Chapter 452: The Ancestral God Approaches

By late May, Jiangcheng and its surrounding cities quickly restored order under the governance of high-ranking officials like Councilor Hayes. Simultaneously, various purges proceeded in an orderly fashion.

After being hit by a tranquilizer dart, Lin Chen fell under the control of the Department of Weirdness Investigation. He remained silent for an entire day after waking up, only then fully processing what had happened in the later stages of the final instance and Si Qi’s death.

In the following days, under interrogation by the Department of Weirdness Investigation, he confessed everything about his experiences since entering the weird game. It was then that people learned that Lin Crow, the elusive leader of the Unnamed Guild, was merely a university student who had just entered the game, a facade Si Qi used to bluff.

According to regulations, criminals with severe offenses like Lin Chen should be imprisoned for life in a containment cell, just like Lin Jue. However, the identity card 【Necromancer】 was too useful; it could even be said to be one of the most needed cards for the Department of Weirdness Investigation at this stage.

After a heated debate, Councilor Hayes made the final decision, allowing Lin Chen to be dispatched to various parts of Long County to atone for his crimes.

So, the investigators took Lin Chen on a plane. In each city they visited, they would let Lin Chen wander around. Once all the ghosts had joined the Team behind him, they would bring Lin Chen and his ghost army back to Jiangcheng, utilizing this mysterious forbidden zone for purification or restoration.

In this way, the density of weirdness in Long County gradually decreased to the level before the final instance began, also proving that the idea of using Lin Chen to deal with ghosts was indeed feasible. Councilor Hayes immediately signed a document, allowing Lin Chen to be dispatched to other regions in other counties.

On May 30th, a special plane from the Department of Weirdness Investigation landed at Regina Airport in Maple Leaf County.

The area, cleansed by weirdness, was filled with dust. A closer look revealed that the tiny particles were not sand but pulverized bone fragments and putrid meat scraps, whether from humans or other beings, was unknown.

The cabin door opened, and a putrid, bloody smell assailed them. Lin Chen, dressed in a pristine white protective suit designed to maximize bodily protection, stepped off the plane.

He would lose consciousness the moment he left Jiangcheng’s territory. At this point, he was merely a walking corpse, driven by his identity card, moving through streets covered in blood and dismembered limbs, and through alleys teeming with flickering ghost shadows.

A pearly white halo bloomed from beneath his feet, and the phantom of white feathers encircled him. As he delved deeper into the ghost clusters, the light grew more intense, cleaving through the murky tide of ghosts as if it were a physical force.

The weird, grotesque, and evil entities lurking in the shadows seemed to be summoned, emerging one after another from their corners, swaying as they followed behind Lin Chen.

The investigators sat on the plane, monitoring Lin Chen’s every move via satellite. In the footage, the young man was initially wandering aimlessly, turning randomly when encountering obstacles.

At one point, he seemed to fixate on a target, abruptly changing direction and directly scaling collapsed walls, smashing through fences and roadblocks, running wildly, running wildly, like a beast released back into the mountains.

The investigator stared intently at the screen, his heart pounding. This was the first time 【Necromancer】 had performed a mission outside of Long County, and something had already gone wrong. Was it a coincidence, or… If a weird entity of this level went out of control, anyone without significant backing would be unable to bear the consequences. The investigator’s mind flashed with a montage of being court-martialed, and he shivered profoundly, immediately frantically pressing the communication button:

“Calling headquarters, 【Necromancer】 is showing signs of losing control. Requesting expert intervention for analysis…”

“Calling headquarters, should the destruction protocol be executed immediately? Please provide the nearest nuclear missile launch base…”

Messages were transmitted from the plane’s radio to Jiangcheng, including the satellite surveillance footage. Five minutes later, the analysis and instructions from the Jiangcheng Department of Weirdness Investigation sounded emotionlessly via electronic voice transcription:

“Calculations indicate a 90% probability that 【Necromancer】’s destination is the 【Red Maple Leaf Boarding School Weird Site】 120 kilometers away. It is impossible to determine what chain reactions will occur when the two weird carriers meet.

“A small nuclear missile will be deployed in Regina in ten minutes, expected to create a radiation zone with a 2-kilometer radius. Relevant personnel are requested to evacuate as soon as possible.”

The value of 【Necromancer】 might be extraordinary, but no one was willing to gamble on the risk of it losing control. Suppressing it with firepower before the situation got out of hand was the safest choice for humanity.

The investigator completed his initial reporting, knowing that no matter what happened later, the responsibility would not fall on him. As the plane turned around to prepare for its return, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, only to hear a piercing alarm sound in the cabin.

【Warning! All electronic instruments in the central control panel have failed, the plane is about to crash!】

At the same time, the Jiangcheng Department of Weirdness Investigation also received a message from the nuclear missile launch base: “Our nuclear missile lost control at an altitude of 200 kilometers from Regina. The source of interference is currently unknown…”

On the empty streets of Regina, abandoned private cars lay haphazardly. The dormant dashboards inside the cars suddenly began to spin wildly in unison, emitting strange “clattering” sounds.

In the empty houses along the street, televisions automatically turned on, displaying static noise and color data bars jumping wildly; the radio’s switch was turned by an invisible hand, and the connected spiritual radio station was reciting: “Tonight… hiss… you… hiss… will all die…”

Scene after scene of weird occurrences unfolded in the city, but Lin Chen continued to run, seemingly oblivious. When a person becomes a weird entity, mixed among demons and monsters like a lost one returning home, they naturally do not experience fear, whether it is fortunate or unfortunate.

Someone sighed mournfully, a woman’s voice. The dull yellow sky suddenly began to turn corpse-like pale from the edges, and countless silver threads stretched and extended from all directions, weaving a dense spiderweb across the firmament.

Silver-white eyes slowly opened and closed. Under their indifferent and cold gaze, an old-fashioned school built of gray concrete rose from the ground. Emaciated children sat cross-legged in a circle, clapping their hands and singing a nursery rhyme:

“Good children who don’t want to eat can only eat dirt,

Bad children are covered in poisonous mushrooms.

Gods grow in rotten vegetables,

Yellow flower buds bloom at the head of the dead’s bed… Lin Chen rushed into the school, ran into the group of children, and then suddenly stopped. His gray-black pupils were clouded, and for the first time since becoming a weird entity, a human confusion began to weave within him.

Where is this? Why did he come here? He seemed to have forgotten something, forgotten some very important people and things… “Good child, you’ve finally arrived. We’ve been waiting for you.” A woman in white clothes with white hair stood among the children, her back to Lin Chen, her voice gentle, “You must be tired these days, aren’t you? It’s time to rest, find a place to sit.”

Lin Chen stood there dumbfounded, as if he had been split in half. One half of him frantically warned him that the woman in front was extremely dangerous, while the other half soothed his soul, urging him to trust the woman’s benevolence.

A low-sequence weird entity ultimately could not defy a high-sequence god. He eventually walked in front of the woman, stiffly sat on the ground, and allowed the woman to plunge her hand into his heart, pulling out a blood-soaked identity card.

The silver-white card face was covered with a layer of blood, and both the shepherd and the ghosts were smeared with an eerie, pale pink. Human cognition returned the moment the identity card left his body. Lin Chen’s eyes widened, and he raised his hand, wanting to snatch back the identity card.

The woman lowered her eyes, patted his shoulder sympathetically, and said softly, “Sleep for a while. It won’t hurt, it will be over soon.”

Her words seemed to possess a hypnotic magic. Lin Chen instantly felt drowsy, all his thoughts heavily suppressed by an overwhelming weariness. He slowly closed his eyelids, his body crashing to the ground with a dull thud. Fresh red blood gushed from his chest, soaking through his pristine white protective suit and spreading into an irregular pool beneath him.

His blood seemed endless, flowing like a river to the feet of the surrounding children, staining their shoe soles and trouser legs. The children continued to clap, as if playing an unstoppable game. They sat in the pool of blood with terrified expressions, their mouths opening and closing exaggeratedly, singing joyfully:

“After the day the yellow butterflies flew in,

Everyone died and was buried in the dirt.

No grass grows on the children’s graves,

All of this is the witch’s curse…”

…Eagle County, Nevada, Redan Deep Casino Headquarters, third underground floor.

Tiny iron cages were crammed together, each containing a small boy or girl, huddled in a ball, eyes overflowing with fear and despair.

Jack held a whip, patrolling among the iron cages, occasionally lashing out and eliciting painful screams.

No matter how chaotic the outside world became, it did not hinder humanity from exercising its imagination for evil desires, finding a place far from order and law to live a life of debauchery. In addition to its gambling operations, Redan Deep Casino also collected homeless children from around the world to provide certain special services for powerful patrons.

Thanks to the rampant weirdness, police detectives were once overwhelmed, thousands of cities fell into a state of collapsed order, and countless children were displaced in the catastrophe, becoming orphans. Human trafficking became more convenient and cheaper than ever before, and good-looking boys and girls filled all three acres of Redan Deep Casino’s basement within a few days.

As the person in charge of this gray industry chain, Jack could almost imagine how much wealth he would gain after the situation stabilized. Of course, he entered this line of work not just for money. As one of the few lucky individuals in the world who turned their hobby into a profession, he naturally possessed a certain sadistic urge towards weaker life forms, starting with cats and dogs, and ending with children.

“Little fellow, why are you staring at me? Don’t worry, the next lash will land on you.” Jack sneered, looking at a boy who was watching him, habitually uttering threatening words.

However, the boy remained motionless, staring at him. Silver-white light spread in his eyes, and the expression of terror gradually dissipated, transforming into the desire of a beast spotting its prey.

“What… what’s going on?” Jack instinctively took a step back but felt his ankle grabbed by a pair of cold hands. He looked back and saw that the cage behind him had been forcibly torn open, creating a hole large enough for a person to pass through. A girl in tattered clothes, like a snake, lay prone on the ground, gripping his leg and baring her sharp teeth.

“Click, click…” The sound of bending iron bars rose and fell. All the cages in the basement were forcibly torn open by the children confined inside. One by one, the children, on all fours like animals, roared and pounced on Jack. Silver, inhuman light, cold as a snow mountain, flickered in each child’s eyes.

June 1st, a day designated as “Children’s Day” by various counties around the world, whether by coincidence or due to a certain god’s dark humor, all children under the age of fourteen worldwide underwent a transformation.

They seemed to have undergone a regression in evolutionary history, devolving from humans to beasts, scurrying agilely on all fours through streets and alleys, ganging up to tear at a lone adult, then scattering once the target lost its life, gathering in a corner of the city, faces covered in blood, clapping and singing in a circle.

Jiangcheng remained a mysterious forbidden zone untouched by weirdness, but the surrounding cities fell overnight. The density of weirdness, which had previously decreased due to 【Necromancer】’s influence, returned to its peak, and became even more frantic, more unreasonable, harboring an malice to cleanse the entire world.

A month’s worth of surveillance footage from various parts of Long County was sent to the Jiangcheng Department of Weirdness Investigation. Councilor Hayes and others finally noticed a fact they had overlooked while dealing with Lin Jue.

The white-clothed, white-haired woman had landed in Long County from the harbor as early as May 17th, when Si Qi entered Jiangcheng. In less than half a month, she descended like a ghost upon various cities, distributing white candies to certain children. Those children then hopped and skipped to various parts of the city, sharing the endless candies with their peers… “It’s White Crow! I knew there was a reason why the Balance Church hadn’t made a move these days; they were brewing trouble!” In the conference room, a councilor angrily slammed the table. “Who said back then that all members of the Balance Church had self-sacrificed in the final instance? It was because of that mistaken judgment that we missed the best preparation time!”

Politicians are accustomed to assigning blame the moment something goes wrong; to put it bluntly, it’s to shirk their own responsibility and then condemn their political rivals.

Someone sneered, “I did say that at the time, but who among you can claim that wasn’t your thought? Otherwise, why did no one refute me?”

Another chimed in, “Ultimately, the intelligence was flawed. I’d like to ask, who was responsible for intelligence work?”

A cough sounded from the main seat, coming from Councilor Hayes. As the de facto leader of the current Department of Weirdness Investigation and the greatest contributor to imprisoning Lin Jue, his opinions often carried significant weight in meetings.

The councilors finally fell silent. Councilor Hayes shook his head slightly, “The Balance Church indeed no longer exists, and what we’re seeing isn’t White Crow.”

Under the bewildered gaze of the councilors, he sighed and spoke more plainly: “What we need to contend with now is the supreme being under the rules, the Ancestral God who once created this world.”

The councilors fell silent. People at their level naturally knew about the secrets of divine beings and the existence of the Ancestral God, and also knew that the Ancestral God’s mission was to reclaim the entire old world after the rules collapsed and restart a new one.

But what could they do? Electronic instruments would fail, nuclear missiles would go out of control. Humanity’s proud modern technology was like children’s playthings to the Ancestral God. How could they stop the Ancestral God?

Councilor Hayes rose and walked to the window, gazing at the gray-white sky outside. Silver eyes, like cracks in the firmament, stretched across everyone’s heads, indifferently and mockingly overlooking the scarred human world. The struggles of ants could not shake the great existence in the slightest.

He withdrew his gaze, letting it fall on the windowsill. A ring of tea stains had formed there at some unknown time, and an ant was restlessly circling along the dark track, occasionally lifting its head, anxiously flicking its two slender antennae, as if questioning the origin of its fate.

Councilor Hayes extended his index finger and scraped the edge of the tea stain. A tiny gap formed beneath his fingertip. If the ant came here again, it could escape the repetitive cycle through that gap.

He repeatedly rubbed his fingers, concentrating on the wiping motion, when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his fingertip. The ant had somehow circled to the opposite side of his fingertip and bitten down hard.

“I’m thinking, why would the Ancestral God, who could clearly destroy everyone directly, choose to let us gradually become aware?” Councilor Hayes withdrew his finger and murmured, “Does He want us to fear? Or does He want us to react in some way?”

The councilors exchanged glances, but then heard the old man in front of them sigh deeply: “We know too little about the Ancestral God, far less than that person. So much so that even knowing He is coming, we can only passively wait, unable to do anything.”

Someone understood his unspoken meaning and quickly stood up to refute: “Your Excellency Hayes, Lin Jue is a madman. He will harm all of humanity. We are not wrong; we are responsible for humanity!”

“Humanity is about to be destroyed. What difference does it make by whose hand?” Councilor Hayes turned and looked around at the councilors, his voice calm, “Disaster has already arrived. Rather than sitting idly by, it’s better to take one last gamble, that that person’s stance is still on humanity’s side.”