absurd deduction game.

Carlos led everyone back to the living room of his temporary residence.

Such an ability to teleport a group with a snap of the fingers is rare. He didn't even need to use any sacrifices. It's just that this dungeon wasn't being streamed live, otherwise Carlos wouldn't have been so brazen in exposing his strength.

Upon landing, Zeng Lai reacted strongly to the teleportation, slumping onto the sofa in a daze, her pupils slightly dilated.

Yu Xing was used to the comparison.

His stomach growled. Qu Xianqing glanced at him, afraid that he might suddenly become aggressive and snarl at everyone. Before he could even look around the room, he coughed lightly and asked, "Carlos, is there anything you need to tell us right now?"

Carlos didn't actually know why his two teammates had come. There were too many people and too many eyes on them at the church, so he didn't ask.

Hearing the urgency in Qu Xianqing's tone, he was a little puzzled, but still replied, "Today is the first day of the mission. There will be a last-place elimination at midnight. Just remember not to be at the bottom. There are still many other pitfalls that we can discuss later..."

Upon hearing this, Qu Xianqing grabbed Yu Xing and calmly nodded to Yi Qing, who was silently floating down from upstairs: "Then I'll take him to get something to eat first and come back soon. You guys take care of Zeng Lai; I can feel the damage to his soul."

"Huh?" Carlos tilted his head. "What to eat—"

Qu Xianqing carried Yu Xing out like a gust of wind.

Before Yi Qing could even greet him, he frowned slightly upon seeing this and said politely, "Yu Xing doesn't seem to be feeling well."

Zeng Lai finally came to his senses. He stood up blankly and casually replied, "It's probably because he had some aftereffects from his encounter with the false god in the last instance. Ren Yi mentioned it to me."

Yi Qing: "What false god?"

Carlos: "What aftereffects?"

"..."

The two humans and the ghost exchanged a glance and decided to sit down and carefully compare the information inside and outside the instance.

Zeng Lai, having watched the entire live broadcast of the Fengtou Town simulation, then told the two of them what had happened.

Ren Yi's mention to him was not just a casual remark; Zeng Lai even knew what happened during the black screen part of the live stream, since he still needed to spend points to borrow the [Birdcage] from Zhao Mou to heal his injuries, which also concerned him.

In truth, it was because he heard so many thrilling stories from Ren Yi that he couldn't resist signing up for the Yolikev Investigation Notes while his spirits were getting increasingly excited, and now he still has to find a powerful figure to rely on.

"That's about it anyway." Zeng Lai took the bread Carlos handed her and ate it as she spoke. "But Ren Yi only said that Yu Xing might have suffered a backlash from being silenced because of the cursed false god. I don't know what happened after she went out."

As an outsider, he had limited knowledge of Yu Xing's abilities, but Carlos and Yi Qing knew everything and guessed the truth at the same time.

“That really is…” Carlos pondered his words, and when he saw Zeng Lai, a word that matched his mood popped into his mind, “It’s all over.”

In his abnormal state, Yu Xing is a ticking time bomb! It's like he's at a buffet!

Yi Qing chuckled lightly: "Interesting, I have to go see what's going on."

The Green Demon was always capricious, and as he spoke, he floated out through the wall. Carlos ignored him and stared at Zeng Lai.

The unpretentious, rugged men of Northeast China are the natural enemy of the elegant magician.

His flowery communication skills might be met with a dismissive "What nonsense is he spouting?" from Zeng Lai.

If Carlos were just an ordinary magician, he would be afraid that an audience member like Zeng Lai would try to decipher his tricks and ruin his performance.

After a long silence, Zeng Lai reminded him, "They're not here right now, so tell me what's going on with this deduction?"

Since Yu Xing had given him permission to join, Carlos didn't bother to hide it. He sat down on the other side of the sofa, casually conjured a rose and placed it in a vase on the coffee table, then crossed his legs and said, "Okay."

He took out the pamphlet he had received from the church and suggested that Zeng Lai take a look at it first; it contained the results of their first phase of investigation that could be made public.

……

Surveys show that the faith in the Mother Goddess of Harvest in the town of Yolikev is waning year by year.

Although in this worldview, gods truly exist and can grant some believers abilities beyond those of ordinary people, protecting more people, and even the power of rule is divided among six righteous gods… The Harvest Mother Goddess is the goddess of sustenance and life, the protector of farmers, and the guardian of food. Even when Yolikof was just a small village, it was already under her protection. However, with the development of the times, the rise of industry, and frequent external contact, some people lost their profound faith in the Mother Goddess. They preferred to believe in the "Machine Father God" and the "Golden Raven of Wealth," who were also righteous gods, or the "Goddess of Fate." Agriculture is gradually fading away in the town of Yolikof.

However, this area has been the territory of the Mother Goddess of Harvest since ancient times, and the Church of the Mother Goddess is very powerful. The proposal to build other orthodox churches in the town has been delayed again and again, which has caused dissatisfaction among many people.

As a result, some shady entities took advantage of this turmoil to infiltrate the area.

That is Tantric Buddhism.

Tantric religions are considered evil sects that everyone in the world hates. They do not believe in gods, but instead pursue the ultimate mystical power with a high priest as their leader. For the sake of mystical arts, they do not hesitate to kill, perform bloody sacrifices, and commit numerous sins.

The Church of the Mother Goddess had long been aware of the infiltration of Tantric Buddhism and had been constantly cracking down on it, but it was unable to eradicate it—after all, Tantric practitioners were like rats in the gutter or cockroaches in the sewer, exceptionally good at hiding.

The researchers in the first phase had been warned about Tantric Buddhism, so they naturally assumed that the series of strange events in the town of Yolikev were the work of Tantric practitioners.

"Wait, let me see what kinds of incidents there are first." Zeng Lai flipped through the booklet and found the pages with case studies.

"A cemetery keeper in the suburbs was devoured by crows; a lawyer found dead in his home was found with huge lacerations, suspected to have been caused by the claws of a wild beast; faceless beings were seen roaming around Central Park at night; and the brains of many people were completely drained... Wow!"

Zeng Lai was overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties. He flipped directly to the summary—36 people had died in the town within three months.

For a small town like this, 36 unnatural deaths in three months is a considerable number, especially since more than half of the dead came from wealthy areas.

And this number is still rising.

Ironically, the investigators lost 24 people in a week. While their proactive investigation into the reasons for their self-destructive behavior played a part, it must be admitted that they saved the townspeople from a lot of disaster.

"So, it wasn't the cultists who did it?" he asked.

Carlos shook his head: "Not entirely. Through investigation, we found that the cultists only interfered in a small number of incidents. After all, they didn't want to provoke the Church of the Mother Goddess to the point of exhaustion and lead to their complete suppression."

Zeng Lai asked, as if listening to a story, "Then how did the other events come about?"

Carlos smiled and said, "...The monsters come from the town itself, but they only started to awaken three months ago."

After ruling out the involvement of cult members, the investigators naturally shifted their focus to the strange events themselves.

Then, they caught and eliminated several monsters, discovering that these monsters had been hiding in various parts of the town, with traces of their hiding places dating back at least a decade.

In other words, many of the monsters were already in the town of Yolikev at least a decade ago.

They were either dormant or still embryos, so they had been living peacefully together. But something must have happened three months ago that caused the monsters to awaken and mature, and begin to appear before the townspeople.

So, where did these monsters come from, and what kind of stimulus made them active?
This is what the second phase of the investigation will continue.

"Of course, those cultists are no simpletons either. They've also sensed the monsters' awakening, and they just want to take this opportunity to capture more of them for human experimentation and blood sacrifices. They've become quite active lately," Carlos said. "There are their people in the Violet Inn, responsible for monitoring the guests and looking for targets."

As long as they don't use mystical arts in the inn, they won't disturb the Mother Goddess's blessing.

"The cultists are cunning and have infiltrated every aspect of the town over the years. They've created a huge hidden trap, but if used properly, they can yield hidden items and resources." The gems Carlos bought for Yiqing were from a black gathering hosted by the cultists.

He also had many lists, including which nobles had fallen into depravity, which poor people had offered their wives and daughters to esoteric religions in exchange for wealth... These were all his exclusive information.

There's no need to tell Zeng Lai right now.

Carlos gave a brief explanation of the general situation and then urged Zeng Lai, "Let's go. We need to make some progress before midnight tonight. We can't expect any fools to think that the mission will only officially begin tomorrow."

Nighttime is the peak time for monster sightings.

The average skill level of those who register in the second phase is much higher. If they are still so leisurely, they may not necessarily be able to gain any benefits.

After making their preparations, the two set off. (End of Chapter)