Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Reverse Heavenly Gang

After a brief darkness, light returned to Wu Chang’s eyes, and he found himself in the central area of Briefer Town.

To be precise, he was not in reality now, but had entered a memory, much like viewing a scene of lingering resentment.

However, this memory did not come from the resentment of the deceased but from the Bishop’s Resonance of Mental Images.

”Special Status: Resonance of Mental Images”

”Status Description: Enter the target’s inner depths to uncover their most hidden secrets. Exploring and disrupting the Resonance of Mental Images can cause the target’s will to lose control.”

Wu Chang didn’t expect the Bishop to be all show and no substance.

Ascetic devotees usually abandon worldly pleasures and desires, using a simple or even primitive lifestyle to temper themselves, proving their piety through spiritual and physical hardships.

The harsher the practice, the stronger the will, and the more devout the faith.

Logically speaking, as a representative of ascetic devotion in people’s hearts, the Bishop’s will and inspiration should both be high.

Who would have thought the Bishop was not even as good as Professor Ebert, as their combined attributes were 20% lower than Wu Chang’s, triggering the special status.

Tsk tsk tsk, the heart isn’t sincere.

With rich experience in viewing lingering resentments, Wu Chang quickly adapted to the Resonance of Mental Images.

When he checks lingering resentments, he usually has two perspectives.

One is a completely third-person view, watching the events unfold like a fixed camera.

The other is after repeatedly reviewing the resentment, using high inspiration to project into the owner of the resentment, switching to a first-person perspective.

The first-person perspective can feel the emotions of the resentment’s owner before they died, discovering secrets that a third-person view can’t reveal.

For instance, when entering the Moonlight Sanatorium, he discovered the goldfish in the corridor from the Mage’s first-person perspective.

The Resonance of Mental Images, unlike the two perspectives of resentment, was altogether different.

In the Resonance of Mental Images, he was completely independent, able to move freely, freely explore, not fixed within the resentment owner’s body or a specific standpoint.

He hadn’t merged into this memory but joined as an external ”intruder.”

This feeling was very novel, and as the Resonance of Mental Images was temporarily peaceful, he began to explore the town center in the Bishop’s memory.

Whether it was for being unable to view the world personally for too long or rejection in his heart towards this memory, the town’s streets in the Bishop’s memory deviated greatly from reality.

Originally neat and as if copied and pasted with the same model, the streets now had buildings of various heights, widths, even some inverted or floating mid-air.

Everything on the street appeared chaotic and turned upside down.

Quickly, he heard footsteps from all directions.

The townsfolk moved similar to the style of the buildings in the Bishop’s memory, emerging from nowhere like a program glitched out.

Some running forward, backward, upside down, rolling, bent over-backwards crawling...

The townsfolk each exhibited their prowess, running madly towards the square in front of the Great Cathedral.

Everyone had one trait in common; they lacked faces.

Wu Chang followed the townsfolk and came to the square.

In front of the faceless Great Statue of the Holy Mother stood a tall pyre.

A stick figure-like black shadow was tied to the pyre, the Bishop’s memory blocking all its features.

Amidst the townsfolk, the Bishop approached the pyre with open eyes, pressing a Holy Scripture with one hand, pointing to the altar with the other, loudly proclaiming:

”In the name of the God, I pass judgment, executing the guilty by fire!”

After proclaiming, the Bishop’s eyelashes transformed into barbed wire sewing his eyes shut.

Upon hearing the proclamation, the townsfolk began to rejoice.

Each held a piece of burning charcoal, stepping forward to toss it into the pyre.

As the flames of the pyre grew stronger, the townsfolk screamed, igniting themselves in flames.

As though the shadow tied to the pyre was not an alien, but themselves.

When the flames engulfed the shadow, all the townsfolk and the entire town were set ablaze.

The world descended into a sea of fire.

Wu Chang circled around, observing all the flames in the Bishop’s Resonance of Mental Images, including the red charcoal held by the townsfolk, were actually an emotion.

Envy.

The townsfolk burned others with the fire of envy, while they too were consumed by envy.

The Resonance of Mental Images ended here, like scenes from certain island films, the world frozen still, leaving him as the only one able to move.

He already knew what the Bishop’s Resonance of Mental Images recorded.

If he guessed correctly, the stick figure on the pyre was the missing Saintess he was searching for.

Have to admit, the islanders of Brief are admittedly playful.

They not only adhered to perception denominations, but also captured the preaching Saintess who came to the island, judging her as an alien.

Such rebellion, where could one find justice?

He took a Crystal Necklace from his personal space, its white crystal pendant at the end floating up, emitting star-like lights, pointing towards the shadow on the pyre.

”Item Name: Blessing of the Great Saint Mother”

”Item Type: Special”

”Item Description: A blessed pendant from the Great Saint Mother, capable of protecting the Saintess through crises, a coming-of-age gift from the Gods to the Saintess, the crystal pendant will react near the Saintess or Holy Mark.”

This pendant was the task guide item he received when accepting a hidden side quest.

During his mail delivery, he nearly traversed all areas of Brief Island, yet the Crystal Pendant showed no reaction.

Unexpectedly, the Crystal Pendant reacted in the Bishop’s Resonance of Mental Images.

Seeing the Saintess in another’s memory, does that count as finding her, so casually?

If the Bishop’s memory wasn’t wrong, the real Saintess should have long been dead, used as compost, the first crop of vegetables should already be ripe.

Would using items on memories even work?

Could it be that the existence of the Saintess is a concept, not requiring an entity?

Never mind, since the task guide instructed him, he must try.

He found a standing lampstand in the Great Cathedral, clearing the piled wood beneath the pyre with it.

Dragging the exterior-charred and fully-cooked stick figure from the flames, he placed the ”Blessing of the Great Saint Mother” on her.

When he initially received the hidden task, he tried wearing the necklace, but nothing happened then.

The moment the stick figure contacted the necklace, a holy light erupted, penetrating the cooked crust on the figure.

Underneath the crust appeared a girl donned in white, radiating a purity beyond belief.

Her exquisite appearance didn’t resemble a living person, even the Great Saint Mother in countless refined church paintings would seem lackluster beside her.

This astonishing beauty reminded Wu Chang of someone, Cristiana Yelli.

The girl’s entire being was as white as snow, like the finest porcelain, leaving any blemish on her would be an unforgivable sin.

Yet such a perfect being bore conspicuous scales on sensitive spots like her chest and belly.

Which bastard made her eat the Golden Flying Fish!

Wu Chang was simply angry because Golden Flying Fish was addictive, causing the plane’s natives to contract fish addiction, lifelong unable to break free, nothing else.

With the Saintess restored from the stick figure to her original form, the Bishop’s Resonance of Mental Images shattered.

The chaotic and inverted streets vanished.

Afterward, Wu Chang didn’t return to the real world but entered another different town center area.

Close to the starting point upon entering the Resonance of Mental Images, this time the town’s buildings appeared true, not so disordered and inverted.

But fire extending from the Great Cathedral engulfed the entire town center region.

The Bishop’s sewn shut eyes not only connected to his Resonance of Mental Images but also through the portal into the envious Inner World.

Watching the fire burning all around him, and the townsfolk closing in, Wu Chang once again slung on his ”Postman’s Delivery Bag.”

Just after fresh sashimi, now he was about to have a quick barbecue.

If this continues, he’d end up overnourished.