Grinya looked calmly at the stack of photographs while the other hunters in the hall turned their gazes toward her. The atmosphere was as tense as a water-filled balloon, ready to burst at any moment.
So that place really was a cultist stronghold...
Grinya sighed inwardly. Reality was unfolding exactly as she had feared; she had to face the accusation of being a cultist, and that abandoned church, now confirmed as a stronghold, was the undeniable proof that would seal her fate.
There was no one who could verify her identity. From the perspective of the Sin Hunting Bureau, she couldn't possibly be just an innocent passerby who had accidentally wandered into such a place.
Even after thinking about it all night, she couldn't come up with a single reason to defend herself.
She had spent the whole night reflecting, and her emotions were now very stable.
It wasn't that she had figured everything out; she had simply run out of options.
"Brother, there must be some misunderstanding. Grinya couldn't possibly be a cultist!" Kriss said hurriedly, her small face pale and her hands trembling in panic.
"The church will decide whether it's a misunderstanding or not." Kross didn't care at all about his sister's pleading. In his eyes, matters concerning cults were more important and more serious than anything else.
"If she is truly innocent and just a passerby who happened to be there, she only needs to prove to the church that her faith still belongs to the Original God. If she is not..." Kross's eyes narrowed as he stared at her dangerously. "Kriss, haven't you always wanted to know what someone suffering from mental pollution looks like?"
The meaning behind Kross's words was already perfectly clear. If Grinya wasn't innocent, her betrayal would be punished by the gods. That was a deep-seated mental pollution, a pain more agonizing than any physical torture in the world.
Kriss froze for a moment and instinctively looked at Grinya's face. Seeing that she remained as calm as ever, Kriss bit her lip and said, "I believe Student Grinya is definitely innocent, but your attitude is too bullying, Brother! If Student Grinya is innocent, you must compensate her!"
"Fine!" Kross agreed without a second thought, treating it as nothing more than a silly spat with his sister.
Kriss pumped her small fists as if cheering Grinya on. "Student Grinya, we'll go to the church and prove to this arrogant, rude guy that you are definitely innocent! You'll be fine, right?"
Grinya gave a stiff nod.
Definitely... there was a problem.
Because her current faith didn't belong to the Original God at all, nor did it belong to any other righteous gods. It belonged to a genuine... evil god.
If she could, Grinya really wanted to cry out in sorrow right now.
But perhaps because her emotions had been brewing for long enough last night, or because she had grown used to being an expressionless vessel over the past few days, she couldn't make any sorrowful expression.
She could only place all her hopes for survival on the great evil god.
Great evil god, please stop sleeping! Your loyal follower is about to die!
She promised never to take the initiative to do such dangerous things again!
...
Lu Xun had just returned home. Before he could even turn on his computer, the vibration of his phone gave him a sudden start.
Lu Xun now suffered from PTSD regarding phone ringtones and didn't dare miss another call. As soon as he noticed the vibration, he pulled the phone out of his pocket with lightning speed.
But looking at the number displayed on the screen, Lu Xun was stunned.
Why was this number just a string of asterisks?
Lu Xun didn't understand it, but he didn't dare hang up, fearing he might miss another important message.
With an anxious heart, he answered the call.
"Hello?"
On the other end of the line was an extremely blurry, hazy voice. He couldn't hear it clearly or tell if it was male or female; he could only faintly make out two words:
"Save me..."
"You psycho."
Lu Xun angrily hung up the phone.
After finally working up the courage to answer, it turned out to be a prank call. His mood felt as miserable as if he had just eaten something disgusting.
Sitting back at his computer desk and looking at the dense array of icons on the screen, he thought for a long time. Finally, his gaze fixed on the game he had downloaded a few days ago.
Although he had found the game through a trashy pop-up window, it was unexpectedly fun.
But had he been a bit too obsessed with this game lately?
Just thinking about the embarrassing lines he had said that morning gave him goosebumps even now.
Without a doubt, this game was seriously affecting his reality. He even felt that some of his own behaviors had a strange sense of eccentricity, as if he were losing his mind.
He would constantly find himself slipping into the persona of a god, experiencing that sense of selfishness, pride, and indifference firsthand.
At the thought of this, Lu Xun shuddered and shook his head repeatedly.
"No, no, I absolutely cannot play this game today. If I keep playing, I'm really going to be ruined."
"It's been a while since I last streamed. I should let my dear fans know I'm back."
He clicked on his fan group and took a casual glance at the messages.
Most of the group members were just chatting about which games were fun lately, which games were at an all-time low price, or which games had failed due to IP issues...
Scrolling up, he could see some fans @-ing him.
【Durian @Wobu Shiqu: If you're awake, start the stream. Don't live like a young master.】
【Cardboard Man @Wobu Shiqu: I'm telling you to go live. Are you hard of hearing?】
【...】
There were quite a few messages like these urging him to start his stream. He had simply forgotten to reply, so not many people had mentioned it lately.
"It's time to return to my professional duties." Lu Xun smiled. After all, his actual job was being a streamer, even if he only had a few hundred fans...
After opening his stream room and sharing the link, the group messages suddenly became active.
【Playing Valorant Even With Broken Hands: Xun Shen is live! For real? (Real or fake?)】
【Playing Valorant Even With Broken Hands: Holy shit, he's actually live!】
...
At the Sin Hunting Bureau.
Grinya's face was expressionless, her heart showing no ripples.
As expected, there was no response. She wasn't surprised at all.
A high-and-mighty existence like a god naturally wouldn't always pay attention to the call of a tiny human.
Her mood couldn't be described as disappointed, nor was it despair.
There were only two reasons why the evil god didn't respond to her.
Either he was disappointed in her and was going to discard her like trash,
Or he was testing her ability to handle a crisis.
She had caused this mess herself, so she couldn't always trouble the great evil god. Since the great evil god believed she could handle it herself, she definitely would.
She wanted to become someone useful to the great evil god.
Kross raised his cold handgun again, aiming it at her forehead. "Miss Grinya, please return to your cell. We need to reconsider whether you are a cultist or not!"
Rate on N.U.
