My setting is above yours!

Chapter 97 Old Silver, We've been waiting for you, haven't we? (5k1)

'Unfortunately, these masks of life have all shattered, and aside from serving as substitutes for their identities to a certain extent, they have no other effect...'

After removing the tattered white mask from his face, Ron couldn't help but sigh and shake his head helplessly.

Just now, when he listened to the last words of these people before their deaths using the [Mask of Deception], those last words were extremely fragmented.

Ron could only glean some of the things they cared about most from their dying words.

Apart from these obsessions etched deep in his consciousness, all other information had been shattered, and Ron couldn't hear anything useful at all... The same was true in the Mask of Life.

The shattered mask couldn't bear witness to their lives; Ron put on the mask but couldn't obtain any useful information.

Aside from a little bit of obsession, there is only their own concept of existence in a mystical sense.

Even with all that, there's only a tiny bit left... It probably won't be long before the Broken Mask in Ron's hand vanishes with the wind, signifying the complete demise of these people in the world in every sense of the word.

[7] He used his extraordinary abilities to tear people apart. He had read everything about a person’s life, leaving behind only meaningless fragments and mess.

'I was hoping to take this opportunity to see if I could get any useful information...'

Thinking about this, Ron felt a little helpless.

You should know that many of these dead people were of considerable help to Ron...

Leaving aside heavyweights like President Elvis and Father Harvey, even the other extraordinary individuals in the church, if they died normally because of Ron's lies, would surely have their own potion recipes in their life stories.

With the power of the Dimensional Update Manual, Ron obtained these potion recipes. As long as the contamination of these potions was within an acceptable range, Ron could consume them without any pressure, successfully gaining the power of cross-sequence.

And, more than that.

Father Harvey likely still possesses the potion recipe for Sequence Six of Death.

After all, someone who has been a Sequence Seven for a long time and is a priest of the Lost Church must have ways and channels to advance.

Father Harvey has probably already digested the Sequence 7 potion recipe. The main reason he didn't advance to Sequence 6 is that the higher church didn't approve the potion materials. The probability of him having a Sequence 6 potion recipe is still quite high.

'I missed an opportunity to get promoted again and use my new skills to cheat the system...'

Ron shook his head, but he didn't feel particularly disappointed.

After all, as long as he could escape to Fog City, Ron was certain that he could easily obtain higher-sequence potion recipes and easily advance to a higher rank...

Whether or not there is a Sequence 6 recipe is irrelevant to Ron; it does not affect his purpose of influencing the script and distorting its original direction.

'That should be enough...'

Ron counted the masks of life in his hand. Not all of the dead had actually had their masks extracted. Some superhumans whose obsessions were not deep enough and whose souls were too shattered had already passed away completely, leaving no trace.

Even so, Ron still had six masks in his possession, two of which came from Chairman Elvis and Father Harvey.

At least for now, Ron has the opportunity to force his way into the roles of these six supporting characters and add his own touches to the script!
Thinking of this, Ron smirked, casually pulled out a mask left behind by an unknown superhuman, and disguised it as his own identity using occult concepts—

Then he began to use the simple tricks he had learned in magic class.

In the Ideal City, due to the long period of peace, magicians have developed many very simple and easy-to-use tricks that do not even require magic catalysts.

These tricks may be meaningless in combat, but they can make life extremely easy.

For example, the magic trick Ron is using now is one of them—the diary trick.

Specifically designed for situations where electronic devices are unavailable, a magical piece of paper can be conjured up, leaving a mark on the surface simply by using magic...

This magic paper is made of magic and will inevitably disintegrate and disappear seven days after it is made.

This is an unavoidable weakness of magic tricks, but for Ron, seven days was enough.

Magic flowed through his blood, and through a simple spell, a magic paper instantly appeared in Ron's hand.

He concealed it in his sleeve, and although nothing appeared to happen on the surface—he simply strolled leisurely toward the Society of Truth—many words had already been etched onto the magic paper inside his sleeve.

[Brother Yin, it's as if we've met in person. I've accepted your request. To save Wanzhong City from collapse, I've decided to join the anti-traitor coalition. Today, I'll bring Father Nasur to justice and restore order to Wanzhong City!]

This is the first one.

Then, without hesitation, Ron changed into another mask, and a magic paper appeared in his sleeve, with words slowly emerging on it:
[Little Silver, I don't understand any of this nonsense. I only know you're a good person, so that Father Suer you told me must be a demon! For your sake, my extraordinary wisdom tells me it's time to use my supernatural powers against Father Suer!]

……

And so, Ron wrote four letters, all written in the guise of these extraordinary beings, in response to the Silver Knight's request—

Although they never accepted the Silver Knight's request, and the Silver Knight didn't even know what the request was, in the script's ending, these people accepted the request to defeat Father Suer, and died in the battle against Father Suer due to a moment of carelessness...

In terms of occult concepts, they have already responded to this request—even if it was done by Ron in their place, it still adds a new foreshadowing to the script!
There's an extra one... "The Silver Knight already knew about Father Suer's crimes and was rushing to Evening Bell City, entrusting those with aspirations to uphold justice—a foreshadowing!"

In this way, from a mystical perspective, the Silver Knight cannot be considered someone who didn't participate in the earlier parts of the story, nor is he merely a supporting character who makes a temporary appearance.

Instead, he was a top-tier hero who had already made preparations and was ready to eliminate Father Suer and restore peace to Wanzhong City at the very beginning of the story!
However, since he was not in Evening Bell City at the time and could not personally uphold justice, he had to entrust others to slow down the pace of Father Suer, this "evil dragon".

When such a character returns to Evening Bell City, why can't she replace Idrila, who did nothing in the script but was ultimately appointed in a time of crisis, and become the protagonist of "Dragon Quest: The Drama"?
Of course, it might not be enough right now—

After all, Ron had only used some useless and weak supporting characters. Their plot share and importance in the script were small to begin with. Even if they could indeed influence the plot share in the script, they couldn't truly anchor the Silver Knight as the protagonist in terms of occult concepts...

But who made [7] so hasty that he gave away Father Harvey and President Elvis all at once?
Others might not be suitable, but for important supporting characters of their caliber...

The connection to occult concepts is enough to be an important factor in making the Silver Knight the protagonist!

With a simple outline of Father Harvey and Chairman Elvis's last words in his mind, Ron returned to the [Society of Truth] and found Idrila's room.

As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a petite nun dressed in a white robe with gold thread kneeling on the bed, her hands clenched in prayer, muttering incoherent prayers for war.

Hearing the intermittent prayers, Ron was immediately alarmed, thinking that Idrila had once again been caught off guard by the [Trickery] fire, and was now in a state of mental confusion due to the gray mist.

But upon closer inspection, it turns out that Idrila was not affected at all. The reason she could only pray intermittently was simply because she was afraid.

...After all, what had just happened was truly terrifying.

To Idrila, everyone she knew had suddenly transformed into a bizarre figure, like puppets being manipulated, all uttering the same words in unison—

Even for someone like Idrila, who had been to the battlefield and was considered a resolute superhuman, this was a fear that was almost unbearable...

Fortunately, because Idrila was resolute, when she heard Ron push the door open and enter, she saw that Ron was relatively calm, only her voice trembled slightly as she asked him:

"What... happened?"

"Mr. Ron, do you know something?"

Hearing the trembling and fear in Idrila's voice, Ron nodded slightly and closed the door. Then, he switched to [Illusion Dissolved], directly opening his personal reality and enveloping the entire room.

[The "Setting: Fantasy Dissolution" is being eroded by excessive "occult influences."]

[Performance impairment: 35%]

'really……'

Ron couldn't help but scoff inwardly. When he left the Scorched Earth Sanctuary prison, he had consumed about thirty percent of his durability. Having just re-established his personal reality, he had lost another five percent.

Clearly, this means that [7] has planted some informants around Idrila, intending to use these informants to monitor Idrila, as well as Ron, who is very close to Idrila...

But who gave Ron the ability to "dissolve illusions"?

Regardless of the surveillance method used, since [7] it's impossible to obtain any surveillance cameras, it must be some kind of mystical method—

As long as mystery is involved, it will be exposed in Ron's personal reality... In any case, it's just a setting that consumes some fantasy to resolve!

However, despite this, Ron switched back to [Embers of the Age of Gods] and used his magical vision to carefully examine his surroundings once more.

Only after discovering that there was no magic that didn't belong to them, and seeing that [7] had added any new surveillance methods, did Ron barely feel relieved. He then switched back to [Esperor] and [Illusion Dissolver], thus establishing his personal reality—

Then, he told Idrila a reality that was extremely terrifying to him—

"Actually... the entire City of Evening Bell has long since died!"

Upon hearing this, Idrila's heart sank to the bottom, and her bad premonition came true.

She remained silent for a moment, a complex emotion flickering in her mind:
"Could it be that the reason they acted that way wasn't because they actually became like that... but because someone was manipulating them, making them appear that way in front of me, right?"

Upon hearing this, Ron nodded:
"That's right... A saint is manipulating everything behind the scenes in Evening Bell City, turning almost everyone into his puppets."

“Except for… characters like you, who occupy an important role in the script.”

"Script?" Idrisla was a little confused. "What script?"

"It's rather complicated to explain, but you can think of it as a large-scale ritual magic that covers the entire city of Evening Bell."

Ron was concise and didn't intend to waste too much time on these useless explanations:

"The angel who favored me told me that if we want the villain hiding behind Evening Bell City to pay the price, we must manipulate this script and rewrite the ending that should have been written..."

"Then... is there anything I can do?"

Idrila was somewhat confused; everything Ron said was far beyond her comprehension.

Although she was indeed a qualified superhuman, possessing a thorough knowledge of many basic mystical principles, the schemes of high-ranking superhumans were something that Idrila could never comprehend.

But Ron didn't need Idrila's understanding... After all, he was able to understand all of this by dying dozens of times, and none of it really mattered.

"Of course... Come on, just write with me."

As Ron spoke, he took out Chairman Elvis's shattered mask, conjured a piece of magic paper, and wrote new words on it:

As the president of the Evening Bell City Truth Society, I have decided to relinquish my position and recommend a true hero to become the final president of the Evening Bell City Society in its resistance against Father Suer…

Idrila stared blankly at the magic paper in Ron's hand, a huge question mark popping into her head.

What... is this all about?
But Idrila could guess that this might be some kind of occult ritual, and her lack of understanding was her problem...

Ron has an angel guiding him; all you have to do is listen to Ron!
Therefore, Idrila did not hesitate and, following Ron's instructions, wrote a letter of recommendation from her own perspective for a certain hero surnamed Yin...

……

Three days passed quickly.

Within three days, Ron had completely squeezed the remaining value out of those shattered masks, using their identities to obtain countless credit promises to the Silver Knight, proving in various ways that he was a righteous and powerful true hero...

All of this evidence remained in Ron's hands, and as time went on, it would become a crucial plot device that would change the course of events.

However, after doing all that, Ron was left with nothing to do.

The Silver Knight hadn't arrived in Evening Bell City yet, so the plot couldn't immediately move to the final moment, leaving Ron with no choice but to wait for the Silver Knight's arrival. In the meantime, he and Idrila could do as many potentially useful good deeds as possible.

For example, under the guise of the "Silver Knight's request," Baron Hall could be hung on a lamppost to eliminate any characters in Evening Bell City who, in Ron's understanding, were too sinful...

Although they represent a significant portion of the fund's business in the script, killing them, ostensibly to eliminate these villains at the "Silver Knight's request," would at least earn the Silver Knight some merit... probably.

Fortunately, this period of peace did not last long, and the script for Evening Bell City quickly moved on to the next stage.

Because [7] saw Ron and Idrila's actions, and watched Idrila follow Ron to wipe out the evil in Evening Bell City, looking like a righteous and awe-inspiring hero, he was very satisfied.

He had originally planned to add some minor plot elements from the script, having Idrila perform some righteous acts to solidify her hero status, but he never expected that Ron had already speedrun through the game with Idrila, racking up a huge amount of merit points...

With such perfect merit and righteous indignation, who could be more suitable to be the protagonist of this drama than Idrisla?
That's all, that's all!

In any case, [42] cannot possibly replace Idrila's identity; a supporting character temporarily inserted into the script cannot possibly replace the protagonist's identity...

As long as this goal can be achieved, [7] will immediately push the script of Evening Bell City to the next stage!
While marveling at the efficiency and skill of the [Hall of Memories], He was extremely pleased to have preemptively assassinated an Inquisitor and had the Silver Knight take the Inquisitor's place, arriving at the [Society of Truth]'s underground sanctuary—

As before, the Silver Knight suddenly appeared at the round table in the underground hall, flipping through the secret manual of the [Society of Truth].

"coming?"

He looked up, put the secret manual back on the round table, and looked at Ron and Idrila, who had just come out of the room.

"I didn't expect that there was another gentleman in the academy besides Miss Idrila..."

"I am a judge in the courtroom. Because of a report, therefore..."

He was just about to introduce his character according to his script and pull out the Bloodthorn, a weapon with an extremely high cost of use, almost guaranteeing immediate death, to deceive the two, when he saw Ron casually walking over—

He looked at the androgynous yet exceptionally handsome silver knight before him and couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips into a smile.

But soon, he put on a complaining expression and said:

"Old man, we've been waiting for you, haven't we?"

"What are you trying to say with all this gibberish... Do we brothers really need to talk like this?"

As Ron spoke, he patted the Silver Knight on the shoulder with great familiarity, "A bit rusty, a bit rusty!"

Unfamiliar? What's unfamiliar?
What are you waiting for?
Looking at Ron, who seemed to have a very good relationship with him, as if they were brothers who had fought side by side and shared life and death, the Silver Knight was at a loss.

What happened?
(End of this chapter)