I'm still wondering what I'm going to do if I'm dealing with a tricky guy, and the converts have taken me deep into the forests of the Dead City. The buildings on both sides are obviously more dilapidated and degraded than before, most of the houses have faded or even been covered by weeds, and the road under their feet has also cracked to varying degrees, and from time to time you can see a hidden figure like a ghost standing by the window of a certain building; It was the sentinel of the converts, and though no one told me, I was pretty sure of that judgment. From time to time, the sound of animals will echo in a certain block, the air is more humid than before, there is a faint smell of vegetation, and the temperature feels a few degrees lower. Everyone didn't say a word along the way, except for a few guys who would whistle at intervals, and every time they did, a few more whistles would come back from one of the buildings on either side, like nightingales in the forest were whispering to each other.

The team didn't go very fast, and after about an hour, my legs gradually weakened, but fortunately the team slowed down. Fortifications erected by survivors can gradually be seen in the surrounding buildings and roads. The razor-sharp wooden stakes that keep horses away, the "city walls" made of scrap cars, the tarpaulins made of rags, the heating buckets made of empty oil drums, and the decomposing corpses of mutants hanging from the street lamps on both sides of the road, not to mention the creepy, the pungent stench already makes me sick to my stomach, but the converts around me seem to be used to it.

After walking through the "city wall" of the converts, we walked a few hundred meters, and finally there was an old gas station in front of us, it seemed to have become a palace for the converts, all kinds of strange runes and strange bone sacrifices decorated, the original appearance of this gas station can basically be said to be unrecognizable, if it were not for the few gas tankers that are estimated to have been scrapped, I really can't believe that this building like the altar of the primitive tribes in Africa is a common gas station in the past.

After taking me into the gas station, the converts around me and their friends at the gas station muttered a few words, and they must have been talking about me, and the guys stationed at the gas station all glanced at me curiously, and all gasped when they saw me, and then lowered their heads in awe and muttered a few words that were presumably their doctrinal scriptures or something.

I'm no stranger to their bizarre behavior. The converts who had walked in front slowed down and cautiously led me into the room inside the gas station, which, if memory serves, was supposed to be the cashier of the gas station. The windows of the room were covered with curtains woven from tree branches, and candlelight was faintly shining through, and the doors were hung with skeletal ornaments, and some supplies seemed to be piled up in the dimly lit room, but they were all covered with tarpaulins. The two men armed with knives on either side of the door nodded to us. The convert, who was standing in front of me, suddenly stepped out of the way, and waved his left hand into the room, like an intern waiter with irregular movements, inviting me into what looked like a shaman's sacrificial hut.

I swallowed hard, my nose unable to adjust to the rancid stench in the air. The few converts in front of me seem to be quite face-saving, maybe they are keeping in awe of the so-called prophecy, but if I continue to rub it off, I am afraid that there will be no good fruit to eat. So I took a heavy step, lifted the rattan curtains, and stepped into the room full of low candles; The moment I walked into the room, the door behind me immediately closed, and I was cut off from retreating.

The candles lit everywhere in the room didn't make me feel a little warm, and the cold air kept gathering in this room. At the other end of the room sat a wooden bed with a gauze curtain, and a slender adult woman sat on the edge of the bed, her long hair hanging down her shoulders and swaying slightly with the curtains. Except for the patterned fur coat draped over her shoulders, she was dressed fairly normally. I was startled by a thunderclap that broke the frozen air, and instinctively looked out the window, and after a few drops of rain, the torrential rain poured down. When I turned around, a woman suddenly appeared in front of me, her face half shadowed by the faint candlelight, and I took two steps back in shock.

"Oh! Excuse me, did it scare you? The woman stepped forward to support me with an apologetic tone, so that I didn't fall out.

"It's okay, it's okay!" I quickly stood firm, coughed twice in embarrassment, regained my original vigilance, and kept a safe distance from the woman again.

"Looks like spring is coming." The woman smiled.

"What? Oh! Right. "I didn't come back to my senses at first, but then I realized the spring thunder just now.

"No wonder it's so hot today." The woman didn't seem as mysterious as I thought, she turned to the coffee table, poured me water, handed it to me, and said, "It's still the sun this morning." ”

"Yes......" I didn't know how to respond, so I took the glass and took two sips politely.

"You are indeed as the rumors say......" The woman looked at me in fascination as I drank the water, muttering to herself, "white skin, amber and jade eyes......

"Ahem," I uncomfortably straightened up, putting down my glass, "yes." ”

The woman didn't care about my reaction, she continued to circle around me twice, and when she came back to her senses, she stood in front of me again and smiled politely, "By the way, do you know who I am?" ”

"Sort of...... You know. Prophet? ”

"So you know what I'm capable of?" When the woman smiled at me again, I didn't feel friendly anymore, on the contrary, my heart was hairy. The flash of thunder outside the window suddenly made me feel the weirdness of her smile, as if a soulless skin was camouflaging a human smile.

"What...... What abilities? "My tongue is cracking, and I don't have much of the resolve I had left.

"Looks like you don't know me very well." The woman stretched out her left hand and pulled back her sleeve, an irregular bite mark on her forearm. The bite marks were deep, and a large piece of flesh was missing, but the wound had healed.

I can guess the origin of this scar, and it is precisely because I know it that I feel even more incredible. Because, except for me, no one can survive being bitten by a mutant.

"How did you do that?"

"God knows, it's fate."

"Oh roar, miss, I don't want to be brainwashed by you, even though you survived. Congratulations. I shook my head with a smirk, "You may have a special constitution and have antibodies to this virus. Whether you listen or not, I suggest you go out with me and show the experts, maybe you can save the world. ”

"No, that's the way the world is." The woman pointed to the dark and rainy night outside the window and corrected me firmly, "Only by going out can you wait for the call of death, and only by quietly complying in this forest can you survive." Those who believe live, and those who turn their backs die. ”

"It's funny," I muttered...... but the woman didn't hear, "listen, miss, I don't care if you're some kind of prophet or not, it's all in my opinion, either go out with your men and me, or let me go alone; I'm not going to discuss with you about worldview either. ”

"Haven't you wondered why I am called a prophet?" The woman confidently asked herself, "Because I foresaw your coming, Lord of the Resurrection." ”

"'The Lord of the Resurrection,' well, is a good name indeed, and maybe it would be good in science fiction." I nodded sarcastically, "It's a pity that reality is different from fiction." ”

"Different? Yes, of course not. Sometimes the truth is more than you expected. The woman put her hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes and said, "After being bitten, I also felt like I was going to die, but the truth is that I survived." We are the lucky ones of this world, don't you understand? I guess you're not a little studied by your experts out there, right? Are you willing to be an experiment? ”

"Experiment ......" is a true portrayal of me, yes, I am indeed like an experiment, and I am also discriminated against by the people around me...... Even if I am not willing to admit it.

"I'm not wrong, am I?" It wasn't hard for the woman to see my expression, but instead of falling into the trap, she gently approached my face and whispered, "It's true that my prophecy is not as my admirers think, but I have always believed that there will be people like you and me. I just give hope to those who are not as lucky as we are. ”

"You deceived them all." I didn't speak very loudly, perhaps because of the sympathy of my kind, and I couldn't help but find that my position was not much different from that of this pretending woman.

"No, I didn't lie to them, on the contrary I saved them. I gave hope to the desperate, and I kept them alive in this forest. ”

"Really? Let's go out together, which might make them live longer. ”

"You think I don't know what's going on out there? Aren't you all killing each other on the outside? Feeling comfortable living? The woman pulled a small lump of grass out of her pocket and shook it in front of me, "Do you know what this is?" I call it linden, and the water soaked in this aquatic plant gives off a light grassy smell that can confuse the abandoned ghosts for a short time. Have you outsiders seen it? Haven't seen it. Because you know how to fight all day long. Before I could see what the linden grass looked like in the woman's hand, she put it in her pocket and said to me in an indisputable tone, "If you seem to survive, stay here." Forget about the people outside the forest, whether it's your friend or foe, they won't live long. ”

"That's not a good prediction."

"Yes, but your subconscious thinks so, too." The woman took my hand and said, "Your name is Du Yuheng, right, the two of us can dominate this forest together, you are far better off here than outside the forest, believe me." ”

"This ......"

"Haven't you found it yet? The Holocaust claimed two-thirds of humanity's lives, and more than half of the remaining third died fighting for supplies; In other words, maybe the virus really hit our civilization hard, but it is we who really make us perish. The woman's piercing gaze seemed to have seen everything, and her lips trembled with overexcitement, "In the forest, my people have learned to adapt, they have learned the laws of the forest, and they are the last ones to survive!" ”

It seems that this woman is determined to stay in the forest of the dead city, in fact, I don't need to go to the big way, I must take these people out of the forest, since they are here, I might as well be less heroic. "I'm not going to argue with you about who will survive, but since you're going to stay here, okay, you can continue to believe in your faith. Now I just hope you'll let me go. ”

"Of course you can leave." The woman's answer was unexpectedly crisp, but after she finished speaking, she thought she was going to repent, but she still kept a kind smile like a virgin and said, "It's just that I want you to meet with us before leaving, at least let them see that people like you really exist, so that they can give them more hope." ”

"Hehe, what I'm trying to say is that I'm probably a little different from you. You also see that my eyes and skin are already abnormal, and you ...... I guess you're more like you're born with antibodies, and I'm just a coincidence of a 'medical malpractice'. ”

"I understand that what I told them at the beginning was 'Abandon the ghost will no longer do us any harm,' but they later understood it as 'we can tame the abandoned ghost'. That's probably what they'd like to see. In short, please let us celebrate your presence, and as for whether you want to leave or not, it is your will. ”

Unexpectedly, this prophet was still a reasonable person, although she had a group of cultists...... I was secretly glad that I had permission to leave, and my tense nerves were temporarily relaxed. "When can I leave?"

"It'll be fine in a while." As soon as the woman shouted, the guard outside the door immediately opened the door and entered the house.

She beckoned the guard forward, whispering a few words in the guard's ear. When the guard heard this, he was startled with excitement, nodded his head again and again, walked out of the room quickly, and bowed to me as he went.

Confused, I had no choice but to salute back, and after the guard left, I hurriedly asked the woman, "What did you tell him?" ”

"Our ceremony to welcome you will begin soon, you come with me." The woman walked to the door as solemnly as if she were going to take me to some great event; I had no choice but to follow.

The woman pushed open the door, and saw a crowd of men and women dressed like Indians gathered in the clearing outside the gas station, and they watched with awe as their prophet led me to the center of the square. The thunderstorm was still falling, but it was lighter than before. As I stepped into the rain, a biting chill spread down my neck. It seemed that the men had been waiting for us outside for a long time, but no one shouted cheers or whispered, and all that could be heard was the silence of the rain.

"Did you know that there is a place in this forest that is worshipped by our people as a sacred place?" The woman walked side by side with me, perhaps trying not to make me nervous and deliberately finding a topic.

"I've seen the tallest tree in the Dead City Forest by the river before, and I don't know if it's your holy place."

"The tallest tree by the river? Hehe, I know, the Holy Land is not far from there. ”

I felt as if I had found the source of the virus in this forest. "Do you know where it is?"

"Of course, it is rumored that it is the original place where the virus spread in this city, the place where the first abandoned ghost was born, the original sin of this disaster." As if to recount their missionary story, the woman said earnestly, "I have been there, and it is surrounded by abandoned ghosts, and it is full of abandoned ghosts whose shells have been swallowed up by the forest. Since I can't deter the forsaken demons like you, I can't go deeper, but one day, someone, the Lord of Resurrection, will reach the depths of that land of original sin. ”

"Why go there?"

"Oh, when you see that place with your own eyes, it is the foundation of this forest, and the trees there have been reborn, and we humans are going to live again there." The woman's voice grew louder and louder, and at last she was already shouting as if she were chanting a performance.

"I still don't understand, where are you talking about? Why did the Lord of Resurrection go there? ”

"The Land of Original Sin needs the first awakened person to erase its sins!" The woman didn't answer me at all, and when the people around me shouted after her, I realized that their ritual had begun, but it always felt a little wrong......

"You don't need to know where that is, I'll do your mission in your place." As soon as the woman finished speaking, two converts suddenly appeared behind me, one of them grabbing one of my hands.

Oops, this is not like a send-off for me, but more like a "send-off" for me, a send-off for me! This sinister woman didn't intend to let me go in the first place! What kind of original sin, what kind of broken mission may be her nonsense at all, she just wants to find an excuse to kill me, a dissident with the same abilities as her. I twisted and struggled a few times, but I couldn't outwit the two adults behind me.

So I could only knowingly shout, "What are you going to do!" ”

The prophetess ignored my roar completely, and she drew a dagger from behind her, and the sharp cold light flashed right in front of my eyes.

"Are you crazy! Are you all crazy! "The thunder of the rainy night drowned out my cry, and under the thunder I saw a group of wretched creatures tormented by misfortune and finally lost their reason and even their humanity, leaving only fanatical ignorance and fear.

The woman let my criticism, she held the dagger in both hands and slowly raised, and kept chanting the scriptures like my requiem, I had no time to listen to what she was reading, and several possible ways to get out came to my mind one after another, but the result was a dead end, and it was impossible for anyone else to come to the rescue in this kind of ghost place, so I was killed by a group of crazy people? Unwilling!

"This woman is lying to you! There was no prophecy at all! The outside world has already begun to find a cure! Don't be deceived! "What am I doing, even if I shout at the top of my voice, this group of indifferent disciples will not wake up and save me......

The woman was so confident in her followers that she didn't even think to argue with me, but she wouldn't let me continue to shake the converts' twisted beliefs.

She raised the knife in her hand, and I instinctively lowered my body to avoid my neck; The two men behind me seemed to have put all their weight on me, but I slipped on my feet and lost my center of gravity, and knelt down with the force they exerted, the woman's dagger in my shoulder.

"Ahh I couldn't help but cry out loud, and the pain in my left shoulder immediately paralyzed my left arm, and the woman pulled out her dagger without saying a word, and my blood splashed on my face. The rain and blood soaked my clothes, my chest thumped, and the noise around me was gone, except for my own slow breathing. The cold rain slapped against my face, as if God had mercy on me. I begged the woman almost powerlessly, "Don't ......."

Naturally, she will not show mercy. I saw her raise the dagger above her head with one hand with a cold smile on her face, and this time the blade flashed in front of my eyes instead of cold light, but despair. The men behind me grabbed me by the hair with one hand, and the other two grabbed my hands from either side of me, so that they could lower my body and wait like a chicken for their prophetess to slit my throat with that filthy dagger.