The nun led Zheng Yichen to a reception room in the cathedral and poured him a glass of water, sitting opposite him, "The item you brought has broken the ’layer’ of this world. From now on, the hierarchy of this world will be on par with the connected worlds, and the extraordinary phenona that appear in this world could potentially experience similar situations."
"Layer? Does that an there will be permanent passages in this world?"
The nun shook her head, "Not passages. You can think of it as the ’resource pools’ of this world and one or more other worlds being connected, after which their resources begin to equalize."
"That sounds like a good thing?" Zheng Yichen wondered, the resources are starting to balance? Could that be understood as a deeper interpretation of ’Environntal Adjustnt’? In worlds with abundant resources, environntal adjustnt is lenient, and the people within can beco powerful. In worlds with scarce resources, environntal adjustnt is stringent, and extraordinary powers are essentially nonexistent.
Would that be balancing out the strengths and weaknesses? No, more like the excess is lessened while the insufficient is compensated.
"You think it’s a good thing, but it’s not for the world itself," the nun lifted her teacup and gently sipped, "This equilibrium is a complete balance. When too many worlds maintain this complete balance, a collective destruction can occur, which you can understand as a destructive resonance caused by too many worlds synchronizing their resource balances."
"..." Such a huge bla was suddenly placed upon himself, and Zheng Yichen felt he couldn’t bear it, "Wait a minute! Even if I’m sowhat involved, there have been others who started doing this before, right?"
"Yes," the nun nodded, "You are just one of the ignorant culprits."
"Ignorance is not a sin..."
"Then try telling that to the worlds after they face collective destruction."
"Fuck!"
"Although this matter isn’t directly related to you, you still need to take responsibility for the indirect connection," the nun said.
Zheng Yichen picked up his teacup, and during this ti, he had felt his power nearly double, and although subsequent increases slowed down, it was still continuous.
By the way, the teacup contained boiled water.
"I still feel it’s all too sudden, the situation has inexplicably beco like this," Zheng Yichen said after drinking so water, calming his agitated emotions slightly.
But the nun spoke unsurprised, "That’s how it is with unequal information. You knew nothing, so it felt sudden. Now you’re inford. Ask any questions you have, and I’ll tell you what I can."
"..." Zheng Yichen gathered his thoughts and asked his first question, "What is the Dusk Cathedral, and what’s its connection with the Dusk Cathedral in Hazy City?"
"You can consider the Dusk Cathedral an observational sanctuary, a place to observe the state of the world."
"Oh~ That sounds impressive. Is it an organization?"
The nun shook her head, "It’s not an organization. It’s literally a sanctuary for observation. We don’t directly interfere with anything outside the cathedral."
"And indirect intervention is based on the necessity to intervene. If a world is about to be destroyed due to natural causes, it has nothing to do with us, and the Dusk Cathedral in that world will be closed afterward."
"Dusk Cathedrals are connected. You can retrieve items stored in the Hazy City’s cathedral here as well."
"Indirect intervention is what you are encountering now."
With that explanation from the nun, Zheng Yichen felt the Dusk Cathedral was like the ’restraining power’ in so stories? He asked another question, "Since indirect intervention is possible, does that an those problems can be solved?"
"Yes, by severing this world from the rest."
"Oh, I have no doubts about this matter then," Zheng Yichen said with a wooden expression, very decisively. Severing this world sounded like sothing norma people couldn’t do, and even if it were possible, what would happen to the people in this world?
He rubbed his hands together, so anticipation in his voice, "Since this place is connected to other Dusk Cathedrals, does that an I could use this one to return to Hazy City? Or send myself back using the storage thod?"
"Indeed, you could return to Hazy City through here, but currently, I’m not obligated to assist you with that, while you do have the obligation to take responsibility."
"..." Taking responsibility, huh? Even if he had been oblivious before, the nun had stressed many tis in their conversation that problems had occurred in this world because of the items he was used to bring here, and these problems were beneficial to all beings in this world within a certain extent.
After all, the ’ceiling’ was higher. Once the ceiling rose, the people in this world could naturally beco stronger, and beings like knights might even be able to manifest fighting Qi.
Dragons and giants that had kept out of sight would gradually appear, witches wouldn’t be easily killed by ordinary people with guns anymore, and the magic they mastered would not be limited to support types. But Zheng Yichen felt the collective destruction the nun ntioned was too far from him.
Yet, he was still related to this matter, even if those who originated the ’resource balance’ had started long ago, and he was just an ignorant accomplice, accelerating this process.
"What will happen if I refuse?"
"You will be frozen here, waiting to face the resentnt of all beings in the world destroyed by the Shared Destruction. In the frozen ti, it will feel like a re sleep for you, not a long stretch." The nun’s warm lips uttered the cold words.
Zheng Yichen grew even more disgruntled, "So I’m the one to take the bla, huh? What about the instigators?"
"The instigators are not in the Dusk Cathedral. They used you to bring that thing here, then exploited the unique characteristics of the Dusk Cathedral to break through the barrier. You’re an accomplice, but you can choose to punish them, or you can refuse it all and fight here to avoid being frozen."
Zheng Yichen looked at the nun’s slender arms and legs and couldn’t deny the allure in her proposal: "I choose to punish them!"
"Good, any other questions?"
"Hmm, is this world truly beyond saving?"
A hint of puzzlent appeared on the nun’s calm face: "What misunderstanding is this? As long as the Shared Destruction hasn’t occurred, the world is normal. Being described as a source of infection only implies that there is a very low probability of the world’s barrier breaking due to the extraordinary phenona that appeared in this world."
"This probability will increase as the number of balanced worlds grows, and the ti of the occurrence of the Shared Destruction is currently..." Here, the nun’s expression froze as if buffering, and only after several seconds did she continue, "Six billion years from now."
Zheng Yichen felt he had worried for nothing—six billion years in the future. If there weren’t enough extraordinary creatures, he wasn’t even sure if he would live another sixty years, let alone sixty billion.
"This is only the current situation. As the number of balanced worlds increases, it will create a massive chain reaction, and this ti will rapidly shrink."
"Ha~ Even so, it’s still sothing far off in the future. I just need to do what I want to do right now." Zheng Yichen’s lips twitched, then he adopted an indifferent expression. Even if that ti was shortened and the ’billion’ turned into ’thousand’, it would still represent a span of ti he could hardly comprehend.
"Aren’t you worried I’ll just completely run away after I leave here?"
"You cannot run away." The nun nodded lightly, took out a small mirror, and placed it in front of Zheng Yichen. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and showed a surprised expression; a faint dusk hue could be seen in his eyes, the distinctive orange-red color of the nuns from the Dusk Cathedral, although in his eyes it was as thin as a veil, very light.
Not easy to spot unless closely observed.
"Sigh~ It’s still sowhat irritating." Zheng Yichen put down the mirror, irked at being brought here to take the bla: "What am I supposed to do from now on? Is there any vacation ti? How’s the salary? What about the welfare benefits? How long do I have to work? And after that thing inside the box was brought in here, there’s no way to stop the subsequent changes?"
The nun had talked so much with him. Wasn’t her general point just to let him understand what he had done and co to terms with the reality before assigning him so tasks? If they really wanted to freeze him, they wouldn’t need to babble all this nonsense.
They could have just frozen him as soon as the box was opened.
"You are to go to the worlds in need and destroy the unstable elents. When there are no unstable elents, it’s your vacation ti. There’s no salary, and as for welfare benefits, any injury you suffer, any disease you contract, can be healed in the Dusk Cathedral; the cathedral can also handle the repair and processing of your weapons and equipnt. The extent to which these services are provided depends on your performance."
"Job duration varies. If you can resolve all the people that would trigger the ’Shared Destruction’ on the sa day, you can retire that day."
"Once the thing in the box was brought into the Dusk Cathedral, whether you tried to stop it or not would have resulted in the sa."
Zheng Yichen stared dumbfounded at the nun before him: "How many people did you hire, for you to be so well-rehearsed in this pitch?"
The nun’s tone remained as unchangingly flat as ever: "Not a few. So chose to beco Proxy Agents, so didn’t believe in the curse, and are now frozen."
Zheng Yichen pondered briefly, thinking of soone: "What about Hunter Arno? That guy from Hazy City, what’s his status here at the Dusk Cathedral?"
"Considered a rcenary."
"Uh, I think I can do that too."
The nun shook her head rcilessly: "You cannot."
"Cough, I really feel there’s not much difference between the two, after all, I have my own needs too, and I will willingly fulfill any obligations in other worlds!" Zheng Yichen’s tone was very sincere; he was already looking for many extraordinary creatures, and what the nun was talking about was an opportunity.
"A rcenary can quit anyti they want, a Proxy Agent cannot."
"Then I have no more questions for now..." All the imdiate doubts had been addressed. Though there were other questions, they could wait until later. Now the most important thing was to go back and fetch his people!
Since arriving in this world, not many people knew his identity. Katrina and the Forest Witch Eileena knew only because he had chosen to tell them, both natives of this land; beyond them, the only one who knew his identity was Raymond...
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