"The story takes place in the distant past, long before the discovery of the second trial, where people could only watch as their power waned and their life's efforts were wasted. In the First Era."
"Of course, many could not bear to see such a scene, and they struggled, though most were in vain."
"This story is one of such struggle. This is the story of the mayor, or to be more precise, the one who is inhabiting the mayor."
"He was but a nameless necromancer, one of many who stood at the peak of that era."
"His fate should have been similar to those before him. But he refused to perish in the ebb of time, and the price of it was the town's demise."
Martha suddenly said, "sorry, but can you please stop with all the nonsense? There's no need to be so poetic. The necromancer took over the mayor; then what?"
Yun Jierou's eyelid twitched, Kexin had righteous indignation written all over her face, the men had to hold back their laughter, and Yinuo simply regarded Martha with contempt.
Yun Jierou sighed, "the necromancer took over the mayor and he pretended to be sick. That was the start of the plague. Following that, several people passed away, starting from those who were closer to the mayor."
"He removed those who were familiar with the mayor to prevent any obstructions to his next course of actions."
"All the disappearances were simply attributed to the plague. The townspeople raised the issue to the mayor. The mayor told them that he had asked for someone to put a temporary barrier around the graveyard to prevent the spread of the plague. Once the festival was over, he could properly deal with them."
"The townspeople held the festival in great regard and did not see anything wrong with his approach."
"The barrier around the graveyard concluded his first step."
"The second step is even simpler; he cursed the underground water reservoir."
"The third step is to dig out a place below the graveyard and separate a portion of the reservoir and turn it into the lake."
"The fourth step is simply the formation below the lake."
"The fifth and final step is to simply wait."
Seeing her stop, Martha blinked, several question marks popping out of her head. "Eh, you done?"
"Not quite. Do not be hasty," Yun Jierou said.
Martha's lips twitched, having a sneaking suspicion that she did it deliberately, but no matter.
"The entire purpose here is to gather enough desires to make a wish. Every action is to that end. The barrier around the graveyard, cursing the reservoir, the formation, and the lake below here. Everything."
Martha seemed to understand something, several nodes linking together.
"As This Yun stated, the desire involved here is the desire to live. The graveyard is made to simply extract the desire of the dead through living corpses. They have a strong attachment to the living."
"Cursing the reservoir is to extract a portion of the townspeople's spirits and place them inside the lake where they would generate desires. He placed half of his spirit into the lake to manage the spirits within."
"Finally, there is the formation under the lake. It is also his life's work. It has a simple but powerful function: to turn desires into an outcome. Truthfully, even This Yun cannot understand the principles behind it. It is nothing short of a miracle for something so intricate to have appeared in the First Era."
Yun Jierou sighed with emotion.
Martha cocked her head, "what did he wish for then?"
"What do you think he wished for?" Yun Jierou asked back.
"Probably immortality, but the result doesn't corroborate," Martha said.
"You said his wish at the end was to remain eternal, was it not?" Yun Jierou gave a hint.
'Remain,' Martha keenly caught the hint, "so his wish was to become eternal?"
Yun Jierou nodded, and before she could continue, Martha cut her off, "I don't think he meant this sort of eternity, though."
Yun Jierou stared at her silently, making Martha reveal an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, please continue."
Yun Jierou stared at her for a tad longer before she continued, "he did indeed not wish for it to turn out like this. But he had no control. It was a gamble on his part. And he had nothing to lose even if he had lost the gamble."
"In fact, the issue was not with the formation, at least not with its functionality, but with its capacity."
"The meagre amount of desire it could manipulate was not enough to fulfill the wish how he had wanted it to."
"However, the wish was offered, and the formation had to find a way. And that way was to turn the town into a trial space."
An involuntary 'Ah' left Martha's throat. Yun Jierou continued unimpeded.
"In a sense, the necromancer succeeded in obtaining his eternity, but the price was to forever remain in that eternal loop."
"That was until we came and broke its cycle. You said that we were engaging the BOSS in the cavern. That was to prevent him from making a wish."
"The loop is self-sustaining. The festival is repeated, and so is the wish the necromancer makes. It is the wish that maintains the trial space's stability."
"If he had managed to make the wish, then we would've been directly cleared out, as we do not belong to the loop."
"With hindsight, it is apparent that our approach was incorrect. But we didn't know enough at the time, so we could only delay the inevitable."
"The correct approach was to clear out the spirits in both the lake and the townspeople. However, that is also very difficult. This needs to happen simultaneously, because if we touch either of them, the necromancer will directly break out of the cycle."
"After the cycle was broken, we in fact had no power to stop him. So we could only place our hopes on your talent. It did work. Unfortunately, it was still too late. Or rather, the necromancer had to give up on the spirits and use the wills to activate the formation."
"The formation granted the necromancer's wish by modifying the trial space to include a dream. The goal is for the necromancer to make a final wish in this dream to completely transform the trial space's structure. As it is now, it's a mix of two trial spaces."
"You thought that the necromancer had been defeated and revived us, which caused us to be swept into the dream. That was another mistake; if you had delayed your wish a bit, we would have escaped the dream."
Everyone stared at Martha, and Martha pointed at herself, mouth open, "so it's my fault now? You could've told me you didn't want to be revived, and I would've found a place to bury your pieces."
Yun Jierou's eyes crinkled, and she shook her head, "please do not be angry. This Yun is not faulting you. This Yun is merely analyzing what could have been."
Martha waved her hand, "I know, I know; I didn't take it seriously. Anyway, so the reason there's no solution in the dream is because it's a half-formed trial space?"
Yun Jierou shook her head, "even if it was fully formed, there would be no solution. Or rather, having awakened, the necromancer has become aware of what had become of him, so he would naturally not want to repeat the same loop over and over again."
"If he does succeed, then this trial space is sure to become a fatal difficulty trial."
Martha blinked, "there's a difficulty above impossible?"
Yun Jierou nodded, "so we can only approach the trial from outside the dream."
Martha looked at her, then suddenly started clapping her hands, "thank you, that was very informative."
Yun Jierou narrowed her eyes, a frown creeping up to her features.
Martha simply continued, "your deductions are on point; however, you missed a few crucial details."
The group was alarmed and quickly distanced themselves from Martha.
"Since when?" Yun Jierou asked.
"Since the very beginning, girl," Martha chuckled, "the kid told you that he and I can control the townsfolk. You should listen more to what people say."
Seeing their guarded reaction, she waved her hand. "Come sit; I don't have any other intentions. I just want to talk. You should know if I could do something to you, I wouldn't have spared you to this day."
The group looked at Yun Jierou, waiting for her command.
Yun Jierou closed her eyes, her hands under her sleeves rapidly pinching her fingers, and a crease stretched on her brow as time passed.
When she finally opened her eyes, a look of disheartened despair flashed in her eyes.
Martha chuckled, "it seems you managed to discover something. Too late girl. Too late."
Then without waiting for a response, Martha spoke with emotion.
"To think that my time is now simply summarized with two words: First Era."
She continued with gritted teeth, "All the suffering, pain, and struggle is just ignorantly reduced to two measly words!"
She then sighed, "It does rub one the wrong way."
"Girl, tell me, how long ago was that?"
Yun Jierou calmed down and spoke, "Senior, the history of that era is not well preserved, but it is estimated to be between five to six thousand."
"Five to six thousand…" Martha muttered quietly. Then she suddenly started to laugh. She laughed so much that she held her stomach, a tear forming at the corner of her eye.
"I was right after all! I was right! They laughed at me, but now where are they? Where are they? Who is laughing at me now?"
The group simply stared in silence, ready to retreat whenever Yun Jierou gave the signal.
Martha gradually calmed down, the last laughs bubbling out of her as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, "sorry, sorry, this old man got a bit emotional. Where were we?"
"Ah yes, the details. The details. Yours was a lovely story, girl. But you missed three points."
"First, it's not just desire, but also obsession. The dead have no desire; it's obsession that I extract."
"Second, you did not prevent me from making a wish, nor did you break the cycle. In fact, in the loop, the wish is manifested with certainty after a predetermined duration without needing a third person. It was the kid who broke the cycle, and it was the wish that woke me up."
"Third, and most crucially to you, the solution to all this is indeed outside the dream, but the kid has made another mistake. He shouldn't have come into the dream."
Martha raised her hand, and a small projection of SV appeared hovering above it. In the projection, SV was shackled, his hands placed inside metal gloves to prevent his fingers from moving.
SV seemed to know someone was staring at him and gave a bitter smile.
The group's expression turned ugly.
Martha fisted her hand, and the projection disappeared, and a grin appeared on her face.
"You think I just let you plan under my nose? I wasn't wasting my time listening to you drivel, girl. I was gathering the kid and his appendages, and you, girl, served as the perfect distraction. You have my thanks."
Martha chuckled, "no matter the era, some things remain the same. Coddled brats are always too relaxed—too inexperienced."
Yun Jierou's expression turned ugly.
Just then, Martha blinked her eyes, confused as to how she had wound up here.
Then she saw Yun Jierou and her group looking at her and suddenly screamed, "Ah! Witch!"