I've Become the King of Villains in the Game

Chapter 309: Chapter 220 Fallen Believers (Requesting Monthly Votes!)
 

One day later.

Chen Lun stood in front of the grand entrance of the Red Apple Church in Red Flower Town.

All around was deathly silence, with no one in sight.

This town was even more desolate than Ice Glutinous Town and Oil Bean Town; since he had entered, he hadn’t seen a single living person, not even plague-crazed madmen.

Aside from the occasional crow flying past, there was no sign of life, as if it were a town of the dead.

“Mr. Jack?”

Dongyang spoke up from beside him.

Chen Lun snapped out of his reverie, glanced at him, and then looked back at the group of players behind him.

The players who had died in Oil Bean Town had resurrected, returning to the group. Fortunately, due to their battle, they had established a connection with Oil Bean Town, and the resurrection point refreshed automatically at the entrance of that town, which kept them from getting scattered.

Chen Lun released the crow from his shoulder, then spoke softly:

“This church has no clergy; the people of the Red Apple Church have already evacuated…”

“They’ve already evacuated?!”

Dongyang and the others looked at each other in surprise.

They then opened the mission panel to check, only to find that the completion status of this mission was still “2/3.” Apparently, this church still needed to be destroyed.

“—Could it be due to the Lost Name Guild tipping them off? So the Red Apple Church was prepared in advance?”

Chenxi spoke out.

“—Very likely!”

The Horseman said.

“—Think about it, that bunch of brats… the church branches in the previous two towns were obliterated by us, they’ve suffered such great losses, they definitely wanted to mend their relationship with the church through such tattles, to regain some Affection Points.”

Doghead Gold immediately replied in the team channel.

The others nodded in agreement, acknowledging his view.

“Let’s go.”

Chen Lun twirled his Silver Staff and gently rested it on his forearm.

He adjusted his black hat and stepped forward into the building.

Dongyang and the others followed closely behind him into the outer courtyard of the church.

Their footsteps echoed densely in the empty and silent surroundings as they passed through the outer courtyard and came directly to the grand hall’s entrance, where Chen Lun personally pushed open the massive, heavy, wooden carved door.

Creak—!

A series of uniform, low prayers suddenly reached everyone’s ears.

Dongyang and the others focused and saw that the entire hall was nearly filled with kneeling men and women of all ages. They wore ordinary civilian clothes and knelt devoutly on the ground, murmuring the doctrines of the Red Apple Church’s Bible.

These believers appeared very eerie, their expressions devout yet fervent, and their eyes filled with a desperate longing.

“God says, hunger is the basic desire of man, to devour is to obey the heart…”

“God says, flesh is the root of man, to grow is to continue life…”

“God says, disease is but a necessary path, we need to endure trials…”

The chanting prayers rolled in wave after wave, filled with sanctity. The sound waves hit Dongyang and the others, sending chills down their spines and raising the hairs on their necks.

Chen Lun looked around expressionlessly and discovered that all these believers no longer had a heartbeat, they looked alive but were actually long dead.

The reason they could act like living people, indistinguishable from the norm, depended on a method of the Red Apple Church.

Chen Lun remembered this method clearly.

‘In the previous version 1.0 of the Red Apple Church, it was able to wreak havoc on a large scale within the Empire, relying on a type of Supernatural Creature called “fruit maggots” … a creation secretly developed by the church.’

The “fruit honey” encounters in Amber City was the excreta of these Supernatural Creatures after gnawing on apples. Whether taken directly or formulated into an injection, it could enhance the life force of the human body, achieving a sort of “healing” and “strengthening” effect.

Its side effect was life-shortening.

Many uninformed masses were extremely eager for the “fruit honey” distributed by the church, even willing to drain their fortunes, to donate and make offerings, just so they or their families and friends could linger a while longer.

Connie’s father was a believer deeply reliant on this “drug.”

The first leader of the Iron Fist Gang, Gary, and the bodyguards found by Senator Daniel, had all been enhanced by an injection of this “drug.”

It was clear that the Red Apple Church, in the process of their secret research, spread these useless “excretory wastes” to amass wealth.

But the real research outcome was implanting fruit maggots directly into human bodies and conducting a certain church ritual to create a horrifying group of church “soldiers.”

These people were already dead by the time the ritual was conducted; the fruit maggots would continue gnawing inside their bodies until they were completely destroyed. In a sense, they were merely bodies controlled by maggots, filled with contamination and chaos—truly terrifying monsters.

These beings… no, they should be called fruit maggot parasites, had a common name known as “Fallen Believers.”

“Leave this place.”

Chen Lun suddenly said.

“This is a shell church left by the Red Apple Church, essentially a trap.”

Dongyang and the others were startled.

“Yes, Mr. Jack!”

They immediately turned around, intending to leave the church hall.

But just at that moment.

Bang!

The huge wooden doors slammed shut with a loud noise.

Not only that, but the bricks above the door suddenly shifted, ejecting a sturdy iron grille that slotted directly into the threshold, completely blocking their way out.

You could faintly hear a clicking sound coming from within the walls, clearly indicating a trap that had been set long before.

“Damn it! We’re locked in!”

Horseman shouted.@@novelbin@@

“Watch this!”

Doghead Gold yelled as his body swelled, and then he violently slammed into the wall next to the door. He attempted to break the wall and create a large hole to allow everyone to escape.

Boom!

Bricks flew everywhere, dust filling the air.

But the expected hole in the wall did not appear, and everyone realized that the walls of the church hall were not only very thick but also reinforced with a row of very solid iron bars.

“Were these walls built as a steel fortress from the start?!”

Doghead Gold moved his sore arm and furiously complained.

Perhaps his collision with the wall caused such a loud noise that all the praying stopped abruptly, and the entire hall fell into deathly silence.

Dongyang and the others turned to look at the group of kneeling believers, who were all motionless.

In the eerily quiet atmosphere, suddenly a child’s voice rang out:

“Mommy, I’m hungry.”

A few seconds later, a woman’s voice replied:

“If you’re hungry, eat something.”

Everyone held their breath as the kneeling believers slowly turned their heads, their eyes fixated on them.

“Hungry.”

“I’m so hungry too.”

“Why don’t we eat them.”

The believers gradually stood up, their expressions becoming grotesque, their eyes filled with longing and madness, and then they started closing in on Dongyang and the others.

“Open fire!”

Dongyang made a split-second decision and bellowed.

At the same time, the fallen believers also hysterically rushed over.

Bang, bang, bang…!

Nearly a hundred firearms spat out flames, countless little steel balls shot out.

A series of dull thuds sounded as the steel balls penetrated the bodies of these believers, splattering blood everywhere. Many of the believers went down in a mess of blood, knocked to the ground by the recoil, but they still desperately crawled forward, their eyes increasingly fierce.

Suddenly.

Some of the fallen believers underwent strange transformations after being severely wounded.

Splat! Splat…!!

Their bodies twisted grotesquely, and suddenly from their shoulders, backs, and even belly buttons sprouted sickening and horrifying tentacles made of intertwined bones and muscles, even sprouting unevenly distributed teeth, nails, and hair.

The players opened fire again, but this time, the bullets were less effective. Even after being shot multiple times, these believers continued to stand, growing even more frenzied.

They quickly reached the players, snarling with laughter as the tentacles on their bodies flailed about.

Some players tried to fight them off, but their swords and knives couldn’t kill the adversaries. Instead, dozens of tentacles pierced and entwined them, eventually pulling them into wide mouths filled with sharp teeth, where they were chewed up and swallowed.

Dongyang and a few Transcendents also joined the fight, but they found these fallen believers extremely difficult to handle, barely managing to hold off three at a time, any more and they would be overwhelmed.

Mechanical gloves and bombs weren’t suitable to use in this enclosed space as they easily risk harming teammates, and running out of options, Dongyang reluctantly called for help:

“Mr. Jack! Please help us!”

Chen Lun stood to the side, quietly watching the scene unfold.

He knew this was a glimpse of the Empire’s future. Soon, such fallen believers would emerge everywhere, serving as the “soldiers” of the Red Apple Church, existing only for madness and slaughter.

The mutated fallen believers were clearly more ferocious, their life force, recovery ability, and physical strength enhanced, almost reaching the threshold of a Transcendent.

The entire Red Apple Church hall was filled with the smell of blood, the previously solemn murals now smeared with fresh blood. The number of these fallen believers was about one to two hundred; it was understandable that Dongyang and the players were overwhelmed.

“Hmm…”

Chen Lun slightly turned his head, watching them desperately resist, and pondered for a moment.

“Alright, after all, this is not something you can handle.”