On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

"This is the power that Kaleva has given me, and this is the consequence of opposing Kaleva!"

Bang!

As the heavy punch landed, Irene behind him forgot to breathe. She didn't even notice that her hands were nervously clutching the hem of her clothes, but out of trust in Liao Ji and his command, the girl remained in place.

"What?!" A cry of surprise came from the gray wolf's mouth. His bloodshot eyes had finally regained some of their rationality amidst the madness. The man looked at the scene before him in disbelief.

His own fist was blocked.

To be precise, the young man calmly raised one hand and easily caught the full force of the blow with one arm.

"No, impossible! This is impossible!"

Gray Wolf was incredulous. He tried to pull his fist out of the young man's hand, but the feeling of being tightly gripped by an iron clamp made him unable to break free of Liao Ji's hand no matter how hard he tried.

It was only at this moment that the gray wolf realized the gap between the two sides, a gap as vast as a chasm.

"You, you're also a Calamity Aspect! No, there's no trace of Calamity aura on you at all, you, who exactly are you?!"

Liao Ji's answer to the man's question was also very simple.

That was the fist that the other hand had been preparing all along.

Bang!

A second muffled thud soon echoed inside the Sea Sand Bar, and then history repeated itself in an astonishing way. The giant gray wolf, more than two meters tall, was blasted away like a cannonball and crashed back onto the bar counter.

This time, the bar wall collapsed with a roar, creating a large crater, and Gray Wolf's limp, mud-like body lay amidst the ruins.

Liao Ji did not let Grey Wolf off the hook.

Even though the man's chest had been ripped open by his punch, the reason Gray Wolf was still alive was only because of the tenacious vitality of the Calamity-Transformer, which allowed him to linger on.

"No, don't kill me! You're not afraid of Kaleva, but no matter how well you cover it up, Kaleva will definitely investigate to the end!"

The limp and powerless gray wolf looked at the young man who walked up to it and began its final plea for mercy. To the man's delight, the young man nodded, affirming his words.

“You’re right. From the moment blood was drawn and people died, this matter has blown up. It’s possible that not only Kaleva, but the church will also be involved in the investigation.”

"Then, then let me go, and I will... I'll suppress all of this, suppress it all, and the Sea Sand Bar too, I won't take it anymore."

Before Gray Wolf could finish speaking, Liao Ji interrupted him abruptly.

"I trust myself more than I rely on others, so I'm sorry, Mr. Chicken Hair."

As Liao Ji spoke, he magically produced a dark red crystal from his bosom.

The moment the dark red crystal appeared, the gray wolf looked at the dark red crystal, which was so close to him, with a look of shock several times greater than before, even with horror.

"Crystallization. Crystallized turbidity?! Impossible! Even the Church is still researching this technology, how could you possibly know it!"

It seems they obtained some other information unintentionally.

But when Liao Ji wanted to ask more questions, perhaps because the gray wolf itself was on the verge of losing control, after coming into contact with the high concentration of turbidity emitted by the crystal, the man could no longer listen to Liao Ji's words, and could only keep shaking his head in fear and roaring.

"Take it away! Take it away! Don't come near me, no, no!"

Liao Ji, of course, would not listen to Gray Wolf.

in contrast.

Just as he had done to Irene, he inserted the [Turbid Calamity Crystal (Small)] into the man's body.

The instant the crystal sank in

"Aaaaaaahh ...

The gray wolf let out a painful scream, its limbs began to twitch and struggle violently, but Liao Ji held the man's body down firmly and then began to observe the gray wolf.

Unlike the girl before, this man did not have a contract with him.

In the blink of an eye, the man's blood vessels began to rupture, his skin dissolved, and spiderweb-like, murky patterns quickly spread across the gray wolf's entire body. Then, his eyeballs exploded, and his face began to twist in the direction of the monster.

The power of the turbid calamity began to repair the man's body, and the large hole in his chest that Liao Ji had pierced through was now being filled with flesh and blood again. However, the price paid by the gray wolf was his own life. His reason was completely taken over by the turbid calamity. His arms turned into fleshy scythes and his feet into claws. The way the man was referred to in Liao Ji's game system also changed.

[Low-Rank Corpse]

In Irene's words, it should be the turbid monster formed after the Evil Ones "went berserk".

"Hmm, so this is what happens when you use [Turbid Calamity Crystal] on someone without a 'contract'? It seems that people's resistance to Turbid Calamity has indeed decreased a lot in the world five hundred years from now. They can't even withstand the lowest-level dog food, and it can actually directly catalyze the creation of a Turbid Corpse Monster."

"And judging from the strength of this corrupted corpse, it seems to be much stronger than the one from the first playthrough?"

"But from another perspective, doesn't this also mean that these [Turbid Crystals] used as dog food can also be used as weapons?"

"Um"

As he observed and pondered, the gray wolf below, now transformed into a monstrous corpse, grew increasingly rebellious. Even Liao Ji began to struggle, feeling a growing sense of unease as he struggled to suppress it. Furthermore, the buff he received from the [Evil Magnetic Pulse] in his status bar was about to expire, so he decided to bring this conflict to a close.

Liao Ji pulled out a pistol and pressed the muzzle against the gray wolf's forehead. As long as it was still considered a "low-level turbid corpse," its head remained a fatal weakness.

"Thank you for cooperating with my experiment; I learned a lot from it."

"And in this way, the whole incident becomes a simple case of a Calamity-Borrowed Person going out of control."

"The rampaging Evil Ones went on a killing spree in the bar. We fought back desperately and finally managed to kill the monsters."

So, try to be a good person in your next life.

With Liao Ji's final obituary for the man.

He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Chapter 22 The Knights

A conspicuous red warning tape surrounded the Sea Sand Bar, with members of the Knights guarding all the bar's entrances and exits.

Pedestrians passing through this area had no desire to even glance at the commotion; they all fled as quickly as possible to get as far away from the area as possible.

Because within the Holy Kingdom, the appearance of the Church's Knights and the Red Alert Line together signifies only one thing—the defilement of evil.

Fortunately, judging from the area cordoned off and the number of people dispatched by the Knights, the level of this turbid pollution disaster should not be high.

Inside the Sea Sand Bar.

"So Mr. Liao, let me confirm with you again, at 4:16 PM, a group of gangsters organized by Kaleva broke into the Sea Sand Bar in the Belgian district. Their leader claimed to be a 'Cursed One' to threaten the owner and try to extort a large protection fee. However, during the handover, this leader suddenly lost control and went berserk, turning into a 'turbid corpse' and attacking everything in a monstrous form. In order to survive, you joined forces with the gang and eventually killed the monster together?"

After reading a long string of words from the testimony book, the member of the Knights looked up at the young man opposite him, who was dressed in a brown suit and had a delicate, fair face.

"Does Mr. Liao Ji have any corrections or additions to my statement?"

"No, that's all. You've recorded everything in great detail, and I've already told you everything I saw. So, can we leave now? To be honest, this place really gives me nightmares."

The Knights members showed understanding and apology at Liao Ji's request. He shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Liao Ji, we'll have to ask you to cooperate with us here a little longer."

"Okay, but please do it as soon as possible."

"Please rest assured, we will notify you as soon as we have investigated the matter."

After bowing to Liao Jijing with a deep bow, the investigator knight quickly left, heading towards the captain in charge of the incident to report.

Looking at the knight's retreating figure, Liao Ji seemed lost in thought.

The so-called Knights Order was not actually knights who wore armor and carried swords at their waists.

They are simply the name of an armed force formed by the "church".

If we had to use a metaphor, from Liao Ji's perspective, these people wearing uniform silver-gray uniforms, with pistols at their waists and cross brooches, are somewhat similar to city police officers.

As the name suggests, the Holy Kingdom is a country entirely ruled and managed by the "Church," which is essentially the government.

But just as Irene had initially told her, the Black Hole settlement maintained a certain degree of independence and autonomy due to its unique history and geography. The church did not completely take over the area; instead, the gangs became the masters of the Black Hole.

However, regardless of location or whether it is under its own management, the church has the obligation and responsibility to maintain local security and, in the event of pollution, to organize manpower immediately to eliminate the pollution, prevent its spread, and rescue the injured.

This is the first absolute principle required of the Church, written by the goddess Sthiuthea herself in the founding holy book.

The church has been doing this for centuries.

No one dared to disobey.

at least

They dared not openly disobey.

"Captain Dulin, this is the statement of Liao Ji, one of the survivors at the scene and a bar patron. Please take a look!" The knight who had previously investigated Liao Ji jogged up to the middle-aged man and respectfully handed over the report.

From the young knight's title and the extra holy markings on the shoulders and cuffs of the middle-aged man's uniform, it is clear that this "Dulin" is the leader of the knightly order and the person in charge of the incident.

However, compared to the serious attitude of the young investigator knight in front of him, Dulin, as the captain, seemed somewhat lazy.

He waved the transcript that the young knight handed him, without even glancing at it.

"Just tell me, is it any different from the others?" Dulin asked, turning his head.

"No, apart from some minor differences, the testimonies of these survivors at the bar are almost identical."

"Hmph." Dulin responded with a nasal sound, as if he had expected it.

He then continued, asking the young knight, "So, we've pretty much finished investigating everything we needed to. Tamick, what's your take on this pollution incident?"

After a brief pause, the young knight straightened his back and shared his analysis with Dulin.

"First of all, following your previous instructions, Captain, I did not go to the scene of the incident immediately. Instead, I found several customers who had left the bar before the pollution incident broke out. Based on their testimonies, at least the first part of the incident is credible. It was indeed the gangsters from Kaleva who came to the bar to cause trouble and collect protection money."

"Okay, go on, and then what? At least the first half of your statement is credible, so you mean you suspect there's something wrong with the second half of their testimony?"

“Yes, Captain Durin, and I think it’s a big problem.” The young knight nodded.

"Tell me, what's the problem?"

“I think there are three seriously suspicious points. First, according to the survivors’ descriptions, they joined forces with the gang to fight the rampaging Evil Ones, but why is it that, judging from the corpses at the scene, the gang side was completely wiped out, while the Sea Sand Bar side suffered no casualties?”

“Maybe they were just lucky, or maybe these gangsters were the first to suffer because they were close to their boss?” Dulin retorted.

“What you said makes sense, but that’s precisely why we have a second point of doubt. After investigating the gangsters’ corpses, we found that they were all killed by having their throats slit with some kind of sharp weapon. This is clearly not the work of the murky corpse monster.”

"Finally, and the third very suspicious point, is Mr. Liao Ji and his female companion."

"Although they claimed they missed leaving the bar because they were frightened, I still felt that these two people and the atmosphere here were a bit... "

"Out of place?"