Madman? Delusion? Fanatic?
Bai Yi stared at the white-robed person before him, his expression unchanged.
No matter which category this person fell into, he could easily handle it. During the first decade of his life, he had grown up surrounded by “madmen” rejected by normal society, and he had even transformed Li Daotian into someone who unilaterally shared his beliefs. Every day in the nightmare game, he had to deal with various bizarre and strange instance NPCs. In the year after obtaining the system, things had become even more absurd – he seemingly acquired a passive aura that inexplicably attracted cultists, and he could be considered experienced in dealing with madmen and fanatics.
Therefore, he merely lowered his head slightly, looking at the kneeling white-robed person, and curiously asked, “What is the Child of the Sun? What does the prophecy mean? And who are you?”
The weak and brilliant calendula light only dispersed a short distance in the black night, and every inch of land it illuminated was submerged by swamp-like slime monsters. Bai Yi stood just outside the edge of the light, with his back to the hazy light in the night, looking down.
The little girl’s golden pupils had a divine beauty.
It inexplicably created an impulse to confess everything.
The white-robed person’s gaze became momentarily lost.
.....
Bai Yi, with his fully-leveled Bewitch skill that was especially effective against cultists, easily extracted the information he wanted from this NPC and obtained the basic information about this world.
[You are decrypting the hidden worldview of the Nightmare Fragment instance, progress 1%→2%→3%→4%...30%.]
[You have revealed part of the world’s truth.]
Simultaneously, the familiar system prompt appeared before his eyes.
[This continent, shrouded in eternal night, had another name in the not-too-distant past – the Holy Light Continent.]
[On the continent, mystical powers were widely spread. Magicians drew elemental power from the sun, moon, and stars, condensing their own holy light magic.]
[Through tens of thousands of years of propagation, holy light magic had already formed a comprehensive and omnipotent system, capable of attack, defense, healing... holy light magic could almost do everything.]
[The most powerful holy light magic was said to be able to resurrect the dead. It had touched the realm of the gods.]
[Thus, the gods above the sun, moon, and stars withdrew the powers granted to mortals, equally bestowing death upon everyone. They were then pushed from their divine thrones by enraged magicians.]
[As the gods fell, the world-destroying black rain descended.]
[The sun, moon, and stars were extinguished together. Darkness enveloped the earth. The laws of destruction eroded everything.]
[The world-destroying black rain corroded everything it touched. Towering towers collapsed, precious gems rusted, lush plants withered and decayed, beasts swelled and mutated, attacking every living thing in sight. Humans struggled and screamed in the black rain, their bodies transforming, their consciousness scattering, turning into the most corrupt and rotten mud in the swamp. The light elements that holy light magic must draw became increasingly weak, chaotic, twisted, and destructive spreading continuously in this world.]
[Some said it was the curse of the dying gods.]
[They wanted to make the humanity that dared to defy the gods lose what humans treasured most – human wisdom and dignity. To forever become the most chaotic, maddest, and most self-degrading monsters.]
[And they had indeed succeeded.]
[When the survivors emerged from their hiding places, what welcomed them was a world of despair plunged into endless night. Inedible mutated plants and animals, the desolate land covered by infinite night, horrifyingly polluted slime monsters...]
[Perhaps the only choice they had was how they would die – by starvation, killed by beasts, or contaminated by the slime monsters, losing all consciousness in the form of a slime monster.]
[But in fact, unless completely devoured by beasts, any other form of death would cause even the corpse to transform into a monster by the twisted forces pervading the entire world.]
“Chasers of the Sun? Interesting,” Bai Yi lightly smiled at the white-robed person who had just explained the world’s background and the origin of the “Chasers”, and then without any hesitation, ordered, “Take me to your headquarters.”
—He knew the other would not disobey his command. Not only because of the followers’ fanaticism, but also because it was precisely what the other wanted to do. So he simply skipped the unnecessary intermediate steps.
As expected, the white-robed person immediately agreed without a word.
Just before leaving, Bai Yi suddenly remembered something and looked back at the swamp. “I almost forgot about my calendula... You should know how to shield it from the slime monsters’ perception and take it away, right?”
He certainly couldn’t run away with the calendula while having a bunch of slime monsters following him to the “Chasers of the Sun” headquarters.
Bai Yi didn’t mind, but he was worried about potentially harming the “Chasers”.
The white-robed person was silent, then slowly spoke, “We don’t have special equipment to shield and store light elements. Generally, when we discover plants containing light elements, we absorb them immediately.”
...In the past Holy Light Continent, such equipment definitely existed, but now the continent’s light elements were pathetically weak. If one didn’t quickly absorb the light elements and convert them into their own power, but instead tried to store them in equipment and find ways to shield them from the slime monsters’ perception... wouldn’t that be looking for trouble?
Bai Yi quickly understood this point.
He sighed in disappointment, then suddenly thought of something and said, “Then teach me holy light magic. Just the simplest entry-level first step, as long as I can absorb light elements.” At this point, he hummed, and the little girl’s face puffed up, “How could my calendula be taken so easily by those despicable slime monsters? I want them to know that getting something for nothing is shameful!”
If it were someone else, they might have questioned the absurdity of teaching holy light magic on the spot – would anyone really believe holy light magic could be learned instantly? But the white-robed person here was clearly the most devout among the Chasers, the most fanatical of fanatics.
He didn’t question it at all. Instead, he immediately taught Bai Yi the complete meditation technique, looking at him with an expression that said, “Mere holy light magic, the Child of the Sun will definitely learn it in an instant.”
The facts proved that learning it instantly was impossible.
But players have their own ways of playing.
After repeatedly loading saves and accumulating experience over N cycles, Bai Yi learned it.
And in the eyes of the white-robed person in this new cycle, it appeared that he had just taught Bai Yi the meditation technique, and Bai Yi had indeed learned it instantly.
—Truly worthy of the Child of the Sun in the prophecy!
Just like that, Bai Yi casually parted the slime monsters, casually picked up the calendula, and skillfully used the meditation technique.
The sun’s flame, burning like fire, slowly spread in mid-air. The decomposed light elements surged like a tide for a moment before quickly converging into his body.
As the light elements dissipated, the slime monsters that had been frantically chasing the light elements stopped moving, collapsing onto the ground like real mud. They were like a group of salted fish sprawled on a sofa after dancing passionately all night.
Bai Yi walked out from among the slime monsters, seemingly unaware of their presence.
He felt the light elements wandering through his body – a power different from internal energy and spiritual power.
Bai Yi had never felt better.
He nodded to the white-robed person. “Okay, let’s go.”
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