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Chapter 4296 Collection
Chapter 4296 Collection
Normfins said they would encounter three forks in the road, but there were actually far more than three.
However, most of them are useless side roads, leading to dead ends.
There are only three forks in the road, which are the correct paths leading to the next area.
Liriel and the Decayer had already explored several forks in the road. They chose the right direction and stepped onto a new secondary fork, only to find it was a dead end. They went back to their starting point, tried another fork, and it was still a dead end.
All four branches of this secondary road were completely wiped out.
Although the correct intersection wasn't found, this secondary fork in the road wasn't entirely without its benefits.
At the end of a fork in the road, they found a treasure chest.
"How could there be a treasure chest in a maze?" The withered man stared blankly at the obviously exquisite and luxurious treasure chest in front of him.
"It's normal to have treasure chests in a maze, right?" Liriel said in a low voice. "Although I've never explored a maze, I seem to remember that mazes usually have treasure chests as rewards for explorers?"
Seeing Liriel's matter-of-fact expression, the withered creature initially didn't want to respond, but after a moment of silence, it couldn't help but say:
"There are indeed some treasures in the abyss, such as the treasure that Nomephnes once guarded. But there won't be any treasure chests. Treasure chests are basically something that only appear in adventure novels or storytelling, supposedly as rewards for heroes, but actually just to use positive feedback to attract readers to keep reading."
Liriel thought about it carefully, and it seemed that her memory of "treasure chests in the maze" really did come from an adventure novel she had read when she was young.
Lillie couldn't hide her embarrassment.
The Decayer added quietly at the end: "Besides, even in adventure novels, the treasure chests in the labyrinth aren't necessarily all rewards; they might be treasure chests that have turned into monsters."
The air fell silent.
After a long pause, Liriel quietly tried to salvage the situation: "Although the treasure chest's design is quite unusual, we did fall into this space from the Dream Bridge. Although I didn't sense much of the ephemeral nature of 'dreams' here, it's impossible for this place to be unrelated to the Dream Realm."
"It's normal for any strange setting to appear in a dream."
"Perhaps the prototype for this maze came from someone who loved reading adventure novels?"
The withered man thought about it and felt that this explanation seemed to make some sense.
It did not argue.
In the realm of dreams, I am definitely no match for Liriel.
Seeing that the withered one said nothing more, Liriel secretly exhaled a breath of stale air, then looked at the treasure chest: "Let's assume that this place really was transformed by a dream, then the meaning of the treasure chest in the dream might really be similar to the setting in adventure novels."
"It's either a reward or bait."
"Should we open it and take a look?"
The Decaying One: "What does the curator think?"
Liriel shook her head: "No need to call me Master, just call me Liriel."
“As for my thoughts, I personally prefer to act cautiously.” Lillard paused, “However, my intuition tells me that in an unknown place, if we don’t take some risks, we might very well be trapped here and die.”
"So, I plan to... open it."
Although she decided to open the treasure chest, given Lillie's cautious nature, she didn't open it immediately.
Instead, he was recalling the results of his previous exploration in his mind.
She remembered that at the end of another fork in the road, there was a broken mechanism connected to a pit that had long been exposed.
If a monster resembling a mimic appears after opening the treasure chest, perhaps we can lure it to that pit.
After discussing with the withered creature, they signaled it to retreat to the fork in the road behind them, which was not far from the pit they had discovered earlier, so they could escape in time if anything went wrong.
She tensed all her muscles, moving very lightly as she slowly made her way towards the treasure chest.
With his fingertips hovering in mid-air, he didn't rush to touch them, but instead focused his mind on sensing them for a moment.
Although her senses are currently restricted, her innate sense of danger has not disappeared.
Based on current intuitive feedback, there does not seem to be any danger.
“I’ll count to three and then we’ll open,” Lillie’s voice was low and tense. “If there’s even the slightest movement, we’ll run towards the pit immediately, without hesitation.”
The withered one remained silent, only nodding, his aura suddenly sinking, clearly prepared to deal with any unexpected situation.
Liriel took a deep breath and counted in a low voice, "One, two... three!"
The moment she finished speaking, she reached out and grabbed the lock on the treasure chest, then suddenly lifted it upwards.
A cloud of mist rushed towards us.
Liriel instinctively took a few steps back, even making a defensive gesture.
However, no suspicious danger occurred.
After the mist slowly dissipated, Liriel looked at the treasure chest again and found that it was completely empty.
Liriel: "..."
Although the result was somewhat disappointing, it was still a good thing that there was no danger.
Liriel spun around, preparing to leave with the withered one.
But just then, she suddenly noticed that there seemed to be some...things in front of her?
She blinked sharply and rubbed her eyes.
Those extra things still haven't disappeared.
It just appeared out of nowhere in her visual system.
"You saw it too?" came the voice of the withered one.
Liriel and the Decayer exchanged glances. Seeing that the Decayer's expression was just as strange as hers, she tentatively asked, "...A treasure chest?"
The withered one nodded, then replied, "And Normefens."
Upon hearing this answer, Liriel immediately understood that the withered one was the same as what she was seeing.
The same thing appeared in their field of vision—
In the lower right corner of her field of vision, Liriel saw two logos: one was a treasure chest, and the other was a miniature thumbnail of a lion-man.
In addition, there is a number behind the logo.
In words, it would roughly mean:
Treasure Chest Icons: 1/99
"Lion icon: 1/36"
Moreover, as they move, the two icons in their field of vision also move, as if they were marked by some strange property.
Liriel and the Decayer discussed it and found that their situations were exactly the same.
Although they don't know what technology this special "view-following" feature is based on, they can still guess its meaning simply from the icons and numbers.
“This should be some kind of ‘collection’ concept,” Lillie said.
She opened the treasure chest, and the number 1 appeared on the chest.
The Lion-faced figurehead likely refers to the Wall of Questions. They just passed through the Wall of Questions, hence the number 1 after the Lion-faced figurehead.
"If I'm not mistaken, we have to open a treasure chest and go through the Wall of Questions once to unlock this vision."
"The numbers in your field of vision represent the progress, while the slightly larger numbers behind them represent the upper limit of what we need to collect."
As for what changes will occur after collecting all these items, Liriel doesn't know yet.
The Decayer also agreed with Liriel's guess.
The progress is displayed in the field of view, and the number is also marked. This "collection" element couldn't be more obvious.
The question is whether they should collect it or not.
Is collecting treasure chests and the Wall of Questions a good thing or a bad thing?
Liriel: "I personally prefer collecting."
"The appearance of the treasure chest suggests that the prototype of this interrogation maze may be related to adventure novels."
"So, according to the setting of adventure novels, the elements to be collected usually have great significance, or even a certain achievement or reward. Generally speaking, the probability of receiving negative feedback after collecting them is not high."
"Moreover, our current situation is not much better. We are stuck here and urgently need to change, and the emergence of this collection element is a clear variable."
At this point, Liriel looked at the Decayer: "Besides, whether we collect them or not, we still have to explore this labyrinth of questions. Like the Wall of Questions, we still have to break through it no matter what."
Also, they had explored several side paths before, only to find them to be dead ends, which left them somewhat frustrated.
However, if they have the motivation to collect elements, they won't feel like they've made a wasted trip if they happen to find a treasure chest on a dead end.
"Between aimless wandering and purposeful collection, I would prefer the latter."
"If we're really worried, we can always find a way to ask Normefens about the significance of the collection when we encounter the Wall of Questions later."
In the eyes of the Decayers, Liriel's analysis was logically sound.
It thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "Let's do it that way, explore and collect as much as possible."
After leaving this fork in the road, they continued to explore the unknown labyrinth as before, but the atmosphere gradually changed.
As Lillie said, exploring with a goal is better than wandering aimlessly.
……
Above the void, Normefens looked completely bewildered.
"What were they talking about just now? They were talking about treasure chests one minute, collecting things the next, and then they mentioned me?"
Normefens knew there were treasure chests in the labyrinth, but it did not know what was inside.
Even if it is the person in charge of the interrogation maze, it has no right to peek into the contents of the treasure chest.
As instructed by the Great Will, the treasure chest is in a state of complete chaos before it is opened, and what will be inside will only be determined when it is opened.
There may be some rewards, but there may also be dangers.
Only the person who opens the treasure chest can know exactly what it is.
Since the treasure chest was also unknown to it, it was also looking forward to seeing what kind of changes would occur when it saw Liriel and the Decayer open it.
As a result, not only was there nothing there, but after opening the treasure chest, Liriel and the Decayer started saying strange things.
This naturally left Normefens completely bewildered.
“They saw the treasure chest and your icon,” Angel’s voice came from the side.
Normfins looked on in confusion: "Mr. Angell, can you see the icon they're talking about?"
Angel nodded: "Okay."
He could not only see the icon, but he also knew the meaning of "collecting" the moment the power surged from the treasure chest.
Normfins asked cautiously, "...Can you tell me?"
Angell chuckled and nodded as he looked at Normefens's cautious demeanor.
Instead of explaining directly, he used illusion magic to create the same icons and numbers as the Decayers and Liriel right in front of Nomefens.
Normefens wasn't stupid; the moment he saw the icons and numbers, he immediately understood the conversation between Liriel and the Decayer.
"So that's what collecting means." Nomefens had just realized this when he suddenly remembered Liriel mentioning that she would go to the Wall of Inquiry to ask about the meaning of these icons.
Normefens became anxious again; it didn't know the meaning either. This was bestowed by a great will; how could it know?
Confused, Normefens looked at Angel again.
Angell: "You can understand it as the collection of elements being tailor-made for them by the Great Will, and its significance is to repair the loopholes in the existence of Fairyland."
What is a Wonderland Glitch?
Anyone without an identity is a loophole when they enter the fairyland.
For example, the first-generation bug was the Sun and Moon Wizard, Tired, Blanche, and Camillo in the Uriel dungeon.
In the first generation of bugs, apart from Camillo, everyone else was a "big shot".
Especially Blanche.
Don't underestimate her just because she's an apprentice. She possesses a "dream design" talent that's practically heaven-defying in the dream world, definitely at the mysterious level. Even though fairy powers are powers, when you're weak, it's hard to go head-to-head with a talent like dream design.
Furthermore, the power of the fairy realm is not a confrontational power; it is a creative power.
Faced with the invasion of the first-generation bug, the Wonderland Authority took action.
It displays directly in Luigi's text bar: "You have triggered the random event: 'The Traveler from Afar'".
Yes, it directly defined the first-generation bug as the Traveler.
Ultimately, it was Angell who solved this problem.
Once Angell confirmed that they had no intention of intruding, he resolved their identity issue, allowing them to remain legally.
This time, a second generation of bugs appeared, namely Liriel and the Decayer.
Perhaps having a precedent to follow, when faced with the second-generation bug, Fairy Realm's solution was the same as Angor's: issue an identity.
But it didn't issue a direct statement.
Instead, they used "collection" as a springboard.
That's right, the number of treasure chests collected and the number of Walls of Questions cleared are the tasks that the Fairy Authority assigns to Liriel and the Decayers to grant them their identities.
If they can complete this task, they will obtain a writing section and be eligible to stay legally.
To be precise, only Liriel needed to use this method to obtain the legitimate identity of Dream Crystal Plains. The Decayer was not a bug; it was a Dreamer certified by the authority of Fairy Realm.
However, the entry of the Decayer this time was not legal, so it has been temporarily classified as a bug.
The above is the result that Angell obtained by analyzing the information of the power of authority.
Angel was also quite surprised that the Wonderland powers would use this method to fix bugs.
However, considering that this is not the first time that the powers of the fairy realm have encountered a similar situation, whether it was the first-generation bug or the divine thoughts of the demon god, it is the same.
So, Angell gradually accepted it.
The powers of the celestial realm are, after all, nascent powers. If nothing unexpected happens, they may be “law powers” that have never existed in any other world!
It's normal for newly established authority to have bugs; this is just a necessary growing pain.
However, with Angell's support and its own continuous efforts to patch loopholes and improve regulations, the final form of authority will surely be perfect and self-consistent.
For example, Angell thought this "collection" task was quite good, given the way it was handled this time.
Instead of giving it directly, they used progress as a threshold.
In this way, the final identity granting result can be adjusted while continuously observing Liriel. In other words, if Liriel's threat level exceeds expectations, simply hiding a treasure chest can halt their progress in obtaining legitimate identity, nipping the risk in the bud.