For the Best

Mercilessly slaughtered by the Creatures of Darkness, humanity closed themselves to the southernmost corner of the Continent of Light, leaving their back to the ocean, they found both the time to live like human beings instead of cornered beasts and built cities and walls.

Now, Eclipsed Walkers occasionally left the more or less safe Great Wall — which was a man-made wall with the desperate efforts of humanity to close a whole area to themselves — to clean the remnant cities of humanity infested by the Creatures of Darkness and activate the old Gates.

The Wall City was the one that had most borders on the Great Wall which also meant that the city had the most responsibility for the state of the wall.

And, through the gate that was on the west side of the Wall City, Ashy walked out of the Great Wall.

The area around the Great Wall was rather cleared nicely. There weren't many spaces that made it hard to look through from afar. Guards were positioned in front of the entrance and on the wall with their backs straight and weapons in their hands. They could easily spot uninvited guests with that much empty spot.

This was the last wall that protected humanity. There was no crack on its surface even though the wall was made about three hundred years ago. It was a formidable barrier between the dangers and humanity.

It was no joke.

'After learning its history, it feels much more impressive than when I first saw it.' Ashy thought as he gave a friendly nod towards the guards before moving on the dirt road that was made by walking on it repeatedly. It was apparent that many Eclipsed Walkers used this 'road'.

An hour passed.

On both his right and left side were thick forests full of greenery, both filled with alive and dead.

Directly delving into the right one, Ashy passed through the thick forest for half an hour before stopping in front of an abnormally thick, dark tree. Currently, he wasn't even able to see the sky, let alone have any light — overgrown trees were covering the sky.

Having dark vision was a boon greater than most. He could see without having to light a lantern and give away his place to others.

Ashy began to dig into the ground right behind the large tree with his hands and claws. Gradually, a little hill of dirt piled up at his side. What came out from under the dirt was a gun with a few bullets and the corpse of a short and thin man who was moving barely. A bullet hole was present on its forehead.

"It was for the best… really." whispering, Ashy plunged his hand right through its chest, violently taking its heart out.

"Both for me… and you…"

As the corpse crumbled into dark ash, Ashy filled the hole that he dug and hid the gun to his waist.

It was fortunate that he thought of hiding the gun here. It turned out that guns are rare in this world. There were a few reasons for this.

Because they cause a thunderous loud sound, because they are hard to make, and lastly, the guns are 'weaker' than a bow that is used by a Seeker.

So, guns were usually used by weak noblemen.

Then the one who shot him must be a noble too.

"There is no way I can get into the inner part of the city, let alone meet a noble…"

Ashy wasn't going to forget the torturous time of his life that was dozens of times worse than a fever dream. It was simply unthinkable while there was still a damn bullet lodged in his spine.

So, the revenge he wanted was going to take a little bit of time. He needs the power and reputation to meet with nobles, right?

'Why the fuck there are nobles while there are merely four alive cities in the whole damn continent?' Ashy wondered as he took out a map and a compass from his bag.

"Hmmm, I just need to follow this road for four and half days and turn east and walk one and a half days more, right?"

Ashy wasn't so confident with his map reading skills. However, he heard that the closest ruined city, Aora City, was relatively safe and easy to find.

After all, that ruined city was used to train newbies. There were limited and weak undead there, most strong ones were already hunted for them being so close to the Great Wall.

"If this area is cleaned thoroughly, can't I just cross through the forest? I think that will reduce traveling to four days!"

It seemed worth it.

As a guy who lived in the modern world, Ashy didn't travel on foot so much.

To him, this journey to the ruined city of Aora was going to be tremendously boring and tiring. Six damn days on foot without internet, electricity, or even a book!

"Well, I can see in the dark, hunger or thirst won't kill me… I guess. Plus, I lived in the forest for a few days and lay down in my pool of blood for more than a week.

"It should be alright, right?"

***

"We are alive, struggling to the bitter end because of the vain hope the great Alaric gave us. Although we know it is a hopeless wish, we want to see the sun lights that are described in the fairytales and feel its scorching warmth and blinding light that hurts our eyes.

"However, this is just useless, poisonous hope. The hope that Alaric the Great gave us was a great motivation when the Beacon of Darkness appeared, now it is just a source of pain and despair.

"Curse you, the one who caused this mess and disturbed the order of our world.

"Curse you, Alaric. The one who brought nothing but lies and empty hope."