Chapter 15: What Can You Do Now That You Know
Ron searched through his package, aiming for a rope to bind the mayor. Though delivering the message to Miss Mercury was sufficient, bringing the person back seemed preferable. Ron might have considered his own capabilities if the culprit were a strong man. However, the culprit appeared to be a weak old man, except for the snow-white squirrel in his arms, threatening Ron.
“What’s your name?” The mayor unexpectedly asked.
“Ron,” Ron replied without hesitation.
Ron vaguely remembered the original owner’s surname but couldn’t recall the specifics.
“Ron… everyone who comes here knows the truth,” the mayor said, confessing their crimes.
“Everyone can’t leave, yet it’s only you here?” Ron detected the mayor’s inconsistency.
He hadn’t seen anyone else sent by Miss Mercury. There was only a dying mayor.
“Because they’re all dead..,” the mayor regretfully explained, claiming to be cursed.
“So many dead, and you’re the only survivor?” Ron snorted, questioning the logic.
Facing skepticism, the mayor calmly explained, “Because I am one of the magic users… cursed by this magic… frozen time can destroy me but not kill me…”
Ron didn’t believe it, attempting to leave without the blizzard blocking him. Before leaving, he tied the mayor to the chair, taking the risk of the squirrel’s bite.
“At least now I can confirm the real culprit’s identity and location.”
Ron, relying on his previous memories, planned to explore the road and take the mayor back to find Lilian.
Although Lilian claimed not to be in charge, she would contact Miss Mercury with the culprit captured.
However, Ron soon noticed something was amiss. He was sure he hadn’t lost his way, yet after each hallucination, he returned to the starting point. Whenever he reached a place, the previous illusion would replay. Ron might have heard the conversation at least twenty times by now. He felt he could recite it from memory. He was sure a long time had passed, yet the sky above hadn’t darkened. This made him unable to resist asking his own system about the time. “How much time has passed?”
[Answer: It’s been five hours since you feel lost.]“Shouldn’t it be evening now?” He raised his head to confirm the sky several times.
“Normally, it should be nighttime in this time zone, but you, as a traveler, are currently in a zone of time confusion.”
“How can I leave then?”
“Please provide more details for the system; otherwise, it can’t help you analyze it.”
“What use are you then?” Ron became angry and embarrassed.
He wanted an all-knowing, all-powerful system, not this kind of system that misled him with a poorly done search engine.
“Do you believe me now, Ron?” The mayor’s voice came at the perfect moment, making one suspect if he had heard Ron’s conversation with the system.
“I believe you.” At this point, Ron had no choice but to admit it.
“Since the moment you stepped in here, you’ve been trapped… But you’re different from me… You’ll die because of time…” The mayor’s tone remained slow and steady.
“How can I leave then?” Ron didn’t think there could be an answer to this question, but he still asked.
Surprisingly, the mayor provided an answer, “Just stop that magic… Everything will end…”
“But when the magic ends… these people will also wake up…” He paused for a long while.
The mayor’s decision to seal those who believed in the evil deity wasn’t without reason.
“The evil deity granted people flames and brute force but gradually stripped away their rationality. The evil of the deity manifests in this place.”
“Although some bear the evil deity and can maintain their sanity, to be honest, such people are rare.”
“The vast majority can’t prevent the process of their sanity being stripped away.”
“The mayor realized that this town was brewing a group of monsters, so he chose to use the magic of the mage tower.”
“So, you don’t want anyone to dispel this magic?” Ron stared directly at the mayor.
“He thought Miss Mercury had given him nothing more than an errand, but that wasn’t the case.”
“However, that’s normal. How could an errand job possibly merit Miss Mercury granting a territory?”
The mayor opened his mouth, hesitated for a few seconds, then said a word, “Yes…”
The prolonged tone this time was as heavy as an ancient bell, making the atmosphere around them even more solemn. He preferred being trapped in the cage of time to prevent himself from witnessing everyone and everything familiar descend into madness. Initially, he did consider ending the magic, but later, he became numb. The torment of time couldn’t bring him pain anymore.
“So why do you always tell the truth to people who come here?” Ron’s face now had no expression.
Understanding, he could sense that he was stuck in some kind of deadlock. Although everyone experienced the same hallucination, being able to see everything that happened in the past. But no one would know he was the mastermind if the mayor didn’t speak up.
“Is this important, Ron?” The mayor lowered his eyelids, his voice gloomy.
“Very important,” Ron said matter-of-factly.
The mayor said in a low voice, “Because only you all don’t know the truth…”
