They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 21 Investigator

Whether the other party is a messenger of the sun is hard to say, but the contamination is difficult to infect normal people, which clearly means that the other party is targeting them, the disorderly ones.

Moreover, judging from the direction the other party was traveling, if they continued along that road, they could leave Winstown from the southwest and reach the withered forest where Daria had narrowly escaped death.

There, there is also a grave of a polluter without a body, with a very conspicuous tombstone, as if afraid that someone with poor eyesight might not notice the mound of earth there.

The answer to what the Order Association's investigators are going there to do is obvious—

Digging up corpses.

"That's not good."

Ria could no longer pretend she hadn't seen them before, so she quickly made an excuse to part ways with Angena and the others, and turned to go to the bookstore in the alley to find James.

The investigators noticed he didn't react, perhaps because they didn't know what Ria looked like, his build and height, or that the seemingly normal Ria was the disordered person they were looking for.

Several investigators walked over from the direction of the church. They must have already learned some things beforehand. If they found that the wooden coffin in the grave was empty, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Hurry up, hurry up.

Ria hurried toward the bookstore, but as he turned a corner, someone suddenly pulled him. He looked closely and realized that the person pulling him, wearing a bird-beak mask, was none other than James, the man he was looking for.

"Why are you here?"

“I was following the investigators, and those guys still look disgusting, but we managed to run into each other here—it’s like we’re telepathic.”

James gestured for Ria to stand behind him, and the two of them maintained a delicate distance from the advancing investigators.

A moment later, James let out a piercing laugh: "It's confirmed that they're after your 'corpse.' What are you going to do? Lie back down before they do?"

"Only an idiot would do that."

“We’ve got the same idea, hehe. To prevent them from discovering the terrible truth, we can choose to strike first and catch them off guard.”

"You're going to kill them!?"

"No, no, you're underestimating them. They're not that easy to kill. We need to take a different approach..."

"Since our dear investigators want to see the patient's mutated corpse, then we'll show it to them."

James touched his layers of belly fat and let out a cryptic laugh.

Then, he asked Ria for an eyeball. After preparing herself mentally, Ria pinched off a small one from her arm and handed it to him. The removed part was immediately filled with a newly formed visual organ.

Soon, the epidermal cells completely sealed off, and Ria's arm was completely healed. No one could possibly imagine how bizarre things had just happened on her arm.

"Isn't that amazing?"

James placed the eye in his palm, rubbed it together, and the golden eye that had separated from its main body was quickly crushed into a puddle of semi-solid fluid.

He discussed the upcoming plans with Ria.

"The main actors are all here, and the props are ready. Now all we're missing is the audience."

"Are you trying to get everyone to go watch the fun?"

"Of course, that was a historic moment when great investigators worked together to eliminate the contaminating virus. How could it be complete without an audience to record it?"

He looked at Ria, and the clear expression on the face of the disordered was reflected in the two crystal lenses.

Ria had a general understanding of his plan.

It's not difficult to stir people's hearts by leveraging the faith gained in Winstown over a few days.

"This is truly a crazy move." Despite saying that, Ria straightened her clothes to make sure she was impeccably prepared before walking straight into the crowd.

He stood in the crowd with his head down, talking to himself.

"The investigator came here to eliminate the source of the disease. What will we do if no one records such a heroic act?"

"I need to keep up. I must be the first to witness this great achievement. No one can take the chance to be number one from me."

As he was speaking, someone suddenly leaned closer and asked, "What did you just say? Investigator, you want to completely eliminate the source of the disease?"

Doesn't this mean we'll never have to worry about wearing masks when we go out again?

This person's voice was much louder than Biria's, and soon another voice rang out.

"What?! We can see the cleanup site of the pathogen? I've never even seen what the pathogen looks like before! Oh my god, this day has finally come!"

"I must be the first to watch!"

"Don't even think about it, I'm the first one!"

"This is a historic moment for Winstown, a milestone!"

Soon, the news that the investigators were going to the dead forest to investigate the corpse spread like wildfire. Some people worried that being too close to the source of the disease might be dangerous, since it was something that even the investigators found troublesome.

But such doubts were quickly drowned out by more and more jeers. Some people recognized that Lia was the young man who had been selling black bread at the bread stall these past two days, and almost everyone who had bought black bread praised Lia's service attitude.

For some reason, just by standing there, people couldn't help but want to believe in this young man.

Now he suggests that everyone go and watch the investigators clean up the scourge, which would enhance the investigators' prestige among the masses and provide the intellectually challenged townspeople with something to talk about after dinner and something to brag about to the outside world.

Such persuasive words struck a chord with the townspeople, and soon they disregarded everything else and cheered as they marched toward the barren forest.

Meanwhile, Ria was left behind.

"Honestly, I admire you."

James walked over to him and sighed sincerely.

"Those guys are like they've been brainwashed by you."

“Normal rhetoric.” Ria watched the townspeople disappear completely, not thinking there was anything wrong with her behavior, and calmly walked towards their destination with James.

……

A barren forest.

This forest, located southwest of Winstown, once had a lush and vibrant youth, but an unknown disaster took its life. Now, it looks more like a decaying skeleton, forced to stand upright in the cold wind.

Crows are extremely ominous birds, yet even they only use that pile of dead wood as a temporary resting place, preferring to build their nests among the grass in the haystack rather than consider carrying away any branches from the dead forest trees.

The disaster that takes the life of a forest is called "profit".

People mine for ore, extract groundwater, and then discharge water that has been carefully polluted by factories to completely destroy this forest. Every time the cold wind blows through these tree trunks, it makes a "whooshing" sound.

Some say it's the mournful cry of the forest's ghosts.

Such a dark environment seems perfect for burying a polluter.

Very...a perfect match.

(End of this chapter)