Dawn had barely broken, its faint light falling over the utterly wrecked ruins of East Gorteau's Royal Palace.
With both hands tucked into his board shorts, Luo Ye strolled leisurely down a corridor riddled with cracks. Shizuku followed behind him, cradling Blinky.
The air reeked of blood and scorched flesh.
The red carpet had long since been trampled into sludge. Broken bricks, glass shards, and ant remains littered the floor. A few low-ranking worker ants cowered behind pillars, not daring to breathe.
Their survival radars screamed warnings. Instinctively, they sensed that the human passing by carried a destruction debuff even more terrifying than that big green bug from before.
Luo Ye did not even lift his eyelids. He casually snapped his fingers.
Several tendrils of black Specialization Nen shot along the floor and wrapped precisely around the ants' necks. One hard twist produced a few muffled cracks, and the corridor fell completely silent.
"The security in this dump is so low-tier it's drilled through the earth's core..." Luo Ye kicked an ant's head away in disgust. "A boss like me can't even take a walk without having to clear mobs himself."
He wandered up to the basement's iron door-a pile of colored powder lay scattered on the floor.
It was the last trace Shaiapouf had left behind. That die-hard fanboy of a butterfly had delivered the King to the door, then exhausted the final sliver of his health bar, reduced to a pathetic pile that even a breeze could scatter.
The heavy iron door stood ajar, letting out a little dim candlelight.
Luo Ye did not push it open. He plopped down on the floor outside, leaned against the cold wall, and fished a strawberry lollipop from his pocket. He peeled off the wrapper and popped it into his mouth.