Chapter 383: Holy City (Nine) Ending Two

【Identity Card: Taboo Scholar】

【Effect: Easier to discern taboo knowledge of the current world. When upright, you can rewrite the historical trajectory of this world; when reversed, you will gradually lose your sanity and descend into madness.】

【Remark: Knowledge is pollution, erudition is madness. The buried past, the erased history, any retelling is taboo, and scholars are thus accused of blasphemy.】

Senior Xiao disappeared promptly after the one-minute countdown, and it was unknown when he would reappear. The information he provided was vague, and while Asakura Yuko wouldn’t neglect it, she didn’t feel the need to be overly cautious.

She dozed off for a while, only to be woken by a “crunching” sound. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a grotesque idol quietly emerging from the frescoes on the ceiling. Its marble-textured fangs tore at what was clearly human flesh, and its crimson eyes watched her with ill intent.

Her expression remained unchanged as she quietly watched the idol gnaw on an arm, her mind filled with what she had seen and heard in the Eastern District.

Because of her identity card, she could see far more than other players. After recording enough observations, the effect of the 【Taboo Scholar】 automatically activated, and a large amount of “taboo history” belonging to the Holy City surged before her eyes, transforming into abstract images.

In the two months since she acquired the identity card, she had grown accustomed to hearing chaotic murmurs and receiving complex information with every step, and through this, she had learned many secrets about gods and fundamental rules.

Practice made perfect, and later she could even multitask, dedicating half of her consciousness to processing information and the other half to dealing with the instance and interacting with people.

However, her experience in the Holy City was completely different from previous instances.

During the day, Asakura Yuko walked with Vid on the main street. Countless timelines overlapped on the same land, and images of the dead intertwined with the living. What she saw was not a feast for the gods, but countless figures of commoners; what she heard was not the secrets of rules, but cries of pain and sorrow.

Women were bound and dragged towards the temple, and a little girl following behind cried heartbreakingly, “Don’t take my mother, she’s not a heretic…” But soon, black-robed priests came forward, covered her mouth, and took her to the judgment seat as well.

Believers lay scattered on the ground, translucent mucus oozing from their wounds, fermenting into yellowish-green pus. Each person stared blankly at the sky, fingers and toes twitching eerily and unconsciously, emitting low, painful groans from their mouths.

Priests held high torches, burning confiscated books, heretics were pushed onto torture platforms covered with iron spikes, and skeletons piled up into mountains in the graveyard… Crowds gathered like ants beneath the altar, numbly kowtowing and cheering, because even a slight delay would be deemed insincere, leading to extortion and oppression… Every inch of land was soaked with blood and death. Asakura Yuko saw countless mutated idols; sculptures that should have been sacred flowed with bloody tears, coveting the flesh and blood of living beings, grotesque, abnormal, and terrifying.

From Vid’s perspective, they just walked around the Eastern District and inexplicably learned how to solve the main quest.

In reality, things were far from that simple. The plot trigger was entirely based on the vast amount of information provided by the identity card. After all, it was an instance gathering many top-ranked players; how could it be so easy to get points?

Of course, Asakura Yuko felt no obligation to share information with a temporary teammate, so Vid would probably never know what happened.

Recalling the scene again, Asakura Yuko took a deep breath and exhaled, knowing that everything she saw and heard were merely NPC tools designed to provide clues and create death points.

Once their group cleared the instance, everything would reset for the next wave of players, and the dead would be resurrected.

But those twisted faces and hoarse wails still uncontrollably occupied her consciousness, making her throat tighten and her temples throb.

The idol on the ceiling finished eating and watched her, saying coldly:

【You are a follower of the night. Please go out and choose a target.】

【If you are sure who you want to kill, knock three times on their door.】

Along with the words, corresponding text appeared on the system interface, and Asakura Yuko thus learned the killing rules of the Heretic faction.

Going out at night and knocking three times on another player’s door would kill the person residing in that room. This incidentally corroborated the players’ earlier conclusion: players from the Heretic faction could act at night and investigate clues.

After the idol finished stating the rules, its features slowly twisted into a mass, inch by inch wriggling into a flat surface, slowly retracting into the ceiling, and soon transforming into a stone brick indistinguishable from the surrounding bricks.

Asakura Yuko waited for a while, confirming there was no danger, then sat up from the bed and pushed the door open… On the other side, Giles, holding an oil lamp named 【Light】, hurried along the main road of the Holy City. Countless corpses shuffled slowly along the streets, and a huge tumor could be seen rampaging at the end of the road, devouring the flesh and blood of the corpses.

He walked in the opposite direction of the tumor’s movement, carefully maneuvering his body, dodging left and right, narrowly avoiding any monsters. As he observed, he gradually formed a concept of the instance’s world view.

The Holy Lord, who first created this sacred city, mercifully loved the believers within it. Later, something went wrong, perhaps more heretics appeared, or it was related to the Ragnarok in the background of the strange game. The Holy Lord slept for a period, replaced by player Zis.

Beyond this, there was an obvious evil god quietly entrenched in the Holy City, manipulating sacred things to undergo terrifying mutations, collecting offerings in bizarre ways, and gnawing on corpses. The priests, whether out of fear or for their own benefit, colluded with the evil god, helping to oppress the believers.

Although his deduction had some errors due to Zis’s misleading, it still had merit in its general direction, and it received unanimous approval from the Investigation Bureau representatives as soon as he articulated it.

After escaping the pursuit of the tumor during the day, the group didn’t rush back to the temple. Instead, they wandered around the city for a while longer, and upon turning a street corner, they saw two priests holding transparent jars, which triggered a side quest.

Given their cautiousness, it was naturally impossible for these people to sacrifice their own flesh and blood on the first day. Who knew if it would trigger a death point or get them anchored by the evil god? The more they understood the strange game, the more they realized that danger could lurk in every detail, and over time, they could no longer act as freely as when they first entered an instance.

During his novice pool period, Giles once relied on the fact that injuries wouldn’t carry over from an instance, stabbed himself several times, and used his own blood and severed limbs to set up traps to deceive ghosts, killing half of the NPCs and directly shutting down that instance permanently.

But now, when he recalled the bloody storm of that time, it felt like a lifetime ago. He had ultimately become a cautious and steady middle-aged man, no longer impulsively pursuing brilliant, spur-of-the-moment ideas, but rather tending to communicate seriously with his teammates and follow the organization’s advice.

After some deliberation, the representatives decided on a plan to capture a believer and take their flesh. They each took out items that might be useful for the plan, including those for creating illusions and lowering NPC vigilance. With everything prepared, Giles randomly grabbed an unlucky believer, cut off a piece of flesh with a knife, attached it to his arm, and, carrying the items contributed by the other players, walked towards the two vacant-eyed priests, dropping the meat into the glass jar, hidden by his sleeve.

The sacrifice was completed, and Giles successfully obtained a Spark. Two other players also chose to complete the side quest this way, while the remaining three said they needed to observe for another day.

After completing three consecutive side quests, a special plot was triggered, and a record was unlocked on their history pages: 【Heretics secretly gathered to conspire blasphemous acts】.

The effect was 【Can report rooms with two or more occupants and judge the residents as heretics】.

Thus, the scene of room allocation occurred.

According to the instance rules, Fu Jue was bound to die; however, a being so close to a god could not be without a backup plan, and countless suspicious details veiled the feasibility of “killing Fu Jue” with uncertainty.

But what of it? All the representatives who appeared in this instance were merely desperate gamblers at the end of their rope… To this day, Giles still couldn’t recall why he feared Fu Jue and wished to eliminate him quickly.

Nevertheless, the use of the Spark was now known. It could not only advance the main quest but also allow players from the Believer faction to go out at night.

After deliberating for a while, Giles chose to… use the Spark to light his oil lamp and go out to explore.

The overt reason was to potentially encounter heretics by going out, quickly clarifying faction relationships; covertly, there was also a stirring desire for adventure deep within his heart.

Sitting at a negotiation table, using a Spark obtained by sacrificing flesh and blood to unlock textual plotlines, was something theoretical players enjoyed, but it wasn’t his style.

In the distance, golden blood vessels surging on the surface of the tumor emitted a scorching, sun-like light, dispelling the darkness of half a block, revealing a twilight orange-red. The faint glow of the oil lamp flickered in the other half of the block, appearing timid and hesitant by comparison.

Giles climbed the low railing, leaped, and landed on the roof of a single-story house. From this position, he could both avoid the chaotic monsters on the streets and get a full view of the district below.

He crouched, overlooking for a while, when suddenly, several lines of silver-white text appeared on the system interface before his eyes:

【“Truth of the Holy City’s Destruction” speculation: The city, which should have worshipped gods, is infested with evil spirits. The sacred soil has been polluted, breeding sin and corruption. Fanatical priests ordered believers to sacrifice flesh and blood to feed the new god, but the new god is insatiably greedy, desiring to devour the entire Holy City… (Consume 1 Spark to unlock the rest)】

【Remark: Advance any speculated plot to its ending, and that plot will become the factual truth, and the main quest will be judged as complete.】

There’s a second ending? The new god… could it be player Zis, sitting on the main seat?

Giles pondered slightly, narrowing his eyes… Asakura Yuko walked down the street, looking at the second ending that appeared on the system interface, and adjusted her glasses.

As a heretic, she currently had no intention of randomly picking a lucky person to kill; going out at night was merely to gather more clues.

However, as soon as she stepped out of the temple, she encountered a golden glowing tumor and streets full of walking corpses.

The effect of the 【Taboo Scholar】 identity card made her understand what the tumor was the moment she saw it —

The primordial form of a god, the vitalization of authority, an instinctive animal that only knows how to devour… She finally understood the difficulty of the “Holy City” instance. With combat-type items sealed, players had no solution against such an incommunicable god!

Asakura Yuko quickly thought, retreating step by step, her expression tense.

Hundreds of fissures opened on the surface of the giant tumor, and blood-red eyeballs crawled out from within, yet they seemed not to see her presence, each one perfectly bypassing her and falling onto objects beside her.

She held her breath, watching as the tumor brushed past her and rolled into the distance, only then realizing that the reason heretics could walk at night was probably because this identity, for some reason, allowed them to evade the tumor’s attention.

As the tumor receded, the light dimmed before her eyes. Asakura Yuko’s gaze extended into the distance, seeing only a faint glimmer in the vast darkness, hazy yet distinct, like an oil lamp illuminating the way.

It was a player, and a player with a Spark.

Asakura Yuko made her judgment, knowing that someone had concealed information.

Previously, all the players unanimously stated that they had given up on the side quest and hadn’t obtained a Spark. It couldn’t be that a new Spark quest was suddenly triggered in just a few hours, could it?

She didn’t plan to go check; if that person saw her, and she could move at night without a Spark, it would essentially be like writing “I am a heretic” on her face.

She silently returned to the temple, passed through the frescoes with bleeding eyes on both sides, and went to her Room 11, never using the Heretic faction’s killing ability from start to finish.

Then she discovered… the door wouldn’t open.

【Heretic, please kill. You cannot return to your room until you complete the killing mission.】

Asakura Yuko was silent for two seconds, then retreated to the temple hall, sat down in her seat, and napped on the table.

A killing opportunity was more intimidating when held in reserve, and she had no desire to use it on the first day.

In the darkness, the idols smacked their lips, swallowing fresh flesh and blood. Believers huddled, trembling, in their respective homes. Flor’s corpse rose from behind an idol, swayed out of the temple, and headed towards the graveyard.

Zis sat on the main seat, gazing down at Asakura Yuko, who was sleeping soundly as if no one else was around. The crimson light beam from his fingertip condensed into a thread, forming a path of light in the darkness, extending towards the Eastern District.

Golden-red vines extended like the city’s veins in the void. The light, diluted by length, was so faint as to be transparent, making it impossible to discern its destination even up close.

The entire Holy City was under the control of the gods… At dawn, Asakura Yuko opened her eyes in the hall, vaguely feeling as if she had seen Flor, whom she had killed. She wondered if it was because she had witnessed walking corpses everywhere, leading to her thoughts by day becoming dreams by night.

A “creak” of a door opening came from the temple entrance. The players who had gone out to explore last night pushed their way in from outside, all without exception disheveled and travel-worn, clearly having endured a night of rushing about.

Seeing Asakura Yuko staring at them intently, they all started explaining at once: they were neither heretics nor did they have Sparks. They had been chased by monsters all night and barely escaped with their lives.

Asakura Yuko naturally didn’t believe them, but she had no intention of questioning it. She didn’t want to become a target and be ganged up on by these people during the voting process.

A few minutes later, voices grew louder from the corridor behind the idol. Players who hadn’t gone out at night also woke up one after another, gradually finding their seats at the long table.

Once everyone was seated, the missing numbers became apparent.

Thirteen seats, but only eleven were occupied. The empty seats were numbers 10 and 12, corresponding to Bryon and Fu Jue.

Last night, after Fujiwara Shinyo proposed it, the black man Bryon voluntarily asked to stay in Fu Jue’s Room 12. Fu Jue agreed.

And then… both of them met with an accident.