Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 185 184 Tingen
'The task status has been updated.'

'Main Quest 3: Advance to Sequence , Ancient Scholar.'

'Task status: Completed.'

'Task: [Playing the role of an ancient scholar]'

"Ancient scholars, firstly, mean scholars who originate from ancient times, and secondly, scholars who study ancient times. Once you become an ancient scholar, antiquity and history coexist. Originating from ancient times, being essentially ancient is the philosophy that ancient scholars have pursued throughout their lives!"

'Task completion: 99%'

'The reward has been issued, please check it.'

In a coffee shop on the corner of Red Moon Street in Tingen City, Tang watched the waiter bring over a cup of coffee produced in the Onik Highlands and a strawberry ice cream cake. While savoring the pastries improved by some "strange people" in recent years, he waited for someone to arrive.

He didn't have to wait too long. Within a few minutes, a man walked into the cafe from the door and headed straight towards where Tang was.

He was a young man with a well-defined face, light brown eyes, slightly graying curly hair, and soft features.

He was now wearing a black silk hat, a suit of the same color, a silver collar pin on his chest, and a crystal-carved monocle in his right eye socket. He was gentle and refined, giving people a sense of peace and restraint, but he also had some strange and inharmonious temperament, which was quite eye-catching and unique.

"Long time no see." The visitor bowed and took off his hat to show respect.

"Long time no see, Nicholas."

Tang sat there and only picked up the coffee on the table after seeing someone sit down.

Nicolas Flamel was named after an ancient alchemist from the 14th century in his hometown, just like Merlin Hermes came from the legend of King Arthur, and Sherlock Moriarty came from Sherlock Holmes and the villain, James Moriarty. It was the kind of name that looked normal, but if a time traveler who knew about this aspect of history saw it, they would probably think there was something wrong with it at first glance, as it looked familiar.

Ah, of course, if people don’t know this part of the content, they will more easily associate it with an item in "Harry Potter".

The original owner of this name was the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, which could turn stone into gold.

Similar things might include the 'Aben Deng Gate' beneath the Church of Evernight, various bizarre legends, and the apparently serious name of Miskatonic University...

Ahem, that’s too far off topic.

Today, the marionette given this name is a true angel, equal to Pallez and Amon, a Sequence 1 Time Worm.

Although there is no unique way to accommodate thieves, this secret doll itself is almost equivalent to the King of Angels walking on the earth, the kind that can beat Amon.

In recent years, since the birth of another Time Worm, Pales left Tingen and began to track down Amon.

Nicholas was stationed in Tingen, responsible for providing long-distance assistance to Pales. When Amon had the upper hand, he would flash to Amon's side and stuff the monocle into his arms.

Then, the uniqueness of the thief's path will follow unknown laws. Once it comes into contact with Amon, it will directly launch a crazy "knowledge-chasing" mode against the opponent, forcing Amon to retreat and lose the advantage he has worked so hard to gain.

As thieves on the same path, the civil war on the thieves' path started from Intis and went to Feysac, then to Loen, and finally to Feynaport, with a fierce battle.

If it weren't for the fact that the high-ranking people in the thieves' path were difficult to detect, the orthodox churches in every country would have directly driven them out of their territory just based on their relentless pursuit of justice.

If you want to have fun, go somewhere else!
In response to this attack, this act of rebellion against Tian Gang, Amon's occasional counterattack was equally powerful, but unfortunately, Pales and Nicola did not fight alone.

The two Sequence 1 angels, along with Kotal, the God of Wishes, who occasionally returned from the southern continent to retrieve the treasure, and the Sequence 2 historical pore images summoned by Zaratul, who was promoted to Sequence 1, made it difficult for "Him" to hide and cause trouble, even though inexplicable coincidences always occurred to allow Amon to escape.

Three hundred years was enough time for many changes to happen, and now, Amon was the one being chased and torn apart.

Today’s changes in the landscape are not limited to this.

After becoming an ancient scholar and leaving the theater, Tang did not immediately connect to the spirit lines of those important enough secret puppets to obtain information from them, but instead visited Tingen City, which he had not seen for a long time.

Compared to Tingen in the past, the city today has many different things due to the establishment of two universities, Hoy University and Tingen University, and the formation of a knowledge and academic system.

Clean roads, glass with colorful patterns, more stable house structures, underground sewage pipes... With the two universities of Hoy and Tingen established by Owen over the past three hundred years with the assistance of secret dolls and various systems, many things in Tingen now contradict Tang's understanding of Tingen, which allowed him to further digest the magic potion of the ancient scholar.

Just a few days of carefully playing the role of a 'scholar from ancient times' would be enough for him to complete the digestion of the potion at this stage of the ancient scholar, achieve spiritual stability and stabilize his extraordinary abilities. Then he could begin the ceremony and be promoted to a Sequence 2 Miracle Master.

Nicholas also understood what Tang needed now. He talked about the recent changes in Tingen City. Tang listened carefully. Time passed quickly in a moment. The sun gradually fell from the sky above his head and slid to the west.

Tang saw that the number of pedestrians outside the window was gradually increasing. Ordinary people dressed as workers and students appeared on the streets one after another, making the streets bustling and lively.

Strange lights were lit on both sides of the road. Those lights were not gas lamps, but more like some materials he didn't recognize were ignited and stuffed into them. The light they emitted was not blazing, but rather dim.

But Tang's eyes were not fixed on the strange lights.

He glanced at the pedestrians outside. As an ancient scholar who was good at manipulating the lines of spirits and further manipulating Euclidean space, and who still possessed certain characteristics even without entering that space, he saw that the lines of spirits of these people were strange and abnormal.

The system quickly marked out those with abnormal spirit lines, who were actually his secret puppets.

Oh, Secret Marionette, that's okay.

"How many of Tingen's secret marionettes are there now?"

Tang was quite curious about this.

"Twenty percent are living people, one percent are monsters, ghost stories and dead people, and the rest are puppets." Nicholas said very honestly, not caring at all whether this scale of puppets is normal or not.

In other words, at least 70% of the humans and humanoids in Tingen have been equipped with "bionic marionette" modules, which give them the ability to act independently and have their own life scripts.

Tingen, home to two renowned universities, Hoy and Tingen, has a population that, while not as large as Backlund and Stoen, has seen a significant increase in recent years. This is not only due to the gradual stabilization of the Loen regime, but also due to the widespread attention Tingen's own development prospects.

The two universities established three hundred years ago brought about a certain degree of talent cultivation and a certain degree of intensification of the world order, which made the Kingdom of Loen begin to pay attention to local cultural and intellectual talents.

This was an inevitable result, and it also led many talented people from all over Rune to come to him on their own initiative.

"Otherwise, the proportion of Tingen's secret marionettes will probably rise even more."

Nicholas pinched his monocle. In the cafe, there were students choosing coffee, waiters holding trays, baristas mixing drinks, and pastry chefs making cakes.

Many people of all kinds outside the window stopped and raised their heads at the same time, looking at Tang and Nicholas, revealing the same smile.

Then, in front of the horrified gazes of others, these people took out one monocle after another from their pockets and from the void, and put them in their right eye sockets.

Countless spiritual lines emerged from their bodies, and those countless spiritual lines were entangled with each other, like a giant tree that continued to extend upward, flying towards the highest dome.

Tang leaned back on the sofa, ignoring the screaming and distorted system of his own home system, and sighed, "Really good."

Ah, it feels like coming home.

system:'……?'

The system sometimes feels ashamed that it doesn't have a host metamorphosis.

"Don't the Church of Night, the Church of Storm, and the Church of Craftsmen have any objections to this?"

As an ancient scholar who had been in hiding for three hundred years, Tang did not monitor the eating, drinking, defecating and urinating of each of his secret dolls all the time. He knew some major things, but relied on the secret dolls' own judgment for minor matters.

For issues like this, the only people we need to worry about are the Church of Storms and the Church of Craftsmen.

"The Storm Church has no objection. As for the Artisan Church..."

At this point, Nicholas, who was demonstrating to Tang while stealing the memories of those who had fainted from fear at this bizarre scene, was silent for a moment. Then he said quietly, "There is no church of the Craftsman Church in Tingen City."

Having created so many strange things, the Church of Craftsmen didn't even set up a church here to recruit believers of the God of Craftsmen and provide help to their Lord?
Is this year's Pope of the Church of Artisans a little bit stupid?

Nicholas instantly understood Tang's thoughts and silently stopped the system that was about to escape: "It's not that the Artisan Church doesn't want to preach in Tingen, but we refused the Artisan Church's mission in Tingen."

Refuse craftsmen to preach in Loen?
Tang glanced at Tongzi who was pulled back, and immediately understood the hidden meaning in the words of his secret puppet.

"Good fellow," he said to his son with a sigh, "Are you planning to not give the God of Craftsmen a chance to digest the potion, leaving Him in a relatively weak state?"

The God of Craftsmen ascended to the throne of godhood out of necessity, before he had completely digested the Enlightener's potion. This also caused the state of this god, who was born in the Fourth Epoch, to be significantly different from that of other gods. He urgently needed some opportunities to help him stabilize his state.

Over the past three hundred years, the puppets in Tingen have been working tirelessly day and night to develop some gadgets that have given the Church of Craftsmen a glimmer of hope. Perhaps the divinations and prophecies made by the God of Craftsmen himself have also played a role.

However, the Sequence 1 Angels located here received a 'small' hint from their creator, the system, and united with the Church of Darkness, rejecting the joining of the Artisan Church.

The system confidently said: "Host, we are in the same group!"

"If Russell comes down, do you also plan to cut off his ties with the Craftsman Church?" Tang asked.

"If possible~" There was a strange excitement in the system's electronic voice.

"Host, mission two, mission two. We don't need to transfer the knowledge instructor and sage, we can just let the craftsman waste time there~"

Main Quest 2: Recover the Hermit, the Sequence One of the Perfector's pathway. The extraordinary characteristics and uniqueness of the system are closely connected to the wilderness of knowledge. While the Hidden Sage is in hiding, the system has been staring at the biggest piece of cake for countless nights, drooling profusely.

Now his host has also become Sequence 3, and has many high-sequence marionettes under his command. Hehe, when will the host become the Fool, and then lead a large number of marionettes to launch an attack and capture the Craftsman Church? Then the host will go to the starry sky to slap the God of Craftsmen in the face.

When the time comes, when the God of Craftsmen begs for mercy, it will swallow up the God of Craftsmen in one gulp, and then transform itself. Ding ding ding ding, it will definitely not be a waste as a perfect being!
You think too highly of me.

Tang's mouth twitched, and he pinched his forehead at the system's unrealistic cyber talk, then looked at Nikola opposite him.

“What was their reaction like?”

The Artisan Church wouldn't go so far as to antagonize Loen and the Church of Evernight over this, but if you think about it carefully, the strangeness here is really beyond common sense. It's not surprising that the Artisan Church, headquartered in Intis, would be suspicious.

"I accepted it, but not really." Nicholas thought for a moment and said:
"Although we rejected the Artisan Church's missionary work in Tingen, many of its followers came from all over the country to Tingen to study at the two universities. Some of them are well-known scholars, and some have strong talents in forging, polishing, and other areas..."

It was handled very well.

Tang thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay, then let's leave them alone."

He didn't have any feelings about the Church of Craftsmen. As long as it didn't involve his own core interests, he wouldn't mind providing some help to the Church of Craftsmen, allowing the God of Craftsmen to continue to contribute to the continuation of the Earth and mankind.

But if the system reaches the point where it can absorb the God of Craftsmen and accommodate the Sequence 1 and uniqueness of the Perfect One...

As long as he could ensure that the Wilds of Knowledge were on his side, he wouldn't mind replacing the God of Craftsmen... ahem, that was a bit off topic. Since his own leader didn't like the God of Craftsmen, he might as well secretly trip him up a bit later...

For example, abducting a person named Huang from Intis to Tingen, or something like that.

It is hard to say whether the God of Craftsmen will continue to bear the title of "Craftsman" until the end of the world.

(End of this chapter)