Benny looked at Joey in astonishment. As the person in charge of the Dreamland experiment, he was undoubtedly the person who knew the Fulde Manra formula best, although he had only accepted it for a short time.
"The fact that you can become an extraordinary person probably has something to do with the dreamland."
What else could Joey say? The reason given by the other party was perfect. He smiled and nodded in recognition.
"That's just part of it, the main reason is because of Norm's help."
Putting the matter on the dead can help to avoid some problems. Even if the truth is revealed unintentionally, it can still be blamed on Norm. After all, there is no way to find a dead person to prove it.
"Okay," Benny clasped his hands together, patted them lightly, and said, "I hope you can control your emotions about what I'm going to tell you next."
"Um"
The real owner is finally here, let me see what you are trying to hide? He calmed down his restless heart, clenched his fists, and looked at Benny solemnly.
"I am not born and raised in Port Lia, I come from a remote primitive island"
Las Vegas is a country made up of large and small islands.
It is known as the country of a thousand islands and the land of ten thousand islands.
"In the place where I was born, I was isolated from the world and lived by the most primitive fishing method."
Joey could already imagine how backward the Church would be if even the Church of Light, which had the largest number of believers, was unwilling to build a church and absorb members.
"We believe in the mother goddess Hydra"
Hydra? Hearing this name, he felt an inexplicable feeling of palpitations.
"He has never died, He left a prophecy in the scriptures"
'When the stars shift and darkness covers the earth, the old days will eventually return. Death is not the end of life, but the continuation of another life'
"In order to pursue God's prophecies, the sages and priests of the past generations on the island tried to obtain God's revelation by cracking the Fulde Manra formula."
Joey interrupted abruptly: "You succeeded."
According to his guess, the curse of Dreamland was probably created by these people.
Anne also said that after the initial split among Poseidon believers, some people escaped into the deep sea, and the believers who were still active outside were the "Mermaid Forest".
Benny Hoyland is most likely from the original Poseidon Church.
"Yes, we succeeded. Do you know what God's revelation is?"
As he spoke, without waiting for Joey to respond, the expression on his face suddenly became extremely excited.
"When the stars align, He will be born"
"Birth?" Joey cast a strange look and seemed to have thought of something: "Is this the birth I understand?"
In his imagination, when a god is born, he sacrifices a large number of lives to create a body that can accommodate the arrival of divinity.
Thinking of this, his eyes suddenly turned cold. If this were the case, I'm afraid Barbara and those girls would all be sacrifices.
And Anne Block also said that the heart needs blood to nourish.
"No!" Benny Hoyland roared angrily, Joey's words seemed to have touched his nerves.
"You are blaspheming Him. How can you sacrifice the dirty blood of fools to my Lord?"
Joey took two steps back and stared at Benny warily. If Benny's spiritual factors hadn't returned to normal, he would have doubted whether Benny had lost control.
"Those girls who are taken away will not be sacrificed, but a saint will appear among them."
"Saint?" What is this? He felt that what Benny Hoyland was going to say next would be a shocking secret.
"The saint is the daughter of the sea, and our Lord will be conceived in her body."
Joey's mouth twitched, revealing an ugly smile.
Sea refers to Poseidon, and Poseidon's daughter gave birth to Poseidon, which means I gave birth to my 'father'.
Born under the red flag and raised in the spring breeze, Joey once again felt the critical blow from the paradox. This cannot be said to be biology, not even pseudoscience.
He has been working hard to adapt to this world of gods and magic.
But when it comes to things like what Benny Hoyland said, it's still hard to accept.
Forget it, the existence of gods has no scientific basis. Joey sighed softly and thought to himself: "Asexual reproduction is not enough in front of Him. Will worshiping the Supreme Mother Goddess allow men to have fertility?"
He slowed his head and shuddered all over.
"So, you are looking for saints, not using them as sacrificial victims."
Benny Hoyland stared into Joey's eyes with a complex expression and said in a serious tone: "Sacrifice? Would you spend more than a million worth of spiritual items on a sacrifice?"
"Ten years now, the amount of money spent on this matter has already been an astronomical figure."
"Not only is it spent on those girls, but also on the comfort of their families, which is also a huge expense."
"So that's it!" Until now, Joey finally knew why so many people were missing, but the church didn't pay attention to it.
It is about a people who do not hold officials accountable.
There were some things that he couldn't ask directly and could only choose to speculate from the side.
For example, the probability of death in the dreamland experiment.
According to his guess, when the spirit dies, the body left outside will eventually become a vegetative state.
ten years? Did the experiment start ten years ago? Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask: "How did you find the saint ten years ago?"
Their eyes met, Benny said expressionlessly: "Didn't you already guess it?"
Joey said two words from between his teeth in a solemn tone: "Sacrifice"
At the same time, he recalled some things in his mind.
No. 3 Rue Vittoria, the old church of Port Lia, a ritual magic led by Duke Cormi ten years ago.
What was it that they summoned?
"You are from the Mermaid Forest!" he asked.
Benny Hoyland shook his head calmly, which was beyond Joey's expectation.
"How could you not be"
"I took over the old department of Mermaid Forest, but unfortunately, I am not one of their people."
Things were becoming more and more confusing, and Joey felt like his head was in chaos.
"Although it's unbelievable, it's true." Benny spread his hands and looked helpless: "I came to Leah ten years ago."
"God has given a revelation, the saint will appear in Leah"
"You can't imagine how hierarchical this organization is in the Mermaid Forest. All their leaders have a single line of contact."
"Ten years ago, I didn't know what happened. The person in charge of Leah disappeared. Because of this, it was easy for me to take over the old department."
"The Mermaid Forest and the Poseidon Church are one and the same. My sequence can fully prove my identity."
While speaking, Benny Hoyland gently turned his palm over, and a pulsing arc of electricity flashed in his hand.
"After Fuldman's death, no one in the Poseidon Church can carry the flag. Everyone is a believer and a member of the church. They fight for each other and never recognize each other."
"There is no ruler, no bishop, and no unity. This is why Poseidon Church has now become a third-rate church."
"I don't know what they did before me, and I don't want to know, but in my hands, we have never done anything that violates the creed of my Lord."
"The sea is tolerant and broad. My Lord is not an evil god and does not need blood sacrifices."
In his eyes, Joey saw something, which was 'purity', the purity of faith.
"Can you guarantee that in the past ten years, no one has died among the people you kidnapped?"
A flash of determination suddenly flashed through Benny's eyes, and his tone was sonorous and powerful: "I guarantee it with my life."
When he said this, he stared at Joey unblinkingly: "Since you know about dreamland, it means you have entered it yourself."
"Yes!" He did not deny this: "I did go in, but I don't know what happened recently. The power of pulling people into dreams has disappeared."
Benny's eyes flickered slightly, but he did not give an explanation, as if he was deliberately avoiding the specific reason why he disappeared into a dream.
"The existence of the Seven Gods prevents our Lord's power from penetrating reality. He can only send down his power through dreams. Only the Saint can go to the deepest point in the test of dreams."
"The longer you survive inside, the greater your spiritual strength will increase."
He took two steps forward, stood in front of the huge cross on the altar, and pointed at it: "The spirituality of ordinary people, and even the divinity of extraordinary people, are beyond their ability to bear. If they want not to lose control, their spiritual strength must be strong." Degree is the key factor”
"Not even gods dare to contaminate polluted human nature. This is why major churches do not use statues of gods as carriers."
"In the past, the sacred objects of major churches were not crosses, but sculptures or images of the gods' true appearance."
Joey frowned slightly, thinking of something.
An organization in Senegal, the Necromantic Cult, they believe in the Bound God.
A filthy man tied to a cross and wearing a crown of thorns.
He couldn't help but wonder to himself: "Could the Defiler's depravity be due to absorbing too much negative energy?"
"According to the setting of the gods in this world, whatever is said must be known. If the holy objects have a strong direction, does it mean that as a god, he has to accept prayers from different believers every day?"
He imagined that if someone prayed to him every day and filled him with trivial matters and negative emotions, he would go crazy.
The answer is obvious, it will definitely get out of control.
Benny Hoyland's words sounded the alarm in his heart. Fortunately, there are only three followers of the great 'Mr. Hermit' and only two true believers.
"In order to enhance the spiritual strength of those girls, I need to spend a lot of extraordinary resources. Many of them have now become extraordinary beings."
Joey disagreed with this, and at the same time, seeds of doubt sprouted in his heart.
After all, he had seen how those so-called extraordinary beings were created.
Underground at No. 3 Levitt Street, there are many "deep divers" who are half fish and half human.
There are also the 'deep divers' in the pool on Ghost Island who have completely transformed into fish. To a certain extent, they are all extraordinary beings.
He didn't want Barbara to become such a monster.
"Then what happens to those girls if their spirituality is exhausted?"
"This situation will not exist. The worst-case scenario is to degrade to the level of ordinary people and we will not let them die."
Joey asked coldly: "Then where did these people go in the end?" After a pause, he changed his explanation: "I mean, the failed experimental subjects."
In the case of tracking down Barbara, there are a large number of missing girls' records at the Sheriff's Department, and they go back a long time.
"In the past ten years, not many qualified people have been screened out. The local population of Lia Port is tens of thousands, and the floating population is hundreds of thousands. Do you think, apart from family members, anyone really cares about the disappearance and return of these people?"
"Moreover, there are still many people who are homeless." He looked at Joey with a complicated look and said in a serious tone: "Families that are struggling to feed themselves, if they can have one less mouth to eat, I think they will be happy"
"For these people, I will give them a sum of money, return to their families, or go far away, I will not stop them."
"If I remember correctly, there are still more than a dozen missing persons files backlogged at the Sheriff's Department."
Benny Hoyland smiled helplessly and shook his head: "Are you putting all the blame on me?"
"Yeah!" Joey thought for two seconds and suddenly realized.
Yes, even if there is no "Mermaid Forest" organization, there are still criminals and pirates, so everything should not be pushed in one direction.
"The truth is often cruel." Benny shook his head gently: "Those girls who were eliminated, without exception, all chose to take a sum of money and leave Port Leah."
Joey shrugged and took a long breath: "Humanity is the hardest thing to figure out."
He curiously observed the change of expression on Benny's face at this moment.
Silently said: I'm afraid that's a lot of wealth.
The church has established social order for hundreds of years. It was not until the past century that a church settled in Port Lia. It is not difficult to imagine its poverty and backwardness.
In the memory of the original owner, the biggest obsession was to take his brother and sister to the outside world and escape from this poor town.
There is also the possibility that Benny is lying.
However, if it were him and he received a large sum of money as compensation, he would choose to leave Port Lia without hesitation.
"What's your purpose in telling me everything" Joey asked.
He didn't completely believe everything Benny said.
Instead, he felt that what Benny was about to do was very risky: "Is the prophecy from the gods really worth believing?"
"If, I mean if, an evil god is summoned, have you ever thought about the consequences?"
Benny Hoyland looked deeply at the golden sunshine pouring down from the dome: "Some things were destined from the moment I was born. I am just the chosen one and have no right to choose."
In Benny Hoyland, who is in his 40s, Joey seems to see an old and vicissitudes of life.
That kind of vicissitudes of life will only appear after experiencing the baptism of time.
Joey couldn't imagine what he was carrying.
Perhaps only from the same perspective can we understand him.
"Can't you give up? Wouldn't it be nice to live without war now?"
Joey cannot understand Benny Hoyland's obsession with awakening Poseidon.
After hundreds of years of hard work, the rule of the Seven Gods has spread throughout the continent and its influence is deeply rooted.
If the sleeping Poseidon revives at this time, it will inevitably have an impact on the original order, and war will be inevitable.
Benny Hoyland's expression became extremely solemn, and he looked at Joey with a complicated expression:
"War has always existed, but you were born in a poor place, and poverty saved you."
