Bai Youwei was stunned. She hadn’t expected that Fu Miaoxue had also been driven out.

“Chu Huaijin already talked to you?” she blurted. “What conditions did he put forward?”

Du Lai: “Chu Huaijin’s requirement was that after we win the final decisive battle, we must take the committee’s views into consideration when establishing the new world.”

“A committee???” Bai Youwei was dumbfounded. “Where did that even come from?”

She had never heard of any such thing.

Du Lai smiled slightly. “In short, it’s to prevent a King from acting as an absolute autocrat. If you want their support, you’ll have to agree to distribute the benefits and authority to them in the future.”

Bai Youwei stood there quietly, and after a moment’s silence, she slowly said, “That’s… actually reasonable, I suppose…”

It was similar to elections in certain Western countries — presidential candidates would promise voters all manner of benefits during their campaigns, such as tax cuts or environmental protections. After all, if those in power couldn’t offer voters something of value, why would voters support them in the first place?

Bai Youwei asked, “Then why did you two refuse?”

She thought the condition Chu Huaijin had proposed seemed fair enough.

Du Lai glanced at Fu Miaoxue beside him. “Because we have no intention of participating in the final decisive battle.”

Since they weren’t planning to fight, they naturally couldn’t make any such promises.

“I see…” Bai Youwei gave a slow nod.

Winning the battle game was what unlocked the labyrinth. Given Fu Miaoxue’s current condition, she probably needed to enter the labyrinth at least once more before she could fully revert to being human.

As for the final battle — yes, there really was no need for them to participate.

While they were talking, Shen Mo came downstairs and arrived in the lobby, telling Bai Youwei to wait a little longer — Ashalina and Alon were still packing.

Du Lai greeted Shen Mo.

Shen Mo asked, “Have you found a place to stay yet?”

“It just means we lose access to the headquarters’ facilities. We can live anywhere else in the city.” Du Lai said with a wry laugh. “I’m just curious what that old professor plans to do next. Both Kings have left — are they all going to wait here and die in retirement?”

“Who knows…” Bai Youwei sighed softly. She couldn’t make sense of it either.

……

After leaving the headquarters building, Bai Youwei followed Shen Mo and moved into the Shen family home.

Shen Mo’s father expressed an extreme degree of welcome at their arrival, and enthusiastically recommended several unoccupied French-style townhouses nearby that could be made liveable with a bit of tidying up.

The matter of where to stay was resolved. But life there would certainly not be as convenient as it had been at headquarters — no cafeteria for meals, no medical care if someone fell ill or got injured, and no professional training facilities for physical conditioning or mental exercises.

After living there for a few days, word spread that the Kings had departed.

The Kings had been essentially the only source of hope people had for the future. Now that the base was no longer backing either of them, it left everyone baffled.

People began crowding around Chu Huaijin, demanding explanations, and gathering outside Professor Song’s sickroom in protest. Some of the more radical individuals, furious at the base’s actions, were screaming abuse outside the headquarters building. All manner of conspiracy theories began to circulate, causing extremely damaging consequences.

Finally, one day — apparently having had enough — Song Mingchuan released two audio recordings and had them played publicly.

The first was a conversation between Du Lai and Fu Miaoxue:

*”…Why would I bother with some final decisive battle? Tch~! I have zero interest in that. Someone will win in the end regardless, and the world can change into whatever it wants to be. All I need is to enter the labyrinth~ Ugh, when are we ever going to get to go into the labyrinth again?…”*

*”Soon. Win one more time, and the new labyrinth will unlock…”*

The second was a conversation between Bai Youwei and Zhu Shu:

*”If you won all the way to the end and gained the power to change the world, what would you do?”*

*”I hope this turns out to be a dream I’ll never wake up from… If there were no labyrinth, no game, Shen Mo and I would never have gotten together. I would never have met Teacher Cheng, Tan Xiao, Xiaoxin… I would never have met any of you. I’d probably still be sitting alone in my room, counting out pills day by day… When I think about all of that, I genuinely don’t want the game to end, not even a little bit.”*

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