Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 278 Church Patrol (5k)

"High Deacon" Hubert has completely grasped the specific situation of "Bishop of the Dead" Passaro.

At this time, Passaro was on the verge of his limit. In the confrontation with the "Death and Birth God's Heir", Passaro was at the end of his rope.

The "Death-Birth God" has begun to absorb his power, continuously transforming his death spirit into its own nutrients, and this process has just begun.

In other words, now is the time when the "Bishop of the Dead" Passaro and the "Heir of the Dead God" are both at their weakest! And this opportunity will only last for two days. If you want to completely eliminate their troubles, you must act within two days!

Luo Xiu had a look of deep thought on his face, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest, "tap, tap". This had become his habitual action when thinking.

Luo Xiu has been preparing for this upcoming battle for a long time.

He knew that "Executioner" Koros and "Hidden Elder" Baberon would definitely not let go of this opportunity easily.

Since the "Bishop of the Dead" Passaro is bound to die, Koros and Baberon will definitely take advantage of Passaro's death to make a big move - they will not miss this opportunity either.

In their understanding, there is only one "saint" in Red Maple City, Hubert, and Hubert will definitely participate in the operation of purifying the "Death Birth God Heir". They will definitely want to take this opportunity to kill him.

For this reason, his true strength, which has been hidden until now and has been promoted to a saint of the "Fifth Fate", will only truly erupt when Koros appears!
Luo Xiu thought about these things with deep eyes. He went over the plan in his mind again and then focused his attention on the "players" again.

These "adventurers" did not know at this time that they had become part of Luo Xiu's plan.

At that time, due to the appearance of the "Death Birth God Heir", all players in Red Maple City will receive limited-time tasks issued by the "Apocalypse World" itself. Their attention will be attracted, and they will naturally join in this sudden action.

Although their current strength is still very weak, with the characteristic of "immortality", they can give Koros' army a big blow... and before other forces in Red Maple City noticed the characteristics of the "Adventers", Luo Xiu believed that he had already seized the initiative.

After the crisis of "Death Birth of the God" is resolved, players should have a clear understanding of the strength comparison of the various forces in Red Maple City. At that time, they will make a decision that is more in line with their interests when they decide to join the church, the border court, the square monument courtyard or even the black army.

Because it was a deleted file test, Luo Xiu was not going to train the players to become the real "Fourth Calamity" right away. He wanted the players to understand the "real situation" and make a preemptive evaluation of all the forces involved, so that the church would be in a preferred position to join the forces in the minds of the players. This was Luo Xiu's most fundamental purpose.

……

Outside Hongfeng City, there is a dark military camp.

The "Executioner" Koros was in the tent in the center of the camp at this time, looking at the map on the table in front of him with a gloomy look.

That was a map of the Red Maple City. After leading the Black Fangs and the Fang Chiefs to invade the city and encountering failure, they temporarily stopped and began to plan the next invasion.

This map is a summary of the previous failure. It has three circles drawn in eye-catching red ink, and a big cross drawn on a block near the edge.

The three red circles marked the side courts, churches and square monuments of Red Maple City. The crosses corresponded to Gusta Street, where the "Dead Bishop" Passaro hid.

"Passaro won't last much longer, Baberon."

Koros was still looking at the map, but his mouth opened slightly and he uttered a sharp and cold voice:

"Because the last operation failed, and the extraordinary people in the three major bases of Red Maple City completely blocked Gusta Street, Passaro was unable to usurp enough deaths in such a short time."

"According to our previous prediction, the time for the 'Deathborn God' to completely drain Passaro's vitality will be around in the next two days."

"..."

"What do you want to do now?" An old voice, as calm as dead water, came from the opposite side of Kolos.

The "Hidden Elder" Baberon was looking at Koros with a smile.

"Heh... you know, Baberon." Koros said, "This is a rare opportunity."

"As long as the 'Death-born Heir of God' comes to the world, even if He is incomplete, He is still the true Heir of God."

"Now, there is only one saint in Red Maple City—the 'Holy Deacon' Hubert, who will personally carry out the purification of the Heir of the Birth of the Dead. When the time comes, we will..."

"Do you think Red Maple City is unprepared? Or has the lesson from the last failure not yet alerted you?" Baberon interrupted him.

"Red Maple City is under full martial law now. Your minions are almost wiped out. I don't think it's a good time to break in there again."

"Because you can't just send people to invade the city as you did in the past. With just you and the few Black Fangs and Fangsheads you have left, as long as the extraordinary people from the Border Court, the Church, and the Square Monument Court unite, you won't be able to gain any advantage from all of them."

"Besides, the 'Deathborn God' will not consider you as a teammate. Once He comes to the world, He will kill everyone equally, devour the vitality of all visible creatures, and transform them into new undead. And you, Koros, I think your life will be the favorite food of the 'Deathborn God'."

"..."

"Intrusion? No, no, Baberon. You misunderstood me..."

A wicked smile appeared on Koros' face.

"I won't go any deeper into that city, Baberon."

"To be honest, although I am a believer of Ku Tu, as a 'shadow military strategist', I simply cannot exert my full strength in such an occasion."

"The reason why I entered the city without any scruples last time was because there were no 'Saints' there at all - I could completely crush them without having to consider what I was really good at, just like a person would not consider what tactics to use to kill an ant."

"But this time it's war, Baberon, it's war."

After a pause, he raised a finger and shook it, then said:
"It's not like we haven't taken any action in the past ten days."

"The main force of the principality has already headed to the border. Have you forgotten, Baberon? Behind us, there is an army that can block out the sun and the sky..."

"And the Grand Duke also granted me the power to command them. I have already asked the executioner who replaced Afatak to lead an army of 100,000 here."

"They will arrive this afternoon. And tomorrow... when all the high-ranking transcendents in the city have their attention drawn to the 'Death-Birth God', it will be our time to attack the city."

"Help me again, Baberon. Let your puppets blow down their walls and isolate them completely. The God of War will favor me, and I will definitely win this time."

……

After listening to the speech of the church high priest, Thomas, led by the church clergy, went to the "missionary station" to receive new clothes and relief money.

——Five silver coins! Compared to when he was penniless when he first "came", Thomas felt that he was now rich enough to rival a country.

Resisting the urge to consume them on the spot, Thomas then changed into new clothes and compared his attributes before and after.

In Thomas's panel, the [Well-made Civilian Robe] has 1 more "Constitution" and 1 more "Resistance" attribute additions compared to the original [Worn Refugee Coat]! This is a qualitative leap!

The happiness of RPG players is so simple... Thomas thought excitedly in his heart, and then he found another clergyman with "one destiny" who was wearing mission clothes and expressed his desire to take the job.

"The chief officer did instruct us to help you arrange work."

The clergyman who was entangled by Thomas showed a helpless expression on his face and said, "But you can see that there are too many people now... Don't you foreign refugees know how to queue up? Queue up!"

The priest pointed to Thomas' side and saw that those who were queuing up obediently were indeed the original citizens of Red Maple City, while the "refugees" from outside were all clamoring and eager to squeeze to the front.

Queue? You expect us players to queue? Thomas felt like laughing for some reason.

If they hadn't been without weapons, there might have been players who started killing... But, seriously, the church's defense is really good, and the clergy are guarding all crowded places with almost no blind spots. They are really well-trained... Thomas thought.

Seeing that the clergyman he had entangled seemed unable to help him assign "work", Thomas let him go and headed in another direction.

Soon, the players suddenly rushed in another direction.

Someone posted a message in the chat channel, saying that the "chief" of the mission, Maiyev, had sent people to set up more than 20 new reception points, which were specially set up for the "refugees".

Because the review of refugees is more complicated than that of regular citizens, and the "refugees" seem to have some rough habits. The "chief" Mayyev seemed to have discovered this, so he separated the points to improve the efficiency of review and allocation.

...It's so real. I've never seen an NPC who can make such a temporary decision in other games...If it were any other game, they would have already done some preparations because of our special status as "players"...Thomas thought about this divergently.

This "non-specialness" made Thomas feel real and novel. It was like experiencing another life, which made him feel more involved in "God's Destiny".

After separating the "refugees", Thomas got ahead of most of the players and occupied a relatively front position in the queue at the reception point.

However, when there were players all around, most of the players started to queue up obediently because they knew they were facing "real people" rather than NPCs.

While waiting, Thomas suddenly heard someone calling him.

"Hey, Thomas?" It was a clear female voice.

Thomas turned around and found that right behind him was a girl with delicate features and short hair.

The moment he turned around, Thomas performed a panel detection on her.

[Frost Moon 123 (lv.1, Adventer)], the panel shows the following result.

"Are you Shuangyue?" Thomas asked subconsciously, "Are you the Shuangyue from 'Shuangyue Hantian'?"

id.Shuangyue123, if I’m not mistaken, this is an old acquaintance.

That was a friend Thomas met while playing another online game called "Star Train".

Her ID in Star Train is "Frost Moon Cold Sky". Unlike Thomas, Frost Moon is a player who likes to delve into the gameplay, and the main game categories she is involved in are turn-based, card, 4X management, etc. She enjoys the fun of seeking novel experiences in the gameplay, rather than the game experience itself.

"It's me, hehe."

Shimotsuki smiled and said, "Your ID is 'Thomas the Tank Engine'. It's so iconic. I can tell it's you! Are you here too?"

"I was playing Mount & Blade III when I suddenly came here..."

Thomas spread his hands and asked casually, "By the way, why do you call yourself this ID?"

"There's nothing I can do about it. Since 'Frost Moon Cold Sky' is already occupied by someone else, I'll just call it 'Frost Moon 123'. It's just a deleted file test anyway."

"When the official public beta begins, I will quickly register the ID 'Shuangyue' and I won't miss it again!"

"Hehe, you said you were just hacking and hacking? I was playing Civilization X, and then I suddenly came here... Well, that's not important!"

"..."

Shuangyue said a lot in one go, her face glowing with excitement, as if she was happy to have met a friend by chance in another game.

After saying this, Shimotsuki casually asked Thomas, "Well, what do you think of this game?"

"It's very real." Thomas nodded, "I've never experienced such a realistic game."

"Yeah, I think so too. When I first came here, I was shocked."

Shimotsuki seemed to be thinking about something, and then asked, "The extraordinary setting of this game is [Destiny], which is really similar to "Star Train"! So, have you decided which destiny to choose?"

"I should choose Glory," Thomas said. "From the existing plot, I think the Glory Church in Red Maple City seems to be the most influential, important, and powerful."

"Hmm... the strongest...?" Shimotsuki thought for a moment, "But I don't like fighting. I heard that joining the church requires obeying some troublesome rules..."

"When I came here, I heard from another priest that this city has three major destinies, [Supreme], [Glorious], and [Wisdom]... I want to join [Wisdom]! It is said that their two professions, 'Alchemist' and 'Rune Warlock', are both professions that require in-depth study. I feel that the latter would be more suitable for me..."

"You want to join Wisdom?" Thomas thought for a moment and said casually, "I heard from the clergyman who brought me here that there seems to be a dwarf's manor not far from the church. He is the rune forger of Wisdom and an ally of the church."

"Well, maybe you can ask about the job of 'Forger Apprentice' when you receive the job later?"

"Hmm? There is such a thing?" Shimotsuki's eyes sparkled and she said, "Okay! I'll ask later."

Thomas and Shimotsuki were chatting, and the players in front of them seemed to have completed the formalities and received their work, and it was Thomas' turn.

Thomas and Shuangyue then parted ways temporarily and sat down in front of the clergyman opposite them.

"What's your name?" The priest asked Thomas without looking up as he grabbed a new page of paper.

"Thomas the Tank Engine."

"...Thomas the Tank Engine? You foreigners all have such weird names."

The clergyman muttered, "Just now there was a guy named Zhao Ritian... Never mind."

"Gender? Uh, male?" The priest raised his head and asked quietly.

...Why is he looking at me with such suspicion? Thomas was a little terrified by the clergyman opposite him, so he had to force a smile and replied:
"male."

“…That’s normal.”

The clergyman lowered his head again, writing something while speaking in a weak voice:
"Just now, a burly man with a face full of stubble and arms thicker than my waist actually told me, 'I'm a cute girl'... Do you foreigners have such a strange habit?"

"..." Thomas held his forehead with his hand. He suddenly felt inexplicably ashamed of his identity as a "player".

But the clergyman on the other side did not delve into this question any further, and just continued to ask:

"Where are you from?"

Where am I from? Well, the previous plot didn't tell me... I'm from Earth? Thomas thought about it and answered honestly, "I don't know."

He also didn't know whether such an answer would pass muster with the clergy.

"You don't know? Well... judging from your previous attire, you must be someone from the border."

The priest raised his head, glanced at Thomas calmly, and asked, "Well, you just need to tell me that you are not from the 'Dark Principality', right?"

As if an invisible force was enveloping him, Thomas vaguely felt that the clergyman opposite him seemed to be emitting some kind of pressure, and under this pressure, his lies might be immediately seen through.

"No." Thomas shook his head.

"That's fine." The priest nodded, and then he put away the feeling of oppression, making Thomas feel suddenly lighter both physically and mentally.

"It's OK." The priest said, "Although you can't remember where you came from, it's OK. According to the instructions of the high priest, that lord asked me to be lenient with you."

"According to the rules of the Holy Court, those who do not work shall not eat. We will indeed protect your safety, but after that, you still have to support yourself with your own hands."

The clergyman said to Thomas:
"So, what kind of job do you want? You can become a civilian member of the Holy Inquisition and assist the Holy Inquisitor in patrolling as a Church Patrolman. You can also become a builder and help Red Maple City rebuild the damaged buildings. Alternatively, we can introduce you to the Authentic Dwarf Blacksmith Shop and let you become a forger apprentice..."

The clergyman fluently listed a dozen possible jobs. After listening, Thomas answered firmly:

"I want to be a 'church patrol'."

……

(End of this chapter)