Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Bad Taste

Dave Sager was born in an unnamed small town near Pato City. His parents were ordinary merchants, and his family was quite average. He was never found to have any extraordinary talents or abilities. If things had followed a normal trajectory, Dave might never have achieved much in his life, let alone had the opportunity to study at a prestigious institution like Parding Knight Academy, which was renowned far and wide (though not too far) and carried significant weight (at least compared to village-level schools).

None of this came easily...

Thirteen years ago, a plague struck without warning in that town of fewer than three hundred households. Within two days, almost everyone died in a ritualistically strict order. Their bodies did not decay, but their faces bore eerily strange smiles, as if they were experiencing extreme pleasure amidst their suffering.

Although the Holy Alliance dispatched people as quickly as possible, it was all in vain. It was said that when the leading High Priest arrived, there were still dozens of living people in the town, but the moment he stepped into the town's boundaries, they all simultaneously exploded... died on the spot.

Of the two hundred and ninety-six people in the town, not a single one survived except for a boy who had just turned seven.

That child was Dave Sager...

Found in a haystack, he followed the advance team back to the Holy Alliance headquarters, the City of Light located downstream of the Golden River in the northeast continent. After some twists and turns, he was eventually sent to the Holy Alliance branch in Pato City.

"Take good care of this child, even if he is not outstanding enough." These were the words a certain regional bishop personally instructed the High Priest of Pato City: "But as the sole survivor, he carries the hopes and entrustments of two hundred and ninety-five departed souls."

Thus, Dave grew up year by year within the Alliance Church. At the age of fourteen, he received baptism and became a believer, naturally adopting the faith of the God of Justice and Courage, Haimer.

"The Holy Alliance..." Mo Tan murmured, repeating the relevant content he had learned from Meg's notes earlier: "It is an organization formed by the followers and churches of many deities, including the Dawn Goddess Paxie, the God of Justice and Law Haimer, the Goddess of Harvest Serira, the Sun God Tisu, and the God of Creation Ailen. It is one of the most influential entities in the northeast continent. Hah, I wonder how those so-called 'gods' view this deformed and bloated alliance?"

But although Mo Tan seemed to be casually saying irrelevant things, he had actually noticed a glaring inconsistency, at least one that was jarringly obvious to him.

"A follower of the God of Justice and Courage?" He rolled his eyes. "If that kid who could casually kill his own comrades can believe in him, then from any angle, I can be considered a morally upright good person."

It seemed Mo Tan was still aware that his current moral compass was somewhat skewed...

But that remark of his was no joke. Although the character Tan Mo had already been marked as an "Unbeliever" by the system, unable to believe in any deity, Hei Fan, who was True Neutral, had long since become a follower of the Dawn Goddess Paxie, and had even been tricked out of 20 copper coins.

Mo Tan still clearly remembered those two system prompts:

[Do you agree to become a follower of the Dawn Goddess Paxie?]

[Reminder: Betrayal of Faith will incur a huge penalty.]

No matter what that so-called penalty specifically entailed, one thing was certain: it was absolutely not good!

Although no one had ever told him exactly what kind of suicidal act "Betrayal of Faith" was, that didn't stop Mo Tan from making his own speculations.

First, there was the direct kind, which was the easiest to explain. For example, if someone suddenly went mad, cursing the deity they worshipped, smashing churches, trampling statues, killing priests, or defiling saints—these were absolutely the ultimate taboos. The penalty incurred would be immense, like being struck directly by lightning.

Of course, if you were a spearman, you might get struck by lightning under any circumstances anyway. Well, after all, their weapons were long, sharp, and conductive—it had nothing to do with superstitious nonsense like luck... or... so... I guess...

Then there was the indirect kind. Mo Tan thought there might also be a scenario where two churches with a good relationship could have some internal exchange, leading to something akin to an amicable separation. The probability of this happening was very low, but it was definitely not zero. If the relationship between two deities (unrelated to their followers) was genuinely good, then it was very possible that no penalty would be incurred.

Of course, this assumption didn't apply to Dave. That was based on Mo Tan's third and most confident speculation.

Indirect yet straightforward betrayal!

[Innocent Realm] had an extremely polarized division of player stances, and this polarization should also apply to the NPCs within, including the deities. According to the data, Haimer, the God of Justice and Courage, seemed like a Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good big shot. Dave's actions absolutely could not meet the standards of his followers. So the question was...

Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about excavators.

Would any deity allow a contradiction between their own worldview and that of their followers?

Absolutely not!

No matter how tolerant or honest Haimer was as a deity, Dave's actions had definitely violated a large number of rules in his doctrine!

"This is getting interesting~" A wicked smile curled at the corner of Mo Tan's mouth. He subconsciously tapped lightly on the low table in front of him and said with amusement, "I originally thought that securing a witness and then gathering some physical evidence would be enough to wrap things up, but it seems things aren't that simple..."

As if some incredible motivation had been sparked, over the next ten minutes, Mo Tan read through all of Dave Sager's information with an unusually serious attitude, then closed his eyes and began to ponder.

After a long moment, he opened his eyes, reining in his somewhat sinister smile. He casually pushed aside the documents before him, picked up the small black leather pouch at hand, and examined it for a while.

【Intermediate Poison Kit】

Quality: Excellent

Weight: 3kg

Contains: Paralytic Poison*1, Injury Poison*1, Slow Poison*1, Silence Poison*1, Purified Fly Agaric*1, Rainbow Lizard Corrosive Poison*1

【Note: For home travel, murder, and silencing, a cleaver is essential, not this little trinket. These are only used for more technical matters! ...What!? How much!? Alright, even the Chicken God at the village entrance, I'd dare to poison it to death in the dark for you!】

"Mm..." Mo Tan shook his head, trying hard to forget some experiences from playing an old game back in Riverwood. He then clicked on the poison kit's hyperlink for a look and nodded in satisfaction.

Four types of status-debuffing poisons, plus two bottles of high-intensity lethal toxins. It seemed that baldy, whose brain wasn't too sharp, hadn't pulled any tricks here.

We should take a moment to breathe a sigh of relief for Baud. If he had truly thought, "This kid probably won't notice," and given Mo Tan some inferior goods, then someone who could see the item's attributes would definitely use that as an excuse to extort and blackmail him mercilessly again.

Humming a little tune, Mo Tan put away the poison kit and began to continue inventorying his spoils—the few pages of handwritten paper Baud had just finished writing.

These recorded some techniques an Apprentice-level Thief could master. In a wuxia world, they'd be low-tier martial arts manuals; in a game, they'd be non-consumable skill books.

There were two skills Mo Tan quite fancied~

【Reverse Spin Stab】

Guile School Active Skill

Mastery Requirements: Guile School lv3, Dexterity 10

Cost/Restrictions: 60 Acuity Points, dual-wielding melee weapons

Effect: Block one physical attack from the front, reducing damage taken by 50%, and perform an extremely fast spin thrust with a rotation of no less than 90°, gaining theoretically double the inertial impact bonus, plus an additional 20% damage. Cooldown: 1 minute

【Note: Swing your arm wide and stab it in! White blade in, red blade out! Red blade in again, red blade out again!】

This skill offers great value for money, combining both block and counterattack traits, and has a very short cooldown. It's quite useful for Guile-type classes, which tend to be weaker in direct frontal confrontations.

And then there was...

【Kidney Strike】

Guile School Active Skill

Mastery Requirements: Guile School lv5, Dexterity 7

Cost/Restrictions: 10 Acuity Points, keen eyesight, a certain degree of dynamic vision, ruthless enough

Effect: Strike a target's kidney (humanoid only) with an elbow or knee, 100% interrupting a spell cast. If your Strength exceeds one-third of the target's Constitution, there's a high chance of triggering a 1-5 second stun state. There's a certain chance of causing permanent irreversible damage to NPCs and generating a large amount of aggro. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

[Note: Hmm... kidneys... I love kidneys...]

This skill could be said to be the one Mo Tan (Chaotic Neutral) has found most fitting so far. Although the seemingly modest mastery requirements hide conditions like 'keen eyesight' and 'a certain degree of dynamic vision'—things easier said than done—along with a cooldown of ten minutes, he still absolutely adores this skill.

After all, the Kidney Strike skill not only has low consumption and high payoff but is also particularly underhanded!

The other three skills are [Cut Throat], [Escape], and [Swift Stab]. The first one, Mo Tan had already automatically learned when he acquired the Thief profession. The other two won't be discussed here for now; they'll be described when first used, as space is limited.

Having finished with all this, Mo Tan didn't linger any longer. He returned the documents to the grim-faced Baud and immediately left, after all, online time was precious, and he still had many things to do.

It's worth mentioning here that the reason Dave's personal information was available was due to the uniqueness of his deeds. Whether as the sole survivor of a town of nearly three hundred people or as the only member of the Warm Sun Squad to return alive to Pato City, he held a certain intelligence value. That's why the Thieves' Guild had the documents Mo Tan had just reviewed.

As for other characters without intelligence value, you won't find them here... After all, although [Innocent Realm] is a game, its logic and reasonableness are flawless. If you wanted to look up some neighbor's old man next door, unless he once had a nickname in the underworld like 'Ladykiller'... I mean, 'Illusion Slayer' or something, there definitely wouldn't be any relevant information...

...

A moment later, Mo Tan appeared before the gates of the Holy Alliance Church in the central district of Pato City. He looked left and right for a while, clicked his tongue, and stepped forward to enter.

"Please wait a moment!" Two low-level Holy Church Warriors in light armor immediately blocked his path. One of them stared warily at Mo Tan's currently harmless—even somewhat charming—face and asked, "What do you want?"

Mo Tan blinked, took another step forward, pointed at his own nose in surprise, and said, "Me?"

"That's right," the other nodded, his hand already resting on the sword hilt at his waist, and demanded in a low voice, "Who are you?"

Mo Tan scratched his hair with a wry smile: "I'm just here to pay my respects."

"Pay respects?!" The Holy Church Warrior's eyes bulged like brass bells: "Which deity's follower are you?"

"Can't I pay respects if I'm not a follower?" Mo Tan looked flustered and quickly stepped back two paces: "Sorry, sorry, no one told me there was such a rule..."

"No..." The other man, who looked a few years older, shook his head with an awkward expression: "It's not that non-followers can't pay respects."

A flicker of mockery passed through Mo Tan's eyes, but his face showed confusion: "Oh? Then why did you two look so intimidating just now? You had me thinking I was about to be arrested."

He was clearly asking a question he already knew the answer to. The sudden wariness from the other party was naturally due to the "Unbeliever" talent that Mo Tan possessed. To put it plainly, in the eyes of these devout believers, a guy who was completely insulated from faith like this didn't look like a good person!

Who knew if this bastard was carrying a stack of forbidden spell scrolls, ready to tear them up inside for fun and pull off some terrorist attack or something!

But...

You couldn't exactly turn him away at the door with an excuse like, "Your vibe is off, kid, you look like you're here to cause trouble," could you?

"Anyone can pay their respects." The Temple Knight who had spoken first immediately lost his momentum, stammering, "But..."

"But you don't want me to go in?" Mo Tan's face instantly darkened, and he sneered, "Not because of the rules, and with absolutely no reason at all, just because of your personal feelings or thoughts, you're blocking me at the door, and... even reaching for your weapon?"

The young man's hand immediately sprang back from his sword as if shocked, his face flushed red, unable to utter a single word.

"This Sir!" The other, more mature one quickly tried to smooth things over, "We are not—"

"Not what?!" Mo Tan's gaze fixed on him like a venomous snake, carrying a bone-chilling brutality within it. "Not like that? Not what I'm thinking? You were one of the ones who stepped forward to block me just now, weren't you?"

This one also choked up immediately...

Mo Tan paused for a moment, then suddenly spread his arms and glanced around at the surrounding Statues of the Gods. He turned back and shouted at the two men, "Which deity do you worship? Who gave you the right to turn away a potential believer at the door? And even prepare to draw your sword against him?!"

Clang!!

Both Temple Knights' legs gave way, and they fell to their knees at the same time...

Chapter 24: The End