WTYTIAAN Chapter 102

Yan Yunqing pursed his lips, also raising his teacup, and lightly touched Merlin’s, making a crisp clinking sound, “Thank you.”

“…I’m back.”

Merlin drained the tea in one gulp, put down the teacup, “Strange, it’s just drinking tea, why does it feel like I’m downing beer in a tavern?”

Yan Yunqing was speechless, “With your alcohol tolerance, downing beer is out of the question, it’d be good enough if you weren’t knocked out after one cup.”

Merlin’s face flushed slightly, but fortunately, his beard concealed the blush caused by his embarrassment. He couldn’t help but argue, “It’s been two thousand years! My alcohol tolerance is no longer one cup.”

Yan Yunqing didn’t believe it.

Before, in the game, Merlin’s alcohol tolerance was one cup. It’s said that a person’s alcohol tolerance only worsens with age, how could it possibly improve?

“Really!”

Yan Yunqing said perfunctorily, “Alright, alright, let’s say you’re telling the truth.”

Merlin: …

The battle over there was almost coming to an end. Yan Yunqing, watching the boss’s health bar with little remaining, asked the question that had been on his mind.

“Merlin, about the prophecy of the ‘Heavenly Descendant,’ you once interpreted it, right?”

Merlin was taken aback, as if he had thought of something, his expression gradually becoming strange, “You wouldn’t…”

Yan Yunqing didn’t wait for Merlin to ask, directly admitting, “When I first heard this prophecy, I thought I was the ‘Heavenly Descendant’ in the prophecy. However, by chance, I learned that the ‘Heavenly Descendant’ is someone else and is indeed about to arrive here. Can you tell me what the prophecy specifically said?”

Merlin was silent. He frowned and thought for a long time before shaking his head.

“I did interpret that prophecy, but I only deciphered fragments of it. You know, prophecy magic is the most mysterious and difficult to control and master of all law-based magic.”

“All prophecy magic is not entirely a prediction of the future, but rather the world’s calculation of the future based on what is happening now, finally returning all the possibilities to the caster.”

“I’m not good at this to begin with. When I was interpreting this prophecy, I felt resistance from the world. It refused me to delve deeper into this issue, so I could only barely decipher the time of the ‘Heavenly Descendant’s’ appearance.”

“Even, I never fully learned that prophecy.” Merlin said, “The prophecy content you heard should be ‘The world will be destroyed, only the Heavenly Descendant can save everything,’ right? Actually, the prophecy I knew at that time was similar to this.”

Yan Yunqing was somewhat disappointed upon hearing this, “You don’t even know either?”

He originally thought that Merlin, who had interpreted the prophecy, would know something, but what Merlin knew was no different from what he knew.

“There’s no way, when this prophecy first came out, I encountered some trouble and fell into a deep sleep. I almost couldn’t wake up. Isabel found a way… Never mind, let’s not mention this.”

Merlin thought for a moment, “If you really want to know the full content, perhaps you can ask Theodore.”

Theodore? The Archangel?

Yan Yunqing hesitated for two seconds, “You think he knows something?”

Merlin affirmed, “The prophecy emerged in the late Eternal Empire. Most of the alien races announced their return to their former territories. There aren’t many who experienced that time and are still alive. Divick was searching for you all over the world, Isabel was busy saving me, and Torin wasn’t at the center of power, so he didn’t know much.”

“Counting it all up, Theodore knows the most. As the head of the guard, he fought for the Eternal Empire until the very end. He handled the affairs of the last few years.”

“If you want to ask who knows the most about the prophecy, Theodore is definitely the most informed.”

Yan Yunqing thought about it. Lillian and Merlin both said that Theodore knew the most. It seems that it is indeed possible to ask Theodore. However…

“Merlin, let me ask you a question.” Yan Yunqing coughed twice, “When I disappeared, what… what was their reaction?”

Merlin: ?

Merlin didn’t understand what kind of question this was. He asked suspiciously, “What kind of reaction could there be? Everyone was going crazy.”

As he spoke, Merlin clicked his tongue, “At that time, I was a little scared. You really know how to pick them. Each of your contracted familiars is more terrifying than the last. At that time, I was worried that if you suddenly came back, you would be killed by your crazed familiars. Even Isabel said that she would beat you up severely if she found you.”

Yan Yunqing: ?!!

Damn, do they really want to kill the king?

Yan Yunqing was still wondering if the game company behind it was tricking him, but now that he heard that there were indeed familiars who wanted to kill him, Yan Yunqing was a little scared.

No, this isn’t fear, this is listening to his heart!

Divick doesn’t seem to be the one who wants to kill him, so Theodore…

Theodore shouldn’t be possible, right?

Yan Yunqing hesitated a bit. It’s said that Theodore is the Demon King’s loyal dog. Could he really have such disrespectful thoughts?

Yan Yunqing rubbed his forehead, deciding to take it one step at a time. Compared to figuring out the reason for the emergence of the ‘Heavenly Descendant’ prophecy, his little life was more important.

At least he should level up first. If he fights Theodore, he won’t be killed in one move, then he can meet Theodore.

There’s still time, at least half a year before the players go online.

As Yan Yunqing made his decision, a system prompt popped up in front of him.

【The ‘Mantiper Morgan False God’ limited-time challenge dungeon has been cleared. Do you want to exit?】

Countdown 10, 9, 8…

Yan Yunqing glanced at Isabel, who had already turned back into human form, stepping on the False God’s chest with one foot, and bathed in a fierce flame, and chose to exit.

At this moment, Isabel looked like the Valkyrie Athena in mythology.

He had managed to leech off this level 100+ dungeon. Apart from hitting a few vines at the beginning, Isabel and Divick had solved the big bosses later on.

He wondered if there would be an assistance reward for clearing this dungeon?

“But… since Nolan, you’ve returned, have you ever thought about…”

【You have exited the dungeon, the dungeon content has been recorded, automatically generating…】

Along with the system prompt, Yan Yunqing heard the last few words of Merlin’s sentence, and his whole body was stunned.

“Rebuilding the Eternal Empire?”

【The ‘Sinful Mantiper’ dungeon has been generated, welcome players to challenge again.】

*

The long night was endless, and Mantiper, filled with the smell of gold coins, collapsed and fell apart bit by bit. The former ‘Man’ and ‘Per’ rushed out of the collapsing Mantiper in panic, falling into deep confusion as they looked at the ruins of Mantiper.

Underneath their feet were the ruins burying sin, and above them was a dark night with no light.

They had lost count of how long they had stayed in Mantiper, so long that they had been assimilated and corrupted by Mantiper’s money, never thinking that there would be a day to leave.

Ino, who had run out with the crowd, also stared blankly at the dark sky.

Unlike the other members of the children’s group, Ino, who had become a ‘Dealer’ early on, was absolutely not allowed to leave Mantiper.

“So the sky is like this…”

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew by, driving away the dark clouds in the sky, and the silver-white moon quietly revealed a corner, casting strands of moonlight.

Ino slowly reached out his hand, watching that strand of moonlight fall into his palm and drape over his shoulders.

He slowly clenched his hand, as if trying to grasp that strand of moonlight.

In Ino’s memory, the light hanging overhead was only of two kinds. One was the light from the crystal chandelier hanging high on the ceiling of the casino hall, rotating and refracting dazzling colors; the other was the dim overhead light in the small dark room, only enough to illuminate the cards in his hand for him to study.

Memories of living with Jeff and the others long ago had been forgotten. He couldn’t even find a picture of the outside sky in his memory, only relying on the descriptions of the children who came back from the outside to barely piece together the outside world.

Even though that person had promised to take him away with him this time, Ino had never had any expectations.

He was just a golden canary raised in a cage by Mantiper, already accustomed to the life of being locked in an iron cage, forgetting how to fly.

Could he survive after leaving Mantiper?

Low sobs sounded around him. Ino looked around blankly. Many people were crying.

Those he knew, those he didn’t know, some were filled with grief, while others seemed to be crying with joy.

Why were they crying?

Ino touched the corners of his eyes. They were dry, without a trace of moisture.

Yes, he had understood very early on that crying would not bring better treatment, but would instead lead him into endless punishment. Only by completing the tasks assigned by the adults one by one would his situation improve.

So he had even forgotten how to cry.

Ino lowered his head and sighed softly.

“What should I do next?” His voice rarely revealed a trace of confusion, talking to himself, “Find a nobleman who likes to play cards and ask if he can take me in?”

Or wait for Mantiper to be rebuilt… Well, it’s already collapsed like this, rebuilding will be very difficult, right? How will he survive during that time?

Ah, this is really troubling.

Ino stared blankly at his toes. He was wearing a pair of beautiful small leather shoes. There wasn’t a single part of him that wasn’t exquisite. Even if he inevitably got dust on himself during the escape, it was difficult to hide the temperament cultivated by Mantiper.

This was all Mantiper’s preferential treatment for the ‘Dealer.’

“Ino—”

A call broke Ino’s confusion. He heard this familiar voice and looked up—

Not far away, Xiao Ai, Mia, Kurt…

They were all standing a dozen meters away from him, waving frantically at him.

And beside Xiao Ai, a tall young man with a cane was looking at his direction with gentle eyes.

“Ino!” Xiao Ai ran over excitedly and grabbed Ino’s hand, “Are you hurt?”

“I, I’m not?” Ino answered blankly, “How did you guys come here?”

Xiao Ai asked strangely, “Because we heard the commotion here. Mr. Xavier said he would bring you out. We were a little worried, so we came over when we heard the commotion.”

“Fortunately, you weren’t hurt.” Mia noticed that the others around them were more or less injured. Seeing that Ino was just a little embarrassed and didn’t have any obvious injuries, she breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s great.”

Xiao Ai hugged Ino tightly before pulling Ino’s hand and pointing at the young man who was standing there looking at them gently, “Ino, this is Big Brother Jeff, do you remember him?”

Ino looked in the direction of Xiao Ai’s gaze, identifying him for a long time, but he couldn’t find Jeff’s face from his memory before entering Mantiper. However, he didn’t spoil the fun, just nodded and obediently called out following Xiao Ai’s words, “Big Brother Jeff.”

Jeff could tell at a glance that Ino didn’t recognize him at all.

This was normal. Ino was too young when he entered Mantiper, and he had never left Mantiper for so many years. He almost couldn’t match Ino’s appearance, let alone a small child who could remember him.

But it didn’t matter. Whether they could recognize each other or not, these were all the children he had picked up one by one.

They were all his younger brothers and sisters.

He leaned on his cane and walked forward a few steps, reaching out and gently hugging Ino.

Jeff whispered to Ino, “Welcome home, Ino.”

Ino fell into that embrace, and the warmth buried deep in his memory was re-excavated. His eyes widened slightly.

“At this time, you should say, ‘I’m back.'” Nika, who had been following beside him without speaking, smiled and reminded him when she saw Ino freeze.

“Ah? Oh!”

Ino came back to his senses and quickly repeated the sentence, “I’m back.”

Then his head was rubbed by Jeff, “Mm, I know.”

Nika and Rocco also crowded over, each holding one of his hands. Compared to Ino, who was carefully raised to be a little taller than his peers, Nika and Rocco, who were clearly older, looked more like Ino’s younger siblings due to their thin bodies.

But this still didn’t prevent them from becoming the closest family.

They were the homeless orphans in this free, barbaric, and sinful city, and also the younger brothers and sisters of Jeff, who had lost his parents and supported the sky for these children at a young age.

“Let’s go, let’s go home!”

Ino let Nika and the others pull him, taking a few steps in a small run. The wind brushed past, blowing up the broken hair on his ears, and also blowing up the corners of his upturned mouth, as well as the faint moisture in the corners of his eyes.

The wind was very strong at that moment, but it bypassed Ino’s soul, blowing away the confusion and hesitation.