Cheerful Netizen

[Hahahahaha five thousand words! That's adding insult to injury, Instructor Jing!]

[Instructor Jing: You're a badass at fighting, let's see how badass you are at writing.]

[Chen Guan: I just saved the world, and now you're punishing me by making me write an introspection letter? Where is the justice in that?]

"And you."

Instructor Jing seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He turned around and glared at Liu Feiyu, who was currently tiptoeing backward step by step, attempting to sneak away.

"Kid from the Liu family, don't think I can't see you just because you aren't making a sound. Trying to pocket a Tier-10 demon core? Hand it over."

Liu Feiyu's footsteps abruptly stopped. The demon core flew out of his pocket and landed right in Instructor Jing's hand.

He could only watch helplessly, like an impotent husband.

Instructor Jing weighed it in his hand with satisfaction. It was genuine, which meant it was his to confiscate.

By this time, the site cleanup was mostly complete.

Several large medical transport aircraft hovered above the top of the tower, their propellers whipping up fierce winds that made it almost impossible to stand steady.

"Attention, everyone!"

Instructor Jing clapped his hands, his voice piercing through the deafening noise.

"Those who aren't missing arms or legs, get on the plane yourselves. Listen up, remember to keep your mouths tightly shut about what happened tonight..."

He didn't state the consequences, merely grinning to reveal a mouthful of gleaming white teeth.

Su Yuehe walked up to Chen Guan, lowering her voice, her tone hiding her concern: "Are you... badly hurt?"

Although she was confident in her own superpower, the pain would still be there.

Chen Guan shook his head and reached out to adjust the straps of the black coffin on his back.

The familiar, heavy weight pressing down on his scar-riddled shoulders actually brought him an indescribable sense of security.

His true body was still slumbering inside. As long as Old Me was fine, these superficial wounds were nothing.

He took a step forward, heading toward the plane.

But just at the moment his foot was about to step onto the cabin deck, a faint cracking sound from deep within the ruins drilled into his ears.

The sound was like shattering glass.

Chen Guan's foot, which he was just about to lift, froze mid-air, and his body stiffened along with it.

He whipped around, his gaze locking onto the empty space where the Thousand-Faced Moth had turned to ash.

There was nothing there; even the ashes had been blown clean away by the night wind.

But in his field of vision just a moment ago, right in that very spot, a slender black line had appeared out of thin air and vanished instantly.

It felt like the blink of an eye.

"What's wrong?"

An Changqing, walking ahead, noticed something was off with him. He stopped and looked back to ask.

Chen Guan stared at that patch of space.

The crack was gone.

Everything felt like his own illusion.

"...Nothing."

He withdrew his gaze, turned around, and boarded the plane, taking a seat in the farthest corner to conceal the turbulent thoughts in his eyes.

An illusion?

No.

Chen Guan's eyebrows were furrowed so tightly they almost formed a knot.

The aircraft ascended, leaving the ruined Myriad Demon Tower far behind.

Instructor Jing stood by the open cabin door, watching the shrinking ruins below, the casual smile on his face slowly fading away.

He pressed his earpiece: "Southern Dipper."

A flurry of rapid keyboard typing echoed through the earpiece, followed by the Southern Dipper's standard, lifeless tone: "I am here."

Instructor Jing stared at the increasingly distant black dots below and asked.

"Around the area where the Thousand-Faced Moth died, just now, did something open a door?"

"Data backtracking indicates."

The Southern Dipper's voice was objective and entirely devoid of emotion.

"The spatial fluctuation peak experienced an abnormal jump after the target's death, lasting 0.03 seconds. Unable to locate the beacon source."

Instructor Jing snorted; it was hard to tell who he was mocking.

"It seems the problems in the Northern Territory are far greater than I thought. The boss never mentioned this part."

He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the teenagers inside the cabin.

They were either resting with their eyes closed or looking down to tend to their wounds.

Finally, his eyes landed on Chen Guan, who had his arms crossed and looked as if he had already fallen asleep.

"Kid."

He muttered in a voice only he could hear.

"I'm afraid your troubles have only just begun. Before Long Ao fully matures, we can only rely on you."

Chen Guan was huddled in the deepest corner of the cabin, his head leaning against the cold wall, not even lifting an eyelid.

To outsiders, this great hero who had just slain the demon king by his own hand was steeped in post-battle exhaustion, exuding a cold and lonely aura that warned strangers to keep their distance.

He was completely oblivious to Instructor Jing's thoughts, currently immersed in the forum.

He was thinking that since he could communicate with the audience on the other side of the bullet screen through the forum, could he perhaps create an account of his own?

He would be the insider leaker.

While at it, he could also snap a couple of photos to upload and see if he could gain popularity points this way.

Since Old Me's points could be credited to him, there was no reason this method wouldn't work.

Create new account.

A light screen unfolded across his retinas.

[Please enter ID: _______]

His fingers paused as he pondered for a moment.

"I'll call it..."

[ID Confirmed: CheerfulNetizen9527]

Next, he pulled up a few screenshots he had asked Sys to automatically capture during the battle, browsing through them rapidly.

"This one, no, it's too upright."

"This one... the lighting is too dark, no good either."

"Got it."

In the image, Long Ao was blasted away, half his face covered in blood, yet he was still struggling and roaring angrily at the sky.

The youth's hot-blooded vigor was practically spilling out of the screen. Keep it.

Next picture.

Liu Feiyu was sitting on a snapped steel beam, a coin just about to fall from his fingertips. His back looked aloof and proud, and the composition was perfect.

Keep!

Chen Guan's finger swiped across the light screen, continuing to scroll down.

In the picture, An Changqing used his sword to prop himself up, half-kneeling among the rubble. A trail of blood hung from the corner of his mouth, yet his eyes remained bright as he gazed into the distant night sky.

A sense of glorious defeat and brokenness hit right in the face.

"Keep this one too," he said to Sys.

He completely deleted all the images of himself reaping enemies with a single swing of his scythe.

This wasn't some cheap one-hit-kill game, and the audience wasn't here to watch a ruthless, blade-swinging machine. He would ruin the vibe.

Finally, he selected nine pictures.

There was Long Ao's blood-soaked side profile as he still threw punches and roared; there was Su Yuehe and the others standing back-to-back in a solemn defensive posture; there was Liu Feiyu's aloof silhouette standing atop the dome; and another was a group shot of everyone looking exhausted and silent under the lights after the battle ended.

Sys's photography skills were actually quite impressive.

He arranged the nine pictures in order and uploaded them to the forum.

[Poster: CheerfulNetizen9527]

[Title: None]

[Body: None]

He was stingy enough not to include even a single punctuation mark, and his profile picture was just a minimalist black-and-white default avatar.

He hit the send button and then waited for a reaction.

The forum's tranquility lasted for exactly three seconds.

Three seconds later, this thread with no title and bizarre contents exploded like a depth charge in the late-night forum.