Chapter 3368: Chapter 3369: Wraith in the Fog

After Jasmine put on the dangling Ink Feather, she didn’t immediately activate the Enter Dream effect, but instead operated the Light and Shadow Transmutation ability, changing her "outfit skin."

Sitting opposite Jasmine, Angel witnessed with his own eyes as she piled up her hair and coated it with a Mary Sue–style seven-colored icy shimmer of flowing crimson, and also saw her simulate a pair of gorgeous butterfly wings behind herself that could fan out a rainbow.

Smearing dazzling prints onto her dress was also standard procedure.

In just a few dozen seconds, Angel watched Jasmine’s personal paint job +100.

He had to admit, this kind of casually changeable, gorgeous coating effect was lethally attractive to ladies who pursue beauty.

It’s just that Jasmine’s Temporal Body seemed to have some aesthetic deviation—why does she love those seven-colored shifting hues so much, are you sure you’re not actually a Mary Sue?

Angel kept silently snarking in his heart, but on his face he very appropriately displayed "stunned," "admiring," "incredulous" expressions...

Luckily, Jasmine didn’t "play" for long. She finally chose a tattoo of a brilliant butterfly printed near her collarbone, and thus ended her first grand paint adventure. Otherwise, Angel’s repertoire of expressions probably wouldn’t have been enough.

"For such a small Light and Shadow Transmutation to reach this level, the refiner’s understanding of Magic Patterns is quite brilliant." After Jasmine had her fun, she didn’t hesitate to give praise.

Angel: "It’s just a tiny, insignificant little function."

"The function may be small, but the details are plentiful." Jasmine said, and still didn’t forget to drag down one of her own kin: "Compared to that old guy De’s color-changing earrings, this is much better."

"De?" Angel froze for a moment. "You mean Algarong?"

Jasmine nodded noncommittally. "Back then I asked De to help me refine a pair of earrings that could shift colors, so I could match different human ballroom dresses. He did refine them, but the colors they can shift into are extremely ugly."

As soon as Jasmine mentioned those color-changing earrings, her face was full of disgust, and she kept on ranting.

Based on Jasmine’s complaints, Angel more or less understood what was going on.

Put simply, while the color-changing earrings can indeed change color, the comfort level of their color range under normal circumstances doesn’t match Jasmine’s visual predilections.

Angel’s dangling Ink Feather is small as a sparrow yet rich in detail. The colors altered by light and shadow will slowly self-adjust; in the end it will calibrate to a saturation that is more comfortable for the wearer’s eyes.

Even if it’s extremely bright, extremely dazzling, extremely sharp, this kind of calibration can still give the wearer a pleasant experience.

At this moment, Housekeeper Fan finished straightening his bow tie and suddenly spoke: "I seem to have heard of this matter too, but as I recall, those earrings are called the Salin Boto Earrings, and are not color-changing earrings. Their effect is to use Mimicry to protect against Spatial Oscillation..."

Jasmine: "It is indeed the Salin Boto Earrings, and they can indeed perform Mimicry. But compared to those inexplicable effects, I care more about their color-shifting function."

"To be perfectly honest, their color changes really aren’t as good as the dangling Ink Feather’s."

Housekeeper Fan fell silent.

Objectively speaking, the Salin Boto Earrings are actually pretty good; however, Jasmine is the owner of the earrings, so she has the right to make a subjective evaluation.

The Salin Boto Earrings’ actual effect is indeed of no use to Jasmine, so it’s understandable that she values the color-changing function more... probably, anyway.

Angel, however, didn’t dare to chime in. Algarong is known as the strongest Forging master in the Daylight Mirror Domain. Even though Angel can already be considered an "Alchemy Master," he doesn’t think he can compare to the other party.

Even if Jasmine leans more toward the dangling Ink Feather he made himself, that’s... simply because they belong to different tracks.

He doesn’t have that much energy to make the dangling Ink Feather’s effects so complex, so he used a bit of cleverness, tinkered with some Light and Shadow Magic Patterns, and aimed to win women’s favor; whereas Mr. De’s earrings have their fundamental function in protecting against Spatial Oscillation, and the color-change is merely an auxiliary effect of Mimicry.

One is aimed at Witches’ pursuit of outward beauty, the other is pure practicality, so the two are fundamentally different.

Angel could only lower his eyes to his nose, his nose to his heart, and maintain silence.

Jasmine didn’t force Angel to give an evaluation either. She changed the topic, saying: "I’m very satisfied with the light-and-shadow effect. Next, it’s time to log in to the Crystal Origin of Dreams. I hope the Crystal Origin of Dreams doesn’t disappoint me."

As she said this, Jasmine looked toward Housekeeper Fan not far away: "Want to come together? We can keep each other company."

Housekeeper Fan’s gaze shifted slightly; his heart was a bit tempted, but in the end he still shook his head. As the Butler of this Text Space, he must take responsibility for it—that is his professional code.

Jasmine shrugged, not minding, and directly activated the Log-in Device in front of everyone.

The next second, the tentacles of dream carried her consciousness into slumber.

Soon, Jasmine felt herself arrive at a long Dream Bridge.

She didn’t choose to move forward immediately, but instead perceived herself on the Dream Bridge: throughout the entire process of entering the Crystal Origin of Dreams, she can resist. Once she refuses, the process can be immediately interrupted; even now that she has already reached the Dream Bridge, returning to reality is very simple.

This let Jasmine feel a bit more at ease—she really doesn’t want to run into a "forced" situation.

Being free to choose whether to enter or leave is her mandatory requirement for any Log-in Device.

Now that the Log-in Device has passed the biggest hurdle in her heart, next it depends on whether the Crystal Origin of Dreams can bring her any surprises.

Jasmine stepped forward, heading deeper along the Dream Bridge toward that faintly appearing Door...

...

On the other side.

Angel quietly exchanged a few words with Laplace, then also chose to enter the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

This time his entry into the Crystal Origin of Dreams wasn’t for receiving Jasmine, but for another matter. Anyway, he was currently resting in the oil painting restaurant, and nothing was happening outside for the moment, so he might as well take a look at the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

As for Laplace, she chose to remain outside.

They couldn’t both go into the Crystal Origin of Dreams and leave Housekeeper Fan alone. No matter how gentlemanly the other party behaves, he’s ultimately still an outsider. The necessary vigilance must remain.

Soon, Angel logged into Rabbit Town.

And his current position was a corridor on the fifth floor of a certain Rabbit Mansion.

In one of the rooms at the end of the corridor was the person he intended to meet in the Crystal Origin of Dreams this time.

However, he didn’t head straight toward the end of the corridor. Instead, he went to the balcony and looked down at Rabbit Town from above.

Only when Angel saw Jasmine enter Rabbit Town with a face full of interest, looking around everywhere, did he withdraw his gaze.

The initial spawn point he arranged for Jasmine wasn’t inside Rabbit Town, but in the shadow of the nearby Crystal Cavern. This was also to avoid a sudden living person appearing and frightening the New Residents.

The Crystal Cavern has two paths: one is a dead end leading deeper inside, and the other leads toward Rabbit Town.

Angel was observing from above just to see whether Jasmine would go against common sense and run into the darker depths of the Crystal Cavern.

If Jasmine really did head the other way, Angel would have no choice but to "call someone" to bring her back.

Fortunately, Jasmine wasn’t the type to defy all convention.

Rabbit Town is well-lit, and the Rabbit Mansion serves as a landmark building that Jasmine could see from afar; therefore, she didn’t engage in contrarian thinking and walk down the dark, unknown path, but instead followed normal logic and walked toward Rabbit Town.

Confirming that Jasmine had already entered Rabbit Town’s area, Angel finally relaxed.

After this, Jasmine would definitely run into the New Residents here.

The New Residents also know about the situation with the "Login", so they would certainly explain things to Jasmine when the time comes; he didn’t need to worry about that.

Angel entered the corridor at ease and walked all the way toward the depths.

A large Door stood wide open.

Inside was a cramped little room. Judging from the furnishings around—there was a bed, a cabinet, and a plush carpet—it was just an ordinary New Resident’s home.

A few figures were visible in the room, most of them gathered near the hearth at the center. They seemed to be whispering among themselves about something.

Angel’s arrival instantly drew their attention. Everyone fell silent and quietly turned their eyes to Angel.

Angel, however, did not go over to question them right away, but walked to the corner of the room.

The Rabbit Girl in a rabbit doll costume—Little Laplace—was currently squatting in the corner, idly counting her fingers.

She only raised her head when Angel came to stand beside her.

When she saw that the newcomer was Angel, the Rabbit Girl’s eyes lit up. "You finally came!"

Angel gave a slight nod. "What’s the situation now?"

"It’s the same situation I transmitted to Laplace before, nothing has changed." The Rabbit Girl said this and pointed at the group of people not far away. "Look, they all call themselves Witnesses, but when I went over there to check, there was nothing out of the ordinary."

Angel turned his head to look. As his gaze swept over them, the New Residents’ eyes clearly showed a bit of timidity.

Judging from their clothing, they should have come in together with the group from Charles Palace. They had all been ordinary humans in their previous lives, and after coming to Rabbit Town, they did ordinary daily work as well. It was rare for them to be involved in abnormal incidents, so their somewhat fearful behavior was perfectly normal.

Angel’s lips curled into a smile as he went forward. "No need to be afraid, I don’t eat people. Come, tell me the details..."

Though they were a little afraid, they also understood how urgent the matter was, and stammeringly described what had happened.

After listening, Angel’s expression did not change. Even though the story they told was a bit bizarre, Laplace had already conveyed the situation to him via the Mind Ribbon while he was still outside.

He’d already heard it once; listening again was merely for confirmation.

The situation was exactly as Laplace had said: a few of them ran into... a ghost... out in the wild.

Or, to use their own wording, they’d run into a Wraith in the Fog.

The general situation was as follows—

To build a small town belonging solely to the New Residents, a lot of work had to be done. Among these tasks, this group of people had been sent outside to investigate the surrounding terrain.

The Crystal Origin stretched boundlessly, with no vegetation or mountains and forests. So-called terrain investigation was in fact mainly about checking whether there were any sinkholes or chasms nearby.

They needed to mark out these potentially "dangerous" areas to keep those who came after from entering by mistake.

And while this group was surveying the surroundings, they suddenly ran into a patch of light fog.

The fog wasn’t thick and didn’t obscure their vision, so they didn’t pay it much mind and continued to record potentially dangerous areas around them.

But just then, a figure suddenly appeared in the fog.

At first they thought it was another visitor from Rabbit Town, and even greeted the figure warmly.

Only when they got a clear look at the person’s face did they realize in shock that the other party was not from Rabbit Town at all. It was doubtful whether they were even "human" at all—that much had yet to be proven.

Because the other’s entire body was in a semi-transparent state, like an undead from legend.

Only, this undead seemed not to be as bloodthirsty and ferocious as the legends claimed, merely wandering aimlessly in the fog without any apparent goal...

They didn’t dare go over and provoke the "undead", and instead ran back as if fleeing for their lives.

They’d originally planned to tell the others what they’d encountered, but just at that moment, Mist Isle Dragon Tomb opened, and everyone’s attention was drawn over there.

After thinking it over, they went back home.

Once they got home, they passed on the "Wraith in the Fog" they had encountered as a piece of gossip.

The spread of gossip is much faster than that of serious matters, especially when it carries a gimmick like "Wraith in the Fog." It didn’t take long before all the nearby residents had heard of it.

The Rabbit Girl, returning from the Training Dungeon deep in the cavern, also heard this rumor during conversations with some of the New Residents.

She felt something was off on an intuitive level, so she went looking for them and asked for the details.

After asking, in order to verify whether this matter was real or not, she even took this group with her to the place where the "Wraith in the Fog" had appeared.

But... they didn’t find anything.

The so-called Wraith in the Fog was as if it had never existed.

The Rabbit Girl even suspected they might be lying, or were suffering from hysteria.

But the group insisted, and their neighbors also attested that they were normally upright in conduct. Only then did the Rabbit Girl grudgingly believe them.

She then went Offline and reported it to Laplace via the Mind Ribbon.

Laplace, in turn, told Angel about the matter, which led to Angel hearing the news and coming here.

...

After hearing the whole story, Angel briefly calmed the New Residents, then left the house with the Rabbit Girl and returned to the corridor.

The Rabbit Girl asked curiously, "Were they telling the truth?"

Angel: "It should be the truth."

By using Hyper Perception, Angel judged from the fluctuations in their emotions that they weren’t lying.

But even if they had seen this so-called "Wraith in the Fog", it could still have been a kind of mirage, so Angel couldn’t be completely sure and prefaced his answer with "should be."

"What’s your view on this matter?"

Angel shook his head. "For now it’s still unclear. At the very least, I haven’t yet seen this so-called ’Wraith in the Fog’ myself."

Before he Entered Dream and came into the Crystal Origin of Dreams, he had used God’s View to observe the nearby area.

He had practically scanned everything within a radius of a hundred miles, and had not discovered anything unusual.

If you say the other party was hiding, that’s not very likely either. After all, Angel’s level of access authority over the Crystal Origin of Dreams was extremely high. At worst, he should have been able to Capture traces.

In Angel’s view, there were only a few possibilities: either it was a "mirage", or this group was hysterical; or, the Wraith in the Fog came from some Immortal Realm, and the external, concrete medium of that Fairyland Duplication was extremely tiny—so tiny that you would have to search inch by inch to find it.

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