Thriller Paradise

The door to the Room of Heavenly Decree opened, and a man who bore a startling resemblance to Harvey stood in the middle of the room. He was naturally none other than York Corben. Next to him stood a boy about twelve, probably his son. The members of this family were quite recognizable. They had the same facial features, the same color in their eyes and hair; they were on the rotund side, but this last point was probably less to do with genetics and more with their sedentary lifestyle.

Feng Bujue was the first to step into the room. Flashes of Sword and Hank followed behind him. When Feng Bujue saw the inside of the room, he understood why the Corben family had banned entry into this room. This so-called Room of Heavenly Decree had nothing to do with religion. The room was filled with control panels and screens. It was clear that this was the spacecraft's core control room.

"Hidden quest complete," the system announced in the two players' ears. When they laid their eyes on York Corben, the objective of the mission had been accomplished.

"You have an interesting expression." Feng Bujue observed. "Even though we walked through this door, you appear quite collected. Don't you care at all about Harvey's life?"

"If you have killed him, I would have to thank you," York answered calmly.

"Is that so?" Feng Bujue said. "Looks like the siblings don't share a good relationship, haha… Is it because he has his eyes on your women or wishes to usurp your standing as God's Child?"

"You are very clever." York nodded. "And rather cruel…"

"Cruel?" Feng Bujue took out his gun with a smile and pulled the trigger. He ended York's son's life with a shot to his face. That stunned the other three survivors in the room. Blood and brain matter polluted the floor. The young man collapsed as life departed from his body, and he died next to his father.

Hank widened his eyes, and he was frozen by fear. Even Flashes of Sword was overwhelmed by shock. Even though they were in a game, to kill someone without any hesitation and without any flinching was not something doable by anyone. For the next ten seconds, the room was eerily quiet. Only the sound of their breathing could be heard.

"Hmm… you have an interesting reaction." Feng Bujue studied York's face.

"You madman…" York's expression started to change.

"That was your son, right?" Feng Bujue used the barrel of the gun to point at the body on the ground.

"Yes," York answered.

"I killed him right before you, but your brows didn't even twitch," Feng Bujue observed. "But when you realized I was testing your reaction by killing him, you showed some degree of anxiety.

"Forgive me for my frankness, Mr. Corben, but in terms of cruelty, I am still far beneath you."

Feng Bujue put the gun away.

"A man who killed a child without hesitation dares to critique me about cruelty?" York shot back.

Flashes of Sword chimed in. "Hmm… I would have to agree with him."

Feng Bujue shrugged and looked at York. "For me, I merely shot a stranger, but for you, it was your flesh and blood who died. From your reaction to that fact, it's really debatable who has a crueler heart."

"I am not going to indulge in meaningless arguments with you," York said. "Since…"

"Since we have reached this point, we should calm down and negotiate terms for peace… right?" Feng Bujue finished the man's word.

"How did…"

"Do you really need me to spell it out to you? You barely cared when your brother died; you still showed no concern when your son died." He chuckled mirthlessly. "You care only about yourself. As long as you have a breath in you, everything can be remade… but from the current situation, you understand that a fight is pointless. Therefore, when we walked through the door, you were already prepared to negotiate with us.

"But my action earlier… gave you the impression that I might be a madman, so panic crossed your face then. Because you understood that only a person with a rational mind could be reasoned and negotiated with."

York's face dropped with shock. He did not expect that the man would read his thoughts so easily through his facial expression and few words. "Who are you?"

"Yes, Brother Feng… I also wish to know, who the hell are you?" Flashes of Sword took the opportunity to mock him.

"Why are you chiming in at a time like this?" Feng Bujue replied to Flashes of Sword before turning back to York. "Mr. Corben, I cannot help but notice that the panel behind you is broken. If my guess is correct, that is the only communication device that allows the Village of Heavenly Blessing to gain contact with the outside world, right?"

"What if it is?" York replied. Before Feng Bujue's group entered the room, York had used his mechanized arm to destroy the panel with one punch.

"Interesting, you did that before we entered," Feng Bujue said. "Perhaps you knew from the beginning that Harvey would not be able to stop us. That was quite clear from the expression on your face when we walked in."

"I say, just how many thoughts are going through your mind at any one time?" Flashes of Sword added. At this point, he could not care less about how the scenario ended. Instead, he was more interested in what Feng Bujue would do next.

"Mr. Corben, I know that you are a clever person, or at least, your cunning is well-placed," Feng Bujue said as he moved forward. He brushed past York and stood before the broken panel. He leaned down to study the degree of damage. "You've been watching us since we reached the entrance of the shrine, right?"

York did not answer, but cold sweat slid down his face.

"Your village doesn't even have something like pictures, much less video recordings, but I predict, you can find anything on this spaceship," Feng Bujue extrapolated. "The idea of surveillance is a fairly common concept for outside technology, but in the Village of Heavenly Blessing, it is probably a secret known only to you. If I were you, I would guard this technology with my life, and I would not share it with the priests, just my family at most.

"Surveillance is a very effective method. The villagers feel like their every move is being watched, but they do not understand the theory behind it. In a way, it must feel like God is really watching their everyday life. That is the perfect cover-up, don't you agree?"

As he spoke, Feng Bujue sat down on a stool, the one from his inventory. As he tweaked with the control panel, he continued. "Of course, you can't spend your whole day in this room looking at the surveillance, and there are limited cameras placed in the village, but… today, when you received the news that there were three intruders who barged into the fourth sector, you must have rushed here in a hurry to lock onto our movements.

"In the fourth sector, we received little resistance, but that did provide more than enough information. You very quickly realized that… we are very powerful, and knowing that resistance will be futile, you came up with a solution of your own.

"Then, you called two family members over. You had your son enter this Room of Heavenly Decree with you and had Harvey guard outside the door. I have no idea how you managed to trick your little brother into taking up the post of the guard, but with his intelligence, it wouldn't have been too hard.

"From Harvey's reaction, you definitely didn't tell him about how powerful we actually are, so before he was killed, he had this confident look about him. He had no idea he was entrapped by his own brother. Actually, you wanted us to kill him. Like you said earlier, you were waiting for Harvey to die by our hands."

At this point, Feng Bujue turned around from the machine to face York. "Keeping the son was for additional insurance. It is quite nice to have a child to use as a meat shield at the crucial moment. A normal person would not have launched into a senseless massacre when they saw that there was a young child in the room, one that did not look like he was going to fight on top of that."

"You do realize that you are calling yourself abnormal, right?" Flashes of Sword laughed drily.

"Don't interrupt," Feng Bujue said. "Mr. Corben, I know what you are planning. If Harvey didn't die and he managed to kill us, you would have found a chance to kill him and then pushed his death onto us intruders. That was the ideal ending for you.

"Of course, you knew that things wouldn't go so smooth. The most likely possibility was the three of us killing Harvey and coming to you. So, if that was the case, you needed to consider how to deal with us.

"No matter what, having us gain contact with the humans outside the village is not possible, because once the existence of this village is discovered, the system of dictatorship your Corben family has cultivated for decades will come to an end. You'll die before you allow that to happen.

"Therefore, you broke this communicator beforehand to prevent that possibility. After all, there will be plenty of time for negotiation."

"Hahaha…" York started to laugh. "I really wish to clap for you. Hahaha…"

York still looked quite at ease.

"Very well said, but you are not as clean as you made it out to be, are you? The reason you didn't kill me but explained so many things to me is to increase your leverage during the negotiation. Fine, you win. My precious guests and you…" He scoffed with derision and looked at Hank. "You can have anything you want. The women and the resources inside this village, you can enjoy them to your heart's content."

York kicked his son's body aside with disgust. "I can come up with an excuse, saying that you are messengers from God, and have you move into this shrine."

He used an air quotes when he said the word 'shrine', proving that he too realized how preposterous the whole thing was. "After all, the slaves will believe anything you feed them. Just show them some tricks that they haven't seen before and they will think it's a miracle from god. Haha…

"So? Think about it. I know how you outsiders think. My ancestor encountered a few outsiders before. Perhaps their initial idea was for the villagers to return to the so-called civilized society, but in the end, they always compromised."

Feng Bujue cut him off. "The equipment in this Room of Heavenly Decree, quite a large portion of it has been fixed and updated by these outsiders, correct?"

"Haha… Indeed." York did not deny it. "indeed, they were the ones who manufactured this device that allows communication with the outside world. Of course, this device hasn't been used even once. Unless this place is going down due to another atomic war, myself and my people will never leave this place."

"You can use this device to capture the signal of other human spaceships, right?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"You know that as well?" York replied with a darkened face.

"I came up with that confusion on the way here inside the shark coach," Feng Bujue explained. "At the time, I was thinking, how did the scavengers know about the Crystal Lake lab? Where did the coordinates for the autopilot come from? Soon, I came upon this possibility… In this village, someone, probably the ruler, has the power to trace and follow the signals of spaceships.

"Since other humans occasionally come to Old Earth to conduct archaeological activities, you only need to track the signals of these small units, memorize their movement charts and how long they stayed, and triangulate the coordinates of the ruin they found. After those teams left, you'd send the coordinates to the related department and have them send people out to scavenge. The order trickled down the system until it was carried out by the scavengers."

Hank was hit by the truth when he heard that. "So, that is the truth behind those coordinates!"

Before this, he had been curious about where the coordinates for their mission objective came from, and now he had the answer.

"You disgusting creature! The Corben family has always had the power to communicate with the outside world, but you've been using years upon years of lies to enslave us! To limit our thoughts, to hide the truth from us!"

The more he ruminated on it, the angrier he became. He, his family, and his ancestors had lived such pitiful lives. From their birth to their death, they were dictated by another person.

York scoffed.

"Humph… Truth? Even without that, the villagers are surviving just fine, aren't they?" He raised his voice and continued in a matter-of-fact tone. "It is us Corbens who gave you a purpose in life; we have even given you a religion. From your birth to your death, as long as you follow the rules and do the work you're given, you will have a roof over your head, clothes on your back, food on the table, and a family to care for. You will have a life without worry and confusion. What is so bad about that?"

He turned to face Hank and uttered in a condescending tone, "Do you understand the real world? You really think the outside is better than this place? I've read the history of Old Earth, and I know that today's human beings haven't really learned their lesson. Nothing has changed. As long as there are humans, there will be sin and war, be it on Earth or in space.

"The Village of Heavenly Blessing is true paradise! Do not forget that it is the Corben family that has given you this paradise!"