Why can't humans do it too?

Suer suddenly realized.

To be honest, he was infected by the atmosphere in the small settlement led by Riku. He had always thought that the races that had persisted in this endless war would all be more or less caring for each other and willing to shoulder the lives of their comrades to fight the enemy together. But now it seems that these guys who consider themselves a superior race are not like that at all.

Just minutes ago, they were all prisoners locked in cages, with the butcher's knife falling at any moment, making them no different from lambs to the slaughter. But as soon as they gained a moment of freedom, they were immediately distinguished from one another, even though they had not truly escaped or gained true freedom.

They are still 10,000 meters underground.

Even the bond forged through shared captivity and escape couldn't make them let go of those petty prejudices?

Suer suddenly felt like laughing, and couldn't help but laugh until he groaned out while trying to hold it in.

He wondered why—was it because the living environment of the forest elves had not yet deteriorated to the level faced by humans in this world?

Or is this the inevitable outcome once intellect reaches a certain level?

What if the same situation were to occur among humans in the previous world—where people distinguished themselves solely based on various pieces of information and differences, seizing any opportunity?

I have never agreed with the idea that this is just human nature. If we really have to be honest, Suer knows that he is definitely not a selfless person, but even so, under the influence of Riku and the others, he chose to give up his own life with his own hands... twice.

Suer remained silent.

He ultimately did not strike himself with his blade for the third time.

"...Mr. Monkey, have you thought of something funny?" Turning around from the crowd, Xin Ke looked back at Su Er with interest. Compared to dealing with these boring pieces of meat beside her, she was more interested in what others thought about a monkey.

"No, it's just some boring stuff," Su'er's voice sounded a little hoarse from not speaking for a long time. Without saying much, Su'er tilted her head slightly and gestured to Xin Ke's other side.

Lord Baltiru's words were heard not only by some of the nearby forest elves draped in gray rags, but also by the discussions they had sparked. Although most remained numb and seemed not to have heard anything, a few gray-robed forest elves showed indignant expressions—Sul remembered them because they were the only forest elves who, after being released, still had lively expressions and took the initiative to heal themselves.

Let's hope we don't end up losing our way unexpectedly!

Suer conveyed this message to Xinke with his eyes: it would be too embarrassing to be discovered by the goblins because of the trouble caused by these guys who heard how he was despised and used like trash.

His response was a confident look from Xin Ke.

Who do you think I am?

Without needing to communicate verbally, Suer accurately grasped the information—sure enough, Xinke was still the same Xinke.

The time was almost up. Suer could faintly hear the sound of an airship flying. The sound of metal clashing could be heard overhead. The next moment, the tightly sealed ceiling suddenly split into four pieces and hid from the surroundings. An airship was slowly descending.

It didn't take long; they only descended to a certain height before the goblin piloting the airship noticed something amiss. The forest elves, who had been kept in cages, were now standing casually in the center of the hall!

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Burning

Although it's impossible to see how the goblins inside the airship will react, anyone who completes a normal transport cycle as usual and then suddenly discovers that their imprisoned prisoners have escaped would certainly not be in a good mood.

Suddenly, it reared up and the airship climbed rapidly, trying to escape the prison as quickly as possible, but it was too late.

boom! ! !

Led by that Baltiru, several forest elves raised their arms in unison and summoned a huge energy arrow that pierced directly through the airship. The force was so great that the airship did not fall back into the hall due to gravity, but was instead blasted away.

Good guy.

Su Er grinned. He finally understood why Xin Ke wasn't worried about things going wrong. It turned out that from the very beginning, she hadn't planned to sneak over to the submarine with so many people. Naturally, she wasn't afraid of anyone with grudges trying to sabotage her.

When the attack was launched, Sull seemed to hear the deafening alarms coming from the goblin command center—if the goblins had established such a department.

"Come on, everyone! It's not far from here to the port. After we get there, we'll use the mole's submarine to return to the surface. Let's go!" Xin Ke shouted, raising her arms.

"Yes!"

Following closely behind the people in front, they ran out. Apart from the elves who had been locked up for too long and had given up on themselves, the prison quickly became quiet. The goblins who had been knocked unconscious to the ground for the sake of secrecy were also swiftly killed when the elves withdrew. Although their deaths triggered some device, causing the prison to make a huge noise and layers of iron walls to appear and enclose the entire prison, it didn't really matter anymore.

Even this small defense was merely a formality, since the goblins never thought those long-eared creatures would be so noble as to venture so deep to rescue their people.

The location is absolutely fantastic.

Honestly, if this happened anywhere else or on the surface, the goblins probably wouldn't even bother approaching these fleeing forest elves. Instead, they would have simply fired a cannonball to send these runaway trash on their way. But unfortunately, they are currently in their own homes, even in the lowest level of the entire city. Besides the goblins who have gone home to rest, there are also a large number of goblin children here.

To say something like "sending Long Ears to his death with a cannonball" in such a place would be an apology to the entire ethnic group.

Within Sul's field of vision, he saw many escaped forest elf soldiers, under the command of the Baltiru Lord, controlling some lesser goblins who couldn't escape in time. Flames erupted and steel houses exploded; chaos descended upon this city, which had never been invaded by foreign races before.

The cries of children, the screams of those dying, whether they were goblins or forest elves, filled the air. The towering steel walls receded rapidly in all directions, and the entire city was distorting. Sull saw large numbers of goblins pouring down from the uppermost industrial area like worker bees returning to their hive. Both sides occasionally unleashed magical beams, but the goblins still had the upper hand. Even though they occasionally killed some forest elves who couldn't escape in time, they dared not get too close. The goblin children were then held up at the front.

For some reason, Suer recalled the settlement that had been destroyed by the orcs three years ago, but this was completely different.

Without commenting on such behavior, Suer simply turned to Xinke beside him and said, "Aren't you leaving?"

"Hey? Mr. Monkey, are you in a hurry? But the passage to the mole's port isn't open yet~ We need to wait until those moles calm down a bit before we go—"

"Have all the goblins in the industrial zone come down yet? Now is the best opportunity to see that divine marrow."

Suer calmly interrupted Xinke's words and spoke directly.

"..."

A strange silence enveloped the two of them. Xin Ke stared at Su Er, and Su Er returned her gaze without fear.

"Hmm~, why do you say that?" Xin Ke chuckled strangely, neither confirming nor denying.

"Just think about it for a moment and you'll understand. If it were you, you certainly wouldn't just slink away like that, would you?" Su Er replied casually, already heading towards the path the two of them had just come down from.

After all, with your incredibly arrogant personality, it would be strange if you were to flee in a sorry state alongside those ordinary forest elves while being chased by goblins.

Even if he were to run away, Suer was absolutely certain that Shinko would only playfully toy with the moles before shouting at them with disdain—"Today, you almost caught the great Nirbalian!"

Then they ran away.

That's who she is.

"...Pfft, hahahaha," the unrestrained laughter grew louder and louder, as if Xin Ke had heard the funniest joke ever, to the point that she was doubled over laughing while clutching her stomach.

Without saying anything or expressing any sentiments, Xin Ke simply took a few steps forward and extended her hand to Su Er.

“Let’s go, Mr. Monkey,” she said with a wicked smile, though the malice wasn’t directed at Sue. “Let’s burn this city to ashes.”

--------------

No longer needing to be as careful as before when climbing up, Xin Ke even used magic to speed things up from time to time. The once noisy upper area was now eerily quiet. The only unusual thing was the divine furnace that was radiating endless heat.

Suer was desperately patting Xinke's arm—he really couldn't take it anymore.

To be honest, whenever Xin uses magic to speed up, he feels like his blood has Mentos added to it, and he has his own thoughts... he just wants to rush out of his head, and even his brain, which is perfectly fine inside his skull, is not under his control.

"You're really fragile, Mr. Monkey. This won't do, you know?" Xin Ke said with a sigh, loosening her grip on Su Er a little with some disdain.

"...Huff, huff, I told you not to use the bodies of your outrageous races to judge me," Sul protested helplessly to Xin Ke, panting heavily.

In order to return to the Central Industrial Zone as quickly as possible, Xin Ke simply held Su Er in her arms and sprinted upwards. Something was suffocating Su Er, but this seemingly romantic thing did not cause him any strange reaction—the symptoms after high-speed movement had overshadowed everything else.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Return

“Isn’t there still that magic? The one that saved me when I was on the submarine,” Suer gestured to Xinke.

“Ah, well, it’s probably best not to use magic with a constant effect,” Xin Ke bluntly rejected Su Er’s suggestion. “Although most of the moles have been lured to the lower levels, it’s not time to let our guard down yet. The upper levels are the moles’ weapons factory… Mr. Monkey’s protest means he’s rested enough, right? So, shall we continue on our way?”

"Huh? Ah! No, I—uh-uh!"

With a muffled groan, someone's instinctive scream was forcibly suppressed, and he didn't even dare to open his mouth. Su Er was afraid that he might accidentally bite off his tongue. He felt like he was a sack that Xin Ke was holding onto, and even his bones were about to be shaken apart.

She only asked Suer a token question, and Xin Ke didn't need to hear an answer at all. She didn't even care about the separation between men and women. She simply carried Suer and quickly made her way through the goblin's steel road, ensuring her safety... That's normal, since I've never heard of anyone getting aroused by hugging a rock, except when drunk.

It must be said that the forest elves at the lowest level, who held hostages, dragged things out for a long time, and the goblins were now feeling rather hesitant to act rashly.

Before long, Xin Ke brought Su Er to the giant robot again, much closer than the last time they had been there.

Tumbled and staggered, Suer clung to the edge of the platform, gripping the ground to prevent himself from falling. These goblins in this space generally flew, leaving him virtually no place to land.

"Mr. Monkey, aren't you going to take a closer look at the gophers' spirit armor? You seemed quite excited when you saw it before," Xin Ke's voice came from the side. This highly skilled Lisen spirit was already carefully examining the spell inscribed on the inactive divine marrow.

"...Let's think about our escape route first," Suer said, his eyes still a little dizzy as he kept looking around. "That should be the submarine that has been completed but not yet put into use."

Suer pointed to the steel fleet in the distance, which was clearly only reachable by Xin Ke carrying him by plane. It should be a new airship that had been completed. Apart from a submarine that clearly looked to be still being assembled, there were several submarines fixed next to the airship, seemingly waiting for final loading.

That was their escape route.

Yes, in this city, apart from the port at the lowest level which has submarines that allow people to escape, the only other place where submarines exist is the Central Industrial Zone, which is a place specifically used to manufacture weapons of war.

Barthilhod is right; there were indeed people who were used as cannon fodder.

“I’m not lying, okay?” Seemingly sensing some thoughts in Suer’s mind, Xin Ke turned her head and said, “I did teach him how to activate the submarine using the Forest Elf’s magic.”

There was no answer. Sull wanted to roll his eyes but didn't dare. He also looked up and observed the magnificent creation so close to him. The metallic luster and sharp lines created a majestic aura. The closer he looked, the more he was attracted by the beauty of this steel.

Suer wanted to touch it up close, but since he couldn't fly, he couldn't touch it at all.

Having no knowledge of elves, he couldn't glean anything from the dense array of spells like Xin Ke had. Although it was a giant robot that would excite anyone to look at, it currently only had a shoulder and a head; the rest was just a rough framework, and it became somewhat tedious after a while.

With just a slight turn of the head, one could clearly see the towering, burning pillar of fire. Even as the unrest in the lower areas continued to escalate and the entire goblin city was mobilized, this divine being remained motionless, as if it had discovered nothing and noticed nothing at all.

But this is obviously impossible.

The divine race tacitly approved of all this, as if the turmoil and death that occurred around him did not happen to his closest creations.

"Why didn't the God of Forging stop us?" Su'er asked, curiously.

However, Xin Ke, who was already lost in her own world, did not hear it at all. It wasn't until Su Er called her several times that she finally responded.

“Who knows what those guys are thinking?” she replied impatiently. Xin Ke even felt it was a waste not to give the Divine Furnace on the other side a glance. “Influenced by their own concepts, the way gods think and act is never something that outsiders can understand. They just need to abide by the rules of their own world.”

"They're inexplicably vying for the throne of the One God. I don't understand what they're even talking about..." Seemingly getting a little carried away, Xin Ke clearly projected a certain being who wasn't even here into her rambling curses, "If you want to sit on the throne of the One God so badly, just go sit on it! If you can't sit on it, go sit on the toilet!"