Chapter 3162: Chapter 3163: Questions

Angel’s thoughts were naturally still related to Shok’s haunted house.

After entering, he had always been puzzled about why there had to be a ’search for a safe house’ process?

In Angel’s view, if there must be a ’search for a safe house’ process, then the safe house is likely to be very deep, very difficult to find, possessing a kind of negative trait. —— This is the commonality of many powerful alchemy works, demigod objects, and even some mysterious objects.

Or rather, it is a kind of constraint, a price.

This constraint and price are countless in the extraordinary world. Just like the "Red Sword" in Dox’s hands now, which he specifically sought a renowned alchemist to refine, at that time, the refiner gave him three choices: either have extreme sharpness and agility, but the blade would be relatively fragile; or have extreme bloodline carrying power, but the blade would be relatively clumsy; or have sharpness and bloodline carrying power, but neither would be outstanding.

In the end, Dox chose the second kind.

When you want to achieve a certain extreme, you have to pay a price elsewhere. It’s like a balance scale, pressing down on one side will cause the other side to rise.

Of course, it is not impossible to achieve both sides equally well, both at the extreme, but that tests the refiner. And even in cases where both are well done, it’s not that there is no price, just that this price may not be obvious.

For example, expensive materials and high-level blending standards are also a kind of price.

Aside from the example of the Red Sword, mysterious objects also have similar prices... However, this is not the refiner’s issue but rather the price inherent in the mysterious object itself.

Like the "Dark Melody," it will forcibly give birth to a second personality in you, but the second personality is inevitably evil, and you will lose your name.

Or the "Skeleton Key," which can open all locks; however, the more you use it, the harder your heart becomes for others to access.

Also, the "Seed of Hardship," to be blessed with luck, you must undergo a tribulation facing hardship head-on.

The latter two are prices. Or rather, as assessed from the human perspective—beneficial to humans is considered a positive effect and function; detrimental to humans is the price.

So, it’s very normal for Shok’s haunted house to have constraints.

——You must climb mountains and traverse valleys, expending effort and enduring hardships, to find the safe house.

If that were the case, Angel would not be surprised.

Constraints? Spending a bit more effort and time is quite normal.

But that’s not the case here. Currently, the constraint in Shok’s haunted house: is the daily attack of the Mirror Ghost and the maximum limit of Time Sense, not the search for a safe house.

Because finding the safe house is too easy.

This time’s safe house was already considered hard to find, but it only took a few minutes; in other previous environments, such as a majestic castle, that was practically an open card right in front of you, no need to search.

Since that’s the case, why establish a process to search for a safe house?

This question might seem trivial to Luigi, Baba Ragon, and others.

But in Angel’s view, it’s actually very strange.

Searching for a safe house is an "unnecessary" action.

Clearly, you can come in and directly go to the safe house, yet you have to go through a process to search for the safe house. Isn’t this just redundant?

If this haunted house was refined by humans, it might be a flaw of the refiner; but this haunted house is "naturally" formed, designing this unnecessary step just puzzles Angel.

In the extraordinary world, many things you find inexplicable are often tied to a situation, which is: ceremony.

So, what Angel is thinking about now is whether the process of searching for the safe house could be a kind of ceremony?

However, upon deeper thought, Angel shook his head. This is a conjecture that is neither verifiable nor easily falsifiable; currently, it really doesn’t look like there are traces of a ritual... Moreover, would naturally formed demigod objects have ceremonies? Natural ceremonies?

Putting aside the guess of ceremony for now, Angel can think of another possibility: the search for a safe house might be simulating Shok’s situation at the time, running into the safe house in a panicked state.

After all, the birth of the haunted house is closely tied to Shok, simulating his search process seems plausible.

However, this is also difficult to substantiate.

While pondering, Angel suddenly recalled something: Luigi mentioned before that there might be Shok’s diary in the haunted house?

Shok’s diary cannot be taken out of the haunted house; instead, it appears inside the corresponding safe house with each change in environment. Sometimes on a bookshelf in a castle, sometimes on a table in a treehouse, and sometimes just casually left on the amusement park ground...

Following this pattern, Shok’s diary should also appear in this cellar, right? Maybe it could offer records of Shok before he escaped into the secret room?

Thinking of this, Angel raised his head, his gaze gradually inspecting every corner of the cellar.

But after a full circle, he didn’t find Shok’s diary.

This cellar was as empty as when he first saw it, with nothing around.

Angel believed Luigi wouldn’t lie about such things, so Shok’s diary likely still exists, he just hasn’t found it yet.

Perhaps this cellar has a hidden space, or a concealed storage area? And Shok’s diary is in the hidden spot?

With this thought in mind, Angel released his spirit tentacle... however, it was ineffective.

Spirit tentacles can reach out, but all around was a dense and constantly moving mysterious essence. The spirit tentacle felt like it had entered a mire or sandpit, allowing movement but surrounded by solid material, making it very difficult to find hidden spaces under such conditions.

Not only spiritual power is affected, but other spell techniques as well. Although they can be released, their sensing ability is significantly reduced.

The only unaffected is Nightmare Illusion techniques, but these techniques also cannot penetrate the walls and floors tainted by rainbow light.

Without proper senses, it would be better to stand up and walk around, using one’s own hands and feet to measure hidden spaces.

Angel is not hesitant. Since he thought about it, he would do it.

Anyway, the Mirror Ghost hasn’t come yet, Angel stood up, walking into the illusionary realm, searching for any hidden spots within the cellar.

Luigi was immersed in the "Priest’s Dream" at this time, and with the illusionary realm isolating sounds, there was no worry of disturbing him.

Angel walked while tapping the ground with a cane, determining the presence of hidden spaces through the echoes of sound.

Soon, ten hours passed.

Angel finished checking all the bricks in the middle, without discovering anything unusual.

Now, he began tapping on the cellar walls, even more carefully than before... generally, the probability of a hidden space appearing on a wall is larger than on the ground.

This tapping lasted six hours.

Although he still didn’t find Shok’s diary, he received the daily attack of the Mirror Ghost.

The first wave of mirror ghosts to appear was a non-human creature, more like a winged stick.

If it were a bit smaller, a bit thinner, with the blackened color turning to a tender pink, and a heart on the top, then it would very much resemble the magic wand used by magical girls in storybooks.

Angel didn’t know what this mirror ghost was called, so he referred to it as a "Magic Wand Ghost" for now.

As Luigi said, the initial few waves of mirror ghosts were very weak. The Magic Wand Ghost was like that; besides flying and using the wand to unleash some negative energy attacks, it had no other extraordinary abilities.

By Angel’s estimation, it was perhaps only at the initial level of a second-level apprentice?

And under normal circumstances, a second-level apprentice wouldn’t be able to kill the Magic Wand Ghost, but the ghost also couldn’t do anything to the apprentice.

So weak that... the moment it entered the Mist Illusion, it flew around frantically; and the more it flew around, the more confused it became.

Angel didn’t even manipulate the illusionary realm; it was steadily controlled.

The strength of the Magic Wand Ghost was nothing to speak of, but the way it arrived was rather interesting. Its arrival was unexpected, and it didn’t come through the door but emerged from the ceiling.

This also showed that Angel’s previous idea of setting up an illusion at the doorway’s steps was actually useless.

The way they entered was completely unconventional.

Angel was now very curious whether the Magic Wand Ghost was part of the external mirror ghost crowd and, at the right moment, was drawn by an invisible force in the ghost house to the cellar?

This question still has no answer since Angel cannot go out to count the number of mirror ghosts.

However, Angel did go specifically near where the Magic Wand Ghost originally emerged from the ceiling to see if there was any hidden space on the ceiling...

The answer was: No.

Angel wasn’t discouraged, as he still had time. Moreover, the first wave of mirror ghosts appeared at the sixteenth hour, so following the pattern of one wave a day, he had at least eight more hours not to worry about the mirror ghost issue.

Thinking of this, Angel started knocking on the wall again with his cane.

The "thud thud" knocking echoed in the cellar, and every thud was dull, indicating that he still hadn’t found a hidden space so far.

This was understandable, as the cellar was too large; by the time the second day arrived, Angel had only knocked on half of the walls.

When he finished knocking on all the surrounding walls of the cellar, there were only fourteen hours left until the third day.

Unfortunately, there was still no concealed space found on the surrounding walls.

Angel could only turn his gaze toward the ceiling.

Could the hidden space be on the ceiling? Angel personally felt that the possibility was a bit low; if the ceiling really had a concealed space, then it would be quite bizarre to hide it there?

Moreover, other previous backgrounds of the ghost house, such as the diary of Shok, were not that hard to find, right?

Although he didn’t really believe the ceiling would have a hidden space, Angel still decided to try; he released the Hand of Magic, still holding the cane, and knocked on every inch of the ceiling.

The process of knocking was still usual, not worth mentioning; the only notable thing was that two hours before the third day, the second wave of mirror ghosts finally appeared.

This time, three mirror ghosts arrived.

They emerged from three different walls, with the first being a jet-black humanoid mirror ghost. Although humanoid, its features were indiscernible, a complete darkness, with no voids left at the eyes or mouth, like a shadow constructed entirely of darkness.

The humanoid mirror ghost, upon appearing, lay on the ground, moving on all fours like a beast.

Its movements were extremely swift, figure agile, easily hovering and sticking to the walls, as if defying gravity’s constraints.

However, Angel hadn’t seen it unleash any powerful abilities, perhaps its abilities would be released only upon seeing a person?

Unfortunately, as soon as it entered the cellar, it was enveloped by the surging mist, and no matter how agile it was, it was like a hamster running on a wheel, fast but stationary.

And the second and third mirror ghosts appeared together, intercepting from the left and right walls.

Their appearance resembled the ghosts imagined by humans, floating mid-air, with a "big sheet" draped over their entire bodies.

However, one was draped in a black sheet, and the other in a white sheet, with noticeable protrusions on their heads, seeming like horns.

Just that one horn tilted right, and the other left.

Angel still didn’t recognize this type of mirror ghost and could only call them "Sheet Ghosts."

Both Sheet Ghosts weren’t strong, even the energy waves emanating from them were weaker than the Magic Wand Ghost, but Angel had a strange feeling that these two Sheet Ghosts might be able to "fuse"?

One black, one white, and the horns on the head deliberately tilted left and right, seemed complementary no matter how you looked at it.

To become flawless, fusion was the only way.

Angel didn’t know if his speculation was correct, but if these two Sheet Ghosts did fuse, perhaps their strength wouldn’t be as weak as now.

Unfortunately... when they entered, they were at the left and right of the cellar, with the mist easily enveloping them, so there was no concern about them merging.

The second wave of mirror ghosts, on the whole, wasn’t strong either.

However, Angel didn’t let his guard down, as the second wave of mirror ghosts, although not strong, already belonged to the "potential" mirror ghosts.

Following this pattern, one might deduce that the third wave of mirror ghosts would be the ones truly stimulating potential.

Moreover, the first wave only had one Magic Wand Ghost, but the second wave already had three mirror ghosts, so wouldn’t the third wave increase in number again?

If so, one should be even more cautious.

Angel thought for a moment, then released some more Illusion Nodes, ensuring that there was a faint mist from the ceiling to the floor, and then stopped.

In the time that followed, Angel still didn’t bother with the mirror ghosts trapped in the mist, instead continuing to take up his cane, knocking on the ceiling.

Time sense still stretched on, the third day arrived as expected.

Luigi previously claimed he could master the "Black Sheep Confession Song" in half a day, which now was confirmed to be boasting.

However, it must be said that the "Black Sheep Confession Song" he played today, in terms of emotional richness, was significantly higher than the previous two days.

The level of infectiousness also rose a great deal.

Angel even thought that if this "Black Sheep Confession Song" truly suited Uriel’s taste, with Luigi’s current skill, securing a top three spot wouldn’t be impossible.

Uriel showed clear progress, yet Angel’s advancement was... zero.

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