Ch31 - “Mom?”

Zhongdu City.

The white snowflakes in the sky sank into the dirty blood with the pure song. 

The whisper-like cries sounded from the streets. In every corner there were people’s tear-ridden faces, sobbing. But this scene wasn’t happening throughout the entire city. With the Changmei Community as its center, it only spread to the five other high-density communities around it.

“Captain Wang, over a thousand people have entered the ‘Sacrificial Head Picking March’!”

On the phone, Li Xiaoxiao’s voice was stern, rapidly talking.

“We must block them right now, even more people are joining them.” 

Hearing this, the tall and sturdy level five user clenched his phone, an angry expression appearing on his face.

Twelve hours ago, they had just discovered the head picking incident, and now, in just so long of a time, after spending all efforts by using the entire country’s User Committee force, they finally gained some progress, revealing the merchant family from the previous century, Howard’s family.

Then, this march happened.

Was this a coincidence?

Or did the person in the shadows discover that they had already discovered them, so they immediately started the last part of their plan?

Wang Tao looked as far as he could see.

On the entire long street, countless young people with numb expressions joined the ranks of the sacrificial march.

A girl was pulling on a fellow boy’s hand, bitterly crying and begging him not to join; a mother hugging her son’s waist, using her entire strength to prevent his hands from lifting. 

In the crowd, young faces occupied the majority but every so often, there was a slightly senior face.

…

Why?

Why were there so many people?! 

What logic skill was this, letting so many victims enter the logic skill at the same time?! This was at least a level six logic skill… No, could a level six logic skill reach such terrifying levels?

To simultaneously sweep up thousands of people, was this a level six user’s logic skill?

The bone-chillingly cold snowflakes fell on Wang Tao’s forehead. In the next second, his face became colder than the sky full of snow. He forcefully restrained the anger in his voice: “The victim’s necks aren’t that easy to pull apart. Other than level five users, only the victims themselves can pull them apart! Everyone, prevent all the victims in the city from pulling their heads off. As long as their hands can’t move, they won’t die!”

“Yes!” 

The Zhongdu Extermination Team, the User Committee, police officers, government officials…

But soon, they found out that the victim’s determination had exceeded their expectations. Zhao Hen pressed down on the arms of a fifteen-year-old boy, yet it was as if the boy hadn’t felt that his arms were restrained, his vision set ahead, quietly singing, singing the holy song while moving forward and lifting his hands.

The level four user, Zhao Hen, had already reached a force of a ton in his arms. This was a force that a normal person couldn’t resist.

But his hands lifted. 

Zhao Hen’s eyes widened in alarm. He saw, in the heavy snowfall, the boy’s arms snap with a crack. White bone thrust out of the skin of his elbow, the blood trickling down. But the broken arms still lifted! He couldn’t feel the pain, even his action of lifting his hands didn’t have a hint of stopping.

“No!”

Zhao Hen grabbed the boy’s wrists.

“Crack—” 

The wrists broke as well.

The bones drenched in blood proceeded to move upwards.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

…This wasn’t hopeless yet!

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Keep thinking.

Not only users, but humanity as well.

After discovering the Extermination Team’s behavior, on the street, other than the panicked and scared people escaping, there were even more people appearing one after the other, copying Zhao Hen’s team, covering the victim’s necks, not letting them have the slightest chance of touching their necks. 

If one person couldn’t cover the entire neck, then two people could.

Drones flew above the city, capturing the scene of the marchers.

“Captain Wang, these marchers are all heading in the same direction!”

“Where?!” Wang Tao’s expression suddenly turned cold. 

In Zhongdu’s User Committee, behind countless computer screens, Li Xiaoxiao looked up at the screen at the front of the conference room. The workers quickly tapped their keyboards, to see in the aerial view, that Changmei Community, Fuji Community, Rentai Community… on the five main streets these communities bordered, the moving people pulled their heads off as they headed in the same direction.

The technical staff linked the five marching groups together.

Seeing the five lines on the screen link at the same place, Li Xiaoxiao said in alarm: “It’s Contamination Area 81! They’re all walking towards Contamination Area 81!”

Wang Tao froze. 

Contamination Area 81.

One of the ‘cleanest’ contamination areas in Zhongdu City!

If it wasn’t for Contamination Area 81 being so clean, there wouldn’t be so many densely populated communities built around it.

Not wasting any time, Li Xiaoxiao revealed her speculation: “Qi Simin’s hypothesis, Captain Wang, you should already know. She believes that ‘Pope’s Crown’s’ and ‘White Garden’s’ suicide, perhaps wasn’t because of their logic skills collapsing, but because they were murdered! For now, we don’t know why the murderer killed ‘White Garden’, but if ‘Pope’s Crown’s’ death wasn’t by chance and was inevitable, then his death must be importantly linked to the march right now. 

“Wang Tao, you are the strongest level five user in Zhongdu, you’ve personally seen ‘Pope’s Crown’s’ corpse. Think, what does his logic skill have to do with the current march?! You must think!”

You’re a level five user.

You’re the captain of Zhongdu’s Extermination Team.

Think… 

Think!

Wang Tao closed his eyes.

He was the only one of the Extermination Team who had seen Pope’s Crown’s corpse.

Was Pope’s Crown confirmed dead? 

Yes.

He’s definitely dead.

Did his logic skill collapse?

Not possible. When a logic skill collapses, the first thing the logic skill contaminates is the owner themselves. Pope’s Crown wasn’t contaminated, his appearance was of a normal suicide. His logic skill definitely didn’t collapse. 

Wait!

Wang Tao shouted: “Xu Qi, level three user ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’s’ logic skill collapsed, but he himself wasn’t contaminated, right?!”

Xu Qi paused, then hurriedly replied: “Yes! The moment Wang Tai died, his logic skill leveled up and collapsed at the same time. His logic skill collapsed but he was also dead. So he wasn’t contaminated; A logic skill wouldn’t contaminate a dead person.”

Wang Tao: “Right now, what we’re facing is Pope’s Crown’s logic skill.” 

Amid the song coming from the streets, Wang Tao faced the ice-cold wind, looking towards Contamination Area 81: “Forget about the truth behind Pope’s Crown’s death, what we’re facing right now is certainly his logic skill. Pope’s Crown’s cause requires a person of pure mind and body. So the victims who enter this logic skill must be virgins and also must have a clean and honest personality.”

Zhao Hen hurriedly said: “Majority of the victims are youths!”

“Pure mind and body, virgins. So that’s why there are so many young people, it connects!” Xu Qi said in surprise. His mind moved quickly, thinking of what he had heard about Pope’s Crown’s logic skill: “The death being twelve hours later, we can ignore. All the branches of this logic skill, we can also ignore for now. Just look at the basic cause and effect, then try to break it!

“Cause, it’s of no use. The victims who’ve already entered the logic skill can’t get out now. 

“Effect… If Pope’s Crown doesn’t personally pull their head off, then they will face the direction he is in and march towards him. Then they will pull their head off, kneel on the ground with one leg, hold their head up high, offering it to the Pope.”

Offering to the Pope!

In the next second, everyone looked towards the front of the marching parade.

Wang Tao’s foot touched the ground, and the level five user’s figure was like lightning, rushing towards Contamination Area 81. 

Pope’s Crown, he was right there!

Wang Tao rushed towards where ‘Pope’s Crown’ was. He didn’t know how an already dead person was revived, but that was an unavoidable part of the logic skill. Since Pope’s Crown’s logic skill pointed towards this area, then it must be of some importance.

Zhao Hen and Xu Qi’s group stayed. They spent their entire force to prevent the people from pulling their own heads off.

Suddenly, Zhao Hen looked around: “Where’s Xiao Jinyu?” 

Xu Qi froze and also said in surprise: “I just saw him, where did he go?”

The sky full of snow seemed like a knife, sharply scraping against the young man’s eyebrows. The bone-chilling wind burrowed into every pore, yet Xiao Jinyu didn’t stop. He stole a bike from the side of the street and using the fastest speed, he sped towards the east side of the city.

The train had long stopped in the chaos.

Changjie Station was ten kilometers away from Xiao Jinyu’s new house and a contamination area was in the way. 

The moment the bike entered the contamination area, Xiao Jinyu raised his hands and swiped across his eyelids. Swiftly, the multicolored and the black logic factors mixed with the snow, falling into his eyes. He avoided the high logic factor density areas, sparing no effort to find the cleanest route.

Soon, the five-minute time constraint for Fourth Perspective arrived.

A sharp, intense pain came from his eyes and with the snow that flew into his eyes, Xiao Jinyu couldn’t keep his eyes open.

But he didn’t close his eyes. 

Continue to use Fourth Perspective!

Xiao Jinyu never would have thought that the first time he would step foot in a contamination area would be today, under these circumstances.

In the overgrown and large contamination area, a single bicycle quickly moved through.

Xiao Jinyu felt from the deepest parts of the contamination area a disgusting and muddy feeling, rolled up in monstrous malice, wanting to swallow him. His eyes teared up from the pain as Xiao Jinyu avoided the pollution factor that floated towards him, constantly moving forward. 

“Mom!”

He was finally home!

Behind the house, with a body that had long tired to the point of his limbs shaking, his eyes bloodshot from pain. But Xiao Jinyu didn’t waste a single second, he used both his hands, rapidly digging up the dirt.

Dig up the dirt, open the cellar lock, then jump into the cellar. 

The moment light appeared underground, his breathing also stopped.

Xiao Jinyu looked up, towards the middle-aged woman sitting on the sofa, watching TV.

He only spent half an hour getting home.

After jumping into the cellar, there was only silence left in the air. 

Xiao Jinyu looked at the scene in front of him in a daze.

The opening in the soil was noisy from the huge snowfall and his mom was quietly sitting on the sofa, watching TV. Not singing the holy song, not pulling her head off, not facing Pope’s Crown, offering a bloody crown.

Xiao Jinyu’s heart suddenly calmed down.

“Mom.” 

The youth’s voice was calm as he walked toward the sofa.

The soft footsteps sounded in the narrow cellar. Xiao Jinyu walked to his mom, then he slightly squatted, looking up. Suddenly, his line of sight fell on the woman’s tightly closed eyes. Xiao Jinyu’s lips slightly moved, his throat seemed like something was blocking it. After a while, he called out again:

“Mom?”

That voice slightly shook with a slight sense of bewilderment. 

“I’m back, Mom.”

The woman on the sofa kept her eyes closed without a sign of replying.

“…Mom?”

In the dusky cellar, the youth tilted his head up, blankly looking at his mother. 

Suddenly, Xiao Jinyu saw his mom’s shoulder move a bit.

She seemed like she wanted to stand up.

—Mom stood up.

“Crash—” 

Because she stood up, a head suddenly fell from her shoulders, falling on his mom’s hands.

Xiao Jinyu’s lips slightly moved, silently watching.

He watched his mom turn around, facing Contamination Area 81, and kneel on one knee.

He watched his mom face the Pope, lift her head… 

Then.

Offer the crown.

The wind that blew into the cellar abruptly stopped.

… 

“Mom?”

The author has something to say:

Petting Little Goldfish.

TN: 

Hi… Sorry for disappearing for uhhh (checks calendar) almost two weeks… Life has been hectic; I went out of the country two weeks ago, got back then got a job. A bunch of tests are also coming up in May so school has been hitting hard lately with study materials and everything ;-; After mid-May my schedule should be calmer so updates should speed up after that TT