The Gentleman at the End
Chapter 541 - 539: Team Up

Chapter 541: Chapter 539: Team Up

When all efforts, even the sacrifice of one’s physical body, failed to bring victory,

when the sudden glimmer of last hope turned into even greater despair,

Dugall finally realized he was merely one of the countless rat folk, only slightly more powerful–had it not been for the abyss’s help, he would have failed on his path long ago.

He couldn’t compare himself to the City Lord; he had always been a failure.

The fierce thoughts constantly collided in his brain, and his consciousness, already unstable from being eroded by the abyss, completely collapsed at this moment.

The green prime minister Dugall, abandoned by the abyss, ended up with nothing but a cracked rat skull, falling to the ground. While the skull still radiated a hint of life, the pupils were already scattered and lifeless.

Witnessing this scene, William couldn’t help but recall his ’classmates’ at the orphanage.

Some kids who did not have enough psychological endurance became like this after a series of setbacks; even though they hadn’t suffered any physical damage and their bodies were still functioning well, they were already dead inside.

"Little Grape, you handle the rest... Jin and I are going to have a talk outside."

The black ball on his shoulder rubbed its hands, having long awaited this moment.

A three-and-a-half twist in mid-air landed it neatly on the surface of the rat skull, then it waved its slender arm with only three fingers, "You two go catch up, I’m going to make use of all the resources here."

"William, let’s go~ This place really stinks to death!"

"Wait a moment."

With William’s beckoning, Thirteen quickly ran over.

"Jin, this is the Candle Puppet I bought from Light City, named Thirteen."

"Oh~ so it’s a Candle Puppet? I’ve heard of it. Many treasure hunters heading to the Extremely Dark Land would bring one of these, I thought they were just ordinary machines, but this one is quite lifelike."

Thirteen seemed to sense something from these words, taking a step back and bowing its head in silence.

William simply explained, "Thirteen is lifelike because it has received my ’education’, gaining the ability for independent thought and learning.

I brought Thirteen here because not far from Rat City, there is a suspected presence of a new type of abyss, which is my ultimate destination on this journey."

"There’s an abyss here? I’ve never heard of it. And William, you chose an abyss as your destination... cough cough~ It stinks to death, let’s talk outside."

Jin could no longer endure the stench here; a mini-explosion between her legs combined with the strength of her body, and a simple crouch jump took her more than five hundred meters up, out of the cave.

Although William was physically strong, achieving such height with a single leap was too strenuous for him.

Observing the recoil imprint Jin left on the ground, which resembled a ring-shaped lotus, he couldn’t help but marvel,

"Jin’s ’Path’ seems to have made her control over the body more exquisite... I didn’t expect to meet her here ahead of time, I was planning to find her after completing the path.

But meeting her ahead of time is good too. Let’s see if she’s willing to go to the abyss. With Jin there, some things would be much more convenient."

William took a deep breath as the star pattern surfaced around his ankles.

With each step, stairways formed by the stars would appear in the air, easily carrying him out of the cave.

"Thirteen, come up as well."

Thirteen, who had learned to read the room, seemed to pick up something from the previous conversation and waved off with a smile, "No need, teacher, my body can totally sustain me climbing out of here, I will be at most a minute slower than you."

"Alright, then."

Following William’s exit from the cave, he returned to ground level.

The ’Plague Rain’ that constantly drenched Rat City had lessened and even showed signs of stopping.

A large number of rat people gathered at the destroyed Plague Bed, including White Rat Keith who led the way. There were also many open-source rat people similar to the hotel owner, all of whom to some extent were tinged with the abyss.

When they saw the Honored Tumor Knight appear with the young man but not Dugall,

the rats infected by the abyss immediately fled the city at top speed, sprinting toward the direction of the Dark Nest Mine.

"William, shall we chase after them? There are six of them, and I could probably catch them all in 2 minutes and 23 seconds," Jin said while counting on her fingers.

"No need, their trail will lead us to the location of the abyss later."

"Oh."

As the two exchanged a few words, the surrounding rat people, either not infected by the abyss or rather not granted the opportunity by the abyss, knelt down one after another,

They were genuinely grateful that the two of them had killed Dugall, even if Rat City might no longer exist, it meant they no longer had to live a life confined to the city, being forced to Split and possibly being used as experimental material at any time.

It was as if the two people in front of them had given them real freedom.

"Jin, where to?"

"The whole city stinks, let’s talk outside."

Jin dug out a lump of flesh from her waist and kneaded it into a ball between her palms before making a pitching motion as if throwing a baseball.

Whoosh! The ball of flesh flew out of the city at a speed faster than a bullet.

After completing the throw, Jin immediately followed with a leap, slowing down intentionally, waiting for William to catch up, only to find that William was already close behind her.

"William, your physical strength has increased again, and not by a little... Even though you haven’t completed the Path yet, it seems you’ve undergone quite some intense training recently."

"After leaving Cancer Palace, I encountered many interesting things, and my body has undergone many changes."

Behind them, Thirteen also followed closely at a brisk pace, which was completely incongruent with her old-fashioned Candle Puppet design.

They quickly arrived at the spot where the ball of flesh had landed,

The fallen flesh ball had already transformed into a European-style villa, with its outer flesh walls completely hardened and blackened, and a large amount of Red Lotus Plants growing around it.

Not only the exterior, but the interior structure of the villa was also shaped perfectly, even including various pieces of furniture, and it even had beautifully designed fatty oil lamps and candles for lighting.

"Wow~ Jin, how did you do this?"

"It’s pretty simple, you just inject the image in your head into the flesh ball... After completing the Path, I’ve greatly improved in controlling flesh, making a lot of things much more convenient."

Jin served up two steaming cups of air-dried meat slice tea with the familiarity of someone at home.

After sitting down on the soft pork belly sofa, Jin flicked the hidden switches on either side of her helmet with her thumb, click! and took off the fully enclosed helmet.

Her delicate and impeccable face was revealed, especially the Red Lotus Birthmark at the corner of her eyes, which was very conspicuous.

Perhaps as an influence of the Path, Jin’s hair had been dyed the same color as the Red Lotus.

Even Thirteen, standing at the door as if an art piece, was surprised by such an appearance.

"Jin, your mask?"

"Are you talking about ’Mother’? Because I was required to combine the Back Tumor, my own illness, and so on to Forge the Knight Armor when I joined the Knight Order.

After much deliberation, I smashed ’Mother’s’ mask back into ashes and added it to the fabrication of this set of clothing, so now Mother is always close to me, never alone again."

"When did you complete your Path?"

Jin placed her finger against her chin, her pupils moving rapidly, "You haven’t been gone for long, have you~ Because I won the championship with you in the underground arena by defeating the New Recruits, I happened to get a chance to meet the Lord, even to ’go to bed’ with her.

On the Lord’s bed, I accidentally glimpsed the [Door] and so I took the opportunity to embark on the Path journey, completing it in just one month, and during that time I was also drawn and acknowledged by the Lord herself."

"The Lord’s guidance, huh?"

"Yes~ The Lord is beautiful and kind-hearted, I don’t know why many people are so afraid of her.

Alright, tell me your story now. William, you must have gone through a lot recently, especially the Circus incident needs to be discussed in detail, and how you went off looking for the Abyss."

The conversation just couldn’t stop, even Thirteen fell asleep several times during the process.

Every time she woke up mid-way, she would see the two of them still deep in conversation, and expressions on the teacher’s face that she had seldom, or even never seen before. It was certainly a smile but felt different in some way, she didn’t know how to describe it.

"The Abyss! William, your Path is actually inside the Abyss! Can I come along?"

"Are you sure you want to come?"

"I’ve been idling with nothing to do anyway; coming out this time was to look for an opportunity to find a suitable Tool for myself.

Since you, William, are going to the Abyss, I might as well go treasure hunting with you; there might be some unexpected gains... Ever since the breakthrough, my old Sword has been somewhat falling behind, and I’ve already made it into a pendant as a keepsake."

Jin pulled out a Blood Jade from her waist with a loathsome baby pattern engraved on it.

"Okay, let’s go together!"

"Yay! That’s great~ Staying in Cancer Palace was so boring, it’s much more fun to be with you, William."