CH 118

Chapter 118: The Dream of the Holy Nun (VIII)

The aircraft landed on a hill near the Holy City. Looking down from the hill, the Holy City located in a valley shrouded in a fog that reached the sky, and the scene in the fog was obscured from view.

Qi Leren and his party went down the hill and headed for the fog. Maria’s brooch, which he held in his hand, began to grow hot as he entered the fog, radiating a warmth.

The fog was getting deeper and deeper, and the trees close at hand became blurred. Even their feet were covered with a layer of gauze, and to the front, the back, and the left were gray fog, which made it difficult to tell the direction.

“The compass has also failed,” Dr. Lu muttered.

“Let’s go by feeling. Since the task item is there, we’ll definitely be able to walk into the Holy City,” Su He said comfortingly.

Qi Leren had an instinctive fear of the fog. When he was in the Novice Village, the hospital was shrouded in the fog. He also fell from the roof to save Su He. In the fog that was so thick it was almost a liquid, countless mysterious laughing spirits stood quietly, and the scene became a frequent visitor in his future nightmares.

“There seems to be light ahead!” Dr. Lu cried in surprise.

The four people walked forward quickly, and the thick fog began to dissipate. A small figure could be seen standing in the misty gray fog.

Qi Leren stopped. When he crossed the fog of the Holy City in the Nightmare Game, he never saw any such strange figure. What was the shadow in front of him…

From the fog came the sound of a little girl giggling, and then the standing figure ran. It seemed  she had just discovered that they were ordinary, and she was running towards them happily. Her figure became clearer and closer, and her golden hair was as dazzling as gold in the fog, overcoming the mist.

She was holding her skirt and jumping as she ran. The fog made her look blurred. Qi Leren tried to look at her, but he couldn’t see her face clearly. He only felt a familiar feeling… Very close, very close.

The laughter stopped, and the little girl’s footsteps stopped. She lifted her skirt with both hands, bowed to them like a dancer at curtain call, ran away with a smile, and disappeared into the fog.

“So… What was that?” Dr. Lu asked shakily.

Qi Leren was calmer than he was. He could also think about what it meant for this little girl who hadn’t appeared in the Nightmare Game to appear now.

Perhaps this meant that he was on the right path this time.

Qi Leren looked at Ning Zhou beside him. He was frowning slightly.

“What’s the matter?” Qi Leren whispered to him.

“…” Ning Zhou shook his head and said nothing.

“Let’s follow her, maybe we’ll be there soon,” Su He said.

The four people continued to trek through the fog. After the mysterious blonde girl appeared, the fog finally began to dissipate. The brightness of the sun brought a feeling of happiness and yearning. They chased the direction of the light. Finally, the fog in front of them was gone, and the magnificent Holy City was just around the corner!

System task appears:

[Player Qi Leren has begun the task: The Dream of the Holy Nun.]

[Task Background: Twenty-two years ago, the Devil led the demons to attack the Holy City, and the Holy City fell. The Holy See was forced to evacuate, leaving the country forever. A holy nun couldn’t bear to see the believers suffering from the Devil’s ravages, and was willing to live and die together with the people of the Holy City. In the desperate situation, she obtained a power given by God and protected the Holy City with her own dreams. The demons were expelled and destroyed, but since then the Holy City has been shrouded in a fog and isolated from the outside world…]

[Task Requirements: End the Dream of the Holy Nun.]

[Data synchronization countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, synchronization completion.]

There was a towering wall surrounding the city. The group of people came to the gate. The gate was open, but there was no guard. Through the open outer wall of the city, the city in front of them was thriving. The residents traveled in the busy streets, and the masonry buildings had a different exotic style. There were pubs open during the day, vendors selling fruits by the roadside, and a church complex built around the mountains in the distance… Everything looked beautiful, yet this was the city that had been closed off for more than 20 years.

“This is… the Holy City?” Ning Zhou said to himself, his voice very light. Although this was where his mother grew up, he had never been here. Because when he was born, it was isolated from the outside world.

“No, I’m afraid this is not the real Holy City,” Su He said with a hint of dignity. “I can feel that I’m now in a field.”

Yes, they were not in a real world now. Qi Leren knew this very well. This was Maria’s field and the Dream of the Holy Nun, but it was not the real Holy City.

“A field? It seems to be very powerful.” Dr. Lu doesn’t know what this was. His understanding of  fields came from the “field” Su He had brought him and Qi Leren into from the castle.

“This field really is very powerful. Whether in scope or realism… Connecting it to the name of this task and the history of the Holy City, is this the field condensed by the Holy Nun? She created a dream Holy City and let the human beings who survived twenty-two years ago live in her field. It’s really… amazing,” Su He praised, looking at the realistic blue sky and white clouds in front of him. “Very, very amazing.”

“If you have a chance, you must meet this lady,” Su He said.

“Well, I’m afraid that’s impossible. This lady has been dead for many years.” Before he spoke, Qi Leren had taken a glance at Ning Zhou and saw that he didn’t show any special expression.

Su He looked at him with consternation: “The field master is dead, but the field isn’t broken? Or is there a difference between a field condensed field through the Vatican’s secret method and a field condensed by a player? A relationship with faith?”

Ning Zhou nodded his head. Although his half-field was broken, he knew the path of the Holy See very well, which was also attributed to a great deal of research for the Holy See that Maria had left before her death. Although his physique was not suited for the route of power through faith, he had no issue with theoretical knowledge.

Qi Leren was inexplicably a little sad. Since he found out that Ning Zhou’s half-field was broken he’d been worried about it, but he knew too little about fields. Now…

Although a little embarrassed, Qi Leren still cheekily asked Su He: “What should players do to condense a field?”

“Actually, this is very mysterious. When I recall the field condensation, I can only think of a very vague memory fragment, because at that time… I was about to die.” Su He calmly narrated, “It was like a light suddenly flashed in the dark, and I suddenly realized a new power while on the edge of life and death, which was wonderful and incredible…”

Dr. Lu covered his forehead. “I don’t understand at all. I believe in science. What’s the use of this field thing?”

“Simply put, only field-level skills may confront field-level people, otherwise it’s not an order of magnitude at all.” Su He blinked at the others mysteriously. “It’s like suddenly stepping into a new world. What you have to face is completely different from the past.”

While Qi Leren was confused and wanted to ask something, several middle-aged NPC guards found them and asked where they’d come from. After learning that they had passed through the fog outside the Holy City, the guards and surrounding NPCs were very surprised and wanted to take them to see the Lord.

Was there this story in the Nightmare Game? Qi Leren was baffled.

He remembered that when he played here, there had been no guards, and he hadn’t seen any lords until his death. What was happening with this story?!

Qi Leren, who felt the plot derail, felt powerless.

The four people followed the guards to the Holy City’s palatial main government building, and the residents along the way looked at them curiously and whispered.

Along the street paved with bricks and stones, the guards brought the four to the stone fort in the middle of the Holy City, passed through the gates and halls, and came to the Lord. The manager of the Holy City was about fifty, with white hair and aged appearance.

The guard reported to him the origin of the four men, and the old Lord stood up from his seat trembling and stared at Ning Zhou: “You… Are you from the Holy See?”

Ning Zhou, dressed in the uniform of a Vatican exorcist, nodded his head. The uniforms of the Holy See had not changed for more than 20 years. Even if the Holy City in the fog had been forgotten by God’s grace for more than 20 years, the Lord could still recognize the dress of the Holy See at a glance.

The Lord stared at him for a long time, and then collapsed and sat back in his seat for a long time. His wife served him wine in a golden cup, and the Lord gulped it down: “So, are you here to help us end the disaster of the new moon?”

The disaster of the new moon? Qi Leren gave a silent wry smile. After going for a turn, he still had to solve this same task.

He hoped he wouldn’t die this time.