In the time that followed, the Heresy Management Bureau dispatched a large number of personnel deep into the Inner World connected to that chain supermarket to conduct a thorough cleanup and investigation, as well as a full-scale rescue of trapped personnel.
Shen Junyao and Zhang Tao led the entire First Squad of the Hunting Group into action to clear out the remaining monsters.
This time, everyone was well-equipped with a full array of weapons. The ordinary blue-clad faceless monsters were powerless to resist. While the Split-Mouth monsters remained difficult to deal with, the members of the Hunting Group were battle-hardened veterans who cooperated with seamless tacit understanding; they moved forward like a bulldozer, an unstoppable force.
They cleared the way at the front, while colleagues from the Research Group, Investigation Group, and Medical Group followed close behind.
As they had predicted, the space of the Inner World was not infinite, yet it was not small either. The results of the precise mapping showed it occupied approximately 3,600 acres, which was roughly the same size as a top-tier university in Shanghai. After half a month of carpet-searching, the Bureau rescued a total of over six thousand trapped people (the death toll remained unknown)—these people had been trapped in different areas of the Inner World and had established dozens of survival bases, large and small. The situation in each base varied, and the survival state of the dependents depended entirely on the character of the Lord. After seeing too many tragedies, even Shen Junyao and Zhang Tao had to admit that someone like Yan Heng could even be described as kind…
“It is evident that the so-called God of the Inner World actually spent some effort selecting candidates back then just to entertain us.”
Next door to the cafe where they had met last time was a quite famous dessert shop.
Zhang Tao sat in a relaxed posture, chatting with Chen Mo, who was sitting opposite him, about the aftermath of the supermarket heresy incident.
They occupied a seat by the window, with a portion of dessert in front of each person. In front of Chen Mo and Shen Junyao were the “Iceberg Lava Chocolates” they had heard about on the radio last time. Zhang Tao had ordered a chiffon cake just for the sake of it, but he barely touched it after one bite.
Zhang Tao actually didn’t like sweets and would have preferred hot pot, but the Captain had insisted on coming to this shop, so he didn’t raise any objections.
Regardless, the main purpose of this trip was not to eat, but to finalize the matter of Chen Mo joining the squad.
However, they hadn’t found the time to discuss that topic yet because Chen Mo kept asking about the supermarket incident.
During this period, in order to put his parents’ minds at ease, Chen Mo had stayed by his family’s side and hadn’t gone anywhere. He either accompanied his mother shopping and carried her bags, or he watched cartoons and helped Chen Xiaomi with her homework. He had even participated in several blind date dinners. His parents were quite reliable, and the blind date partners they chose seemed to have very good qualities. Unfortunately, this kind of thing wasn’t based solely on external conditions; if they didn’t catch each other’s eyes, it was all in vain.
Chen Mo was so bored he felt like he was about to explode, and he had almost pulled out his graduation thesis to study it.
When Zhang Tao called him to meet, Chen Mo felt like he was grasping at a life-saving straw and stuffed the thesis—which consisted of nothing but a chosen topic—back into its folder.
When he arrived at the location and saw that Shen Junyao was also there, Chen Mo was a bit surprised. Immediately after, he noticed that the other man wasn’t wearing a uniform today. Instead, he wore a loose, casual apricot-colored V-neck sweater paired with khaki trousers and light-colored sneakers; the whole look made him appear both young and gentle.
Chen Mo realized he was starting to notice these details he shouldn’t be paying attention to again. Amidst his fluster, he kept searching for topics of conversation.
For the three of them sitting there, discussing the supermarket incident was the safest topic; moreover, he was truly curious.
Zhang Tao said, “The times and locations where those trapped people mistakenly entered the Inner World are all different, but the investigation results showed a certain pattern of clustering. Aside from the first batch of rescued missing persons from Shanghai, the most recent batch of trapped people came from Ningcheng. Their disappearance times were concentrated between a few months to a year ago, and they all entered before the people from Shanghai. As for other people trapped even longer ago, excluding a few who couldn’t remember specific dates clearly, most of the investigation results showed similar characteristics—the time and location of disappearance were concentrated within specific months of a certain year in a particular city.”
Chen Mo speculated, “I used to think that this supermarket was just one of many entrances and exits the Inner World had in reality. From the looks of it, that’s not the case?”
Zhang Tao nodded. “It only has one exit and one entrance. The reason there were trapped people from all over the world inside is that the mastermind behind the scenes would transfer its operating city every few months by attaching itself to a customer’s personal belongings. Every time it passed through a city, it would randomly overlap with a local chain supermarket, luring and capturing humans in a way that wouldn’t be noticed.”
“Why would it do that?” Chen Mo asked.
“For the sake of devouring,” Shen Junyao answered this time.
“Devouring?” Chen Mo looked over and noticed that the Iceberg Lava cake in front of Shen Junyao was mostly eaten. He had large hands, and as he held the tiny cake fork, the fork looked particularly miniature. Chen Mo’s gaze unconsciously fell upon the other man’s well-proportioned, slender fingers. It took a while for him to snap back to his senses, and his gaze couldn’t help but carry a hint of embarrassment.
Shen Junyao didn’t seem to notice his slight abnormality and explained patiently: “Certain heresies increase their power by devouring other heresies or humans with superpowers.”
“Devouring superpowered individuals?” Chen Mo was genuinely surprised this time. “Those superpowered individuals were clearly living quite well in the Inner World, protecting ordinary trapped people from monster attacks and enjoying the treatment of being superior to others.”
Shen Junyao thought for a moment and gave an analogy: “You can understand it like this: that supermarket Inner World is a massive breeding base for superpowered individuals.”
“The mastermind behind this supermarket is a devouring-type heresy that possesses spatial abilities. It has currently been contained and assigned the number Devourer-3008. 3008 increases its power by devouring superpowered individuals. Due to its own characteristics, it cannot hunt through other means; it can only disguise itself as a supermarket in operation to lure and capture innocent humans.”
“3008 judges whether customers are single or living alone by observing and analyzing their speech, behavior, and shopping lists. It deliberately selects groups of people whose disappearance would not immediately attract police attention.”
“Among these captured people, there are a large number of ordinary humans, but also a very small portion of superpowered individuals. Ordinary humans can provide 3008 with a small amount of nourishment, but superpowered individuals are 3008’s primary targets. After 3008 devours a superpowered individual, it needs a certain amount of time to digest and absorb their energy. Regarding new superpowered individuals who enter during this period, it recruits them by dispatching so-called ‘Divine Envoys,’ promising them settlement privileges and a transcendent status within the Inner World to entice them to stay.”
Chen Mo remembered the Divine Envoy they had encountered while inside and realized in hindsight: “So, his attempt to recruit me back then wasn’t because he actually valued my ability, but just because he wanted to keep me as livestock until 3008 got hungry enough to devour me?”
Shen Junyao looked at him. Without answering directly, his slightly soothing expression already said everything.
Chen Mo gave an embarrassed laugh and said, “I’m fine. Didn’t it fail to get its way?”
Shen Junyao picked up his black coffee, took a sip, and said, “To ensure the transcendent status of superpowered individuals, and also to prevent them from fighting among themselves or joining forces, 3008 conveyed a message through various means: the God of the Inner World does not like superpowered individuals forming cliques. It used this method to divide them.”
“Did everyone actually believe that?” Chen Mo’s eyes unconsciously followed his movements. Recalling that they had also encountered such a situation, he couldn’t help but question it.
Shen Junyao’s expression remained calm as he stated the Bureau’s findings: “Of course not. However, 3008 is the controller of the Inner World. Within the confines of this space, unless there is a crushing difference in strength, 3008 holds an absolute home-field advantage. Those superpowered individuals who didn’t believe it or refused to obey would be devoured immediately to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.”
Under such a strategy, the superpowered individuals who remained were all relatively “obedient.”
There were inexhaustible and endless basic supplies in the supermarket. After discovering they could not escape their predicament no matter what, many people simply accepted their fate and stayed there to live.
As the reserve of superpowered individuals gradually increased, the utility of ordinary humans to 3008 actually became more and more limited. However, keeping them wasn’t particularly difficult; after all, the goods on the supermarket shelves were all “acquired at zero cost” from all over the world by 3008 using its spatial abilities.
Furthermore, the existence of these ordinary humans could greatly enhance the living experience of the superpowered individuals.
Establishing bases, resisting external enemies, and enjoying emperor-like treatment among a group of people—some superpowered individuals who were lucky enough to live a long time had even married and had children in the Inner World, allowing their lineage to spread.
“3008 deployed two levels of monsters in the Inner World. The low-level blue-clad faceless monsters are indeed a type of puppet molded from inorganic materials, programmed to attack humans every night. Their duty is to ensure the number of ordinary humans in the Inner World is controlled within a certain range to reduce costs and risks. As for the high-level Split-Mouth monsters, they are somewhat like cormorants trained by fishermen. They go into action when 3008 needs them, swallowing superpowered individuals and bringing them before 3008 for it to devour and digest.”
“I see!” Chen Mo suddenly thought of the scene he had witnessed at the amusement park.
A young boy had clearly been swallowed into the stomach of a Split-Mouth monster, but after Chen Mo punched it in the stomach, it actually spat the boy out whole.
So, the Split-Mouth monster itself doesn’t eat people; it merely captures superpowered individuals for 3008. And because superpowered individuals within the Inner World often held their own separate territories, the saying arose that “Supervisors” usually acted alone. However, the three of them had insisted on acting together no matter how much they were provoked, and coupled with 3008’s wariness of them, five monsters were dispatched at once, which resulted in the chaotic battle that night.
“Every so often, a Lord-level superpowered individual would be swallowed by a Split-Mouth monster. Due to the information asymmetry, the trapped people would only think their Lord lacked sufficient strength or had bad luck, and thus met with misfortune. In fact, the vast majority of the devoured superpowered individuals themselves never discovered the truth until the moment they died, believing that some God of the Inner World was truly protecting them.”
Chen Mo hadn’t expected that just because he didn’t participate in the latter half of the cleanup work, he had actually missed out on so much.
Zhang Tao listened for a while and suddenly remembered something. He looked at Shen Junyao: “Captain, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Back then, the three of us clearly entered by accident. Why did you say later that it wasn’t a coincidence?”
Shen Junyao’s eyes moved slightly. He glanced at Zhang Tao and saw that Chen Mo was also staring at him, seemingly very eager to know the answer.
He gave a helpless smile and admitted: “Right. Before that, I had actually already mastered the method to enter the Inner World.”
“The reason 3008 transferred its base every few months and lured humans in an extremely low-profile manner was that it only possessed absolute initiative within the Inner World space it controlled. In the outside world, its strength was only mediocre. It would hide itself as much as possible. After the supermarket was taken over by the Heresy Management Bureau, it failed to escape in time and simply chose to close the entrance, attempting to shrink back into the shadows and wait for an opportunity.”
He glanced at Zhang Tao and continued: “The Heresy Management Bureau is professional, after all. There are always ways to find its location. As long as one’s strength is sufficient, forcefully breaking through a spatial barrier is not difficult. However, since there were many trapped people of unknown number inside, a violent crushing blow might have harmed the innocent. Therefore, I planned to find an opportunity to sneak in and investigate thoroughly.”
“I originally intended to find teammates to go in with me. It just so happened that Chen Mo was there that day,” Shen Junyao said.
Zhang Tao looked at the Captain and scratched his head, somewhat uncertain. He remembered the Captain’s attitude at the time; it seemed like he hadn’t wanted to let Chen Mo get involved.
Had he remembered it wrong?