The direction in clearing this nightmare dungeon was clear-cut.
Annan needed to figure out a way to nullify the ritual, not continue it. Of course, it would then mean that this nightmare did not come from Transcendeds of the Philip faction… or rather, the Rotten Man’s faction.
Other than that, there were only two other factions.
The official force of the two countries under the lead of Dmitri and Elizabeth, respectively.
Annan did not have the ritual immunity debuff given by the Old Vasily in the original history. In other words, this ritual was under the circumstance that the ritual was monitoring everyone, but it was still ruined.
It was also well known that Ferdinand did not die at this moment, nor was he wanted or exiled.
Then the one, or the few Magnetic Stones destroyed in the original history, must not have belonged to Ferdinand.
Who could detect the ritual and ruin it without arousing anyone’s attention?
He must be an observant man whose whereabouts would not arouse the vigilance of others.
There was only one person who could pull it off.
That person should be Old Merlin — Merlin Manning.
He was a cripple and a mute—at least he was mute in the eyes of outsiders. As the most reliable protector, he would undoubtedly follow Annan’s proceedings because only Merlin would know that Annan’s “value” “had already surpassed that of Dmitri’s at this time.
As a protector, he wouldn’t look suspicious wherever he showed up as long as Annan wasn’t far away.
His younger brother, Vasily, was a ritualist himself. As an elite in Winter’s Hands group, one of his jobs was to arrest the illegal ritualists. So, how could he not have ritual knowledge?
If there was a person who was related to Annan, who could see through the ritual within a short period, whose actions would not arouse the vigilance of others, who had the intentions of ruining the ritual… and most importantly, who wanted “Annan·Austere-Winter”, “Dmitri·Austere- Winter”, “Elizabeth Noah” and “Kafni Noah” to survive…
Then the answer was self-evident.
This nightmare could have only been born from Merlin Manning, who died in Michelangelo’s ritual!
“…But he was just a Silver Rank Transcended. Could he give birth to a distortion-level nightmare?” Such doubts quickly appeared in Annan’s mind.
This was the only thing Annan couldn’t explain.
Is Merlin that strong?
Generally speaking, only the death of Gold Rank Transcendeds or higher could give birth to a distortion-level nightmare, right?
However, the information Annan had gotten was already enough, even if he ignored this part.
I must get Merlin’s support if I want to use the third way to tackle the nightmare dungeon.
The second method would arouse the anger and hindrance of the Tragedy Writer. So was there a way to resolve this ritual under a circumstance that satisfied Him?
—Yes.
The Tragedy Writer was the deity of murder and conspiracy. However, he was not the protector of murderers and conspirators, but their “accomplice” and “secret-keeper”.
He was tight-lipped about murders and conspiracies and was fond of “perfect crimes.” “Perfect crime in plain sight” itself was one of the Tragedy Writer’s favorite rituals.
With that in mind, Annan decided to make a sacrifice to the Tragedy Writer.
He wanted to murder the criminal who intended to murder others, steal authority, and cause war in plain sight — Third Prince, Philip Noah!
He would deny sacrifice with another sacrifice, overcome a ritual with another ritual, prevent murder by murdering, and finally cover up an explosion with another explosion.
Not only would the Tragedy Writer not detest it, but He would also be pleased.
But if Annan were going to do that, he would have to get Merlin’s cooperation because Annan could not reveal his identity during the whole process.
He couldn’t arouse suspicion either. He couldn’t let others think the murderer was an Austerian, and he especially couldn’t let Merlin kill anyone.
“So I have to be fully prepared.”
He would murder Philip Noah just before the “curtains open” if everything went well. Otherwise, he would use the first method to get through the dungeon. There must not be the slightest hesitation in such a difficult nightmare.
It was as if the door had opened, but a teammate was hung on a tree and couldn’t be saved. One must still flee when one could.
The point was that the killer must be Annan. In other words, it must be Annan in the form of “David”.
Because when Annan entered the “David” state, not only would his appearance change, his name would also temporarily become “Ghirlandaio·David·Buonaro.” Consequently, he could unconditionally deflect any “Prophet” spells and “Idol” spells below Gold Rank.
This would allow “David” to bear this crime. Regardless of what magic was used to investigate this matter, the spell could only find that a person named “Ghirlandaio·David·Buonaro” had committed murder.
But as everyone knew, there was no such person in this world—- this was the name Annan gave to the last statue in Michelangelo’s life.
“I will heal you.” Looking at Ken Carter, who was a little uneasy, Annan nodded and said in a deep voice.
He didn’t retract the gun in his left hand as he spoke. He instead held the rapier in his right hand with his mouth and took out the last silver coin in his pocket.
He wiped the gunshot wound on Ken’s thigh with the silver coin. The wound was wiped away by Annan as if it had been erased with an eraser.
Ken’s expression also improved significantly.
He thanked in a low voice, “Thank you very much, Father.
“I won’t attack you, and I won’t reveal your identity… If you don’t trust me, you can lock the basement. I’m not going anywhere.”
“This will be the best.” Annan nodded gently and raised the blade again.
There was a flash in the depths of his pupils.
In his mind, an image suddenly appeared.
Ken Carter was sitting in the empty basement with a hesitant expression on his face. He was frowning and looking down in thought.
In the end, he slowly got up from the ground. He found a few pigeons in the kitchen basement and removed their wings.
The image stopped abruptly.
—As expected…
Annan didn’t need to finish watching it to know Ken wanted to arrange a ritual to tip off the news. This was understandable, and he had also expected it.
But Annan had never intended to let Ken go, so he wasn’t furious with the betrayal.
He was just a little surprised.
Could this be the [Prophet Experience] of Prophet school wizards?
This is so cool!
Annan warned casually, “By the way, Ken… you’d better stay here obediently and not think about anything bad. If I could live to know…
“—No matter how far, I will come back and kill you,” said Annan nonchalantly.
Ken smiled and replied in a low voice, “I won’t, I won’t…”
“That would be best.” Annan nodded nonchalantly.
He turned and walked out of the basement, but he was in no hurry to get out.
He just walked out slowly towards the basement door, silently aiming the muzzle at Ken’s position that was across the shelf behind him.
Four rounds of dialogue and then followed up by a somewhat vague “death declaration”.
Let’s see if this level of death declaration could trigger the special effects of “Miss Quiet”.
Annan pulled the trigger silently without looking across the shelf.
The negligible recoil of the gun shook slightly in his hands, but it did not move David’s marble body in the slightest.
But no bullets flew out of the muzzle— the shelf was also not penetrated by bullets.
But Annan did feel the gun vibrate.
Could it be “that” type of sure-fire? Annan took two steps back without hesitation and circled the shelf.
He saw that Ken had been shot. He was lying on the wall in pain, struggling silently and violently— blood was flowing out from his heart.
“…As expected.” Annan nodded in satisfaction.
The distance from the “muzzle” to the “target” was directly erased. This level of sure-fire was indeed valuable. If it was only to the level of automatic tracking, it could be completed with just a curse.
The experiment was over.
Annan immediately stepped forward and utilized the [Sharp Object] in his right hand, intending to give this NPC a clean death.
With just a flash of light, and the support of David’s robust strength, Annan slit Ken’s throat without any hindrance.
A head flew out.
—One-shot kill.
Annan have resolved the NPCs professionally like a Hitman. But, what else can the OP gun do? Find out what happens next by getting early access to chapters with Patreon! Please do check out the community goal in our Patreon as well! Thanks for the support! Click here to access our Patreon page.