Chapter 449: Chapter449-Junk in the Ruins
"Lord Crossbridge, to me, you are someone truly special."
Kartora’s voice trembled faintly as she spoke, the soft shimmer of her silver hair reflecting the warm hues of the dying sunlight."You might not know this, but gods who govern the domain of time... are the loneliest beings in the entire universe."
She paused, lowering her gaze for a long moment before lifting it again. When her eyes met Daniel’s, a faint glimmer of tears gathered in their depths.
"When I travel through the River of Time," she continued, "I am always so painfully alone. That loneliness... it nearly breaks me."
"The people I know, the world I once understood—everything I’ve ever been familiar with—becomes fragile like glass before the current of time. All it takes is a single step across an era, and everything shatters into dust."
"I feel as though I’ve drifted outside of existence itself, unable to truly feel what this world is anymore... unable to grasp what emotions even mean."
"My eyes can see everything, but everything feels so utterly strange."
"Birth and death, creation and destruction—they happen before me, yet none of it seems to concern me. That feeling... it’s so strange, so hollow, that I sometimes think I’m not even a living being anymore."
By the time she finished, Kartora’s voice had become soft and choked. She was crying quietly now.Despite her immense power—already having reached Fake God rank—in this moment, Daniel felt as though she were nothing more than an ordinary, vulnerable girl.
"Thank you, Lord Crossbridge," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Thank you for walking with me along the River of Time. You made me feel something I had long forgotten—happiness."
"I won’t lie... I really love this feeling. I don’t want to leave this world, not yet."
Daniel placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.Through his Psychic Perception, he caught a faint whisper—Kartora’s unspoken thoughts resonating within the depths of her heart:
[If only this happiness could last forever... how wonderful that would be.]
[But sadly, this bliss cannot last. The cooldown for the next portal has already ended.]
Daniel sighed softly, then hesitated for a moment before drawing Kartora into a light embrace.
He wasn’t sure how to comfort a suffering girl, but if a simple embrace could provide even a little warmth, then he was more than willing to give it.
After all, Kartora wasn’t just beautiful—she was also kind, and had helped him countless times.
Nestled within Daniel’s arms, Kartora’s trembling gradually subsided. Her breathing slowed, and her aura calmed.
Then Daniel’s voice, gentle and steady, brushed softly against her ear:
"In that case... we can stay for a few more days."
"If you’d like, we’ll leave in three days."
"Besides... I’ve found some clues. I’m not sure if they’re related to the String of Life, but it might be worth exploring further."
Indeed, Daniel’s exploration of this era hadn’t been entirely fruitless.
He hadn’t yet discovered definitive proof of the String of Life’s existence, but through countless ruins and ancient sites, he had gathered a growing list of suspicions.
Yet what fascinated him even more than those vague leads were the ruins themselves—scattered across the land like the remnants of a forgotten age.
In nearly every ruin, there existed some trace of godly inheritance—remnants of the modern divine system.
That, precisely, was why Daniel had left so many human awakeners in this time.
This era overflowed with divine seats; for humanity, it was the perfect opportunity to achieve demigodhood.
Moreover, fragments of the ancient god system could also be found here—older, wilder powers that once ruled before the structured divine order.
But with Alice present, Daniel trusted that she would guide the human awakeners down the right path.
During these three months, Daniel himself had delved into countless such ruins.
From time to time, he discovered items of minor worth—rare minerals, ancient relics, essence crystals—but none of them were materials he truly needed.
To him, this era offered limited value.
What Daniel couldn’t understand—what he really couldn’t understand—was why such weak demigods felt the need to leave behind inheritance ruins at all.
Just demigods! he thought to himself. If I cast one simple spell, they’d be wiped out instantly. And yet they still thought their ’legacies’ mattered?
And worse, every single ruin had some absurd set of trials or tests attached to it.
Did they seriously think these convoluted trials were meaningful?
Were they not just elaborate ways to torture future explorers?
Daniel shook his head, driving away the messy thoughts.
He knew, of course, that he couldn’t judge everything by his own standards.
For beings like him, demigods were hardly worth mentioning—like ants under his feet.
But for the vast majority of creatures in this world, reaching demigod rank was already an unimaginable feat—something beyond their wildest dreams.
Still, knowing this didn’t stop him from complaining.
Over the past few months, Daniel had explored ruin after ruin—tens of thousands of them, even.
And what had he gotten? Practically nothing.
The feeling was like sprinting a hundred meters just to pick up a single copper coin lying on the ground.
What’s the point of that?
He chuckled bitterly. "These relics aren’t even worth the price of a loaf of black bread. That costs at least twenty copper coins now."
All this effort, and for what? It felt like a colossal waste of time.
Of course, that judgment applied only from his perspective.
For awakeners who had yet to obtain a divine seat, even these so-called "junk" relics could serve as useful tools or treasures.
So, adhering to his principle of not wasting resources, Daniel tossed all of these so-called "worthless items" into the humanity’s central warehouse.
Down below, the human awakeners had already formed a proper civilization, complete with administrative divisions—including an organization known as the Resource Management Department.
That department was responsible for processing and distributing all items stored in the warehouse.
So Daniel just deposited everything there. Problem solved.
But then, as he finished storing the last pile of artifacts, a curious thought suddenly occurred to him.
Wait a second...
What if the reason there are so few valuable materials left in this world... is because I already took them all?
Daniel froze. Then he coughed awkwardly, twice.
After all, during the past three months, he had explored over a hundred thousand ruins...And every single time, he had "cleaned them up" thoroughly, dumping all of the "junk" into the humans’ warehouse.
...
Well, he thought with a shrug, perhaps that was my fault. But honestly, it doesn’t matter.
Because finally—after tireless effort—Daniel had uncovered some genuine clues about the String of Life.
Through his endless ruin expeditions, he discovered that the ruins weren’t just filled with useless scraps.
Hidden among them were fragments of ancient information—messages and data left behind from eras long before recorded history.
And to Daniel, those ancient insights were far more valuable than any divine relic or physical treasure.
They were rare beyond compare—priceless echoes of knowledge from a time when even the gods themselves were still young.