nashuaworldcup Chapter 46 Hidden Only Mission: The Lie of Eden
Chapter 46 Hidden Only Mission: The Lie of Eden
The villagers bypassed the first group and staggered toward the ashes left by God's remains.
At first, there were only a few people. The mother holding her child knelt on the ground, her cries hoarse and broken. The old man standing next to her remained motionless for a long time, finally throwing down the wooden stick in his hand and rushing into the ash heap to search.
With one person taking the lead, more people followed suit.
The grayish-white powder was shoved aside by pairs of hands and scattered everywhere.
Soon, more wreckage was unearthed.
There is a red string used by girls to tie their hair.
There is a wooden pony that has been bitten in half.
There was also a doll made of rags, half of which was covered in grayish-white energy, while the other half still retained its rough stitches.
A young girl recognized the doll, and her knees buckled, causing her to kneel on the ground. She opened her mouth as if to call out a name, but her throat felt blocked by something, leaving only heavy breathing.
The villagers' anger, which they had originally used to question the first squad, turned completely towards the pile of ashes in the face of this irrefutable evidence.
When faith collapses, the system will not play any notification sound.
It will only leave these indigenous people standing still, watching helplessly as the gods they have worshipped for so many years have been using their own blood relatives as food all along.
Zhao Leiguang put away his Earth Pulse shields and scratched his head. "Brother Yan, wouldn't you say this is a massive whitewashing operation?"
Lu Yan glanced at the panel; the task status was still stuck in "incomplete".
"No. The mission isn't complete yet."
Zhao Leiguang frowned. "This damn mission is really good at torturing people."
Lu Yan did not deny it.
The final step in the secret realm wasn't actually a numerical battle.
The first squad could shatter God's remains, but they couldn't make decisions for the people of Eden.
These unregistered villagers are the core of the determination.
If they had been provoked by the villagers' questioning and accidentally killed a neutral target, the questline would have veered to the other extreme.
Lu Yan strongly disliked this design.
It's not because it's difficult.
Dungeon mechanics can be insidious, allowing players to disrupt output rotations, jeopardize survival, and manipulate aggro shifts; players who are less skilled will accept being attacked.
But using ordinary people's cognitive deficiencies as a trap is just too despicable.
Of course, martial ethics are never a thing in the secret realm.
It is only responsible for producing resources, equipment, and piles of corpses.
Xiao Qianyu walked to Lu Yan's side and lowered her voice. "What if they refuse to admit it?"
"That's troublesome." Lu Yan looked ahead. "If they continue to worship God as a god, the system will most likely determine that the pollution hasn't been cleared. Something new will appear behind that stone door."
Lin Chuxue's face fell. "There's more? I even tasted mint in my mana potion."
Su Yunqing glanced at her supply bar. "I'm almost out. In the illusion just now, I used up all my mana on nothing. What a waste."
Shen Xinglin rubbed his chin; he'd fallen quite hard when Lu Yan kicked him awake. "Now I'm even a little bothered by air."
Wen Yue bent down to check the crossbow's magazine. "Only three sets of grenades left."
Zhao Leiguang thought about it seriously for a moment. "How about I go over and say a few curses for them? I'm quite talented at cursing."
Lu Yan glanced at him. "Don't call a white name a red name."
Zhao Leiguang promptly shut up.
Suppressed sobs echoed around the ash heap.
Someone dug up the remains of a relative.
Some people knelt on the ground, burying their heads in their arms, their shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
But some people are still shaking their heads.
The old man who first questioned everyone held a piece of bone in his hands, repeatedly muttering, "Impossible, God wouldn't do this, God wouldn't do this..."
Xiao Qianyu glanced at him and tapped her fingers twice on the gun barrel.
She is not lacking in patience.
Rather, it was her battlefield experience that reminded her that people whose beliefs have crumbled are extremely dangerous. They either collapse completely or cling desperately to the last vestiges of their former selves, mistaking all the evidence presented for an enemy conspiracy.
Sure enough, the old man suddenly stood up straight, pointed at Lu Yan, and shouted.
"You forged it!"
Many villagers stopped what they were doing and looked up at him.
The old man seemed to have grasped at a straw, and his voice rose higher and higher.
"The outsiders know magic! They can create illusions! These bones, these words, they're all their doing! God won't eat us! God is protecting Eden!"
He turned around and shouted hoarsely at the crowd.
"Don't be fooled by them! They killed God and now they want us to betray Him!"
A dozen or so people hesitated and moved to stand behind the old man.
The white name did not turn red.
But the atmosphere once again teetered on the brink of danger.
Zhao Leiguang muttered under his breath, "That old bastard's pretty good at setting the agenda."
Lin Chuxue gripped her staff tightly. "What should I do?"
Lu Yan was not impatient.
He looked at the old man, then at the woman holding the child's body.
She remained kneeling on the spot.
The child's half-face was pressed against her chest, and ashes covered her clothes. Hearing the old woman's call, her shoulders trembled, but she didn't look up.
The elderly man continued to exert pressure.
"Martha! Speak up! Your child must have been killed by an outsider! God wouldn't—"
The woman raised her hand and grabbed a handful of ashes.
The ash was mixed with fine bone fragments.
She stood up, holding Mien's body, and walked step by step to the old man.
The old man opened his mouth, about to continue his long speech.
The woman slapped him across the face.
The crisp sound echoed in the stone hall.
The old man was knocked to the side, staggered, and took two steps back.
The woman's voice was completely hoarse.
"Was the birthmark behind my son's ear also done by an outsider?"
The old man was speechless.
The woman continued to ask.
"I personally collected his lost tooth. Is it here? Would you like to help me find it?"
The old man's lips trembled, but he still refused to lower his head.
"Martha, you're blinded by sadness..."
"I don't."
The woman hugged the child even tighter.
"We are the ones who have been deceived. We have been kneeling for too long that we even try to justify the eating of our own children."
These words struck, and finally someone in the crowd burst into tears.
It was no longer the suppressed sobbing that had been before.
Rather, it was an outpouring of pent-up emotions after the complete collapse of faith.
The dozen or so people standing behind the old man either lowered their heads, silently retreated, or simply collapsed to the ground.
The old man seemed to have all his bones removed, and the bone fragments in his hand slipped and fell onto the stone slab.
He looked at the ash heap, then at the spot where God's remains had vanished, and uttered half a prayer.
I got stuck halfway through reading.
He couldn't continue with the next word.
Martha, holding the child, turned and walked back to the ash heap.
She stared at the pool of ash, and squeezed out two words.
"brute."
Then, she spat into the ash heap.
The movements were very gentle.
But everyone in the stone hall could see it clearly.
A few seconds later, the girl holding the tattered doll stepped forward and spat into the ash heap as well.
Then came the third person.
The fourth person.
More and more people.
The villagers, who had just been worshipping God, now formed a long, crooked line. They walked to the ash heap, spat, threw stones, stomped on the ashes, and tore off the white strips of cloth that symbolized their faith.
A young boy picked up a stone and smashed it against the ground for a long time, until his palms were bleeding, but he still wouldn't stop.
Seeing this, Zhao Leiguang lowered his voice and asked, "Should I go throw up too?"
Lu Yan replied, "You'll likely get scolded if you go."
Why?
"You have a loud voice."
Zhao Leiguang nodded seriously. "That makes sense."
Xiao Qianyu watched the villagers' actions, her gun tip lowered.
"My white name hasn't changed."
"Yes." Lu Yan stared at the mission panel. "They made the decision themselves."
Just as the last villager spat into the ash heap, the entire stone hall trembled slightly.
It is not a sign of impending collapse.
It's more like a huge gear that's been stuck for years, finally starting to turn.
In the center of the stone hall, the ashes left by God's remains sank downwards, revealing dazzling golden patterns on the ground. These patterns spread outwards from the ash heap, rapidly reaching the walls and the dome, eventually connecting to the countdown stone door in the distance.
The system notification finally popped up.
[Hidden Unique Mission: The Lie of Eden]
[Phase Two: The False God, Completed]
[Special Decision: Indigenous People Independently Deny False God Beliefs]
[Hidden purification conditions met]
[Villager rescue progress: 100%]
[Task Completion: Perfect]
Zhao Lei's eyes lit up the moment he saw the word "perfect".
"Perfect! Brother Yan is awesome! If I had spoken just now, I probably could have revealed a hidden condition for total annihilation on the spot."
Lin Chuxue patted her chest.
"It's good that you have the self-awareness."
Shen Xinglin looked at the system panel and clicked his tongue.
"This secret realm is really good at hiding. After defeating the BOSS, you still have to go through a round of psychological judgment. If it were a team with a bad temper, they would have wiped out the villagers long ago."
Su Yunqing expressed her agreement.
"Then the mission failed, and they'll have to write a report when they get back. I've already thought of a title for them—'Explanation of the Situation of Our Team Accidentally Killing Three Hundred Neutral Units in the Garden of Eden.'"
Zhao Leiguang shivered.
"Don't even mention it, this is scarier than a level 60 boss."
Lu Yan kept his eyes glued to the mission panel, not letting his guard down.
A perfect completion is only a stage result.
The real rewards haven't been distributed yet.
Control of the Holy Nexus is still not in their hands.