Start with a core cabin

Chapter 1430: Take Action (I won’t pre-order the game now)

"Tick."

The cold water drops hit the girl's neck, and Shesta shuddered suddenly, then quickly opened her eyes and stood up. When she saw the situation around her clearly, she frowned.

This is bad...

At the moment, Shesta and Mianmu Satori were not in the shabby double suite they had in that small town, but in a very obvious underground cave. The surroundings were full of tides, and the humid water vapor rushed towards them. The whole cave looked extremely cold. In the dim firelight, they could see that there were only a few pieces of straw on the ground, and Mianmu Satori was lying not far away, snoring.

"Yo."

At this moment, Duanmu Huai's voice suddenly rang out, and then Xiesta saw the huge body appear on the other side of the dungeon fence, smiling and waving at her.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I slept very well. How long did I sleep?"

"Five hours."

"Really... can you tell me what's going on?"

"It's simple. These people didn't sleep late at night and ran to the hotel. Then the front desk clerk opened the door with a spare key and brought you here while you were unconscious."

Duanmu Huai spread his hands.

"Well, am I being very clear?"

"It's so clear that it makes me a little suspicious."

Shesta frowned in dissatisfaction.

"First of all, in order to avoid this kind of situation, I moved the table to block the door before going to bed, and also set a trap behind the door, so that they can wake us up when they rush in. I think I am still very alert, and that child is not an easy person to deal with."

"Well, maybe they thought the drugs they put in your food worked."

"This is impossible."

Shesta shook her head again.

"Although we did order room service to prepare meals, that was just to confuse them. We have only been drinking the mineral water we brought with us and eating the bread we bought ourselves these past two days... You should be very clear about this, after all, you were with us when we prepared the food."

"Yeah, I know."

Duanmuhuai nodded.

"So, what's the explanation?"

"Ok."

Duanmu Huai spread his hands.

"I knocked you out and then restored the things blocking the door to their original state so that they could come in. After all, you see... it's still the same process in the end, why add unnecessary complications? I don't like wasting time. In fact, isn't everything going well? You have been successfully locked up, and those guys are beginning to prepare for the ceremony happily. It's good for you, it's good for me, and it's really good for everyone..."

"you……………?"

It must be said that Xie Sita was really surprised to hear Duanmu Huai's answer. She slightly widened her eyes and looked at Duanmu Huai's 2.8-meter-tall body, carefully imagining him curled up in a narrow double room holding a table and running around...

"How did you get in? Don't tell me you climbed in through the window."

"Trade secrets."

Of course Duanmu Huai would not tell Xie Sita that he had been by their side the whole time these two days, even following them to take a bath.

"Forget it. Anyway, where are we?"

Shesta didn't seem to want to dwell on such trivial details, so she decisively changed the subject.

"Under the church—this is considered a basic operation. It seems that the cultists cannot show how powerful they are if they don't dig a hole under the church."

“The church.”

Hearing Duanmu Huai's answer, Xiesta frowned and quickly recalled the church building they had seen in this small town during their "travel". It stood on a hillside at the edge of the city. Xiesta originally wanted to "visit" it, but was persuaded to return by the locals in charge of guarding it. She was told that the church was in disrepair and was currently closed, so Xiesta returned home with regret.

"I didn't expect to end up in a church this way...Did you find anything?"

"You will definitely be shocked. Right next door, there is a super sci-fi laboratory that looks totally out of place in this place."

That's right, the whole town looks like an ancient design, and there is no means of communication with the outside world except for electric lights and wired telephones. However, under this church, there is a fairly modern laboratory. This reminds Duanmu Huai of an old Western-style house and the huge beehive facility underneath it.

Do villains who attempt to destroy the world all like this combination of the old and the new?

As for what is being researched here, Duanmu Huai has already figured it out through scanning shadows.

"They were trying to find a reasonable and feasible way to summon beings from outer space."

To be honest, even Duanmu Huai was confused when he first learned this information and didn't know what to say.

In fact, there has never been a shortage of organizations, groups, and individuals in this world that attempt to explore the universe and connect with extraterrestrial life forms. However, the methods of the Light of the Universe organization are indeed somewhat unconventional, and Duanmu Huai is a little unsure how to evaluate them.

Their theory is this - if the records in those magic books are correct, and humans can indeed establish contact with intelligent life forms in outer space or alien space through certain rituals, and summon them, and even negotiate with them, then these rituals must have some unknown rules, and if this rule can be analyzed scientifically, perhaps the effect of the ritual can be reproduced through technological means.

Their theory is not without foundation, because those magic books and fragments were handed down from a long time ago, when there were no electric lights, no wires, and no integrated circuits, so people could only use this ancient method to communicate with alien creatures. But now the world has evolved, so they should also evolve and use a more "scientific" way to summon evil gods.

"What's the purpose of kidnapping us?" "It's an experiment. If they succeeded, this place would have been crawling with evil spirits. However, their experiments are sometimes effective and sometimes not, so they need multiple experiments to increase the success rate. Don't worry, you are not the first batch of sacrifices, and from the looks of it, you won't be the last either."

Duanmu Huai comforted Xie Si Ta with a few words, but judging from his expression, it seemed that he was just saying it casually.

"Is that so? Then I feel relieved. By the way, you are not going to let us out, are you?"

"The fish hasn't taken the bait yet."

There was only one reason why Duanmu Huai did not rescue them immediately. He learned from the researcher's shadow that the supreme leader of the Church of Light of the Universe would appear at the beginning of the ceremony, and the other party was the target Duanmu Huai was looking for. So in order to avoid alerting the enemy, he could only chat with Xiesta here.

As for Menmu-satori, he was still sleeping soundly there—well, he was sleeping so soundly.

"So, you want to wait for the leader to show up?"

Xie Si Ta stared at Duanmu Huai quietly.

"Have you ever thought about what would happen if the leader showed up after we were ripped open by those researchers?"

"Then...I'll have to inconvenience you."

Duanmu Huai was quite calm. He only had to do one thing now, which was to capture the leader or scan him. At the very least, he had to get information from the other party so that he could figure out what this damn cult was doing.

And who is that leader?

For this reason, Duanmu Huai didn't mind sacrificing Xiesta and Menmu Sanatori - after all, he could resurrect the two of them by simply going back in time.

As for whether they are willing... well, that is not within the judge's consideration.

"Aha………"

Shesta sighed silently.

"It seems that there is nothing I can do now. So, when does the ceremony begin?"

"tonight."

Time passed faster than Shesta had imagined.

It was already late at night the next day when she and Mianmu Satori were taken out of prison by the cloaked natives. Duanmu Huai disappeared as usual. In fact, Shesta was also surprised that his huge body could sneak so cleanly without any flaws.

But Shesta didn't have time to think about it. The natives rudely pushed her and Mianmu Sanatori out of the dungeon. The latter seemed quite excited. Shesta had thought that Mianmu Sanatori would be nervous, uneasy or scared after waking up. But in fact, Mianmu Sanatori looked excited, just like a child in the park who was about to see the night parade carnival. She even walked faster than those natives in robes, as if she was more impatient than them.

When the group walked along the worn mountain road to the top, Shesta saw everything there—on the top of the mountain, a worn, ancient stone altar was clearly visible. Under this ancient altar was a huge stone slab with treacherous runes carved on it. Just by looking at it, Shesta felt that those strange symbols were crawling like twisted maggots, as if they were trying to squeeze directly into her retina along her line of sight.

If that was all, then it would be understandable, but Xiesta soon understood what Duanmu Huai had said to her before—around this seemingly ancient altar, there were all kinds of modern technological instruments. Not only was the entire altar illuminated by searchlights, but there were also various sensors on the stone slab, and there was also a camera next to it.

There were even two natives in long robes holding up reflective background boards!

"This is really interesting..."

Even Shesta couldn't help but sigh at the supernatural scene before her.

So, what about the leader?

Shesta pretended to struggle, twisting her body and stumbling forward, while quickly looking around. She could not see anyone except the believers kneeling under the altar, and the guy standing on the altar holding a strange dagger did not look like a leader, but more like an executioner.

What a terrible situation.

In the movies, the mastermind always appears before his plan succeeds, smugly, and witnesses the historic moment. But here, Shesta couldn't find a reason for the mastermind to show up. He could watch the execution of himself and others through a remote video instead of coming to the ceremony himself.

Modern technology is damn annoying.

Staring at the laptop computer next to her, Xiesta turned her head, but she still couldn't find Duanmu Huai. The area around the altar was clearly empty, without even a sapling, but Duanmu Huai still disappeared into the air like a ghost. Even with her ability as a famous detective, she couldn't detect his presence.

At this moment, two people were taken to the altar, and then the cultist holding a dagger came forward, muttering something and shouting loudly. He raised his hands high towards the moon - he didn't know if it was an illusion, but the moonlight that should have been silvery white on normal days had turned into a dim green at this moment.

  What should I do next?

Shesta glanced at Menmu Sanatori beside her. The latter was just staring blankly ahead. She was not looking at the cultists in front of her, nor at the altar, nor at the moon. Or it seemed that she was not thinking about anything and was just in a daze.

At this moment, the computer screen placed next to the altar suddenly lit up, and then a figure appeared on it. The cultists next to it also bowed their heads respectfully.

"Master, the ceremony is ready."

He was wearing a mask and wrapped in a funny black robe. His voice was hard to tell whether it was male or female. I didn't know if it was intentional or because it was distorted by the screen. He just nodded in satisfaction and turned to the side.

"Advisor, do you think there is anything that needs to be changed in this ceremony?"

Then, a figure appeared next to the masked man.

That's a man.

He had dark brown skin, a thin body, no hair, and no beard. It was hard to tell whether he was young or old. He wore the same black cloak as the masked man, and his mouth was slightly raised with a confident and complacent smile. When she saw him, Shesta felt her heart skip a beat...

At the same time, something strange happened.

"boom!"

A howling whirlwind suddenly broke out, and Duanmu Huai suddenly appeared behind everyone like an angry giant bear. He raised his war hammer high and smashed it down with one blow, instantly smashing the laptop into pieces!

I find pre-ordering and pre-downloading to be pretty useless, as you have to decompress the game after pre-downloading it. However, in many cases, the time it takes to decompress the pre-downloaded game is enough to just download and install the game... I don't know if this is just my computer.