Chapter 364: Undead: Unaware of the Evil God
Thanks to Yang Qiu's painstaking efforts to lay the groundwork and deeply implant the players' awareness of "realism" as the main feature of "Alien World", Miaobi Shenghua, who was entrusted with the important task, had no objection to the "mission text information" being presented in the form of archives; he also did not feel anything wrong with the "mission steps" being carried out in the form of investigation and evidence collection...
On the other hand, someone who doesn't really like quests, Give Me Medicine, expressed the same sentiment that any normal player would have: "Are we here to play an RPG or a detective game? Can't we just make a cult dungeon and let the other players push it?"
"As for games, they have to have both the Warriors mowing series and the Rusty Lake series to be fun. Killing monsters every day will get boring." Miaobishenghua unconsciously acted as a tap and pointed at Agent Stanford who was their partner. "Look, we have NPCs to assist in this mission. Isn't this very RPG?"
Agent Stanford, who silently led the two undead, said: "..."
He could understand what the undead were saying, but he couldn't understand anything at all - what was Wushuang Mowing? What was Rusty Lake? What were NPCs and RPGs?
And why do you undeads keep talking about games? Do you think investigating cults is a kind of "game"?
Agent Stanford, who was full of complaints, put on a serious "NPC face" and brought the two undead to the first stop of the investigation: the low-rent housing resettlement site in Liujiao Lane, South City District.
The low-rent housing in Liujiao Alley is composed of dozens of apartment buildings confiscated from nobles. The city hall then paid to reclaim more than a dozen buildings and concentrated the entire alley for use as public rental housing.
The buildings in this block are generally four or five stories high, all made of red brick, with water pipes and sewer pipes. A small number of newer buildings have electrical wires. In total, there are more than 900 households, which is roughly the size of a small or medium-sized community in China.
Because all the gang members, gamblers, prostitutes, and thieves in the city were arrested and used as free labor, and a large number of unemployed people were absorbed by the city hall's contract employment policy, Liujiao Alley, which once had poor security and frequent crimes, is now very stable.
When Miaobishenghua and Give Me Medicine reappeared one month later (Earth time) on this street where they had fought before, they could see that the residents facing the street had dared to open the windows on the first floor, and some women dared to set up stalls on the street to sell simply processed snacks such as mashed potatoes and potato cakes.
Well... players certainly don't think about the improvement of urban security. As for the bustling Hexagon Alley, Miaobi Shenghua only has one reaction: "There are more NPCs in this place!"
As for giving me medicine, this guy's attitude was very much like a player: "What's the point of spawning so many citizen NPCs? It's just a waste of server resources in this kind of place."
"Who cares? As long as it doesn't lag, it's fine." Miaobishenghua said nonchalantly, "Speaking of which, the bandwidth of this game is really amazing. I've been playing it for so long and I've never felt any lag. I don't think I'll be able to adapt to other online games."
There were still some Agent Stanford who didn't understand: "..."
The resettlement community, like other neighborhoods with a large number of residents, has a security point (similar to a street police station) with two security guards on duty.
When Agent Stanford brought the dead soul to the door, two security guards from the Six Corners Alley security point were already waiting inside the house.
Seeing Agent Stanford bringing in two undead spirits, the two security guards' expressions became visibly tense...
After the liberation of Dutata City, a teleportation point was added to the City Hall, and a warehouse of the Undead Chamber of Commerce and a half-rotten zombie NPC appeared in a back street building in the central city.
The old players who participated in the first and second tests have long experienced the joy of attacking towns and opening new maps. They don’t have much interest in a main city like Dutata that has no functionality (providing player services). After waiting for a few days and not seeing the new main city open for the Night Watch mission, they went to play by themselves with a curse. Only the players from the third test would come over enthusiastically to run the map when there was no large group to join.
These third-test players have caused a lot of trouble for the city's residents... These guys have done the same things that the old players did to the residents of Westram and Innadri.
The various emoticons on the walls of the Central City, the damaged roofs of residents in the Port District, the innocent passers-by who would be harassed for half a day if they accidentally made eye contact with the undead, the strange noises coming from the streets in the middle of the night, the drunkards who were chased across several streets - the incidence of public security incidents in Dutata City at night has dropped significantly, and that is almost all the "achievements" of these third-test players.
The security guards at the security points in every block of the city have a subtle and complex feeling towards the dead, and their emotions are difficult to understand.
"Good day, agent. I'm Layton, the security officer from the Six Corners Alley, and this is my partner Watts." One of the security officers forced a polite smile and extended his hand to Agent Stanford.
"Good day, I'm Stanford." Stanford shook hands with Layton, turned his head to look at the two skeletons who followed him in, and introduced them with difficulty, "Well... this undead lady is a brilliant writer, and this undead gentleman is here to give me medicine."
Stanford has not passed the assessment and entered the matrix yet, so he cannot see the names above the heads of the undead and can only rely on his own memory... Fortunately, the clothes of these two undead are easy to distinguish (one wears a robe and the other wears leather armor), so he is not completely in the dark.
Miaobishenghua smiled friendly at the plot NPC, gave me medicine without any interest in the plot mission, lowered his head and chatted with the people in the Blood Alliance, completely ignoring anyone.
The two security guards who heard the introduction showed an awkward look of dullness and confusion on their faces...
Agent Stanford understood very well why his two colleagues from the Sheriff's Department had such reactions. When he heard the name of the dead ghost, his reaction was similar to theirs.
"Ms. Zhao invited these two undead to assist us in investigating the slum cult." Agent Stanford slightly emphasized his tone and reminded his two colleagues to regain their attention. "Layton, Watts, please introduce the situation of Hexagon Alley."
"Okay." The older security guard, Layton, came back to his senses and glanced at the two undead from the corner of his eye. He probably spent about two seconds preparing himself mentally for dealing with the undead, and tried his best to put on a smile. "Please, please take a seat, both of you."
The Public Security Department has always attached great importance to the problem of cults in slums. After the lottery for each resettlement site was completed, the security guards assigned to each block also did some work on this.
"Among the 921 households resettled in Liujiao Alley, we understand that there are two households with clear evidence and witnesses proving they were involved with cult members."
Security officer Layton took out a file from the cabinet, hesitated for a moment, and then handed it to Miaobishenghua reluctantly.
"The first family is Mrs. John, who lives in No. 3, 4th floor, Building No. 12. Mrs. John is a laundry woman working at the riverside laundry. She has two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter is married and her son-in-law also lives at home. The shack they originally lived in was very small, and the family lived very tight. The second daughter had conflicts with her sister and brother-in-law due to life frictions, and she ran away from home two years ago and has not returned since."
"A year ago, Mrs. John's neighbor saw her runaway daughter walking in an alley far away from their home. Her belly was very big and she seemed to be pregnant. Mrs. John rushed to the area to look for her, but the people living in that alley claimed that they had not seen a pregnant woman..."
"Is it also in the slums?" The writer who was flipping through the files interjected.
The young woman's voice coupled with the hideous appearance of the skeleton made Sheriff Layton feel strongly uncomfortable. He was stunned for a while before he remembered to answer: "Yes, Madam Undead. You may also know that the slum is very large, with hundreds of alleys. Many families can't even tell how many people live in the alley where they live. If they are separated by a few alleys, they may not see each other more than a few times a year, let alone be familiar with each other."
Miaobishenghua nodded, and then asked curiously: "Just because we saw that the second daughter who ran away from home was pregnant, how can we be sure that she is related to the cult?"
Security guard Layton was very conflicted. There was nothing more awkward than explaining female childbirth to a ghost: "Because pregnancy is a very important matter, Ms. Ghost. If a woman in the slums gets pregnant, she will not be able to work for a period of time after giving birth. She needs her husband and relatives to provide her with a living guarantee so that she can give birth with peace of mind."
"Mrs. John asked every household in that alley to find her daughter, but no one admitted to having seen the pregnant woman. This is unreasonable for the situation in the slums. Perhaps you can understand that most families in the slums are not well off. Even if the wife has conflicts with her family, since the mother-in-law has come to the door, who would refuse the help of his wife's family when his wife is about to give birth?"
Miaobishenghua's mouth twitched, and he said, "Uh... I can understand. It's very difficult for people in the slums to support pregnant women. Is that what you mean?"
Security officers Layton and Watts nodded in unison.
These two sheriffs were both residents of the South City. During the time when the Ezekiel family was in power, people of their backgrounds could not get a regular job, and both of them made a living by doing odd jobs in the Sheriff's Department.
The undead captured the city of Dutata and a large number of civil servants, operators and clerks were arrested. Many people from the Public Security Department were also dismissed. Layton and Watts, two temporary workers who used to run errands for others, finally got a chance to stand out.
It is also because of their own backgrounds that the two security guards are so familiar with the situation in the slums - let alone the residents in the slums, even for people living in the South City, if an adult in the family suddenly loses his ability to work within a few months and there is an extra mouth to feed, the family's finances will become tight.
"This is so damn real." Miaobishenghua couldn't help but sigh. Suddenly he thought of something and his expression changed suddenly. "Wait a minute - haven't all the residents of the slums moved away? Why haven't they found this second daughter?"
"Yes, the dead lady." Sheriff Layton said reluctantly, "Just like those women who suddenly became pregnant in the past, no one has seen Mrs. John's second daughter since then."
Miaobishenghua gasped, "Fuck, are there more examples of this happening?!"
Sheriff's officers Layton and Watts looked at Agent Stanford with strange expressions.
Agent Stanford also looked strange.
Just... aren't you a dead spirit? How come you don't know anything about the evil god sect?
Thinking of the special nature of the Tarantan Undead, Agent Stanford explained uncertainly, "Perhaps you also know... The Undead Lady, the followers of the 'Eternal Sleeper', always try to trick women into giving birth to evil gods' followers - in the name of love or something else, let the evil gods' followers be conceived in women's wombs, and if they are born successfully, they can devour the mother's body as a blood sacrifice."
Wonderful writing: "???"
No, I have no idea! What a ridiculous plot!
"If the person being deceived is a man, the followers of the Eternal Sleeper from the void will use him as a tool for attachment. Whether it is giving birth to the followers of the evil god or being attached to them, it is a fatal matter. Anyone who responds will definitely not live long."
Agent Stanford discovered that the undead lady in front of him really didn't know much about the evil god sect, and couldn't help but twitch his lips slightly, explaining in more detail: "Some evil gods' followers can descend through parasitism or attachment, and some evil gods' followers require grand blood sacrifices to descend. The 'Eternal Sleeper' belongs to the former category."
"Since the night watchmen of this city discovered traces of the activities of the 'Eternal Sleepers' followers more than a hundred years ago, they have conducted multiple investigations and have captured and killed hundreds of suspected followers or infected people, but they were only driven out of the city. After the remaining followers mixed into the crowded slums, even the night watchmen were helpless."
It is extremely difficult to find a few, a dozen or even dozens of cultists hiding in a slum with no grassroots management, extremely high mobility and a population of more than 300,000 people.
The local church cannot even use the most effective means of isolation and lockdown - not to mention how to isolate a slum that is as large as half the city's area, who will feed more than 300,000 mouths?
Wonderful writing: "..."
Well, this mission plot has a very C-series flavor.
"What about the next one?" Miaobishenghua said with a pained look.
Security officer Layton swallowed and said, "The second family is the Gustav family who live in No. 1, 5th floor, Building 24. They are the survivors of the 'Dark Day' in the summer of last year in the slum."
After a pause, Layton added, "Because there are several slum cult incidents every year, the Public Security Department and the Night Watch do not give the incidents any additional names, and simply call them 'Dark Day'."
Wonderful Writing: "...For NPCs, the background of this world is too dangerous!"
Layton looked at Agent Stanford in confusion. What did that mean?
Agent Stanford didn't look away.
There's no point looking at him. He hasn't had much contact with these two undead spirits for a long time and can't understand their secret language!
Without getting an explanation, the security guard Layton could only continue to explain: "Last summer, someone in the slum claimed to have heard the sound of something being crushed by a large reptile at night. As incidents occurred frequently in the slum, the night watchman did not ignore it and sent two investigators into the slum to investigate. Within three days, they took away several mentally unstable and extremely difficult residents for quarantine observation."
"But the sound hasn't gone away, more people are hearing it at night."
"On the fifth day, people in the alley next door were awakened by the sound of wooden houses collapsing and people screaming in the middle of the night. When they went out with torches to check, they found that there was a pitch-black monster like a giant slug crawling above the ruins of the houses in the area."
"The witnesses could not see the whole appearance of the monster. They could only see that the monster's form was very unstable. Its body kept disintegrating and then growing twisted buds to repair itself..."
The writer's jaw kept dropping, and even Give Me Medicine, who had no interest in the mission plot, looked at me with horror.
"No one dared to approach the monster, and the people living nearby all fled the area screaming. It was not until the night watchman arrived in the morning that people discovered that of the people in the area, only the Gustav family, who built their house on the top of the hill and lived at the very edge, survived."
"But the Gustav family was not doing well either... Gustav's wife saw the monster from the window that night and was frightened to death on the spot; his youngest son was also in a bad condition and fell into a semi-crazy state after that. The night watchman repeatedly asked for a long time, and only learned from Gustav's youngest son that the neighbors not far from their home seemed to be secretly worshipping something..."
