Chapter 83

Today is the day to pay homage to the gods.

Zhou Zhi packed the dagger and the gun with two bullets left, then put on his coat.

He sent a message to Xiao Shengyun last night, but there was no reply. It might be due to a bad signal, or something might have happened to him.

His heart skipped a beat at the thought of the second possibility.

Zhou Zhi and Jie Yuan met at the bus stop and boarded the bus for the last time, a journey that might be one of no return.

The vehicle sped toward the place not marked on the bus stop sign, the buildings beside it receded rapidly, and the tower in the distance gradually came into view.

The car was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

Everyone was overjoyed, believing that the gods would cleanse them of their grime, purify their bodies, and remove the pollution so they could return to normal.

Zhou Zhi sat at the back of the car, touching his phone in his pocket; there were no replies.

He was considering whether to write a will or record information about the city inside, since he might not survive.

Jie Yuan looked at the scenery outside. Rows of trees receded into the distance, and the sunlight shone on his face. It was a nice day.

He had gotten used to relaxing on the edge of life and death. Living in this ghostly world, he might die at any moment, so at least he could see the sun a little more.

“You look worried?” Jie Yuan turned his head. He wasn’t a perceptive person, but Zhou Zhi’s staring at his phone was too conspicuous.

"Indeed." He was very frank.

"What's there to worry about? We've done everything we can. Even if we are destroyed, it's just fate."

Jie Yuanxin has a big heart. Each executor is a gun. When the bullets are used up, the gun's mission is complete. As for the outcome, that's not something he can worry about.

The two are different. He was willing to accept death after doing his best, while Zhou Zhi wanted to save everyone.

He still had many things to do and many things left undone. He wasn't afraid of death, but rather of dying meaninglessly.

His gaze drifted into the distance, where a tall black tower stood at the end of the road—this was his final destination.

arrive.

The messenger of the god stood at the entrance of the tower, dressed in a white robe, his eyes filled with loving kindness.

The tower's entrance was very narrow, so they lined up to enter.

Inside was a spiral staircase. Zhou Zhi touched the stair railing; it felt like touching a lump of flesh, soft and of indescribable material.

The walls of the castle were pitted and rough, with black and red liquids smeared on them, leaving one wondering what had happened here.

"We're almost there."

The stairs were very high, and they climbed them one by one, like pilgrims.

Thump!

Zhou Zhi suddenly stopped, and the people behind him bumped into his back due to inertia.

He looked down at the polluter that was crashing into him, then reached out and grabbed the polluter's staggering body.

The polluter stared blankly ahead; if it weren't for a hand supporting his shoulder, he might have collapsed to the ground.

It's too quiet.

He was in the middle of the line, and the people in front of him moved uphill in the same pace and with the same movements, like pre-programmed machines.

These people have been mentally controlled!

Zhou Zhi grabbed Jie Yuan in front of him roughly, but the person being grabbed did not react at all, like a puppet.

He released his hand, and Jie Yuan immediately resumed his posture of climbing the stairs.

Zhou Zhi tried to break free from the mind control, but there was another force in Jie Yuan's brain, with two foreign viruses arguing in his mind.

"It happened—"

Jie Yuan regained consciousness for a moment, then was immediately controlled by another force.

They were nearing the top floor. Zhou Zhi quickly climbed up, where countless warm yellow lights hung in mid-air. When he looked at these lights, a sharp pain shot through his brain.

These lights cause severe mental pollution.

On the top floor of the tower, a man sat quietly in a chair. He had a very young face, his eyes were closed, and what contrasted sharply with his face was his head of white hair.

Zhou Zhi walked up to the man.

Perhaps not expecting that a flying insect would break free from the spider web, the man opened his eyes.

Just one glance was enough to cause intense pain to explode in his mind. Zhou Zhi saw the starry sky in those eyes—a vast and profound starry sky in which humanity was nothing more than an ant.

He opened his eyes wide, letting the knife spin in his mind, his heart pounding violently with pain, and the feeling of death washing over him like a tidal wave.

"I never expected that humans would come here."

The man blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, they looked like those of a normal person.

Zhou Zhi supported his body with his hands, and the oppressive feeling subsided.

"What are you? Human? Or something else?" Every muscle in his body was trembling slightly. Forget fighting, his hands were too weak to lift his sword.

"Human, I used to be."

“I used to be the mayor of this city.”

Meng Yangzhou thought for a while, realizing that he was getting old and had forgotten many things.

“Then you’re not doing a very good job as mayor.” Zhou Zhi thought of the chaotic state of the city, where the mayor was practically invisible.

"What do you know!" Meng Yangzhou became extremely agitated. Perhaps it was because the words he had just spoken had stung him, or perhaps it was because so many humans had not come here, but he couldn't help but say a few more words: "We are nothing but abandoned. If I am not competent, then what were the people who ordered us to be abandoned here back then!"

"Without rescue, without relocation, five cities and millions of people were simply abandoned. Those people brought pollutants to the border areas between the cities, creating a pollution belt and building high protective barriers. We were all bait to lure the pollutants. Why! Why!"

Meng Yangzhou's facial features became ferocious.

"A decoy?"

Zhou Zhi had no idea there was such a hidden story. He only knew that Xizhou was the most polluted area back then. In order to build a protective line, five cities disappeared in the black tide. So, the truth is that those people back then used these five cities as bait.

"At that time, pollutants kept attacking the city, and the entire Western Continent was in chaos. Humans were too weak in front of those monsters. Rather than killing the pollutants one by one, the most brutal way was to flatten them with firepower. The city was surrounded by pollutants and bombarded by artillery.

"We miraculously survived, even if it was in a barely surviving way."

"You made a deal with the pollutants?"

Zhou Zhi suddenly understood why the polluters in this city all retained their sanity; it was probably related to what was on Meng Yangzhou.

He kept his promise, and all the citizens survived.

“Yes, I offered myself to Him. I had no one else to ask, so I prayed for the mercy of the gods, and He answered me.”

"The price is nothing more than monthly offerings."

Meng Yangzhou's voice was calm. He had never regretted his choice. No matter what happened, this city would always stand on the edge.

The entire tower began to shake rapidly, the walls began to shrink continuously, and countless tiny tentacles emerged from the walls.

"I'm so hungry..."

"So hungry..." the monster on the dome murmured.

A strong stench of decay emanated from the wall. Zhou Zhi dodged the attack of the tentacles, but a few drops of liquid splashed onto his clothes, quickly corroding a hole in them.

He suddenly realized that the entire black tower was the monster's stomach. From the moment they entered, the monster had already completed the feeding stage and was now in the digestion stage.

More and more liquid seeped from the walls, and the stench of decay made the space feel suffocating. Zhou Zhi scooped up the unconscious Jie Yuan and ran down the stairs towards the exit on the lowest floor.

He did not attack Meng Yangzhou. The fact that Meng Yangzhou was still conscious indicated that the pollution was not severe and that the pollutant was not actually on him.

Everything beneath his feet was shaking, the walls were undulating and squeezing, and tiny tentacles began to reach out towards his arms and front of him.

He took out his short knife and sliced ​​off the tentacles with a single stroke, as if cutting vegetables.

Dragging someone along was too slow, so Zhou Zhi simply threw Jie Yuan down below, waited for him to reach the next level, picked him up, and threw him down again.

This method is so insidious that anyone who sees it would call him a living devil. Fortunately, the stairs are made of monster flesh, which acts as a buffer. If you master the height and technique, Jie Yuan will at most suffer a broken bone.

With the burden gone, things were much easier. Liquid began to seep from beneath Zhou Zhi's feet, and then he found himself in a void where the stairs had vanished, replaced by countless tentacles enveloping him.

In the instant his body was suspended in mid-air, he threw Jie Yuan outside, who fell face-first onto the hard ground, detaching from the Black Tower, and the mental control disappeared.

Jie Yuan was awakened by the pain on his face. His memory was still stuck at the moment before he entered the Black Tower, but when he opened his eyes, a huge black mass was writhing in front of him.

What is this?

Jie Yuan tried to control the metal knife, but the flesh was too thick and he couldn't pierce it.

Separated by a wall of flesh, Zhou Zhi was trying to slash at the tentacles that were reaching for him with a knife, but he couldn't cut them. Moreover, more and more liquid was gushing out of the wall, gradually spreading up the stairs from the first floor.

The monster was puzzled as to why this human couldn't digest it.

Numerous tentacles wrapped around Zhou Zhi, layer upon layer.

A familiar feeling.

The little monster used to pester him like that too.

Zhou Zhi glanced at the hem of his clothes; they were already tattered from the corrosive effects of the "gastric acid," with a hole in the pocket and his phone having flown out during the run.

The liquid kept rising and quickly reached his ankles.