Feast of Gluttony

Tell me, based on the information gathered so far, how exactly was the Thirteen City Alliance destroyed? (212 replies)

Amulet Owl: At first, everyone thought the Alliance fell to the "Feast of Gluttony." After all, more than half of the Bosses above level 180 showed up. From the upper ranks to the lowest levels, the entire Alliance was treated equally and devoured by the gods.

Amulet Owl: But after the fifth major update, "Moon of Desire," the lore enthusiasts discovered that the Alliance's God Banning Barrier had been breached first, which led to the subsequent "Feast of Gluttony."

Amulet Owl: Based on the scattered text descriptions concerning the God Banning Barrier, it could be inferred that if the barrier had remained intact, the Bosses should not have been able to break through the Alliance's defenses.

Amulet Owl: Yet the Bosses gathered on the Bountiful Continent in advance, as if they had foreseen the God Banning Barrier's disappearance. Clearly, someone had informed them.

Amulet Owl: Therefore, I believe the Alliance's destruction was directly connected to the game's greatest mastermind.

Give Me a Cup of Honey: I remember Apep, who guarded the Alliance, got nothing during the first playthrough and was even severely injured by Bosses passing through. It probably had little to do with it, right?

I Love Both Ice Cream and Dark Chocolate: We still don't know how the God Banning Barrier works. Maybe it was like a battery—the Bosses all knew when it would run out of power, so they showed up right on time for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Doujin Valley: Big shots, don't you feel like the first playthrough's story was like the world's will waking up, suddenly discovering it had been corrupted, then summoning players and having them blow everything up before the world collapsed?

Doujin Valley: Now that it's the Second Playthrough, that Creator God who looked so weak was probably the incarnation of the world's will. He summoned players too, but the number he summoned was much more restrained.

Doujin Valley: It felt like us players were dirty bombs. The first playthrough's world was already doomed, so it could throw us around however it wanted. The Second Playthrough's world could still be saved, so it could only tentatively toss out two and see what happened.

Magical Girl Huyan Zhuo: Hearing you say that, I feel like we're pretty cool.

Wind of Dawn: The Alliance was probably breached from within. It had countless internal problems: discrimination against nonhuman races, persecution of faiths in the righteous gods, cultists everywhere, conflicts between different cities, factional struggles between magic and Scroll Divine Arts... all excellent production lines for traitors to humanity.

Luck, Come Quickly: But the Alliance was wiped out in the end, wasn't it? Apart from those people in Broken Sword Valley, there were no other survivors, right?

Trying to Rent a Featherfolk, Encountered Obstacles: You being a traitor to humanity ≠ me not eating you.

After reading every reply in one go, Li Li felt a tightness in his chest.

Though he had not verified it himself, after browsing the forum several times, he had become certain that the game called Despair Expedition was almost identical to his world.

He guessed that the game's essence was this world's projection onto Blue Star. It was only because time between the two worlds had become disordered that events from the "future" here had been projected onto Blue Star's "past."

Could the "future" be changed?

It should be possible.

He had summoned the people of Blue Star on January 14, Alliance Year 1104.

The Blue Star people of the "first playthrough," meanwhile, had appeared on July 31, Alliance Year 1104.

The exact start date of the "Feast of Gluttony" was unknown. It was said to have lasted more than half a month, occurring exactly half a year after he summoned the "players"—around July 14.

If he did not intervene, then when the time came, the Alliance's "God Banning Barrier" would collapse. The evil gods that had gathered in advance on the Bountiful Continent would swarm forward and devour every living thing, including Aer.

He was confident that before completely losing his mind, he could wipe out all the evil gods blocking the gate in one fell swoop.

But after that, who would deal with the "Creator God" after he descended into madness?

Li Li had thought he had plenty of time, that he could slowly deal with the corruption bit by bit like a scalpel. But now, he realized that a timed bomb of destruction hung above his head.

It was now January 18, Alliance Year 1104. In the final 178 days, he had to find the cause of the Alliance's destruction.

And stop all of this from happening.

It was like first splashing a bottle of blue ink across a blank canvas, then switching to a black ink brush to add details, creating a melancholy dream world.

This was a phenomenon space condensed from the negative emotions of millions of people.

Today's theme was—

Melancholy Circus.

Only, there seemed to be something wrong with this circus's name.

Because compared to fleeting melancholy, in today's dream world—

Fear was the main course.

The melancholy Little Ma on the carousel was drowned by purple beams of light; the melancholy lion leaping through blue rings of fire was drowned by purple beams of light; the melancholy magician hiding inside cards was drowned by purple beams of light...

After every being possessing "vitality" had taken a purple blast.

The lively girl in a pink dress slowly descended onto the ground formed from blue ink and walked up to the melancholy clown crouching in the corner, hugging its knees and trembling. Turning back, she said, "Li... Senior Li Yuan, this is the last one."

The lively girl codenamed Red Falcon timidly looked toward the purple shorty slowly descending from midair.

"Li Yuan."

This elementary school student who claimed to be from the future had passed Lord Kachu's test and become both Red Falcon's junior and senior among the Magical Girls.

She was adorable. Even at the prestigious academy for young ladies she attended, Red Falcon could not find a child more exquisite than her.

She was energetic. Once she started moving, she never wasted time.

She was lazy. Whenever she fell asleep, she absolutely would not wake up unless she had slept a full day. She had not even noticed when Red Falcon secretly kissed her.

She was powerful. The dream worlds that had buried Senior Canary and left Red Falcon too hesitant to advance had all become her hunting grounds.

"Bzzzt—"

Li Yuan expressionlessly gathered magic power. After charging her strength to its limit, a dazzling purple pillar of light erupted from her tiny heart-topped wand, melting the melancholy clown that had lost the courage to resist.

Li Yuan put away her wand and cast Red Falcon a dissatisfied glance.

"Why did you turn your back on a dream monster?" Her tone was stern.

"Hehe." The fourteen-year-old red-haired girl scratched her head and gave a foolish grin. "Because Senior was here."

"Whoosh—!!!"

A purple beam flashed past the red-haired girl's cheek, burning through the hair at the side of her face and releasing a faint scorched smell.

Red Falcon's legs gave out beneath her, and she dropped to her knees.

"Do you think the concept of 'death' is far away from you?"

Li Yuan's face was cold as she pointed her short purple heart-topped wand at the girl, who stood half a head taller than her, and said from above:

"If you treat being a Magical Girl like playing house, if you feel superior because you fight for others, then I advise you to end this game right now. You are already the unattainable young lady others can only look up to."