Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several small 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 shot through the ruins at incredible speed.

Whenever they crashed into a fallen stone pillar, they punched a clean hole straight through it without slowing down in the slightest. Their lethality was undeniable.

Not far away, they sensed six moving targets. The fresh blood flowing within them was the ultimate nourishment for these corrupted spirits.

It was the reason players were always attacked here. Resentful Spirits were insatiably bloodthirsty.

Two hundred meters… one hundred meters… ten meters!

In the blink of an eye, the swarm of 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 was right behind their targets. They lunged for two men who were walking with their arms slung around each other’s shoulders.

The spirits could already taste victory, imagining the moment they would burst through the men’s chests in a spray of blood. Their speed increased one last time!

Splat! Splat! Splat!

A series of wet impacts echoed through the ruins, as if the spirits had smashed against an indestructible iron plate and burst apart.

The nun slowly lowered a hand, her motion as casual as if she were swatting mosquitoes. She bent down and plucked a dart-shaped 【Relic】 from the remains of a 【Twisted Resentful Spirit】.

With a growing collection of seven or eight 【Relics】 already clutched in her other hand, she fell back into formation, silently following Wu Wang. She listened quietly as he and Xiezhi discussed the instance.

These 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 were born from the mutated husks of the townsfolk, but the nun felt no pity for them. She now possessed a perfectly developed “Aiguyi Town” of her own and had no need to mourn the spirits of these remains.

“Hey, Brother Xie,” Wu Wang said abruptly. “This Hidden Map of yours is related to 【Hope】, isn’t it?”

The question came out of nowhere, making Xiezhi flinch. He stared at Wu Wang in disbelief.

“You… how do you know about this?”

Only players from the Abnormal Affairs Bureau were supposed to know about the Hidden Map’s existence. An even smaller number knew about the connection to 【Hope】.

Xiezhi himself had only learned of it by chance from a high-ranking official.

Wu Wang pressed on bluntly.

“I want to know why 【Hope】 created this Hidden Map.”

He glanced at his current quest log.

【Side Quest 2: Fulfill the Last Wish of the Townsfolk】 【Completed】

This quest was simple enough. Another one, however, was very strange.

【Side Quest 1: Kill the High Priest of Suffering】 【Incomplete】 【Completed】

The quest, which was related to the nun, existed in both states simultaneously. Wu Wang had a good idea why. After all, he had caused this situation intentionally.

After his audience with the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】, he had saved the nun from its clutches. His goal then was to convert her, to make her believe in 【Desire】. He wanted to transform the High Priest of Suffering into the High Priest of Desire.

In a way, the High Priest of Suffering was already gone. Wasn’t that a form of killing in itself?

The quest’s dual status was likely because the nun’s own faith was in turmoil. She was filled with gratitude and respect for 【Desire】, the entity that had saved her.

But her years of devout faith in 【Suffering】 could not be erased so easily. This internal conflict was why the quest was both 【Completed】 and 【Incomplete】.

Which state it would ultimately settle on depended entirely on the nun’s final choice.

Then there was 【Side Quest 3: Have an Audience with the Divine Envoy of Suffering】. Wu Wang had no clue how to even approach it. He suspected it might be impossible to complete.

There were simply too many variables in this instance. The fate of the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】 had already pushed its development into unknown territory.

But the most crucial objective was his Main Quest.

【Main Quest: Seize the Mysterious Power】

This was the one quest Wu Wang absolutely had to complete.

But there was a problem. Hadn’t the sealed power of 【The Twisted】 been completely annihilated within the nun’s version of 【Aiguyi Town】? What kind of 【Mysterious Power】 was left to seize?

Seeing the 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 here in the Hidden Map, however, gave Wu Wang an epiphany.

【Hope】 must have interfered in the experiment between 【The Twisted】 and 【Suffering】 long ago. It surely didn’t build this Hidden Map just so the Abnormal Affairs Bureau could reap some benefits. This place had to have a deeper purpose.

And since his quest to 【Seize the Mysterious Power】 hadn’t failed, the power had to still exist somewhere.

This was his last chance to find it.

Xiezhi’s expression was complicated.

“Frankly, even if I knew the answer, I couldn’t tell you.”

It’s true that he, as Yan Shuangying, is on good terms with me, Xiezhi thought. But he’s not a member of the Abnormal Affairs Bureau!

This information was one of the deepest secrets of the 【Relic Scramble】. Any Bureau member who knew about it had signed a strict confidentiality contract. Violating it meant eternal damnation.

Wu Wang shrugged.

“Then just tell me what you can,” he said. “Let me ask you this. Do you find a lot of these 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 every year? After all this time, has the Abnormal Affairs Bureau not managed to clear them all out?”

The question took Xiezhi by surprise. He contemplated it for a moment before answering.

“No, we haven’t. I’ve only been here twice myself, but based on past records, the 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 seem to multiply on their own. It feels like we can never kill them all.”

Snap!

Wu Wang snapped his fingers and shook his head.

“That’s not right. You call them ‘Resentful Spirits,’ so how can they multiply without ‘resentment’? If there’s resentment, there must be a source.”

“Get rid of the source, and they’ll disappear completely,” he continued. “They can definitely be wiped out.”

Xiezhi considered this line of reasoning carefully and finally nodded in agreement.

“Even so,” he asked, confused, “what are you trying to say?”

Wu Wang stopped walking, a mysterious smile playing on his lips. He poked a finger toward the ground, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes.

“I’m very curious,” he began. “If 【Hope】 only left behind the twisted husks of the townsfolk, why can’t we find those husks in these ruins? We only find the Resentful Spirits born from them.”

“That means ‘It’ had another use for the husks.”

“Or rather, there must be some secret about the place where ‘It’ hid them.”

He grinned.

“I want to dig it up and see what’s really going on.”

Xiezhi felt completely numb.

So this is what it’s about, he thought. He’s still trying to find out why 【Hope】 created this Hidden Map. Since he can’t get an answer from me, he’s just going to dig it up himself?

“So what’s your plan?” he asked helplessly. “Dig with your bare hands?”

The meaning behind his words was obvious. The Abnormal Affairs Bureau explored this place every year. If there was a secret base to be found, they would have unearthed it long ago. What could one man do on his own?

But Wu Wang seemed to see right through his thoughts. He shook his head slightly.

“I’m not alone.”

He pointed a finger at the two women walking behind them, then gestured toward Xiezhi’s earpiece.

“I have them… and them,” he said, referring to the other players.

“If I gathered all the players here, plus the nun and Mary, how long do you think it would take us to clear out this entire town?”

“Even a temporary cleansing would be enough.”

Xiezhi’s expression grew even more astonished. He realized what Wu Wang was planning.

It was a method of searching the Abnormal Affairs Bureau had never been able to attempt in all its years exploring this map.

A method so audacious it was almost impossible to believe.