Chapter 1858: Chapter 1856: City of the Dead
There is no denying, the woman before us is indeed a beauty, especially with a very special aura different from others—one might call it ethereal, or more down-to-earth, unworldly.
"You are truly beautiful."
At this moment, Saten couldn’t help but marvel while staring at the woman before them, and upon hearing Saten’s words, the woman smiled faintly and lowered her head.
"It is an immense honor to receive your praise. My name is Scarface. It’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time, I look forward to your guidance."
"Scar... face?"
"Is that your name?"
Hearing this rather unusual name, the girls were taken aback, while the woman nodded her head.
"Yes, that is my name now."
"So, you had other names before?"
Saten Reiko was also intrigued as she stared at Scarface—though before that, Fang Zheng suggested she take a look at her Lei, who was standing beside Saten, watching her.
How easy do you think it is for the protagonist to start a harem?
"Yes, before this, people called me the Maniac."
"...Huh?"
Seeing Scarface speak with such an elegant smile, the girls were left speechless.
"And the Grim Reaper, Non-human, Scarface, Maria, Stonehead, Grim Reaper, Scarface...."
"Alright, stop it there."
Fang Zheng waved his hand, and the woman, who was in the middle of introducing herself, immediately stopped. The girls hiding behind Fang Zheng exchanged glances, and then Saten whispered.
"Why do I feel like the way she speaks doesn’t quite sound human? It’s a bit like a robot..."
"I have the same feeling, what about you, Sister Dear?"
"I didn’t sense any electrical waves from her, but this person is indeed somewhat strange."
Listening to the girls’ whispers behind him, Fang Zheng cleared his throat and then stepped forward.
"We are newcomers to this place. If you don’t mind, can you walk with us for a while? I also have some questions I’d like to ask you."
"Of course, I don’t mind."
Facing Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Scarface maintained her smile, seemingly not bothered by it at all, and indeed, she wasn’t.
Soon enough, from Scarface, Fang Zheng learned about the current situation of this world.
But it didn’t match the content of that book.
In fact, whether deities truly exist in this world has always been a question. Deities have never appeared before humans, much less would they say "Oops, messed up" and disappear again. Actually, at the beginning, no one noticed the arrival of that day—no, people didn’t even know which day it was.
Generally speaking, if a deity were to deliver an oracle or change the world, there would be some commotion, like thunder and lightning, or volcanic earthquakes. You know, even a village head needs to shout through a loudspeaker for gatherings. Yet nothing occurred, as if one day, the deity suddenly remembered something and thought, "Ah, alright, then I shall fulfill your wish," and humanity, unknowingly... realized their wish.
Not wanting to die.
This is a feature of all life; no life yearns for death, humans included. Thus, "deity" granted their wish, and no one would die anymore.
No, to be precise, even if they died, they would continue to act, to exist.
At the start, countries and governments of this world hoped to keep this secret, but that was, of course, impossible. No deaths occurring isn’t just a phrase. Even if you were to dismember and cremate them, they would still exist.
Under such circumstances, people on this land had to choose to coexist with the dead, but soon, things changed.
First, the number of dead kept increasing, and more importantly, once you died, you didn’t need to worry about death but could gain "eternal" immortality. Many couldn’t resist this temptation and chose death voluntarily, and naturally, society and regimes completely collapsed.
The dead couldn’t be killed; hence there was no way to suppress or subdue them. Meanwhile, the living, when killed, would join the ranks of the dead, so in the end, the dead increased, and the living decreased.
Moreover, a severe problem emerged.
That is, "undying" itself wasn’t perfect either.
Initially, the dead retained their original bodies, but gradually, as time passed, their flesh would decay, and their spirit would be eroded, eventually turning into creatures driven solely by the desire to survive. Simply put, the ultimate fate of these dead was to become unkillable zombies.
Gradually, both the dead and the living realized that "immortality" wasn’t a blessing but more like a curse. Therefore, they wished again, yearning for death.
This time, the "deity" fulfilled their wish by creating the "Grave Keepers" to carry out this mission.
Ultimately, this world turned into what it is now.
More critically, no new life has been born since then, and the passage of time in this world has become incredibly slow, almost as if it’s stopped. The means to differentiate between seasons and time have completely lost their function. No one even knows how many days or years have passed since then.
"This is too bizarre."
After listening to Scarface’s story, the girls were stunned, and Misaka Mikoto quickly expressed her opinion.
"If everyone doesn’t like this state, then why not just make a wish and restore the world to its original form?"
"Because it’s impossible."
Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders and said.
"Impossible?"
"That’s right, although it’s said to fulfill wishes, everyone’s wish is certainly different. Some want world peace, some want world destruction, some wish for immortality, and others just hope to succeed in confessing their love. Clearly, if this so-called deity could truly fulfill any human wish, then the world would have been chaotic long ago. So, the way wishes are fulfilled must be based on majority rule."
"Majority rule?"
"Imagine there are ten people, each with a different wish, a hundred people, a thousand, ten thousand. So, if there are any common wishes among ten thousand people? World destruction and world peace are certainly not the majority, and anything involving personal interests won’t gain approval from others. The only thing left is the life survival instinct of ’survive’. And..."
At this point, Fang Zheng paused for a moment. He was certain that the program had definitely malfunctioned; he just didn’t know what kind of malfunction it was.
But that doesn’t matter.
As long as they find Osta, then everything else won’t be a problem.
Fang Zheng also asked Scarface if there was a city called Osta. Surprisingly, Scarface was also planning to go there, so Fang Zheng invited Scarface to join them. Not only that, Scarface also found them an abandoned school bus—though it was rusted and falling apart—but with Fang Zheng’s Time Manipulation ability, it could be restored to its former glory with a flick of his hand.
Soon, the refurbished school bus was back in action, taking the group swiftly toward Osta.
The journey was relatively calm, only encountering a group of toll road bullies that Fang Zheng quickly handled without much effort. On the contrary, the situation in the bus was interesting, especially with Saten Reiko—Fang Zheng was now quite certain that Saten Reiko had a Protagonist Aura because since getting on the bus, she was curiously circling Scarface, completely oblivious to Lei’s resentful gaze from behind, giving Fang Zheng the feeling of someone finding a new flame after using up their girlfriend.
Right now, Fang Zheng just wanted to watch and see when Saten Reiko would trigger a harem fire... Anyway, it’s better her than me, and besides, a harem fire is part of the protagonist’s daily life, isn’t it?
Finally, on the third day at noon, they saw the legendary City of Death.
Oustas.
"What’s wrong, Miss Scarface?"
Seeing the unease in Scarface sitting beside her, Saten Reiko was puzzled, as Scarface had been restless, seemingly unable to bear something.
"I felt the presence of unburied dead."
Scarface answered softly, while reaching for the shovel on her lap.
"I want to bury them."
"Huh? How many?"
"At least... over a million."
"Huh!?"
Upon hearing this, the others also cried out in shock, staring at Scarface.
"A million... dead people?"
"That’s right."
Scarface nodded, and Fang Zheng pointed outside.
"Look outside."
At Fang Zheng’s words, the girls went to the windows and looked out, then saw plenty of mound-like things along the roadside, each topped with a shovel.
"What is this...?"
"Probably the tomb guardians who came here to bury the dead earlier, but were all killed."
"Isn’t this... dangerous, Miss Scarface?"
Looking at the dense tombs of Tomb Guardians lining the road, Reiko couldn’t help but shiver internally, however, Scarface nodded.
"Of course, but as a Tomb Guardian, it’s my duty."
"Mr. Fang Zheng?"
Unable to persuade Scarface, Reiko turned to Fang Zheng.
"What do you think?"
"Although I’m not a Tomb Guardian, I also need to maintain the order and structure of the world."
Fang Zheng held the steering wheel with one hand, coldly staring at the distant city.
"The dead should obediently stay underground, not wander around above. Hmm... maybe I should bring out my firewood list."
One hundred and twenty thousand dead, burning them must smell delightful.
