Simultaneous Transmigration: We Share a Role-Playing System

Chapter 203 Recovering Mark, Destroying the Mana Ecosystem, and Ending the Apocalypse

After several days, the gloomy atmosphere that had shrouded Longgu Village for so long finally dissipated completely.

The entire village was immersed in an almost unreal joy, with every household filled with cries of happiness and the joy of reunion, and children's laughter echoing through the streets and alleys.

The square in the center of the village was packed with people, with long queues stretching from one end of the square to the other.

The villagers queuing up had a mix of excitement, trepidation, and unspeakable anticipation on their faces. Many clutched old, yellowed photos tightly in their hands, and tears of relief still clung to their eyes.

"Those who wish to revive their loved ones, please line up and take a number! No noise! ​​No cutting in line! Please do not crowd!"

Rosa held up a large megaphone, her voice hoarse from shouting, but she still dutifully completed her work.

"Villagers whose numbers have been called, please prepare your resurrection application form and proof of kinship in advance! Those without the necessary documents should go to the village head office to obtain them!"

Her voice played on a loop in the square, and she held a small notebook in her hand, occasionally running over to correct a few villagers who tried to cut in line.

At the end of the line, Xia Tian was sitting behind a makeshift wooden table, with a thick stack of application forms in front of him.

He carefully checked each document, stamped it with a bright red seal, and only then did he lift the curtain of the tent behind him to let people in.

The tent emitted constantly shifting lights: a bluish-black light from the Spirit Binding General, a golden light from the Wind God's Mystery Gate, and a jade-green light from the Six Treasuries Immortal Thief. When the lights faded, suppressed sobs and joyful shouts could be heard.

Before long, pairs of relatives embracing and weeping will emerge from the tents.

The newly resurrected person still looked bewildered, while their long-waiting family members were already in tears. Amidst the blessings of the surrounding villagers, they reunited.

They helped each other slowly walk home.

"I'm exhausted!"

Locke lifted the tent flap and stepped out, stretching out with a big yawn, his bones making a series of cracking sounds.

"It's even more tiring than fighting the Necromancers in space with Viktor back then."

He rubbed his aching shoulders and waved to the villagers who were still queuing up: "That's all for today! We've used up all the calcium and protein to create the bodies. If you don't want any of your family members to be missing limbs, come earlier tomorrow."

After he finished speaking, a few small sighs rang out in the group, but no one complained.

The villagers obediently packed up their belongings and dispersed in twos and threes, reminding each other to be sure to line up before sunrise the next day.

Watching the last group of villagers walk away in twos and threes, Xia Tianlai, who had been on edge maintaining order, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, walked up to Locke, and said with a smile, "Special Envoy, that's a wrap for today. How about coming to my place for a couple of drinks tonight? I'll go buy two bottles of fermented mushroom wine, and I'll have my wife cook a couple of her signature dishes."

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"That's great! But forget about the fermented mushroom wine, drink mine instead. This wine of mine is something that money can't buy, not even in your old days, let alone now."

Summer's eyes lit up instantly, her face beaming with joy. She rubbed her hands together and nodded repeatedly, "Oh, that's wonderful! I'll get ready first, and we'll go together later!"

"Okay, you go first, I'll just say a few words to the two of them and then I'll be there."

While Xia Tian was packing her things, Locke strolled over to Rosa and He Liang.

Looking at He Liang, who had been working as an assistant for three days straight, with two thick bruises around his eyes and his hands trembling slightly, he deliberately sighed and slowly teased, "How come the young people these days have such poor physical fitness? They're nowhere near as good as we were back then."

As soon as she finished speaking, Rosa scratched her cheek, turned her head away and pretended to study the ants on the ground, pretending that she hadn't heard anything.

He Liang puffed out his cheeks and stared intently at Locke with a murderous, resentful look. His cheeks were so swollen they could fit two steamed buns in them, and his teeth were grinding together, making him look like a squirrel whose pine cones had been stolen.

"Alright, alright, stop glaring. Your eyes are going to pop out if you keep glaring." Locke was amused by her. "Since you've been behaving quite well these past two days, I'll give you a day off tomorrow."

Oh, by the way, this is for you.

He Liang's eyes lit up instantly, almost jumping up on the spot.

Before she could finish celebrating, she saw Locke's fingertips swirling with golden energy, drawing a complex and exquisite Feng Hou Qi Men diagram in the air. The diagram slowly condensed and floated in front of her.

Locke turned around and, walking towards Xia Tianlai's house, added without looking back, "I'm going to check on your progress when Erzhuzi and the others come back. If you still haven't learned how to turn the four dials by then, you'd better prepare to get a beating."

The ecstatic smile on He Liang's face froze instantly, then gradually disappeared.

She slumped limply into Rosa's arms, as if all her bones had been removed, her voice weak and filled with a despairing hopelessness: "Father, I missed you."

"Xiao He! Hang in there! Don't give up like this!" Rosa quickly hugged her and gently patted her back to comfort her.

In response, He Liang closed her eyes and a single, glistening tear slowly slid down her cheek.

An hour later, the kitchen of the Shan family was steaming. Xia Hua, who was pregnant, wanted to help her mother, but her mother gently held her hand down.

Leila, who had only been resurrected for two days, still looked a little unwell, but her eyes were full of tenderness and guilt as she looked at her daughter: "Flower, Mom has been bedridden for thirty years, and my bones are almost rusted. Please let Mom move around more so she can practice her cooking skills again. When my son-in-law, grandson, and Bean come back, Mom can cook them a decent meal. We can't let the children eat raw food."

Looking at the familiar wrinkles at the corners of her mother's eyes, Xia Hua finally felt relieved after days of worry, and the corners of her tightly closed mouth curved slightly upwards.

In the living room, Xia Tianlai had already called his two brothers over. On the square table were a plate of fried peanuts that Locke had brought and a plate of cold cooked mushroom slices. The four of them sat around the table, with the glass in front of them filled with the amber-colored old wine that Locke had brought.

Ulan Aodeng raised his glass again, his voice booming, "Brother Luo! I'd like to toast you! Without you, I would never have seen my wife again in my life! I'll drink this, you can drink as you please!"

Antarctic Star, standing nearby, suddenly became agitated and reached out to snatch his glass: "What the hell are you doing! There are only two bottles of this good wine, and you kept toasting him, you bastard, and you've finished them all!"

"Brother Renluo has helped us so much, what's wrong with me offering him a few drinks!"

Ulan Aodeng snatched the cup and shouted, his neck stiff.

"You old bachelor, what do you know!"

"Then don't drink the wine Brother Luo brought! Go drink your sour, fermented mushroom wine! You shameless old man!"

"I do what I want! What's it to you!"

Just as the two were arguing fiercely, Xia Tianlai quietly poured himself a full glass of wine.

He held the cup in both hands, stood up, and bowed deeply to Locke, his voice trembling slightly: "Brother Locke, we've known each other for a while now, so I'll take the liberty of calling you 'brother'."

I'm entrusting everything to you regarding my family. Xia Hua can't live without her husband and son, and we can't lose Douzi either—please take care of me.

After saying that, he gulped it down in one go. The strong liquor made him cough violently, and tears welled up in his eyes.

Locke reached out and patted his back, his tone calm and reassuring: "Don't worry, your boss Bai led the team personally, with Lao Zhao and Sasuke also accompanying them. It's just a mere Flower King. Even if something really happened to them and their souls started to dissipate, as long as there's still a trace of their souls left, I can bring them back intact using the self-healing ability of the soul."

Hearing this, Xia Tianlai finally felt completely relieved after several days of anxiety. Ulan Aodeng, forgetting his argument with Nanjixing, quickly picked up his cup: "Brother Luo! I'm a rough man, not good with sweet words. I'm entrusting my daughter Duo'er's matter to you! From now on, if there's anything you need, just ask. If I, Ulan Aodeng, even flinch, I'll twist my own head off and let you kick it around like a ball!"

Locke waved his hand, picked up his glass, took a sip, and said slowly, "It's nothing, nothing. I just like doing good deeds."

Unexpectedly, at that moment, the door was suddenly pushed open. Li Hua, clutching the makeshift communicator he had soldered overnight, rushed in with a grave expression. The unprecedented tension on his face made Wulan Aodeng and Xia Tianlai pause in their drinks, their hearts leaping back into their throats.

"Brother Luo, Old Zhao sent a message saying he couldn't find him."

"Didn't find it?"

Meanwhile, the Mana ecological cluster area near the shielding tower in Zone C3.

Sasuke Uchiha, with the lightning and fire twin swords forged for him by Locke himself slung across his waist, sat on a broken piece of steel, coldly watching the scene below.

square.

The black flames of Amaterasu silently licked at the Beast that guarded the Flower King, even burning its hard exoskeleton until it sizzled and eventually turned into a handful of ashes that drifted away with the wind.

Deep within the lair where the Flower King resides, the ground is littered with the white bones of the Devouring Beasts.

Bai Yuekui knelt on the ground, his fingers flying across the source material extraction device, a fine layer of cold sweat beading on his forehead.

She scanned the source material database within Kaohsiung's body again and again, until the green data streams on the screen eventually turned a glaring red.

Old Zhao slowly dissipated the Armament Haki swirling around his fist, looked at Locke's image on the communicator, and said in a voice as heavy as lead: "Yes, we didn't find him. There's no life essence of Shan Da and the others inside this Flower King. We searched the entire nest, but we didn't find any trace of Mark."

After a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, the question was asked, "Could it be with the other Kao company?"

Bai Yuekui, who was extracting life essence from the side, said, "No, the Devouring Beast can only digest a very limited amount of life essence. Under normal circumstances, it would just find the Flower King nearby to pay its rent. It wouldn't take a detour to another place, unless—"

Seeing that Bai Yuekui was starting to hesitate, Locke on the other end of the phone added, "Mark, right?"

"How did you know?"

"Before each mission, headquarters provides us with intelligence analysis based on super artificial intelligence. We have a special algorithm that can calculate information about important people, such as you."

"—I understand. You're right. The only possibility is that Mark was seduced by the ecology and turned into a beast, absorbing their life essence. In other words, if we want to save them, we must find Mark."

"Did you have a backup plan?"

"It's been saved; we can pinpoint his location."

"Okay, let's come back first, and then we can discuss how to—"

After saying that, Locke, on the other end of the phone, walked outside the room, leaned against the railing, and looked out at Dragonbone Village, this post-apocalyptic paradise. Looking at the lively atmosphere, he said seriously, "Find Mark, destroy the Mana ecosystem, and end the apocalypse."

The shadowy barrier within the city opened, allowing the fully equipped hunter convoy to drive out of the city.

Unlike their hasty departure last time, this time they took almost all of the Lighthouse's assets with them.

All the transport vehicles that could still be driven were mobilized, their cargo compartments crammed with gravity bodies and mountains of ammunition boxes. Even members of the Light and Shadow Society were brought along, along with heavy weapons that had been stored in the Lighthouse Armory for decades.

The cold metallic sheen flickered in and out of the dust, making the entire convoy resemble a steel behemoth poised to pounce, exuding a resolute determination to go all in.

In the command vehicle at the very front, standing silently before Suiying, was the bio-engineered armor of a human soldier, the Abyss Walker.

Suiying sat on the metal box in front of the mecha. The swaying of the carriage did not interrupt his thoughts. His fingertips were still unconsciously stroking the jet-black feather.

The feather had an eerie silver sheen at the edge and felt icy to the touch, like some substance that didn't belong to this world. His gaze fell on the cold helmet of the Abyss Walker, but his thoughts drifted uncontrollably back to the day a few days ago when he met the Lord of Light and Shadow.

He will probably never forget that day for the rest of his life.

As the guards of the Lightbringers escorted him deeper into the Law Institute, Shadow had already prepared for the worst. He had even mentally rehearsed countless times the scene of his public execution, and what fate awaited 4277 and their unborn child. The cold metal floor pressed against the soles of his shoes, each step feeling like treading on his own grave.

However, he was stunned when the heavy iron door closed behind him.

Charles stood below the throne, unharmed and even more energetic than before.

Sui Ying couldn't recall his first reaction. Was it shock? Confusion? Or a sliver of hope? He didn't have time to think about it, because the next second, his gaze fell on the black throne that originally belonged to Charles.

There was a person sitting there.

That is the Lord of Light and Shadow.

Just one glance sent a chill down Sui Ying's spine; a fear originating from the deepest recesses of his soul instantly overwhelmed him. He seemed to see all his future possibilities reflected in those emotionless eyes. Everyone knew he had framed Mark, that he had stolen the position of Hunter Captain; everyone despised and cursed him.

4277 and their children were purged, and Charles did not hesitate to push him out as a scapegoat.

Everything he feared most, all the secrets he desperately tried to hide, were laid bare in the sunlight in that one glance.

Just as he was about to be consumed by this boundless fear, the person on the throne—no, the god—finally spoke, his voice devoid of any inflection, cold and direct.

"Do you feel guilty?"

"I—I—I am guilty."

Suiying's voice trembled out of tune, and her knees buckled, almost causing her to kneel on the ground.

Cold sweat streamed down his face, dripping onto the cold metal floor with a soft, pattering sound. He dared not look up, dared not meet the all-seeing eyes on the throne.

Locke looked at the trembling man below the steps, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

He quickly assessed the man in his mind: a self-important but powerless nobody, a pitiful creature struggling to survive in the cracks of power in the apocalypse, an ordinary person destined for tragedy from birth.

But none of that matters anymore.

The important thing is that from this moment on, this man's fate, his life and death, his wife and children, everything about him, will be controlled by only one person.

That is him—or rather, the master of light and shadow at this moment.

Under the terrified, almost suffocating gaze of Suiying, Locke finally stopped tormenting his emotions. He slowly stood up and walked down the golden steps. The mask concealed all his expressions, leaving only a pair of cold eyes fixed on Suiying.

"That's right. You are guilty."

His voice echoed in the empty hall, carrying an unquestionable authority.

"But I can forgive your sins."

These words struck Suiying like a thunderbolt. He could no longer hold on, collapsing to his knees with a thud, his forehead hitting the floor heavily. His voice trembled with sobs as he hysterically cried out, "Thank you, great Lord of Light and Shadow! I dedicate everything to you! My life, my soul, my loyalty! Your will is my sole purpose in this life! I will become your sharpest blade, your most loyal hound! To tear all enemies apart for you!"

After hearing this, Charles, who was standing to the side, showed a displeased expression. "You think you're worthy to be the dog of the Lord of Light and Shadow?"

As for the Lord of Light and Shadow himself? He didn't care at all. Being a dog was nothing to him. Was it something to be proud of?

After all, countless people had knelt before him and said the same thing during this time. He didn't care about these cheap acts of loyalty, but he had to act like he cared, at least about what the other person valued most.

"Everything? Okay."

His voice remained calm and even, but the latter half was like an ice pick piercing Sui Ying's heart, causing him to stop breathing.

"Then let's exchange your child."

Suiying, who was lying on the ground, suddenly widened his eyes, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints.

Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, his breathing suddenly stopped, as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping his throat, and he felt as if a mountain was pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.

Charles, standing to the side, also paused for a moment, then asked in confusion, "A child?"

Locke turned and slowly walked back to his throne, his voice echoing in the empty hall: "Yes, a child who broke the three laws of the Lighthouse, born of pure love. In this apocalypse filled only with despair, he is a unique existence."

I like him very much, and I really like this gift.

Charles immediately realized what was happening, his face plastered with a fawning smile, and he bowed deeply to the throne: "Your Excellency, Lord of Light and Shadow, is truly wise! This child is incredibly fortunate to have been chosen by you!"

After saying that, he turned to look at Suiying, who was still frozen on the ground. His face instantly turned ferocious, and he kicked him hard in the shoulder, sending him rolling far away.

"Hmph! You ungrateful wretch! If it weren't for the mercy of the Lord of Light and Shadow, I would have burned you and that lowly mortal 4277 to death long ago! A mortal is indeed a mortal!"

He spat, his tone full of disdain.

"But you're lucky! Under the guidance of the Lord of Light and Shadow, the Lighthouse has abolished the three laws! 4277 is no longer a mortal, and you can now openly form a family with her."

Seeing that Suiying was still in a dazed and disoriented state, Charles became even angrier. He kicked her again and shouted, "What are you standing there for! Kneel down and thank the great Lord of Light and Shadow!"

Sui Ying suddenly realized what was happening and quickly got up and knelt down again, banging her forehead heavily on the floor.

Locke, sitting on the throne, looked at him expressionlessly and said coldly, "You don't need to thank me. This isn't a favor; it's an exchange, a deal I think is very worthwhile."

Suiying's kowtowing motion abruptly stopped.

He remembered what Locke had just said, the gentle smile on 4277's face as she stroked her belly, and the unborn child whose name he hadn't even decided yet.

An unprecedented surge of courage welled up within him. He raised his head, his voice trembling violently, yet for the first time, he looked directly at the lofty figure on the throne: "May I ask—Lord of Light and Shadow, what will become of my child?"

"How dare you!"

Charles flew into a rage and raised his foot to kick Suiying again, but the Lord of Light and Shadow stopped him, looking down at Suiying kneeling on the ground: "After your child is born, he will have nothing to do with you anymore. He is no longer a mortal, but my property. You don't need to worry about him, nor do you have the right to care about him, because this is our deal, and this deal is very advantageous for both of us."

These words were like a knife, completely piercing through Suiying's last line of defense.

The tears that had been welling up in his eyes finally burst forth, and his forehead slammed heavily against the cold metal floor with a dull thud. His voice was filled with a heart-wrenching plea: "Great Lord of Light and Shadow! I beg you! Spare my child! I'll give you anything else! My life! My soul! Everything I have! I'll give it all to you!"

Seeing that this stray dog ​​dared to push its luck, Charles could no longer contain his anger.

He abruptly drew his sidearm from his waist, pointing the muzzle directly at Suiying's head, and said through gritted teeth, "You fool! I'll shoot you right now!"

"Charles."

The Lord of Light and Shadow's voice rang out again, still calm, yet carrying an undeniable authority. Charles gritted his teeth in resentment and reluctantly put away his gun.

The Lord of Light and Shadow, still in that calm tone, asked, "Exchange? What else do you have that's worth exchanging with me? Even your life is worthless to me, and you don't need to use your life to atone for your sins. It's completely unnecessary."

"I would give my life for you, I would do anything for the great Lord of Light and Shadow! So that my child, after being born, can run freely on the earth and grow up healthily under the Lord of Light and Shadow's radiance!"

The hall fell into a deathly silence.

Charles was surprised to find that the Lord of Light and Shadow on the throne was actually deep in thought. After a moment, the cold voice rang out again: "Very well, I'll give you a chance. I'll give you a task. If you can accomplish it, our deal will be canceled, you can atone for your sins, and your child will grow up safely."

Suiying suddenly raised her head, staring blankly at the figure shrouded in golden light and surrounded by shadows.

The voice of the Lord of Light and Shadow, word by word, echoed continuously in the hall like a divine oracle from the God of Doomsday, yet it transcended time and space, overlapping with Locke's voice in Dragonbone Village: "Find Mark, destroy the Mana ecosystem, and end the apocalypse."