Chapter 75: Town Councilor

The background in the photo is the square in front of the town's cathedral.

On the left edge of the frame, one can vaguely see that faceless statue of the Great Madonna.

In the very center of the frame is a charred corpse.

The corpse’s posture is bizarre; he is kneeling on the ground, his hands clawing into his torn-open chest, pulling desperately toward both sides as if to splay his entire body open, telling the surrounding spectators not to look only at a person’s exterior, but to look more at their inner self.

Yet, inside the chest he has torn open, the various internal organs have vanished, replaced by charred remains still glowing with embers that fill the entire thoracic cavity.

Judging by his posture, Wu Chang has a premonition that the deceased stuffed the burning charcoal into his own chest.

The resentment of the deceased is located on the face of the Great Madonna statue, like a line of blood and tears.

As Wu Chang stares, the resentment resembling blood and tears unfolds, revealing the scene recorded within it.

The deceased in the photo is a young woman; she is holding the camera that Jianxing is currently using, running wildly through the streets of the small town.

Unlike the real world, in the world where the deceased is located, the entire street, and even the entire town, is engulfed in raging flames.

Clearly, this is a new area of the Inner World.

If nothing goes wrong, she is the former reporter who died of heatstroke that Hamster mentioned.

The reporter is running in a panic; behind her, one can see dozens of townspeople whose bodies are burning, screaming as they charge toward her.

The reporter is cursing under her breath as she runs.

"Damn it, Tony is dead, Logan is dead, Banner is dead, and Steve went missing with him; now even I am going to die in this nameless little dungeon?"

From this familiar naming style, it is not hard to recognize that the owner of the resentment, like the former mailman, comes from the organization Jianxing calls the Deep Water Society.

Judging by what she said, when the scene in the resentment occurred, many of them had already died; it sounds like Thanos snapped his fingers again.

Following the naming pattern, he blindly guesses the former reporter’s codename is Natasha.

"It’s all that idiot Tony’s fault, insisting on storming the lighthouse. Now look, it’s hard to say if the gate to the Earl’s Manor was opened or not, but the Inner World is in total chaos!"

Judging by her words, they forcibly rushed into the lighthouse by the sea and triggered some kind of switch.

That switch might open the gate to the Earl’s Manor, but it would also plunge the Inner World into some kind of chaos.

The reporter complains while searching for a way to leave the Inner World.

But she is like someone trapped in a ghost maze; no matter what route she chooses, she cannot leave the town center area.

Not long after, she is surrounded by countless burning townspeople.

As a veteran player capable of teaming up with the former mailman, the reporter is naturally no pushover.

She takes a long whip from her personal space, swings it forcefully in all directions, and fights while retreating.

The swung whip emits sharp wind blades, and the whip itself glimmers with a metallic luster.

Townspeople grazed by the wind blades are instantly sliced in two, and if struck by the whip, they explode into a ball of flame on the spot.

The battle is one-sided; the burning townspeople are much weaker than the mermen at the pier, and rather than a battle, it is more like a group suicide mission.

It looks like the reporter is dominating, but after killing dozens of burning townspeople, the reporter’s expression does not relax in the slightest; instead, her complexion becomes increasingly ugly.

When she retreats all the way to the front of the cathedral, she finally cannot hold it in anymore.

She opens her mouth to wail in pain, but before the wail is even halfway out, flames gush from her mouth, turning the wail into a muffled whimper.

She feels as if her internal organs are being roasted by flames, so painful that she must cut open her stomach to let it cool down inside.

At this moment, the Great Madonna statue behind her moves.

The Great Madonna statue walks behind the reporter and says softly, "The gods will accept all the confessions of sinners and relieve them of the pain they bear."

As if guided, the reporter puts down her long whip, takes out a short blade, kneels before the Great Madonna statue, cuts herself open, and displays her sins to the Great Madonna statue.

The scene in the resentment ends abruptly here.

But in the moment before the resentment ended, Wu Chang saw the sin the reporter displayed.

Relying on the ability he developed after seeing the true form of Laiman, he saw a pure emotion inside the reporter.

Jealousy.

The reporter’s sin was nothing but jealousy.

Interesting.

The moment Wu Chang’s consciousness returns, he hears Jianxing’s voice. "Hey, are you okay?"

Wu Chang yawns, rubs his eyes, and says, "I didn't sleep well last night, and I worked all day today, so I was a bit distracted."

Jianxing reminds him, "There is no rush to clear the dungeon; maintaining abundant energy and calm judgment is the key to surviving in a dungeon."

"Duly noted."

After Jianxing lets everyone look at the photo and they have a basic impression of the image, he ends today’s meeting.

Until he leaves, Wu Chang does not say anything about the information related to the Inner World.

Withholding information is not because he intends to treat the others like lab rats, as he did with Hanshi.

Quite the opposite; withholding information is to save them.

Judging by the attendance at the gathering, only the Melancholy Literary Man and Hanshi were absent.

The Melancholy Literary Man has been pestering his True Self from the start, and his insight and inspiration are exceptionally sharp; he is not a character who would easily kick the bucket.

So, the only one sucked into the Inner World last night should have been Hanshi.

That is to say, as long as one doesn't court death like the former mailman, the Inner World likely only sucks in one player each night.

Jianxing and the others’ progress in clearing the dungeon is too slow; if he were to pretend to inadvertently leak the intelligence to Jianxing bit by bit, even if Jianxing could clear it, the newcomers in the dungeon would be mostly dead by then.

If he takes over, as long as the clearing speed is fast enough, perhaps he can let this group of rookies leave safely.

Although Jianxing took the blame voluntarily when they first entered the dungeon, he knows his own business.

As a dungeon that has been tampered with and is self-polluting, the difficulty of Silent Town is no less than that of a dungeon on the verge of spiraling out of control.

Being matched into this dungeon is likely mainly his own doing.

In the Abyss Game, one is responsible for their own life and death; if there is danger, he doesn't mind using these rookies as bait, but within his capabilities, and since the incident started because of him, he will still try his best to pull them along if he can.

Moreover, he does not fully trust Jianxing yet.

Jianxing has yet to explain what his purpose is in mingling among a group of newcomers.

However, he looks like a decent person for now; if he ever can't hold it in and shows his fox tail.

Brifer Town values rules most of all; there are plenty of ways to deal with him.

The next morning, just as the sky brightened, Wu Chang left the post office with a delivery box.

For the first stop of his deliveries, he chose the Mayor’s house.

When Mayor Harrison saw it was him, he immediately showed a smile like he was seeing an old friend.

"Guess who I saw? An excellent young man! More than one person told me last night that you finished delivering all the backlog of mail in town."

Wu Chang puts on a professional salesman-like smile:

"The moment I arrived on the island, I fell deeply in love with this place. As long as I can integrate into this heaven-like town and gain people’s recognition, I can do anything."

Harrison purses his lips exaggeratedly, "I can feel the drive of a young man!"

Harrison places the package at the door, turns back to his study to take out a piece of paper, and hands it to Wu Chang.

"No matter what others say, child, you have already gained my recognition. I believe the other two will not refuse you either."

What Harrison gave him was a letter of recommendation, a letter of recommendation to join the Town Council.

With the establishment of maritime routes, there are more and more outsiders on Brifer Island; these outsiders need a representative, a seat as a town councilor.

The residents of Brifer Town are only willing to give these outsiders one seat with the qualification to speak.

This position has been vacant until now; first come, first served.

And Wu Chang is the person Harrison has chosen.

There are three blanks on the recommendation letter, and a list is attached to the back of the letter, recording the identities of twenty-one town councilors.

Wu Chang needs to obtain recommendations from three of them to officially join the Town Council.

The first blank already has Harrison’s name signed on it.

He flips through the list of town councilors and sees Sheriff Mo Leina and grocery store owner Ma Di among them.

Isn't that a coincidence.

(End of chapter)