Reborn as an Extra Chapter 856: The Pilgrimage Begins! Part-2.

’It’s kind of unfair that everyone else gets to be happy and humane, but when it’s my turn to ascend... I have to make such a major sacrifice...’

Even for others, ascending to become a demi-god came at a major cost to their inner humanity, but they were all people who had never had to suffer from the curse of a destroyed heart.

Rio was already lacking a heart, and whatever pieces he had were now being asked for payment in return for greater power.

This critical ’choice’ was the biggest reason why Rio was still suppressing his ascension and didn’t just break through the moment he reached the threshold of ascension instantly.

Polishing the mind and journeying through the Demon Continent were Rio’s excuses to delay for time and find some solution to this predicament.

But of course, the time he had wasn’t much; the clock was ticking. He couldn’t just keep standing at this ’Fork’ for eternity; he had to choose a ’Path’ sooner or later.

’Travelling across the Demon Continent is kind of a pilgrimage of a sort for me and will likely help me make my final choice...’

’It’s not just nonsense but a deep intuition of mine... and the Demon King who can see the future likely knows all this too...’

Although the Demon King couldn’t predict Rio’s future and couldn’t predict his exact situation, he could still see the trajectory of the ’Fate’ and ’Destiny’ the world itself was heading towards.

Rio’s choice to become completely inhuman could also result in the utter destruction of the ’world,’ and the Demon Race would suffer just as much as any other race would from such an outcome.

Thus, the Demon King was also wary of Rio and didn’t want to interfere with this ’Pilgrimage’ journey of Rio.

He knew that if he pushed Rio in the wrong direction with his actions, Rio could easily just choose to ascend instantly and shatter the entire planet in anger after reaching rank SS.

Moreover, a completely emotionless Rio wouldn’t even feel bad about destroying everything, as even the love he has for Lia would lose all meaning at that point.

[Well, I have tried my best to arrange things... the choice is ultimately yours to make... I leave it all to you; I just hope that no matter what choice you would make...]

[You would destroy the ’Heart of Miasma’ at least... if not for me, but for the sake of ’Balance’ in the universe...]

Hearing those words, Rio smiled lightly and nodded,

"I will give it my best shot, don’t worry too much, it would be fine. I still need you to give me the final push at the end of the journey, so don’t be so nervous about it all..."

After hearing Rio’s words, the ’avatar’ of the Demon King disappeared, and silence returned to the cliff covered in black ash.

The smile on Rio’s face disappeared, and helplessness appeared in his eyes.

’I guess... being an ’Anomaly’ really does come at the cost of losing all trust with everybody...’

’Thankfully... at least Lia trusts me and likes me... sigh, if only I could just take her away and keep her all to myself without needing to care about this irritating world...’

An anomaly by nature was a completely uncontrollable and utterly incomprehensible thing; it could never be trusted or relied upon by the world, and the same was true for Rio.

Rio was an ’Anomaly’ to this universe and didn’t even belong to this reality at all; the fundamental rules of the universe refused to acknowledge him, and he could develop in any random direction without control.

’With my good-natured and benevolent personality, I doubt I would become a mass murderer after becoming emotionless, but... the chances are really zero either, so I can understand their concern...’

’Sigh... If only the set of ’Emotions’ that I got from the original Rio’s remnant could be easily applied to my body and used to recover my humanity... everything would have been solved so easily...’

Rio had once helped the original Rio’s remnant will ’Shadow’ destroy Alverto as revenge in return for all the emotions and humanity that the original Rio possessed.

These sets of emotions and humanity were still stored inside the depths of Rio’s soul and consciousness, and he could easily tap into them whenever he wanted to.

But the main problem was that Rio couldn’t restore these emotions until he completely patched up the hole in his heart that was constantly causing the emotions to drain away.

If he tapped into those sealed emotions, all it would do would make Rio lose this hard-earned back-up plan too.

’Truthfully speaking... everything depends on what ’World Authority’ I will awaken after becoming an SS ranker...’

’If it’s something power enhancement related... I will likely never be able to patch up my inner self, but if it’s something like ’King Allen’s’ it’s still possible to make a back up plan...’

Unfortunately, from what his intuition was telling him, Rio already had a feeling that the type of ’World Authority’ that he was going to awaken would likely be more focused on making him a more lethal weapon than he already was.

"No wonder they say that the ’Path’ to self-discovery is the hardest to walk... no one can help you and no one can guide you..."

"It’s like walking in pitch-black darkness with no maps, torches, or reliable ways to find your way forward..."

Thinking about his future and the difficult ’choice’ he had to make, Rio could only sigh helplessly and begin his journey.

"Forget it... let’s focus on the journey first... O God of Thieves and Gamblers, bless me with luck!"

After looking at the ’Sea of Wailing Souls’ one last time, Rio turned around and started walking towards the south, where the Demon King’s Palace stood above the greatest peak of the entire Demon Continent.

What Rio didn’t know was that in the future, this pilgrimage and this legendary journey of him walking south would later be documented by many scholars and will go down in the annals of history as