What did I do wrong to deserve this kind of retribution?

When she came to Mengmeng's room and saw Mengmeng smilingly serving her tea and water, Ai Li looked as if she had lost all hope in life.

"By the way, Mengmeng, how did you find out it was mine?"

Ai Li was puzzled by this. In order to prevent Meng Meng from finding out, she deliberately kept a distance from her. She also never let her stay around her on weekdays. It can be seen from this - do you also have a system?

"Oh? That's very simple. Although you, Mr. Yuki, tried very hard not to let me see it, every time I came back from an adventure, I would have tea and chat with Miss Irena and the others, and listen to your interesting stories during the adventure."

“…That’s it?”

"That's just one aspect. Miss Airi, many of your actions are very similar to Mr. Yuki's."

"Yeah???"

"Well, for example, when thinking, I would put my fingers on my chin, and when I encountered a speechless situation, I would hold my forehead and sigh, and..."

Listening to Mengmeng's story one by one, Ai Li was completely confused. She had never realized that she had so many subconscious actions.

"But maybe it's just a coincidence."

"But Miss Airi, you don't behave like a girl, in many ways, including the tone of your voice. Although Nana is also childish, Miss Airi's aura is completely different. Strictly speaking... well, the atmosphere you give off is very similar to Mr. Yuki's."

"But this could be a coincidence..."

Ai Li was really speechless. Although what Meng Meng said did sound reasonable, how could an ordinary person think of this?

"Yes, if it were an ordinary person, it might be a coincidence. But didn't you tell us your identity, Mr. Yuki? If I remember correctly, the one we met was the clone projected by your original soul... That's what you said, then it doesn't seem strange for Mr. Yuki, who has this kind of power, to project another clone."

“…”

Good guy, from today on you are the Sherlock Holmes of Reiwa.

Hearing this, Ai Li was completely speechless. In order to convince Lala and the others, Fang Zheng did tell them his true identity. She didn't expect that he would dig such a trap...

"and……"

"and?"

"And Mr. Yuuki seemed to be troubled by the park plan, so I tried it out a little bit, and the result was just as I expected."

“…”

"Then ask me a question, Mr. Yuki."

After taking a sip of tea, Mengmeng looked at Ai Li with a smile.

"I didn't expect you to be interested in women's clothing..."

"This isn't women's clothing... Strictly speaking, this is one of my clones."

Faced with this accusation, Fang Zheng was unwilling to admit it, so he hurriedly explained it to Meng Meng in detail, especially the relationship between gods and gods' messengers. After listening to Fang Zheng's story, Meng Meng thought about it.

"Well, that is to say, the teleportation device activated by Onee-sama when she was escaping just happened to teleport us to the core world of the Imaginary Number Tree, and since you couldn't find the passage to get in, Mr. Yuki, you just need to let Miss Airy, who is your clone, come in to help..."

Speaking of this, Mengmeng's eyes lit up.

"So, there are followers of yours among us, Mr. Yuki? Who is it? Onee-sama? Nana? Or An? Or Miss Meiya? But then again, Mr. Yuki, you are actually a god, so what exactly are you in charge of?"

"The God of Games."

Fortunately, Fang Zheng has at least one priesthood that he can present to the public.

"I see. Speaking of which, Miss Xiao An and Miss Meiya do like playing games, and they are pretty good at it."

Hearing this, Mengmeng seemed to accept Ai Li's explanation and nodded. This also made Ai Li secretly relieved. Fortunately, she had nothing to do on weekdays and would drag others to play games, so in Mengmeng's view, it was natural that she was the God of Games. No matter what, she must not tell others about the two priesthoods of the God of Lust and the God of Magical Girls. Once Mengmeng knew this, his future life would be difficult.

"So, is there anything I can help you with, Mr. Yuuki?"

“There’s nothing special to worry about at the moment.”

Seeing that Mengmeng accepted her explanation, Ai Li hurriedly changed the subject. Mengmeng was too sensitive, and she didn't want to say anything wrong again, so she quickly changed the subject to how to leave this world.

"...In short, as long as we gather the last two spells and find the coordinates, we can open the core of the Imaginary Number Tree and fight against the consciousness of the Imaginary Number Tree. Then we can see whether to destroy it or subdue it. But for us, this is not difficult."

"I see."

After listening to Ai Li's introduction, Meng Meng nodded, then she thought of something and smiled slightly.

"So, Mr. Yuki, do you want me to tell Onee-sama about this? She will definitely be very happy."

“Please spare me…”

Finally, Ai Li tried very hard to convince Meng Meng not to tell anyone about it. When she left Meng Meng's room, she was almost gray. Ai Li thought that as long as she disguised herself well, she would not be discovered by Meng Meng. However, she did not expect that she was discovered by Meng Meng despite all her efforts.

It made Ellie want to cry.

Fortunately, Mengmeng is sensible. Although she will definitely tease me about this, she probably won't say nonsense to others... Well, in this regard, Ai Li still trusts Mengmeng very much.

So... out of the thirty-six strategies, I'd better escape first!

So Ellie decisively retreated from the Valley of Flowers and ran to the Demon King's City again to find Ariel to discuss the matter of the Gateless Tower.

Fortunately, Ariel was more reliable than Milim in this regard. After listening to Ai Li's description, she took the time to go to the doorless tower with Ai Li. After a careful investigation, Ariel confirmed that the doorless tower was indeed the work of a certain demon king.

but……

"If I remember correctly, that demon king was destroyed by humans more than 150 years ago."

"So after the Demon King died, no one cared about this thing, so it started automatically?"

Ellie looked confused after hearing what Ariel said while the former shook his head.

"Of course that's not the case. The magic power of this tower comes from the Demon King. After the Demon King dies, it will naturally stop functioning. But now it is still functioning. Someone must have mastered its authority and provided it with magic power."

"In short, I can be sure that the person controlling this thing is definitely not an ordinary person."

Hearing Ariel's words, Ellie curled her lips. She had thought about blowing up the tower and putting an end to it. At least no one would come in again. But what happened? Ellie blew up the tower today, and it was restored the next day?

Unconvinced, Ellie blew it up again, and then squatted there and stared at it. As a result, the tower didn't move while she was staring at it, and when Ellie blinked and took a nap, the broken tower returned to its original state.

Ellie was almost mad to death.

Are you kidding me?

I have to say that Ai Li is quite familiar with this method, because before in the world of Shinjo Akane, she used a similar method to restore the city destroyed by monsters.

"But then again, what's the point of stuffing people into this world like this?"

Ellie was puzzled.

Those who travel through time in the flesh basically have no abilities. What’s the point of bringing them through time when they’ve lost their memories?

“…I can guess a little.”

Ariel stared at the tower, was silent for a moment, and then spoke.

"Remember what I told you before? About Potimas..."

"Yeah... I still remember it."

Hearing what Ariel said, Ellie nodded. She still remembered what Ariel said to her at the banquet. According to Ariel, this world once had a very powerful ultra-modern ancient civilization - this is also normal. After all, considering that this is the core world of the Tree of Imaginary Numbers, it means that this world has existed for much longer than other worlds, so it is not surprising that a powerful civilization has developed.

At that time, there were not only humans in this world, but also many other races such as dragons, elves, humans, etc., and everyone lived a life that was quite like a sci-fi world.

But later, an elven scientist discovered the powerful energy contained within the world, and the world therefore embarked on the fast track of development and became more and more prosperous - well, this is somewhat similar to the development of the Franks' world, but the energy of this world does not seem to be able to make people immortal like the magma energy in the Franks' world.

However, after that, a strange thing happened. As civilization became more prosperous and developed, the birth rates of all races began to decline. This did not mean that people stopped getting married and having children, but that many people could not have children after getting married. Moreover, according to doctors' tests, it was found that there was nothing wrong with these people's bodies, and no one knew what was going on.

It was not until later that people discovered that everything was caused by that new energy.

That new energy is the energy of the world, which is... the power of the soul.

According to the theory, after death, the souls of all life in this world will return to the earth as soul power, and then condense again to form a new life. But now these soul energies have been consumed, and without the replenishment of soul power, there is no way to give birth to new life.

What should I do?

There is only one way, which is to let as many souls as possible return to this world!

This is the truth that each race learned from the gods they believed in. Then the gods issued an order that in order to save the world, they must destroy other races and kill them all! Let their souls return to the embrace of Mother Earth!

And just like that, a war that swept the entire world began.

What happened next was just as the liberators of the Abyss Labyrinth had said. The various races had been fighting each other for hundreds and thousands of years, and then seven heroes appeared who wanted to end the war started by the gods. However, they were defeated by the gods using the people they were protecting, and had to disperse to various parts of the continent to build the Abyss Labyrinth.

After that, many races were severely damaged or even directly exterminated. Eventually, humans reoccupied this land, but the good times did not last long. After that, the Undead King appeared, established a coalition of kings, launched an attack on humans, and almost wiped out humans... and then it was now.

Of course, almost no one knows the secret of the truth of the world, and only a few ancient demon kings know something about it. This is why Ariel hates Potimas, because he is not only the culprit who discovered the power of souls, but also designed to kill the hero Ariel loved when he went to fight the dragons, and also recovered her soul and power - Ariel at the time was just an experiment of Potimas. In order to study immortality, this crazy scientist fused the genes of humans with other races. This is why Ariel became a spider.

This is also why there are so many sci-fi weapons only in the land of elves.

After reviewing the story again, Ellie suddenly realized...

"Wait, so what you mean is that this tower is used to compensate for the damage inside the dike???"

Energy will be consumed, and the energy of this world is on the verge of exhaustion and can no longer support the circulation, so they use this method to pull people from other worlds - no matter whether you are a soul or a body, as long as you come, don't think about leaving, and in the end you will have to die here, and your soul will naturally become the property of this world.

Moreover, the more powerful the soul, the more useful it is.

“It’s possible.”

Ariel frowned, stared at the tower and nodded.

"If that's true, then the person operating this tower must be from the same era as me... In the past, I would have suspected Potimas, but I destroyed his soul..."

At this point, Ariel shook her head.

"Sorry, I have no idea either."

“I see…”

Ellie frowned at Ariel's answer.

This seems to be a problem.