Dark Humor

Dave Sager was from an unnamed town near Pato City. His parents were ordinary merchants with a very average family background. He himself had never been found to have any extraordinary talents or abilities. If things had gone according to the normal trajectory, Dave probably wouldn't have achieved much in his life, let alone have the opportunity to study at a prestigious academy like Pading Knight Academy, which was famous far and wide (though not too far) and of considerable importance (relative to those village-level counterparts).

All of this did not come easily...

Thirteen years ago, a plague descended on the town of fewer than three hundred households without warning. In less than two days, almost everyone died in a ritualistically strict order. Their bodies were incorruptible and immortal, but their faces wore a strange smile, as if experiencing the ultimate pleasure in pain.

Although the Holy Church Union sent people as quickly as possible, it was all in vain. It is said that when the leading high priest arrived, there were still dozens of living people in the town, but they all simultaneously exploded... expired the moment he stepped into the town's boundaries.

Of the two hundred and ninety-six people in the town, none survived except for one boy who had just turned seven.

That child was Dave Sager...

Found in a haystack, he followed the advance team back to the Holy Church Union headquarters, the City of Light located in the northeast of the continent, downstream of the Golden Radiance River, and after some twists and turns, he was eventually sent to the Pato City branch of the Holy Church Union.

"Take good care of this child, even if he is not outstanding." This was what a certain regional bishop personally instructed the high priest of Pato City: "As the only survivor, he carries the hopes and entrustments of two hundred and ninety-five deceased people."

In this way, Dave grew up year by year in the United Church and was baptized at the age of fourteen, becoming a believer in the Heimall, God of Justice and Courage.

"The Holy Church Union..." Mo Tan whispered, repeating the relevant content he had learned from Mag's notes: "It is an organization formed by the union of believers and sects of many deities such as Dawn Goddess Pokesi, Heimall, God of Justice and Courage, Serila, Goddess of Harvest, Tisu, the Sun God, and Elen, the God of Creation, and is also one of the most influential existences in the northeast of the continent. Heh, I wonder how those so-called 'gods' view this deformed and bloated alliance?"

However, although Mo Tan seemed to be casually saying some irrelevant words, he had actually noticed an unusually discordant place, which could be said to be glaringly discordant, at least to him.

"A believer of the God of Justice and Courage?" He rolled his eyes: "If that young man who can casually kill his companions can believe in him, then I can be considered a good person with upright values from any point of view."

It seems that Mo Tan also knows that his values are not very upright at the moment...

However, he wasn't joking just now. Although the Mo Tan character has been labeled as an 'Unbeliever' by the system and cannot believe in any deity, the Chaotic Neutral Hei Fan has already become a believer of Dawn Goddess Pokesi and was scammed out of 20 copper coins.

Mo Tan still clearly remembers the two system prompts:

[Do you agree to become a believer of Dawn Goddess Pokesi?]

[Reminder: Betraying your faith will incur a huge price]

No matter what the so-called price is specifically, only one thing can be confirmed: it's definitely not good!

Although no one has told him what the so-called 'betrayal of faith' is like, this does not prevent Mo Tan from making some speculations.

First of all, there is the direct one, which is the easiest to explain. For example, someone suddenly goes crazy and curses the deity they believe in, smashes the church, tramples on the statue, chops the priest, and plays with the saintess. It is definitely the taboo of taboos, and the price will be huge, such as being struck by lightning directly.

Of course, if you are a lancer, then you may be struck by lightning in any case, um, after all, the weapon is long, sharp, and conductive, not because of some unfounded superstition like luck value... right...?

Then there is the indirect one. Mo Tan thinks that there will also be a situation where two sects with good relations with each other may have some internal circulation, and then derive a result similar to a peaceful breakup. The probability of this situation occurring is very low, but it is definitely not zero. Assuming that the relationship between the two deities (regardless of the believers) is really good, then it is very likely that no price will be paid.

Of course, this assumption does not apply to Dave, based on Mo Tan's third and very confident speculation.

Indirect and direct betrayal!

The division of player positions in the game [Innocent World] is very extreme, and this extreme should also apply to the NPCs inside, including the deities. Looking at the information, Heimall, God of Justice and Courage, looks like a Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good boss, and Dave's actions are absolutely impossible to meet the standards of his believers, so here comes the question...

Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about excavators.

Would any deity allow a contradiction between their believers and their own values?

Absolutely impossible!

No matter how tolerant or honest Heimall is, Dave's actions have definitely violated a large number of rules in his doctrine!

"This is very interesting~" A wicked smile appeared on the corner of Mo Tan's mouth, and he subconsciously tapped the short table in front of him, savoring the situation: "I originally thought that after protecting the witness, I would collect some physical evidence and everything would be complete, but things don't seem to be that simple..."

As if inspired by some incredible motivation, Mo Tan quickly read all of Dave Sager's information with an extremely rare serious attitude in the next ten minutes, and then began to close his eyes and meditate.

After a long while, he opened his eyes, restrained his slightly malicious smile, casually pushed the information aside, and picked up the small black leather bag beside him, examining it for a while.

[Advanced Poison Kit]

Quality: Excellent

Weight: 1.3kg

Contains: Paralysis Poison *1, Injury Poison *1, Slow Poison *1, Silence Poison *1, Purified Fly Agaric *1, Colorful Lizard Venom *1

[Note: A hatchet is essential for home travel and murder, not this little thing. They will only be used to do more technical things! ...What! How much!? Okay, I dare to poison the chicken god at the entrance of the village in the dark for you to see!]

"Ugh..." Mo Tan shook his head, trying to forget some of the things he experienced in Riverwood when playing a certain old game, and then clicked on the hyperlink of the poison kit and took a look, nodding with satisfaction.

Four types of status reduction poisons, and two bottles of highly potent toxins. It seems that the bald man with a not-so-bright head didn't play tricks on this matter.

Here, it is necessary for us to let Baud breathe a sigh of relief. If he really had the mentality of 'this kid might not be able to tell' and gave Mo Tan some inferior goods, then someone who can see the attributes of the items would definitely use this as an excuse to extort him again in a brutal and inhumane manner.

Humming a little tune, Mo Tan put away the poison kit and began to continue counting his spoils, which were also the few pages of handwritten paper that Baud had just finished writing not long ago.

It records some skills that apprentice-level thieves can master. In the world of martial arts, it is a low-end martial arts secret book. In the game, it is a skill book that will not be consumed.

Mo Tan is more interested in two skills~

[Backhand Spin Thrust]

Cunning School Active Skill

Mastery Requirements: Cunning School Level 3, Dexterity 10

Consumption/Restriction: 60 Agility Points, Dual Wield Melee Weapons

Effect: Blocks a physical attack from the front, reducing the damage it deals to you by 50%, and performs a spin thrust with an amplitude of no less than 90° at an extremely fast speed, gaining a theoretical double bonus to inertial impact force, and dealing an additional 20% damage. Cooldown time: 1 minute

[Note: Swing your arms around and stab it! White blade in, red blade out! Red blade in again, red blade out again!]

The cost performance of this skill is very good. It combines the two characteristics of blocking and counterattack, and the cooldown time is very short, which is still very useful for cunning-type professions that are relatively weak in head-on confrontation.

Then there's...

[Kidney Shot]

Rogue School Active Skill

Mastery Requirements: Rogue School Lv.5, Agility 7

Consumption/Restrictions: 10 Cunning, Keen Eyesight, a certain degree of dynamic vision, ruthless execution

Effect: Deliver a fierce blow to the target's (humanoid only) kidneys with your elbow or knee, 100% interrupting one spell cast. If your Strength is more than one-third of the target's Constitution, there is a high chance of triggering a 1-5 second stun. There is a certain chance to cause irreversible damage to NPCs and generate a large amount of aggro. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

[Note: Hmm... kidneys... I love kidneys...]

This skill can be said to be the most suitable skill for Mo Tan (Chaotic Neutral) so far. Although the seemingly not-so-high mastery requirements hide the 'keen eyesight' and 'a certain degree of dynamic vision,' which are easier said than done, and there is a cooldown time of up to ten minutes, he still particularly, particularly likes this skill!

After all, the Kidney Shot skill not only has low consumption and high returns, but it is also particularly insidious!

The other three skills are [Throat Slit], [Escape], and [Swift Thrust]. Mo Tan automatically learned the first one when he obtained the Thief profession. The other two will not be mentioned here for now, and will be described when they are used for the first time, after all, space is limited.

After finishing all this, Mo Tan didn't stay any longer. He returned the information to Boulder, who had a gloomy face, and left immediately. After all, online time is precious, and he still has many things to do.

It is necessary to mention here that the reason why Dave's personal information is available here is because his own deeds are special. Whether it is being the only survivor of a town with nearly three hundred people, or being the only member of the Warm Sun Squad who returned alive to Pato City, they all have certain intelligence value, so the Thieves' Guild has this information that Mo Tan just read available.

As for other characters who do not have intelligence value, they cannot be found here... After all, although [Innocent World] is a game, there are no problems with its logic and rationality. If you want to check on the old Wang next door, unless he had a nickname like 'Illusion Killer' back in the day, there will definitely be no relevant information...

A moment later, Mo Tan appeared in front of the Holy Church Joint Chapel in the central district of Pato City. He looked left and right for a long time, clicked his tongue, and raised his leg to step inside.

"Please wait!" Two low-level Holy Church Warriors in light armor immediately blocked his path. One of them stared warily at Mo Tan's harmless and even somewhat elegant face at the moment, and asked, "What do you want to do?"

Mo Tan blinked, took another step forward, pointed at his nose in surprise, and said, "Me?"

"That's right." The other party nodded, his hand already on the hilt of his sword, and asked in a low voice, "Who are you?"

Mo Tan scratched his head with a wry smile: "I'm just here to worship."

"Worship?!" The Holy Church Warrior's eyes widened like copper bells: "Which deity are you a believer of?"

"Can't you worship if you're not a believer?" Mo Tan looked flustered and quickly took two steps back: "Sorry, sorry, no one told me there was such a rule..."

"It's not..." Another man, who looked a few years older, shook his head with a somewhat awkward expression: "It's not that non-believers can't worship."

A trace of playfulness flashed in Mo Tan's eyes, but his face seemed quite confused: "Oh? Then why did you two look so scary just now? I thought I was going to be arrested."

He was asking knowingly. Their sudden vigilance was naturally due to Mo Tan's 'Unbeliever' talent. To put it bluntly, in the eyes of these devout believers, this guy, who was completely insulated from faith, didn't look like a good person!

Heaven knows if this guy was carrying a stack of forbidden spell scrolls, ready to tear them up inside and play around, causing a terrorist attack or something!

But...

You can't refuse someone entry on the grounds that 'you don't look right, I think you're here to cause trouble,' right?

"Anyone can worship." The Holy Church Warrior who spoke first lost his momentum all of a sudden, and stammered: "But..."

"But you don't want me to go in?" Mo Tan's face instantly darkened, and he said with a sneer: "Not because of the rules, and with absolutely no reason, just because of your personal mood or thoughts, you blocked me at the door, and... held your weapon?"

The young man's hand immediately recoiled from his sword as if he had been electrocuted, his face flushed red, and he couldn't say a word.

"This gentleman!" The other, more mature one, quickly tried to smooth things over: "We didn't..."

"Didn't what?!" Mo Tan's gaze was like a viper, staring at him with a chillingly brutal expression: "Didn't do that? Not what I thought? You were also among those who were preparing to stop me just now, right?"

This one also choked immediately...

Mo Tan paused slightly, then suddenly spread his arms and looked around at the statues of the gods, then turned his head to face the two and shouted: "Which deity do you believe in? Who gave you the qualifications to refuse potential believers at the door? And even prepare to draw your swords against him!!"

Thump!!

The two Holy Church Warriors' legs went weak, and they knelt on the ground at the same time...

Chapter 24: End