Shrimping the Heart and Pigging the Liver

The new repair function of the Trash Key was certainly eye-catching, but the word "repair" also confirmed to Li Wei that the Trash Key was truly a piece of trash. That old guy who sold him the key was definitely not a legitimate locksmith; the keys he provided were all damaged!

Just as he was about to input his chosen keywords to enter the next world, Li Wei slapped his forehead and banished the key back into the rift.

"That was close, that was close!" Standing there with a look of relief, Li Wei realized he had almost wasted the valuable experience he'd accumulated during his time as a salesman. These keywords couldn't be filled in so casually; if he ended up in some bizarre world, he'd be the one suffering again.

Glancing at the laboratory after the mist had dissipated, Li Wei turned and left, preparing to head back to the town to have some fun.

He followed the damaged elevator shaft back to the surface. Before the U.S. military armored units could reach the military base, he shifted into his flight form and soared into the sky, traveling through the thinning mist toward the direction of the supermarket in the town he remembered.

Flying several hundred meters, Li Wei returned to the front of the supermarket, where he happened to witness Carmody standing tall and proud, preaching away. It was absolutely insane!

He knocked on the glass door, giving the man leaning against the wall of dog food a huge fright. When the man turned around and saw it was Li Wei, an expression of disbelief appeared on his face, as if he hadn't expected Li Wei to return alive.

Carmody, who had been preaching, also suddenly noticed Li Wei at the door. She slowly stopped her sermon and squinted in his direction, "Oh~ look over there, another lost lamb has returned to the sanctuary the Lord has granted us!"

Hearing this, the group of believers gathered before her also looked toward the glass exterior wall, their faces still etched with pious fanaticism.

As more and more people noticed Li Wei's return, and after receiving tacit approval from the majority, the man at the door opened the supermarket's glass door.

Li Wei walked into the supermarket with a smile, waving to the others, and paid special attention to Mrs. Carmody, "Yo~! I have some good news for you all. The military has cleared the white mist outside. By noon at the latest, everyone can go back to their own homes and find their own mothers. You won't have to stand there shouting 'Amen' like idiots anymore. Isn't that a surprise? Isn't that unexpected!"

"People who still believe in religion in the 21st century are just brainless poor wretches. I came back just to see the look on Mrs. Carmody's face in a moment, nothing else. If you want to keep singing 'Amen,' don't mind me!"

After loudly announcing this good news, Li Wei ignored the gazes of the others and strolled toward the storage room.

The group of believers who had been labeled as poor wretches glared at Li Wei, yet there was a faint glimmer of anticipation in their eyes—an anticipation that what he said was true.

However, this group did not include Mrs. Carmody.

She would not allow anyone to blaspheme the Lord, nor would she allow Li Wei to use rhetoric to undermine her spreading of the Lord's glory!

A sarcastic smile appeared on her face as she stepped down from her small stool and looked at Li Wei, "Really? Look outside! Why is it that even now, some people still don't believe that the Lord's punishment has descended upon the mortal world, and that the chains binding the demons have been loosened!"

Carmody's words didn't make Li Wei stop, but they did provide a backbone for the believers who had been glaring at him, and they began shouting chaotic slogans.

Redemption, Amen, punishment...

Even Li Wei, who had seen fanatical pyramid scheme dens before, couldn't help but click his tongue in wonder, "Truly a religious country."

His murmur was very soft, and no one else heard it.

Mrs. Carmody crossed the aisle, just as Grandma Repla had described before.

She liked to wield a big stick against those who didn't believe her rhetoric, much like the way the medieval church treated heretics, though her methods were a bit more "gentle."

"Lucky sir, perhaps you have been favored by the Lord a few times, but you should look at the poor boy Joe in the lounge. He is dead! The boy who left with Mr. David Drayton is also dead. I said it, he would die! Only by serving the Lord can we survive under the Lord's radiance!"

A woman echoed Mrs. Carmody's words, "She's right! The attack she spoke of on the first day, the death just now—she was right about everything. She is the Lord's apostle!"

"Yes!"

"Redemption!"

"Atonement!"

The group of trembling believers began to shout various repetitive words fanatically once again, startling David, who was lying in the aisle, having fallen into a deep sleep after being terrified by the horrific scene in the pharmacy.

After waking up, he looked around in confusion, saw his son and the companions who had followed him, and asked muzzily, "What happened?"

Brent, leaning against a shelf, replied, "Mr. Li Wei is back, and she is preaching her crazy theories again."

Hearing a name that wasn't entirely unfamiliar, David paused for a moment while rubbing his eyes, and then he heard that very distinctive voice.

"Redemption~ Redemption~! No spirit, shout louder! That way the monsters outside can hear your cries!" Li Wei waved his arms and began to shout along with these fanatical people, "Redemption~! Yes, that's it, shout together! Maybe the monsters outside will hear your pious prayers and spare you. Redemption~! Again, with me!"

After those chaotic people shouted for a while longer, their expressions changed slightly, and their voices gradually slowed down.

An old man once said: You must use magic to defeat magic!

By the same token, you must use equally extreme emotions to defeat another kind of extreme emotion!

Fear versus madness—let's see which one wins~!

By the end, only Li Wei was left shouting. Clearly, the fear in their hearts had overcome the false faith that hadn't even been built for two days.

Most of the believers looked at the mist outside the window, but a portion looked at Carmody.

"Your tongue is sharp, but... that girl died, didn't she? That boy and his brother also died! These sinful, abominable things have been kept outside! Why haven't they gone away?" Seeing that Li Wei was about to destroy the believers' faith with his words, Carmody spoke up again to stabilize everyone's confusion, "'The stones shall not hide them, nor shall the withered trees be their shelter'! Why are they not ended, yet they do not step in here? Tell me!"

Carmody once again quoted classic sentences from the Old Testament, explaining the prophecies to the believers and guiding the direction of their thoughts.

The next moment, the word "atonement" appeared once again in the mouths of the believers who had become "sober" again, even more fanatically than before, feeling ashamed and angry for having been swayed by Li Wei's words just now.

Some irrational people even wanted to pick up weapons!

David and Ollie finally stood up from the ground, realized the situation seemed a bit serious, and spoke up to mediate.

The people here hadn't completely lost their minds yet, and after some persuasion, their emotions eased slightly.

What they didn't notice was that the light inside the supermarket grew increasingly intense as they shouted fanatically, and at the corner outside, figures of soldiers wearing camouflage combat uniforms and gas masks appeared.

"No one here is wrong, but haven't you seen clearly what the truth really is?" Mrs. Carmody pushed through the crowd again, stood in the center, and said sarcastically to Li Wei, "You! You, don't you understand yet? Haven't you accepted reality? We are being punished! Why? Because we defied the Lord's will, defied His ancient prohibitions! Now we..."

Clap, clap, clap!

The corners of Li Wei's mouth were practically blooming into a flower; watching others act like monkeys was quite interesting, especially in this situation!

The supermarket glass was knocked on with a loud bang-bang-bang, interrupting Mrs. Carmody's impassioned speech. Everyone looked toward the glass exterior wall and was astonished to see that the thick fog had vanished. Outside, the sun was blazing, the weather was beautiful, and a dozen soldiers wearing gas masks stood outside the door looking at them, appearing like tourists in a zoo observing monkeys in a cage.

"Oh~! Look at the God outside, think about what you just said to them? Redemption, wow! Atonement, my god! Punishment, indeed! Wow! Do you know what I see on your faces right now? It's embarrassment, you know? It's embarrassment!!!"

"Say it piously one more time, that expression is called embarrassment~!"

Li Wei's whisper rang in the ears of the crowd who were already stunned. How was this any different from peeling their hearts and eating them?