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Chapter 339 - Three Hundred and Thirty-Six - ’You Really Are a Madman

Chapter 339: Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Six - ’You Really Are a Madman

...

This was a range in the western mountains of Pulaya.

Due to geographical constraints, the elevation of the mountains was not high. However, because the paths were treacherous and beasts roamed the area, residents generally avoided entering these mountains.

But on this day, in a hidden cave within the mountain range, many people had gathered.

Inside the cave, flames ascended.

In the center of the flames stood a golden-haired man with a pair of emerald eyes, like jade, exhibiting a unique melancholic aura.

He stood at the center of the bursting flames, yet his white robe remained unscorched. He stretched out his hands as if embracing something, his expression extremely fervent.

At his side, hundreds of raggedly dressed residents knelt, hands clasped and heads bowed, whispering prayers to him.

"...We offer our loyalty to you, great Heavenly Envoy."

They knelt and whispered, their heads forming a dense mass, all bowing toward the person at the center of the flames.

The flames surrounded them, and they were sweating profusely, their faces reddened by the heat, yet they seemed oblivious to the excessive temperature.

The man smiled brilliantly, seemingly pleased with the scene.

Separated by a layer of mountainside, four people sat in a circle, utterly bored.

"That Boris just doesn’t know when to stop," said a bald white man as he spat on the ground, his expression somewhat impatient.

Next to him, a girl with twin ponytails carrying a large rifle tossed aside her chewing gum:

"Alex, be a bit more understanding. After all, he has an unusual occupation. If we want to win at the upcoming Maritime Banquet, we need his power."

"...An occupation that solely judges by words and emotions, infecting other NPCs with his own fervent emotions..." the blue-haired woman holding a deep blue Ice Crystal Staff laughed, leaning against the mountainside, looking at the blazing bonfire in front of her.

The bonfire’s shadows danced wildly on the rock face, and the emotional rallying cries of the man behind them kept echoing back in waves.

"Boris... he really is a charlatan by occupation," said the blue-haired woman.

"Charlatan! Charlatan!" a string of noisy cries rang out.

"Pearl, make your parrot shut up," the blue-haired woman turned around.

Behind her, a person dressed in a bunny plushie outfit slowly raised their head, a red and green parrot perched on their shoulder, its small black eyes sparkling with intelligence.

She reached out and tapped the parrot’s head, and it made an odd "gah-jeek" sound before closing its beak.

A moment later, the golden-haired man came around from the other side of the mountain.

Behind him followed hundreds of residents murmuring with bowed heads, like zombies.

"All finished?" the girl with twin ponytails blew a bubble.

"At the Maritime Banquet two days from now, these lovely residents will become our useful reserve force," Boris said with a smile.

Firelight traced his fair face, and in the depths of his eyes flickered an illusory flame.

"No matter what the specific rules are by then, we have already secured a significant advantage..." he said softly, his voice carrying a calming strength.

"Boris," the blue-haired woman spoke up: "We can’t be sure we’ll defeat the Number One Player. I just checked the leaderboard, and his combat power has already exceeded 2000. Do you think your unarmed residents can handle that?"

"The power of the crowd is great, Pei Xue," Boris spread his hands: "Perhaps you just don’t understand how to use them."

Pei Xue laughed, the blue light flickering from the ice staff in her hand.

"I remember, you still have a story to tell."

"Hmm..." Boris lowered his head in thought: "The previous story has been told, but his answer was very unexpected."

He spoke softly:

"The mermaid princess who seduced the captain is innocent, the residents who enjoyed a happy life are innocent... Yet he believes that the captain, who failed to communicate properly with the mermaid princess, is at fault. Indeed, a fascinating way of thinking. He is truly someone beyond my expectations."

"Nonsense, if he were just an ordinary person, he wouldn’t have become the Number One Player."

"Right, so... I’ve already thought of a new story to bring to him," Boris smiled and said, "You see, my meeting with him this time is such a fateful encounter. I didn’t track the prop with the Number, yet I met him against such small odds... Moreover, even the character I’m possessing resembles my real appearance so closely; it will leave the deepest impression on him. This is simply a divine chance..."

"You madman, do whatever you please, just don’t delay our mission," the twintailed girl, Clara, sneered.

"How could I? I understand him, and he’s a person who loves telling stories too. He will want to listen."

"I think the most likely thing is that he’ll chop you down with one sword strike," Clara said as she swung down her large spear with force; the shiny bayonet protruded, and the cold light of the blade traced an arc, "Just like this."

"No." Boris placed a finger on his lips, his emerald eyes filled with exceptional fanaticism, "We are both chasers of faith; he will understand me."

Clara turned her face away, laughing softly.

The others exchanged glances, then dropped the subject.

Normal people can’t communicate with a madman.

Madmen only become more adept at laying traps, using the language and emotions they are skilled at to infect others, and then pulling these normal people into their schemes.

Not to mention that Boris was a madman with a reputation on par with that of the Dark Priest Angel, infamous across the world.

Boris’s occupation and his speech and emotions were closely linked; if he didn’t truly passionately love his so-called faith, his words wouldn’t have such control over these NPCs. He was just an ordinary advanced priest occupation, yet he played it into a bug effect of mass seduction.

In the course of several instances, he seemed to have become more insane.

"Shall we proceed with the plan tonight?"

In the midst of silence, the rabbit doll spoke up.

Her voice was soft and mushy, sounding a bit muffled through the layer of the doll costume.

"Let’s go," Boris smiled.

As he moved, his white robe gradually took on colors, like a fierce fire being poured upon his clothes, flames transforming into patterns spiraling behind him, with strands of silver intertwining at the cuffs and hem into mysterious runes.

That was the attire of the Cardinal of Yun Shang City.

He stretched out his hand, and a golden scepter materialized beneath it.

He walked towards the outside of the cave, and the residents behind him followed vacantly, stepping as if they were zombies.

...

...

After an utterly despicable betrayal, Su Ming’an hadn’t had time to select a new heir.

As soon as it turned eight, he was kicked out of the nighttime instance and returned to his own bed.

The moment he opened his eyes, he was still very alert; he remembered that last night, someone had hidden in his house.

But after looking around for a week, he found that the person had already left.

So far, Su Rin’s three special abilities, Transformation, Bewilderment, and Control Barrier, had all been unlocked.

Transformation and Bewilderment, Su Ming’an knew how to use; just point at someone and open the panel. But the Control Barrier...

Generally speaking, unleashing a skill requires specific gestures or incantations. Even if you don’t speak out loud, just moving your mouth silently will cast the skill.

This setting was immensely pleasing to many players with a penchant for chant-based combat, so it was quite normal to see them shouting things like "Phantom Formless Sword" or "Demon King Descends" while fighting.

However, those top-ranking players would usually not shout out their skill names; they would silently chant them to avoid giving the opponent time to react.

Su Ming’an opened the panel and tried it out, but there was no response.

He then raised his hand to try, wanting to set up a barrier right there in the room, but again, there was no response.

He fell silent for a moment.

"Establish barrier," he said.

Silence.

The house was quiet, with no signs of barrier fluctuations.

He temporarily gave up on tinkering with the device and simply pushed the door open.

Outside was still the fresh air of Pulaya; today was the sixth day of the instance activation.

The bullet-screen messages had already begun their daily greetings:

[Good morning!]

[Morning!]

[Today’s another day for idle-game fun.]

[Am I the only one who remembers last night’s pathetic second sweep mission? There weren’t even any Soul Clan in Street Thirteen, yet the Soul Hunter leader sent that task to Brother Ming’an as if it were serious business. Are they playing with us?]

[Brother Ming’an has already taken control of the Soul Clan, he might as well clean up the Soul Hunter Department sooner rather than later, it’s annoying to watch.]

[Am I the only one still concerned about how Yamada Machiichi is doing... Yamada, Yamada, mom misses you...]

Perhaps due to the approaching festival, these people seemed to be more talkative. Su Ming’an had intended to stand for a while and then go back to catch up on sleep, but he found he wasn’t tired.

He stood for a moment, recalling the earnest words of wisdom the elderly lady had spoken to him yesterday afternoon.

Among them, what struck him the most was, "What people should focus on is not to obtain happiness or avoid pain, but to find the meaning of life."

He took out the rice cakes the old lady had insistently stuffed into his backpack yesterday and started eating them to replenish his physical strength.

...Had he already discerned the meaning of life?

Was everything he was doing now truly his own will?

Although sometimes he talked about the principles of being swept along by the group, he was actually a member of the group himself.

In such an environment, even he began to find it difficult to tell if he was really just another one being swept along.

The old lady was a remarkably sensible elder.

Even living in such harsh conditions, her words still enlightened him whose mentality had become somewhat numb.

He ate the rice cakes, and as he ate, he suddenly realized something was off.

...It seemed too quiet.

He turned around and suddenly noticed that the sewing machine, which always made creaking noises in the morning, was now silent.

Through the windows veiled by gauze, he saw that the fabrics once placed on the table were gone, and the needle box was quietly set aside; the chair was empty.

Faint coughing could be heard from inside the house, but there were no footsteps.

Su Ming’an boarded a boat heading to the Central Soul Hunter Department and suddenly saw a squad of armored Soul Hunters carrying supply boxes across the street, heading toward Thirteenth Street.

...Why would the Soul Hunters in charge of distributing resources come to a place like this?

He had heard from the old lady that today was not the scheduled date for distributing support resources...

"Heard there was trouble last night," the boatman said as he rowed.

"Trouble?" Ming’an asked.

"The church, there was a huge fire last night. I could see it from my window; that fire... it nearly turned the sky red, not sure if the water system failed."

...

A bad premonition started forming in Su Ming’an’s heart.

The small boat sailed through the river, the number of people walking along the streets increasing.

After disembarking, he went directly to the central Soul Hunter Department and suddenly noticed that today, an unusually large crowd had gathered at the entrance to the Soul Hunter Department.

Whereas before, only Soul Hunters would briskly walk by, and the place would be nearly empty during the day, now it was packed with people, with onlookers filling the area as if it were some kind of spectacle.

The residents seemed to have gathered around to watch something, and the noisy chatter reached his ears:

"... how could anyone do such a thing, it’s horrifying."

"It’s those damn Soul Clan again, these creatures really lack any sense of humanity..."

"Mommy, what’s that, it’s so scary..."

"Let’s go, let’s leave, don’t look at this stuff, it’ll dirty your eyes..."

Crumbs of mochi fell from his hand as Su Ming’an elbowed his way through the surging crowd.

"Damn it, who’s pushing me, stop pushing, stop pushing!" people complained.

"What kind of person is this, no manners at all."

"Shh... keep it down, who knows, maybe he’s a Soul Hunter," someone whispered a caution.

"So what if he’s a Soul Hunter? I recognize the body hanging up there, an old lady from 13th Street with a kind disposition who never wronged anyone in her life, and even she died such a horrible death. Can the Soul Hunters even protect us??" a shrill female voice remarked.

"..."

Su Ming’an didn’t know what he was feeling when he heard these words.

He just kept pushing forward, driven by an indescribable emotion, and following the gaze of the crowd, he raised his head...

He looked up into the glaring morning light.

Next to the Soul Hunter headquarters, atop a building, a tall iron post reached into the sky.

Hanging at the top of the post like a dark flag was the figure of someone dressed in black, coarse, narrow-sleeved clothes.

Her body bore scorched wounds from flames, as if seared by something, with a ghastly large hole in her chest where her blood had already dried.

Her silver hair wavered slightly in the sea breeze, the low-hanging strands catching the glimmer of dawn, resembling frozen winter snow.

Due to the height at which she was hanged, the Soul Hunters below were still erecting ladders, discussing how to quickly bring the person down.

"Stop looking, stop looking! Everyone go back to your homes!"

A Soul Hunter in uniform shouted at the crowd, pushing them away while spitting on the ground, "...disgusting, these Soul Clan bastards, it’s bad enough to kill someone, but to hang them up as well, how much hatred is this..."

"We need to get the body down quickly, or it’ll have too bad an effect," said a nearby Soul Hunter.

"I know, someone has cast a Barrier up there; normally, only the person who put it up can take it down, otherwise it’s got to be forcibly broken, and if we break it by force, the body will be torn to shreds..."

As the Soul Hunters were discussing, suddenly, they saw a young man with black hair, holding mochi in his hand, slowly walk over.

His steps were leisurely, yet he easily moved through the crowded flow of people, as if they were invisible to him.

"This is a restricted area, no outsiders should come in..." they stood in the young man’s way.

Su Ming’an didn’t speak but simply extended his hand.

"Crash—"

A sound of shattering echoed.

The Barrier dissolved under his control, without causing the slightest damage.

It was if shiny shards of glass had fallen from the sky, the fragments scattering to the ground like stars.

Su Ming’an looked up, and amidst a shower of shattered light,

...

that deep black flag descended.