Cyberpunk, but urban

Ye Lan shrugged at Luna and said to her, "Well...just learn from me and say a few words to the puppet next to you."

"Oh."

Little Luna nodded, not quite understanding, and then followed Ye Lan's example and shouted a few words. Soon, the villagers' scolding stopped, and this time the village chief was the first to sit back in his seat.

In Moses's view, the distortion of the villagers became even more distorted because of the curse.

"Eat some bread." The village chief calmed his breath after venting his anger and spoke again.

The bread was ordinary wheat bread with butter, a round loaf about the size of a fist, with no special flavor.

People ate bread quietly.

"cluck"

There was a sound of something being crunched at a nearby table.

"what……"

Blood was flowing from Dewey's mouth. There was something black in the bread. It seemed that he had bitten something and broke his teeth. Ye Lan couldn't see what it was, but Moses said that it seemed familiar to her.

The president said, "...applause!" and everyone applauded.

"Dewey. Go to the chair."

"…Yes."

Dewey slowly stood up from his seat, walked to the front of the restaurant, and sat on the iron chair on the stage.

The president gritted his teeth and said, "Cry for Dewey, who will accept all our filth..." Then he shed tears.

Everyone started to cry, and they cried heartbreakingly because Dewey was chosen. In Moses' eyes, the villagers' distortion became more serious, as if something was about to happen.

The village chief placed a small black box on Dewey's head. It was the same box that Moses had seen in the basement of Taiyong Commodities. The sound of people crying echoed in his mind, and the box began to vibrate.

Just like Taiyong Commodities back then.

Distortions flowed out of people, and like a river, they invaded the tearful Dewey. His wife, Miyu, screamed, and visible distortions also appeared on her body. Then the distortions that appeared were drawn out again and flowed towards Dewey.

Dewey took on the villagers' distortions, which was what the village chief called "taking on filth." The entire village hall was filled with cries, and Dewey's body gradually became unstable and began to swell.

Just like what Moses, Ezra, and Yuria, who was still a little bear, had seen in the basement of Taiyong Commodities, someone was using this black box, which might have been stolen from L Company, to artificially create distortions and artificially gather distortions.

Moses could foresee that if they just watched, Dewey would definitely be destroyed by the distortion of the villagers present, and the black box that gathered the distortion of so many people would also release distorted entities that they would find difficult to fight against.

"Haha, you're actually using the box containing enkephalin for something like this..."

Ye Lan, who was sitting next to Moses, sighed and stood up from his seat. It was not until he started to act that Moses suddenly realized that this man who temporarily joined them was actually a senior employee of L Company's headquarters.

"I need your explanation."

Moses said.

Chapter 53. Basement

"Sure, wait till I get that broken box back first."

After Ye Lan finished speaking, a pitch-black coffin with a black butterfly relief on it fell in front of him. A swarm of white butterflies emerged from the air where there was nothing there, and landed solemnly on Ye Lan's body, turning into a pitch-black coat that looked like mourning clothes but was made of an unidentifiable material.

Two heavy pistols with exaggerated barrels, one white and one black, appeared at Ye Lan's waist, with reversed Morpho butterfly patterns printed on them.

A black Morpho butterfly with a white outline pattern and a white Morpho butterfly with a black outline pattern landed on Ye Lan's right hand that was stretched upwards, and intertwined in his hand to form a black tricorn hat with a circle of wide white stripes.

Ye Lan stretched out his right foot, which was also in black high-top riding boots, and kicked away the relief coffin placed in front of him. Countless white butterflies flew out of the coffin, covering all the villagers who were sucked away and twisted and collapsed on their seats.

Only the village chief continued to shout without any concern: "Everyone! Come and have fun! Come and have fun!"

Just before he was completely covered by the Morpho Butterfly, he uttered his last words as if he was breathing his last breath:

"Farewell! Farewell with joy!"

As he stopped talking, the floor of the stage opened, and Dewey and the chair fell down together. Ye Lan, Moses and others immediately heard a dull collision sound.

But at least, the distortion of the flowing river stopped after the white flash butterflies released by Ye Lan covered all the villagers. All the cries and shouts disappeared under the flying flash butterflies, and only solemn silence remained at the scene.

"It looks like we still have to go down."

Ye Lan looked at the closing stage floor and kicked the coffin that had closed automatically. The horizontal coffin easily stuck to the closing floor, causing the mechanism inside the floor to make a sound of being overwhelmed.

咔嘭

The torque of the mechanism could not match the hardness of the coffin which was part of the ego suit [Holy Proclamation], and it eventually broke under the continuous force, and the floor came to a complete stop.

“Wow! Wow!! Wow!!!”

Ezra, who was also covered with white butterflies, was so shocked by the ego suit summoned by Ye Lan that she was completely speechless. To her, the equipment on Ye Lan was more tempting than the equipment provided to her for free by Ten Thousand Weapon Workshops.

"Let's go, go down first."

After saying that, Ye Lan was the first to jump down from the hole in the floor, and he also pulled the straps on the coffin and brought the coffin down with him.

Moses sighed and had no choice but to tell Ezra, "Ezra, take little Luna with you and let's go down."

"Okay, Detective."

The 1.87-meter-tall girl picked up Luna with her left hand that was holding the dimensional bag, and held Moses in her right hand very naturally. Then, the tall girl, like Ye Lan, jumped into the hole in the floor with the two of them and Yuria who was in Moses' chest pocket.

As soon as they landed, they smelled a disgusting odor at the same time. The odor was so bad that they immediately observed the surrounding environment.

"Detective Moses... look over there." Yuria said tremblingly.

"...Damn it."

Moses cursed inwardly. The place they were in now was a prison, a prison used to imprison the 45 villagers chosen as sacrifices.

The distortions of forty-five people were mixed together, forming an indescribable distortion. These distortions were entangled and merged together. Why did they twist and what kind of power they had? Even Moses, who called himself the Distortion Detective, had no way to judge.

However, Ye Lan, who arrived earlier than them, had already raised the two heavy pistols at his waist and released a rain of bullets like a storm in this small prison.

Ding!Ding!Ding!

The bullets struck the twisted body of the entity, making a crisp sound like hitting a triangle. The bullets left black and white butterflies at the point of impact, and Moses was surprised to find that it was exactly the same form of damage that the purple and white smoke she blew out of the pipe could cause.

In an instant, the distortion covered by layers of flash butterflies stiffened, fell to the ground, and returned to human shape.

But it was just a dead body.

And that boss Dewey also left this world forever during the farewell of the Morpho Butterfly before he was blown up by the distortion of 57 people.

"Yuria, take advantage of this opportunity to open the workshop."

"Hmm? Eh? It's possible, but that forbidden hunter..." The little bear doll showed the same confusion as a human, tilting its head, at a loss.

Moses looked at Yuria, who was at a loss, then looked up at Ye Lan and asked him, "You can control the hunter, right?"

"Of course. And it's better to let him out as a laborer than to let me do it myself, right?"

Although the man in front of them was very restrained and had no intention of forcing them by virtue of the difference in strength, Ezra could not defeat him on his own now that his pipe was not at hand.

Therefore, at this moment, she could only listen to his ideas and hope that he could tell her what she wanted to know as promised.

Thoughts rushed through Moses' mind, and finally she said to Yuria in her usual voice: "...Yuria, open the workshop."

"Yes!" Yuria jumped off Moses and pressed his hand against the iron door of the prison.

"As long as you open this door, the forbidden hunter will come out." Moses said to Ye Lan, then stretched out his right hand and pulled the door handle.

The first time he pulled it, the door didn't budge. Moses thought for a moment and took out F Company's singularity product, "Spirit," from his jacket pocket.

After using the spirit that could open any locked object, she tried to open the door again. However, the door did not budge.

Moses made a judgment: "It seems that this door is not locked, but it is physically closed from the outside."

"Then let me do it. If you use your prosthetic hand to open this door, I'm afraid the flesh part will be completely useless." Ye Lan walked past Ezra, who was staring at the equipment on his body, and reached out to hold the door handle.

Crunch! Crunch!

Although it is not known for its physical properties, the He-level armor still has strength far beyond that of ordinary people. The sealed iron door made a metallic sound that seemed to tear the eardrums, and the door suddenly opened.

A beam of yellow light flashed through the corridor opposite the door and shot towards Moses' left shoulder, then was held in Ye Lan's empty left hand. It was the javelin of the forbidden hunter Vespa.

Chapter 54. Vespa

"Hello, young man. But isn't it a bad idea to attack the person who released you right after you come out?" Ye Lan smiled at him and threw the javelin in his hand back to Vespa who had already raised the long sword in his hand.

"I don't want to listen to people who have lost their credibility." Vespa glanced at Moses, then focused his attention on the man standing between him and Moses.

"Oh~ You only plan to communicate with me? This may be the biggest mistake you have ever made in your life~" Ye Lan showed an exaggerated smile, and that exaggerated and creepy smile made Vespa subconsciously tighten the weapon in his hand.

"Relax young man, we are now in Alley 11."

“Haa… You said this is Area 11…?” Vespa sighed deeply. This news was like a bolt from the blue to him.

"What do you want?"

"Well, first you have to follow instructions, because it's not safe here. Then there's Ms. Moses' pipe, and her right hand."

Ye Lan once again said something that he shouldn't know in front of the person concerned, causing Ms. Moses's expression to change several times in just one sentence.

"Yes, but not the right hand."

"why?"

Ezra couldn't help but ask, bypassing Moses and Ye Lan.

"Because I eat it, I have to live too, right?"

At that moment, Ezra rushed towards Vespa at an incredible speed. Her fist hit Vespa's right face directly, and Vespa raised his left knee and hit Ezra's abdomen at the same time. The two immediately started fighting fiercely without paying attention to the surroundings.

"It looks like a golden retriever and a Doberman are fighting." Luna and Yuria said at the same time. They didn't know when Miss Bear Doll had run into Luna's arms and was held in front of her.

"Ezra, stop!" Moses said, and Ezra quickly returned to her side, like a real golden retriever.

"Vespa, have you watched the video?" Ye Lan asked.

"……Yes."

Vespa spat a mouthful of blood foam on the ground and then answered.

"The monsters here are the same as in the video. People who know about it call them distortions. But they are different from ordinary distortions. They are artificially created and mixed with all kinds of people. It will be easier to understand if we think they are the same as the pianist."

"...Anyway, it's pretty much the same as those monsters in the suburbs, right?"

"Well, that's fine. Anyway, you just need to know that some of them cannot be solved simply by physical means. And there is no guarantee that they will only use simple physical attacks."

"so?"

"So you have to listen to us, so that you can return to the surface alive." Ye Lan said: "If you agree, return the pipe to Ms. Moses, and then ask her how to fight those enemies that cannot be resisted by physics."

"……I see."

Vespa was silent for a while, then took out Moses' pipe from his pocket and threw it to her. Moses took the pipe and sighed, then said to Yuria, who was held in front of Luna, "Yuria, bring me the ribbon that can be used for wrapping."

"...Ms. Moses, what is the purpose of your work?" After receiving the order from Ye Lan to ask Moses, Vespa also put aside his barriers and asked her about his doubts.

“Understand the twist.”

"Just out of curiosity? How selfish! I lost a lot thanks to you."

"I don't deny it. According to what you said, it was probably selfish. If I acted for my own satisfaction, then neither you nor I could say that we were righteous from the beginning. Or do you want me to sympathize with you?"

Vespa looked at Moses and smiled.

"You're right. We are all just completing the tasks assigned to us."

While the two were talking, Yuria also brought back a roll of orange ribbon from the workshop. This was a special equipment she made specifically for Moses' pipe, which could give Moses' "divine equipment" additional effects.

In a sense, Shenbei is another form of distortion. However, it is different from the distortion of following the strong emotions in one's heart, immersing oneself in them, and becoming a slave to emotions. Shenbei is another completely opposite situation in which one is firm in oneself and turns the surging emotions into clothes on the body and weapons in the hand.

But their common feature is that the seeds of light all penetrate deeply into people's hearts, allowing people in cities to more easily discover the power within.

The distortions are bizarre and strange, and the divine preparations are also bizarre.

Moses' pipe is a divine equipment, and Yuria's workshop is also a divine equipment. They are different in form, and the reason for this difference is the different emotions in the deepest part of their hearts.

Wrapping the orange ribbon around the pipe, Moses blew white air into the pipe. The white smoke wrapped around Vespa and Ezra's bodies, and at the same time penetrated into Vespa's yellow sword and Ezra's gloves.

"What's this……"

"It can protect you from some twisted mental attacks, and your attacks are not just physical." Vespa was quite confused about the smoke surrounding him, so Moses explained to him in more detail.

"Everyone, are you ready?"

Picking up the black box used to guide the distortion, Ye Lan confirmed their preparations with Moses and others, and asked Yuria to close his workshop. After the workshop was closed, the iron door that was violently opened was a mountain of rocks. The rough and huge rocks piled up stubbornly were like the hearts of the villagers who were desperate to turn back.

The group continued to go deeper, and before they knew it, they had reached the deepest part. The final distortion was right in front of them. It was a sphere made of flesh and blood, floating in the air. Just looking at it made everyone except Ye Lan feel a dull pain in their spirits.

"Ye Lan... It has endured the distortion of the entire village alone. It must be very lonely and painful, right?" Luna asked Ye Lan. It seemed that in this mental pain, she felt the pain in the distorted heart of the person in front of her.