The Mass Murderer

The church's decorations were as plain as its exterior.

The old wooden floor was covered in scratches and cracks, and the white paint on the walls had yellowed with age.

At the very front of the church hall stood no statue of a deity, only a Starlight Cross over two meters tall, erected on a platform.

Twenty-four portraits hung on the surrounding walls. They were of the twenty-four popes of the Twilight Church.

Aside from those, the hall contained only long benches, their surfaces worn smooth by countless people. The place was otherwise empty.

After Li Wei and Feng Zi were selected, registration for the morning ended. The nanny who had led them inside gathered the more than thirty chosen children and took them to the church cafeteria for lunch.

The decorations were plain, but the food here was decent.

At least compared with the gruel at the Coal Mine Field, Li Wei could tell he was eating brown rice, and he even got a couple of servings of vegetables.

His and Feng Zi's plan was simple: after being selected for the Choir, they would keep their heads down and get through the remaining month.

They would do their best during the training ahead and avoid making trouble until they entered the White Tower.

By evening, the last few children had been brought in. The forty teenagers were lined up in four rows under the nanny's direction.

All the church's priests and nuns had gathered there. The church seemed to take the matter seriously. Before long, Bishop Twilight of the Sun District was wheeled into the hall.

Since Li Wei was the tallest, he had been placed in the middle of the last row.

He first glanced over the church staff but didn't see the priest he had run into at the Border Market the day before. Then his gaze turned to Bishop Twilight, who had just been wheeled in.

The ordinary-looking bishop seemed especially old.

He leaned against his wheelchair, wearing a black bishop's hat. His upper body was dressed in a clean, neat black robe trimmed with gold, while an old, threadbare blanket covered his legs.

When he looked at the children in the Choir, the old man wore a kindly smile.

In front of all the church staff, he first offered a few words of encouragement. He also preached about Twilight, inviting the children who had yet to join to use this opportunity to learn about the church's doctrines and join the Twilight Project, which had continued for nearly a thousand years.

But he stressed that it wasn't compulsory. Whether they chose to join Twilight or not would have no effect on the Choir's selection process.

After saying this, he left. Clearly, someone as important as him had no need to oversee the lessons for Li Wei and the others.

The one left in charge of the Choir's discipline was the nanny who had brought Li Wei and Feng Zi inside.

She seemed like a very stern person. Her brow stayed furrowed, and her gaze was as sharp as a hunting vulture's.

"You may call me Nanny Cheng. For the next month, I'll be the head of the household for all of you. While you're at the church, whether or not you ultimately become members of the Choir, you must follow the church's rules. Those who break them will be punished, while those who perform well will be rewarded."

The moment she spoke, it was as if she had silenced every child. They all sat in frightened silence.

Most children from the Afterglow District grew up fast. They knew how to ingratiate themselves with different adults, and Nanny Cheng was clearly not an easy person to deal with.

Afterward, Nanny Cheng and the others assigned rooms to Li Wei and the rest. The accommodations weren't good enough for everyone to have a room to themselves. Instead, four people shared each room, divided by age and gender.

Li Wei and Feng Zi had to part ways. When they separated in the hallway, Feng Zi looked a little nervous.

She tugged at Li Wei's sleeve without saying anything, only glancing at him. Li Wei knew her social anxiety had kicked in.

The little cripple probably hadn't shared a room with three others before. Li Wei gave her an encouraging look. Feng Zi lowered her head, took a deep breath, and followed the girls at the back of their line toward the dormitory.

Li Wei then followed the other three people assigned to his room.

The room wasn't large, but it had enough space for four one-meter-wide beds. The bedding and other supplies, including Choir uniforms, had already been laid out.

Once the adults had left, the children who remained began to open up.

Li Wei wasn't as socially anxious as Feng Zi. He didn't isolate himself from the group with a cold attitude, nor did he try to make himself the center of attention. He just joined in from time to time, hoping to learn more about this world from the other children.

He also heard a few interesting things.

"My mom sent me here because that mass murderer in the Afterglow District has been getting more and more brazen lately," the youngest of the four boys, who looked to be about fifteen, said quietly.

His words brought the cheerful, relaxed mood to an abrupt halt. The other two older boys looked visibly nervous.

That piqued Li Wei's interest, but he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he waited for them to elaborate.

"The police officers in the Radiance District don't want to deal with trouble down here. I heard the Afterglow Union has reported it to the Council many times, but it's been over a year and they still haven't caught the killer. More and more people are being killed after having their limbs chopped off, and most of them are young."

The older boy on Li Wei's right chimed in. He seemed the most frightened of them all.

"My cousin died like that a month ago. Her right arm had been chopped off and was nowhere to be found. They just dumped her body by the road. My family was worried too, so they signed me up for the Choir, hoping I could stay safe in the church."

At last, Li Wei spoke up.

"Hasn't the Afterglow Union sent anyone to deal with it?"

The entire Sun City was under the Council's jurisdiction. But because of the Afterglow District's special circumstances, it had no central government offices or Police Department. Instead, the Afterglow Labor Union handled its administration, carried out the Council's orders, and maintained basic public order.

When serious crimes like this occurred, the union was usually left to find a solution if the Police Department couldn't be counted on.

The boy sitting across from Li Wei shook his head.

"The union members don't have guns. They can't catch that mass murderer. I heard it's a monster that crawls along the ground. Ordinary people don't stand a chance against it!"

Their stories grew more and more outrageous, clearly veering into ghost stories.

Even though science had already become so strange in this world, and any sort of monster might seem plausible, Li Wei still thought the rest of what they were saying was nothing more than rumors growing in the retelling.

As night deepened, the conversation finally ended, and the four boys were preparing to rest when someone knocked and entered the room.

He wore the church's black robe and wasn't a member of the Choir. Small and awkward, he conveyed Nanny Cheng's instruction.

"Gather in the hall at six thirty tomorrow morning."

After delivering the message, he bowed, carefully closed the door, and left. But Li Wei recognized him.

He knew this boy.

He was the ten-year-old who had gone to the Coal Mine Field a couple of days earlier to demand compensation for his mother. Li Wei remembered his name because he was so young.

Wang Xiaole.