Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 1187 Secret Doll Town
Klein and Angel were enjoying delicious food in the Balam restaurant, occasionally making eye contact and then awkwardly looking away; Dawn and Christine were visiting houses for sale while whispering to each other; Sherlock and Irene chased each other to the town square, but were disappointed to find that the group of giants were no longer in the church, and returned in disappointment; Gehrman and Angelica were chatting on the clock tower, their eyes swept across the streets, tracking the pirate who sneaked into Yharnam...

Invisible black lines emerged from their bodies, pointing to the sky, extending to infinity, passing through the clouds into a grayish-white mist, and falling into the hands of the vague figures in the ancient palace.

This being is composed of twisted translucent worms, wearing colorful clothes and gorgeous ornaments on his head, and his temperament switches between deep and terrifying and ridiculous.

He holds the spirit string in his hand, and most of the time he lets the puppets move on their own according to their "settings." Occasionally, he pulls the spirit string to control certain puppets that come into contact with outsiders, allowing them to behave more naturally.

At the same time, each spiritual thread transmits the will, thoughts, and cognition of the secret doll to the gray fog, and gathers them in the body composed of the "spiritual worm".

Then, they followed the black line extending from the figure's head and returned to reality, back to Yharnam City, passed through the Church of Fools, entered the full-length mirror in the underground space, and connected to Klein who was lying inside the stone chamber.

The figure belonging to the "Fool" is also a secret puppet, and Klein here is the real person.

In the past few days, Klein has been lying inside the mirror world created by Angel, using the only exit to control the spirit insects above the gray fog with the spirit thread, and then using them to control the entire Yharnam city.

His own consciousness sometimes returns to the "Source Castle" to personally control the secret dolls, respond to the prayers of believers and followers, or use historical pore images to travel around the world to collect new secret dolls. At the same time, he creates some evidence of his own existence to mislead Zaratul, Amon and other enemies who are eyeing him covetously, and conceal the existence of Yharnam City to the greatest extent.

As long as the main body does not leave for too long, these secret puppets of his will not have much impact. At most, they will become sluggish because the "Spirit Worm" cannot control them, and will only repeat a few fixed actions.

Therefore, most of the time, his consciousness would return to the stone chamber, receiving experiences and feelings from different secret doll clones, as if he was dreaming with different identities and experiences.

In his dream, he was a lucky guy who found a high-paying job right after graduation, and he was happy recently because he found that the woman he cared about also had a good impression of him; he was a wealthy businessman who went to the South Continent for a trip with his fiancée, but because the cruise ship stopped at Yharnam Port to avoid the storm, he temporarily changed his itinerary and stayed here because he was interested in this small town; he was a private detective who investigated foreigners with his curious and righteous assistant; he was a crazy adventurer who sneaked into this small town with a female pirate who was both his enemy and friend to track down a wanted criminal.

He is a cat, a dog, a fat pigeon in front of the church, a mute painter who paints large murals, a maid who is learning to cook, a novelist who likes to use the people around him as characters, and an innkeeper who is treated as a mistress because of his beauty but tries to escape this fate...

A variety of emotions, some calm and some agitated, mixed in his mind, causing considerable obstacles to Klein's cognition. Fortunately, there was a dominant main consciousness at the top of the many consciousnesses. It always remembered its true identity, rather than the false identities it had experienced or designed, and remained sober amid the impact of various emotions.

At this moment, a full-length mirror hanging in the stone chamber where he was sleeping turned dark, reflecting a closed passage. Then, a figure emerged from the mirror, slowly walked to the bunk bed, squatted down, and reached out to touch his forehead.

The emotions representing different identities suddenly subsided, leaving only the sober main consciousness.

He is no longer a newcomer in the security company, a private detective, a wealthy businessman or an adventurer. He is no longer surrounded by beautiful female colleagues, lively assistants, young fiancée or dashing female pirates. Instead, he is Angel, who has experienced all of this with him and is the only true identity that anchors him.

Gently pressing the back of Angel's cold hand, Klein sat up from the bed, stretched his stiff limbs, and asked with a smile:

"Why don't you continue to wander around? I was planning to use the identity of the wandering magician Merlin to get closer to you and the saint who liberated the 'City of Dreams'."

"So what should I name myself?"

Angel, who knew that each of Klein's identities was "playing memes" to a certain extent, replied, sitting next to the bunk bed and continuing without waiting for the other party to answer:

"Why would you place a bed like this in your hideout?"

Klein did not answer immediately. Instead, he snapped his fingers to light up the gas lamp on the wall. The faint light illuminated the small stone room and the simple furniture around it.

Looking at the desk, chair, cabinet, kitchen supplies, and dressing mirror, Klein sighed and replied:
"This reminds me of the day when I traveled through time, so that I always know who I am, instead of being controlled by the experiences of those secret dolls."

Then I should be lying in a cold, blood-stained basement, which is much worse than the environment he traveled through time... Angel muttered in his heart, nodded, stopped asking questions, and said:
"I spent a day in Yharnam. The citizens here are very hospitable and did not treat me specially because I am a foreigner. However, I have observed that their activities are relatively fixed. Although their living habits are different, they can be summarized into a few major categories. If you are a 'spectator' or a 'secret peeper', it is easy to find abnormalities." Klein smiled awkwardly.

There was no other way. Creating more than five thousand different "characters" and designing completely different identities, backgrounds, life experiences and personality habits for them was completely beyond his ability.

He could only classify these characters into several major categories based on his crammed knowledge of drama and novels, and make a certain degree of distinction, labeling them with labels such as "busy workers", "impatient clerks", "peaceful patrolmen", and making them behave in ways that matched their identities based on his own understanding.

Even so, the fake "Fool" who sent and received messages for him would soon become tired and forget his identity, requiring Klein to retrieve the spirit worm and replace it with a new one above the gray fog.

Seeing Klein's embarrassed expression, Angel smiled, patted his shoulder comfortingly, and said:
"Well, this is already impressive. I observed the reactions of 'Sun' Derrick and his team. They never found any problems with Yharnam City. Only Lovia was a little suspicious, but she didn't investigate further. This shows that your Secret Doll Town can even deceive the saints, let alone ordinary people."

"Since there are not many visitors, I can give them special attention. Once the railway connecting the Dream City is opened and the port of New Silver City is connected, there will probably be hundreds of outsiders coming every day."

Klein shook his head slightly.

It’s not that he lacks confidence in his role. The occasional dullness of the secret puppets or behavior inconsistent with their identities can be covered up by saying they are rejecting outsiders. Even if someone finds out about the problem, there is still the "other side" of Yharnam waiting for them late at night.

He was worried that once the abnormality of the city spread, it would attract the attention of Amon, Zaratul and even Adam.

It was precisely because of his concern for these enemies that Klein chose this island as the location for Yharnam, to echo Patis and the New Silver City.

Once enemies above the level of angels attack, the Hand of Order of the "Dream City" and the "0" level seals it controls can provide support to Yharnam at any time, which is just at the edge of its coverage area. The New Silver City also has two powerful seals that can provide certain help.

Conversely, the New Silver City and the "City of Dreams" can also support each other, making this small island deep in the violent sea a restricted area that no one below the level of gods dares to enter easily.

But that was Amon, the Blasphemer who had obtained all the characteristics and uniqueness of Sequence 1 and was only one step away from becoming a god. Even with full preparation, Klein was not absolutely sure that he could stop Him from destroying Yharnam.

If something goes wrong, he can only use his last chance as a miracle worker to resurrect on Sefirah Castle, and the entire Secret Doll Town that he spent so much effort on will be destroyed, and characters such as "Klein" and Sherlock will disappear completely.

However, allowing outsiders to come to Yharnam instead of building the Secret Doll Town in some hidden location with almost no connection to the outside world can make the interaction between outsiders and the Secret Doll Residents become quite frequent and quite strong, and it won't take long for the corresponding area to be born in the spirit world.

By then, as long as Klein can make the fate of the marionettes more realistic and detailed, he will be able to meet the conditions of the ritual and take the potion to advance to Sequence 1.

According to his estimation, under the "strong interaction" plan, this time will not exceed three months. However, by hiding the Secret Doll Town and using methods such as "grafting" to abduct sporadic outsiders and gradually let them form an understanding of Yharnam City, the entire ceremony will take more than a year.

A longer time means more surprises, so Klein chose the former without hesitation.

Only by being promoted to "Attendant of Mysteries" as soon as possible, absorbing the characteristics of the other Sequence 1 at hand, becoming the King of Angels, and cooperating with Sefirah Castle, can I truly have the strength to compete with Amon and not let down those who "invested" in me... In addition, I can surpass her in Sequence for the first time and protect her instead of letting her protect me... Klein thought silently in his heart and glanced at Angel beside him. He had the illusion that he had become the "newcomer in the security company" Klein.

In order to dispel this feeling, he changed the subject and asked:

"How about you? How is the 'Disaster' potion digesting?"

(End of this chapter)