Chapter 259: Holy Octopus Cult
They were sitting in a pub, and it was a rare moment of rest for Choi Ming-chi and his group.
The death of the giant toad monster did not give them much experience. The system obviously did not regard this strange little chicken that suddenly appeared as their teammate. Although they got a treasure chest, they wasted this opportunity in vain. Wei Hongzhuo had to throw the useless gun into his bag in frustration.
In the end, they got a total of 580 silver coins from this sewer mission, which was enough for them to have a good meal in the tavern, sleep for a night, and buy a cheap piece of equipment and a few bottles of medicine in the prop shop. Cui Mingzhi felt the tightness of money. Since he started playing this game, he had never seen gold coins in this world. He believed that as the adventure deepened, their team would become rich one day.
Gin was carefully licking the beer on the small dish on the table. This was the hotel's own beer. Choi Ming-chi was underage and couldn't drink. He watched Gin licking the beer curiously. The more he watched, the cuter he found it. He couldn't help but reach out and stroke the back of the cat's head. Gin narrowed his eyes and seemed to enjoy Choi Ming-chi's stroking.
Ren Anzhi saw that it was cute and reached out to touch the cat, but Gin immediately turned his head away and jumped directly to Cui Mingzhi's side, with a look of rejection that said "don't get close to me". Ren Anzhi raised his hand in the air awkwardly, and then put it back awkwardly.
"Some people don't even like cats," said Wei Hongzhuo, sitting on the other side of the table.
"Boss Wei." Ren Anzhi raised his eyes. Even though he was suddenly pulled into this world and had just experienced a terrifying adventure in the sewer, this young man still looked very fresh. His hair was smooth and soft, and he was still the shining star on TV. "I thought our misunderstanding had been resolved."
Wei Hongzhuo said coldly, "Misunderstanding? There is no misunderstanding without reason. I can only be completely relieved after seeing Jingjing."
"According to my understanding of this place, Princess Jingjing is in the royal capital, and we must..." Ren Anzhi had just said half of his words when suddenly several uninvited guests rushed in from outside with a fierce momentum.
They were all wearing armor, and over the armor they wore a long blue shirt with a standing wolf embroidered on the front. Their attire reminded Choi Ming-chi of the knights he had seen in fantasy TV shows and movies.
After they entered the store, there was no sound in the pub and everyone was looking at them.
The leading knight came in front of Ren Anzhi and nodded slightly, "Your Highness Prince Ren Anzhi."
"Damn, he actually is a prince." Choi Mingzhi whispered.
"Excuse me, who are you?" Ren Anzhi asked in confusion.
"I am Walton of Hollowshire, by order of our most great and noble Majesties, the King and Queen."
"Please?"
"Prince Ren Anzhi must leave the country immediately." The leading knight Walton said loudly.
"ah?"
"Yes, please ask Prince Ren Anzhi to leave this country immediately and not stay for a moment."
Ren Anzhi blinked and asked, "Excuse me, if I'm not mistaken, I'm Princess Jingjing's fiancé."
"The engagement is off. The king himself ordered it."
Wei Hongzhuo couldn't help but shout: "Great! Well done!"
The knight glanced at him and asked, "Who is this?"
"My old... uh, my companion." Ren Anzhi said.
The knight glanced at Wei Hongzhuo and his group, "Are all of them at this table?"
"Yes."
" Very good ," the knight announced. "The king has ordered that Prince Ren Anzhi and his entourage must leave the country immediately and not stay a moment longer."
Wei Hongzhuo said angrily in a low voice: "I am not his follower!"
"You have been expelled. This is the king's order. You are not allowed to stay here."
"Wait a minute." Ren Anzhi asked, "Am I not the one engaged? Why did you cancel the engagement?"
"We are only here to convey the king's order. You have been expelled."
Wei Hongzhuo said: " That won't do. We must see Princess Jingjing."
"Shut up, squire." The knight said, "This is the final notice. You are expelled."
Wei Hongzhuo said angrily: "I am not his follower!"
Ren Anzhi said: "Uh, is there any misunderstanding here?"
"I have said it several times. If you continue to pester me, I will regard you as openly defying the will of His Majesty the King, and you will bear the consequences!" Knight Walton put his hand on the hilt of the sword and threatened.
Cui Mingzhi carefully observed the group of knights. The leader was level 50, and the rest were level 45 elite knights. They had already shown the exclamation mark before the battle. Currently, Wei Hongzhuo and himself were both level 4, Ren Anzhi was a pitiful level 1, and Gin was negligible. If he couldn't hold on, he would be wiped out anyway.
But they had just spent fifty days in jail, were they going to be kicked out again because of this strange development?
"What if we don't leave?" Ren Anzhi asked.
"How dare you disobey the king's will?" the knight roared, and he pulled the gleaming sword out of the scabbard.
Oh no, it looks like we’re going to jail again.
"What are you doing?" A loud voice came from the front of the pub, and a man walked over. He was the owner of the pub, a fat middle-aged man with a beard and a stern face.
Knight Walton turned around and said, "We are ordered to..."
The innkeeper raised his hand, indicating that the knight did not need to repeat himself. "I heard everything. But these guests have already paid for their accommodation and meals. They are my guests."
The knight shouted: "His Majesty the King has ordered them to be expelled, and you still want to protect them??"
"Don't be so loud Walton. You're in my store now."
"I have orders from His Majesty the King that they may not—"
"So, you want to fight in my shop?" the tavern owner said, "Walton, I taught you swordsmanship. At that time, you were a little kid who couldn't even lift a sword properly."
Walton blushed. "You can't humiliate me—"
"Come on, Walton, don't show off your chivalrous majesty to me. They just cleaned out the monsters in the city's sewers, and our respected king didn't think of allocating manpower to do this. They paid for the tavern's accommodation, and they are my guests. I will not allow you to do anything in my shop."
"You are blatantly disobeying the king's orders!"
"King? Haha, if he and his good queen could pay more attention to the lives of the people, collect less taxes, and stop those nobles from bullying the common people, I would praise his kindness a little more."
"How dare you insult the king!!" Knight Walton shouted, "I brought six people with me, don't even think about it--"
Bang!
The tavern owner slammed his hand on the table.
In an instant, all the guests in the tavern stood up. They stared at the arrogant knights with cold eyes. The air became tense and stagnant.
The arrogant knight Walton stopped talking. He looked around and saw everyone staring at them with cold eyes. There were at least thirty or forty people in the tavern. There was no smile in their eyes, only hatred and disgust.
The knight sheathed his sword. He changed his tone, which was slightly softer but still contained some restrained dissatisfaction, "I understand. I will not force them to leave now. But after the prince and his entourage leave this tavern, we will carry out the king's order."
Wei Hongzhuo turned his head and finally held it in this time.
"Walton, when you walked down the street in this beautiful dress and carried the king's name, did you notice how people looked at you?"
"What?"
"Haha, you never noticed." The tavern owner shook his head. "It's like the king doesn't bother to care about the people. The earl of the neighboring county will choose a farmer's daughter to enter his castle every time the moon becomes a waxing crescent. He will force her to sleep with him and then drive her away. The girl who was chosen recently was called Fanny. She died on the way home and her body was eaten by night demons. Our prince wanted the land in Green Creek Town as a pasture, and he drove the farmers who had lived there for generations away from Green Creek Rock. He ordered their houses to be demolished and burned, and his men beat the farmers who refused to leave, even their wives and daughters. They left their homes and couldn't find jobs in the towns, so many of them had to go to cannibalistic factories and mines to make a living. Their treatment there was even worse than that of slaves. When they couldn't complete their work, they couldn't even eat. Similar tragedies happen in this kingdom every day, and unfortunate people die every day."
“…”
"You don't know. The king doesn't know either, or he just closed his eyes and pretended not to see. This country is already sick. Tell me, Walton, a knight should protect the weak, women and children. When the people were oppressed and violated, what were you doing?"
"I must be loyal to the king..." The knight's voice became a little weak.
"Answer me," said the innkeeper. "What is the king's duty? He is to protect his people. Look at all the suffering people are experiencing. Is he doing that?"
"I will not allow anyone to insult the king..." The knight's voice trailed off.
"That's enough." The innkeeper's voice was filled with annoyance, "Take your people and get out of here!"
The knight looked at all the guests in the tavern who were glaring at him, and he shut up. He glared at Ren Anzhi and said, "Hurry up and leave here with your followers, remember that." He turned around and left the tavern with the other knights.
Wei Hongzhuo stared closely at the backs of this group of people.
The tavern owner walked over to the table where Ren Anzhi and Wei Hongzhuo were sitting. His tone became much kinder, "I hope these lackeys didn't scare you."
Gin jumped onto the table and asked curiously, "Running dog? Are you calling the king's knight?"
"If a king cannot protect the people of this country and fulfill his responsibilities, then he does not deserve to be called a king."
"Wow, it's hard to imagine this was something a medieval person would say."
"Oh, this is the teaching from a wise man." The tavern owner smiled slightly.
"Wise man?"
The tavern owner sat down in front of Cui Mingzhi, Ren Anzhi and others, and asked, "Have you heard of the Holy Octopus Cult?"
"..." Ren Anzhi said, "Are you going to tell us to get to know the Heavenly Father and the Savior Cthulhu?"
Cui Mingzhi said: "I know an octopus cultist named Brady. He saved us."
"Ah, Brady is my nephew." The bar owner nodded to the waiter, signaling to serve drinks and food to their table. At this time, Cui Mingzhi saw the octopus badge on the boss's chest. He secretly observed the guests in the store again, and all of them were wearing octopus badges. "It is this octopus and that wise man who gave us the enlightenment of true knowledge."
"So what did the Octopus Cult preach?"
"The wise say that there should be no nobles in this world. They are parasites that suck the blood of the people."
“Wow!” Choi Ming-chi nodded. “Well said.”
"The wise man also said that there are no kind-hearted factory owners who want to provide workers and laborers with work and food, nor are there any so-called compassionate capitalists. They just take away the wealth created by everyone through exploitation."
Ren Anzhi clapped his hands and said, "You are absolutely right! Capitalists who oppress their employees should die!" He wanted to say a few more words, but when he saw Wei Hongzhuo's unhappy expression, he stopped talking.
"So, do you guys want to join the Holy Octopus Cult?"
Choi Jong-hee smiled and said, “Sorry, I won’t join a religion that has suspicious animals as its theme.”
Ren Anzhi nodded: "If someone digs up the dirt on me for joining a strange religion, my popularity will be greatly damaged. Sorry, this is not okay."
Wei Hongzhuo didn't say anything, obviously he had no good feelings towards this religion. Then he asked: "I'm curious, we saw the guards arrested many octopus believers and put them in prison. You openly defied the king, aren't you afraid..." He made a beheading gesture.
The tavern owner did not answer him directly, but looked at Ren Anzhi, "Your Highness, aren't you curious why the king suddenly ordered you to cancel your engagement with the princess ?"
"Ah, I really don't know. Please tell me clearly."
"We have received strange rumors from the capital."
"What's the rumor?"
The tavern owner lowered his voice: "There is news that Princess Jingjing has turned into a monster."
"What——" Wei Hongzhuo's face suddenly changed.
"Keep your voice down, the prince's entourage," the tavern owner said softly.
Wei Hongzhuo gritted his teeth, but he decided to ignore the question and immediately asked anxiously: "What happened to the princess?"
"She turned into a man-eating monster. Some people said it was a punishment for the king's failure in governing the country, some said it was because the princess was cursed, and there are many more strange rumors. But what is certain is that many people have seen the princess turned into a monster."
Wei Hongzhuo's expression was uncertain as he tried hard to digest this information.
Ren Anzhi seemed very calm. He asked, "Is this information reliable? What kind of monster is this?"
"The specific details are unclear. But what is certain is that the monster transformed by the princess is very difficult to deal with. It is said that many knights and guards have died. This also means that the king has no more spare energy to deal with us believers of Octopus Enlightenment."
"So how is the princess now?" Wei Hongzhuo asked anxiously.
"We also need adventurers to go to the capital to gather information. If you are willing to go and solve the princess's problem, that would be even better."
"Solve? How?"
"I don't know. There is too little information right now. Only by going to the capital in person can we know the details."
"Okay, let's go now!" Wei Hongzhuo stood up and said.
The tavern owner looked them over and said, "Although you are adventurers, you don't look very strong."
Cui Mingzhi said: "But we have Prince Ren Anzhi, the object of the princess's admiration. According to the routine of the game, maybe he is the key to successfully saving the princess!"
Wei Hongzhuo gritted his teeth and said nothing.
The tavern owner thought about it and said, "Then I can provide assistance and help you hold back those lackey knights on your way to the capital. But I have a condition."
"What conditions?"
"Acknowledge that the teachings of the Octopus Cult are the true knowledge of this world and join the Octopus Cult."
"Well..."
Cui Mingzhi and Wei Hongzhuo looked at each other. They had both received the system's request to wipe out the Octopus Cult, but now the Octopus Cult has extended a helping hand to them. Should they accept it or not? What consequences will there be if they accept the help of the Octopus Cult?
"And I will give you the fastest horses to the capital."
“Ah, this…”
"I will give each of you a set of equipment, plus 100 gold coins for travel expenses."
Cui Mingzhi and others shouted in unison: "No problem!"
Cui Mingzhi, Wei Hongzhuo, Ren Anzhi and Gin joined the Octopus Cult.
