Chapter 3161: Chapter 3162: Experience

"Time waits for no one, let’s head to the Ghost House now." Luigi looked at Angel.

Angel naturally wouldn’t refuse, but Baba Ragon seemed puzzled and curiously asked, "You say you are pressed for time because you have to attend the Crystal City gathering. Why not attend the gathering first, then come to the Ghost House?"

This way, you won’t be pressed for time.

Luigi: "There must be a reason... However, it’s a long story, I’ll tell you when I come out and have some free time. Or, you can join us at the gathering and we’ll talk along the way."

Baba Ragon turned away with a cold snort: "I’m not going."

Luigi shrugged: "It’s up to you whether to go or not, if you go, I’ll tell you along the way, if not, I’ll tell you when I come back next time. Now, activate the Ghost House."

Baba Ragon sighed, the main head mumbled in a child-like voice: "Clearly you’re begging me, yet you order me, hmph. Besides, you’re capable of activating the Ghost House, why insist on me doing it, wasting my Aggregation Energy..."

Despite the mumbling, Baba Ragon’s actions did not halt. The right-side secondary head suddenly awoke from slumber, raised its triangular snout, and projected a beam infused with Aggregation Energy from its eyes.

The beam landed on the Crystal Stone, which started to float slowly amidst flickering and quickly expanded. It wasn’t long before it reached a size of three meters long by three meters wide.

"That’s enough." Baba Ragon murmured, retracting the beam.

As the beam was withdrawn, the Crystal Stone ceased its flickering and settled in mid-air. Simultaneously, a crack appeared on its black surface, slowly extending until it formed a door.

Click—

The door on the Crystal Stone was opened by Luigi, revealing an equally pitch-black interior, obscuring any specific details.

Without hesitation, Luigi stepped inside the door, instantly swallowed by darkness.

Angel glanced towards Baba Ragon with a nod, then closely followed Luigi, entering the door.

As Angel’s figure was engulfed by the darkness, the door of the Crystal Stone slowly closed.

Baba Ragon continued to watch the Crystal Stone until black mist began to emanate from it, then turned and headed toward the nearby laboratory...

On the other side, Angel realized they hadn’t arrived at the so-called ’Ghost House,’ but were standing on an expanse of pitch-black earth.

Luigi was nearby at this moment but didn’t pay attention to the surroundings. Instead, he took out the score of "Black Sheep Confession Song" and his most treasured harp from the space.

Angel surveyed the surroundings, finding them barren. Visible range was merely tens of meters, further obscured by dark Mist.

Above was a hemispherical mirror-like light shield.

The light shield glowed faintly, illuminating the land.

However, at this moment, the mirror-like light shield displayed icy cracking lines, rapidly spreading, as if something outside was continually assaulting it.

"What’s going on?" Angel asked Luigi in confusion, wasn’t it supposed to be the Ghost House?

Luigi, holding the harp, approached: "There’s a Mirror Ghost outside. What we need to do now is to find the Ghost House location and hide inside before the Mirror Ghost breaks through the light shield."

"???" Angel frowned, filled with doubt. The Ghost House... still needs finding?

Luigi: "To be precise, this is the Ghost House; we need to find the ’Safety House.’

"Every entry into Shock’s Ghost House simulates different scenes. These scenes replicate the Demonic Ghosts within the Mirror, possibly memories from Shock’s life?"

"In different Ghost House scenes, there are different Safety Houses." Luigi: "According to Baba Ragon, Safety Houses can look like grand castles, forest cabins, or pavilion islands in an amusement park..."

Angel frowned: "Where is the Safety House here?"

Luigi shrugged: "I don’t know either, I’ve never been in here, just heard about it..."

So, they need to locate the Safety House.

As for how to find the Safety House, Luigi offered answers: "Safety House must be a house or an enclosed space that can hide people; also, Safety House must be within the mirror-like light shield; lastly, there must be a noticeable Time Sense disparity inside and outside the Safety House. As long as these three characteristics are clear, the Safety House won’t be missed."

After saying this, Luigi offered reassurance: "Don’t worry, the Safety House is easy to find. Everyone who has used the Ghost House always finds the Safety House."

Angel did not respond, merely said blandly: "I’ll search the left side, you check the right side."

After separating, each searched in different directions for the hidden Safety House.

In reality, Luigi wasn’t wrong; the Safety House was indeed not hard to find. Moreover, spiritual power wasn’t prohibited here, and it took less than a minute for Angel to spot the hidden entrance.

It was located near the mist on the left side, a cellar.

The cellar entrance was concealed by a black wooden plank, blending in with the surrounding terrain, hence its initial unnoticeability.

Upon lifting the plank, it revealed a staircase leading downward.

The stairs led to a cellar, its entrance featuring a light membrane visible to the naked eye, with some rainbow-colored points surging.

Before, Angel had seen similar rainbow lights on Aex.

Undoubtedly, this light membrane contained the power of time.

Curious, Angel extended a spirit tentacle to examine the light membrane. However, upon contact, it felt like hitting a glass wall barrier, unable to penetrate.

In contrast, Angel’s hand could easily pass through the light membrane.

Yet during this process, he felt no anomalies worth studying.

While Angel was curiously observing the light membrane, Luigi descended the stairs: "You don’t need to study the time power here; it’s merely a facade."

Angel frowned: "Facade?"

Luigi nodded: "The true power of time is scattered throughout every part of the Ghost House. It’s invisible, omnipresent, untouchable. The rainbow light film seen here is merely a manifested facade, you could consider it an illusion."

In other words, the Ghost House must contain some time-related forces, which are fused with Mysterious Power to form the Ghost House’s core.

To investigate the time powers within the Ghost House, examining only this facade won’t suffice; the Ghost House must be thoroughly turned inside out, otherwise, it’s difficult to find the buried time powers.

Even if truly found, there’s no guarantee that anything meaningful can be studied.

That’s the reality.

The mighty power of time is not so easily touched. Moreover, it is related to the mysterious mighty power of time.

"If you plan to continue your research, you can enter the safe house, set up the illusionary realm, and then conduct your research," Luigi said, looking at Angel.

Angel spread his hands, indicating surrender.

He indeed wanted to research, but he was also very clear that with his current foundation, he certainly couldn’t research anything significant... Plus, there was only two hours outside, three days in the ghost house to do research; in terms of time, it wasn’t enough to study anything.

Luigi: "Then, shall we go in and start?"

"Alright." As Angel finished speaking, he suddenly thought of something and asked: "Is the mirror ghost attack a direct entrance into the safe house, or will it pass through this staircase to enter the safe house?"

Upon hearing Angel’s words, Luigi understood his meaning: "You want to set up an illusionary realm outside to restrict their entrance into the safe house?"

Angel nodded, not denying it.

Luigi thought for a moment and replied: "I’m not sure whether it is feasible or not, but according to Baba Ragon, after the mirror surface light shield above is destroyed, the mirror ghosts will indeed cover the entire land. However, only a small portion of them actually attack the safe house; whether they fly through the stairs into the safe house or directly appear inside it is unknown."

"Regardless of which it is, setting up an illusionary realm outside actually has quite a few drawbacks. It’s likely to attract more mirror ghosts to focus here."

"It’s better to honestly set up the illusionary realm inside the safe house."

Upon careful reflection, Angel also felt this reasoning was sound. He wasn’t conducting research on the ghost house, so there was no need to perform this experiment.

With that in mind, he followed Luigi through the light membrane and into the cellar space.

Upon entering the cellar, Angel immediately felt the familiar mysterious aura... or rather, a denser mysterious resonance.

It permeated the entire cellar, swirling around them.

Without any expression or reminder from others, the mere presence of the mysterious resonance made the cellar’s purpose clear to those entering.

Time sense extension...

In this cellar, one hour could serve as thirty-six hours.

Two hours on the inside were equivalent to three days outside.

This effect was the same as what Luigi described. However, Luigi had always emphasized that it was an extension of time sense; though similar to changes in time flow, the results were different.

However, Luigi did not offer an explanation then, saying only that one would understand upon arrival.

Now, under the mysterious resonance’s embrace, Angel understood.

Indeed, there’s a difference between time sense alteration and changes in time flow.

Time sense is merely an experience, similar to simulating changes in time flow.

For instance, if changes in real-time flow occurred, any tasks handled here, whether mental or physical, would not result in any physical burden upon departure.

But time sense alteration is different.

With time sense alteration, when handling mental tasks here, one would require a very strong and load-bearing brain; otherwise, handling thirty days of work in a single day might cause the brain to overload and shut down.

This is not considered a severe negative effect for Angel or Luigi, as they inherently possess strong computing power; moreover, Luigi did not need to expend computing power this time. He came to use this time sense to practice "Black Sheep Confession Song," enhancing muscle memory, so negative effects are even less likely.

But for ordinary people, it may lead to mental and physical exhaustion, as their mental and physical capabilities might not keep pace.

Of course, use over a short period, such as just one or two hours, matters less.

To some extent, this time sense alteration is somewhat similar to the general atmosphere in Tomorrow Town, where one day sometimes equals dozens of days. However, Tomorrow Town represents authority, a product of rules, and it doesn’t truly alter time sense but accelerates surrounding time changes while players remain idle.

Surrounding time changes rapidly, yet players’ time sense remains normal, so Tomorrow Town has no major side effects.

From merely changing time sense, Shok’s haunted house indeed doesn’t meet the standard of a mysterious object.

As Angel knows, some mysterious objects genuinely change time flow, even rebooting time within a scope. For instance, the City of Reincarnation in the Temple of the Oracle.

Perhaps Shok’s haunted house could genuinely achieve time flow change if elevated to a mysterious object, but that’s extremely difficult.

The gap between semi-mysterious objects and genuine mysterious objects sounds like a mere step, but in reality, that step is a chasm invisible to the naked eye.

In his reflection, Angel did not forget his task at hand.

He quickly set up illusion nodes around the area, partly to create an illusionary realm fitting "Black Sheep Confession Song" for Luigi and partly to trap the mirror ghosts.

Notably, although the cellar had nothing, the space was quite large, comparable to a small square.

Luigi, at the cellar’s center, began immersing in "Black Sheep Confession Song."

Angel set up the illusionary realm nearby.

Soon after, Angel completed the illusionary realm setup.

To trap the mirror ghosts, Angel chose mist-type illusionary realm, blurring perception and preventing the mirror ghosts from advancing further. Furthermore, mist illusionary realm is comparatively simple and quick to set up.

The illusionary realm set up for Luigi, however, is much more complex than mist illusionary realm.

Because Angel wasn’t just setting up an illusionary realm but orchestrating a story woven with the grand backdrop of "Black Sheep Confession Song," recreating the priest’s mindset, the oppressive environment of the Church of Xitu, and the final desperate performance amid flames.

It sounds like a shadow box, and it is indeed similar to a shadow box... but further, Angel painstakingly engineered emotional nodes within the illusionary realm to alter perception forcibly, creating emotional resonance to make Luigi feel the priest’s experience more profoundly.

If Luigi temporarily lets go of his self, he could fully enter the priest’s heart, transforming himself into the priest.

This is not found in other shadow boxes.

It is Angel’s specialty, using the Art of Nightmare Illusion to manipulate perception and emotion.

Luigi quickly "got into character."

Once in character, Luigi was entirely immersed in the illusionary realm, not forgetting for a moment to pluck the harp strings.

Meanwhile, Angel was seated nearby Luigi, quietly contemplating while waiting for the arrival of the mirror ghosts.

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