Motivational Meeting

The sky is turning ominous. Warlock of the Sarkic Cults. Saarn's enthronement ceremony was about to begin. Martial law was imposed as the city of Arcadia weakened its defenses. All of the flesh and blood monsters that were stationed at the city's perimeter have returned under Nadox's leadership.

He was determined to prevent any mishaps from happening before the deity ascension rite was over. The local Christians had been fervently praying in the city's central square since the afternoon. This evening, their faith would complete the ritual and become the new deity who would guard them.

Nadox observed these believers while perched atop a tall pagoda. He sensed that his power was progressively growing, indicating that Lord Saarn's power had peaked. Lord Saarn's would surpass the ceiling and reach a higher level as long as these believers kept giving of their faith and spirit.

Additionally, the two saints Orok, who was buried in Russian territory, and Lovataar, who was buried beneath the Balkan Peninsula, both reactivated and assaulted the GOC and SCP Foundation personnel nearby, intersecting with one another.

A huge vehicle with an odd shape was slowly moving in all directions outside of Arcadia at the same time, 100 kilometers to the southeast and northwest. Robert Bumaro was standing behind Old Smith on a specific island on the dividing line between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as he gazed upward with his hands in the air.

Numerous people are currently looking at their watches and making arrangements while they do so. There are several forces at work, indicating that the night will go smoothly.

...

Foundation Area-11.

On a platter of tomatoes and scrambled eggs, Zhang Jue was indulging. He spooned some soup into a bowl and scoffed, "Tsk, the chef here is no good, aside from the absence of sugar, there's also so much salt. There's two of him, they could create a salt farm in my tomatoes and eggs."

He spoke while crawling with a mouth full of rice, performing what is referred to as being "very fragrant."

Yang Xue saw his activities while fuming. "If you're not hungry, don't eat it." As she was going to remove the plate, she spoke.

"Eh eh eh eh, don't be mad, I didn't say you—," hastened Zhang Jue as he rushed to shield the plate with his arm.

Only after giving him a hard waist pinch while grunting did Yang Xue stop. After feeling the discomfort, Zhang Jue laughed haughtily. As the escort, Smith couldn't help but smile as he saw this scene.

Only Advisor Zhang may likely be thus unhurried at this kind of crucial time when it is unknown how many people lack basic eating skills. Angelo really removed everyone from the Area-114 where there was even a single chef, much less one who could make Chinese food.

Everyone froze when Zhang Jue brought out the tomatoes, eggs, and even the iron pan.

Only Yang Xue frowned and said, "I'll find someone to make it for you."

Everyone could see that she intended to prepare it herself. Yang Xue was an excellent experimenter, but she was a terrible cook. She added two additional spoonfuls of salt because, after tasting it after the first application, she thought it was still light.

Tasted it again.

Done.

From that moment on, she knew that she would be ridiculed by the dead man. The reality was just as she expected, Zhang Jue took one bite and sighed long and hard while eating, hating her teeth. Most importantly, no one had ever told her to put sugar in scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

Zhang Jue laughed once again as Yang Xue walked away with a grunt after failing to defeat him. Zhang Jue laughed and swept up the rest of the dinner, not caring that it was a little salty.

He wiped his mouth and asked Smith, who was standing behind him, "What time is it?" a little while later.

"Twenty-one forty." Smith noted after checking his watch.

"About time." Zhang Jue nodded, "Get everyone together, let's have a pre-battle rally."

Twenty minutes later, everyone was gathered in the spacious meeting room at Area-114. Over 160 people were present at the scene, including the three MTF teams—Black Pearl, Yellow Warbler, and Viper—as well as the last few remaining staff members and patients. They all met at Zhang Jue's invitation.

They remained seated as they observed the orientalist make his way slowly up to the podium. Advisor Zhang Jue appeared serious in front of so many of his coworkers, as if the cynical man from before was not him at all.

He said in a soft, quiet voice, "Everyone."

"You are presumably already aware of our next challenge."

"You must be willing to make sacrifices, I suppose."

"But I'll warn you against doing that."

"You guys think that's heroic? That it's great? No, no, no, in my opinion, it's just being a fool." he said.

There was a commotion after Zhang Jue stated these few words. The Yellow Warbler and Viper teams, as well as the civilian staff within the station, all gazed at him in amazement, aside from the Black Pearl squad and the three captains who were in charge of the vigilance.

They didn't anticipate these obviously good-natured Advisor Zhang saying such things. A Foundation employee's highest ethical standard was to lay down their life for the sake of others. One may argue that they had always believed this since the moment they joined the Foundation.

Those civilian personnel in particular could have left with Angelo a long time ago if they had wanted to. However, they refrained from doing it because they believed that in situations like this, action needed to be taken.

Zhang Jue brushed everything off. After surveying the audience, Zhang Jue continued speaking. "A blind sacrifice is termed seeking death, a meaningful sacrifice is considered a sacrifice; call it idiocy!"

His voice became steadily more somber. "You must understand in your hearts that you don't actually need to do anything at all; it's simply an excuse for your fear. If you guys are intent on having your own way and have to battle to the death with the Sarkic Cults, I won't stop you."

"A real warrior must survive! They can only make bigger contributions to humanity by continuing to live!" Zhang Jue finally stated the main theme of this speech after some fluff.

"You must live, not perish pointlessly." he added. "There are moments when life challenges one's courage more than dying."

"I won't stop you from doing the assignment, but I hope that once you do, you can complete your unfinished business. In two hours, in that city across the street, a wicked deity will be descending."

"Therefore, I'm hoping you'll live."

"For yourself and for humanity as a whole."

Zhang Jue then took a moment to let everyone reflect and respond. He had truly touched the hearts of the gathering with these words. Everyone present truly wanted to die after learning that the head of the Sarkic Cults would become God.

Zhang Jue's objective was to bring back their hope of life. People wouldn't express their gratitude or even protest if he went to the difficulty of saving a bunch of people who planned to commit suicide.

His words are deafening and awaken many people. But the problem now is, even if they want to live, it is not that simple. They were too close to Arcadia City. The two squads of Yellow Warbler and Viper would stay here until at least midnight.

By the time they retreat, I'm sure saran will have already completed the god ascension ceremony. The evil god descended, and they would be the first lambs to be sacrificed. However, they did not know that this was actually the easiest thing for Zhang Jue to do.

Zhang Jue looked at the crowd and smiled faintly, "As long as you yourselves want to stay alive, everything else, just leave it to me."

...

At precisely 23 o'clock. The middle of the sky was where the moon was. The ground was bathed in silvery white cold moonlight.

Inside the city of Arcadia. Many worshippers were kneeling beneath the pagoda and chanting the name of the new deity. Their ardent features were reflected in the bonfire. Every prayer they prayed would be the new god's instruction. Their entire amount of faith would be converted into the strength of the new God.

As usual, Nadox, the leader of the Four Saints of the Sarkic Cult, was seated atop the pagoda. He gently opened his eyes as if he detected something. An enormous apparition that seemed enigmatic and odd suddenly materialized above the square's sky in the light of the campfire.

The Great Warlock Saarn's finally made his first appearance in front of his followers as the founder and head of the Sarkic Cults. The faithful rushed to kneel before him. For many years, he had been preparing for this moment. Before success, there was just one more hour to go.

The official start of Saarn's enthronement ceremony came with the sound of numerous praying believers.