Chapter 708: Neo's Suicide (2/4)

Chapter 708: Neo's Suicide (2/4)

Yet looking at the situation, the very force that had intended to corrupt him seemed to have been corrupted by him instead.

Of course, it was not the entirety of the divine corruption; rather, one could think of the divine corruption as a puddle teeming with countless microbes, and this was merely one of them.

Unfortunately, following the age-old rule of the big fish eating the small fish and the small fish eating the shrimp, Karen, at least in its presence, was no shrimp.

Heh...

Karen exerted force in his palm, and the flocculent mass within his hand crumbled and burst apart like an exploding pulp, surprisingly releasing waves of a rich, dense fragrance that left Karen briefly lightheaded.

Buzz!

All perception of his surroundings rushed back, and Karen discovered he was floating with his feet off the ground, while everyone ahead was staring at him in tense anxiety, with Memphis, Richard, and the others almost pressing right up to him.

When Karen opened his eyes, a look of sheer astonishment washed over their faces.

They had initially thought Karen would suffer an accident just like Tolisso had earlier, but they never expected that just as the atmosphere had built to a crescendo, Karen would snap awake.

Neo, Alfred, and Philomena, however, appeared somewhat more composed; they knew Karen's secrets and believed that here, he possessed the highest level of resistance.

"Karen, are you alright now?" Richard asked.

Hmm, why did there seem to be a tinge of disappointment in that tone?

"What happened to me just now?" Karen asked.

"A vast web of purple threads suddenly grew all over your body, looking as if it were going to strangle you alive."

"Oh, it is fine now."

Karen's feet touched the ground, and looking at the stone door that had already been opened ahead, he said, "Let us go in, let us retrieve the divine artifacts quickly."

"Yes, Minister."

"Yes, Minister."

The group began to reform their queue in perfect order and walked through the stone door.

Karen spoke to Philomena, who was walking just ahead of him, asking, "Why didn't you do it just now?"

Philomena replied, "I felt that it probably shouldn't include you, and besides, I felt certain you would pull through."

"What if I had lost control?"

"I would have injected you before you completely lost control."

"Mm."

Neo's figure materialized beside Karen, and he remarked, "Is this thing really a revolver cylinder? Whichever slot the click lands on is the unlucky one?"

"I don't know."

"I really hope it points to you every time from here on, haha. If it points to anyone else, I am afraid they won't even have time to leave any last words."

"Go to the other side, do not stand with me."

Within the volunteer team, those capable of doing anything of consequence in the face of corruption were truly few, and Neo happened to be one of them.

From the perspective of the team's benefit, it was highly inefficient for the few of them to keep clustering together.

"Haha," Neo laughed, raising his middle finger at Karen.

Karen did not get angry, because he knew Neo was provoking the corruption inherent to this place.

This was the result of knowing each other too well; Karen naturally knew what this fellow's underlying purpose for coming in was.

The laboratory, which was the interior of the cavern, was strikingly clean, devoid of any signs of clutter, appearing as though it had just been swept. Furthermore, unlike the multitude of clerical corpses outside that maintained a kneeling posture, there was, astonishingly, not a single corpse inside.

This was clearly abnormal, because according to the records, there should have been several hundred researchers within, predominantly scholars from the Church of Principles.

"Where did everyone go?" Ventura asked inquisitively.

Alfred placed his hand over his eyes, preparing to activate the Eye of the Succubus.

"Alfred."

Karen's voice drifted over, and Alfred understood the underlying meaning, immediately abandoning the gesture.

Earlier outside, even spiritual power could be traced and followed by the corruption; here of all places, you actually dare to look straight at them?

Was it really so strange that those clerical corpses weren't here? Perhaps they were right here.

The crowd arrived beneath the altar, which was not shut down but was instead revolving slowly, as if it had entered a state of semi-dormancy.

Above, the chessboard of the God of Infatuation still floated, and in the center, two divine artifact notebooks belonging to the Church of Principles were also hovering.

The four experts—Quito, Marina, Anlans, and Nicole—began preparing to shut down the altar while simultaneously retrieving the divine artifacts. In accordance with their training, they began requesting the cooperation of the other volunteers in order to complete the task with the utmost speed.

Everyone began to busily occupy themselves, and though the sounds of mechanical adjustments and array deployments echoed, the surroundings remained incredibly quiet, so quiet that one could hear the breathing of the people nearby.

Karen did not involve himself but instead stood at the absolute periphery, placing himself in the loneliest position. This was firstly to oversee the entire situation, and secondly to deliberately plant a target; generally, when a collective danger descended, the one furthest from the team and left isolated was always the most susceptible to being the first victim.

Ordinary corruption might be of a single strain, whereas divine corruption could be understood as a conglomeration of numerous corruptions, harboring many subordinate viral strains that could blend with one another to produce new mutations.

Karen guessed that the ones outside, the ones in the tunnel, and the one here likely belonged to different zones.

If possible, he hoped that before anyone else fell, any single-target corruption attack would come at him first.

There were two other individuals who were not engaged in the physical labor. One was Neo, who floated up to stand above the four experts, taking responsibility for their safety, as these four babies were of paramount importance.

Without them, not only would they have been unable to enter, but during the retrieval of the divine artifacts, they might have been attacked by the altar and the sculptures surrounding it. Those sculptures were clearly top-grade holy artifacts at a glance, but unfortunately, there was no way to carry them out, nor did anyone dare touch them recklessly.

The other was Philomena, who drifted swiftly among everyone, observing the changes in each person while holding an injection in her hand, a substance capable of putting a demonic beast to sleep instantly.

Alfred, Vic, and the others led the rest in performing auxiliary tasks.

Peace... peace... peace... for a long stretch of time following this, no abnormalities occurred.

"It has stopped."

The tense emotions were finally alleviated the moment Quito uttered these words, because the altar that had been revolving had finally come to a standstill at this very moment.

Anlans and Nicole each began preparing the next phase of the reception array, getting ready to take back the two divine artifact notebooks belonging to their own church.

Quito and Marina subconsciously looked toward the very top at the chessboard of the God of Infatuation, which was a divine artifact belonging to the Church of Order. Their eyes met, and it was evident they wished to take it away as well.

Although the objective of the mission was to remove the two notebooks of the Church of Principles because they possessed the ability to deconstruct seals, meaning the sealing of the corruption here could never be secure as long as they remained inside;

Nevertheless, if they could carry this chessboard out as well, it would be a monumental achievement, rescuing a divine artifact for their church.

Neo, positioned above, naturally noticed the shift in expression of the two experts below. He had once compared the Divine Son to a child in a kindergarten, and in truth, these four young experts were much the same, having never experienced the wind and rain of the outside world and having lived continuously within an incubator. Their self-righteous schemes were like the cleavage squeezed out by a flat-chested woman—it could only deceive oneself.

Huh?

Why would I use such a metaphor?

In matters of affection, Neo was entirely devoted, which was why he could even mock Karen for his brief lapse of focus on Dark Moon Island.

It was impossible for him to harbor such ribald jokes in the depths of his heart; he might utter them aloud, but he would never think them.

"Haha..."

Neo let out a laugh. It turned out that he was currently being corrupted.

But why was it being so cautious?

Could it not let the storm rage a little more fiercely?

"If you're going to slowly taint me this way, how long will it take, and should I resist or not?"

Neo dug at his ear with his pinky finger, thoroughly dissatisfied; the most ideal approach would have been like Tolisso's—no nonsense, just rip out one's own heart...

No, wait, with his current Bloodthirsty Aberrant bloodline level, ripping out his heart and taking a bite to swallow it probably wouldn't even kill him?

Damn it, this cursed immortal physique!

Alfred was helping to arrange the reception array, and then pointedly walked over to Malina and Queto, speaking up:

"Though you may have received other orders, or perhaps you harbor other ideas, please keep your wits about you. Let us not touch that artifact at the very top. In an unknown, perilous environment, greed will only breed greater risk."

In fact, Karen had also received hints from above regarding this matter; if convenient, any artifact belonging to Order should be brought out if possible.

Alfred knew of this too, but he had absolutely no thoughts on the matter, and neither did his young master.

Because even if such a thing were brought out, under the public eye, it would have nothing to do with you, and you couldn't pocket it anyway; moreover, an artifact tainted by divine pollution was something probably only an orthodox church had the capacity to handle and purify;

To those higher-ups, not many of this group would come out alive anyway, so since they were all going to die, they might as well make as much of a contribution as possible before they did.

But now... Tolisso's death and the encroachment his young master suffered midway both proved that the wickedness of this place surpassed imagination, so it was better not to do anything superfluous.

"But..." Malina bit her lip, clearly wanting to argue a few words.

Alfred, however, continued in a frigid tone: "If you dare to break the rules and do anything extra, you will stay here forever."

Malina was frightened; she could sense the absolute resolve in his voice.

Queto immediately chimed in: "We will obey orders."

Alfred nodded and said, "Of course, this is indeed your wisest choice, because none of you can defy the will of the great young master. The young master's brilliance is the only dawn bestowed upon this dark world!!"

Philomena appeared behind Alfred, plunging the injector into him.

Alfred threw his head back, his body beginning to convulse, yet he did not collapse; instead, his eyes flared with red, and the eyes of the succubus were activating.

In truth, the moment they entered the sealed land, the pollution had already begun.

Tolisso was an anomaly who had simply exploded on the spot, but everyone else had long ceased to be clean.

What Karen had not expected, however, was that Alfred would be ranked so high in the queue.

Karen appeared before Alfred, staring directly into those succubus eyes of his.

An Alfred who possessed the heritage of Compasini, once out of control, would bring immense negative consequences to the entire team with his abilities; he was capable of weaving illusions one after another, interfering with everyone's rational thought.

"Alfred."

Alfred opened his mouth, letting out a single syllable:

"Sultry!"

It was hard for outsiders to imagine what kind of struggle Alfred's inner mind was enduring, but Karen's appearance nonetheless allowed him to temporarily snap back to lucidity.

The succubus eyes receded, and the effects of the injection manifested; after Alfred uttered that syllable, his body fell backward, and Philomena caught him, laying him upon the ground while helping to stimulate the white cloak emblem on his palm, causing a milky-white luster to surface over him.

This act was actually somewhat irresponsible, for a sedative could not resolve the individual's own problem, only the problem of what trouble you might bring to those around you.