Chapter 441: The Masked Man
"Masked Figure"
"The heavy rain won't last too long. I just don't know if I can hold out until it ends."
Lin Ye looked at Sera standing in the rain, revealing a cheerful smile.
"You seem quite happy."
Sera looked at Lin Ye somewhat puzzled, not understanding why he could still smile under these circumstances.
"I love staying in a warm room reading books on rainy days. Thinking about pedestrians getting soaked outside, I feel genuine happiness. Thank you for being out there getting rained on."
Lin Ye said with a slight smile, his eyes half-closed.
"You really are... an asshole."
Sera somewhat regretted contacting Lin Ye at this moment. She had originally planned to share the joy of victory with him, but now she was completely in no mood for it.
"Thank you for the compliment. I still have matters to handle. If there's nothing else, let's talk another time." Lin Ye sensed a familiar aura, feeling slight tremors coming from deep underground.
"Stay with me a little longer. This is the beginning of the world's destruction; it would be such a waste not to properly appreciate it."
Sera looked in another direction, toward the massive crater left when the Bottomless Pit collapsed.
The ground tremors grew increasingly violent. A huge amount of anomalous phenomena gushed out from the pit, like an enormous fountain obscuring the entire sky above Free City.
Above the fountain, a gigantic tumorous creature flickered in and out of sight. Countless tumor masses hung down from above, rupturing as various bizarrely-shaped tumor creatures rained down into Free City along with the downpour and anomalous phenomena.
Outside the city, a ten-meter-tall flesh-and-blood wall appeared, covered with beast heads growing all over its surface.
Beyond the flesh-and-blood wall, pitch-black seawater covered the ground. An enormous, suffocatingly large shadow flickered within the dark, icy waters.
"...So this is your goal. By moving massive amounts of 'garbage' to Free City and even the entire world, the 'trash can lid' would appear here. The garbage wants a bigger trash can, the trash can lid doesn't want to deal with the overflowing garbage all day, and you can also redeem the entire world. So you've reached cooperation. This is a triple win?"
Only now did Lin Ye realize this place was far more troublesome than he'd imagined. The Salvation Cult and Bio-Tech had planned everything long ago, while his so-called 'allies' were those major forces with their own hidden agendas. Calling them pig teammates would be praising them.
"You might have misunderstood one thing. The Salvation Cult's doctrine is indeed somewhat radical, but we are not an evil organization hoping for the world's destruction. We plan to use the power of the Bottomless Pit to transform the world. Otherwise, why do you think Bio-Tech researches parasites?"
One by one, clergy members wearing ceremonial robes with solemn expressions appeared behind Sera. They silently recited their doctrine in their hearts as an illusory altar manifested beneath their feet, covering this building filled with sacrificial offerings.
"Assistant, the ritual is ready."
A clergy member bowed and presented a silver scepter to Sera.
"Mmm."
Sera took the scepter and said to Lin Ye:
"Rest assured, my Lord's divine power will envelop this city. Tonight, no one will die.
After tonight, my Lord's radiance will illuminate the entire plane. From then on, no one will need to receive salvation."
Sera gazed fervently at the sky. She wasn't deceiving Lin Ye. As the assistant of the God of Salvation, she would redeem all creatures on this plane needing salvation.
"...Fuck!"
The communication cut off. Lin Ye felt a headache coming on. He thought he'd finally found a reliable teammate, but instead gained another troublesome problem.
Numerous anomalous phenomena and tumor creatures fell near the base. Masks appeared one after another inside the base, covering the faces of those young men.
Lin Ye casually crushed a mask lunging at him, then continued observing the situation outside. If everything here was this troublesome, he'd have to take his people and run.
At Carnot Heavy Industries, a hundred-meter-tall giant one-armed armored colossus crawled out from the base, punching away a swath of anomalous phenomena. It was clearly a semi-finished product, with some unassembled parts still hanging from its body. Yet even so, the power of those anomalous phenomena couldn't affect the armored giant.
The slums suddenly collapsed. A giant flesh-and-blood creature covered with corpses crawled out from within and began clearing nearby anomalous phenomena.
Adventurers and various factions within the city also began resisting, cleaning up the anomalous phenomena and tumorous creatures falling from the sky.
"Sigh, I was ready to run away..."
Lin Ye sighed. Considering that even escaping outside might not allow him to last over two months, he took out a parasitic mask that had been parasitized by a parasite from his small pouch and put it on his face.
At that moment, every individual wearing a mask received Lin Ye's command and began acting according to his orders.
Numerous masked figures appeared near the clubhouse base, starting to clear away the anomalous phenomena and tumor creatures approaching the clubhouse. Since the salvation ritual covered the entire Free City, these masked figures couldn't be killed at all. They valiantly destroyed anomalous phenomena, and for tumor creatures that couldn't be killed, they chopped them into pieces and swallowed them into their bodies.
For Lin Ye, the salvation ritual was a power he could utilize. But for those adventurers, it was different. They couldn't reattach severed heads, and accepting fusion with monsters was difficult to bear.
Soon, the city filled with agonized wails. Now, death was the true blessing.
Of course, there were also many spiritual energy users who could utilize this power. Free City's adventurers frequently entered and exited the Bottomless Pit, most having experience dealing with sudden situations.
Lin Ye began producing more masked figures. As long as there were sufficient materials, parasitic masks could be replicated. However, controlling masked figures consumed mental energy, so Lin Ye could only act within his means.
Large numbers of masked figures expanded outward, beginning to rescue nearby citizens. With Lin Ye present, even citizens chopped into pieces could be reassembled.
Nearby citizens noticed this situation. They began gathering around the masked figures, forming groups to clear anomalous phenomena and tumor creatures from the streets.
Citizens began forming combat squads. When someone got injured, they'd take them to the masked figures to be reassembled. Chopped-up tumor creatures could even be fed to the masked figures.
During this process, large amounts of anomalous phenomena remains were delivered to the clubhouse base, where Rule Crystals were extracted.
The situation was developing in a positive direction, but Lin Ye didn't relax in the slightest. Because he knew these anomalous phenomena were just garbage thrown out needing disposal. The truly troublesome things hadn't appeared yet.
Those three anomalous creatures wouldn't allow them to clean up all the anomalous phenomena either; otherwise, they'd have to return to the Bottomless Pit.
"I hope there's still time..."
Lin Ye continued researching that colorless crystal. He had preliminarily analyzed the crystal's structure, but still didn't fully understand its effects and usage.
*Knock knock.*
A knocking sound came from outside the door, but Lin Ye detected no one approaching. Even now, he couldn't sense anything outside the door.