Life Dungeon Game

After a moment, he returned and said respectfully, "Please come in."

"Do we need to do any more checks?"

Vera's face was icy, and she gave a cold snort.

"no, I'm fine,"

The soldier wiped the sweat from his brow. "Please come in!"

He immediately stepped back a few paces, increasing the distance between himself and the off-road vehicle, and the caravan vehicles began to restart.

With a stern face, Veri rolled up the car window, and almost the instant the window closed, she let out a long sigh of relief.

Then she pulled her hands back under the blanket.

"Are you from United Industries?"

He Ao leaned back in his chair and asked with some curiosity.

United Industries is the largest conglomerate in Winter, and most of the factories and mining ships in the city are owned by United Industries.

“In a way, yes,” Veri smiled, the blanket around her undulating gently, “but I just got an identity for emergencies.”

He Ao nodded slightly and casually asked, "Are you the Twilight Society?"

Vera froze, turning to look at He Ao, "How could you..."

"It's easy to guess, isn't it? No normal wanderers in the wilderness have any need to enter the city, nor is there any need to set up roadblocks to intercept them, unless these so-called 'Twilight Gang bandits' come from the city,"

Looking at Vili's expression as if she were looking at a monster, He Ao calmly said, "The Eternal Cult attacked your stronghold. Knowing you were returning to the city, they set up roadblocks to see if they could capture you. Your convoy should be carrying quite a lot of things brought from the stronghold, and maybe even some weapons that can't be completely left in the wilderness?"

Are you really only twelve years old?

Vera's eyes widened, and for a moment she forgot what to do.

“Actually, I’m quite old,” He Ao raised his head, “call me brother.”

"childish."

Vera turned her face away.

Then she suddenly remembered that she had asked He Ao to call her "sister" before, and her face turned red.

"See, you don't believe me when I say I'm old."

He Ao sat in his chair, watching the convoy slowly drive into the city, and gradually fell silent.

Veri sat beside him, calmly gazing at his somewhat youthful profile.

She moved her hand

He pulled the combat uniform out from under the blanket.

To avoid exposing her combat uniform, she had deliberately taken off one sleeve and handed over her work badge with her bare hands. Since the bodysuit required taking off the sleeves, her shoulders were also exposed, so she had been covering herself with a blanket.

After she was fully dressed in her combat uniform, she carefully lifted the blanket and pulled out a small box from under the seat.

She rummaged through the box for a while and found a brand-new packaged bracelet box, which she handed to He Ao. "Did you lose your bracelet? Here, take this."

He Ao turned his head and glanced at the box that Vili handed him. It was the latest smart bracelet from the Trison Group, the top-of-the-line model, priced at around five thousand federal dollars.

He Ao took the box, opened it, took out the bracelet inside, activated it, and bound it to his account.

Then he raised his wristband and looked at Vili, "Turn on the payment mode."

Ilo's father taught him from a young age not to easily accept gifts from others.

"what?"

Vera was taken aback.

However, seeing He Ao's calm yet determined gaze, she still raised her bracelet and activated the payment collection mode.

With a soft 'beep', Veri glanced at the notification of the payment to her anonymous account and fell silent.

Even in the most perilous situation, the 'young man' before us still adheres to his principles.

He Ao sat in the chair, curiously playing with the bracelet in his hand.

For him, it was just like buying a new fitness tracker; the only difference was whether he bought it in a store or from Vili.

Ilo's previous bracelets were all children's bracelets and didn't have many functions. However, his account was linked to his father's credit card. Although Ilo's family had a lot of debt, they also had a lot of assets, so they still had the ability to make payments.

Although Ilo's parents have passed away, in federal banks, an account is not immediately closed after a person's death. Instead, relatives need to bring a death certificate to the bank to close the account, or wait until the debt becomes overdue and the bank sues, since the bank doesn't know whether someone has actually died.

He Ao tapped on each icon on the bracelet's interface, studied them for a while, and then downloaded a few of Yi Luo's favorite games.

Veri calmly watched the boy intently studying the bracelet from the side, observing the faint smile on his youthful face.

She turned her gaze away and looked ahead, a smile unconsciously appearing on her face.

He Ao, who was standing next to her, looked away from the bracelet and gazed out the window after playing for a while.

They had already entered the city by now, and they were entering through the south gate.

Entering Winter City from the south gate, the first district you enter is the Akka district, which is the working-class and poor area of ​​Winter City.

He turned to look at Veri, raised his bracelet, and asked, "Do you have any information about the Eternal Cult? Could you send me a copy?"

The main mission this time is very clear: it's related to the Eternal Light. And the organization that He Ao has come into contact with that is strongly related to the Eternal Light is the 'Eternal Cult'.

Furthermore, this organization appears to have been involved in the deaths of Ilo's parents.

"Of course!"

Veri snapped out of her reverie, then raised her bracelet and activated the wireless delivery function.

I've sent it to you, please receive it.

"it is good."

He Ao nodded, turned on his bracelet, received the document sent by Vili, and began to read it.

"Although the Eternal Secret Sect is proselytizing on a large scale in Winter, the amount of information that can be collected is actually not much; much of it remains only in the open."

While He Ao was reading, Vili slowly explained, "The main point that the Eternal Secret Cult is currently promoting is the 'Eternal Divine Kingdom'."

"Eternal Divine Kingdom?"

Heo looked up at Veri.

"This seems to be a special kind of afterlife,"

Veri explained, “They claim that after believing in the eternal light, one will enter an eternal kingdom without hunger after death, where there is never enough food to eat, never enough performances to watch, and never enough magnificent palaces to live in. There is no cold winter, no scorching heat, and no night; it is always light and spring.”

"It sounds wonderful, even a bit extreme,"

He recalled the 'phantoms' he had just seen in those lights. "So, what do believers need to do? Just have faith, and they can enter the 'eternal kingdom' after death?"

"If only that were the case,"

Veri seemed to remember something and let out a long sigh. "The Eternal Secret Church holds 'rituals' regularly, usually every one to two weeks. The rituals are 'performed' by the core believers, and the believers are required to offer certain money or food to 'please' the Eternal Light."

"Most of the followers of the Eternal Secret Cult are poor people from the Storm Zone and the Akka Zone. They don't even have enough food to eat themselves, yet they still have to make offerings to the Eternal Secret Cult. Some of the more fanatical believers will even overdraft their credit cards and take out loans to buy goods to offer to the priests of the Eternal Secret Cult."

“We tried to persuade them, but they refused to listen. Some fanatics even accused us of trying to sabotage their path to the eternal kingdom.”

Are there any special rituals in Tantric Buddhism itself?

He Ao then asked.

"We have very little information on this,"

Veri shook her head. "These 'rituals' are usually held in very secret locations. Apart from the priests and core followers, no one knows where each ritual takes place. However, we recently 'found' a location for a 'ritual' and raided it."

"The priests inside were very strong. We lost a lot of people, but in the end we failed to make their sacrifice successful."

"Did you find anything?"

He asked in a low voice.

“There was a rather ‘big’ discovery,”

Veri pondered and said, "We've discovered that recently they've been recruiting more believers who have made greater contributions and are more 'fervent' in their 'rituals.' In fact, we found their ritual site by following the trail of a particular 'fervent' believer."

"Usually, most of these fanatical believers never reappear after participating in the rituals. There are rumors that they were absorbed into the Eternal Cult and became servants of God, because many core members were former fanatical believers who 'converted' to this faith. However, there is another rumor,"

Veri paused, looking at Heo, "These 'believers' have all been brought into the 'Eternal Kingdom'."

“让

Living people going to the 'afterlife'?

What a meal.

There's only one way he can think of to send the living to the afterlife.

“Yes,” Veri nodded, “but these are all rumors, never confirmed. The followers of the Eternal Cult are exceptionally fanatical and secretive, and the information we can obtain is very superficial.”

"Was your attack this time also because of the previous attack on the Eternal Secret Cult's sacrificial site?"

He asked thoughtfully.

“I think so,” Veri sighed. “I didn’t expect them to react so quickly and find our base so accurately.”

"Perhaps you've been in their 'sight' for a long time,"

He Ao said thoughtfully, then without waiting for Veri's reaction, he turned back to look at the high wall that was gradually receding into the distance, "Has their power reached the point where they can influence the city's defense forces?"

“According to our investigation,” Veri sighed softly, “the organized Eternal Cult has existed in this city for at least a decade. Their influence is deeply entrenched, and we don’t know exactly how deeply they are involved.”

The atmosphere inside the carriage fell silent.

Veri lowered her head and looked at the small box containing the bracelets that she had just found beside her. She reached out to put the box away.

He Ao's gaze also fell on the small box at the same time.

The contents of the box were a mess: several unopened smart bracelets, some basic daily necessities, and even hair ties and face masks.

In the very center of the box, amidst the clutter of items, lay a black and white 'mask'.

Do you know the letter 'K' too?

Vili noticed Heo looking at the mask, stopped what she was doing, and said with some curiosity.

"K?"

He Ao looked at her.