Mysteries: Arcana Wars

On a sunny afternoon, Klein and Leonard sat in the cafe again.

Leonard's file had been removed from the normal commuting post, and within the specified time, he had to rush into the underground city and meet up with the Tesla siblings. But there was still some time left for the two to discuss their future plans.

This coffee shop has a good view, and you can see Fors's apartment in the distance.

The two still had no idea what kind of trip they should give Fors. They were not sure whether it was safe to take Fors down to the dungeon.

“Shall we go down together, or will you go alone?” Klein asked.

"If possible, it would be best if I go down alone, and you can stay on the ground to deal with the situation there." After thinking for a moment, Leonard suggested, "The two churches, Abraham, and some other forces will surely be ready to make a move during this period. If we lose the little control we have over the situation on the ground in Backlund during this period."

Klein agreed with Leonard's opinion. If both of them were trapped in the underground city, Emlyn would be the only one watching the situation on the ground. And Emlyn was restrained by the Earth Church Hospital and could not make any intervention.

Leonard is now the one who has eaten fish and chips for more than a thousand years, and Klein believes in his assessment of the current situation.

"From your perspective, the identity of 'Unlucky Wandering Magician' still needs to be strengthened. It is best for you to continue to move around the streets as both the unlucky ghost and the wish-making machine until you completely take down the 'Merlin Hermes' identity card."

In the highly information-based world of Backlund, identity data is very important in every aspect of life. From a person's birth to school, consumption to work, every trace he leaves in this world is converted into data and concentrated in the library. All your trajectories are under control, so the huge and cold monster of the city shows mercy and allows you to linger in its bloated body.

Even the poor people at the bottom of the slums have their own information in the database. With this identity card, they can get a small amount of relief to avoid starvation. Of course, it doesn’t matter if they really starve to death. For your citizen status of subsistence allowance, the government will reluctantly show some love to help you.

In the current database, "Merlin Hermes" is a person without a past. This "identity" was registered in the database more than a month ago with the guarantee of many parties. This is still a restricted identity. Merlin cannot enter and exit various occasions in Backlund like a normal Loen citizen. It will take some time to observe if he wants to regain his citizenship.

Of course, for those criminals with identity problems, it is difficult to move on the ground. Therefore, the dungeon has become more prosperous with the development of society. Hacking into the identity information system is also an idea, but the server of the Loen identity system is blessed by the Steam Church, which is very difficult in various aspects.

“Then I’ll operate the puppets, one on top and one on the bottom, and move them at the same time, is that okay?” Klein suggested.

"It's hard to say. I think it's a bit difficult." Leonard said honestly, "Because we don't know where the Tesla siblings are in the underground city, or whether we will go to a place beyond the control of the secret doll."

"So the dungeon is this deep?" Klein was a little surprised.

"No one knows where the deepest part of the underground city is." Leonard recalled, "Before the Sky Curtain War, there was an engineering team doing experiments and digging deep underground. They reached an incredible depth that no one had ever reached before... I don't know what happened in the end, but the project was suddenly terminated and most of the workers on the construction site suffered serious contamination...

"In fact, during the construction of the previous dungeon, there was a consensus that the deeper you live underground, the easier it is to become crazy and out of control. The church's consensus is that there is still terrible extraordinary pollution in the unexplorable depths of the earth, but the [underground well] has only dug to this depth."

"Then...if we take Fors down to the dungeon, will it be dangerous?"

"Normally not, because at least the underground city areas I know of are still very far away from the pollution and far from the depth of the [underground well]. But it is true that the deeper you go, the easier it is to go crazy and lose control."

Klein looked toward Fors's apartment. The curtains on the window were still tightly drawn.

"If we take her to the underground city, can we just take her on a tour of the shallow underground?"

"I hold a conservative opinion. But I think we can contact Fors first." Leonard added, "If it doesn't work, we can use dreams to give Fors an exploration journey to see if she is willing to accept it."

"Okay, then I'll go contact Fors first, and you go prepare to go to the dungeon?"

"Okay, let's do it."

The two were about to pay the bill and leave when Klein was suddenly stunned.

"Wait, the online server just received a wish."

Klein suddenly took out the communication terminal, on which was Scott's third wish made to the online fully automatic wishing machine.

"I wish for the Manstein notebooks now in the Gales Library."

Later, Scott kindly sent a bunch of information, and these documents told Klein that the Gales Library had long been buried underground and was completely out of the control of the Steam Church.

"It looks like I'll have to go to the dungeon with you this time."

******

Is it day or night?

Fors wasn't quite sure.

She woke up at the desk. The tightly closed curtains made her completely lose her sense of time. She could only turn on the screen in a daze and look at the cold numbers to understand the situation outside.

Oh, it’s already afternoon.

I still have time to finish the manuscript.

Just as Fors was about to open the web page to look for inspiration, she heard the doorbell ring.

After staying there for a few seconds, Fors reluctantly got up and opened the door. Unexpectedly, the person standing outside was actually a street magician.

"Hello, young lady. I'm sorry to bother you. I will be having a street performance in a nearby square this week. If you are interested, you are welcome to come and support me! It doesn't matter if you pay or not. I am a wandering magician. I am very happy that you are willing to come!"

The enthusiastic magician stuffed the small flyers into Fors's hands without saying anything. By the time Fors realized what was happening, she had already held a few of them in her hands. She looked outside and found that the cracks in the neighbor's door were also filled with the magician's flyers. There were also a few children from the neighborhood holding the flyers in their hands, curiously following the magician around the building.

"Oh, by the way, ma'am, be careful recently. It is said that this area is not very peaceful right now." The magician said mysteriously, "Some people say that several urban legends in this area have come true!"

Fors was a little scared of the magician's familiarity and enthusiasm, and was a little disgusted by his pretentious tone. She simply thanked him and closed the door to say goodbye.

Back at her computer desk, Fors began to feel endless fatigue again. She forced herself to click on the material website she often visited, but found that the familiar webpage did not appear, but jumped to an unfamiliar website.

【Fully automatic online wishing machine】

...This kind of promotion that says you can make your wish come true for just two pounds is obviously an unreliable one.

After quickly reading the simple web page, Fors attributed it to the kind of supermarket marketing tactic that buys a large box of eggs for two dollars.

She actually thought of the recent rumor about the wishing machine, but she just listened to it as a story. After actually seeing it today, Fors found it very boring and decided that it was just a promotional website and the so-called weird talk was just hype.

Fors closed the page without hesitation.

Urban legends are not lacking in this era. From the latest wishing machine stories, to the long-standing online ghost stories, to the even older adventurer stories whose names I can no longer remember, the protagonist seems to be Mr. Canary, Mr. Sparrow, or Mr. Cuckoo...

As her thoughts wandered, Fors fell asleep again. After a while of deep sleep, she was awakened by a slow knock on the door.

When I opened my eyes, it was already midnight.

After sitting in front of the computer for another ten seconds, Fors moved to the front door and opened it.

In front of the door stood a very well-dressed man. He was about 1.8 meters tall, wearing a classic Loen hat, a pair of neat gold-rimmed glasses, and a well-cut, retro and traditional black Loen three-piece suit.

"Good evening, Miss Forth Wall."

The stern-faced man seemed to smile, then he took off his hat and performed a standard Loen etiquette smoothly.

"I hope you can pack your things and come with me in ten minutes. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Wait... who are you?" Fors was a little confused.

"German Sparrow." The man stared at her motionlessly. "You have nine minutes and thirty-two seconds."

"…No, what's wrong with you? I don't even know you!"

"Nine minutes and eight seconds."