i have a museum of curiosities

The northernmost part of Atreya's royal city, the majestic castle is protected by a huge blue barrier that stretches hundreds of meters from east to west.And standing quietly in front of the blue barrier was a figure with boundless charm.

That is a stunning girl with an alluring appearance, her appearance is even higher than Ling Xiaotao!Or maybe it's because she looks too perfect, which adds a bit of unreality.Surprisingly, on the forehead of the stunning girl, there are actually two curved goat horns!And her figure, which is still better than Natsume Ya, is even more jaw-dropping, but what hides the beauty is not ordinary clothes or armor, but rocks burning with strange blue flames!
The stunning girl gently stretched out her right hand, and slowly tapped her index finger on the blue barrier.Suddenly, a strange purple lightning flashed, and the stunning girl hurriedly withdrew her right hand, and sighed softly: "The priest of Atreia is as scary as the rumors say. The enchantment created by his life can last thousands of years... This power is really... coveted..."

As the stunning girl said, she stretched out her bloody red tongue, and licked the index finger of her right hand very seductively.
.
At the same time, Zhang Ye, who was trying to find the Royal Library, lost his way and was being chased by several strange living corpses that looked like zombies.However, these living corpses, which looked very much like the zombies in "The Walking Dead", were much stronger!Not only is his movement speed comparable to an upgraded version of the zombie in "Train to Busan", but his body is even more invulnerable, even worse than the Zombie King in Lin Zhengying's zombie movie!

"Hoo, hoo-"

Zhang also hid on a roof, panting heavily.

"I... 艸, didn't I make a mistake? These living corpses... are simply a combination of zombies and zombies!" Zhang Ye looked at the "Aqi Long Sword" that had been bent to 90 degrees in his hand with lingering fear. It was painfully received in the small leather pouch on the waist.

"Maggill... the broad sword disappeared with the flame demon, and now the Aqi long sword has also become a square... How can I deal with those upgraded zombies..." Zhang also scratched his hair helplessly.

At this moment, Zhang Ye suddenly felt dizzy, and his body thumped unconsciously and collapsed on the roof.

He knew that this was a side effect caused by excessive mental strength.

Previously, in order to escape from the claws of two terrifying behemoths, he had already used the ability of the ring of ever-changing to the extreme.Not to mention that the final condensed shield was directly shattered by the "Mushroom Head" guardian beast "Guangming".This level of injury directly affects Zhang Ye's consciousness!It is a great luck to be able to persist until now.

But the problem is... this side effect came at an inopportune time!There are so many invulnerable zombies wandering around, if you are discovered, you may just GG!
In the past, if you die, you will be resurrected in the ashes cemetery, but now you are in the ruins of Atreia!And it was transmitted through Ariel's ability... Who knows what will happen after death?
Now I can only pray that those zombies won't find me!
However, as one wished, a zombie wandering nearby seemed to have discovered something. Its half-lost nose was sniffing and sniffing in the air, and its terrifying face slowly turned to where Zhang Ye was.

"Roar--"

Cottage!was found!

Zhang Ye cursed secretly, and planned to get up and leave, but his head hurt so much that he couldn't hit his consciousness at all, let alone control his body, he couldn't even grit his teeth and exert force!

The zombie didn't care so much, seeing Zhang Ye collapsed on the ground, it rushed over with a roar, and jumped in front of Zhang Ye with a light jump.

Looking at the broken body from the corner of the eye, Zhang Ye couldn't help feeling a little fear in his heart.It's not the fear of death - after all, I have died several times since I came to this world - but the worry that I will become a zombie after being bitten by a zombie!Such an existence of immortality, it is better to be dead!
But at this moment, the zombies are Daozu, and Zhang Ye is fish, and they want to resist but can't do anything.

Just when Zhang Ye was annoyed and ready to accept the ending of becoming a zombie, the other party spoke——

"...you... why?"

I don't know!Zombies speak? !Are these zombies still rational?

Zhang also couldn't help being startled, turned into joy, suppressed his headache, and opened his mouth and said, "Wo... Bite the area... Talk about it... Tu Sugua... (I'm going to the Royal Library)"

As he had difficulty controlling his tongue, the words he spoke were almost out of tune, and Zhang couldn't help being extremely agitated.

"Wow... Huang Jia... Tusu Pass!"

After saying it again, the zombie slowly lowered its head and looked at Zhang Ye quietly, as if thinking about his words.But it doesn't know how much fear it will bring to a living person when looking at it with its own "face".

"... Heh... Ru... Do you want to go to... the royal... library?"

"Like!" Zhang also tried his best to spit out a word.

"...non-royal...blood...nobility...clan...are not allowed to enter...the royal library."

Huacha, there is such a setting?
Zhang couldn't help being a little speechless, but immediately he seemed to think of something, and hurriedly said: "Wow, Bo Zhi, Bo Zhi!"

The zombie's head tilted slightly, and it got closer to Zhang Ye's face. The stench of the corpse almost made him overwhelmed.

"...You...why do you want?"

Zhang also shouted vigorously: "Bo Zhi, Bo Zhi!"

The zombie's head was no more than a dozen centimeters away from Zhang Ye's face. Suddenly, a hint of intoxication appeared on its unrecognizable face, and it sniffed Zhang Ye's face greedily.

"...ah... the breath of the living... so... sweet!"

What are you going to do, you old pervert? !Don't come here!
The zombie's expression became more and more greedy. Just as it was about to bite down on Zhang Ye's neck, it suddenly saw the silver chain around his neck.For an instant it seemed to stand still.

The cold touch made goose bumps all over Zhang Ye's body, but the severe pain he imagined did not come, but the Ariel pendant on his neck seemed to be pulled.

The zombie looked at this strange silver pendant carefully, and his expression was full of nostalgia.

"...this sword pendant...where did you...get it?"

Zhang Ye was taken aback for a moment, and then became ecstatic.

Huacha, don't you want to be so surprised... When I told you to look at it, if you didn't look at it, I was going to kill you, but you are interested in the pendant again... Are you playing with me?
Although he was complaining crazily in his heart, Zhang Ye felt the joy of surviving after the catastrophe.

"This is... I got it from the ashes... the cemetery..." Although his head was still hurting, Zhang Ye was finally able to straighten his tongue.

"...Ash... Graveyard?"

There was some doubt on the face of the zombie. It looked at the Ariel pendant, stroked it lightly, and then slowly said: "...you... since you have this sword pendant... you can enter... the library... and then Where is the owner of this sword pendant...?"

After finishing speaking, the zombie actually looked at Zhang Ye with hope.

Zhang Ye was stunned for a moment, and then tried his best to speak: "Ariel...is still alive...she is the one who sent me...here!"

"...So...so..." The zombie nodded in a very humane way, and muttered in a low voice: "...she is...a princess...and the Holy See...the high priest...naturally she can survive for a long time...and also... There is power to open..."

Speaking of this, the zombie seemed to have made up his mind, reluctantly put down the Ariel sword pendant in his hand, then pointed to the north, saying: "...the royal...library...is in the north..."

After finishing speaking, it stood up slowly and walked away until it disappeared from Zhang Ye's sight.

Zhang Ye:? ? ?
Just now... the zombie showed me the way? ?I'm going... This is too unreal!

After lying on the spot for another 10 minutes, the headache finally subsided, and Zhang Ye gritted his teeth and sat up from the ground.

"Phew—it seems that this ring of ever-changing changes can be used as little as possible...the side effects are too great..." Zhang Ye complained helplessly while rubbing his temples.

After sitting there for more than ten minutes, no zombies came to find Zhang Ye. It can even be said that after the zombie who showed Zhang Ye left, the rest of the zombies also disappeared.

"That zombie is the legendary "King of Zombies", right?" Zhang Ye muttered in a low voice.

Feeling that his headache had been greatly relieved, Zhang also looked far away, looked at the direction pointed by the zombie, then roughly planned the route according to the direction of the surrounding houses, and set off on the journey again.

However, not long after he started walking, after Zhang Ye stepped into a collapsed stone gate, a ripple suddenly appeared in the surrounding air, followed by a blur in front of his eyes.

A familiar person stood in front of him.

"Arian... No, Princess Ariel, you are..." Zhang also looked helplessly at Ariel who was still dressed in men's clothing.

"As expected, you already know my name." Ariel didn't show surprise on her face, but looked at the pendant on Zhang Ye's neck with interest, and asked, "I feel its call! Its The power is coming back... who did you just run into?"

Zhang also blinked, and then told the whole story.

After listening, Ariel's face turned pale, she bit her lower lip lightly, and said nothing.

"Ariel?" Zhang Ye called softly.

"I'm afraid your mission needs some adjustments." Ariel said suddenly.

"You don't need me to get the secret scroll?" Zhang also asked back.

"Need." Ariel smiled mysteriously and said, "But it's time for you to know some truths."

"The truth? What truth?" Zhang couldn't help but frowned.

"Don't you want to know the truth about the 'Graveyard of True Spirits'?" Ariel's eyes became a little playful.

"Ahem... all ears." Zhang Ye chuckled.

Ariel nodded, and then slowly said: "The cemetery of the true spirit is a strange place. Some people say that it is the domain of Atuban, the god of death, in the human world. In fact, there is just a crushing secret buried there, and Me and a few others are responsible for keeping that secret."

"Wait...how many other people?" Zhang couldn't help being a little confused, "You are...the princess of Atreia, the high priest of the Holy See of the Sun God...or the 'Secret Keeper' of the 'True Spirit Cemetery'— —Forgive me for calling it that—then... how many identities do you have?"

"It's true." Ariel smiled slightly.

Zhang also nodded helplessly, and said, "Then what are you going to tell me?"

"First of all, although everything you see in the 'Dungeon Illusion' is to test you, the people you see are real. The nine of us are called the 'Nine Kings', It is the "Keeper of Secrets" who is responsible for guarding secrets and guarding the cemetery of true spirits." Ariel said seriously.

"Uh... are they all true?" Zhang couldn't help being taken aback, "Then Earl Hawke..."

"The No.11 head of the Hawk family, and also the No.11 museum administrator in Atrea - Gert Leondo Hawk. He is one of the 'Nine Kings'."

"Ka?"

After Ariel finished speaking, she waved her hand lightly, and the surrounding scene turned into the Atreya Palace Square again, and a middle-aged man with a smile on his face slowly walked out from behind the huge statue, and it was indeed Zhang Ye. Count Hawke seen in "Dungeon Fantasy"!
Zhang was also completely dumbfounded.

I thought I had seen through everything with sharp eyes, but I didn't expect that it was all within the other party's calculations...

Maggill... the clown is myself!

"...Don't tell me, the other people I met in the illusion are all pretended by the 'Nine Kings'."

"Smart!" Ariel grinned from the corner of her mouth to her ears.

Then Zhang just stared blankly at five people walking out from behind the statue of Altreyer.

No.1 is wearing a Catalina onion suit and is happily waving at Zhang Ye.

"I'll go...Brother Onion...you've learned badly..." Zhang Ye was speechless.

The second person was full of beards and wore an Atreian jailer suit. At this moment, he also grinned at Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye smiled awkwardly and had no choice but to nod in greeting.

The two people in the back are both wearing Atreya Empire guard suits, and the person on the left is the soldier who handed the black wooden box to him!

"Huacha...you two too!"

In the end, the man was wearing plate armor and holding a two-handed sword, and waved at Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye: ...

I'm so tired... This guy is actually one of those "Nine Kings Spirits"? ? ?

"Hehe... There are seven people in the 'Nine Kings' here...I'm really honored..." Zhang also shook his head helplessly.

"Who said there were seven?"

A cold voice came from behind, and Zhang knew who it was without looking back.

Natsume Ya!
"Why even you are the same... This shit is 'Truman's World'!"

"So... from the underground prison in Atrea, everything is an illusion?" Zhang also looked at Ariel with some depression.

Ariel smiled slightly, and said: "There is no underground prison in Atreia. When you touch the bonfire in the Fire Transmission Sacrificial Ground, your consciousness will be transmitted to the illusion we formed together."

"So it's all fake..." Zhang Ye curled his lips helplessly, "Then the death in the illusion is also fake?"

"That's true." Ariel's voice became a little low: "As I said just now, the illusion we constructed is aimed at your consciousness. If you have the thought of 'I'm dead' in your consciousness , then the brain will naturally think that your life has come to an end. In other words,...you are really dead."

"But……"

"But you didn't really die, but became a spirit body, right?"

"Correct!"

"This is the power of the god of death protecting you." Ariel sighed, "All of us were once protected by the power of the god of death..."

Zhang Ye wanted to ask something, but Ariel asked first: "In the illusion, how did you die?"

"Don't you know?" Zhang Ye asked back.

"I don't know." Ariel shook her head and said, "It's not just me, all of us don't know. We just construct an illusion, and guide you and test you as characters in the illusion, but we don't know your experience."

"I was killed by a flame demon." Zhang also replied.

"demon?!"

Not only Ariel, but the other seven people were very surprised, and even Natsume Ya's expression changed.

"Obviously he...is not the administrator of our world, why did he encounter demons in the 'Illusion of Wang Ling'?"

Earl Hawke couldn't help looking at the others.

"Could it be that there is a problem with the illusion we constructed?" Onion Knight Jack Rhodes asked.

Everyone looked at Ariel.

Ariel hadn't spoken yet, but Natsume Ya who was on the side spoke.

"It's not about the illusion. I signed a 'Guardian Contract' with Zhang Ye earlier, and was successfully transported to the True Spirit Cemetery."

"Being able to sign the contract means that the will of the gods is still there, and being able to transfer the 'Nine Kings' to the cemetery of true spirits means that the rules of the illusion are intact." said the man in plate armor and holding a big sword.

The bearded man stroked the beard on his chin and said, "It's not about the illusion, that means..."

Everyone looked at Zhang Ye in unison again.

"Karma? Why are you looking at me?"

Zhang also looked confused.

"It seems that this... the administrator is really different, he really deserves to be an administrator from another world." Natsume Ya's cold and pretty face unexpectedly showed a hint of curiosity.

"Compared to others, I like him more." Jack Rhodes smiled heartily.

"Wait...can you let me know what happened? And...you all know I'm from another world?"

Zhang couldn't help but look at Ariel.

"This may be a bit long to say, are you ready to accept all of this?" Ariel asked back.

Zhang also blinked in a daze, and asked, "Is it too late for me to quit now?"

"It's too late, hahahaha..." Jack Rhodes patted him on the shoulder vigorously.

Ariel smiled slightly, and then said: "The 'Nine Kings', as the nine most powerful true spirits in the True Spirit Cemetery, have existed for countless years. Our existence and strength all come from The Cemetery of True Spirits, we also serve the Cemetery of True Spirits. From a certain point of view, everything we do is for the administrator. And you, as... the administrator of other worlds, are naturally the ones we serve..."

"So strictly speaking, the relationship between the 'Nine Kings' and the administrator is not equal. Maybe you understand?" Natsume said bluntly.

Zhang Ye nodded thoughtfully, "What do you mean..."

"It's good for everyone if you don't tell the truth." Xia Muya interrupted Zhang Ye.

"I understand, I understand!" Zhang Ye nodded suddenly.

What are you embarrassed to say, isn't it that you "Nine Kings" serve the "administrators" of this world...

"So you should be able to understand that due to unknown rules, we only build illusions to test whether the 'candidates' are eligible to become administrators. As for what the testees encounter in the illusion, we cannot directly I know." Ariel said.

"Unless... the testee tells you personally?" Zhang also asked tentatively.

"That's right." Ariel nodded, "Of course, each of us is aware of the interaction between our transformed character and you. It's just..." Speaking of this, everyone including Natsume Ya, Jack Rhodes, etc. The "Wang Ling" looked a little lonely.

"Just what?" Zhang Ye subconsciously took over the conversation and asked.

"It's just that everything in the illusion comes from the state of mind of the person being tested." Prince Ariane smiled and continued: "That is to say, everything you encountered in the illusion before came from the thoughts in your heart." !"

"What? My thoughts?" Zhang was also completely dumbfounded.

"Not only that," Natsume Ya took over the topic and said, "Even the images of us all come from you."

"Ka?"

Looking at the overgrown Natsume Ya in front of him, Zhang Ye blushed shamefully.

"Impossible? Sister Ai was indeed a cripple before! And I also suspected that this was an illusion because he was suddenly able to walk upright..."

"Sister Ai?" Ariel was stunned for a moment, then raised her eyebrows and said, "It is because I am not a cripple that I can walk normally. The initial image of a cripple comes from your inner image."

"Ah this..."

Zhang Ye's eyes swept over the onion knight Jack Rhodes, the middle-aged man and others one by one, and his face became more and more red.

It's really bad...I definitely played the Soul series too much, and the onion knight came out...and the dialogue...

The more Zhang Ye thought about it, the more ashamed he felt, and finally he felt ashamed to look at the "Wang Ling" in front of him.

"Hey, that's not right! Then... why did you react so strongly to the fact that I was killed by the flame demon? Is there anything else I don't know about it?" Zhang couldn't help asking.

Hearing this question, Ariel straightened her expression and said, "First of all, you need to understand one thing: there are demons in this world."

"Hmm... and then?" Zhang Ye frowned, and suddenly remembered what Sheila had told him that Atreia was destroyed by the Chaos Demon, and suddenly felt that things might not be that simple.

"But that is the enemy that the administrator will face after he gets the 'spiritual weapon'." Ariane shook his head and said, "It's not that we underestimate you, it's just...any demon, even the lowest level Inferior demons can kill you in an instant!"

"This... the amount of information is a bit large... but I'm not bragging... demons... I still killed a few of them!" Zhang also smiled with some complacency.

"The demons in the illusion are not counted." Earl Hawke reminded: "Although they are also demons, they come from your heart after all! The strength of real demons is very different."

Zhang Ye was startled at first, then remembered the demon vanguard he had dealt with with all his strength, and nodded in agreement. "In other words...it's something that won't be worth worrying about until a long time later, right? Or...I might never have to worry about it..."

The task Sheila entrusted to her to kill the Chaos demon lord Mayferil is very unrealistic when you think about it, so why don't you do it if you can?Zhang couldn't help thinking about it secretly.

"No, you will definitely meet a demon!" Ariel's expression became extremely solemn.

"Why...why?"

Zhang Ye was shocked by the spirit of Wang Ling revealed by Ariel for a moment, and hurriedly asked respectfully.

"As I said before, everything you encounter in the illusion comes from your state of mind. But the problem is, you encountered a demon in the illusion. What does this mean?" Arian asked back.

"It means... there is a demon living in my heart?" Zhang Ye asked tentatively with his big innocent eyes open.

Ariel: ...

Jack Lord: ...

Earl Hawke: ...

Natsume Ya: ...

"It means that you have memories related to demons in your heart!" said the bearded "Wang Ling".

"Memories related to... the devil?"

Zhang Ye murmured, but a passive magic skill suddenly appeared in his mind - the will of the king!
Although the background introduction of this skill comes from Altreyer, the founding king of Atreia, in fact, Altreyer also inherited the power of the black knight!

What is the black knight for?They specialize in wandering and hunting Chaos Demons!

Let me go... I thought I had mastered a magical skill, but it turned out that I got myself into a big trouble...