Doomsday: I can see the health bar, kill monsters and drop treasure.

Chapter 697 Death Spiral
The last time Wang Tao came here, he only affected other people's perception and did not deliberately hide his tracks. In short, although others could not see him, he would leave traces. Moreover, Wang Tao asked some people questions at that time, so it was normal for others to mention his existence.

So when Wang Tao heard the bishop's words, he was not too surprised, and he did not respond to the bishop, but just looked at him.

"..."

The bishop was somewhat embarrassed, as if he had punched a cotton ball. He wanted to suppress the other party with his momentum, but the other party did not respond at all.

However, the bishop quickly calmed down. He looked at Wang Tao and said:
"The Church of Dusk is an open and inclusive organization that has always welcomed the arrival of survivors, but this does not mean that we can allow survivors of unknown origin to sneak in and threaten our safety. If you don't give me a reasonable explanation today, you will regret coming here..."

Wang Tao did not take the bishop's threat seriously.

With only the sixth-level strength, he is not qualified to be Wang Tao's opponent.

But Wang Tao was also very curious about him and didn't mind chatting with him more.

"My name is Wang Tao, what's yours?"

Wang Tao sat on the chair carelessly.

"The name is just a code name, it's not necessary, just call me Bishop."

Seeing that Wang Tao didn't seem to be afraid at all, the bishop frowned. Could it be that he had misjudged Wang Tao? Was he really that powerful?

However, no matter how strong he is, he is at most a sixth-level awakener. He is invincible among people of the same level. Even if he is a seventh-level awakener, the bishop feels that he can still fight.

"Bishop..." Wang Tao didn't dwell on the name. He thought for a moment and asked, "What is your purpose in creating this Twilight Church?"

In Wang Tao's eyes, the previous Twilight Church was an unforgivable cult, but the current Twilight Church was completely different from what Wang Tao had seen before. This made Wang Tao a little strange. Just like the bishop could not see through him, he also could not see through the bishop.

"The purpose of establishing the Church of Dusk? Of course, it is to provide a safe home for all the survivors."

The bishop said without hesitation.

"..."

Wang Tao looked at the bishop with some doubts. His mental power was very strong, and such a strong mental power was very useful in lie detection. He could basically tell whether a person was lying or not with just one look, unless the other person was much stronger than him.

And now Wang Tao can clearly feel that when the bishop said this... he was not lying!
Did I misunderstand him all along? Is he actually a good person?
wrong!

Wang Tao quickly shook his head again. He had met people from the Twilight Church many times and had seen the "holy medicine" many times. That thing could torture people to the point where they would rather die than live. Do you think he is a good person?

But the bishop didn't seem to be lying...

Unless, all the Twilight Churches he had seen before were fake, and only the one in front of him was real? Or the bishop did lie, but with his ability, he couldn't see it... But this didn't make sense either.

"you are lying."

Wang Tao suddenly spoke.

Although he didn't quite understand what was going on, it didn't stop him from bombing the other party.

While Wang Tao was speaking, his mental power had already firmly locked onto the bishop. Even if the bishop had the slightest expression, Wang Tao would be able to catch it and infer whether he was lying or not.

But the bishop's behavior was no different from before. He did not rush to refute or get angry. Instead, he looked at Wang Tao calmly and said:
"With your abilities, this base is almost defenseless against you. You will know if you go and see for yourself."

The bishop actually hopes that Wang Tao can learn more about the Twilight Church, because he thinks Wang Tao is quite capable and it would be a waste if he didn't stay in the Twilight Church.

"..." Wang Tao had naturally seen the headquarters of the Twilight Church. It was precisely because he had seen it that he was a little puzzled.

But just being a headquarters doesn’t mean anything… So Wang Tao said:

"That holy medicine you made will make people addicted, live a life worse than death, and die in agony. You said you did this to provide a safe home for all the survivors?"

"what?"

Hearing this, the bishop still did not get angry, but uttered a sigh:
"That was a long time ago. The holy medicine is now very safe... Did you come from far away? There is no survivor in the surrounding area who doesn't know about this."

The bishop inferred from Wang Tao's words that Wang Tao must have come from a very far place.

And Wang Tao now thought to himself: It turned out to be him!
Just now Wang Tao was a little skeptical whether the Twilight Church was fake, after all, the gap between before and after was too big. But now he can be sure that the holy medicine was made by this bishop.

But before Wang Tao could continue speaking, the bishop spoke again. He rubbed his temple helplessly and said:

"All medicines are poisonous. Due to the limitations of technology at the time, those holy medicines did have some side effects, and even death, but those were all accidents. For new medicines, isn't it normal to have all kinds of accidents? But now the holy medicine technology is very mature, so there is no need to worry about poisoning."

"You gave so many people that poison, and you said it was for their own good?"

Wang Tao was so angry that he laughed.

Facing Wang Tao's ridicule, the bishop suddenly looked at Wang Tao with a pitiful look: "Sometimes, ignorance is also a kind of happiness..."

Wang Tao was speechless. He never expected that there would come a day when he would be called ignorant.

"Then tell me, what good can eating your poison bring to them?"

Wang Tao wanted to hear what the bishop could say in his defense.

"Safety! After taking my holy medicine, they will become safer. In the end times, isn't safety the greatest benefit?"

The bishop said immediately.

"Becoming very safe?" Wang Tao frowned.

Even if those holy medicines have no side effects now, they can't improve strength. In the end times, strength is king. How can you be safe without increasing your strength? This is completely nonsense.

The bishop seemed to see what Wang Tao was thinking. He looked at Wang Tao with some sympathy, then shook his head and said:

"You obviously don't know how this world works. But since we can meet, it can be considered fate... In this world, the stronger the average strength of humans, the stronger the zombies, monsters and the like!"

Hearing this, Wang Tao remained expressionless, but was very surprised in his heart.

This bishop actually discovered the laws governing the operation of the world? He is not even at the seventh level, how did he discover it?
When Wang Tao was surprised, the bishop continued:

"Don't disbelieve me, this is the truth! And zombies and monsters are much stronger than us humans on average! In other words, when we humans are at level 4, zombies and monsters may already be at level 5!"

"That is to say, the stronger the average strength of humans, the stronger the zombie monsters will be! And the average strength of zombie monsters is half a level higher than ours... So theoretically speaking, humans will never be able to catch up with zombies! The harder humans try to become stronger, the faster they will die!"

Wang Tao knew the law of the world: "As humans become stronger, zombies and monsters become stronger," but he didn't know that zombies and monsters would always be one level higher than humans...

Seeing Wang Tao was silent, the bishop continued:

"Does this sound unsolvable? In fact, it is indeed unsolvable. It seems that humans are doomed to be destroyed. However, this does not mean that humans have no hope of survival..."

"There is only one way to solve this problem..."

Having said this, the bishop paused, and then his tone suddenly became a little excited.

"Let a few people improve their strength quickly, and advance to the fourth, fifth, sixth, or even seventh level! Then prevent the majority of people from improving their strength, and keep them as ordinary people. As long as there are enough ordinary people, the average number of humans can be pulled down. If the average strength of humans is weak, the level of zombie monsters will not be high. Only then can we humans have a safer living environment! Although the strength of a few people has increased, it will still be forcibly lowered in the face of a huge population base. At certain critical moments, these strong people can still play a decisive role..."

Hearing this, Wang Tao suddenly seemed to understand what the bishop was going to do. Sure enough, the bishop continued:
"And my holy medicine is something that can prevent humans from improving their strength! As long as these people are ordinary people, the end of the world will not be as terrible as imagined! So I said, after taking my holy medicine, they will be safe!"

"..."

Wang Tao had thought about it before, whether he should stop everyone in the base from improving their strength, but he didn’t say it in the end.

After all, there were too many people, and many people had a rebellious mentality. The more they were not allowed to do something, the more they would do it. Another thing was that even if they improved their strength, they were no match for the zombie monsters, but at least they could still struggle... So Wang Tao did not implement this plan.

This bishop had obviously started to implement this plan a long time ago. However, he knew the news about the laws of this world much earlier than Wang Tao, and he had started to lay out the plan very early! This also answered a question Wang Tao had previously had, why did it seem that the people at the Twilight Church headquarters were so weak? It turned out that the bishop did not allow them to improve.

Theoretically, this does seem to be a solution, but the problem is that there are already many seventh-level zombies in the world, as well as seventh-level destructive monsters!

The overall strength of the Church of Dusk is so weak now that it feels like any random seventh-order creature has the ability to destroy the Church of Dusk!

"Let's assume that what you said is right, and there is such a law in the world. But it doesn't apply now, right? After all, there are many seventh-level creatures now. Not to mention whether they can improve their strength, even if they do, they can't beat them..."

Wang Tao frowned.

Hearing Wang Tao's words, the bishop, who had been very calm, suddenly became excited.

"Originally, everything was fine. It was all in my plan. As long as I send out enough potions, the overall strength of humans will be weakened, and the zombie monsters will not be able to become stronger. Then I will have a great advantage in dealing with these people..."

"But what I didn't expect was that things didn't go as I expected. The zombies around our base are relatively weak, but the zombies in other places are very strong! And those zombies can evolve, and the evolution speed is very fast!"

"After some research, I discovered that I don't know which survivor base's overall strength has been improved, which has raised the average strength of us humans. Originally, those zombies were not enough for me to fight, but now I can hardly beat them..."

At the end, the bishop gnashed his teeth.

"If I knew who ruined my plan and who greatly improved the level of these zombies, I would fight him to the death!"

"..."

Hearing this resentful voice, Wang Tao's face looked very strange.

If nothing unexpected happened, the person the bishop scolded seemed to be him... Wang Tao was definitely the main contributor to the significant improvement in the overall strength of the Changhe Base. So, Wang Tao seemed to have helped the people of the Changhe Base improve their combat effectiveness, but in fact, he was doing more harm than good?

No, that can't be said. From the bishop's perspective, Wang Tao was indeed doing more harm than good, but from the perspective of Changhe Base, if it weren't for Wang Tao, Changhe Base might have fallen before, how could it have survived until now...

Wang Tao's silence made the bishop think that Wang Tao was frightened by him. When he was about to speak, Wang Tao suddenly said:
"So, all your hard work for so long is in vain? Humanity is still destined to be destroyed?"

Unexpectedly, the bishop simply shook his head.

"No, there is another way..."

As he spoke, the bishop took out a transparent glass box, which contained soil, gravel, branches, and a group of ants. The ants seemed to have lost their direction, with the head and tail of the ant colony connected together, and they kept spinning in circles.

"You must have seen this phenomenon before. It's called a death spiral. The leader ant loses its direction, causing the ants following it to get lost... If nothing unexpected happens, the group of ants will eventually die of exhaustion. The situation we are facing now is just like this death spiral. We are trapped in a vicious cycle. No matter what we do, we will eventually die! But..."

The bishop suddenly opened the lid, reached in, and scratched around in the glass box, destroying the environment and killing several ants. Then the ants suddenly found their direction and stopped circling. They quickly lined up and went back to their burrows...

"To break this death spiral, we need a very strong force to destroy it! As the saying goes, there is no construction without destruction, and we must live towards death! Only in this way can we humans have a chance to survive!"

"And I have already figured out how to obtain this power that can destroy everything. Only our Twilight Church can do it. Our Twilight Church is the savior of mankind!"

At the end of his speech, the bishop's voice became passionate, and it was obvious that he had already put himself in the role of the savior.

"And are you willing to help me save all mankind?"

The bishop looked at Wang Tao with some expectation. The reason why he talked so much to Wang Tao was because he still needed a few helpers, and he thought Wang Tao was quite suitable.

(End of this chapter)