I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

She shakily withdrew her hand, then obediently walked back to Duke, returned the gold foil to him, and watched helplessly as the door closed again.

Cecil pouted, a little annoyed, as she watched Duke's unhurried demeanor. For her, the top priority was, of course, to get underground as soon as possible to find her "sister."

But for Duke, it's a little different.

This little Cecil was clearly hiding something. Since she wouldn't reveal the truth, Duke naturally wouldn't be in a hurry—after all, entering the underground was a simple matter; if necessary, Amber could simply lead them down. However, the importance of this "world rule" appearing in the floating city was different; it might even be related to the purpose of his trip.

Is it really a witch's game?

In what form does this parallel world's witch game take place?

Where is the Little Prince?

This is the issue that Duke is truly concerned about.

Just as Cecil Jr. was about to speak, Duke, who was pinching his chin, spoke first:

"Here's the question: if applying gold leaf opens doors, what happens when you apply other metals?"

After saying that, he took out a rusty piece of iron from his inventory.

Most of the items he got from the gashapon machine were gray-quality junk, which Duke hoarded in his inventory. Now his inventory was full of all sorts of random things, and it took him a while to find this piece of iron.

With remarkable agility, he strode to the access control and affixed the rusty metal plate to it.

"Zzz—"

The door didn't open, but the rusty patch in Duke's hand disappeared.

Duke immediately switched to another piece of metal, this time a copper ingot—heaven knows why gashapon machines could produce such things. In short, he repeated the action once again, and the copper ingot disappeared once more.

"All metals except gold leaf will be swallowed by the access control system. So, does that mean gold leaf can open the door because it hates pure gold?"

Duke smacked his lips, took a dagger from his inventory, and without hesitation stuck it to the access control.

This dagger was certainly not his precious family heirloom, the Lucky Dagger, but rather...

The Aphasia's Dagger.

Chapter 361 Life's Ups and Downs Are Nothing More Than This

[Item Name: Mythical Age]

[Item Description: The madman who dared to resurrect a god has tied his fate to the mythical era of the floating city, dragging the only mute god in the sky down to the mortal realm, to live and die with him!]

[Item Effect: Share your fate with the mute.]

[Special Note: This item will change after the mute person accepts you.]

This was the original item description for the Mute's Dagger. However, after the Little Mermaid Witch Game and the subsequent Tree of Life event, the Mute Ida seemed to have slightly "accepted" Duke, thus its item effect changed somewhat. The current Mythical Age item effect is:

[Item Effect: Share your fate with the mute, or compete with the mute for your fate.]

The Witch Conquest System is generally not a riddle-solving system. Its mission objectives are very clear, and the effects of the items are also clearly described. However, this time it seems a bit strange. The effects of the items from the mythological era are not clearly described. Neither "sharing fate" nor "competing for fate" has shown any actual effect.

However, this "struggle for destiny" also reveals, to some extent, the current relationship between Duke and Ida. While not exactly a fight to the death, they are certainly enemies, showing no signs of "sharing life and death." Frankly, Duke still doesn't understand what this deity is planning.

It doesn't seem likely that she wanted to seize his body and be reborn herself. After all, given the abilities she demonstrated in the Little Mermaid game, killing Duke wouldn't have been difficult for her. If she wanted to coexist peacefully with Duke, she obviously wouldn't have created the Tree of Life or gone to the trouble of sending them to this parallel world.

Regardless of Ida's true purpose, Duke has no desire to have anything to do with this unpredictable goddess. If he can break the shackles that bind him to "sharing fate" with her, he will not hesitate.

And the metal-devouring gate in front of them is an opportunity.

"Although I don't really have much hope."

As Duke muttered to himself, he stuck the Mute Dagger "Mythical Age" in his hand onto the access control in front of him. Then, something unexpected happened: the Mythical Age that Duke had stuck on the access control disappeared in an instant.

"Whoa!"

Duke raised an eyebrow.

But before he could even show a joyful expression, the access control in front of him emitted several piercing howls. In that instant, Duke sensed a fluctuation of soul from the access control, which then vanished in an instant.

"boom--"

With a short explosion, the Mute's Dagger was ejected from the access control system, which immediately began to collapse. As space distorted, the ancient key door gradually petrified, then crumbled into fragments of stone, and finally turned to dust.

Duke casually caught the Mythic Age that was ejected, tossed it into his inventory, and then looked intently at the system interface.

The system notification indicated that he had successfully completed one round of the Witch Game. Furthermore, due to the limited-time event rewards, the reward for successfully completing the Witch Game doubled from one lottery draw to two.

The latter was not beyond Duke's expectations—in fact, in Duke's eyes, only the reward of successfully completing the mission during the limited-time event was truly useful, because it applied to both conquering the witch and the witch-conquering game, while the other event rewards seemed too outrageous.

Of course, if Amber recovers and uses the "Time Trick" again to successfully repair the car, the following point might not be entirely useless: [During the limited-time event, engaging in intimate behavior with the successfully romanced witch will give you a chance to obtain special items.]

"Huh? What...what happened?"

Little Cecil stared wide-eyed at the access gate that Duke had blasted open with his "divine creation," swallowing hard. She had never imagined anyone could do such a thing, because this access gate, which was impossible to enter or exit without a pass, had existed in the floating city since her birth. No one had ever been able to bypass the pass to enter or leave the surface or underground, and no one had ever been able to destroy the access gate in such a way.

"Brother Duke, how did you do that?"

“It’s simple. First, disassemble the pass to figure out what it is ‘rejecting,’ then deduce what it will ‘accept.’ Then find something that it will ‘accept’ but is incapable of ‘accepting,’ and stuff it full until it bursts.” Duke casually spouted strange riddles, not caring whether Cecil understood or not, and then turned to Amber and called out, “Amber.”

"Hmm?" Amber glanced at Duke subconsciously, but quickly realized she was still arguing with him, so she immediately turned her head away and asked in a muffled voice, "Is something wrong?"

"Wish me luck in getting a kill on my first try, okay?" Duke rubbed his hands together, chuckled shamelessly, and said in a somewhat roguish way, "That way I can give you a gift and ask for your forgiveness."

"?" Upon hearing Duke's words, Amber's expression turned horrified. She then managed to calm down, and after pondering for three or four seconds, her expression became even more horrified. She hurriedly exclaimed, "Elves have a very difficult time conceiving!"

Duke: "?"

The moment the topic of instant intimacy and gifts comes to mind, intimate acts immediately come to mind, pregnancy immediately come to mind, children immediately come to mind, and the lack of protection last night immediately comes to mind. This is the only level of imagination the perverted elf can leap so far.

Duke had no idea what this lewd elf in front of him was thinking. He might be on the basement level, while Amber had jumped directly to the fifth level. However, Duke just pursed his lips and didn't explain to Amber what he wanted to do. Instead, he opened the limited-time gacha machine in the system interface.

He wanted to get the "Mythical Weapon: Amber" in one shot, then give it to Amber to make her happy.

open!

[During the limited-time event, the limited-time gacha machine "Mirror Image" will be available, increasing the drop rate of the following items.]

【Should I use a single draw ticket?】*2

Yes. *2

Then, to Duke's ecstatic gaze, the wildly vibrating gashapon machine burst out with two dazzling purple lights!

"Alright, shipment! I'm the luckiest guy ever!"

[Item Name: Mythical Armor - Monica]

[Item Name: Mythical Armor - Little Black]

"Damn, it's crooked!"

Such are the great ups and downs of life.

Chapter 362 The Person in the Mirror

A video clip played on the system interface. Unlike the video played during the previous Mythical Armament: Purple Iris event, these two props only played a longer clip, which included both visuals and sound.

A slightly younger-looking Monica appeared in the scene. The Monica that Duke knew liked to wear gorgeous gowns and didn't look like a legendary mage, but rather a socialite who frequented high-class balls, or an elegant noblewoman with great power.

Monica, who appears in the picture, is dressed in a sharp tailcoat, looking like a man. In addition to Monica's unique beauty, her eyebrows also carry an inescapable air of heroism.

The young Monica was currently carrying a small black cat, running wildly through the eerie and oppressive underground world of the floating city. The once beautiful and tidy streets of the underground world were being polluted and assimilated by some kind of strange crystal. Everything that was caught by the crystal, whether inanimate objects or living beings, was assimilated into immobile crystals.

Monica forced a smile, clutching her beloved kitten, and fled away from the crystal. But in the face of such an apocalypse, a weak woman was utterly powerless to protect herself in the event of an accident.

Soon, she collided with another strong man who was also fleeing. The man swayed, cursed Monica viciously, and the frail Monica was knocked to the ground, the little black cat thrown from her arms. Sitting on the ground, she felt a sharp pain in her legs and could only watch helplessly as the crystal grew closer and closer. She tried to shoo away the little black cat, who was worried about its owner, but she couldn't.

The little black cat stood in front of Monica, its fur standing on end as it stared intently at the crystal.

Just then, a shadow appeared in front of Monica. It condensed into a human shape and then waved its hand lightly at the crystal. The shadow, which had transformed into swords, easily tore the crystal apart, causing the seemingly sentient beings to retreat in fear and no longer advance in the direction of the shadow.

Monica's eyes widened, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then whispered her thanks to the shadow that had saved her:

"Thank you for saving me..."

Before Monica could finish speaking, she saw the shadow that had condensed into a human shape turn around and reveal her face.

That was a slightly more mature version of herself.

Another Monica.

Little Monica stared wide-eyed at her other self in disbelief, while the other Monica seemed completely unsurprised. She glanced at the ruffled black cat on the ground, sneered, and kicked it away from in front of her. Little Monica endured the excruciating pain as she barely managed to catch the black cat.

Then, the shadowy figure that materialized grasped a shadow sword and pointed it at itself sitting on the ground.

It turns out that the reason she saved him was simply because this guy was planning to kill her with his own hands.

Clutching the little black cat, Monica resignedly closed her eyes. She had no idea how strong her alter ego was; she only knew she was no match for it and was doomed. Just then, she suddenly heard a meow:

"Meow!"

The cat's meow was stern, sharp, and warning; everyone who heard it could sense what the cat wanted to say.

At first, Monica didn't think much of it, only assuming it was the sound coming from the little black cat in her arms. But the next moment, Monica realized what was happening and suddenly opened her eyes—because the sharp, stern warning meow didn't come from her arms.

Immediately afterwards, she saw another little black cat blocking her way, confronting Monica. It looked exactly like her own little black cat, the only difference being that it was also surrounded by dark shadows.

Xiao Hei stared at Monica in front of him, and Monica stared back at Xiao Hei. Monica, who was holding Xiao Hei, was also looking at Monica and Xiao Hei.

This bizarre scene made Duke, who was watching the screen, burst out laughing. Although the floating city in the picture looked extremely miserable, Duke couldn't empathize with the characters in the picture. He just felt that the scene of Little Black, Monica, Little Monica, and Little Little Black all gathered together was somewhat comical.

But then, the combined video stirred up a whole new wave of controversy.

The shadows began to fight each other.

Little Monica bit her lip until it bled, trying to stand up despite the pain and leave this place of trouble with her pet black dog. Just then, she seemed to hear some kind of music resonating in her heart. Soon, the melody of this music moved from her heart into reality, and a deafening requiem rang out around Little Monica and her little black dog. They looked around blankly, searching for the source of the melody.

Soon, they realized that the music came from within their own hearts.

In dire straits, amidst the music and melody.

Monica forgot her pain and fear, and Xiao Hei forgot his dread and vigilance.

Monica stretched out her right hand, spread her fingers, and pressed them onto her shadow. Little Black struggled out of Monica's arms and leaped onto her shadow.

The next instant, they vanished without a trace, leaving only two shadows rising from the ground. Monica and Blackie, who were fighting, also lost their power and collapsed into two shadows in their astonished gazes.

Four shadows.

Little Black, Monica, Little Monica, Little Black.