Chapter 78: A Ray of Light at the End

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: A Ray of Light at the End

"What are you thinking about? I’m no prophet, nor do I know any fortune-telling," Jeremy leaned lazily back against the vine chair, his eyes showing a hint of helplessness.

Having spent some time together, he had somewhat grasped Leon’s personality. Just looking at that slightly tense expression was enough to guess what kind of conspiracy he was cooking up in his head.

Jeremy raised a hand to rub his aching shoulder, replying in a bland tone: "It’s just a habit of always leaving myself a way out. No matter what you guys think, I truly don’t want to die. Therefore, when forced to place a bet, I will throw everything I have onto the table, as long as it wins me a chance of survival."

The corner of his lips curled up slightly, forming a nonchalant arc: "As you can see, I won the bet this time."

This exceedingly blunt answer seemed to fall outside Leon’s expectations. He avoided Jeremy’s sharp gaze, shifting his sight toward the ground littered with corpses and foul-smelling pools of blood. Half of Leon’s face was cast in shadow as his voice lowered: "...It seems the Captain is truly very afraid of death."

"Could it be that all your extreme, life-risking efforts up until now were simply because you fear death?"

"You can interpret it that way if you want." Jeremy didn’t beat around the bush to deny it: "At least, at this current moment, that is the case."

If Leon stubbornly kept digging for the reason why he was so sharp...

First, it was naturally due to a bit of luck. Second, the hellish training from his previous life had been etched deep into his bones, forming a combat instinct and survival mindset entirely different from ordinary people.

And the final, most core reason: He wanted to live. Having the desire to live meant calculating every possibility, betting at all costs. Win and live on, lose and accept that his time is up. It was that simple.

"..."

Leon pursed his lips, saying not another word.

Ever since they registered the team, the Soul Magic Card link constantly reported the members’ locations. Leon didn’t intentionally spy, but every time he accidentally glanced at the screen, he saw Jeremy’s blip hovering around three places: the Library, the Dormitory, or the Arena. That insane level of training completely contradicted his status.

As the only son of the powerful Valmont family, even if he did nothing, Jeremy was supposed to enjoy a life of luxury and wealth. Yet, the Duke’s young master, constantly reviled by the world with titles like "wicked" and "stupidly arrogant"... was currently gritting his teeth and risking his life in this cursed place simply for the word "live".

To what extent had the Valmont family pushed him? Did he truly not care at all about the insults from the outside?

Leon looked up at the gloomy, gray sky of the desolate wasteland, suppressing the chaotic thoughts surging in his chest. He decided not to expose it or ask any more boundary-crossing questions.

The magical beasts had been cleared out. After resting on the spot for about half an hour, everyone’s complexion had improved.

Leon jutted his chin toward the stairs leading underground: "Sitting here forever is useless. I’ll go down and check, everyone just wait here."

"If we go, we go together. Splitting our forces right now will only invite more trouble." Jeremy stood up and stretched, his joints popping. He repeated the process of leaving a teleportation mark, then took long strides toward the cave entrance.

The reasoning was sound; Leon gave a grunt of agreement and took steps to follow behind.

Recalling the underground structure from earlier, there were a total of six stone doors leading in six different directions. The area with Los and the Nightmare Demon had completely collapsed, meaning the central door was ruined. That left only five options. The task now was to find the true exit among the remaining five doors.

In the silent underground.

The five stood before five diverging paths. Leon swept his gaze around, tossing the decision to his teammate: "Which way?"

Jeremy stood still, waiting, but a moment later, he realized that all four pairs of eyes were focused on him.

"?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow, a helpless smile blooming on his lips: "...Then I’ll just pick randomly."

Probing too far with magic power here would only waste energy. He raised his hand, his index finger gliding past each door with an incredibly ’spiritual’ rhythm, finally stopping at the second door. "Let’s go. The general of the gods just appeared in a dream and told me to take this path."

The four were dumbfounded: "?"

"What general?" Leon frowned and asked.

Jeremy shrugged, his face unchanging: "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Just picked a random one."

The four of them: "..."

"That’s a good method too." Lucius burst into laughter. He leisurely stepped forward, placed a large hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, and applied a bit of force to push him forward: "Since the Captain has given the order, let’s go."

Jeremy let him push him a few steps. Ever since setting foot in this land, Lucius’s mysophobia had been triggered to the extreme, constantly muttering complaints about the foul stench every day. Perhaps because of that, recently, he always intentionally narrowed the distance between them.

At this thought, Jeremy abruptly stopped in his tracks, turning his head to look at the three people behind: "Let me ask you guys a question."

Leon frowned: "What is it?"

Phoenix and Evelyn also stopped, looking expectantly for him to speak.

Under the attention of the whole team, Jeremy put on an incredibly serious expression and asked sincerely: "Is there any strange scent on me? Like a body fragrance or something similar?"

The corner of Leon’s mouth twitched, looking at him as if looking at a fool: "...Is your brain concussed?" Despite dropping a sarcastic remark, he still seriously sniffed and replied: "There’s no fragrance, but there’s no strange foul smell either."

Evelyn thought for a moment: "I once smelled a faint rose scent, sometimes it changes to another scent."

Phoenix standing nearby nodded silently, expressing agreement.

"Alright, thanks." Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. So this body fundamentally didn’t have any seductive fragrance setting. The fact that Evelyn smelled changing scents was definitely because he often changed his body wash.

In conclusion, only this guy Lucius hallucinated smelling a strange scent.

Jeremy had just withdrawn his gaze and was about to continue walking when he bumped right into the faint smile of the person beside him.

Lucius’s deep blue eyes curved slightly, his profound smile spreading like spring ripples. He intentionally leaned his chin close to Jeremy’s shoulder, the distance so near that his warm breath puffed lightly on his earlobe, and lowered his voice: "Why didn’t the Captain ask me? Who knows... I might just smell it?"

The overly close distance caused Jeremy’s muscles to tense slightly. He frowned, raised a hand to forcefully push the other’s handsome face away, looking disgusted: "Go away, don’t mess around. This isn’t the place for you to act up."

Being pushed away, Lucius didn’t get angry in the slightest, merely giving a soft snort and lazily complaining: "The Captain is truly only good at discriminating."

Jeremy ignored a certain someone acting up and took long strides straight inside.