Players are coming, fortunately I have a time travel simulator

Zhou Ning nodded. He was well aware of the perverse nature of legal provisions, which sometimes made no sense at all. However, laws that could probe the spiritual realm were quite rare. Needless to say, enacting such laws would require the use of divinity.

Moving forward into Law Square, Zhou Ning followed Smith Hall to a tall flight of stairs. There were 158 steps, symbolizing the 158 articles in the Falik Kingdom's Constitution. Above them, the magnificent Church of Courage stood, signifying the God of War's supremacy over the law. He inexplicably felt an overwhelming sense of intimidation. Its divinity was far more powerful than that of the comparable St. Raymond Cathedral.

Zhou Ning followed Smith Hall up the stairs. What he saw were dazzling golden walls and four corridors formed by giant arches. The walls were covered with legal provisions written in various golden and mysterious characters.

Zhou Ning secretly took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to dig out a few gold bricks. If the outer walls of this place were really made of gold as the legend said, the construction cost would be at least tens of billions. Is it so cool to become a god?

Entering the church from the last archway, the interior of the church is still dominated by gold, just like the style outside. Although there are no lights, the golden light has already broken through the deep darkness and illuminated the interior of the church.

Directly opposite stood a statue of the god of war. He was a sturdy, handsome man, dressed in a slightly wrinkled robe. In his left hand, he held a book, while in his right, he held a hammer high. This symbolized the god of war's two powers: law and power. In front, several priests sat on benches praying.

"Remember not to harbor any evil thoughts," Smith Hall lowered his voice and reminded him again. Zhou Ning followed Smith Hall into the church and pushed open the door on the right side of the mass hall, revealing a staircase leading down.

At the entrance of the secret door stood a priest wearing a black clergy robe. He was the person in charge of guarding the entrance from the Church of the God of War.

After seeing Zhou Ning and Smith Hall, he made a clockwise triangle gesture on both sides of his shoulders and head and said:

"The God of War is with you."

"God of War." Smith Hall responded in a deep voice and also made a triangle gesture.

The structure here reminded Zhou Ning of the Sun Guard headquarters; the two had quite a few similarities. Perhaps all mysterious organizations in this world were like this?

The stairs were very deep. It took about 5 minutes of walking down the stairs to reach the bottom of the church. Inside, candles with carved patterns were burning quietly, lighting up the ground. With the help of his observation Haki, Zhou Ning could feel that in this underground area, there were at least 2 to 3 demigods and no less than 20 super-class professionals serving as guards.

While he was thinking, Smith Hall reached out, pushed open a secret door and walked in.

Zhou Ning followed him in and looked inside. An old man in a silver-white clerical robe was sitting there, facing the entrance, reading the information in his hand.

Judging from his strength as a demigod and the unknown strange objects on his body, he should be Roger, the Patriarch of the Church of the God of War.

At this moment, he half turned his head and cast his gaze towards Zhou Ning, a trace of solemnity flashing in his eyes:

"Please take a seat, Mr. Sternwell."

Zhou Ning calmly pulled a chair next to him and sat down. Roger was silent for two seconds, then asked:

"I asked Smith to come to you to ask if you have found the whereabouts of Archbishop Edward?"

Sure enough... Zhou Ning nodded without hesitation and said, "Yes, I have reliable information that Archbishop Edward appeared on a fishing boat near the Yedria Sea. And he seems to have been controlled by some evil spirit."

"Yedria Sea?" Roger's expression briefly flashed with surprise, and then he seemed to have thought of something and fell into deep thought.

In the frozen silence, he quickly controlled his expression, "I believe what you said. If Edward is really controlled by an evil spirit, then this evil spirit is almost certainly at a level above an angel, or maybe even..." He did not continue.

"I know, it's most likely a Seraph or a god." Zhou Ning added for him, "And I have more important information."

"Hmm? What message?" Roger asked subconsciously, his eyes moving slightly.

Zhou Ning did not hide much. He started with the story of General Thunder and the Genie, then talked about the Weather Lord Valentine and his Poseidon which was also wandering around the Motley Islands. He then gave a brief account of how he met Valentine on the way to Nathaniel, how he learned information about the Genie from Cotton Benson, his own response, and the subsequent investigation.

From the fact that the news of the werewolf disaster in the Motley Islands was blocked for nearly a month, we can know that the Church of the God of War is not strong at sea, especially in the Motley Islands. This information should be very valuable to them.

The only information he withheld was the possible plans of Little Book and Carl Robbins, along with his corresponding speculation. The reason was simple: after revealing this, Roger would easily guess that the whole thing was likely aimed at him, putting him at a disadvantage in the partnership. Sometimes asking for help and being asked for help are two completely different experiences.

Moreover, Zhou Ning had a vague guess that when he mentioned the little broken book, the other party would most likely sense it and arrange corresponding countermeasures.

Roger's expression couldn't help but become more and more stunned.

He originally just wanted to find Zhou Ning to get a preliminary understanding of the situation and see if there was any chance to recover Archbishop Edward and the lost miraculous item: "The Code of Falik", but he didn't expect to hear a bombshell.

He was silent for a full half minute, then looked at Zhou Ning and said, "Mr. Sternwell, I think we can develop a deeper cooperation based on our existing cooperation."

Zhou Ning thought for a moment and asked in a deep voice, "Cooperation is fine, but what kind of compensation can you offer?"

Roger thought for a moment and said calmly:

"I know this incident is most likely related to you and the Starry Sky Organization behind you. There's no need for you to deny it, and this won't affect our cooperation. We have a common enemy, which is a basis for cooperation. I will have Smith Hall go with you, and I will also assist you in secret. As for the reward, it's 30000 Victa cash and the opportunity to formulate your own law. But you must help us recover Archbishop Edward and the Falik Code."

It's OK, the key is that these rewards are all free. Zhou Ning glanced at the task bar and said:

"I'll go back and think about it and give you an answer tonight."

As expected, a prompt popped up on the panel:

[The first stage of the A-level hidden chain mission: [Tracing the Traces] has been completed.]

[Tracing the traces of that unknown existence (1/1)]

[You have gained 1240 million experience points, and your favorability with the Church of the God of War has increased by 1500 points. You have received a random reward x1. Do you want to claim it?]

This was the benefit of the information gap. After all, they couldn't possibly know they were snooping on the TV series. He had done almost nothing, yet he'd gotten over 300 million experience points and a random reward for free. And as long as he agreed to cooperate with the Church of the God of War, this quest would naturally have a follow-up.

But in order to avoid the other party thinking that he agreed too easily, Zhou Ning decided to delay the process before agreeing to the other party.

Roger wasn't worried that Zhou Ning would refuse, so he nodded and said, "No problem, Smith will come to see you tonight. I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation."