Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2996: Chapter 2997: Stalled Progress

After returning to the Heart Space, Laplace glanced at Angel and said softly, "You really are cautious. But this is good too. To some extent, it prevents intruders from entering the Heart Space through the Mirror Passage."

Angel: "I didn’t think that much, I just felt that opening a door in that place wasn’t very appropriate."

Half a minute ago, just as Angel was preparing to leave the Buffer Zone, he did two things. The first was to leave the Wish Book and the gemstone teapot in the Buffer Zone—after all, the Buffer Zone could also serve as a temporary storage vault; the second was to set up an Illusion Technique at the entrance between the Buffer Zone and the Mirror Passage.

If one looked from within the Buffer Zone at this moment, they would discover that the entire Buffer Zone now had only a single door left. That was the Mirror Gate of the Cha Cha Mirror leading into the Buffer Zone.

All the other entrances and exits had disappeared.

Or rather, under the cover of the Nightmare Illusion, they had turned into walls of cold white.

Because the Nightmare Illusion’s effect was almost lifelike, ordinary people simply couldn’t tell that there was still a passage on that wall. Even if they knew there was a passage, if they couldn’t break through the Nightmare Illusion, they’d have no way to enter the Heart Space.

In Laplace’s view, this setup was a sign of caution.

However, Angel hadn’t thought that far; he simply wanted the layout of the Buffer Zone to be integrated, meaning the interior design style had to be consistent. Under such a requirement, the door of the Mirror Passage looked a bit abrupt, so Angel simply covered it up.

Anyway, for him, whether he could see the Door or not didn’t matter.

Laplace: "Let’s turn the page on the Buffer Zone and get back to the main topic... I remember you should’ve left the Underground Labyrinth already, so how do you have time to come in? Did you want to see whether the Heart Space had yielded anything?"

"If you really came for that, then unfortunately, we haven’t yet discovered any physical objects in the Sea of Void Mirror."

Angel shook his head. "No, physical objects aren’t that important to me. I’m here for your Authority."

Angel had long ago promised Laplace to grant her an Authority from the Crystal Origin of Dreams, but due to various matters, it had been forced to be postponed.

Angel thought that now that he had already left the Underground Aqueduct, he could use "settling down" as an excuse to carve out some leisure time for himself.

Since there was nothing pressing before or after, Angel figured he might as well first fulfill the promise he had previously made.

In any case, bearing the Nightmare Realm Power wouldn’t take too long; only researching the Authority and developing it in depth would consume a great deal of time.

How to research and develop the Authority was not something Angel needed to worry about; naturally, it would be left to Laplace to handle herself.

He only needed to keep his word.

And keeping his word also meant that the foundation of mutual trust between them could advance one step further.

After Angel explained the situation, Laplace didn’t decline. She simply nodded and agreed.

However, while Angel’s plan sounded good, reality often ran counter to what he envisioned.

When they logged back into the Crystal Origin of Dreams, Angel casually sensed the general state of the Crystal Origin of Dreams and immediately discovered some rather troubling news.

—Luigi still hadn’t come out of the instance.

If Luigi didn’t come out of the instance, Laplace wouldn’t accept the Authority. The reason was very simple: she was afraid that accepting the Authority might affect the normal operation of the Wonderland of Dreams, causing problems on Luigi’s side.

Although Angel felt this possibility was very small, the situation in the Crystal Origin of Dreams was far too different from that of the Wilderness of Dreams.

The opening of the Wilderness of Dreams was more like establishing a world similar to the Wizards’ Realm; to put it simply, it was a farming-style start.

But the opening of the Crystal Origin of Dreams was a Player-style start. Because the very first Authority of the Crystal Origin of Dreams was "Wonderland of Dreams."

The Authority of Wonderland of Dreams was extremely special: it was a grand unification integrated as a whole, and at the same time, it was tiny scattered puzzle pieces everywhere.

The so-called Immortal Realm was more like one instance after another attached inside the Crystal Origin of Dreams; each instance possessed its own world and its own unique rules.

And the source that gave birth to the Wonderland of Dreams was memory, was the dreams of the Eliminator, was those ineffable, obscure rules in the dark.

The Authority that Laplace was to bear was likewise related to memory.

It was highly possible that the underlying logic of the Wonderland of Dreams would intersect with Laplace’s Authority. Once such a crossover really occurred, Laplace’s concerns would not be unfounded.

There truly was a possibility that inheriting the Authority might affect Luigi.

Even if this possibility was only one in ten thousand, Laplace still didn’t want to gamble. After all, their current situation was not one of imminent danger; there was no need to take a reckless gamble.

Therefore, the prerequisite for Laplace to inherit the Authority was that she had to wait until Luigi left "Uriel’s Choice."

Angel also didn’t know exactly what had happened on Luigi’s side. Why had Luigi still not completed such a small "music-specialized" instance?

Angel clearly remembered that Luigi’s Main Quest was: use the instrument in his hands to remove the knot in Uriel’s heart.

If he failed, the instance would reset indefinitely.

Only after completing all the Main Quests could Luigi leave "Uriel’s Choice."

Given Angel’s understanding of Luigi, this guy might not be good at writing poetry, but his musical level was near master. With his musical attainment, he shouldn’t be unable to untie Uriel’s heart knot even now, should he?

Or perhaps Luigi had already untied Uriel’s heart knot, but then entered other Main Quests?

After all, the Immortal Realm prompt had clearly stated that Luigi had to complete "all" the Main Quests to leave the instance. This "all" perhaps was not as simple as just untangling the heart knot.

Angel fell silent for a moment, then said, "How about we have Luigi go Offline first?"

Laplace: "Ever since he entered the Immortal Realm, he has never gone Offline."

In other words, she couldn’t contact Luigi.

However, this wasn’t a difficult problem, because Angel could contact Luigi.

But after Angel shared his idea, Laplace still shook her head. "Forget it, let’s wait for him to leave the Immortal Realm before talking about the Authority."

Laplace knew Luigi’s personality very well. He seemed very easygoing on the surface, but once it touched the realm of art, his stubbornness would come online.

Even if Angel forcefully persuaded Luigi to go Offline, Luigi definitely wouldn’t object. But who could guarantee that while Luigi was Offline, Laplace’s bearing of the Authority wouldn’t affect "Uriel’s Choice"?

If "Uriel’s Choice" changed because of the birth of the new Authority, that might become Luigi’s heart knot.

As she had said, since it was not yet a moment of life and death, there was no need to gamble.

"Uriel’s Choice" would end one day eventually; when that time came, it would still be possible to bear the Authority.

Angel thought for a moment, then still nodded. "Alright then, we’ll wait until Luigi comes out before we talk about it."

Pausing for a moment, Angel looked at Laplace. "Want to go check on how Luigi’s doing?"

Laplace didn’t refuse; she had nothing else to do anyway. For all they knew, by the time they got there, Luigi might already have freed himself from "Uriel’s Choice."

Offline, online.

In just a few seconds, they arrived at the location of the "Uriel’s Choice" instance.

The instance of "Uriel’s Choice" was set inside a somewhat dilapidated two-story pavilion.

From their previous experiences with this instance, they knew that once there was a clear breakthrough inside, the exterior appearance would also change.

Now, however, the two-story pavilion remained exactly the same, still as broken-down and shabby as before. From this alone, it was clear that Luigi’s Main Quest had made no breakthrough at all.

Angel signaled for Laplace to step back first, then activated the Ability Tree and sank his thoughts into the pavilion.

As his thoughts delved deeper and deeper, Angel’s perspective also began to shift. Before long, he slipped into that familiar Box Garden Perspective. Angel felt as if he were standing outside the "Birdcage," quietly peeking at the miniature pavilion set under a "light dome."

His viewpoint stretched further, and soon Angel locked onto Luigi’s position.

Angel didn’t yet know how far Luigi had progressed, but where he was now was exactly the same as before. Had he really still not untied Uriel’s emotional knot?

Angel didn’t contact Luigi immediately. Instead, he diverted part of his thoughts outward, using the now steadily growing Authority of Celestial Alternation to create an Illusion.

The Illusion was displaying Luigi’s every move at this very moment, which meant—

Angel’s full-immersion livestream room was on the air again!

"Even though I’ve seen it before, I have to say, your ’livestream’ is quite interesting." Laplace walked over slowly to Angel’s side. Looking at the Illusion Technique around them that was almost indistinguishable from reality, she couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional.

"Isn’t this about the same as you binge-watching shows?" Angel muttered.

"Binge-watching shows?" Laplace froze for a second.

Angel cleared his throat lightly. "What I mean is, watching the reflections on the Sea of Void Mirror and savoring different lives."

Laplace mused, "The wording humans use has changed quite a lot in just a few hundred years. Those terms you used earlier—online, offline, instance—I’d never heard of them before. And now there’s another one, ’binge-watching shows.’"

Angel: "...Actually, no. Nobody in the human world uses them. I just personally like coining clunky new words."

Laplace gave Angel a sidelong glance. "I’ve heard that most human Wizards have some rather strange quirks. Creating unique vocabulary—would that be your quirk?"

No, I don’t, you’re talking nonsense.

Angel said, "Creating words for obscure and rare meanings is simply a straightforward and clear evolutionary process. It’s not just me; many humans have this awareness."

He forcibly dragged the conversation from "quirk" over to the tune of "enlightened awareness," and even roped in all of humanity while he was at it.

Laplace, after all, wasn’t human. Seeing Angel speak with such certainty—and his words not entirely without reason—she casually nodded. "So that’s how it is."

When Angel saw Laplace pause there, he hurriedly seized the chance to change the subject. "I haven’t contacted Luigi yet, but from the looks of it, he still seems to be at the very beginning."

Laplace followed along with Angel’s words and shifted her attention to Luigi.

Through the simulated full-immersion Illusion, Laplace clearly saw Luigi sitting cross-legged outside the pavilion, holding a worn-out Harp in his hands and gently plucking the strings.

On the other side, through the pavilion’s window, they could see a middle-aged man wearing a check-pattern felt hat, playing the piano with a deeply conflicted expression.

The middle-aged man’s piano notes were sometimes high and soaring, sometimes low and gentle, sometimes sharp, sometimes dull, sometimes desolate, sometimes full of yearning. It was as if every note he played was venting the agitation and turmoil in his heart.

Luigi’s plucking, by contrast, was much softer, like a series of gentle breezes, as though trying to use it to wake the emotionally overwrought middle-aged man.

However, Luigi’s playing wasn’t all leisurely. When the piano inside the pavilion rose into a shrill screech, he too would pluck in a flurry like driving rain, loudly asserting his presence.

You could say this was a musical dialogue between Luigi and the middle-aged man.

Angel could barely make out the meaning within, but Laplace was completely lost.

Was it good? Luigi’s playing was decent, while the middle-aged man’s had too much hostility. But to say it was bad also felt unfair to Laplace, because those notes carrying the vented hostility had a strange kind of beauty of their own.

So, for Laplace, forget listening for the conversation within the music; she couldn’t even clearly judge whether it sounded good or not.

Still, seeing Angel listen so intently, as if he were getting something out of it, Laplace couldn’t bring herself to admit she didn’t understand. She could only tough it out and keep listening.

A few minutes later, music time ended.

The area where the pavilion stood dimmed, as if someone had pressed a stop button. The middle-aged man also turned into a wax statue, motionless.

Time seemed to have stopped inside the pavilion.

The only place still alive was the area where Luigi sat.

"Looks like Luigi really hasn’t opened up Uriel’s emotional knot." Seeing this, Angel understood at once that Luigi was still treading water in place.

Once Luigi took the Harp out of the box outside the pavilion again, the Main Quest would restart, and that frozen time would rewind, returning to the very beginning of Uriel’s vexation.

Only by untying Uriel’s knot would the Main Quest continue.

Laplace frowned. "Does it have to be music to untie Uriel’s knot?"

Angel: "You mean persuading Uriel with words?"

—No, what I mean is untying Uriel’s knot with my fists.

Angel said, "Words won’t work either. Uriel won’t respond at all. You can think of it as Uriel and Luigi existing in two different times and spaces. Only music can bridge those two spaces together, and only music can move him. No other external force works. That’s also one of this instance’s rules."

Laplace: "...I see."

Laplace silently felt grateful that she hadn’t spoken her true thoughts aloud.

"So, do you think Luigi has a chance?"

Angel looked at Luigi and pondered for a long time before finally shaking his head. "I don’t know. I can understand what they’re doing, but whether they succeed or not isn’t up to me."

After thinking for a bit, Angel added, "Since the instance is temporarily frozen anyway, we might as well ask Luigi. After all, he’s the Challenger of this instance."