Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 302 What did we overlook?
This conversation sounds so familiar; I hear it almost every day lately.

This has become the fixed way of communication between Rowena and Winter. Even though the lie has been exposed countless times, Rowena still always talks about the dozen or so relationships that never existed. If the capital were to hold a contest of stubbornness, she would definitely be a strong contender for the top three.

The scene here was somewhat familiar. He had probably been in this office for a long time. When his black-haired, black-eyed female colleague mentioned the coffee shop across the street, Ethan had a complete impression of the street in his mind. In fact, this building could also be traced back to this world.

The guild's investigators discovered an empty building in an anomalous dimension. The building was fully equipped with facilities and office supplies, but no one was inside.

"This lake allows you to see your own heart clearly."

The distant voice drew closer and closer to Ethan until the whole world turned upside down once again, and the Misty Forest in the mirror became reality. He was back beside Winter and Rowena. The "robot" faced the lake and said calmly, "Let you briefly see the truth that cannot be distorted or rewritten."

What Ethan saw was perhaps the very content of his last project.

This inevitably raises a fundamental question.

—Master, what do I do for a living?

At least in my memory, his experience had nothing to do with those classified jobs. He worked as a programmer at a big company and lost everything because he plunged into the stock market. But he still had some time before retirement and still had opportunities.

A life that is neither glorious nor hopeless, without time travel, would be a life where you can see the end from the beginning.

But the truth that flashes across the lake now vaguely reveals that his last project is closely related to this illusory world.

Winter and Rowena also stared at the lake without saying a word; they had somehow reverted to their animal forms.

And what about that incredibly familiar conversation?

Why is it possible that a Rowena appeared in the real-world project team?
The little purple bat had obviously heard the "robot's" whisper and noticed Ethan's gaze. It immediately looked away, coughed lightly, and emphasized, "Why are you looking at me? I was just thinking about my past love affairs. People like you who haven't had more than a dozen relationships wouldn't understand."

"You see, even if some people know the truth, they don't want to wake up."

Ethan pointed to the small purple bat and used vivid examples to explain the complexity of human beings to the "robot".

"Are you trying to die?!"

Rowena jumped up and down, repeatedly flapping her wings at the back of Ethan's head, causing several minor injuries.

Ethan and Winter are a match made in heaven; they're even even evenly matched in their ability to annoy people!
Huh?
"Made in heaven" doesn't seem to be a derogatory term.

After realizing what was happening, Rowena fell into thought, and her patting of Ethan's head slowed down a few beats.

The "robot" looked puzzled, seemingly unable to understand why someone would refuse to wake up even after knowing the existence of the real world. Ethan didn't know if this person's thinking was innate or if it had been modified into a single-threaded brain circuit, which was no different from those fanatical believers brainwashed by the Old Gods, many of whom only possessed one-dimensional thinking.

Even when they plunge a dagger into your body and offer your soul to the Old Gods, they sincerely believe they are helping you reach paradise.

"Not all truths are beneficial; it's not necessarily a bad thing to forget some things."

"……forget."

The robot fell into a longer period of thought, seemingly unable to comprehend Ethan's meaning in his own way.

Awakening is happiness, that is his belief, and there is no compromise or roundabout way to achieve happiness.

Thus, the "robot" finally came to a conclusion.

"You've been brainwashed by the Scarlet Queen too!"

The atmosphere of the conversation became tense, and Ethan could almost see a huge exclamation mark appearing above the "robot's" head, along with a powerful battle music.

The enormous mist-weaving antelope transformed into a silvery-white afterimage and landed between the two.

A wriggling tube extended from the incision in its chest cavity.

The summoner "Crazy Robot" has entered the battle.

This was a sudden battle between summoners. The "robot" and the Mistweaver Antelope were of one mind, and without any command, the soft tubes that emerged from their abdomens launched an attack on Ethan.

Even his behavior was exactly like that of the old gods believers that Ethan knew. He could not see anger and hatred in the "robot's" eyes, but rather a lot of compassion. Perhaps in his own eyes, everything he did was like a priest guiding all the lost sheep in the world.

This makes him far more terrifying than any criminal; he has an intense obsession and is willing to pay any price for it, even his own life.

"Lovina, I've chosen you!"

Ethan was forced to join the fight.

"Because Old Sen had just made a joke about Rowena, Rowena pretended not to understand."

The little purple bat spoke in a monotone tone, but despite her words, she still flew to the opposite side of the mechanical mist-weaver antelope, ready to face the battle.

Ethan thought of many strange move names, but she could understand them as soon as she heard them.

The Void Slash is her advanced application of cutting magic. After inheriting the memories and energy of the fake god of trickery, the effects of her original magic have been improved to varying degrees. Her cutting magic has broken through the bottleneck, and she has drawn inspiration from the wind element. Now she has begun to explore the theory of "Space Slash".

Once the theory is complete, this will be an unavoidable blow.

The fog was getting thicker and thicker, and the Mistweaver Antelope activated its fogweaving ability, bringing the hoses closer and closer to them.

The next moment, before the spatial slash was launched, time jumped once.

In an instant, all the hoses were frozen in mid-air. Rowena opened her mouth in surprise and exhaled a breath of hot air. The temperature by the lake dropped by more than ten degrees in an instant. When she came to her senses, the entire lakeside was frozen over, and nothing could be reflected in the water anymore.

She didn't know what Winter had seen, but it was probably not a pleasant memory. Winter hadn't experienced such strong emotional fluctuations for a while since meeting Ethan.

The ice elemental magic that freezes time will still send chills down your spine no matter how many times you see it.

Winter, who had activated her domain magic, also reverted to her human form. She almost teleported past the Mistweaver Antelope and arrived directly in front of the "robot".

The "robot" remained in the same position and expression, encased in ice, unaware that it had been frozen into an ice sculpture. Rowena watched as Winter raised its right hand—a habit she used in battle. When that raised right hand fell, the ice sculpture would shatter into chunks of ice, turning the frozen object inside into dust. However, just as its right hand was about to fall, Winter seemed to suddenly change its mind.

A flash of white light, and she transformed back into a cat, slowly returning to Ethan's side, walking up his legs and arms, back to her rightful place.

Rowena asked, "Shall we go back now?"

"Let's look ahead."

The frozen lake leads deeper into the mist, and some memories seem to be reviving in his mind.

The Misty Forest County, and even this entire plane, might have been a scrapped project. Perhaps they were never actually created; perhaps the framework was built and the basic settings were completed before being rejected by their superiors. But now, it has actually appeared before them, complete with a corresponding system of superhumans.

The moisture in the fog, the feel of stepping on the ice, and the sensations from the summoner battle I just experienced were all absolutely real.

Then, a new problem emerged.

If this was the last project he would ever experience in his "life," what merit did he possess to create such a realistic dimension? No matter how much Ethan pondered, he couldn't recall the specific details of the project, not even seemingly scientific theoretical knowledge such as "uploading consciousness" or "holographic games."

The fleeting reflection in the lake seems like a result that skips over all the processes.

When he "woke up," this illusory world already existed.

Ethan took a step forward, and perhaps this is the fate of all programmers—you will encounter situations where you can't understand the code at all, but the program can still run normally, and even run very stably.

For a modern person like him, the existing information is enough for him to draw many conclusions.

The "ancient people" mentioned by the guild refer to Earthlings who came to this world in a way similar to time travel. They existed as the first pioneers, founded the guild, launched investigations, and transformed themselves from unknown nobodys into "kings".

His identity is even more special. In a sense, he and his colleagues in the office seem to be the creators of this world. In people's eyes, they are like creator gods. The frameworks they design will gradually become worlds and power systems, and all the text settings will become history that people know.

After the entire project was completed, he entered this world for some reason.

Based on his "landing point" and the fact that he had lost part of his memory, Ethan deduced that the situation at the time was probably very urgent, leaving him no time to make a complete "career plan." Upon waking up, he randomly appeared in a group of refugees. Thinking about it carefully, the situation at that time was exactly the same as when he first entered this dimension.

The White-Headed Turban and the others treated him as a companion, and they never doubted his identity before he betrayed the poacher organization.

The natives of this world are usually unaware of these people who suddenly appear.

Another conclusion we can draw is that the flow of time in the two worlds is definitely different. As a normal modern person, he and the pioneering team have been here for no more than one or two years, but the Golden King and others have been in this world for thousands of years.

Not only did they establish their own forces and explore countless planes, but their lives also entered a period of stagnation due to their endless lifespans, forcing them to constantly seek "fun" to find some spiritual relief for their long lives.

So……

Where will the frozen lake lead?

Is it related to "ancient people"?
……

"So, do you believe it now?"

At the top of the distant sacred tree, in the treehouse, the girl with red twin ponytails still faces the mirror. This time, however, the figure in the mirror, hanging upside down by chains, becomes agitated. Her agitation is being projected onto reality, and fine cracks appear on the mirror's surface. Perhaps it won't be long before the entire mirror shatters.

"The real me, and the reason I came here in the first place."

For someone who has lived through a thousand years, twenty years as an "ancient person" is like a fleeting moment, as if that distant place is a distant and illusory dream.

After graduating from university, she interned at the company and was recommended by her superiors to become a pioneer of the project. If they could find the whereabouts of the "goddess", they would receive a reward that would allow her to live a financially free life for the rest of her life.

To achieve financial freedom—a dream for countless people—in her very first year after leaving school and entering the workforce, she is simply a chosen one...

Of course, all of this was a lie, just one of her many identities.

She started lying when she was young; it was her specialty.

After swindling a large sum of money from the company, those people found her.

For the first time, she shared her past memories with the giant reflection in the mirror, including her current thoughts.

She wasn't surprised by Ethan's arrival; rather, she felt the moment had come a little too late.

Ethan was different from them. Although he came from the same place, he was given extra importance. He was so important that they, the guild, and even the omnipotent goddess all existed for Ethan alone.

If this were an epic adventure, the story would end with Ethan defeating the guild's founders one by one and taking over the entire guild.

A classic, yet somewhat cliché, adventure story.

But she believed that their eventual deaths must have some other meaning.

The company valued her lying skills and recruited her into the pioneer team, with the aim of using her expertise in deceiving someone when necessary.

But what is she trying to deceive Ethan about?
The red-haired girl stared at the giant reflection in the mirror. "O omnipotent Argos, can you answer my questions?"

She remained silent in response.

This silence was different from before. Argos seemed to want to answer her question, but he found himself in the same predicament as her.

In order to remind Ethan that this is a virtual world built of data, and that he may very well be the creator of this world.
If that's the case, then there's no need for her existence at all. She believes that as long as Ethan is a person with a normal level of intelligence, he will eventually discover the truth of this world.

There must be some more important detail that she has overlooked, and she has already shown Argos everything about herself—everything she has experienced over the past thousand years.

“Argos…”

She composed herself. "What exactly have we overlooked?"

(End of this chapter)