Chapter 331
"..."
As they watched Qin Su coldly shove the corpse of the 'Lord' worshipped by the Satina Church in the faces of the Satina Church, an eerie silence fell over them.
With the stark contrast of the Satina Church followers before them, everyone finally realized that from the moment the wind rose, the Insect Mountain hadn't been randomly lashing at them. Instead, it had defied common sense and remained in the spot where they had died, until Qin Su left and withdrew his control over them. Only then did they regain their 'freedom,' leading to the scene they witnessed.
As everyone gradually calmed down, the quiet environment was broken by a series of excited discussions that had been suppressed for a long time.
"Did you guys just see that? Qin Su just vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye! It's incredible!"
"I saw it, my eyes are the ruler, Qin Su is not a god, my leader is being exiled to Leichakan tonight."
"Your boss is truly blessed to have you."
"Even at a time like this, Qin Su is still thinking of us. He remembered to control the corpses of those disgusting insects and prevent them from flying onto our faces. Everyone, what does this mean? It means that Qin Su cares about us."
"Who says otherwise? That gust of cold wind... ptooey, ptooey, what cold wind? Look at my mouth, I really can't speak properly. It was clearly Qin Su's inherent cold aura! In short, this perfectly proves that as long as Qin Su wants, even if they are dead and have lost their instinct to move, their corpses will still obey Qin Su. Truly... worthy of being Qin Su!"
"Heh--heh haha--"
Someone in the crowd burst into laughter. The laughter was loud and clear amidst the excited chatter. The crowd stopped talking for a moment, assuming the person was mocking their idolization of Qin Su. Displeased gazes were all directed at the person who laughed.
The man in the gray hoodie smiled bitterly, then noticed the unfriendly stares from those around him. His mind went blank for a couple of seconds before he realized they'd misunderstood. He quickly pointed to the disheveled state of the Satina followers as they crawled out of the 'Corpse Mountain' and explained, "Don't misunderstand, I'm not laughing at you. Look at them, I'm laughing at them."
Reminded by this, everyone looked over and saw the Satina Church followers staring at the insect corpses in front of them with distorted and twitching expressions. Living in this city, they all recalled the fear they, ordinary citizens, had felt when the Ossotalia Empire was still in existence and was being dominated by the Satina Church with the support of the empire. Instantly, they understood why the man in the gray hoodie had given that cold laugh.
Gazing at them, now engulfed in the corpses of insects in the center of the square, a similar smile unconsciously crept onto his lips.
Countless people couldn't help but tear up when they thought of their relatives and friends who were unlucky enough to be randomly sacrificed during Satina Church sacrificial procession while walking down the street.
From the crowd, someone said in a low voice, "Qin Su even killed their 'master' without any mercy. Gentlemen, isn't that enough to show Qin Su's attitude towards the Satina Church? If we miss this opportunity, we might not be so lucky in the future."
Upon hearing this, those around immediately understood what the other person meant by "opportunity" based on the situation. Their gazes towards the Satina Church followers in the center of the square, which had initially been a mixture of disgust and sadness, suddenly turned to anger.
"Yes, how could we miss such a great opportunity?"
"Oh."
"The order and vigilance are still paralyzed. This might just be Qin Su giving us an opportunity. You all know what I mean?"
In Leopold, the Sky City, ordinary citizens, tacitly included in the Satina Church's diet by the Ossotalia Empire, already harbored deep resentment towards the Satina Church. Such sentiments and hatred towards the Satina Church spread rapidly and erupted in small, localized areas.
Many citizens temporarily forgot what they were supposed to do, only knowing that a great opportunity for revenge was right in front of them. They looked at each other and rushed towards the Satina Church believers from all directions who were busy mourning and cursing the deaths of countless 'masters' (Class 6).
The other citizens who remained in place, seeing the frenzied crowd rushing towards the Satina Church followers, immediately understood what they wanted to do, and reached out to stop them, muttering words of persuasion.
"Hey, what are you doing? Gathering a crowd to cause trouble violates Federation city regulations. If the police arrive and you're caught, you'll be fined depending on the damage, and detained or imprisoned according to relevant laws, depending on the injuries or fatalities!"
Before Kamila Planet came under the control of the Ossotalia Empire, in order to facilitate the capture of more people and deliver them to the Kanasen to meet the Kanasen's daily needs, every planet and every central city belonging to the Ossotalia Empire employed troops provided by the Ossotalia Empire for daily patrols.
Since Kamila Planet voluntarily joined the Federation, it abolished its original military patrols and replaced them with Mechanical Police patrols, similar to those in other Federation cities Mechanical Police maintain city order according to a fixed patrol schedule, which to some extent ensures fairness and impartiality in the process. Of course, this is only to a certain extent; anyone with or able to obtain background access to the process can manually intervene in its operation at any time.
"Stop worrying about that. Haven't you seen how much time has passed and not a single alert person has been spotted? I think you shouldn't just stand there, let's all attack together."
"Huh? But I still have to go... Oh no, I'm late!! Oh well, I'm already late, might as well go, I'll go, go, go."
"Exactly! Going to work is nothing compared to revenge!"
"Forget about being alert, even if you lock me up, I will avenge my family!"
[Hiss... So many people, are they going to beat them all to death?]
[So what? (rolls eyes) Every single one of the Satina Church who has reached the point of self-sacrifice is not innocent. Don't forget that to qualify for sacrifice, each Satina Church believer must recruit forty people into the cult and also recruit at least ten passersby during daily processions as offerings for purification on the spot—basically, to feed to the insects that participated in the procession. Now they're only being given one life in return for many others—that's too good for them.]
[The alert didn't show up; who would believe this without Qin Su's intervention? From now on, if anyone says Qin Su is on the side of the Satina Church, I'll throw this video in their face.]
[A demon, a murderer!]
[Huh? When you were recruiting people to feed your Insect Master, you called yourselves sacred? Now I think that's sacred too.]
[This is chaos! This is complete chaos! @Alert! Arrest them quickly... No, shoot them on the spot! Shoot them all! The people here are very likely not the ones who asked this group to participate in the sacrificial ceremony. How can we implicate them? Besides, sacrificing them is giving them face. They are truly shameless, filthy, and despicable bastards.]
[Alert: Satina Church, please do not mention Ha!]
[When you drag people to their deaths, you don't care who you're dragging in, so don't blame them for attacking indiscriminately now.]
[Nobody thinks we should get all this. Is this a warning not to Satina Church, lest we end up like them someday?]
[Sarcasm, sarcasm, stop arguing. The Satina Church is all about sacrifice. Sacrifice equals death. Whether it's being eaten by their Insect Master and then having cold water poured on Class 6) or being killed by angry citizens seeking revenge, it's all death. How can it not be considered a kind of 'staying true to one's original aspiration'?]
[The scope is too narrow. It's not just a warning against Satina Church; it's practically making those who have joined afraid to perform sacrifices. With this example as a precedent, what if they fail to complete the sacrifice and are instead swarmed and beaten to a pulp by enthusiastic... no, angry citizens?]
[Ugh, don't even mention it, it's creepy. What if some pervert is mixed in here, taking advantage of the chaos to vent their own twisted emotions?]
[Well, there's nothing we can do about that. The Satina Church is inherently difficult to define. But do you think Qin Su is watching?]
[No way, the God Su is so busy, how could he have time to look?]
Qin Su had just finished his work and was secretly watching the screen from the window, thought, "..."
'He was watching, friends. He not only watched, but he was also afraid something might happen, so he dared not not watch.'
Watching the situation unfold below as he had anticipated, Qin Su timed it precisely, releasing the nearby mechanical patrol officers from control and restoring them to normal.
As part of his plan, Qin Su set a ten-second Countdown for the 'Viewers' so that they wouldn't pay any price for their actions.
Of course, those who didn't have time to run... even if the Mechanical Police arrive, the record will be deleted, as if the Mechanical Police had temporarily malfunctioned and couldn't recognize them. Just like what the Viewers in the Comic World's live stream said, the Satina Church doesn't distinguish right from wrong when it comes to sacrificing people, and the Mechanical Police also doesn't distinguish right from wrong when it comes to the Satina Church's affairs. It's just "following suit," and there's no problem at all.
If anyone is to blame, it's the Satina Church "teaching" so well.
A red beeping warning sound rang out in the square, pulling those who had been agitated out of control. Everyone instinctively looked up at the unfamiliar but extremely jarring source of the sound, seeing warning words that many citizens were not familiar with, and a completely unfamiliar ten-second Countdown had not appeared in the city rules distributed to the Optical Brain only a few months prior.
"I understand the warning, but what's with the Countdown? Is it a new rule?"
"Is it possible that Qin Su gave us Countdown to escape? If we leave before the Countdown ends, we won't be punished for this?"
"You mean... Qin Su is giving us preferential treatment?! Oh Mom, I'm so proud of myself! From now on, every Social Media Account of mine will have 'Qin Su thought of me' added to its suffix!"
"They're really trying to pat themselves on the back. What if they guessed wrong?"
"Haven't you heard that harsh words hurt people? If you can't speak properly, then shut up. What he said is the truth. Can't accept speculation?"
"What are you guessing for? There are only five seconds left, run!"
"Gogogo!"
Regarding the mysterious Countdown that accompanied the piercing alarm, some people looked blank and didn't quite understand, while others cleverly figured out what it meant and shouted out their guesses.
Before the ten-second Countdown reached zero, many of those who had participated in the revenge scattered, but those who hadn't participated or had only kicked once before being pushed away by the crowd remained in place, curious to see how the Mechanical Police would punish them after they were caught. Some were even curious about how the Mechanical Police would handle the scene related to Qin Su after they arrived.
"Wait, I saw you make a move. Aren't you going to run and wait to be sent in?"
"Exactly. Those who left were sensible; fearing the live stream would be shut down and they wouldn't be able to see what was happening, they added us on their Optical Brain and asked us to rebroadcast it, thus avoiding putting themselves in danger."
"Don't exaggerate. I just slapped a believer. According to the city's public security management rules implemented by the Optical Brain, even if I get arrested, I only need to write a 10,000-word apology letter and record an apology video to post on my personal public account. It's nothing to me. Those cowards, watching remotely is nowhere near as exciting as seeing it in person."
"Don't look at me; compared to him, I only need to write seven thousand words."
"My mere 30,000-word apology statement is not going to get me anywhere. I didn't see how the Mechanical Police handled this matter; I'd rather break my hand writing it than leave."
Qin Su, who had been eavesdropping the whole time. "..."
'Sure enough, when it comes to satisfying their gossipy desires, people have plenty of energy and methods.'
Qin Su respectfully and understandingly withdrew his gaze, taking one last look at the entire spire space.
Just now, he spent a full five minutes checking all the locks he had added to the house five times over, both technologically (smart locks) and physically (manual locks). He also checked the numerous Electronic Eye devices ten times to ensure that no one else would have the opportunity to approach this place without his permission, thus reducing the risk of exposure for his past actions. Only then did Qin Su feel 50% relieved and leave.
Immediately upon leaving, in an effort to alleviate his anxiety, Qin Su added the Electronic Eye, which offered a panoramic view of the area, to his list of devices he needed to check and monitor frequently.
The moment the first batch of Mechanical Police arrived, the Countdown zero, and those who remained stared intently at the rows of silver Mechanical Police, swallowing nervously and expectantly.