Chapter 104: Wolf and Sheep

In a hidden, militarized base in the eastern district of Xiang City, White Crow, dressed in a pristine white robe, walked slowly past the phalanx of followers training.

She was over thirty, with crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes born from years of weary travel, and her skin had lost its elasticity and luster.

Yet, from her bright eyes, high nose bridge, and full lips, one could still infer her former beauty.

She was often smiling, always gentle and kind, and her figure was always appearing in impoverished alleys and places that had just suffered disasters, representing the Balance Church to provide relief.

The followers all loved and respected her without exception, and some superstitious and foolish people even regarded her as the incarnation of a goddess on earth—of course, this included elements of deliberate propaganda by the Balance Guild.

The followers in the phalanx were men and women, old and young, wearing light clothing of varying ages, their eyes revealing an identical fanaticism and persistence.

When a person loses everything, left with only their solitary body and a heart full of hatred, they often view life as light and revenge as heavy.

And if the object of revenge is a behemoth that condenses the hatred of countless people—for example, the federal government—then this hatred is endowed with tragic and great meaning, and everyone can package themselves as a hero dedicating their life to an ideal.

It is undeniable that most people in this era have no ideals; surviving is already exhausting enough, let alone having the energy to think.

They do not know what kind of world to build after overthrowing the Federation, nor do they know how to put forward their demands after creating chaos, but this does not prevent them from being incited by slogans and doctrines, and believing that this is what they truly desire in their hearts.

White Crow knows the ultimate goal of the Balance Church, but she does not intend to explain that grand blueprint to everyone.

Ignorance is sometimes a blessing; knowing too much easily leads to chaos.

At this moment, this Vice Guild Master of the Balance Church walked quietly onto the podium, stood solemnly and gravely, preparing to speak as usual.

“I am here.”

A whisper suddenly drifted past her ears, like sleep-talk, like a murmur.

In an instant, the phantom of golden vines drifted from the horizon, encroaching upon the entire field of vision inch by inch from the corners.

The silhouette of a giant tree flickered in and out of existence, its crisscrossing branches extending in all directions, taking root at the boundaries of the world.

The boundary between the Eerie Game and reality twisted into translucent ripples, stirring up a circle of waves before returning to calm as the sound faded away, leaving only a golden leaf drifting down, which dissipated into specks of light the moment it was about to touch the crowd.

White Crow’s breathing quickened; she was absolutely certain this was not a hallucination.

Just like twenty-two years ago, when she was eight years old and heard the voice of God for the first time in the Eerie Game; it was so indifferent, distant, and lonely.

God said: “I am that I am, I care not for all living things.”

Since then, God had disappeared for twenty-two years, even His holy name was erased, making it difficult to read or remember, until the Rose Manor instance, when the church finally learned His name again…

The expansion of a force cannot rely solely on religion; during these twenty-two years, the other Vice Guild Master of the Balance Guild hid in the shadows, laying a tangled web across the political, business, and academic worlds, supporting the expansion of the Balance Guild to all parts of the world.

But religion is undoubtedly the most convenient tool for building cohesion and giving people hope; one only needs to make everyone worship the same idol, and they will naturally gather together to do the same thing.

Faith requires positive feedback; the visions bestowed by the deity from time to time are enough to make people awe-struck and fanatical.

White Crow stood on the high ground, lowering her eyes to overlook the crowd, and solemnly declared in a voice that everyone could hear: “God has responded to us.”

The followers raised their faces, silently waiting for the divine oracle.

White Crow lifted her head, her gaze piercing through the sky, seemingly connecting with some place in the infinite space.

She curled her lips into the compassionate smile commonly seen on the faces of saints in religious murals, and relayed word by word: “God says, He is with us.”

…

Liu Yuhan opened her eyes on the bed, staring blankly at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

After staring blankly for a long while, she finally remembered that this was the single apartment she had bought in Nancheng, Ning Province.

She had returned; she had once again finished a terrifying instance in the Eerie Game and returned to reality.

The experiences in the instance were complex and chaotic, too inconceivable, like a nightmare encountered after a mental breakdown.

She lay quietly, thinking pointlessly for a long time, before finally seeming to muster the courage and strength to prop herself up with her elbows and sit up.

Something fell from her chest with her movement, and she instinctively raised her hand to catch it.

It was a page torn from a notebook, the format very familiar, clearly belonging to the Strange Tale Notebook.

“It was actually brought out from the instance?” Liu Yuhan frowned slightly.

She held the page up to her eyes, and the four large characters “Soul Contract” came into view; the gold-stamped handwriting pierced her pupils, smashing open the ocean of her thoughts like a giant rock, stirring up huge waves.

Terrible memories surged up like a tide; Liu Yuhan tightened her fingers, crumpling the gripped page even more, and two seconds later, she released her hand, drained of strength.

She was astonished to find that the paper returned to its original state in an instant, as smooth and clean as before.

It could not be destroyed by human force, and its influence spanned across the Eerie Game and reality; could it be… a “Gate”?

Liu Yuhan thought of the rumor she had heard among the theoretical group, and vaguely felt that things were developing in a worse direction.

The page with the Contract terms slipped from her fingers, and she threw herself back onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She lay on her back until the sky darkened and the stars shone through the glass window onto the bed, before she took a deep breath and let it out.

She turned her face to look out the window, muttering to herself: “If I must hand over my soul to some entity, then I would rather believe in that true deity.”

The decision had been made; Liu Yuhan reached under her pillow and pulled out a card that looked like an invitation letter.

On the cover, interwoven with gold and black, three lines of prophetic text were written:

“The Eerie will eventually run rampant in the world.”

“The Mystery will eventually descend upon the world.”

“sin is eternal, the Balance Guild is eternal.”

…

Qi Si sat on the sofa, holding the Sea-God Scepter, scrolling through the messages coming in on his phone.

After returning to reality, he immediately had Jin Yusheng conduct an investigation, and soon confirmed that the woman in white he had seen in the Game Space was named “White Crow,” a high-ranking member of the notorious Balance Church.

He further discovered that the evil god believed in by the legendary Balance Church… seemed to be Qi.

Qi Si stroked his chin, thoughtful: “The current situation is that Qi has given me divine authority, and prayers to Him are inexplicably being received in my Game Space; the authority I can exercise seems to be, in a sense, equivalent to His.”

“Looking at the news the Balance Church has made in recent years, because Qi has been unable to exercise authority for a long time, the believers are running around like headless flies. If He wants to communicate with the believers, He must use me as an intermediary.”

“It seems Qi is weaker than I imagined… If I encounter trouble that is difficult to solve in the future, perhaps I can include the power of the Balance Church in my considerations.”

It is known that the Eerie can infiltrate reality; the Sera Guild has roots of power in reality, and the federal government also has organizations dedicated to researching the Eerie Game.

After clashing with the Puppeteer, Qi Si knew well that the Sera Guild was most likely eyeing him covetously.

The only good news was that they were being investigated by official organizations and could not spare the effort for the time being.

Likewise, Qi Si believed that as long as he still appeared in instances with his own face, and there were idiots in the world streaming, he would sooner or later be targeted by official organizations.

And it was very likely that, because of Chang Xu and Yang Yundong, he had already been targeted, just without any substantive evidence leaking out.

Sitting on the largest database, it would not be troublesome for the authorities to figure out his background, and it was hard to guarantee they wouldn’t come knocking one day; and with his fragile body that would break at a touch, once found in reality, he would have no choice but to submit.

At a time like this, an anti-government armed force that he could command was very important.

He and Qi are practically the same, right? So what if he uses the church that believes in Qi? On what grounds would they say he isn’t Qi himself?

Qi Si thought with a touch of humor, lowering his eyes to look at the Sea-God Scepter.

In the Game Space, he had only replied with the two words “I am,” not out of arrogance or reserve, but because after saying the word “am,” he was kicked back to reality.

At that time, countless red threads wove into a net, twisting and entangling like living things, covering the sky and earth as they descended upon him.

Golden patches flew densely before his eyes, the dark background filled with suspicious spots, and the crackling sound of barriers shattering rang in his ears.

His head was splitting with pain, his pupils dilated and contracted to no avail, but he only saw layers of thin red and dark gold colors surging and intertwining.

When his vision settled again, he was already slumped on his sofa, as if he had been pushed into a pool of water and pulled out; countless water droplets told of infinity, eternity, and the unknowable, telling him that making a two-word response was already the limit…

“The limit?” Qi Si’s gaze fell on the effect column of the Sea-God Scepter: 【Makes you look more like a god (the more sin absorbed, the stronger the effect seems to be)】

He had an intuition that letting the Sea-God Scepter absorb more sin to enhance its effect might correspondingly increase the limit of his response.

“As for sin, wiping out players a few more times should be enough, right? It’s just that I don’t know if that sin will be directly sucked away by the game…”

Qi Si recalled the concept of the 20% proportion of Slaughter-path players that Chang Xu had mentioned.

At first, he didn’t understand the meaning, but once he considered the motives, he didn’t find it strange at all.

Letting a wolf charge into a flock of sheep to slaughter at will, the lambs bleating and trampling each other, the hungry wolf laughing wildly while playing with its food in its grasp, was indeed the most efficient scheme for generating sin; it was much more convenient than locking a group of wolves together and letting them tear each other apart.

The Eerie Game needs sin; the reason is unknown, but it is a fact.

“If the sin in the game cannot be moved, what about the sin in reality? I wonder if creating a few serial murder cases is feasible?”

Qi Si thought aimlessly, and finally decided to shelve this topic.

Furthermore, before the Sea-God Scepter absorbs enough sin, he will no longer contact the Balance Church.

The so-called loyalty of faith is not worth believing; religion is merely a means for some self-righteous clever people to control the ignorant masses.

Once a “god” who responds and gives oracles reveals a state of weakness, what awaits Him is control and cannibalization by ambitious people.

Qi Si did not think he possessed the ability to manipulate irrational emotions like fanaticism, and at the same time, he did not want to base his plans on uncontrollable factors at all.

The connection between the Balance Church and Qi was a pleasant surprise; it was something gained by luck and lost by fate.

Qi Si logged into the game Forum, searched for the keyword “Hopeless Sea,” and clicked into the latest post.

#Did you guys watch Chang Xu’s “Hopeless Sea” stream? The Puppeteer appeared!#

The original poster seemed to be a fan of Chang Xu, expressing worry in their words: 【The voice that forced him to turn off the stream at the end seems to belong to that puppet named “Si Qi”; Chang Xu won’t be in trouble, will he?】

As one of the parties involved, Qi Si recalled Chang Xu’s corpse lying powerlessly on the stone platform, and felt great pleasure.

He really wanted to reply to this poster with “Chang Xu is dead, there’s no saving him,” but rationality ultimately stopped his bad taste.

He laughed schadenfreudishly for a while, gradually calmed down, and his mind pondered the unfavorable factors behind the post.

If nothing unexpected happens, his face has already been linked to the identity of “Sera Guild’s puppet,” and if he appears in an instance again, he will surely be chased by everyone. — —Must think of a way.