They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 93 The Price of Touching the Extraordinary
But all of this happened a long time ago. The Order Association used mysterious items to remove the inexplicable curse from the area, restoring the residents to normal.

They even asked the Keepers of the Secrets, but the plague doctors couldn't detect any symptoms in those people because they weren't sick at all.

Opinions varied widely; some said it was a curse, others said it was due to acclimatization issues. The younger residents moved away one after another, but the symptoms of aging still found them unexpectedly.

The mortality rate there was terrifying, but what was even more terrifying was that no one was having children, and the population of that neighborhood remained balanced.

In Zolamu, newborns often appear out of nowhere, and their young "parents" readily accept the sudden appearance of the children, raising them slowly and continuing to repeat the curse experienced by their predecessors.

"Aging...death."

Lia sat in her seat, turning the pages of the book, propping her forehead up with one hand as she read through these legends.

"These curses don't seem to spread to tourists. If it's just a problem happening repeatedly in one block, it doesn't seem to pose any threat to outsiders. But the most crucial point is... it bites people."

Those surviving skeletons will lose their minds at some point in their dying phase, going berserk and chasing after others to bite them, and they will run out of the block and suddenly appear on the street.

It sounds a bit like zombies, but the bitten people don't mutate. Instead, those skinny guys peel off their skin, eat their flesh, and then the skeletons live in new skin for a while until they die completely.

It seems that only in this way can they consider themselves to have died as "human beings".

“And all of this happened in the last few months.” Ria folded the newspaper beside her, her gaze complicated.

He pondered the cause of these events: "Extraordinary beings or mysterious objects? Judging from the events, the probability of mysterious objects seems higher, but we cannot rule out the possibility of both."

Moreover, the mention of aging always reminded him of Ms. Ilint. Doctors wouldn't pay attention to a sick person for no reason, and given Ilint's physical condition, it would be better for her to be sent to the hospital.

“This looks quite interesting.” Ria closed the book. He was interested in these stories, but interest didn’t mean he was going to get involved.

He still needs to slowly explore the magician's meme. It's not too late to go and have fun in places that interest him when his meme encoding is higher.

That was what Ria originally thought.

He continued his work until he saw the investigators leave the library, and when he looked at Ilint again, he noticed that she seemed to have lost even more weight.

The doctor continued to watch over her, and he laughed with delight: "Look, this person is one step closer to death."

"A perverse sense of humor." It was already past closing time for Ria, and he went for a walk outside the library when he heard gunshots nearby. People around him rushed back to their homes and locked their doors.

Soon, there were very few people on the street.

The people around Lia were still watching the situation with smiles on their faces; in other words, they were just enjoying the show.

Those who stayed were all brave; some believed that the gunshots coming from the next street had nothing to do with them.

The next second, several bloody holes suddenly appeared on the man's forehead. He looked at Ria, as if he wanted to say something, but the next second his eyes lost their light and he collapsed to the ground.

A strong stench of rotting corpse emanated from that person.

As Lia slowly turned around, she saw a fully armed man carrying a gun walking towards her. The man was wearing a helmet and had a double gear symbol hanging on his chest.

He walked to the dead man without even glancing at Ria, then pulled out his knife and cut open the man's skin, pulling out a wet, brownish skeleton, muttering to himself.

"This is number 0-324. The twenty-seventh zombie has been captured."

His voice sounded like some kind of machine; no, this person was practically a product of some kind of mechanization. But in every way, it was clear that he was indeed a living person.

It is a living person, but without thoughts. It seems that this person has been given instructions by someone and can only complete specific tasks.

For example, killing the "living corpses" hidden in the city.

"Bam—"

The man left with the motionless zombie, and before leaving, he deliberately crushed the zombie's head to prevent it from making any further noise.

"The investigators are all crazy... How dare a bunch of ordinary people meddle with the extraordinary?"

The words James had said back then echoed in Lia's ears once again.

He was unusually silent at this moment.

If he wasn't mistaken, a portion of that group had used mysterious objects to erase their reason and thoughts, completely turning themselves into "machines" perfectly suited to carry out their missions.

In terms of efficiency, these people did a very good job. And if the weapons had been aimed at Ria instead of the zombies disguised as normal people, Ria would probably be seriously injured now.

"Could it be that these people can only carry out one mission and cannot repeat other missions? Or is the Order Association afraid to break ties with the Keepers of the Secrets and directly order the massacre of the disorderers?"

"It's much more dangerous outside. It seems we can't let our guard down anywhere."

"But... that was clearly the prey I targeted first."

Ria rubbed his temples. He had just been looking for strange people on the street, hoping to find the old guy who had run away from Zolamu in the vicinity, but he was intercepted halfway there.

"Let's take out this loan first; we're not in a hurry to pay it back."

The young man turned around and continued searching for any other extraordinary creatures. Unfortunately, the number of extraordinary creatures here was extremely small, and after the Order Association took away the zombies, someone would soon come to clean up the bloodstains on the street.

After doing all this, they would make a "praise the sun" gesture on the spot, seemingly to show mercy to the dead and purify their spirits.

"The division of labor within the Order is quite complex. Compared to the Guardians, who are simply doctors and patients, the Order Association should have ordinary investigators, combat departments, and people who clean up the sites."

Ria observed the sweeper for a moment and noticed that its body seemed to be made of straw, only dressed in a sweeper's uniform.

"A mysterious item?"

Ria became interested. It was getting late, and soon many people who had gone into their homes left again to do their own things. The scarecrow that was sweeping the street also left the scene after finishing its work.

It ran very fast and moved in strange ways, which made Ria laugh.

As he continued his walk through the nearby streets, he stopped and looked down, noticing a tiny moth lying on the ground.

The moth was flapping its wings, unable to fly and on the verge of death, but Ria picked it up not out of pity, but because she noticed a numerical symbol on its wing.

The number 15.

(End of this chapter)