Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Resonance of Mental Images

According to the regions marked on the map earlier, the area where the small pier stands should also contain an Inner World.

While collecting mail, Wu Chang took the opportunity to observe the surroundings of the small pier, looking for suspicious spots.

Compared to Briff Port on the other side of the island, this small pier was much quieter.

It used to be a place where islanders set out to sea to fish. According to the restaurant owner, there was once a special kind of yellow croaker near the small pier, with delicious meat that was favored by the locals.

But with the arrival of steamships, these noise-averse yellow croakers migrated en masse, distancing themselves far from Briff Island.

The area around the small pier is littered with hidden reefs, and only experienced old fishermen could navigate small boats through the pier, unlike the convenience of Briff Port.

Once it lost its only local specialty, the yellow croaker, it nearly lost its utility and gradually fell into disuse.

Nowadays, the small pier has become a fishing spot for retired old men.

Elderly townsfolk who enjoy peace occasionally come to the small pier with fishing rods, in hopes of catching one or two stray yellow croakers, searching for the taste of their childhood.

However, most of the time, they return empty-handed, often sitting for half a day with nothing to show for it. In the end, all they can do is gather some oysters and sea snails from along the pier and toss them into a bucket, consoling themselves with some harvest.

How did Wu Chang know about this after only being in the replica for two or three days?

Heh, that’s where the oysters and sea snails in the town’s restaurant come from.

Wu Chang walked along the coastline for a while, without finding anything suspicious.

Not to mention the iconic statues of the Inner World, he couldn’t even see any decent complete buildings.

He hadn’t found any special entities, but he did see a special person.

Just as he was about to head back to the town to inquire with the elders, he saw a melancholic artistic man painting the sea atop a rock not too far away.

This guy indeed wasn’t dead.

When everyone initially entered the replica, they were focused on the Iron Armor Corps trio and Sword Star. Meanwhile, the melancholic artistic man paid them no mind and was instead fixated on Wu Chang’s True Self.

The melancholic artistic man, much like Wu Chang’s True Self, disappeared right at the start of the replica, and Wu Chang and his team never encountered him in the town.

It wasn’t just them; even the townsfolk rarely mentioned him.

Spirit Fox and others speculated that he, like Cold Stone, had vanished into some corner of the replica, but Wu Chang always felt it wasn’t that simple with him.

As it turns out, he was right.

Even Sword Star, trying to complete the replica, ended up in a disheveled state and even briefly detained for gathering information.

In contrast, the melancholic artistic man showed no signs of struggle and had the leisure to paint by the sea, proving he was indeed extraordinary.

Wu Chang approached the rock where the artistic man was seated, observing his painting from behind.

The artistic man lived up to his aura; his depiction of the ocean nearly perfectly replicated the sea before them onto paper, but with more dreamy and daring detail and color.

It was as if he had applied a beauty filter to nature, transforming a mundane barren coast into a popular photo-worthy spot.

While finishing the last touches of color on the painting, the melancholic artistic man asked, “What do you think?”

“It’s excellent. If you start an account on Peepa Peepa, you’d easily get fifty thousand followers,” Wu Chang praised.

The artistic man shook his head, “I tried, but the barrage teachers and comment teachers were too harsh. At best, my level on Peepa is ’needs more practice’.”

Wu Chang chuckled, finding the artistic man unexpectedly humorous.

As the artistic man applied the final strokes to the blue sky, Wu Chang thought the painting was complete, only for the man to switch to a darker palette.

He dabbed his brush in the paint and boldly added more strokes to the canvas.

In the blink of an eye, the clear, bright sea turned gloomy and mysterious.

The striking contrast between the before and after of the painting made it look like two completely different artworks.

“Doesn’t this seem more fitting?”

Wu Chang shook his head, “I prefer your earlier style.”

The artistic man responded nonchalantly, “Everything has two sides; there’s sunny and there’s cloudy. As an artist, one must see all the sides of a model and on a single sheet, display all its internal conflicts, adding a touch of one’s own creation.”

Wu Chang pursed his lips, offering no reply.

The artistic man put down his brush, pointedly asking, “Senator Sean, do you have another side to you?”

Wu Chang maintained his composure, saying, “I’m consistent inside and out.”

The artistic man smiled slightly, “I have multiple sides, just like the sea, sometimes sunny, sometimes overcast. But all my sides aim for the most dazzling art.”

“This small town is a great place; please work hard. I want to see more exciting scenes.”

The artistic man finished speaking and left, disregarding the painting on the easel and the scattered brushes and paints.

Wu Chang furrowed his brow slightly and took a deep breath. Are these riddlers ever going to end?

Just keep acting now; when the chance comes, I will certainly make you soar.

Back in the town, he took the opportunity while delivering mail to confirm the players’ status.

Another person has disappeared.

When he went to the restaurant for lunch, he learned from the restaurant owner that the assistant from Dongyang City had died.

According to the restaurant owner’s description, the person died normally, the cause being a perforated stomach from eating something bad, leading to excessive bleeding.

A perforated stomach causing excessive bleeding—it’s the first time he’s heard of such a way to die.

However, with the previous postal worker and journalist as precedents, the image of a perforated stomach causing normal death on Briff Island surely won’t look good.

It seems the unlucky person who entered the Inner World last night was him.

He only offered a brief moment of silence for the assistant from Dongyang City before focusing on the upcoming prayer.

The Spirit Fox had mentioned earlier that the evening prayer at the Great Cathedral would be personally conducted by the Bishop.

The Bishop is an Ascetic, who forsakes personal desires, closes off personal sensations to deepen spiritual cultivation, and through this, communicates with God.

The Bishop sews his eyes shut with iron wire to forsake sight and use his mental eye to observe God.

The Bishop has very low material desires, remains reclusive, and even on the day of a Golden Flying Fish’s Divine Grace, he wouldn’t leave the Great Cathedral.

Only during major events does he conduct prayers and offer blessings for the townsfolk.

During this time in Briff Town, only the Spirit Fox among the players has seen the Bishop from afar.

Taking this opportunity, Wu Chang plans to investigate the Bishop to see if he, like Matty, is also an object of possession by a Divine Envoy.

At half past six in the afternoon, Wu Chang manipulated his True Self to transform the Superhero’s Tight Suit into a cloak, blending into the crowd and entered the Great Cathedral.

The True Self inherited Wu Chang’s original Good and Evil Value, and the nearby townsfolk felt very natural about his presence, not perceiving anything unusual in the crowd from the sudden appearance of a stranger in a Black Robe.

In the prayer hall of the Great Cathedral, facing everyone was a massive stained glass mural.

In the mural, the Great Saint Mother spread her arms like a loving mother embracing her returning children.

The twilight light passing through the stained glass rendered the benevolent and kind Great Saint Mother somewhat melancholic.

It’s unknown whether she mourns for herself or for the mortals under her feet.

As the sun fully set, oil lamps and torches were lit inside the cathedral, and the Bishop in a white bishop’s robe slowly appeared.

The Bishop’s frame was gaunt due to his restraint with appetite, causing his body fat percentage to be extremely low, with sparse muscles hanging on a broad skeletal frame, making his body appear more thin.

He should be only forty-seven years old this year, but the wrinkled face and almost entirely white hair made him look like seventy-four.

Black iron wires like thorns passed through his upper and lower eyelids, sewing his eyes completely shut, relying on the support of a nun by his side to guide the way, allowing him to move within the cathedral.

The Bishop stood in front of everyone and began tonight’s prayer.

His voice was aged and profound, full of narrative, with well allocated rhythms and breathing, making it easy for people to become immersed.

An hour and a half of prayer went by swiftly, and as the prayer ended, the townsfolk left the cathedral with faces full of peace as if they received forgiveness from God and reconciled with their inner anxieties.

Except for Wu Chang.

He transformed into Spirit Body form, followed the Bishop to the Bishop’s resting room.

He sensed that during the confession part of the prayer, the Bishop’s sense of confession was stronger than any other townsfolk.

That feeling wasn’t faked—only someone who has truly done something tremendously remorseful could confess with such genuine emotion.

He wanted to know what the Bishop was confessing.

Thus, he planned to treat the Bishop’s spirit like Professor Ebert, giving it some intensity to make the Bishop reflect upon himself.

His Spirit Body pointed at the Archbishop, and Calamity activated.

“When the total of the target’s Inspiration Will Attribute is less than 20% of the user’s two attributes total, the effects are triggered: ’Plague,’ ’Inviting Calamity,’ ’Curse.’

“Due to the too low total of the target’s Inspiration Will Attribute, a special status is triggered: Resonance of Mental Images.”

Accompanied by the prompt, the Bishop twitched all over, his expression terrified, as if sensing a huge danger, trying to open his eyes to see what was in front.

Regardless of the iron wires sewing his eyelids shut, he forcibly ripped apart his eyelids, exhausting all effort to open his eyes, revealing two empty sockets filled with bloody tears inside.

The two sockets were like bottomless whirlpools; Wu Chang’s Spirit Body took just one look and was sucked in.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep