Above the vast desert of Buserite, the scorching sun blazed, and the land was barren for thousands of miles. Across this endless desert, several groups of figures were slowly moving. They were not migrating desert animals, but teams of fleeing refugees.
Under the scorching sun and amidst the wind and sand, countless refugee teams were scattered across the wide wasteland. Dressed in tattered robes, they moved with heavy steps, struggling to advance. Each of them looked weak and their expressions were pained. In some groups, many people who were completely unable to move were being dragged forward with ropes and wooden boards. Every team was exhausted, but they all persisted in moving forward, striving towards the same direction.
These refugees, who came from various parts of Buserite, were traveling towards the place of redemption they believed in, spurred by a widely circulated message. This group of people, who were on the verge of not being able to survive, believed that in the Bastis Oasis, there was the only one who could Save the World.
On the edge of the large Bastis Oasis, the Church mission camp that was originally located there had now expanded several times over. Dense tents were spread everywhere, even extending from the oasis grassland into the outer desert. Due to the influx of a massive number of refugees in recent times, the scale of the camp had expanded beyond its limits. The tents that were originally stored had long since been used up, and the simple tents built with local materials were also running out of materials. Refugees who arrived afterward could only lay a straw mat on the ground to sleep.
Within the enormous camp that stretched as far as the eye could see, refugees lying on the ground and tossing and turning were visible everywhere. Various wails and moans were incessant. Mission guards wearing protective isolation clothing patrolled the camp, maintaining basic order. Sister Vanyas were treating the severely ill patients who couldn't hold on any longer. As of now, although the camp was huge and there were many patients and refugees, basic order was still maintained. However, as more refugees continued to join, how long this order could be maintained was a question.
"Thank you... Thank you, Sister Vanya..."
"We are so grateful!"
"Thank you for your generous charity... Sister Vanya..."
At a food distribution point in the camp, a group of refugees were gathered to receive relief food. When they saw the girl in a white Sister robe and her followers passing by, they couldn't help but turn around and express their gratitude with clasped hands. After one person thanked her, more people followed suit and began to express their gratitude. Some elderly people even knelt directly on the ground.
Amidst the countless voices of gratitude around her, Vanya's expression was calm. She smiled and helped those who were kneeling to their feet, advising them.
"Please rise, everyone. You do not need to thank me. It is my mission to come here and provide relief. The Lord guided me here to help everyone in need. If you truly need to give thanks, then thank our benevolent and great Lord..."
Vanya responded to the people she had helped up with phrases common in Church work. At this time, she was leading her followers to inspect the situation in various parts of the camp as usual. Wherever she went, the refugees there would stand up and thank her, and Vanya would gently respond while personally distributing some items and healing some wounds.
After Vanya completed a round of inspection, she came to a small hill on the edge of the camp. As she looked at the large expanse of tents and the people moving within them, she couldn't help but furrow her brows and murmur.
"It seems like there are quite a few more people today..."
"Yes, Sister Vanya. So far, we have received 674 people today. Including the past few days, we have now received over ten thousand people. All aspects, including food, management, and medical care, are becoming increasingly difficult..." The Sister named Phil, who was standing beside Vanya, reported to her. After listening to Phil's report, Vanya's expression became even more serious.
"How long will our food last?"
"If the current number of people remains unchanged... it will last for about ten more days at most. But if the number of people in the camp continues to grow at this rate... we might run out of food in less than 6 or even 5 days. Although we have prepared enough food, the original plan did not intend to rely solely on this food for relief..."
Sister Phil said solemnly. Although their mission team brought a lot of food, there was an upper limit to the amount of food that could be carried due to the clothing limit of a single team. They had originally planned to acquire food directly in Bastis after arriving there and use their money for relief, but they did not expect that Bastis would close its doors to them, making it impossible for them to purchase the large amount of surplus grain stored inside.
"So, what about the purchasing teams that were sent out? Do they have any news now?" Vanya continued to ask Sister Phil. She had already realized the food problem long ago, so she had specifically sent out dedicated purchasing teams early on to other places in Buserite to find places with food and purchase it.
"News from the purchasing teams has all come back. I'm sorry, they haven't found any places where they can purchase food. Due to the rampant Wasting Decay, many tribes have lost a large number of laborers and are unable to harvest food. Even the tribes that have food have hoarded it and are not selling it... More importantly, a powerful group of desert bandits suddenly appeared not long ago and plundered all the tribal villages around Buserite. The food was directly stolen..." Phil continued to answer Vanya, and Vanya quickly heard the problem in Phil's response.
"Bandits? Now, with Wasting Decay rampant, there are still desert bandits who can move freely?"
"Yes... it is indeed a strange place. When our purchasing teams went to those villages and tribes, they had already been plundered. Due to the effects of Wasting Decay, they had no way to resist those bandits who seemed to be able to move freely.
"These bandits only plundered food, but they hardly killed anyone. The plundered tribespeople were basically spared... To be honest, a large portion of the refugees here are members of these plundered tribes. They came to us for help because they had no food..."
"In addition to the most critical food problem, we are also facing some other issues. Due to the sharp increase in the number of refugees, we are gradually starting to lack sufficient personnel for management here. Due to long-term contact with patients, many of our people have also begun to be infected with Wasting Decay. This disease is extremely contagious, and even wearing protective clothing cannot completely avoid infection. Even though the Sister Vanyas are no longer treating those refugees and are fully focused on treating our own personnel, our medical capacity is gradually unable to keep up."
Phil continued to say to Vanya. Listening to Phil's words, Vanya's expression became even more solemn. She had somewhat not expected that after arriving in Bastis, she would initially not be able to find a place for relief, and now she was about to be overwhelmed by the pressure of relief.
"Bandits who can move freely amidst Wasting Decay... It seems that those people have truly made sufficient preparations to target us..." Vanya sighed like this, and then she turned her gaze towards the distant Bastis city wall. It was clear that she knew this was another move by the Order of Rot.
"The plundering by these bandits had already begun before we arrived in Bastis. It is clear that this is the action of those cults. They want to create a large number of refugees through the plague and plundering and dump them on us, while also occupying Bastis, a significant food storage area and trade center, and not giving us food, hoping to drag us down with these refugees." Not far from Phil, Gaspare, who was holding a sword, said with a grim expression. Then he looked at Vanya beside him and spoke again solemnly.
"Sister Vanya, now those cultists want to use the refugees to drag us down. We cannot fall into their trap. Let's attack Bastis directly and take the city. As long as we have the large amount of food stored in Bastis, we can sustain ourselves for a long time even if we simultaneously provide relief to a hundred thousand people!"
Gaspare directly suggested to Vanya, saying that he seemed to have endured the Order of Rot followers in the city for a long time and was always looking for an excuse to attack the city. Facing the enthusiastic Gaspare, Phil also spoke up.
"Sister Vanya, Gaspare Priest is right. We cannot continue like this. Although a direct attack on the city will cause casualties among the people in Bastis who have been incited by the cultists and will make them hate us, affecting our work, given the current situation, we can't worry about that anymore. To save more people, sometimes we have to give up a little something..."
Phil said this. Listening to her words, Vanya sighed softly before speaking.
"Since that group of cultists had already started looting and creating refugees before we even got here, with Bastis in their hands, they can't possibly have left a large amount of grain inside Bastis. They would only leave a small amount to minimally supply the people inside the city..."
"The grain inside there was already transported away long ago. The reason they are still occupying the city is probably just waiting for us to attack and go in. After we go in, not only will we intensify the conflict with the people inside the city, but we won't get the grain to save the people outside the city, ultimately causing the entire situation to spiral completely out of control..."
Vanya said this seriously. Listening to her words, the expressions on Phil and Gaspare's faces became even more grim.
"So those cultists had such a plan... Then if that's really the case and there's no grain left in the city, what should we do?"
"Tsk... Does that mean we still can't launch a frontal assault? But Sister Vanya, dragging on like this isn't a solution either! Since relief isn't working, let's just stop wasting time in Buserite. After dealing with the cultists here, let's go back and try somewhere else!"
Phil and Gaspare responded one after another. After listening to their words, Vanya was silent for a while. After a long period of silence, she slowly replied.
"Now is not the time to talk about giving up. Let's hold on for another day or two and see..." Saying this, Vanya walked towards the distance. Watching Vanya walk away, Phil and Gaspare paused slightly before following her one after another.
...
Somewhere in the camp, Dorothy, who had just finished observing Vanya's situation, was sitting on the carpet at her spot, seriously contemplating the situation the camp was currently facing.
'Is there not enough grain... It seems that group of guys from the Order of Rot wants to completely drive out the Church's power through means of winning without fighting. They know that the Church's nature requires relying on a large number of ordinary mortals, so they specifically started from these aspects to make things difficult for people. The logic is that they want to completely destroy the Church's missionary environment in the Buserite region?'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. Originally, she hadn't planned to pay attention to the Order of Rot and would just focus on finding Heopolis, but looking at the current situation, she couldn't ignore it anymore. If this continued, Vanya and the others would have to go back before finding Heopolis, and it would be difficult for her to find someone to help if she encountered any trouble.
Therefore, Dorothy temporarily put aside the matter of Heopolis and began seriously thinking about how to solve the problem on Vanya's side. However, the problem on her side was indeed a bit tricky.
'The problem in Buserite is fundamentally the problem of the """Wasting Decay""". As long as this plague is not resolved, various problems will not cease... However, there is currently no way to completely solve the """Wasting Decay""" here, so we can only first try to curb the grain problem.'
'But the grain problem is also difficult to solve... My ability cannot produce grain out of thin air. The refugees in this camp add up to nearly twenty thousand people. Where am I supposed to get food for these twenty thousand people? Am I supposed to go find the place where the Order of Rot transferred Bastis's grain? They transferred it away long ago. Can I find it in just three days?'
Dorothy was thinking seriously like this. Then, when she thought of the experiment she had conducted on the false history a few days ago, she couldn't help but have a slight flash of inspiration.
"Maybe... this method might be feasible..."
As Dorothy spoke, she stood up and walked to a low table nearby, picked up a pile of manuscript paper on it, spread it flat on the low table, and began to write.
While Dorothy was writing, her spiritual threads were not idle either. She manipulated her Corpse Puppet, which was lurking inside Bastis collecting information, to sneak into a small livestock shed within Bastis, steal a small lamb from inside, and then quietly send it out of the city.
After that, when Dorothy had written to a certain extent, she picked up the paper manuscript from the low table, walked out of the tent, and after leaving the camp, walked into a forest in the oasis. Here, Dorothy's Corpse Puppet, holding the bleating lamb, was waiting for her.
Next, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet holding the lamb touch her manuscript. Then Dorothy added the final stroke to the manuscript. After that, she herself, along with the Corpse Puppet and the lamb, disappeared from the spot.
Amidst a dizzying spin, Dorothy, along with her Corpse Puppet and the lamb, arrived in a new world. As soon as she arrived in this world, Dorothy looked around and saw that the originally dense forest in front of her had suddenly turned into a grassland full of green grass. Standing on the hills of the grassland, she looked out and saw countless low-lying dwellings standing in rows and wafting smoke from chimneys.
In the distance, the city walls of Bastis were completely gone, replaced by various towering dwellings on the high ground. A winding stream flowed from afar. The desert outside the oasis had disappeared, replaced by a vast, endless grassland with herds of cattle and sheep on it.
This was the false history world created by Dorothy, a world born from the continuation of the dynasty named Fahan. In the process of compiling the history of this world, Dorothy increased the annual precipitation of the entire Buserite to the maximum allowable limit, successfully changing the climate of Buserite in this false history world from a desert climate to a grassland climate, allowing a grassland culture to emerge here.
After arriving in the Fahan false history world, Dorothy did not stop. She first split the false history manuscript she held. After taking out the latest page, she put the rest into her magic box. Then, using a pen with magnetic control properties, she hovered it over the single page of manuscript placed on the ground and crossed out the only year written on it.
After the year 1361 record disappeared, Dorothy's surroundings spun dizzyingly again. After the world became clear again, what she saw was the familiar grassland scene. This was the year 1360 in Dorothy's false history world, the previous year in Dorothy's false history record.
After arriving in the Fahan Kingdom in 1360, Dorothy created a merchant identity for her Corpse Puppet, and then had him take the lamb, which also had an identity, to a distant place. He found a wealthy herder's home and paid the herder to help raise her lamb for a period of time.
After sending the lamb away to be fostered, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet return. Then she took out the false history manuscript of the Fahan Dynasty from her magic box again, directly added a section at the end, and restored the year 1361.
After another dizzying spin, Dorothy and her Corpse Puppet set foot on the grassland of the Fahan Kingdom again. After seeing the grassland scene, which had barely changed after a year, Dorothy had her Corpse Puppet continue to look for the wealthy herder's home they had visited not long ago, and successfully brought out a much larger sheep from his home. This was the lamb from "that year".
After finding the sheep, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet lead the sheep back. Then she had the Corpse Puppet, which was touching the sheep, touch the false history manuscript in her hand again with her. This time, she crossed out the record of the Fahan Dynasty in 1361 again. After the world reversed, Dorothy and the Corpse Puppet returned to the real history, to the small forest where they were originally.
After returning, Dorothy let out a slight sigh of relief. Then she heard a sound coming from beside her.
"Baa~"
After hearing this sound, Dorothy turned her eyes and saw a basically adult sheep standing there, eating the grass leaves on the ground.
"What is picked up belongs to the world, what is worn belongs to the world, and what is swallowed also belongs to the world. However, what has been digested and transformed belongs to oneself. As expected... this is the false history world, corresponding to the judgment of what the 'world' possesses and what 'oneself' possesses. Food that has been digested, in a sense, is assimilated by one's own 'cup'. Has the world created a distinction?"
Looking at the sheep in front of her, Dorothy couldn't help but murmur.