Evil Taste

Sager Dave was born in an unknown town somewhere around Pato City. Both his parents were ordinary merchants, and his family was quite average. No one had ever discovered any extraordinary talent or ability in him, either. Following the normal course of events, Dave might never have accomplished much in his entire life, let alone had the chance to attend a prestigious institution like Pading Knight Academy, famous both near and far—or at least compared with its village-level counterparts.

None of this had come easily...

Thirteen years ago, a plague descended without warning upon that small town, which had fewer than three hundred households in total. In less than two days, almost everyone had died in a ritualistically precise order. Their bodies neither decayed nor rotted, while their faces wore eerie smiles, as though they were experiencing the ultimate pleasure amid their pain.

Although the Holy Church Coalition had sent people as quickly as possible, everything ultimately proved futile. It was said that when the high priest leading the group arrived, there had still been dozens of survivors in the town. Yet the instant he stepped within its boundaries, they all exploded... and died on the spot at the same time.

Of the town's 296 inhabitants, not a single one survived except for a boy who had just turned seven.

That child was Dave Sager...

He was found in a haystack and returned with the advance team to the Holy Church Coalition's headquarters, the City of Light downstream from the Golden Radiance River in the northeastern part of the continent. After being passed around for a while, he was eventually sent to the Holy Church Coalition's branch in Pato City.

"Take good care of this child, even if he isn't particularly outstanding." This was what a regional archbishop had personally instructed the chief priest of Pato City back then. "As the sole survivor, he carries the hopes and expectations of 295 dead people."

And so, Dave grew up in the United Church year after year. At fourteen, he was baptized and naturally became a member of the faith, believing in Heimel, God of Justice and Courage.

"The Holy Church Coalition..." Mo Tan repeated in a low voice what he had learned from Mag's notes. "It was formed by the believers and sects of many gods, including Dawn Goddess Pokesi, God of Justice and Courage Heimel, Goddess of Harvest Serila, Tisu the Sun God, and Elen, the God of Creation. It is also one of the most influential powers in the northeastern part of the continent. Heh, I wonder what those so-called 'gods' think of this malformed, bloated alliance?"

Although Mo Tan appeared to be casually making some harmless remarks, he had actually noticed something deeply out of place—something so glaringly wrong that it was almost painful to look at, at least to him.

"A believer of the God of Justice and Courage?" He rolled his eyes. "If that young man, who can casually slaughter his own companions, can believe in him, then from any angle, I can be considered a good person with perfectly proper values."

It seemed Mo Tan knew that his values were rather crooked at the moment...

But he had not been joking just now. Although the character Tan Mo had been tagged by the system as an "Unbeliever" and could not worship any god, Hei Fan in the Absolute Neutral state had long since become a believer of Dawn Goddess Pokesi—and had even been swindled out of twenty copper coins.

Mo Tan still clearly remembered the two system notifications:

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

Reminder: Betraying your faith will incur a tremendous price.

Whatever that so-called price actually was, there was only one thing he could be sure of: it definitely wouldn't be anything good!

Although no one had ever told him exactly what kind of suicidal behavior "betraying one's faith" entailed, that did not stop Mo Tan from making his own guesses.

First was the direct kind. This was the easiest to explain. For example, if someone suddenly went insane, cursed the god they worshipped, smashed up the church, trampled on divine statues, hacked priests to pieces, or toyed with saintesses, that would absolutely be the ultimate taboo. The price they paid would surely be enormous—being struck by lightning, for instance.

Of course, if you were a spearman, you could be struck by lightning under any circumstances. Yes, after all, your weapon was long, sharp, and conductive. It definitely had nothing to do with some baseless superstition about luck... right...?

Then there was the indirect kind. Mo Tan felt that a situation like this might also occur: two sects with good relations might have some internal exchange, eventually resulting in something resembling an amicable breakup. The odds of this happening were very low, but they were not zero. Assuming the two gods genuinely had a good relationship—regardless of their believers—they might not impose any price at all.

Of course, this assumption did not apply to Dave. Possession was Mo Tan's third highly confident guess.

An indirect yet obvious betrayal!

The game Innocent World divided player alignments in an extremely rigid manner. That extremity should apply to the NPCs inside it as well, including the gods. According to the information he had, Heimel, God of Justice and Courage, seemed very much like a major figure on the Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good side. Dave's actions were absolutely impossible to reconcile with the standards of his faith. So, the question was...

Don't worry. I have no intention of discussing excavators.

Would any god allow a believer's values to conflict with their own?

Absolutely not!

No matter how tolerant Heimel was, or how honest and simple-minded a god he might be, Dave's actions had certainly violated a great many rules of his doctrine!

"This is getting interesting~" A sinister smile appeared at the corner of Mo Tan's mouth. He subconsciously tapped lightly on the low table before him and said with relish, "I originally thought that once I had secured the witness, collecting some physical evidence would finish the job. But things don't seem to be that simple..."

As though some incredible motivation had been stirred within him, Mo Tan spent the next ten minutes rapidly reading through all of Dave Sager's records with an unusually serious attitude. Then he closed his eyes and began to ponder.

After a while, he opened his eyes and slightly reined in his malicious smile. He casually pushed the records aside, picked up the small black leather pouch beside him, and examined it for a while.

Advanced Poison Kit

Quality: Excellent

Weight: 1.3 kg

Contents: Paralysis Poison ×1, Wounding Poison ×1, Slowing Poison ×1, Silence Poison ×1, Refined Fly Toxin ×1, Rainbow Lizard Rot Poison ×1

Remark: For staying home, traveling, and killing people to silence them, a hatchet is essential—not this little toy. These are only used for more technical jobs!... What!? How much!? Fine, even if it's the Chicken God at the village entrance, I'll poison it to death in the dark and show you!

"Mm..." Mo Tan shook his head, trying to forget some of the things he had experienced in a certain old game while visiting Riverwood, then opened the Advanced Poison Kit's hyperlink and took a look. He nodded in satisfaction.

Four poisons that inflicted status reductions, plus two bottles of highly potent toxic damage agents. It seemed that the not-so-bright bald man had not tried to pull anything clever this time.

Here, we should give Baodesong a moment of relief. If he had really given Mo Tan some shoddy goods while thinking, This kid probably won't be able to tell, then the person who could see item attributes would absolutely have used that as an excuse to extort him mercilessly all over again.

Humming a little tune, Mo Tan put away the Advanced Poison Kit and began sorting through the rest of his spoils: the several pages of handwritten notes that Baode had only just finished writing.

The notes recorded some techniques that an apprentice-level thief could master. In a wuxia world, they would be low-level martial arts manuals; in a game, they were skill books that were not consumed upon use.

There were two skills Mo Tan was particularly interested in~

Backhand Spin Thrust

Cunning School Active Skill

Requirements: Cunning School Level 3, Agility 10

Cost/Restrictions: 60 Perception, dual-wielded melee weapons

Effect: Block one physical attack from the front, reducing the damage it deals to you by 50%. Then, at extremely high speed, perform a turning stab with an arc of no less than 90 degrees, gaining a theoretical double bonus to inertial impact and dealing an additional 20% damage. Cooldown: 1 minute.

Remark: Swing your arm in a full circle and ram it in! White blade in, red blade out! Red blade in, red blade out!

This skill offered excellent value, combining the traits of blocking and counterattacking. Its cooldown was also very short, making it quite useful for Cunning-type classes that were at a disadvantage in a head-on fight.

And then there was...

Kidney Shot

Cunning School Active Skill

Requirements: Cunning School Level 5, Agility 7

Cost/Restrictions: 10 Perception, sharp eyes, a certain degree of dynamic vision, and sufficient viciousness

Effect: Strike the target's kidneys—humanoid creatures only—with an elbow, knee, or similar body part. This interrupts one spellcast with 100% certainty. If your Strength is higher than one-third of the target's Constitution, there is an extremely high chance of triggering a 1–5 second unconscious state. There is a certain chance of causing irreversible damage to an NPC and generating a large amount of aggro. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Remark: Mm... kidneys... I love kidneys...

This could be said to be the skill that Mo Tan, in the Chaotic Neutral state, had found most suited to him so far. Although hidden behind its seemingly modest requirements were the two conditions of "sharp eyes" and "a certain degree of dynamic vision," both of which were easier said than done, and although it had a cooldown of ten full minutes, he still liked this skill particularly, particularly much~

After all, Kidney Shot not only had a low cost and high returns, but was also especially underhanded!

The three other skills were Gouge Throat, Escape, and Swift Thrust. Mo Tan had automatically learned the first when he acquired the thief class, while the other two would not be discussed for now. They would be described when they were used for the first time, since space was limited.

After finishing all this, Mo Tan did not linger. He returned the records to the grim-faced Baode and immediately left. Online time was precious, after all, and he still had plenty of things to do.

It was worth mentioning that the reason Dave's personal records were available here was that his circumstances were unusual. Whether as the sole survivor of a town of nearly three hundred people or as the only member of the Warm Sun Squad to return alive to Pato City, his story had some intelligence value. That was why the Thieves' Guild had the records Mo Tan had just read available.

As for other people with no intelligence value, there was no information on them here... After all, although Innocent World was a game, its logic and rationality were perfectly sound. If you wanted to look up some old Wang who lived next door, unless he had once made a name for himself in the martial world with a nickname like "Heartthrob..." I mean, "Phantom Killer," there definitely wouldn't be any relevant records...

A short while later, Mo Tan appeared before the entrance to the Holy Church Coalition chapel in Pato City's central district. He looked left and right for quite some time, smacked his lips, then stepped inside.

"Please wait!" Two low-ranking Holy Church warriors in light armor blocked his path at once. One of them stared warily at Mo Tan's harmless—and even somewhat refined and handsome—face and asked, "What are you here for?"

Mo Tan blinked, took another step forward, then pointed at his own nose in surprise. "Me?"

"That's right." The other man nodded. His hand had already moved to the hilt at his waist as he demanded in a low voice, "Who are you?"

Mo Tan scratched his hair with a bitter smile. "I just came here to pay my respects."

"Pay your respects?!" The Holy Church warrior's eyes widened like bells. "Which god do you worship?"

"Can't unbelievers pay their respects?" Mo Tan looked flustered and hurriedly took two steps back. "Sorry, sorry! No one told me there was a rule like that..."

"That's not..." The other man, who looked a few years older, shook his head awkwardly. "It's not that unbelievers can't pay their respects."

A hint of amusement flashed through Mo Tan's eyes, but his face looked quite confused. "Oh? Then why did you both look so frightening just now? You made me think I was about to be arrested."

He was asking the obvious. Their sudden wariness was naturally caused by Mo Tan's "Unbeliever" talent. To put it plainly, in the eyes of these devout believers, someone whose entire body seemed insulated against faith did not look like a good person!

Who knew whether this fellow had come carrying a stack of forbidden-spell scrolls, planning to tear them up inside and launch a terrorist attack or something?

But...

They couldn't exactly bar him from entering on the grounds of "Your vibe is suspicious, and I think you're here to cause trouble," could they?

"Anyone can pay their respects." The Holy Church warrior who had spoken first suddenly lost all his momentum and stammered, "But..."

"But you don't want me to go inside?" Mo Tan's expression instantly darkened. He sneered, "Not because of any rule, and with no reason whatsoever—simply because of your personal feelings or thoughts, you stopped me at the entrance and even... put your hand on your weapon?"

The young man's hand sprang away from his sword as though electrocuted. His face flushed red, and he could not say a word.

"Sir!" The older man hurriedly tried to smooth things over. "We didn't..."

"Didn't what?!" Mo Tan's gaze fixed on him like a venomous snake, carrying a terrifying brutality. "Didn't do that? Didn't mean what I think you meant? You were also one of the people who tried to stop me just now, weren't you?"

This man was immediately rendered speechless as well...

Mo Tan paused briefly, then suddenly spread his arms and looked around at the divine statues surrounding them. He turned back and shouted at the two men, "Which god do you worship? Who gave you the authority to turn potential believers away from the door? You were even preparing to draw your swords on him!!"

Clang!!

The legs of both Holy Church warriors went weak, and they dropped to their knees at the same time...