This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 233 Malignant Infectious Diseases
Half an hour later, Nie Weiyang and Russell returned to their original positions.

Nie Weiyang glanced at the fogged area on the map and silently stared at Russell.

Russell: "..."

"...Sorry. I got carried away singing and accidentally activated the surrounding vegetation." Russell scratched his head frantically. "Now that the terrain has changed, the map refresh is definitely my fault..."

"It's okay... I'll be more careful next time." Nie Weiyang rubbed his brow again.

Han Jiangxue, a cold-blooded, emotionless performance-driven individual. Yi Jian, a master of social interaction, charming everyone. Now, there's Russell, with diverse interests, unpredictable depths of cunning, and a natural affinity for different environments—he's reshaped the landscape of the game without warning…

Xu Fu is probably the only one in the team who is easy to manage, but Xu Fu can only be considered an outsider at the moment.

Amazing! They've recruited a team of highly skilled but problematic individuals.

Russell was frantically searching for ways to solve the problems of the natural environment, while Nie Weiyang observed his methods and assessed the activity of the natural environment.

In his view, the fact that the song of a natural caller could cause such a huge change in the surrounding environment indicates that the 'cycle of life and death' has officially shown signs of awakening, much earlier than the previous cycle.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that... the cycle of life and death that had already awakened in the previous cycle is replacing the one that hasn't yet awakened in this cycle.

It's a good thing that the authorities contacted Russell ahead of time. At least with Russell around, they can have a clearer understanding of changes in nature.

However, before that, he needs to communicate more with Russell and fully understand his current psychological state so that he can make reasonable arrangements in future battles.

“Russell,” Nie Weiyang sighed, “in your opinion, what is the purpose of human life?”

"..." Russell pondered for a moment, his expression turning serious: "For the sake of taking a dump."

Nie Weiyang was taken aback: "?"

"I said, it's for pooping. You see, although feces may seem lowly, it's actually an important part of the natural cycle, and digestion, defecation, and gut microbiota health are closely related to human survival..."

"Stop." Nie Weiyang held up a finger.

Russell remained silent.

After returning to Pingdu, Nie Weiyang and Russell temporarily parted ways at the entrance of the research institute.

Russell needed to register at the institute and handle some personal matters elsewhere, while Nie Weiyang went straight to a conference room deep inside the institute.

Pushing open the conference room door, I found it already packed with people. Besides a few familiar faces—military representatives and security officials—there were many scholars from various fields: linguists, sociologists, historians, and so on.

A focused and solemn atmosphere filled the air as handwritten document images and strange symbols were scrolling across the holographic projection.

Those were handwritten documents from Pingdu, a once-civilized city.

Upon seeing Nie Weiyang enter, the group simply nodded in acknowledgment without interrupting their discussion.

Nie Weiyang found an empty seat and sat down quietly to listen.

"...Progress is slower than expected."

An elderly scholar with gray hair rubbed his temples.

"The common language of pre-civilizations does indeed share a highly similar basic grammatical structure with Earth's civilizations; it could even be considered the 'culmination' of Earth's languages, with clear logic, a rigorous system, and rich emotion. However, the problem lies in the fundamental logic of semantic and emotional expression."

A sociologist chimed in: "Just like how the same word 'love' can carry completely different cultural backgrounds, social contracts, and even physiological feelings in people's lives. We are trying to fit our cultural framework into the soul of their language, which will inevitably lead to huge discrepancies."

“Therefore, I believe that simple textual translation is not enough.” Another younger scholar pointed to a string of symbols on the projector. “We need to understand why they developed such expressive habits. This requires considering their history and their living environment…”

At this moment, an officer in charge of intelligence integration saw Nie Weiyang and said, "Mr. Nie, you've come at the right time."

“We are sorting through information extracted from several pre-civilization sites, some of which may be related to ‘crime traffickers’.”

Nie Weiyang sat up straight: "Please speak."

A middle-aged scholar manipulated the control panel, and several enhanced text fragments appeared on the holographic projection. The text was unfamiliar to others, but its meaning was clearly visible to Nie Weiyang.

Then, the text was moved aside, and several images appeared...

Nie Weiyang's gaze sharpened.

The imagery is simple, depicting blurry human figures engaged in some kind of transaction. Symbols related to scales, hearts, chains, and gold appear repeatedly.

"The parts we can barely decipher so far contain these three concepts repeatedly—" The scholar took a deep breath and clearly read out the preliminary translation results:
“'The Golden Oracle,' 'The Golden Angel's Gospel,' and... 'The Scepter of the Sin Dealer.'”

There was silence in the conference room for a moment.

Nie Weiyang's brows were tightly furrowed.

Golden God? Golden Angel? Sin Carrier? These three words appear side by side?

And it sounds like 'crime traffickers' have some direct connection to the former two? Or even... originate from the former?
"Do you have more context?" Nie Weiyang's voice was as steady as ever.

The scholar shook his head: "The documents are severely damaged, mostly incomplete pieces."

"Moreover, our research on the languages ​​of pre-civilizations has been slow, and at present we can only decipher these fixed phrase combinations. The contexts in which they appear all seem to point to a kind of granted 'qualification' or 'power'."

"It is as if the act of 'selling evil' was not considered evil in a certain period of pre-civilization or by a certain group, but rather a blessing obtained after being recognized by a higher being."

This speculation made everyone present feel uneasy.

If 'sin trafficking'—trading souls, organs, emotions, bodies, and even humanity itself—was a legitimate right in the eyes of at least some pre-civilization period, and was even associated with terms like 'Golden God' and 'Golden Angel'—terms that sound extremely oppressive and religious, but are actually extraterrestrial beings…

What kind of distorted cultural heritage are they facing?
Do modern-day criminals who have inherited this power realize the true source of their authority, or do they simply view it as a neutral 'profession'?
Nie Weiyang fell into deep thought.

Last week, people's understanding of criminal traffickers was mostly limited to their behavior and harm, without delving into the root of their power. After all, the pressure to survive was immense at the time, and there was often no time to get to the bottom of things.

In this life, thanks to the government's early efforts and improved information gathering, they are uncovering some deeper and more terrifying truths.

And he... of course, can help.

“I didn’t expect your research on pre-civilization languages ​​to be going poorly, I’m sorry,” Nie Weiyang said. “I will write a dictionary when I have time.”

(End of this chapter)