Chapter 2772: Chapter 2773: Silver-Haired Girl
As soon as Angel finished speaking, Doxâs eyes lit up again.
If the memories inside the old stone donât even span a thousand years, then even if itâs a memory torrent, it shouldnât be that overwhelming, right? I should be able to withstand it, shouldnât I?
With that thought, Dox quickly leaned in toward Angel. This time he didnât bother gesturing with his hands; he directly broke through the soundâsealing set up by the Black Earl and asked aloud, "If itâs less than a thousand years, then with my physical constitution, I should be able to adapt, right?"
"Of course you can." Angel nodded and looked at Dox. "Thatâs why I asked you first if you wanted to give it a try."
Doxâs heart leapt with joy and he subconsciously wanted to nod, but just as the words reached his lips, he suddenly hesitated. Especially when he saw Angelâs calm, detached expression, a sense of danger slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.
Angel didnât look particularly pushy, but this act of doing nothing yet doing everything had a clear "please get in the jar" feel to it.
Dox wavered a little.
After thinking it over for quite a while, Dox finally swallowed back down the "Leave it, let me handle it" that had been stuck in his throat.
He knew far too much of Angelâs "black history," and with that premonition of danger in his heartâwhether it was inspiration at work or notâit was better to err on the side of caution.
On the other side, Angel watched Doxâs hesitant retreat. Outwardly he showed nothing, but inwardly he let out a quiet sigh. As expected, trying to pit Dox is a difficult job no matter when you do it...
While Angel was silently lamenting, Kaier suddenly spoke up: "I remember reading a paper once. In a symposium that argued âmemory is the essence of life,â when they defined memory, they included emotions and sensations as part of it. By that definition, if memory can be recorded, then the emotions wrapped up within it should also be counted within the scope of memory, right?"
"If thatâs the case, then suppose the memories recorded in the old stone arenât pleasant at all, maybe theyâre even full of extreme emotions. Would the holder of the old stone, under the influence of such negative emotions, end up being affected as well?"
The question Kaier raised instantly drew everyoneâs attention.
If what Kaier said was true, then the memories recorded by the old stone were a serious problem!
Angel gave Kaier a long, deep look, then nodded and said, "The old stoneâs âlivingâ trait incorporates that schoolâs theoretical framework, so youâre right, there will indeed be a certain degree of influence."
Not only will you be affected, but recording a large amount of memory in a short time will cause your thoughts to become chaotic. In that chaos of memories, there is even a chance youâll lose yourselfâyour very core personality will start to waver.
At that point, you may begin to doubt who you are.
That classic questionâ"Who am I?"âwill become a constant refrain, overflowing from the jumble of memories.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but in reality the situation could be even more serious.
For example, Angel had once read a transmigrationâthemed novel on the Holographic Tablet. After transmigrating into someone elseâs body, there was usually a sequence where the original ownerâs memory and the transmigratorâs memory fused.
In novels this kind of sequence is always glossed over in a few strokes, and from the transmigratorâs perspective, he simply takes in all the memories.
But is there another possibility hidden in there: that the transmigrator actually died during the transmigration, and his memory, now without a host personality, flowed into the Otherworld and finally fused with that worldâs original body. The original is still the original; he retains a fully autonomous personality. He is simply influenced by the transmigratorâs memories and mistakenly believes himself to be the transmigrator. In truth, his personality has not changed at allâonly his memories have influenced him and created an illusion.
Although this is just a conjecture, if the old stone contains too many memories, and the emotions embedded in them are too profound, it really could induce a breakdown of selfâidentity.
You could say this is the old stoneâs greatest downside: it exerts a certain degree of influence on all cognition, including values, worldview, and outlook on life.
Angel simply hadnât expected that the first to discover the old stoneâs hidden danger would be Kaier.
In fact, Kaier arriving at this line of thought wasnât without basis. Previously, when everyone signed the True Words Tome contract with the Wise Sovereign, they all revealed their true forms. Behind Kaierâs true form, an abnormal humanâshape silhouette had abruptly appeared. Although everyone, including the Wise Sovereign, said that it wasnât a big problem and was most likely some unconscious remnant soul attached to Kaierâs body that wouldnât have any impactâ
They were looking at the problem as bystanders, so they were more calm and objective. Kaier, as the person involved, was far from as composed as they imagined. He actually cared a great deal about that strange humanâshape silhouette.
And what Dox had said earlier also made sense. Kaierâs personality and behavior really were a bit odd. Clearly he was a researchâloving Academy Faction type and should have been a shutâin like Vay, yet while he loved research, he was also keen on exploring various ruins. These two hobbies ran in parallel, and in essence, the two were completely at odds with each other.
In Doxâs view, this contrast was just a bit too much. Maybe he really was being influenced by the remnant soul of that silhouette behind him.
Kaier hadnât felt anything before, but after hearing Doxâs words and giving it serious thought, he realized he truly had invested far too much effort into exploring ruins. The cost he paid and the returns he gained were completely disproportionate, yet he still had this urge to go explore ruins. And it didnât matter what kind of ruin it wasâonce he heard about it, heâd feel itchy and want to go check it out.
Including this time: when he learned there was a hidden "ruin" beneath The Garden Labyrinth that no one had ever investigated, Kaier was beside himself with excitement.
It was as if some kind of Magic Power was compelling Kaier to do this.
That was not normal.
Thus, along the way Kaier had actually been pondering whether his personality and his behavior might really have been affected by the memories of that remnant soul.
With that as his premise, as soon as Kaier heard about the old stoneâs effects, he immediately associated it with his own situation, and his first thought was to examine the relationship among the memories, emotions, and personality recorded by the old stone. That was where his question came from.
After Kaier pointed out the old stoneâs hidden danger, Dox, standing off to the side, secretly let out a long breath of relief. Good thingâgood thingâhe hadnât impulsively volunteered to try it... If the memories in the old stone really caused changes in his very personality, then heâd have taken a huge loss.
With that in mind, the look Dox cast at Angel was brimming with resentment. As expected, this guy had no good intentionsâclassic "white on the outside, black on the inside," nothing but scheming, sneaky little tricks underneath!
Angel ignored Doxâs gaze and steered the topic back to the mask.
"You should still remember what the Wise Sovereign said: he said he wanted to give us a surprise. If this were an unused old stone, that really would count as a big surprise. But an old stone thatâs already been used, even carved into a maskâdoes that count as a surprise?" Angel shook his head and answered his own question. "Personally, I donât think it does."
"If this isnât the surprise, then what exactly is the surprise he was talking about?"
Angelâs question sent everyone into deep thought.
Vay: "So far, all weâve gotten is this mask. If there really is a surprise, we probably still have to look for it on the mask... Since my lord says the old stone doesnât count as a surprise, could it be that the memories inside are the real surprise?"
This idea wasnât just on Vayâs mind; Angel had thought of it too, butâ
"If the memory were actually a surprise, Dox wouldnât have turned it down." Angel answered with a straight face, not feeling there was anything wrong with his own wording at all.
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted. So Angel had suggested twice in a row that Dox put on the mask just to use Doxâs inspiration as a tester... Thinking about it carefully, that did sort of make sense. The reason Dox refused was probably because he sensed danger. If even he felt it was dangerous, then this memory really wasnât of much use.
Dox also reacted, but at this point his heart was already numb... Heh, men.
"If neither the memory nor the mask is a surprise, then why did they leave the mask here?" Vay asked in confusion.
And there were three trials... no, two trials, before they got these three broken masks. Wasnât that clearly telling them to piece them together?
Since they were being made to assemble the mask, it clearly meant the mask had to be meaningful. But what exactly was that meaning?
No one could answer that for now, so they could only sigh and move on.
"What Iâm actually more concerned about is: why did that little girl in the bunny suit leave just like that? It was clearly supposed to be Angelâs turn, she was even staring straight at him!" Dox seemed very dissatisfied about this. Even though the Black Earl had warned him earlier, he still brought it up again: "Anyway, I just feel like somethingâs off here."
Dox tried to steer the topic onto Angel, but Angel didnât care at all, because he really didnât know the specifics.
Let alone Dox being puzzled, Angel himself also wanted an answer.
"Thinking about this now is pointless. Since weâve already got the mask, letâs just treat it as the surprise. As for the details, once we meet the Wise Sovereign, we should get an explanation." As Angel spoke, he casually tossed the mask, intending to throw it to Dox to hold onto.
But Doxâs figure flashed and he dodged the mask outright. At the same time, suspicion flashed in his eyes, the very picture of "youâre trying to screw me again."
This time Angel really wasnât trying to screw Dox. He simply felt that since Dox had taken the initiative to hand him the mask fragments before for identification, it was only proper to give the mask back to him. As for the extra two fragments: the Black Earl didnât care, Angel didnât care either, so letting Dox have them wasnât a problem.
It was just that Dox already looked like heâd developed a stress reaction; he wasnât even willing to judge the situation, he just outright rejected any move Angel made.
Angel shook his head and didnât bother explaining. Instead, he summoned a Hand of Magic and had it hold the mask. After they sorted out how to distribute everything later, they could hand it over properly.
After doing all this, Angel stretched lazily and said, "Weâve been stuck here for quite a while. Time to get moving again."
This time, though, theyâd only taken a few steps when they stopped again.
Because in the space right in front of them, an abnormal light effect suddenly appeared.
This abnormal light was like the warped flame you see when a roaring fire burns so hot it distorts the air.
An anomaly appearing out of nowhere definitely meant there was a problem.
"Donât tell me that relay test isnât over yet?" Dox stared at the strange light and muttered, "It wouldnât be like the duel from before, where the Official Wizardâs trial is done and now itâs the Apprenticesâ turn, right? Is the Wise Sovereign really that bored?"
The Apprenticesâ turn?! Hearing this, Kaier and Vay looked at each other. Werenât they just there to make up the numbers? Were they really going to be tested?
While they were feeling extremely anxious inside, that abnormal light underwent a new change.
A halo of light erupted, shooting out countless rays.
These rays didnât tangle into a mess; instead, they crossed in a very orderly fashion.
With a massive crisscross of light, a surface of prisms formed right in front of them, made up of overlapping light and shadow. Countless prisms combined, composing a planar prism surface full of geometric beauty.
The instant the prismatic plane appeared, they could vaguely see a line of Pattern curving and spreading across it.
It was as if an invisible painter were using this composite prism as a canvas, sketching with brush and ink.
As the Pattern kept extending, filling, and completing itself, it finally presented a human form outline within the prism.
It was a silver-white haired girl in heavy, ornate robes. Her hair was extremely, extremely longânot only past her waist, but with more than half of it trailing down to her feet, the strands spread out like a fountain of splashing Mercury.
The girlâs face was bloodlessly pale, her lips so powder-white as to have nearly lost all color. If not for her long eyelashes and the faint shadows of her nose and bridge accentuating her three-dimensional features, she could easily be mistaken for a faceless person.
Yet even so, the silver-haired girl still didnât look like a real human. Combined with the regular geometric patterns of the prisms, she looked more like a fragile porcelain doll hidden behind the Mirror.
The sudden appearance of this girl made everyone both puzzled and on guard.
The puzzle was whether she had anything to do with the three "question-setters" from before; the vigilance came from the fact that the girl had appeared... inside a Mirror.
Ever since they learned the truth about the Mirror Demon God, they had been highly alert toward every Mirror in the Underground Aqueduct. Even a Mirror of light in mid-air was no exception.
Under their watchful gazes, the girl opened her eyes.
It was worth mentioning that her pupils were an extremely rare pair of heterochromatic eyes.
One was a clear emerald green, the other a bright golden yellow.
The heterochromatic eyes, paired with her outfit and looks, made her seem even more like a porcelain doll carved from fine china.
After the girl opened her eyes, she still remained within the prisms and did not step from "void" into "reality," but her voice passed through the prismatic surface and reached everyoneâs ears.
"My name is... Laplace Glaipnir Luigi."
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