They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 34 Gray or Yellow
"Goo!"

As Ria traveled through the smog, a black, feathered creature emerged from his body, rapidly growing larger and larger before snatching the black bread from his hand and stuffing its feathers inside.

Its feathers are so thick that they're perfectly fine for storing things.

Ria reached out and rubbed its chin with the back of her hand. The dog squinted its eyes and purred contentedly. After a moment, Ria stopped.

At this moment, they were looking in a certain direction through the smog, their eyes filled with vigilance.

"It's truly unbelievable that people's resentment towards factories, mixed with the thick smoke, gave rise to extraordinary creatures."

Lia Kong didn't use his hands, but could only bite the edge of the glove with his teeth and pull it up a little. Even now, he was still very unaccustomed to this kind of attire.

But there was no other way. If he had to negotiate with those factory owners, he couldn't get away with it without dressing well. Moreover, James also said that wearing appropriate clothes would help him portray his identity.

Lia thought this was nonsense.

Does having an identity card called "Witch" mean they have to wear witch hats and cloaks and ride brooms all day?

The identity card only represents one title. People can make diverse choices in their lives. We cannot allow a title or identity to fix the behavior of those who are out of control.

He sighed, nearly choking on the smell of the smog again, and could only curse inwardly those who took the easy way out by not adding filters to the chimneys.

When he helped Mrs. Ster and Angela back, they were both unconscious. Ria could only go upstairs to get the things he had recently bought and give them to little Swarth. He also took the Dream Lamp from the cabinet with him.

As long as there's no cost, that kerosene lamp is a perfectly good choice as an ordinary kerosene lamp. With it, Ria doesn't need to open his eyes to see his surroundings when walking at night.

Of course, carrying a lantern in the smog also serves another purpose.

The light in the dim light was undoubtedly conspicuous, making it the perfect target for mysterious creatures hiding in every corner.

At that moment, simply by standing there, he had already sensed the unusual movements emanating from them.

The creatures slowly approached their prey, coming from all directions, twisting their strange bodies and waving their bizarre limbs. When they were absolutely certain that their prey could not escape, they gathered together and mimicked Ria's human silhouette.

Through the thick fog, the monsters truly looked like a human.

"Who's there?" Lia concealed her discomfort and pretended to move the kerosene lamp forward. The shadow in the gray fog waved and took a step back, making a clear footstep.

"What color is this fog...?"

It asked Ria in a deep voice.

Without hesitation, Ria replied, "Gray."

"No...that's not right...you're wrong!"

The humanoid creature, hunched over, said, "This is yellow mist, completely devoid of any color like 'gray.' Those who answered incorrectly..."

They will all become food for the fog.

"You talk too much!"

Before it could finish speaking, Ria swung its cane and shattered the humanoid shadow. With a "snap," its head fell off its neck, rolled away, and was completely obscured by the gray mist.

“I said it’s gray, so it’s gray. You freaks who answered wrong… Go, eat them.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the little Swarth on Ria's shoulder suddenly opened its mouth, flapped its wings, and pounced over.

As it approaches its prey, its feathers stand on end, and countless tentacles extend from beneath them to tightly entwine its prey. The sizzling sound of the mucus on the tentacles' surface creates a corrosive effect.

Little Swarth happily stuffed the prey's "limbs" and "torso" into its mouth, placing them into different tracheae. Each of its tracheae had its own taste preferences, so it needed to divide its food into different portions when eating.

Soon after, it finished eating, rubbed its mouth with its feathers, and returned to Ria's shoulder with a big grin.

Ria leaned on his cane and continued onward. Along the way, he had encountered many extraordinary creatures who asked him about the color of the gray fog, and they were certain that the fog was yellow.

Such inducement can distort people's perception. For example, when Ria stared at the fog for a long time, she even began to think that it was somewhat yellowish, which is not a good sign.

go.

We cannot linger even for a moment longer.

"Goo-"

Little Swarth flapped his wings, dispersing some of the haze, while Ria stepped tirelessly over the human skeletons that had revealed their true forms below.

"Crench, crunch."

A foot formed by twisting an arm.

Eyes formed by twisting hair.

The limbs are formed by twisting the torso.

A finger joint formed by twisting of the gums.

These are their true colors.

They want to imitate humans, inhabit humans, digest humans, decompose humans, and thus... become humans themselves.

It's not hard to guess where these fragmented remains came from; Winstown lacks everything, but it never lacks dead people.

Every time Ria passed by the alley or the large, long-neglected garbage dump, she would see unemployed people, beggars, or children, their bodies piled up one after another until they became new garbage dumps.

However, even under these circumstances, people still did not complain about the sun, because the sun was high above and eternally shining was as it should be. The church provided them with white bread and wine every month, and they were extremely grateful and never doubted the source of the disaster.

"The source is the people of the Church of the Rising Sun."

"I am certain," Ria said.

Here, the bishop is supreme, collecting exorbitant taxes, establishing factories, hunting 'witches,' and establishing completely illogical systems.

However, nothing can be said to be so absolute; everything has two sides.

Although the church's existence was illegitimate, Ria could still find loopholes in it to profit from.

Several hours later, he stood in front of the side gate of a factory near Winstown, knocked on the door, and little Swarth returned to Ria's body.

Who would knock on the door so early in the morning for no reason?!

A short, unkempt man with a full black beard opened the door. Judging from his clothes and complexion, Ria knew that her arrival had probably disturbed something the man was doing.

"you--"

The man was initially furious, his fingers itching to strike the gun in his pocket, but upon seeing Ria's attire, he instantly suppressed his anger and became obsequious, rubbing his hands together and grinning: "I thought it was someone working from dawn till dusk, but it turns out to be a gentleman. Are you sent by your superiors to inspect the factory's progress?"
"Don't worry, we've already exceeded our production quota for that batch of steam engines. They've undergone significant improvements, and there's absolutely no chance of them exploding due to excessive atmospheric pressure."

(End of this chapter)