conductors, Gods...

Everyone had treated Russell as a tool, a tool to maintain RUN Company, a tool to stir up the natives and Train Conductors to resist.

Ye Qiyan was no exception.

He had never been a kind person. To him, Russell was nothing more than a spy to learn about what RUN Company and Menrojina were doing.

Using Bewitchment, exploiting his identity, earning his trust, obtaining intelligence.

Ironically enough, Ye Qiyan was actually the one who gained the least among all those who had used Russell.

Because all he got was information.

Ye Qiyan calmly looked at Russell, watching his trembling body.

His question had been answered.

"I... I'm scared, I'm afraid of dying... Bro... I don't want to die..."

Russell was crying.

Perhaps it was fortune's favor. After Red Tears drew her sword, the radiant power she had extracted from the phantom Ancient Battlefield just happened to be filled with extremely powerful divinity.

That strike shattered the Seed of Divinity that had just finished growing in his chest.

At this moment, Russell had briefly broken free from the influence of divinity, regaining the will of his former human self.

But, this was only temporary.

He had already become a god, and since he had never possessed powerful strength himself, he couldn't possibly do what Resource Sir had done—breaking free from the Divine Sequence Path after being defeated.

He had absorbed too much blood, soul, faith, and despair from the concept of "Native."

Russell could no longer turn back.

"Caw! Caw!"

The Demon Raven circled in the air, letting out piercing, mournful cries.

Everyone who heard this sound, whether human or Troll, felt an inexplicable dread deep in their hearts.

And Russell, the one this cry was aimed at, understood one thing in an instant.

He was, indeed, going to die.

"Bro... why... why wouldn't you help me... I've already, worked hard enough..."

Spirit consumption.

A golden bullet condensed from the hand that wasn't holding the gun.

A silent whisper called out the True Name of Black Ebony.

"Black Sun."

On the brilliant golden bullet, a burning black sun emerged.

The bullet entered the chamber, and a finger rested on the trigger.

In the pitch-black gun muzzle, the power known as "Glory" had been fully loaded.

The gun muzzle pointed downward, aiming at Russell's exposed heart, which was tightly wrapped and constantly being remodeled by the roots that had grown from the Seed of Divinity.

"Hard work doesn't always mean reward, Russell. Remember this next time—don't trust anyone easily."

Bang—

The crisp gunshot made the song of Defiance suddenly halt.

A light drizzle fell from the sky.

Russell, in the end, still never obtained a complete divine corpse.

The moment he couldn't livestream the slaughter of Alice, he had already failed.

Rustle...

Red Tears, the Demon Girl, held up that red oil-paper umbrella to shield her master from the wind and rain.

Ye Qiyan patted her head, then took one last look at Russell, whose eyes were wide open, no longer breathing.

Immediately after, the Demon Raven grabbed the small half of his remaining corpse and flew into the air.

Lisette, who had already arrived backstage, had dealt with the enemies there and used her hacking skills to reconnect the speakers, cranking them to maximum volume.

He walked over to Alice, took her white-pink microphone, and tapped it a couple of times.

After confirming the sound was restored, he tossed it back to her.

"Keep singing, Miss Alice. Until this war is over, your concert must continue, right?"

Alice took the microphone and slowly rose to her feet in the center of the stage, surrounded by several Endless Mechs.

The spirit dragon, once bound by thorns, soared once again. The most famous songstress of the Wasteland smiled gently.

"Thank you, Mr. Altos."

"It's just a transaction."

"No, I want to thank you for answering that question for me just now. You, were very cool, so..."

She took a deep breath, her light pink eyes filled with determination.

"I'll sing until the very end."

There was no accompaniment, because the band members had died under the clubs of the Trolls.

There were no audience members, because everyone had already fled this place to fight the Trolls outside.

But the livestream continued.

Ye Qiyan left the cross of Defiance there, playing a stirring Aria with the voice he desired.

In the center of every city, everyone witnessed the scene of Ye Qiyan shooting Russell dead with a single shot.

They cheered the name Altos, cheering that the "Demon Overlord" had saved yet another world.

No one cared about the words Russell had spoken.

Not even the Train Conductors who had once been native humans.

Russell had been deceived.

Because humans were never meant to be divided into natives or Outsiders.

Weak Train Conductors could also be enslaved and slaughtered.

Powerful native humans could also enter the Wasteland and become overlords in their own right.

From beginning to end, Russell had never realized that all the conflicts in the Wasteland pointed to one thing.

"Survival of the fittest."

Everything the Train Conductors did was also for just one thing.

"Survival."

The strong live to see the future, the weak die in the past.

The train system had already been generous enough to humanity.

Because within its authority, it gave Train Conductors so many choices.

Whether it was being able to choose to enter a lower-level station when they could access a higher one.

Or the cities that had been established to shelter countless weaklings, still receiving the system's recognition and protection.

The so-called natives and Outsiders, even if they came from different civilizations, from different worlds.

In the end, they were still human.

Or even...

Outsiders?

What exactly was an Outsider?

Could it be that the worlds where Ye Qiyan and the other Train Conductors once lived couldn't possibly be Station Worlds themselves?

Perhaps some people had been to those worlds? They just hadn't discovered it.

Or perhaps... those worlds had already fallen into the End?

Alice's singing spread across countless worlds, and the negative mental effects were washed away by the talent she possessed.

Ye Qiyan didn't stay in the center of the stage.

Accompanied by Red Tears and WALL-E, he returned to the shattered audience area, to the only remaining intact spot.

"Sev... Seven Qiyan Bro, that, was so cool just now."

Zhao Lin sat there, extremely excited. As the only audience member closest to the scene, she had seen everything that happened more clearly than anyone else.

However, Ye Qiyan looked at her left eye, which was missing its eyeball, and furrowed his brow slightly.

"What happened to you?"

Ye Qiyan looked over at Lancelot.

Lancelot, feeling that it had failed its mission, was already kneeling on one knee here, awaiting its master's punishment.

Ye Qiyan, of course, had no intention of punishing it. He was simply curious—under the protection of Lancelot and several Endless Mechs, how had Zhao Lin lost that eyeball?

"Ah, Brother Qiyan, it has nothing to do with it. I was just curious about the Trolls' magic earlier, and accidentally suffered the backlash... I lost one eyeball, but I even feel like... that unpleasant Misfortune has shrunk a huge chunk again, hehe."