I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"I don't trust you, I don't trust anyone, I only trust myself."

"No wonder you don't understand my trust in Cecil... Paranoia, huh?" Duke curled his lip and said speechlessly, "Just based on that, I can understand why Carol was able to overthrow you."

Monica bit her lip, seemingly a little annoyed, but she had no words to refute her.

Her failure was indeed related to this reason: she had no truly trustworthy partners, so she had to do almost everything herself. It was this habit that ultimately led to her failure, allowing Carol, who believed in "those who follow the righteous path will find many helpers, while those who stray from it will find few," and who had a large group of partners, to step on her and ascend to the throne of the floating city.

"Alright, let's stop this pointless chatter about Bianjing." Duke interlaced his fingers, gesturing for her to listen, and invited Monica to tell her story: "Come on, tell us everything you know. First... what are the secrets and dangers hidden in this world?"

In the laboratory, the nine shadow creatures were all staying obediently in the dilapidated cages. Duke didn't know what principle these cages used to confine the shadow creatures, but Monica was probably not out of her mind and wouldn't use cages that could be easily escaped to imprison the experimental subjects.

Aside from the nine shadow creatures in the ten cages, there was nothing else noteworthy in the laboratory; there were barely any experimental devices (Monica relied mostly on her various spells and terrifying control abilities as a legendary professional to conduct experiments). From the outside, the danger this world currently presented seemed far less than the previous world Duke and his companions had experienced.

In Cecil's memory world, the Holy Light Evil God, who eventually ascended to godhood, and His evil cult, the Knights Templar, were both visible threats. If they were allowed to continue evolving at this rate, they would soon exceed a limit—if such a force were placed in the real world and given more time to develop, the consequences would be unimaginable.

If it weren't for the combined efforts of several legendary figures to eliminate them, this evil god and cult would have destroyed most of the countries in the mortal realm.

Aside from what Monica told them—that "outside the lab are rampaging shadow creatures"—this world, on the surface, seems to pose no threat with unlimited potential.

But Duke knew that the world was definitely not as "easy" as it seemed on the surface.

Because Monica was standing in the cage, she didn't even dare to move.

"Hidden secrets and dangers?"

Monica closed her eyes, subtly shifting the shadow around her, conjuring a shadow arrow and firing it at Duke. But after flying about a meter, it suddenly vanished.

It was as if an invisible giant mouth opened and swallowed the shadowy arrow whole.

"You see? In a higher dimension that you can't reach, there's a monster hiding."

"I advise you not to move around, or you'll be bitten to death."

Chapter 252 The Shadow Traversing the Higher Dimensional Rift

"A monster is hidden in a higher dimension?" Duke's eyes widened in astonishment. He never expected that the secrets and dangers hidden in this world were like this. He asked curiously, "What monster? How is it hiding in this so-called higher dimension? And how do you know?"

“It was a shadow monster, and it could only be a shadow monster, because this is the world of my memories and that cat’s,” Monica explained coldly. “As for how I know… do I need to rattle off a bunch of technical jargon you don’t understand?”

"What if I can understand it?"

“You’re not a legendary spellcaster, you wouldn’t understand.” Although that’s what she said, Monica still carefully chose more sophisticated and colloquial language to explain: “A shadow is just an optical phenomenon. There is no shadow without light. And neither shadow magic nor shadow creatures can be separated from light. The former is essentially a variant of light magic, while the latter lives off light.”

"Of course I understand."

Having raised Blackie for a while, Duke had some basic knowledge about shadow creatures.

As elemental creatures brimming with the variable power of magic, their very existence proves that this world of swords and magic differs from the physical rules of Duke's previous life. However, the fact that light and shadow coexist remains unchanged despite the differences between the two worlds; shadow creatures and light elemental creatures are close relatives, yet also natural enemies who prey on each other.

“And light not only illuminates the three-dimensional world we inhabit, but also the four-dimensional and five-dimensional spaces, even higher-dimensional spaces, isn’t it?” Monica said calmly. “This is one of the research topics I conducted after becoming a legend: how to enter higher-dimensional spaces through changes in light and shadow. In reality, I didn’t succeed and even encountered an accident (turning myself into a shadow creature), but I succeeded in this memory world.”

"in other words……"

"That hidden monster is 'me,' Monica of this world."

Monica grinned at Duke and said with a sneer:

"Believe me, you don't want to be bitten by her. I've seen my colleagues who entered this cage with me being bitten to death by her. The me in this world has teeth strong enough to tear your arm off."

This statement slightly startled Duke.

Anyone would feel uncomfortable being targeted by a legend, let alone one who is currently hiding in a high-dimensional space where no one can find her. She is the only one who can secretly ambush them, and Duke has no means to retaliate, not even able to pinpoint her location... But that doesn't necessarily mean it.

Thinking of this, Duke suddenly took out the Voice of All Things from his inventory and put the device, which looked exactly like a hearing aid, on his ear.

The Voice of All Things—this item was given to Duke by the system when Cake Princess Greta's favorability reached "Passionate," and it has now become one of Duke's most versatile items. Originally, he thought this item was a translator, but now Duke has figured it out.

This Voice of All Things is clearly a True Sight Gem, specifically designed to detect stealth.

Back in the Tower of Casinos, he used the Voice of All Things to hear about Cecil's situation in the Inner World. And now, he can also use the Voice of All Things to hear the sounds made by the higher-dimensional "Monica" and confirm how close she is to him.

But after putting on the Voice of All Things, Duke immediately took it off. It wasn't that he couldn't hear the voice of the higher-dimensional "Monica," but that he couldn't understand it... She murmured completely incomprehensible whispers in a voice almost identical to Monica's. These whispers were like the ravings of an evil god, causing the blood vessels in Duke's brain to throb with pain when he heard them.

Moreover, within a few seconds, Duke realized that he couldn't determine the location of the higher-dimensional Monica through the Voice of All Things, because movement in a higher-dimensional world is completely different from movement in a three-dimensional world. In those few seconds, the higher-dimensional Monica was like a piece of amber in a fight, constantly and irregularly jumping through space. One second she might be to Duke's left, and the next second she would be to his right.

"What should we do to trigger her attack?"

"She will attack active shadows."

These words made Little Black tremble with fear. It didn't move at all, and didn't even dare to breathe. It tried its best to hide its shadow, even transforming into a black catgirl dressed in tattered clothes, and pressed itself against Duke, as if only in this way could it gain a little sense of security.

"It will also attack any object that uses energy or magic."

Duke silently put all the magical items he had into his inventory, even "deducting" the Magic Eye Sulfur Fire and putting it back in his inventory.

"Her aggressive tendencies will increase over time. If you don't ask her questions for too long, she will launch random attacks. And once you ask her more than five questions, she will also start launching random attacks. At that point, her targets will no longer be limited to the two conditions I mentioned earlier."

"In other words, we need to maintain a relatively balanced pace of questioning. Question: Did the shadow creature escape during the experiment?"

"Yes, you have eight questions left."

To keep the pace of the questioning, Duke casually posed a question, which received an answer from the World Will. He didn't dwell on the answer, instead turning his expectant gaze to Monica and asking, "So, how can we help you? Do you know how you can leave here?"

"……I have no idea."

"what?"

Duke was stunned. He had assumed that since Monica had previously expressed her longing for Little Black and wanted to ask them for help, it meant she had a way to get out of this predicament, but he simply couldn't do it himself. He never expected that Monica had no idea how to escape.

“I have some guesses, but none of them are very reliable.” Monica sighed. She still maintained a high level of vigilance towards Duke, but Duke could sense her disheartened state from both her expression and tone. “Besides, my guesses would put you at great risk, and I don’t think you would do them.”

"really."

Monica doesn't trust Duke, and Duke doesn't trust Monica either.

At this point, the two of them were simply unable to cooperate deeply.

For Duke, the best option in this world is to clear the level and leave as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will face a legendary enemy who can freely travel in higher dimensions, and they will not even have any means of countermeasures!

This is even more hellish than the previous Holy Light Evil God world, and Duke has no intention of staying here any longer.

However, Xiao Hei's presence prevented him from leaving directly; he couldn't leave Xiao Hei here forever!

"I don't believe any witch game is unsolvable; this witch game must have a solution!"

He must find a reasonable solution in this world.

Duke bit his finger and mumbled:

"Monica, tell me about your experience when you and your partner cleared this world. Were your answers exactly the same as the actual situation? Were they word for word the same as the reference answers?"

written request for leave

Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla Kavenla!

I'm taking a break to write an outline and revise the chapters that have been blocked.

I'll take advantage of the time at the beginning of the month to indulge in some leisurely pursuits. If I don't reach the word count target for the month... no problem, I'll leave those troublesome tasks to me at the end of the month.

Chapter 253 Dancing in Shackles

"Monica, tell me about your experience when you and your partner cleared this world. Were your answers exactly the same as the actual situation? Were they word for word the same as the reference answers?"

Duke looked at Monica expectantly, hoping to get some useful information from her, but she just shook her head and refused, saying, "What do you want to know? There's no way I can give you the answer. Once I do, you'll leave this world of memories, and then I'll lose all hope, won't I?"

"I don't want to know the answer, I want to know if your answer matches the truth."

Duke repeated his question, and Monica frowned, seemingly recalling the situation from back then. After a long while, she continued, "It's roughly the same, but there are many errors in the details, which I didn't correct. And despite that, their answers were still recognized by the world's will."

"I see."

Duke raised an eyebrow and smiled with satisfaction. Monica looked at his smile, paused for a moment, and then suddenly realized what he meant.

In the previous memory world, because Cecil was also unaware of the truth, Duke had no means to verify whether his answer was exactly the same as the standard answer recognized by the world's will.

Logically speaking, Duke's answer could not possibly be completely consistent with the standard reference answer. After all, he was just guessing based on a few questions. Even if the general direction was correct, there would still be some minor errors.

As a party logic game, Turtle Soup isn't particularly hardcore. After all, most players aren't Sherlock Holmes or Conan Edogawa. As long as the final answer is roughly similar to the soup base (the riddle) and logically consistent, it's generally considered a success. In normal gameplay, minor inconsistencies are usually minor.

This is especially true when the number of questions in the game is limited. No one can provide an answer exactly like the reference answer for a mere question; even the person involved in the memory world cannot do that. Moreover, even if Duke directly knows the standard answer approved by the world's will, he can still make detailed modifications based on it.

Monica's answer proved Duke's conjecture.

Take Duke's previous memory world as an example.

His answer at the time was that the Pope was unhappy despite winning the Holy War because it attracted Carol's attention and ultimately led to Cecil's departure. The Pope, who wanted to become a god, could only miss out on his achievement.

However, if Duke makes a few minor modifications to the details, they can arrive at several seemingly plausible but ultimately flawed answers based on this.

For example, the Pope did not want to become a god himself, but rather planned to use Cecil to transform her into an obedient evil god who would follow his lead.

In this way, the new answer and the old answer lead directly to two diverging paths, but both answers can be categorized under the broad category of "the Pope is unhappy because he failed to create an artificial evil god." If the World Will's reference answer is "the Pope is unhappy because he failed to create an artificial evil god," then both answers can obviously be considered correct.

However, in this witch game, the questions and answers directly affect the development of the memory world. That is to say, both the old and new answers can be used to pass the memory world, but they will cause completely different changes to the memory world. Duke has already seen the effect of the old answer. His Holiness the Pope has transformed into the Holy Light Evil God.

So what's the new answer?

Judging from the Shadow Lab of the Second Memory World, it might directly create a Cecil who has become a god of holy light!

"Dancing with shackles called 'reference answers'"... perhaps that's the key to conquering this witch game, or even the core of this world!

But here's the problem: Duke figured this out from just one memory world, which he considered fairly obvious. But what about Monica? Judging from Talia's fragmented memories of her and the few words others uttered about her, this former city lord was an extremely intelligent and cold-blooded person, just as she had so quickly grasped Duke's meaning.

She's smart, but why didn't she realize that before?

And more importantly...

"Wasn't the Tower of Babel built during your term? As the former lord of the floating city, why don't you know the solution and core of this witch's game?"

“Because I lack the relevant knowledge, I even experience mental blocks when I touch on related concepts.” Monica shook her head helplessly, and a hint of resentment appeared in her originally cold tone: “If I still remembered the solution to the Tower of Babel, would that cunning Carol have felt comfortable throwing me in here? Before locking me up, she sealed some of my memories.”

Duke was slightly taken aback. After hearing Monica's words, he suddenly had a strange feeling, as if he had forgotten something for the same reason... He frowned and began to ponder.

The first thing that came to his mind was Talia's ability. Her legendary destiny, "Sleep," could cause parts of a person's memories to also slumber deep within their soul, making them difficult to awaken. However, he seemed to have some resistance to Talia's ability; its effect was always significantly weakened when it came to him. Even if the amnesiac parts didn't "wake up" quickly, as long as he was aware that he had memory loss, he could immediately wake up.

No, the feeling that came from the depths of Duke's soul was not about this matter, but about something much earlier, the last witch game he experienced with Carol before he died, a witch game that he couldn't remember the details of at all.

Monica's missing memories are related to Carol, and Duke's missing memories also involve Carol.

"Waaah—"

Duke felt a pain and dizziness from the depths of his soul. He covered his forehead, but the feeling came and went quickly, and he soon returned to normal.