Chapter 337

“Haa… haa… haa…”

Emma, who had almost collapsed, was leaning most of her body on Leon. A large portion of the beige gauze dress’s back was soaked with cold sweat.

Even though she had already broken free from Leon’s memories, once she recalled the chillingly realistic proposal made by the slender girl, and remembered the calm expression on her face as she explained how to deal with her own corpse after death, as if she were talking about what to have for dinner…

Emma’s heart still felt like Leon’s must have at the time: as if it had been completely torn out and was being crushed bit by bit, painfully losing even the ability to breathe.

This is what Leon has been enduring all along, isn’t it?

After panting heavily for a while, Emma, who looked as if she had just emerged from water, couldn’t help but asked Leon, who was supporting her with an exasperated look, “Leon… doesn’t it hurt?”

“…”

Leon slightly shook his head, understanding what she meant, then glanced at the system prompt.

[Through your own observations,归纳and repeated experiences, you’ve obtained a lot of information about the “Black and White Bridge,” and the anomalous badge “Materialist Soul (Bright Red)” has been activated.

Due to a deep understanding of the activation rules of the “Black and White Bridge,” your resistance to this anomaly has greatly increased, allowing you to block its influence to a significant degree.]

Not feeling pain was impossible; he would remember this matter clearly for the rest of his life.

But one thing was that the impact was somewhat mitigated by [Materialism], and another was that he knew the final outcome was good. Thinking more about Anna, who every day tidied up after the younger siblings and played with Melanie, made the pain less unbearable.

…

“It hurts… still a little…”

Looking at Emma, whose eyes were filled with shock and guilt, clearly misunderstanding the extent of his inner strength, Leon smiled slightly with a hint of embarrassment before explaining:

“But when I think that in the end, I joined the Clearing Bureau and didn’t let things really go that far, Anna and the others are still waiting for me at home. Even if I come home late, they’ll still leave food for me, so it doesn’t feel as bad.”

Is that so…

After hearing Leon’s explanation, Emma tried to put herself in his shoes.

No matter how hard she tried, the image of the slim girl calmly proposing to secretly dispose of her corpse into the sewage river to defraud compensation to support her younger siblings kept tearing at her heart.

You’re lying, how could it not hurt?

I only saw your memories once, and my heart feels like it’s being cut by a knife. To help me find the white bricks, you had to relive the powerlessness and pain over and over again, how could it not be painful?

“Don’t think about it anymore.”

Seeing that Emma seemed like she wanted to say something else, Leon, considering her situation, couldn’t help but quietly give her some encouragement:

“The past pain has passed. Instead of dwelling on what we’ve lost, we should focus on what we still have. The most important thing is to cherish those in front of us.”

“…”

Cherish those in front of us… huh?

Emma had heard similar advice countless times from the red-haired bureau director, but after sharing Leon’s memories on the Black and White Bridge and personally experiencing his happiness and suffering,

Facing Leon, who lost his parents early, worked hard raising his younger siblings, and voluntarily joined the Clearing Bureau with an extremely high fatality rate to protect his sister, truly cherishing everything he possessed, this comfort that she had heard countless times finally reached her heart for the first time.

Looking at Emma, who was staring at him in a daze, Leon released her hand and squatted down slightly, saying:

“There are only a few dozen steps left to get off the bridge. How about I carry you for the last part!”

“…”

Although she instinctively wanted to refuse, looking at Leon’s not-so-wide but reliable shoulders, Emma, after remaining silent for a moment, slightly bent forward and climbed onto Leon’s back.

Once she was airborne, listening to Leon’s steady and strong breathing, feeling the slightly lean back under him where his heart beat like fire, continuously warming her, Emma’s tense body completely relaxed, leaning against him with trust and gently wrapping her arms around Leon’s neck.

Cherish those in front of us, huh…

…

Finally off the bridge…

After stepping on more than twenty black bricks and walking all the way under the bridge, Leon couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

Even though [Materialism] shielded him from vividly reliving the painful memories again and again, even the “tickling” level of painful memories became unbearable after too many times.

Without missing a step, walking further ahead and completely leaving the range of the Black and White Bridge, seeing that Senior Emma hadn’t said anything, Leon, who had just shown off, felt embarrassed to remind her to get down and looked ahead instead.

What met his eyes was a black cliff so tall that its top couldn’t be seen. This cliff named [Death] became lighter in color the higher it went, and the seemingly non-existent top seemed to blend directly with the gray sky of the Deathscape.

As for the bottom of [Death], it was as black as the dark earth of the Deathscape, extremely pure, barely reflecting any light, as if it didn’t exist at all, giving the impression that stepping on it would lead straight into an abyss-like void.

And countless bright red nests of death-announcing crows dotted the black ground, rising from the surface and reaching high into the sky, like fresh red berries growing on this black land, or like numerous fresh red blood spots oozing out from the pitch-black curtain hanging from the sky, both extraordinarily beautiful and extremely strange.

“Something seems a bit off…”

Squinting and looking at the black wall and the red crow nests, at the end… or beginning of the No Return Road, Leon saw a misty giant door and lightly patted Emma’s thigh, signaling her to look up. He frowned slightly and said:

“The Director mentioned that as long as we keep going along the No Return Road, after passing through the [Black and White Bridge] and the [Death-Announcing Crow Nests], we would see the Hound God guarding the entrance to the Deathscape.

But now we’ve already crossed the bridge, entered the range of the Death-Announcing Crow Nests, and even spotted the entrance. Why haven’t we seen the Hound God yet?”

“It’s fine, just keep going forward.”

Hearing Leon’s question, Emma, who was using the warmth coming from in front to fend off the increasingly frantic insults from behind, replied:

“People from the Deathscape don’t generally like the Director, so she must have intruded forcibly. The Hound God’s duty is to guard the gates of the Deathscape and prevent the living from entering, so it’s likely she beat it up along the way.

So we can walk a bit further. If we see a three-headed puppy knocked unconscious and bound by hair on the side of the road, it’s probably the Hound God responsible for guarding the gate.

If we don’t encounter it along the way, then check the nearby Death-Announcing Crow Nests. After defeating the Hound God, sometimes the Director forgets where she threw it, so when she returns and there’s no one to help open the door, she might have stuffed it into a nearby crow nest.”

“…”

“Oh…”

(End of Chapter)