Mystery: The Undead Don't Die from Linking the Fire

"It's very simple."

Grosser brought out his prepared remarks and said earnestly:

"As long as you believe in other beings, that's fine."

It sounds reasonable at first glance.

The Lord of Silver City killed the Giant King, so the Giants cannot let you leave.

But if Silver City adopts a new faith, then the giants will have no reason to stop you.

It sounds simple, and it's simple to do.

However, these words have completely different meanings when heard by different people.

For ordinary believers, their faith in God is far from steadfast, and it is quite reasonable for them to exchange their faith for a chance to survive.

But for devout believers, this would be seen as an insult to their faith, and they would fight to the death without hesitation.

Which category does Silver City belong to?

They lived in a dark, god-forsaken land, and their faith remained unchanged for thousands of years. Such faith can definitely be called pious!

However, when the exploration team members heard the giant's conditions, they did not show any extreme behavior. In fact, a glimmer of hope reappeared in their eyes. If they could leave simply by changing their faith, why couldn't they agree to it?

Yes, the city of Silver does indeed believe in the Lord, and this has remained unchanged for thousands of years. But this is not because their faith is particularly devout, but simply because they have no other choice!

In the dark land of the forsaken gods, the only god they knew was that ancient sun god!

But for thousands of years, the Lord they believed in had never saved them!

If a new god could save them, most people in Silver City would change their faith without hesitation—like Derrick, like Lovia!

For Derrick, it was the Fool who saved him in his most desperate moment and brought him new hope, so he would only believe in Mr. Fool.

As for Lovia, the 'Ancient Sun God' could not save Silver City, so she chose the True Creator—she did not know if the True Creator was truly an incarnation of the 'Ancient Sun God,' but at least the 'True Creator' would occasionally respond to her prayers.

This alone makes it many times stronger than the 'Ancient Sun God'.

They were like this, and so were everyone else in Silver City, even the Chief—if Colin's faith was truly devout enough, how could he possibly allow heretics like Derrick and Lovia to exist?

He tacitly approved of Derrick and Lovia's belief in other beings, and also approved of some of their outrageous behavior, simply because Colin hoped that the being behind them could save Silver City!

Under the tense yet expectant gazes of the other members of the exploration team, Colin remained silent for two seconds before slowly asking:

"What kind of existence is it?"

The giant with gray-blue skin stared at them with his single, vertical eye and slowly spoke:

"The Fool".

Derrick almost lost his composure. Although he had already guessed, when Grosser uttered the word "Fool," Derrick couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine—no wonder he was called "The Fool."

Colin Iliad calmly turned his gaze to Derrick, who knew the 'Fool'.

Because his ritual to advance to Sequence 3 requires the blessing of a 'god'.

Of course, angels could achieve the same effect. But there were no angels in Silver City, and the god they worshipped never answered their prayers.

Therefore, he could only seek help from other gods.

Of the Silver City, only Derrick and Lovia have established connections with other gods.

Although he was skeptical of the gods they both worshipped, the 'True Creator' that Lovia worshipped was clearly darker and more corrupt, and posed a considerable threat to Silver City.

The being that Derrick believed in even granted Derrick the means of "Singer," which represented light.

Faced with both light and darkness, any normal person would tend to choose the light.

The same goes for Colin.

He chose to pray to the "Fool" that Derrick spoke of during his promotion ceremony, and was even prepared to make a sacrifice for it.

But the 'Fool' did nothing; He simply gave a blessing and then disappeared.

Otherwise, Colin wouldn't have dared to let another elder of the Council of Six, Wheat Hillmont, be promoted to Sequence 3 in the same way.

That's the truth.

The moment he chose "The Fool," he had already decided on the faith of Silver City.

But now, the giant named Grosser also believes in the Fool, and even tells them without hesitation that only by believing in the Fool can they leave the land forsaken by the gods.

This surprised Colin, but it also seemed to make perfect sense.

After all, he had seen Grosser at the afternoon town camp before, and from his subsequent probing of Derrick and Lovia, he learned that Derrick reacted to the names Grosser and Ember, which meant that he actually knew the two outsiders—even though he tried his best to hide it, Derrick was clearly not the kind of person who was good at acting.

Derrick was born and raised in Silver City, and even when he went out to explore, Colin always watched over him personally. The only way he could possibly establish contact with outsiders was through the "Fool".

The reason they knew each other was clearly because they both believed in the "Fool"...

Colin Iliad's mind raced with thoughts. He looked up at the gray-blue-skinned giant and said solemnly:

"We are believers in 'The Fool'."

Grosser paused for a moment, scratched his head, and was completely stumped.

Shouldn't the script flow be that he tells Mr. Fool his name, and then you all recite it along with him?

Seeing Grosser's expression, Colin knew he was suspicious, and immediately recited devoutly in Giant's Tongue:

"A fool who doesn't belong to this era, a mysterious ruler above the gray fog, the king of yellow and black who wields good fortune..."

After reciting the name of the Fool, Colin looked up at Grosser again and asked:

"Can we leave now?"

"Huh? Is that okay?"

Grosser scratched his head. "I don't know!"

Is there something wrong with this script?

"Is there something wrong with this script?"

Above the gray fog, Klein, the "Fool," who sat at the head of the bronze table, had a headache.

Grosser was his follower, so he specifically asked Grosser to perform a prayer when the Silver City exploration team entered the Giant's Court, and then use the corresponding Crimson Star and the 'Scepter of the Sea God' to expand his vision to a certain distance around him so as to watch the 'live broadcast'.

The only problem is that this method of 'observing' by relying on the light of prayer cannot be sustained for long.

This has nothing to do with his own spirituality; it's just that this connection fades on its own and can only last for a quarter of an hour at most.

Of course, in Klein's mind, three-quarters of an hour was actually more than enough.

After all, Klein didn't intend for Grosser and the Silver City exploration team to clash; he only needed to spread his name.

In the original plan, Grosser was supposed to make the demand that "only those who believe in the Fool can leave," and then the people of Silver City would, after a brief internal struggle, choose to compromise and return to Silver City to spread the faith of the "Follower."

But he didn't expect that the chief of Silver City would act unpredictably and directly admit his belief in the "Fool".

This was completely unexpected by Klein, because the only thing he had done for this chief was to offer him a certain 'blessing' during the ceremony when the chief was promoted to Sequence 3 last week, and that was all.

He never expected the other party to believe in him so easily, and he never expected that the other party would so openly admit his "faith" in front of the residents of Silver City who had always believed in the "Sun God"!

Klein could understand the Silver City Chief's eagerness to leave the Forsaken Land, but his actions still disrupted Klein's plans.

Klein did this not because he intentionally wanted to make things difficult for Silver City, but mainly because he had no other choice.

He needs the miracle of leaving the Forsaken Land through the Silver City to become a Sequence 2 angel; in other words, he needs enough anchors!

In fact, regardless of the extraordinary path, the higher the sequence, the more severe the tendency towards madness and inhumanity becomes. This gradually transcends one's own humanity and requires the help of external anchors to maintain sufficient balance.

Normally, this situation is not so obvious at Sequence 4 and Sequence 3, but at the Angel level, even with enough anchors to 'fix', one will occasionally fall into a dark, negative, and mutated state, and must endure and fight it alone, waiting for it to ease.

It's like a sacred and solemn being that usually seems perfectly normal, able to answer your prayers, chat with you normally, and even crack a few jokes. But at times, it can only hide in a dark room, concealed in the shadows, tearing off its outer skin to reveal its sinister side and displaying all sorts of crazy signs!

By Sequence 3, one is considered a deity in a certain sense, capable of responding to prayers within a certain scope, thus requiring a certain anchor. However, since one has not yet reached the level of an angel, the anchor may not be a believer; it can be replaced by other things, such as those distinct, mystical imprints in one's life.

And that's exactly what Klein did. The reason he's still in good mental condition, without a split personality or uncontrollably becoming cold and terrifying, is because the historical imprint of the 'Ancient Scholar' is his anchor.

Just because a Sequence 3 angel can do this doesn't mean a Sequence 2 angel can do the same.

There are no shortcuts for Sequence 2 angels; their "anchor points" must be a sufficient number of believers.

This is why gods need to preach; believers are the anchors of the gods, and a believer is an anchor point. In this respect, there is no essential difference between a nobleman and a commoner; neither is more noble nor more lowly.

In terms of numbers, the seven major orthodox churches each have tens of millions of believers!

Even if we only consider the 'evil gods' worshipped by those secret organizations, their followers number at least in the tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.

To ensure he doesn't lose control during his promotion to Sequence 2, Klein must have enough anchors before he can be promoted.

However, he could not possibly preach extensively in the Northern Continent, firstly because he lacked the ability, and secondly because he lacked the time.

The people of the Northern Continent all know that one cannot casually worship evil gods, especially those that seem to have appeared out of nowhere. To openly develop a following in the Northern Continent would require a great deal of time and effort—and this would necessitate organized and premeditated dissemination of faith.

But Klein lacked the necessary conditions; he was alone and could not carry out large-scale missionary work.

Of course, he could also get other members of the Tarot Society to help spread the word, but that would be putting the cart before the horse.

Not only would this approach not be very effective, but it would also inevitably expose the fact that Miss Justice and her followers believe in the Fool, making it difficult for them to gain a foothold in their original church and faith.

of course.

Klein could also choose another path—that is, to abandon the use of believers as anchors and instead use the "First Flame" as an anchor.

Grosser did just that, so even though he had no followers, he could still smoothly advance to the Sequence 2 angel.

But this path is also not feasible.

Grosser can do this because his limit is Sequence 2, and Ember doesn't expect him to become a god.

Therefore, he was given the greatest possible convenience.

But Klein is different; he is destined to ascend the throne of Sequence 0 and become a god!

However, in order to become a god, none of the traditional steps can be omitted.

And in all of this, using believers as an anchor is undoubtedly crucial.

The question now is whether Klein has enough anchors?

"Is my current 'anchor' sufficient?"

Klein murmured to himself, feeling somewhat uncertain.

In theory, he has quite a few followers—members of the Tarot Club can all be considered his followers. Although their numbers are somewhat small, and most of them are not fanatics, they are at least moderately devout.

In addition, he has three main sources of followers.

The first part consists of those scattered, ignorant young people.

This group of believers originated from the Aurora Society's initial act of spreading the name "Fool".

The Aurora Society's original intention was to find followers of "Fools," but it backfired.

The widespread dissemination of the name "Fool" has led many ignorant young people who seek to be different to choose to pray to "Fool".

Of course, Klein never answered their prayers, so these people could only be considered shallow believers, and it was hard to say how much influence they could have.

The second group consists of followers of the "Sea God" Kavituwa, and this group is the largest.

These believers have always worshipped the so-called "Sea God," but the "Sea God" is now Klein's disguise.

Therefore, these people can also be considered followers of Klein, and to some extent, followers of "The Fool".

The third part originates from the Abraham family.

Mr. Men personally stepped forward to mobilize the entire Abraham family to believe in "The Fool," demonstrating his considerable influence.

So although it has been a short time, the Abraham family members are incredibly devout in their faith in the Fool—while they can't be called fanatics, there are quite a few of them who are truly believers.

The combined number of "believers" in these three groups is at least tens of thousands.

But Klein still felt somewhat uneasy, otherwise he wouldn't have needed to develop Silver City into his followers.

Therefore, Klein was somewhat conflicted when Colin made the request.