Found

"Lin, right? Where are your people being held? We'll go rescue them right now!"

After the little figure Chen Qiang had been vanished from Lin's shoulder, Sabo straightened his clothes to look a little more gentlemanly before asking Lin again.

"Yes! I'll get someone to lead us there!"

Since Chen Qiang had said the people in front of her could be trusted, and she trusted Chen Qiang, the man who had rescued her, Lin no longer felt wary of Sabo and the others.

Purple light appeared in her hand. She gave a slight wave toward the ruins nearby, and a battered-looking man appeared there, purple light shining around him as well.

It was Barque. During the earlier battle, Lin had carefully avoided him, so he was still alive. He had only passed out.

"Torment!"

The purple light around Barque formed into short blades once more, which began slicing into his body one after another.

"Ahh! Stop! Please, stop! If you don't stop, I'll die!"

Barque, who had only passed out, soon woke up amid the intense pain and began screaming and begging for mercy.

"Get up! Lead the way!"

When Lin saw that he was awake, she stopped. She had never intended to kill him—she had only wanted to wake him up, so she had held back.

"Okay! Okay! Okay!"

Barque scrambled to his feet and quickly nodded at Lin's words, then hurried to lead the way. He was puzzled about who these newcomers were and when they had arrived, but with his life in their hands, he didn't dare ask, no matter how curious he was.

With Barque leading the way and Sabo and the others escorting them, they made good time. Barque soon brought them to the place where the newly purchased slaves were being held.

They did encounter guards patrolling that level along the way, but whenever any appeared, Sabo spotted them first and knocked them unconscious with a single blow from his staff.

"Uncle Cabro, Aunt Joseph, are you all right? I'm here to rescue you!"

Lin soon found her people locked up nearby. She rushed over, stopped outside the bars, and called to those inside.

"Lin?! You got away, so why did you come back here? Don't you know this place belongs to some big shot? We heard he kills without batting an eye. Hurry, run! Don't worry about us. If you're spotted, they'll catch you again, and then you won't be able to escape!"

Her people were delighted to see Lin, but they immediately remembered the guards' threats after they'd been locked up. They hurriedly urged her in hushed voices to leave.

"Don't worry, everyone! I met a friend, and he's really strong. He held off the man you were talking about, so we're safe for now!"

Lin was deeply moved that her people were still worried about her, even though they remained locked up. She hurried to explain.

"The key!"

When Lin turned back to face Barque, her expression instantly went cold. She held out her hand.

"I don't have the key! We already sold these slaves to Toby. The handcuffs and collars they're wearing were replaced with ones Toby made himself. I don't have a key!"

"Then there's no use keeping you alive!"

"Please, I—"

When Barque heard Lin say he was useless to her, he immediately fell to his knees and begged for mercy. Before he could finish, purple light swept over him, and all the life force in his body left him.

"Chen Qiang was right. If we let people like you go, you might destroy more places like our village and sell everyone there into slavery. It's better for people like you to die."

Lin was unmoved by Barque's pleas. After absorbing all his life force, she kicked his corpse away and spoke coldly.

"She's right. Slave traders like these all deserve to die!" Koala nodded in agreement. Then she walked over to Lin and continued, "Don't worry. When we rescued people earlier, we copied the keys from Toby's place. Unless these are some kind of special locks, we should be able to open them!"

"Thank you," Lin said to Koala.

While Lin and the others were rescuing the prisoners, Chen Qiang's battle had just come to an end. He stood in the middle of the plaza with his eyes closed, lost in thought.

Soon, Chen Qiang opened his eyes again. A crazed look crossed his face, and with a wicked grin, he leaped toward the second floor of Toby's Playground.

"Well, I never expected to run into an old acquaintance here!"

He had only just landed by the opening on the second floor when he spotted Captain Gill carefully peering outside from its edge. Chen Qiang spoke to him.

"Y-you... don't come any closer!"

Captain Gill couldn't smile at the sight of Chen Qiang. He could only back away in terror.

"I'll ask you a question. If you answer correctly, I might spare you."

"W-what question?"

"Do you know this place well?"

Chen Qiang smiled as he asked.

"Huh?" Captain Gill was clearly taken aback by the question. He had no idea why Chen Qiang would ask him that.

"Looks like you don't know, then!"

Chen Qiang shook his head helplessly, took a step forward, and appeared right in front of Gill. A flash of his blade, and Gill was cut in half.

"I'll have to search for it myself. What a pain!"

Chen Qiang glanced at the corpse on the ground and the spacious second floor. He shook his head helplessly, flicked the fresh blood off his long blade, and continued deeper into the second floor, still smiling.

After the battle had ended and Toby had fled, Chen Qiang had stood in the middle of the plaza, thinking about what to do—how he could completely destroy this city.

After all, Chen Qiang wasn't the kind of person who went back on his word. If he said he would destroy this place, he would do it.

It wasn't because Chen Qiang had suddenly become softhearted. It was because, when he looked at the slaves, he saw the true depths of despair: the kind that came when even the pain of despair had vanished from their eyes, leaving nothing but the same blank numbness.

What could people have gone through to become that way? They were alive, yet somehow worse off than if they were dead.

What could ordinary people, who had once lived their quiet little lives in peace, have gone through to become like this?

This world—the whole world—was rotten. Chen Qiang felt he ought to do something for these people. It wasn't that he had suddenly become softhearted. He had come from a world where, at least on the surface, everyone was equal.

If he hadn't seen how wretched the slaves were, Chen Qiang could have pretended they didn't exist. But now that he had seen them, he couldn't simply ignore them.

So Chen Qiang had already decided to do something. Though he was only one person, and his power was limited, he couldn't rescue everyone in the city. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't.

But he could give them hope—a hope of breaking free from the shackles of fate.