Chapter 2201: Whoever Believes in Her Receives Her Protection
Outer zone players who come in might be brainwashed, but not everyone can be successfully brainwashed. Even if the Goddess Temple people painstakingly take the children who grow up here to raise them, it's hard to guarantee that every single one will become a believer without any resistance. Even if all these children are brainwashed, or if they fail to grow up due to various accidents, wouldn't the people watching these children start to have doubts?
If all that was needed were children mixed with outer zone genes to grow up healthily, then what was the point of the Goddess Cult's persistence to this day? They were no longer the nation on the verge of extinction they once were, and no longer needed the sacrifice of dual genders.
It was easy for Xu Huo to find stranded outer zone players, but after talking to a few people, he discovered another thing: the number of offspring born between stranded outer zone players and locals might be higher than he imagined. Because some stranded players lived together, they would raise the children they had with locals as if they were children born to two outer zone players.
This group was larger than he thought. They held regular gatherings, even worshipped the Goddess, and this didn't bring them trouble from the temple.
A stranded player led Xu Huo to a small shrine they had built for the Goddess, casually offering the fresh flowers they had brought, and said, "The Goddess in the instance isn't as powerful as you imagine. The eye patterns everywhere in the Holy Land are her eyes and ears, but without them, there isn't much she can see or hear."
Xu Huo had already told the other person that he wasn't a clearance player, so he asked directly, "You swap children, making the locals think their babies died right after birth... I, someone who's only been here a few days, can find out about these things. Can't the Goddess Cult people find out too?"
"It doesn't matter if they know." The female player, with a devout and kind expression, said, "We are few in number, and no matter how many children we have, we can't catch up to the locals. But we are also not too few. If they dare to make a move, we dare to fight to the death. Without the Goddess's help, how strong can they really be?"
"You mean the Goddess is also willing to help you?" This guess made it hard for Xu Huo to hide his surprise.
"The Goddess, whoever believes in her receives her protection." The female player bowed before the faceless Goddess statue. "We are believers now too."
Xu Huo's gaze shifted from the faceless Goddess statue to the player devoutly bowing before him, then moved past her to the eye pattern carved on the wall beside him. Two overlapping eyes, looking down from on high, overlooking the believers and outer zone players below, and also overlooking everything in this shrine.
His eyes lingered on those two eyes for a moment before he turned his wheelchair and left the place.
Xu Huo returned to the vicinity of the temple. Before going to the hotel, he went in to see Ahai once more. After coming out, he rested at the hotel. When dawn came, Yellow Hair and the other players who had been delayed by the satellite city temple's closure finally rushed to the Holy Land.
Yellow Hair had collected all five patterns. As soon as they met, he started talking about the satellite city. "The door was closed for two days. I don't know who they were looking for, but the Holy Maiden was nowhere to be seen. The clearance players made a fake one, but they didn't fall for it. I guess there really isn't any Holy Maiden. After wasting two days, they finally opened the door."
"The Holy Land is really lively. If I hadn't been delayed in the satellite city, I would have definitely waited until after the God's Birthday to enter the instance. By the way, what's the situation inside the temple?"
"One good news, one bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" Xu Huo said.
"Good, good." Yellow Hair said hurriedly.
"The good news is that there really seems to be some problem within the Goddess Cult. The Goddess's control over the temple is actually weaker than over the satellite cities. I can enter freely even without a single eye pattern."
"The internal strife in the Goddess Cult has weakened the Goddess's power?" Yellow Hair immediately started making beautiful associations, then asked, "And the bad news?"
"The bad news is that something might happen in the Holy Land around the God's Birthday, which could impact the instance." Xu Huo said calmly. "Impacting the instance doesn't necessarily mean destroying it; it could also cause unpredictable changes."
Yellow Hair's expression turned serious. "That really is bad news. Compared to this, the good news doesn't mean much. It would be one thing if the instance was destroyed, but if it gets stimulated and goes out of control, I might end up losing my life. The worst-case scenario is the instance upgrading, which would just make things worse."
He furrowed his brows for a while, then sat down with a long sigh. "Bad timing. Looks like I'll have to wait until after the God's Birthday."
Then he looked at Xu Huo. "This suits you, though."
Xu Huo also turned to look at him, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "After going through the Five Interrogation Halls, how are you feeling now?"
Yellow Hair, who had been worried about being unknowingly brainwashed, quickly recounted his experiences in the Interrogation Halls. The first two times were about past events and their extensions. After their last conversation, he thought that just running away wouldn't work, so he tried to simulate a door, but failed.
Xu Huo was quite surprised by his audacity. To dare imagine a gate without being a Mental Evolver—the gate he was trying to imprint might not necessarily open outward; it could also open inward.
"Tell me about it." Yellow Hair slapped his leg regretfully. "As soon as the door opened, I saw it. What surged out were all Cannibal Players. This time, it wasn't the passersby on the street chasing me, but the Cannibal Players. You know I have a bit of a psychological shadow about Cannibal Players. In the illusion, I ran from noon until night before I got out."
Xu Huo didn't see any psychological shadow on him. "Didn't you try to kill them?"
"Of course I tried," Yellow Hair said, somewhat speechless. "But they split. Can you believe it? Kill one, and it gets up and turns into two. Mushrooms having babies aren't that fast. I almost got bitten to death. In the end, I just gave up, found a metal cabinet to hide in, and refused to come out no matter what."
"That's how I managed to hold on until I woke up from the illusion."
"The next two times, this illusion got completely out of control. It turned into an apocalyptic world. The scenes I imagined when I first evolved, which I never saw in the game, I saw them all in the illusion now."
A hint of unconscious fear crept into Yellow Hair's expression. Even knowing it was fake, the realism was still terrifying.
"Did you forget you're a player?" Xu Huo interrupted him. "Never forget that you're a player, no matter what."
"It's not like I can just remember it whenever I want." Yellow Hair was helpless. "My items couldn't be used in the illusion at all. I couldn't even imagine them. It was like trying to fly in a dream as a kid—no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get off the ground. There's a thin line between reality and illusion, but whether going from reality to illusion or illusion to reality, I just can't cross that line."
"To be honest with you, I even thought about trying to kill myself to see if what I experienced in the illusion would affect reality."
Xu Huo looked at him with an incredulous expression. (Chapter End)