Sir! Don't close the net!

Ashley forcefully shoved aside the servants who had been blocking her way, kicked off her shoes, tore open her dress which was as beautiful as a wedding gown, and strode forward.

The walls that completely separated the Cretaceous and Jurassic zones have long since collapsed, and the Cretaceous and Jurassic zones are no longer distinct. However, while all the walls have crumbled, the wall with that one unique gate has never collapsed.

The ground was covered in blood, and all sorts of things flowed through it—shards of glass, sharp bone fragments. Walking through it was like walking on a mountain of knives. Every few steps Ashley took, her feet burned with pain. Ashley had never experienced such physical pain before. Normally, she would have squatted on the ground and cried, unwilling to move another step. But the throbbing pain in her chest overshadowed all the physical pain and urged her to keep moving.

"Miss--"

The servants wanted to chase after her, but they were worried that monsters might emerge from some unknown corner, so they could only watch Ashley's figure grow further and further away.

On the rooftop, Rebecca crouched on the chimney, her right hand clutching the back of her head. After hesitating for a while, she tilted her head back and asked, "Are you really just going to watch like this?"

After a brief silence, Li Yili, wearing a yellow raincoat, emerged from behind the chimney and placed her hand on it.

"What do you think?"

“I don’t know…” Rebecca stuck out her tongue, “Because, even now, I don’t feel anything real. Ashley is a nice person, Dante is funny, but I don’t know why… I just can’t really take them to heart. Maybe it’s because I’m different from them, ah—”

Rebecca was taken aback and turned to look at Li Yili.

"You're not in the same situation, are you?"

Li Yili raised her eyes slightly.

"They are not lab rats; they have their own feelings, their own lives, and they have souls."

Rebecca tilted her head, chin in hand, not understanding why Li Yili would suddenly say that, but Li Yili's next words made her legs go weak and she almost fell off the chimney.

"It is precisely because there is no similarity that such an idea arises, and such an idea can hinder important experiments."

Li Yili looked down at his left hand, where a thick, black liquid seeped out from his yellow raincoat and flowed down between his fingers.

Li Yili smiled, and raised her voice as if she were speaking to someone.

Therefore! A balance between the two is needed—

Rebecca's expression changed abruptly, and she lowered her body abruptly. With a piercing squeak, rats climbed up the wall and onto the roof, gathering like a vortex to form a large door.

------

Looking at the gate so close at hand, Ashley couldn't help but slow her pace. The only city wall and gate that hadn't collapsed were also a clean place untouched by monsters.

Looking at her feet buried in a pool of blood and her skirt stained with blood, Ashley felt a sense of inferiority for the first time. She felt that she was not worthy of stepping into this clean land.

After hesitating for a moment, Ashley took a step forward, clutching her skirt with both hands, and cautiously approached the gate like a village girl who had mistakenly wandered into a bustling street. She knocked on the door with her right hand, gently pressed her forehead against the door, and called softly.

"Are you there, Mr. Dante...?"

Please, do not answer me.

Ashley slowly bent her knees and sat down on the floor, leaning against the door.

A voice, both unfamiliar and strangely familiar, came from the other side of the door. She had hoped to hear it countless times, but today was the one she didn't want to hear.

"Ah, Miss Ashley, of course I'm here."

“Why…why are you here?” Ashley’s fingers tightened on the door. “The walls have all collapsed. What’s the point of guarding this door?”

"Because I am the hero of justice, and this is the closest place to you, Miss Ashley."

The voice from the other side of the door paused for a moment before slowly continuing.

"If there's no door, how am I supposed to get in?"

Ashley felt a lump in her throat, leaning against the door, and...

Dian curled up.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Dante, I... I lied to you. That day I was just... scared. I was scared of what you might do to me. I regretted going against my father's wishes, leaving the butler behind, and venturing alone to find the hero of justice..."

Dante, leaning against the door, raised the corners of his mouth, took out his cigarette, and placed it on his knee.

"This is really bad; lying is not something a lady should do."

Ashley closed her eyes, but Dante's next words made her involuntarily hold her breath.

"But I didn't lie—"

Dante raised his head and looked up at the star-studded sky, his eyes dim yet incredibly clear.

Dante raised his hand, pulled out the stack of letters from his pocket, held them high above his head, and spoke with immense pride.

"I am a hero of justice."

"Because that's what you called me, from that day on until my death I will be a hero of justice."

"Ah...ah—no, it's not like that, I..."

Crystalline tears streamed down Ashley's face. Unable to control her emotions any longer, Ashley stood up, raised her hand, and began pounding on the door in front of her, calling out Dante's name, trying to push open the heavy door.

"Dante! Dante! I love you! This is no lie!"

"Even if you're not here, I will still love you deeply, so please—leave this place as soon as possible..."

Dante brought the cigarette to his lips and laughed with complete ease.

“Miss Ashley, although it’s a bit sudden, I’m planning to leave the wasteland. As a hero of justice, it seems I haven’t changed anything. I just haven’t compromised. So, I’m going to go far away to learn and train until I can truly open this door.”

"A righteous hero always gets back up after a defeat and continues to strive for the challenge. I'm back."

"but……"

Ashley's eyes widened slightly as she pressed her forehead against the door.

The wind blew through the crack in the door, lifting her long hair. The heavy door seemed to disappear as she leaned against Dante's back, listening to his regrets and the preparations to come.

"If Miss Ashley could help, that would be great. This door is quite heavy."

"Hmm—I won't just wait for a hero of justice to come."

"Well... I'll head out now. I can't let my beloved Miss Ashley see me in such a disheveled state."

Dante raised the corners of his mouth, got up and left, gradually disappearing into the distance, leaving Ashley with only a heavy, clean door in front of her.

The burning letter flew into the distance in the strong wind.

Norman stood at the edge of the pool of blood, watching Dante, who was sitting with his head bowed and lifeless against the gate leading to the chalk circle, and remained silent for a long time.

Chapter 162 A Kingdom of Peace

Why is my son dead?

The occasion, which should have been filled with cheers, fell into complete silence because of the middle-aged man's question.

No one could answer Norman's question, and no one dared to answer Norman's question.

They knew all along that this catastrophe was coming, so they obtained tickets from "them" in advance, becoming the "chosen beings" who were guaranteed to survive, and they felt extremely fortunate.

Norman had intended to refuse the deal, until a gruesome corpse, as if attacked by some terrifying creature, was placed before him.

If it weren't for those corpses, they might be among the dead on the ground now. Not only did they survive, but they also gained the most benefits. Bathed in the blood of the monsters, they felt their bodies had become stronger.

As Norman's son, Dante naturally had the ticket to survival, but that ticket was nailed to the door.

"Why did my son die?" Norman bent down, lit a cigarette, and asked in a calm tone, as if he were asking about the weather. But no one dared to answer.

"Wochi? What do you think?"

Woch, who hadn't expected to be called out, twitched his lips and could only steel himself as he stepped forward, head bowed. "I don't understand..."

Cold sweat streamed down Wojci's forehead.

“No matter which world it was, he wouldn’t choose it,” Norman said, taking out his cigarette and letting out a long exhale. “So he died in the world he thought was right.”

Everyone looked up and froze in place.

Covered in blood and riddled with wounds, Dante leaned against the clean door. All around him was Dante's own blood, while they, clean as they were, stood on the blood-soaked ground.

It's as if there are two worlds here, and two worlds inhabited by different people.

Soon, they will clean up the rest of the blood-covered areas, completely disguising it as another world. But Dante's blood will stain the only clean spot red, constantly reminding them of their falsehood.

Many people turned their faces away uncomfortably; their perfect deception had been marred by an incredibly glaring flaw.

"Ha... Is it because I pushed too hard all at once, causing a rebound? Even a good-for-nothing thug with no ambition can become a hero of justice. The potential of people is truly terrifying..."

Norman turned around, tossed the still-burning cigarette behind him, and the others immediately bent down to make way.

"What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and see what else is there?"

"How many people survived?" Norman glanced at the others with a deep look in his eyes, then strode forward.

"A peaceful nation is coming."

The others breathed a sigh of relief. They were all beneficiaries of this catastrophe. They were afraid that Norman would want to kill a few people to vent his anger because his son had died. But to their relief and fear, Norman was very calm, as if his son had not died.

Wojci glanced at Dante, hesitated for a moment, and then braced himself to ask, "Then, what about Dante? Are we just going to leave him here like this?"

Everyone present gasped, and many gritted their teeth, wanting to rush up and slap Wojci.

Norman didn't even turn his head; he simply raised his hand and waved it behind him.

"Bury him, then scatter his ashes in the wasteland."

Wojci let out a long sigh of relief, exchanged glances with the others, and strode toward Dante. As they moved, the last sanctuary within the Jurassic Circle was covered in blood.

Carly, carrying the lifeless Sherry on her back, gripped Sitch's collar tightly with her right hand as she struggled through the ruins.

The towering city walls, which isolated the entire wasteland, drew ever closer. An indescribable sense of oppression made Carly gasp for breath and consider retreating. But Sherry's hair, like a hummingbird guiding her home, fluttered in her vision, seemingly telling her that the exit was just ahead.

It's all fake, everything is fake.

The houses and the people are all fictional.

Every night, she would repeat this to herself over and over again.

She dared not rely on or believe in anything before her, because everything was merely something someone had prepared for their own purposes. All the rules that could bring her a sense of security were like a dream, serving no purpose other than to lure her into the abyss without any defenses.

She could only live in this dream, unable to go anywhere else.

Rather than living in fear in a dream that may one day shatter, it's better to actually go mad; perhaps madness will wake you up from this dream.

But when the houses turned into ruins, when people died, everything became incredibly real.

"Sherry, have I really... gone mad?"

Carly stopped in her tracks, her knees buckling as she knelt on the ground, raising her hands to cover her face.

"Isn't this... you there?"