Chapter 75

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

At the left edge of the frame, the faceless statue of the Great Mother could be faintly seen.

At the center of the image was a charred corpse.

The corpse's posture was grotesque—he knelt on the ground, fingers digging into his torn chest, desperately pulling it apart as if trying to spread his entire body open to show the onlookers: don't judge a person by appearance, look deeper inside.

But inside the torn chest, all internal organs had vanished, replaced by a cavity filled entirely with glowing embers of charred coal.

From his posture, Wu Chang had a hunch: the dead man had stuffed the burning coals into his own chest.

The dead man's resentment resided on the face of the Great Mother statue, like a streak of blood-tears.

As Wu Chang stared, the blood-tear-like resentment unfolded, revealing the scene recorded within it.

The dead person in the photo was a young woman, holding the very camera Xiang Jianxing now used, sprinting through the town's streets.

Unlike the real world, the world the dead woman inhabited was engulfed in roaring flames—from the entire street to the whole town.

Clearly, this was a new Rili World zone.

Unless mistaken, she was the former reporter who had died of heatstroke, as mentioned by the hamster.

The reporter ran in panic; behind her, dozens of townspeople, their bodies ablaze, screamed as they charged toward her.

As she ran, she muttered curses under her breath.

"Fuck, Tony's dead, Logan's dead, Banner's dead, Steve's gone missing—now am I gonna die in this nameless little instance too?"

From this familiar naming style, it was easy to recognize: the owner of this resentment, like the former mailman, belonged to the organization Xiang Jianxing called Deepwater Society.

From her words, it sounded like many of them had already died when this scene occurred—like Thanos had snapped his fingers again.

Following the naming pattern, he guessed the former reporter's codename was Natasha.

"It's all Tony's fault—a dumbass who insisted on storming the lighthouse. Now look: we don't even know if the Count's manor gate opened, but the Rili World's completely messed up!"

From her words, they had forcibly broken into the seaside lighthouse and triggered some switch.

That switch might have opened the gate to the Count's manor, but it also plunged the Rili World into chaos.

As she complained, the reporter searched for a way out of the Rili World.

But like walking in circles, no matter which path she chose, she couldn't escape the town's central area.

Soon, she was surrounded by countless burning townspeople.

As a seasoned player who had teamed up with the former mailman, the reporter was no pushover.

She pulled a long whip from her personal space and swung it fiercely around her, fighting her way backward.

The whip unleashed sharp wind blades, and its surface shimmered with metallic luster.

Townspeople grazed by the wind blades were instantly sliced in two; those struck directly by the whip exploded into flames.

The battle was one-sided—the burning townspeople were far weaker than the fishmen at the dock; it felt less like combat and more like a group suicide run.

Though the reporter seemed to be on a rampage, after killing dozens of burning townspeople, her expression showed no relief—her face grew even more grim.

When she finally retreated to the front of the cathedral, she couldn't hold back anymore.

She opened her mouth and screamed in agony—but halfway through, flames gushed from her lips, turning her scream into a muffled whimper.

She felt her five viscera and six organs burning as if roasted alive—the pain was so unbearable she had to slit open her belly to cool them down.

At that moment, the Great Mother statue behind her moved.

The Great Mother statue stepped to her back and whispered: "The Divine will accept all confessions of sinners, relieving them of their suffering."

As if guided, the reporter dropped her whip, drew a short dagger, knelt before the Great Mother statue, slit open her own body, and displayed her sins to her.

The scene within the resentment ended abruptly here.

But just before the resentment faded, Wu Chang saw the sin the reporter revealed.

Thanks to the ability he'd honed after seeing Lyman's true form, he saw within the reporter a pure emotion.

Envy.

The reporter's sin was nothing but envy.

Interesting.

The moment Wu Chang's consciousness returned, he heard Xiang Jianxing's voice. "Hey, you okay?"

Wu Chang yawned, rubbed his eyes, and said: "Didn't sleep well last night, worked all day today—got a bit distracted."

Xiang Jianxing warned: "Finishing the instance isn't urgent. Maintaining full mental energy and calm judgment is key to surviving inside."

"Understood."

Xiang Jianxing showed everyone the photo, ensuring they had a basic impression of its contents, then ended today's meeting.

Until leaving, Wu Chang never mentioned anything related to the Rili World.

Hiding information wasn't meant to treat others like lab rats, as he had with Leng Shan.

Quite the opposite—he was hiding it to save them.

From the attendance at the gathering, only the brooding artsy guy and Leng Shan were absent.

The brooding artsy guy had fixated on my True Self from the start—his insight and intuition were razor-sharp; he wouldn't be an easy casualty.

So last night, only Leng Shan had been sucked into the Rili World.

That meant: as long as you didn't act like the former mailman, the Rili World likely absorbed only one player per night.

Xiang Jianxing's group was progressing too slowly. If I casually leaked bits of information to him, even if he cleared the instance, all the newbies inside would be dead by then.

If I took over, and moved fast enough, I might just get these rookies out alive.

Sure, Xiang Jianxing took the blame when we first entered the instance, but I know my own situation.

As an instance that's been tampered with and capable of self-contamination, Quiet Town is nearly as dangerous as one on the verge of collapse.

Getting matched to this instance was mostly my doing.

In the Abyss Game, life and death are your own responsibility—if danger arises, I won't mind using these rookies as bait. But since the incident started because of me, and I'm within range, I'll still do what I can to pull them through.

Moreover, he hadn't fully trusted Xiang Jianxing yet.

Xiang Jianxing had never explained what his purpose was in mixing in among the group of newcomers.

But for now he seemed to be a decent sort—if ever he couldn't hold it in any longer and showed his fox's tail,

Breeves Town valued its rules above all; there were plenty of ways to deal with him.

The next morning, just as the sky was brightening, Wu Chang left the post office carrying the delivery box.

For the first stop on his deliveries, he chose the mayor's house.

When Mayor Harrison saw it was him, he immediately broke into a smile like greeting an old friend.

"Guess who I see? One outstanding young fellow! Last night more than one person told me you delivered every piece of backed-up mail in town."

Wu Chang put on a professional, salesman-style smile:

"The moment I arrived on the island, I fell head over heels for this place. As long as I can fit into this little slice of heaven and earn the people's approval, I'll do anything."

Harrison pressed his lips together dramatically. "I can feel the young man's drive!"

Harrison set the parcel down by the door, turned and went back to his study to fetch a sheet of paper, and handed it to Wu Chang.

"No matter what anyone else says, kid, you've already earned my approval. I'm sure the other two won't turn you down either."

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

With the establishment of the sea lanes, more and more outsiders had been coming to Breeves Island; these outsiders needed a representative—one seat on the Town Council.

The residents of Breeves Town were only willing to give these off-islanders a single seat with the right to speak.

That seat had been left vacant to this day—first come, first served.

And Wu Chang was the person Harrison had chosen.

The letter of recommendation had three blank spaces, and attached to the back was a roster listing the identities of twenty-one town councilors.

Wu Chang needed to obtain recommendations from three of them before he could formally join the Town Council.

The first blank had already been signed with Harrison's name.

He flipped through the councilor roster and spotted Sheriff Mo Leina and the grocery store owner, Marti.

Wasn't that just perfect.

(End of chapter)