What Men, Huh?

"Become a god?"

Feeling the restless plea of the Plague Disciple within him, Ning Xiuyuan's expression darkened.

--The price of taking in the Plague Disciple far exceeded his imagination.

From a certain perspective, the Plague Disciple's transcendent ritual was relatively easy to carry out. After all, destruction was easier than construction.

But after careful consideration, he realized that the Plague Disciple's transcendent ritual was simply a huge pitfall!

Setting aside moral restraints, even if he could overcome the psychological hurdle, could he really succeed in spreading the plague on a large scale?

In theory, perhaps.

However, if he did so, he would inevitably pay a terrible price.

Spreading a plague through the transcendent world would probably alert the transcendents as soon as it infected half a city, after which he would be hunted down as a wanted criminal!

The plague he spread would most likely also be eradicated by all kinds of mysterious and unfathomable transcendent powers.

What about the human world right now?

It did not seem simple either. Leaving aside its technological achievements, the mysterious Foundation alone was not something to provoke.

In that light, the Plague Disciple's transcendent ritual was actually even harder to carry out than the Disease Deceiver's.

This was practically a villain born to oppose the world!

"Phew..."

Ning Xiuyuan exhaled irritably. He stood up and looked around. After a brief moment of thought, he followed his spiritual intuition and walked along the farm's asphalt road toward the human settlement.

--Whether he intended to spread the plague or not, he first had to find a human settlement before making further plans.

Because he was hungry.

The wheat harvest had just ended in July, and Commus Town quickly returned from the bustle of the farming season to its usual calm.

The inn's business had also gradually declined to the point where no customers came through the door.

Indeed, a few little sparrows with gray heads had landed in front of the inn, chirping away. Their shiny black eyes curiously peered inside.

Inside the inn, the young Elisa lay sprawled over the counter, idly scrolling through her phone.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

The sound of knuckles tapping on the counter finally made her look up from her phone. Seeing the visitor, she perked up.

It appeared to be a young man.

He wore a black tracksuit and a hood. His face was covered by a black mask painted with brilliant patterns, and punk motorcycle goggles shielded his eyes. The outfit made him look highly distinctive.

What truly surprised Elisa, however, was the pair of black eyes clearly visible behind those goggles.

Foreigners were rare in Commus Town. At least, she could hardly remember seeing any.

An Asian?

"Hello. Are you looking for a room?"

Elisa stood up and asked somewhat awkwardly, lifting the loose hair from her forehead and tucking it behind her ear.

The visitor shook his head, pointed at his mouth, and held out a thick stack of bills.

Elisa froze, then gestured as she asked, "You can't speak Romanese?"

The visitor obviously could not understand her. He tapped the banknotes on the counter, then pointed upstairs. His meaning was clear: he wanted a room.

Elisa was surprised. He really was a foreigner.

But he dared to travel without knowing Romanese? That was truly impressive!

After gesturing back and forth for a long while, the two of them barely managed to complete the lodging arrangements.

"This is your room. If you need anything, come downstairs and call for me. My name is Elisa. E-li-sa. Got it?"

As she escorted Ning Xiuyuan into the room, Elisa enthusiastically pointed at herself and repeated her name one syllable at a time.

"Elisa!"

Ning Xiuyuan repeated it once to show that he had remembered.

Only then did Elisa nod in satisfaction and turn to leave.

"Clang!"

After closing the door, Ning Xiuyuan breathed a quiet sigh of relief and looked over his room.

The guest room was quite large.

It had a refrigerator, air conditioner, television, microwave, and all the other necessary appliances, along with an attached washroom. The conditions were excellent.

That meant he could finally enjoy modern life for the next few days.

Of course, that all depended on nothing unexpected happening.

Actually, staying at an inn was not a good choice. As far as this world was concerned, he was an undocumented black resident of the blackest kind.

Staying at an inn would undoubtedly increase the risk of exposure and attract the attention of the authorities or even the Foundation.

He might not even pass the initial registration.

But Ning Xiuyuan had decided to give it a try anyway.

He did not know how long he would remain in this world.

The last time he had left, it had been because the lantern had gone out, causing him to enter the darkness and return to the dawn.

If the length of his stay in this world was determined by the candle flame in the lantern, then the lamp oil he carried would be enough for three to five days without a problem.

He did not want to wander the wilderness like a stray dog during those three to five days.

Fortunately, the registration problem he had been most worried about never arose. Perhaps it was because this was a remote rural area with lax administration;

or perhaps money had paved the way, and the innkeeper had seen that communication was difficult and skipped the formalities.

In any case, having a place to stay for the moment was enough to satisfy Ning Xiuyuan.

After inspecting the room and confirming that there were no unpleasant things such as cameras, Ning Xiuyuan picked up the clothes he had just bought and entered the bathroom.

After showering and changing into shorts and a T-shirt, Ning Xiuyuan leaned against the window, admiring the foreign scenery. He popped open a can of soda and carefully brought it to his lips.

As the familiar artificial sweetener and carbon dioxide flooded his mouth, Ning Xiuyuan narrowed his eyes. Every cell in his body relaxed, and his mind drifted, as if he had returned to his days on Earth.

Unfortunately, this Earth-like world was ultimately not Earth.

Ning Xiuyuan was absolutely certain of that.

Because he had not found any Coca-Cola in the supermarket.

The Non-Killing Tax he had collected by using mice and sparrows as phantom thieves was also completely different from the mainstream currency in his memories.

"Ugh!"

Ning Xiuyuan let out a melancholy sigh, drained the soda in one go, then closed the window, drew the curtains, and pulled the covers over his head to sleep.

A little after nine at night, Ning Xiuyuan woke up.

He did not turn on the lights. He ate a little in the dark, opened the window, and jumped down from the second floor barefoot.

Before his feet touched the ground, a streak of black radiance blossomed between them like a ghostly vine. It spread up along his legs, and as the strands intertwined, it transformed into a full-body Batman suit.

"Smack!"

He landed in the standard three-point superhero pose. A flock of bats flew overhead and scattered in all directions.

Ning Xiuyuan raised his face, savoring the Leap of Faith. He felt a little regretful that he could not transform into an Iron Man suit—and even more regretful that no one had seen it.

What men, huh!

Under the cover of night, Commus Town seemed exceptionally quiet. Only the streetlamps made the town appear even darker.

Still, even a sparrow had all its vital organs.

In the center of town, a nightclub was ablaze with lights.

Ning Xiuyuan stood quietly in the darkness, patiently waiting for his prey to appear.

Patience paid off.

Around eleven, several middle-aged men, drunk to the point of swaying, stumbled out with their arms around one another's shoulders.

The group walked together for a while before splitting up.

Ning Xiuyuan randomly chose one of them and followed him, simultaneously beginning to spread the plague in an attempt to infect him alone.

But the moment the thought arose, a powerful and bizarre notion exploded in his mind.

"No, I can't do this. This is blasphemy against the gods. This is the work of the devil. It can never be forgiven!"

Ning Xiuyuan's face suddenly went pale.

--It was the remnant of the Doctrine! The mental imprint of the Plague Disciple's former owner was stopping him from spreading the plague.

Damn it!

Ning Xiuyuan had a feeling that if he forcibly spread the plague, this mental imprint would inevitably become completely berserk.

He would have to fight it to the death.

"Hss—" Ning Xiuyuan took a deep breath and cursed under his breath, "Can't even rest in peace after dying!"

With a thought, he stepped forward and struck the man unconscious with a hand chop. The drunk was already running on little more than instinct.

Ning Xiuyuan then dragged him into the tall grass by the roadside. A mouse scurried out and urinated on his mouth.

Ning Xiuyuan could clearly sense that the plague he had spread to the mouse had indirectly entered the drunk's body.

This time, the Doctrine's mental imprint did not come out to cause trouble.

Ning Xiuyuan tried strengthening the plague's reproduction rate inside the drunk's body, and the Doctrine's mental imprint remained calm.

"Heh, dead things are dead things after all!"

Ning Xiuyuan sneered. As he felt the plague rapidly spread throughout the drunk's body, he carefully observed the man's condition.

He needed to find a strain of plague with high transmissibility and low mortality among the plagues he could access.

After weighing all his options, this was the only solution he could temporarily find.

It was also the fundamental reason he had chosen to take the risk in the middle of the night.

As the virus multiplied and the alcohol catalyzed it, the drunk's complexion grew increasingly awful, and his breathing became more and more labored. He was clearly about to kick the bucket.

At the same time, Ning Xiuyuan felt the air growing sweeter and sweeter, while the Plague Disciple's trait within him grew increasingly active.

This activity was not restlessness.

It was a positive kind of activity.

Ning Xiuyuan could even clearly feel his power increasing. It was pitifully insignificant, but it was still increasing.

The sensation intoxicated Ning Xiuyuan.

After a while, Ning Xiuyuan sighed and reached into the void.

The viruses within the drunk's body instantly died.

With the viruses' deaths, the power Ning Xiuyuan had gained instantly fell back, and the air grew hot and dry, making his entire body uncomfortable.

However, Ning Xiuyuan could endure his discomfort. The drunk could not endure the discomfort in his body.

The viruses had already caused severe damage to his body!

Seeing this, Ning Xiuyuan did not panic. He raised a finger and directly carried out a deception on the failing organs.

Sorry, I'm stuck on the next part. There'll be another update later, very late, so don't wait.