384: Chapter 372 Group Worship

The President and his Aides remained in the conference room, following the situation of each contestant without stepping away, even having their meals brought in by the secretary.

A week passed, and the results were finally out.

There were five contestants in total, and all of them successfully hunted down the calamity.

Aside from the unexpected method used by the Young Woman and the man who narrowly passed thanks to Zhang Mu's intervention, the other three completed the competition in a standard manner.

Farid was indeed an elite from the Security Bureau.

During the time waiting for the second stage to begin, he found a map of the forest where the wolf bone was obtained and spent most of his time every day studying the terrain.

Therefore, after the Young Woman left, he did not choose to flee but instead circled with the calamity in the forest. He constantly utilized his familiarity with the terrain and the advantage of the calamity's greatly reduced flexibility to widen the distance between them, immediately followed by firing shots to worsen the calamity's injuries.

Persisting like this for nearly half a month, he finally managed to grind it to death.

The other man and woman followed the route envisioned by the President and successfully passed the assessment.

Like the first man to pass, after they obtained the wolf bone and discovered the calamity was hunting them, they immediately fled, subsequently seeing the tanks and various weapons prepared by the Soldiers on the path ahead.

Both were lucky enough to successfully jump into the tanks. By chance, they had learned how to drive tanks, so after a simple familiarization with the internal environment, they resolved the suffering calamity with one shot.

Watching the four people being picked up by helicopters by the Soldiers on the screen one by one, the President's tense nerves finally relaxed.

The Aides were the same, all beaming with joy as they followed the President, who rose to walk out of the room, to the dining hall to enjoy what could be called the most reassuring lunch in nearly a year.

The next morning.

Having slept soundly, everyone woke up early and gathered in the conference room, eating breakfast while waiting for the five contestants who were about to arrive.

Not long after everyone was full, the helicopter carrying the five people landed with a roar on the open space outside.

The propellers slowly came to a stop, and the five people jumped off the cabin one by one.

As soon as they stood firm, they saw the smiling President and a group of Aides not far away.

Except for the Young Woman and Farid, the other three were in close contact with the President for the first time, having previously only seen him through television screens.

"Mr. President." Seeing a few people dazed, Farid stepped out to greet him, taking the opportunity to remind the others to do the same.

They were not stupid and, coming back to their senses, immediately stepped forward: "Hello, Mr. President."

It was not a conventional greeting, but the President did not mind: "Heroes of Russia, you have not let down the expectations of the citizens."

After the standard reception was completed, the President led the five into the conference room and asked if they had any special reactions after passing the assessment.

The five shook their heads simultaneously.

To be honest, if they were not sitting in front of the President at this moment, they would even doubt whether they had really participated in a supernatural recruitment competition.

Although the five were not quite the same as the supernatural freshmen from China and Ying Country after passing the test—China had a big commotion, with the light pillar of the Heart Inquiry shooting into the sky, while Ying Country had Owls all over the sky.

But he was not disappointed either, calmly chatting with the four people other than Farid, while looking forward to the arrival of Seventeen.

He did not wait too long. About an hour later, when the President was about to run out of polite words, the big man pushed the door open and walked in.

"Sir." The President, who was constantly paying attention to the door, discovered the visitor at the first moment and stood up immediately.

The big man nodded and scanned the five people sitting in a row: "Are you the five? Hmm... the talent is limited, but since you are qualified, I have no objections."

Hearing this, the five, whose hearts had been lifted halfway, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief—they thought the quotas in their hands were going to fall through.

"You five, if you have anything to explain to your relatives, go and do it now. After you finish, gather here and wait for Seventeen's car to pick you up."

"Yes!"

They were not clear why this was emphasized; did it mean they couldn't come back in the future?

With doubts in their hearts, the five dared not ask more, followed orders, and boarded the helicopter arranged by the President to rush home.

After dealing with this side, the big man looked at the President: "You should have something you want to ask me."

"Yes, sir."

"Before they come back, feel free to ask."

It would take at least a day for the five to return, but the President did not feel that time was abundant and asked quickly: "We found a statue of god on the snowy mountain nearby, it can..."

"I am very clear about the specific situation, just state the question."

"Okay." The President was not surprised, or rather, it would be surprising if the big man didn't know, "Mr. Gao from America entrusted Neo to tell us that we cannot seal off the area where the statue of god is located, and we must also try our best to promote its existence. Should we do as he says?"

"If you don't mind other countries relying on the statue of god to strengthen their power, then you don't need to do as he says."

The President's eyes lit up: "It won't bring calamity?"

"Whether it will bring a calamity depends on you."

An Aide, seeing that the President couldn't get to the point, couldn't help but stand up: "Mr. Examiner, we had a team of Soldiers who were bestowed with power. According to the Soldiers' recollection, this happened after they knelt and worshipped the statue of god, and then they tried to kneel and worship again, but did not receive a response. We guessed it might be because the attitude was not sincere enough, and wanted to ask you, is that so?"

"Something like that."

Sure enough!

The Aide became excited and hurriedly asked: "What counts as sincere?"

The big man smiled: "You don't even know if you are sincere?"

"Uh, according to the Soldiers' own accounts, they thought they were extremely sincere, but the result..."

"Don't worry about this, he will teach you."

He will teach us?

The Aide was stunned for a moment, exchanged glances with his colleagues, and then asked: "Does he have any negative effects?"

"I have already said, it depends on you."

"Then, what can he bestow?"

"You will know later." The big man crossed his arms over his chest and scanned everyone present: "Are there any other questions?"

The big man's tone was not heavy, and his face was quite kind, but for some reason, everyone felt a heavy burden pressing on their shoulders, and they all closed their mouths and shook their heads.

"Then see you at Seventeen." After speaking, the big man disappeared on the spot.

The inexplicable pressure disappeared, and everyone gasped for air. After relaxing, the Aide suggested to the President: "This is an opportunity, Mr. President!"

"Ah? What?" He seemed to be a beat slow to come back to his senses, his expression still dazed.

"The statue of god!" The Aide was emotionally agitated, "According to what Neo said, not only does Mosco have a statue of god, but China and others also have them. Our statue of god appeared first; they are not sure yet, but even if it's tomorrow, this afternoon, or the next second, it is an advantage for us! I propose to immediately mobilize the engineering team to build a road to the top of the mountain so that the citizens who come to worship can go up the mountain. In addition, publicity work must also be carried out immediately!"

After speaking a series of sentences, he took a breath and emphasized: "It must be fast! In terms of contact with the supernatural, we have fallen too far behind. The statue of god is the only chance to overtake, and it is fleeting!"

The President seemed to understand the importance of the matter and immediately called the secretary to sign the document.

...

Zhang Mu activated the Transformation Technique, turning into an ordinary Middle-aged Man from Mosco, walking slowly on the streets of Mosco.

After walking for a while, he came to a pedestrian street.

On the giant screen on the outer wall of the commercial building in the middle of the street, a host was popularizing everything about the statue of god, and explaining that the authorities planned to build a mountain road to facilitate the public to go and worship.

Zhang Mu stood on the sidewalk, raised his head slightly, and looked at the screen from a distance: "Quite fast."

The pedestrians shopping around did the same thing, so the noisy pedestrian street was quiet at this moment. As the first round of news finished playing and the second round of loops began, the silent pedestrian street finally returned to noise, or even more so.

People discussed enthusiastically with friends and family.

They did not question such news that violated modern common sense, nor did they wonder if there was any conspiracy hidden behind it. Zhang Mu was very happy; he didn't have to bother to dispel the public's doubts.

As for why this was the case, it was obviously due to the supernatural means Zhang Mu had demonstrated many times.

Even flying to outer space had happened, so a statue of god was nothing.

They really didn't think the statue of god that made the Soldiers stronger was rare.

Through the discussions of the people around, Zhang Mu concluded that these people didn't associate it with the "God" in their cognition at all, feeling that "statue of god" was just a name, and that bestowing power was probably some kind of supernatural means, like the potion that restored the Queen's youth.

"Good or bad, I guess." Zhang Mu put his hands in his pockets and muttered in a low voice, "I don't know if this mentality will lead to fewer beliefs. Hmm... I'll know after the first batch of people worships."

He walked into the alley next to him, activated the Shadow Technique, and flew to the factory in America.

He planned to design the entrance and the way to enter for Seventeen more magnificently.

It wasn't impossible to go in directly from the wine barrel, but the style was a bit too simple.

Flying back to the factory, Zhang Mu surged his magic power to blow away the dust accumulated on the ground and machinery, sat on the wooden chair by the wall, and lowered his head in thought.

"The World"'s light gate count has reached my limit; if I open another one, that door at the wine barrel must be closed.

Let's put the new entrance... let's put it over Mosco.

Open the door wider, and pull a whole train that can fly inside.

There were some parts left over from building the Hogwarts train, which could be used just right.

With his thoughts cleared, Zhang Mu got up and started working.

Because the number of "Puppets" needed was very large—after all, the train had to be equipped with crew members, and the train style had to be clearly different from Hogwarts—Zhang Mu was busy for more than ten days before finishing.

Taking all the parts into "The World" and assembling them, Zhang Mu jumped off the train and raised his hand to wipe the non-existent sweat on his forehead.

"Done." Putting the wrench into the inventory, Zhang Mu opened the light gate and walked in.

"It's been almost half a month, I guess they are anxious."

...

In the open space outside the temporary conference room, the five new students waiting for enrollment were sitting in a row on the open space, bathing in the sun.

The winter sun was exceptionally warm, but the five people's moods did not warm up because of this.

The Young Woman sat on the far left, her face crumpled into a ball: "Strange, didn't Mr. Examiner say that the car would come to pick us up after we said goodbye to our relatives?"

After more than half a month of getting along, the five had become familiar with each other, and the Young Woman in the middle teased her without restraint: "You must be crazy with anxiety. When did the examiner say that? He said, after seeing your relatives, gather here and wait for Seventeen's car to pick us up."

"Isn't it the same?" The Young Woman was a bit delirious.

Farid was helpless: "You should ask where it is the same."

On the far right was a Middle-aged Man with a beard, honest in character and kind to people.

Seeing that everyone was uninterested, he started a new topic to try to ease the mood: "What will Seventeen's car look like?"

"A car is just a car." The Young Woman bent over, elbows on her knees, chin in her palms, "At most, it's the difference between a carriage and a car."

"That is supernatural." The Russian Man who narrowly passed opened his hands and said in an exaggerated tone, "No matter how you think about it, it won't be simple."

"That's true too." The Young Woman replied out of politeness, but obviously didn't care about this, and changed the subject, "I saw many videos of people going to the snowy mountain to worship the god yesterday."

"Right." She straightened her waist suddenly and stared at the Russian Man: "The place where you chased the calamity was near there, right? Did you find anything?"

He shrugged: "At that time, my attention was entirely on the calamity; how could I notice a statue of god appearing on the top of the mountain several kilometers away?"

Farid was very interested in this and took the initiative to join the discussion: "I have seen the 3D map of that mountain in Mr. President's office; the terrain is very steep. Let alone ordinary people, even a professional mountaineering team with sophisticated equipment cannot guarantee a safe summit. How do the people who go to worship get up?"

The Young Woman took out her Mobile Phone, swiped her thumb on the screen a few times, and then turned it to the others: "Here, they worship at the foot of the mountain."

The four turned their heads in unison to look at the Mobile Phone. After watching for a while, Farid couldn't hold back and almost laughed out loud: "Will this be useful?"

The four did not answer this question, but he already had the answer in his heart—it was absolutely impossible to be useful.

After hearing about the statue of god, Farid had found the President and asked for the details, so he knew very well what the necessary condition for receiving the blessing was—sincerity.

Not to mention whether overly delusional wishes would be realized, or whether it would attract punishment from the statue of god for greedy people, just talking about the act of kneeling at the foot of the mountain, it had absolutely nothing to do with sincerity.

The Russian Man stared at the crowd kneeling on the screen: "What are they praying for?"

"It seems they all hope to become supernatural." The Young Woman had watched many similar videos and knew the specific situation relatively well.

The Young Woman curled her lips: "If it were so easy to become supernatural, why would we go through life-and-death crises?"

The Middle-aged Man asked strangely: "Are there... should be some wealthy people among these people, right? Don't they consider taking a helicopter to the top of the mountain?"

The Young Woman took back her Mobile Phone and sighed: "I don't care about these, I just want to know Seventeen—"

"Woo —"

A huge sound echoed in the city, not only arousing the curiosity of the citizens but also interrupting the Young Woman's complaints.

"What sound?"

Farid stood up quickly and walked towards the President's temporary office: "It sounds like... the whistle of a steam train. I'll ask Mr. President what happened."

"A whistle? Are there train tracks nearby...?"

Halfway through the sentence, everyone was suddenly shrouded in the shadow cast by the sky.

The light in front of them dimmed, and they instinctively looked up.

The Young Woman was stunned for a long time until she was awakened by the whistle that sounded again, and the two words that had been held in her heart were finally uttered: "Holy crap..."