I'll Protect Your Lives!

Li Liang had a thousand curses he wanted to spit out.

But he didn't dare.

This Xuanzang was practically insane.

He wore a compassionate smile while "stabbing people in the back."

What kind of monk was that?

He could only say that Xuanzang was still young, lacking in experience and worldly knowledge.

There were actually plenty of monks like him.

"Oh, he's still tied up. Benefactor Zhou, untie him," Tang Luo said, looking at Zhou Zhenguo as if he'd just realized.

Zhou Zhenguo thought for a moment, then decided to untie Li Liang ahead of schedule.

Li Liang backed away several steps, then dropped to the ground. His face was a mix of anger and terror.

"Look, he still hasn't fought back. That proves he's the real deal," Tang Luo said.

Even Li Liang himself felt like he was about to vomit blood at that remark.

What kind of standard was that?

Weren't they worried he might be a patient actor who was biding his time?

Was there something wrong with this monk's brain?

Tang Luo wasn't sure whether Li Liang was the real one, or whether he was Jack the Ripper in disguise.

He had no way of telling which of the two, Li Liang or Zhou Zhenguo, was lying.

He could only judge by whether he gained merit. That suggested Li Liang probably wasn't Jack the Ripper.

Most importantly, Tang Luo simply didn't care whether "Little Li" was Jack the Ripper in disguise.

If he wasn't, then saving a life was better than building a seven-story pagoda. Everyone would be happy.

If he was...

"Your life is safe with me, Benefactor Li. I believe you're not Jack the Ripper, but if—"

Tang Luo stepped forward and looked down at Li Liang. "If you really are that Ripper and have deceived me, don't blame me for smashing your head in and vanquishing evil!"

If he was, all the better.

He'd come right to them, saving Tang Luo the trouble of searching. One punch and he'd be dead.

"I'm not! I didn't! Don't make things up!"

Li Liang rattled off a three-part denial.

When the monk Xuanzang had spoken to him earlier, he'd seemed even more terrifying than when Zhou Zhenguo had smashed his head.

Weren't monks supposed to be compassionate and guide people toward goodness?

Wouldn't smashing someone's head violate the prohibition against killing?

The world was going downhill. People's hearts were no longer what they used to be.

Monks these days didn't just eat meat and take wives; they were even breaking the prohibition against killing.

He couldn't afford to offend them!

"Don't panic, Benefactor. I believe you. I'm just making things clear in advance."

Tang Luo said, "Benefactor Zhou, what do you think? If Benefactor Li really is Jack the Ripper, I'll take full responsibility for the consequences."

"Uncle Zhou, could you have been tricked by some kind of illusion?" Xiao Chu asked.

He didn't think Li Liang was necessarily an impostor.

There was no other reason. He was just too timid.

He didn't seem at all like the dangerous BOSS everyone imagined Jack the Ripper to be.

High schooler Xiao Zhou thought of another possibility. "Maybe Jack the Ripper has some kind of illusion ability that made Uncle Zhou hallucinate, so we'd turn on each other."

"It's unlikely."

Before Zhou Zhenguo could reply, Tang Luo offered a different opinion. "If the Ripper can make people hallucinate and wants to kill us, why go to all the trouble of making us kill one another? Wouldn't it be simpler to use an illusion and then kill us?"

Everyone, including Zhou Zhenguo, fell silent.

Was this monk split-personality or something?

"Could it be that Jack the Ripper can only use illusions, but can't kill?" Xiao Chu frowned.

"That's unlikely, too."

Tang Luo remained unconvinced. "If he's Jack the Ripper, but can only use illusions and can't kill, how likely does that seem? If that were the case, the mission would be better suited to finding Freddy."

Zhou Zhenguo nodded.

"Whose side are you on, Monk?" Xiao Chu was starting to lose it.

Tang Luo had rescued Li Liang, but didn't think Zhou Zhenguo was "the problem" either.

The image of a "great master" that had just formed in everyone's minds vanished at once.

After breaking through, Tang Luo had become a monk again.

Strictly speaking, "monk" had originally been an honorific. Only those with a certain degree of "qualification," worthy of teaching others, could be called monks.

People weren't so particular about that anymore.

"Amitabha. I'm only here to save people."

"..."

"...Forget it," Zhou Zhenguo said. "In that case, I won't kill him. But we'll go our separate ways and complete our own missions."

Everyone except Tang Luo was taken aback by his decision.

Were they really splitting up?

Shouldn't they stick together and overcome the odds?

Splitting up like this was quite common in the God and Demon Game.

The God and Demon Game had no party system or anything like that. Everyone was a lone wolf. If they disagreed during a mission, what could they do?

Naturally, they split up.

Whether to work together on a mission was entirely up to each God and Demon Walker.

Sometimes, a team didn't necessarily help with completing the mission.

Once, Zhou Zhenguo had encountered a ruthless player who had practically completed the mission alone.

The other God and Demon Walkers had just stood around doing nothing.

However, those who did nothing during a mission had a hard time earning rewards once it was over.

At least it didn't count as a "failure."

This time, Zhou Zhenguo wasn't looking to be that ruthless player.

He just didn't want to get dragged down.

There was definitely something wrong with Li Liang!

Zhou Zhenguo wasn't willing to keep a ticking time bomb at his side.

Leaving—or pretending to leave—was the best choice.

With that, Zhou Zhenguo turned and left the church. It was already daytime outside.

The daylight didn't hinder him at all.

As for Xiao Chu and the others, they hesitated for a while, then decided it was better to follow Zhou Zhenguo. By the time they rushed outside, he was nowhere to be seen.

They could only return dejectedly.

Every so often, they glanced at Li Liang with clear displeasure.

"Rest assured, Benefactors. I'll protect your lives!"

Tang Luo declared, taking responsibility for everyone.

Tang Luo hadn't expected Zhou Zhenguo to suggest splitting up.

But he didn't care. He was used to people going their separate ways. It was no big deal.

"..."

A few hours later.

Xiao Chu and the others wore grave expressions.

"So we're not in London after all," Xiao Chu said.

After separating from Zhou Zhenguo, the group had left the church and investigated the area. They discovered that this wasn't the Victorian-era London they'd assumed it was.

Instead, it was a Western city that was similar, but not quite the same.

Most of its residents were white Europeans and Americans, and their language and writing were similar to English, but not quite the same.

Communication, in fact, wasn't a problem at all.

As God and Demon Walkers, they automatically gained the ability to understand the language and writing when they entered a mission world.

Tang Luo and the others walked down the street, looking a little out of place, but not attracting much attention.

Horse-drawn carriages were the main means of transportation.

Black smoke poured from factory chimneys, and the sky was shrouded in gray.

Since this wasn't London, everyone's mental archives of information about Jack the Ripper—whose relevance they couldn't be sure of anyway—were now useless.

Their most urgent task was to figure out what direction to take.

They'd never find Jack the Ripper by wandering around like headless flies.

Li Liang huddled on a bench in a roadside park, his face pale and his expression dazed.

Aside from his injuries, he'd realized that something had probably happened to him.

Otherwise, Zhou Zhenguo wouldn't have suddenly pulled a stunt like that.

"I should've known better than to go looking for trouble," Li Liang lamented to himself.

According to the rules of horror movies, going to the bathroom alone in the middle of the night was a classic way to get yourself killed.

How had that not occurred to him?

It wasn't really his fault, though.

Even Zhou Zhenguo hadn't expected danger to come so soon. Even a movie that was only one or two hours long would at least build up to it a little.

"The master's back."

"Master..."

While Li Liang was lamenting, Xiao Chu and the others called out and took a few steps toward Tang Luo.

Tang Luo walked into the small park by the street with several newspapers in his hand and passed them around.

Jack the Ripper Kills Again!

Police Receive a Flood of Taunting Letters!

Scotland Yard's Incompetence!

The newspapers used huge headlines to grab readers' attention as they reported on Jack the Ripper.

This "legendary killer" had already made a name for himself in the small city. In just two months, he'd killed twenty-five people.

The number of cases he'd committed had already surpassed that of the historical Ripper.

And his victims weren't limited to women like prostitutes.

His victims included men and women, young and old. He appeared to kill completely at random.

He was utterly deranged.

Every victim had been disemboweled by the Ripper.

In stark contrast to the crazed Jack the Ripper stood Scotland Yard, which had yet to catch him.

It was facing a storm of criticism.

After reading the reports, everyone looked uneasy.

This Jack the Ripper was far more dangerous than they'd imagined.

"What do we do now?" Xiao Chu asked.

They'd arrived in a completely unfamiliar place and had to hunt down a serial killer who had terrified an entire city.

For young people who hadn't yet been battered by life, it was an enormous challenge.

After Zhou Zhenguo left, Tang Luo had naturally become the one everyone looked to for guidance.

"Let's eat first. Aren't you hungry?" Tang Luo said.

"..."

At Tang Luo's reminder, everyone realized just how hungry they were.

The group stood up and was about to leave when Xiao Chu remembered something and asked, "Master, do we have any money? We can't just eat for free."

Their only perk as God and Demon Walkers was understanding the local language and writing.

The "God and Demon" didn't provide money to make things easier for the God and Demon Walkers.

"We have money. I met two kind people on the way and begged alms from them." Tang Luo took a wallet from his pants pocket and opened it. Inside was a thick wad of bills.

"Begged alms?"

Xiao Chu and the others looked at Tang Luo's smile and furrowed their brows, sensing that things weren't so simple.

But now clearly wasn't the time to question him.

In a nearby alley.

Two pickpockets lay on the ground, unable to get up, their faces contorted with pain as they shivered.

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