The core streets of Satellite no longer carried their usual noise and bustle.
The lively bars and casinos that once lined the streets now stood deserted.
Even the street vendors that had once filled both sides of the road without pause had all vanished.
The original residents of the district now followed behind two hooded black-robed priests with lifeless eyes, moving mechanically like puppets.
The two priests held dark scriptures in their hands, muttering chants under their breath as they guided the massive crowd behind them toward Satellite’s central district.
The center of Satellite had become a vast barren wasteland because of the “Zero Reverse” incident seventeen years ago.
Even after so many years had passed since that disaster, the terrain remained exactly as it had back then, showing just how catastrophic the damage had been.
There were even countless terrifying urban legends about ghosts wandering the area and the land being cursed.
It could truly be called Satellite’s real “forbidden zone.”
Yet at this moment, crowds of people continuously gathered toward this forbidden land, eventually disappearing into it as though they had been swallowed by the barren earth itself.
Among this sluggishly marching crowd, however, were two sneaky figures mixed in.
“Hey, Kazumo, are you sure this plan is really reliable?” Crow lowered his head and whispered to the person beside him.
“Do you have any better way to find the people who were taken?” Kazumo asked back while similarly keeping his head lowered among the crowd.
“Tch, true enough.” Crow helplessly smacked his lips.
Earlier, the two of them had also tried directly searching the central wasteland… the result was several hours of eating dust and finding absolutely nothing.
If Kazumo were not a transmigrator familiar with the original story and aware that the cult possessed underground bases, even he would have started doubting whether the cult actually existed here.
The only Dark Signer base Kazumo currently knew about was the ruins of the old perpetual motion engine core facility.
However, access to the underground structure there required authorization, and currently only the Goodwin brothers possessed that authority.
In the original story, Rex Goodwin had personally gone to Satellite and used his own authorization to open the underground passage.
That said, with so many people being abducted from Satellite now, there was no way they could all be kept in one location.
Therefore, the Earthbound Immortal cult definitely possessed numerous scattered bases, leaving the two of them with no choice but to resort to this clumsy method of infiltrating and tracking them.
Fortunately, these priests were hardly diligent employees who took their jobs seriously.
Their workflow was extremely simple: recite scripture whenever they saw someone, use the Dark Signer power left behind in the scriptures by Roman Goodwin to control the target’s mind, then have them automatically follow the procession.
As for paying attention to the movement of the group or checking the headcount?
That simply did not exist.
It was obvious that the long, repetitive work of mechanically dragging people around had numbed them as well.
Workers everywhere were all the same.
Slacking off was happiness.
While Kazumo and Crow muttered back and forth, the procession finally came to a stop.
This was a building near the wasteland of the core district.
Most of the five-story structure had already collapsed, leaving only the first floor relatively intact.
Several hundred controlled residents were gathered inside this still-spacious area.
One priest stayed behind to watch over the crowd, while the other disappeared into the depths of a side hall. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Seeing one priest left alone, Crow shot Kazumo a look.
Kazumo immediately understood, and the two began moving through the crowded mass of people.
After quite some time, the priest who had disappeared finally reappeared.
He casually swept his gaze across the crowd, confirmed that the number of people was roughly correct and that nobody had escaped the control, then nodded in satisfaction.
“Alright, let’s send this batch down.
Once we’re done, today’s work is over.”
He tilted his chin, signaling for his companion to follow, before turning around and heading back into the side hall they had come from.
The priest responsible for guarding the crowd did not reply and simply followed behind.
As the priests moved, the crowd immediately responded like a flock of sheep, silently following behind the leading priest once more.
The crowd passed through the hall and arrived at what had originally been the building’s elevator shaft.
The originally hollow pair of elevator shafts had been remodeled into the entrance of an underground passage with double doors.
Judging by the wear and tear, this passage had existed for quite a few years and was likely a facility left behind from the early construction period.
The priest leading the way leaned casually beside the passage.
Seeing his companion bringing the crowd over, he waved his hand to signal for him to lead the people inside.
His companion nodded and walked directly toward the entrance beside him.
The instant his companion passed by, a sudden change erupted.
An orange-haired man covered in markings suddenly burst out from the front of the crowd and charged at him aggressively.
The priest was startled.
There really was someone capable of breaking free from the control.
Just as he was about to retaliate–
A gust of wind suddenly struck from behind his head, and before he could react, he fell into “baby-like sleep.”
“Why did I have to be the bait?!
I wanted to knock someone out too!” Crow complained while looking at the collapsed priest.
The priest responsible for guarding the crowd had naturally been Kazumo in disguise.
As for the real priest, he had already “fallen asleep on the spot” just like his companion.
Kazumo casually tossed aside the brick in his hand and looked at Crow with disdain.
“Because you’re too short.
If you wore the disguise, you’d be exposed in no time!”
“Hah?!” Crow immediately exploded in anger.
“What’s wrong with being short?!
Is that my fault?!
“Alright, alright, quit fooling around.
Hurry up and change into his clothes so we can move.”
Before Kazumo even finished urging him, Crow had already skillfully started stripping the priest’s robe off the ground.
“You don’t need to tell me.”
After Crow had stripped him, Kazumo carefully examined the priest’s face.
His complexion was extremely pale and clean, with no obvious markings.
These were typical facial traits of people from the upper districts.
Satellite’s harsh environment could never produce such fair skin.
There were also no noticeable calluses on his hands, showing that he clearly did not engage in manual labor.
This matched the situation of the previous priest.
Kazumo began thinking… This indicated that the cult’s members were basically all “upper-class citizens” from the upper districts.
Most importantly, none of them carried Duel Disks.
They were merely “transporters.”
Which meant that the ones Weber had encountered earlier were the cult’s true elites–the “cleaners” made up of Spirit Duelists.
And behind this passage, those people were likely waiting for them.
“Crow, what comes next is the important part.” Kazumo warned Crow, who had already changed clothes.
Crow adjusted his hood and nodded.
“Yeah.
It probably won’t be this easy to fool them from here on.”
The two then looked back at the crowd behind them.
There was no way they could infiltrate while bringing the crowd along.
Bringing them would only become a burden.
Although neither of them knew how to break the control over the crowd, Kazumo guessed that a shock of spirit power should be enough to wake them up.
But if they directly freed such a huge group of people from the control right now, the entire scene would definitely descend into chaos.
If they alerted the enemy, their whole plan would be ruined.
They could only let these people suffer for the moment.
With the plan decided, Crow took out a long rope from the backpack he carried with him and handed one end to Kazumo.
The two each held one side, encircling the entire crowd together.
Sure enough, once the two entered the passage, the tightly packed crowd became stuck at the entrance.
Even under such intense crowding and shoving, not a single person regained their senses… It could only be said that the power of darkness was truly terrifying.