Life Dungeon Game

Vili lowered her head and quickly began operating the screen.

Lines of filenames appeared before the blonde girl, and countless already sorted documents unfolded in her field of vision.

A slight noise came from the running machinery, echoing in the quiet machine room.

Time passed second by second, and Lena stood beside the girl, protecting her safety.

After an unknown amount of time—perhaps an hour, or perhaps two—the girl finally stopped.

She remained silent and slowly straightened up.

"How about it?"

Lena looked at her.

"This place contains all the materials of the Eternal Esoteric Buddhism,"

Bathed in the light of the flowing machinery, the girl slowly began to speak, "Including how they lured people into sacrifices..."

How to maintain the organization's operation also includes the names of the heads of all their outposts in the thirty-seven cities of the entire Federation, as well as information on the outposts.

"Thirty-seven cities? Does the Eternal Esoteric Sect cover such a wide area?"

Lena opened her mouth subconsciously, "The Federation only has a little over a hundred cities in total, and this is already more than a quarter of the Federation's territory. They've only been developing for a little over twenty years?"

She suddenly understood why the Eternal Secret Sect was so ridiculously powerful.

"The theories they promote are indeed somewhat persuasive, and their organizational structure is quite advanced, but more importantly,"

"Rockwell Energy Group helped with this," Vivi whispered.

She raised her hand and tapped on a map. "Most of the cities where the Eternal Cult exists are coastal cities in the northwest and some cities in the southwest. These cities have more or less the shadow of the Rockwell Energy Group, and many of them are mining cities."

"The Eternal Cult helped Rockwell Energy Group control the local populace and provided Rockwell Energy Group with blessed pendants made by the Eternal God. These pendants could guarantee the safety of sailors in stormy seas to a certain extent, but the mortality rate was still very high. However, this was enough for Rockwell Energy Group to force mining ships to leave safe waters and enter stormy seas for mining."

"However, due to the strict organizational structure of the Eternal Secret Sect, these things were all done in secret and were not exposed."

"No wonder the Rockwell Energy Group and the Eternal Cult have such a solid partnership,"

Lena sighed softly, "So it was Vincent of United Industries who was kept in the dark, and his death was indeed not unjust."

"yes,"

Veri's gaze fell on the screen in front of her. "There's also a lot of inside information about the cooperation between United Industries, Eternal Cult, and Rockwell Energy Group."

"Almost all the materials from the establishment of the Eternal Esoteric School are here."

"So much data? Endil hid all the information here?"

Lena was taken aback. "But that makes sense. He has absolute confidence in his abilities. If he wins, no one will be able to get in here. If he loses, there's no point in protecting this information."

"Ah."

Vera nodded slightly and reached out to open a document on the homepage.

This document details the entire process of the Eternal Cult's assassination of 'Schon'.

The incident began when Scone discovered that Endil had taken the paintings from the library and that Endil had secretly established the Eternal Cult. He then had a big argument with his friend and threatened him to stop this crazy behavior or he would release all the information to the public and send his friend to prison.

So a few days after this argument, Endil sent Skorn to his death.

The document is written in a very simple and straightforward style, and it only has one page of content. It is placed separately from other documents and materials.

It's as if the person who wrote this document deliberately placed it in a prominent place, for themselves and for future generations to see.

Vera raised her hand and closed the document.

But all of that is now in the past.

“Villie,”

Lena, who was standing behind her, suddenly spoke, raising her bracelet and looking at the girl.

"Just now, people from Rock City took control of the city council, and the council..."

"The remaining council members are all members of the Eternal Cult, including the speaker, who was killed in the resistance. Previous reports also indicated that the heads of the various regions had mostly perished in the incident."

She opened her mouth and said slowly, "Those who were originally loyal to United Industries have all been killed, and the members of the Eternal Cult are either dead or arrested. The city government is now probably completely paralyzed."

Hearing this, Veri was also stunned. She tentatively asked, "Aren't there any centrists?"

"According to intelligence, the centrists were already eliminated by United Industries and Eternal Cult long ago."

Lena was also somewhat bewildered.

"According to the Winter City Constitution,"

At this moment, Veri suddenly remembered something, "In this situation, we need to hold an interim mayoral election immediately, then form a cabinet to restart the government and continue Endil's term which is not yet over. Our friends in Rock City can't stay here to help us maintain order forever."

"But in the mayoral election, who do we choose to elect the mayor?"

Lena was also taken aback.

“I’ll be eighteen the day after tomorrow. My status should be enough to garner some votes, but Winter’s law states that you must be a Winter resident for at least thirty years to run for mayor.”

Veri's mind raced. She looked at Lena and said, "So we need to find someone from Winter City who is at least thirty years old."

"I'm twenty-nine,"

Lena quickly added, "Besides, I'm not competitive at all, and I don't want to go into politics. I have too many scandals on my record. If Rockwell Energy Group digs anything up, it will be a negative point for me."

"Then where do we find suitable mayoral candidates?"

Vera looked somewhat bewildered. "And this candidate also has to be aligned with us and not deviate from our plans."

"If it were little Ilo, who would he choose?"

Lena murmured, "Could this guy have made some arrangements as well? Where are there any reclusive old men, and why does Ilo know them? Wait a minute,"

She looked at Vili and said, "Isn't your uncle who runs a crematorium just a reclusive old man?"

"It's a funeral home,"

Vera corrected him in a low voice, then paused.

"Uncle Jeko, he was one of the four back then. If he runs for mayor, he should be able to win. I can run with him and increase my own exposure."

"But I don't know if I can convince him, since he has completely given up on these things since my father died."

"Although he seems easy to talk to, he is actually very stubborn."

"Give it a try,"

Lena looked up at her. "Now that the internet is back up, give him a call."

-

Old Jieke Funeral Home

The howling cold wind blew against the icy glass door, and the drifting snowflakes fell on the narrow corridor in front of the glass door.

Milk tea was boiling on an electric heater, and an old speech was playing on a bright television.

The old man lay on the swaying bamboo chair, his eyes slightly closed, as if he were taking a nap.

Outside the window, there seemed to be the whistling of gunfire, chaotic shouts, and faint, intermittent sounds of explosions.

But none of this seemed to affect the silence in this simple funeral home.

The spacious bamboo chair swayed gently, as if this tranquility would extend into the eternal future, until death.

Death.

Bang bang bang—

A crisp knock came slowly from the closed glass door, breaking the warm silence.

The old man slowly opened his eyes, sat up from the bamboo chair, picked up the coat next to him, put it on, and walked to the door.

"Is this Mr. Jeko?"

A woman who looked like a single mother came into his view. She stood in front of the door, looked at Jack who opened the door, and handed him an envelope. "Here is a letter for you."

"letter?"

The old man took the envelope with some doubt.

There were no words on the envelope, so it was unknown who it came from.

When the old man looked up again, the woman who delivered the letter had already disappeared into the snowstorm.

The old man slowly raised his hand and opened the envelope.

Inside the envelope was a postcard that appeared to be digitally hand-drawn and then printed.

In this postcard, a candle is placed in the center of the table.

In the most prominent position by candlelight, young Scorn was giving a speech, while in the shadows of the candlelight, equally young Endil was refuting him, and Vincent sat in the shadows between the two.

The equally young man sat away from the three others, the faint candlelight casting shadows on his cheeks and his rough hands as he took notes.

It seemed to be the same as the painting he had seen before, yet it also seemed different.

He slowly turned the postcard over and looked at the back of it.

A line of somewhat childish handwriting was written on the back of the pristine white postcard.

We may not be on the right path, but our flame can still illuminate the next person.

He turned the postcard over and looked at the candle flame in the very center of it.

Just then, his bracelet vibrated, and he raised his hand to answer the call.

"Uncle Jeko, are you there?"

A young girl's innocent greeting came from the other end, and then, without waiting for the old man's response, she quickly explained everything.

Finally, she said cautiously, "Uncle Jeko, we hope you can run for mayor."

The quiet hall fell into an eerie silence once again, with only the faint bubbling sound of the boiling milk tea remaining.

Bright lights shone on the old man's mottled face.

He looked up at the television that was playing Endir's speech, and reached out to turn it off.

Soft breathing could be heard from the other end of the phone, as if the girl was about to tentatively repeat her question.

Just then, the old man slowly spoke, "I'm too old to get involved in these things anymore."