Chapter 855: Aloflis

"You're from the Golden Tribe?"

Hearing Ye Qiyan's question, the dejected woman suddenly laughed.

"Of course not. The Golden Tribe has already gone extinct, that's a fact no one can change. Also, I need to correct one of your misconceptions."

She walked over to the refrigerator, took out a bottle of cola, and began drinking it on her own.

"This taste really is quite strange... Human, your name... Ye Qiyan, right? This place is not the primordial world where you once lived, but neither is it a false dream. Rather, the Countercurrent Codex used your racial identity.

By wielding the authority of Time, it directly cloned [Humanity] along with this world. Of course, if this were the old days, star systems, star sectors, even entire universes wouldn't have been out of the question.

But now, having exhausted the last of its energy, it can only manage to clone a few cities."

She produced a book from somewhere. Before it even had a chance to be flipped open, the color of the book itself vanished completely, turning to flying ash and disappearing without a trace.

"See, the artifacts are finished. Not just that one, but everything else in the treasury, all of it is done for."

One after another, divine weapons and legendary artifacts materialized around her, only to crumble into ashes in an instant.

"If you hadn't opened the treasury, I could have maintained their forms for a while longer. Not that they'd have any power, of course. But once the treasury is opened, the End has already arrived. I've held on for so long, yet in the end, there's no escaping it."

Her emotions were laced with faint sorrow and despair.

Yet all the calmness seemed like something she had long grown accustomed to.

Ye Qiyan also took a bottle of cola from the refrigerator and asked, "How do you know my name? And is it because I opened the treasury, causing these things to disappear, that you've trapped me here?"

The woman shook her head. "No, this is the Golden Tribe's apology to you.

As for your name?

Oh, humans can't do something like that, can they?

Names are very important.

The eyes of the Golden Tribe can see the True Name of any existence. It's a racial talent. Impressive, right?"

A hint of pride surfaced on her face, but Ye Qiyan caught a flaw in her words. "Didn't you just say you're not from the Golden Tribe? That statement is rather self-contradictory."

"Is it? Well, perhaps I'm just not that familiar with human language. My apologies.

Come to think of it, I haven't properly introduced myself yet, have I?"

She gently rotated the cola can in her hand, those weary eyes revealing a hint of reminiscence, and spoke in a tone brimming with pride, "I am Aloflis, the treasury's intelligent system. I am the final insignificant trace left behind by an entire civilization.

The Golden Tribe has gone extinct. My master left this treasury behind for one reason only: because a weak goddess abandoned everything and escaped from the primordial world.

Since a Key exists, perhaps at some point in the future, someone would carry that Key into this world.

But unfortunately, even though the treasury was sealed and managed to evade the pursuit of those True Gods, anything that belonged to the Golden Tribe ultimately could not escape the erasure of the End.

The treasures have already met their End. Nothing remains.

For an Explorer, that would be such a disappointing and disheartening affair. So, I used the last vestiges of power from the Countercurrent Codex that maintained the treasury's form, channeling it through Fate and Time, to construct this world that is real yet not quite real.

Originally, I wanted to make you happy, to let you live here for a few years. When that sliver of power could no longer hold, you'd be left with a beautiful memory or something. I never expected you to figure it out so quickly."

Aloflis, the treasury intelligence of the Golden Tribe.

She remained in this lonely, despairing world, waiting only for the Adventurer bearing the treasury's Key to arrive, so she could tell them that nothing was left here.

That was the meaning of her existence.

Perhaps... there was no meaning at all.

"So, how about you just pretend you never figured it out, and live here happily for a while? This world can be maintained for about seven years, while outside, only an hour will pass.

After all, entering this world still means you'll eventually die. Staying here is still better than being outside where the End will immediately devour your color and existence. Even if it's only seven more years.

But dying in happiness, isn't that wonderful?"

Indeed, compared to being gradually consumed by color and existence in the End,

many people might indeed choose to drown in false happiness and die, even if that falseness only lasted a day.

What's more, this world wasn't purely fake.

But... that wasn't what Ye Qiyan wanted.

Ye Qiyan tossed away the empty cola bottle in his hand, locked eyes with Aloflis, snapped his fingers lightly, and declared a fact in a calm tone: "Dying in happiness is indeed a good choice. Unfortunately, that's not the choice I'm making.

Aloflis, if your Golden Tribe master left you here only to provide an Adventurer with this false happiness before death,

then your existence is far too meaningless."

Ye Qiyan's words made Aloflis's body stiffen.

Her form flickered continuously, shifting and changing like a corrupted image.

"You, you don't understand anything! Human, you don't understand what the Golden Tribe went through! My master used the authority of Time to preserve me until now, specifically so that reckless Adventurers like you could experience happiness before death, instead of dying in agony within the End like they did!

This is my meaning! I, I!"

Ye Qiyan interrupted Aloflis's words once more. "And what if I can leave this world? Walk out from this despair, and even... defeat the End?"

"Defeat the End?! That's nothing special! The Golden Tribe has defeated who knows how many Ends! But it meant nothing! The End we experienced is something you can't even begin to imagine!

Furthermore, you don't even have the ability to leave this world! My purpose is to make you stay here! Enjoy your happiness, enjoy this real dream!"

"Is that so?"

Moon Veil materialized in his hand, the jellyfish-like Dream Eater coiling around his fingertips.

[Dream-Eating · Moon Veil]

[Dream Tears: Upon completing each Station World, return to the Wasteland to condense a single drop of Dream Tears. When used on any living being, it can dispel a single instance of [Dream]]

A dream tear fell into his eyes.

"It's a real world that even managed to fool me, but you're right about one thing. This is still just a dream."

"Now, it's time for the dream to end."

The next second...

The world began to collapse.

A gentle voice sounded from beside Ye Qiyan's ear.

"Master~ Master~"

He opened his eyes.

The room was gone. The city was gone.

What met his gaze was a maid in a pristine white dress, gently holding onto his arm.

Lisette. From the very beginning, she had never fallen into the dream.

"Why... why did you do this? What was wrong with that world?"

Aloflis's figure grew somewhat ethereal. She sat atop a semi-transparent coffin, her eyes filled with confusion and pain.

As she had said, the moment the Key opened the treasury, everything here was already destined to end.

She was not a lifeform of the Golden Tribe. The only reason she had managed to hide for countless ages through the authority of Time and the treasury itself was by exploiting that particular glitch.

The moment the treasury opened, she constructed a world of beautiful dreams for Ye Qiyan.

This was her mission, her End, the final gift the Golden Tribe had left for a living being.

But... it was all ruined...

This human, he had severed his connection to that beautiful dream.

"Why?"

Aloflis could not understand.

Just as she could not understand why she had expended everything she had, preserving the corpse within the coffin beneath her, a body that had long since met its End.