Adding Insult to Injury

The Trash Key's new repair function caught his eye, but the word "repair" also confirmed Li Wei's suspicion: the Trash Key really was trash. That old bastard key cutter really hadn't been a proper locksmith—the keys he gave out were all damaged!

Just as he was about to enter the keyword he had come up with and head to the next world, Li Wei suddenly slapped his forehead and banished the key back into the gap.

"That was close!" Li Wei wore a relieved expression. He had nearly wasted the precious experience he had accumulated during his sales career. He couldn't fill in the keyword so casually. What if it sent him to some bizarre world? He would have to suffer again.

Li Wei glanced at the laboratory after the mist had dispersed, then turned and left, preparing to return to town and have some fun.

He climbed back to the surface through the damaged elevator shaft. Before the American armored forces arrived at the military base, he transformed into his flying form and rose into the sky again, cutting through the gradually fading mist toward the town supermarket from his memories.

After flying several hundred meters, Li Wei returned to the front of the supermarket. By sheer coincidence, he saw Carmody in the middle of an impassioned sermon. How fascinating!

He raised a hand and knocked on the glass door, startling the man leaning against the dog food barricade. When the man turned around and saw that it was Li Wei, an incredulous expression appeared on his face, as though he had never expected Li Wei to return alive.

Carmody, who had been preaching, suddenly noticed Li Wei at the entrance as well. She slowly stopped her sermon and narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh~ Look over there. Another lost lamb has returned to the shelter granted to us by the Lord!"

Hearing that, the group of believers gathered before her also looked toward the glass wall, traces of devout fanaticism still lingering on their faces.

More and more people noticed Li Wei's return. After receiving the silent approval of most of them, the man at the entrance opened the supermarket's glass doors.

Li Wei walked into the supermarket with a smile and waved at the others, giving Mrs. Carmody special attention. "Yo~! I've got good news for you all. The military has already dealt with the white mist outside. By noon at the latest, everyone can go home and find their mommies. You won't have to stand around like idiots shouting 'Amen' anymore. Surprised? Shocked?"

"Anyone who still believes in religion in the twenty-first century is nothing but a brainless, pitiful fool. I only came back to see Mrs. Carmody's expression later. No other reason. If you want to keep singing 'Amen,' don't mind me!"

After loudly announcing the good news, Li Wei ignored everyone's stares and sauntered toward the storage room.

The believers who had just been labeled pitiful fools glared furiously at Li Wei, yet they also carried a faint hope that what he said was true.

But Mrs. Carmody was not among them.

She would not allow anyone to blaspheme the Lord, much less let Li Wei use clever words to undermine the glory she preached in the Lord's name!

A mocking smile appeared on her face. She stepped down from her little stool and looked at Li Wei. "Really? Look outside! Why do people still refuse to believe that the Lord's punishment has descended upon the mortal world, that the chains binding the demons have been loosened?"

Carmody's words did not stop Li Wei, but they gave the believers glaring at him a backbone. They began shouting a jumble of phrases.

Salvation, amen, punishment...

Even Li Wei, who had once seen a fanatical pyramid scheme den, found it quite a spectacle. "It really is a religious country."

His murmur was too quiet for anyone else to hear.

Mrs. Carmody crossed the aisle, just as Granny Repla had said before.

She liked pointing the stick at those who did not believe her words, exactly like the medieval Church's treatment of heretics—though her methods were somewhat more "gentle."

"Lucky sir, perhaps the Lord has favored you a few times, but you should look at that poor boy Joe in the break room. He's dead! The boy who left with Mr. David Drayton is dead too. I said he would die! Only by serving the Lord can we live beneath His radiance!"

A woman echoed Mrs. Carmody's words. "She's right! She was right about the attack on the first day, and she was right about the deaths just now. She is the Lord's messenger!"

"Right!"

"Salvation!"

"Atonement!"

The trembling believers once again began frantically shouting all sorts of repeated words, even waking David, who had fainted in the aisle after being terrified by the horrors in the pharmacy.

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

Brent, leaning against a shelf, answered, "Mr. Li Wei came back. She's spreading her crazy theories again."

Hearing a not entirely unfamiliar name, David paused slightly while rubbing his eyes. Then he heard that unmistakable voice.

"Salvation~ Salvation~! Put some spirit into it! Shout louder, so the monsters outside can hear you!" Li Wei waved his hands and shouted along with the fanatical crowd. "Salvation~! That's right, shout together! Maybe the monsters outside will hear your devout prayers, spare you, salvation~! Again, with me!"

After shouting for a while longer, the disorderly crowd's expressions subtly changed, and their voices gradually slowed.

Someone once said: fight magic with magic!

By the same logic, only an equally extreme emotion could defeat another extreme emotion!

Fear against madness—let's see which one won~!

By the end, only Li Wei was still shouting. Clearly, the fear in their hearts had defeated the false faith they had built in less than two days.

Most of the believers looked toward the mist outside the windows, but some looked at Carmody instead.

"Your tongue is sharp, but... that girl died, and that boy and his brother died too! Those sinful, detestable things were kept outside! Why haven't they gone away?" Seeing Li Wei about to destroy the believers' faith with words, Carmody spoke again, steadying their confused hearts. "'The rocks will not hide them, nor will dead trees shelter them'! Why have they not been ended, yet cannot enter here? Tell me!"

Carmody once again quoted a classic line from the Old Testament, explaining its prophecy to the believers and guiding their thoughts.

The next moment, the word "atonement" appeared once more on the lips of the believers who had "come to their senses," even more fervently than before. They were ashamed and angry that Li Wei's words had shaken them.

Some irrational people even wanted to pick up weapons!

David, Ollie, and the others finally got to their feet, realizing that the situation seemed rather serious, and spoke up to calm them down.

The people here had not completely lost their minds yet. After some persuasion, their emotions eased somewhat.

What they did not notice was that the supermarket's light had gradually grown stronger amid their frenzied shouting. Figures in camouflage combat uniforms and gas masks had also appeared around the corner outside.

"No one here is wrong, but haven't you seen the truth yet?" Mrs. Carmody pushed through the crowd again, taking center stage. She spoke to Li Wei in a mocking tone. "You! You still don't understand? You still haven't accepted reality? We are being punished! Why? Because we defied the Lord's will, defied His ancient commandments! Now we..."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Li Wei's smile was practically blooming. Watching people make fools of themselves was really entertaining, especially in a situation like this!

The supermarket glass was knocked hard, interrupting Mrs. Carmody's passionate speech. Everyone looked toward the glass wall in surprise and saw that the thick mist was gone. Bright sunlight shone outside beneath clear, pleasant skies. More than a dozen soldiers in gas masks stood outside watching them, looking like tourists observing monkeys in a zoo enclosure.

"Oh~! Look at the God outside, then think about what you, and all of you, just said. Salvation, wow! Atonement, oh my! Punishment, indeed! Wow! Do you know what I can see on your faces right now? Embarrassment. You know? Embarrassment!!!"

"Say it devoutly one more time. That expression is called embarrassment~!"

Li Wei's whisper rang in the ears of the utterly stunned crowd. How was this any different from adding insult to injury?