495: What Era Are We Living In, Still Using Traditional Contracts? We Need to Keep Up with the Times, Got It?

"Are you saying they're still alive?"

In the underground area, where Murphy was alone, the vampire lord clenched his fists the moment he heard the message from the astral behemoth Mannis. He questioned it:

"Are you sure you're not joking? So many ordinary people were thrown into that hellish place called the Astral Plane. It's a chaotic land where even golden-rank powerhouses don't know how long they can survive. You really expect me to believe that a hundred thousand ordinary people are still struggling to stay alive there?

It's been more than four months.

Telling me they're still alive is like saying they're all Transian Supermen or Captain Transias. Do you think I'll believe that?"

"Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant."

The Endless One, Mannis, sounded amused now. Like a card player holding both jokers and with nothing to worry about, it spoke unhurriedly:

"The truth and the evidence won't disappear just because you refuse to believe them. You mortals, who walk the earth and can only gaze up at the starry sea, have a rather limited understanding of the Astral Plane. I admit that my homeland is a chaotic place, where time and space form a perilous, convoluted tower in utter disorder.

"Yet that very chaotic disorder means there may also be a 'safe place' somewhere within it.

"Of course, in this case, your compatriots weren't lucky enough to be thrown into some wonderful environment where they could protect themselves.

"Their survival doesn't mean they were fortunate.

"It was merely the start of an even more terrible ordeal. The astral rift that opened in Cadman City was a sacrifice beyond mortal comprehension! Murphy, they were 'offerings' to the shadows of the Warp.

"They wouldn't simply swallow them whole.

"I know there were over three hundred thousand people