Life Dungeon Game

"It is precisely because he is a spy for the Eternal Old Cult that he cannot be so blatantly lenient,"

He Ao calmly shook his head.

"After all, it wasn't easy for him to reach such a high position."

"Precisely because he is a spy, he should be even more dedicated to his duty. Only by being severely wounded in a fierce battle with the people of the Eternal Old Cult can he prove his loyalty to the Eternal Secret Cult."

"After all, if the church were breached while he was in charge, he would be held responsible no matter what. At that time, the right thing to do was to play the victim by feigning serious injury, showing loyalty, exaggerating the victory, and highlighting the strength of the Old Church rather than his own weakness."

"Judging from the fact that he didn't use the Eternal Secret Cult's sacrificial method at the beginning of his fight with us, he hasn't revealed his intentions yet."

"So Alice's escape was actually an accident?"

The red-haired woman pondered for a moment and said, "He had to come looking for Alice in order to maintain the stability of the inner church?"

Through her brief encounter with Alice, she also realized that Alice might have a great deal of authority in this church.

Alice's escape could affect the stability of the inner church.

"Alice is a threat, but not a threat enough."

He Ao shook his head, then smiled and asked softly, "Did you find any rooms collapsing as you walked through those maze-like rooms?"

"No."

The red-haired woman shook her head.

Then she glanced at He Ao subconsciously.

The eeriness in those rooms was ridiculously strong. The only broken 'room' she saw was the church that had just been smashed to pieces by Heo and Locke.

She still can't understand how they could be so powerful as to shatter this self-generated 'room' of rules.

As for cultists like Lockeway who rely on cheat codes, she's given them a long list of stories and legends about cults—at least a thousand.

But the boy in front of them looked to be eleven or twelve years old, and was rather thin. Moreover, he had not performed any sacrificial rituals. How could he possess such great power and even kill Lockway?

She couldn't understand.

Is there really such a thing as the ability to reverse aging?

Looking at the red-haired woman's eyes, He Ao...

He knew she was daydreaming again, but he ignored it and continued, "Remember the room with the smiling masked man?"

"Ah."

The red-haired woman's thoughts were brought back to the present, and she nodded gently.

Actually, she's starting to realize what's going on now.

The smiling masked man in that room is most likely a kind of 'projection' of Rockwell in this strange room, and even his abilities are similar to Rockwell's.

"Alice was supposed to have 'escaped' from that room,"

He Ao spoke slowly, amidst the red-haired woman's slightly surprised expression.

"Didn't you notice? That smiling masked man was ordering two steaks, and all his movements made it seem as if there was 'someone else' in the room."

"If Rockaway is the core of that room, then all this bizarre behavior makes sense, because as the core, any strange actions he might take are understandable and may have an underlying reason."

"But in fact, the core of that room is most likely 'Alice'."

"The core of the entire room is missing, but the rules within the room are still in operation, and the strange things in the room still believe that Alice exists in the room."

"Therefore, Alice's disappearance may not be so important to the operation of the inner church in the short term."

“Lockway could have gone to find Alice after the battle was over. After all, if the loss of the inner church was caused by him looking for Alice, then the responsibility would fall entirely on him.”

"So even if Alice was an 'accident,' he wouldn't take the initiative to go find her immediately."

"unless···"

He paused, glanced ahead, and saw that Alice, who had transformed into a paper butterfly, had slowed down, as if they were almost there. Then he continued slowly.

"Unless someone higher up gave Lockway an 'order' to capture Alice, then the responsibility wouldn't fall on Lockway. Even if the Eternal Cult breached the core area, he could still shift the blame back to them."

"So, Rockwell was actually 'sent away' by the Eternal Cult? To create an opportunity for the Eternal Old Cult to infiltrate the church?"

The red-haired woman seemed to realize what was happening, and said in a trembling voice, "This is a trap? A trap to lure the Eternal Cult in and 'wipe them all out'?"

Then she frowned slightly and said with some doubt, "But wouldn't that make Lockwell's 'boss' suspicious? Issuing such an order suddenly and without any reason?"

"Or is that superior actually a spy for the Eternal Old Cult, and this isn't a trap? Then the Eternal Cult has been infiltrated quite a bit?"

She was a little confused.

"What if Alice's 'loss of control' wasn't an 'unexpected situation'?"

He looked at her and smiled, "If Alice suddenly lost control and issued such an order, Lockwell would definitely suspect something was wrong."

"But what if this 'boss' had been laying the groundwork for concern about the strange things happening inside the church long before?"

“If this ‘boss’ might be somewhat neurotic due to his fanatical beliefs, then issuing such an order becomes ‘reasonable’ under such circumstances.”

"Of course, this is just my speculation, in fact..."

There are many ways to achieve this result. Many things that seem unreasonable can become 'reasonable' if placed in a certain context.

"Just like some people do things that are incomprehensible to outsiders, but there must be an inherent logic in them. Moreover, most of the followers of the Eternal Esoteric School have a certain tendency towards fanaticism."

Even if Lockway and the Eternal Old Cult had their doubts, the situation had reached its final point when Alice lost control; the arrow was on the bowstring and had to be released.

"People are always prone to self-deception. At this point, as long as there is generally no problem, the eternal old church members will convince themselves, especially when the situation appears to be 'moving in their favor'."

"Therefore, Alice's loss of control was not the work of Lockeway, who was most likely to benefit, but rather the work of the Eternal Cult, which appeared to be the most 'damaged' on the surface, in order to gain more 'benefits' on a larger scale."

The red-haired woman continued He's words, her voice gradually lowering, "But why did they go through all that trouble to move Lockwell away from the core area?"

"If this is a trap, what does it mean to move Lockwell away from the core area? And how is the Eternal Cult able to so accurately grasp the movements of the Eternal Old Cult?"

He Ao turned around and glanced at her.

Levins could easily find out what was going on among the eternal Old Church believers.

"There's a high probability that the Eternal Old Church also has spies within the cult, and Lockway's 'spy' identity has probably already been discovered,"

The red-haired woman pondered, "The reason for deliberately leaving Locke behind and then transferring him away from the key location is to take advantage of the power of the inner church to execute Locke as well."

"The Eternal Cult members are well aware of Lockway's combat strength. In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, they want to divide him from the Eternal Old Cult members and prevent them from appearing together."

"Letting Rockaway go to Alice at the crucial moment would satisfy both him and the Eternal Old Cult, which would benefit both of them. Driven by self-interest, he would be more likely to accept such a transfer than if it were forced."

"Alice was chosen because she is related to Rockwell, making it more logical for Rockwell to handle the matter."

As the red-haired woman analyzed He Ao's line of thought, He Ao also kept an eye on the surrounding darkness.

So, there was no coincidence at all; everything was planned by the Eternal Secret Sect. It just so happened that He Ao walked in.

Alice is naturally more inclined to be close to people who are 'similar' to her brother.

Fate is unpredictable yet ingenious.

"This is just my speculation on what I consider to be the most likely current situation; the reality is certainly more complex."

He stopped in the darkness, looking around, "That's not necessarily the truth."

The red-haired woman fell silent. Although He Ao said that, she gradually realized that this speculation was probably the closest to the final truth of the incident.

The Eternal Old Church's operations in Winter City were far less extensive than those of the Eternal Secret Church, and Rockaway was perhaps the Old Church's highest-level spy within the Secret Church.

The only drawback of this 'trap' is the limited preparation time; many things have obvious limitations.

The sense of urgency clearly caught the Eternal Esoteric School off guard.

If this attack on the Eternal Old Cult's main church hadn't been a 'sudden incident,' an extension of the massive melee that swept through Winter City tonight, manipulated by that invisible hand...

If the Eternal Cult members have more time to prepare, more high-ranking members of the Eternal Old Cult will likely enter the main church tonight, and the plan will have fewer flaws.

The more she thought about it, the more chills ran down her spine.

She seemed to have been unwittingly drawn into the deepest vortex of the two major forces.

Moreover, they are two cunning and scheming forces, each more terrifying than the other.

No···

Her gaze swept over He Ao's back, who had stopped in front of her.

It's probably three major forces.

Due to the unexpected situation tonight, the Eternal Cult was not fully prepared. The strongest B-level 'bishop' in the church may not be able to gain an overwhelming advantage over the Eternal Old Cult.

And now, their battle may have ended.

After all, the members of the Eternal Old Cult should theoretically enter the core area before Lockwell returns.

When the two met Lockway, they were already preparing to sacrifice Alice. So now, if nothing unexpected happens to Lockway, they should be returning to the core area.

The old religion members should have left by now, and if this is a trap, the people from the Eternal Tantric sect who were lying in ambush should have already made their move.

The battle between the strong lasted only a very short time. If the members of the Eternal Old Cult were strong enough, both sides might have suffered serious injuries.

She watched the boy's retreating figure and suddenly realized that the boy might have arrived at this exact moment.

In a daze, she seemed to sense a shadow stretching out from the frail body in front of her, covering her body and the darkness around her.

"What's wrong? Cough..."

The boy covered his mouth and coughed lightly. He glanced at the blood coughing up from his palm, then looked at the red-haired woman behind him.

A blood-red paper butterfly landed on his shoulder.

"N-nothing..."

The red-haired woman shook the thoughts in her mind.

"You can tell me if you have any questions,"

He Ao nodded slightly, then turned to look at the darkness in front of him. "We've arrived."

Thump...thump thump...thump...

He knocked once in the darkness in front of him. Although his hand was in the dark, it made a crisp sound as if he were knocking on a wooden board. Then, he knocked a few more times, as if to confirm the exact location of the 'door' in front of him.

Then he reached out and, with a sudden burst of force, pushed open the 'dark door'.

A hazy glow slowly emanated from the endless darkness, falling upon the boy, upon the paper butterfly on his shoulder, and upon the red-haired woman's face as she gazed at the boy's retreating figure.