Church

"The moment you told me that little story about the great scientific minds, I felt the rules of gravity open up to me."

Li Wei began washing the hair dye from Feng Zi's hair, speaking in a casual, offhand tone.

Feng Zi lay back in the chair with her hair soaking in the basin, her azure eyes fixed unblinkingly on Li Wei as he focused on washing her hair.

"Do you know how long it took me to truly intervene in the rules of gravity after I was granted a Key?"

Li Wei held the spray nozzle and shrugged.

"A lesson or two?"

"I started studying natural science at six, determined my focus in physics at eight, was officially drafted into the Universal Gravitation Division at twelve, was granted a Key at fifteen, and didn't truly qualify to intervene in the rules of gravity until the third month after my seventeenth birthday!"

She looked agitated and aggrieved, as if her pride in a certain area had suffered a massive blow.

"If you count from the age of six, it took me eleven years to reach the level you're at now!"

Li Wei clicked his tongue.

"Then your talent is just average."

"I am a genius! That's what they all say! They've called me that since I was a child! The problem is you!"

Feng Zi was angry and anxious, but she kept her emotions well-controlled, and her rationality soon led her to think further.

"Yes! The problem is you, 626!"

She suddenly looked Li Wei straight in the eye with a solemn expression.

"A normal person could never intervene in the rules of natural science this quickly; it doesn't fit the system! Even for a bio-human, it's the same. Tian'en Company keeping you under control and isolating you in a fake social circle for so long—there is definitely something wrong!"

"I investigated your file before I was placed under house arrest, but even with my clearance at the time, I couldn't find out who was in charge of the organization planning this experiment. The current Sun City division head is just an executor!"

Li Wei was indifferent to this.

He was very clear about his own identity; since the game company designed such a persona for the player, any kind of chaotic background was hardly surprising.

"Maybe I wasn't manufactured, but popped out of a rock."

He said this casually, then picked up a towel, cupped the back of Feng Zi's head to help her sit up, and began drying her wet hair.

Feng Zi ignored his nonsense, her mind shifting to another matter.

She turned her head to look at Li Wei, her expression grave, solemn, and earnest as she cautioned him.

"Promise me, 626, never, ever let anyone else know that you have mastered the power of natural science while they are aware that you are a bio-human!"

"Being injected with a Key is one thing, but actually using the Key to become one of the rules is another! This is an absolute taboo in the scientific community!"

Li Wei pushed her head back into position.

"I know, but now you need to go use the hair dryer to dry your hair yourself."

"Why can't you help me dry it?"

"I have more to do. We need to change our hairstyles and hair colors, our faces too, and your legs—those features are too obvious. I'm thinking if it comes down to it, I might just have to go sign up alone."

Feng Zi pursed her lips and suddenly fell silent, simply picking up the hair dryer and sitting on the swivel chair, drying her hair in front of the mirror.

Li Wei was in the back room of the barbershop searching for some good items hidden by the owner—he had heard before coming that this shop secretly handled illicit makeovers—and he didn't notice the shift in Feng Zi's mood.

"I'm going with you to sign up. We are going to enter that White Tower together," she said suddenly.

Li Wei, who had unearthed a stack of skin masks, various prosthetics, and an assortment of makeup tools from an inconspicuous box in the corner, revealed a smile that said he had expected as much.

"Then what about your legs?" he asked, walking out with a box of loot.

"Don't worry, I have a way to ensure I won't be a burden to us," Feng Zi said, reaching out to touch the lining of her undergarments.

The next day at noon.

Labor District 2, No. 18.

Li Wei looked up at the dilapidated church; from the outside, there was no sign of the solemnity or sanctity one would expect of a place of faith.

It was a rare brick building among the surrounding wooden shacks, but it was only two stories high, and the exterior paint had long since cracked and peeled away. If not for the massive starlight cross erected on the roof, Li Wei might have doubted he had found the right place at all.

Today was a day off for some of the laborers, a rare holiday in the month, which meant the community was not as desolate and quiet as usual during the day.

Furthermore, District 2 was one of the labor districts closest to the Radiance District, so some commercial systems existed here, and the laborers living here looked slightly healthier than those on the outskirts.

People came and went outside the Twilight Church. Beyond their religious duties, every priest of the Twilight Church was also a free doctor, and the bishop of the Sun City sub-district was famously considerate of the laborers, a pro-underclass figure who fought for their legal interests.

Based on the information Li Wei had gathered, this bishop was no hypocrite putting on a show.

He was truly an ascetic. Not only among the laborers of the Afterglow District but even among the wealthy in the Radiance District, the bishop held immense prestige, once even being nominated for a seat in the upper echelons of the council.

Yet, he insisted on keeping the church's main body in the Afterglow District and lived an extremely simple life.

Some factory owners and council members who believed in Twilight were bothered by the church's decrepit state and pooled money to rebuild a luxurious new church, but the current bishop took it upon himself to use the funds to provide relief for orphans among the laborers and to renovate a cemetery, offering a final resting place for the elderly who couldn't afford burials.

This left the factory owners and council members helpless, and unwilling to lower their status to pray at a broken church in the Afterglow District, they raised funds again to build a shiny, new church in the Radiance District.

The bishop gave those people face by allowing some priests to staff that church, but he himself remained in the broken church in the Afterglow District, treating the poor, adopting orphans, and handling funeral arrangements for the elderly, earning him lofty prestige among the laborers.

Therefore, every year when he organized the choir before the Festival of Radiance, the laborers were very eager to send their children, hoping they would be selected; even without any benefits, it was seen as support and repayment to the bishop and the Twilight Church.

Li Wei and Feng Zi looked at the long line of people waiting to sign up, and they exchanged a glance, both understanding that just getting through this first step was no simple task.