“I don’t think I can do that right now,” the youth sighed. “It’s not that I can’t do it, but rather, I shouldn’t.”

“Hmm…I agree,” it felt as though both Jian Gong and he were talking to each other but only they knew the truth. “He doesn’t have all of his memories. Finding out the truth, huh? Your memories already have half of the truth; without them, trying to exact revenge will be suicide.”

Their worries were met with silence.

Hesitating, the youth opened his mouth and pleaded, “I need your memories. Please.”

Once again, he was met with silence.

“You…should check the side quest again,” Jian Gong advised.

The youth opened the ‘Quests’ tab in the System and looked at the side quest again.

Side Quest: Investigate the truth behind the murder of the couple-

You’ve woken next to a house. It seemed to have been filled with good memories of a happy family. Your heart grows warm. The couple who owned the house has been murdered in cold blood while their children’s whereabouts are unknown.

Find out why they were murdered. Your soul gnaws at you. It wants an answer. It cries madly. Its screams dare to pierce through Heaven and Earth. The truth must be revealed!

This quest is mandatory. This quest has the possibility to start a chain of quests.

cOMe aNd FinD mE.

Reward: [???]

Failure: [Sanity Value drops to 0]

“Find you? How?” the youth asked and opened the side quest once again but there was no further answer. Even the previous distorted text was gone. He scratched his head in frustration, “Cryptic bastard…”

“I guess you got to find a way to talk to him?” Jian Gong asked.

“Yeah, though I don’t think I’ll find a way right now.”

“This is quite troublesome. For you, that is.”

He rolled his eyes at him, “Yeah, thanks for clarifying that.”

As they continued with their idle chatter, time passed. The stars started glowing brightly under the dark night sky.

“I will never get tired of this sight,” the sea of stars was reflected in the youth’s eyes.

“It’s a bit sad that technological worlds will never get to see the stars like this.”

“Light pollution, is it?”

“Yeah,” Jian Gong nodded. “Though in some aspects, those worlds are much better than this one.

…I don’t think I’ll ever give up safety for beauty.”

“I don’t know about that. I’ve never known- don’t remember any other world.”

“The things you’ve seen living here for six years are things that most modern people might never see in their lifetimes.”

“Then, I think I’d prefer those modern worlds. Such things should never happen or be seen by ordinary people. Or, any people for that matter.”

“Have you come to hate your time here?”

The youth shook his head, “I don’t have enough time or energy to do that. I can’t even take care of myself; how can I spare the time to hate something out of my reach?

…the peace brought by modern times must be a godsend.”

Jian Gong looked at him. His voice was light, like the wind it seemed to be gentle but fleeting, “Is this the life you imagined?”

In contrast, the youth’s reply was like the depths of the ocean, dark and heavy, “No. I would’ve liked to sit in my home, have a cup of tea; maybe fall in love, and start a family. Anything that would’ve made me feel that I exist, no- that’s not it. I just wanted to feel full.”

“Is that a dream or a goal?”

“Neither. Just a delusion. I’ve understood that, here, nothing is achievable without strength. Someone will always covet what you have. No one is satisfied with what they have, the more they have, the more they want.”

“…sometimes, even if we know the answers, we only come to realize what they mean when someone else tells us. I hope you meet someone who’ll make you realize what you truly want.”

The youth glanced at Jian Gong. Under the veil of darkness, his expression looked complicated. The night was quiet.

After an unknown amount of time, the old man finally returned. With him were the woman and her two sons who he had found.

“Boy, I’m back!” the old man waved at him as they approached. The smile on his face was quite the contrast to the worried and vigilant look he had when the youth first met him.

The youth nodded in acknowledgment. The woman came in front of him and bowed, “Thank you for saving us.”

He hastily dodged her bow, “Please don’t say that. You were already safe, I just found you.”

“Regardless, I thank you.” The woman smiled at him. Her two sons shyly peeked at him from behind her.

“Where did you come from, boy?” the old man slapped him on the back. The slap was far stronger than what a normal person would be able to endure. The youth smiled inwardly. He’s testing me, huh?

The youth pointed and said, “I came from downstream.”

“D-Downstream?” the old man was caught by surprise. He grabbed him by the side of the shoulders and asked, “Then do you know why those Beasts started rampaging?”

“They got scared by an explosion.”

“An explosion?” the old man looked at him with a dumb expression. “Then do you know who caused it?”

“If someone can cause an explosion large enough to scare a forest worth of Deviant Beasts, won’t I just be asking for death if I went to investigate them?”

“…that’s true.”

The youth thought for a while and brought up a question that had been nagging him, “Also, why is there even a village here? In the middle of a forest infested with Deviant Beasts?”

The old man and the woman looked at each other with a complicated glance. Afterward, the old man just sighed and said, “Look, it’s not like we don’t know about the troubles of living here.” He looked around, “The village was supposed to be surrounded by a barrier that made it invisible to Deviant Beasts and made them subconsciously avoid this place.

But for some reason, the barrier didn’t work this time. It has worked for so many decades…so, why?”

“I think the barrier only repels them when they don’t have any external stimulus. This time, the Beasts were running for their lives. They ran through the village as it would take less time if they were to go around. And when you’re running for your lives, you just want to get away as fast as you can.”

“What will happen to the village now…?” the old man worried. The woman hugged him with similar feelings.

The youth looked at them and asked, “Uh…is she your daughter perhaps?”

“Oh, yes!” the woman responded to his question. “This is my father, the chief of this village.”

“I see…anyways, you should leave this place.”

The village chief was taken by surprise at this abrupt change of topics. With wide eyes, he asked the reason.

“Well, going in that direction-” the youth pointed upstream, “-the Beasts will probably end up leaving the forest. If I remember correctly, Bluebranch City is over there. The city will have no problem repelling the Beast Tide. You will once again be stampeded by the Beasts returning to the forest.”

“Why would they even travel that far?”

“An explosion doesn’t happen for any reason. Maybe the people who made the explosion wanted to use the Deviant Beasts’ herd mentality to launch a large-scale Beast Tide against Bluebranch City. Honestly, the city is still quite far away from here, so, my guess might not be far off.”

“W-What do we do then?” the village chief’s daughter looked at him anxiously. Her sons must have felt her tumultuous emotions as well.

The youth said with a tinge of regret, “I’d say leave the place with the survivors.”

“Do we have to really leave this place?” the old man looked at him. It felt as though he wanted another alternate solution. “How can I face my ancestors like this?”

The youth laughed mockingly, “Your village is already destroyed. Instead of thinking how you’ll face them with your village being destroyed, think how you’ll face them after you drove the survivors to death as well.”

The atmosphere turned cold and awkward after that.

“Don’t…-” the village chief’s daughter suddenly shouted, “-say that! M-My father is just a bit distraught. Being village chief is very stressful!”

“Of course, being a leader is always stressful.” Her face lit up when he admitted it. “…But with the lives of many in your hands, you aren’t allowed to make a wrong choice.” Her expression became sullen. She knew he was right and had no way to refute his words. Her mood became gloomy.

On the other hand, the youth looked at the blue screen in front of him with surprise.

[You’ve begun to understand the responsibility of a Monarch. Your predecessors who look from afar, smile at your growth, and cheer you on!]