Chapter Forty: Assessment and Settlement

The radiant stars coexisted with the sun, as if the sky itself had shattered. The unleashed force of space churned the wasteland’s fate, and in the blink of an eye, the newly revealed clear blue was once again shrouded by ominous clouds. The stars spun, the universe twisted, and a vortex of space was about to take shape.

Most residents of the wasteland who witnessed this anomaly were involuntarily plunged into shock. The upheaval above was simply beyond their comprehension, so much so that many believed the apocalypse was upon them once more.

“Paradise World, you truly came prepared!” Qiao Mu cursed inwardly. He was certain Paradise World had foreseen the possibility of the Forbidden Zone of Life being breached, which explained how they so swiftly constructed a spatial vortex in an attempt to snatch away the Child of the Plane. The failure of his own plan was surely intertwined with Paradise World’s intervention.

Though the collapse of his scheme left Qiao Mu irritated, he could not deny that Paradise World deserved its reputation as the mightiest plane. Once the three great organizations acted, heaven and earth shook; they forcibly severed the fragile connection just forged between the Wasteland World and the Sun’s Eldest Daughter. The raging fire became a tornado of flame, soaring into the void. The Sun’s Eldest Daughter was carried upward by the wind, on the verge of being delivered into the spatial vortex.

But just as Paradise World was about to succeed, the Wasteland World struck back.

The Wasteland Syndicate would not tolerate the three organizations running rampant on their own turf—especially since they, too, coveted the Sun’s Eldest Daughter’s value. Though their strength paled in comparison to any one of the three organizations, their home advantage allowed them to forcibly interrupt the summoning process. The flaming cyclone could not pierce the vortex, and the Sun’s Eldest Daughter was left stranded mid-air, trapped in a precarious dilemma.

In this moment, the High Priest of the Sun was at a loss. Consumed with fulfilling his lifelong wish, he had forgotten that the great calamity had left the Empire’s survivors unable to find footing in a new world. With his soul’s fire depleted, he was dying, unable to escort the Sun’s Eldest Daughter through her present tribulation.

Is our nation fated to perish after all?

Such a thought flashed through the High Priest’s mind in his final moments, and as his soul faded silently away, he never saw the sudden arrival of Qiao Mu’s true form.

“Haha! Paradise World is powerful, but not you three arrogant organizations! To pit human efforts against the entirety of the Wasteland World is to invite defeat.” Qiao Mu arrived with a hearty laugh, casting his gaze toward the Sun Temple, where he immediately spotted Thorn’s shadow. His brow furrowed as he asked in a deep voice, “My avatar perished—how are you still alive?”

Startled pale at these words, Thorn was so overawed by the formidable power of Qiao Mu’s true form that she had no thought of resistance. She hurried to Little Bob, pleading in a low voice, “Protect me! You must protect me! I really know where your mother is!”

Desperate times call for desperate measures—such was Thorn’s plight. Having suffered two ambushes by Ember, her pride had been trampled again and again, culminating in the loss of her Thorn Crown. She knew full well that even with Little Bob’s ascension as a Reality Distorter, he was no match for Qiao Mu, yet she had no choice but to beg for help.

Seeing this, the shrewd Qiao Mu easily deduced the truth.

His gaze was icy, his face clouded. “I despise betrayal. That means you must die.”

“So, you’re Qiao Mu? I never thought I’d get to see you in person.”

“And you are?”

“A dying man.”

The Six-Eyed Prophet smiled serenely. He was indeed dying, but since he no longer had to preside over the Fire Rite, his soul’s flame could last a bit longer—though it would ultimately be snuffed out. The Six-Eyed Preacher, for his part, was fading even faster than the High Priest of the Sun.

“To see you before I die—there’s no regret. But the one you want dead, I wish to save.”

“Do you have the power to do so?”

“Not I, but someone does!”

“Oh? I’d like to see that.”

A bell chimed—clear and sharp. The Nightmare surged forward, and the Pumpkin Carriage of Nightmares, freed from the sea of Blood Vines, appeared before them all.

With a swish, the window slid open to reveal the masked figure within. The sound of a shovel scraping the concrete echoed once more. “Is this your doing?”

“Of course it is!” The Six-Eyed Prophet’s gaze was calm as he looked upon the High Priest’s corpse with a sigh of remembrance. “He did realize that even if we left the Forbidden Zone of Life, we’d lost our foundation. Yet he refused to dwell on it, for all his faith clung to the hope of rekindling the Great Flame. He feared that thinking too much would sap his will to keep vigil. So I thought on his behalf, and acted on his behalf, though I could not do so perfectly… The appearance of the Nightmare Pumpkin Carriage was not just due to the Forbidden Zone’s peculiarities, but also because I gathered all the resentment of the Fairy Tale Undead.”

Ember and Wine Slowly Deepened listened in silence, absorbing the sorrow concealed in the calm cadence of the Prophet’s voice.

The two sages had waited a millennium solely to fulfill their life’s purpose. Were they not, too, like the fleeting bloom of the epiphyllum, destined to wither after their moment of glory?

“No wonder we survived the breach of the Forbidden Zone,” the masked man mused, disregarding Qiao Mu entirely. His gaze skimmed past the assembly as if they were invisible. “Get in. I’ll take you away.”

“Don’t even think about it!” Qiao Mu roared. As the director of the Great Tree Institute and one of the Wasteland’s supreme powers, he could not tolerate the masked man’s utter disregard. Yet the Nightmare Pumpkin Carriage—a vessel of the Fairy Tale Undead’s accumulated resentment—had been nourished by the Dark Curtain for a thousand years. Its power, if not overwhelming, was at least more than a match for Qiao Mu. With a wild neigh, the Nightmare raised its hooves, and the cold ghostfire forced Qiao Mu into silence.

As a plant-type Reality Distorter, he was most vulnerable to fire. He could only watch as Little Bob, Thorn, and the five Black Knights boarded the Pumpkin Carriage.

Why are there still two left?

Qiao Mu’s gaze landed on Ember and Wine Slowly Deepened. He immediately recognized them as guests from Paradise.

Not just Qiao Mu—even the two players themselves were baffled. Why were they the only ones left behind?

“If I can’t deal with the traitor, killing these two pesky ants will suffice! It must have been them who ruined my plan!”

So Qiao Mu plotted his revenge, but the masked man saw through him at once. “A voice just told me: there’s no need to take these two young men. They belong to Paradise World and must be collected by Paradise World itself.”

“Paradise World? What a joke. They can barely fend for themselves now. Instead of fighting for the Sun’s Eldest Daughter, they have the leisure to bother with these two insignificant ants?” Qiao Mu sneered, his face full of disdain.

“You don’t believe me? Look up at the sky yourself.”

“What?”

Boom! Another deafening thunderclap split the air. Qiao Mu watched as the spatial barrier set by the Wasteland Syndicate was forcibly pierced by a mass of flame from beyond the universe. That flame radiated a majestic power several times greater than the Sun’s Eldest Daughter, making Qiao Mu, as a plant-type Reality Distorter, profoundly uncomfortable.

“The King of Kindling?”

In his dying moments, the Six-Eyed Prophet recalled his meeting with the last King of Kindling—a meeting that prompted him to leave the Six-Eyed Church.

The masked man, meanwhile, stared at the ball of flame, his posture frozen for a moment before he replied ambiguously, “Yes and no. To you, she’s the King of Kindling. To us, she’s just a little match girl.”

“Damn it!” Qiao Mu ground his teeth so hard it seemed they might shatter. The most powerful entity of the material plane—Paradise World—and the strongest presence of the spiritual plane—Fairy Tale World—had joined forces to lay pressure on the Wasteland World for the sake of the Sun’s Eldest Daughter. The might of the Wasteland Syndicate alone was utterly insufficient to halt these titans. Thus, the Sun’s Eldest Daughter was swept into the spatial vortex and vanished without a trace.

“The Sun’s Eldest Daughter will surely be well treated in Paradise World. If all goes as expected, we will meet again someday,” said the Six-Eyed Prophet to Ember with a gentle smile. Then, closing his eyes, he passed away.

With a long, mournful whinny, the Nightmare incinerated the two sages’ remains with its ghostly flames, then ascended into the sky, carrying the Pumpkin Carriage away.

As for Ember and Wine Slowly Deepened, they saw a portal materialize out of thin air and a towering figure step forth. At last, the end-of-session screen appeared before their eyes.

“Come home, children! Your task is complete!”

[Notification: The current assessment has officially ended. You have received a ‘Perfect’ rating.]

[Notification: According to the credit point rules, you have earned a total of 9,600 Foundation Credit Points. Credit Points can be spent in-game, but the Singularity Platform does not support Credit Point trading during the test period.]
(Hard Mode Perfect: 6,400 / Nightmare Mode Perfect: 12,800)

[Notification: Because you achieved the highest rating in this assessment and have drawn the keen attention of the Foundation’s upper echelons, you will receive all of the following rewards.]
……

“1. [Basic Evolution Reagent] (Improved): Grants one additional true core attribute point and one true major attribute point. The reagent’s effect is unaffected by metamorphosis.” (Since you possess the basic-level ‘Shattered Ability Crystal,’ your evolution reagent is upgraded from the standard to the improved version.)

“2. [Equipment Enhancement Voucher] (Basic): Allows one free enhancement of a basic-level equipment item.”

“3. [Anomalous Equipment Creation Voucher] (Basic): Use to gain one opportunity to craft basic-level anomalous equipment. In a suitable assessment instance, an equipment creation quest chain will appear; quest completion affects the equipment’s properties.”

“4. [Sun Emblem] (Accessory/Quest Item): A special accessory forged from kindling by the Sun’s Eldest Daughter. Its bonus depends on your performance in this assessment and will be issued before the Fourth Assessment (Solo Qualifiers).”
……

[Notification: Assessment rewards have been tallied. Would you like to exit the game interface?]

“Yes.”

[Notification: Exiting Singularity Game: ‘Anomalous Paradise.’ Thank you for playing. We look forward to your return.]