Chapter 78: Toll Bridge

Chapter 78: Toll Bridge

The transition from the Gilded Dungeon into the heart of the Astral Realm was not a movement of speed, but of value. As the Kashima Maru crossed the threshold, the world of solid bone and grey ash was replaced by a horizon so bright it threatened to burn the retinas of the human crew. The sky was a dome of polished, beaten gold, and the sea beneath them had transformed into a vast, undulating expanse of shimmering, conceptual coins.

Every movement of the ship’s hull against this water produced a sound not of splashing, but of a billion metal discs clinking together, a rhythmic, hypnotic symphony of wealth that seemed to hum directly into the brains of the two thousand survivors.

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