Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

The next day, Victor was a salted fish once again.

He vowed that he would never like hot springs again. Even if he liked hot springs, he would never do it in the water next time…

Last night, the hot water had just gone in when he collapsed, shivering and pleading for mercy as he said: It's too hot inside! Let's go ashore!

The War God said: It's indeed very hot inside.

His gaze was one of approval.

Victor: &#k2026;&#k2026;

Victor had wanted to cry at the time, feeling like a helpless lamb who had been dragged into the water by a crocodile, his helpless bleating sounds also quivering.

The crocodile brought him into the hot water, stretched out his barbed tongue and licked him all over. After tasting every inch of his flesh, he took him ashore and cleaned him up again, pretending that he hadn't done anything wrong. He even looked at him with eyes that seemed to say 'how could you be so weak?'.

.

Victor was a very good child and was always very well behaved when he slept, but he was so tired this time that he actually snored in his sleep.

Tyron was very alert when he slept. After being woken up by his occasional snoring twice, he had no choice but to get up. In the middle of the night, he squatted down beside the bed and stared at Victor with a gaze that was full of academic inquiry.

Victor unconsciously smacked his lips together and snored for a full second before going quiet again.

His voice wasn't loud, and the sounds were weak and intermittent, ringing out only once or twice every half an hour. However, when compared with a continuous and stable series of sounds, the sudden stimulation was more effective in waking up the master assassin who was beside his pillow.

Tyron carefully reached out to pinch his nose.

The snoring stopped. Victor snorted twice, but didn't wake up because he was too tired.

Tyron: "……"

Alas, he hadn't slept calmly with anyone in thousands of years. It was also the first time the master assassin had encountered this kind of problem. At this moment, he thought to himself: Alright, then. I heard that one should tolerate the many small bad habits of human children when dating them.

It didn't matter. Forcing himself to instantly fall asleep in order to replenish his strength was also one of an assassin's many abilities.

Tyron lay back down and entered a state of self-hypnosis, falling asleep in seconds.

Victor: "Ang…"

Tyron instantly woke up.

And instantly went back to sleep.

A few minutes later, Victor: “&#k2026;Hic!”

Tyron instantly woke up.

And instantly went back to sleep.

……

The night passed just like that. The next day, Tyron woke up according to his own biological clock that was accurate to the millisecond and discovered that his quality of sleep had been surprisingly good.

He covered Victor in the quilt and was in a good mood as he went out to exercise.

He also made sure to take a large pile of information that Victor had prepared for him when he went out.

To be honest, he'd already discovered after two days of comparison that: Rather than memorizing thousands of chants, gestures, and materials, the formula that Victor had created was indeed quite unique in some areas.

During the previous fight with the top mage-type contestant Geng Chen, Tyron became acutely aware of the fact that Geng Chen's ability to reconstruct spells so quickly must be supported by a formula that she was extremely familiar with using.

Compared to a genuine magic world, the magic here was much less profound; however, the magic here also benefited from one of the most powerful advantages: math and electronic support.

Now that he had already come to this place, of course he should learn the best knowledge that was available.

Tyron took the materials that Victor had prepared and looked over them closely as he ran. He also thought to himself: I hate math ˊ_>ˋ

……

On the other side, Victor woke up and wandered to the bathroom in his pajamas.

When he came out, he saw two heart-shaped fried eggs in the heat preservation dish on the table--every time he was left tired from the previous night, Tyron would give him a little symbolic compensation.

Tyron couldn't cook complicated modern food, but he was good at frying up two delicious tasting eggs.

Victor was incomparably happy as he finished up breakfast and suddenly felt that the bad things that had taken place in the hot springs could be forgiven.

He'd just changed his clothes and was preparing to go out for a run when he received an e-mail informing him that someone was visiting him in the virtual world and had already been waiting for a long time.

.

The communication came from the Earth District. Victor had originally thought that it was one of his partners from Vicker Company who wanted to report something.

But he soon realized that the person who'd come to find him wasn't anything good.

It was White Thousand Degrees.

After losing the case and losing his reputation, White Thousand Degrees had declared bankruptcy and disappeared for a while. Unexpectedly, he started looking desperately for Victor and Tyron a few months ago, but Tyron had still been undergoing surgery in the Third Star Province at the time and he naturally hadn't been able to find them. This time, the Second Star Province's provincial competition had begun, and White Thousand Degrees was finally able to locate Victor.

White Thousand Degrees gave Victor a shock when they finally met up in the virtual world.

He came up and knelt down immediately, saying, "I was confused when it came to the things that happened before. I'll accept any retaliation you take against me!"

Victor was very surprised, but he didn't act rashly. He thought that there must be a reason for White Thousand Degrees' sudden appearance and said, "It's already been half a year since the incident, but you're suddenly coming to apologize now. Who caused this?"

Of course White Thousand Degrees said that it was because he wanted to repent.

However, Victor already knew what was going on and asked, "It was Ms. June, wasn't it?"

.

Victor's mommy, Ms. June, had heard that his son was bullied. How could she let it go?!

She might openly sneer at her son at home, but she would still secretly take pains to investigate what had happened to him behind his back.

Mother Vic: You bullied my son, lost a lawsuit, and then wanted to run? What do you need your legs for if you aren't going to kneel on the ground? What do you need your mouth for if you aren't going to beg for forgiveness?

White Thousand Degrees had originally hidden himself well, but he was suddenly caught by a group of people and was given treatment with instruments used for mentally ill patients in order to undergo ideological correction. Only after a month of this was anyone willing to enlighten him: Son, you're too daring. Not only did you go and offend the deputy governor's son, but you went and did it so thoroughly!

White Thousand Degrees cried to no avail, but was suddenly released one month later. The entire group of people disappeared and couldn't be found anymore. All the people he knew all told the civilian police that came by to investigate that he was suffering from a mental disorder and had voluntarily gone off to recuperate for a month.

His group of toadies had been sent to jail a long time ago along with that little follower of his who still believed he was a dog.

White Thousand Degrees was self-aware enough to know that he had offended someone he should never have provoked. He regretted so much his intestines were green and lost thirty pounds in a month. All of his thoughts were focused on hurrying to find Victor and apologize.

When Victor didn't show up for a month, he had already been worried. When he didn't show up for two months, he was already about to cry. By the time three months came around, White Thousand Degrees was about to kneel down and beg for him to hurry up and come out.

.

So then, as soon as Victor appeared, he really knelt down and prostrated himself on the ground.

Victor didn't rush to have him get up. He sat there and pondered for a moment before saying, "I went through your information back then. You came from a mining planet at the edge of the Second Star Province. In order to reduce the cost of labor, the local boss there didn't lay out the virtual network there and deliberately did not allow you to come into contact with all kinds of human rights laws, so that area has always been legally chaotic. You started off with smuggling, and your identity as a resident of the Earth District is false. I've already investigated all this."

When White Thousand Degrees heard about his investigation, he suddenly realized that although Victor hadn't used his family relationships at the time, his behavior was still very striking. Regardless of whether it was litigation, his company, or other major events, Victor's approach obviously started from the angle of someone from the upper echelons of society. When it came to thinking about rights and interests, however, it was clear that he considered it from the general populace--how could this kind of style and temperament be cultivated in a small family?

Cold sweat seeped out of White Thousand Degrees' forehead as he slowly hunched in from his kneeling posture.

Victor didn't care about what he was thinking and continued, "I wrote a letter to you at the time, and while I wrote, I was thinking: If you feel bad after being scolded and your conscience pricks at you every day, it would be the best kind of revenge. If you didn't even feel bad, then you would be just like a beast. What's the use in scolding a beast?"

White Thousand Degrees didn't dare to speak and listened quietly.

Victor went on, "Later on, I thought that this wasn't acceptable. Even animals should be punished if they do something wrong."

Victor called out to the system, released a document, and placed it on the table, motioning for him to open it.

White Thousand Degrees' cold sweat began to flow again.

.

White Thousand Degrees' breathing was unstable as he slowly opened up the document. It was like he was opening up his own death sentence.

The words on the judgement document were blurry for a while, and it seemed that there were the words 'banish… labor reform for 30 years…', but at the end, the name on the verdict wasn't him.

White Thousand Degrees' breathing stopped for a while.

"I reported this a very long time ago, but it was only dealt with last month--your boss on the mining planet is really abominable." Victor spoke calmly, "If he's dealt with, then the treatment and welfare of the citizens on the mining planet can be brought up to par, including virtual network facilities and basic civic education. From next month onwards, everyone on your planet will know what copyright protection law is! I don't do things like punishing people for things they weren't taught. From now on, everyone will be educated and warned first so that they will feel a basic sense of shame when they do things like theft. And the story of your deeds will circulate in the teaching materials as a classic bad case!"

White Thousand Degrees clutched at the paper in his hand, and his arms suddenly began to tremble.

Victor said, "This is all of what I've arranged for you. First of all, I will give you a sense of human shame, and then let you regret it for the rest of your life. No matter how rich you become in the future, you will never be able to return to your hometown, and your hometown will be ashamed of you for your entire life."

.

White Thousand Degrees didn't speak. His eyes suddenly blurred, and he burst out into tears.

He thought about how he'd had the honor to meet a group of students who had come to survey while they were mining when he was young--those students had been dressed in the same clean clothing and did the same kind of clean things as Victor. The miners had laughed and derided them for not knowing how to hurl abuse, fight, and snatch what they needed to survive, and they'd bullied these students by taking advantage of the fact that they wouldn't know how to use the same dirty means to fight back.

At the time, White Thousand Degrees had hated those students who were as clean as white clouds. Later, when he saw Victor for the first time, he'd hated him just as much.

It wasn't until now that he suddenly understood that all that jealousy was due to his feeling of inferiority, and all of his pride had been built on nothing. All of the malice and slander was also because he knew in his heart that he would never be able to stand on the same height as Victor.

What did that kind of height look like?

It was like light breaking through the clouds and eliminating all the haze. It wasn't that Victor couldn't perform all the cold means of wicked men, but rather that he disdained to do it. However, those who swarm around him like moths drawn to the light will all be helpless against the brightness of his world.

White Thousand Degrees looked up at the light and trembled. It was like this when he'd been young, and it was now like this once again. Ever since then, it had already become something that was impossible to change.

However, this time, he was kneeling willingly.

.

As an afterword, Vicker would receive a repayment from White Thousand Degrees every year from then on. When it was a small amount, it would be in the thousands, and when it was more, it would be in the hundreds of thousands. It continued on like this for over sixty years, until all the losses suffered by Vicker that year were finally paid off.