Always the Same (Thanks to the Legendary Orange Cat's Silver Alliance Leader)

The beginning had been in the midst of crying.

In only a moment of dazed confusion, the world seemed to have become completely different.

The instant the lighthouse's radiance illuminated Ji Jue, the blazing light-flames slowly opened like an eye. Its gaze awakened from the flames and turned toward him.

There was neither resentment nor pity—only a calm, indifferent gaze looking down.

Looking at Ji Jue.

Ji Jue was looking at it too.

And so, those distant cries once again rushed toward him like tides!

"They're all fucking lies."

Amid the chaotic slums, a desperate man roared at the debt collector. He grabbed a shovel and swung it wildly, screaming in madness, "You knew! You knew all along the water wasn't clean, you knew there was something wrong with this disease! Even buying your medicine meant borrowing your loans and owing you money... I've got nothing left! Fucking nothing left! What else do you want?!"

Bang!

"Watch what you say, brother. We didn't force you to borrow the money. Didn't I tell you to think it over carefully when you signed the contract?"

The debt collector's expression darkened. His subordinates swarmed forward, pinning the indebted man in the mud. They held him down tightly as iron rods came crashing down, smashing his teeth and knocking blood and fragments of tongue from his mouth.

"A bet's a bet, and debts must be repaid. That's the name you signed, that's the money you borrowed. Even the medicine was loaned to you by us. Now that you've been treated, you say you can't repay it? It's not that simple."

The debt collector waved coldly and pointed at the ramshackle shed behind the man. "Take them all away."

The crowd filed inside. Terrified screams and children's cries sounded out, but soon, no voices could