They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 39 Memes
Most radiant and flawless ruler, tell your humble lamb, where shall I find the next disorderly one carrying memes?

As soon as she finished speaking, Ria dipped her hand in the red charcoal from the sun image and drew a sacrificial blood circle on the long table. Then she placed the feathers of the mythical creature on it, and its eyes, which were exposed from the cracks in its skin, stared uniformly at the location of the sacrificial circle.

An indescribable burnt smell gradually filled the air, and the raging fire quickly engulfed the feather, turning it completely to ashes.

The ashes after burning formed an arrow pointing north.

Without a doubt, this is the answer that the Rising Sun has provided.

However, the direction He gave was not specific, perhaps because certain unique factors of the disordered individuals made it impossible for them to be perfectly positioned.

"A location slightly northeast of here, which aligns with the direction of my next destination. Could it be Grani Town?"

He closed his eyes, wiped away the ashes, clapped his hands, and bowed once more to the portrait of the rising sun.

The portrait also disappeared quickly, and the confessional returned to normal.

"I wonder if the Church of the Rising Sun also exists in Grani Town. Logically speaking, these churches should be more concentrated."

"Ow."

Little Swarth preened his feathers with his beak, still brooding over how Ria had plucked his feathers.

But when Ria told it that as long as it provided feathers, it could enjoy the perfect treatment of three meals a day and accommodation with him, little Swarth immediately had no objections.

It doesn't like food or lodging, but it cares a lot about how its host treats it.

Since the host is happy, then it's only right for it to do whatever it wants.

Having convinced itself of this, it transformed into a cluster of tentacles, dangling on Ria's shoulder for a moment before wrapping itself around Ria's cane and playing by itself.

As they were playing, the strange semi-solid substance wrapped around Ria's arm. With a little force, the two tentacles almost broke the arm off, but Ria knocked it back into her body with her cane.

"We really can't relax even for a moment."

Mythical creatures have no concept of life and death; in their eyes, everything is a malleable toy.

"..."

As soon as Ria left the confessional and opened the door, he saw the bishop lying on the ground with his eyes wide open in death.

Out of a sense of propriety, Ria greeted him, but unfortunately, he did not respond.

But Ria didn't care about any of that. He didn't care how the bishop would wake up or what he would do. Those were all messes that the church should clean up.

He has done enough for Winstown; it's time for him to leave.

So, under the extremely fearful gazes of the crowd, Ria, carrying her cane, slowly faded from their sight.

The sound of the cane striking the ground terrified countless people, and for a long time after he left, the "bang bang bang" sound would still haunt their nightmares.

That's what will happen in the next year.

And now.

Lia stood by the stable, looking up at the somewhat emaciated horses in the hay shed.

A horse noticed his gaze, walked up to him, and flicked its tail, showing off its unusually large size.

"If all the horses here are this thin, they probably won't last more than a few miles from Winstown before they collapse and become skeletons."

This is how Lia commented.

"Don't be offended, but if you don't like this horse, you won't find a better one for miles around."

Horse trader Bern patted the neck of the spotted horse and vigorously kneaded its coat to show Ria just how agile it was.

"Is there really no better option?"

"Do you need a mule that walks very fast?" "...Take a look at the mule."

Ria really questioned how far the skinny horse could go. For someone who had packed his bags and was about to embark on a long journey, "speed" was not the most important thing; the key was to go long enough.

In the end, he did not choose the horse that seemed to better reflect his noble status, but after some bargaining, he spent eighty Swain to buy a crossbred gray mule.

He led the mule to the town entrance, gazing at the boundless plain to the north, his mind filled with all sorts of speculations about the future.

At this moment, the ever-present bird-beaked doctor reappeared and mocked him mercilessly for buying the mule.

“Kelcha, this beast is not a good match for you at all.”

Do you think it matches you? Answer: Yes or very well.

"Matching, of course we'll match!"

James patted the mule's side belly and laughed so hard he almost fell over. Then, he stopped joking and started discussing serious matters with Ria.

"Honestly, do you really want to leave here?"

"Even if I stay here, I'm afraid you'll find a reason to send me somewhere else soon."

"How did you know?"

"Because of 'memes'."

Identity cards are also known as memes.

In vocabulary, memes represent the basic units of culture.

Memes are transmitted through non-genetic means, especially through imitation.

"In order to change the meme encoding, I have to keep imitating and interpreting, but no matter how well I master one identity, it is still singular, and I can't think of a way to continue to improve the meme encoding."

So you're going somewhere else?

“That’s right. If I can’t figure it out, then others should be able to. You said before that the disordered are not allowed to fight openly, so fighting behind the scenes should be fine.”

James: "I'm still here!"

"It doesn't matter. I probably can't hide much from you about my affairs, so you should be prepared for me to meet with other disorderly individuals and even get into fights with them."

Since the doctor couldn't explain anything clearly, I could only try to pry some useful information out of my other colleagues.

Lia held a handful of hay in her hand, watching the docile livestock in front of her devour it all.

"Now that we've come this far, it's time to tell me the official rules of the 'game,' Doctor."

The truth is far more cruel than imagined.

James no longer hid anything from the patient. He lowered his head, the tip of his mask pressing a shallow groove into his stomach.

Centered on him, everything around him was suddenly covered by a thin, light black film, and in that instant, everything stopped moving.

The gray mule still had half a mouthful of unchewed hay in its mouth, and bits of it mixed with saliva and dripped down in a thread-like manner from the corners of its mouth, lingering in mid-air.

A horsefly flew past its side, seemingly wanting to burrow into the creature's fur to enjoy the fresh hemoglobin.

The birds in the sky, the rats at the bottom of the wooden box, the spider that had just caught a white-haired mosquito—all these creatures were turned into living sculptures and became motionless.

It seemed that only the two of them were left in the entire world, capable of taking action.

"Do you still have this ability?"

Ria touched the fly in front of her with her finger, but the fly was not moved at all.

(End of this chapter)