Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

"But I know, my Charlie, deep down you're still the good-hearted Charlie."

"Because when everyone else found me, an old woman, to be a nuisance, you—the quiet one...were willing to take care of me."

"But I feel that my time is coming, I might be going to see your grandfather soon..."

"Poor little Charlie, the world will surely become clean and beautiful, your resilience and silence will surely have their moment of being understood."

"Love, your grandmother."

Reading what was very likely the last testament written by his grandmother before her death, Charlie wept uncontrollably.

After he became a Purifier, he learned more and more about things and knew what the world might become in the future...

He also became more introverted.

Many pioneers were like that, Zhou Baiyu herself was no exception.

Knowing the other side of the world, it seemed that gradually, they were separated by a barrier from ordinary people.

It was as if they didn't belong to the same world.

Sometimes he wondered, was it really worth it to strive to protect these strangers?

But Charlie knew he had no choice.

He was always entering the summoning, always disappearing suddenly, and he had fewer and fewer friends in reality.

Sometimes, people complained that he lacked responsibility...

He wanted to say something, but the rules forbade mentioning the Advanced World to ordinary people.

He could only become more and more silent.

Yet even so, in his grandmother's eyes, Charlie was still that "hero who wanted to save the world like Superman."

Perhaps the old lady's last bit of romance was her hope for her grandson.

Charlie was in unbearable pain, in a sense, she was the last person in the world he cared about.

He survived through deadly situations time and time again just so his grandmother wouldn't have to face that world full of monsters.

But his grandmother...had passed away first after all.

Maybe this wasn't a bad thing, but for Charlie, partings were always very painful.

Charlie's suffering cycled over and over.

His life was stuck at its most painful moment.

Around him, apart from Charlie's mournful weeping, there were the laughter of countless Polluted ones.

"Hahaha...hahahaha...hahahahaha..."

"Hahahaha..."

The laughter echoed in Zhou Baiyu's ears, and the anger within her...ignited like a prairie fire bursting forth rapidly.

There was no future for this Purifier who saved the world; maybe he was ordinary, maybe the things he did were far from saving the world...

But his life should not be stuck on this most painful day.

His love for the old woman should not become a joke to these Polluted ones.

Zhou Baiyu clenched her fists, her lips trembling.

But the next second, her gaze turned somewhat vacant.

Because she saw Zhang Haoyun.

In that strange curtain, the scene shifted, no longer focusing on the unfortunate, miserable Charlie.

It was Zhang Haoyun, who was searching for something relentlessly.

Zhang Haoyun came to the old town district of Linxiang City.

This place where she had lived for a long time actually held many secrets she didn't know about.

With several defenses happening in Linxiang City, Zhou Baiyu always felt there was something special about it.

Whether it was the real world or the Advanced World.

But the one who truly realized this special quality and tried to find the source of this uniqueness—was Zhang Haoyun.

This powerful Corrupted one, ever since her last visit to the Advanced World and return to the real world, had been thinking about finding that entrance.

In Zhang Haoyun's mind, there had to be an entrance and an exit somewhere.

It was precisely because of this entrance and exit, this existence that connected two worlds...

That she had turned into a monster.

For some reason, at that moment, Zhou Baiyu felt as though she had established some sort of sensory connection with Zhang Haoyun.

She seemed able to sense Zhang Haoyun's emotions.

"I must find that place... I must help Zhou Baiyu, I can't be stuck in this world...I must contribute my strength."

With this thought, Zhang Haoyun followed her sensations, circling the old town district like a fool...

She was like an ant trapped in a maze.

It seemed the loop confined her path.

But this had nothing to do with the loops, it was Zhang Haoyun following the feelings in her memories, always feeling that the gap was in the old town district.

It was then that Zhou Baiyu, who had established some sort of connection, realized...

Haoyun was also trying hard, wanting to help her.

He had been pondering one thing: if he lacked the friendship of the train conductor and didn't have this badge, would this mission have failed?

But in reality... it hadn't.

Zhang Haoyun had actually realized this, or rather, due to her urgent desire to go to the Advanced World to help Zhou Baiyu, Zhang Haoyun had become obsessed with finding an entrance.

And this entrance—it truly existed.

This entrance might just be in the old town district.

Zhang Haoyun was anxious, even to the point of not distinguishing between day and night.

Even in the early hours of the morning, when she had a moment's rest and seemed to remember something—she would start searching again immediately.

Thus, a scene that caused everyone to burst into laughter occurred.

"Hahaha... The corrupted beings from that world are so strange, she's like an ant, endlessly looping."

"Even game NPCs don't like to circle around as much as she does."

The laughter of the crowd once again ignited Zhou Baiyu's anger.

Because Zhou Baiyu could feel... Haoyun was right.

Haoyun seemed to be very close to the goal.

The gap indeed existed, but perhaps it required certain tools or a ritual to be truly seen.

Perhaps... what Haoyun had found was a method to suppress the defense mode at its root.

But she was doomed to fail.

No matter how day and night she searched, no matter how many times she reminisced...

She was still trapped in the loop.

Unlike Charlie.

Charlie was in a state of immense grief, and his sorrow was mocked.

Zhang Haoyun was on the edge of hope and truth, but she could never touch it.

Because they had no future.

Their lives, in essence, had no difference from a sudden stop.

They could only endlessly loop in this one day.

One constantly losing a loved one, the other constantly falling short of success...

There were many others who had experienced the same, with "jokes" continuously looping behind the scenes.

Joyful laughter filled the dim room.

This experience, along with the laughter of the corrupted beings, thoroughly enraged Zhou Baiyu.

For the first time, he wanted so badly to annihilate these people, yearning internally for the power to destroy everything!

And this anger also caused Zhou Baiyu, who was at the edge of the Divine Pillar, to begin to undergo a certain transformation.

No longer were there the crimson armors, but a kind of dark armor... was slowly covering Zhou Baiyu.

At that moment, in the transfer station, Doctor A suddenly looked up.

In the eternal dream where the throne was no longer occupied by the eternal night, but by Mark, Mark also looked up.

"Calm down! Calm down! Don't be consumed by your emotions!"

Whether it was Doctor A or Mark, these two guys living inside Zhou Baiyu's body were both yelling at him with the loudest voices!

Normally, they would have no way of intervening with Zhou Baiyu...

But perhaps the corruption itself had also alerted the depths of Zhou Baiyu's consciousness.

This body seemed to have activated a warning mechanism—

So the voices of Doctor A and Mark resounded together:

"Stop! Don't let emotions devour you! You are not one of the corrupted beings, the Divine Pillar is trying to assimilate you!"

"Don't corrupt yourself on the Divine Pillar..."

These voices gave Zhou Baiyu a moment of clarity, and the dark armor instantly turned to dust.

Zhou Baiyu surveyed his surroundings...

He was already above the clouds, the laughter of the corrupted beings was nowhere to be found.

Only the vast expanse of clouds.

He was sweating profusely, only now realizing... how terrifying the situation was.

"So that's it. Unable to persuade me, you plan to use emotions to consume me, to transform me into a corrupted being..."

The greatest challenge in ascending the Divine Pillar lay in the Divine Pillar itself.

It is a finger of the God of Corruption; beings not corrupted, too close to it, can easily become corrupted.

If it weren't for the fact that inside Zhou Baiyu there was always something going on, someone conducting research, someone plagiarizing, he might have become a corrupted being by now.

Unlike the type of corruption possessed by Doctor A, although both are corruptions... the corrupted beings influenced by the Divine Pillar seem to have some enslaving power over other corrupted beings.

So Doctor A wasn't afraid of Zhou Baiyu's corruption, but of Zhou Baiyu being corrupted by the Divine Pillar.

"That was close..."

Burying his inner rage deep in his heart, Zhou Baiyu took several deep breaths before advancing towards the summit again.

The confrontation with the Divine Pillar had come to a close.

Next, was the most crucial part: heading to the Central Temple—

To destroy the source of the pollution.