Detective Isabelle

The population growth in the simulator had sharpened Lu Yao's perception. This allowed him to catch details he'd previously been completely unable to notice, and most of the anomalies converged on Yu Yao alone.

Yu Yao had never spoken a word to Lu Yao; Zhou Qiang explained it as shyness.

She always cooked in the dead of night, humming strange little tunes in the kitchen.

Yu Yao always carried a faint smell of blood on her, usually very light, indicating she deliberately cleaned up traces on herself. But the blood scent in her mouth was strongest and hardest to eliminate.

The smell of blood wasn't just on her person—it appeared in the kitchen sink, the bathroom, even the trash bags in the living room. All of it aligned with Yu Yao's personal movements.

Zhou Qiang, however, hadn't noticed anything unusual.

Lu Yao felt there was an indescribable, eerie aura about Yu Yao. But what exactly it was, he couldn't put his finger on.

And investigating deeper on his own felt dangerous.

So Lu Yao decided to let the professionals handle it.

There was no evidence or proof of a crime, so it wasn't convenient to bother the police.

With a simple one-click summoning ritual on the computer, Isabelle knelt once more on the desk.

"Lord God, Isabelle has come in accordance with your will."

Unlike the flustered panic last time, the young apostle was much calmer now.

"There's a suspicious person right now. She's out watching a movie with a friend of mine, about two and a half hours. So I called you over..."

Lu Yao explained the whole situation to her.

"That's the gist of it. Find out who she really is."

"Yes, my lord."

With that, Isabelle began changing clothes as Lu Yao had instructed.

Lu Yao voluntarily stepped outside the room and said through the door, "My perception has improved noticeably recently. Does population growth give feedback this fast?"

Isabelle's voice came from inside: "My lord. For a god situated in a high realm dimension, the population of a low realm dimension serves as the god's second body, while faith is the external extension of the god's power."

Lu Yao asked her, "Then what happens if the population hits zero?"

"My lord, even if a god's temple is completely destroyed, it's very difficult to wipe out all believers entirely. Once faith begins to spread, it flows to every corner of the world—not just humans, but also other intelligent life forms."

"Faith itself never fully disappears; it just becomes extremely faint and hard to gather in large quantities again, like seeds scattered across the land."

"As long as the god uses the power of faith to have believers rebuild the temple, they can make a comeback."

Lu Yao understood.

A big shot starting over from scratch.

That was exactly Lisa's situation.

"It's said that in the god wars above the Pantheon, some gods have their faith and all believers completely erased."

Isabelle continued: "In the god wars, some gods' faith suffers a devastating blow. Those gods who are thoroughly expelled are called Old Gods."

Lu Yao silently noted that.

That was a matter beyond the Pantheon—he'd have to shed his identity as a Novice God first.

Right now, he was still a protected newbie player.

Normally, the Safe Zone was relatively safe.

The closest case was Lisa, who had been arrested. After her Wonder was destroyed, she fell back to the Safe Zone and had to start over from the Barbarian Tribe.

Lu Yao could now understand Lisa's urgency.

Population growth brought incredible physical enhancement, while the loss of a large population and faith sent a god player tumbling from the peak back into the abyss.

People always find loss the hardest to bear.

Isabelle changed into a gray hoodie, put on sunglasses, and dressed up like an ordinary girl.

The investigation began.

She clasped her fingers together, lowered her head, closed her eyes, and murmured a low prayer.

Lu Yao couldn't understand it, but he could sense it. Something was radiating from Isabelle, interacting and reacting with the surrounding world, like a stone thrown into a calm lake.

Gradually, a white halo formed around Isabelle. "Halo" wasn't quite accurate—it was more like a flowing, milky-white mist.

This was her ability, Lingering Prayer.

Unlike the simplified white light in the Pixel World, everything in the real world was clearly visible. Especially with Lu Yao's enhanced perception, he could see every subtle process and change.

The white mist from Isabelle seeped into the walls and floor.

Slowly, wisps of black smoke appeared in the room. These black wisps were so thin that if you didn't look closely, you'd mistake them for black threads floating and swaying upward.

The black threads intertwined, coalescing into a shifting mass of Black Mist.

Isabelle said something to the Black Mist without making a sound; Lu Yao could only see her lips moving.

Before long, the black mass vanished without a trace.

Isabelle turned her face to Lu Yao and explained, "My lord. The dead here say that woman eats raw Meat and drinks blood."

"Every night, she cooks here, but also eats raw meat here, sucking the bloodstains off the flesh."

"What she eats most is raw fish."

Lu Yao scratched his head.

Could he be overthinking this?

He'd heard that in some places, the customs included eating raw meat—it was even considered a delicacy to the locals.

Maybe Yu Yao came from one of those places. Afraid that Zhou Qiang and he would discover her eating raw meat and drinking blood, she snuck off to do it in secret.

"My lord, there's the scent of Demon Cultists."

Isabelle gazed out the window at the street, her eyes sharpening.

Lu Yao followed her gaze.

On the street, Zhou Qiang and Yu Yao were walking back hand in hand. Isabelle's stare was fixed on Yu Yao, one of the two.

"Should we execute the target?"

"Wait... Yu Yao is a Demon Cultist?"

"Yes, my lord. As an Apostle, though I cannot identify a God's true form, I can see Faith Sparks. She has no disguise or concealing tool, and the spark inside her is very clear."

Lu Yao's greatest fear had come true.

He said immediately, "Restrain her. Find out her purpose and identity."

"Understood."

Isabelle plucked out her left eye and handed it to Lu Yao, then pushed open the door and went downstairs.

Lu Yao locked the bedroom door from the inside and began observing remotely through the eyeball.

On the street.

Isabelle walked past Zhou Qiang and Yu Yao. Yu Yao's expression shifted. Seeming to recognize Isabelle's identity, she pressed her lips together, and her fingers gripping Zhou Qiang's unconsciously tightened.

"Long time no see. Let's talk."

Isabelle stopped beside Yu Yao.

Zhou Qiang let out a huh and looked at Yu Yao: "You know each other?"

Yu Yao forced a smile onto her face: "She's a distant cousin of mine."

"You go on ahead. I'll chat with my cousin."

Zhou Qiang nodded and turned back.

"Follow me."

Isabelle led the way, and Yu Yao followed silently.

The two walked into a corner of a parking alley nearby. Even in broad daylight, it was empty, with no surveillance cameras; rows of dirty cars formed natural cover.

Isabelle walked to the farthest, a scrapped car, grabbed the handle of the rear door, and with a creak, wrenched it open.

"Sit."

They both climbed into the car, one after the other.

Silence.

"Can you give me three days?" Yu Yao pleaded. "Let me live three more days, okay?"

Thanks to the Four Spirits Source Talisman for the 1500 Qidian coins support.