I am a reincarnation player.

But it's different here. There is no day or night, only a red and ominous sky.

"Maybe we are on another planet?"

"I think astronomy is useless in the reincarnation game. After all, humans are just sitting in a well and looking at the sky. Who knows what is outside the solar system?" Hiyori smiled gently and raised her hand to pat her face.

"I don't want to think about this meaningless thing anymore. Let's finish the dungeon first. Senior, have you seen that silver car? We passed by it fifteen minutes ago. The cars on the road are just circling."

Mai turned her head. She did see it, but she didn't have that kind of memory and observation ability. She just felt that it looked familiar, so she simply nodded and looked at her watch.

24 hours after entering the dungeon, the city has not changed at all. It is still prosperous, noisy and violent. Sometimes she wonders why the people in these dungeons were born.

But Yuki told her that it was meaningless. Each copy was a world with its own operating rules, just like why people have to go to school, take exams and work in reality.

At this moment, cheers erupted from the death arena behind him, and a black car drove from a distance and drove into the passage under his feet.

After each deathmatch, in addition to the arena automatically repairing itself, members of the cult will come to clean up and carry away the bodies of the warriors. This is the only way for the warriors to leave the deathmatch arena.

Their mission is to open a breakthrough from this car.

"The next match is against Yuki again. He'll give us an hour," Mai said softly, unable to suppress her laughter. "That idiot can be mean sometimes, and he really messes with people's mentality. Your reminder is also very important. If he gets affected by the atmosphere and kills his opponent in a few moves, we won't have time to exploit the rules."

After confirming that the method is effective, the enthusiastic audience will then watch black eggs for an hour, which must be a very bad experience.

"This is the purpose of my existence. To come up with a solution when Mr. Yuki is too busy." Hiyori smiled gently, without any hint of arrogance. "If the Night Domain can last longer, Mr. Yuki will probably let them watch the Black Egg for several days, which will reduce the frequency of battles."

I just don’t know what kind of subsequent problems will arise if we go against the cult in this way.

"Senior, do you feel that this copy tastes wrong?"

"Taste? Now that you mention it, it really doesn't have that horrible and weird feeling." Mai came to her senses. Even in the war-themed Battle of the Seas, when she saw through the clues and found out that the people on the ship were all monsters and ghosts, her scalp still tingled.

"This place is too direct, and the smell is not right," Hiyori muttered to herself, and then she saw two men in black suits carrying a stretcher out of the passage.

The person on the stretcher was already dead, half of his body was split open, leaving a clear trail of blood on the ground. In fact, there was no need for a stretcher at all, he could just put the body in his pocket and pack it up and go.

Those people really acted like they were treating a wounded person, putting him in the car and closing the door, their movements smooth and skillful.

Mai turned and walked towards the SUV parked on the side of the road. Hiyori took a deep look at her and hurriedly followed.

......

[When one player steps onto the stage, it's equivalent to the entire team being in a deathmatch, and players in this state will be respected.]

This was the most significant discovery on the first day of exploring the copy. After confirming it, Mai had tested the scale and found that the effect was surprisingly good.

She was actually able to borrow the car without any reason. After she made the request, the driver immediately handed her the keys. Her respectful look was very unusual.

During this day, they witnessed all kinds of road rage. In the past, let alone borrowing a car, if they lingered in front of a car for a long time, they would be punched in the face, starting a fight to the death.

But these citizens are very normal, with all the necessities of life, such as food, drink, defecation, urination and sleep. Apart from the lack of entertainment facilities, the city's municipal construction is also quite modern. I just don't know what they are busy with all day long.

"It's ridiculous! How could he find out our identities?" Mai started the car and followed him, complaining that there was no light on her body.

"You said they have strong intuition and can even detect your characteristics. Maybe that's why."

"Just relying on intuition?"

"No, because the rules of the reincarnation game are higher than the rules of the copy. This does not require logic, so it seems absurd."

Hiyori stared at the car in front of him and answered intermittently. The journey went smoothly and no one bumped into him out of anger.

She read the details carefully and found that no one was following her and she couldn't smell any conspiracy. It seemed that the cult had no concept of counterintelligence at all.

Everything was so "aboveboard," just like the fights you see everywhere on the street, all happening on the spot, no one was bluffing, or pretending to be scared, or calling a truckload of bread.

They had the same smooth flow as the black car in front of them, and as the traffic moved through various parts of the city, they also saw other deathmatches.

No. II, No. III, and No. V all looked basically the same. The black car was like a garbage truck, and it would stop at every death arena and collect the bodies of the dead.

The same process: collect, load and then go to the next place. But the smell in the car must be very touching. I don’t know how they endure it.

Then those death arenas were inaccessible, there was no concept of tickets, and only the cult members in black suits guarded the only entrance.

They had blank expressions on their faces and scared the two men back with their cold eyes.

His arms were thicker than both of their thighs, so there was no way he could force his way in. After circling a few times, Hiyori discovered that the Death Arena was built in a very strange way:

It was a huge area, and he had already seen how many people were inside. There was only one entrance for so many people, and it was as narrow as the Death Arena IV.

The two guards blocked the door tightly, it was like one man blocking the pass and ten thousand couldn't get through. Mai tried to activate the special feature, and when he got closer, the guards looked at him vaguely.

They said nothing, just clenched their fists. This look immediately made Mai lose the desire to rush forward.

"No, I can't get in. The passage is too narrow." Mai retreated to the car, her back covered in sweat. "I should have borrowed flying boots from Hayasaka-san and flew up from the outer wall to see if I could."

"Flying boots can't stay aloft for long. Besides, there are guards inside. We don't have time to watch the fight." Hiyori shook her head and bit her fingertips. "And did you notice there's only one passage? How are so many spectators getting in and out?"

It’s true. I didn’t see any audience entering or leaving the venue.

Mai noticed this detail, and exchanged glances with Hiyori before speaking in unison.

"Don't they have to leave at all?"

That's right, they had carefully investigated the Death Arena IV. There was nothing else inside except the ring, the audience seats, and the lounge. Not to mention a shop selling popcorn, there wasn't even a toilet.

It seemed as if those tens of thousands of people had no physiological needs, and their purpose of existence was to watch the deadly battle and cheer for the soldiers.

"A major discovery: there must be something wrong with these viewers. At the very least, they are not normal creatures."

Hiyori quickly wrote it down in the notebook, first writing "puppet" and then quickly erasing it. Puppets don't have such passionate emotions, but if it were a human, who would just watch the show without eating, drinking, defecating or urinating? At least they would be thirsty if they screamed so loudly.

Mai didn't disturb the girl's thoughts. She waited for a while before patting her shoulder.

"Their car is almost full, let's follow them."

The pursuit continued, and after about five minutes of driving in the traffic, the black car finally slowed down and stopped in front of a dark high-rise building.

These buildings were noticed when the dungeon was opened. They were like black swords stuck in the ground, scattered in the residential area, and were the most eye-catching landmarks in this bloody city.

The door on the first floor was pushed open, revealing a passage wide enough for two cars to drive side by side. The black car restarted and drove straight in.

Squeak.

Mai stepped on the brakes. They were just respected, not invisible, so of course they couldn't follow her in.

"This is the place Abate has been to." Mai recognized it at a glance, but she didn't know which one it was. The door was completely open and there were no guards in sight. "How about I activate my special ability and go in to take a look?"

"No, that's too dangerous. Let me use the Void Puppet to test it. You turn around first. We'll be ready to run away at any time."

"That's...okay."

After experiencing the Battle of the Wrath of the Sea, Hiyori was already very proficient in using the Void Puppet. She snapped her fingers and suddenly felt herself being split in half.

Her vision, hearing, and smell were all separated, and because of her different positions, the sense of separation was so severe that for a moment she didn't know whether she was sitting in a car or standing on the side of the road.

The Void Puppet doesn't last long and can't interfere with reality. Even if it has characteristics that are invisible in the material world, Mai's characteristics can be noticed, so the puppet shouldn't be much better.

However, this thing is a consumable. If a fight really breaks out, the hatred will not be directed at you.

As the ghostly puppet moved silently, its line of sight extended, and it got into the building before the door closed. Hiyori activated its characteristic, causing its field of vision to rotate 360 ​​degrees.

There were no windows, so the view wasn't dim, but the lights dyed it a terrifying blood-red.

The interior area is very large, with many cult members wearing black suits and golden skulls on their chests coming and going, and the structure is also very simple.

Behind the door was a hall with two elevators at the end. Eight identical black cars were neatly parked in the hall, which made Hiyori raise an eyebrow.

It's very strange. This place doesn't look like a hospital or a cemetery. What's the point of collecting the bodies here?

The Void Puppet stood in the darkest corner, watching the staff open the car door and gently carry the body down. The body was badly damaged, and the blood that flowed out immediately dyed the black floor red.

But after seeing dozens of bodies laid out together, Hiyori discovered one thing in common:

Whether they were beheaded or their bodies torn into pieces, their heads were relatively intact.

Hey, why do we have to keep the head? The head should be the best fatal point.

Hiyori didn't quite understand. Yuuki told her that the extraordinary skill of vital point transfer was most afraid of being hit on the head. Then, something even more unreasonable happened.

Puff puff.

The black-clad staff took out huge meat cleavers, chopped off the heads one by one, and put them into trays.

Huh? What's the point of chopping off a corpse's head? Isn't it just to prevent resurrection?

Hiyori was even more puzzled, and turned her head when she heard a 'ding' sound.

The elevator door opened and a group of taller and stronger men wearing blood-red suits and skull masks walked out.

They looked terrifying, with one gold and three black masks. They slowly walked to the front of the car and took the tray from the man in black. When handing it over, they seemed to be chanting some kind of spell.

The syllables were not long, more like a code, but Hiyori couldn't understand it. Fortunately, 'Reality Reading' could take in all the movements in the entire hall in a very short time.

The blood gathered and did not reach the soles of the feet. These people seemed to be standing in a sea of ​​blood to complete the handover; each of them chanted a spell, their expressions were fanatical and determined; finally, there was a difference in treatment between the heads.

Some were directly thrown into pockets and packed away, while those placed on trays were all the heads of warriors collected from the death arena.

Why is that? Do the skulls have any special purpose? Why does the cult collect them?

Hiyori's little head was filled with question marks. She was completely unable to understand what she saw, but she knew that this must be related to the ultimate secret.

As she was thinking, she heard a low, hoarse, and angry voice.

"You, what are you looking at?"

The girl was confused for a moment due to the severed five senses, and then her hair stood on end.

It was discovered!

Both of her vision turned blood red, and she smelled a nauseatingly strong odor of blood and felt a maddening tearing sensation.

The side effect of the Void Puppet is feedback from the five senses, and this time it's even more than that. A feeling of cruelty and brutality surged into his heart, getting closer and closer, as if it was slowly crawling over along the connection between the puppet and the original body.

"Senior, run!"

The girl in the car screamed, and Mai next to her didn't waste a second, she immediately released the handbrake and stepped on the accelerator.

woo-

The engine roared, and the entire car shot out like an arrow, scraping against several cars in a row. Under normal circumstances, this would be enough to trigger a bloody battle, but these cars simply stopped and did not catch up.

"Are you okay? What did you see?" Mai turned her head and saw the girl in the passenger seat with her arms around her chest, shaking all over as if she was seriously ill.

Her teeth were chattering and her eyes were darting around uncontrollably. Fortunately, after the distance increased, the Void Puppet lost control and automatically disintegrated. She quickly swallowed several comfort pills and finally escaped from the severe mental breakdown.

"I, I, I..." Hiyori opened her trembling mouth, unable to describe the strange phenomenon she saw. Countless pieces of information flashed in her brain and finally merged into one sentence.

"I saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood!"

Chapter 4 Apostles (K)

The door of the black building was open.

A figure about two meters tall, wearing a blood-red skull mask and a crimson windbreaker, stood at the door.

The windbreaker is too large to cover the specific features of the body, and one can only judge from the standing posture that the person is leaning slightly forward.

The golden skull mask only revealed the eye sockets, which contained a pair of crimson eyeballs that emitted a strange light, like two burning flames.

The 'flame' stared at the street in front of it, leaving two dark skid marks on the ground. It slowly moved upwards, only to be blocked by the rolling traffic.

Passersby took detours, casting complicated glances at him, each one containing the following emotions:

Respect, fear, desire and eagerness to try.

The figure didn't care what these people thought. He would just go over and kill anyone who stared at him for more than three seconds. Unfortunately, no one could last more than one second.

"Lord Apostle, is someone spying on the sacred ceremony?" A burly man in a red suit came out, obviously of a higher status.

"Well, just like before, these seeds are not honest, have no honor, and are as despicable as bugs, always doing meaningless things."

A low, hoarse, violent voice sounded, mixed with mockery.

In its opinion, how can it escape if it is caught peeping? It should turn around, yell "What are you looking at" and give it a good beating.

Then they ran away. So they ran away. If I find them again, I will just kill them with one punch.

"Seeds are like this. They are born for no reason and die for no reason. All their struggles are just for survival."

"But once you come to this city, no one can leave alive. Their struggle is sad and pitiful." The scarlet figure shook his head slightly. This is normal. Their existence is an insult, but it is a pity and very precious.

"So how are the seeds this time? To be frank, I don't have high expectations."

"Just like before, there are eight groups in total. Three groups have been sacrificed, leaving five groups remaining."

"Weak! It's only been such a short time and nearly half of them are already injured or killed." The apostle sneered, flames surging in his eyes, as if he wanted to put an end to the struggle of these trash.