Chapter 70

Chapter 70: One of Us

In a world where supernatural Visions existed, the land was sealed off by a boundless sea, and Guardians and Anomalies fought without end in the city-states, how did ordinary people survive?

Duncan still did not understand this city-state well, but at least in the places he had seen, the ordinary people of this world still lived in order and stability.

They worked, studied, and rested. They ran shops and traded goods. On their days off, they went out to cinemas and restaurants, to parks and the harbor. They visited the city museum and chatted with their neighbors after dinner. Their lives were not very exciting, but they were usually peaceful.

The steam-engine bus started and stopped, sometimes at a stop, sometimes by the roadside. Passengers got on and off at any moment. The silent driver only spoke a couple of words to the conductor now and then, but most of the time he focused on driving. The young conductor kept glancing up at the roof from time to time—she still seemed to be thinking about that pigeon.

Duncan sat in his seat, watching everything around him with curiosity, watching these lives that belonged to ordinary people.

It seemed that aside from needing to know that Anomalies and Visions existed in the world, and treating that knowledge as a kind of “safety code” to follow, the lives of these ordinary people were not much different from what he had seen on Earth.

When they neared Crossroad District, the bus stopped again. This time it stopped at a proper platform, and many passengers got on there.

Duncan looked curiously at the view from the platform. He watched the distant chimneys standing tall and the steam pipes crisscrossing above the roofs. Then, all of a sudden, he faintly felt an unusual heat rising near his chest.

The heat came from the Sun badge he had hidden close to his body.

Duncan, who had been enjoying the scenery, froze for a moment. He instinctively touched the place where the badge was hidden. The next second, he felt that the badge was not only hot, but also trembling slightly.

He did not know what was happening, but clearly the badge was resonating with something nearby. Through the link already formed between him and the badge, he clumsily searched for the source of that resonance. A moment later, his eyes locked onto a figure outside the bus window, hurrying through the crowd.

The figure wore a black coat and looked like an ordinary passerby, but the “directional sense” coming from the Sun badge clearly and unmistakably pointed at him.

Duncan stood up at once and strode toward the door. As his thoughts moved, the pigeon AI also received his command. She flapped her wings, flew down from the roof of the bus, and landed on his shoulder.

The conductor standing near the door stared in surprise at this scene. Only after Duncan stepped off the bus did she mutter under her breath: “How did he train that pigeon…”

But the little episode of daily life quickly slipped out of the young Miss conductor’s attention. She turned to the passengers who had just gotten on and said: “Come over here to buy your tickets… the child needs a ticket too. No way that kid is under one meter ten… Four years old? There’s no way that’s four. Once you cross the line, it’s a full ticket!”

By then, Duncan had already walked into the crowd. He moved quickly through the busy platform and the intersection, tracking the figure in the black coat.

The man in black walked very fast. The dense afternoon foot traffic along the street made it easy for him to slip out of sight. In just a few minutes, the figure had already vanished from Duncan’s view.

However, the Sun badge kept resonating. The directional sense from deep inside it continued to point Duncan toward the right direction.

Duncan followed the badge’s guidance as he kept tracking, thinking quickly at the same time.

There was no doubt the man in black was suspicious. The badge had to have sensed something for it to react so suddenly… perhaps it had sensed a power of the same origin, coming from the true Sun god.

From Goathead, he already knew that this badge could recognize its own kind and guide the Sun’s divine blessing. Under normal circumstances, only believers of the Sun god could use those functions or feel the badge’s guidance.

Duncan had used the fire of his spirit form to seize control of the badge. Back then, he had thought his flames had destroyed most of its abilities as well. But now it seemed… the badge’s power of recognition was still there.

Only now, that recognition served him instead.

Guided by the badge, he gradually left the crowded main street. After twisting through several turns, he walked into quieter, emptier side lanes.

He saw the suspicious figure again. The man was hurrying across an intersection up ahead, still seeming completely unaware of the tracker behind him.

Vaguely, Duncan felt the badge on his chest grow even hotter than before. The resonance became clearer and stronger.

Duncan quietly stirred the fire of his spirit form and read the information coming from the Sun badge. A flood of clear, directional sensations poured into his mind at once.

The feeling was strange. Although the Sun badge had no will of its own, Duncan almost felt it was excitedly pushing messages at him. It was telling him, a man who did not believe in the Sun god, where all the other believers were.

He even wanted to remind the badge to calm down a bit. Not long ago it had still been the Sun god’s sacred relic. Even if it was acting as a guide now, it did not need to get as excited as a pocket hand warmer.

At the same time, he became more and more sure that he was approaching a secret assembly hall where many believers of the Sun god gathered.

Just as he had expected, more “Sun heretics” had gathered in the dark corners of this city-state. The group that had been wiped out in the sewers before had only been one small part of these cockroach-like cultists.

He did not know what these cultists really wanted, but he knew they must understand ancient history, the Sun faith, and the Age of Order far better than Nina’s teachers.

If he wanted to learn the secrets in the deep layers of this world, he had to contact forces from the supernatural field. It was very hard to get close to the Church and the city’s authority by normal means. cultists were much easier—he just had to blend in with them.

Or beat them into one big pile. That worked too.

Duncan was thinking about this when he suddenly stopped.

He had reached the end of a narrow lane. The sneaky man in black had just slipped into a nearby alley, and the signal from the Sun badge was clear and strong. There was not a single passerby in sight.

Through the Sun badge, he sensed more “kin signals” gathering near where he stood.

Duncan quietly raised the collar of his coat, hiding half his face in it. Almost the moment he finished the motion, he heard many footsteps in the shadows of the nearby buildings.

One figure after another appeared.

There were more than ten people, dressed no differently from ordinary citizens. After all, no cultist would walk around the city at noon in a full robe, just like a proper assassin should not wear a glaring white hooded cloak while doing business on a busy street.

Only the constant heat and clear directional signals from the Sun badge let him be sure that every last one of these people appearing around him was a follower of the true Sun god.

Duncan raised his head and looked toward the end of the lane. The man in the black coat he had been tracking stood among them, watching him warily. Beside him, a tall, thin young man said a few quiet words to his companions before finally looking Duncan’s way.

The tall, thin man spoke: “This is private property. Why did you sneak in here after us?” He still seemed to be trying to give off the feeling that they were all ordinary citizens and that Duncan was the suspicious one. Since he did not know who this follower was, he neither attacked rashly nor relaxed his guard.

Duncan muttered inwardly that an amateur like him really was not suited for this kind of professional tracking work. At the same time, he was curious what these cultists planned to do with him if he played dumb. Would they pretend to be a group of dutiful local thugs and scare him off, or would they zealously grow their cult, tie him up, and offer him as a nice meaty sacrifice to their Sun god?

The tall, thin man frowned and spoke impatiently: “Didn’t you hear me? I’m asking you a question…” As he spoke, the figures around him all took half a step forward without drawing attention, forming a vague circle.

Duncan shrugged. He casually pulled the Sun charm amulet from his coat and said in a sincere tone: “I’m one of you.”

First, he would try to get on their good side. Maybe that would make them talk more.

If they still did not believe him, then he would beat them into one big pile.