Caspar City.
Although it was a familiar place, Wu Ming found that the area had become so unfamiliar that he could barely recognize it.
In the original city center, using the ruins as a foundation, a vast wall had been erected, averaging ten meters in height. The reinforced concrete structure and thickness exuded a sense of reassurance.
On the front and both sides of the camp, several drawbridge gates were still open. The main gate was currently closed, while the side gates remained open, allowing adventurers to come and go freely.
For modern cities, walls were completely unnecessary and would hinder transportation, but the situation was different now.
Dangerous mutated creatures forced survivors to invest significant effort into their defenses in order to barely protect the women and children within the camp.
In the perilous wilderness, only tall and sturdy walls could offer them a sense of security.
At the very least, Wu Ming noticed that after entering through the side gate, Sebastian and the other team members all exhaled in relief and visibly relaxed.
“Alright, this is the loot we’re distributing this time!”
Sebastian fairly divided the meat and arrowroots into several portions, giving each team member a small pouch: “Evan, this is yours!”
He finally handed the pouch to Evan, adding solemnly: “Evan, now that you’ve become a paladin, you shouldn’t continue to waste your time in our team. You should go to the Church of Redemption. Show them your abilities, and they will surely accept you!”
“I understand, Uncle Sebastian!”
Evan replied, wiping his eyes with a tearful voice.
“Oh, look at me, you can just ask Steven over here about these things…”
Sebastian chuckled, his gaze toward Wu Ming filled with curiosity.
“Actually… I rarely visit the church anymore!”
Wu Ming honestly replied: “I also don’t know what changes have taken place in the church recently.”
“Mr. Steven, could it be that you were a believer of the Church of Redemption in another city before the apocalypse?”
Sebastian’s eyes lit up as if he had grasped a crucial clue.
Regarding his speculation, Wu Ming simply smiled without answering. This attitude was immediately taken by Sebastian as an affirmation.
“Evan, are you going to the church? Great, I’m planning to go there too!”
Wu Ming looked toward the city center, where the magnificent temple stood, his eyes filled with a teasing glint.
“Sure, but before that, I need to go home first!”
Despite having become a paladin, Evan’s mindset had not yet fully shifted: “I need to hand over this meat to my family first.”
“It’s not far anyway. Let’s go together!”
Wu Ming replied casually. Sebastian was more than happy to see Evan connect with this Pastor Steven.
After all, with Evan’s current paladin rank, even joining the church would place him at the bottom. However, if he could rely on a powerful pastor, his future development would be completely different.
Evan’s family lived at the edge of the wall, a typical lower-class household within the camp.
In the event of an attack by mutated beasts, this area would be the most dangerous.
“Still… in a world like this, is there any place that is absolutely safe?”
Wu Ming glanced at the sky. Under the purple sunlight, within the white clouds, several black dots floated and drifted. With his vision, he could clearly see that the black dots were vultures with red necks, mutated creatures with fleshy growths on their foreheads, greedily eyeing the entire camp from above.
“Those are man-eating vultures. They prefer to hide high in the sky and attack humans when they find an opportunity.”
Evan seemed to notice Wu Ming’s confusion and explained in a calm voice: “To deal with them, aside from clerics and psychics, you need heavy firepower. Unfortunately, at our camp’s level, such equipment is locked away in storage and rarely used for hunting beasts.”
Just then, Wu Ming saw the vulture in midair seemingly find its target and suddenly dive down.
Whoosh!
It shot straight into the ground like an arrow, then suddenly spread its wings, its claws clutching a piece of meat, and soared high into the sky.
“These carrion lovers are really annoying. They’ll eat almost anything. Fortunately, this time it only stole a piece of boar meat…”
Evan sighed deeply as he watched this scene.
The distance was too far, and he was only a newly promoted paladin, utterly powerless against the creature.
“Once we turn past the house ahead, we’ll be at my home!”
After walking down another street, Evan seemed somewhat excited: “After joining the church, I wonder what tasks they’ll assign me…”
“After becoming a paladin, maybe I can see Chief Robin every day…”
…
The dreams and aspirations of youth were soon shattered by several screams.
“Isn’t that Evan?”
An aunt exclaimed in surprise: “How come you’re still here? Don’t you know something happened to your family?”
“My family? What happened?”
Evan’s expression changed instantly as he quickly ran home, only to witness a scene that made his eyes burn with rage:
A shabby hut stood with its door wide open. A group of people wearing leather armor and bearing a holy symbol on their chests were wantonly destroying everything in sight.
Even the Dorin couple were being guarded by thugs, with two terrified children crying beside them.
“Isn’t that the Dorin family? What happened?”
“I heard they had a misfortune. The little brat offended Lord Duward, who is a relative of a high-ranking church official…”
“That’s terrible!”
…
The hushed whispers from the crowd reached Evan’s ears, making his heart tighten.
After Pope Jay’s reform, the Church of Redemption had changed.
Although due to the constraints of faith and divine magic, priests and high-ranking clergy had to abide by certain doctrines or risk losing divine favor, their families were not bound by such restrictions. They freely exploited the church’s resources, forming an aristocratic group.
Although all men are created equal, as long as a community forms, there will always be social strata—even in this post-apocalyptic survivor camp.
“Oh, isn’t that Evan?”
“That Dorin family’s eldest son, the young man who joined the hunting team?”
Some neighbors recognized Evan and made way for him.
Evan took a deep breath and stepped into his home, looking at the strangers who had intruded and were now lording over his house. Suddenly, the holy symbol on their chests seemed glaringly offensive to him.
“Evan, why are you coming back at a time like this?”
“Child, run away quickly!”
The Dorin couple were a pair of middle-aged, honest-looking people. When they saw Evan, their eyes first lit up, then dimmed.
“No, I’m the adult of this family now. I must take responsibility.”
Evan smiled and shook his head, stepping in front of the fat and pompous Duward: “What did my younger siblings do to offend you, sir?”
Perhaps because of the spear in Evan’s hand, Duward’s eyes opened slightly, and he replied in a mocking tone: “These two brats are criminals! They stole an offering I prepared for the God of Redemption! This is a grave sin of desecrating the divine!”
“Blasphemy?!”
Evan instinctively sucked in a breath, knowing that in this camp where the Church of Redemption reigned supreme, being accused of this crime meant that death would be the lightest punishment.
It was said that Pope Jay had specially established a religious tribunal to deal with those who disrespected the gods.
“No! That’s not true!”
At this moment, the crying little girl finally shouted out: “My brother only dirtied his clothes, and this fatso demanded we compensate him. Then when we came home, he turned so violent…sob…”
“So that’s how it is!”
Evan clenched his fists angrily: “Duward, do you not fear divine punishment from the God of Redemption for doing this?”
“Punishment?”
Duward’s lips curled as if he had just heard the funniest joke: “Do you even know who I am? The chief of the tribunal, Gandolf, is my older brother! Who dares to judge me?”
“Now, you have only two choices: either meet all my demands, or collectively bear the crime of blasphemy and take a trip to the tribunal!”
“The tribunal?!”
At the mention of that dreaded place, even the onlookers shivered involuntarily.
“No, in the name of the God of Redemption, you can’t do this!”
The Dorin couple pleaded, but the fat man impatiently slapped them aside: “Get lost, you lowlifes! How could the glory of the gods ever shine upon you?”
He cast a triumphant glance at Evan and saw the boy trembling all over, seemingly terrified.
“It shouldn’t be like this!”
However, when he got closer, he realized Evan was murmuring something.
“The Church of the God of Redemption I remember shouldn’t have become a gathering place for trash, scum, and maggots!”
Evan raised his head, his eyes seemingly burning with flames.
“Scum? Trash?”
Duward’s oily face immediately flashed with hatred: “Looks like my previous actions were too lenient. I’ve decided—you will be tied to the stake and burned tonight! Grab him!”
With a wave of his hand, several burly henchmen immediately surrounded Evan.
“The one who should be burned at the stake is you!”
Evan shouted loudly: “Divine armor!”
A golden light immediately appeared on his body, thick and dense, as if forming a close-fitting armor.
One after another scream rang out as the thugs who had originally intended to attack Evan were knocked down by him with a few quick moves, rolling on the ground in pain.
“This is…”
Duward’s pupils slightly constricted: “A paladin?!”
“That’s right! I have been blessed by the gods and received the favor of the God of Redemption. How dare you slander me, a paladin, and besmirch my honor?”
Although Evan was furious, he had not lost his composure.
He stepped forward, looking at the suddenly pale-faced fat man, filled with a sense of vengeance: “I will represent the gods to punish you!”
“Stop!”
From afar, a voice seemed to echo.
But Evan ignored it completely and threw a punch downward, bang!
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