"Dear Officer, I am a veterinarian... and well, you might not be aware of how well-paid this profession is in Backlund. In short, it's a career more sought-after than most actual doctors. After all, the pets kept by those noble families are worth hundreds of gold pounds at the very least. You must understand that for many who call themselves respectable gentlemen and ladies, their entire household savings wouldn't even reach that figure."
"And your point is?" As he listened to Snow's introduction of his profession, Dunn nodded slightly and followed up with a question.
"My point? A young, wealthy man with a good-looking face--it's only natural for him to be popular with women, right?" Snow waved his arms flamboyantly, an air of vanity instantly overflowing from him.
Dunn was, after all, a veteran Nightmare. He had seen countless people's dreams and was quite experienced with such displays. However, before he could react, he saw Snow suddenly deflate, his colorful persona fading as he continued in the tone of a drunkard who had had far too much to drink, "But who could have guessed that woman was actually the mistress of a Vals Party leader! If I had known she had that kind of background, I wouldn't have provoked her even if it killed me, okay? I even suspect the whole thing was a trap they set for me! Let me tell you, those Backlund gangs and the hooligans here in Tingen are on completely different levels. They're the kind of people who truly kill without blinking an eye!"
Seeing Snow's emotions becoming increasingly hysterical, Dunn immediately tried to soothe him, "Since you're so afraid, come with me to the police station. Once we've confirmed you aren't involved in anything, we will provide you with protection."
"The police station? That sounds good. Does your prison have private cells? It would be best to lock me up where no one can visit! Oh, and the food has to be decent. Fish and chips is my absolute baseline. You can't force a middle-class man with a monthly income of over 50 pounds to eat pig slop..." As he listened to Snow's demands, the corner of Dunn's mouth twitched slightly. Though he knew thoughts in a dream could easily go off-track, this was the first time he had heard such... liberate requests.
However, he did not lower his guard. Instead, he maintained the dream's progression, leading Snow toward the 'police station'.
...
Roughly fifteen minutes later, Klein's heart finally settled as he saw the Captain and Leonard reappear at the inn's entrance. It wasn't until the two climbed back into the carriage that he couldn't help but ask:
"How did it go?"
"His performance in the dream was quite normal. There were no obvious contradictions in his words. I tried giving him several opportunities to escape, but he remained obedient throughout. He even hid behind me when a 'dangerous' event occurred on the way, as if he felt being by my side was the safest place. This fits the expectations of a commoner with a bit of wealth regarding the police."
'True, only those with a guilty conscience would seize an opportunity to run--just like me...' Dunn's words undoubtedly triggered memories of Klein's own previous dream-interrogation, making him grumble inwardly. He then turned his gaze toward Leonard.
Feeling Klein's eyes on him, Leonard shrugged and said, "There were no Beyonder items in his room, and no signs of anyone climbing through the windows. Although there was perfume in his trunk, it's just ordinary men's cologne--not the essential oils or extracts needed for ritualistic magic. The only thing even remotely connected to mysticism was a silver antique knife, but it's only about three or four hundred years old; it's not a Beyonder item. If there's anything abnormal about him, it's that he's too handsome! He's actually only a tiny bit less handsome than me... Alright, fine, I admit it--he might be a tiny bit more handsome."
As usual, Leonard's lighthearted remarks eased the somber atmosphere. As the carriage started moving again, the conversation turned toward Klein's upcoming induction mission.
...
Watching the carriage depart, Snow, who had already extracted himself from the dream, gently stroked the little kitten licking its paws. Although he knew he had likely passed the test, he remained vigilant, simply lying lazily on the bed and staring blankly at the ceiling.
'Hanass Vincent is dead, and I've intercepted the notebook. Two of the triggers that would have increased Dunn's mental burden have been removed by me. Now, everything depends on how that hack screenwriter decides to rewrite the script...'
While Snow was lost in thought, the image of a stallion made of white clouds suddenly surfaced in his mind. As the horse galloped through his consciousness, a series of whispers began to echo in his ears--
"Lord of the Mysteries is just a novel. Many readers have seen it, yet none were corrupted, and none were gazed upon by higher beings because of it. Therefore, I will not be corrupted or watched because of the knowledge I gained from the story of the Lord of the Mysteries..."
The voices were layered and repetitive, constantly stimulating Snow's nerves. During this process, his spirituality drained rapidly, like a river breaching a dam. Strangely, however, while nearly a quarter of his total spirituality was siphoned away every second, his reserves remained consistently at the three-quarters mark.
The whispers lasted for a full minute before finally ceasing. Only then did Snow breathe a sigh of relief and withdraw from his semi-meditative state.
"That damn pen again! It's practically killing me. Can the 'Author' even be played without being nerfed?"
Gently rubbing his throbbing temples, Snow slowly adjusted his mental state. The world of Lord of the Mysteries was truly treacherous; without a sufficiently sturdy 'cheat', any 'Dragon-Awe' transmigrator would be brought to their knees.
Yes, Snow was indeed a transmigrator, and of the most tragic variety at that. In other worlds, knowing the plot meant being able to seize every resource available. But in the world of Greas-- no, Mystery... let alone 'plot-dividends', knowledge itself was poisonous!
Actually, simply transmigrating into the world of Lord of the Mysteries would have been one thing. The tragedy was that the moment he woke up, a 'crazy-beauty' had been sitting before him, sliding a cup of emerald-green, bubbling, viscous liquid--looking exactly like something scooped out of Gul'dan's cauldron--toward him, nearly saying, 'Drink, this is your destiny.'
It was only because his cheat was powerful enough that he wasn't currently a member of that 'crazy-beauty' group.
As for his cheat, it had a truly significant background. First was a sefirot named 'A White Horse is Not a Horse' [White Horse Paradox], and second was the corresponding Uniqueness of its pathway--'A Foot-long Stick'.
This sefirot and Uniqueness did not belong to any of the original twenty-two pathways, nor were they any of the external sequences mentioned in the original work that originated from the Great Old Ones in the cosmos.
If he had to give it a classification, Snow felt it was more like the path mentioned in the original work before the Blasphemy Slates appeared--the way transcendent species used to advance:
The so-called 'cross-pathway consumption'.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika Kagura]
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T/N: Gul'dan's Cauldron
This refers to a popular Chinese internet meme (古尔丹,这个锅你不背也得背). In Chinese, "carrying a pot/cauldron" (bei guo) means to take the blame or be a scapegoat. Gul'dan (from Warcraft) is often used in these memes as the "ultimate scapegoat" for any disaster.
T/N: A White Horse is Not a Horse (White Horse Paradox)
A famous paradox from ancient Chinese logic (Gongsun Long). It argues that the "name" of a white horse (specific color + shape) is not identical to the "name" of a horse (general shape). In this novel, it serves as the name of a Sefirah, symbolizing the Paradox pathway's nature of challenging logical identity and definitions.
T/N: A foot-long stick
From the Zhuangzi: "A foot-long stick, take half of it every day, and it will never be exhausted." It is a paradox regarding infinite divisibility, representing the Uniqueness of the Paradox pathway.