Chapter 387: The Holy City (XII) The Skeptic

The cemetery of the Holy City was ancient and dilapidated; the tombs on both sides had collapsed, and broken mounds of earth exposed rotten coffins. Fragments of bone occasionally scattered from the cracks, rolling across the ground with every gust of wind.

Rows of crosses stood like guards on the outskirts of the cemetery. Dried corpses hung from the broken wood, their flesh and skin pecked away by animals, leaving only intact skeletons held together by tendons, forming human shapes. Their dangling leg bones swung in the wind, clattering loudly.

As soon as Giles stepped into the cemetery, he proactively suggested that he and Fran split up to explore, giving a sound reason: covering more areas would increase their chances of triggering more side quests and accumulating enough Kindling.

Fran readily agreed, suspecting nothing. Giles watched his back disappear into the depths of the cemetery, then turned and walked toward the western district of the Holy City.

Ever since entering the instance, he had felt a strange sensation. The delegates who had teamed up with him seemed unfamiliar. Although their every move and manner of speech hadn’t changed, he just felt that a large portion of them were not quite right.

Was it because they were acting too exaggeratedly, their logic was too chaotic, or their thinking was too sluggish, constantly beating around the bush in irrelevant areas? He couldn’t pinpoint the exact suspicious points; it was more an intuition of dissonance, like waking up one day, seeing an identical acquaintance, and suddenly recalling the strange tales of “Doppelgangers.”

Giles suspected that some change had occurred to the delegates. Even if he was overthinking it, these people were definitely hiding something. Was it true that none of them were heretics? Did they really not know the whereabouts of the 【Fallen Savior】 card?

After much thought, Giles didn’t know who to trust. Analyzing them one by one, only the woman named “Julie Margaret” seemed reliable.

This delegate hailed from Maple County and was a well-respected sociologist before entering the bizarre game. For the past five years, she had been working anonymously, specializing in coordinating various departments of the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations and researching public opinion trends on forums. If even she was compromised, then there was absolutely no one trustworthy among the other four.

Giles made his decision. Holding the team ring, he silently recited in his mind: “Miss Margaret, I’ve found some clues. I might need to meet with you privately.”

“Oh? What kind of clues? Is a meeting necessary? Can’t you just tell me directly?” The woman’s voice carried a well-measured confusion. “If it’s physical evidence, perhaps we should convene another discussion meeting for everyone to examine together.”

“No,” Giles said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. He spoke in a low voice, “I feel like some people’s states are problematic. They might have unknowingly fallen victim to the instance’s mechanism or the methods of other players.”

The woman chuckled, “Sir, you’re overly anxious. We are all top-ranked players. What instance or what player could possibly employ methods against us silently, making us fall victim without realizing it?”

“What if that person is Fu Jue?” Giles looked up at the sky. The orange-yellow canopy lacked a sun, resembling a poorly made stage backdrop.

He and the other delegates were on stage, while someone watched coldly from behind the scenes. Undercurrents surged in the shadows, and the final curtain call was imminent, though the exact time was unknown.

Silence lasted for half a minute. The woman mused, “You also think Fu Jue isn’t dead?”

“Also?” Giles caught the keyword in her sentence, raising an eyebrow slightly.

The woman sighed and said, “I think so too. He’s Fu Jue; how could he possibly die in a place like this? It’s just a pity I have no evidence, so I can’t speak carelessly in public.”

“Yes, there’s no evidence to prove he’s still alive, but similarly, there’s no evidence to prove he’s dead…” Giles repeated, narrowing his eyes. “So, don’t you think their reactions are strange?

“They chose to believe, without any doubt, that Fu Jue is dead, yet when I propose an alternative possibility, they try every means to refute it.”

“It is strange indeed… Are you suggesting?”

“I suspect that some of them have been controlled by Fu Jue.”

“Controlled?”

Giles said, “The effect of the 【Fallen Savior】 identity card was reported by Fu Jue himself, and he hasn’t used it even once. No one knows if that’s true or false. I don’t believe a card ranked so highly would merely have the simple function of ‘resurrecting a dead person.'”

“I understand what you mean now.” The woman’s tone became serious. “I think it is necessary for us to meet. Where are you? I’ll come find you.”

Giles turned his head to look into the distance. The streets were bustling with people; priests and believers came and went. Some carried glass jars, others bore crosses, seemingly inaugurating a grand ceremony.

After watching silently for a moment, he said flatly, “Let’s meet in the North District.”

…In the North District, Asakura Yuko and Vidor walked side by side on the street, moving through the crowd.

This urban area was generally cleaner than the East District. Yellow-green foul water flowed obediently in the drainage ditches beside the road, and the men, women, and children walking on the street were all dressed in neat cloth robes.

They formed a long, snaking queue in front of two priests, but their eyes were as lifeless as those in the East District, revealing fear and confusion, their movements stiff like walking corpses.

The priests held transparent jars filled with chunks of flesh and handed daggers to the believers in front of them. Piece after piece of flesh and blood fell into the jars, twisting together to form squirming meat balls.

Seeing this, Vidor muttered, “Something’s not right. The people in the East District are the ones who share the Holy Lord’s authority, so why are believers from other areas also donating? Their flesh is just ordinary flesh; what use could it possibly be?”

Asakura Yuko watched the scene before her, a similar doubt forming in her heart.

The effect of the 【Forbidden Scholar】 continuously worked, and she heard countless wails and cries surging chaotically like a tide at the back of her mind.

“It hurts so much, it hurts… So much blood… I’m going to die, I’m going to die…”

“My mom is dying… Wuwuwu… She can’t donate anymore, she’s only bones left…”

“I’m so scared… I don’t want to die… Will the Holy Lord really save us?”

As those voices grew louder, scenes of bloody horror began to appear before her eyes: skeletons stripped of flesh stood around her, blood and pus rained down; faceless children sat on the ground wailing, their eyeballs having fallen out and rolling around among the gravel.

As if sensing her gaze, the eyeballs rotated toward her, and the skeletons stiffly twisted their heads, their hollow eye sockets fixed on her face, their bony arms reaching out to grab her.

She didn’t want to look anymore, so she simply picked up a pen and paper and started recording: 【The North District of the Holy City is inhabited by believers who are wealthier than those in the East District, but under the rule of the Holy Lord and the priests, the difference between rich and poor is maximally erased. Everyone must participate in the donation, even if it means losing their lives…】

Vidor suddenly raised his hand and patted her shoulder, suggesting, “Yuko, why don’t you detain another believer and ask about the situation? I have a feeling this donation is probably not the norm. Look, they don’t have any wounds on their bodies…”

Asakura Yuko put down her pen and looked at the line of believers. The robes of the believers who had just finished donating were soaked in blood; their wounds were ghastly and bloody, and they did not spontaneously heal like the believers in the East District.

They did not bear the authority of the Holy Lord, so naturally, they lacked self-healing ability. Several people had already collapsed on the side of the street due to excessive blood loss. If they had donated before, there couldn’t possibly be no trace of it on their bodies.

Asakura Yuko adjusted her glasses and asked, “Why should I go? I recall you defining yourself as a combat-oriented player.”

“Because you already detained a believer yesterday. As they say in the East, ‘Too many debts don’t weigh you down.'” Vidor spread his hands and grinned. “Who knows if doing this will cause trouble? Instead of both of us taking the risk, it’s better to confine the risk to just you.”

There was some truth to his words, but to say it so openly, without even pretending, was a rare and blatant display of selfishness.

Asakura Yuko glanced at Vidor, then turned and walked toward the blind spot in the corner of the district. She grabbed a believer who had collapsed unconscious on the ground and clapped her hand to wake him up.

“Hello, excuse me. Previously, donations were the responsibility of the East District, so why is our flesh and blood suddenly needed today? I arrived quite late and missed a lot of information. Could you tell me what exactly happened?” Asakura Yuko did not intend to follow Vidor’s suggestion and use immediate force, so she asked politely and patiently.

Then she saw the believer’s face twist into an expression of terror and disgust. He mumbled, “You don’t know… You’re a heretic…”

Asakura Yuko sighed softly, drew a short knife with a backhand motion, and pressed it against the believer’s neck. “Alright, now you can answer my question.”

…In the East District, Giles sat on a rooftop, observing the activity in the North.

The team ring was given by Fu Jue, and Giles wasn’t sure if it contained any hidden measures like listening devices or trackers. At the same time, he couldn’t be completely certain that Julie was trustworthy.

The conversation conducted earlier through the team ring was a deliberate probe set up by him. He wouldn’t go to the North District for now; after communicating, he intentionally left the team ring in the West District.

Time passed minute by minute. Estimating that the moment was right, Giles pulled out a handful of 【Eye of Hermes (Right Eye)】 from his pocket and activated their effect simultaneously.

【Name: Eye of Hermes (Right Eye)】

【Type: Item】

【Effect: After placing the Left Eye in a certain space, one can see what the Left Eye observes through the Right Eye;

During transmission, it can significantly reduce the vigilance and perception of nearby players.】

【Note: The gods know everything, as Hermes said.】

Last night, when he went out to explore, he placed an 【Eye of Hermes (Left Eye)】 high up in every place he passed. Although he didn’t know how many Left Eyes had survived the night, swept up by the flesh tumors, they were still useful for understanding the movements in the various districts.

The images displayed by the Right Eye showed nothing unusual. Julie’s figure appeared in the North District right on time, looking around with a worried expression.

Giles felt slightly relieved. Although many underlying dangers could not be ruled out, if he continued to be overly cautious, he wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything significant.

He leaped down from the rooftop, darting left and right through the narrow alleyways. A rough map of the Holy City formed in his mind, and thanks to his good sense of direction, he quickly arrived at Julie’s location.

The woman’s tall back stood against the low wall, casting a long, narrow shadow on the gray-white surface. Hearing the sound of footsteps, she turned her head to look at Giles, her brow relaxing slightly. “You finally arrived. I thought something had happened to you on the way.”

“I deliberately took the long way precisely because I was afraid something might happen,” Giles said humorously, his gaze falling on the pure white ring on the woman’s right pinky finger. “Take off the team ring first. Anything given by Fu Jue requires caution.”

The woman readily took off the ring, tossed it into a corner, and chuckled, “I’m more cautious than you think. The very first day I got the ring, I handed it over to our branch’s materials room for inspection.”

“That’s good. But that’s Fu Jue; no one knows if he has any hidden tricks.” As Giles spoke, his mind suddenly froze.

He couldn’t understand how he had reached the point of being Fu Jue’s enemy. He had once admired Fu Jue so much, even entering the same instance with him. Why had he suddenly developed such hostility and hatred toward him?

His memory was hazy; the moment he touched upon it, it scattered into colorful bubbles, and in an instant, even that thread of doubt could not be retrieved.

He pressed his throbbing temples and continued on his own: “Let’s go to the cemetery. We mentioned the North District earlier through the team ring. If my guess is correct, the North District is probably unsafe now.”

“Indeed, that was my assessment too,” the woman said with a smile.

The two walked straight toward the cemetery. The population on both sides grew sparser, and a cold, fierce wind blew between heaven and earth, causing bone fragments to clatter and fall.

The boundless graves stretched out like mountains, and countless eyes seemed to lurk in the pitch-black holes, maliciously spying on the humans passing by.

The woman walked ahead, and Giles followed half a step behind, crushing the broken bones on the ground.

After stepping past a stone wall carved with a divine statue, he instantly felt cold. The surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and a chill flowed from his heart to his limbs and bones. His body temperature rapidly fell, as if he were trapped in an ice cellar, and even his vision became blurred as if covered by a thick layer of frost.

Suddenly, a white shadow flashed before his eyes, lunging menacingly toward him. Giles quickly retreated. Looking closely, he saw it was a living corpse wrapped entirely in burial shrouds, its scarlet eyes staring intently at him through the bandages, filled with greed and desire.

Danger! Giles skillfully accessed his item bar. Weapon-type items were sealed, so he only pulled out a silver-white spider silk. The description text indicated that it had the effect of controlling thoughts and restraining movement.

This was undoubtedly a powerful item, priceless and highly effective, but because it was too sinister, Giles had never risked using it before. However… could an item designed to target players truly be used against ghosts?

The woman continued walking forward, seemingly completely unaware of the approaching danger. More and more living corpses crawled out from all directions, surrounding the two of them. Their hands, dripping with corpse oil, stretched longer and longer, bringing with them a nauseating stench.

Giles stared intently at the back of the woman’s head nearby, suddenly realizing that this was clearly a carefully planned trap.

The trigger of a death trap couldn’t be without warning. He hadn’t encountered any danger when he passed through here before, so there was no reason to fall into crisis by retracing his steps.

That was it, he had been fooled. Julie was likely Fu Jue’s accomplice… Because he had expressed suspicion toward Fu Jue, this woman lured him here to silence him… Giles stomped the ground and quickly retreated, whipping the spider silk in his hand toward the woman’s back. The woman seemed to anticipate this, sidestepping the attack, while a black veil shot out from her cuff, aimed at his face.

All pretense vanished in a second. Giles ducked to avoid the black veil, controlling the spider silk to loop around the woman’s neck. Catching a glimpse of the woman’s ferocious expression and the poisoned hatred in her eyes, his heart felt even colder.

Fu Jue and Julie were working together to kill him. He couldn’t defeat them, especially since they had somehow managed to control some of the ghosts in the instance… What should he do?