Click.
A crisp sound rang out, the tremor of the steel spring spreading through the night wind like the lingering echo of a plucked string.
So cold.
Beneath the dim neon lights, Huai Shi focused on assembling the components in his hands, unmoved by the distant explosions and shrieks. Then he suddenly asked:
"Do you think I should be merciful, A Zhao?"
"..."
Yuan Zhao, crouching beside him, instinctively stiffened and shot the bastard a fierce glare.
He actually called him by the same nickname his cousin used!
Disgusting!
That was what he had wanted to say.
But when he saw that profile slowly sinking into shadow beneath the flickering neon, he could not help but hesitate.
"Probably...?"
After thinking it over, he answered, "Everyone says you're that kind of person."
Huai Shi laughed at that and continued asking:
"What do you think?"
Yuan Zhao fell silent.
As though deep in thought, he gazed at the city swelling up like a mountain in the distance, a cruel world adorned with countless neon signs and lights like a Christmas tree.
After a long while, he could not help but sigh. "I just think... seeing a world like this, you'd definitely be sad."
In the silence, Huai Shi's movements stalled for an instant.
Then he continued.
"Who wouldn't be?"
If one had ever had the chance to witness the prosperity and brilliance of the Present Realm, to see all that flourishing light and splendor, who would not be heartbroken by this?
A world where people ate people.
When self-interest became the only rule, when one's station became the standard of judgment, when race and society became cruel machines.
When the strong prey on the weak became an unquestionable truth.
When the powerful, wallowing in extravagance and excess, plundered nourishment from those below