Three times?
Annan froze for a moment.
Even if both sides are real, that would mean dying twice… Where did the third death come from?
Or…
Annan gradually reacted.
Multiplayer cooperative games such as Overcooked [1], Moving Out [2], Super Bunnyman [3], Battle Block Theater [4], and Biped [5] were all multiplayer cooperative puzzle-solving games with relatively fair conditions for both parties.
In other words, the hardships and puzzles they face were the same. Anyone could solve it.
But in reality, the puzzles and challenges that the two sides face in all cooperative games were not necessarily the same or symmetrical.
There were also some cooperative games in which the puzzles faced by both sides were not in the same difficulties. Instead, each player faced different difficulties, such as Fireboy and Watergirl, Brother – A Tale of Two Sons, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Tick Tock: A Tale For Two, and Out of Inferno.
For example, Fireboy and Watergirl, Brother – A Tale of Two Sons, and Out of Inferno were still on the same screen at least. Of course, because the hards encountered in Out of Inferno were almost synchronized, even in split-screen mode, the players could not divert attention to the other side.
“Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes”, “Tick Tock: A Tale For Two”, and the famous simulator to break relationships, “We Were Here Too”, required both players to rely on each other to gather information and solve puzzles. Each person’s experience of the game was only half of the full game, as they needed to interact with the other player and relied on their descriptions and actions to progress.
Let’s name this nightmare “Phantom Fever” first.
If “Nightmare: Phantom Fever” was also a “two-player cooperative game”, then the two people, who play Frederick and Justice, might have faced different dungeon levels!
For example, Frederick had only two paragraphs, “past” and “future”. However, there was a third plot on Justice’s side. The “other” Justice who “betrayed Frederick” should come from this third plot!
This was probably why Nefertari woke up a little later than Annan.
Annan soon realized the situation.
It was a pity that Nefertari could not be like a player, who could maintain consciousness from a dream before advancing into a transcender. She would lose consciousness after falling into a nightmare. As long as she woke up, she would forget a large part of her experience in the nightmare. Hence, she had no way to tell Annan about the plot in the dungeon instance.
Annan wasn’t sure if “Bone Healer” Seti deliberately set it that way or if this nightmare was the type that would not increase the dungeon challenger’s level.
This meant that even if Nefertari cleared the level a few more times, she would not advance to a transcender.
Annan recalled the words of the “Gray Professor” when he saw through his identity, and his heart shuddered.
Is that also in your scheme?
Annan narrowed her eyes slightly, lost in thought.
If Annan guessed correctly, “Bone Healer” Seti, was also known as the former “Gray Professor” of the Gray Tower.
His true identity was probably that [Trisino].
In other words, the pope of the Deity of Murder and Conspiracy, “Tragedy Writer”, who was mentioned in the plot of the “future segment”.
As mentioned in the plot introduction, “Shield of Unfallen” Justice accepted a contract from Pope Trisino to bring an Idol Wizard to Cinder Barren, and let him feel the “gap between dreams”.
Frederick would help as long as Justice asked for it, given their friendships.
However, Justice didn’t say anything to Frederick until the end.
That carried a lot of information.
In the end, that remains a mystery.
Annan thought to himself.
Conversely, as long as Annan figured out Justice’s secrets, all mysteries were solved.
Who is Trisino that makes Justice so obedient?
The plot of the “youth segment” showed that Justice admired Gray Professor very much. The magic wine Justice drank was exactly the wine that Gray Professor Seti used to seal the sacred bone.
There was another coincidence.
Annan not only knew the properties of the sacred bone wine, he even owned a bottle of [Sacred Bone Extract (Justice)].
Justice’s bottle of Wyrmrest Reagent lacked dragon blood as the main material. However, Gray Professor was an Idol Wizard who could complete the “Supreme Crown” after all. He might be able to optimize this formula.
While this was some sort of a reagent, it was not synthetic. Alteration School, on the contrary, could not understand it better than the Idol School.
“Thief Saint Alfonso” obtained the qualification to hold the [Bone of Courage] by using a transmutation potion made from the extract of the Skeleton of Courage.
If at that time, it had not been decided that Alfonso would use [Bone of Courage].
Or to put it another way… the technology to force the body to be suitable for the [Skeleton of Courage] was perfected to the point where Alphonse could utilize it.
There must be earlier prototypes.
Thinking of this, Annan felt a chill in his heart.
The stories are connected.
It all ties together—
“A fleeting moment of anger. A neverending remorse.”
This was what Justice said at the beginning of the nightmare.
When you think of courage, there is also recklessness, and then rage.
Justice’s big change in temperament might not be because he was completely opposite to the outside rumors. Judging from Justice’s childhood state, he did not seem to be such a violent and irritable person who liked to blame others.
He was more like a standard hot-blooded male lead: reckless, cheerful, valuing friendship, and not very smart.
He would take his anger out on Austere-Winter, perhaps because the extract from the Bones of Courage had altered his mind.
Ingrid’s death did have something to do with Austere-Winter. However, the connection was too far-fetched. The Daughter of the Storm would choose to sacrifice herself, which meant that she was unable to hold on. At that time, Austere-Winter had no better candidate to succeed in the Daughter of the Storm role.
The Wise wasn’t really to be blamed either.
Leaving aside the judgments of the Wise at the time, there was indeed no mistake.
After receiving the news, an earthquake occurred half a day later. If they were evacuating at that time, there might have been even more casualties.
During the short 12-day protection period, only the Spotted Bone Forest had an earthquake, while other places were safe. Moreover, only the stone forest in the Spotted Bone Forest was destroyed due to the earthquake.
There were not even cracks in the houses of the city.
The dead and the wounded might be less than ten people…
Justice, who was also in Speckled Bone Forest, stayed in the barbeque store the whole time. As a result, he was not injured at all. If the one who followed Ingrid into the alley was not a frail wizard, like Frederick, he might have just hugged her and run out. Or even a normal wizard, with [Stone to Mud] or [Position Change] types of spells, could also escape from the disaster smoothly.
It just happened to be Frederick. It just so happened to be Ingrid.
Ingrid would be killed because of this, more because she happened to hide in the alley to answer the phone, but couldn’t get out when the accident happened. It was also because the buildings around her were few super tall buildings in the city.
The real responsibility of the Wise, instead, was why the residents were not notified to stay in a relatively safe place after the earthquake had already occurred in the “Speckled Bone Forest”. Although this problem was solved because there was no earthquake in the next eleven days, there was indeed a problem in how they handled things.
However, their conclusions were irrelevant to Ingrid.
So why would Professor Wolf choose revenge on the Austere-Winter Dukedom?
What if Professor Wolf was neither Justice nor Frederick?
Was the “poisonous wine” of a large amount of holy bone extract that was consumed really something that Justin’s self-healing ability could recover from?
Since this extract was capable of altering Alfonso’s mind, why couldn’t it change Justice’s mind?
Unless Justice’s mind was already changed by it.
Annan seriously suspected that Ingrid’s death was related to “Gray Professor” Seti.
He sent the recording, but couldn’t he find a place that was a little quieter?
Since it was such an important matter and it was not a simple matter that could be passed in a sentence or two, Gray Professor insisted on recording so much in a noisy place… Maybe this was because he planned it out. If Ingrid couldn’t hear clearly, she would go to a closer place to answer the phone.
He had also calculated at the same time that there would be an earthquake in the Speckled Bone Forest.
He guessed that Ingrid would die. He also guessed that Justice would see all this, but survived safely.
If only he was Tragedy Writer’s pope, he was likely capable of conducting this event.
“Isn’t this ‘the unfortunate must die in the furnace of misfortune’?” Annan murmured.
If Gray Professor planned Ingrid’s death, then Justice’s accepting the contract and visiting the Cinder Barren was the same as what happened in Speckled Bone Forest many years ago.