Comrade

Time passed bit by bit, and Chen Fan continuously refined the plan in his mind.

Beside him, Gao Yuan still held his head tightly with both hands, sitting blankly on the cold concrete floor.

His bloodshot eyes stared unfocused at the shadow of the window slowly moving across the concrete floor.

The Church deceiving believers had deeply shaken the worldview of this pure-hearted God Chosen.

"Sigh."

Chen Fan sighed softly, deciding to comfort this poor God Chosen for the sake of the information he had provided earlier. "The Church merely concealed a little truth; there's no need to be so upset."

"The clergy of the Church are also people, and people have selfish motives. That's normal."

"You should know about those Goddess statues, right?"

"Those statues, to put it bluntly, are just tools the Church uses to monitor and control believers."

Gao Yuan's eyes flickered slightly. "Are they... are they not afraid of the Goddess's wrath?"

Chen Fan's expression was a little strange.

Goddess?

Whether there was a Goddess in this world was still an unknown!

Of course, he couldn't say this directly to Gao Yuan, otherwise, there was a high probability he would see a second God Chosen whose faith had collapsed.

Ahem, the first one was himself.

"Think about it."

Chen Fan spoke against his conscience, making things up. "The Goddess is far away in the God Kingdom, so naturally, she can't attend to the trivial matters of the world."

"Then... then why would the Church do this?"

Gao Yuan asked back blankly.

"Naturally, it's to strengthen their own rule."

From theology to the enlightenment of human nature, from religion to the Renaissance, Chen Fan racked his brain, mixing together various thoughts on religious belief and the brilliance of human nature, and poured them all into the Gao Yuan in front of him.

The main point was that one dared to speak, and the other dared to listen.

As for Gao Yuan...

Due to the significant damage the scent in the Library had caused to his brain, he was now somewhat unable to keep up with Chen Fan's train of thought. He could only stand there blankly, passively accepting the knowledge being instilled by Chen Fan.

"This is the basic concept of being people-oriented," Chen Fan cleared his throat and concluded. "Do you understand?"

"...I think I understand a little."

Gao Yuan looked at Chen Fan, who was picking up a water cup to drink, nodded, then shook his head, his thick eyebrows completely furrowed together.

"You're right, we should indeed overthrow the Church's rule."

"Pfft!"

"Cough cough cough!!!"

Chen Fan spat out the water he hadn't swallowed yet and coughed violently.

Heaven was his witness, he had never instilled such knowledge in Gao Yuan!

While Chen Fan was coughing, Gao Yuan, who knows what he was thinking, nodded with a serious expression. "The Church deceives those above and oppresses those below, disregarding human life in the name of the Lord. As God Chosen, we should set things right and lead the Church in the correct direction!"

Chen Fan was numb.

He just wanted to slightly brainwash Gao Yuan to prevent him from being unable to accept the truth of the False God like the original owner.

But it had turned into this.

What the hell was this?

In another world, focused on surviving, I've become a rebel leader?

Looking at Gao Yuan's instantly firm eyes, Chen Fan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately gave up the idea of explaining.

Although Gao Yuan's thinking was a little skewed, it could at least help him temporarily escape the crisis of faith collapse.

Moreover, Chen Fan now indeed needed a capable helper to implement some of his plans – Gao Yuan, also a God Chosen, was naturally the best choice.

So.

Meeting Gao Yuan's determined gaze, Chen Fan silently nodded, a complicated smile appearing on his face.

"Now, we are comrades."

East Main Church.

The work of the clergy was not easy.

Especially for Priests, whose status was neither high nor low.

They had to complete various tasks assigned by the Bishop, handle all sorts of trivial matters reported by the Deacons, and even resolve the various demands of the God Chosen.

They were considered the most thankless clergy.

Isa, who had recently been promoted to Priest, was draped in a wide black robe. She cautiously followed behind a group of Priests similarly clad in black robes, passing under an arched metal doorway and entering the spacious main hall of the Church.

Looking at the holographic Goddess statue in the main hall, adorned in sacred robes, she followed the actions of the other Priests and completed the daily prayer.

According to the Bishop's orders, this morning she needed to lead several Deacons to Varrela's East District to complete the final promotional work.

In the afternoon, she needed to follow the other Priests to the Land of Divine Descent to complete the preliminary setup work for the Divine Descent Ceremony.

Before that, she needed to go to the East Main Church Side Hall to report the progress of the Divine Descent Ceremony announcement work to the Bishop.

She walked with restrained steps, keeping as close as possible to the sides of the internal Church corridors.

Like the other Priests or Deacons, to avoid trouble, the moment she saw the God Chosen wearing white-gold robes, she followed the other Priests in taking a detour.

Gradually, the number of Priests and Deacons around her decreased, and she successfully reached her destination – the East Main Church Side Hall.

Looking at the slightly ajar side hall door, Isa took a deep breath. After preparing herself mentally, she stepped forward, extending her mechanical prosthetic from beneath her wide black robe, ready to push open the door.

Suddenly.

A familiar, stiff synthesized voice came from inside the door: "Last night, prohibited books were discovered in the Library."

It was the Archbishop's voice!

Isa quickly retracted her hand.

Prohibited books?

Isa secretly clicked her tongue, and a thought quickly flashed through her mind: Those few Priests responsible for managing the Library are probably in trouble.

Speaking of which, were any of those Priests people she knew?

Isa's thoughts involuntarily drifted.

"The prohibited books have been dealt with."

The Archbishop's distinctive voice continued: "But there is still one problem."

"That prohibited book titled 'Simple Mechanical Principles' has been viewed by a God Chosen named Chen Fan."

The Archbishop's voice paused: "To be precise, that God Chosen named Chen Fan actively took this book from the bookshelf and also reviewed it in detail."

Chen Fan!

Hearing this familiar name, a figure wearing a white-gold short robe quickly appeared in Isa's mind – the God Chosen's clothing was mainly divided into two types. One was relatively formal, a long robe with white-gold as the main color, similar in style to the robes of the clergy; the other was relatively casual everyday wear, also with white-gold as the main color, and the style was a short robe.

Immediately after, she recalled the scenes where that God Chosen had helped her out of difficult situations twice in a row.

Although a bit cliché, Isa, who had served as clergy in the Church for a long time, still remembered this unique God Chosen because of this incident.

Since she entered the Church and began serving as clergy, she had never seen such an easy-going God Chosen!