Things in This World Are Always Like This (@希儿哟--Great God Certification)
[Pineapple Candy] has broken free of the Legendary team and is once again playing its prelude.
At the same time, golden light pierced through the ice layer, Resonance with the immense energy, like liquid gold, that had gathered in the sky at some unknown time!
A colossal, ethereal phantom of Holy Light, almost covering half of the Third Island, slowly rotated and emerged above the island.
In the center of the magic circle, the figure of [Dog Shit_@!...... @!...] appeared. He floated in the air, holding a holy book that seemed to be made of light in his hands. His face was more solemn than ever before, and he chanted ancient and obscure divine words.
"... In the long, harsh winter night, all things return to their dormant state... By the Authority of my Lord's Eternal Ice Prison, I command this world—"
His voice, Miracle merging with the final, soaring note of [Pineapple Candy], created a terrifying Resonance that shook the island and stirred the elemental Tides!
"--Return to silence!"
As the last syllable fell, the endless Ice Elements that had been transported to this island gathered like mad dogs, but became obedient under the tutelage of the Holy Light.
Click-clack-clack--!
I don't know what God this Goushi worships, but he's definitely good at "frost."
A soul-crushing cracking sound rang out from beneath our feet, from the air, and from all directions. Everything in sight—light, color, even the astonished expressions of the Yuncang players who were carrying out the evacuation order—was instantly covered with a layer of icy blue.
An icy coffin, over fifty kilometers in diameter and ridiculously cold, appeared out of thin air at the original landing site of the expeditionary force!
Meanwhile, the elemental input from the [Starry Sky Forbidden Land] was amplified and solidified, becoming the energy source that sustains this terrifying realm.
The Yuncang players were horrified to discover that all their actions had slowed down several times over, and their thoughts seemed to be frozen.
The shield rapidly depleted, crystallized, and shattered under absolute zero. The [Live and Die Together] link remained, but what it transmitted was the immense pain of hundreds and thousands of people being slowly frozen and losing consciousness.
Low-level players are self-explanatory, but high-level players are dragged down by the shared damage.
Nanmen Shi's consciousness went slumber. As the lowest-level individual, he was naturally the first to succumb. [Instant Death Immunity] was still in effect, but it was useless against this environment-altering domain.
They will not die immediately, but will descend into eternal silence amidst endless cold, slowness, and Corrosion.
A sudden warmth came over me.
A Legendary player, level 89, broke the [Live and Die Together] link, endured the extreme cold to bring Yun Cangyuan over, and stuffed a pendant engraved with flames into Nanmen Shi's arms.
He then tore open the icy coffin and stepped out to face the four Wardens outside.
Nearby, several other Legendary players made the same choice.
The pendant's faint warmth, like a flickering candle in the wind, temporarily protected a sliver of life in Nanmen Shi's heart, preventing him from immediately succumbing to despair. The frost on his eyelashes trembled slightly, and he struggled to open his eyes a crack.
Yun Cangyuan's face was inches away, also covered by a thin layer of ice, but his eyes were unusually clear.
What good would it do you to bury the expeditionary force?
Yun Cangyuan didn't seem angry; he questioned her expressionlessly.
The situation was beyond repair. Back to reality, he had to take responsibility for it, and he had to figure out what had happened.
"What?" Nanmen Shi closed his eyes again.
"I told you the real direction of the attack, but you betrayed my trust."
Nanmen Shi remained silent; ice crystals condensed in his eyes, and he could no longer see them.
"It was you who leaked it. Don't try to deny it. I saw through all your disgusting little tricks. You deliberately disgusted the monitor, Chen Yan, to create an opportunity to send messages to the dead and establish communication with the Wardens."
Yun Cangyuan's gaze was colder than the surrounding ice and the gradually freezing players.
"Chen Yan's 'negligence' and 'tolerance' were at my behest. Within the military communication system, any information, whether encrypted or not, whether deleted or not, is backed up and traced at the hardware level... I've already found out it was you who did it."
Nanmen Shi opened his eyes blankly, his eyeballs shattering. "Hmm."
"You are not qualified to know [the Scholar's] information; it was [the Pillar] who made you do it, wasn't it?"
"... Um."
"Since your goal is to hinder the expedition, why not just remove your Talent? Without your Talent, we wouldn't even have made it this far."
"Because... your Talents have been removed... you... will all die first... and I will be the first."
Yun Cangyuan silent. In the icy prison, time seemed to stand still, but this brief silence felt longer than any of the previous battles.
The Legendary players who had just left had failed. The ice coffin seemed to tremble twice, then fell silent.
After a long silence, he slowly spoke:
Why is everything in the world always like this?
"It's always those despicable people who scheme and plot against others who first ruin the situation to the point of no return..."
"And then, it is those heroes who hold firm to their beliefs and are willing to die for civilization, those good people who only want a peaceful life, who must sacrifice their lives to turn the tide and fill the void they created..."
What, then, is the true principle governing this world?
Nanmen Shi turned his head away, and even with the pendant protecting him, he felt his thoughts were about to freeze.
"Reality... has no distinction between good and evil, nor between heroes and villains, only between different perspectives."
Consciousness plunged into eternal, icy darkness.
However, in the instant before he completely lost consciousness, a question suddenly popped into Nanmen Shi's almost frozen mind:
Why...
Commander Yun Cangyuan had long suspected his betrayal, and even instructed Chen Yan to allow him to pass on information.
What exactly... does he want to do?
The terrifying scene of the Third Island turning into Eternal Ice Prison, through the unbroken [Live and Die Together] link, swept through the other two Yuncang armies like a chilling nightmare.
The players waited Jingjing in an open area hundreds of kilometers away from the island, while the commander awaited news from his comrades.
This was one of the tactics devised before the battle: one side would launch a strong attack to draw attention, while the other two would remain silent and wait, thus sharing the damage taken through [Live and Die Together].
Suddenly, the players all let out a muffled groan, and their movements froze in unison.
A chill that seeped into my bones, and a sluggish feeling as if my soul was about to freeze, surged in without warning along the invisible network of connections.
"What happened?!"
"It's the [Live and Die Together] link! Something's happened on the Third Island!"
"Damn it! It's area-of-effect, high-intensity damage and negative effects! It's been spread out!"