She pointed at herself in confusion. How could she possibly be worth that much? Elvin waved her hand.
"Not just you. More precisely, it is because of the Saintess selection."
"I have dealt with those things that are filthier than sewer vermin. For Abyss Church, sacrifices are of course better the more outstanding they are."
"For example, people with special aptitudes, or those who are strong. And then there are members of the Church of Holy Light, especially those who can truly use Holy Light. Those are the best."
By this point, Alba was already breaking into a cold sweat and swallowing hard. The reason had become painfully obvious.
"Dawn Saintess have a special selection mechanism, so their numbers are large. For Abyss Church, every selection is also a hunting festival."
"It is like wild wolves encountering a period when sheep are released into the fields. Now you understand. For those lunatics, exposure or even death does not matter."
"True believers of the Abyss can be completely irrational. For a ritual or a perfect sacrifice, nothing they do would be surprising."
Elvin had once witnessed such a Hell. They were a group of madmen, the kind who might suddenly kill themselves the next second just to amuse others. Their thinking was strange and chaotic, completely incomprehensible, which was why they were madmen.
Even before discussing other matters, it had been for safety reasons that Alba was placed in this remote and quiet location. Most of the time, as long as she did not wander around, nothing would happen, though there were no guarantees.
"In this situation, with so many candidate Saintess and so many Abyss Church appearing, even the Church of Holy Light cannot spare enough manpower."
"This is almost a hunt for both sides. The Church of Holy Light will use this period to wipe out these Abyss believers, while the Abyss Church hunt for satisfactory sacrifices."
"So once you understand, do not run around anymore. I am at least your guardian knight. If you die, it will be very troublesome for me."
After saying this, Elvin paused. She had not fulfilled her duties properly in the past few days, but that was before. Recently, because of what had happened and Alba's performance, some things had changed.
She looked at her deeply.
"Forget it. Later, I will change your residence. Assigning guards directly would be too obvious."
"For now, rest here."
With that, Elvin left and closed the door. Alba sat back down on the edge of the bed and began checking the Reorganization information.
She quickly came to a conclusion.
"This is ridiculous."
"Why is it like this? The whole world is full of hostility toward me. Is there any opening worse than this? Did I break some heavenly law?"
Now that she knew the reason, she finally understood why every time she went out to explore, the only result was death. To outsiders, she was nothing more than a weak and harmless fat lamb, while they were wolves that had been starving for half a year.
The result was her dying over and over again. No wonder it had felt strange. She had not even done much outside, at most using Holy Light to treat poor people or patients who could not afford medicine. Yet she was targeted anyway.
Alba had been so frightened by these simulation results that she stayed in her room for days without daring to go out. The facts proved that she was not wrong. Only by hiding in her room could she barely ensure her safety.
But was that really all there was to it?
Alba raised her head and looked at the Simulator interface again.
The Simulator was not all-knowing or all-powerful. The development of events could exceed its simulated predictions, and Elvin's visit just now was something that had never appeared before.
"Something unexpected must have happened in between, leading to this result. The direct cause was Elvin getting injured."
"Tracing it back further, the cause was Abyss Church. Why did Elvin confront those lunatics? No, rather, could this new Abyss Church itself be the variable?"
"Because of their activities, Elvin came to find me?"
Was that really the reason? It was not clear. Perhaps the variable was Elvin's own actions. Alba bit her fingernail and continued thinking, recalling another variable that had appeared before.
That was at the very beginning, in the prologue, when the team encountered an attack. That extremely powerful Scar Cultists had been an obstacle that could not be overcome, and then suddenly the entire Abyss Church died for no clear reason.
The information Alba had gathered in Cathedral City over these days even showed that the dead Abyss believers were far more than just those outside the city. Many sudden deaths had also occurred inside the city, later confirmed to be believers.
The causes could have been internal slaughter or a sudden mass suicide ritual. Even now, there was no clear explanation, but Alba could see part of the picture.
The reasons behind both variables seemed to be summarized as Abyss Church.
"Does this mean Abyss Church are variables that the Simulator cannot predict? No, the initial simulated outcomes were exactly the same."
"Maybe it is not them. Think again, what other element is tied to Abyss Church?"
"…"
"Evil God?"
Alba froze for a moment. The thought came out of nowhere, and she was confused as to why she even considered it, yet it also felt strangely fitting.
Those rumored activities of Evil God within the Abyss, leading to the collective deaths of believers, did not actually sound that strange.
"I really feel like I am going a bit crazy. Why am I suddenly thinking about godlike existences? Even if that were the reason, what could I do about it?"
"Do I expect all those troublesome Abyss Church and the possible Evil God behind them to just die cleanly together?"
With a sigh, she dismissed the thought. No matter how she thought about it, her gaze eventually returned to the only feasible option, the Simulator.
After all, this was her only support. And it was not that the simulations were useless. Aside from those variables related to Abyss Church, everything else was absolutely accurate.
Alba had verified the accuracy of the Simulator before. The result was that even the number of leaves falling to the ground and their positions were perfectly precise.
"As long as I do not run into those variables, the Simulator can still be used."
"But then again, if they are variables, could they predict the Simulator instead?"
This sudden thought sent a chill through her. If there were existences not affected by the Simulator, then was it possible that her repeated simulations had already attracted the attention of those variables?
She immediately regretted thinking so much. It felt like she was depressing herself for no reason. Why pile so much pressure on herself when her final goal was just to stay alive? It was as if she was trying to save the world, which was absurd.
"Alright then. Simulator, activate."
After saying that, Alba activated the Simulator. Her vision went black in the familiar way, and when she opened her eyes again, everything before her was exactly the same as before.
If not for the System interface in the upper right showing that the Simulator had started timing, she might have thought nothing had happened at all.
This was the special trait of the Simulator. There were no prompts, no godlike perspective, no text descriptions. Everything had to be done manually.
With practiced ease, Alba took out the various small tools hidden in her cabinet. There was a rope for climbing out the window, ordinary clothes for disguise, and a small knife that leaned more toward suicide than self-defense.
After preparing everything, she skillfully climbed straight out of the window. Her movements were something she had been forced to develop, completely unlike a modern person who had died from overwork.
Fortunately, Elvin's strength had not yet reached Silver, and she could not project her Battle Aura. Her perception was not strong enough either, which was why Alba had been able to sneak out and get herself killed so often.
But for now, Elvin did not have the time to pay attention to Alba. There was someone else far more important waiting for her.
"My Lord, Raina is already waiting for you."
"Mm."
Elvin entered a mansion closer to the outer edge of the church grounds. The building was lavishly decorated and took up a wide area, with a garden outside where every blade of grass and leaf was tended by dedicated staff. On the white marble colonnades, branches and leaves forged from Gold were embedded, and from the stone paving at the entrance to the far end of the garden, everything spoke of a single idea: wealth.
The interior needed no explanation either, as it was just as extravagant. After walking down a long corridor where every inch was worth its weight in coin, Elvin knocked on a door and, after hearing permission from the the Lord inside, stepped in. The room was quiet and comfortable, filled with signs of careless luxury.
"Well well, that annoying injury of yours really healed. That is quite novel, isn't it, that Ventris?"