Chapter 6
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Chapter 6: Making a Plan
"Master, I have to go back now," Tina said, holding Leo’s face with a sad look. "If I stay too long, the other believers will get suspicious. We’ll meet tonight!"
"Alright…" Leo nodded. "By the way, have you prepared the things I asked you for?"
"I haven’t finished the list of mid-level and high-level believers, but the map and some other things are ready," Tina said as she took out a few small booklets. "But, Master, you must hide these well. Don’t let the other believers see them, or it will cause trouble."
"Yes, I understand," Leo replied as he took the booklets. He rubbed his forehead and said, "I’ll do my best to memorize all this information while we have the time during the festival today."
"Wow, Master, is your memory really that good?" Tina tilted her head, feeling a bit shy as she fidgeted with her legs. "I’m completely different; I don’t like thinking too much…"
"Well, I don’t have much choice…" Leo said with a wry smile as he opened the booklets.
Seeing that Leo was completely absorbed in his studies, Tina blinked, bit her lip, and reluctantly turned into Mucus, disappearing from the cell.
Meanwhile, Leo began to focus all his energy on remembering the knowledge he had just received.
He was not a brilliant student with an extraordinary memory, nor was he a genius who could strategize from afar, but to survive, he had to push himself to his limits.
Fortunately, in moments of life and death, people often discover they are much stronger than they think.
After a few minutes, he had roughly built a model of the prison in his mind.
This Joyful Church has a three-story chapel. The first floor is the altar, built on the ground, which is the open lawn where Leo first woke up.
The sacrificial ceremony is held in that place.
The second and third floors are built underground. The second floor is where the believers live. There are a total of forty-seven low-level believers and one mid-level believer in this chapel. The mid-level believer, who is the warden, is currently leading over thirty other believers in a joint capture operation with other chapels and is not in the prison right now.
The third floor is where Leo is now, a prison holding human sacrifices. Currently, there are one hundred and two human sacrifices in this chapel.
Of course, this number is decreasing every day. Two weeks ago, there were more than two hundred. Back then, the cells were much more crowded than they are now. If he had come a little earlier, he probably wouldn’t have gotten such a private room.
Leo shook his head in self-mockery and, after looking at the third floor map a few more times, began to flip through another booklet.
These booklets explain how the believers of the Joyful Church gain power and the knowledge of extraordinary forces in this land.
"Joyful prayers… You must pray at the altar of the God of Joy. If He responds, you should make a vow to spread His glory, and then recite this prayer in times of joy to receive redemption and transformation…" Leo mumbled, reciting the words from the book.
"The more devoted the believer, the more they will be favored by the God of Joy. Kill, torment, indulge, destroy—doing so only proves your devotion!"
"…"
After flipping through a few more pages, Leo closed the booklet and gave a slight, bitter laugh.
From the information he just gathered, he understood two main things.
The first thing is that this world truly has gods; all extraordinary powers are connected to faith. Whether you are a knight, a sorcerer, a wizard, or a priest, if you want to gain power, you must join a sect and believe in a god.
The second thing is that the Joyful Church, where he is, is a cult within a cult. Believers of the God of Joy gradually become crazed individuals who yearn for killing, bloodshed, death, and cruelty. This transformation is subtle and irreversible; the stronger the power, the more twisted the thoughts.
"Unless absolutely necessary, I must not pray to the God of Joy…" Leo sighed, leaving the map behind. He lit the other booklets with his oil lamp, watching them turn to ash and drift into the sewer.
He originally thought about using Tina’s connections to secretly go to the altar and pray to the God of Joy for strength.
But now it seems that path is not possible. Not to mention if his willpower can withstand the corruption of the doctrine of joy, even if he manages to stay true to himself, he would still become a rat that everyone in Castella Continent wants to chase away, living forever in a dark, stinky gutter without any light.
If he must believe in a deity, it would be better to find a righteous god; the goddess of the Order Church should be a good choice.
"What am I thinking? I haven’t even escaped from this prison yet…" Shaking his head, Leo put away the map, finished the meat porridge on the table slowly, and then lay down on the bed, covering his head with the blanket.
After communicating with Tina for a while through his mind, he confirmed what was happening at the altar and decided on the next steps.
His drooping eyelids were slowly covered by darkness.
……
……
"Damn these guys, ah, look at your face, ha, scream in pain, wail! The more you wail, the more our master will feel our devotion!"
"Bang! Bang!! Bang!!"
"Ah! Ah!!"
The sound of the whip cracking and the terrible cries of the sacrifices made Leo wake up suddenly from his dream.
He instinctively touched his chest to make sure the map was not taken, then he felt relieved, pulled back the blanket, and looked outside the cell.
Tina was gathered with several believers, whipping the sacrifices in another prison.
The terrible cries of the sacrifices made Leo shiver, giving him the feeling of being whipped himself.
And the "serious" Tina had completely lost the cute look she had when she was with him, showing a fierce and cruel side instead.
Just like the old Tina.
At that moment, Leo finally understood what Mucus’s ability of assimilation really meant.
Copying a person’s memories from birth to now is like copying her character and way of dealing with things, which is like copying her soul.
Even the person who knows Tina best would probably not notice that she has already become a different type of being.
"Huh… Huh… Damn, these sacrifices want to escape during the Joyful Ceremony." A believer shouted at the moaning sacrifices, giving one of them a hard whip. "If this group of fools gets away, then we will truly become martyrs today!"
"Who says that’s not true?" Another believer also showed a fearful expression and sneered, "But these pigs are interesting. How dare they try to escape? Don’t they know the difference in strength between ordinary people and believers?"
"Maybe it’s not that they don’t know the difference…" At that moment, Tina timely joined the conversation, "But rather… someone led them astray…"
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