Eve hurriedly grabbed Ron’s sleeve, her purple eyes full of vigilance:
"Back then, Mother drank the ’Wisdom Soup’ here, and ended up only being able to speak in reverse for three days!"
Her voice carried a helplessness of recollection:
"Those three days were simply disastrous..."
The Skull Chef heard this and unhappily put down his spatula:
"Little Eve, you make me sad talking about my craftsmanship like this! That Wisdom Soup is the masterpiece of my life!"
His tone carried a twisted pride:
"It allows people to experience the realm of true wisdom! To deeply understand the essence of language and thought!"
"What realm of wisdom?" Ron couldn’t help but ask curiously.
"It’s the realm where you realize how foolish you are!"
The Skull Chef excitedly waved his bony claws:
"Your mother was deeply experiencing this at the time, so she spoke in reverse to express her true inner thoughts! What profound life insights that is!"
With his words, a huge crystal screen suddenly appeared in the air, starting to replay Cassandra’s ’magnificent performance’ of the past:
In the picture, Cassandra is sitting at the conference table in front of a dozen stern-faced Great Wizards.
Her eyes carried an extreme look of confusion.
"Regarding the proposal to develop Otherworld trade routes,"
At that time, Cassandra, who had just been promoted to Great Wizard, cleared her throat and said in an extremely serious tone:
"I think it is utterly stupid! We should immediately give up such meaningless plans!"
The conference room was silent, and all the Great Wizards looked at her with shocked eyes.
Cassandra seemed to realize something was amiss and tried to explain, only to say even more outrageous things:
"No no no, what I’m saying is this plan is too perfect! So perfect it makes me despair! We absolutely shouldn’t support it!"
In the scene, the Great Wizard Vinard frowned: "Cassandra, what are you trying to express?"
"What I’m trying to express is..." Young Cassandra’s face turned even paler:
"This plan is worthless, so we should oppose it with all our might... No, I mean this plan is immensely valuable, so we should support it with all our might... Wait, what am I even saying?!"
Eventually, she simply shut her mouth, covered her face with her hand, allowing the other Great Wizards to look at each other in bewilderment.
The screen disappeared, the Skull Chef nodded in satisfaction:
"See? Such profound philosophical reflection! Your mother understood the falsehood of language and the limitations of thought through personal experience!"
His tone grew more excited:
"This experience is more valuable than reading a thousand philosophy books! I am simply proud of my masterpiece!"
Ron didn’t know how to react to all this.
This logic... is indeed absurd.
Yet, hidden within absurdity is a certain frightening reality.
He politely waved his hand:
"Thank you for your kind offer, but we’re already full."
"What a pity!"
The Skull Chef sighed disappointedly:
"If that’s the case, I can only taste it myself; wasting good food is wrong."
Having said that, he began to enjoy his self-made ’delicious dishes.’
The Skull Chef first scooped a spoonful of ’Wisdom Soup,’ and after drinking it, immediately started speaking in reverse:
"This tastes awful! My craftsmanship is terrible!"
Yet his actions showed great enjoyment, even stroking his jawbone with his bony claws, as if savoring the wonderful taste.
"This contradiction..." Ron muttered to himself, "The complete divergence between words and actions, is this perhaps the ’wisdom’ he spoke of?"
The Skull Chef heard this and suddenly stopped eating, fixing his hollow eye sockets on Ron:
"Young man, you are beginning to understand."
This time, his tone became exceptionally serious, even carrying a certain ancient awe:
"In this universe, truth often contradicts appearances.
The most honest words may conceal the deepest lies.
The deepest lies might point to the purest truth."
He put back on that funny chef hat, his tone returned to its previous lightness:
"But, all these are too heavy! Come on, continue with your exploration! There’s a more interesting experience awaiting you!"
The restaurant vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed.
......
Soon afterward, the entire space of the treasury changed again.
Countless mirrors rose from the void.
In the mirrors, the two turned into comical clowns, wearing exaggerated costumes, performing various acrobatics.
The ’Ron’ in the mirror is trying to walk on a tightrope, but the rope is made of noodles, causing him to constantly fall;
The ’Eve’ in the mirror is juggling colorful balls, but the balls are alive, flying away on their own...
The strangest thing is, in a particularly large mirror, ’Ron’ and ’Eve’ are standing in front of it, watching the real them outside the mirror.
The ’Ron’ in the mirror pointed outside and shouted:
"Look! Those two impostors! They dare to impersonate us!"
The ’Eve’ in the mirror put her hands on her hips, angrily saying:
"Exactly! We’re the originals! They are clearly inferior copies!"
"It’s a trap."
The real Ron calmly analyzed:
"Once we try to ’prove’ our authenticity, we’ll fall into an endless cycle of self-doubt."
He carefully observed the arrangement of the mirrors:
"Each mirror reflects different possibilities, different identities.
The King of Absurdity wants to test not our courage, but our confidence in our own identities."
"Then what should we do?"
Eve asked anxiously, while the fake Eve in the mirror kept mocking and taunting.
Ron contemplated for a moment, then suddenly revealed a knowing smile.
He turned to the largest mirror and said in an extremely sincere tone:
"You’re absolutely right, we really are fake."