Rick's words were cold, with almost no warmth.
Just tell the cruel truth to the girl in front of you.
"You lied to me, right?"
The little girl's eyes wavered, hoping to see a hint of joking on his face.
However, Rick disappointed her.
"I'm not lying to you, Nonna, Yvonne and your father will never come back."
"You lied to me. My father said that he would definitely come back. He also said that mankind would win the final victory and let everyone see the real sun."
"Yes, humanity will win..."
Rick's hand grabbed the cloth bag on his waist, which was the precious information that Ivan had obtained at the cost of his life.
It can add extremely small, even invisible, chips to humankind's 'victory'.
Let humans have a greater chance of lingering and continue to survive like rats in the ground.
"But Yvan died, that's a fact. He died for us."
Rick must tell Nonna the truth. White lies are meaningless in this world.
"We encountered a demon species. In order for us to escape smoothly and bring back this precious information, Ywang chose to stay as bait. He is a hero."
"I don't want a hero, I just want my dad."
Tears overflowed from the little girl's eyes, but she was crying.
"Nonna..."
Rick had to put his hand on his stomach, close to his heart, so that he could not let his weak emotions show.
"I'm sorry, but in a situation like that, someone has to make a sacrifice and die."
Rick reached out his hand to gently touch the top of the little girl's head.
"Then why dad..."
The girl opened his hand and asked loudly.
"Why can't it be you Rick..."
"Nonna..."
Croni hugged the girl who was feeling out of control and prevented her from saying the more outrageous words that followed.
Even if she didn't say the rest of the words, people knew what she wanted to express.
Rick's stomach felt like needles pricking him and his heart felt like a knife twisting, but he still locked all his emotions in his body.
But his eyes were a little hollow, and he nodded: "Nonna, don't worry, there will always be a time when it's my turn to make a sacrifice.
At that time, I will never hesitate, like your father Ivan, or the many people who have sacrificed their lives.
On this point, I can swear to you and to the will of all those who have passed away, that I will become the will of all those who have passed away at that time..."
"Rick!"
Croni loudly interrupted what he was about to say.
"you are tired."
The red-haired girl shed tears and said with a smile.
"Go take a shower and then rest."
Nonna was crying on her chest, her clothes wet with tears.
"Um."
Like a puppet, Rick responded indifferently, then walked towards the leader's room in the cave with heavy steps.
Five years have passed since he came to this human settlement. Rick has experienced a total of forty-eight leaders, and he is the forty-ninth one who has been entrusted with responsibility.
Before this, perhaps more settlement leaders have passed away, and after that, there should be a lot of settlement leaders who have passed away, but I don't know exactly how many.
As soon as he entered the room deep in the cave and closed the door, the young leader collapsed and knelt on the ground as if his bones had been removed. A painful wail soon came from his mouth, but it was the only Only in this deepest room could he make a voice that did not hide his true emotions...
"sorry Sorry sorry……"
I'm sorry every word, not only to Yiwang, but also to many people who also died and sacrificed like Yiwang because of his orders.
And, not only that, he already felt that he was about to reach the limit of the pressure that his mind could bear. When he came back, he had even committed suicide, like not wearing a cloak...
Emotion makes him want to die, but reason makes him know that he is more useful to the settlement while alive. The inner torture caused by the conflict between the two makes Rick exhausted physically and mentally. He really doesn't know what he can do. How long do you continue to hold on...
The crying and wailing continued in the room. Croni stood at the door at some point, but she did not knock on the door, let alone push the door and walk in.
She knew the people inside, and Rick didn't want to expose his weakness to anyone else, including her.
She could only quietly listen to the painful sound outside the door, shed tears for the other person, and guard here without making a sound to prevent others from approaching.
It wasn't until the sounds inside completely lost their strength and stopped completely that Croni quietly opened the door and walked in. She pulled down the quilt covering the head of the person on the bed, and made sure that the other person was lying on the bed in a bad sleeping position. Wipe away traces of tears and snot...
"Have a good sleep. Tomorrow you will appear as the leader again. You must not show weakness or give up on yourself. Use a confident attitude to give everyone here hope to continue to live and go forward..."
Croni said softly, smoothing Rick's frown with her hand.
. . . .
The next day, when he walked out of the room, Rick had returned to his usual leader appearance, but he was more solemn than usual. He wanted to hold a funeral for Ivan without too many complicated ceremonies.
Most of the people in the settlement put on darker clothes and gathered in the larger square in the center of the cave. Everyone looked at Iwang's wife Lana, holding the hand of their school daughter, picking up a bowl of mountain spring water and pouring it on On the spar placed in the tray.
The spar lit up like a star, and they hung the spar lamp representing the deceased on a large stone pillar in the center.
And I saw that hundreds of crystal lights were densely hung on the stone pillars. Most of them had been extinguished, but a few were still on.
The one that is extinguished means that the person who has passed away has passed away for a long time, while the one that is on means that the person has passed away for a short time.
These people do not have tombstones, but they have a unified name - [Legacy]. They all chose a path of self-sacrifice for the continuation of the human race.
Everyone is silent, and this silence will affect people who don't know what's going on, such as the two members of the exploration team who just came back from outside.
However, the two of them quickly understood that someone had died again, but they didn't know who it was.
So, one of the members of the exploration team asked the man standing on the edge of the cave square in a calm voice: "Who has become a part of the legacy?"
The person in question sighed deeply and replied: "It's Yiwang. The leader and the others encountered a demon species this time. Yiwang died. Alas, these are all uncontrollable things, but I don't know that this is the case." When will the days when people continue to sacrifice their lives come to an end..."
"Uh, you mean Yvonne and not someone else?"
"Ivan is dead?"
The two members of the exploration team who had just returned to the settlement looked at each other.
"Is it possible that what we encountered before was the soul of Ivan?"
Σ(°Д°;)
. . . .
"Is this the letter that Ivan found you and asked you to bring it back to me?"
Before the simple funeral ceremony was over, Rick was approached by two fellow exploration team members and learned good news from them.
"Yes, and we are sure that the Yiwang we saw is definitely still alive."
The two of them handed their leader a letter, but they said so confidently.
[Since you are still alive, why don’t you come back by yourself instead of asking others to deliver a letter? 】
With such doubts, Rick opened the letter and soon found the answer.
I saw it written above that Iwang had some wonderful experiences and an introduction to a person...
[I was saved from a demon species, but I am sure that the person who saved me was not a human being, at least not a weak human being like us.
He is very powerful, calls himself SB, and is a messenger of justice. I can't quite understand what he means, but he did not hurt me.
I was willing to trust him, but I couldn't bet on everyone in the settlement, so I wrote this letter and found our people and asked them to take the letter back.
Rick, I need you as the leader of the settlement to judge whether I can take this person back to our settlement...]
. . . .
"Sorry, although I think you are a good person and worthy of trust, I am not the leader of the settlement. I have no right or qualification to take you back. I even have to be careful not to let you know where our settlement is. After all, you are too powerful than us. too much……"
More than ten hours ago, Yiwang, who experienced an extreme flight, said this to the boy who saved him.
"I can understand your concerns, and I am willing to respect your approach, so I will wait here for your leader's response."
The human beings in this world are like frightened birds, and they still maintain a high enough vigilance even towards him, an extremely kind messenger of justice.
Although Wu Ke's perception range was very large, so large that the two people who left to deliver the letter would not notice that he was secretly following them behind, but Wu Ke did not do this.
Instead, he chose to stay at this safe resting point that should have been discovered by Ivan and the others, humans in this world, and stay here with the other party, waiting for the result of the letter.
The waiting time was not very long. About twenty or thirty hours after the next day, someone arrived here riding a very special camel with horns on its head.
. . . .
"Evan!"
Ya Lei, who came here, jumped off the camel and rushed to hug the man they met again.
"Hey, hey, we haven't seen each other for a while, you don't have to be so exaggerated, right?"
Yiwang was pushed a few steps and said jokingly.
"We all thought you were dead. We even held a funeral for you and lit the lights for you..."
"Okay, I almost died, but it didn't work out. When I go back, I'd better take down the lamp."
"You don't need to explain it. We have put down your lamp a long time ago, and now we are waiting to confirm the situation and see if we should hang it up again."
Ya Lei said with sniffles.
Seeing Ivan who was still alive and kicking, Rick's extremely suppressed heart was relieved a lot, but the excitement in his heart was not much less than that of Yalay. However, he did not hug his lost partner like Yalay did in the past - —Evan.
But after arriving here, he set his sights on the other side. There was one who seemed to be about the same age as him, and his appearance was similar to the one described in the letter sent by Ywang. The other looked almost the same as a human. young man.
They all have eyes, noses, and round ears, but no wings, no horns, and no scales...
Rick took a peek at the spiritual formation disk hidden in his hand, but found that the spiritual formation disk was not turning. If the other party hadn't restrained himself well, then he might not have the spirit power in his body.
"Hello, my name is Rick, thank you very much for saving my companion."
"My name is Wu Ke. I heal the wounded and save those in need in times of crisis. This is what a messenger of justice should do."
The two people who met for the first time shook hands in a friendly manner. However, during the process, Rick tried to increase the strength of his handshake, but the person whose hand he held didn't react at all.
Wu Ke just let the other party hold his palm with great strength. After the other party relaxed, he asked the other party thoughtfully: "Do you need to verify something else? If it can reassure you, I will I will try my best to cooperate with you."
"No, no need. From the moment I hold your hand, it feels like I'm holding a rock. I'm sure..."
"I am a human being, just not from this world."
Wu Kexian took the first step and explained seriously.
Rick was a little silent and decided not to dwell on this aspect.
"When I came here, in addition to wanting to take Yiwang back, more importantly, I wanted to know the purpose of your benefactor who is kind to us..."
Rick positioned himself very low.
"As long as we can do something, no matter what you ask us to do, we will try our best to do it the best."
Rick acted like he would do anything to repay his kindness, which was very flattering. He was only talking about us, the two of them who appeared here, and maybe Ivan included.
"That's not the case, I don't need you to do it for me... Well, why don't you first introduce the situation of this world and why you are so frightened!"
Looking at the young leader with very firm eyes, Wu Ke felt that if he didn't ask for something, he might make the man feel uneasy. Therefore, he picked something he really needed to know and regarded it as his own suggestion. Require.
However, before that, Wu Ke actually asked Yiwang about some things and already knew some situations in this world.
Only this time, the leader Rick supplemented it, and something more concrete was finally revealed in front of an outsider in his world.
In the books recorded by the leaders of the settlement, the distant past passed down from generation to generation was a world with blue skies and shining sun...
