Chapter 104: But, I Refuse

A moment ago, Jermaine had been posturing as a god made by man descended to earth, ready to deliver divine punishment to the blasphemer, but the next moment, he took two heavy blows to the face.

The massive impact caused his brain to temporarily blank out, leaving him unable to shift his emotions for a moment.

He sat dazed on the roof of the main house, clutching his face with his hand, looking at Wu Chang in disbelief.

His eyes were filled with shock, confusion, and shame-filled rage.

In a different setting, if he had said, "How dare you hit me? Even my father never hit me!" it wouldn't have felt out of place at all.

But the nun's plump figure, combined with Jermaine's stern, angular facial features, looked jarring no matter how one viewed it.

It had a kind of beauty that had been modified by Sweet Baby.

It’s a real pity you aren't a Star-Echo agent.

He grabbed Jermaine by the headpiece and mocked, "You only entered the nun statue, you didn't get castrated and turned into a little trap; show me the aura of your Iron-Fisted Count."

Hearing Wu Chang's mockery, the resentment in Jermaine's eyes deepened.

He—or rather, she—wanted to break free from Wu Chang's control, but the absence of the core Sin of Pride meant that although Jermaine's consciousness occupied the Fallen Saint Statue, it could not unleash the statue's true power.

It might have been enough to deal with a Star-Echo or a negotiation master, but for Wu Chang, who possessed 140 points of Strength, it was still not enough to look at.

Wu Chang only needed to use one hand to press against his forehead, pinning him firmly to the roof, to neutralize all his offensives.

Jermaine had never suffered such bullying; he immediately wanted to fight to the death, exerting all his strength to drive the black halo above his head, wanting to forcibly use the power of a man-made god.

Facing the halo emitting a mysterious light, Wu Chang felt a slight stinging sensation at his neck; even his 15-meter-tall giant body could not give him enough sense of security.

His intuition was telling him that the power Jermaine was accumulating was dangerous to him.

After all, it was a system-verified man-made god; even if it was the most impoverished version, ordinary players still couldn't afford to ignore it.

So, before Jermaine could succeed, he launched his signature skill.

"Man!"

An iron elbow, wider than the face of the Fallen Saint Statue, smashed fiercely into Jermaine's face, causing his high, sculpted features to instantly cave in.

Not only that, various negative status effects followed one after another, causing Jermaine to lose the ability to fight back.

Jermaine’s defense was broken; with his face caved in, he said in a fit of pique:

"Did Ebet guess my plan and tell you in secret?"

Wu Chang shook his head. "Ebet? That old man thought a common postman could ruin the ritual before he died; how could he have discovered your plan?"

In Ebet's eyes, Jermaine had already died from the backlash of the townspeople, and the Count's Manor had entered a masterless state; as long as one possessed the status of a town councilor and could enter the Count's Manor, one could ruin the ritual.

Jermaine was stunned. He had thought Ebet was the mastermind pulling all the strings, having outplayed him by a move, but how could this double-crossing traitor just die like that?

This group of fish-headed idiots on the island, each one stupider than the last, who could have killed him? "Ebet is dead? How did he die?"

Wu Chang said without changing his expression, "He was old, took a fall, and then died of illness."

The dignified Chief Alchemist of the Church, just died like that?

Jermaine felt a sense of absurdity, then immediately said, "I saw you resurrect the Saintess. If you aren't one of Ebet's people, you must have been sent by the Church."

Wu Chang shook his head again. "The item to resurrect the Saintess did come from the Church, but those old fossils in the Church couldn't order me around."

"Then who exactly sent you!" Jermaine found this unacceptable.

He could accept losing to Ebet, he could accept losing to the Church, but he could not accept losing to a nobody.

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "Don't overthink it, I'm just a passing ordinary postman."

Guessing Jermaine's plan wasn't difficult; the biggest flaw in Jermaine's entire plan was that he lowered his own sense of presence too much.

As the actual controller of Brifer, his death was far too hasty.

To put it realistically, the townspeople of Brifer were like a pack of dogs raised by Jermaine; as the dog trainer, how could he not know whether the dogs he raised would bite? Could Pan Hong really let Liu Liu be locked in a corner, chasing her to feed her kicks to the heart and dragon fruit?

If you don't know, look at Ailin on the pyre.

With Jermaine's understanding of the townspeople, could he not have guessed that once the townspeople sobered up and could no longer endure the torture of their own conscience, they would shift the conflict onto him? Of course, he might have been too confident in his own methods, believing his control over the townspeople was thorough enough.

Or perhaps he trusted Ebet too much, not believing that Ebet, who was in the same boat as him, would actually betray him.

It was indeed possible for Jermaine to make such a mistake with a low probability, but the illusions that appeared in the Count's Manor seemed too deliberate.

It was as if he were afraid others wouldn't know he was dead, rather than worrying about him hiding elsewhere.

Especially after Wu Chang saw the two fleshy grudges, he discovered that the Faceless Nun wasn't incapable of movement, but after he arrived with the other six proofs of original sin, she pretended to be an inanimate object and didn't move.

However, even if these were all coincidences, there was still one biggest flaw in Jermaine's plan. That was his character design.

In the dungeon plot, Jermaine's character design was an Iron-Fisted Count, a control freak.

Facing such an important god-making plan, he was too indulgent toward Ebet, giving Ebet too much freedom.

The Starlight Lighthouse built by Ebet could directly pierce the barrier of the Count's Manor and sneak inside; after burning the Saintess to death, he didn't directly control Ebet, but instead let Ebet run wild outside, bewitching the townspeople.

Coupled with the fact that he didn't try to resist the rioting townspeople at all, but instead preached before he died, it made his character design seem even more collapsed.

Combining these many suspicious points, the most likely answer was that Jermaine did it on purpose.

His desire for control over people allowed him to easily see through the human heart.

He saw Ebet's true nature and knew Ebet would ruin things at a critical moment, so he deliberately indulged him, even helping him in private, so that Ebet could successfully kill him.

The god-making ritual of Jermaine and Ebet was completely different from the method the Church used to create Ailin.

When the Church created Ailin, they longed to create a perfect saint by stripping away all negative emotions, using the saint to control the holy mark and directly become a man-made god.

Jermaine's god-making approach was completely different; realizing that the seven original sins could not be eradicated, he simply reversed the ritual, using the seven original sins as the core to create an evil god.

Just because of Ebet, Ailin's seven original sins merged with the holy mark; using Ailin's seven original sins as a foundation could both seize the power of the holy mark and create an evil god.

Jermaine's purpose in deliberately letting Ebet kill him was to use the geographical advantage and the judgment of the townspeople to transform himself into the Proof of Pride.

Once the inner world formed by the seven original sins completely spiraled out of control and the seven proofs of original sin matured, they would be absorbed into the Faceless Nun's body according to the plan, achieving a man-made god.

He could then use his status as the core Proof of Pride to possess the Fallen Saint Statue and transform into a man-made god.

The reason Pride is the head of the seven original sins is that its sin is not only against people but also disrespectful to the gods.

Ebet's former professor once said that gods are born as gods, naturally noble.

Longing to become a god oneself is the greatest disrespect to the gods.

It was precisely because he knew the core of the man-made god was Jermaine that Wu Chang hesitated about whether to accept the hidden side quest.

Count Jermaine was black-hearted, ruthless, and had a strong desire for control; cooperating with him was no different from asking a tiger for its skin.

One must know that the main quest one of Quiet Town was to survive on the island for thirty days.

And it was only the fourth day now.

If Jermaine were resurrected as a man-made god, to complete main quest one, he would have to survive under Jermaine for twenty-six days.

Even if he had the life to get the hidden side quest reward, he might not have the life to spend it.

Even if Jermaine let bygones be bygones and didn't kill him as soon as he was resurrected, what awaited Wu Chang would be nothing more than being invited to dinner, beheaded, and taken in as a dog.

He didn't want to be a dog, at least not the dog of an old man-trap with the same style as Sweet Baby.

"The player has chosen to refuse the hidden side quest; the relationship between the player and the Fallen Saint Statue has become mortal enemies; the Fallen Saint Statue will use every method to seize the missing Proof of Original Sin."

The reward for the hidden side quest was indeed tempting, but, I refuse.

"Do you have any final words?"

As Wu Chang refused the hidden side quest, Jermaine seemed to sense it; his eyes revealed hatred and unwillingness.

"No matter who sent you, after I die, the Church will definitely not let you go; I will be waiting for you down below!"

"Oh, then you'll probably have to wait a long time."

Wu Chang dragged Count Jermaine down from the roof, lifted the bronze statue that had once smashed him to death, and stabbed it fiercely into the throat of the Fallen Saint Statue.

Count Jermaine’s eyes widened, staring fixedly at him.

Wu Chang closed his eyelids with one hand; stop looking, it's disgusting.

As Count Jermaine closed his eyes, the halo above the Fallen Saint Statue fell off like an iron ring, rolling forward; after hitting an obstacle, it spun half a circle in place and lay flat on the ground.

The obstacle the halo hit was Ailin, who had appeared out of nowhere.

Ailin bent down to pick up the halo from the ground, blew on it, and used her clothes to wipe away the black on the halo, making it turn gold again.

Then she put it on her own head with a backhand motion and groaned comfortably.

"How should I thank you, powerful mortal."

(End of chapter)