Chapter 227 The First Fall
At this moment, a gunshot was heard from downstairs, followed by another shot.
Aiwass' heart tightened slightly, but his pace down the stairs did not become faster, but slowed down a lot.
He leaned against the wall silently and tiptoed down the stairs. At the same time, he pulled out the pistol from under his coat, lowering it slightly to hide it in the shadow of his slightly larger sleeves.
Unlike when Aiwass arrived, an oil lamp was already lit at the door.
From a distance, he saw a handsome young man with brown hair and deep features standing in the foreground holding a gun. The gun smoke from the muzzle had not yet completely dissipated.
The frail young man who had been crouching at the front desk collapsed backwards onto the shelf in a twisted position, already dead. He had a bullet wound in his forehead and chest, blood seeping out slowly.
He seemed to be aware of something and turned his head slightly, then saw Aiwass standing quietly by the wall.
The tall and strong black-haired man stood straight as a statue, the lights in the hall casting shadows on him, half of his body hidden in the shadows.
The young man's pupils shrank slightly when he saw this.
He dropped the gun in his hand directly onto the counter and spread his hands out in a friendly gesture.
"Calm down...Mr. Agni. Do not attack me. My weapon is down."
The young man said in a deep voice: "We are on the same side."
"Do you know me?"
Agnes spoke slowly as she walked down the stairs step by step.
His steps were slow, and the worn wooden floor made a creaking sound. But this also caused him to feel a huge psychological pressure.
At this moment, a flash of lightning struck outside the house, illuminating Agnes' face through the window for a moment, followed by a rumbling thunder.
"I'm Jacob Alexander. I'm a reporter for the Bull and Harbor..."
At this point, he saw that Agnes' slow and heavy steps still showed no sign of stopping, so he subconsciously took a step back and gave more precise information: "I mean, I know you from the previous level.
"I know you're different now than you were on the last level, so I assume we're on the same side. I assume you're... Living Silver?"
"continue."
Agnes said briefly.
Jacob breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now that you put it that way, I guess we are indeed on the same side, right?"
He quickly continued to explain, "It's like this... You might not know this, but the speed of time flowing through each layer, or the time point of entry, is different. At least it's asymmetrical. Because in another history, I've already communicated with 'you', and I've also conducted some experiments and determined some rules—"
"Have you seen the couple arguing in Room 204? That woman is Jacaranda, but she's not yet. She came down from a higher floor to my level a while ago, and we've already compared intelligence. I think she'll be coming down here soon... She can corroborate my story.
"My reason for killing this receptionist was simple. Because I thought he was Merlin—or rather, I thought he couldn't be Merlin.
"According to my investigation, the people in this hotel are you and your daughter, Daiya, in room 202, the old inspector in room 203, the couple in room 204, the dancer in room 205, and me in room 206... exactly seven people. Room 201 is vacant, and if you count the receptionist, there's no one else—no one in the kitchen, no one in the basement. I've already checked."
The reporter raised his hands and said quickly and seriously, "If that's the case, then this extra reception desk is a destabilizing factor.
"Merlin said he could 'enter the body of anyone in any dream world at any time.' But he didn't say 'it would have to be one of the seven of us,' so we can't rule out the front man.
"And considering Merlin can't enter a body we've already controlled, if someone descends, he'll be squeezed out, and it'll be immediately clear if he's Merlin. For this reason, we need to exclude everyone except the seven of us. Because he's a marginal figure, someone who won't descend upon the 'real master,' and therefore can't be verified... Do you understand me?"
Seeing Agni still slowly walking towards him, the reporter's forehead was covered with sweat.
He sighed helplessly and put down his hand: "Forget it, just kill me if you want. It seems that I can't communicate with you... This is also a kind of information."
Agni pressed the pistol to his forehead. Feeling the cold muzzle approaching, the reporter closed his eyes.
"--Bang."
Aiwass simulated the sound of gunfire with his mouth.
He looked at the "reporter" who closed his eyes and then opened them in surprise with a half-smile: "My dear detective, it seems that you have no confidence in my brain."
"……Who are you?"
"I am a fox."
Aiwass said this with a smile, not caring about revealing his identity.
"So it's you, kid—"
The reporter gritted his teeth and said, "You like to scare me for no reason, don't you?"
"No one has come down yet."
Aiwass didn't respond to the reporter's question: "They seemed quite calm. Or maybe... their hearing isn't very good and they couldn't hear the gunshots?"
"Maybe he's scared, so he's hiding in the house."
The reporter calmed down and continued to analyze: "Fox... No, to prevent your identity from being revealed, I'll call you Agnes for now.
"Listen up, Agnes. To make a long story short—since each of us appears in a different dream, it means that each layer of the dream has only one original inhabitant. And as long as one more person appears, it means that this is at least not the top layer. Similarly, the more people who appear, the closer it is to the bottom layer."
"good."
Aiwass nodded. "But there's another problem. As you said—on the one hand, the speed of time flowing on each layer is different, or in other words, the starting time is different. This will lead to inconsistent progress.
"Also, if someone among us shows up at the top but doesn't have the courage to come down...like Lulu. Wouldn't that make us think we haven't reached the bottom yet, when in fact someone just hasn't arrived yet?"
"Then we have to use the process of elimination."
The reporter thought for a moment and said seriously, "Because I'm worried that if I don't quickly explain the principle to others... someone might kill everyone on this floor. So I decided to descend quickly... In fact, I've already descended two floors."
"I didn't see anyone on the first floor I was on. To avoid meeting anyone else, I immediately committed suicide and went down one floor. On the next floor, I saw Jacaranda. At that point, I suspected that the person at the front desk was Merlin... because he was deliberately stalling for time, making excuses to make me wait a little longer."
Young Jacob narrowed his eyes. "I wanted to do an experiment. So, I agreed with Jacaranda, killed the receptionist, and then committed suicide to reach your level."
"You're verifying that the two front desks are the same, right?"
Aiwass replied: "If the two front desks are different, then one of them is Merlin."
"That's right. And if we go down one more floor, we'll know which one is the proper reception desk."
"But you overlooked another possibility—the person at the front desk could also be one of us."
Aiwass said slowly, "And as you verify it, Merlin may be able to disguise himself as the front desk more perfectly."
"——So, I chose to kill the receptionist."
The reporter replied, "Anyway, it can reduce the variables. Not only that, I will kill the receptionist at every level. If he is the one who will be promoted, then let him tell me himself."
"...I see. I understand your thoughts."
Aiwass narrowed his eyes.
If the receptionist is not a promoted one, then killing the receptionist can increase Merlin's possession cost; if the receptionist is a promoted one, then if he is killed, he will fall to the next level with his memories.
"Judging from this line of thought, we can kill anyone this way. Since we were born on floors 1-7, and our goal is floor 0, that means even if I'm on floor 1, we can at least die once more."
Aiwass pondered, "As long as I have memories after death, that proves I'm real, right?"
"But there is one variable that needs to be excluded."
The reporter continued calmly, “If someone claims to have committed suicide and has come down to this level, but no one on the level above can verify his identity—then there’s a possibility that he’s Merlin, pretending to be descending, but actually masquerading as the Adventer.
"I considered this issue, so I confirmed the secret order when communicating with Jacaranda. This confirms that we have indeed communicated with each other and both of us have descended from the upper level.
"But even so, there will be another problem..."
"—time difference."
Aiwass continued, "While you're waiting for Jacaranda to come down, you're also stalling for time. And according to our previous inference, the longer you delay, the more unstable the lower levels will become."
The reporter snapped his fingers and said with a satisfied smile, "That's right."
"So what are your plans?"
Aiwass asked.
“—It’s very simple.”
The reporter, who shares the same name as Aiwass's grandfather, replied: "We die together, and we live together."
As he spoke, he picked up the revolver on the table and pointed it at Aiwass's forehead.
"If you're not Merlin, then you're a real fox."
The reporter said calmly, "Let's go directly to the next floor—when Jacaranda comes down, she'll definitely understand what's going on when she sees us like this. She'll also find someone to kill together and confirm each other's identity."
"Jacaranda and I can confirm each other, you and I can confirm each other, and she can bring someone else. In this way, we have confirmed the identities of four people... We just need to exclude Merlin from the remaining three."
"...Heh, a two-person team? Okay, I'll take your word for it. Then let's investigate further on the next floor, buddy."
Aiwass chuckled, raised his pistol fearlessly, and pointed it at the reporter's forehead. Then he used his other hand to move the gun muzzle that the reporter was pointing at his forehead down to his heart.
"You shoot first."
Aiwass said calmly: "Even if I was shot in the heart, I could fire the gun instantly."
"good."
The reporter's mouth curled up slightly.
After a brief pause, two gunshots were heard in the hall.
Just like when the ceremony had just begun... Aiwass felt his consciousness slowly sinking into the dark deep sea.
Then, he suddenly felt a little suffocated. He woke up suddenly, as if he had emerged from the water, stirring up waves.
——He seemed to have taken a nap and opened his eyes.
A very soft voice came from behind him: "Dad...?"
"...Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"
Aiwass looked at the soaked clothes in front of him, and the corners of his mouth slowly rose.
He turned around, opened his arms, and showed off his new clothes: "I'm wearing my clothes properly, aren't I, Daiya?"
Dai Ya was stunned for a moment, then nodded slowly: "Yes..."
"What makes you think I'm not wearing any clothes?"
Aiwass was not angry, but asked patiently.
"……I have no idea."
Dai Ya covered her forehead in distress: "I seemed to have had a nightmare... I dreamed that my father was swimming naked in the river..."
Aiwass walked over and gently touched her hair.
"It's okay."
He said softly, "Sleep well, good night."
Between his fingers, Dai Ya's brown hair was thin and soft, giving people a warm feeling when touching it.
Update completed meow!
(End of this chapter)
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