Chapter 502: Trapping a Group

Chapter 502: Trapping a Group

Seeing this scene, Zheng Yichen almost understood the trick of the Sanctuary Church. It was just about deceiving people first, then setting up shills to make those who hadn’t made the “correct” choice earlier regret it. Such things were commonplace on Earth, but for the simple and honest folk of the Otherworld who weren’t used to such schemes, this trick worked really well.

Anyway, looking at the mournful faces of those who had missed the precious opportunity, Zheng Yichen knew that those who were injured later would basically not hide their wounds. If they hid them and were lucky, with only ordinary wounds, they would be fine. But if they were unlucky, it would be fatal—then there was no cure, just waiting to die, farewell… a triple blow.

Since death was certain either way, why not directly seek help from the church? If they were fine, they would receive a free Restoration Magic treatment. If something was wrong, there might still be a chance to save them by signing a “temporary worker” contract with the Sanctuary Church. Even if signing it meant several years or even over a decade, it was still better than dying, right?

As for those who really couldn’t be saved… that was also easy to explain. At least it was discovered early, avoiding a painful death when the hidden danger erupted.

No matter how you looked at it, it was a win. The Sanctuary Church’s trick shattered the hope many held in their hearts.

“I’ll leave for a moment.” Zheng Yichen stood up and walked toward the edge of the Barrier. He was a bit curious about how the Church here dealt with Flesh Seed infections. Careful examinations could detect abnormalities, but such examinations definitely didn’t rely solely on sensing with Mana or combat energy inside the body.

After all, once infected with a Flesh Seed, that thing had camouflaging properties. Self-examination couldn’t detect it; you needed “antivirus software” to find it.

Zheng Yichen’s arrival wasn’t obstructed. Everyone here knew his identity, and some Church Knights were aware of what he had done inside the Containment Barrier. After all, it was Zheng Yichen who developed a Corruption parasite Immunity Potion, even if it relied on a principle of mutual inhibition, his contribution was already established.

Although the Mist within the Containment Barrier had been cleared out now, and there wouldn’t be many issues there for the next year or so, the Containment Barrier wouldn’t disappear. Cleanup work inside would still need to continue later.

“Where’s your person in charge?”

“Follow me.” a Church Knight said, leading Zheng Yichen to the resting place of the person in charge in this Quarantine Camp. This person in charge was no longer from the younger generation but a middle-aged man. He had already received news before Zheng Yichen arrived and was prepared and waiting.

“I have some things I want to ask.” Zheng Yichen got straight to the point. The knight nodded and simply uttered the words “Please ask.”

He was a straightforward person too.

“Was that Adventurer who was cured truly cured, or was he fine all along?” Zheng Yichen asked.

Hearing this, the knight’s mouth twitched slightly. Zheng Yichen’s question made his meaning all too clear. This guy had already seen through their trick. This dragon, just as the intelligence within the Church described, even though he was a Little Dragon, performed as well as an Adult Dragon, even better than some Adult Dragons. Look at the three Adult Dragons in Kaja City—though they were just freshly Adult Dragons in dragon terms and not truly mature yet, compared to Zheng Yichen, sorry, there was no comparison!

“That one was indeed infected with a Flesh Seed, but the infection wasn’t for long, so he could be saved.”

“The method? Let me have a reference.”

The knight nodded, a bit helpless. “What effective method is there? It’s purely about throwing resources at it. The solution is simple: one bottle of Fixation Potion, destroy all problematic areas.”

“Oh? That’s a good method.” Zheng Yichen nodded. The effect of the Fixation Potion—Zheng Yichen, as the Creator, knew it very well. It was about retracing. This retracing wasn’t related to time; it was just a fixation of the body’s state. It also couldn’t make the body grow something that originally didn’t belong to it. So, after instantly removing the parts with Flesh Seeds, the Fixation Potion would take effect, restoring the missing areas.

But without the catalyst of the Flesh Seeds, only normal body parts would be restored. Zheng Yichen estimated that this method was only effective for those with Flesh Seed infections not exceeding two-thirds of the body. Within this two-thirds, it also had to exclude affecting the head.

After all, the Magic Potion’s effect needed storage space. Although it was mainly brain-focused, if someone was cut in half, the half without a head wouldn’t grow a new one. But if the head was damaged, the Fixation Potion couldn’t guarantee the person’s consciousness would recover.

As for those killed instantly with a headshot while using the Fixation Potion… Zheng Yichen could only say, this was just a Magic Potion, not an immortality elixir!

“Truly the Creator of the Fixation Potion, you understand it in detail.” Zheng Yichen’s analysis made the knight speak sincerely. His estimate was very accurate. This estimate was Zheng Yichen’s immediate thought, while they had obtained this data only after a period of research and statistics.

“Ah~ it’s simple. Magic Potions have limits too. This really is about throwing money at it.” Zheng Yichen muttered. If the Flesh Seed spread one-third, one bottle of Fixation Potion could pretty much handle it. More than that, at least two or even three bottles were needed, because cutting away most of your body caused a lot of lost potency, and repairing internal organs and such consumed even more. To ensure the remaining small part of the body could recover, of course, more Fixation Potion had to be used.

For those with only the head left, it started at ten bottles or more of Fixation Potion. For such people, even the Sanctuary Church could only say, “Sorry,” your life wasn’t that valuable. Unless you had a sufficiently special status, otherwise, this type of infected person basically didn’t need saving. The resources spent on one such person could save ten or more mildly infected ones. With one bottle of Fixation Potion, some infected could even create value for repayment.

Over ten bottles? Think about the current market price of Fixation Potion. The Sanctuary Church wasn’t a charity.

Generally, the upper limit for those infected using Fixation Potion was two bottles. For three bottles, it depended on the infected’s potential. If they were young enough and had good potential, an exception might be made.

“Do you have any easier methods? If so, the Church can pay a reward.” the knight asked.

Zheng Yichen waved his hand. “Not yet for now. After all, Flesh Seeds camouflage too well. It requires some unique detection Magic to be effective… Oh? Don’t be disappointed. Though I don’t have it yet, I already have new leads. So, how do you plan to calculate the reward?”

“Money is something you surely don’t care about, sir. So, if it can be solved, the Church can assist you to a certain extent in collecting some special resources.”

“Oh…? That’s not bad.” Zheng Yichen raised an eyebrow. Money—though there were many places to spend his budget, with a capable accountant, a lot could be squeezed out. It definitely wouldn’t be a deficit; it was just that maintaining such a level where expenses and income were about equal made Zheng Yichen feel strongly that money wasn’t enough.

Actually, he really wasn’t short of money.

Of course, if the Church could give money, that would be better. But since they said they could give things money couldn’t buy, Zheng Yichen was happy with that. However, after being around Dan Marina for long, he thought more. The Church’s move, seemingly offering things more valuable than money—those channels weren’t something ordinary people could master; the Church had more connections.

Thinking from another angle, could the Church, through the resources Zheng Yichen obtained via them, analyze and predict his needs and actions to some extent? The more expensive something was, the more limited its use. Ordinary things Zheng Yichen didn’t need to obtain through the Church’s channels. For extraordinary ones, since they were obtained, they would be used, whether now or later.

If there were records, someone would specifically monitor Zheng Yichen’s actions. Why were the expenses of such a large organization so huge? Besides daily benefits, salaries, and such, places like analysis departments had even greater expenses. Because to focus on analyzing a particular exception, much intelligence was updated in real-time… expenses couldn’t be small, could they?

If that really was the intention, to some extent, the Church still profited. After all, through the material information Zheng Yichen purchased, they could already bypass many troublesome intelligence-gathering steps and learn some things about Zheng Yichen, rather than spending more effort and time collecting possibly inaccurate information, then additionally consuming effort and time to filter and analyze that potentially inaccurate information, retaining what was truly useful…

Now that they could save this time, the Sanctuary Church could use the saved effort and time to create greater wealth or for other directions. This was efficiency. So considering this, the Sanctuary Church still profited. Tsk, a force that wouldn’t suffer losses in various actions—no wonder you could last so long, always being the Boss!

“Then that’s settled. I’ll head back first. And about you guys playing tricks, I won’t blab.” Zheng Yichen left the knight’s single room… Tsk, in terms of keeping up with the times, the Church did no worse. It hadn’t been long, and their equipment updates were already done. As for single rooms… oh, Church people weren’t like Adventurers and Mercenaries who had a big demand for single rooms; they used more cost-effective double or quadruple rooms, set up as dormitories.

“Tricks?” Watching Zheng Yichen leave, the middle-aged knight murmured softly, his tense face involuntarily showing a smile. It was indeed a trick. Even the term “trick” had spread from the Forum. Previously, “trick” meant “designing” someone; now using “trick” to describe it was more fitting. Like this time, the strategy the Church used directly trapped most of the Adventurers and Mercenaries inside the Containment Zone!

Even if some far-sighted people saw through it, it didn’t matter. This was an open scheme. What’s the point of seeing through it? Seeing through didn’t mean wisdom. When pushed to desperation, even if you saw through it, you’d still scramble to jump into this trap. There wasn’t much time for chatter when choosing between life and death.

Returning, Zheng Yichen glanced at Oss and the others. The chaos at the Campsite had gradually subsided after the Church laid down their trap. Some had died due to Flesh Seed infections, but within the Quarantine Camp, they were dealt with before they could cause harm.

Some couldn’t bear it and left this place, running outside the Campsite. Either they were truly infected and died, or they found themselves fine and returned to the Quarantine Camp. Oss and the others had already had breakfast and planned to go adventuring. Green had said adventuring in the Stone Forest was vastly different from exploring Ruins and such.

Doing it multiple times became particularly boring. After all, there was nothing but stones there, and the enemies were mindless Soul Spirits and Human Forms. It felt like repeatedly running a dungeon. The first time, you wouldn’t feel anything; instead, you might feel good because of the novel enemies. Once used to it…

Ah, the feeling of wanting to vomit from grinding would appear.

Exploring Ruins was much more interesting. Not only could you match wits with the creators across time, but you also had to battle strange creatures that might pop out anytime within the Ruins. You could enjoy the fun of adventure every moment. Adventure was about novelty, not this day-after-day “dungeon running.”

But now they couldn’t leave the Containment Zone. Wanting to leave? It wasn’t as simple as applying to the Church. What if you applied? And the approval rate for such applications was almost zero. Even if you checked out fine here now, what if something happened after leaving?

If a Flesh Seed crisis erupted outside too, who would be responsible? The Church had already set an example: anyone within the Containment Zone related to the Church had no possibility of leaving. You Adventurers or Mercenaries, before completely resolving the Flesh Seed crisis, shouldn’t think about leaving either.

Unless a truly effective method that could absolutely eliminate Flesh Seeds was found, then there might be some possibility of leaving. Although they couldn’t leave, thanks to the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, resources within the Containment Zone weren’t lacking at all. So, it didn’t come to the point where, over time, people inside became panicky due to insufficient supplies.

For Adventurers and Mercenaries here, besides not being able to leave, there were actually more ways to earn money. Soul Spirit powder wasn’t cheap, right? Exploration of the Stone Forest and improving maps, the Church offered quite generous rewards. Many other Quests and tasks were abundant too.

Like those outside urgently wanting to know the intelligence inside the Containment Zone. As for entering? You could enter but not leave; entering was impossible… Compared to adventuring inside, those with needs preferred spending money to solve problems. There were so many people inside anyway; spending a bit of money wouldn’t be too much, right?

As for the situation inside the Stone Forest, the deeper it was, the more expensive the intelligence. Information on Human Forms and Flesh Seeds wasn’t cheap either. In short, there were many ways to earn money within the Containment Zone.