“Is this really not some cult base?”
Looking at the thug whose face was bruised and swollen, Qiao Anni’s heart pounded with doubt.
“Since they sell weapons here, it wouldn’t be a regular church anyway.”
Bres took the lead toward the church door, preparing to knock.
Thud.
“…”
“Why did you stop after one knock?”
Qiao Anni poked her head out from behind.
“No, I haven’t knocked yet…”
Bres spread his hands to show he hadn’t done anything.
Thud!
A loud crash came from behind the door, and the door shook violently. There were sounds of heavy objects falling and colliding, as if some giant beast was rampaging inside.
“What’s going on? Is there a war inside?”
Bres instinctively stepped back, while Qiao Anni’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Watch out!”
“Huh?”
She grabbed Bres’s clothes and yanked hard, pulling him down to the ground. At the same time, the church door burst open, and a spherical object shot out like a cannonball from an old-fashioned cannon.
Boom!
The sphere crashed into the garbage pile directly opposite the church, which was the trash collection point.
Is this some new way of disposing trash?
After a while, accompanied by two screams, two street thugs were thrown out of the church one after another, landing face-down.
“Please leave, all of you. This place does not receive those who have no reverence for the gods.”
An angry female voice came from inside the church, delivering an ultimatum.
The thugs groaned and picked themselves up. They didn’t even dare to look back, just hurriedly rushed to the garbage pile and lifted out that sphere. To drag it out of the trash, they splashed themselves with filthy water, and the pungent stench could be smelled even from a block away.
Only then did Bres and Qiao Anni see clearly that the sphere was also a “person.”
But whether it could still be considered a person was debatable.
His body was folded up, his limbs tied in an extremely clever knot, and now he looked like a crumpled tissue that had been used to blow a nose.
The two thugs moved away in tiny steps in a very comical manner, as if carrying a heavy load, and fled the scene. As their figures disappeared around the corner, the heavy church door rumbled shut.
“…”
“…”
Bres and Qiao Anni looked at each other in silence.
“Should we go back?”
“No.”
This time, it was Bres who grabbed Qiao Anni’s collar.
“This place obviously has problems, right? Wouldn’t it be better to go back and find that ‘Craftsman’?”
“We can’t even be sure if that guy is still alive. If we don’t thoroughly upgrade our firepower, things like the Hyena Gang incident will happen more often.”
He poked Qiao Anni’s right hand.
“…Fine.”
Qiao Anni reluctantly followed Bres back to the church’s front door.
Instead of knocking directly, Bres started doing stretching exercises at the door.
“…What are you doing?”
“Loosening up my muscles. If I warm up, I can run faster later.”
Why was he so certain of the outcome?
Having finished his warm-up, Bres reached for the door a second time.
Knock, knock, knock.
…
Steady footsteps came from inside the church.
The door opened again.
A nun was standing at the door.
“Hello, guests.”
The nun looked around thirty years old, with a serene smile on her face, appearing amiable. A few strands of purple hair fell from under her wimple, adding a touch of brightness to her appearance.
“What are you two here for? Inquiring about joining the church? Or are you here to ask for my contact information again?”
Even though it was summer, Bres shuddered.
“We… are here to inquire about joining the church.”
The insincere words slipped out.
For some reason, Bres had a strong premonition: if he chose the other option or said something irrelevant, he would probably become the second “ball” landing right in the center of the garbage pile.
“That’s really for the best?”
As if a paused TV had been hit with the play button, in an instant, the nun’s expression became lively and vivid. She smiled and stepped aside, ushering them into the church.
Just before stepping into the church, Bres noticed out of the corner of his eye that the nun tugged her skirt down involuntarily. He couldn’t help but look there and saw a dagger strapped to her thigh, as well as the bulging shape of a gun at her waist.
Bres quickly averted his gaze, pretending not to have seen anything.
“I’m really sorry, I haven’t had time to clean up today… and that priest guy isn’t here either…”
The nun said apologetically.
“N-no, it’s fine…”
There’s no way it’s fine.
Bres and Qiao Anni looked at the mess inside the church.
Most of the pews were shattered, several decorative candlesticks were knocked over, and the red carpet on the floor had many burn marks and black stains. Bres didn’t want to think about what caused those stains.
Clatter.
Qiao Anni, who was poking around, accidentally knocked over the baptismal basin on the platform. Seeing it about to hit the ground, she instinctively reached out.
‘Ah.’
Her outstretched hand couldn’t catch the basin. Only then did Qiao Anni remember that her “real right hand” was still lying in Yifulin’s clinic.
Suddenly, another hand appeared below and caught the basin steadily. It was that nun. Somehow, she had come from the front of the group to the back and even caught the falling basin.
“S-sorry.”
Qiao Anni quickly apologized.
“It’s fine, as long as you’re not hurt.”
The nun placed the basin back on the platform.
“?”
At this moment, Qiao Anni noticed a strange pattern on the bottom of the basin.
Seeing that the nun had walked away, she leaned in to get a better look.
“Whoa…”
At the bottom of the basin was not some church pattern or symbol, but a terrified human face.
Furthermore, the face wasn’t carved; it was “imprinted.”
Qiao Anni recalled the thugs she had seen at the door.
One of them was probably the owner of this face.
Most of the items in the church’s main hall were smashed, leaving no seat for the three to talk. Finally, the nun led them to a side room.
As soon as he entered, Bres’s eyes fell on a strange shotgun hanging on the wall.
‘Banyan’s standard M900? No, the stock doesn’t match; Baqi’s SKN1400? Not that either, the grip is a style I’ve never seen before.’
After running through the mainstream models on the market in his mind, Bres was certain: this was a customized shotgun.
“And this caliber…”
The power was definitely formidable.
Once both had sat down, the nun began,
“So, how much do you two know about our church already?”
Qiao Anni shook her head. In neither her past life nor this one had she ever believed in these religions.
“I see…”
The nun nodded nonetheless, but couldn’t hide her regret and disappointment.
‘Wouldn’t this be a bit disadvantageous for the upcoming conversation?’
Bres thought.
“Uh, I used to know a bit?”
After thinking, he decided to get on the nun’s good side this way.
This wasn’t a lie; he had indeed believed for a while in the past and had read quite a few religious texts.
Judging from the exterior decoration, this should be a branch of Catholicism, so he indeed had enough knowledge.
Before he could react, the nun leaned in, her forehead almost touching his.
“Really?”
Completely changing from her previous gentleness, the nun’s eyes sparkled, and her excited tone couldn’t be hidden.
“You’ve really learned about our Troken Church, the great God of Iron and Fire?”
“What the hell is that?”