The sheep finally returned to normal, while Jiang Ran pondered the words the demon had spoken.

These dwarfs are children of angels, but they contain evil, which, according to the devil, is the result of being corrupted by a curse.

Is this a metaphor for something?

There have always been two conflicting views in human society: one is that human nature is inherently good, and the other is the opposite: human nature is inherently evil.

The former theory states that humans are born as blank slates, and the reason they develop into evil people is due to the influence of society after birth.

The latter theory posits that humans are born with a certain degree of evil, and that good people are cultivated through excellent education. If left unsupervised, they will eventually develop into evil people, which is their true nature.

Both viewpoints have some merit, but also some flaws. Jiang Ran does not completely favor either side, because humans are complex beings and it is difficult to define them with a single theory.

According to the devil, he should be more inclined to the former theory, which is somewhat ironic, after all, he is a "devil"!

Jiang Ran retreated back into the shepherd's hut: "The problem has been solved. Nothing else should happen tonight. Let's go to sleep and speed up the flow of time so we can get to tomorrow quickly."

"Hmm!" Lin Zhi nodded, then realized that there seemed to be only one bed in the cabin. This...this...could it be!

Okay, Jiang Ran had already leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Neither of them actually fell asleep. The night flew by, and in their senses, less than an hour had passed before sunlight streamed into the room through the window.

"Let's go, it's time to get down to business."

Jiang Ran opened his eyes and pushed open the door. When he entered the dungeon yesterday, the time was already set to noon, so the time was a bit tight.

Today, he took the flock of sheep directly to Paradise City early in the morning! This will give him a whole day to do other things in Paradise City!

When we entered Paradise City yesterday, a lot of new rules were announced, but we didn't really have much use for them. Today, we need to be careful of these rules!

"Walk!"

Jiang Ran called to the sheepcat, and the sheepcat suddenly appeared from somewhere. Under Jiang Ran's command, it began to organize the flock and, just like yesterday, headed towards the distance.

The weather was alright today; we didn't encounter the strange black rain like yesterday, otherwise Jiang Ran would have had to pull out his two wild umbrellas again.

The flock of sheep arrived safely in the city of paradise without any incidents along the way. The dwarfs tore open the sheepskins and rushed into the city, and everything was just as it had been the day before.

Jiang Ran and Lin Zhi found the old man from yesterday. The building was already closed, so it seemed that yesterday's competition was over. They just didn't know how many people had collected all 22 candles and qualified.

"You two are here really early! I thought you wouldn't arrive until the afternoon, hehehe~"

The old man rubbed his hands together, letting out bursts of somewhat lewd laughter.

"What exactly is the process for selecting the city lord?" Jiang Ran slammed the token on the table. "Since I am qualified to be a candidate, I should know this, right?"

"Don't worry, the selection process is very simple!" The old man smiled and spread his hands. "At 5 pm this afternoon, all candidates will give speeches in front of the entire city, and then everyone will vote to elect the city lord!"

"As long as you have a candidate token and can arrive on time, you can participate in the selection of the city lord!"

What? After all that fuss and going through all that trouble, it's just a regular election?

Jiang Ran didn't know a single person in this paradise city. Of course, if the group of dwarfs were also considered part of the population, he could easily crush the others.

However, it seems impossible.

Besides giving the speech, another rule is that you must arrive on time...

Jiang Ran realized that the speech at 5 pm was not the real selection for the city lord. The selection for the city lord had already begun from the moment he received the qualification to participate!

If you kill all the other contestants or trap them in some way so that they cannot attend the speech on time, you can guarantee to win the position of city lord!

After all, no matter how many people vote, if only one person meets the criteria, then the vote loses its meaning.

“You’d better be careful, sir.” The old man narrowed his eyes. “The strength of any candidate is definitely no less than that of a near-god. There are three people who have qualified by collecting candlelight in the building this time.”

"Including the other candidates in the city, besides you, there are seven others who are [Near God]!"

Including Jiang Ran, that makes eight!

Eight near-gods! Even an SS-rank ghost story world wouldn't have such a scene. In other words, this dungeon is almost equivalent to an SSS-rank ghost story world!

[Rule Eleven: Beware of butchers. It's best to stay far away from them, don't buy meat from them, and don't eat any meat you buy from them.]

[Rule Thirteen: You may watch the clown's performance, but please refrain from interacting with him and leave quickly during his card magic act.]

[Rule Fourteen: Beware of "white doves"; if necessary, you can seek help from "crows"]

The Butcher, the Clown, the White Dove, and the Raven mentioned in the rules are all important figures to watch out for; they might just be four of the near-gods among the candidates for city lord!

Jiang Ran now possesses near-god-level combat power. After the night and the time spent traveling, his mental energy has been fully restored, and all the available divine abilities have been restored. Therefore, he is not afraid even if he encounters multiple near-gods head-on!

Since that's the case, he decided to take the initiative to find other people!

The first step is to find out the identities of the other seven people, a point the old man didn't reveal, indicating that the candidates should find the clues themselves.

Three people qualified by collecting candlelight, meaning that before that they were all just "Kings of Ghosts". The identities of these three people are not easy to find.

The identities of the remaining four veteran "near-gods" are relatively transparent, not to mention that there are four special roles in the rules, which makes people wonder if they are just a one-to-one correspondence!

The speech will be held at 5 p.m.

There's still plenty of time!

Jiang Ran walked deeper into Paradise City. He hadn't had a chance to properly explore the city last time because he was participating in the building game, so now he had the opportunity to gather some information.

"Everyone, take a look!"

On the street, a young man was handing out flyers.