Chapter 25: Black Death and the Deity 07

According to what the Strategy System had said before, the target Jian Bumian needed to conquer was generally the strongest BOSS in the instance.

…And also the most delicious.

Jian Bumian had been in this instance for so long without seeing the most delicious piece of food, and he was getting a little impatient.

He sighed lightly, jumped down from the windowsill, and went back to the bedroom to sleep.

When Jian Bumian woke up the next day, the text on the church dome had changed again.

[Please choose the deity capable of eliminating the plague within two hours.]

[1. God of Light]

[2. God of Darkness]

[3. ??? (To be discovered)]

Just as expected, this instance didn’t simply have only two deities.

The players had thought that finding the God of Light and God of Darkness meant they had completed most of the task. They hadn’t anticipated needing to find a third deity, and then figuring out which one could eliminate the plague.

All of this had to be done within two hours.

A veteran player asked, “Does anyone have clues about the third deity?”

Everyone was silent.

They subconsciously turned their gazes towards Jian Bumian. Their gazes were laden with many complex emotions—admiration, anticipation, fear…

Although Jian Bumian was a novice player, without any team background or items, just a few short days in this instance had greatly increased his credibility among the players.

And, once again, an old proverb circulated among them: Don’t judge by appearances.

Jian Bumian was still sitting on the windowsill, knees together, obediently nibbling on freshly baked cream bread from the church kitchen, one cheek puffed up like a hamster.

After a moment, he noticed everyone looking at him. He turned his head, his mouth full of food, and mumbled indistinctly: “Don’t look at me, I’m eating breakfast.”

Players: “………”

While eating breakfast, Jian Bumian turned his head to look at the scenery outside the window.

The sky was very blue, the sunlight intense…

Before Jian Bumian could finish looking, a black shadow flashed before his eyes. Then, the dull, heavy thud of a body hitting the ground sounded by his ear!

A few players, upon hearing this sound, immediately realized something was wrong: “Someone jumped off the building!”

Jian Bumian: “…”

He subconsciously looked down out the window.

He saw the concrete ground below the church. A person lay there, the body shattered into pieces, the head split into several parts like a watermelon. Splattered everywhere was not only flesh and blood, but also pale, squishy brain matter, flowing stickily all over the ground.

Jian Bumian suddenly felt the cream bread in his hand wasn’t fragrant anymore.

Other players rushed to other windows, craning their necks to look.

They saw not only the person on the ground… the church roof was packed with people! A huge, dark mass, like a shadow covering the top of the church.

They were all resident NPCs in this instance.

Some were already infected with the plague, transformed into eerie rat-human forms. Some were not yet infected.

Just like the ordinary masses, there were men and women, from eighty-year-old women to tiny babies suckling in their mothers’ arms.

“Damn, how did they get up there…” one player said, his voice trembling: “They’re not going to jump, are they?”

The players saw their mouths moving, muttering to themselves.

Their muttering grew louder and louder.

The players could clearly make out what these NPCs were saying.

— “Why won’t God save us?”

“Where has God gone?”

“Where is God?”

Each and every one of them couldn’t understand. From birth, they had followed the church’s teachings, revered the deities, upheld the deities, purchased indulgences on time, paid their offerings…

The church said that only in this way, when they were in times of crisis, would God manifest to save them, and only God could save them.

But now, all the people in the entire town were in dire straits.

Their family members, their friends, would inexplicably develop high fevers and suddenly, within a day, cough up black blood and die.

Or they would leave home and never return.

And they were powerless, only able to watch helplessly as their beloved ones died, until they themselves slowly became the same, dying in pain and confusion.

But God? Where was God? Why hadn’t God come to save them?

The baby in the arms of the young woman on the rooftop had already contracted the Black Death, slowly turning into the form of a little mouse in its sleep.

The young woman clearly sensed something wrong with her child. She was angry, crying. She bent her head to kiss the baby’s forehead where stiff black hairs were sprouting, letting her tears soak the swaddling clothes.

Then, the young woman suddenly took a step forward, clutching her child tightly, and threw herself off the church roof.

The young woman’s husband worked as a dock worker. He wanted to buy an indulgence for his child and wife, but unfortunately, indulgences were very expensive. Although the money for the indulgence was eventually scraped together, he had died of exhaustion at the docks at the very last moment.

What the young woman received was a black indulgence, stained with flea eggs and rat droppings.

What she never realized before dying was:

That germ-ridden indulgence would never bring salvation to her and her child. It would only bring endless suffering and sickness from which there was no recovery.

The noon sun was blazing. The cross atop the church cast a shadow on the ground—a warm, hazy silhouette of the cross.

Standing in this light and shadow should have been choir children or devout nuns.

But at this moment, in the light and shadow lay the dead young woman and her child.

They were smashed beyond human recognition. Severed limbs and minced flesh were scattered everywhere. The young woman’s limbs were twisted at grotesque angles, her skull cracked in two, brain matter and flesh spilling out. Despite this, her beautiful green eyes hadn’t been shattered. They were still open, wide and round, unable to close even in death.

The players watched as resident NPCs jumped from the rooftop one after another.

Some players instinctively wanted to stop them, but in the end, they held back the impulse, convincing themselves that NPCs were just strings of code.

It wasn’t just the church where this was happening. The entire town was shrouded in despair.

From afar came the ethereal, lingering song of a requiem sung by a wandering bard. The stench of burning corpses’ rendered fat drifted over. Broken, wailing cries rose and fell sporadically.

The players forced themselves to calm down. After all, they still had a task to complete. They couldn’t wallow in sadness like these NPCs.

The red text said they had to choose who could eliminate the plague within two hours.

But they didn’t even know what the third deity was.

A few veteran players gathered their teams and huddled together, quietly analyzing.

They subconsciously speculated: between light and darkness, was there something else that could be called a deity?

Jian Bumian didn’t join any discussion group. He had thrown away the cream bread, taken an apple from his pocket, wiped it with his sleeve, and was eating it bite by bite.

A player, seeing Jian Bumian’s perpetually unhurried demeanor, couldn’t help but approach curiously and ask: “Don’t you have any ideas?”

“…”

Jian Bumian bit off a mouthful of apple with his pearly teeth and said blandly, “I do.”

The player’s eyes lit up. He leaned his ear closer: “Quick, tell me.”

Jian Bumian lifted his eyelids: “Are you sure you want to hear?”

“Of course, big shot!” The player was frantic; the two-hour limit was almost up.

Jian Bumian lowered his thick lashes, pressed his lips together, and said, a little embarrassed: “Then, do you have any form of compensation?”

The player suddenly realized: “That’s easy! Once we clear this instance, I’ll bring all the treasures my guild has collected before you. You can pick any one!”

Jian Bumian nodded: “Fine.”

He would check then if any of those treasures were edible.

As soon as he finished speaking, several more people crowded around him, looking at Jian Bumian expectantly.

The player scratched his head sheepishly: “These people are all from my guild. If you don’t mind, let them listen too…”

“Mm.”

Jian Bumian didn’t mind. He wasn’t the type to hoard good things, except, of course, for food.

He parted his thin lips and said casually: “I think this instance has no deities at all.”

The player was shocked: “F-For real??”

Jian Bumian half-closed his eyes and began analyzing: “This instance is replicated from real history. Social customs are the same, the people’s behavior is the same. There’s only one place where it’s different.”

“What place?”

Jian Bumian took a bite of apple, then continued: “Religion. Have you ever seen any religious system with some messy God of Darkness and God of Light?”

Even if there were such dualistic concepts, they didn’t belong to the religious system of ancient Europe.

Besides, those two gods—one was a shady seller inside a painting, the other a lying brat. Even a dog would shake its head at them.

Jian Bumian: “So I think those two gods might be decoys set up by the instance. The third god is the real ‘God.’ Only it can eliminate the plague.”

A player frowned: “Didn’t you say this instance has no gods?”

“It doesn’t. What the instance calls ‘God’ might just be a label.”

Jian Bumian narrowed his eyes, carefully tracing back his train of thought.

Although he couldn’t remember his memories as an NPC, he could vaguely recall some even more distant memories of being a living person in the real world.

He remembered attending history class in school.

He knew that the period of the Black Death outbreak was a dark time for Europe, filled with death and despair.

At the same time, it was the Black Death that made people realize that God couldn’t save them.

It even made them understand that there were no gods in this world at all.

The Church, the priests, the indulgences—they were fundamentally shackles binding the people.

Yet, it was precisely this small but significant fuse that ignited the light, though delayed, which did eventually arrive.

After the dark era of blind faith in deities ended, what did people believe in?

They believed in people.

This belief led to the Renaissance, an era centered on humanism, and other movements, causing the whole world to slowly recover and welcome a new dawn.

Humanity ultimately used its own power to dispel the darkness and usher in the light.

Do not believe in gods, do not believe in demons, only believe in people.

Jian Bumian finished an apple, and also slowly finished explaining his deductions.

“This is why I think there are no deity NPCs in this instance. Because in actual history, no deities appeared to save the people. No deities ever existed.”

“Since this instance is a replica of reality, there should also be no deity NPCs. The God of Light and the God of Darkness are just decoys, perhaps even entities that barged into this instance to cause trouble.”

“As for who the third deity is, the answer is already very obvious. You should all be able to guess.”

Jian Bumian turned around, tilting his head to look at the church dome.

Sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows, brushing over the exquisite murals on the dome. Fine dust motes danced in the warm light.

The red text suspended in mid-air slowly changed form.

[Please choose the deity capable of eliminating the plague within two hours. After a correct choice, the sacrificial ritual can be performed.]

[1. God of Light]

[2. God of Darkness]

[3. People]