Ch40 - The Saintess’ Relief

–Classified File–

[Event Name: 11/20 Zhongdu’s Mega Radiation Leak Incident] 

[Location: Spanning across Zhongdu’s Wuxing District, Bojiu District, Anxia District; The main areas are Changmei Community, Bojiu Apartments, Futai Community…]

[Content Record: On November 20th, 2046, a radiation leak occurred in the high-radiation area on the west side of Changmei Community, resulting in 136 deaths and 2887 injuries. After investigation, the exact time of the first leak was October 8th.

*On October 13th, 2046, the body of a decapitated male was found in apartment 2045 of the second building in Bojiu Apartments. The body was highly decomposed and it was confirmed that it was Wang Minghao, the owner of the apartment. The deceased, Wang Minghao, was decapitated by the radiation leak, and five days later, was found after his neighbors called the police.

The radiation leak is displayed as: the victim uncontrollably holding up their heads. 

The way the radiation works is that, at the same time the victim has been exposed to the radiation, the E-gamma rays cut the neck of the victim, leaving the victim’s neck in a fractured state.

*E-gamma rays are a type of high energy, energy ray with particle sizes of 0.08 nanometers, which can produce special reactions with the phenols in human vocal cords, so the parts cut off by the E-gamma rays are the necks of the victims.]

[Notes:

All the survivors of the Head-Picking incident have broken necks, but this doesn’t affect their daily life. Except for people who have E-gamma rays in their bodies, allowing them to separate their necks from their heads, everyone else cannot separate them. On the molecular level, the human body’s cellular reaction is ten times that of the E-gamma ray, therefore normal physiological reactions are not affected.

But when E-gamma rays radiate the victim again, the victim cannot help but pull their own heads off.

*E-gamma rays have been confirmed to be destroyed, except for the second radiation that occurred on November 20th, which will not cause a third radiation.

*Some people are more sensitive to E-gamma rays and at the time of the first radiation, their necks will directly tear. This tearing phenomenon includes, but is not limited to, the total tearing of their neck, leaving only one layer of skin attached, and directly splitting the neck in half.]

[Warning: E-gamma rays have been eliminated, but the E-gamma rays that are already in the human body cannot be completely removed. From October 8th to November 20th, 2046, all citizens who have passed through Wuxing District, Bojiu District, and Anxia District of Zhongdu are strictly prohibited from ‘holding their heads with both hands’, and this warning is valid until their death.] 

…

A new type of radiation leakage incident.

This was the final answer the government gave.

If the government had given such an explanation twenty-five years ago, no one in the entirety of China would have believed it. However, they’ve now experienced Type-A radiation and an even more bizarre disaster. 

The Type-A radiation that occurred at the end of 2021 still hasn’t had its source identified, nor was its transmission route identified. Old people who have experienced that hellish year know that patients with Type-A radiation will eventually go crazy and attack their loved ones.

Do people suddenly and inexplicably want to pull off their heads?

Feels like they won’t.

However, twenty-five years ago, people lost their minds and attacked their blood relatives and also died with bodies full of red spots. 

So the matter of someone taking off their own heads wasn’t that unbelievable. Just as how a praying mantis would desperately drink water after being parasitized by clematis, even going as far as drowning itself. Just as the mantis’ body is controlled by the clematis, the victim’s body is controlled by the gamma ray, which makes it understandable why they would pull off their own heads.

However, on the internet, there were also some people who couldn’t accept the answer given by the Zhongdu Government. But there were many more people who didn’t doubt the truth and instead doubted whether the E-gamma rays were really completely eliminated. Zhongdu, therefore, became the most unlivable city in China overnight, with a large number of relocations.

Of course, there were some remote, niche forums where statements like ‘what radiation, its obviously a logic skill’ appeared. But these statements had no follow-up nor did they receive any attention.

At the same time, some people linked the radiation head-picking incident in Zhongdu with the terrorist attack in Haidu. 

[Haidu and Zhongdu are pretty close, how can it be that on the same day as a large scale radiation leak in Zhongdu, a terrorist attack also occurred in Haidu?]

[From what I can tell, I think the terrorist in Haidu ran to Zhongdu and created that radiation leak!]

[Fuck, that might be possible. Otherwise, how coincidental would it be that it happened on the same day, just barely a few hours apart.]

[I heard that after the radiation leak incident in Zhongdu, the police asked the victims if they were virgins.] 

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.

[Why ask this?]

[How would I know? But apparently, a lot of them were actually virgins!]

[That can’t be hahaha, does this gamma ray also have a virgin complex?]

[May the dead rest in peace!] 

…

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Xu Qi shouted: “Captain!”

Luo Sheng glanced back at him before looking away coldly.

Dirt has a barrier effect on polluters and the same is true for users. However, this isolation effect is a lot weaker and can only produce a certain degree of suppression. All users who have committed crimes are locked up in underground prisons, weakening ther logic skill capabilities and making it easier for them to watch over them. 

“Cages made of dirt can suppress logic skill effects. In a way, it’s a lot like your ‘Holy Sacrifice’.”

Luo Sheng’s cold eyes landed on the humanoid mass of flesh in the glass cell.

Luo Sheng lightly said: “You were born to be locked up in here.”

Huo Lanxu lied on the hard iron bed and looked up without answering. 

Three days ago, dozens of high-pressure rockets bombarded the level five user for a full thirty minutes. But three days later, after just a simple treatment, Huo Lanxu’s body had stabilized. Except for the fact that she couldn’t walk and that her body was full of wounds from the bombing, she no different from an ordinary person.

Luo Sheng hadn’t personally experienced the head-picking march that took place in Zhongdu three days ago, but Xu Qi witnessed it. He looked at Huo Lanxu, who was lying on the bed with complicated eyes, his mind flashing through the horrific scene of the march. Xu Qi gritted his teeth and said to Luo Sheng: “Captain, I found something that’s not right.”

“En?”

Xu Qi: “This morning, a team member accidentally found that there was an isolation phenomenon of logic factors on Haoming Street, where Howard’s old house is.” 

Luo Sheng turned her head: “What do you mean, isolation phenomenon?”

Xu Qi: “This is the name I chose for the time being. That house had already been bombed by us into ruins, but right where it used to be, within a radius of ten meters, no one can use their logic skills. It was like the logic factors were isolated from the area, not letting any of them enter the area, so I temporarily named it as the isolation zone.”

Luo Sheng raised an eyebrow: “Logic skills aren’t able to be used… then what about polluters?”

“Polluters as well. I had someone test three polluters and as soon as they entered the isolation area, they lost all their special abilities, and their ability to contaminate also disappeared.” 

Xu Qi continued: “After this incident happened, I quickly contacted Zhongdu’s side and asked Captain Wang if there was anything unusual in Zhongdu. Captain Wang immediately sent someone to inspect Contamination Area 81 and its surrounding areas and found an isolation area in Fumin Community with a radius of one kilometer, that is, where Pope’s Crown’s ashes were buried.

“Captain, the whole Fumin Community is included in it, in the entire area, users cannot use their logic skills. It’s not suppressed, but instead, you really cannot feel your logic skill at all. But your body isn’t affected, you’ve only become a regular person without a logic skill.”

Luo Sheng was silent for a moment and she turned her head and looked at the woman on the iron bed, her tone cold.

“Huo Lanxu, is this your purpose?” 

The woman lightly closed her eyes, still not responding.

Catching Huo Lanxu was just the start, from the moment she was sent to Haidu’s Logic Research Institute, all the researchers in Haidu began researching the suspicious points of the incident.

First, was the purpose.

There has to be a reason for doing everything, no one kills for no reason unless they actually have an antisocial personality disorder. Huo Lanxu clearly wasn’t the kind of user with an antisocial personality disorder. So why did she do such a thing, starting her killing scheme half a year ago, starting with her careful plan on how to kill Pope’s Crown. What was it that she was really after? Was it just so she could get stronger? 

The best way to find out was to ask Huo Lanxu herself.

Huo Lanxu wasn’t conscious on the first day of her imprisonment and didn’t wake up until the next day. But when she woke up, no matter what kind of interrogation she was faced with, she didn’t move a bit. Every day, she just looked up at the air quietly, and from time to time, she would mouth a prayer, never making a sound.

And the second point was, the way Huo Lanxu committed the crime.

Huo Lanxu used Pope’s Crown to kill. Pope’s Crown died long ago and before he died, his logic skill definitely didn’t go out of control. It was impossible for it to be like Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf, where it went out of control before the user died and attached to a polluter to continue living. 

Unfortunately, this question still hasn’t been answered. The extermination team didn’t find anything resembling a polluter in Huo Lanxu’s house nor did they find anything related to logic skills in the church.

If they wanted to know the answer, their biggest hope was still Huo Lanxu herself.

But this woman hadn’t said a word since she woke up. Even when she was tortured, her face didn’t change a bit.

In the dead silence of the cell, Luo Sheng was silent, just staring right at Huo Lanxu. 

Xu Qi pondered for a while with a calm face, before finally sighing and looking at the glass cell: “Huo Lanxu, last night I went to the Astor Church, the church you often go to, and heard the children singing a song called ‘The Saintess’ Relief’.”

In the cell, the woman’s eyelashes fluttered.

Luo Sheng also glanced up at her vice captain.

Xu Qi: “The priest said you wrote this song. 

“You aren’t a nun. The user committee has your profile and before you became a level five user and your whereabout became hard to pin down, your general information was recorded. You never believed in God. But half a year ago, you suddenly wore a nun’s uniform and came to the church your great-grandfather had invested in and built, with a forged nun’s certificate and became a nun. Oftentimes, you went there to clean, participate in worship, and confess to the priest… Although the priest said that when you went into the confessional, you never said a word…”

Xu Qi’s gaze immediately turned cold, he expressionlessly looked at the prisoner in the cell, coldly saying: “Huo Lanxu, who were you confessing to, was it Pope’s Crown?!”

Half a year ago, Pope’s Crown suddenly died and the day after, an unfamiliar nun appeared in the Astor Church.

Xu Qi closed his eyes. 

Today he contacted Zhongdu’s side and Wang Tao, Zhao Hen, Li Xiaoxiao… and even Fourth Perspective, Xiao Jinyu talked to him. After three days, they had put together all the clues and finally understood what this woman really wanted to do.

Xu Qi opened his eyes once again and said coldly: “We searched for a long time in the Zhongdu’s Archives to find the incident that happened in the Howard Family twenty five years ago. In the 1980s, your Howard Family suffered a turn of fortune and later moved to the Fumin Community. In 2021, when the Type-A radiation appeared, you were six years old. The people who lived with you in Fumin Community were your dad, mom, and grandmother.

“The pre symptoms of the Type-A radiation is a red scar on the skin that resembles lupus erythematosus. And when this scar spreads to the entire body, the body’s immune system immediately disintegrates. But once you survive those three months, your immune system will be completely restored. However, this is also when the nightmare begins…”

Neither Xu Qi nor Luo Sheng experienced Type-A Radiation. Of the three people in the prison, only the woman on the inside witnessed it with her own eyes. 

Xu Qi continued to recount the disaster: “About three months after the onset of the symptoms, the immune system will be restored but the red scars on the body won’t disappear. Gradually, survivors began to show violent tendencies. Parents began to attack their children and children began to attack their parents. About 10% of survivors developed this symptom and their targets of attacks were mainly their blood relatives. Only after all their blood relatives were dead did they attack strangers.”

After a moment, Xu Qi found that the woman in the glass cell had opened her eyes at some point. He hesitated for a moment before continuing: “And you, you were the most unfortunate. You and your parents both survived the first round and only your grandmother died at home. It was so chaotic then that people thought it was an infectious disease and that the air outside was full of viruses, making everyone self-isolate. Even when your grandmother died, there was no place to bury or cremate her, so her body was placed in that small bedroom. Obviously, there was only a 10% chance of irrationally attacking relatives and there were three survivors in your family, however, this probability lost all meaning with your family…

“Of those three people, you were the only one who was fully conscious. And you were the only target of your parent’s attacks because they weren’t related to each other, only you were related to both of them by blood.”

Xu Qi calmly recounted an event that happened twenty five years ago. 

After the sudden disappearance of the Type-A radiation, it took people nearly half a year to completely restore normal social order. The bodies of countless people stunk and rotted in their homes and some of them weren’t from the radiation, but rather from the attacks from their loved ones.

One year after the radiation, the government finally had the time to sort out the victims’ information.

Of course, the data didn’t record what happened to the Howard Family in that month, nor did it explain how a six year old girl survived her mad parents. In short, when the red spots had faded from everyone’s body, only one person stepped out of the Howard Family’s door.

It was Huo Lanxu. 

Xu Qi: “We still haven’t understood why, when all users upgrade from level three to four and change the ‘cause’ of their logic skills, they choose to simplify their ‘cause’. Yet only you chose to complicate your ‘cause’, limiting the blood to the blood of someone who is mentally and physically pure. If it wasn’t for the blood of a pure person, you wouldn’t have to find Pope’s Crown, whose logic skill perfectly fits your logic skill’s ‘cause’. All you need to do is to directly commit a massacre and you’ll be able to obtain all the blood you need to reach your purpose. What you want is the blood of a pure person. Because at the same time, with a complicated ‘cause’, your ‘effect’ will become stronger.”

Holy Sacrifice before could offer normal blood and suppress logic skills.

Holy Sacrifice now, in addition to its former usage, also had a fork added: Once the blood of a physically and mentally pure person is offered, logic skills will be suppressed completely and no logic factors can enter the area, increasing the time limit to forever!

After staying silent for this long, Luo Sheng finally said something: “So, you want to create a world without logic skills?” 

In the cell, Huo Lanxu finally moved. She silently tilted her head and looked at the indifferent woman.

“Without logic skills, a lot fewer people would die.” Luo Sheng casually said, “Every year, there won’t be so many users dying of logic skill collapses, there won’t be any more contamination incidents from out-of-control logic skills and ordinary people also wouldn’t die as much.” She also thought, “And there are also some users who like to hunt and kill people to quench their increasing fear of collapse because they can’t keep thinking of their logic skill. Without logic skills, I also won’t have so much work to do.”

After a moment of silence, Luo Sheng quietly said: “…He also wouldn’t have died.”

“What would this world be like if there had never been any radiation or logic skills?” 

A hoarse, female voice sounded.

Luo Sheng and Xu Qi looked up at the woman who had finally spoken.

Luo Sheng: “You chose the Fumin Community as an isolation area because that is your most painful place. Then what about the Howard’s ancestral home?”

Huo Lanxu’s pale face smiled: “When grandmother was still alive, she was always thinking about the Howard family’s glory, she really missed those days. After I locked myself in the small bedroom, and… I promised her before, that I’ll return the glory to the Howard family, that the Howards will always be an unyielding blood elk.” 

Luo Sheng nodded: “Healing childhood wounds.”

Huo Lanxu was silent for a short moment: “Do you not want to see a world without logic skills? Not only do polluters attack humans, but users also use their logic skills to kill humans, even users will succumb to their logic skills! Logic skills don’t have an answer at all! What’s after level five, is it level six? Then what about after level six?”

“After level six is level seven.” Luo Sheng said.

Huo Lanxu: “Really? Has Spear of Judgement collapsed yet?” 

Luo Sheng looked up.

“Crazy woman.” After saying this, she turned around and left.

Huo Lanxu laughed, she laughed louder and louder. However, when she reached the elevator doors, Luo Sheng suddenly stopped.

Luo Sheng: “That song is called ‘The Saintess’ Relief’? Because of your childhood wounds, you want to create a world without logic skills, thinking that if there were no logic skills or radiation, you would still have your parents and live a normal life?” 

Huo Lanxu’s laughter stopped.

“You didn’t kill Pope’s Crown earlier and only chose to kill him half a year ago. You had so much time to revive your elk’s glory and the title of a level five user is enough to make the Howard family rich in Haidu, but not once did you mention the name, Howard…”

The series of questions made Xu Qi’s entire body shiver and he finally realized he had been ignoring such an important matter.

Every high level user is a wise person who thinks during the moment of life or death. 

Luo Sheng laughed mockingly: “Use your childhood, your parents, your grandmother, and your family glory to cover up the obvious fact that you can’t reach level six. Only when your logic skill was about to collapse, did you decide to use the method of slaughtering innocent people to force your logic skill to upgrade…

“What a disgusting woman.”

The Saintess’ Relief [END]

The author has something to say: 

This arc is officially finished~

The next chapter will start the next arc, muah~~