Magic High School.

The NPC follower named Zero was about to speak when Daphne glared at him, and he didn't dare to say anything, sitting down on the other side by himself.

“Okay, let’s exchange information. Zero, bring out that invitation list from last time’s banquet.” Daphne remained seated on the bed, legs crossed, while the NPC silently produced a list.

The group took the list, and the next moment everyone was in an uproar.

It wasn't a dense list of names, because even if it were, they wouldn't recognize them. The main thing was the list of job titles.

Celebrities, presidents, businessmen, sages... even royalty...

The names and the positions behind them immediately made Li Ge and his companions sense something unusual.

“This…” Li Ge suddenly uttered a single word, “Theocracy?”

“Yes, it’s a theocracy. Those famous politicians, celebrities, and big businessmen outside are all, in secret, priests, the highest echelons of the church, the very people these nuns and priests are working so hard to serve. Because they are these people’s superiors, their protectors,” Daphne said, revealing the information she had gathered.

At the same time, she seemed to glance at her younger brother and continued, "You tell me about everything you've seen over the years."

"Okay, okay..." This NPC boy seemed to be forced, and it looked like he had even been severely beaten by Daphne.

So he quickly told the whole story.

“I’ve been here since I can remember. I don’t know who my parents are. I was raised by nuns since I was a child…” he said slowly.

“I used to have many older brothers and sisters, but every now and then they would disappear. I asked the nuns, and they said that those children had gone to heaven.”

“I didn’t know what heaven was, so one time, I sneaked into the cathedral’s ventilation ducts during a dinner party…” The little boy seemed to break down at this point.

"What did you see?" Li Ge asked.

"I saw those gods, those high and mighty adults... they were eating... eating the stuff from the toilet... with roasted meat..." The little boy seemed to feel nauseous just thinking about those scenes.

The group: "..."

Even Li Ge couldn't hold back at this moment. Although he always referred to his domain as the Red Stone Domain and called Liu Ruyan's idiotic and brainless story "History," these were at most metaphors.

Surprisingly, some celebrities actually consider it an honor to enter members-only restaurants.

No, you guys really eat it?

Was Abaddon out of his mind to design such a background?

Li Ge was already mentally ranting and raving.

“I didn’t dare say a word. After it was over, I quietly left and stole this list. It can’t be all of it, just a part of it,” the little boy said.

"Can you go back into that ventilation duct?" Li Ge asked directly.

"Yes, it's well hidden there, but I can still find a way to sneak in," the little boy said.

The group exchanged glances and immediately felt that this person was truly brave. He had managed to sneak into the banquet of the gods all by himself, and this person was just an NPC.

Li Ge probably understood why those nobles, politicians, and high-ranking officials were all vying to come here.

"A pledge of allegiance..." he said slowly.

The identity of a divine child may be more than just recognition of bloodline or status; it is more like a pledge of allegiance.

The Divine Child might be a circle, like Liangshan, where one must pledge allegiance to join.

The pledge of allegiance at Liangshan was murder—forcibly turning the target into a wanted criminal, thus forcing them to join Liangshan. But the pledge of allegiance for the Divine Children is... eating snow?!

Is it scary? Yes, it is scary.

At that moment, Valerie elbowed Yilian and said, "Look, could this be the person on the confessional list?"

“It’s highly likely…” Yi Lian replied.

“No one saved him, so how did he get out…” Valerie asked a profound question.

At that moment, they fell silent, guessing that the child had suffered unspeakable pain inside.

They simply skipped the topic immediately.

"Then I'll leave this brat to you. Give me that information about the paladins," Daphne said directly.

Li Ge kept his word and handed her the list of paladins who had been assassinated.

Of course, Li Ge and his group kept the radio and other intelligence, since he had only mentioned the list of paladins when exchanging intelligence before, without mentioning the radio.

It's likely that Daphne hasn't finished exchanging all the information either; she probably kept some things from herself.

However, Li Ge thought this was normal. They were currently in PVPVE mode, and who knows, they might have to have a match before leaving, with the winner going to the table and the loser shining shoes.

Daphne seemed quite pleased to receive this information; she didn't even argue back, and simply left their cabin.

They left only the little boy there.

“Kid, your boss just sold you out to us,” Yi Lian said from the side.

"I...we were just partners, trying to escape together..." He didn't even feel any reluctance; on the contrary, he felt a sense of relief.

"You want to escape?" Li Ge asked, interrupting him. He increasingly felt that this was a special NPC who might have a hidden quest; otherwise, he wouldn't have had this idea.

“Yes, I want to leave. I want to escape the control of those disgusting gods, I want to see the outside world. I even want to become a great magician, or even a respected sage.” He stated his goals and dreams.

"But some of the sages are on the list too," Valerie muttered to herself.

“Therefore I want to become the sage among sages, a great sage!” he said with great determination.

"Congratulations, future great sage! We should think about how to escape first," Li Ge complained. "Where exactly is the entrance to the ventilation duct, and how do we get in? Can you take us there?"

“Okay, follow me. We’ll hide on the gods’ ship and then escape.” Zero seemed very excited.

“I know they’ll definitely have a lot of ships coming here today. I also know the nuns will be very busy tonight and won’t have time to watch us, so we can take the opportunity to sneak out, hide in the bottom of the ship, escape from here, and go back to the outside world.”

He was very excited and kept talking about his plans.

However, in the storyline of Li Ge and his friends, they are children who have just arrived in this fantasy world, so all we can say is that we wish them success.

As for hiding in the cabin...

What a fool! If they really wanted to leave, they could have just killed the crew and sailed away in their boat.

As for whether they can actually sail the boat, they can simply leave one person behind, put a knife to his throat, and see if no one will actually sail it.

But that's a story for later. First, they need to sneak into the children's banquet to find the secret of "ascending to heaven," since that's their task for this exam.

Perhaps after discovering the secret, they can steal a ship and escape from here.

As for the little boy, all I can say is I wish him success in his plan.

Based on their investigation of other NPC children, they discovered that most of them came from outside, and the reason they came here was mostly because they were starving and freezing. They were adopted by the church and then gradually transported here, or they were sold to the church.

This proves that the outside world is actually quite similar, except that one is evil in the open and the other is evil hidden in the dark.

Children like Zero, who have lived in Gensokyo since childhood, are extremely rare.

"Are you really a native of this island?" Xiaoye asked him instead.

“That’s probably true. It’s even possible that I’m the child of a nun who has already left the island.” He nodded and said.

other people:"……"

"Wait a minute, is it okay for the nun to leave?" Xiaoye asked.

"Yes, I've heard that if a woman can give birth to a pure child, it proves that she has passed God's test and can leave here to become a nun, or even the Virgin Mary," the little boy said, recounting what he had probably overheard as a child.

In that instant, the group exchanged glances, and Li Ge instantly understood what the confessional was for and why the nuns were behaving that way.

It really is a... filthy place...

The group sighed in amazement. But soon, the little boy quietly led them to the back of the cathedral. He said, "There, that chimney, you can go into a small storage room from there, and then you can find the ventilation ducts."

He pointed to a small suite on the side of the cathedral.

……

Meanwhile, on Daphne's side...

She carefully placed the newspapers she had found in the garbage dump and discovered a small section within them.

The Pope posthumously knighted a hacker and declared him a martyr.

The news headline had puzzled her before, but now, comparing the two sets of information...

The newspaper article described the martyred hacker as Charles.

Among the names on the list that Li Ge gave her was a hacker paladin named Charles.

She then opened another parchment scroll, on which was written: “My name is Charles. By the time you read this, I may already be dead, but we will destroy this place without compromise. May you escape. During the Divine Child's Banquet, several small boats that need to be used for procurement will be moored in the underground sewers. When no one is around, that is the best way to escape.”

She felt that there was a ghost, a ghost named Charles, that was always hovering over this land.

Chapter 163 The Eve of the Dinner

Li Ge and his group tried to crawl inside, and found that only an eleven-year-old could enter.

If I were still sixteen, I wouldn't be able to squeeze into this hellhole, not even if I tore it open.

Then, after Li Ge came out covered in soot, he said, "I saw a lot of young corpses in the chimney..."

Everyone else: "..."

“How could this happen?” Valerie asked immediately. “Why would they do this? Throwing children down the chimney!”

Despite her apparent anger, Li Ge immediately added, "I think you're mistaken. These bodies weren't thrown in. They were most likely accidentally killed while cleaning the chimney, and the cathedral was too lazy to clean them up, so they've just been left inside."

Valerie: "..."

"So why should children be made to clean chimneys..." she continued to argue.

“Didn’t you see? I could barely move inside. To clear the chimney quickly, we need even younger children,” Li Ge said.

Valerie: "..."

"By the way, it seems that when cleaning the chimney, the church might be worried that the workers will slack off, so they'll light a fire at the bottom to let the smoke fill the inside, which will allow them to finish the job as quickly as possible," Li Ge added.

Valerie: "..."

This discovery was so hellish that she couldn't laugh.

"Didn't you do this when you were a child?" Yilian asked Ling.

Zero shook his head. He hadn't actually discovered the remains before, or perhaps he had, but hadn't recognized them at the time.

“When I was a child, all I had to learn was to pray and sing hymns,” he said.