The next day, Stonebury was abuzz.

Many important people, including the Town Mayor, Andrew Spencer, and dozens of wealthy and powerful people, went missing. While leaderless, the workplaces were managed by competent middle management, but they struggled without the support of higher management.

Furthermore, some crucial professionals, such as surgeons, judges, Barristers, Engineers, Professors, Bankers, stockbrokers, and even clergy, were no longer there, creating a void!

While everyone was still adjusting, finding ways to fill the sudden power vacuum, something dark was happening in the middle of no-man's land...

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A recently constructed stone prison with many cells stood in the middle of an unoccupied forest. And beneath that prison, in a huge space, were many skeletons, so neatly cleaned and cut that all their skin, muscles, and organs were cleanly dissected and extracted, placed in jars.

This was done to grind several related medical skills, and even butchering-related skills. They even obtained a Flaying skill.

Of course, their grinding was far from done...

"Begin their revival." Asher coldly said.

Several clones clasped their hands and began praying for the Steam God. Praying was a foundational Comprehension Skill for Clergy and the basis for Holy Magic... Such as Revival Magic, which they learned from books and priests.

Suddenly, skeletons were set ablaze, burning like coal as steam rose from them, forming rainclouds that poured water down upon them. Within minutes, flesh, sinew, organs, and skin regrew, forming complete, albeit naked, bodies.

While it was easier to revive corpses in the church upon an altar, field revival was also possible and common. Moreover, depending on one's skill level, the penalties can be partially reduced. When a Demigod revived someone, they would only suffer 40% of the penalty (2 levels), and the weakness time would be eliminated.

As for the trio... while they couldn't train the Revival Spell on people, you could also practice alone, so they have long since reached the absolute limit of lvl 10,000, meaning that they further reduced the penalty to 20%. For those on Normal Mode, if they die, they only suffer a 1-lvl decrease and no recovery time, while for those on Hard Mode, their level and skills are reduced by 4 levels instead of 20!

Compared to being revived at the church by a rookie priest, this is an extremely luxurious treatment! But the people present were fated not to enjoy this pleasant surprise... not one bit. Especially since the trio intentionally controlled the revival process to let the people present be weak yet clear-headed. It was a simple manipulation for them, who reached the peak.

"Hah!" Andrew woke up, taking a deep breath, opening his eyes wide as he found himself among the living once more.

He clearly remembered how he died for the first time- Getting spat at with a magically-embued lead bullet that failed to kill its immortal target... After he shot her in the fucking head!

"This will haunt my worst nightmares..." Andrew thought as he tried getting up, thinking he was revived within a church.

However, he soon noticed that this wasn't a church's ceiling, but a cold, stone one, and he was lying on the floor.

Struggling to look left and right, he discovered that several individuals, who appeared as copies of either a man or two women, were resurrecting skeletons. He quickly deduced that he was one of those skeletons just a while ago!

"So they are resurrecting everyone who died? But why is everyone a skeleton? And wait... one man and two distinct women? And there are many copies of them? Oh no..."

Finally, Andrew understood that his killers were the ones who were resurrecting them! Andrew quickly checked his status and found that he barely dropped 4 levels. This didn't make him happy... He was worried!

"Just 4 levels?! Even a Demigod could only reduce it to 8 levels, yet they reduced it to 4?! Who are they?! No... Impossible. But they have so many clones... Are they... Gods? What did we do to offend the gods?!"

Once this realization set in, Andrew began shaking in true fear. Never in his life did he feel so much fear.

"Ah, you are awake~. Good, good. I thought for a moment that getting shot in the head turned you stupid." A playful female voice sounded in front of him.

Looking down, he saw his killer, playfully dressed like the servants in the banquet, looking at him with a cold, sadistic smile behind her silver mask, making him even more scared.

"P-Please... I am from the Spencer Family... I have money, okay?! I have a lot of money and connections! I can give you whatever you want, so please let me go..." Andrew begged for his life.

Nidawei gave him a gentle smile. And just when he thought she would agree, raising his hopes, she slightly raised her heel and-

Thump*

She gently kicked him in the nuts.

"GYAAA!!!!" Andrew screamed, cold sweat forming on his newly resurrected body.

"Poor, misguided lamb... if you plead with me like that, it would just make me want to hurt you more~." Nidawei gently said, retracting her high heels.

"Nidawei, stop playing with your food! These guys won't revive themselves, you know?!" Sonia complained.

"Yes, yes~" Nidawei lightheartedly replied as she went to her next victim.

Soon, everyone in the room was revived, naked and afraid. However, one of them was absolutely hysterical.

"My baby... My baby!" A woman exclaimed, patting her now-empty and smooth stomach.

When a pregnant woman dies, her unborn child will forever die. It was a strange mechanism within the world, or perhaps a protective one, preventing an unborn child from reviving as a fetus outside the mother's body. To the cold system, fetuses were not players or monsters, just lumps of unregistered flesh, unable to revive. It is because of this that pregnant mothers were encouraged not to enter the dungeon or fight monsters... And the killing of a pregnant woman was a far more severe crime than murdering a defenseless child.

"Don't worry, ma'am, your baby is safe and sound... right within this jar here. See?" Asher teasingly said, raising a jar filled with an unborn, dead fetus.

"A-Ah.... Ahh!!!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!!" The woman screamed, but was unable to get up due to her weakness.

Asher noncommittally smiled and put the jar back on the floor. Normally, he wouldn't kill an unborn child, even if the mother was scum, but considering who he was dealing with and what she did... She deserved the Special Treatment.

And then, a trio wearing nobler clothes, wearing gold masks, walked inside and stood before the newly revived people.

"Okay, scum. Today is your judgment day. You are hereby convicted of murder, cannibalism, body mutilation, child abuse, general corruption, etc." Asher coldly said.

"And so, we decided to punish you by giving you your just desserts... Quite literally, at that." Sonia meaningfully added.

"But first... We invited some Special Guests." Nidawei mysteriously said.

As soon as she said that, a line of people entered the room, from young to old, men and women of all walks of life. But they all shared one thing in common- They all looked at the people lying down with a mixture of fear, disgust, and bone-deep hatred!

"N-No, in can't be..."

"Impossible..."

"Oh no... oh no... oh no...!"

Andrew also saw someone he recognized, his eyes shaking, almost bulging as he saw a man who resembled him.

"Kasper...?! How? You were locked in a secretive prison... How did they find you?" Andrew asked in disbelief, looking at his half-brother.

Kasper, a scholarly man in his mid-twenties with glasses, looked at his half-brother with disappointment, disgust, and hatred.

"Luckily, the three benefactors saved me from your secret prison, along with other unfortunate souls. Otherwise, I would be repeatedly killed and eaten by you like a piece of meat before being subjected to slavery in god-knows-where." Kasper spat in disgust.

Meanwhile, other familiar faces were in the scene, including the murdered prostitute, who was guided to The Harvester. Some people were slaves, others were servants, and some were even dungeon explorers, who were murdered in the dungeon.

Each of them was guided to their assailant, and while some were more timid than others, all of them shared a common hatred.

In particular, the previously pregnant woman was approached by a haggard woman in a dress, looking at her with gritted teeth. She was a slave woman and was pregnant, but the pregnant cultist woman specifically targeted her, extracting all her organs, including her unborn child... while alive!

But strangely, the victims didn't attack the people on the ground on sight. Instead, they looked on coldly. This made the cultists even more afraid.

"What do they want to do?!" Was the question everyone asked themselves.

At this time, the three golden-masked trio spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this bunch of scum here has mistreated you, harvested your organs, eaten them, tortured you, and discarded you like used rags... And we are sure that you are merely the latest victims, and there are many more like you out there. So now, we give you an opportunity... for revenge." Asher said, gesturing to the blind, fat worm-thing behind them, that couldn't move or think, or even do anything other than eat and produce meatballs.

"Since they want to eat so much... we will let them eat, and eat, and eat some more. And every time, we will kill them, extract all their organs, revive them, and repeat the cycle. Now, we give you the chance to participate... You may lovingly feed them... and repeatedly kill them for the levels you lost... Of course, if you are faint of heart, you may leave through that door... we won't stop you, and will even escort you back to your homes." Asher gestured to the exit like a gentleman.

However, no one left the room. While some of them were gentle souls, their hatred was deep enough to partake in this horrid show.

Meanwhile, the cultists were now truly afraid as they began begging for their lives, their faces disgusting to behold.

"N-No! Don't do this!"

"Do you know who my family is?!"

"I have money! A lot of money!"

"I have a family! Please, don't do this!"

"Slaves, property, anything! Please, spare me!"

However, this begging didn't help them. The victims coldly looked at them. At this point, nothing could sway them. They just wanted to see these scum suffer.

Ignoring them, the servant-dressed clones, one by one, picked the disassembled parts and brought them to the worm-like creature, feeding it. Within moments, it became a meatball-producing factory, producing more and more meatballs.

As everyone present was a high-level individual, the meatballs they produced were all at least deep red, if not purple or blue!

Once a meatball was produced, the silver-masked servant brought it to the victim and asked individually.

"Do you want to feed him yourself? Or should I do it?"

Some of them hesitated for a moment before not having the spine to do it, but others, who held a deep enough hatred, were willing to do it.

"N-No, brother, please, don't...!" Andrew begged for mercy, but Kasper coldly brought over a deep blue ball of meat to Andrew's mouth before wordlessly force-feeding him.

"Y-You wench! Lowly slave! Don't you dare!" The ex-pregnant cultist screamed like a hysterical shrew at the previously pregnant victim.

"This is for my unborn child, you bitch!" The victim snarled with pure hatred, grabbing the weakened cultist by the hair and force-feeding her the ball of meat that was composed of the cultist's flesh, organs, and unborn child.

True to the trio's words, the trio indeed gave the cultists "A Feast That Will Give You Your Fill." Literally.

If any cultist was particularly strong even after being weakened, the servant clones did a service to the victims by breaking the cultist's limbs, allowing better access.

Once all the cultists were force-fed, the clone servants gave the victims guns.

"Go ahead and kill them. Take back the levels and experience they deprived you."

Without much hesitation, even the most timid of the victims raised the guns and fired at the defenseless cultists. After killing them, all the victims gained a wave of high-end experience, making their levels increase by at least 1, with some even reaching a whopping 10!

Those with weak stomachs couldn't help but vomit, but the silver-masked servants helped soothe them by casting healing spells.

Of course, this was just the beginning of this vicious cycle. After being asked to leave the room, the silver-masked servants began their work, dissecting the corpses again until they were shiny skeletons, reviving them, before calling the victims back. After feeding the worm once more and creating meatballs, they fed the cultists again, raising their levels, before killing them again.

And the process repeated itself...

Again...

And again...

And again...

And again...

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By the time it was over, three days had passed. All the Normal Difficulty victims reached lvl 100, while those on Hard Mode at least restored their level, if not more. Some of the more soft-hearted victims stopped after they reached lvl 100, letting those on Hard Mode kill their targets instead, which they gladly did.

Of course, the victims didn't kill ALL the time... they at least got breaks in-between, eating delicious food and sleeping in comfortable beds, which the trio prepared for them.

Meanwhile, the cultists were vacant-eyed after being repeatedly killed dozens, if not hundreds of times, and forced to eat the meatballs composed of their own body parts. What they once perceived as delicious was now so nauseating that they wanted to puke out everything, yet were unable to. Now, all of them were lvl 1 and powerless, like the worst criminal slaves, locked within tight dungeon cells, naked, like poultry or cattle.

Naturally, the trio, who grinded all the related skills to the True Limit, benefited the most. To them, all of the additional farce was just a pleasant pastime.

At this time, the trio went up to the victims and spoke to them.

"Now that you had your revenge, you are all free. And with your newfound strength, your lives would surely be better. However, some of you are freer than others..." Asher meaningfully said.

While many of the victims were free civilians, and even powerful and influential people, some were slaves. And slaves had few rights, especially since they were now ownerless. By law, they would either be inherited as property by the closest relatives or taken by the authorities as public slaves.

The slaves, who heard this, lowered their heads, feeling sad. Now, their fates were unknown.

At this time, Kasper walked forward and spoke.

"Thank you for your aid, our three saviors. I can handle things from here and help free them from their bondage and offer them jobs. They don't deserve any more mistreatment..." Kasper respectfully said.

"Ah, that saves us the trouble. Thank you." Sonia smiled.

"But saviors, what will you do with the scum? Would you like me to help you get rid of them?" Kasper asked, squinting in the direction where the lvl 1 cultists were held.

"Ah, no need for that. I will give them true oblivion." Asher cheerfully smiled.

But Kasper and everyone else couldn't help but shiver. That sunny smile was terrible when put on this mad savior of theirs.

Finally, the trio gave the victims some money and property, mostly from their aggressors, and sent them all outside Stonebury.

As for the cultists... Asher just shoved them all into his Storage. It was the first time he did this, and he wanted to see how the system would react.

 

 

After reading this, Asher shrugged.

"Meh..."

And so, the trio returned to their lives, this small episode ending.