Anonymous

At 11:46 p.m. on May 11th, not much time was left for the Book of Gospel to rush its homework. All members of the Funeral Agency gathered in the living room, quietly waiting for the Book of Gospel to hand in its first exam paper. "Daddy, what's that outside?" Yaxiu narrowed his eyes, gazing out at the colossal light screen towering in the city center. Strangely, when he focused his attention on it, his vision suddenly sharpened to an astonishing degree, allowing him to see the light screen clearly even from several kilometers away. "That's the city announcement light screen." Annan curled up in a red leather armchair. Dressed in pinkish-purple pajamas and a nightcap, she cradled a mug of hot chocolate milk, lapping at it slowly like a kitten. "A 'Focus' miracle is cast upon it. Regardless of distance, as long as you look at it, you can clearly see its contents. It's only used for major holidays." "Occurring once every fifty years, the Weaving Ceremony is without doubt a major holiday." The impeccably dressed butler Banjie said, "This is actually a relic of the old era. Fifty years ago, Book of Gospel devices were not cheap enough for everyone to own one. Back then, there were even 'Shared Gospel Books' and 'Gospel Inquiry Booths'... So public light screens like this emerged to broadcast information widely, becoming a tradition over several decades. In reality, given the current penetration rate of Gospel devices, city light screens no longer serve any real purpose." "I, on the other hand, quite like outdated and superfluous things. They are rich with the sediment of history." Igola sat by the dining table, swirling the ice cubes in his glass. "The most charming and meaningful part of history is precisely that it is already obsolete and superfluous." Harvey sat in the farthest corner, silently puffing on his cat grass smoke, looking as if he were being ostracized. However, a coffin rested beside him, so the reality was probably that he and the coffin were ostracizing everyone else. Yaxiu sat down in another red leather armchair. Lisi wanted to sit there too, but she couldn't outmuscle his butt, so she had no choice but to sit sullenly by the dining table. The cult leader looked around and asked, "Why are you two dressed in formal attire?" Yaxiu, Lisi, and Annan were all in pajamas, and Banjie wore his butler suit—or rather, Yaxiu and the others had never seen him out of it. Yet Harvey and Igola were fully geared up, boots and all—keep in mind that they had worn slippers the past few days, and Igola had even stopped wearing slippers after discovering how clean the floors were. "My 'Revelation' sorcery spirit issued a warning," Igola said. "Better safe than sorry." "Same here," Harvey said. "When I was smoking at noon, hazy and losing track of time, I saw Zangief, Linda, Akli, and Sushibiya urging me to run for my life..." "Question!" Yaxiu raised a hand. "Are you schizophrenic?" "No, those are my beloved friends and family, my brothers—" "Understood. Dead people," Yaxiu said. "So something is likely to go wrong tonight? Then should we—" "Don't panic." Annan was the calmest among them. "The Doran clan has records of this phenomenon as well. Whenever the day comes for the Weaving Ceremony to release its boards, the prophecy and destiny factions are both affected. The answers obtained are either extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad. I performed three prophecies today: two celebrated that good things would happen to me, while one warned me to leave immediately or face imminent disaster." Since the local said so, Yaxiu naturally believed her. Still, Harvey and Igola showed no intention of changing their clothes; perhaps they couldn't be bothered, or perhaps they trusted their own judgment more. Yaxiu suddenly summoned his Book of Gospel and asked, "By the way, does checking the Future Boards cost points?" "Not during these hundred days. Once the Weaving Ceremony ends, checking past Future Boards will cost points," Annan said. "When the first board is woven, a bookmark will appear in our Books of Gospel, prompting us to see which prominent figures will emerge over the next fifty years." "Speaking of which, is there any way to make the list anonymously?" Yaxiu suddenly recalled a classic trope from online games in his past life. "If making the list draws too much attention, wouldn't being anonymous solve the problem?" "I'm afraid that's impossible." Banjie shook his head. "Though we still don't know why the Omniscient Weaver holds the Weaving Ceremony—perhaps to control the future, perhaps to inspire the populace—in any case, the Weaving Ceremony is certainly not meant to serve the Echoers. "Echoers would surely all want to make the list anonymously, but Echoers are merely tools on display for the ceremony. The Book of Gospel would never take an Echoer's wishes into consideration." "However," Annan remarked suddenly, "a board that allows anonymity isn't entirely nonexistent." Banjie paused slightly, then immediately realized what she meant. "That's an exception among exceptions. It's meaningless..." Igola keenly caught scent of a secret. "What are you talking about?" "Among thousands upon thousands of Gospel lists, there is only one where every single person listed is anonymous," Annan said. "Though getting on that board is hardly a good thing; it doesn't even grant point rewards." Yaxiu asked, "A board for murderers?" "The Massacre Board is one of the few rankings criminals can enter. Aside from fierce competition, its rewards are even richer than ordinary boards, though at the cost of being caught more easily by the Red Hats—a give-and-take," Annan said, shaking her head. "But the List of the Unconnected I'm referring to offers only losses, without a single reward." "The unconnected..." Lisi murmured. "That sounds so pitiful." Banjie elaborated from the side. "The List of the Unconnected is the strangest ranking in Gospel. There is only one criterion to get on it: having no ties. "Those forgotten by society, needed by no one, cared for by no one, who don't even care about themselves—they are the ones who appear on this list. Furthermore, no one else can see the identity of those listed; only the listed individuals know. "Generally speaking, everyone who appears on this board is a minor under seventeen years of age. There are no adults." Igola asked, "Why? Because once they become adults, they'll be needed?" "Because they don't live to adulthood." A brief silence fell over the living room. Harvey blew out a smoke ring. "Why? What happens to them?" "Nobody knows," Banjie said. "All we can see from the rankings is that a name on the List of the Unconnected suddenly vanishes one day." Yaxiu said, "It could also be that someone needed them—" "While the Book of Gospel conceals their specific information, it doesn't prevent us from looking up why an unconnected person dropped off the board," Annan said. "Only an infinitesimal fraction drop off because they 'no longer meet the listing criteria.' The vast majority drop off because 'target is no longer in Gospel Country.'" No longer in Gospel Country—then where did they go? In any case, it couldn't be voluntary departure from Gospel Country. Having experienced crossing borders firsthand, Yaxiu and the others understood better than anyone what a perilous journey traveling between two realms was. Severing ties with the country of one's birth to start anew in an entirely different society and culture was practically no different from transmigrating. Not to mention that many nations executed outsiders to prevent invasion—Blood Moon did, and Gospel was no exception. Therefore, the most likely reason for an unconnected person to fall off the ranking was: judged by the Book of Gospel as useless trash not needed by society, they were gifted a life restart package. "Perhaps the unconnected are all taken to heaven by the Omniscient Weaver to enjoy bliss," Annan said calmly. "Or perhaps they fall into hell," Igola said coldly. "How cruel. When the unconnected hear the Book of Gospel declare that they are the most unloved children in the world, what kind of feelings brew in their young, tender hearts?" "I thought you were a social Darwinist, Mr. Bojin," Annan said, somewhat surprised. "Supporting society's natural elimination of the weak who cannot survive." "I naturally support the natural elimination of the weak, but I do not support a high-and-mighty god passing judgment on them," Igola said. "Even if hell lies ahead, one should walk down on one's own two feet, not be tied up and thrown down by a god." Annan said, "Don't you think they might have lacked the courage to end their own lives? The fact that they made the list means they had already walked ninety-nine steps; the Book of Gospel merely pushed them through the final one." "True," Yaxiu said. "According to the criteria, those without ties probably had no desire to go on living. They were like someone writing a messy article, and the Book of Gospel merely helped them draw a rushed, botched period. For them, it might be a relief. "Yet the fact that they didn't choose to end their own lives shows that in their hearts, they still hoped to compose a beautiful story later on. Possessing such immense power and acting as their editor, even if the Book of Gospel refused to give them a featured recommendation, there was no need to urge them to wrap up their story in haste." "The power of miracles is not meant to destroy the weak, but to forge the strong," Harvey said placidly as well. "Just as the necromancy faction does not exist to pile up death, but to hold life high."