Whoosh—!!
The moment the flames began to burn, the single eye on the Great Priest’s mask started to shift around uneasily!
“Hmm?!”
The Great Priest was slightly taken aback and looked toward the city gate.
That area was still a sea of blood-red, but he could feel that the barrier was under attack from all directions!
‘To think they would dare to come at a time like this…’ The Great Priest’s expression beneath the mask was quite unsightly, but it softened slightly in the next second.
“Great Priest… what should we do?!” The four assistant priests nearby also had grim expressions.
The matter with the Divine Guards had not yet been resolved, and now more troublemakers had arrived.
“Heh… the ritual will proceed as planned. I would like to see if these people still dare to make trouble under the gaze of the True God!”
The Great Priest smiled disdainfully.
This ritual was indeed a sacrifice, but just as when a king meets his officials, it was also the moment when security was at its peak.
To barge into the ritual at this moment and be noticed by the True God was no different from seeking death!
“Yes, Great Priest.”
Hearing the Great Priest’s words, the others nodded.
A dozen seconds later, an assistant priest led several cultists to carry a figure wrapped tightly like a cocoon before the Great Priest.
This was the sacrifice required by the True God’s Oracle.
It was a person of incredibly noble status in the human world.
This was the “sleeping” blonde youth from the carriage—the missing second son of the Grand Duke of Akki Valley Manor in the southwest, and the rumored dissolute Second Young Master, Franlot.
Originally… the back of his head had been smashed in. Such an injury should have been fatal.
However, perhaps because the Duke’s son possessed some powerful, life-saving transcendent item… his fatal wound had gradually healed over the course of one night.
But by that time, the killer had already treated him as a corpse and sent him off on a cargo wagon to a distant land.
After several transfers, he had finally fallen into the hands of these cultists.
However, this son of the Duke, who was also Ileya’s intended fiancé, had shown no signs of waking up for nearly one month.
He had been sleeping continuously, like someone in a vegetative state.
The reason for this… was actually not as simple as severe brain trauma.
It was because, during this time, a foreign soul had accidentally stumbled into this body.
This soul was different from Ileya and Holly…
In a sense, whether it was the Lady or the Holy Sword Bearer, they were still the original people; even their souls had no fundamental difference.
They had simply changed based on the awakening of memories from a past life.
But at this moment… Franlot’s situation was entirely different.
A weak, external soul had occupied this body that should have died, and this foreign soul was still continuously consuming the original soul of the Second Young Master.
At the very core of this soul, a speck of blue was visible to the naked eye, acting like the soul’s nucleus.
[The development of souls in this plane is nearly zero. It should… be enough, right?]
A certain thought resonated within that unknown soul.
Then… sensing that the weak soul had finally finished devouring Franlot’s original soul entirely…
The tiny blue dot within the soul finally made a move.
It vibrated slowly within the soul, and then… it emitted a ghostly blue light of the same color as the soul, enveloping it completely!
Mmph…?!
The soul’s consciousness returned abruptly at that moment, like someone waking from a deep slumber!
‘Where… where am I?’
Rot confusedly sensed the darkness surrounding him, as well as the strange feeling of being restricted and suffocated.
‘Just now… wasn’t I playing a game?’
He was playing a game called Dark Continent. The game was practically addictive; once he started, he couldn’t stop!
He couldn’t remember how long he had been sitting in front of the computer… he only remembered that his eating habits were quite irregular and that he had ordered delivery four times…
Just as he was about to beat the game, Rot felt his vision go black, and then he knew nothing more.
‘Could it be… I was so into the game that I fainted?’
‘But what’s with this state? I live alone in a rental. A shut-in like me probably wouldn’t be found even if I rotted in my room…’
Thinking of this, Rot felt a sudden, sharp urge to urinate hit his bladder!
This wasn’t just due to fear, but because… he really needed to go to the bathroom.
‘Is… is anyone there?!’
“Mmph… mmph…!”
He tried to speak, but found that he could only make muffled sounds because… his mouth seemed to be stuffed with something!
And at that very moment, a massive amount of fragmented memories flooded into his head!
The Kelvidi Duke, Akki Valley Manor, Franlot…
Countless memories surged into Rot’s mind like a violent tide, causing an instantaneous, piercing pain in his brain!
“Mmph!! Mmph—!!” This kind of agony would cause even the toughest man to break into a cold sweat, let alone a shut-in like Rot!
The intense pain caused his body to twitch instinctively, and the urine he had been trying so hard to hold back poured out in that instant!
“Hmm?!” Beneath his mask, the brow of an assistant priest reciting prayers furrowed slightly.
He looked at the sacrifice placed at the side of the altar, intended as the grand finale.
At this moment… the sacrifice’s lower half was completely soaked.
What a desecration of the True God… but how did this guy suddenly wake up?
Forget it, such a filthy sacrifice would certainly not do.
Seeing that the ritual had not yet reached the step of offering the primary sacrifice, the assistant priest gestured to a nearby believer… telling them to take the guy and clean him up.
On Rot’s end, his twitching body gradually slowed down, and his consciousness slowly returned…
‘What… what on earth happened to me?’
‘Is it really because I stayed up all night playing games that something went wrong?’
‘No… no, no, no! The things that just flashed through my mind…’
As a veteran shut-in, Rot realized almost instantly… he had… transmigrated!?
That was right!
He had transmigrated… and into the body of some Duke’s young master!
‘But what is going on now…?’
Before Rot could figure out what was happening, the covering over his face was suddenly pulled away.
His eyes didn’t seem adjusted to the light that suddenly pierced through, making him unable to open them for a moment.
Gradually, everything before him became clear…
A red sky, a ruined city, and the figure in front of him wearing a black robe and holding a strange dagger…
‘Eh?!’
‘What is that?! Cosplay?!’
No, why did these people look so familiar?
‘This… isn’t this a type of mob from the game I was playing… Dark Continent?!’
“A follower of the… New God Sect?!”
He subconsciously blurted out the name of the mob, causing the cultist to smile slightly.
That was right! Being a collector, he had specifically farmed these things… just to get the Poison-dipped Ritual Dagger they dropped!
In the game, these mobs weren’t very strong, but right now… he was a completely helpless prisoner!
‘Why… why is there such a hellish starting point?!’
‘If it were like other people… being dumped at the start, being cheated on, being slapped, or being called a loser, I’d accept it!’
‘But what’s with this starting point of being sacrificed?!’