Walking out from the ’dressing room’ still did not lead to the residential area. Instead, it led to another large area that bore similarities to a train station platform. The shape of this area was very much similar to the columned area that they had passed earlier. It was possible that the two areas were mirror images of each other.
When they reached this point, the surrounding air was already fresh enough to allow people like Hank to breathe without the aid of the protective gear. After walking past this area and a twisting tunnel of sorts, their eyes opened, and the three finally reached the inner sanctum of the Village of Heavenly Blessing.
For the two players, what they saw could only be described as unpredictable. An orangey light filtered down from above. Raising their heads to look, they could see layers of plants forming the ceiling of this place like wisps of clouds. One could get a rough estimate of the height of this place from a glance at these plants as the plants covered the top of the valley. The sunlight did not shine through the gaps of the layers of plants. Instead, the light was filtered through the plants before it arrived on the ground below. This layer of vegetation was practically the village’s ozone layer. Of course, what they saw was not a pure product of nature. This layer of vegetation had been modified multiple times by the people who had lived there for hundreds of years. This layer of protection was the lifeline of the village; it had to be perfectly safe and stable.
Walking further ahead, one would be greeted by rows of neatly-arranged roads and squat buildings that looked like one another. There were not that many people on the street, and they wore all the same outfit. The male’s clothing was similar to what Hank was wearing, and there was not much different with the female outfit. The style was almost identical, but the color was slightly brighter.
To make an easier to understand example, two secondary school students came to a classroom for primary school students. They were wearing a different kind of school uniform, and they were much taller. However, they were still wearing school uniforms and did not dress up like Conan when he went to school. Therefore, the villagers merely regarded them with curious gazes and did not scream in panic or attack them with hoes and sickles.
“The person who designed this city had such bad taste. Even a robot would hesitate to live in a place like this,” Flashes of Sword criticized.
“Haha… What did you think this place would look like?” Feng Bujue asked.
“When he mentioned a village, I assumed it would be something like the Shire. I absolutely did not expect to see something like this… This place is more like a standardized slum.” Flashes of Sword chuckled mirthlessly. “A real slum is more interesting than this. At least there will be hovels, people, and…”
For a moment, he could not find the correct word.
“Character,” Feng Bujue offered.
“Yes, character,” Flashes of Sword said. “Look at these people. They are living in the same homes, wearing the same clothes, using the same things… Honestly, are you guys not afraid of getting lost?”
He turned to Hank, to which Hank replied, “Each street is coded, so directions are easy to follow.”
Flashes of Sword shook his head and sighed. “Of course.”
“At least they have freedom in terms of hairstyle. The leader did not arrange for them to all have crew cuts and only allow his inner circle to have long hair or something,” Feng Bujue said.
“You’re talking about Crows Zero 2, aren’t you?” Flashes of Sword got the reference, and he could not help but chuckle.
The three walked for a while before they ran into two street patrols. These two’s clothing style and color was slightly different, and they wore a lapel. Their boots were long, and they were each armed with an anti-gravity gun and a metallic shield.
“Stop.” One of them called after them. Feng Bujue’s group stopped and waited for the interrogation. Flashes of Sword was unfazed. He looked at them with a degree of condescension in his eyes. He stood there without making a sound. On the other hand, Hank was shaking like a leaf, and the guilt had sewn his lips shut.
“Why are you wearing the protective gear when you’re in the village?” one patrol asked.
“Hmm… Sir, our clothes are ruined,” Feng Bujue replied.
“Ruined?” The man scanned Feng Bujue with suspicion. “The clothes are placed inside the dressing room’s box. How can they be ruined?”
“Sir, it was torn open by the metallic door during decontamination when I accidentally got caught when walking past it,” Feng Bujue answered.
“Oh…” The man nodded as the disbelief receded. After a few seconds, he said, “Then quickly go and ask for a new set from the provision center.”
“Understood, thank you for your concern, sir!” Feng Bujue replied.
The two patrols looked at each other, shrugged, and left.
Flashes of Sword laughed. “That attitude of yours… You’ve seen much too many national films, haven’t you? It felt like an underground agent meeting government soldiers on the street.”
“As long as it works,” Feng Bujue said.
Hank though asked in confusion, “This is strange… They actually believed you. How could one’s shirt get caught on the metallic door? We initiated the decontamination first before changing into our clothes, so if something’s hooked, it should be the protective gear.”
“That’s right, but how would they ever know that?” Feng Bujue countered. “They are not scavengers.”
“Oh, right! The patrols haven’t left the village before.” It finally dawned on Hank.
“You’ve thought about things like that as well?” Flashes of Sword chimed in.
“There is a hierarchy here that cannot be breached. There is a system in place that prevents others from intervening in other people’s societal responsibilities. Between the people who are at the top of the pyramid aside and the groups that form the bottom of pyramid, they will not know anything about the other’s job details.” Feng Bujue gave some examples. “Scavengers will not know how many types of dishes are served at the patrols’ canteen, and the patrols won’t know about the decontamination process. Therefore, I merely needed to come up with a plausible excuse. Or do you think they would fish out their phone to Google the actual process gone through by the scavengers once they return to the village?”
“Er… Due to the system’s censorship, please allow me to give you the praise of ’cunning’,” Flashes of Sword said even though he was really thinking, Despicable.
“See, Hank, there is nothing to worry about. We can handle this just fine,” Feng Bujue told Hank. “Now, before you go hand in your mission report to the leader, I need you to bring us on a tour of the village.”
“But based on the rules… once the scavengers return to the village, they will need to…”
Hank was naturally interrupted by Feng Bujue.
“You’ve already brought two outsiders into the village. Why do you still care about the rules?” Feng Bujue said. “If you go to report to your leader now, the two of us won’t be able to follow because they will be able to tell for certain that we do not belong to the scavenger team. Plus, we do not have time to wait for you to come back, and I do not think it is wise for us to let you wander off alone. What if you decide to sell us out, or what if you’re somehow exposed? Then the thing that no one wishes to see will happen… a battle.
“Furthermore, since you’ve brought ’outsider’ into the village, it is punishable by death. I believe your leader won’t care whether you were threatened or not, and they will not listen to your explanation. Therefore, if you plan to slip away from us and then inform the patrol, that will not only cause your fellow villagers to die, you won’t survive either.”
Feng Bujue saw Hank’s expression change, and he knew that he had succeeded again. “Your best choice now is to follow my orders. Don’t go report to your leader just yet; bring us into the village, and when we finish the tour and leave the village silently, you can go to your leader. At that time, your biggest crime will be being late. There won’t be any severe punishment. No one will be injured, and no one will even realize that we’ve been here.”
“But this is different from what we discussed. You didn’t mention these things before…” Hank looked around in panic. He was obviously flustered.
“How do you think things will go?” Feng Bujue laughed. “A plan always has to keep up with the change.”
By then, Hank was in the same boat as them. As Feng Bujue had said, everyone had their weakness, and once that was grasped, they would betray their principles.
Initially, Hank did not want to be killed, then he did not want to see his friends killed, and now, two threats were on his shoulders. The only solution for him was to cooperate with these two ’outsiders’ and hope that they would leave without being discovered.
Of course, he had an overly simple view of things. If he ruminated deeper on this, he would have understood that even if Feng Bujue and Flashes of Sword disappeared as silently as they had arrived, without even claiming a life, things would still be exposed. When they entered the village, they had already registered their names. Jarvis and Joy had been seen alive and returned to the village. How could a living human disappear into thin air? Therefore, a few days later, Hank would still be captured for interrogation, and he would not be able to explain himself. The punishment would be severe.
Death.
…
Deep within the village, there was a place called the Shrine. Even though this place was called the Shrine, it had nothing to do with an actual shrine. This ’shrine’ was modified out of the half spacecraft that had landed there several hundred years earlier.
In the village, only the descendants of the Corben family had the power to enter the shrine; the place was essentially their palace. For many years, the Corben family had ruled the village as the agents of God; their word was the word of God. Of course, this God did not have any relation to any religion. What the term God represented was instead the authority of the Corben family.
If they killed someone, it was because God wanted to punish said person; if they killed a group of people, it was because God deemed them as heretics; if they wanted people to obey, they would claim that they had heard God’s orders; if they wanted someone else’s wealth or spouse, they could come up with other excuses.
In other words, the words of the Corben family were like divine decrees. Violating them was going against God, and it would curse the entire village. Of course, they would not have ruled that long with just a religious-flavored lie. The real power that Corben family possessed was ’knowledge’. The information left inside the spaceship was dominated by them. That information was only permitted to their people and the priests at the shrine. This way, when it was required, they could perform ’miracles’ to sow fear into the villagers’ hearts to buy their obeisance.
This was why the lower-level villagers knew nothing about biology, medicine, and astronomy. Biology would cause them to question their rulers, medicine would teach them about death, and astronomy would expose the countless religious lies. Knowledge changed destiny, and technology changed lives.
However, the Corben family did not wish for anyone’s destiny to change. Any dictatorial organization or individual did not wish for the situation to change, so they had to learn how to ’control’.
Clever citizens were the hardest to rule, and therefore, the strategy to dummify the people of the Village of Heavenly Blessing was incredibly brilliant. The Corben family did not cut off the wealth of knowledge completely from the people; they allowed the people to learn part of it like agriculture, smelting, and so on. Meanwhile, they instilled the brainwashing of religion in them to make them believe in the absolute existence of God so that they would not dare blaspheme against their rulers.
Therefore, such a unique, twisted civilization was born.
York Corben was the Village of Heavenly Blessing’s current God’s Child. He was the village head, the city head, the president, and the king…
For his ancestor’s greed, they were also bright. After capturing the spaceship, they came up with this ruling system, and that led to the luxury of York Corben today.
After a short conversation with Hank, Feng Bujue had a brief idea of the situation in the Village of Heavenly Blessing. Therefore, he was certain that this was a sci-fi scenario. The so-called God’s Child? That was something left behind from more than one thousand years ago. The dictators of the twentieth century had already abandoned the pretext of being the God’s chosen one. Instead, they were Generals who had not been to war, Professors who had not touched a book, a historical figure’s descendant, and so on. These were actions that people with some culture and intelligence would not have done.
When Hank brought the two outsiders into the village, it was Corben’s afternoon tea time. Corben’s daily life was heavily structured. He had three meals and two naps a day. He had tea and snacks every afternoon and slept at 9 pm, and every night, he needed a different girl to accompany him.
Some might ask, how could he manage that with a village of just several thousand people? Could he have slept with all the women in the village already?
In actuality, that might not be far from the truth. Every female who was touched by the hands of beauty would have slept in his bed before. Why? The reason could be traced back to the thirteenth century. At the time, the European royalty was practicing this thing called ’the right to virginity’ or the ’right to the first night’. In other words, on the night of the bride’s wedding, they had to be sent to the local royalty to be ’tasted’. In the Village of Heavenly Blessing, this horrible practice was brought back to life. Apparently, all the brides had to be sent to Shrine to receive their ’marital blessing’. The period differed. Some that he did not like would be sent away the day after, while others might remain for a longer period.
This practice of the Corben family led to another problem; their descendants could be found anywhere through the village. Technically speaking, the ’God’s child’ would pick the woman that he was most satisfied with to be his wife, and thus, the first male of the second generation would carry on his father’s mantle, and his siblings would become priests.
However, how many villagers possessed the blood of the Corben was truly an unknown.
In a closed society, consanguinity was unavoidable. In terms of statistics, the genes of the descendants would become worse and worse. The lowering of physical ability and intelligence, the higher chance for congenital disease… such issues could not be avoided. Unfortunately, the village had a low understanding of medicine, and the only healers were the priests. As a result, the villagers became more stunted, and they were very naïve and dumb. The population almost never increased because the mortality rate was too high.
The collapse of the Village of Heavenly Blessing was inevitable; it was only a matter of time.
But there might still be hope for the village because someone called Feng Bujue had just entered the village…