Mechanical Prosthetic

Although inwardly flustered, Chen Fan still did his best to remain calm.

He raised his head and stared straight ahead at the burly man standing before him, a full head taller than himself.

"Not bad."

A hint of surprise appeared in the burly man's eyes, and the sneer on his face faded considerably. "I thought all God Chosen were cowards who bullied the weak and feared the strong."

"I didn't expect this batch of God Chosen to include someone like you. Interesting..."

"Don't worry. I won't lay a hand on you."

The burly man laughed heartily and casually patted Chen Fan on the shoulder without the slightest respect. "After all, you're God Chosen. Ordinary people like us should still show some respect."

The next second, the smile vanished from his face. He bent down and brought his head close to Chen Fan's.

"Kid."

"You're God Chosen, so I'll do you a favor today."

"But don't forget, the God Chosen Ceremony is in one month. When that time comes, you'll be heading to the God Kingdom to serve the gods."

"None of the previous God Chosen ever returned from the God Kingdom!"

"You can protect them for a while, but you can't protect them forever!!"

With that, the burly man shoved Chen Fan aside with a disdainful sneer and swaggered out of the room.

Watching the burly man leave, Chen Fan's expression darkened.

From the few things the man had said, he could already confirm that the information recorded in the original owner's notes was basically true!

Without question, this shattered the last sliver of hope in his heart!!

"Lord, thank You for sending Your messenger to help us..."

The middle-aged woman's voice came from beside the statue behind him.

Noticing Chen Fan's gaze, the middle-aged woman carefully rose from the Prayer Mat and thanked him. "Sir, thank you..."

"He didn't actually do anything. What are you thanking him for?"

A cool female voice suddenly rang out, cutting off the middle-aged woman before she could finish. "Don't forget, dragging this out another month means you'll have to pay another month of interest!"

"When he turns around and goes off to serve the gods, what are you going to do?"

"Are you really planning to transfer Xiao Wen's arm to those rats?"

Chen Fan froze upon hearing that.

So he had actually made things worse?!

"Xu Huai!" The middle-aged woman shot Chen Fan a quick glance, then rebuked her anxiously in a low voice. "How can you speak to a God Chosen like that?"

"You..."

Before she could finish, Xu Huai stood up and left the room.

As she passed Chen Fan, Xu Huai gave a displeased snort.

Watching her figure quickly vanish into the corridor, Chen Fan shook his head with a bitter smile.

Just as the original owner had recorded in his notes, Xu Huai was unlike the other neighbors. She even seemed to dislike Chen Fan for being God Chosen.

At the same time, the chatter of the curious neighbors outside drifted in.

The topic of their discussion was easy enough to imagine: Xu Huai's behavior was utter disrespect toward the gods.

Chen Fan had not intended to pay attention to their gossip, but one sentence quickly caught his attention. "It was bad enough that Xu Huai usually left the statue on the floor. I never expected her to treat a God Chosen like this too..."

Thinking of the statue he had seen casually placed on the ground earlier, Chen Fan's expression grew grave.

Her poor attitude toward him was understandable. He was not money, after all; he could not make everyone love him.

But if she treated the gods the same way...

That was worth examining carefully!

In an instant, Chen Fan had made up his mind.

He needed to find a way to get in touch with Xu Huai!

Perhaps she knew something about the truth of this world!

Seeing the strange look on Chen Fan's face, the middle-aged woman misunderstood and hurriedly tried to defend Xu Huai.

"Sir, please don't take it to heart. Xu Huai has always been like this..."

Chen Fan smiled and waved his hand, interrupting her. "Aunt Shen, let's not talk about Sister Huai for now. Tell me about yourself. What exactly happened?"

As he spoke, Chen Fan turned his gaze toward the little boy beside her, whose eyes were still red-rimmed.

More precisely, toward the boy's Mechanical Prosthetic, whose dexterity far exceeded anything Chen Fan knew of!

The middle-aged woman let out a long sigh and pulled the little boy into her arms. With a despondent expression, she began to explain in a low voice.

"It started last year..."

"Ever since he was little, Xiao Wen has had problems with his right hand. You should know that."

Chen Fan said nothing, merely nodding silently.

"For the past few years, I kept praying to the Lord at church, praying that one day He would grant a miracle. But... the Lord never answered my prayers."

"Until last year!"

"After one prayer, a Church Deacon came to find me."

A hopeful smile appeared on the middle-aged woman's face. "He told me that the Lord had been moved by my sincerity and was willing to grant a miracle, restoring Xiao Wen's crippled right hand."

Chen Fan's expression changed at once.

The Mechanical Prosthetic was indeed inseparable from these so-called gods!

That meant...

A preliminary conclusion could already be drawn. The god worshipped by this Deformed Civilization was most likely a technologically advanced civilization that possessed superior technology.

One's voice sounded in Chen Fan's mind: Interfering with the developmental course of a lower civilization without authorization, while using theology to enslave individuals of that lower civilization, is a serious violation of Human Federation law!

Unlike its usual teasing tone, One's Electronic Synthesized Voice was filled with gravity this time.

Chen Fan, find an opportunity to make contact with the little boy's Mechanical Prosthetic. This unit needs to make a preliminary assessment of that technological civilization's level of technology.

Chen Fan silently agreed to One's request and once more turned his gaze toward the exquisitely crafted Mechanical Prosthetic.

Lost in her memories, the middle-aged woman failed to notice Chen Fan's unusual behavior and continued quietly. "However... that deacon told me that the church required me to donate ten thousand Gold Coins without compensation, as proof of my loyalty to the Lord."

"I couldn't come up with that many Gold Coins at once. After scraping together everything I could, I was still short by 2,139 Gold Coins."

"With the day of blessing the deacon spoke of drawing ever closer, I could only take the risk and borrow the last sum of money from them."

"Borrowing money required collateral, but I had nothing they wanted as collateral."

"Just when I had nowhere left to turn, Gao Li found me and said I could use the divine gift Xiao Wen would receive in the future as collateral."

As though recalling something, the middle-aged woman added, "Oh, right. Gao Li was the debt collector who came by just now."

Understanding immediately dawned in Chen Fan's eyes.

Although the middle-aged woman had not gone into detail, based on his experience from his previous life, Chen Fan could already guess what happened next.

She had simply failed to repay the debt in time, causing the interest to pile up until it led to this bitter outcome.

Judging by what Gao Li had said before leaving, this world had no relevant laws or regulations prohibiting such illegal private lending. On the contrary, the church even guaranteed those loans.

Coupled with the fact that the God Chosen status had an "effective period" of only one month, the entire matter had become an almost impossible deadlock!

But...

In Chen Fan's view, there seemed to be an enormous problem hidden within this matter.