Chapter 88 The Final Feast of Revelry (Part 8) I will take control of my own destiny! ...

What?

Wang Erqi was puzzled. The voice quickly disappeared, like a dream that suddenly descended and vanished. She felt as if she were floating in a daze, her vision rising higher and higher, approaching and then surpassing the ceiling, until her whole body floated up into the sky.

She was like a transparent balloon, passing through all sorts of obstacles and floating into the air, overlooking the entire dock from a panoramic perspective.

Wang Erqi looked over in a daze, seemingly understanding something, yet seeing nothing at all. The next instant, a strange pulling force suddenly came, violently dragging her downwards!

She felt a blur before her eyes, and then she was no longer in that high-altitude perspective. Her vision returned to normal, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.

A ten-meter-high wall, with a dense network of electric fences between the bars, and sentries every three or five steps along the wall. A rumbling sound came from behind. Wang Erqi turned around in surprise. A truck loaded with live animals drove in through the gate, crashed into her, and then—it drove right through her without her having done anything.

She had arrived deep inside the docks, in a place the bald gentlemen of the Gentlemen's Club never allowed the miners to approach—the ore processing plant.

Without thinking about why he was alright or what state he was in, Wang Erqi looked down at his translucent palm and, driven by inexplicable emotions, subconsciously "chased" after the truck that had driven away.

Though she was described as "chasing," Wang Erqi's current state was more like floating, only a little faster. Almost instantly, she caught up with the truck at the end of the road and followed it into a spacious factory.

"Ho—"

Even though she had suspected it beforehand, and even though she couldn't speak in her current state, she still instinctively covered her mouth the moment she saw the inside of the factory, suppressing the gasp that was about to escape her lips.

What did she see?

The factory was incredibly spacious, capable of accommodating dozens of trucks side by side, yet a strange piece of equipment in the middle occupied most of the space.

The pitch-black container resembled a furnace, with its bottom connected to the ground and its center bulging outwards. Countless dense pipes extended upwards, ending in a winding conveyor belt that almost filled the other half of the space.

The truck that Wang Erqi was following was now parked next to a conveyor belt. The truck door was raised, and large and small black stones tilted out, splashing onto the surface of the conveyor belt and moving forward along the track with a few clicks.

Wang Erqi's eyes widened, and she couldn't help but lean closer to "see." Yes, this was the ore they mined every day. She had worked as a miner in District 06 for a while before and had never seen this kind of ore before. But she overheard once again that the Gentlemen's Guild called this ore "Divine Revelation Crystals."

So this is where the Divine Revelation Crystals are processed. The Gentlemen's Guild doesn't allow miners to enter because they're afraid we'll see their core secrets? Even if I just stand underneath and observe, I can't figure out what these dark instruments are for.

"Click-clack—"

However, to Wang Erqi's surprise, these "divine revelation crystals" were not transported to the large container in the middle. Instead, they were ground up by the gaps between the conveyor belts as they were transported section by section, as if they were rusting. After circling the central instrument, all the "divine revelation crystals" that had just been poured out were ground into powder.

When they were mining the ore, the stewards of the gentlemen's association had sworn that the "divine revelation crystals" were extremely precious and that the slightest bump would reduce their quality or even turn them into waste stones. Now, so many precious "divine revelation crystals" were being so crudely ground into powder.

Then what about those workers who are so careful when digging, afraid of bumping into or touching the ore?

But what surprised Wang Erqi the most was that after the machine ground the "divine revelation crystal" into powder, several fan-like devices rose up on both sides of the conveyor belt, and with a few "humming" sounds, they blew away most of the black powder on the conveyor belt!

Wang Erqi was even more confused now. If lying about the fragility of the "divine revelation crystal" could be explained as urging the workers to be more careful, it would be understandable.

So how do you explain the process of first crushing the rare ore and then using a fan to blow away all the powder?

Are the Gentlemen's Club members just bored and looking for trouble, or is this money laundering in a holographic movie?

Wang Erqi's mind was in turmoil. Although the encounter in her dream a few days ago made her realize that the mine was not so simple and that the pie that fell from the sky had a poisonous filling, who would have thought that the inside story was even more complicated than she had guessed?

The most vicious thing she could think of before was that the gentlemen would pull such a stunt just to harvest their organs and sell them for money.

"Oh, every time I see this process, I feel so satisfied."

A voice caught Wang Erqi's attention. She looked over instinctively and saw a fully armed man, wearing a gas mask and clearly bald, leave the truck and approach the conveyor belt, marveling at the crystal lime being blown away.

"Get out of here once you've finished your work."

A voice filled with drowsiness appeared beside the instrument. Wang Erqi was startled. Even in this mysterious state, she hadn't noticed the woman's presence before she spoke!

The woman was wearing pajamas, with a coat casually draped over her shoulders. Her clothes were disheveled, as if she had just gotten out of bed, and she still remembered to wear a white face mask.

Wang Erqi looked over in surprise and saw that the woman had one hand in her pocket, her face was expressionless, one eye was blue and the other was made of glass beads, and her short hair, which barely covered her ears, was made of extremely thin data cables. If you looked closely, you could even catch the occasional flash of electric arcs at the ends.

An android?

Wang Erqi had this thought subconsciously, but he dismissed it in the next instant. The woman, whom the bald man called Dr. Li, had scolded him and then found a clean conveyor belt, sat down, and pulled out a bowl of hot and sour noodles from somewhere to start eating.

It's a superpower!

Although he was just an ordinary person, Wang Erqi had witnessed dozens of fights between superpowered individuals in the lower city for so long that he could easily recognize that the woman had just used her superpower.

Having superpowers means you're a cyborg. Although biotechnology has advanced to the point where many cyborgs can be exactly like humans, and even have more "emotions" than humans, for some reason, cyborgs just can't awaken superpowers.

As a result, android technology was collectively resisted by people with superpowers a few years ago, and it is no longer as popular as it once was.

If it's not an android, then it must be a prosthetic body? Wang Erqi glanced at the woman's head buried in her noodles, feeling somewhat envious. A prosthetic body of this level of sophistication would probably cost as much as a building. If she had had one like that back then, she wouldn't have to do such hard labor...

Perhaps influenced by her current strange state, Wang Erqi's thoughts were easily scattered. Just as she was starting to think about what kind of job she could find with a prosthetic hairpiece, a single sentence from the bald man beside her froze all her thoughts:

"Hey Dr. Li, what are you saying? If I didn't have something to do, would I be bothering you? It's just that they've been urging me on the other end, and Brother Kui doesn't want to be delayed, so I came to ask you if we have enough people now?"

"Now?"

Li Yueyuan paused in her slurping of noodles, looked up, roughly wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and frowned as she pondered for a moment: "The current number of workers is still too small, and the spiritual energy collected is not strong enough to create ripples in fate. Unless an irreversible and drastic change in fate occurs, there is no way to summon the remaining fragments of the Holy Grail—"

"A dramatic turn of fate? That's easy, just kill everyone, right? The Holy Grail contains the extraordinary and is also attracted to them. Blood and tormented souls are the best sacrificial materials. As long as we create a large enough spiritual vortex in the spirit world, we can make the remaining fragments 'fall' down, right?"

"Doing so will corrupt the Holy Grail itself, and the 'new god' you create will also be..."

Li Yueyuan's rebuttal was cut short halfway through. The bald man opposite her smiled even wider, his tone flattering but his expression gloating: "Isn't this just perfect? ​​The great Dr. Li! Of course, the divine oil can cleanse the mortal blood from the Holy Grail. With so many corpses, you should be able to refine enough corpse oil, right?"

"Brother Kui just sent me here to get a straight answer: is the accumulated [Fate] ripple enough after sacrificing all the miners?"

"As an introduction to the 'stealing' ritual, that's enough... Didn't we say we'd only borrow a little spirituality—never mind."

Li Yueyuan continued to slurp her noodles, but after a few bites, she stopped, feeling bored. She stirred the noodles with her chopsticks and picked out the peanut crumbs bit by bit, knowing that if she said it wasn't enough, the Gentleman would be able to fool thousands more innocent people the next day.

"Alright, that's enough. I'll report to Brother Kui right away. The ceremony will begin in three days. Please get ready."

Spirituality, ritual, destiny... many unfamiliar words were mixed in the conversation, but Wang Erqi no longer had the energy to pay attention. At this moment, her mind was only replaying the bald man's words, and her teeth were clenching so hard they were clicking.

"Kill them all?"

Tens of thousands of lives, their fates decided so easily with a single sentence? By what right? Who gave you that authority?

More than anger, Wang Erqi's first feeling was absurdity and disbelief. The intertwining of these two complex emotions made the anger that followed even more turbulent.

She was furious, both for others and for herself, but when she was so angry that she forgot everything and threw a heavy punch at the bald man, it only passed right through him. Wang Erqi was stunned, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him, and the spark of his anger was completely extinguished.

A sense of sorrow belatedly welled up inside her: of course they dared, and naturally they could do whatever they wanted, because she had no power to change anything.

Faced with an absolute disparity in strength, anger seems utterly ridiculous.

Then, the force that had guided him here and put him into this wondrous state reappeared, and a familiar question echoed in his ears: "Do you want to take control of your own destiny?"

This time, however, she was no longer dizzy. She quickly realized what was happening, her chest tightened with excitement, and she answered loudly, "Of course!"

"Then, you have two choices."

After she answered, a soft laugh seemed to come from an unknown high place, whether it was approval or sarcasm, it was hard to tell: "First, destruction is imminent, you can leave here now and safely return to the lower city."

Wang Erqi's heart nearly leaped into his throat, and he almost agreed in the next second. To live—what an ordinary yet beautiful word.

But as her gaze swept across the surroundings, past the two people who had so easily decided the fate of tens of thousands of people in their conversation, past the crystal powder that had not yet fallen from the conveyor belt, and past the containers that lurked in the factory like a ferocious monster, Wang Erqi suddenly calmed down and clenched her fingers.

"Then what?"

"And then what?"

"Will they, those arrogant fellows, be punished?"

"If you leave, none of this will concern you anymore."

"If that's the case, it's just moving from a small slaughterhouse to a larger one. What kind of control over one's destiny is that?"

The woman murmured to herself, as if making a decision, and quickly said as if afraid of changing her mind: "I choose the second option! You let me see all this not just to send me away. If there is anything I can do, please feel free to order me around!"

"I will be your most loyal subordinate, my most devout believer, and I will take control of my own destiny!"

As expected of the talent she had secretly observed and selected for a long time, she not only calmed down quickly, but also realized what kind of forces had come into contact with her.

Dealing with intelligent people is always pleasant. Du Yu nodded, standing out of her sight, and cheerfully gave his new follower his first instruction:

"Then you can continue mining tomorrow."

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Author's Note: I happened to be writing Chapter 88, which is exactly the eighth part of the story. What a coincidence!