Mystery: Lucky One

The lingering sense of tragedy and heaviness disappeared at this moment. The team stopped and the chief asked:

"Just... take it over?"

Colin Iliad looked back at Alice who had suddenly spoken. A look of annoyance appeared on the face of the blonde girl. She seemed to look around, and then the chief saw the shadow of a giant snake emerging around the team.

The shadows were connected from head to tail, surrounding the entire team. Then, Colin saw the scene in front of him begin to change rapidly, dyed with the colors of oil painting.

Not only that, the colors kept receding, and Colin soon realized that they were moving forward. He remembered that Alice had first asked him if there was any way to speed up movement in the "God-Forsaken Land", and he suddenly understood.

He found it? I don’t know how…

When he was halfway through his thoughts, the scene around him suddenly stopped, and then the images of the real world began to emerge, and he saw that the surroundings were the afternoon town camp.

Alice stamped her feet to make sure she had landed on the ground, then she exhaled and turned back to ask the chief:
"Among the people you brought, are there any who plan to take shifts with the people who stay here?"

She leaned to the side, looked at the people who were blocked by the chief, and then said:
“I suggest you leave them here… It’s still too dangerous for them to be demigods. No matter how I look at it, they are doomed.

"I have rarely seen a fate where I have no way out at all."

The chief didn't say anything. He turned around quietly to look at the members of the exploration team behind him.

There weren't many demigods in the City of Silver, otherwise their council wouldn't have only six people - although not all of the "six-member council" were demigods before, as long as they became demigods, they would join the council, or at least be a candidate member.

Even Lovia, who was only at the Sequence 5 level before, was listed as a candidate member because she survived the battle with the demigod-level evil spirit.

Moreover, according to what Alice had heard, Lovia herself was also herding a sequence 3 evil spirit that could exert the power of a demigod.

These members who were brought here were all Sequence 5s who had already digested the potion but were stuck due to the promotion ritual or the potion formula. They also all possessed powerful seals and were able to exert strength close to that of a demigod.

There weren't too many such candidates in the City of Silver, but at least there were more than pure demigods. After all, the former were limited by the number of seals that could be used, and they had not yet achieved a true level leap. As for the potion formula...

After obtaining the potion formula of the "Silver Knight", the City of Silver suddenly had two more Sequence 3s.

As for promotion ceremonies, some of them have strict requirements on the number of people, and there is nothing we can do about it.

The members of the exploration team looked at each other and realized that their leader had left the decision to them. So one of them stepped forward and said:
"Miss Destiny, we have no intention of returning alive."

The others didn't say anything, but their determined eyes showed their attitude.

Alice frowned slightly. She realized that the usual methods of persuading people to quit were not applicable to this group of people. They were not afraid of death and even set out with the belief that they would die.

But above demigod, that's fine, below demigod...

Alice looked into the distance, thought for a moment and asked:

"What if, even if you sacrifice your lives, it's useless and you can only hinder us?"

The members of the exploration team were stunned. Even the chief looked at Alice. He had originally brought the extra people with him because he took into account the diversity of their abilities. He did not think that the two extra people in the team could help Silver City solve the difficulties encountered during the exploration. From the beginning to the end, the chief had never expected them to help.

After all, Merlin Hermes was fine, at least he seemed cooperative and helpful, but this Miss Destiny...

The chief was very suspicious and would not even look twice at anything that was not related to her purpose.

Oh, pranks don't count.

Therefore, when arranging the team's personnel, the Chief did not consider these two variables, but chose the members of his earliest plan according to the situation when they were not present.

The Chief is the plan. When demigods like me have no spare energy, they can play a corresponding role.

As for whether he could go back alive...he himself had no intention of going back alive. His only two hopes were that the Fool would be willing to protect his believer Derrick, the younger generation of demigods in the City of Silver, and that the True Creator would be willing to protect Lovia and retain more power for the City of Silver.

But now that they heard that even if they sacrificed themselves, they might not be of any use, the exploration team members and the chief were a little hesitant. The exploration team members looked at the chief, who hesitated for two seconds before speaking:

"What if we take them up first and let them stay outside and wait for the signal?"

He wavered... Alice glanced at the Chief, suppressed her smile of success, and pretended to look around and said:

“It’s dangerous, but not impossible.”

After a pause, she looked at those people and kindly reminded them, "Remember to run if you encounter danger. Don't just wait."

The members of the exploration team nodded one after another, and the chief looked at Alice. Only Alice blinked and asked:
"Why are you looking at me? Let's go?"

The Chief was stunned for a moment. Before he could speak, Klein asked in confusion:

"You plan to let them go up the mountain by themselves? I thought you were going to take them up the mountain..."

“…” Alice looked up at Klein expressionlessly, then shook her head heavily, stood on tiptoe to make herself appear taller, and then raised her hand to pat his shoulder, “Your faith in our Lord is still not devout enough. Perhaps you should go back and reflect on yourself.”

Lovia looked at Alice hesitantly, frowning slightly. Klein asked doubtfully:
"Who are you?"

Alice opened her arms, recalled Leo Master's expression, and then said devoutly:
"Of course it is the Lord who created everything, the omniscient and omnipotent God!"

Lovia closed her eyes.

Klein slapped her without hesitation, then looked up and said to the Chief:
"Sorry, the kid is ignorant."

The chief pretended to nod calmly and walked up the mountain.

Klein followed with the reluctant Alice. Lovia opened her eyes again and followed behind him, looking at Alice's back with confusion in her eyes.

The previous exploration came in handy at this time. Although they had to climb the mountain on foot, the chief took a shortcut through the "Decay Forest" and the "Desolate Tunnel". Looking at the escalator in front of them, which was dilapidated but vaguely visible in its outline, Alice swallowed hard.

"Oh my god," she turned to look at the chief, "Why is there an elevator here???"

"Elevator?" the chief asked in confusion.

Alice turned her head and looked at Klein. Klein's expression was calmer. He asked Alice:
"Do you think this is a remnant of a previous civilization, or was it created by the Lord you just converted to?" "......?" Alice looked at him hesitantly and finally gave up discussing the issue of conversion with him.

"You don't need to worry about what an elevator is," Alice turned to look at the Chief, "You just need to know that when this thing is not broken, we can step on it and stand there, and we can go directly to the Giant King's Court."

After a pause, she muttered again:
"This feeling is just like... in the old cultivation novels, after climbing 9,999 steps you can see the immortal road. After going through untold hardships, you finally reach the steps, only to find that it is a broken elevator...

"In short... it's too disillusioning! It's totally from another era or style!"

The chief did not understand the subsequent words. He only looked at the broken elevator in front of him thoughtfully, then turned around and asked:
“Is this a creation of the gods?”

"Who knows?" Alice sneered. "I only know that it was originally created by mortals, but mortals today can't make it."

She paused, then asked, "Are you still leaving?"

The chief stopped talking and took the first step towards the elevator.

This elevator was built around the mountain. As Alice walked along, she thought of the mountain cableways in modern scenic spots - if the cableways could be made easier to use and then replaced with elevators, it would be about the same.

She shook her head and began to wonder why Ouroboros didn't take the elevator when he took her up the mountain.

...Is it to avoid being reminded of someone when seeing the object?

Thinking of Ouroboros's linen robe that no one was allowed to touch, Alice felt that things shouldn't be like this.

She was lost in thought, and soon reached the top of the ancient elevator. Klein stopped them at this time, but no one objected. After all, everyone knew that he had to open the door first.

Klein first found a secret place to pray for the Fool's Gift. As for the reason...

"He's shy," Alice said nonsense. "In fact, he's very shy and doesn't dare to show his true face to others. The fact that he can meet you like this is the result of many treatments from a 'psychologist' - you call it a 'psychoanalyst' here."

After a pause, she added, "By the way, that's a 'psychologist' at the demigod level."

The members of the Silver City Exploration Team were all moved. Even the Chief was a little shaken and wanted to believe Alice's nonsense.

So, when Klein came back with a dark wooden box and a giant black iron key, he saw the sympathetic eyes of the members of the Silver City exploration team.

"What did you say to them?" Klein looked at Alice first.

Alice blinked and pointed at the wooden box and asked:

"what is that?"

It was a clumsy way of changing the subject, but Klein really fell for it. He replied:
"Groselle's ashes."

Alice was startled for a moment, then nodded and asked:

"Then you plan to..."

She didn't need to ask any more questions because she saw Klein dragging out another self from the historical projection.

Seeing Klein hand the item to the historical projection and let him leave, Alice's heart skipped a beat. She suddenly looked at the members of the exploration team who were not yet demigods and ordered without hesitation:

"Close your eyes."

The members were slightly startled and looked at the chief. The chief looked at Alice and gave the same order:
"Close your eyes."

The members of the exploration team then closed their eyes. The chief then cast a questioning look at Alice, but Alice shook her head and stared at Klein.

Although most of his consciousness was in the historical projection, his body was not dead. Klein looked at Alice in confusion, but Alice shook her head, approached him, took a deep breath, and smiled as if to comfort him:

"It's fine."

Then, she lowered her head to look at the ground, at Klein's shadow, and suddenly turned to Lovia, saying in a vague voice:
"What would happen if a person didn't have a shadow?"

"It will affect the integrity of the spirit," Lovia replied, "and there may be signs of loss of control."

“…It’s just a sign, just a possibility, right?” Alice confirmed.

Lovia hesitated and didn't dare to nod. Alice pursed her lips and looked at Klein again. Her spirituality increased, and she saw a turbulent, dark, and sticky illusory ocean.

The ocean appeared out of nowhere and submerged Klein and his shadow. Then, the ocean disappeared, but Klein's shadow suddenly came to life, broke free from his control, and escaped.

"Chaos Sea..." she murmured.

The spirit fell back to its original place. Alice sighed and put luck on Klein, praying in her heart that he was okay.

...Or let someone else open the door.

She looked back, then retracted her gaze, looked at Klein, and shook her head again.

——The “True Creator” would not agree, and Klein would not agree either.

Waiting was the most distressing part. After an unknown amount of time, when Klein suddenly bent his back in pain, Alice knew that something was wrong. She stepped forward and grabbed Klein's arm. The silver river spread and rushed towards the illusory deep black ocean.

The illusory silver river collided with the illusory deep black ocean, and then the deep black won and spread upwards. Alice swallowed her saliva, gave up this meaningless attempt, and wanted to cut off the river without hesitation.

The good news is that she succeeded. The connection between the silvery-white river and the deep black ocean was cut off, and the remaining rivers quickly retreated. The bad news is that the ocean rushed up like a cat that tasted blood.

Alice wanted to escape. She knew better than anyone that the main body of the "Chaos Sea" was underground, and the main body of the "Key of Light" was still in the Western Continent. Not to mention the difference in status between the two, just in terms of the completeness of power, she could not compare!
The good news was that she was not the only one being entangled. Alice could "see" that there was a gray-white mist that was also driving away the dark illusory ocean, intending to drive it back underground - that was the "Source Castle".

The ocean finally retreated, taking with it the muttering sounds and the pain in her soul. Alice opened her eyes, gasping for breath, and saw a floating silver-white thread in front of her.

She was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously raised her hand to hook the silver thread. It felt smooth and soft. She pulled it hard, then pressed her scalp with a distorted expression.

"Oh my god," she exclaimed, "I have gray hair!" (End of this chapter)