Enforcer Manual
Chapter 782 - 780: You Have Mastered the Basics_1

Chapter 782: Chapter 780: You Have Mastered the Basics_1

Diago remained silent for a very long time.

He realized that Father God and he shared the same thought—he too wanted to ask where the Paladin and "Emperor" had gone.

He remembered entering the vortex and, after a brief obstruction of his vision, found himself in a narrow, dark corridor with no visible entrance or exit and an unknown destination.

Groping the edges of the hallway, he discovered by touch that there were cell-like prison compartments on both sides.

Sticky mucus coated his palms, and it seemed the walls of the cells were covered with some creature capable of secreting mucus, whose brief contact gave him the sensation that the creature attached to the walls was still wriggling. Diago was somewhat relieved that he couldn’t see anything; otherwise, he might have felt nauseated enough to vomit.

But Song Lan did not like this feeling at all.

His vision was shared with Diago, and he too had plunged into the profound darkness with Diago.

"Father God, what should I do now? Please guide me."

The perplexed Diago prayed devoutly.

He knew this place was the prison Omelo had mentioned, where no one but King Zeruo had entered or left for a thousand years; for a moment, he wasn’t sure whether to wait here for the others or to start investigating on his own.

Soon, he received guidance from Father God.

"Please press ’F’ to turn on the flashlight."

Song Lan sincerely suggested to him. In fact, his current experience was no different from a VR role-playing game. In the Lost Kingdom of Atlantis, he played the adventurer Diago, who broke into the prison of the City of Kings to unravel the truth of the lost kingdom.

He felt that before taking any official action, he should familiarize himself with the basic character operation guidelines.

Diago fell silent once again, straining his brain to figure out where exactly the ’F’ key was.

After much contemplation, he received immediate feedback: When he focused his attention, he felt a magical power.

The "Emperor" said that this was spiritual power, the secret behind Psychic abilities.

Over these three days, he had still tried to interpret their beliefs through a scientific lens, believing that prayer and those obscure incantations linked his spiritual power with Father God.

It was like a clueless novice requesting remote control from an expert.

However, this was the first time Diago truly felt the existence of this power. He carefully explored this wondrous sensation, then slowly began to gather his spiritual power together.

In an instant, a pale blue light ring appeared amidst the darkness.

The light ring, like a burning flame, illuminated the surroundings and allowed him to see clearly the foul objects attached to the walls.

Rather than living creatures, they looked more like chunks of flesh without autonomous consciousness, covering the ground and walls, making Diago feel as though he was inside the innards of a monster.

He grew more adept at controlling the light ring, and under the influence of his spiritual power, he directed the light into one of the cells, illuminating the scene inside.

As he saw clearly what was inside the cell, his body shuddered involuntarily.

Just as Omelo had said, these cells indeed imprisoned members of the Atlantean royalty, but that was in the past. At this moment, in the center of the compartment, lay a mangled skeleton still in the position of lying back in a chair, facing upwards—a clear indication it had suffered immense pain.

Diago wasn’t sure if it was dead yet, for through the skeleton’s ribcage, he could still faintly see a slowly beating heart.

It seemed that the heart was the source of these chunks of flesh, its dispersed filaments extending all the way to the floor, converging with the writhing chunks of meat.

"... Father God, are they still alive?"

This soul-striking question plunged Song Lan into silence.

The shockingly graphic scene, on top of causing him to feel nauseated by seafood, had now cast a psychological shadow over meat products for him; moreover, with his limited medical knowledge, it was difficult to determine whether the people in the cell were dead or alive.

Therefore, he didn’t hesitate to skip the question, giving Diago new instructions, "See what’s going on inside, please try to open the prison door."

He had to admit that Diago was a smart kid, not only quick to get into the zone, but he also seemed to be adept at decryption—he maneuvered the light circle that had probed into the cell in front of the prison door, and after meticulous operation, the cell was indeed opened by him.

Picking locks was the innate skill of the orphans of Silvermoon Harbor, and Diago had always been one of the best among the orphans.

The locks on these cells weren’t difficult to pick, at least much easier to handle than the new electronic locks introduced at the port. However, as per the usual tropes in countless horror puzzle games, when the prison door was opened, the skeleton half-lying on the chair reacted, and a scarlet flame ignited in its dark eye sockets.

"... kill me, kill me!"

The chunks of meat in the room violently trembled, and while the skeleton couldn’t open its mouth, the painful and desperate voice reached Diago’s ears from all directions.

Now they could initially confirm that these skeletons were still alive.

Song Lan guessed this might be a curse created by the Tide Master, to make those who had once resisted It suffer torment generation after generation.

After all, when it came to cruelty and perversion, consciousness conglomerates and Their creations never disappointed.

Tentacles that had grown from the chunks of flesh grabbed Diago, hoisting him in front of the skeleton.

This was an extremely urgent scene, but Diago’s eyes were drawn to the fire in the skeleton’s eyes. Perhaps due to spiritual power, his consciousness briefly connected with the skeleton, and in less than two seconds, indescribable pain and despair swept over him. At the same time, he realized that this was how the skeleton in front of him had spent every second, and it probably had been for thousands of years.

He almost reacted subconsciously.

The manipulated light circle overlapped with the skeleton’s beating heart, then morphed into the shape of an arrow and pierced through the beating heart.

The chunks of flesh and tentacles in the room began to retreat rapidly after losing their energy source.

Then, the flames burning in the skeleton’s eye sockets also faded away.

"Thank you, thank you..."

Diago heard the gratitude that was extinguished along with It, and after the chunks of flesh withdrew from the cell, the skeleton also fell from the chair onto the floor.

However, chunks of flesh still occupied the entire hallway.

This time, he didn’t pray to the Father God for guidance; he already knew his mission.

"Congratulations, you’ve become familiar with the basic use of spiritual power."

Song Lan gave high praise to Diago’s understanding, "It’s now time to confront the Tide Master."