Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Town Councilor
The background in the photo is the square in front of the town’s Great Cathedral.
On the left edge of the frame, you can vaguely see the faceless Great Statue of the Holy Mother.
At the center of the frame is a charred corpse.
The pose of the corpse is bizarre, kneeling on the ground, both hands tearing open the chest, desperately pulling it apart, as if trying to lay the entire body bare, telling the audience around, not to just look at the outside of a person, but also to look deeper within.
But inside the torn-open chest, all the organs have vanished, replaced by charcoal filling the entire cavity, still smoldering with embers.
From his posture, Wu Chang has a premonition that the deceased shoved the burning coals into their own chest.
The deceased’s resentment is located at the face of the Great Statue of the Holy Mother, like streaks of bloody tears.
As Wu Chang stared, the resentment resembling bloody tears unfolded, revealing the scene depicted in the resentment.
The deceased in the photo is a young woman, holding the camera that Sword Star is using, running frantically through the streets of the town.
Unlike the real world, in the world where the deceased resides, the entire street, even the whole town, is engulfed in raging flames.
Clearly, this is a new region of the Inner World.
If there are no surprises, she is the former journalist who died of heatstroke, according to Hamster.
The journalist runs in panic, with dozens of townspeople engulfed in flames chasing after her, screaming madly.
The journalist mutters curses under her breath as she runs.
"Damn it, Tony’s dead, Logan’s dead, Banner’s dead and Steve’s gone missing. Now am I going to die in this nameless little dungeon too?"
It’s not hard to recognize from this naming style that the owner of the resentment, like the former postman, comes from the organization called Deep Water Society, as mentioned by Sword Star.
From what she’s saying, by the time the scene of the resentment occurred, many of them were already dead. It sounds like Thanos snapped his fingers again.
According to the naming rule, he blindly guesses that the former journalist’s code name is Natasha.
"It’s all Tony’s fault, that idiot insisted on forcibly attacking the lighthouse. Now, who knows if the gate of Count’s Manor is open, but the Inner World is in chaos!"
From what she’s saying, they forced their way into the lighthouse by the sea and activated some switch.
That switch might open the gate to Count’s Manor, but also threw the Inner World into some sort of chaos.
The journalist is complaining while searching for a way to leave the Inner World.
But it’s like she’s trapped in a Ghost Wall. No matter what route she takes, she can’t leave the central area of the town.
It wasn’t long before she was surrounded by countless burning townspeople.
As an experienced Player who can team up with the former postman, the journalist is naturally not an amateur.
She draws out a long whip from her space pouch and swings it forcefully around her, fighting and retreating.
The swinging whip emits fierce wind blades, and the whip itself glows with a metallic luster.
The townspeople grazed by the wind blades are immediately sliced into two, and if hit by the whip, they burst into flames on the spot.
The battle proceeds in a one-sided manner. The burning townspeople are much weaker than the fishmen at the docks, acting more like a group offering to be killed rather than a real fight.
Though it seems the journalist is on a killing spree, her face shows no signs of relaxation even after slaying dozens of burning townspeople. On the contrary, she looks increasingly worried.
When she retreats all the way to in front of the Great Cathedral, she finally can’t hold it anymore.
She opens her mouth and lets out a painful wail, but midway through, flames surge from her mouth, turning the wail into a muffled groan.
She feels her organs being grilled by the flames, the pain forcing her to cut open her belly to cool it down.
At this moment, the Great Statue of the Holy Mother behind her moves.
The Great Statue of the Holy Mother walks behind the journalist and gently says, "God will accept all of the Sinner’s confessions and relieve them of their suffering."
The journalist, as if guided, puts down the whip, takes out a dagger, kneels before the Great Statue of the Holy Mother, and cuts herself open, showing her sins to the statue.
The scene in the resentment abruptly ends here.
But just before the resentment ended, Wu Chang saw the sins the journalist displayed.
Relying on the ability honed after seeing Leman’s true form, he saw a pure emotion within the journalist.
Jealousy.
The journalist’s sin is nothing but jealousy. Interesting.
The first thing Wu Chang heard upon returning to consciousness was Sword Star’s voice.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Wu Chang yawned, rubbed his eyes, and said, "Didn’t sleep well last night, worked all day today, a bit distracted."
Sword Star reminded him, "Clearing the dungeon is not urgent. Maintaining full spirit and calm judgment is key to surviving the dungeon."
"Thanks for the advice."
After Sword Star let everyone see the photo and have a basic impression of the images within it, today’s meeting ended.
Even until leaving, Wu Chang didn’t reveal any information related to the Inner World.
Hiding information was not to treat others like guinea pigs as he did with Hanstone.
On the contrary, hiding information was to save them.
Judging from the attendance at the gathering, only the Gloomy Artsy Guy and Hanstone were absent.
The Gloomy Artsy Guy was pestering his True Self right from the start; with such sharp vision and Inspiration, he’s not an easy character to eliminate.
So, last night, only Hanstone must have been drawn into the Inner World.
This means that unless someone acts recklessly like the former postman, the Inner World might only pull in one Player each night.
The progress of Sword Star and his team in clearing the dungeon is too slow. Casually leaking information to Sword Star little by little, even if Sword Star manages to clear it, the newcomers in the dungeon might all be dead by then.
If he were to take over, as long as the clearing speed is fast enough, he might allow these rookies to leave safely.
Even though Sword Star voluntarily took the blame upon entering the dungeon, he knows his own business.
As a dungeon tampered with by someone and capable of self-pollution, Peaceful Town isn’t any less tricky than a dungeon on the verge of losing control.
Getting matched with this dungeon is mostly his doing.
In the Abyssal Game, life and death are one’s own responsibility. If there’s danger, he doesn’t mind using these rookies as bait, but within his power, since the incident started because of him, he will try to lend a hand where he can.
Also, he hasn’t fully trusted Sword Star yet.
Sword Star has never explained what his purpose is for mingling among the rookies.
Though he currently seems like a decent person, if he eventually can’t hold back and shows his Fox’s tail,
Briff Town is strict about rules and has plenty of methods to deal with him.
Early the next morning, just as daybreak arrived, Wu Chang left the post office with a delivery box.
The first stop for delivery, he chose the Mayor’s house.
Mayor Harrison greeted him with a smile like seeing an old friend.
"Guess who I saw? An excellent young lad! More than one person told me last night that you delivered all the piled-up mail in town."
Wu Chang put on a businesslike professional smile:
"The moment I arrived on the island, I was deeply infatuated with this place. As long as I can blend into this heaven-like town and gain people’s recognition, I can do anything."
Harrison puckered his lips exaggeratedly, "I feel the energy of youth!"
Harrison placed the parcel at the door, turned back to the study to fetch a piece of paper, and handed it to Wu Chang.
"No matter what others say, kid, you’ve earned my approval. I believe the other two won’t refuse you either."
Harrison gave him a letter of recommendation, a recommendation to join the Town Council.
With the establishment of sea routes, more and more outsiders came to Briff Island. These outsiders needed a representative, a seat on the Town Council.
The residents of Briff Town were only willing to give these island outsiders one seat with a voice.
This position is still vacant, first-come, first-served.
And Wu Chang was the one chosen by Harrison.
The recommendation letter had three blank spaces, and a list was attached to the letter, recording the identities of twenty-one Town Councilors.
Wu Chang needed the recommendation of three of these people to formally join the Town Council.
The first blank space was already signed with Harrison’s name.
He flipped through the list of Town Councilors and saw Sheriff Morena and the grocery store owner Matty.
How convenient.