Found

"Lin! Right? Where are your fellow villagers being held? Let's go save them right now!"

Seeing Chen Qiang's tiny figure vanish from Lin's shoulder, Sabo straightened his clothes to look more like a gentleman before speaking to Lin again.

"Yes! I'll have someone lead the way!"

Since Chen Qiang had said this person could be trusted, and Lin trusted Chen Qiang deeply as the one who had rescued her, she no longer felt the wariness she had previously held toward Sabo and his group.

Purple light emerged from her hand, and with a slight beckoning gesture toward the ruins on the other side, a disheveled man appeared there, his body also glowing with purple light.

This was the man Lin had carefully avoided during the earlier battle, so he was still alive, merely knocked unconscious.

"Torment!"

The purple light on Barque's body formed into small, short blades, beginning to slice into his flesh one cut at a time.

"Ah~~ stop, please! I beg you, stop! If you don't stop, I'm going to die!"

Barque, who had only been unconscious, quickly woke up amidst the excruciating pain and began to shriek and beg for mercy.

"Get up! Lead the way!"

Seeing the man had regained consciousness, Lin stopped her assault. After all, she hadn't intended to take his life; she only wanted to wake him up, so she had kept her actions measured.

"Okay! Okay! Okay!"

Scrambling up from the ground, Barque nodded frantically at the sound of Lin's voice and quickly began to lead the way. Although he was deeply puzzled about who these newcomers were and when they had arrived, as someone whose life was held in the palm of another's hand, he dared not ask, no matter how curious he was.

With Barque leading the way and Sabo and the others providing cover, they moved quickly, and Barque soon brought them to the place where the newly purchased slaves were being held.

They were not without encounters with guards on this level, but whenever these guards appeared, they were promptly knocked unconscious by a single strike from Sabo, who had spotted them first.

"Uncle Cabro, Aunt Joseph, are you alright? I've come to save you!"

Upon arriving, Lin quickly located her fellow villagers held nearby. She lunged forward, standing outside the bars and calling out to the people inside.

"Lin!? You child, since you managed to escape, why did you come back here? Don't you know this place belongs to a dangerous man? I've heard that guy kills without blinking. Run quickly, don't worry about us! If you're discovered, they'll definitely catch you again, and then you won't be able to escape!"

The villagers, who were overjoyed to see Lin, immediately thought of the threats the guards had made regarding their captivity and hurriedly whispered for Lin to leave as quickly as possible.

"It's alright, everyone! I met a friend. He is very strong and has blocked the person you're talking about, so we are in no danger now!"

Hearing the villagers express concern for her even while they were still locked in their cells, Lin felt even more moved and hurriedly explained the situation to them.

"The key!"

Turning back to face Barque, Lin's face turned cold as she held out her hand directly to him.

"I don't have the key! These slaves have already been sold to Toby, and the shackles on their bodies and the collars around their necks have been replaced with ones custom-made by Toby's people. I don't have the key!"

"Then you are of no use to me!"

"Please, no—"

Upon hearing Lin say he was useless, Barque fell to his knees to beg for mercy, but before he could finish his sentence, the purple light on his body stripped away his life force and departed from him.

"Chen Qiang was right. If I spare you now, you might let more places end up like our village—destroyed, with everyone sold off as slaves. So, it's better for someone like you to be dead."

Faced with Barque's pleas, Lin remained completely unmoved. After absorbing all of his life force, she kicked his corpse away and said coldly.

"That's well said. These slave traders all deserve to die!" Koala, standing to the side, nodded in agreement after hearing Lin's words. She then walked over to Lin and continued, "Don't worry, when we were rescuing people earlier, we copied the keys from Toby's place. Assuming these aren't some special locks, we should still be able to open them!"

"Then thank you all!" Lin said, expressing her gratitude to Koala.

Just as Lin and the others were rescuing the captives, the battle on Chen Qiang's side had just concluded. He stood alone in the center of the plaza, eyes closed, lost in thought.

Soon, as Chen Qiang opened his eyes again, a flash of madness appeared on his face. With a wicked smile, he leaped toward the second floor of Toby's amusement park.

"Oh my! I didn't expect to run into an old acquaintance here!"

Having just jumped to the gap on the second floor, he saw Captain Gill, who was carefully checking the situation outside from the opening, and spoke to him.

"Y-y-you! Don't come over here!"

Gill could no longer smile upon seeing Chen Qiang appear; he could only retreat in terror.

"Let me ask you a question. If you answer correctly, I might not kill you!"

"Wh-what question?"

"Are you familiar with this place?"

Chen Qiang asked his question with a smile.

"Huh?" Hearing this, Captain Gill was clearly stunned, having no idea why Chen Qiang would ask such a thing.

"It seems you don't know!"

Chen Qiang shook his head with a sigh of resignation. He took a step forward, arriving directly in front of Gill. A flash of a blade passed, and Gill was sliced into two pieces.

"I'll have to find it slowly myself. What a nuisance!"

Glancing at the corpse on the ground and the spacious second floor, Chen Qiang shook his head helplessly. He flicked the fresh blood off his long blade and continued walking into the depths of the second level, maintaining his smile.

Just after the battle ended and Toby had fled, Chen Qiang had stood in the center of the plaza, contemplating what he should do and how he could completely destroy this city.

After all, Chen Qiang was not a man who went back on his word. Since he had said he would destroy this place, he would certainly do it.

This was not because Chen Qiang had suddenly turned into a saint, but because in those slaves, he saw a grief so profound that their hearts had truly withered. What kind of despair must they have endured for even the slightest trace of sorrow to vanish from their eyes, leaving behind nothing but a uniform, hollow numbness?

What kind of experiences could turn living, breathing people into beings who were alive, yet worse off than the dead?

What kind of experiences could transform those who were once ordinary, living their quiet, peaceful lives day by day, into this?

It was this world—the entire world had rotted to its core. Chen Qiang felt he had to do something for these people. This was not about him being a saint, but rather the perspective of someone who had lived in a world where, at the very least, equality was the surface ideal.

If he had not witnessed the wretched state of these slaves before, Chen Qiang could have pretended they did not exist. But now that he had seen them, he could not simply turn a blind eye.

Therefore, Chen Qiang had already prepared to take action. Although his individual power was limited and it was impossible for him to save everyone in the entire city—even if he wanted to, he could not achieve such a feat.

However, Chen Qiang could offer them a glimmer of hope—a hope to break free from the shackles that fate had placed upon them.