A day later.

Chen Lun stood in front of the gate of the Red Apple Church in Honghua Town.

There was a dead silence all around, and no one was in sight.

The town was even more desolate than Bingnuo Town and Youdou Town, and since he entered the town, he hadn't seen a living person, not even a plague madman.

Except for the crows that flew by from time to time, it was lifeless, like a dead town.

"Mr. Jack?"

Dongyang spoke on the side.

Chen Lun came back from his contemplation, turned his head to look at him, and then looked at the group of players behind him.

Players who died in Oilbean have been resurrected and returned to the party. Fortunately, because of the battle, they established a certain connection with Oil Bean Town, and the respawn point was automatically refreshed at the entrance of that town, so they did not get separated.

Chen Lun released the crow on his shoulder, and then said softly:

"There are no clergy in this church, and the people of the Red Apple Church have been evacuated......"

"Already withdrawn?!"

Dongyang and the others looked at each other, looking very surprised.

They opened the task panel again to check, and found that this time the task completion rate was "2/3", and it was obvious that the church in front of them still needed to be destroyed.

Could it be because of the disgraced guild's tipping? So the Red Apple Church is prepared in advance? ”

Chenxi spoke.

"-Quite possibly!"

Centaur said.

"—don't even think about it, it must be those cubs...... We have eliminated the church branches in the first two small towns, and they have lost so much that they must want to regain a little favor from the church through this way of making small reports. ”

Kotou Jin followed up with a speech on the team channel to reply.

The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"Let's go."

The silver cane in Chen Lun's hand turned around and gently rested on his forearm.

He held on to his black hat and walked in.

Dongyang and the others followed closely and also entered the outer courtyard of the church.

The sound of dense footsteps echoed in the empty and silent scene, and everyone walked through the outer courtyard and came directly to the door of the church hall, where Chen Lun personally pushed open the huge and heavy wooden carved door.

Squeak——!

The whispered prayer in unison suddenly reached everyone's ears.

Dongyang and the others looked closely, but found that the entire hall was almost full of men, women, and children, dressed in the clothes of ordinary residents, kneeling on the ground reverently, muttering the Bible doctrine of the Red Apple Church.

These believers looked very strange, pious and fanatical, and their eyes were full of longing.

"God said, Hunger is man's nature, and devouring is obedience to the heart......"

"God said, Flesh is the root of man, and it grows to the ...... of life."

"God said, Sickness is but a necessary way, and we need to be tested......"

The chanting of prayers came one after another, filled with holiness. The sound hit Dongyang and the others, making their spines cold and their hearts hairy.

Chen Lun looked around expressionlessly, and found that all these believers had no heartbeat, they seemed to be alive, but in fact they were already dead.

The reason why he can behave like an ordinary person as he did in his lifetime depends on a method of the Red Apple Church.

Chen Lun remembers this method vividly.

'The 1.0 version of the Red Apple Church in the previous life was able to wreak havoc on a large scale within the empire by relying on a transcendent creature called the 'fruit maggot...... It was a creation that the Church had secretly researched. ’

The kind of "fruit honey" that I had encountered in Amber City before was the excrement of this otherworldly creature after eating apples. Whether it is taken directly or prepared into a drug injection, it can increase the vitality of the human body and achieve a certain degree of "healing" and "strengthening" effects.

The side effect is that it will reduce life expectancy.

Many uninformed people are extremely eager for the "nectar" distributed by the church, and even do not hesitate to spend all their wealth to donate and give, just to be able to live for themselves or their family and friends for a period of time.

Connie's father is a believer in this "drug" who is deeply dependent.

Gary, the first leader of the Iron Fist Gang, and the bodyguards found by Councilor Daniel are all boosters who have been injected with "drugs".

It can be seen that in the process of secret research, the Red Apple Church has spread the "excrement garbage" that is not used to collect money.

The real research results are to implant maggots directly into the human body and perform some kind of ritual of the church, creating a group of terrible church "soldiers".

These people died during the ritual, and maggots continued to gnaw on them until they died out completely. In a sense, they are actually just a body controlled by maggots, full of pollution and chaos, and very terrifying monsters.

This kind of person...... No, it should be called the fruit maggot parasite, which has a common name, called "fallen believers".

"Get out of here."

Chen Lun suddenly said loudly.

"This is an empty shell church left behind by the Red Apple Church, but it's actually a trap."

Dongyang and the others were shocked.

"Yes! Mr. Jack! ”

They immediately turned around and wanted to leave the church hall.

But at this moment.

Boom!

The two huge wooden doors closed tightly with a loud bang.

Not only that, but the bricks of the wall above the gate suddenly moved away, popping up a sturdy iron fence and inserting straight into the threshold, completely blocking the retreat.

You can faintly hear the clicking sound coming from inside the wall, which is obviously a trigger mechanism that has been set up a long time ago.

"Oops! We're locked up! ”

The centaur shouted.

"Look at me!"

Kobold Jin shouted, his body swelled, and slammed into the wall on the side of the gate. He wanted to break through a large hole in the wall and get the crowd to leave.

Bang!

Bricks are flying, and smoke and dust are filled.

However, the expected hole in the wall did not appear, and it was discovered that the walls of the church hall were not only very thick, but also had a row of fairly strong iron railings inside.

"When this was built, was it for the steel fortress?!"

The doghead Jin moved his aching arm and complained angrily.

Perhaps because he was hitting the wall so loudly that all prayers stopped abruptly, and the whole hall fell into a dead silence.

Dongyang and the others turned to look at the group of believers kneeling on the ground, all of them motionless.

In the atmosphere where the needle drop could be heard, a child's voice suddenly sounded:

"Mom, I'm hungry."

A few seconds later, a woman's voice rang out:

"Eat when you're hungry."

Everyone held their breath, only to see the believers kneeling in front of them, slowly turning their heads, their eyes staring straight at them.

"Hungry."

"I'm so hungry too."

"Let's eat them."

The believers got up one after another, their expressions gradually becoming hideous, their eyes full of longing and madness, and then they gathered around Dongyang and the others.

"Shoot!"

Dongyang immediately made a decision and shouted.

At the same time, the fallen believers rushed in hysteria.

Bang bang bang ......!

Nearly 100 muskets spewed fireworks, and countless small steel balls flew out.

A series of dull thumping sounds rang out, and small steel balls shot into the bodies of these believers, splashing blood flowers. Many believers were covered in blood after being shot and fell to the ground by the recoil, but they still struggled to crawl, and their eyes became more and more vicious.

Suddenly.

Some fallen believers have undergone strange changes after suffering heavy blows.

Poof! Puff ......!!

Their bodies twisted, and suddenly from their shoulders, backs, and even their navels, disgusting tentacles sprouted, intertwined with bone and muscle, and even unevenly distributed teeth, nails, and hair.

The players fired again, but this time, the effect of the bullets was greatly reduced. Even though they were shot several times, these believers still stood and even went even more insane.

They quickly rush up to the player, grinning and waving their tentacles.

Some players tried to fight them, but the sword in their hands could not kill the opponent at all, but instead they were pierced and entangled by dozens of tentacles, and finally sent into the large mouth of the belly full of sharp teeth, chewing and devouring.

Several transcendent beings in Dongyang also stepped forward to fight, but found that these degenerate believers were extremely difficult, they were at most one against three, and no matter how much they were, they couldn't hold on.

Mechanical gloves and bombs are not suitable for use in this closed scene, it is very easy to accidentally injure teammates, and the hole cards that should be used are also used up, Dongyang has no choice but to call for help:

"Mr. Jack! Please help us! ”

Chen Lun stood aside, quietly watching the scene in front of him.

He knew that this was a microcosm of the future of the Empire, and that such depraved believers would appear everywhere, acting as "soldiers" in the hands of the Red Apple Church, only for madness and killing.

Alienated depraved believers are noticeably more violent, and their vitality, resilience, and physical fitness have been enhanced, almost reaching the threshold of transcendence.

The entire hall of the Red Apple Church was filled with the smell of blood, and the originally solemn murals were stained with blood. The number of these fallen believers is about one or two hundred, and it is normal for Dongyang and other players to not be able to defeat them.

"Hmmm......"

Chen Lun turned his head slightly, looked at Dongyang and their struggles to resist, and groaned for a while.

"Well, after all, it's not something you can handle."