"Unity... unity is the only chance..."

Hearing that word, Yun You couldn't help feeling something was off.

If you really wanted to talk about unity, then right now was already when they were the most united: everyone had set aside past grudges and taken posts in the Equality Association together; even the once wildly ambitious Vitinya, after the Supreme Heaven arena incident, was no longer confused and had once again chosen to stand on Jin's side.

Could it be they still weren't united enough?

But after thinking it through, Yun You felt that maybe Deng hadn't said anything wrong.

Although on the surface everyone was standing together, fighting for a common grand goal, in reality each harbored his own agenda, probably with his own little schemes; the only reason they weren't exposed yet was because they feared Jin, this True God.

And Jin's time, just as Deng had said, probably wasn't going to be very long.

Once Jin passed away, or was forced to leave the real world and head to Supreme Heaven, then what would become of the headless Equality Association—Yun You could almost already foresee it.

"Your teacher's process of 'unifying' Nest City No. 3 was far too simple. He lacked a bloody war to clear out all the people who should've died."

"Since these people didn't die back then, then one day, they'll become a huge headache for you and your senior brothers."

The Penguin Lamp shrugged, wearing a somewhat helpless expression.

"But, well, I can understand his thinking—after going through so many corporate wars, your teacher knows the cruelty of war better than anyone. A war on the Nest City level doesn't just cost the lives of over a million soldiers; the damage it inflicts on civilians is so enormous it's almost impossible to estimate."

"Your teacher is the kind of man who, in his whole life, can't bear the sight of masses of civilians left homeless, ravaged and tormented by war. So of course he wants to avoid war as much as possible, to reduce the chances of war breaking out."

"But sometimes, war just can't be avoided. As long as a few stubborn bastards remain alive, the shadow of war can never truly disappear. It only goes underground and then waits for a chance to erupt."

"Of course, that's something for later."

Yun You nodded, thoughtful.

She actually felt that there was no way Jin hadn't foreseen something like this.

But just as Deng had said, the old man always maintained respect for life, so it was hard for him to initiate war. He could only bury his head and develop, hoping that through better development, contradictions could be eased. That was the ideal outcome: benefiting civilians while reducing the amount of bloodshed.

Only, ideals are ultimately just ideals.

"Then..."

Yun You fell silent for a moment, then lowered her voice and asked, "What about the last thing?"

"The last thing is simple."

The Penguin Lamp grinned and explained, "Once you've reached Tier Seven True God, come find me."

"By then, I'll explain everything to you..."

With that, he turned around, intending to leave.

Seeing this... Yun You was stunned at first, then hurriedly grabbed the penguin's slick wing.

"T-Tier Seven? That's hardly simple, okay. Why does your tone make it sound like that's just something that'll naturally happen to me?"

"Besides, the only way to break through from Tier Six to Tier Seven is by absorbing an Initial Sequence, but didn't you just say it yourself, the Initial Sequence is problematic, and absorbing it will only cause a Death God to lose their life."

"In that case, am I still supposed to keep searching for an Initial Sequence?"

A string of questions spilled out of the little girl's mouth.

But the Penguin Lamp only smiled and shook his head.

"You're different, kid. Other Apprentice Death Gods need an Initial Sequence to advance to Tier Seven because their genes are missing the segment related to the Initial Sequence."

"But you're different. You're special. You don't lack the Initial Sequence, so as long as the time is right, your breakthrough will come naturally. You don't need to go looking for some polluted and poisoned Initial Sequence."

"Alright, time's almost up." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

As he spoke, the Penguin Lamp lowered his head and glanced at his round body.

Only then did Yun You realize that in just the few minutes they'd been talking, dozens of visible cracks had appeared on the Penguin Lamp's body, continuously spreading, with a dark crimson glow seeping out from within.

"This is..."

Yun You was slightly taken aback.

"Ah, it's normal."

The Penguin Lamp waved his flipper dismissively, utterly unconcerned.

"I already told you before, the real world rejects me. Even using this avatar, it'll still do everything it can to stop me."

"On planes you can't see, the whole world is attacking me. The fact that this body has held out until now is already quite something."

"Alright, no more extra talk, or 'a certain fellow hiding in the dark' will get mad. I'm off!"

As his words fell, those cracks all widened at once—

"Boom~!"

With a soft pop that only Yun You could hear, the Penguin Lamp exploded on the spot! But there was no gory spectacle; instead, the blast scattered chocolate coins and candies all over the floor.

Staring at the candies and coins in front of her, Yun You stayed silent for a long time. In the end, she could only sigh helplessly and put away all the candy and coins.

She kept feeling like this world was getting more and more deranged, and she didn't know whether it was real or just her imagination.

...

After Deng left, the world returned to normal.

People went on clinking glasses and trading toasts, and some even came over again to try and curry favor with Yun You, hoping the little girl would stand on their side.