After reaching the maximum level, my "soft rice system" finally arrived.

"The so-called Lord you speak of is nothing but a charlatan."

"The Lord I serve—the Earth Mother Goddess who holds fertility and life—is the great being we can rely on!"

"Absurd! The god of the sea and storms is the most supreme!"

The person who had climbed the platform earlier glared angrily at the person who came after him.

"You're the one who's being ridiculous! The Earth Mother is the most sublime being!"

The newcomer also glared back.

......

Among the crowd, an elderly man with white hair and a hunched back watched the two people arguing passionately on the platform and shook his head slightly.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, he suddenly found a figure with black hair and black eyes standing in front of him.

"Excuse me, may I ask you a few questions?"

The other party spoke gently.

The white-haired old man scrutinized the black-haired, black-eyed youth before him with his grayish-white, somewhat dim eyes.

"Although the people around you subconsciously treat you as one of their own... you are not actually a native of Aurora City—"

“I know every resident of Aurora City—but you’re not one of them.”

The other party seemed unconcerned, and their tone remained gentle: "If that's what you want to think, then that's perfectly fine too."

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

The white-haired old man silently gazed at the black-haired youth before him, pondering the other's origins, but to no avail.

Aurora City is the only remaining human settlement within hundreds of miles of the Twilight Cataclysm.

If there are any outsiders, they would only be refugees fleeing from other cities ravaged by disaster.

However, without a doubt, the other person's speech, appearance, and demeanor did not resemble those of a refugee whose home had been destroyed and who had been displaced.

"Why are you looking for me?"

The white-haired old man had a hoarse voice.

"Because you are the most powerful being in this city, and at your peak, you were only one step away from becoming a legend..."

"At the same time, he also seems to be the oldest one."

"Based on my experience playing games, when you arrive at a new map, finding the elders there to gather information is undoubtedly the most efficient method."

The other person's words remained gentle.

The white-haired old man fell silent.

Few in the city knew his true strength and identity, yet the other party saw right through him.

He finally nodded: "Go ahead and ask..."

"it is good--"

The other party didn't exchange pleasantries with him and went straight to asking questions.

"What's going on with the sky over this city, or rather, this world?"

Do we really need to ask this?

The white-haired old man was filled with surprise and doubt, but he still answered truthfully.

"Since the day of the Great Cataclysm, the sky of this world has remained like this... Without natural light, the rotation of the sun, moon, and stars has ceased."

This is common sense that every resident of this world understands, and there is no need for him to hide it.

The black-haired youth nodded: "So, what is the Great Cataclysm?"

"The cataclysm happened two hundred years ago, when I was just born, so I don't remember it very well."

"However, according to other people's descriptions, an indescribable upheaval occurred that day."

"All the followers of the True God Church went mad in an instant, and the world ceased to have rules and order—"

The white-haired old man's words were somewhat unclear.

However, Charles still managed to vaguely depict the whole picture of the incident from his scattered words.

In short, it's just a simple paragraph of text—

An evil god invaded, and the continent fell.

The death of the true gods, the pollution of the corrupt, the madness of the mad.

The calamity of dusk swept across the world, plunging it into a long, eternal night.

Ultimately, the only remaining land of order for human survival is this last place.

Everything happened too fast, and it all felt empty.

Of course, there are many, many more stories behind this.

This world must also have its own epic tales of heroes, and many great figures have emerged in the process of fighting against the calamities of dusk and the evil gods.

The pessimism and shock of the fall of a god, the cruelty and sorrow of the fall of a kingdom.

And then there's the terror and despair of watching helplessly as the last place to survive is gradually eroded until only one isolated city remains.

But the white-haired old man didn't tell all of this.

The old man stared at Charles with his withered eyes and spoke hesitantly.

“I’ve heard… I remember… in the distant past—before the Great Cataclysm, this world wasn’t so dark and gloomy.”

"People no longer need to rely on hourglasses to record time as they do today; they can simply look up at the sun in the sky to get a general idea."

"Back then, the sun rose in the east and set in the west. People could grow crops and obtain food safely simply by relying on the sun's light and heat, without having to send out gathering teams to hunt in the dangerous darkness—"

Even at night, the sky is filled with a bright moon and twinkling stars, illuminating the way for lost travelers.

The old man kept talking incoherently.

He looked at Charles, his withered eyes filled with a mixture of longing, doubt, and yearning...

And, a lack of self-confidence.

Did that era really exist?

Even for a near-legend, two hundred years is far too long.

So long ago, long enough for a naive child to become a frail old man, a withered tree.

So much time has passed that many beautiful memories of the past have faded, becoming hazy and blurred...

Charles, who was being looked at with such complicated eyes by the old man, simply nodded slightly.

"That kind of world..."

“It’s real.”

Chapter 49 The Light Chaser 6k

(My previous routine was too morbid, so I adjusted it and am now living like a normal person.)

The old man's hands trembled slightly.

He was somewhat surprised by his own loss of composure.

I don't know why I asked this stranger such an inappropriate question...

The other person looked very young, probably in their early twenties.

How could they possibly know what happened two hundred years ago?

What the world truly looked like before the great cataclysm...

At that time, the other person should not have been born yet.

Think about it carefully.

The other person's words.

It was probably just a kind outsider offering words of comfort to this old man who, in the eyes of outsiders, was delusional.

but--

Don't know why.

But a vague, lingering feeling remained in the old man's heart...

An inexplicable premonition—

What the other person said might be true.

he--

Perhaps I have truly seen that place where people work at sunrise and rest at sunset.

The residents could simply work hard to harvest food, and they never had to worry about decadence or madness, nor did they have to worry about the city falling to the ground when they woke up the next day—a golden age.

......