Chapter 227: The First Descent
Just then, a gunshot suddenly rang out from downstairs. Another followed immediately.
Agni’s heart tightened slightly. But his steps down the stairs didn’t quicken; instead, they slowed considerably.
He silently pressed himself against the wall, creeping downstairs. At the same time, he drew the pistol from beneath his overcoat, holding it slightly lowered, concealed in the shadow of his slightly oversized cuffs.
Unlike when Agni had arrived, the entrance now had oil lamps lit.
He saw from a distance that a young man with chestnut hair and deep, handsome features was standing at the front desk holding a gun. The smoke from the muzzle had not yet completely dissipated.
The thin youth who had been slumped over the front desk was now lying backward on the shelves in a contorted posture, lifeless. There was a shot to his forehead and another to his chest, and blood was slowly seeping out.
He glanced sideways, sensing something, and saw Agni standing quietly by the wall.
The tall, strong, black-haired man stood as straight as a sculpture. The light from the hall cast half his body into shadow.
Seeing this, the young man’s pupils contracted slightly.
He directly placed the gun he held onto the counter and spread his hands to show friendliness.
“Calm down, Mr. Agni. Don’t attack me, I’ve put my weapon away.”
The young man said in a deep voice, “We are on the same side.”
“You know me?”
Agni slowly spoke, walking step by step down the stairs.
His footsteps were heavy, creaking on the somewhat worn wooden floor. But this also exerted immense psychological pressure.
Just then, a flash of lightning struck outside, illuminating Agni’s face through the window for an instant. This was followed by rumbling thunder.
“I am Jacob Alexander. a reporter for the ‘Cow and Harbor’ newspaper…”
As he said this, he saw Agni’s slow, heavy steps showing no sign of stopping. He instinctively took half a step back and revealed more precise information: “I mean, I know you from the previous level.
“I know that the you of this moment is different from the you of the previous level, so I guessed we were on the same side. I think you are… Quicks?”
“Continue.”
Agni said curtly.
Jacob immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
“Since you say so, I think we are indeed on the same side, right?”
He quickly continued his explanation: “It’s like this… You might not know, but the flow of time or the entry point in each level is different. At least it’s asymmetrical. Because in another timeline, I have already communicated with ‘you’, and I have conducted some experiments and confirmed some rules—”
“Have you met that arguing couple in room 204? That woman is Wisteria, but not yet. She came down from a higher level to my level before, and we exchanged information. After that, I think she will descend to this level soon… She can corroborate my story.
“The reason I killed this receptionist is simple. Because I believed he was Merlin—or rather, I believed he couldn’t become Merlin.
“According to my investigation, the people in this inn are you and your daughter Daiya in room 202, the old supervisor in room 203, the couple in room 204, the dancer in room 205, and myself in room 206… Exactly seven people. Room 201 is empty, and with the addition of this receptionist, there’s no one else—no one in the kitchen, no one in the basement, I’ve checked everywhere.”
The reporter held up both his hands and spoke earnestly at a rapid pace, “Since that’s the case, then this extra receptionist is an unstable factor.
“Merlin said that he could ‘enter the bodies of any person in any dream level at any time.’ But he didn’t say ‘it must be the body of one of us seven people,’ so we cannot rule out the receptionist.
“And considering that Merlin cannot enter a body that is already controlled by us, if someone descends, he will be pushed out, and we will immediately be able to tell if he is Merlin. From this perspective, we need to exclude everyone outside of us seven as much as possible. Because he is an outsider, he will not descend as the ‘real one,’ thus cannot verify the truth—Can you understand what I’m saying?”
Seeing Agni still slowly approaching him, sweat beaded on the reporter’s forehead.
He sighed helplessly and lowered his hands. “Forget it, kill me if you want. It seems I can’t get through to you… This is also a form of information.”
Agni then pressed his gun to his forehead. Feeling the cold muzzle close, the reporter closed his eyes.
“—Bang.”
Agni mimicked the gunshot with his mouth.
He looked at the “reporter,” who had closed his eyes and then opened them in astonishment, with a seem-to-smile-yet-not-smile expression. “My dear detective, you seem to have very little confidence in my brain.”
“…Who are you?”
“I am Fox.”
Agni said smiling, unfazed by revealing his identity.
“So it’s you, kid—”
The reporter growled, “You like scaring me for no reason, don’t you?”
“No one else has come down yet.”
Agni didn’t answer the reporter’s question. “You’re quite calm. Or perhaps… their ears aren’t very good, and they can’t hear the gunshots?”
“Maybe they’re scared and hiding in their rooms.”
The reporter calmed down and continued his analysis, “Fox… no, to prevent your identity from being leaked, I’ll still call you Agni.
“Listen carefully, Agni. To make a long story short—since each of us appears in a different dream, it means that each level’s original resident is only one person. If another person appears, it means this is at least not the top level. Similarly, the more people appear, the closer you are to the bottom level.”
“Not bad.”
Agni nodded. “But there’s still a problem. As you said—on one hand, the flow of time in each level is different, or rather, the starting time point is different. This will lead to inconsistent progress.
“And, if someone among us appears on a higher level but lacks the courage to descend… say, Lulu. Would that make us think that we haven’t reached the bottom yet, when in reality someone just hasn’t arrived?”
“Then we’ll have to use the process of elimination.”
The reporter thought for a moment and said seriously, “Because considering that if I don’t quickly explain the principles to others… someone might kill everyone on this level. So I decided to descend quickly… In fact, I’ve already descended two levels.
“On my original level, I saw no one. To avoid missing out on meeting others, I immediately committed suicide and went to the next level. On the level above, I met Wisteria. And at that time, I suspected the receptionist was Merlin… because he was deliberately stalling for time, looking for excuses to make me wait a little longer.”
The young Jacob narrowed his eyes. “I wanted to conduct an experiment. So, after agreeing with Wisteria, I killed the receptionist first and then committed suicide to reach your level.”
“You were verifying if the two receptionists were the same, right?”
Agni replied. “If the two receptionists are different, then it means one of them is Merlin.”
“Exactly. And just by descending one more level, we’ll know which one is the normal receptionist.”
“But you overlooked another possibility—the receptionist could also be one of us.”
Agni said slowly. “And with your verification, Merlin might be able to disguise himself as the receptionist even more perfectly.”
“—So, I chose to kill the receptionist.”
The reporter replied. “Regardless, it reduces variables. Not only that, but I will kill the receptionist on every level. If he is an Ascender, then he can tell me himself.”
“…I see. I understand your thinking.”
Agni narrowed his eyes.
If the receptionist was not an Ascender, killing him would increase Merlin’s cost of possession; if the receptionist was an Ascender, and he was killed, he would descend to the next level with his memories.
“Judging by this logic, we can also kill anyone once like this. Since we were born on levels 1-7, and our goal is level 0. This means even if this is level 1 for me, we can still die once more.”
Agni pondered. “As long as one has memories after dying, it proves one is real, right?”
“But there’s a variable to exclude here.”
The reporter calmly continued, “If someone claims to have committed suicide and descended to this level, but there’s no one on the level above to verify their identity—then there’s a possibility that they are Merlin, pretending to have descended while actually being disguised as a descender.
“I considered this problem, so I established a secret code with Wisteria. This is to confirm that we did exchange information and both descended from the level above.
“But even so, there will be another problem…”
“—The time difference.”
Agni continued. “The process of you waiting for Wisteria to descend is also a delay. And according to previous deductions, the longer the delay, the more unstable the lower level becomes.”
The reporter snapped his fingers and smiled, satisfied. “Precisely.”
“So what’s your plan?”
Agni asked.
“—Very simple.”
The reporter, whose name was the same as Agni’s grandfather, replied, “We die together, and we live together.”
Saying this, he picked up the revolver on the table and aimed it at Agni’s forehead.
“If you’re not Merlin, then you are the true Fox.”
The reporter said calmly. “We’ll go directly to the next level—when Wisteria comes down, seeing our posture, she’ll definitely understand what happened. She’ll also find someone to pair up with for mutual killing and verification.
“Wisteria and I can verify each other, you and I can verify each other, and she can bring one person. This way, we’ll have confirmed the identities of four people… we’ll just need to exclude Merlin from the remaining three.”
“…Heh, a two-person team? Fine, I’ll listen to you. Then let’s investigate further on the next level, partner.”
Agni chuckled, raising his hands fearlessly, also aiming at the reporter’s forehead. He then used his other hand to lower the gun pointed at his forehead to his heart.
“You shoot first.”
Agni said calmly. “Even if I’m shot in the heart, I can fire instantly.”
“Okay.”
The reporter’s lips curved slightly.
After a brief pause, two consecutive gunshots echoed through the hall.
Just like when the ritual began… Agni felt his consciousness slowly sinking into a dark, deep sea.
Then, he suddenly felt a slight suffocation. He jolted awake, as if breaking out of the water and creating ripples.
—He seemed to have dozed off and opened his eyes.
A very faint voice came from behind him: “Dad…?”
“…Why aren’t you wearing clothes?”
Agni looked at the wet clothes he had taken off laid out in front of him, and his lips slowly curved upwards.
He turned back, spread his arms, and displayed his newly changed clothes. “Aren’t I wearing clothes properly now, Daiya?”
Daiya stared blankly for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Oh, right…”
“Why would you think I wasn’t wearing any clothes?”
Agni wasn’t angry, he just asked patiently.
“…I don’t know.”
Daiya covered her forehead with some distress. “I think I had a Nightmare… I dreamed that Dad was naked, swimming in the river…”
Agni walked over and gently stroked her hair.
“It’s okay.”
He said softly. “Sleep well, goodnight.”
Through his fingers, Daiya’s silky, fine brown hair felt warm.
Update finished, meow!
