Chapter 24

The Mayor had borrowed magic from the Mage Tower.

But what he borrowed wasn't just one spell—it was two.

The magic that froze the Evil God's followers took the form of a magic scroll.

The magic that turned the center of Winterless Town into a Time Prison, on the other hand, manifested as an animal.

And that animal was the squirrel that had always accompanied the Mayor.

It was thanks to this magic that the Mayor had managed to survive in this endless stretch of time.

The squirrel let out a continuous, mournful cry, as if it already knew what fate awaited the Mayor.

The Mayor's body had long since deteriorated, and in the past, he hadn't been murdered by intruders into Winterless Town just once.

If he stopped the magic now, he would die immediately.

Luo En gazed at the snow-white squirrel and let out a long sigh.

He knew he hadn't been wrong in his guess—the real culprit behind it all was this squirrel.

After all, how could a normal squirrel stick by someone's side through endless years? Under normal circumstances, the squirrel would have died ages ago.

From the very beginning, it had carried the most mysteries on its little body.

It was just that most of the time, people's attention got pulled away by the Mayor's lies.

"You've been with me too long..." the Mayor murmured.

Others might see this squirrel as nothing more than a key to toggle the magic, but over these long years, the Mayor had come to regard it as indispensable family.

Without its company, he didn't think he could have stayed strong enough to endure a century.

"This day... it must be Vandall's guidance to me..." he said. "He's telling me... today is the day I atone..."

Luo En lifted his eyelids but offered no opinion on the matter.

He simply asked, "If we dispel this magic, what happens to everyone else who's been frozen?"

The Mayor replied, "So... you want to take my place?"

"No, no, no—you're overthinking it." Luo En rejected the idea without hesitation. "I've still got a lot to look forward to in the world outside."

He had no desire to end up like the Mayor, trapped in Winterless Town.

Getting isekai'd into another world only to be imprisoned right away? That would be way too tragic.

"Hearing that... puts my mind at ease..." A faint smile curved the Mayor's lips. "You can use the magic now... it's up to you to keep it going or not..."

But Luo En didn't hear the Mayor's next words, because he had already closed his eyes for good, his hand ceasing its gentle strokes on the squirrel.

The squirrel hopped onto Luo En's hand, signifying the transfer of the magic's "ownership."

Now, if Luo En wished it, the Time Prison would vanish.

The stagnant time in the town's central area would soon start flowing again.

This frozen little town would thaw—both physically and temporally.

But before that happened, the person implanted with the Evil God would awaken first.

Even so, Luo En felt no sorrow in his heart.

To him, he was just an innocent bystander dragged into some family drama.

And while the most sensible thing to do right now was to run, Luo En—sitting there among the ice sculptures—suddenly had no urge to get up.

The System forcing him to act, the unclear visions, the dragon whose backstory he hadn't even figured out yet...

And now the Mayor had dumped the biggest responsibility on him, leaving him to decide Winterless Town's future.

These past few days had left him even more drained than the time right after his transmigration, when he'd been wandering homeless.

In the Bicolor Realm, he clearly had nothing he could trust, yet everything around him kept insisting it was worth his trust.

The lies were weaving together into a thick web—he could see through it, but he couldn't say a word.

The best choice for him now was to dispel the magic and get as far away as possible.

As for whether these frozen people turned out to be lunatics after waking up, that wasn't his problem—he didn't have to take responsibility for it.

Countless visions flickered into view again, showing Luo En the different futures his choices might bring.

Luo En shook his head helplessly on the side. "These illusions again... when the hell is this going to end?"

Why hadn't he seen so many visions before coming to Winterless Town?

"Kid, you should be grateful you're in a place where time is all jumbled up like this. Folks in the old days would kill to be in your shoes," said one of the men in the visions, suddenly coming to life.

He even struck up a conversation with Luo En. "Otherwise, you'd be dead by now."

"Then, in a year or two, the hundred-and-first otherworlder would show up," he added, staring intently at Luo En. "And the same cycle would start all over again."

"And who might you be?" Luo En lifted his eyelids, seeming utterly unfazed by this point.

Even if a massive angel dropped from the sky and threw itself into his arms, he wouldn't bat an eye.

"That's a good question." The man in the vision stroked his chin. "I'd love to tell you, but if I did, your System would pick up on it."

"Right, just call me Mentor for now." After a while, the man thought it over and finally came up with a title.

It was such a half-hearted name that Luo En was sure it was fake.

By this time, the surrounding ice sculptures were shattering one by one, people tumbling out from inside.

The time for Luo En to decide whether to dispel the magic was running out.

Noticing this, Luo En glanced at the Mayor's corpse, already debating whether to take it with him.

The Mayor might have been full of lies, but he'd looked after Luo En a lot during this time—leaving him out in the wilderness to rot didn't sit right.

But before that, he still had to deal with this vision in front of him.

"System, what's the deal with this guy?" Luo En muttered under his breath.

The situation was as absurd as a movie character suddenly jumping out to chat with you.

But the System he called out to was just a mess of garbled code right now, and he couldn't hear its familiar mechanical voice either.

"The Parallel Resonance you just performed on your own has already crashed the System—stop looking at it." The mentor spoke as if he could see Luo En's System, "With you messing around like that, it's no surprise the System crashed."

"What is Parallel Resonance?" Luo En asked instinctively.

This wasn't the first time he'd heard the term, but no one had ever given him a proper explanation.

"You can ask your System about that yourself later." The mentor said impatiently, "Don't ask me simple questions—my time is valuable."

"Not every Otherworlder gets to meet someone like me, so cherish this opportunity and focus on what's important." He said smugly, as if he were some big deal.

"What counts as important?" Luo En actually thought the guy in front of him was wasting more time.

Answering one question wouldn't take as long as all his rambling.

"For example, how to stay alive." The mentor's voice suddenly turned cold, a complete shift from his earlier casual tone.

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