“Ten minutes ago, we notified Haidu’s User Committee. Haidu’s Extermination Team has been deployed to catch ‘Holy Sacrifice’.”
From the moment Chu Wenting pulled her own head off, to Zhongdu’s Head-Picking Incident.
Now, a total of twenty full hours have passed.
Li Xiaoxiao has already worked for twenty straight hours, not resting for a second. Her complexion was bad, yet her eyes were extremely bright. She held the phone and said to Xiao Jinyu in a calm tone: “Haidu has temporarily suspended ‘Water Punishment’s’ sentence. She’s out of her cell now… she’s on her way to hunt ‘Holy Sacrifice’!”
Water Punishment, Luo Sheng.
Xiao Jinyu’s brain immediately conjoured up an image of a grey-haired, heroic but cold looking woman who didn’t smile.
Xiao Jinyu: “Department Head Li, Holy Sacrifice is a level five user. About how high is her ranking on the Grow Some Brains APP?”
“Don’t know.” Li Xiaoxiao said helplessly: “We don’t know her ranking and even Polluter 004 can’t give an answer. You should know that the top 53 users in the Grow Some Brains APP ranking are all anonymous. This isn’t because 004 is deliberately hiding this, but because those 53 users are all extremely power and even 004 can’t find their specific ranking.
“Of the top 53 users, the government has only collected the information on 20 of them. And these information are all voluntarily revealed by those 20 users. Holy Sacrifice didn’t tell us her ranking, but by our estimates, she is in the top 20 at the very least!”
Xiao Jinyu thought, his gaze falling on the bloody water.
After a few seconds, Xiao Jinyu said: “Although Xu Qi’s in Zhongdu, there can’t only be him that’s a high level user in Haidu’s Extermination Team. With Captain Luo, Water Punishment, there and add a few members of the Extermination Team in, there shouldn’t be any problem with catching Holy Sacrifice.”
Finding the whereabouts of the murderer was crucial and Xiao Jinyu didn’t think that Holy Sacrifice could escape the hands of Haidu’s Extermination Team. However, just as he was about to ask Li Xiaoxiao if the Logic Research Institute had figured out how the nun was able to use Pope’s Crown’s logic skill, Li Xiaoxiao opened her mouth.
“There is one thing that I think you’ve mistaken, Xiao Jinyu.”
Xiao Jinyu immedately stopped talking.
LI Xiaoxiao: “Most likely, Haidu might have only sent out Water Punishment herself. Although I don’t know just who specifically has been deployed, but I believe that the rest of the Extermination Team is assisting from the side as best, not directly joining the battle between Water Punishment and Holy Sacrifice.”
“Why?!”
“Because she is ‘Holy Sacrifice’.”
The cold wind blew over the youth’s hair and through the phone, Li Xiaoxiao’s grim voice was transmitted: “In the entirety of Haidu, of all the users who took the initiative to work under the government, only Water Punishment herself can approach her. Anyone else joining the battle will only add to the chaos and may even lead to their own logic skill collapsing. Haidu has already notified the neighboring cities’ Extermination Team for aid.
“All users under level five, in front of Holy Sacrifice… cannot land a single blow!”
…
After hanging up, Xiao Jinyu’s expression was calm, sorting out the information given by Li Xiaoxiao.
Holy Sacrifice.
This was a seemingly nonviolent logic skill.
–Only for ordinary people.
The target of Holy Sacrifice’s attack, from the beginning to the end, only was logic skills.
Yes, it attacked the logic skill itself.
[User ID: Holy Sacrifice]
[Real Name: Huo Lanxu]
[Gender: Female]
[User Rank: A**]
[Logic Level: Five]
[Logic Skill: By sacrificing a certain amount of blood, she can enter the field of holy sacrifice.
This field is a circular range with Holy Sacrifice as the center. The size of the field is suspected to be related to the amount of blood sacrificed. The maximum observed radius is 122 meters and the maximum height is 204 meters.
In the middle of the field, all logic skills that are lower in level than Holy Sacrifice, will immediately be suppressed. The suppression includes, but is not limited to:
The user’s body clearly feels pressure stronger than the earth’s gravity.
The user’s logic skill is greatly reduced and it is very likely to cause a logic skill breakdown.
A polluter’s contamination ability and special ability will be restricted.
*In January 13th, 2046, Holy Sacrifice assisted the Haidu Extermination Team for the last time, going to Contamination Area 18 to execute the A rank task ***. In this mission, user rank D02, level one user “Sausage Baby”, was directly pressed to the ground by the huge gravity. Five minutes later, their logic skill immediately broke.
Confirmed: All level one users cannot move freely in the field of Holy Sacrifice.
Level two users…
Level three users…]
Xiao Jinyu didn’t think that the nun’s logic skill would be like this.
Just by sacrificing blood, all the users and polluters in the range of the nun’s logic skill would then be suppressed. Instead, it was all the ordinary people without logic skills that wouldn’t be affected and are free to move.
This kind of logic skill, you could say it was completely harmless or you could say it was extremely horrifying.
When he heard the information on the nun’s logic skill, Xiao Jinyu’s immediate reaction was: This was a logic skill that suited the Extermination Team.
When one’s teammate encounters danger, whether that enemy was a user or polluter, or even an out-of-control logic skill, Holy Sacrifice could immediately sacrifice some blood, release the field, and then surpress the enemy. Moreover, after Holy Sacrifice reached level three, she could also form small gaps in this circular field.
What is a small gap?
A small gap would mean that when both her teammates and enemy enters her logic skill field, Holy Sacrifice could then erase the area under her teammate’s feet in the field and only suppress the enemy alone.
With such a special and strong logic skill, the Haidu officials have invited Huo Lanxu to join the extermination team more than once, but they were all rejected by her.
We Hl tjv fzfmeafv akb ajrxr klat Lbis Vjmglolmf yfobgf.
No one would think that a woman who had helped the Extermination Team catch a murderer before would one day become a demon holding the butcher’s knife.
***
Haidu, Haoming Street.
The wind swirled around the heavy rain, the old houses on both sides of the street shook, and dead yellow leaves were hit by the rain, covering the entire ground.
The extermination team members were quickly evacuating the surrounding citizens.
After Xiao Jinyu discovered the nun’s trail, Xu Qi ordered his team to quickly investigate the Catholic Church near Haidu’s subway station.
However, they didn’t find the mysterious nun there.
The priest of that Catholic Church said that the nun wasn’t registered with them. She had appeared out of nowhere half a year ago, coming often to worship and to clean the church. The priest gave them a name and they had looked it up. Sure enough, it was a fake name.
The mysterious nun didn’t leave any clues.
At that time, Haidu’s Extermination Team hadn’t connected the mysterious nun with Huo Lanxu yet. It wasn’t until Li Xiaoxiao found that after the Howard family settled down in China, they married a Chinese woman and changed their surname to Huo. Little by little, they found the name Huo Lanxu.
Exactly as Xiao Jinyu guessed, Huo Lanxu was an extremely sentimental person.
Because she used to live in Fumin Community, after she dug out Pope’s Crown’s ashes, she didn’t choose to bury it in the residential area close by in the Xiaoqiu District, but instead, she deliberately went to Wuxing District to use a logic skill and bury the ashes in the garden she had played in as a child.
A person like this also went to a church financed by the Howard family.
The necklace on her neck was also engraved with the Howard family crest.
She even remembered that Meat King had won the auction on Howard’s fan.
—Howard.
This name was very important to her.
So when a person like this officially activated Pope’s Crown’s logic skill, beginning this grand and cruel head-picking march, she didn’t stay in Contamination Area 81 to witness this “feat” created by her, nor did she go to that Catholic Church to confess her sins.
There was only one place where she would hide—
In the last century, the Howard family lived in a house in the French Concession.
The rain was like rocks, slamming into the ground.
Holy Sacrifice’s logic skill was ineffective against ordinary people, but no one dared to let so many people stay near such a demon. Before this big battle could begin, the innocents must be evacuated from the surrounding area.
A member of Haidu’s Extermination Team wiped the rain from his face. He knew that this rain was their own captain’s logic skill.
This rain didn’t fall from the sky, but instead condensed directly mid-air.
“Quickly, there’s still three more households!”
“Coming, coming. I’m already going.”
“If we don’t evacuate these people right, then Captain can’t show her skills and we won’t be able to help Captain.”
“Eh, is the rain lighter?”
“This isn’t rain, this is Captain’s logic skill!”
Suddenly, the voices stopped.
A few young team members stood on the street. They all looked up, feeling the rain hitting their faces.
“It’s getting lighter! This is Captain’s logic skill, the rain is getting lighter. Then Captain, Captain…!”
A middle aged man grabbed the anxious team member and swept his rain-soaked hair back: “Believe in Captain! Quick, go evacuate everyone. Once we evacuate everyone, then we can help Captain.”
“Yes!”
…
In the once grand house.
The piano was smashed to pieces, the ornate crystal chandelier was scattered on the ground, and the wooden floor was covered with blood-stained glass shards.
Luo Sheng’s right hand held a large glass shard, the weapon she had picked up casually after the floor-to-ceiling windows were smashed. The weapons she had brought with her were all broken by this woman.
Level five users didn’t only have strong logic skills, but their physical qualities were also terrible beyond the limits of the human body.
Luo Sheng’s cheeks, chest, and arms were all covered in bloody holes, deep enough to see bone. In front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, which was broken in half, the nun’s right arm was also gushing blood. She was wounded, but it was obvious that her injuries were far better off.
In the dark, silent house, the two women stared warily at each other.
After a while.
Luo Sheng gasped: “You’ve gotten stronger. You’re getting stronger non-stop… was it you who created that march in Zhongdu? It’s been stopped, but you’re still getting stronger?”
The nun silently looked at her, not answering.
Luo Sheng raised the glass shard, pointing it at the other party: “Huo Lanxu, what is your user ranking?!”
Looking at her enemy who had completely fallen into a disadvantage, the nun’s eyes were soft. As if she was sighing: “When you came into this house, A18. Now… A14.”
The former A14, Water Punishment, Luo Sheng.
The current A14, Holy Sacrifice, Huo Lanxu.
She didn’t take out her phone and check if it really was as the other had said, that she had fallen from A14 to A15.
Luo Sheng knew that this woman wasn’t lying.
She also knew that what was strengthening this woman wasn’t herself, but that extremely cruel head-picking sacrifice, hundreds of miles away in Zhongdu.
“How did you strip Pope’s Crown’s logic skill from his body? Just like…
“How did you do this? Your body is in Haidu, but the logic skill is being used in Zhongdu…”
The nun didn’t answer this question.
She looked at the pathetic woman in front of her.
The wound on her cheek spread to the corner of her mouth, Luo Sheng’s black eyes stared at the woman. Suddenly, she laughed: “You chose to do the march in Zhongdu because that was where you grew up. Why didn’t you change cities? Zhongdu, Haidu, these large cities… are all very dangerous.”
The nun calmly asked: “Is it dangerous?”
“It’s dangerous!” Luo Sheng laughed like crazy. After Meat King died, she was already almost a lunatic. “Do you know who’s in Zhongdu? Do you know, who it was… who just stopped your march and broke Pope’s Crown’s logic skill?!”
Hearing the word “broke”, the nun’s body slightly froze.
Seeing the nun’s unchanging white face, Luo Sheng then knew that this woman had guessed it.
However, she was willing to tell the other party again.
“The one who broke Pope’s Crown’s logic skill, is a little guy. Before you are taken to trial, you can remember his ID.
“He’s called—
“Fourth Perspective.”
The nun slightly paused. She raised a slender eyebrow: “Fourth Perspective?” Her tense body suddenly relaxed.
“Also…”
The nun raised her head.
Luo Sheng laughed crazily, blood constantly flowing from between her teeth, a sharp cone of water gathering around her, only this time, there was obviously less water condensing around her than before.
“There’s A01, Spear of Judgement!”
The nun’s gaze froze.
Luo Sheng laughed louder: “Now, how long do you think your logic skill can hold now?!”
***
Under the dark night, Xiao Jinyu looked at the speckled rivers of blood on the ground, face calm.
Something’s not right.
No matter how the members of the Extermination Team try to remove this blood; collection them all and burning it, even having Wang Tao personally burn them into something invisible to the eye…
The little grains of colored logic factors still kept on flying out of the blood and into the sky!
This was a logic skill.
A logic skill that didn’t belong to Pope’s Crown.
It wasn’t black, it was still multicolored. It’s owner perhaps was still alive…
Perhaps, it was Holy Sacrifice!
Xiao Jinyu activated Fourth Perspective, directly using the enhanced version. He stared at the colored light dots that flew into the sky without blinking. Only he could see these light dots, so even if he told Wang Tao, who would guess that these logic factors were the true purpose of Holy’s Sacrifice’s head picking incident, they were powerless to stop it.
Level five user Holy Sacrifice, what her logic skill had become like now, only she knew.
Facing the logic factors that continued to fly towards the sky, Xiao Jinyu pursed his lips.
…These logic factors, definitely had a problem.
But what about it? How should they deal with them? What was the use of these logic factors for Holy Sacrifice, and will it lead to an even worse disaster?
Xiao Jinyu pulled out his phone and found Li Xiaoxiao’s contact, yet just as he was about to call her…
The air suddenly stood still.
The crisp sound of something piercing the wind came from behind him.
Xiao Jinyu’s body froze. He hurried to turn around and in the next second, a black spear grazed his cheek, and like a lightning bolt, it pierced through the night, shooting forward.
Xiao Jinyu immediately looked at the direction of the spear.
It stopped in midair!
The enhanced version of Fourth Perspective had been staring at the empty space where the spear had pierced, but Xiao Jinyu didn’t see a single logic factor or pollution factor. Yet the spear seemed to have stabbed something, hanging in midair motionlessly.
Xiao Jinyu’s mouth slightly opened.
In an instant.
That spear disappeared.
The howling wind blew through past his ears and there seemed to be a very light cracking sound. Xiao Jinyu thought he had just imagined it, but when he looked up at the sky, he saw that the net made of those colored dots had suddenly exploded open!
In the vast and quiet night sky, countless light dots were connected by tiny threads, enveloping half the city.
The black spear pierced the middle of those countless threads.
“Crack—”
The colorful threads broke.
The multicolored world suddenly collapsed, the countless logic factors turned into dots of light and fell down from the sky. As they fell, they fell slower and dimmer. When the first light dot fell on the ground, Xiao Jinyu dazily looked at it, subconsciously taking a step forward.
He saw this colored light dot’s rotational pattern!
Every seven light dots were connected together, forming a complex, closed path. They followed this path while each one of them spinned and flew at a fast speed.
When they were in the sky, Xiao Jinyu could barely see that they were flying and spinning. Only they were about to disappear and touch the earth, could Xiao Jinyu finally clearly see the rotational pattern of this logic skill.
At this time, he should hurry forward and try as much as he can to see if he can steal the logic skill of Holy Sacrifice.
Yet Xiao Jinyu didn’t move. He stood where he was, looking at the light dots falling to the ground, slowly disappearing.
Holy Sacrifice was too strong, when it could still function normally, Xiao Jinyu wasn’t able to see how it worked. He couldn’t even see that there were that many logic factors in the air. Only when it was shattered by Su Jiuzhou and slowly weakened to its demise, did Xiao Jinyu clearly see how it rotated and moved.
However, Xiao Jinyu didn’t continue to look at the seven logic factors flying around each other.
He looked at the logic factors on the ground, the ones that stopped moving.
A strange thought came to mind. As if a floodgate has suddenly opened, countless nonsensical thoughts rushed into his brain like a flood.
“These logic factors all look the same.
“All the logic factors in the world look the same. The only thing that diferrentiates them is their rotational pattern.
“So, why am I so sure that the three logic factors around my hand is White Garden’s…?”
Once a scary train of thought began, it wouldn’t be able to stop.
“Why did I determine them to be White Garden’s?
“Because they spin just like White Garden’s.
“Yes, exactly the same.
“White Garden’s logic factors spun like this, so these are White Garden’s logic factors.
“Just like Holy Sacrifice’s logic factors. They’re seven logic factors that spin together, their rotational pattern is different from White Garden’s, so they’re not White Garden’s, they’re Holy Sacrifice’s.”
…
“So why… can’t they be my logic factors?”
Xiao Jinyu raised his hand, dazily looking at the three logic factors that should belong to White Garden. He just looked at his hand motionlessly, at the three rapidly rotating logic factors.
Suddenly.
Those three logic factors stopped moving.
They were like the logic factors of Holy Sacrifice that fell to the ground and stopped functioning, stopping their rotation and silently floating next to Xiao Jinyu’s wrist.
Xiao Jinyu stared at them.
They, also stared back at Xiao Jinyu.
…
Keep thinking.
…
Zhongdu, Basement Warehouse, floor 36.
The little robot who had nothing to do shook painfully from side to side, yelling “Old Pervert, go die” on one side while turning around and saying “Day 365 of missing Dad”. Suddenly, 004 stopped.
“Eh?”
In the small glass cage, the small robot tilted it’s head, the flat panel display flipping through countless words before finally staying on the leaderboard of the Grow Some Brains APP.