Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 1637: Chapter 1635: This World Is...???

A flash passed by.

When Fang Zheng opened his eyes again, he found himself in a city. He walked out into the street, looking left and right, but before he could see anything...

”Damn, what a stench...”

The overwhelming stench nearly suffocated Fang Zheng. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and cast an air purification spell, which saved him. Otherwise, he might have fainted from the lack of oxygen.

”Phew... that was close.”

Fang Zheng waved his hand in front of his mouth, frowned, and looked around.

Surrounding him were a bunch of simple houses, and the people on the streets were dressed plainly. It seemed like a medieval world, hmm... Western... Middle Ages... oh...

Soon, Fang Zheng spotted a few young people wearing armor and robes, dressed like mages and warriors, hurrying by.

And magic... hmm, a Western fantasy world?

”But... this place is filthy.”

Fang Zheng squinted at the muddy ground. This was still a city, but it couldn’t compare to the Main World. Although the Main World appeared to be a similar medieval Western fantasy world, the use of magic there was advanced enough that such scenes were unseen in human settlements.

Of course, some remote villages might still be backward, but city infrastructure, like roads and utilities, was in place. Dwarves dug sewers, and mages smoothed roads, at least on the surface, similar to the cities of Fang Zheng’s 21st century.

But here, things were different... Alright, maybe this was the slums?

It didn’t seem very civilized.

Although puzzled, Fang Zheng was relieved. Initially, when the Goddess of Order mentioned the Third Coordinate Point was polluted by Chaos, he thought something terrible had happened to that world. Perhaps like in ’Diablo,’ where devils nearly eradicated humanity, forcing them to hide, or like in ’Fallout,’ where the Earth was a wasteland filled with radiation and lunatics.

But this world seemed quite normal, even more so than the Pitch Black World. People’s behavior and speech were clear and orderly...

How did this seem like a world corrupted by Chaos?

But there must be something odd here; Fang Zheng remembered the lesson from the previous coordinate point. In the First Coordinate Point, humans themselves were Beasts of Chaos, merely wrapped in the Star God’s soul fragments. During those prosperous times, perhaps people lived peacefully, as they did in this world.

So what about here?

Fang Zheng walked around, comparing this world to the Main World, concluding that... the Main World was like a mature magical civilization system, where people used energy to produce airplanes, tanks, warships, and submarines on a large scale. Not digital like in Fang Zheng’s time, but developed.

This world, however, was just starting to develop a magical civilization, with little use of magic to improve living conditions, mostly relying on themselves...

Fang Zheng circled around, realizing he might not get a Katori descending from the sky like in the First Coordinate Point.

It was like being thrown into a sandbox game without any quests or even knowing who to get them from... How was he supposed to play?

No choice, better investigate himself.

In a relatively clean and empty spot in the square, Fang Zheng sat down and summoned ”Ratziel.”

”Start investigating everything here.”

Since the system teleported him to this city and not elsewhere, it indicated there should be a protagonist, or main quest here... or at least someone related to the world’s fate.

First, the name of the city... hmm, he hadn’t heard of it.

Looking at the name displayed on ”Ratziel,” Fang Zheng realized he hadn’t encountered it in similar games or movies.

And the pantheon... huh? A multi-deity civilization?

Seeing the long list of deities, Fang Zheng was slightly surprised. Multi-deity religions were troublesome, especially in a Magic World, where each deity might be real, complicating things further.

Hmm...

”Ah!”

While Fang Zheng pondered, suddenly, a scream startled him. He turned to find a young girl standing beside him, eyes shining as she stared at ”Ratziel” in his hand.

”Book!”

”This isn’t a book for you, little one.”

Seeing the girl, Fang Zheng chuckled and casually closed ”Ratziel.” Seeing this, the girl’s face showed clear disappointment, which intrigued Fang Zheng.

”Do you like reading books?”

”Yes, I love it!”

Nodding fiercely at Fang Zheng’s question, the girl affirmed her passion.

”In that case...”

Examining the girl, she seemed about three or four years old, with long blue hair tied with a stick at the back. Her clothes were patched all over, suggesting a poor upbringing. Maybe due to malnutrition, her complexion was somewhat pale.

Hmm... a three-year-old child probably couldn’t read, especially in Another World where the language was different.

Let me see...

Fang Zheng rummaged through his inventory. A book with words wouldn’t work; she was young and probably couldn’t read. They needed illustrations with fewer words... comics? The comics he had...

This was a book by Eiriri... not suitable for a child’s education.

This was Black Cat’s ”Black Fallen Angel Revelation”... too edgy, wouldn’t want it affecting her.

There was a novel by a Fairy... illustrations might work, but light novels still have text...

None of these work... oh, this one could! Right, there’s this one!

Finally, he found a book that met his criteria—more pictures, fewer words. It was a fairy tale book he had bought while babysitting Yoshino in the Elf World. She was alone then, unfamiliar with family warmth, so Fang Zheng took on the role of family, telling her bedtime stories... He had bought several storybooks at the time.

He didn’t expect there’d be any left now.

”Alright, I’ll give you this book.”

Fang Zheng took out the large fairy tale picture book from his inventory and handed it to the little girl. Upon seeing the big fairy tale picture book in front of her, the little girl immediately showed an excited smile and reached out her hand.

”Thank you, big brother... ugh...!”

However, to Fang Zheng’s surprise, just as the little girl reached out to accept the book from his hand, she suddenly showed a pained expression, and the next moment, Fang Zheng saw the little girl’s eyes close and faint on the ground.

”Uh...”

Seeing this scene, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but be stunned.

What’s happening?

”Meiyin! Meiyin!”

At this moment, Fang Zheng saw a few equally ragged boys and girls running over from not far away, surrounding him.

”You there, what did you do to Meiyin?”

”I didn’t do anything.”

Facing the children, Fang Zheng spread his hands helplessly.

”I just said I wanted to give her a book, and she suddenly passed out...”

Could this be a scam? I’ve lived so many years before and after rebirth, and am I experiencing my first scam encounter here?

”Book?”

”Meiyin!”

At this time, Fang Zheng saw another girl with green hair tied into braids come to the little girl’s side.

”I’m really sorry, sorry to bother you, master... my younger sister is not well... she often faints...”

”Oh, I see, let me take a look.”

Upon hearing the other’s reply, Fang Zheng nodded, then stood up and walked to the little girl’s side, observing her closely, then reached out to feel her forehead.

So hot! No, wait... this little girl’s magic power is very strong.

Feeling the magic inside the girl, Fang Zheng was slightly surprised. Such magic power is rare even among the little girls in the Heavenly Dao Palace... Could I have traveled to some kind of Qidian web novel? Hmm... Thinking about it carefully, it does sound a bit like it. Sickly and possessing unbelievably strong magic power, if this were a boy, he would surely be the exemplar of ”this child is terrifying and must not be kept.”

But a girl... Could this be a transformation story? Or a fem novel? There don’t seem to be a lot of Western fantasy fem novels... Although I rarely read them myself.

At least it’s not a Qing dynasty traversal.

If I had to look at a bunch of Ge Ges and brothers, I’d die of disgust.

No, if it is a Qing dynasty traversal, I would just burn them all down with fire.

Forget it, why am I overthinking this.

Fang Zheng came back to his senses, shrugged his shoulders, and then took out a personal terminal, directly using medical gel on the little girl in front of him.

Soon, the little girl’s previously rapid breathing began to stabilize, and her complexion gradually started to improve.

”Meiyin!!”

Seeing her sister recover, the girl with braids showed a happy smile, then looked at Fang Zheng and quickly knelt on the ground.

”Thank you, master.”

”Uh... no need to thank me, it was just a small effort. Her illness should be more or less okay now, but she still needs to replenish nutrition, eat more fruits. Yes, take this book as well, it was originally meant as a gift for her.”

While speaking, Fang Zheng took out a basket of fruits from his inventory along with the book and handed it to the girl, then waved to the surrounding kids and left. Honestly, having a bunch of kids kneel before me felt extremely weird, so after speaking, Fang Zheng left quickly, disappearing into the crowd before the kids could react.

Looks like there’s no clues to be found here.

After wandering around the city a few more times, Fang Zheng scratched his head and then closed his eyes.

Forget it, let’s try a Prophecy Spell.

Soon, the power of magic began to manifest, followed by a blurry future gradually surfacing in Fang Zheng’s eyes.

A deep cavern, dimly lit torches, adventurers gripping torches slowly advancing deep underground, unaware that in the darkness, pairs of malicious eyes were staring at them, waiting, grinning hideously and evilly, letting out barely audible laughter. They held rusty weapons, silently tailing the adventurers.

The shadow of death was about to descend, yet those adventurers remained oblivious...

Are those the only clues?

Fang Zheng opened his eyes, pouting a bit in dissatisfaction.

Whatever, let’s go and take a look.

Thinking of this, Fang Zheng snapped his fingers.

In the blink of an eye, the scenery before him began to change, from a town full of western fantasy charm to a dark and eerie cave deep within the forest.

Looking at the pitch-black cave entrance before him, Fang Zheng raised an eyebrow, then quickly walked inside.

Along the way, he didn’t encounter any enemies, nor did he see any corpses, so Fang Zheng just followed his instincts and moved forward at will.

However, Fang Zheng could feel that something was ahead. The malice they radiated was so obvious and so repulsive that it was impossible to ignore.

Like gathered bedbugs, cockroaches.

”Ahhhh!!!”

Suddenly, at this moment, a scream rang out from the depths of the cave, and upon hearing the scream, Fang Zheng glanced over there, then quickly headed in that direction. At the same time, he raised his right hand, and a pitch-black greatsword materialized in Fang Zheng’s hand, then, he lifted the greatsword and swung it towards the front.

”Swish———!”

The pitch-black greatsword, intermingled with crimson flames, traced a vivid trajectory as it shot towards the depths of the cave.