I write obituaries for the gods

After navigating through the winding employee passageway, Lin Chen stood before a black door.

The door is completely out of place with its surroundings, like a sticker that has been forcibly pasted on, with almost no thickness.

Lin Chen recognized the thing: Isn't this the kind of door-opening technology similar to "The Republic"?

It seems that the Church of Mentis held back some secrets when working for the Foundation.

Lin Chen pushed open the door and walked in confidently.

He walked into a place filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers.

What comes into view is a small garden where various plants grow wildly, without any care or maintenance.

A huge whale skeleton is suspended among towering trees, with its ribs hanging down to form a colonnade-like structure.

Between those ribs, figures clad in red robes stood.

Is this... a warp ruin?

Lin Chen glanced at the depth gauge on his wrist: the parameters showed D-0.45.

A very shallow subspace ruin.

Then, a whisper came from the end of the woods:

“Baba Yaga, come and seek the answer.”

“I’m here to seek payment,” Lin Chen said.

"Come closer, let me see you..."

Suddenly, the worshippers raised torches, resembling statues on either side of an ancient altar, creating an eerie and sinister atmosphere.

If Lin Chen hadn't seen them being run over and scattered in the Ideal Country, he might have been genuinely intimidated.

Lin Chen walked forward confidently, passing through the cultists, and made his way to the end of the woods.

This is the head of the whale skeleton. A small swing hangs down from the whale's skull, suspended in front of Lin Chen.

On that small swing sat a tiny figure draped in a red robe.

Seeing Lin Chen walking towards him, the little thing pulled down its hood, revealing what lay beneath...

His face bears a striking resemblance to Hyakudoji.

Lin Chen: ......

"Are you related to Bai Duozhi?" Lin Chen raised his eyebrows.

"To be precise, we come from the 'Artificial God' project and are the first batch of demigod prototypes from the Mind-type Ruins."

The big-headed doll looked at Lin Chen with a strange smile on its face.

“I am...the Crimson Bishop.”

"You can be considered a demigod?" Lin Chen asked.

“I could say I have some small abilities,” the Crimson Bishop murmured. “That’s why I’m able to maintain this… small ruin, giving our believers a place to stand.”

“But you let me in.” Lin Chen nodded.

“No matter who’s behind you, your enemy is the Foundation,” the Crimson Archbishop laughed. “In that case, we can become allies for a short time.”

To ally with cultists? Lin Chen didn't think he was that foolish.

But at least, let's get information from her...he...it? first.

“I’m looking for clues about the ‘Black Star Project’,” Lin Chen said. “Tell me what it is?”

The Crimson Bishop smiled.

“Our Lord has finally answered our earnest prayers…” the Crimson Bishop murmured. “Those who have betrayed us… await the abyss, not salvation…”

Speak like a human.

"The Foundation did not give us detailed information; we do not know the full picture about Black Star."

Lin Chen felt like punching the Crimson Bishop as soon as he said that.

Fortunately, it was followed by a "but":

"However, their intentions were too obvious, and with our people still gathering intelligence from within, we have already pieced together... the truth."

"What is the truth?" Lin Chen asked.

“The Black Star’s near-Earth orbit Starlink system,” the Crimson Archbishop murmured. “Their equipment is state-of-the-art. What they crave is the emotional sedimentation from the stars: fear, worship, and other great emotions hidden in deep space, surging like oil in the warp…”

This is pretty much what we deduced before... Lin Chen nodded and said:

"So, they're going to build a space-based weapon?"

“On the simplest level, you can understand it this way,” the Crimson Bishop smiled, “but Black Star’s goal… is not conquest.”

"Black Star's goal... is to integrate the ancient emotions that have accumulated in the warp, and then use the oldest emotions to find the oldest existence in the warp."

"They want to find... Sodom..."

"They want to find...God..."

"..."

In the woods, the torchlight flickered, filtering through the leaves and casting dappled light on the crimson bishop's face.

Lin Chen stared directly at the calm-faced demigod and said:

What is God?

“Jehovah,” the Crimson Archbishop whispered, “is the God of the West, and also one of the oldest gods in the world.”

"Or, in your atheist terms, it is an ancient, anomalous entity, an 'Omega'."

Omega is a level above Alpha and is also the highest level used to measure anomalous entities.

Since its inception, this system for distinguishing between subspace entities and demigods has never had a single entity in the real world rated as "Omega".

It is simply used to add another level above "Alpha" to speculate on those terrifying beings that may exist deep in the subspace.

Because Omega is defined as "capable of instantly influencing the entire planet".

Theoretically speaking, when Omega arrives, the entire world will be transformed.

The Foundation wants to find an Omega-class anomalous entity deep in the subspace?

"How do you know all this so clearly?" Lin Chen asked.

“History is hidden in the subspace,” the Crimson Archbishop whispered. “Stare long enough into the abyss… and the abyss will reward you.”

"Are you sure this intelligence is reliable?" Lin Chen frowned. "What if it's just something your people imagined after watching too much of the subspace? Wouldn't I have been doing all this work for nothing?"

Upon hearing this, the believers in the garden immediately began to whisper maliciously.

“Quiet,” the Crimson Archbishop said, extending a hand. “What one person sees in a warp illusion may be just an illusion, but what about ten people, a hundred people, a thousand people?”

"Do you still have thousands of people..." Lin Chen thought to himself, then nodded.

"So this intelligence was cross-verified after thousands of people saw the same thing in the subspace?"

“Over a hundred people,” the Crimson Bishop said earnestly.

Okay, you're honest, I'll consider believing you.

“You’ve solved a huge problem for us… That idiot Tom Connell has been using the Red Gang’s influence to hunt us down,” the Crimson Bishop smiled. “SuperAmerica wants our… uh… this method of spying on history. We could have countered that too, but unfortunately, we’re not on the same scale as before; we’re too few in number…”

"As a reward, regardless of who your backers are, we will pave the way for you... to shoot down Black Star."

"Can we just destroy the space islands?" Lin Chen asked.

"No... that's just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. Do you think the Foundation only has Space Islands as a launch site? Black Star's Starlink has already been launched into low Earth orbit by NASA and those idiots who are obsessed with conquering Mars. They just don't realize that they're contributing to the Black Star project."

"The true core of Project Black Star is to assemble WHALE on the Black Star platform, and based on the amount of materials the Foundation purchases... they can build at least thirteen platforms, located around the world."

"You can destroy the space islands, can you destroy all thirteen platforms?"

"Does that mean we have absolutely no chance?" Lin Chen frowned.

"Opportunities still exist."

The Crimson Bishop gave a wicked smile:

"The Starlink network on Black Star is so massive that it's difficult for ordinary computers to take over the entire system. Therefore, the Foundation will launch a strong artificial intelligence to connect all the Starlink systems."

"As long as we can kill this strong artificial intelligence, even if their weapons are launched into the sky, they will just be a pile of scrap metal."

This is what we call meaningful intelligence...

Lin Chen nodded and said:

"So, how do we kill this strong AI?"

“I don’t know,” the Crimson Archbishop shook his head, “but… I know where you should look.”

"where?"

“The Rain City Star TV Tower,” the Crimson Archbishop murmured, “that place… is called the ‘Black Star Nexus’ by the Foundation’s dogs, but we haven’t had time to gather any intelligence on it yet…”

The Rain City Star TV Tower... Lin Chen recalled the tall tower that stood on the edge of Mingzhu Beach.

That tower shrouded in mist and rain symbolizes the prosperity of the Rain City and has been a wonder of the Rain City since its inception.

Has that TV tower actually been corrupted by the foundation?

“Go, Barbayaga,” the Crimson Bishop whispered, “go and open the door to tomorrow for us.”

Looking at the ugly face of the Crimson Bishop, Lin Chen sighed softly.

We don't know if this information is true or false yet; we need to take it back and analyze it first...

It seems there's no way to deal with these believers in the short term.

However... we already know the depth of these ruins.

As long as they are caught, they won't be able to escape.

Lin Chen turned around, walked through the torches held up by the believers, and left the ruins.

He returned to the exhibition and pretended to look at it casually.

"It's about time to leave, Zhanyi," Lin Chen said softly. "I..."

"What a coincidence, you're here too."

A familiar voice came from behind me.

Lin Chen turned his head, and when he saw who was speaking, his eyes immediately narrowed slightly—

Xilena Boswell was standing behind him at some point.

......

Chapter 32 The Oppressive Force of Triton (10,000-word update, please vote!) (Four chapters + five chapters)

The crowd is being evacuated, and the foundation's soldiers are entering the exhibition hall.

"Cult activities are suspected here. Please leave immediately," a loudspeaker announced.

"Ms. Xilena, who is this?" A soldier approached Xilena from behind.

“An old friend,” Xileina said casually, “not a bad person, I’ll just chat for a bit.”

"Ok."

The soldiers jogged away; it appeared they were sealing off the exhibition hall.

Lin Chen looked at tide Leina standing in front of him: her deep blue eyes were scrutinizing him from head to toe.

“Very good disguise, and the makeup skills are also on point,” tide Leina said, looking at Lin Chen’s sunglasses. “Ordinary people would not easily notice you.”

"What a coincidence, you're also looking for the Mentis cultists?" Lin Chen's lips curled up slightly.

His heart was racing: Xilena's power was still unknown to him, but his instincts told him that the demigod before him was definitely not weak.

Otherwise, how could she dare to appear in front of Lin Chen alone?

However, Ke Xileina did not seem to intend to make a move. She covered for Lin Chen and drove away the Foundation's soldiers.

This was clearly a perfect opportunity to frame someone. They could have accused Lin Chen of colluding with the Mentis cultists and then taken action without any public backlash.

What does she want to do?