"There’s always someone who naively believes that with opportunity, this world can get better. But doesn’t this world always lack opportunity?
Then why is it still so terrible?"
In Huai Shi’s silence, Chiba Ryouni calmly told him, "Huaizhi, even if you can give them countless opportunities, you can’t stop those who are willingly depraved.
Even if there is a brief change, it won’t be long before their true nature is exposed. Once people get used to living in places without light, they can never leave the darkness again..."
"You know, don’t you? Before you, there were also people as earnest as you, full of hope." Chiba Ryouni said, "That person’s name was God City Future."
"God City?" Huai Shi was stunned, doubting he heard wrong: "God City Future?"
"Yes, God City, the lunatic you know, God City Future."
Chiba Ryouni mocked, "It’s ridiculous, right? The former Savior, now wanting to tie the entire group onto a chariot.
He once came to us, like you, thinking he could change everything, hoping we could help him. But we didn’t.
We watched his struggle indifferently, watched his embarrassed failure, and finally watched his lonely departure... His assets were swallowed by his allies, his goodwill betrayed by his supporters, his hope trampled into mud by those he wanted to help.
From beginning to end, we never had any interference.
Because the Tanbo Inner Circle is such a cruel place, it’s like a living thing, killing everything not belonging to itself, changing everyone who wants change, including God City Future, including Tobio, and including you and me.
This isn’t something one person’s effort can change, nor something a group of people’s sacrifice can restore."
Saying this, Chiba Ryouni raised his hand, pointing outside the floor-to-ceiling window at the splendid city.
"Look, Huaizhi.
There’s Kyoto Tower, over here is the Central District, and over there is the direction of Kiyomizu board, Ukyo, Sakyo, Higashiyama, Yamashina, Nishikyo, Shimogyo...
See how vast and splendid the outside world is.
If looking down from the sky, the so-called Tanbo Inner Circle, Tanbo District, is such a narrow place, compared to this city, tiny like a trash bin.
Regardless of status, we are all ants surviving here, prisoners trapped here, we are merely the ’Kings of the Infinite Universe’ within this core."
He turned his back on those splendid lights, smiling self-deprecatingly and oddly, "You want to gain power from the Alliance to change all this, but you’ve found the wrong direction—it’s never the Alliance that rules the Tanbo Inner Circle, it’s the Inner Circle that rules the Alliance!
And it won’t accept the change you want."
In the long silence, Chiba Ryouni gazed at the young man in front of him, yet until the end, that determined look had never changed.
Even if shaken, shocked, and wandering.
"Thank you for your advice and warning, Mr. Chiba."
Huai Shi replied calmly: "Even if so, I won’t give up."
"That’s why youth is so good..."
Chiba shook his head, waved casually: "Huaizhi, you can try hard, we won’t stop you, but you will fail, everything you attempt will not succeed, your effort is meaningless.
Now, you can go."
In the distance, the twelve o’clock bell tolled.
Outside the room came enthusiastic cheers, celebrating the birth of a new generation of gambling king. Fireworks rose into the sky outside the window, illuminating the young man’s eyes.
Just like a fire lit in the Abyss.
"Mr. Chiba, I might eventually face failure, but I don’t think my effort will be wasted—"
Even knowing the final outcome, he still smiled: "No matter how much I put in, even if only one person is saved because of it, I believe it’s worth it."
With that, he politely said goodbye and turned to leave.
The door closed.
In the silence, Chiba Ryouni said no more, but quietly gazed at the distant glow in the night sky, raised his head, and finished the last of the remaining wine.