Chapter 1115: Chapter 868: The First Sense of Shame
Boom!
A magic spell cannon fired a spell, and Long Yi immediately activated magic shield, taking the hit head-on. Little Zi took to the skies, casting retaliatory spells and shouting loudly, "Have you gone mad, Bone King? Brother Long isn’t responsible for this!"
But the Bone King roared loudly, "You Giants are no different from gods! You force us into creation, yet you leave us here to die! This is not what we wanted."
Standing behind his shield, feeling its thunderous vibrations and the shocks around him, Long Yi scratched his head hard, unsure of what to do. Whenever Long Yi did anything, he needed to have the moral high ground; even if it was killing someone, he had to feel justified. But facing the Bone King, he felt an unwillingness to strike.
"Bone King! Stop! You can’t possibly match us! Whatever your demands, you can tell Brother Long! We will help you!" Little Zi continued to plead urgently.
"No! I don’t need your help! Selfish Giants!" The Bone King’s attacks grew fiercer; he flipped over, and the four magic spell cannons bombarded in turns, their power increasing with each volley.
Little Zi continued to bombard him from the air with spells, even summoning avatars to coordinate the attack. However, the Bone King’s bone armor turned into rune armor, rendering Little Zi’s spells completely useless!
"Brother Long! Don’t just stand there taking hits!" Little Zi shouted urgently.
"Little Zi, there’s no need to attack anymore," Long Yi suddenly said within the contract.
"What?" Little Zi thought he had misheard.
"Stop," Long Yi said.
Little Zi, still stunned, stopped her attack and withdrew her avatars. And the Bone King’s bombardment also weakened, its body even returning to normal.
"Why, why won’t you counterattack?" the Bone King, standing there, in front of Long Yi, then grabbed Long Yi, frightening Little Zi into thinking about intervening. But the Bone King made no further move.
"You aren’t actually trying to kill me, are you?" Long Yi suddenly asked.
The Bone King didn’t speak, just slowly let go of Long Yi’s hand.
"From the moment I realized you knew I was a Giant, I sensed you were planning something, and it had nothing to do with Landers. The words you said while attacking me also made it clear—you didn’t really want to kill me; you wanted me to kill you, didn’t you?"
Long Yi spoke slowly.
The Bone King fell heavily to the ground, "The directive written into my very life forbids me from ending my own life, but at least, lets me die at the hands of my creator."
Long Yi looked at the Bone King for a long time before suddenly asking, "You are called the Bone King, why is that?"
It took a while for the Bone King to answer, "Because, I am the strongest among my kin."
Long Yi continued, "Then, where have your people gone?"
The voice of the Bone King began to tremble, "I destroyed them, all of them."
A muscle in the corner of Long Yi’s eye twitched, "Why?"
The Bone King paused for a while before slowly saying, "Lifespans elongated enough to ponder the meaning of our existence, we have completely detached from the food chain of this planet. We also lack the ability to alter this planet, so our existence lost its meaning. My kin and I lived aimlessly day by day. We didn’t need food, only energy to maintain life. And our prolonged lives only served to erode our will over time. Eventually, all of my people decided—to self-destruct."
"I was the strongest, so I destroyed them one by one. At first, I dared not to act, but that only brought my kin more suffering. Later, I knew that if I wasn’t decisive, their suffering would double. So I became numb, as my kin eagerly awaited their fated destruction. But when it came to my turn, I couldn’t end my own life. My directive wouldn’t allow me, and I’ve survived until now—none in the Arena of the Stellar Realm have been able to kill me."
"But you’re different, you’re the great creator. It would only take a bit of the Giant’s power to annihilate me; you could even command me to disintegrate!"
At this point, the Bone King grew agitated again, got in front of Long Yi, and roared, "Come on, give me an order! Great creator! Just one small command, and the insignificant life that offended you will die before you, never to arise again!"
"And then, a species vanishes," said Long Yi.
"We were originally a species created out of thin air by Giants, I will self-destruct gratefully! So please, give me that command, let this loneliness and suffering not drag on any longer!"
Long Yi fell silent.
Little Zi also fell silent.
The Bone King fell silent as well.
Long Yi never knew what burden a creator must carry. It wasn’t a world where one could be proud after creating life on a whim; you create life, you are responsible for it. Perhaps the Giants never abandoned the Bone King and his kin, but in the end, the Bone Clan, believing their lives were without purpose, chose to end their existence.
"If I wasn’t a Giant, what had you planned to do?" Long Yi asked suddenly.
"Landers wanted me to kill you here, but I planned to tell you the truth and let you leave since we had a rather good relationship within the Arena of the Stellar Realm..." the Bone King seemed to have calmed down a bit.
"And Brick?" Long Yi asked.
"I will continue to sustain his life until mine runs out," said the Bone King.
"Alas!"
Long Yi sighed heavily and took out the Giant tablet from his personal space. Then, he looked up some information and handed the tablet to the Bone King, "Take a look."
The Bone King took it, inside was an introduction to the characteristics of the Bone King’s race, and the original purpose of creating this race. It also reflected on the failure of defining the race’s role, and, in the end, proposed detailed suggestions for improvement. Afterwards, in the related content, the Bone King saw that, in another closed ecosystem, other life forms similar to the Bone King’s race had been created. Unlike the Bone King’s race, these new creatures quickly adapted to the environment and integrated into the ecosystem, reproducing and thriving.
"At least, our existence has some use, right?" the Bone King said with a bitter smile.
"I don’t know what to say to express my apologies. At this moment, as a Giant, I feel deeply ashamed for the first time. I know any compensation is meaningless; this is undoubtedly a colossal mistake. If there’s any way, any way at all that I can help you, you must tell me—anything but your destruction is fair game."
Right then, Long Yi truly didn’t know what to say. He had never encountered anything like this before. His mood was incredibly heavy, even more so than when he had been betrayed by a friend on Earth. Because, after all, that was his own affair, and it wasn’t a big deal as long as it concerned only himself. But this time, his most prided identity as a Giant had become the antagonist. For the first time, someone was not grateful to their creator, and the somewhat smug Long Yi seemed to understand something.
"Before I met you, I was always seeking eternal destruction to end my tragically long life. But now, I don’t know what to do anymore," the Bone King said.
"Actually, do you know? Giants actually created you as the highest form of life on this planet," Long Yi said.
"Really?" the Bone King was skeptical.
"If you ask any life form in this multiverse, just like your race, not having to worry about food; never falling ill; not needing to breathe; and possessing such high intelligence. Isn’t such a species a higher life form? It’s just unfortunate that your intelligence made you think too much," Long Yi said.
"..." the Bone King was speechless.
Long Yi didn’t know what his race had gone through to develop such an indescribable sense of alienation, even to the extent of wanting to destroy the entire race. But what he knew for sure was that it was the Giants’ fault.
"If possible, could you restore Brick?" the Bone King asked.
"If his soul is intact, I should be able to create a new body for him," Long Yi replied.
The Bone King immediately opened his own body, taking out Brick’s head and skin sack.
"Hey! My old buddy, I heard everything you said! Don’t you dare do anything foolish! The Plane is so vast, don’t you want to see it? Even if there’s no suitable environment for you here, are there none on other planets? If you’re planning on doing something foolish, I’d rather stay unrevived!" Brick said urgently.
The Bone King shook his head from a distance, "You’re not being revived; you never died. Didn’t you once say that if a Giant was here, you could be immediately restored? Now, a real Giant is here, this is your chance."
Brick became even more anxious, "What will you do after I’m restored?"
The Bone King sat on the ground, and a sorrowful moan emanated from inside his white bone armor.
"Bone King, how did you feel in the Arena?" Long Yi suddenly asked.
"I..." The Bone King pondered for a while, then slowly said, "I can’t say I was very happy, but during the fight, I could cast aside all other thoughts; at that time, I felt relaxed."
"That’s it!" Long Yi became excited, "Fight! Maybe that’s the very purpose of your existence, your race was born for battle!"
"Fight?!" The Bone King stood up abruptly, his tone rising a notch.
"Yes, maybe fighting is your life. In this closed ecosystem, there are no real fights, only the law of the jungle, where life exists only to snatch food and reproduce. But you exist for battle, maybe Giants created you to maintain the ecosystem or order, but ultimately, they messed up. But you might still give it a try, to immerse yourself in battle and make fighting the entirety of your life."
Long Yi said all this in one go.
"But... my appearance is too strange..." the Bone King murmured. In most of the Planes, the majority of intelligent life forms were humanoid. Someone like the Bone King was too unique.
"That’s not a problem! Leave it to me! Just nod, and I can solve this problem right away!" Long Yi said nervously.
"No, there’s still a big problem," the Bone King said.
"What?" Long Yi’s heartbeat quickened.
"I have no head; I can’t nod," the Bone King laughed.
Little Zi covered her mouth and giggled on the side, Long Yi was stunned at first, but then realized it was the Bone King’s humor. He took a deep breath, and his mood finally began to settle.
Then, Long Yi took out the Great Explorer from his personal space. Landers thought that Long Yi had simply left the Great Explorer there, but in fact, Long Yi had sneakily slipped it into his personal space.
"Hahaha! I knew you weren’t the type to give up so easily!" Brick laughed heartily.
"Actually, if Long Yi had decided to completely destroy me then, I would have peacefully welcomed that everlasting peace," the Bone King said.
"What about now?" Brick asked anxiously.
"Now, I want to try a life of fighting," the Bone King said. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to qidian.com to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com.)
