Chapter 484: Completion Ceremony
【Remaining Simulation Attempts: 9】
When Lin Ye regained his senses, he was already back inside his cell.
The memories after grabbing the question mark card had become exceptionally blurry. He vaguely remembered that something seemed to have happened, but that stretch of memory was like it had been thrown into a shredder and cut into pieces, leaving behind only some meaningless, tiny fragments.
This feeling of being unable to recall no matter how hard he tried was terrible, but those memory fragments kept reminding Lin Ye that he had forgotten something very important.
'What a hassle.'
Lin Ye temporarily shelved the memory issue and began thinking about how to solve another trouble he would soon face.
'There are three methods to solve the problem: alter the ritual, prevent the ritual, and seek help from the organization.
The latter two methods are more troublesome, so I should first try to alter the ritual.
If everyone must perform a ritual, what if a few more people participate? Would the ritual's difficulty change?
Moreover, performing each ritual yields a ritual item. Perhaps I can start from this aspect to solve the problem.' Lin Ye decided to save those three D-Class personnel this time to see if it would cause some kind of change.
Just like last time, Lin Ye followed the overseers into the lounge. But this time, Lin Ye straightened his posture and glared at the old black man before he could even speak.
Kem swallowed his words. He was no good guy on the outside and could naturally tell who not to provoke.
Lin Ye shoved Damon, who was sitting at the table, aside and took his spot.
"From now on, what I say goes in this room. Anyone object?"
Lin Ye pressed his foot down on Damon's thigh, forcing him to stay on the floor.
No one, including Damon, spoke. Even the woman muttering at the wall quieted down.
A few minutes later, overseers in protective suits once again pushed the handcart into the lounge. It was still covered with that same piece of black velvet cloth.
"What is this? Why are you wearing those clothes?"
Kem stared nervously at the handcart, asking the exact same question as last time.
The overseers left the handcart and exited the room. The door closed, and the sound of a lock clicking into place came from outside.
Lin Ye wasted no time on words. He directly grabbed Damon and shoved him towards the handcart.
Just like last time, Damon knocked off the black cloth, and that blood-stained long kitchen knife appeared on the handcart.
Lin Ye picked up the kitchen knife and pushed open the lounge's large door.
"Follow me if you don't want to die. If you want to die, I'll stab you right now."
Lin Ye walked out of the lounge, then turned to look at them.
The three instinctively followed behind Lin Ye. Faced with such an abnormal situation, people unconsciously stick together.
Lin Ye casually pushed open a door, then used the kitchen knife to pry open the room's window.
"Get down yourselves. Don't come near this building until I come out to find you."
Last time when Lin Ye climbed out the window, the silhouette hadn't pursued him. It was very likely the other party also had some kind of restriction on its movement.
And even if there were no restrictions outside, that silhouette couldn't possibly abandon the basement to go looking for them outside.
"What on earth is going on? If you don't explain clearly, we won't keep listening to you."
This time, Kem didn't obey Lin Ye's command. He wanted to know what the current situation really was.
"That handcart and the black cloth before were ritual props. I'm going to complete this ritual now. If you don't want to die, listen to me. Outside is the safe zone. If you want to die, stay here then."
After saying this, Lin Ye ran out of the room. He needed to get into the basement quickly to deal with that silhouette.
Familiar with the layout, Lin Ye soon jumped down into the first-floor hall. The silhouette seemed to have heard the commotion, rushing quickly from upstairs down to the first floor.
But this time, Lin Ye didn't need to think at all. Holding the kitchen knife, he charged straight for the basement. Even without knowing any information, he had managed to deal with the silhouette before. This was even simpler.
So when the silhouette jumped into the basement, Lin Ye had already been waiting inside for quite some time.
Lin Ye waited until the silhouette had entered the basement before, under its gaze, plunging the kitchen knife into the corpse's chest.
It wasn't that he wanted to see the silhouette's pained expression again, but this time the silhouette's speed was clearly off, seeming much slower than last time.
The silhouette's actions after entering the basement allowed Lin Ye to confirm that this time, it simply had no teleportation skill, and its movement speed was also slower.
This was likely related to its failure to kill those three D-Class personnel.
If this was a ritual, then the four of them were the ritual's sacrificial offerings. Killing the offerings would naturally strengthen the silhouette.
'Looks like I must protect those three D-Class personnel.'
Lin Ye didn't feel upset. Instead, he relaxed a bit. This indicated the previous situation was likely caused by the death of the three offerings. If they hadn't died, perhaps his ritual difficulty would be much lower.
Having dealt with the silhouette, Lin Ye once again chose the option to enhance his physical fitness. Although this silhouette was much weaker than the last one, the degree of physical enhancement from the kitchen knife was still the same as before.
Lin Ye, holding the kitchen knife, found the three sacrificial offerings hiding in the courtyard, then led them back to the lounge.
The door automatically closed, and the sound of a lock clicking into place came from outside.
"Just as I said before, this is a sacrificial ritual. All four of us are the offerings. We must complete four rituals to leave here alive. Moreover, each person's death increases the ritual's difficulty. I'll try my best to let you leave here alive, provided you listen to me."
Lin Ye explained the current situation to the three. He didn't want to face their questioning again while completing the rituals later.
"Boss! Just give the orders! Whatever you say goes!"
The fat man, Damon, immediately changed his tune.
"Exactly! I felt earlier that you had a unique aura about you. Turns out you're an expert at handling ritual incidents!"
The old black man, Kem, chimed in.
Kalin didn't speak, just kept nodding beside them, wearing an ingratiating smile.
"You all adapt quite quickly."
Lin Ye hadn't expected these D-Class personnel to accept reality so fast.
"Well, I was originally sent here because of an incident related to a cult, so I can accept what you're saying. Even among those cultists, you'd be hard-pressed to find a few who could complete a ritual as quickly as you."
Kem explained.
"I'm similar. I was sent here because I made deals with cultists."
Damon also offered an explanation.
Kalin nodded beside them. She was also a D-Class personnel related to a cult.
'... This bunch of trash.'
Lin Ye almost didn't want to save them anymore.
But considering the working conditions for D-Class personnel, Lin Ye felt saving them wasn't really a problem either.