Life Game In Other World
Chapter 476: The Sacrifice 40 Years Ago

Chapter 476: Chapter 476: The Sacrifice 40 Years Ago

Janos was the first eyewitness to the incident at the time, according to his description in the dossier.

He had received a message from his father instructing him to go down to the third floor, to find his father in the underground garden.

He entered the underground garden, walked in, and was startled by the sight of his blood-covered father. His father, also surprised to see him, quickly grabbed him and ran towards the exit, splattering his own blood all over him.

After they got out, his father hugged him tight, but he didn’t get far before collapsing to the ground, dead in his arms.

The dossier contained the coroner’s forensic report from that time.

Janos’s father had been stabbed to death from the front, and the weapon used was found in a corner of the underground garden—a sharp dagger that bore no fingerprints.

The investigative team found a destroyed array in the underground garden that appeared to be part of some bizarre sacrificial ritual.

There was also an investigative report on this array by a mysticism expert from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the dossier.

The first page of the report was a warning, saying that it contained esoteric knowledge about the Evil God and advising caution while reading, with a recommendation that ordinary people should avoid it if possible.

Nock noted here that he took a picture of this report with his eyes closed, so the text might be a bit unclear.

Although this kid is mostly impetuous, his top ranking isn’t without merit. He has a rather clear understanding of the field of mysticism and knows what can and can’t be read.

Then follows the content of the report.

Although most of the Array was destroyed, the FBI’s mysticism expert still deduced that it was a "Linked Sacrifice Array."

This was a type of Array that cultists used to please the Evil God they worshiped.

However, this Sacrificial Array was different from ordinary communication ceremonies or Sacrificial Arrays. The ’believer’ who hosted this type of Array was usually a core follower who was closer to the Divine Being, or possibly even the leader of the Church.

This type of Array required the sacrificer to offer certain ’special items’ to gain favor from the Divine Being and to deepen the connection with them.

The Evil God’s preference for special items varied, and these items usually depended on the Evil God’s likes and attributes.

The author of the report did not give specific examples here, perhaps because he did not know the preferences of those Evil Gods, or maybe he feared that revealing this secret knowledge could be abused by those with intentions.

In any case, the expert could not determine to which Evil God this Linked Sacrifice Array belonged.

However, he hypothesized that the Array had very likely been activated, and its destruction was possibly due to some deviation that occurred during its operation, causing it to shatter.

And then the report abruptly ends.

At this point, He Ao paused in his movements.

In fact, the following events were easy to infer. In the third sublevel, which required multiple identity verifications and was the deepest part of the Senator’s villa, who could set up a sacrificial ceremony in the Senator’s often-visited underground garden without being detected?

Moreover, this sacrificial ceremony did not seem like something that could be set up quickly.

The answer was becoming obvious.

The Senator himself was conducting an Evil God Sacrifice in his own underground garden.

But could a Federation Senator engage in such an Evil God Sacrifice?

No.

Therefore, the report was not written any further, and the case became an unresolved one.

The general course of the event was quite obvious: the Senator himself was conducting an Evil God Sacrifice, and some deviation in the sacrificial ritual led to his accidental death.

The case of the Senator’s murder had already caused a huge stir at the time and was widely monitored throughout the Federation.

So, the case couldn’t be investigated any further, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation had adopted a cold case strategy of stalling.

People’s patience is always limited, and every day there are brand new news stories that capture their attention, so when this matter is forgotten by everyone, the case was essentially ’closed.’

He Ao flipped through the pages of the file, only to find that the frequency of documented reports reduced significantly thereafter, with essentially one inconsequential report every month or two.

In the end, after an investigation that lasted for a year, the case was hastily closed with the conclusion that the murder of the Senator was the act of cultists.

After that, the Federal Bureau of Investigation never conducted any further investigations into this case.

He Ao flipped the file to the very beginning, had Eve create a fake network address, and used it to log into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s intranet to access the online archives.

Stored in these online archives on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cloud server were a large number of on-scene photographs from back then.

He Ao went through these on-scene photographs one by one.

The earliest pictures were of the Senator’s death scene, these photographs also included the first scene video shot by law enforcement body cameras.

The video began with severe shaking, followed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents filling the entire corridor.

The child pressed into the pool of blood, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent lifting the child out, it seemed as though it was little Janos who had called the police.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the frame, the Senator’s corpse lay face down on the ground, his face twisted with anger and disbelief, eyes wide open and suffused with bright red blood vessels, as if refusing to accept his demise.

Next came another video—a different angle, seemingly picked up right after the previous one.

The Senator still lay on the ground, while next to him, covered in blood and curled up in the corner with a face filled with fear, was little Janos.

Little Janos, only eight at the time, was wrapped in a red blanket, holding a bottle of water handed to him by a Federal Bureau of Investigation staff member, shaking all over, his eyes filled with fear and confusion.

He was placed on a gurney by some of the Federal Bureau of Investigation staff and pushed out of the scene.

Other Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were taking photos and examining the scene.

This video wasn’t long, just a few seconds, and it ended quickly.

He Ao looked at the other photographs.

Perhaps due to the involvement of the Evil God, there weren’t many photographs of the underground garden.

However, among these few photographs, He Ao still found what he was looking for.

A photograph of flowers soaked in blood.

These flowers surrounded a small circular pool, the clear water now stained red with blood, with blood-smeared blossoms around it and a patch pressed clear in the bed of flowers, following a blood-stained path that stretched all the way to the garden entrance.

It appeared that Janos’s father had struggled to run out of the garden from this spot.

It seemed that this small circular pool was the site of the ’sacrifice,’ and the dry pool that He Ao had seen upon his visit earlier today must be the same one near the center.

Judging by the fallen flowers around it, it seemed there had been a minor conflict by this pool, but it must have been brief, ending almost as quickly as it began.

And He Ao’s gaze stayed on the blood-stained pool.

The pool seemed to contain nothing but blood, some areas untouched by blood remained clear and transparent.

He Ao took out a vial of the Life Elixir, observing the milky, semi-transparent liquid.

If the diluted Fountain of Youth changed color, then the original liquid of the Fountain must also have had a color and not be transparent like the water in the pond in the photograph.

Moreover, if the pool had contained the Fountain of Youth back then, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on the scene would not have failed to notice it.

They may not have as strong a capacity to sense life force, but such a significant presence of the Fountain of Youth right before their eyes would still be discernible.

He Ao set down the Life Elixir and fell into brief contemplation.

If what was inside wasn’t the Fountain of Youth, then where did that overpowering life force come from?

He Ao lifted his head and looked at Roger, who was still studying the grass roots beside him, "Roger, if the sacrificial ceremony of the Life Goddess Church fails, would the goddess send some kind of monster to kill the ceremony’s presider?"

"How could that be?" Roger looked at He Ao in surprise, "The Goddess is very gentle. She usually doesn’t resort to bloodshed. She simply ’absorbs’ people into mummies, and the whole process is painless."

He Ao: ...

He didn’t know where to begin with his retort.

But compared to those gods who are quick to crush bones and scatter ashes, the Life Goddess did indeed seem quite ’gentle’.

After pondering for a while, He Ao continued, "Do you know what the Life Goddess’s Linked Sacrifice Ceremony requires as a sacrifice?"

"What kind of sacrificial ceremony?"

Roger raised his head, looking at He Ao.

...

He Ao sighed,

he should not have held any illusions about a priest who didn’t even read the holy scriptures.

He shrugged his shoulders and asked, "Can you ask your senior brother for me?"

"Sure," Roger put down the grass roots and started typing into his bracelet as he casually remarked, "The Goddess loves all things that possess life. The stronger the life force, the more it pleases her. If you’re conducting a sacrificial ceremony, just choose a sacrifice with strong enough life force."

"Do you think..." He Ao glanced at the archives displayed on his bracelet, paused to think, then asked, "Could the Life Goddess Church have core believers at the senatorial level?"

He Ao had expected an ambiguous response, but to his surprise, Roger shook his head firmly,

"We never develop politicians as core believers. They are the most cunning and shrewd, and for their own interest, they might betray the church at any time. Moreover, they often have the most disregard for life and do not ingratiate themselves well with the Life Goddess. Developing such core believers might result in being ’absorbed’ by the Goddess."

The Life Goddess does not like politicians.

Even though Evil Gods are generally insane and chaotic, they often have very clear and extreme likes and dislikes.

It’s just that most of the time, humans can’t understand their way of thinking.

Dislike means dislike.

Since that was the case, it was highly unlikely that Janos’s father was affiliated with the Life Goddess Church. Hence, the Evil God he was worshiping at the time probably wasn’t the Life Goddess.

He Ao’s train of thought had hit another deadlock.

Coming back to his senses, he decided not to dwell on that problem for the moment and started to look for other clues.

He continued to scroll through the videos and photos taken at the time that were stored in the archive.

In the remaining images, there was almost no useful content, as the majority were repeats of previous footage.

It seemed these photos came from different photographers and were not entirely in chronological order.

As He Ao flipped towards the back, he even began to see scenes from when the body was first discovered.

These repetitive scenes were of little significance, so he quickly flipped past them.

This continued for several seconds, and after what seemed an unfathomable number of photos, his hand suddenly stopped.

It was a photo similar to the previous scenes, where a group of people was inspecting the body, surrounded by traces of the scene.

However, unlike the previous photos,

at the bottom left of this photo, a small portion of the back of a small head was visible.

Below that head, a red object could be faintly discerned, which was a blanket draped over the body.

This little head belonged to little Janos.

At a moment when everyone’s attention was on his father’s body, little Janos was also looking at his father’s corpse.

Normally, a child looking at their deceased father is a very natural thing to do.

But He Ao felt there was something subtly off.

The old Senator’s facial expression at the time of his death wasn’t exactly ’friendly’. That contorted state wasn’t something an eight-year-old boy could handle.

Moreover, He Ao felt there was something wrong with the way little Janos was looking at his father’s corpse.

That gaze wasn’t one of pain and sorrow.

The boy in the photo held his back slightly straight, and it looked like his muscles were in some sort of tense state, which seemed more like ’alertness’ rather than grief.

He Ao furrowed his brow and began to go back through all the previous videos and photos.

Then he realized that in almost all scenes without someone’s gaze on him, little Janos was staring fixedly at his father’s body. However, these photos only showed a back or side view, and none of them showed little Janos’s frontal expression.

If there were only one or two photos without a frontal view, it could be attributed to poor timing. But if all the photos lacked a frontal view,

it implied that the eight-year-old little Janos was intentionally avoiding the camera.

Finally, He Ao clicked on the first video he had watched again. This time, he set it to a higher speed and activated Super Memory.

After little Janos was rescued, and as the camera turned to the old Senator’s corpse for an instant, the video briefly captured little Janos’s face.

He watched his father’s body like a wary, combat-ready warrior, as if expecting the corpse to rise from the ground and return from death at any second.

In this moment, He Ao felt a spark of inspiration flash through his mind.

He hastily exited and started to flip through those archives again.

Finally, he found a sentence in the concluding report, "The Senator’s body was collected by his family."

Janos had collected his father’s body.

The chaotic clues seemed to be pulled together by some kind of hook.

But something was missing, one final thread to string all the clues together.

He Ao realized that he must have fallen into some sort of false conclusion, similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at the time.

Those agents were not aware of the existence of the Fountain of Youth, so some of their conclusions might not align with the actual situation.

He Ao lifted his head and looked at Roger again.

"What’s up?"

Roger, who was looking at a research report on his bracelet, lifted his head and gazed at him.

He Ao quickly said, "Can you ask your senior brother again, if in a Linked Sacrifice Array, the sacrifice isn’t an ’Evil God’ but a high-level object without cognizance, what needs to be sacrificed and what effect can it have?"

Only a ’Divine Being’ that is alive and conscious would choose what it favors.