Shrouded Seascape-Chapter 1042: Jackal

Of course, Anna couldn't care less. She wanted nothing more than what she needed at the moment.

If they're using that mirror to alter the memories of the patients here, then it should be on the same floor as the inpatient ward, right? Anna thought while carefully looking around.

Although Anna easily found the list of patients, the names written on the list were real names, so she had no choice but to visit each room one by one. After all, no one in real life would have the word "Jackal" as their actual name.

Anna had barely searched a third of the floor when loud noises shattered the silence of the inpatient ward. Clearly, the commotion above would soon affect the lower levels.

Those guys are pretty fast. Are they done dealing with the IMF up above? Anna thought. She looked around once more and finally found what she was looking for behind the one-way glass of a hospital room.

The man behind the one-way glass looked extremely haggard, with a scruffy beard and unkempt hair. The yellow crust that had accumulated in the corners of his eyes looked like it was about to fall off, but he didn't bother wiping it away.

He was clad in a hospital gown, and his gaze was transfixed on the square water tank on the table. He stared at it without moving a muscle.

Even when the door to his room was opened, his bloodshot eyes remained unblinking, and he appeared to be a statue.

"Jackal?" Gao Zhiming walked over slowly and stood on tiptoe to look into the tank. However, he found nothing inside—the tank was full of nothing but rotten and nauseating water.

Is it really just the hallucination of a madman? For some reason, Anna still felt a bit reluctant to believe the fact right before her eyes. She stretched her hand out from under the table and reached into the tank.

She swept through it several times, but she ended up touching a big pile of nothing. Anna shook the disgusting water off her hand, and she cast an annoyed look at the emaciated Jackal.

"Staying here is a waste of time. Let's go, Gao Zhiming."

Realizing that Jackal was indeed just a madman, Anna decided to look for the Anomaly capable of altering memories.

Now that I think about it, the surface world has yet to devolve from its normalcy, so I think Charles hasn't left anything behind unless he has gone mad. He doesn't even dare to come up for just a single look to protect the humans on the surface world from the Subterranean Sea.

Just as Anna and Gao Zhiming were about to leave the room, the frozen Jackal suddenly moved. He curled up his limbs and prostrated before the water tank on the table. His stiff, dead-like face changed into one of devoutness and fanaticism.

"O God! Who can compare to my God? O God, though You have no beauty or splendor, Your glory shines forever. You are the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon.

"Your name is worthy of reverence and awe; those who look up to You will never be ashamed. Your merciful face brings tears, Your thousand eyes bring repentance, and ten thousand knees ought to kneel bow before You!"

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"Hmm? Wait. I want to see what this fellow is trying to do here," Anna said, and Gao Zhiming came to a halt. It seemed that Jackal had long been tormented to insanity by his own hallucinations.

Under Gao Zhiming and Anna's gaze, Jackal added, "O great and unique God! How foolish I was to think that I could contain You?! You are so mighty that all worldly means are ineffective against You. You are an existence that transcends all, and You are omnipresent!"

"This is..." Anna frowned deeply. As far as she could tell, this fellow seemed to be worshipping Charles as a god. Perhaps Jackal was Charles' very first believer since he became a god.

"O God, Your foolish servant will faithfully follow your teachings. I will engrave Your divine revelations deep in my mind and spend the rest of my life chanting them day and night!"

Anna truly hadn't expected that she would encounter something like this here. But divine revelations? Was Jackal talking about the words that Charles had told him?

Jackal was just an ordinary human being on the surface world, so had he really received any special instructions from Charles?

Anna's curiosity was piqued, and she made Gao Zhiming walk up to him.

"Tell me, what do you mean by 'god'?"

Upon hearing Anna's question, Jackal immediately started preaching. "God is God. He is One, and He is All. Death exists because of Him, and all life is born because of Him. You should believe in Him, too, child."

Upon hearing that, Anna's doubt became even deeper. Charles wasn't the type to do something like what Jackal had described.

Charles couldn't possibly manage both life and death. Even if he was already a god, he surely hadn't been able to control his divine power. The one in charge of life and death was Fhtagn, who was slumbering in the Subterranean Sea. ř𝒶NỒＢЕŚ

All souls in the Subterranean Sea belonged to him, and within his domain, the concept of death ceased to exist.

"I can hear Him. When I fall asleep with the sincere desire to have a dream, I can hear Him speaking to me in His divine language. I can't understand it, but I can feel His closeness to me."

That bastard is straight. Why would he become close to a middle-aged man for no reason at all? Is he really talking about Charles?

"Are you sure your god is that giant flesh tree summoned by 315?"

"No! The great God can't possibly be just a big tree! That was merely the tip of the iceberg!" Jackal exclaimed, becoming extremely agitated as he added, "All of his physical forms are mere appearances—mere projections! The great God is everywhere!! He exists even between you and me!! We are Him, and He is us!!"

Anna's head was starting to ache at this point. She had no idea whether she ought to take Jackal away or not. Jackal was rambling nonsense that no one could understand. He actually resembled Tobba from the Subterranean Sea.

If he were really Charles' believer, it would be hard to justify not taking him. After all, on the off chance that she was right, she could probably connect to Charles of the Subterranean Sea through him.

Anna looked around the room and checked the patient records on the computer.

It turned out that it was half a month ago when Jackal suddenly changed. Before that fateful day, he was still a staunch IMF member with extreme determination to protect humanity from anomalous entities.

No one knew what had happened on that fateful day, but he transformed into a rambling cultist overnight.

While Anna was in deep thought, a few bats flew past the door, and the inpatient ward became even livelier with their presence. We're running out of time. I'm just going to take him away first and check later.

"Come with me. I'll take you to see your god!"

Anna's words made Jackal look at Gao Zhiming. "Why would I need to see my god? God is omnipresent! And who do you think you are to claim that you can take me away to see Him?! Are you even qualified?!"

With that, Jackal grabbed the corner of the water tank on the table and lifted it, pouring out the disgusting water in the tank. Then, he sat on the floor to meditate with a peaceful face.

Since it was clear that Jackal had no plans of leaving, Anna poked her head out from the floor and asked, "How about me? Am I not qualified as well?"

"315?! That's impossible! You're not dead?" Jackal stood up in surprise and stared with wide eyes at Anna. A second later, he nodded with the same peaceful face from earlier. "Yes, yes. God is omnipotent. Resurrecting you is easy."

"Stop the nonsense and go! Follow this little guy," Anna said and melted into the floor once more.

"All right, let's go. Since you also believe in God, can we build a church?"

"Right now, I have more important things to do than build a church. Anyway, do you know where that memory-altering anomaly is?"