(VOL.1) Exit Permit

The entire city at this moment was like a colossal, blazing furnace, and the houses and residents within were the offerings mercilessly roasted in its flames.

"What… is happening…" The remnants of clothing Lux clutched tightly in her arms had already turned to ash, scattering in the air.

Fortunately, she was wearing the black robe stripped from the Demon Hunter, which prevented her from burning along with everything else around her.

This city, once somewhat grotesque with its unique purple, had now completely transformed into a man-eating beast of destruction, madly devouring those who had once been deceived by its false appearance.

Lux tried to escape this burning street, but from above, a huge flaming wooden beam crashed down with a whistling sound.

She subconsciously activated the shadow cloak to block it.

Just then, several figures, like nearly burnt-out matchstick men, their bodies wreathed in flames, stumbled out from a nearby house.

They stretched out their charred arms towards Lux, clawing and grasping, strange gurgling sounds coming from their throats, as if trying to say something, but their burned-out vocal cords could not produce any effective sound.

After struggling for a few moments, they collapsed powerlessly to the ground and were quickly consumed by the flames.

Lux looked around blankly; flames shot to the sky, thick smoke billowed, and screams of agony were endless.

She began to suspect that everything she had experienced today might just be a nightmarish illusion.

Or perhaps, quite the opposite, the seemingly peaceful life before was the false illusion, and this hellish scene at this moment was the cruel, true face of this world, and she… had finally awakened.

"Help… help me!" A piercing cry for help came from behind her.

Lux turned and saw an extremely obese, stark-naked middle-aged man stumbling towards her.

He was bald, but at this moment, he looked like a half-cooked suckling pig just taken off the spit, large patches of his skin burned yellow and blistered, those once-proud tattoos now burned into a bloody, festering mess.

This person was none other than Boss Pony.

"Hot! So hot! Help…" Pony screamed as he ran, then suddenly saw Lux ahead and, as if grasping a life-saving straw, rushed towards her desperately. "Milord! Sir! Please save me! I have a lot of money! And many treasures! I can give them all to you!"

However, when he ran closer and saw Lux's face clearly, the expression on his face instantly froze, followed by an incredulous shriek: "It's you?! Sam?!" Pony's shock contained too many complex emotions, but he quickly forced himself to calm down, put on a fawning expression, and said to Lux, "As long as… as long as you can get me out of this damn place, out of this hell, I can give you lots and lots of money! Or… or make you my deputy! That would be fine too!"

"Oh…" Lux looked at this wretched, near-death former "boss" before her, her face devoid of any expression, and merely asked slowly, "Do you know… what exactly is happening right now?"

"How the fuck would I know what the hell is going on right now?! Stop wasting time! Get me out of here quickly! Otherwise, both of us will be burned alive here!" Pony was so anxious he was hopping, the ground beneath his feet already scorching hot; he could only stomp his feet back and forth like a comical dancer, trying to alleviate the burning pain.

Lux didn't speak, just watched him quietly, her gaze shifting back and forth between the burning buildings around them and Pony's anxious face, as if pondering some extremely important question.

"Hurry up! Why the fuck aren't you hurrying up! Use your powers to get me out of here! I'm about to die! I'm really about to die!" Pony was almost crying from anxiety, his voice tinged with sobs.

"This… no hurry for this yet." Lux suddenly extended a finger, gently pinching her chin, then looked up, her gaze icy as she looked at Pony, and asked word by word, "Boss Pony, I happen to have a question for you."

"What other fucking thing?! What else is more important than our lives right now?! Can't we talk about it after we escape?!" Pony roared hysterically.

"The question is…" Lux's eyes were like ten-thousand-year-old ice, her voice even colder, without a trace of warmth, "Was it you… who informed the Demon Hunter to come kill me?"

Although the soles of his feet still felt as if he were treading on a red-hot iron plate, causing unbearable pain, this question was like a basin of ice water, instantly extinguishing all of Pony's wishful thinking and chilling him from head to toe. "How… how could it be me?! I… if I hadn't seen you safe and sound now, how could I have known you were that kind of… natural-born magic user?!" Pony extended a finger, trembling violently from fear, pointed at Lux, and argued hoarsely.

"Hmm…" Lux slowly closed her eyes.

With a thought, the shadow cloak on her body quietly dispersed, revealing the red cloth flower Mitty had left on her chest.

She took a deep breath, her nasal cavity instantly filled with the pungent smell of scorching—the smell of burning wood, the smell of roasting flesh, the smell of death… and…

"And the smell of lies." Lux abruptly opened her eyes, her gaze as sharp as a knife. "You lied, Pony."

"I… I didn't…" Pony still wanted to argue, but Lux gave him no more chance.

The [Shadow Cloak] she had just acquired reappeared behind her, and then, several jet-black tentacles, like living venomous snakes, shot out like lightning, accurately coiling around and piercing Pony's obese limbs, pinning him firmly to the scorching ground.

"Ahhhhhhh!" The intense pain of his limbs being pierced, and the burning sensation of his body pressed against the hot ground, made Pony let out a pig-like squeal.

He felt the fat beneath him sizzling; it wouldn't be long before he was thoroughly cooked.

"Let me go! Sam! Please let me go! Whatever you want… I can give it to you! As long as you…" Pony pleaded incoherently, but before he could finish, he felt a foot gently step on his back.

Then, Lux's icy voice sounded in his ear: "Are you ready?"

"Wh-what?" Pony completely failed to understand what Lux was saying.

But in the next second, the black shadows coiling around him suddenly tightened, then, like a released spring, violently flung his obese body upwards.

And Lux, stepped firmly on him.

"Ah—!" Pony slammed heavily back onto the ground, emitting a dull thud.

Immediately after, those black shadows, as if alive, propelled his body to slide, jump, and land at high speed on the scorching street.

Pony, this once arrogant gang boss, had now become a… human skateboard under Lux's feet.

Lux skillfully controlled this "Pony-brand skateboard," deftly weaving and sliding between falling burning planks and collapsing building debris.

It had to be said, the "Pony-brand skateboard," due to its sufficiently "rounded" physique, slid surprisingly smoothly on this fiery street.

After a few sharp turns, Lux had already slid to the foot of the towering city wall.

She activated the shadows, firmly fixing her feet and the "skateboard" beneath them together, then concentrated all remaining shadow power in the palms of her hands.

She pushed off the ground with all her might.

The powerful reactive force instantly propelled her and the "skateboard" beneath her into the air.

The "Pony-brand skateboard," like an arrow loosed from its bow, shot rapidly upwards along the towering city wall.

Upon reaching the highest point, Lux performed a beautiful spinning flip in mid-air, then, steadily riding the "skateboard," like a legendary surfer, successfully flew over that once insurmountable city wall.

"Thump!" With a dull thud, Lux landed heavily on a patch of soft grass outside the city.

And the "skateboard" beneath her feet… was now just a charred, curled-up, stinking human skin.

"One exit permit… you still owe me another one." Lux stared at the charred human skin on the ground, murmuring expressionlessly, then looked up and scanned her surroundings.

This was a vast and verdant grassland.

In the distance, a long, wide dirt road snaked its way into the distance, eventually disappearing at the horizon.

Further beyond were rolling, lush, dense forests and majestic mountain ranges.

Lux turned her head and looked back at the city once called "Purple City."

At this moment, the billowing smoke from the towering flames had converged above the city into a suffocating black pillar of smoke, like a giant tower reaching to the heavens.

Raging firelight completely engulfed the entire city; everything was tightly entwined and madly torn by the merciless flames, eventually turning to ash, heading towards complete destruction.

This city… was already dead.

"Truly… absurd," Lux muttered to herself.

Even now, she still felt as if she were living in a nightmare from which she couldn't awaken.

She stood there for another moment, letting the evening breeze blow through her loose black robe and her newly lengthened black hair, then, with an indescribably complex emotion, turned and stepped onto that dirt road leading to the unknown.

She walked aimlessly, on and on.

She didn't know where she should go, nor why she had chosen this road.

Perhaps… it was simply because there happened to be a road here.

Lux felt like she had been walking along the dirt road for a long time, so long that the burning Purple City behind her seemed almost to have burned out.

The sky also seemed to finally feel tired, beginning to dim bit by bit; night was about to fall.

"Cough cough…" Just then, a faint cough suddenly came from the woods beside the road in the distance.

Lux stopped in her tracks, instantly becoming alert.

She listened intently for a moment, and after confirming that the sound was not an illusion, she turned and cautiously approached the direction from which the sound came.

Passing through some waist-high grass and low shrubs, Lux arrived at a small clearing surrounded by dense thickets.

By the faint twilight, she saw a man with only the upper half of his body remaining, leaning weakly against the trunk of a large tree, on the verge of death.

This man… had a strange pale blue skin, which also shimmered faintly with a watery blue light.

He had neat white short hair.

Lux recognized him—it was one of the "merchants" she had encountered this morning, that burly blue-skinned man as hard as a stone pillar.

Of course, Lux knew in her heart that "merchant" was just a disguise they used to deceive others.

And now, this once incredibly powerful man had lost his left leg and left hand, and there was a terrifying large hole in his abdomen, through which his blurred internal organs could be seen.

Most of his unique blue skin had been severely burned, presenting a color of charred black tinged with an eerie ink blue.

However, incredibly, he was still alive.

Upon seeing Lux approach, he struggled to turn his head, coughed violently twice, spitting out a mouthful of fishy-smelling blue blood, then, in an extremely weak yet somehow undeniably powerful voice, said to Lux, "Hey… girl… I need… you to do me a favor…"

Lux quietly looked at this dying man, not speaking, just waiting for him to continue.

"Cough cough…" The man coughed up another mouthful of blood, seeming to use all his strength to take out something tightly wrapped in cloth from his bosom; it looked like a small package. "I have… something here… I need you… to help me take it to… the City of Theater… in the north…"

"The contents… are very important… cough cough… But… you absolutely must not sell it for money, because selling it… will only bring you… fatal disaster…" The man emphasized with his last bit of strength, "Believe… me…"

"I remember… this morning… you also stole… quite a bit of my money… It's okay… cough… When you get there… someone… will give you more money… Then… whether it's lodging… or… learning magic… it'll all be possible…" This man spoke intermittently, his vitality so tenacious it shocked even Lux.

"Anyway… now… hurry and run… Those guys… should… be catching up soon…" The blue-skinned man forcefully threw the package in his hand to Lux.

After saying this, he seemed to have exhausted his last ounce of strength and began to pant heavily, his eyes rapidly dimming.

"What a pity… in the end… Nalala, that woman… still got the better of me…" This was his last sentence left in this world.

Then, he closed his eyes and completely ceased to breathe.

"Wait." Lux, who had patiently listened to him finish without interrupting, finally spoke up, "The north… where is that?"

Unfortunately, this man was already dead and could no longer answer her question.

"The north, huh…" Lux frowned.

Living in Purple City, she only knew the four rough directions of up, down, left, and right, based on the city gate and the inner city.

As for the so-called "east, west, south, north," she had never encountered them, nor could she distinguish them.

And now, in this wilderness, there wasn't even a single person she could ask for directions.

"Forget it… Seeing as you died so miserably, I'll just… do you this favor." Lux found an excuse for herself, picked up the package from the ground, and turned to walk into the increasingly deep and dark forest behind her.