Chapter 25: Deception
Sloth dispersed a swarm of floating microorganisms, seemingly preparing to flee. However, Bing Bing walked forward, freezing all the microorganisms in place, thus completing the annihilation of the Suicide Bureau trio.
"Xiaomi, is there still any energy signal from Dark River?" Old Hu asked painfully, suffering from the severe side effects of the God's Blood. Beyond the apparent mental torment and diminished rationality, there were many other insidious side effects, making it unbearable even for someone with Old Hu's willpower.
"I've found no similar signals. It seems he's truly been frozen," Xiaomi said with a noticeable sigh of relief. However, his eyes soon darted around anxiously, scanning the surroundings for potential dangers with bloodshot eyes.
"Transmit the information to the designated location," Old Hu instructed. Through contact, he had read a lot of information from the Shadow Assassin, including the identity of these people as followers of the Evil God and the true nature of the mask battle.
People like Old Hu were too intelligent and inherently suspicious of any information given by others. No matter what Lu Li and his group said, Old Hu always remained skeptical, constantly analyzing potential loopholes and the reasonableness of the situation. Even if Lu Li's fabricated story was logically sound, Old Hu would still harbor doubts.
Such people only trust answers they arrive at through their own efforts and reasoning. Even if those answers had flaws, they would automatically overlook or creatively fill them.
Previously, when Old Hu read the memories of the floating microorganisms, although he learned that Fu Bin was not the true host of the mask, he also revealed one crucial piece of information: the floating microorganisms and the masks were connected. Lu Li had discovered Old Hu's memory-reading behavior.
Thus, Lu Li set up this elaborate scheme, constantly applying pressure to force out the Doomsday Bureau's trump cards. The Shadow Assassin's memories had long been tampered with, the floating microorganisms were carrying altered memories, and even the part of the black mist body condensed for the battle was embedded with false memories.
To deceive others, one must first deceive themselves. After several tests, Old Hu finally believed the information he had obtained through his own efforts and firmly believed it to be true.
Old Hu had always harbored a grudge against the impending Evil God's descent. Subconsciously, he wished to genuinely prevent the Evil God's arrival, leading him to instinctively categorize the current situation as another Evil God descent. Furthermore, with his confidence in his own painstakingly acquired information and the reduced rationality due to the God's Blood, he failed to scrutinize the situation's reasonableness further.
Far off on the embankment, Lu Li held an umbrella as light rain began to fall. A small fist-sized black mist floated beside him, speaking in a soft voice, "Are you sure there's no problem? I've almost exhausted all my black mist this time. It'll take a lot of time to recover the legendary factor."
This world's amusements are still plentiful. If the national organization starts targeting me, I'd truly have to become a fugitive. Currently, I'm the only player in Yueping City. If they investigate, my special identity will surely be exposed. I used to think there were few players, but entering the higher-level forum revealed that there are about seven or eight just in the lower-level forum, far more than I initially imagined.
"It's almost done, just one final step," Lu Li said with a smile, heading towards the bridge. Since knowing that the Doomsday Bureau was sending people into Yueping City, he had been thinking about how to solve the situation without exposing his identity.
Given their concerns and fear of the Evil God's descent in Yueping City, all he needed to do was redirect the situation towards the Evil God. Of course, this matter ultimately needed to be resolved, making them believe that the Evil God's descent had once again failed. With their apprehensions, they likely wouldn't send more people in to die.
The misinformation has already been transmitted, but we also can't let all three Doomsday Bureau members leave alive. Otherwise, the bureau might start thinking Yueping City is nothing to fear, increasing the chances of exposure.
"Captain, what should we do now? Can we leave Yueping City?" Xiaomi asked anxiously. He had the weakest combat ability among the three and, with the four denial rings used up, was eager to leave.
Xiaomi's ability was item manipulation, making him exceptionally skilled with various instruments. This was useful, but his true value lay in his ability to lower the usage conditions of many items and reduce their side effects. Without him, using the denial rings wouldn't have been so easy, and the side effects would have been much worse.
However, the drawback of this ability was that the more conditions he reduced and side effects he negated, the lower his personal luck, and his spiritual perception and intuition would increase to some extent. Sometimes, this heightened perception was not a good thing.
Like now, Xiaomi vaguely sensed the aura of death. The feeling of impending doom kept gnawing at him. He could faintly perceive the immense, maddening, despairing, and terrifying presence looming over Yueping City, too great for a mere mortal like him to bear.
Unfortunately, Old Hu wasn't in the right state. Otherwise, he would have immediately knocked Xiaomi out. High spiritual perception in a place where an Evil God nearly descended was not a good thing. Just having read a lot of information, Old Hu shook his head and said, "Based on the memories, I obtained information about two more Evil God followers hidden in Yueping City, referred to as Hatred and Fear, as well as the mask related to the Evil God in Li Yuanfeng's possession, which we also need to recover."
"But we should retreat and rest first," Old Hu said, sensing something was wrong. Before he could react further, he heard Xiaomi scream, "Captain, there's a massive life form under the river!"
Old Hu turned around to see a gigantic purple-red serpent breaking through the river surface and landing on the shore. The massive body and blood-red eyes of the serpent stared at the trio, and a mask was embedded in the serpent's forehead.
"This is Hatred," Old Hu muttered, feeling a sense of unease. According to the information he read from the Shadow Assassin, Hatred was indeed a giant serpent. But now, something felt off. Before Old Hu could think further, Bing Bing charged at the serpent.
"Come back!" Old Hu shouted, a flash of realization hitting him, but it seemed too late. A blood-curdling scream echoed behind him.