Deep Reading

“Help...”

Accompanied by feeble cries for help, the five high-society gentlemen swayed gently upside down from the lamp posts. Blood dripped down their limbs into the blood pool; with every drop that joined it, a thick plume of bloody mist welled up from the pool and dispersed into the air.

The slaves kneeling on the ground had long since dispersed, dragging their stumbling steps back to their respective factory buildings under the lashing of whips.

Their demeanor was rigid, their movements mechanical. Strangely, the vast majority of the slaves did not even have faces—their features were completely blurred, and some even had blurred bodies, appearing utterly eerie. Only a few dozen possessed relatively distinct features, yet they were just as dull and numb, no different from the rest of the slaves.

As for the monsters acting as overseers, each stood over three meters tall, covered in lumpy, dense muscles. Their faces were equally indistinct. Dragging sinister barbed whips behind them, they moved between the various workshops with heavy strides, muffled sounds of lashing echoing from time to time.

Fortunately, the workshop roof was high enough that Lynch and Officer Natalie remained undetected as they hid atop it.

Over half an hour had passed since they entered. Officer Natalie had remained vigilantly by Lynch’s side the entire time without letting her guard down for a single second, watching every monster overseer that passed below. Lynch, meanwhile, remained prone with his palm pressed flat against the roof, completely motionless.

His consciousness had long sunk into the relic's ancient memories, and a strong sense of panic enveloped his mind.

Twisted shadows hidden within the fog and relentless, rustling whispers assaulted his willpower alongside what seemed like endless fragments of light and shadow.

Each fragment felt as though tens of thousands of images were stacked together, cramming all their information into Lynch's mind at once.

The pressure was immense and terrifying, but when crimson moonlight rose within his soul, the deity's authority warmed his entire spiritual world. Comfort and serenity returned to his mind, making him feel as though he were once again bathed in the embrace of the moonlight that had accompanied him for countless millennia, rendering him utterly fearless.

The fragments of light and shadow gradually clarified: greedy nobles, brutal overseers, helpless slaves, bloody deaths, day-and-night toil, and a tomorrow that would never come.

The next moment, Lady Luna's gentle voice sounded in his ear.

【The Devourer's Flesh Workshop. Cut off the power to the workshop in this memory and destroy the relic core within the blood pool to disrupt the relic's ancient memories.】

Phew. Lynch let out a soft breath and opened his eyes, only to see a massive cleaver falling from above, chopping straight down toward his forehead.

What was going on?

It happened so suddenly that Lynch's mind barely had time to register it before the gust of wind stirred by the cleaver tilted the top hat on his head.

This was bad.

Yet in the next instant, the cleaver swept away as a leg shot out beside him, kicking the hulking figure—twice the height of a normal person—flying off the roof.

Only then did Lynch realize he was in the middle of pure chaos.

Dozens of monster overseers surrounded them. Not only did these creatures possess monstrous strength, but their jumping ability was astonishing; they could leap up onto the five- or six-meter-tall factory roof in a single bound to besiege the two. The female officer guarded Lynch closely, leaving him without a single scratch from the onslaught.

“Thanks, partner.”

Scrambling to his feet immediately, Lynch took two steps back and slipped into the shadow of some debris, vanishing from the rooftop. The overseers paused visibly, and all their attention shifted onto Officer Natalie.

A look of delight crossed the female officer's face. A halo of light flashed around her, repelling the surrounding monsters, and she shouted loudly, “Follow me inside!”

Without waiting for the invisible Lynch, she broke away from the mob of monster overseers in a few steps and slipped into the stairwell leading inside the workshop. The massive monsters clearly could not squeeze through, leaving them to pace the roof and unleash earth-shaking roars.

The moment she entered, she found the situation inside the workshop was just as bad.

The slave workers inside had swarmed in, packing the workshop wall to wall. For a moment, Lynch almost felt as though he were reliving Resident Evil. Though their movements were mechanical and their faces blurred, these slaves wielded the tools in their hands with ferocious force.

Without a second thought, the female officer jumped straight down from the ceiling landing. Before her feet even hit the floor, the halo representing the Expulsion ability appeared again, knocking back all the slaves around where she landed.

“Enact rule: those harboring hostility shall not approach within five meters.”

Authority, Law, Ability, Legislation.

The dense crowd of slaves recoiled frantically, swiftly clearing a five-meter circle. The slaves behind continued pressing forward, resulting in a horrifying stampede.

“How did they spot us?”

The female officer did not turn around, having already heard Lynch landing behind her. “Ask yourself—you raised the moon and alerted them. Now speak: what are the suppression conditions?”

“Step one: the power equipment. Destroy it.”

“The steam boiler. Follow me.”

The natives of this era understood this world far better than Lynch did. Officer Natalie instantly deduced their target, lunging forward as her saber slid from its scabbard.

Authority, Judgment, Ability, Sword of Punishment.

A dazzling light flared as she drew her sword, the unsheathed blade shining as bright as the rising sun. Everything before her seemed to lose physical form; wherever the sword aimed, the light had already arrived, with no obstacle capable of impeding the blade in the slightest.

With a horizontal slash, the air before them seemed to freeze for a moment. Then, more than a dozen slaves blocking the path were sliced into pieces, silently tumbling to the floor and clearing an open path ahead.

At the same time, Officer Natalie grimaced in pain as she swung her sword, involuntarily letting out a suppressed groan.

Just like when she had faced that pack of terror claws a few days ago.

Her vulnerability was fleeting. After a brief pause, the female officer strode forward, charging along the path carved by her saber. Lynch followed closely behind with his revolver and cane raised, swinging the heavy cane to batter back several slaves lunging at them.

The view suddenly opened up as the two broke out of the workshop and returned to the sunlight.

The moment they emerged, several monster overseers crashed down from the sky toward them. One landed with precision right in front of the pair, but before it could even touch the ground, a flash of sword light swept across. A massive head flew high into the air, and the headless body crashed down with a thud as vast billows of black mist erupted from the severed neck.

“Move! They can't be killed!”

After lopping off several more monster heads, the female officer saw Lynch raising his gun to deliver follow-up shots and immediately grabbed his hand. Pointing her saber, she vanished with him and reappeared several dozen meters away. Right behind them, the black mist gushing from the fallen monster overseer's neck congealed into a mass, forming a brand-new head.

“The big ones can't be killed, though the small ones don't seem to resurrect,” Officer Natalie explained while scanning their surroundings the moment they came to a halt. “Do you remember where the steam engine room was outside?”

“No idea.”

Lynch frowned, but immediately spotted several fang-like smokestacks spewing dense black smoke into the sky:

“The boiler—follow the smoke.”

“Nicely done.”

The female officer gave Lynch a light punch on the arm, then turned to look at the overseers pursuing them. Relying on their massive height, long legs, and swift speed, these monsters doggedly clung to their trail; even the female officer's Escape ability could barely shake them off.

“Damn pieces of resin,” Natalie scoffed, biting her lip. “Partner, we need to coordinate.”

“Hmm?”

“I'll draw their attention. You go deal with the objective. Make it quick.”

“Leave it to me.”