Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

The characters persisted for about a minute before gradually fading away until they completely disappeared. It was only then that Chaoyang startled awake and ran to the desk, rummaging through the drawers, he found paper and a pen and jotted down the four sentences on the paper.

No matter the meaning of these words, his subconscious felt an urgent need to write them down!

"Did... you see it too?" Ailuodi stared at him blankly.

Chaoyang showed her the words written on the paper.

She shook her head, "I don’t understand what you’ve written. The characters I saw were in French..."

"What about the content?"

Ailuodi repeated it in her mother tongue.

"Different characters, but the same meaning," Chaoyang murmured after hearing it. The languages in this world did not include Chinese and French. In other words, the characters are a reflection of consciousness, akin to a memory implant. As a Demon Awakener, he had used similar tricks in the past, and the brain, when accessing this segment of memory, would use understandable concepts to recreate it. If it couldn’t find a corresponding concept, there would be a blank in the memory fragment, just like forgetting something in a dream.

But before he used the Dream Entering Technique, the other person had to be asleep to enter their consciousness.

Yet now, both he and Ailuodi were awake.

This meant that the originator of the characters they saw possessed profound skills, to say their abilities were magical wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

"It was the Evil God that let us see them," Chaoyang could already confirm this.

"But... why doesn’t it kill us and instead shows us this?"

"Heaven knows. The Primordial Gods are inherently unreasonable; we can’t communicate with them." He paced back and forth in the room with the paper in hand, "But did you notice? It was right after you asked that question that these characters suddenly appeared."

"Which question?" Ailuodi racked her brains, "Are we dead or alive?"

"No, the question after that—why we were sent to the City of Defense." Chaoyang fluttered the paper in his hand, "I guess this is the answer from the other side."

"What’s the use of it, then? A language key?" The Angel said grimly, "I’ve never been good at crossword puzzles since I was young..."

"I can’t answer that either; it’s hardly likely to be a word puzzle, right?"

Chaoyang similarly forced a smile. If there was one more sentence after it, like an idiom, or a riddle involving an object, then he could still forcibly guess. However, this "poem" was presented in two languages, with no tail following it, leaving him clueless.

"Right, what’s the date today?" Ailuodi suddenly asked nervously.

"Uh..." Chaoyang glanced around the desk and bedside but couldn’t find a calendar or anything similar, "I don’t know... what’s wrong?"

"I’ve read the records of the Panlogical Machine, the City of Defense vanished on October 5th, 714, and the first to observe the anomaly was a lumberjack from Thistlefort. The Laurel Dynasty then dispatched troops for relief, but none escaped the Misty Zone, which means... everyone in this city... died."

Chaoyang immediately grasped the Angel’s implication.

If this place really was the City of Defense, how much time did it have left until its destruction? And if no one survived... did it include them too?

"Let’s not scare ourselves for now; we haven’t confirmed that this is surely the City of Defense," Chaoyang said, trying to sound casual as he suppressed the chill rising from the soles of his feet.

Just then, a loud knocking came from the door.

The two exchanged glances, both sensing trouble.

"Hurry up and open the door, Mr. Bariff, I know you’re in there!" The person outside even shouted, sounding quite impatient, "The Governor wants to see you; get up at once!"

Great... now Chaoyang knew the name of the original owner of the body he occupied.

"Go open the door; the longer you delay, the more suspicious you’ll appear," Ailuodi said decisively.

"What about you?"

"I’ll go back to bed and pretend I just woke up. Their relationship shouldn’t be so scandalous that they can’t see each other."

There seemed to be no other choice.

Chaoyang loosened the collar of his robe and feigned a drowsy look, "Stop yelling, I’m coming to open the door!"

As soon as he opened the door, a man dressed in brownish-yellow tweed burst in, sweeping his gaze quickly around before it settled on Ailuodi, a touch of disdain in his eyes. "Get dressed."

"Why don’t you... wait outside?"

"No, I’ll just watch from here." The other person said coldly.

Chaoyang, unsure about the situation, could only change into a gray robe in front of the other person, "Alright, let’s go."

"The house is yours to search."

Since this was Bariff’s residence, there might be some clues to his identity left behind. He had intended to conduct a thorough check himself, but now he had to entrust this task to his reliable partner.

After the two left the house, they crossed a narrow suspension bridge and went directly to the third floor of a tower opposite. Chaoyang noticed that compared to the cluttered and dense bungalows in the distance, the area he was in was clearly a high point of the city. The houses were mostly over three stories tall, with tower buildings connected by suspension bridges reaching up to six stories; there were no taller buildings in the city.

Clearly, the "Mr. Governor" mentioned by the other person lived in this landmark building.

"You can see what I’m seeing, right?"

"Yes, very clearly," Ailuodi replied with her consciousness.

"That obelisk doesn’t seem to be inside the city."

"That’s normal, if ordinary people could see such a strange thing, the news would have spread across the country by now."

"What if we blow our cover?" Chaoyang scoured his mind countless times but couldn’t find a single memory related to Bariff—no information, no guidance. If this were a game in Paradise, the start would be too hellish.

"Honestly, I don’t know either. But I believe you can bluff your way through... because you’re a demon."

Was that supposed to be comforting?

Chaoyang realized he had no choice but to brace himself and go ahead.

"When did you start messing around with Baili?" The man leading the way suddenly asked.

"...Huh?"

"Although she is just a lowly servant, she is under the Governor’s command after all. If you want to sleep with women, there are plenty in the brothels—don’t reach into the company, got it?" The man’s last sentence already carried a warning tone.

"You’re the boss," Chaoyang replied nonchalantly.

"What, I’m a servant?" Ailuodi complained dissatisfied.

"At least now we know your name, Miss Baili."

"Call me Ailuodi!"

After her outcry, she excitedly cried out again, "Hey, I’ve found something good! Guess what I found?"

"At a time like this, you’re still playing games?"

"A work journal, maybe it’s written by this person named Bariff! It’s hidden in a vanity cabinet, with a pistol tucked inside."

A pistol? It wasn’t common for ordinary people to carry such a weapon. But right now, Chaoyang was more interested in the contents of the journal, "Quick, what does it say?"

"Hmm... it’s a diary, the first page dates back to the year 714. Judging from the location log, they seem to be searching for something... Here it is, page 32... a new energy source?"

Many related professions popped into Chaoyang’s mind instantly.

Prospector? Miner? Engineer? Geologist?

"Keep reading."

"March 22nd, narrowed down the area to a cave under the beach cliff... April, the tunnel was flooded by sea water, over fifty people died, the bodies couldn’t be recovered, we had to recruit more hands."

"May 6th, Lord Haiboman personally arrived here, taking full control of the company’s operations. After hearing my report, he decided to conscript local labor on site, expanding the excavation team."

"June, we found a man-made wall, and if the premises of our information are correct, then the legendary energy source must be here."

"July 15th, this is no damned wall... it’s a damned underground city! We... can’t find the entrance!"

"The Governor is inside waiting for you." The man suddenly stopped in front of a bronze door, "Mr. Bariff, go inside."