Chapter 25: Telling the Deceased
After the ice sculptures shattered, people stumbled on the snowy ground, and soon everyone would awaken. Currently, these individuals were in a bewildered state of post-disaster survival, which appeared quite normal.
However, the mayor’s earlier warning prevented him from feeling at ease. Although the mayor told many lies, he was certain that the evil god’s ability to make people abnormal was not false.
Upon waking up, Adrian initially behaved like a normal person, but all his subsequent actions were entirely abnormal.
“Now, you don’t need to worry about these minor issues,” the self-proclaimed mentor interrupted Ron’s thoughts.
Standing directly in front of Ron, he said, “Listen carefully to what I have to say.”
“The system won’t help you become the strongest or a hero.”
“You should feel by now that it’s forcing you to become a certain tool.”
“But this system still has many benefits, provided you can resist it.”
“Not to mention, it’s impressive as a search engine.”
“There are a few things you must always remember.” The mentor’s finger pointed toward Ron’s eyes.
However, with only an image, the finger passing through did not affect Ron.
“What things?” Ron asked.
“Becoming stronger is because of you, not the system,” the mentor emphasized. “The rewards it gives you are the legacy of certain people, not its generosity.”
“Don’t think surviving in this dual-colored world is easy.”
“Think about the sentence you heard during the resonance. This is a world already plagued by a terminal illness.”
“Who are you, really?” Ron genuinely wanted to know this time.
“Ahahaha! Didn’t I say it already? I’m the Minister of Logistics!” The mentor laughed, forgetting his earlier mentor designation.
“You know what I know, and the system knows, so for now, allow me to be a mysterious figure,” he shrugged. “If you want to meet us, look for places with more temporal chaos, like this town.”
Only in places with temporal chaos would Ron frequently see scenes from the past and future.
The likelihood of him resonating with his parallel selves was higher in such places. Regardless, such places were beneficial and pose no harm to Ron.
“But I think even if I become a mysterious figure, it doesn’t matter. After all, the system will resolve all your confusion,” the mentor waved his hand. “They won’t let you live in a fog of confusion.”
“Wait a minute, did you just say ‘us’?” Ron keenly caught onto a keyword.
“Yes, us,” the mentor slyly smiled. “I never said I was alone.”
“Speaking of which, they usually wouldn’t let you start in such a dangerous place,” he stroked his chin. “This time, they’re trying to force the growth.”
He skillfully changed the topic, leaving Ron unable to inquire about who else was behind him.
“Anyway, trust what you want, distrust what you want. It’s all up to you.”
The mentor, lacking a wristwatch, still gestured as if checking the time. “It’s about time.”
As he spoke, the system’s scrambled code gradually disappeared and would soon be fully restored.
“Are you a time traveler?” Ron suddenly speculated, blurting it out.
The mentor then whistled, feigning innocence. “What are you talking about? We’re all backward people, don’t understand these trendy terms like ‘time traveler.'”
Ron was left speechless. He was now sure that this guy was a time traveler.
But weren’t all the time travelers before him supposed to be dead? Why did he have one alive here?
At this moment, the people emerging from the broken ice around them were cheering and celebrating, excited to be saved. However, their eyes were filled with ferocity, indicating that they had been deprived of reason even more than Adrian.
Their cheers now sounded to Ron like a sacrificial dance before sacrificing someone else. And the piglet to be sacrificed was probably him.
“Why are you afraid of them?” The mentor said nonchalantly. “Didn’t you just win once?”
“It was just luck,” Ron murmured, looking at his burned hand.
He couldn’t do it even if you asked Ron to repeat the feat just now.
“We were all ordinary people before coming here,” the mentor said, wiping his hand in front of Ron’s eyes. “Knowing how to win once, naturally, you’ll know how to win a second time.”
The system, filled with garbled characters, revealed clear text with the mentor’s touch.
[Name: Ron]. [Power Assessment: Warrior Stage One/Dead Teller Stage One]. [Circular Fragment: None].“Be a bit happier. Living unhappily is meaningless,” the mentor smiled meaningfully.
The mentor didn’t give Ron any power; he just clearly told him what he had gained. These were pieces of information the system wouldn’t have revealed initially.
“The essence of parallel possibilities isn’t to make you become another version of yourself but to share something from another version of yourself,” the mentor explained.
Sorry, time traveler, the system was temporarily shut down due to a malfunction recently. All system functions have been restored, and we will wholeheartedly serve you.
At the moment of system restoration, all the images seen since entering the town disappeared completely—including the man who claimed to be the mentor.
“Wholehearted service?” Ron muttered to himself.
[Task system update.]. [Mission name: Brave Battle]. [Mission content: Kill the offspring of the evil god (1/12)].The system reminds you that you are in a very dangerous situation, with multiple high-energy reactions around.
A townsfolk who had revived from an ice sculpture walked up to Ron. “Did you save us?”
Ron glanced at him sideways, not answering immediately.
“If you could save us, why didn’t you do it earlier?” His tone, initially polite, gradually turned uneasy.
A stir of agitation arose, and more followed suit. Suddenly, Ron grabbed the townsfolk’s chin and let out a long sigh.
These days, as a person stranded in a foreign land, he inexplicably got entangled in some kind of conspiracy—no one could be trusted, not even the so-called golden fingers. However, the words of the guy who claimed to be the mentor made sense.
“Happier, living without joy is meaningless.”
