Slaughtering the Guilty

The interior of the church was as austere as its exterior.

The old wooden floorboards were covered in scratches and dry, gaping cracks, while the white paint on the walls had been stained a brownish-yellow by the passage of time.

At the very front of the church hall, there was no statue of a deity; only a Starlight Cross, over two meters tall, stood upon a high platform.

Hanging on the surrounding walls were twenty-four portraits, depicting the twenty-four successive Popes of the Twilight Church.

Beyond that, the entire hall contained nothing but long benches worn smooth by countless sitters, leaving the space feeling hollow and empty.

After Li Wei and Feng Zi were selected, the morning registration concluded. The nanny who had led them inside gathered the thirty-plus chosen children and took them to the church canteen for lunch.

Although the decor was simple, the food here was decent enough.

At the very least, compared to the slop at the Coal Mine Field, Li Wei could tell he was eating brown rice and could even manage to pick up a few stalks of vegetables with his chopsticks.

His and Feng Zi's plan was simple: once selected for the Choir, they would spend the remaining month in peace.

They would strive to perform well in the upcoming training and avoid causing any trouble until they were sent to the White Tower.

By evening, the last few children had been brought in. A total of 40 teenagers were lined up into four rows by the nanny.

Every priest and nun in the church was gathered here; the church seemed to place great importance on this matter. Before long, the Twilight Bishop of the Sun District was wheeled into the hall in a wheelchair.

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

He first scanned the church staff, failing to see the priest he had encountered at the Border Market yesterday, before turning his gaze toward the Twilight Bishop arriving in the wheelchair.

The bishop, who had an ordinary and unremarkable appearance, looked exceptionally aged.

He leaned back in his wheelchair, wearing a black archbishop's cap on his head. His upper body was clad in a clean, neat black robe with gold trim, while his lower body was covered by an old, tattered felt blanket.

As he looked at the children in the Choir, the smile on the old man's face was very kind.

In front of all the staff, he first spoke to encourage them, took the opportunity to preach about the Twilight, and invited those children who had not yet joined to take this chance to learn the church's doctrines and join the Twilight Project, which had been ongoing for nearly a thousand years.

However, he emphasized at the end that this was not mandatory; regardless of whether they were willing to join the Twilight, it would not affect their subsequent selection for the Choir.

After saying this, he left. Clearly, the upcoming instructional work for people like Li Wei was not something a big shot like him needed to oversee.

The person left in charge of the Choir was the nanny who had brought Li Wei and Feng Zi inside.

She appeared to be a rather stern person, her brows constantly furrowed, her gaze as sharp as a predatory vulture.

"You may address me as Nanny Cheng. For the next month, I will be the guardian for all of you. Regardless of whether you eventually become a true member of the Choir, you must abide by the church's disciplinary regulations. Those who violate them will be punished, while those who perform exceptionally will be rewarded."

The moment she spoke, it was as if she had placed a silencer on every child, leaving them trembling in silence.

Most children in the Afterglow District were precocious; they knew how to curry favor with different adults, and this Nanny Cheng was clearly not an easy person to get along with.

Subsequently, Nanny Cheng had people arrange rooms for Li Wei and the others. The conditions here were not so luxurious as to provide everyone with a single room; instead, they were assigned four to a room based on age and gender.

Li Wei and Feng Zi had to separate. When they parted in the hallway, Feng Zi appeared somewhat nervous.

She tugged on Li Wei's sleeve, not saying a word, just looking at him. Li Wei knew her social anxiety was acting up.

The little limping girl had likely never lived in a four-person dormitory in her life. Li Wei gave her a reassuring look, and Feng Zi lowered her head, took a deep breath, and followed the end of the girls' line toward the dormitory.

Li Wei then followed the four people assigned to his room into the dormitory.

The room was not large, but it was enough to fit four one-meter-wide beds. The daily necessities, including the Choir uniforms, had already been arranged on the beds.

Once the adults had left, the children remaining in the room began to open up.

Li Wei was not socially anxious like Feng Zi. He did not isolate himself from the group with a cold attitude, nor did he actively perform to become the center of attention; he simply chimed in from time to time, hoping to gain a better understanding of this world from the other children.

Likewise, he heard some rather interesting topics.

"My mother sent me here because that serial killer in the Afterglow District has been getting more and more rampant lately."

The youngest of the four, a boy about 15 years old, whispered.

His words caused the previously relaxed and cheerful atmosphere to fall silent, and the other two older boys clearly showed tension in their eyes.

This piqued Li Wei's interest, but he did not ask any follow-up questions, waiting instead for them to elaborate.

"The officers from the Radiance District don't want to deal with such troublesome matters down here. I heard the Afterglow Union has reported it to the Council many times, but it's been over a year and the killer hasn't been caught. Instead, more and more people are being killed after having their limbs hacked off, and most of them are young people."

The older boy to Li Wei's right also chimed in; he looked like the most frightened of the lot.

"My cousin died that way a month ago. Her right arm was hacked off entirely and went missing, and her body was just dumped by the side of the road. My family is worried about this too, so they signed me up for the Choir, wanting me to take shelter in the church."

At this point, Li Wei finally asked.

"Hasn't the Afterglow Union had anyone handle this?"

The entire Sun City was under the jurisdiction of the Council, but due to the special nature of the Afterglow District, there were no main government agencies or police stations established here. Instead, the Afterglow Labor Union was responsible for unified management, executing the Council's orders, and maintaining basic public order.

Usually, when such heinous crimes occurred, if they couldn't rely on the police, the Union was expected to find a way to solve them.

The boy sitting opposite Li Wei shook his head and said.

"The people in the Union don't have guns; they can't catch that serial killer. I heard it's a monster that crawls on the ground, and ordinary people have absolutely no way to fight back when facing it!"

What they were saying became increasingly bizarre, clearly veering toward the realm of ghosts and monsters.

Although science in this world had become so strange that any kind of monster appearing wouldn't be surprising, Li Wei still felt that the latter parts of their conversation were nothing more than hearsay and rumors.

Just as the night deepened and the idle chatter came to a complete end, and the four boys in the dormitory were preparing to rest, another boy knocked on the door and walked in.

He wore the black robe of the church, though he was not a member of the Choir; thin and fidgety, he conveyed the nun's instructions.

"You must gather in the main hall at 6:30 tomorrow morning."

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

This was an acquaintance.

He was the ten-year-old child who had been at the Coal Mine Field two days ago, begging for his mother's compensation; because he was the youngest of them all, Li Wei still remembered his name.

Wang Xiaole.