Dawn always came early in Vila Nova Dônia. At 5: 30 in the morning, the lighthouse was gradually lit up, signaling the arrival of a new day and new work.
Someone once suggested that since it was all man-made light, they could extend the lighting to give residents a longer day in order to obtain higher work benefits.
However, after experiments, they found that an overly long day would cause people to feel depressed and tired. The extra one or two hours would break the residents' daily biological clocks, making them unable to adjust their daily routines in the cycle.
Sounds tongue-twisting? Well, for example, if one stayed at home all the time, it was easy to die suddenly. Even if one's sleeping time reached the basic standard, one would not be able to concentrate for a long time after waking up in the morning and would not be able to work. It was much more efficient to adjust to the day and night arranged by God.
To intelligent beings, artificial light could never compare to the radiance of nature. After countless instances of arbitrary God reaping different kinds of bitter fruits, most of the underground cities and Misty Zones that couldn't see the light of day still used natural time to arrange people's work and rest.
As a teenager who was still in his adolescence, Rorschach always felt that he did not have enough sleep. However, recently, his increasingly troublesome work made him consciously wake up early.
This was because if he did not hurry up, not only would he have to wake up early and sleep late, but he would also have to work overtime from noon the day before to noon the next day.
In a sense, Rorschach could be considered a high-level employee who worked for him. However, he did not dare to slack off on his work. If he could not complete his work, it would be his loss.
When Roland woke up in the morning, he first went to the sixth floor of the Victory Building and wandered around. That was the editorial office of Absolute Truth (Dounia Branch). If it wasn't for the fact that it was close to the publication date, Roland wouldn't have needed to be stationed there.
He chatted with Saft, the manager who was hired from the stowaways, and then arranged the recent material and the focus of the report with the managing editor, Hermit.
Yes, it was Hermit from the past, his former bodyguard, the descender descender of the Game Church.
When he was in Aishi, Rorschach had tried to throw the daily work of the magazine to him, and he did a good job.
Being able to become a descender chosen by the gods was already proof of his potential. At the very least, with enough trust and training, it would not be difficult for him to become the managing editor of a magazine.
Rorschach was very busy, too busy. His own cultivation, the Game Church's chores, Aishi's matters … There were too many things that he had to do personally. He couldn't split himself up.
In less than three years, he had already done and wanted to do too many things. Naturally, he could only throw away the daily and less urgent work.
Rorschach would review every issue of the magazine if he wasn't too busy. If there was an important piece of news, he would write it himself. Other than that, he would temporarily hand over the management of the magazine to Hermit.
But this time, the upcoming issue of "Absolute Truth" made Rorschach frown.
"The other churches have private contact with Cape Town, and even made an alliance before the mock battle? Is this information confirmed? "
"Not only is it confirmed, but there are also photos as evidence. These bastards betrayed us in just a few days. Or perhaps they never trusted the so-called alliance from the start! "
Hermit's words were full of disdain. He, who aimed to become a noble knight, really looked down on these bastards who betrayed the alliance just like that.
Rorschach flipped through the information … or to be more precise, it was a few envelopes of reports and photos.
The general content was that A reported that B had an affair with Cape Town, B reported that C had a private alliance with Cape Town, and C reported that A … this was not an exaggeration.
After flipping through a few photos, Rorschach actually saw people from different churches appearing at the same time. He guessed that their envoys might have bumped into each other at the mayor's mansion in Cape Town, which was why there were such embarrassing photos as evidence.
"… This is really a headache-inducing development."
Rorschach sighed helplessly. Although this was within his expectations, it was really a pity that things had developed to this extent.
If he hadn't borrowed the power of so many churches, Vila Nova Dônia would never have been built. But with so many people, their hearts would naturally be scattered. Especially now that the situation was stable and they didn't have to worry too much about their own safety, it was only natural that they would start to have all sorts of little schemes.
Cape Town colluded with their competitors and privately agreed on various allocations. Then, they would either go easy on them or defect to the enemy in the simulated battle. This was all too natural.
Right now, the strongest single faction was Cape Town. They were even stronger than Novodonia and Mount Sainte combined. Even if they could only get some leftovers, it would still be better than becoming a loser who was destined to sigh in despair.
After all, everyone was competing with each other on a daily basis. Now that the city's background was stable, they could reach out to other races and "betray" the other competitors to a certain extent. This counted as a form of additional competition.
"… That's probably what they're all thinking."
Rorschach's expression remained calm as he organized the information and recorded the names of these churches.
From the very beginning, he knew that this was destined to happen. The headache that Rorschach mentioned wasn't because of these traitors.
"Even if there's a betrayal, there must be a reason. With so many churches doing this at the same time, those guys from Cape Town should have taken the initiative to send out invitations."
This was what gave Rorschach a headache. Cape Town had already taken action against the outside world.
Traitors weren't scary, because there was no trust to speak of from the very beginning. However, if the enemy sent out such an invitation, it meant that they had seen through Dounia's most fatal weakness under its powerful appearance — its internal authority was too scattered. If it wasn't a matter of life and death, it would be like a pile of loose sand.
However, this was a dead knot that couldn't be solved. There were no long-term partners between the churches. There was only present competition and future competition. They would never be able to trust each other.
The more peaceful and stable the city was, the more intense the internal strife would be. There was simply no solution.
"Send them all out."
"… Do we need to list the names of the informants?"
Although the informants were more or less covered up, the Game Church's excellent informants had long since found the informants in this small city.
After thinking for a moment, Rorschach shook his head.
"There's no need. Just write that the informants are confidential. Don't ruin our reputation for such petty profits."
Rorschach rejected Hermit's suggestion, although it was indeed quite tempting.
If these letters of mutual reports were placed in front of the world, it would not just be a normal scandal. It would also be a blow to the reputation of the churches involved. It would also cause conflict and friction between the people who reported each other. But …
"Don't look so regretful. It hasn't been long, and you've become so dark. Don't hang out with Isabella so much in the future … Don't think about it. Even if we don't list our names, Dounia is only so big. Won't they be able to guess who we are? Uneasy suspicions are more terrifying than real threats. If we don't list our names, we'll be implicated even more, and they'll hate us even more. "
At first, Hermit was at a loss. Then, he suddenly understood and nodded.
"Yep, yep. How can Miss Isabella compare to you? I should be the one following you. The rumors were right. You're the most … pure and kind person in the church. Yep, as expected of 'The Most Honest Rorschach.' "
Rorschach glared at Hermit, who was probably describing him as dark or cunning.
Although Rorschach knew that Hermit was lying, this nickname of 'The Most Honest' didn't seem to be anything good. Rorschach didn't intend to pursue the matter any further. After all, he knew that he definitely didn't have a good reputation for being kind and pure in the small circle of descenders.
He flipped through the information, but his thoughts were far away. If you wanted to find the mastermind behind a scheme, you would have to start from the beneficiaries. Perhaps Cape Town was behind this informant's letter as well, and the chaos it would cause would be something that the mastermind would be happy to see.
"Ha, let's get rich. Just add some oil to the fire. After all, it'll be easier for us to develop if things get more chaotic."
"… You're so honest."
Now that they had reached an agreement, Hermit went to make the arrangements. After all, he already had a plan in mind. He was just giving Rorschach the final decision.
If there were conflicts between the major churches, the Game Church would actually benefit from it as well. After all, the authorities would always lose their Fear Scepter due to accidents, while the grassroots would do everything possible to seize every opportunity to rise up.
"It's even better if things get more chaotic. It'll give us opportunities and opportunities to develop. It'll also prevent those major churches from teaming up to suppress us."
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