Learn one small skill every day

"A wise person knows when to yield. So, tell me if it's okay or not!"

"make a deal!"

Bai Miao didn't want to fight anymore. Although he really wanted to shove Bai Ying's head up his butt, the other party was obviously not a good guy.

Chapter 223 The Story of Noah

"very good!"

Bai Ying said excitedly, "In that case, let me first introduce myself. You can call me Faust."

"Faust? You're not me?"

Faust raised a finger and shook it: "We were never meant to be one person. From the very beginning, our paths were completely different."

“If the divergence starts from the beginning of the story, the differences will only grow larger.”

"I prefer your current name to your current one."

Faust placed a pillar in front of him, with chains coiled around it: "Alright, now it's your turn to explain how you managed to cut me so many times just now."

Bai Miao was silent for a moment, then simply replied, "Time stops."

"Oh? Time stop? It's actually time stop? You actually possess such an advanced technique?!"

Faust was somewhat astonished: "All I can do is forcibly freeze myself, my body can't react, but my mind is unrestricted. You can actually freeze all the particles in that moment?"

Bai Miao ignored Faust's shock: "You should also tell me why you came to this ship, you've been haunting me for tens of thousands of years."

Faust countered, "Before answering your question, I first need to understand your situation. This shouldn't be your first time on a ship, and you've come to me with a clear ulterior motive. Let me think... Perhaps one day in the future, my presence will cause you some trouble?"

"Ha ha!"

Faust laughed loudly, "You actually used such a precious opportunity as a ship ticket for something like this!"

Bai Miao said with dissatisfaction, "You're meddling a bit too much. How I use the boat ticket is none of your business."

The more Bai Miao talked with Faust, the more he felt that this man named Faust might have essentially become a stranger who knew about his past.

Their completely different experiences ultimately shaped them into drastically different characters.

Faust stopped laughing and asked, "How much do you know about Captain Noah?"

"I don't know him."

"Pitiful."

Bai Miao was getting angry again: "This doesn't seem like you want to negotiate with me. How about we fight again?"

"No, time-stopping is too much. My key isn't powerful enough to unlock time locks."

Faust touched the black and gold pillar with some regret: "Aren't you curious why I'm on this ship? I can tell you with certainty that I was trapped here by Noah. He merged me with this ship and made me supply energy to it."

"So you know the secret of this ship's inexhaustible energy?"

"Noah discovered an energy equation, just like the mass-energy equivalence equation, but it is much more efficient and orders of magnitude larger."

Faust smiled wryly: "He discovered that in the transformation between spirit and reality, there is an exchange of energy, that is to say, he can extract energy from the spiritual world and input it into the real world, thus achieving perpetual motion in another sense."

At this point, Faust's tone revealed hatred: "And I, he erased my body, leaving only my spirit to do the work of transformation for him."

Bai Miao couldn't distinguish which of Faust's words were true and which were false.

The shift between mind and reality... sounds like the hallmark of the fourth stage that Favre described?

So, is Noah really still his future self?

"I understand if you don't believe me, but think about what benefit I would get from lying to you?"

Faust shrugged indifferently: "You can use all the lie detection techniques you have to analyze the problems with my words."

"But you can also use various anti-mind-reading techniques to cover up your true intentions."

Bai Miao realized that he had no way to disprove it.

"So, Noah is one of us too?"

Faust shook his head: "You've really been fooled by Noah. Noah has been creating the illusion that he is us all along."

But that's not actually the case.

Before Bai Miao could speak, Faust gave him a brief explanation: "You should know that some powerful creatures inside the door can invade from the outside. That's why many of us want to close the door, or at least keep it under control so that things inside can't just come and go as they please."

Seeing Bai Miao nod, Faust continued, "The logic is simple: the creatures inside the door are aware of its existence. To them, the one knocking on the door is an intruder in their world, and will unknowingly replace someone they once knew, completing the tasks issued by the door in that person's identity. At the same time, under the influence of the door's meme, you will be completely unaware that the person you know has been replaced."

"To be honest, if you knew about this, would you be friendly to the person knocking on your door?"

Bai Miao thought about it for a moment and felt that he could understand this feeling.

Nobody wants their world to be invaded by strange things.

"Okay, under this premise, Noah became the one who broke through the door meme interference and became aware of the door's existence."

He realized that the great flood that had descended upon his world was the work of the door, and also the punishment for those who had failed to complete their task.

"So he decided to take revenge on the person who knocked on the door."

"He spent the rest of his life searching for the knocker and learned a great deal of knowledge beyond reality from him. His understanding of doors also increased day by day."

"Until he discovered the rules for the door to issue tasks."

Faust's narration ended abruptly there. Bai Miao, barely suppressing the urge to rush forward and stab him, asked, "What happened next?"

Faust chuckled maliciously: "If you want to hear the rest, you should tell me something about yourself first. That would be fair, wouldn't it?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Why did you decide to come back? What news did you find that made you willing to spend a boat ticket to come back here and confront me?"

"My experience is also very simple. I can not only stop time, but I also created a device based on Holker to predict the future, which allows me to foresee what I might experience in the future."

Bai Miao would certainly not tell Faust the whole story honestly, and there is a high probability that Faust's words contain a lot of false information.

However, there should still be some credible elements.

Compared to a pure lie, a half-truth is even harder to distinguish.

"I have discovered that the future is full of disagreements because of your presence. The harmonious situation on the ship has become chaotic because of you, and it will make it extremely difficult for me to move into new instances in the future."

Faust chuckled: "So you went to the past to find answers so that you'd have an easier time in the dungeon in the future?"

"That's one way to put it. I'm also curious about the secrets of the Endless Energy."

"Let me think... the instance you mentioned, is it 'Flying Towards the Sun'?"

Although Bai Miao controlled his emotions well and prevented Faust from finding flaws in his words, he was still somewhat shocked when Faust accurately uttered the four words "flying towards the sun".

"There's nothing to hide. Flying towards the sun is a point we can't avoid no matter what time we are in. Some of us will eventually experience flying towards the sun. Some people got the key inside, some got the lock, and some simply died inside. You probably haven't been there yet. Are you curious about what the lock and key are?"

This guy... doesn't he know the effects of Zero Time Lock?

No, the key and lock he mentioned are not the initial key and the zero-time lock at all.

In his timeline, these two items have not yet been created.

What remains is merely a half-finished product lacking complete power.

Bai Miao found the weakness in Faust's words.

"The lock and key, that's the weapon in your hand, right?"

"Yes. I'm the only one who obtained two items at the same time."

Faust's tone carried a hint of pride, as if he had accomplished something that no one else could.

This achievement, which surpasses that of other individuals, is what he considers most commendable.

"This is the key that can unlock all defenses and render any defense ineffective. If I wanted, I could even unlock your mental shackles and forcibly obtain the information I want."

Bai Miao chuckled: "If you could really do that, you wouldn't be sitting here so obediently talking to me."

Faust laughed too: "It seems you know yourself quite well. That's right, I can't use the full power of the key right now, and I can't break through your mental defenses."

Faust then went on to describe the lock: "This chain can lock the trajectory of all objects, and at the same time it can shackle one's mind, making it impossible for anyone to read the information in one's heart."

"But similarly, I cannot unleash its full potential."

Bai Miao asked curiously, "Then, if you use your key to unlock the lock, who will win?"

There must always be a winner and a loser when it comes to the spear and the shield.

"If we exclude the user's skill level, the key is still the better option at present, so many people choose the key."

"Why do you know about other people's affairs? If I, the one you've met, have already obtained the key and the lock, then you have no chance of winning."

Faust praised, "As expected of you, very insightful. But what if I told you that I had dealt with myself a lot before I came in?"

"What's the point of this?"

Bai Miao felt increasingly uneasy. The lock and key in Faust's hand were only half-finished products; they couldn't possibly be like his and still be able to obtain information from the future.

What puzzled Bai Miao the most was that the Key of the Beginning in the Void's hand was also in the form of chains. Although he had also summoned cylinders to attack, the cylinders could not provide him with the ability to be immune to time stop.

Only after the chains are summoned from the ethereal void can one move freely within the time-stopped area.

"The principle is very simple; you'll understand once you get the key."

Faust lamented, "Once you obtain the key, it truly means you've entered a world where you compete with countless versions of yourself. Keys from different times will resonate with each other, and by using their power to unlock everything, you can forcefully open a door, and inside that door lies another version of yourself who also possesses the key."

Faust took a deep breath: "And then, the fighting begins, and the victor gets a lock."

"A latch? Why would it be a latch?"

Faust shook his head: "This is a special rule for obtaining the key. Perhaps it has a special effect when there are enough locks. I probably only got about thirty locks. The key's sensing will only sense people who have a similar number of locks. In other words, the more locks you have, the more locks you will encounter that you will also have a lot of locks."

Bai Miao was terrified by this method, which was almost like raising poisonous insects.

This is too outrageous.

Bai Miao decided to stop there, as there were too many discrepancies between what Faust said and the information he had regarding the lock and key.

If you continue asking questions, you'll probably be led by the nose.

"Forget it... that's still a long way off for me. I'm more curious about what happened to Captain Noah after he learned about the rules for issuing missions through the gate?"

"You should be able to deduce it yourself."