Commissioner and Twilight

"A homicide occurred at Coal Mine No. 13 in the Barrier District. Two foremen and the mine manager were killed, and all valuables were looted."

The branch manager, who was carefully examining a master-crafted pocket watch from the Western District, looked up with an impatient expression at the secretary who had interrupted his afternoon rest.

"If this is merely a trivial matter, you may prepare to hand over your duties to Human Resources."

The secretary hung her head, looking uneasy.

"According to reports from the security team there, the perpetrators are highly likely to be the escaped Miss Feng and the test subject from Experimental Site No. 7."

"And so what! Did the site security catch them?"

"No, but they suspect that Miss Feng has likely taken the test subject and fled to the territory of those losers."

Hearing this, the manager's irritable mood calmed slightly, and he set down the precious pocket watch.

"That police superintendent surnamed Tian has deeper ties with those losers; he would have anticipated this. We pay so much in taxes to support those officers; it is high time they did some work."

"Following your instructions, we have also applied to the manager for tracker authorization."

The manager sat up straight at once, his expression becoming serious involuntarily, his waist subconsciously hunching forward.

"What did the manager say?"

"This is his approval notice."

The secretary walked forward quickly and handed an envelope to the manager.

Upon opening the envelope and seeing the contents of the notice, the manager's face turned somewhat ugly, then shifted to a look of relief, but he ultimately took a deep breath and said in a low voice.

"Bring Bai Qiulin to me."

Soon, a thin young man with a disheveled appearance, wearing a wrinkled shirt and casual trousers, arrived in the manager's private lounge.

The manager made no effort to hide his dislike when looking at the young man; he kept a cold, hard face and slapped another sheet of paper from the envelope onto the desk.

"This is the manager's transfer order. From now on, you are fully responsible for the matter of Feng Zi's escape."

Bai Qiulin scratched his messy hair, picked up the transfer order nonchalantly, and shoved it into his pocket without even glancing at it.

"A red shirt with white socks—your taste is a bit poor, Manager."

"Shut up! You are just a commissioner! Mind your attitude when speaking to your superior!"

"Apologies, apologies, honorable Manager. I sincerely suggest you cultivate your own aesthetic sense."

He whistled and left without looking back, leaving behind the manager, whose face had turned red with nowhere to vent his anger, as he hammered the table twice!

The secretary on the side tactfully poured a cup of tea and placed it in front of the manager.

"Is the manager still not planning to formally take over the branch's affairs?" the secretary asked in a low voice.

The manager picked up the tea; his anger came and went quickly, or rather, he had been deliberately putting on a show for that commissioner.

"The senior seat of the Sunlight Council has been vacant for a long time, and the Council intends to formally establish this seat on the day of the Festival of Radiance this year. Originally, with Feng Zi here, that position was earmarked for her, but that girl, ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, insisted on setting herself against the entire city."

"Since she is both foolish and crippled, the Council has more choices. The manager is also very interested in this position; otherwise, why has he never come to the company since arriving in Sun City, and instead maintained frequent contact with those councilors and major factory owners?"

The secretary's expression was hesitant, but she chose to ask anyway.

"If the manager becomes a senior councilor, then Commissioner Bai, who came with him..."

The manager narrowed his eyes and grabbed the secretary's delicate fingers, playing with them as carefully as he had studied the pocket watch earlier.

The secretary obediently knelt beside him, letting the manager toy with the hands that had once danced across black and white piano keys.

"Don't worry. I have already asked people at headquarters to inquire about this man surnamed Bai. Before being sent to the branch, he was just an unknown researcher with no connections or background. After the manager arrived in Sun City with him, he threw him into the company alone, never paying him any mind, let alone assigning him any specific duties."

"Now, specifically handing him the matter of that test subject—a thankless task—clearly shows he is very dissatisfied with him."

The manager slowly placed his slender, fair hand on his lower body, and his foot, clad in the mocked white socks, stepped onto the secretary's head.

This sense of condescending pleasure and unbridled humiliation made his mood turn delightful.

He sneered.

"Leave it to him, leave it all to him. I want to see how he handles such a thorny mess that could pierce the sky!"

In the dilapidated clinic, Li Wei sat on a small stool, bored, listening to the priest he had met that morning—who wore a black robe and a starlight cross pendant around his neck—explain the doctrines of the church.

"Twilight is not a specific god. In this era where everyone relies on science to survive underground, even the most foolish person would not pin their spirit on something so ethereal."

"Natural laws have descended into disorder, and humanity paid a heavy price to flee the surface, constructing rules underground that seem similar to the past in order to survive, but this is clearly not sustainable."

"No one knows how long we can persist in this man-made nature. Thus, in the first year of the New World Calendar, the great master of brain science and neuropsychiatry, Mr. Chen Pingyi, founded the Twilight Church and became its first Pope."

"Twilight, the last ray of sunlight at dusk. The first Pope founded the church to prevent despair and pessimism from dominating the underground city. He advocated that after a person dies, a portion of their brain nerves should be retained to maintain basic biological activity using biological rules."

"Once the neural network is built to be large and complex enough, a world existing within consciousness can be created. When the true world enters its final destruction and biological survival completely falls into the dark night, Twilight will be activated, and human thought will be reborn in another form."

"In that world, there is no poverty, no hunger, no inequality; everyone has inexhaustible resources. Human consciousness enters the Garden of Eden, while in reality, biological neural thought will also be continued."

"This is Twilight."

The white-haired priest spoke very earnestly, but he did not neglect to tend to the patient with the scalded arm in front of him.

Li Wei glanced at the clouds gradually darkening outside the window and asked casually.

"Then what positive impact does your faith have on the present world? If everyone is counting on humanity eventually perishing to enter an illusory Garden of Eden, then who would still want to live? One might as well burn, kill, and loot to enjoy themselves first, then wait to die and continue the pleasure elsewhere without cost, right?"

"What one does in the waking world affects how everyone lives in the Twilight."

The priest finished dressing the patient's burns, then looked at Li Wei and tapped his own temple with a finger.

"Good and evil, right and wrong—these might deceive everyone else, but they can never deceive oneself. The moment a person's nerves are left behind, their memories essentially reach a final verdict on their life. The Twilight uses this to determine their form and circumstances within the spiritual realm; good people and bad people will have different appearances, jobs, and families, while the truly wicked will be reduced to beasts."

As he spoke, he pulled a small card from his pocket and handed it to Li Wei.

"We do not seek to grow our congregation, but if you are interested in your final Twilight, you may come to the church at any time to sign the Death Burial Treaty. The Twilight does not interfere with the living, but it is willing to properly preserve your corpse and nerves."

"I only spoke so much with you because I felt your image and voice were quite good. The church is currently preparing to form a choir for the Festival of Radiance. You could come and try out; if selected, you could join the bishop in entering the White Tower on the day of the festival to spread the Twilight to the big shots. That is a rare opportunity many dream of."

After handing over the card and finishing the treatment for the last patient of the day, the priest ushered Li Wei out, closed the clinic's storefront, and walked straight out of the Border Market.

It was clear that the residents of the Border Market held him in high regard; even the children who had finished their lessons and returned home would crowd around him.

Li Wei glanced at the card in his hand, which bore only a single address.

[No. 18 Twilight Church, Labor District 2, Afterglow District]

He shrugged, pressed his finger against the card, and gave it a light flick, sending it spinning away into the distance.

Setting aside the fact that he couldn't die, he had no interest in such a church even in reality.

Although the doctrine did indeed encourage people to be positive and kind, more often than not, it simply domesticated people into cattle that knew neither how to resist nor how to question.

Li Wei held no malice or interest toward this; he had merely wanted to see if he could trigger any quests from this strange priest.

But clearly, the result was that he had gained nothing at all.

Just as he was about to turn and find a snack bar to grab a bite to eat, Feng Zi found him, her expression somber.

"We have to leave as soon as possible."