Cut off my way home? You'll sacrifice the entire other world in return!

"boom!"

That door, which had been kicked down countless times, had once again been gloriously sacrificed.

The stone slab struck the red carpet, stirring up a cloud of old dust.

Amidst the swirling dust, a figure stood backlit, his cloak billowing in the turbulent air. The golden armor, with its own special effects, made Li Fan instinctively squint.

coming!

Eric, the legendary Son of Light who possesses good looks, talent, and luck.

Sitting on his high throne, Li Fan suppressed his excitement and tried his best to maintain the composure of a proper villain.

He tilted his head slightly and slowly uttered the classic opening line in a voice he had practiced countless times.

"They've finally arrived... Damn bugs."

After saying that, he mentally gave himself a perfect score.

His tone was three parts disdain, three parts laziness, and four parts nonchalance, perfectly matching the character of the final boss.

According to the script, this guy should next get angry, draw his sword, shout "For justice!", and then rush up to give himself a good scraping.

He then pretended to be outmatched, even spitting out a couple of mouthfuls of blood to show the frustration of being strong but still being restrained by the aura of justice.

Such a humiliating defeat can give the opponent tons of a sense of accomplishment. Then, when you run away, the regret and anger that arise in that instant are the purest resentment energy!

Just thinking about it makes me feel wonderful.

That progress bar is about to fill up!

The braised pork my mom made is already beckoning to me!

However, the figure standing at the door did not roar and charge as Li Fan had expected.

Eric didn't even draw his sword.

He simply stood there quietly, raised one hand to disperse the dust in front of him, and then walked gracefully into the main hall.

"What? Are you scared stiff by my oppressive aura?" Li Fan frowned, adding fuel to the fire to provoke his opponent. With a flick of his finger, a ball of purple demonic fire exploded in the air. "Or is the so-called Child of Light nothing more than a piece of trash who doesn't even have the courage to draw his sword?"

"puff."

A soft chuckle.

The laughter sounded particularly abrupt in the empty and deathly silent hall.

Eric stopped at the steps below the throne and looked up at Li Fan.

That face, so handsome that one would want to stomp on it, held no anger or tension, but rather a mocking expression.

Yes, it's just a joke.

It's like watching a clown in a circus putting on a great show.

A strange sense of unease welled up in Li Fan's heart.

This script is wrong.

Shouldn't you be furious at this point?

Shouldn't you be blushing and yelling at me for not allowing you to insult my beliefs?

What are you laughing at?!

"Demon King Li Fan".

Eric finally spoke, with an arrogant tone typical of aristocrats, "I must say, your acting skills are really good. For the past ten years, the entire continent has been fooled by you."

Li Fan's fingers stiffened slightly, but his face remained expressionless. "Oh? I don't understand what you're saying."

"Can't understand?"

Eric shook his head and straightened his cuffs. "He possesses the power to destroy the world, yet he grows potatoes behind his castle? He could easily annihilate any expeditionary force, yet he always just locks people up to do math problems? He's a demon king feared by all, yet he can't even bear to step on an ant?"

He raised his head, and a wicked glint flashed in his deep blue eyes.

"Li Fan, what kind of childish game are you playing?"

Li Fan's heart skipped a beat.

Discovered?

No, it's not really a secret.

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence has been able to spot some clues over the past decade.

But that doesn't matter. As long as he is a "demon king" and stands on the opposite side of them, they will still come to die in droves for fame and profit.

"Hmph." Li Fan snorted coldly, leaning forward. A terrifying surge of magical power instantly oppressed the entire area, attempting to regain his temper. "So what? Why should I explain my actions to an ant like you? Did you come here to chat or to die?"

"I'm here to deliver a message to you."

Eric completely ignored the oppressive aura that would suffocate an ordinary person, and spread his hands, his cat-and-mouse smile growing wider.

"Good news about your hometown."

Li Fan, who had been lounging lazily on the throne, suddenly tensed up.

home.

This is his biggest secret and his only Achilles' heel.

In this world, apart from that stupid system that can only calculate data, no one knows where he came from, and no one knows that his purpose is to go home.

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Li Fan's voice turned cold, no longer the deliberately feigned low tone, but carrying a hint of genuine killing intent.

Stop pretending.

Eric seemed to thoroughly enjoy watching Li Fan's outburst; he even whistled. "Your strange castle construction, the odd words that keep popping out of your mouth, and your inexplicable insistence... We've been investigating you for a long time, Li Fan."

As he spoke, he paced back and forth in the main hall, his boots making a crisp sound as they stomped on the stone slabs.

"We've discovered that all your actions seem to be aimed at collecting some kind of energy, and that this energy ultimately points to a spatial coordinate that doesn't belong to our world."

Li Fan gripped the armrests of the throne tightly, cracking the hard surface with his kneading.

He didn't speak.

He is waiting.

Let that damn blond bastard finish speaking.

"I have to admit, the defense mechanisms in your world are really weak." Eric stopped and turned around, his back to the door. The sunlight cast a long shadow of him, like a black sword pointing directly at Li Fan on the throne.

"Without magic, without fighting spirit, and even without the protection of the gods, it is so fragile that it will break at the slightest touch."

Li Fan's breathing became rapid, and his mind began to buzz.

What does that mean?

What does it mean to have a weak defense mechanism?

"In order to completely eliminate this hidden danger, and to prevent you from escaping..." Eric's smile cracked, revealing a set of gleaming white teeth, making him look particularly ferocious, "His Majesty the Great Pope, in conjunction with the Great Sage of the Elven race, used the spatial fluctuations you inadvertently leaked over the past ten years to conduct a reverse location."

"We opened a crack."

"Just three days ago, an elite team from the Justice League successfully visited your hometown."

"No...impossible..." Li Fan felt his throat was dry and his voice was hoarse beyond belief. "I tested it; opening the gate requires a massive amount of energy. How could you possibly..."

"That's from your perspective," Eric shrugged. "For us, destruction is always easier than construction. We don't need to build stable passages; we just need to block the doors. And your pointless insistence has given us far too many opportunities."

He pulled a crystal from his pocket and tossed it around casually.

"I have some bad news for you, Li Fan."

"To prevent the evil aura of another world from polluting our sacred world, and also to completely eliminate any thought of your escape, so that we can kill you here without any worries..."

"His Holiness the Pope used forbidden divine magic, namely the World Lock."

"In other words, the passage connecting to that world has been destroyed, and it's been locked from that end. The coordinates there have become a jumbled mess, so even a god can't find that place anymore."

"Oh, right."

Eric seemed to have remembered something interesting, and his expression became even more fascinating.

"The team that came back said the environment over there is really nice. Although the people there are as weak as chickens, some of the creations are quite interesting, especially those four-wheeled metal boxes and those little glowing cubes..."

"Shut up..." Li Fan lowered his head, his body trembling slightly.

"They 'played around' a bit over there. After all, to ensure the seal's strength, they needed to establish several anchor points locally, which might have slightly damaged some buildings and killed some insects... Although your kingdom killed a few of them, it couldn't be helped. For the sake of justice, sacrifices are necessary, right?"

"Shut up!!!"

Li Fan raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.

"Oh, don't be angry."

Eric spread his hands in an innocent manner, but the mockery in his eyes was almost overflowing. "You should thank us, after all, we helped you give up your dreams, so you can concentrate on being your demon king and then die by my sword."

"Oh, and one more thing."

Eric looked at Li Fan with a beaming smile, as if presenting a treasure.

"Since the passage over there is blocked, there's definitely no way you can go back. Even if you absorb all the resentment in this world, that door won't open, because we've already dismantled it."

The hall fell into a deathly silence.

Only Eric's smug laughter echoed.

Li Fan sat there blankly, his mind completely empty.

ten years.

A whole decade.

Bear the burden of humiliation.

He was called a pervert, pelted with rotten eggs, and mocked in the tales of bards.

He doesn't kill or do evil; he serves these old men like a grandson, just to save up a little bit of money for his trip home.

The progress bar has reached 98.7%.

Just a little bit.

He was just a little bit away from being able to push open that door, smell the aroma of home-cooked meals, and hear his mother scolding him for coming home so late.

But now.

The road is blocked.

It was cut off by these self-proclaimed righteous guys.

Not only did they cut off their connection, but they also went to Earth?

Did you play around with it for a bit?

Li Fan's vision blurred for a moment.

He saw his neighborhood reduced to ruins, saw the streetlight that always waited for him to get off work lying in a pool of blood, saw…

"system."

Li Fan called out softly in his heart.

[Buzz...Buzz...Warning...Target coordinates lost...Spatial anchor point invalid...Home path...Unavailable...]

In that instant, Li Fan felt something shatter inside his body.

That was a string that had been taut for ten years.

That was the last pillar that supported him in maintaining his humanity and rationality, and preserving his identity as Li Fan, in this hellish world.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

Eric looked at the silent Li Fan and felt a sense of boredom.

He had been expecting to see the Demon King go hysterical.

This deathly silence annoyed him.

"Hey, say something!" Eric impatiently drew his holy sword from his waist, the blade pointing directly at Li Fan. "Now that you know the ending, come down obediently and accept your death! I'll give you a quick death; that's the mercy of a hero."

Li Fan slowly raised his hand.

His movements were slow and stiff.

He covered his face.

"hehe……..."

A faint laugh escaped through his fingers.

The laughter was low and hoarse.

"Hehehehe..."

The laughter grew louder and more manic, echoing through the empty hall with a chilling, eerie atmosphere.

"What are you laughing at?" Eric frowned, the holy sword in his hand shining brightly. "Are you crazy?"

Li Fan lowered his hand.

The previous laziness, mockery, and even anger were gone from that face.

There was only an empty space.

He looked at Eric as if he were looking at a piece of dead flesh.

"Good news."

Li Fan spoke softly, his tone so calm it was frightening.

"This is indeed good news."

He slowly rose from the throne, and the purple magic that had been surrounding him to frighten people vanished in an instant.

Instead, there was an atmosphere of desolation and death.

"Since the door is blocked..."

Li Fan tilted his head and his neck made a crisp cracking sound.

"Since gentle methods are no longer an option..."

He lifted his foot and walked down the steps one by one.

With every step he took, the entire Demon King's castle trembled.

It's not an adjective, it's a physical tremor.

The hard stone slabs turned to dust silently beneath his feet.

"system."

Li Fan's voice echoed in the hall, devoid of any emotion.

"Lift the restriction against killing."

[Confirmed, restrictions have been lifted.]

"Activate... World Sacrifice Mode".

[Warning: This mode will devour all living beings and matter in the host's plane that are not recognized by the host, transforming them into pure spacetime blast energy. Confirm?]

Li Fan walked up to Eric, the two of them no more than three meters apart.

He looked at the arrogant Child of Light in front of him, who was still unaware of what had happened, and slowly a ridiculously exaggerated smile appeared on his lips.

There was not a trace of humanity in that smile.

"confirm."