The Goddess Killed Us

Patter—

Patter—

The black rain outside the church showed no signs of stopping. It smashed against the iron gate door that Ye Chuan was holding up, making a crisp clanging sound. The splashed black water droplets fell to the ground, instantly merging with the mud, glowing with an eerie grayish-black hue.

"You're so strong... This iron door looks really heavy." Xiao Tian followed beside Ye Chuan. Seeing him lift the iron door effortlessly, she was a bit dumbfounded for a moment.

Is this something a normal person can do?

"Players are quite amazing, aren't they?" Ye Chuan said.

"..."

After walking through the black rain for a while, Ye Chuan looked ahead. This was actually a deserted little town.

The houses on both sides were completely dilapidated. Most of the roofs had collapsed, and black mud and rotting debris had accumulated among the ruined walls. The doors and windows were either shattered with only their frames left, or simply gone altogether.

The wind blew through the empty window frames, its howling mixing with the sound of the rain, giving people the creeps.

The sky was still pitch black, making it impossible to tell if it was dawn or dusk. Only the black rain continued to fall, wrapping the entire town in a damp and oppressive atmosphere.

What a terrible environment.

Although Ye Chuan had Chaos, his sister, and Lilith for protection, he didn't want to come into contact with the black rain for the time being.

The most important thing was that he had Xiaogua beside him.

For some reason, he wanted to properly clear this S-rank dungeon and send Xiaogua away safely.

This could be considered the last thing he would do for Gua Xiaotian.

"Big brother Cai Kun... Look over there..." Xiao Tian hid behind Ye Chuan and tugged at the corner of his clothes.

Ye Chuan looked in the direction she was pointing and saw several blurry shadows swaying faintly in the distant rain curtain.

Those shadows fluctuated in size, slowly wriggling close to the ground. They looked like the mud monsters from the church earlier, but much larger. Mixed with the faint sound of fabric rubbing together, it made one's scalp tingle.

"Ignore them. Let's go to the house ahead to take shelter from the rain and look for clues while we're at it."

Ye Chuan glanced at them, then held the iron door steadily above his head, blocking the black rain completely. The two of them stepped on the muddy path, trudging toward the nearest small house.

That small house looked slightly more intact than the surrounding buildings. The wooden door was slightly ajar, covered in dark green mildew spots and some unknown dark purple stains.

Ye Chuan kicked the door open. The rotten wooden door shattered with a loud crash, and a stench of rot and blood, even stronger than the one in the church, wafted out, mixed with a faint smell of foul slime.

It was pitch black inside. Only the faint light leaking through the broken windows barely allowed them to see what was inside.

The floor was covered with wet trails, as if something had repeatedly crawled over it. The trails were dark purple, sticky, and still slowly wriggling.

"There's something here," Xiao Tian said.

Hearing this, Ye Chuan narrowed his eyes. After putting away the door panel used to block the rain, he directly pulled out his greatsword.

In the shadows of the corner, a mass of dark purple mud was slowly wriggling. It was even larger than the one they had dealt with in the church earlier—

Embedded in the sticky mud were more torn fabrics, a few strands of withered yellow hair, and even half a rusty piece of metal, looking like a button that had fallen off someone's clothes.

The monster seemed to sense the commotion. It suddenly raised the fleshy lump at its front end and accurately locked onto Ye Chuan and Xiao Tian.

It wriggled its body and crawled toward the two of them, constantly dripping dark purple slime and leaving a wet trail on the ground. Wherever it passed, the wooden floorboards sizzled as they were corroded.

"Tsk, it's this disgusting thing again," Ye Chuan frowned in disgust. Without waiting for the monster to get closer, his figure flashed, and he raised his greatsword and slashed down fiercely.

"SquELCH—"

The greatsword easily cleaved through the monster's body. Dark purple slime instantly splattered everywhere, splashing onto the walls and floor, making the foul stench even stronger.

The monster's body rolled on the ground, breaking into several pieces, but each piece was still wriggling, trying to piece itself back together.

Ye Chuan didn't give it a chance. He took a few steps forward and swung his greatsword consecutively, chopping the pieces to a pulp in a few strokes. He didn't stop until all the slime stopped wriggling and completely turned into a puddle of blackened mud.

"S-So amazing..." Xiao Tian marveled softly as she watched Ye Chuan's clean and decisive movements. She couldn't help but cover her nose; the smell was simply too disgusting.

Ye Chuan flicked the slime off his greatsword. His gaze swept around the room, and he suddenly noticed dark red marks on the wall.

He walked over and reached out to touch it. What stuck to his fingertips was dried blood. It wasn't dark purple, but a normal dark red, clearly left behind a long time ago.

The bloodstains formed two lines of words on the wall. The handwriting was somewhat scribbled, as if written in extreme despair. Although parts of it were covered by black mud, the entirety could still be clearly seen:

[The Goddess protected us]

[The Goddess killed us]

"Hmm? What does this mean?" Ye Chuan stared at these two lines of words, raised a hand to stroke his chin, and fell into deep thought.

Goddess? It should be that headless goddess statue in the church.

Was there a goddess in the true sense of the word in this dungeon world?

Protected us, and then killed us?

These two sentences were obviously contradictory—

What exactly was going on? Did the goddess first protect the townspeople, and then turn around and kill them?

Or was the so-called "protection" actually a form of slaughter in itself?

He remembered the half-sentence on the church wall, [Protect the Holy...], and the words after it had been erased. Could it be related to this goddess?

Holy...

Could it be the Holy Maiden?

Phoebe from the church, is that what it meant?

If it really was the Holy Maiden, he hadn't found any related clues in the church.

"Are you the only player?" Ye Chuan suddenly asked Xiao Tian beside him. Xiao Tian was currently also looking at the words on the wall, and startled slightly at Ye Chuan's sudden question.

"Ah... what?"

"I asked if you are the only player who entered this strange dungeon?" Ye Chuan asked.

In the previous few dungeon worlds, quite a few players had entered.

"Entered? No, no one else entered," Xiao Tian said, shaking her head.

Ye Chuan looked confused. He noticed that Xiao Tian's words seemed a bit contradictory, giving off a feeling of being both familiar and unfamiliar with the things Ye Chuan was talking about.

"Are you feeling unwell anywhere?" Ye Chuan asked.

"I'm not feeling unwell."

"Forget it." Ye Chuan kept his guard up, then continued to search the room for valuable clues.

The black rain outside the window continued to fall, and the sky was a heavy sheet of darkness.

Ye Chuan searched the front room, while Xiao Tian stood behind him, silently watching his back.

She didn't help with the search; she just occasionally looked out the window, as if she was looking for something.