amaotonovel Chapter 2805: Demonic Restricted Area (1)
Chapter 2805: Demonic Restricted Area (1)
Chapter 2805: Demonic Restricted Area (I)
There was only one table left in the restaurant.
Schiller and Jerome sat opposite each other, and in the middle of the table were plates and plates of freshly baked, steaming meals.
The chef had long since disappeared.
Jerome ate the food on the plate slowly, his eyes fixed on the extinguished red candle. He smiled slightly and said, "Compared to your superb cooking performance just now, the taste of the food is not important anymore. Cheers to this evening."
Schiller also raised his glass, smiled, and gently fiddled with the food on his plate. Even though he had eaten his fill, he was still hungry.
He noticed Jerome's gaze and looked at the red candle at hand. He shook his head, picked up the candle and put it in the briefcase. Jerome saw two identical red candles and three white candles in the box.
Jerome gave him a quizzical look.
Schiller shook his head and said, “I remember saying that I was from All Souls College, Oxford.”
"I just heard about this recently, too. I mean, I just came into contact with your world recently." Jerome tapped his lips with his fork and said, "What should I call you, magicians? Wizards? Or some kind of elves?"
"I'm not an elf, nor a magician. I'm a bishop." Schiller cut a piece of meat neatly, then said, "I do have some abilities that are different from ordinary people, but they are not as magical as magic."
Jerome looked down at the food on his plate, and what he wanted to say was self-evident.
"I'm not kidding, you might think I summoned a demon, but it's not the case, it's just a part of me."
"You might as well summon a demon." Jerome commented pertinently: "What do you want to say? Such a terrible demon is just a part of you?"
Schiller shook his head again and said, "It's just a precaution."
Although he said this to Jerome, Schiller still recalled what happened when the bodies were distributed before.
Each personality trait has a body, and the Mind Tower is placed in the original body as a server. All other bodies rely on brain waves to flow into the main server to gain thinking and other abilities. Everyone's physique is more inclined to Schiller in the previous life, that is, with some added strength and inspiration.
However, there are some exceptions to personality traits. The superego gives the system's energy to the magical personality traits. So although their physical fitness is not much better than that of ordinary people, they are all allocated a certain amount of energy, so naturally they have abilities beyond ordinary people.
The bishop's ability is more like summoning souls than magic. The red and white candles in his hands are actually the energy of the system. Once the candles are lit, the system will build a soul-summoning channel, connecting other brain wave streaming routes here, allowing other personality traits to log in remotely.
The white candles summon the normal state, the red candles summon the pathological state, and while the candles are lit, in addition to some energy required to maintain the channel, there will be extra energy as a sacrifice. The other personality traits that receive the sacrifice will have some magical properties, similar to skill points that can be freely allocated.
For example, Gluttony can allow you to digest food infinitely, Manipulation can give you the power to defeat the chef, and if it is Pride or Greed that comes, you can also make an umbrella, or simply take the sacrifice back intact.
The abilities of other magical personalities are different. The bishop has never really used magic in any of his previous lives, so he chooses to turn the system's energy into props and use the method of summoning other personalities to help himself overcome some difficulties.
More than half of a red candle has been used up. Next time, it will probably only last half as long as this time. The consumption level of the remaining two red candles is similar to this time. Considering the dangerousness of this universe, we still have to use them sparingly.
"Tell me what you know about the hotel?" Schiller asked proactively. This time he rescued Jerome. If the other party didn't give him something in return, there would be no need to continue the cooperation.
Jerome seemed to want to know more about the candle, but he knew that such things were often accompanied by unknown dangers. Even if Schiller told him the details, he would not dare to believe it. What if it was a trap set by the other party? Moreover, he had no confidence that he could snatch this thing from Schiller, so no matter how useful the candle was, this matter had to be put aside.
Schiller is a rare partner, and Jerome knows it well. He is just an ordinary person and it is difficult for him to make a living in this hotel. If he missed Schiller, it would be difficult to find another one.
Jerome hesitated for a moment and then said, "All the changes started 20 days ago. It's not just the hotel that has problems, the whole of Gotham has started to change."
"I received accurate information that there might be a source of the abnormality in the hotel, so I followed it. Unfortunately, my luck was bad and I wasted too long on the 19th floor. As a result, when I came out, the abnormality in the hotel was irreversible."
Schiller thought to himself that the half footprint in front of the door of Room 1904 was indeed left by Jerome. Without this hint, it would not be easy to figure out the rules of the elevator. Jerome is still an ordinary person, so it is normal for him to take so much time.
Then it seems that he and Jerome did not come to the hotel at the same time. It is very likely that Jerome came a few days after the outbreak of the incident in the hotel, while Jerome, like himself and others, came to the hotel later, so he appeared in the future timeline.
But the problem is that I was born later, so why did I end up in the past? Is there anything special about me?
"After leaving the 19th floor, I didn't choose to go to the restaurant immediately because there was a problem with the elevator. I had to explore every few floors."
After Jerome finished speaking, he lifted the hem of his shirt. His abdomen was wrapped in bandages. Schiller smelled a very faint smell of blood. He knew that if an ordinary person wanted to survive in such a situation, he would have to go through many life and death tests.
Jerome put down his clothes and continued, "Actually, I didn't know the restaurant was on this floor. I walked in here by mistake. I don't know if you saw the monster in the elevator when you took it down. I call it a kaleidoscope. When every piece of it reflects your appearance, you will be completely lost in the glass maze."
Schiller remembered the bright monster he saw in the elevator. It should be the kaleidoscope that Jerome mentioned. It looked more dangerous than he had imagined.
"It was targeting me," Jerome said. "It wanted to pull me into the mirror, so I had to avoid any reflective objects as much as possible. I rushed out of the elevator and had nowhere to go. Just like you, I brought this monster to the door of the restaurant."
Schiller nodded. He knew that there were two forces in the hotel, and the two sides restrained each other. If he wanted to get rid of the entanglement of one side, he could only use the other side. Jerome's thinking was the same as his.
"I rushed into the restaurant, and the monster really stopped chasing me. But I encountered an even more terrifying situation. The chef created an endless cycle here. In each cycle, people died in various ways and then returned to the restaurant."
"Have you ever died?"
"Of course not. I'm very cautious." Jerome cut a leaf and said, "The chef made a fatal mistake. He would go back to the kitchen between each dish. Maybe he thought I would die here in the end, so he was not cautious enough."
Schiller frowned, and Jerome didn't intend to keep him in suspense. He continued, "Your guess is roughly correct. The rules of the restaurant are very simple, and they appeared at the beginning of the mutation. The chef was a later invader, but the monster is not upstairs, but next to the kitchen."
"Those nerves on the ceiling are spreading from the kitchen. The chef is just one of the puppets controlled by these nerves. There is a restrained relationship between the restaurant and the chef. Now the restaurant is closed, but the owner of these nerves has no intention of letting go."
Schiller looked up at the ceiling. It seemed that it was not his illusion. The neural network on the ceiling had changed, but it did not become denser. It just seemed that the neural structures were more real, and some peripheral nerves that were not originally present also appeared.
Does this guy want to swallow up the restaurant directly?
"The consequences of losing balance are very terrible." Jerome continued, "I am not exaggerating, because I have seen such a situation with my own eyes. Once one of the two parties that check and balance each other is completely defeated and swallowed up, the surviving party will be unimaginably powerful."
"They can devour each other?" This was new information for Schiller, but it was not good news. Logically speaking, there was no such thing as leveling up in the Cthulhu mythology system, and there was no connection between anomalies. If one could really level up by devouring others, then every legendary investigator could become an Outer God.
"At least that's what I heard." Jerome's tone didn't sound like he was lying. He said, "I know there may be some unknown news in your magic world, but I must tell you that you can't use common sense to infer here. Everything that happened here is too bizarre."
Schiller also nodded. He knew that this hotel could not be viewed from the perspective of the Cthulhu mythology alone, because in addition to Nayya, there was also little Bruce.
Batman is the spokesperson for order. No matter which Batman it is, he is very good at establishing rules. If all the abnormalities are caused by him, then it is not surprising that there are rules among these anomalies that can be mastered by humans.
"The source is in the kitchen." Schiller muttered as he spoke, "It's not that I don't believe your information, but barging in like this is not a good idea. I need more information."
Jerome could understand. He didn't expect Schiller to be tricked into going in like this, but he had to rely on the power of this magician. Otherwise, he would never be able to enter the kitchen or leave the hotel in his lifetime.
After weighing the pros and cons, Jerome finally pulled out his trump card. He said, "What if there is not a monster in the kitchen, but a person?"
"one person?"
"That's right. There is a contaminated person hidden in every public facility of this hotel. They are the owners of these public facilities. And if nothing unexpected happens, they are not completely irrational. Many of them can still communicate."
This reminded Schiller of James Gordon, the key figure in setting up the sound trap. Jerome might have met him on the 19th floor, but the exploration of other floors gave Jerome more information.
Do you want to believe what he said?
Schiller was thinking, this born bad guy hardly ever told the truth. He said he had never died, but who knew if it was true?
If he died here, then he would be sitting here like James Gordon, just a puppet, part of some terrible trap, and Schiller didn't want to fall for it.
Suddenly, Schiller recalled that when he knocked on the door to call the dead, the ringing sound was exactly the same as the elevator ringing sound, which means that the restaurant and the elevator monster may be on the same side.
Is going to the kitchen a trap set by the restaurant for me?