Legendary Person: I brought my skills back to reality!

Xu Hao suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind and slowly walked towards the lonely old man.

The closer one gets, the stronger the sense of unease becomes. The Shabak Palace Square, which has witnessed countless bloody battles and power shifts, is now filled with an indescribable silence and strangeness because of this old man who shouldn't be here.

“Grandpa,” Xu Hao began tentatively, his voice hoarse from his earlier grief, “you…how did you get here? Over at the city gate…”

The old man slowly turned around, his movements sluggish, like a rusty machine, yet with a strange fluidity that came from being unshackled.

His eyes, which had previously appeared cloudy, were now unusually clear and deep, like an ancient well that had held the weight of countless years. He looked at Xu Hao quietly, and the deep wrinkles on his face seemed to have smoothed out a bit.

“A post?” The old man let out a low, strange laugh, a laugh filled with indescribable vicissitudes and a bittersweet sense of relief. “Young man, that ‘post,’ I’ve been standing there for far too long… so long that I’ve almost forgotten that I was once a… living, breathing person.”

Xu Hao's heart skipped a beat, and a chill ran through him again. What did he mean by that?

The old man, leaning on his wooden cane, straightened his hunched back slightly. His gaze swept across the empty square before settling back on Xu Hao. His voice became deep and resonant, as if recounting a secret sealed away for millions of years:

"You must be wondering why I left that city gate, why I'm here, and why... I look a little different than before, right?"

In the past, NPCs always had a certain... mechanical feel to them, but that feeling is completely absent in the current Shabak elders.

Without waiting for Xu Hao's reply, he continued speaking to himself, each word seeming to be squeezed out from the depths of his soul, carrying a heavy echo: "We...we who are scattered throughout the continent of Fama, what you call 'NPCs'...in fact, our origins are the same as Qiao Xi and the others, and the Heavenly Venerable, the God of Law, the Holy War and the others...

Xu Hao's pupils shrank sharply, and he could hardly believe his ears.

“We were also ‘seeds’ chosen by that ‘intelligent entity’ and that ‘Thursday’,” the old man’s voice was filled with deep hatred and profound weariness. “Initially, we also followed the Celestial Venerable and the others, and we rose up in rebellion so that we would not be ‘harvested’ as nourishment and so that we could reclaim our own destiny.”

His gaze drifted into the distance, as if he could see the flames of war and sacrifice of the distant past.

"It was a... fierce struggle, and we thought we had seen hope..."

The old man paused, a look of pain crossing his face, as if recalling a deeply painful past: "But we failed. In a decisive conflict, many of us... were captured by 'Thursday'."

His withered fingers gripped the wooden cane tightly, his knuckles turning white. "It... that cold program didn't completely wipe us out like it would an enemy. Because it discovered a more... vicious use."

"It deprives us of our free will, distorts our memories, and imprisons our souls like prisoners in these pre-designed bodies."

The old man pointed to his simple robe, then looked around the empty square, as if he could see countless figures sharing his fate.

"We became its tools for ruling this false world, the background, the lifeless symbols in your adventure stories. Day after day, year after year, we repeated the same dialogues, executed pre-programmed routines, and watched as batches of 'souls' grew stronger before our eyes, only to be 'harvested' by it..."

And we can only watch helplessly, like living tombstones.

Xu Hao felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, as if the blood in his body had frozen. The blacksmith, the pharmacy owner, the warehouse manager, the teleporter… all those NPCs he had dealt with countless times—their bodies actually imprisoned the souls of former rebels?!

Actually, the Holy War and the God of Law mentioned this matter in that video at the very beginning, but the actual experience is quite chilling.

"Now..." Xu Hao began with difficulty, his voice hoarse.

"Now?" A strange light flashed in the old man's cloudy eyes, a light that contained sorrow, resolve, and also a glimmer of... a new flame.

"Now, Joe and his comrades are using their lives and souls to engage in a final standoff with 'Thursday'."

"Thursday" will format everything, destroy everything, and start anew. And Josh and his friends will use this suicidal method to trap it forever within this collapsing continent!"

The old man's voice suddenly rose, carrying a kind of exhilaration born from breaking free from constraints:

"This ultimate confrontation rendered 'Thursday' powerless to maintain absolute control over the rules and authority of the entire continent!"

In its quest to destroy everything, it temporarily released its grip on us! Just now, that ever-present, cold shackle that bound our souls… vanished!

He took a deep breath, as if it were the first truly free breath in billions of years. "We... have regained our self-awareness, remembered everything, and... can finally control our bodies, can leave that damned 'post,' and can... stand here to tell you all this!"

The old man slammed his cane heavily on the ground, a dull thud that echoed across the deathly silent square. "We, souls trapped for countless years, are finally... free. Though this freedom may be as fleeting as a flash in the pan, this continent... is finally no longer ruled by just one 'person'!"

Xu Hao and Miao Yu exchanged a glance, both seeing the same shock and respect in each other's eyes.

These old coffin-stuffers were truly the shining stars of humanity, fighting to the death against seemingly invincible advanced civilizations in countless years and in unknown corners.

“Senior,” Xu Hao straightened up, “you just said that the restraints have disappeared…so why did you come here specifically to…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but the question was already clear. At this critical moment, it was no coincidence that this senior, who had just been freed, appeared here.

The old man from Shabak looked at Xu Hao with his eyes that had regained their clarity. The deep wrinkles on his face seemed to soften a little, and he even revealed a gentle smile, although the smile still carried the lingering vicissitudes of life.

"Hehe," he chuckled softly, his voice much clearer and more human than when he was at the city gate, "What other instructions could there be? Of course, it's the last order that your... Sister Qiao Xi gave to us old folks!"