Chapter 163 – Western City Morphea (3)
When you say ghost town, isn’t this what it looks like now?
We didn’t even meet a single person in the city, as if they were laughing at us as we tried to hide ourselves as much as possible to avoid being noticed.
No, more accurately, it feels like all traces of people have been erased.
“There’s no one there that makes me feel bad.”
“I see. This is what happened…”
In another sense, this strange phenomenon is proof that there is something here.
Gaia at least provided proper help.
They say even a broken clock is right twice a day…
I took the compass out of my pocket and checked the direction it pointed.
“Hmm… The compass is still pointing inside the city. It’s pointing inside even though there’s no one there… It’s suspicious.”
“I will be more careful. You never know what kind of guy will come out.”
It certainly felt like there were no other people in the city, but we didn’t let down our guard.
No one knows what will happen in this way, and looking at the current situation, it feels like we have definitely entered Void’s lair.
We slowly and carefully moved from building to building, keeping our backs to each building and taking a good look at our surroundings.
How far did it travel?
The distance that would normally take less than 10 minutes at a normal pace now feels like it took me an hour to reach it.
“Sniff, strangely there is no smell… Why are the people missing?”
“It is no small thing to be able to eliminate all the people in such a large city. Some force must have been at work.”
Although this ghost town is clearly devoid of people, it does not mean that there are no traces of people living there.
In the case of a house I briefly entered while moving, I found that people had lived in it and things were in disarray and not properly organized.
And there is one more thing I realized while moving so far.
It seems like it hasn’t been that long since people disappeared from this city.
When I went inside some buildings and looked around, I could see something unusual.
“Hmm… This is a bit strange…”
“Why are you doing this, Jinu?”
In the middle of her movement, Lenia asked me what was wrong as I looked at her fingers touching the top of her desk.
“Apparently, the people here disappeared without leaving a trace, but there was something strange. When I looked inside some of the houses… There wasn’t that much dust accumulated.”
“Are you saying… That the people disappeared not long ago?”
I nodded at Lenia’s words.
Dust is bound to accumulate in places where there are no people.
It is true that such dust is accumulating, but it only accumulates for a day or two at most.
“Sir, there is one more strange thing.”
“Hmm? What is that, Lien?”
As I was talking, looking at my fingers that touched the dust, Lien also added a word.
“It’s a big city like this. Of course it’s strange that there are no people. There’s another strange thing there. Even if there are no people, there should be small creatures, like rats and cats. But now, as we move, these creatures “I didn’t even feel it.”
“What? This is definitely strange. Although there are no people in the city, there are not even small animals in the city…”
Curiosity is further amplified by this incomprehensible phenomenon.
What on earth happened to this city?
“There were people who entered this city during the day before us. There is no way they wouldn’t have been suspicious of this strange phenomenon. If they had sensed something was strange, they would have left the city, but those people didn’t leave, and in fact, even they didn’t. It disappeared without leaving a trace.”
“But I don’t think those people were taken by force either.”
Freya, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, opened her mouth.
“There is no doubt that this many people have moved somewhere. We haven’t looked around the entire city, but so far, there are no traces of battle left in the surrounding area. That means they didn’t even resist moving.”
“If the person had been forcibly dragged, someone would have resisted. There must have been someone hitting something and breaking it in the process, but I haven’t seen anything like that yet.”
Freya’s words certainly made sense.
In such a big city, people would definitely move somewhere, but it may not be their will.
Nevertheless, the fact that there was no resistance…
“Is it brainwashing?”
“I see. It seems the enemy has the ability to brainwash others. That explains why people didn’t even resist.”
Yes. That would explain why people disappeared without a word.
Moreover, if we say that the people who entered during the day are now gone because they were brainwashed and moved somewhere, then it is understandable that they are now gone.
“Then is it because of brainwashing that there aren’t even mice or cats?”
“I don’t know that yet. But with brainwashing, something like that might be possible. If the person who did this wanted the living beings in this city, it would be possible to move even small animals to where they want.”
It’s not confirmed yet, but considering the current situation, my current opinion is that people were brainwashed by someone and moved somewhere.
And the people who do this usually have one goal.
“Why are they doing this?”
“Brainwashing people and transporting them to a certain place… I have no idea what they are thinking.”
Yuria and Lien seemed not yet sure about the reason.
When I saw that, I was the first to open my mouth.
“Isn’t that probably a sacrifice?”
“Sacrifice… Do you mean?”
There is no need to brainwash people like this and move them to a certain place… It is such a large-scale task that there is no need to do it unless there is a specific purpose.
Then, there is only one thing that requires people to gather in large quantities, and regardless of their will.
“I don’t know what the purpose is, but if you have to move this many people somewhere, there are a few things you can do.”
“Sure… If it requires a lot of people, there will be labor needed to build something, but you wouldn’t brainwash people to do that.”
Still, so many people are needed?
So what’s left is people’s lives.
“I don’t know what you want, but if it requires not only people but also small living creatures, it means that many lives are needed to make a sacrifice.”
“Did they leave the guards outside the walls on purpose?”
Maybe so?
If everyone was dragged away, it would have felt strange to anyone watching from the outside.
If no one is guarding the entrance to such a large city, or if no one is guarding the walls even though it is night, the outside world may think this is strange and end up being on guard and unable to enter.
So, the guards were probably left behind to make things appear normal from the outside.
“If you think about it, it’s strange that even those guards didn’t have any questions about there being no people inside.”
“Now that I think about it, that’s right. It’s not normal for them not to think this is strange when there is no one else but them in the city they live in.”
When I think about the guards, I feel even more confident in my opinion that they have brainwashed people.
“Then why are we okay? Whoever did this must have tried to brainwash us too.”
Yuria raised her hand between us and spoke.
“The first thing I can think of is that the person doing the brainwashing is still unaware of our intrusion. Or the brainwashing ability does not work on us.”
Isn’t the reason why we don’t have much going on right now is one of those two things?
We have now infiltrated the city in the dark of night, not through the entrance, but through the walls.
So, the enemy who brainwashes and controls the guards probably hasn’t seen us yet.
So, one could speculate that they couldn’t brainwash us because they couldn’t see our existence.
Otherwise, that brainwashing ability won’t work on us.
In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that we are the strongest beings in this world right now.
Since we have only common sense as our power, it is possible that the power of brainwashing did not work at all.
Currently, I don’t know which one is correct.
“I think it’s one of two things. Either the enemy hasn’t found us yet or we haven’t been brainwashed.”
“If the brainwashing didn’t work on us, there wouldn’t be a big problem, but if they haven’t discovered us yet and the brainwashing could have an effect… That might be a bit dangerous.”
Lenia listened to me and spoke her own thoughts.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a big problem if we weren’t affected by the brainwashing, but if one of us was brainwashed and started fighting with us, that would be a big problem.
As of now, there is no way to find out which one it is, so it seems like we will have no choice but to move carefully so as not to be detected by the enemy, as we have done so far.
We moved a little more cautiously and headed in the direction indicated by the compass, which pointed to a road leading down to an underground part of the city.
