booktalesy Chapter 4301 Favor
Chapter 4301 Favor
Chapter 4301 Favor
The so-called "Easter egg" was a radio surrounded by countless neon lights.
Yes, a very unassuming radio.
Overall, it has a bronze-colored, rounded rectangle shape, with two circular speaker grilles on the front, resembling a pair of bulging eyes.
When Lillie arrived, it was playing upbeat rock music, and the surrounding neon lights flashed in sync with the drumbeats, making the entire rooftop seem to be immersed in a vibrant ocean of colorful lights.
It's like the only noise in this still city.
But just as Lillie approached, the rock music abruptly stopped.
Immediately afterwards, a clicking sound came from the radio.
"click"
"We have found a person with a story, whose spatiotemporal signal concentration is high, reaching the threshold for activating the trading mode."
"Trading in progress—"
"Hello, visitor from afar, I am Hertz, the Time Radio. You have a story I want to hear, and I can exchange mine with you."
"Would you like to switch places with me?"
A radio that can talk? And it even calls itself "Time Radio" Hertz?
Curiosity flashed in Lillie's eyes. Could this be the "fashion monster" recorded in the notebook?
Lillie tried to ask the radio in front of her.
But Hertz seemed unable to handle multi-threaded conversations, stubbornly waiting for her to respond first with "whether to exchange?"
Liriel pondered for a moment, then finally shook her head.
Since this Easter egg was deliberately placed by Nomifen, there's no guarantee that there's some ulterior motive behind it; right now, her primary goal is to find a way out, and there's really no need to complicate things or rashly get involved in an unknown transaction.
As she refused, the surrounding neon lights suddenly dimmed, and the rooftop instantly returned to silence.
The next second, Normeffens' figure appeared...
"Then it asked me to confirm the answers to three questions," Lillie said. "And then I came out."
The Decaying One: "My experience is similar to yours."
"The first question was seen on a billboard, and the second question was found in a fashion-related store."
"As for the final surprise, it's not a radio, but a pair of golden scissors called the Fashion Cutter."
"It's located on the top floor of the tallest building, which is the only place with flashing neon lights, so it's easy to find."
"This pair of golden scissors could also talk, but it said it wanted to redesign a fashion style for me that would suit me better. I thought about it and ultimately declined."
The decaying man recounted his "experience".
Of course, these experiences are based on Ingres's simple description of the city, which he modified and fabricated himself.
Liriel didn't detect anything amiss either: "Although our Easter eggs are different, perhaps the final Easter egg is to let us witness the extraordinary monsters of this city?"
"A unique system centered on fashion is quite interesting."
"I wonder if the supernatural system in this city is real?" Liriel's eyes flashed with curiosity. "Could the battles between fashion mages here just be a contest of who's the most stylish?"
The withered man shook his head: "I don't know either."
"It seems that this city is some kind of illusion created by Normefens?"
"Although it's fake, the city has a very consistent style, and everyone's clothing and appearance are indeed different, which is consistent with social logic."
"Perhaps such a world really exists? Normefens is just projecting this city onto the surface."
Lillie nodded in agreement. The city's operations were largely based on reality, and she had even discovered the city's darker side through some of the information.
Highly developed urban construction inevitably brings pollution problems, which in turn lead to acid rain, which in turn corrodes buildings. Therefore, all buildings have rainproof tarpaulins on their exteriors.
Acid rain can make people sick, so when it rains, people start to scatter and run away.
“Just a detail like acid rain contains a tightly linked chain of logic; it doesn’t seem like something made up on the spot.” Liriel sighed softly, her tone tinged with regret. “Unfortunately, the Southern Region has yet to discover such a world.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she laughed self-deprecatingly and shook her head: "It's not really a pity."
The withered one looked up at her, seemingly puzzled.
Liriel shrugged, a complex look flashing in her eyes: "I believe in my fellow human beings, but I don't believe in humanity. That world looks like it's rich in resources. If it were discovered by the wizards of the Southern Region, the consequences would probably be far more tragic than acid rain pollution—plunder, invasion, and in the end, it would only turn the place upside down."
The Decayer: "It sounds like you don't like invasions, so why are you still in the Abyss?"
Liriel didn't answer immediately. Instead, she turned her head and winked as she walked, "Are you curious about me? Do you know what happens when you're curious about the opposite sex?"
The withered one's expression remained calm: "You started this topic, I was just following up on what you said."
"Moreover, since we are currently in a 'cooperative' relationship, I don't mind learning a little about my partner's past."
Liriel accepted this explanation.
The main reason was that the withered one's tone remained calm and even, without any malicious intent to pry or any urgent need to ask questions, which made her too lazy to interrupt with jokes.
As the withered one said, they are now in a cooperative relationship, and a little basic honesty might make the subsequent cooperation smoother.
Of course, most importantly, these are not secrets.
“Your rebuttal was wrong,” Liriel said. “I’m not against invasion; I just don’t like seeing beautiful things destroyed.”
"As for why I stay in the Abyss? Are you implying that since I oppose invasion, why did I invade the Abyss?"
Liriel shook her head: "If you know enough about the wizarding world, you should know that the demons have ravaged the Southern Region many times because they invaded first... I came to the Abyss, or rather, my kind gathered in the Abyss, just to prepare for the future 'war'."
What kind of war was this? Liriel didn't say, but the Decayer could guess.
The conflict between humanity and the abyss is irreconcilable.
The outbreak of war was not unexpected.
The withered one was silent for a moment: "From your words, I can hear your rejection of the Abyss God. Then why do you cooperate with the Scholar?"
Liriel paused for a moment and looked at the withered one.
"You actually gossip about your boss?"
The withered one's tone remained calm, "Please watch your words. The Scholar is not my superior, He is my faith. Moreover, I am not asking about His gossip, but about yours."
Lillie curled her lip: "Your nonchalant tone doesn't sound like you're talking about faith at all."
The withered one glanced at her indifferently but did not reply.
Liriel didn't care and said, "My cooperation with the Abyss Demon God doesn't mean I approve of him."
"Cooperation is based on the coexistence of interests, and it is different from the agreement on positions."
A stance is a choice rooted in cognition, while cooperation is a weighing of realities.
"What I reject is the predatory nature of the Abyss Demon God, not that I will reject all cooperation related to the Demon God that can solve my own predicament."
"Just like how we are cooperating now in order to leave the maze and complete the collection mission, does that mean that we agree on everything about each other? It's just about finding a balance that benefits both of us in the current situation."
"My collaboration with Scholar is also like this."
The withered one glanced at her: "Your thinking is very insightful, and what you said makes sense. However, you and I are forced to cooperate under duress, but you and the Scholar will certainly not be in this situation."
"Of course not, I just..."
Liriel hesitated for a moment before giving her answer: "I just owe the cruel scholar a favor."
The withered one already knew about human relationships, and the reason it guided things in this way was all to lay the groundwork for what was to come.
"Oh? You owe the Scholar a favor?" A hint of doubt flashed in the withered man's eyes, as if he was curious about what favor.
Liriel shrugged: "Didn't I say before, when I was on the first Wall of Inquiry, that I asked a deity and he told me that the answer I was looking for was in the Old City?"
"That deity refers to the cruel scholar."
The withered one was taken aback, and his mind automatically recalled Liriel's answer to Normefens.
Among the answers concerning the "future".
Liriel mentioned her mid-term goals, saying, "I have two mid-term goals. The first is to find the Old City. I promised my student that I would find a way to prolong her life. I once asked a deity, and He said that the answer I am looking for is in the Old City."
So, Lillie had already mentioned the reason behind it back then?!
The withered one didn't realize it at the time.
The main point is that the Decayers focused on the "City of the Old," because the City of the Old is a very ancient legend in the Abyss.
It is a mysterious city whose legends are hidden in the past, the source of demons, the final resting place of the ancients, and the place where the answers to all questions are found.
"Just because of this, you owe the Scholar a favor?" The withered one's expression was a bit strange: "The City of the Past is not a secret in the Abyss; its legends are everywhere."
Liriel: "If we only talk about the Old City, that's definitely not enough. The Cruel Scholar also told me how to find the Old City."
The decaying one understood.
This method is the key to why Liriel was willing to voluntarily owe someone a favor.
Let me clarify the whole process: Liriel had a student who seemed to have a problem with his lifespan, and conventional methods could not prolong his life—although Liriel did not say it explicitly, if conventional methods could prolong life, she would not have taken such an extreme approach—so she went to the Scholar and learned that there was a way to prolong life in the Old City, and at the same time, she also obtained the method to go to the Old City.
At this point, she owed Xue Shi Zun a favor.
This time, she agreed to cooperate with Scholar Zun to help explore the source of the strange dream in order to repay this favor.
The withered one felt at peace; the suspended stone had fallen to the ground.
It finally figured out the ins and outs of human relationships, and when it saw Angell again, it was able to fulfill its promise.
Suppressing his inner joy, the Decaying One said calmly, "I see. Indeed, very few people in the entire Abyss know the specific method for finding the City of the Past. After all, in our view, the City of the Past is just an ancient legend."
"You've gained this favor."
Liriel shook her head: "I don't think it's that profitable... The opening time of the Old City is unknown, who knows when it will open next."
"What's the point of opening it after my students' lives have come to an end?"
Before the withered one could say anything more, Liriel suddenly said, "Huh, there's a shelf that's inexplicably appeared on this wall. That's strange."
"Could it be solving a mystery?"
The Decaying One then noticed a row of wooden shelves on the corridor wall, something that hadn't been there before.
Any changes mean there's a high chance there's a puzzle here, and solving the puzzle means... a treasure chest!
……
In the void.
"They found out the reason for the favor so quickly?" Angor was somewhat surprised; the efficiency of the Decayer was simply too high.
Not long after leaving the wall of questions, they were guided by simple words to the topic of human relationships.
Judging from Lillie's expression, nothing seemed amiss.
Angell couldn't help but lament that, often, the same question presented from different perspectives presents vastly different levels of difficulty.
The Decayers and Liriel were already in a cooperative framework with aligned interests, so their positions were naturally compatible. It was much easier to get answers from them than to those with opposing positions.
If anyone else had asked, Lillie would never have given in so easily.
This is not just a guess; he has already put it into practice.
In the Easter egg on the Wall of Questions, he deliberately included "Hertz," intending to use this opportunity to find answers from Liriel.
The initial idea was to search through Hertz's "Time-Space Broadcasting Station" to see if they could find out Liriel's inner story. This way, they could obtain the truth without having to talk to her, and even see whether Liriel was worth cooperating with through "people with stories."
But it's a pity.
After Hertz activated his ability search, he did not find any "seeds of a story" on Liriel.
Whether the inability to retrieve the data is due to limited capabilities or some other reason, Angell has no way of knowing at the moment.
In short, since direct interpretation was not an option, he had to find another way.
--exchange.
He chose to have Hertz propose an "exchange of stories" to Lillie.
However, Hertz was not like Turing; his intelligence was absolutely incapable of performing such precise operations. Therefore, the one who was actually conversing with Liriel at that time was Angell.
Angel, disguised as Hertz, sends a signal to "exchange stories".
But Liriel didn't take the bait at all and refused outright, not even revealing a single detail about her past.
This is enough to prove that Liriel's level of vigilance is completely different depending on her stance.
With a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing both emotion and reflection), Angell recalled the favor that Liriel owed him.
In terms of the weight of human relationships alone, it is actually not insignificant.
The cruel scholar not only provided information that "the old city has a way to prolong its life," but also a "path to find" that is difficult for ordinary people to access. This information is very valuable.
The favors owed in exchange for such intelligence are extremely difficult to repay.
Moreover, the creditor is a god of the level of a cruel scholar, making it exponentially more difficult to repay this favor.
Therefore, when Liriel learned that she could repay the favor simply by exploring the "Source of Dreams," she certainly wouldn't refuse.
Even now, knowing that the "Source of Dreams" is difficult to explore, if it were up to Libra, she would probably still choose to repay the favor.