Chapter 61: Three Plans

Chapter 61: Three Plans

Klein had begun thinking long ago about how to create the marionette town, and he had already preliminarily formed three plans:

If he set aside interference from external factors, his best choice would be to directly make the marionette town rise overnight somewhere in some country on the Northern Continent, then connect it to the surrounding cities by railway, riverway, and road.

In that way, the marionette town would have large numbers of outsiders arriving every day and would produce extremely strong interaction with the surrounding region. On one hand, a town without satellite villages would definitely have to purchase daily necessities from elsewhere—grain, salt, cloth, ore, cane sugar, and the like. On the other hand, it would also have its own products, which could be sold to nearby cities, towns, and villages. Under such circumstances, merchants, laborers, travelers, and similar groups would come and go extremely frequently, and their interactions with the marionette town’s residents would be quite numerous.

Under the influence of all kinds of strong interaction, it would not take long before the marionette town gave birth to a corresponding region in the spirit world. Once the residents’ paths of fate became detailed and real along with it, Klein could consume the potion and advance to Sequence 1, Attendant of Mysteries.

The time required from beginning to end might be less than three months.

The problem was that this plan could not be kept secret.

In the current era, a town suddenly appearing somewhere could not be hidden at all. Government employees, police, and journalists would soon come to investigate. And the strong interactions afterward would likewise let more and more people learn of this city and understand it. This was a problem illusions could not solve, unless the marionette town had no interaction with surrounding cities, towns, and villages, or only very little interaction. But that would violate the requirements of the ritual.

Once news of the marionette town spread, Klein would undoubtedly draw the attention of enemies such as Zaratul and Amon’s true body. At that time, destruction would certainly be easier than protection. He would have no choice but to move his marionette town elsewhere. That would cause the earlier interactions to lose effect, just like what had happened to the Dark Demonic Wolf.

Therefore, Klein had only listed such a plan. He basically would not choose it, unless a certain Visionary was willing to provide help and make all living beings on the Northern and Southern Continents take it for granted that there had indeed always been a town there, rather than that it had suddenly appeared.

Taking into account all kinds of external factors and the Beyonder powers he possessed, Klein’s safest choice was to build the marionette town on an uninhabited island that deviated from safe sea routes and was sufficiently hidden, then use Sefirah Castle to make arrangements for anti-divination and anti-prophecy.

At the same time, relying on that “curtain,” Klein would graft a certain node of certain roads, rivers, and railways to the area outside the marionette town, making it one stop in the journeys of certain people.

This would not be completely secret. But by the time the “strange phenomenon” spread and possibly drew the attention of Zaratul and Amon, Klein could easily remove the original grafting and irregularly change the “entrance.”

Under this strategy, what moved would only be the “entrance,” not the marionette city itself. The effects produced by various interactions in the spirit world could be preserved and would not be interrupted, allowing the ritual to advance steadily.

Of course, this plan also had major problems. The field of interaction would be limited and could not produce deep, daily effects in every aspect. In addition, the frequency and strength of the interactions would not be very high.

Choosing this plan meant that Klein would have to spend half a year, or even more than a year, on the ritual.

—If, for the sake of safety, he strictly demanded that every marionette’s fate have a beginning and an end, then the ritual would take at least fifty years. However, there was also a shortcut: after every other aspect met the ritual’s requirements, he could simply give the town a meteorite, an earthquake, or a volcanic eruption, causing all the marionettes’ fates to reach their end at the same time. Such situations existed in reality as well, making it quite reasonable.

Between the radical and conservative plans, Klein also had a compromise plan.

That was to replicate a certain city, making the marionettes correspond one-to-one with that city’s residents. Then, if he were more evil, he could directly erase that city and replace it with his own marionette town. If he were more merciful, he could hide the city and guarantee its material supply. The reason he would not directly transform the target city was that it already had a corresponding region in the spirit world. It was not newly born and therefore did not satisfy the ritual’s requirements.

Relying on the “curtain” formed from the Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic, Klein could have a better choice: graft a certain stage of that city onto his own marionette town.

In that way, his marionette town would effectively become that city’s dark side. Outsiders who entered during the corresponding period would encounter marionettes one after another instead of real people. After that period passed, they would leave the marionette town, return to reality, and interact with the real people again.

During this process, Klein would also send out marionettes to play the role of outsiders, maintaining interaction with the corresponding real people so that the true outsiders could seamlessly rejoin reality after returning.

In other words, the same city would simultaneously stage two kinds of life, yet no one would be able to notice. At most, someone might occasionally feel that some detail was not quite right, but would have no way to explain it and could only ignore it.

This was rather consistent with the trait of “mysteries” and possessed a certain degree of concealment.

Of course, this plan also had its own problem. The marionettes’ fates would be highly simulated from real people’s fates, lacking their own independence, causing one aspect of the ritual’s effect to fall short of expectations.

Tok, tok, tok. Klein’s fingers lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table as he hesitated between the second and third plans.

After several minutes, he obeyed the will of his heart and chose the second plan. He would rather spend more time than influence the fates of innocent people.

“Back then, Zaratul and Antigonus most likely chose the third plan…” Klein sighed and prepared to return to reality.

At that moment, he glanced again at the junk pile, considering whether to issue an oracle and have the City of Silver revise parts of the descriptions in the holy scripture.

For a deity, a holy scripture was actually not especially important. Its greatest use was facilitating preaching and increasing the number of anchors.

Klein had long reached this conclusion from the contents of the orthodox Churches’ scriptures, such as the Book of Revelations of Evernight and the Book of Storms:

Most of the content inside elevated the orthodox deities, boasted about them recklessly, and displayed mercy and compassion.

If, in ancient times, believers’ perception of a deity’s image could indeed produce a certain negative influence on that deity, then in the current era, where symbols had replaced statues of gods, this hidden danger no longer existed. At least, deities such as the Evernight Goddess and the Lord of Storms openly claimed to have been transformed from a certain part of the original Creator, not worrying in the slightest that this would intensify the revival of the Primordial will within Them.

In other words, if there truly were a problem in this aspect, Klein believed the Evernight Goddess would definitely have long since changed the corresponding descriptions—turning from one of the original Creator’s eyes into a child He had nurtured and given birth to, which would likewise possess a very high status.

At the same time, believers’ acknowledgment of certain matters would not place a mysticism burden on the deity Themselves. Otherwise, Amon would long ago have secretly prepared a group of believers for Klein—or rather, for the previous Sefirah Castle—guiding them to form the understanding that the Angel of Time was an incarnation of the Lord of the Mysteries. Then, relying on instinctive responses that fulfilled the requirements, He could establish sufficient connection with Sefirah Castle and open a “back door.”

For a deity, apart from preaching needs, a holy scripture had only two truly important parts:

First were descriptions of the deity’s authority and honorific name. If mistakes appeared there, believers’ prayers would point toward an unknown wrong target. This was dangerous not only for the believers but would also cause the deity to lose anchors. Second were descriptions involving other Churches, which easily led to conflict.

As for angels and Saints, deities were, in truth, not too concerned. The ones concerned were the angels and Saints themselves, because they needed to obtain a certain number of anchors through this.

Therefore, the various holy scriptures described angels and Saints in sufficient detail, including their authorities and honorific names, so that different believers could choose and identify with them. In addition, this was still insufficient to form stable anchors, because it was covered beneath faith in the deity.

To solve that problem, orthodox Churches would assign different patron angels and patron Saints to different churches, precisely dividing the ranges.

It was precisely because he possessed this understanding that Klein had never placed much importance on the holy scripture. After finishing the front portion describing his own authority and honorific name, he had become too embarrassed to continue reading and had only used divination to confirm whether it would cause conflict with the orthodox Churches.

After thinking for a while, he gave up on directly issuing an oracle to have the City of Silver revise the scripture and decided to use a gentler method:

During the Tarot Club’s exchanges, through The World Gehrman Sparrow, he would guide The Sun into adjusting his understanding and shift the parts involving the Angel of Time toward Pallez Zoroast. Without arousing the City of Silver’s suspicion, this would allow the corresponding content to be revised.

…

Bayam. Verdu Abraham had gained no small amount of mysticism knowledge from several Beyonder circles.

He lit the gas wall lamp and, using the night, began reading carefully.

When he flipped to the final pages, he suddenly read a piece of news he had never understood before:

“Bansy Harbor is a place filled with mysticism power. Its connection to the spirit world and astral world is beyond imagination… Even the Church of Storms directly destroying the harbor failed to completely erase the abnormalities of its existence…

“Many mysticism researchers are purchasing Bansy-related items at high prices…”

Bansy… Verdu silently repeated the name. He suddenly developed a strong interest in that harbor.

He began considering whether he should also purchase some items from Bansy and study them deeply. After all, the spirit world was related to teleportation, while the astral world and starry sky were related to roaming. Both might involve Mr. Door, Bethel Abraham, escaping his predicament.

Perhaps, if the chance arises, I can go to Bansy and take a look… Verdu nodded almost imperceptibly.