Volume 2, "The One Who Devours Darkness," has officially concluded. It was originally planned to be around 200 chapters, but it ended up being 250 chapters. There shouldn't be such a long volume in the future, otherwise, the author can't imagine how many words this book would eventually have.
The last scene of Volume 1 was Xia De and the Detective with their backs to the burning building, Xia De looking back, the Detective looking down, both walking side by side on the street. The last scene of Volume 2, on the other hand, was looking from the Steam Age street towards a second-floor window, where in the mist, Xia De gazed into the distance and the Detective watched Xia De.
The adventures in Coldwater Port and Tobesk are temporarily over. After Great City Player, Xia De will embark on entirely new adventures. The theme of the next volume is "death." Xia De, having entered the Three Rings, will experience more exciting stories. As for the secrets of the other four members of the group, so far only the symptoms have been roughly described, and the individual story arcs for each of the four have just begun.
Some people see this book as a large-scale single-player game, and it actually is quite similar. For example, Mia is a pet system, but if she is raised well, it will affect the ending; Saint Delan Square Six is a home system, constantly increasing functions as the plot progresses, which means more accessible doors; Xia De's relationship with everyone is a favorability system, achieving certain values unlocks achievements like free divination, gifting potions, and exclusive quests. Once favorability is maxed out, it can even unlock an NPC team-up system (referring to using the time key and space statue to turn into a toy), allowing the summoning of NPCs to assist in combat in time dungeons and maps where NPCs shouldn't appear (such as Priest Augustus not possibly appearing in Coldwater Port).
However, the protagonist of the story is definitely not just Xia De. Only by understanding the stories of the Detective, the Priest, Luvia, and Dorothy can one fully comprehend what kind of story this truly is. If this were a single-player game, you would first need to use four characters to complete four story lines, each character having an exclusive system. For instance, the Detective has a demon quest system, the Priest has church work and ** quests, Luvia has Prophet Association daily quests and ** quests, and Dorothy and Leticia Cavendish have the Cavendish Family legends, court politics route, dual-perspective quests, and character-swapping combat system. Only after completing all the plotlines for these four initial characters can the final character—Outsider Xia De—be used.
Saying all this, I just hope everyone can continue to support this book, and I welcome feedback from legitimate readers.
The story of "whispering chapters" (also known as "The Detective Knight's Tale" and "Sword of the Silver Moon") has just begun, and after 【Darkness】, please look forward to Volume 3, 【All Things Must End】.
