Chapter 1122: 109. Lighting It

Silence. Stillness. Cold.

Whether it was Marcie or Landa on the other side, both of them were completely frozen in place at this moment.

They had never imagined the shock of this information would reach such a degree. Especially for Marcie. Pioneers were the existence she admired most, while evil believers were the existence she hated most. How could those two... be completely equated?

“Don’t you have identity code tracking?” Muen did not doubt this matter much, but he was puzzled. “Why did it take you until these last ten years to realize it?”

“Identity codes aren’t omnipotent either. In reality, even with tracking, the corpses we can successfully recover number less than one-third... Even though we tell the outside world that the purpose of identity codes is to let us recover every hero’s corpse, the truth is... many times, even when we follow the tracking to the last location, we often still don’t find the body.

“In the past, we all believed those corpses had been eaten by certain existences in the fog. That is very common. All kinds of monsters live within the fog, and they are an active source of danger. But now, it seems those people did not die. Instead...”

Theresa paused. “For some reason, they became evil believers.”

“...” Marcie swayed, her little face somewhat pale.

She knew that the greatest function of identity code tracking, rather than recovering corpses, was more accurately to prevent the “achievements” of Pioneers from being lost. After all, most Pioneers vanished without a trace in the fog. If they did not even know the last place where those Pioneers had disappeared, then after so many years, it would basically be very hard for their positions of advancement within the fog to make any major progress.

“I’m sorry.”

Theresa said in a low voice. It was unclear whether he was apologizing to Marcie, or to those people who had been kept in the dark all this time.

But no matter what, even Marcie knew that concealing this matter had indeed been the right thing to do. Because in Annabawei, there were far, far too many people like her who regarded Pioneers as spiritual support.

They might not be able to withstand this blow.

She was a smart person. She could accept the Pioneers’ imperfections.

But what about those pitiful people struggling bitterly in the darkness?

Wasn’t Theodore maintaining the Pioneer system with such painstaking effort largely so Annabawei would not lose hope completely?

Darkness was not frightening.

Despair... was the most frightening thing.

“This isn’t your fault.”

Muen waved his hand, indicating for Theresa to continue. “What happened afterward? Did you figure out the reason? This is no minor matter.”

“We made many guesses. The most reliable one is that the Goddess’s power is hidden deep in the fog. If someone accidentally comes into contact with it, they will be assimilated by the Goddess into an evil believer.”

“Only... a guess?”

“We also tried to make contact with those Pioneers who had already become evil believers, but...”

Theresa took a deep breath. “They had all gone mad.”

“Mad?”

“Yes, all mad. Just like the Goddess. At times, their emotions are normal, and they can communicate. At other times, they are deranged, violent, and merciless.”

“In that case, while they are in a normal state...”

“No.”

Theresa shook his head. “They will attack even in a normal state. And that state is very rare. It seems they, like the Goddess, are about to be completely eroded by that madness. They have already turned into that terrifying appearance to begin with, and we do not dare make too deep a contact with them, so...”

Muen thought of the previous Third Attendant. He had indeed been mad and deranged too, his speech inverted and incoherent. Trying to extract intelligence from a fellow in that state really was difficult.

This was an unfair battle to begin with.

No wonder Theodore had kept talking about having no choice. Perhaps he had long since predicted that Annabawei would reach a dead end where it had no option but to stake everything on one desperate fight.

Goddess, oh Goddess... that mad Goddess seemed determined to slaughter every person in Annabawei down to the last.

“In short, there is no doubt that we are at a disadvantage in this battle. The other side are Pioneers too, and Pioneers accumulated over so many years at that. Unlike us, they do not expend themselves inside the fog. They have been guarding the Goddess for a very, very long time...

“They are like...”

Another Fog Wall.

Impossible to grasp.

Impossible to see through.

Impossible to break past.

Enough to drive one to despair.

Theresa did not say the rest, but his obscure expression was already enough to make the atmosphere around them grow even heavier.

“But there is still this plan, isn’t there?”

Just when everyone had fallen silent, Muen suddenly spoke. “And from what I can see, its success rate is very high.”

If the success rate was high, hope was naturally great as well.

Then there was no need to continue being sad.

Theresa froze, then grinned and laughed loudly.

“Haha, look at me. I am clearly the senior here, yet I actually ended up being comforted by a newly arrived brat. That’s right. We have already come this far. We can hardly stop moving forward now.”

Even knowing it was a dead end, they would still advance bravely, using their own flesh, blood, and weapons to force open a path to survival.

That was what made them Pioneers.

Although even now, they still had not found the road that led out of Annabawei, the tenacious spirit left behind by countless pioneering predecessors, beginning from the first Pioneer, Alan, had not vanished in the long darkness.

Instead, it had gradually grown stronger.

This... was their strongest weapon against the Goddess!

“The method is already in place. The target is already in place. What comes next... depends only on whether President Theodore can hold on over there.”

Muen looked toward the hazy valley. Within the mist, shadows occasionally flickered. With so many people gathered here, they had naturally already drawn the attention of the evil believers inside.

“Don’t worry. He definitely can.”

Theresa was incomparably certain. “After all, the President... is the President!”

“Mm-hmm!”

Marcie also nodded hard. In her eyes, no matter who collapsed, President Theodore could never collapse!

Although his Mediterranean hairstyle had already collapsed once, just a tiny bit, in her maiden heart... a small collapse did not count as a collapse!

President would definitely be able to do it!

“Woo—”

A sharp whistle echoed through the night sky. Everyone who had originally still been resting began moving.

Even Marcie jolted and came back to herself from the shock and loss just now.

“It’s starting.”

Muen and Theresa exchanged a glance. Both understood the meaning contained in it, their expressions grave.

...

...

Rabuya City.

The small headquarters building of the City-State United Pioneering Association.

Muen, Marcie, Theresa... all the Pioneers, or Trainee Pioneers, had already arrived at the Goddess’s hiding place, preparing for the coming assault that concerned Annabawei’s survival or destruction.

Yet he, the President, was still sitting steadily in his own office.

From a conventional perspective, this was something very difficult to explain. Most would say that he, this President, was cowardly, incompetent, and afraid to die, that because he was unwilling to fight, he had hidden here...

But in reality, no one thought that.

Because he had been President for a very long time. Here, the position of President did not represent power. After all, how much power could there be in a place that was about to be destroyed?

More than anything, it represented responsibility.

And he had fulfilled his responsibility very well.

For ten years, and for more than ten years that had only grown more and more difficult.

The Goddess’s hiding place had been discovered, resources had continued growing scarce, the evil believers’ activities had become increasingly frequent, and... from that Wall of Fog, there still had not been any good news.

Any one of these things, taken alone, could crush many people. Yet he, the President, could still sit here intact. And up until now, Annabawei had shockingly still not shown even the slightest sign of collapse...

“When you put it that way... perhaps I am a good president?”

There was no one else in the office. The personnel who had remained behind were all on guard downstairs, so Theodore was essentially asking and answering himself.

He touched the top of his head and discovered that at some unknown point, even the last few “stubborn grasses” had disappeared... So he gave a bitter smile.

But there was not much heartache in it.

Because at a time like this, whether he had a Mediterranean hairstyle or not was already completely unimportant.

“Knock, knock...”

The door was suddenly knocked on. “President, news has come from over there. They are ready.”

“Is that so? Excellent. You all go stay on guard as well. Do not relax.”

“Yes.”

The person outside the door quickly left. Theodore heard the sound of metal scraping from downstairs.

This simple little building was shabby, worn, and patched together. Naturally, its soundproofing was not very good either.

Theodore looked around this place, yet his eyes were filled with attachment.

“Ten years...”

He stroked his office desk. This was one of the rare wooden desks. He had heard it was even an antique, from the peaceful era before the Goddess had gone mad.

“It seems everything is finally about to end...”

Theodore pulled open the small drawer beside him and took out the little tin where he stored tea leaves. At a moment like this, of course he wanted to drink a cup of tea first.

But when he opened the tin, only then did he discover that it was completely empty... He smiled helplessly. He had forgotten that the tea leaves had already been distributed by him.

Still, distributed was distributed. It was no great matter.

He put the empty tin back. Theodore’s hand touched here and there, as if he wanted to leave a mark on every place, yet he also knew that in the end, no mark could be left behind.

Because everything here had already been decided.

It would make its sacrifice, just like him.

At last, he stood up, drew open the curtains, and looked at Rabuya City in the darkness. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

This city was the city under his management, so even though it had already been shrouded by night for three days and three nights, basic order still existed. There was no chaos.

The people here... and even the people of Annabawei, still held hope in their hearts. They believed those Pioneers would eventually lead them toward light.

This made Theodore very proud. So proud that... he wanted the Goddess to see it too.

“The first article of Annabawei’s survival code: do not light any light in the darkness.”

“Because light will draw the Goddess of Night’s gaze.”

Theodore groped around and took out that half candle from his chest. Then he examined it, picked off some of the wax tears at the bottom of the candle, and placed them back into the small hollow at the top, so this candle could burn a little longer.

“But the Goddess of Night has already been severely wounded. In reality, even if someone lights a light, her power is insufficient to kill that person from so far away.”

“So at a time like this... someone can only do it on her behalf.”

Hiss.

Theodore lit the candle.

The dim light swayed, making Theodore’s shadow dance wildly across the wall. As the wax around the candlewick melted bit by bit, the candle flame leapt higher and higher, and the candlelight grew brighter and brighter.

Very soon, the bright candlelight filled the entire room.

Theodore narrowed his eyes, feeling that warmth.

But that warmth did not last long. Because as the candlelight suddenly shook violently again, the gentle candlelight that had spilled over the walls, spilled across the floor, and even pierced through the window to spill onto the street outside was forced back by some cold shadow.

Beyond the shadow was a certain mad and terrifying gaze.

At the same time, Theodore seemed to hear her voice. Those noisy, indescribable, bone-chilling voices. Merely listening was enough to make a person’s soul tear with agonizing pain.

“Extinguish the light!”

That voice shrieked fiercely:

“Extinguish the candle!”

Over the past several hundred years, countless people who had attempted to kindle a trace of light in the darkness had felt this gaze and heard this voice.

They were terrified. They were afraid. They compromised.

And so there had been no light at all in this night again.

But at this moment, Theodore merely smiled faintly.

“No.”

He said:

“I will never extinguish this candle, not until the moment true light arrives.”