Super Righteous Player
Chapter 278 - 276 The Great Hunt Feast_1

Chapter 278: Chapter 276 The Great Hunt Feast_1

"I am Ken Carter."

The old man’s voice was low, even trembling a bit, "I am a Ritualist... born in Nata County."

Nata County...

Annan frowned slightly.

He indeed had heard of this place... It wasn’t anywhere good.

Nata County was a Viscount’s domain close to the western boundary of Noah. It was topographically similar to Roth Fort, but the difference lay in the fact that... To the west of it, there was nothing at all.

Indeed, the farthest west was the edge of Noah Kingdom’s barrier.

In these past few decades, even the city west plains of Nata County – and a third of a city district – had been entirely eroded away by the encroaching Mist. This degree of erosion had become half of the city after just five years.

At such a distance, the barrier couldn’t possibly block all penetration of the Mist.

The curse, visible to the naked eye like dust, fluttered within the city – during the day, the entire city was shrouded in gray, while towards evening the sky would turn a bloody red.

Ordinary people living there would easily contract chronic diseases within a few years – after all, the water sources are very likely to be contaminated by the curse. Long-term residence would severely weaken an ordinary person’s constitution due to unclean air and water sources.

And foods exposed to the air could even start growing mold in two or three days, with the rate of decay for fresh meat and fruits and vegetables being more than thrice that of the mainland regions. Accidental consumption of food tainted by the curse could likely result in acute infections and swift death.

This directly led to the lord of Nata County deciding to evacuate inland, completely abandoning the city. And without anyone to pay their wages, the city guards and police quickly followed suit in leaving... Once the peacekeepers were gone, numerous violent robberies and murders soon happened. This directly caused merchant caravans to stop going to Nata County – and so, the church of the Silver Baron withdrew as well.

They set up signs, warning passersby not to go further. They also urged the people still in the city to leave as soon as possible.

But obviously... a sign would not stop those illegal Transcendents thirsty for power, the fanatics in pursuit of Transcendence, or criminals who had committed grave crimes and were forced to flee. In fact, the sign itself was stolen in the first month after it was erected.

In the end, Nata County directly became a complete lawless zone.

Indescribable monsters from the Mist would even directly enter the city to prey; some Transcendents desperate for power would move into Nata County, living close to the Mist within the barrier, inhaling the vicious curses within the Mist – this would cause their erosion rate to rapidly increase, gradually turning their tempers volatile and sinister, but also rapidly enhancing their strength. At least until reaching the uppermost rank of bronze, there was no difficulty.

And these unsupervised illegal Transcendents naturally did not need to follow the law strictly or keep a low profile – their battles would result in the birth of numerous nightmares.

Uncontrollable nightmares, coupled with the erosion of the Mist, could give birth to demons at any moment.

As one can imagine.

There wouldn’t be any "ordinary people" here.

Even abandoning their identities to become refugees in the cities of the mainland... would be far better than living in Nata County.

In fact, in some cities in the mainland of Noah, "people from Nata County" could readily stand for "refugees."

These were people without a home to return to. Many held quite a bad impression of them... for these people from Nata County, having grown up in such a harsh environment, a lot became thieves, con artists, traffickers, and gang members. It was their specialty.

But on the other hand—

"Transcendent" abilities, usually kept secret elsewhere, were almost public knowledge in Nata County. Unknowingly inhaling large amounts of vicious curses, they could easily become wild Transcendents in some nightmare – those dangerous beings whose erosion rate was over 50% at birth.

And to counter these Transcendents, the taboo knowledge of becoming a Ritualist was also spread in Nata County.

The danger of this technology was irrelevant to the people there.

When living in a city that might not exist tomorrow, the taboo and dangers of Ritualist knowledge seemed laughably trivial by comparison – the same went for knowledge on explosives, poisons, and the like.

Yes, explosions—

Annan, thinking this far, inquired further,

"Are you from Nata County?"

"Yes, I stayed in Nata County for forty years."

"Then why did you leave Nata County?"

"Naturally... in order to serve my master."

The old man said in a low voice, "I will not mention his name. It was he who took me and my children away from Nata County, granted my children education and a normal job. I owe him my life..."

Then why are you telling me so much now?

Annan’s lips curled slightly, but he said no more.

Mr. Ken Carter must have realized it by now.

Annan could use the Divine Arts of the Silver Baron—there were only two possibilities.

Either the Silver Baron had seen through the rotten husband’s schemes and intended to intervene,

or he was in someone’s nightmare, and the person before him was the Hand of Silver from the Silver Baron’s church.

No matter which possibility, his concealment was actually meaningless.

Because if the priests of the Silver Baron had any suspicions, they could simply initiate an investigation—and these secrets could never be kept from the church.

If the Silver Baron looked into the accounts himself, any secret would almost certainly be uncovered by Him.

The Silver Baron could see all the "transactions" of all people, of all types in this world. He could trace back to the transaction time, content, and parties involved.

This was why He did not have authority over "truth" or "secrets"... but almost nothing could be hidden from Him.

"—So, no matter which possibility. Your concealment is meaningless."

Annan said with a gentle smile, "Tell me the truth. There’s no need to flaunt that loyal facade to me."

Upon hearing these words, Ken Carter chuckled silently.

He sighed softly and said in a low voice:

"Alright... I’ll come clean. I’ll tell you everything.

"They are conducting a ritual named ’The Great Hunt Banquet.’ It is the domain of the god of murder and conspiracy, ’Tragedy Playwright’... The general procedure of the ritual is that six people carrying Leystones form a ’stage,’ defining a range within a certain banquet, designating all within as ’actors.’ With a ’sufficiently grand opening,’ a person is sacrificed, chaos is incited—the ritual curses the fate of every ’stage actor’ during its course.

"The sequence of murders is completely random, personally selected by the ’Tragedy Playwright.’ Each chosen person is called a ’speaker,’ who can only exempt himself temporarily from the curse by killing another person, passing the ’lines’ to the next; otherwise, they will suffer a calamity... that calamity could be fatal.

"With each death, the misfortune borne by the next person grows more terrible, even doubled, until the ’final ceremony’ dismisses the ’Tragedy Playwright.’ If the ’final ceremony’ cannot be completed, then the ritual is deemed a failure. After the last actor dies, all the ’weavers’ will die in agony."

That is... us.

With a wry smile, Ken pointed at himself: "And everyone involved in this plan.

"As for the cost of the ritual and the rewards after its completion, I don’t think you would care... The process of the ritual itself is their goal. First, they start a huge fire, burning someone as the opening move... and the ritual is thus completed."

"...They?"

Annan sharply caught onto a key word.

Ken nodded slowly, his voice complex: "But please do not ask further; I cannot speak or write his name. I didn’t want to be part of this plan... but I had no choice. I do not believe that they would organize a second great fire for the ’closing.’ More likely, they would let all of us die as a way to seal lips."

"’He,’ huh..."

Annan muttered to himself: "Then I know who it is."

It must be Prince Philip.

Apart from him, who else could have compelled the Crow family’s heir to take such a risk?

As for Ferdinand...

Did he himself realize that he had been placed in the "potential victim" spot?

It was now clear to Annan... why those heirs had died one after another in a short period, yet the murderer was never found!

Their fates had been cursed years ago—they just hadn’t noticed.

To successfully assassinate them, many people must have already died before that.

A chill went through Annan—

That meant, what he needed to stop was not just an explosion and fire... right?

This was the first time Annan had come into contact with the power of "fate."

Of course... if pushed, it couldn’t really be called fate.

Looking at the priesthood of this False God—or Evil God, it didn’t seem like the domain of Lady Luck, with "chance" and "fortune."

The god of murder and conspiracy... this one probably "manually" creates misfortunes.

"...Tell me how to stop this ritual."

As Annan’s thoughts turned swiftly, he slowly asked.