Mystery: Lucky One

Only then did Alice realize that bringing Derrick along was not actually a good choice, because when she started to make up stories, she also had to consider Derrick's mood.

——The main reason is that this child’s expression gives away the truth too easily.

In the end, Alice had to give up those messy rumors and chose a more normal way and reason.

She and Derrick found the exploration team from Dawn City. After performing a divine act in front of people, which meant purification and treatment, she smiled and told the exploration team:

"I want to see your leader."

So they were taken back. Alice stopped at the city gate and refused to enter. Derrick said nothing and simply followed her. The members of the Dawn City Exploration Team had no choice but to go find their leader.

After a few minutes, a woman wrapped in animal skins came out, bowed and said:

“Hello, sir.

"I am Chief An of Dawn City."

Chief? Alice looked at her. She was much shorter than the Chief of Silver City, and her face showed traces of accumulated pollution. Alice sighed softly and shouted:

"Derrick."

This was what she and Derrick had agreed upon. Hearing the call, Derrick walked out from behind her with a tense face. Alice wanted him to look compassionate, but Derrick was not good at acting and could not show the necessary expression when necessary, so Alice had to let him keep a tense face.

This was much easier than changing his facial expressions. After a short practice, Derrick set off with a stern face. At this moment, he still maintained that expression, as if he was a machine that could do nothing but purify - and it wasn't even him that was being purified, but the "artifact".

Derrick held up the copper-patinated cross. An subconsciously looked up and saw the spikes piercing his fingertips. The copper-patina faded under the baptism of blood, revealing the gentle and pure light inside.

The bright light instantly covered Ann's whole body and swept behind her. Ann was surprised at the warmth and comfort of the light without any glare. At that moment, she felt her soul became lighter.

An vaguely guessed her own changes from the exploration team members whose appearance had changed drastically when they came back to report. She looked at the girl in strange clothes and saw her smiling and raising her ordinary cane, moving between them and tapping their foreheads with the cane one by one.

Then, An saw new residents one after another.

She watched with emotion as the girl returned to her original position, then took a package from the boy behind her who was like a giant to them, opened the package, and poured out mushrooms all over the ground.

——This package was actually picked up by Alice before she started the action, and the mushrooms... Oh no, the mushrooms were picked up from a corpse and grown on the corpse.

"These mushrooms can grow on this land," Alice calmly picked up a mushroom from the ground and removed the mycelium, completely ignoring the impact her words would have. "They absorb the flesh and blood of monsters to grow, and the accumulated toxins and madness will eventually gather in this black mushroom. The other mushrooms can be eaten..."

She gave a brief introduction to the uses or ways of eating each type of mushroom, as well as the precautions. The residents of Dawn City listened attentively. They seemed to have many questions, but their eyes were fixed on the mushrooms, and occasionally moved to her. No one dared to ask, as if they were afraid of interrupting her, so she stopped talking.

In fact, after living on such a cursed land for thousands of years, they had given up hope of changing the status quo, but Alice did something they had never seen before - the purification and treatment just now were not empty talk.

Therefore, the residents of Dawn City couldn't help but feel a little hope. They expected and prayed that Alice's words were true. Even if they still had to live on this land, at least they could live a better life without having to eat those cursed monsters and then being cursed themselves.

After her voice completely fell silent, silence spread like water waves. Alice was not anxious. She just put the mushroom on the ground and told them calmly:

"You can roast these mushrooms and try them, but remember, they must be roasted thoroughly."

Anyway, I have prepared some spare mycelium...

No one moved. They looked at their leader, who was under everyone's attention, and asked solemnly:

"Thank you very much... Your Excellency, may we ask your name and background? And why are you..."

Why did you come to this cursed land? Why did you bring them food? Why did you do this for them? Why...

Too many questions lingered in Ann's heart, blocking her throat and making her unable to speak. However, Alice stood there and said slowly:
"I come from beyond this cursed land."

After a pause, she ignored the expressions of others and turned back to point at Derrick and said:
"He comes from Silver City, a city in this land. He is the first believer of our Lord in this land."

When the conversation mentioned the gods, it meant that the topic had entered the main topic. An Ping calmed down and asked:

"My Lord, may I know who your master is...?"

“……?” Alice’s eyes turned strange. “When you call me that, I feel… well, I understand—it’s like this, my Lord calls himself the Fool, and in the future, He will be my ‘Mother’.”

No one noticed the abnormality in the word "mother". Dawn City obviously regarded this as a mother in the mortal sense. They were horrified, and An even lowered his head and said humbly:

"Lord Son of God."

——The Son of God, in An's opinion, cannot be a mortal. According to An's guess, Alice standing in front of them must have restrained her influence to facilitate communication with them, and lowered her head to show respect.

Of course, An's guess could be said to be correct. Not revealing the form of mythical creatures did, in a sense, reduce the impact on angels.

But Ann, who lowered her head, soon thought of a doubt. She realized that there was a very strange time in Alice's words - why was it in the future?

Confusion remained in her eyes. She did not raise her head or speak, so Alice had no way of noticing. She was just silent for a moment because of this self-directed and self-acted Son of God. Then she opened her mouth with a normal expression and said:
"My Lord made a deal with your Creator. You don't need to know the details of the deal. You just need to know that these foods are gifts from my Lord.

"The purification and treatment just now is also part of the deal. Prepare a ceremony, and I will purify and treat all of you here. However, this is only temporary. When my Lord is ready, someone will come to take you away from this cursed land."

She paused, turned her head and glanced at Derrick, as if she had suddenly thought of something. When no one dared to look up, she smiled a slightly evil smile and asked in a tempting tone:
"By the way, do you want to know... why your Lord has ignored you for so many years?" No one could say against their will that they didn't want to. An even raised her head for a moment. She looked up at the girl in front of her cautiously and respectfully, and asked:
"Do you know? Can you tell us? What is the Lord's situation? Why is the Lord..."

Why don't you care about us? Why abandon us? Why curse us? Since we are still alive and well, why -

Thousands of years of faith and perseverance were tainted with resentment after hearing that the Creator was still alive and could make deals with other gods.

So An happened to see the evil smile on Alice's face, and the coldness that spread with her words. An was stunned, watching the girl raise her hand, draw a cross on her chest, and asked with a sigh:

“Is it worth it, Creator?
"Your followers... hate you."

She raised her lips slightly, looked at them sarcastically, tilted her head, and smiled again:
"But this is none of my business. I am just a poor child who was kicked out of the house by two mothers... Maybe I should consider my third mother? If the Creator is willing...

"Well, I mean, your Lord... Well, this story starts a long time ago. Back then, the Creator was surrounded by eight angel kings. One day, the angel kings He trusted betrayed Him...

"After His death, the betrayers ate His body and became gods. Although He was resurrected, His condition was extremely bad and He was almost crazy. He really couldn't spare any extra energy to help you.

"It was not until recently, after my Lord woke up, that the Creator forced himself to make a deal with my Lord and gave him the holy object—the cross you have seen—and entrusted my Lord with saving you...

"Oh, by the way, did you know that the cross is also part of the Creator's body~"

These words confused everyone, and only Derrick lowered his head. Except for the question about the third mother, the rest of the story was made up by Alice in front of him. It was not completely made up. Except for the transaction, which needed to be verified, everything else was basically true.

As for Dawn City, their understanding today has been changed three times in a row. At the beginning, everyone was secretly worried about the Creator's condition. Thousands of years of life without God's response made them doubt whether the Creator was still alive, or whether he had already...

No one dared to speak out that final guess, so they ridiculously buried their fears and worries deep in their hearts, constantly telling others and themselves that the Lord would come to save them, and as long as they persisted, everything would be fine.

Then Alice came and told them that the Creator had made a deal with the Fool, asking the Fool to save them, so they felt a little resentful - since he was still alive and could still make deals, why didn't he come to save them? Why didn't he come to save them earlier?

Alice then told them the truth about the Creator's betrayal and the fact that the Creator had already gone mad. This once again shattered their brief resentment, leaving only respect, shame, and self-doubt.

——The Lord endured great pain to save them, but they still didn’t know what was good for them. Are they still worthy of believing in the Lord? Will the Lord still accept their faith?

No one spoke for a moment. Only people looked timidly at the cross, with fear in their expressions.

Alice blinked and asked, "Do you have any other questions?"

An asked with pain in his eyes: "Master... How is the master doing now?"

Alice blinked her eyes and asked with a smile, "Which Lord are you asking about?"

"Of course it is..." An said hesitantly, with a puzzled look on his face, "Of course it is the great Creator."

"Yes," Alice nodded with a smile, "What I'm asking is... which creator are you talking about?"

An was stunned, his eyes revealing endless confusion. The other residents of Dawn City were also puzzled. Alice stopped keeping them in suspense and raised her eyebrows and said:
“He was split open.

“His body was eaten, and his spirit was torn into pieces. I think he needs to be reunited.

"I don't really understand this kind of thing. After all, I don't have...wait a minute, I seem to have experience...although it's not exactly the same thing."

She pressed her brows and thought of the "Key of Light" which claimed to be inseparable from her.

Alice licked her lips, then looked at the residents of Dawn City with a bright smile, blinked her eyes and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

——At this moment, she has completely given up hiding her bad nature.

An realized that the Son of God in front of her seemed to have some evil taste in teasing people. Thinking of what he said about being kicked out of the house, she had some guesses in her heart, but she did not reveal anything. She just lowered her head and said:

"I think they are probably like me, just hearing about this for the first time and are filled with shock and horror."

"I understand." Alice nodded. "So can you still go? Can you hurry up and prepare for the ceremony? I'm in a hurry to get to the next city. This place is so big, and there are more than just your city that are still alive and well."

An nodded without hesitation, "Of course, but it will take some time to prepare for the ceremony. Can we ask you to rest for a while in the city?"

She did not ask for the identification that should have been done, because it was really unnecessary - what did you want to confirm? To confirm whether the cross was the body of the Lord?

As for whether they were monsters in disguise, that was even more ridiculous. An absolutely did not believe that those monsters covered in curses could manipulate such warm and clear light.

——This is why Alice decided to show her "miracle" first.

Alice agreed without hesitation, and she and Derrick were led into the city by An. Then, An went to prepare for the so-called ceremony while waiting for the exploration team and patrol team that had not yet returned.

Alice moved forward, and to be honest, An wanted to stop her, because it was really strange to have this little girl who asked all kinds of questions and whom she couldn't afford to offend around her while she was giving orders to other people. But she didn't stop her in the end, because this was really... someone who couldn't afford to offend.

So Alice followed behind Ann, watching her busying around, and finally touched her chin and asked:

“If I hadn’t seen this…

"Isn't this a ritual pointing to my Lord?" (End of this chapter)