The masked “Lily Rasputin” on the treasure ship “Silver” was undoubtedly Euphemia Melvin who ran away from home back then.
Until now, Annan hadn’t been able to verify the accuracy of this speculation.
However, with Celecia’s help…
Her reply convinced Annan that his deduction was right.
It was just a hunch previously, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.
Anyway, in this world where “everything would be forgotten in the next cycle”, even if Annan made the wrong choice, it would still be fine. Although this world was created to seal the Venerated Skeleton, it served another purpose for Annan.
—In the outside world, some comments or actions led to unexpected turns of events, resulting in an ‘unforeseen ending’. In gaming terms, this could be roughly called a ‘secret ending’ or an ‘easter egg’, where the biggest secrets are usually concealed.
But the main difference between real life and games was that ‘you can’t reload a save file in reality’.
This meant that if you wanted to chase that ‘secret ending’, you had to let go of the ‘usual outcome’ that was already in motion.
It would be a tough decision to make.
Or, precisely because players in games could reload and restart multiple times, the joy of reaching the ending might not be as grand. This was because ‘achieving that ending’ was the initial goal all players had when they started the game, and its value might diminish.
Compared with the outstanding and secret ending, a normal playthrough seemed “not interesting enough”. Even though the outcome of the secret ending might not be as good as the regular ending, people would still pursue the secret ending. It appeared as if unlocking the secret ending was a higher form of achievement.
In this infinite nightmare loop of [Eternal Reincarnation], the nightmare’s conditions became the “load savefile” feature.
This implied that Annan might have to use drastic measures to get intel that was usually hard to come by.
For example, Annan told Celecia his real name.
While she might temporarily obey Annan’s orders and tell him everything she knew, this also meant that obtaining certain information might become even more challenging.
There were things she could tell ordinary people, Elle, a stranger, and a passerby, but not Annan.
—That was inevitable.
Since this cycle would eventually end and everyone would lose these memories, it would be a waste to not take advantage of such a rare opportunity to extract some valuable information.
Since it might damage Annan’s reputation among the players, Annan didn’t bring Longjing Tea along this time.
To keep Longjing Tea’s wild side in check, Annan sent him back to his place — definitely the best spot for playing the part and staying safe.
Naturally, people would tend to rest at home in the evening; they would need a good reason to head out.
Annan was worried about it at first. If Euphemia returned home honestly, it would not be easy to find her residence in these high-rise buildings.
Fortunately, Euphemia Melvin was not that kind of person.
Finding her wasn’t particularly difficult.
She had a distinctive appearance.
Her hair was a heavy silvery-gray, reminiscent of mercury, hanging straight down. Near the ends, though, it unexpectedly transitioned into a pinkish-purple ombre with curls.
Such a distinctive hair color was unforgettable at just one glance. Not to mention the metallic mask she wore, covering the upper half of her face, making her look like something out of a fantasy.
Annan and Celecia did not even use any transcended abilities, nor did they leverage Longjing Tea’s police authority. They just asked a few folks on the street and tracked down Euphemia the old-fashioned way.
At that moment, she was leisurely strolling through the food street — a can of coconut juice in her left hand and several steaming skewers in her right. With great gusto, she took a big bite, munching on several pieces from the skewers all at once.
Given the stack of wooden sticks poking out from her waist pouch, it seemed Euphemia had been on a food spree for a while.
“Lily?”
This was such a departure from her usual look that when Ceresia laid eyes on her, she was momentarily speechless.
She asked probingly, “Is that you?”
“Hi, Captain.”
Euphemia seemed to have no doubt that “Celecia would eventually find her”.
The moment she was called, she said hello to Celecia without hesitation, “You’re a little late. Wasn’t I your top priority? That’s kind of heartbreaking. I thought you’d find me sooner…”
While her words conveyed sadness, her tone was laid-back, without a trace of sorrow.
She turned around. Upon seeing Elle, she paused for a moment. Then, she greeted smilingly, “Hey, Little Elle… I didn’t expect to see you here. Weren’t you an angel?”
She clearly couldn’t forget the sight of Elle turning into an angel and flying away.
However, she didn’t seem too bothered.
Noticing that Elle’s eyes were focused on the coconut juice in her left hand, she handed it over with a smile, “It’s coconut juice, and it’s delicious. Among the drinks, this one tastes the best to me. Not only it’s fresh, it’s also sweet. Do you want to try it?”
Obviously, she had already bought a lot of drinks in this “other world”.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t be this familiar with the drinks.
As the creator of this otherworldly nightmare, Bone Burying Grandma could either literally see the future, or she pulled bits of “modern” life from the players’ memories, using them to quickly craft this slightly scaled-down “other realm”.
Annan felt the latter reason made more sense.
In this world, some things simply didn’t need to be here.
The most distinctive feature of the Mist Continent, apart from the curse, was the “ritual” that started with the Mysterious Lady.
Even if more people become aware of the power held by the “Mysterious Lady”, it didn’t make Her any less mysterious or any weaker.”
The essence of ritual was to “rent” transcended power.
Every country agreed on controlling the secrets that could make someone a ritualist. It wasn’t about weakening the ritual’s power, but because those secrets were just too dangerous.
If the ritual failed, it could lead to various disasters — earthquakes, tsunamis, torrential rains, droughts, or even explosions in buildings, continuous nightmares among the townsfolk, participants in the ritual going mad, simply shortening of lifespan, or destroying the ritual site. Regardless of the outcome, it was always troublesome.
On the other hand, holding the power of ritual would quickly inflate any ordinary person’s ego. No curse of transcendence restrained them. Besides, their mind wasn’t cleansed of distractions since they didn’t condense their souls like those advancing to the Silver Rank. They acted more recklessly, without consideration for the consequences.
In other words, controlling the rituals wasn’t because having more ritualists would weaken the power of the rituals. It was simply that the armed forces of the kingdoms on the surface couldn’t effectively deter or control these civilian ritualists to obey the law.
So, with the advancement of technology, official standardization of rituals became the inevitable path forward.
And over those centuries, new and more effective rituals had inevitably emerged. After all, rituals could be created… as long as they adhered to certain rules, they could be integrated into the “Truth” system.
From Annan’s observation, this “other world” seemed more akin to an Earth-like worldview, but with elements adopted from the Mist Continent settings.
It almost entirely blocked the development of all non-magical rituals. It seemed more like a fictional city, built using the magical knowledge of various schools led by the transformation school, combined with the technology of Earth around the 20th century.
To create a world with mere thoughts…
The Bone Burying Grandma’s power even made Annan feel a little nervous.
What baffled Annan: Did all twelve upright deities have equal power? Or was it just the Bone Burying Grandma who was special?
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