Chapter 3: Aiwas Moriarty
Now, the shadow demon summoned from the ritual lies in the shadows at Aiwass's feet.
He was in a wheelchair not because his legs had been sacrificed and he was unable to move, but because if he stepped on his own shadow, it would immediately awaken the shadow demon and materialize it.
This wheelchair was what Aiwass asked the old butler for after he woke up.
Because now, his [Shadow Affinity] level is too low.
Shadow Fiend is a higher demon. Shadow Affinity requires at least level three to control Shadow Fiend, and level five to fuse with it. Before then, he can only draw upon a portion of Shadow Fiend's power to use his "supernatural powers." While Shadow Fiend won't harm him and even protects Aiwass due to the contract, he has no control over Shadow Fiend's actions.
From this perspective, a demonologist who contracts a low-level demon is like walking a dog; and Aiwass is like the dog walking the man.
How to seal the Shadow Demon was not something that Aiwass should know. It was a memory from another world.
Aiwass Moriarty, Tao, Demonologist, the Kingdom of Avalon... This is the world of an MMORPG game called "Ouroboros".
This game was published and operated by their company "Faceless God Studio".
Although it's called "their company," Aiwass actually had nothing to do with the game's production, as he wasn't part of the development team. He was the new Human Resources Manager, or HR, at the game company.
Three years ago, Aiwass resigned from his previous company and became unemployed. Feeling lost in life, and with a healthy nest egg, he decided to take a long vacation. That's when his best friend dragged him into a trap.
That guy is the game copywriter of this company. He keeps repeating the same thing in his ear every day, talking about the many easter eggs he designed.
In the end, Aiwas was so annoyed by it, and since he was on a gaming hiatus, he picked it up and played it for a while. He found it to be a really good game. The downside is that it's quite tedious - but it's a good way to kill time when you're unemployed.
Later, he heard that "Faceless God Studio" was hiring, and since Aiwass had passed the restricted period, he submitted his resume and interviewed. He was tired of working in HR and wanted to try his hand at screenwriting, but it was the HR talent that was chosen. But he came to terms with it—HR was HR, after all, a company animal, all the same.
As a result, he was still in the process of handing over his work, and was sent to this world by a dump truck just because he crossed the road on his way to work to reply to his boss's message.
...If he had known he would travel to this world, he would have asked more about the company's internal information, or read more plot discussion posts on the forum!
This is the biggest mistake.
Because Aiwass is essentially a hard-working player who doesn't pay much attention to the plot and doesn't care much about the characters.
Although he learned a lot of secret settings, character backgrounds, and future main storylines unknown to ordinary players when chatting with friends, and also listened to some early plots in the group chat, he never cared about the main storyline. Instead, he found the side stories of various characters much more interesting.
Aiwass started playing the game in the 3.0 era, and just after defeating the first raid boss, he used the main story book to complete the entire main storyline up to the beginning of 3.0 with one click. Furthermore, he skipped every possible cutscene during his leveling process and at the beginning of the dungeon. Anything he couldn't skip was fast-forwarded by left-click, left-click, left-click, left-click.
As a result, Aiwass couldn't remember the early main storyline at all. Instead, he was more impressed by the later plot, because the main raid storyline was so well-written. Even if he hadn't watched the early stories carefully, he could still guess the general idea based on the unskippable raid storyline.
At the very beginning of the main storyline, "Aivaz" appeared.
In the year 1898 of the Libra calendar, he was abducted and taken to the altar for a ritual. A passing "player" accidentally broke the barrier that kept passersby away and witnessed the brutal sacrifice. In an emergency, he pretended to have reported the incident to the Supervisory Bureau and was leading the Griffin Knights there, scaring the two men away.
Aiwass was rescued from the ritual altar by a "player", and then invited the homeless player, who had his wallet and ID stolen, to his home for food, drink and rest.
After that, Aiwass will go to school with the player, grow up together, and continue to investigate the case together. As a result, they find that the case is getting bigger and bigger, even involving the high-ranking officials of the kingdom...
Because Aiwass fell into mortal danger, his sister Yulia suddenly lost control - under the catalysis of the blood crystal, she turned into the "Phantom Demon·Rebellious Flame Butterfly", the first BOSS of the eight-person dungeon.
That was also the first phantom demon that players saw in the game.
Her body curled up in a ball, encased in the amber-transparent belly of a butterfly, protected by wings made of flame essence. Because of its low level, this eight-player dungeon was the easiest to find among the daily random dungeons. On average, I played Yulia three or four times a week.
Because Yulia doesn't want to harm Aiwass, he's a classic entry-level boss with few mechanics and no desire to attack. Attacking whatever comes out of him and dodging whatever comes out of him is a classic strategy. At a high enough level, you can even get through the level by ignoring the mechanics and focusing solely on the main character. If you complete the main quest book after defeating Yulia, you'll receive some cosmetic rewards.
She was eventually killed, losing most of her spirit and shrinking into a flame butterfly. She was then contracted by Aiwass to become his first familiar. Aiwass used this method to preserve her spirit, hoping to find the legendary "Insect Amber" master who mastered the resurrection technique and revive her.
It wasn't until the main storyline of version 5.0 that Aiwass mastered a new ability. He could seal theoretically unkillable phantoms into cards and equip his familiars with enhanced equipment. Finally, Aiwass received a major enhancement that was unique to him.
Then he no longer accompanied the players in the game, but became a plot-killing method to end the phantom-type BOSS in the CG.
"……elder brother?"
Just as Aiwas was thinking of this, he suddenly heard a childish voice.
He was suddenly startled.
Haina, who was excitedly chatting with Aiwass about "Sherlock and Reasoning", heard the voice and subconsciously turned around.
I saw a little girl standing silently at the door.
"When you woke up yesterday, I was sleeping. After I woke up, you fell asleep again."
She had just woken up in the evening, and said with some grievance and surprise: "Brother, why are you... in a wheelchair?
"——Who is she?"
She wore the same pure white fleece pajamas as Aiwass, her silver hair reaching her shoulders, and her deep crimson eyes reminiscent of roses. Her features were delicate and soft, reminiscent of a white cat or a rabbit. She was completely different from Aiwass's dazzling handsomeness. The similarities between her eyebrows, hair color, and eye color were enough to prove that they were not related.
If there is one similarity between the two, it is the sense of frailty that is passed down from generation to generation.
She had a similar sense of sickness to Aiwass, but it was more obvious than Aiwass's.
The girl's skin was a sickly, almost translucent white. When she stood at the door, she would unconsciously hold onto the door frame, leaning slightly to shift her center of gravity and reduce the pressure of standing upright.
——What a cute girl!
Haina's eyes lit up.
It was like seeing a cute pet. She wanted to get close to it, but she was worried that she would scare it.
"It's okay, Yuri. It's only temporary. This is Senior Haina. I need to ask you something."
Aiwass smiled and called the girl's nickname just as he remembered it, but for some reason, it seemed a little awkward and awkward to pronounce.
It's like not calling your friends by their names for a long time, but by their nicknames. Then one day you suddenly call out their full name, and it always feels like it's not their name at all.
After a moment of trance, he opened his arms slightly towards Yulia: "Come and hug me."
"……Um."
Yulia walked over obediently, unsteadily, as if she had just woken up, feeling so weak that she was worried she might fall.
When hugging Yulia who was snuggling up to him, Aiwass suddenly became dazed for a moment.
At this moment, he was hugging Yulia, but it seemed like another world.
After receiving the "prophecies" from another world, Aiwass in this world suddenly felt a certain fear about the future.
Yulia will become a monster... and then, die.
At this moment, Aiwass's memories overlapped with reality. They merged completely, and the memories of his dual life became clear. It was like a person suddenly awakened from a nightmare, finally realizing whether they were dreaming or not.
Two days after awakening his past life memories, he finally realized that he was not dreaming, but had truly traveled through time.
I came into this world at a very young age, and only just remembered who I was until the day before yesterday.
However, he also clearly realized another thing - that is, the plot is different now.
The Aiwass in the game definitely does not have a contracted shadow demon.
Because this time the ceremony was interrupted by the players, it was not successfully carried out at all.
This probably means that there are no "player characters" in this world.
In an epic fantasy game, players usually play the role of a one-time savior; if the game is an online game, then players usually play the role of a continuous, high-frequency, and low-tolerance savior.
Every major version requires saving the world.
...Then he would be in trouble.
Because the "player" is, by definition, a descendant of the "Snake Father," one of the Nine Pillars of Deity who once controlled the "Path of Transcendence." This is precisely why players gain experience points and levels, growing stronger without any barriers or talent. In reality, players don't queue for dungeons or form teams; they defeat all enemies on their own.
But Aiwass, although he is also an important character, the world-destroying disasters such as the "Fallen Angel", "Disaster Dragon", and "Shadow of Avalon" cannot be defeated by "strong people" in the conventional sense.
Aiwass knew that something bad would happen to the Kingdom of Avalon in about half a year.
Although he didn't remember the main storyline clearly, he at least remembered key nodes such as version changes.
What he had told Haena was not a lie. The Kingdom of Avalon would indeed face a catastrophic disaster in half a year, and it was closely related to the demonic ritual incident they were currently experiencing, which no important person cared about.
But now, Aiwass still has a chance to change all that.
Change everything——
He subconsciously hugged Yulia tightly, and the girl keenly noticed something: "Brother?"
"……nothing."
Aiwass smiled calmly: "Exactly, I had a very long dream yesterday... I dreamed that Yulia left me."
However, at this moment, he suddenly felt that Yulia's body in his arms suddenly tightened.
……Um?
Aiwas' heart moved slightly.
As if to cover up, Yulia suddenly asked, "Brother's wheelchair...how long will it take?"
"About... a year, right?"
Aiwass said, looking at the old housekeeper beside him: "Is that what the doctor said?"
"Yes, Master Aiwass."
The old butler asked without hesitation, "So, you're going to take a year off? You've already been off for three months anyway."
This is a lie.
And on both sides.
There was no doctor who put Aiwas in a wheelchair; it was Aiwas's own request. Demonologists who had contracted the Shadow Fiend would use this method to seal it away when they were unable to control it.
In addition to using a wheelchair for daily movement, one should also try to avoid strenuous actions and slow down one's movements to lower one's heart rate - this is a common method of suppressing demons.
In addition, you can also take some drugs to suppress your heart rate to put the demon sealed in your body to sleep.
"No need," Aiwass said, "I'll go back to school once this incident is resolved."
"...Is this incident resolved?"
Haina realized something belatedly.
She instinctively realized that at that moment... Aiwass's attitude seemed to have changed.
She was quite familiar with that feeling.
During her freshman year, Haina, still naive, thought she was still a genius in that remote town. But she barely passed her final exam in astrology, which gave her a cold sweat.
But it was precisely because of this that she began to take it seriously, realizing that she wasn't as good as she had thought at the top institution in the Red Queen District of Glass Island, the capital. At least... she wasn't a pure genius, but a genius who worked hard.
If she continued to study casually like before, she might fail even without being absent. Now she could graduate with a seven-petal flower seal representing full marks, and it was precisely because Professor Moriarty's bright red three-petal flower seal representing "pass" had woken her up.
For ordinary students, this was a sign of being released from prison, worthy of celebration; but for the proud Haina, it was like a slap in the face, burning and leaving her silent and her mind blank.
That's the feeling Aiwass gave her at this moment.
When I saw the report card, I felt like I was awakened from a dream.
"Yes, I want to join the investigation."
Aiwass suddenly turned serious. "If they kidnapped me once, they'll do it again. I can't leave home without clearing out that cult. Similarly, I can't stay home and wait for an investigation result I might not accept. So I have to participate in the investigation, too."
Hearing this, Haina felt a little embarrassed. This was undoubtedly a reference to the extremely slow investigation efficiency of the Supervisory Bureau.
The Supervisory Bureau is extremely particular about "rules." Everything must be reported to the higher authorities and all matters must follow standard procedures. This is the rule set by the knights of the Senate.
Because they can hardly find anything, they even need to ask detectives for help. The "Sherlock" mentioned by Haina is a detective who has recently become quite famous in the newspapers.
Sherlock had graduated from the Royal Law University many years earlier, but he chose not to join the Inspection Bureau, the Court of Justice, or the Arbitration Chamber. As a result, he was now a special consultant for the Inspection Bureau, free from the bureau's regulations in his investigations and having solved several major cases, his status was significantly higher than that of his former classmates who had joined the Inspection Bureau after graduation.
"If Miss Haina can't make up her mind, you might as well report my words to your boss and ask for his opinion."
Aiwass crossed his arms and said calmly, "Anyway, according to the rules, you have to report all the contents of this conversation to your superiors, right?"
For some reason, Aiwass at this moment reminded Haina of the interviewer from the Supervisory Bureau.
Dear readers, I miss you so much! (Feng Gong voice)
I will update 10,000 words today, and another 10,000 words tomorrow at noon!
The recommended positions for new books on Qidian are now distributed by artificial intelligence, and all depends on follow-up reading, so follow-up reading data is really important for new books! Everyone remember not to let it get fat and come and check it out every day! Don't let the cat die (shock)
The cat returns!
(End of this chapter)
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