PGVCW 74

 

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

Chapter 74

The Sweep

Everything went smoothly.

For the people of the Anomaly World, this day felt like divine soldiers descending from the heavens, while for Xia Wang'an, it was simply a matter of rushing from one battle site to another.

After resolving the anomalies at the Nüwa Base, she immediately proceeded to the Chiyou Base, secured it, and then moved on to the Zhurong Base.

Finally, the three of them rode their flying swords over to take a brief tour of the Shennong Base.

Fortunately, Cai Cai and Qiu Zhuang had successfully advanced their cultivation realms, sparing the main vanguard from having to rush over to the Kuafu Base to assist.

Even though Lin Ke and Yuan Ning were long accustomed to flying back and forth, this series of continuous deployments left them quite fatigued.

Even Cai Cai and Qiu Zhuang, despite their breakthroughs, collapsed into deep sleep the moment they returned. No matter how anyone tried to wake them, Xuan Cheng nervously conducted a thorough check and finally confirmed that the two were simply overly exhausted and required sleep to replenish their vital energy, which allowed everyone to relax.

Only Xia Wang'an remained full of energy throughout.

Once the relentless busyness concluded and everyone else was utterly paralyzed by exhaustion, she was still wearing her chiming, oversized Daoist robes and headed off to inspect the remaining two bases that had not been directly attacked by anomalies.

The sudden appearance of S-rank anomalies around the major bases this time proved only one thing: they had been stationed there all along.

And if one wished to discover where they had been hiding previously, a quick aerial survey from above provided a fairly accurate picture.

Four massive craters had appeared in the immediate vicinity of each base, indicating that long before, these four anomalies had already been silently lying in ambush around every single settlement.

While the inhabitants went about their normal lives within the bases, and while transport convoys rolled past one mission after another, the anomalies had remained quietly crouched at the bottom of those pits, silently watching them.

Whenever Cen Qi and other native residents of this world thought of this, a chill ran down their spines—it was the stuff of absolute nightmares.

Eradicating Threats

As for Xia Wang'an, she naturally completed her internal evaluation:

Anomalies are somewhat troublesome to resolve = a minor threat = they pose a threat in her vicinity.

Although the S-rank anomalies near the remaining two bases showed no inclination to attack, Xia Wang'an evidently had no intention of reasoning with them.

Anything she deemed a threat naturally had to be eradicated early on.

It took less half a day, from the perspective of the residents in those two major bases, filled with a continuous succession of thunderous roars. When they cautiously stepped upon the city walls to look, they saw the colossal corpses of four massive anomalies lying defeated.

above the remains hovered the raven-haired maiden riding a flying sword, surrounded by a revolving talismanic array.

Prior to this, residents with friends and family across the five major bases had already been receiving continuous updates regarding the day's events.

The anomalies... along with the immortal cultivators who arrived to save the day, and those unimaginably miraculous talismans.

Yet the old adage held true: hearing of something a hundred times could never compare to witnessing it with one's own eyes.

At this point, the final two bases harbored absolute, unshakable conviction.

So, true practitioners of the Dao still existed in this world.

And a cultivator's talismans perfectly countered anomalies, even possessing the capacity to deliver salvation rites for friends and family members who had perished beneath the anomalies.

[Ding! Host Faith Energy +150,000!]

Throughout the earlier battles, fragments of Faith Energy had trickled in continuously, which 007 had automatically filtered out.

Not until the final anomaly fell beneath Xia Wang'an's blade and the combat concluded perfectly did the system aggregate the total Faith Energy accumulated for the day.

[The total population of this world is simply too small; the recoverable Faith Energy caps out around this amount.]

As Xia Wang'an finished executing liberation rites for the final batch of wandering souls, she gazed out at their departing forms, feeling no sense of disappointment regarding the meager harvest of Faith Energy.

Even a mosquito's leg was meat, after all; acquiring some Faith Energy was infinitely superior to acquiring none.

Furthermore...

[In this world, there is something that attracts me far more than Faith Energy.]

She lifted her gaze toward the distant horizon—that direction marked the forbidden zone of the Anomaly World.

The Forbidden Zone

According to Cen Qi's accounts, right at the onset of the anomaly descent, that entire region had been purged into a ghost town, subsequently occupied by powerful anomalies.

In the past, the military had dispatched reconnaissance units to investigate the situation, but every single operative sent out had failed to return without exception.

Eventually, the military lacked the excess resources to pursue further reconnaissance, forced to prioritize safeguarding remaining human populations and territory, leaving that sector designated as a forbidden zone that no human ever dared to tread.

Consequently, humans remained entirely unaware that stepping foot into this territory would reveal a gigantic breeding facility.

The sole difference was that this facility did not rear chickens or ducks, but rather diverse species of monsters.

And the fodder was not grain, but living human beings.

At this very moment, white-robed figures were actively tipping fodder down into the gaping mouths of individual craters.

While standard deployment rosters across other worlds typically featured only a handful of white-robed operatives, here, white robes were visible everywhere.

Virtually every giant crater was guarded by at least a dozen Corrupters.

Scanning the landscape, the sheer number of craters numbered at least in the hundreds.

Perhaps accustomed to their faction's absolute hegemony within this world, or perhaps because they were surrounded entirely by peers, the Corrupters appeared largely relaxed.

Amidst the intervals of "feeding the fodder," they engaged in casual, comfortable banter much like normal human beings.

"I heard the superiors decided to destroy five of the feeding facilities."

"Only two left? Will there be sufficient fodder to feed 'Them'?" Concluding his sentence, a trace of involuntary timidity crept into the Corrupter's tone.

To the native mortals of this world, these operatives possessed terrifying power, capable of crushing humans as effortlessly as stepping on insects.

Yet analogously, "They" could crush B-rank or lower Corrupters just as easily as squashing bugs.

Moreover, for reasons unknown, "They" harbored a deep aversion toward Corrupters.

Whenever fodder supplies ran short or failed to satisfy their palate, "They" struck out against the Corrupters with startling frequency.

"Relax. The breeding velocity of the bugs is exceptionally rapid; give it a few decades and they will multiply into swarms again."

Another Corrupter, possessing clearly superior seniority, appeared far more composed, sharing experiential insights with the "novices".

"Once those five feeding facilities are destroyed, we simply treat the bugs a bit more favorably; once they feel secure, they will naturally breed children in massive quantities."

Hearing this, a newly arrived white-robed operative displayed subtle physical discomfort, which his peers chose to ignore entirely—even deliberately shoving the task of feeding the "fodder" onto his shoulders.

The novice Corrupter unsealed a burlap sack, exposing uncorrupted severed limbs within.

His complexion shifted drastically; dropping the sack, he turned his head and dry-heaved.

"What are you playing at?! It's just feeding fodder! Do you wish to be cast into the Reincarnation Pool?"

The Initiation

The novice Corrupter forced down his nausea after several heavy breaths; turning back to glance at the severed arm resting on the ground, his face turned pale once more.

"I—I am sorry."

He offered a soft apology with an exemplary attitude, but the Corrupters remained entirely unreceptive.

They stared at him with cold detachment. Even the white-robed operatives stationed along the perimeters of neighboring giant craters slowly pivoted to fixate upon him, uniform in their expressionless, unblinking gazes. The human-like expressions they had worn moments prior vanished entirely.

The novice Corrupter grew intensely uncomfortable under their surveillance: "W-what is wrong with you all? Why did you suddenly stop talking?"

Despite possessing completely normal human facial features, at this moment they resembled emotionless entities devoid of humanity, radiating only raw cruelty and cold-blooded apathy.

A B-rank operative stepped forward slowly; his pupils were slit vertically like those of a serpent.

"How can you possibly fail to stomach a simple feeding task?"

His voice carried an almost gentle inflection, inquiring with painstaking patience: "Could it be that you view yourself as one of those bugs?"

The novice white-robed operative began to tremble violently.

"You sympathize with these bugs?"

"I am genuinely curious, how is it that you still harbor empathetic emotions? How can such low-tier sentiments persist within the constitution of a Divine Emissary?"

At this point, the B-rank operative truly resembled an active serpent; his torso undulating, he slithered around to position himself directly behind the novice, resting his head lightly against the newcomer's neck while parting his jaws to flick out a long, forked tongue.

The chilling serpent's tongue brushed against the operative's skin, triggering involuntary shudders and raising goosebumps from his ankles across his entire frame.

Instinctively, he attempted to appeal for assistance, only to discover upon lifting his head that every surrounding Corrupter was staring unblinkingly with identical, shallow smiles plastered across their faces.

"I—I will correct myself! I will no longer sympathize with them, please do not kill me..."

The superficial smiles on the Corrupters' faces deepened.

The B-rank operative straightened slowly, his slit pupils narrowing with heightened excitement: "Divine Emissaries require no correction."

With a gentle shove accompanied by a warm, human smile, he watched the novice Corrupter plummet into the deep crater amidst shrieks of terror.

Not until the victim vanished completely from view did he turn back around, his pupils reverting to normal human configuration while his expression smoothly resumed its amiable warmth.

"Now, where were we? Ah, yes—with the reduction of feeding facilities, it appears we shall have plenty of work ahead of us."

The remaining white-robed operatives resumed normal expressions, chatting and laughing as though nothing had occurred, complaining about heavy workloads while occasionally gossiping about rumors across various squads.

As for the novice operative just shoved into the abyss, he was treated as though he had never existed.

Once all the "fodder" had been dumped, the group retreated cautiously, chatting amongst themselves while awaiting the next feeding window.

The Descent

Down at the bottom of the crater, hidden from their sight, the sound of muffled rustling echoed as the novice Corrupter scaled the rocky wall like a gecko, sliding slowly downward.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he stripped off his white robe, unclipped a palm-sized medical syringe from his belt, held his breath, and plunged deep into the subterranean cavern.

Rustle, rustle—

Continuous micro-sounds echoed from within, sounding exceptionally terrifying in the dark, profound depths of the tunnel.

Yet he remained entirely unaffected, pressing forward step by step.

He brushed against a massive spider abdomen.

Though merely a single abdominal segment, it possessed the colossal scale and terrifying might of a towering multi-story building.

The entity reacted instantly, its form swelling massively.

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