Using the MC system to pretend spiritual revival

Chapter 253 Iceberg Hell
Sato felt as if his consciousness had been thrown into a washing machine.

Spin, shake.

Fortunately, the dizziness only lasted for a moment.

When I opened my eyes again, the scene of the city that was once a scene of ruins had been replaced by an ancient marketplace with gray, black and red as the main colors.

The roadside was bustling with people and lined with shops, while the road itself was filled with the constant flow of traffic and the cacophony of voices.

Looking back, a massive city gate bearing the three characters "Fengdu City" stretched across the horizon.

He raised his head again and again, until it was almost at a right angle, before Sato could barely see the top of the city gate in front of him.

It was my first time here, and I was so terrified that I didn't even notice anything.

Today, this city gate, built of massive bluestone and red tiles, is actually much larger and more magnificent than the so-called third tallest building in the world, as advertised by its own country.

Not only that, but when you look around along the equally tall, dark and heavy brick and stone walls on both sides of the city gate, you can't see the corner at all the way to the end of your field of vision.

You should know that his current body has been strengthened countless times through his travels throughout Yinghua Kingdom and his assassination of hundreds and thousands of political figures and nobles.

Even later, the impact and scorching heat waves from the outer edge of the nuclear bomb were only barely comparable to the body's own self-healing ability, which shows just how exaggerated it was.

Even so, they still couldn't get a glimpse of the scale of this ghost city.

In the end, he could only give up, marveling at the grandeur of the afterlife.

The two ghost messengers who accompanied him out of the side door were not surprised to see Sato standing there with his head tilted back in a daze.

After waiting a moment and seeing that he still hadn't come to his senses, the blue-faced ghost messenger named Zhang A reached out and patted him on the shoulder:

"Alright, you'll have plenty of time to see the sights of the city later. Let's get down to business first. Don't forget your wife and daughters are waiting for you."

These words made Sato suddenly realize what was happening, and he quickly quickened his pace, following the two as they walked along the street into the city.

After winding their way through a narrow path, the group stopped in front of a tightly closed door.

On the thick, vermilion-colored door studded with copper nails, two powerful characters, "Zhang Mansion," hang prominently.

While the two waited, Zhang A stepped forward and knocked on the door. A moment later, two pale-faced servants dressed with garish blush pushed open the door and came out.

Upon seeing the three, they did not speak, but instead bent down and raised their hands in a gesture of invitation, their movements perfectly synchronized and strangely unsettling.

The two ghost messengers seemed quite familiar with this, and after the gate opened, they stepped directly into the courtyard, with Sato quickening his pace to keep up.

However, as he passed by the two servants who were standing on either side with their heads bowed, he couldn't help but glance at them.

Then he met a pair of clear, black and white eyes that were devoid of any life. A strange sense of dread shot through his head, and he quickly took two steps to create some distance.

However, just after passing the exquisitely carved screen wall in the courtyard, one can see more than a dozen figures moving among the flowers, plants and pavilions.

Most of them were dressed exactly like the servants seen at the entrance, while the rest were dressed as maids in ancient green costumes.

At this moment, some people were holding scissors, while others were carrying buckets of water, all busy moving around in the yard.

However, these people all had one thing in common: those eyes that made him a little uneasy.

Struggling to suppress his violently pounding chest, Sato turned his head to look at the two ghost messengers hurrying past him.

Finding that the two of them didn't pay any attention to the busy figures around them, they could only suppress their unease and try their best not to look at the moving figures around them, focusing on their journey.

The courtyard is quite large, although the entrance appears rather plain and unassuming.

After walking for several minutes, the intricate and exquisite carvings on the floor tiles along the way made Sato realize the status and power of the people living in this courtyard.

Since all three of them were fast walkers, they remained silent and walked quickly.

As they entered a side courtyard, Sato, who had been walking with his head down and following behind, paused, looked up, and saw the two ghost messengers standing in front of an old-fashioned brown-red house, no longer moving.

He realized that he had finally arrived at his destination and let out a long sigh of relief.

Although the courtyard, with its flowers, buildings, and even the paving stones beneath his feet, was exquisitely elegant, the atmosphere—where people moved about yet remained eerily silent—still left him, an ordinary person, feeling utterly lost.

"Creak—~"

As my thoughts raced, the carved wooden door in front of me slowly opened from inside the room.

A slightly more elegantly dressed maidservant bowed and stepped aside after securing the door bolt, clearing the way.

At the same time, a somewhat familiar voice drifted out from behind the screen inside the room:

"come in."

"Yes."

"Yes!"

Upon hearing the voice, Zhang A and the tall, thin ghost messenger responded and stepped across the threshold, with Sato following behind them with a somewhat nervous expression.

Walking through the hall and around the screen, I saw the familiar figure sitting behind the desk.

He was tall and wore his hair up with a crown.

Although he had changed into a dark blue casual suit, Sato recognized him at a glance as the hall clerk who had saved him and given him the mission.

And in that instant when he was stunned.

The sounds came from both sides almost simultaneously.

"Greetings, Master Zhubu!"

This made Sato Takeshi realize what was happening, and he immediately followed suit, clasping his hands in a fist and bowing.

"...Greetings, Registrar!"

"Hmm~"

As Sato's voice trailed off, a trembling sound emanating from his nose slowly emerged.

The figure behind the desk, who had been engrossed in books, finally looked up and nodded slightly to the three people in front of him.

A faint smile appeared on his face:
"It seems you have indeed worked hard to complete the task I entrusted to you."

As he spoke, his gaze shifted, finally settling on Sato, who stood somewhat awkwardly and uneasy in the center of the three.

"Well done, and much faster than I expected."

The words fell.

Sato, who had been struggling to breathe from the oppressive aura emanating from the figure behind the desk since the conversation began, was already feeling the pressure.

Suddenly, I heard the praise and satisfaction in that last sentence, and my tense heart relaxed instantly.

The worst fears along the way did not come true, and judging from the current situation, this was not some big shot playing a cruel joke.

Soon, under Sato's watchful gaze, the registrar, who seemed to be in a very good mood, reached out and picked up two paper orders that appeared to have been prepared in advance from the corner of the table in front of him.

With a flick of his hand, he made it slowly float towards his direction.

As the paper was snatched from mid-air, a surge of information flooded into his mind, and at the same time, the registrar's imposing voice rang out:
"Now that the matter has been accomplished, what I promised you will naturally be fulfilled. Since you are merely a mortal soul, the ghost messenger's mark required for entering and leaving the underworld has already been given to you in advance."

"And one of these two is a land deed for a house in the east of the city, a house with a courtyard of one-third of the total area."

"Secondly, there is the transfer order, officially stamped by the judge, which allows merit to offset punishment..."

The authoritative voice gradually faded into the distance. Sato looked at the order written in vigorous ancient characters in his hand, and his thoughts seemed to drift away at that moment.

It worked...?
Redeeming a soul from hell—a feat that would require an epic, heroic story in any myth or legend—was actually accomplished by himself.

Gently touching the transfer order in his hand, he felt that it was all so unreal.

From despair and fear to a broken heart and suicide.

From falling into hell to returning to the human world.

Those 3714 killings over 27 days brought a family of three a peaceful life forever. Confirming the reality of it all, Sato felt that the agony of being burned alive and disemboweled had vanished.

All of this was worth it…

When he came to his senses again, Sato found himself holding the two pieces of paper tightly, being supported by Zhang A and the tall, thin ghost on either side, standing outside the courtyard.

I have absolutely no idea how I left.

He only remembers that the next moment, his mind was filled with excitement and a sense of unreality, and he fell to his knees with a thud. After that, he had no recollection of anything.

Thinking of this, Sato couldn't help but raise his hand and wipe his face.

The result was that it was completely wet, and I could already imagine what had just happened.

He looked at the two people supporting him, his face full of embarrassment.

Once he regained his footing and let go, Zhang A, a burly man with a blue face and fangs, couldn't help but laugh again upon seeing this expression:
"Hey, don't look at me like that. There's nothing shameful about a real man showing his true feelings."

However, upon hearing this, Sato forced a smile, his embarrassment still evident. The two didn't say anything more, instead changing the subject:
"Alright then, let's go once we've recovered. Hell isn't a place for ghosts to linger."

"You should bring your wife and daughter out as soon as possible, so they can suffer less."

Upon hearing this, Sato's expression immediately turned serious. Forgetting his embarrassment, he instead became somewhat anxious.
"Then let's hurry, Brother Zhang, which direction should we go to hell?!"

Judging from his startled appearance, it's clear that the amount of information he received today was already overwhelming for an ordinary person, and he couldn't process it all.

Zhang A grinned, revealing his fangs, but instead of mocking him, he took out a dark brown square wooden plaque from his pocket:
"It seems you've really been too busy to remember anything. Have you forgotten how I helped you bring this out of the volcanic hell?"

Noticing the questioning look Sato gave him, he continued:
"After joining the Ghost Messenger, besides this outfit, sword, and chain, the most important thing is this Boundary Token."

"No matter where in the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Man, this item is required as proof for traveling between worlds. Similarly, it is also a magical artifact that can carry people through time."

As he spoke, under Sato's gaze.

The robust Zhang A held the palm-sized token, which looked like a mahjong tile in his hand, between two fingers.

Arriving at the blue brick wall along the street, he gently placed it on the wall, explaining as he did so:

"It sounds complicated, but it's actually very simple to do."

"You are now officially under the registrant's command as a ghost messenger. After two more days of receiving the approval, you will be able to receive your assigned weapons and equipment, including this world decree."

As he spoke, he slowed down his movements, demonstrating the use of the token as if he were instructing a junior.

After placing it on the wall and releasing it, the palm-sized, dark brown wooden plaque remained firmly attached to the brick wall.

Sato was slightly surprised, but fortunately he had been surprised enough in the past few days, and he quickly came to his senses.

"Watch closely, young man, this is how you use it..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhang A gestured towards Sato, then raised his large, fan-like hand and slammed it down on the dark brown wooden plaque attached to the wall.

"Click—~"

The expected dull thud did not occur upon the collision; instead, a crisp, clanging sound, as if a mechanism had been activated, was heard.

The next moment, before Sato could even react to what was happening, his vision suddenly blurred.
They blurred instantly, as if an invisible film of light enveloped them.

Suddenly, everything went blurry before his eyes, and just as he opened his mouth to say something, he vanished from the spot.

In an instant, the street where the three had just stood was completely devoid of any trace, as if no one had ever been there.

The pedestrians who witnessed all this from afar seemed completely unsurprised, as if it were commonplace, and continued walking without stopping...

And at the same time.

An icy blue plain, some distance away.

Snowflakes drifted down, and mountains were frozen solid.

The world was a blanket of silver.

In this desolate place, three figures appeared out of thin air and stood on the thick snow in the next moment.

The three were a burly man, a skinny man, and a bewildered man.

Sandwiched between the two, Sato stared wide-eyed at what was happening before him, his mouth agape.
"...How...how can we..."

The questions that arose before the scene changed finally came out of his mouth, albeit haltingly.

However, Zhang A, who was retrieving the brown wooden plaque from the ice crystal wall, clearly misunderstood the meaning of these words.

He directly raised his hand and placed it on Sato's shoulder:

"It's different from what we expected, isn't it? We've seen this kind of thinking many times over the past few hundred years."

"Heh, people in the mortal world always think that hell is full of knives, fire, torture instruments and chains."

As he spoke, Zhang Ana's large, blue-faced, fanged face couldn't help but smirk, and he clicked his tongue in disapproval:

"But in reality, hell is not such a simple thing, otherwise so many people wouldn't be so terrified of it."

A few words left Sato, whose shoulder was being held down, stunned, his expression revealing unease:

"...And my wife and daughter..."

In response, he received two more heavy pats on the shoulder from a large, fan-like hand.

The impact produced a series of heavy, muffled thuds on Sato's shoulder muscles, which had been strengthened several times and were so muscular that even a bullet would have difficulty piercing them:
"Don't worry, young man! The registrar has his reasons for assigning your wife and daughters to this icy hell. Come with me, and we'll talk as we walk."

Sato opened his mouth upon hearing this, but did not say anything.

Now that things have come to this, he has no choice but to believe, but he still can't hide his unease as he follows behind the other person.

As the three walked slowly forward, their footsteps crunched on the thick snow, making a series of teeth-grinding sounds.

After bypassing the frozen valley where the group had initially settled, a boundless, frosty snowfield came into view.

Some low, fluorescent blue icebergs jut out from the ground, dotting the landscape.

Sato, who had lived his entire life in an island nation, had never seen such a sight before.

He had seen snow before, but the sheer scale of it still made his eyes widen in surprise.

However, feeling the desolation and deathly silence of the scenery, and thinking of his wife and daughter who had lived in such a place for so long, he couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart.

As we walked into the snowfield, passing an iceberg that seemed to pierce the sky like a tall building, several incongruous, murky black dots came into view below it.

They were several dirty gray clumps, curled up and covered in snow, with only a portion of them protruding from the ground.

Judging from its shape... it looks like a person who froze to death in the mountains during a heavy snowfall.

The closest figure, a person draped in tattered robes, looked somewhat familiar to him from the side.

Thinking of something, Sato felt a shiver run through him and took a step toward the foot of the mountain wall a few steps away.

However, he hadn't taken more than a few steps when he trembled as he raised his hand, preparing to sweep the snow off the face of the huddled figure.

Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet gave way to emptiness.

At this moment, the smooth and firm snow surface seemed to turn into a phantom.

Sato, who staggered and lost his footing, was instantly submerged up to half his body.

Almost simultaneously, just as a look of surprise appeared on his face, his body, swallowed by the snow, was suddenly enveloped by a bone-chilling cold.

Despite being strengthened, his body, which should have been immune to both ice and fire, now sent a sharp, deathly warning signal to Sato's mind.

This made him understand immediately.

Even if he could withstand the aftershocks of a nuclear bomb with his own body, he would freeze to death at this moment…

(End of this chapter)