After carefully reading the manual provided by the System, Tang walked towards the mountain while taking out his marionette from the System space. "The optimization of the Sealed Artifact, besides adding a 'can shield some unknown murmurs' function, mostly falls on this ring."
Considering himself a part of the sealed core, participating in the normal operation of the entire theater...
Bypassing the negative effects inherent in the Sealed Artifact, considering himself a part of it, and at the same time not causing the 'living' sealed core to resist—did the System dig out a piece of the sealed core to make the ring? No, it wasn't just that...
"System, you didn't go and 'lick' the theater core to threaten it, did you?"
Tang looked at the ring on his little finger. Many mystical symbols were engraved on the ring, mysterious and dangerous, similar to the symbols that floated around and acted as a backdrop after the 'Craftsman' was opened, symbols that current mysticism couldn't touch.
The thing behind the System had a higher sequence than the theater core. Intimidated by the higher being, the theater core was likely to show weakness, thereby abandoning part of its core power and allowing the System to make it into a ring.
Similar to the 'Underworld' borrowed by the Death pathway, which could seal the negative effects of mystical items, such as above the gray fog; the former was a special space created by the ancient God of Death, equivalent to the ancient God of Death's divine kingdom, located deep in the spirit world, with a very high sequence, while the latter had a power even stronger than that of a True God.
The one most affected by such extraordinary means, and with considerable say, oh, 'the starving one who dares not wriggle.'
'How is that possible!' the System retorted loudly. 'This is normal! Optimization! It's optimization!'
Was it that kind of system? No, absolutely not!
Understood. While 'licking' back and forth with mystical knowledge, it also locked the theater core in a small dark room, forcing the theater core to compromise to avoid further knowledge contamination leading to the complete loss of its 'activity'; or it used something similar to 'Knowledge Follows the Person,' a method of knowledge backflow, to let the theater core know its place.
After all, 'living' meant it could communicate, be threatened, and reluctantly concede.
Even if it was made stupid by knowledge, the core could still be used.
This meal for the System was truly worth it.
Facing Tang's 'loving' gaze after understanding everything in seconds, the System: '...'
The System twisted, the System screamed, the System prepared to阴暗爬行 (crawl darkly).
'Hehehe, you saw through it all. Then I won't hide it anymore...'
"Are you serious about that laughter... Read less novels..."
Ignoring the System, whose screen was full of 'I'm not listening, I'm not listening, you're talking nonsense, ah ah ah, I'm going crazy, you're talking nonsense and ruining my reputation,' Tang unconsciously turned the ring.
"It can avoid the marionetting inherent in the theater, and it also allows me to allocate the resource configuration within the theater at any time."
He walked forward while thinking, "That is to say, I can choose who participates in the 'performance' and who doesn't become a marionette."
The 'Never-Ending Theater,' if placed in the Church, would belong to a Level Zero Sealed Artifact.
Highest danger, highest priority, highest secrecy level, unaskable, untellable, undescribable, unpeekable, corresponding to the sequence and power of Extraordinary individuals at the Angel level and above.
It was said that some Level Zero Sealed Artifacts within the Church could even destroy countries or the world.
And the resources that the Never-Ending Theater could mobilize were undoubtedly terrifying, whether it was the marionette formed by the countless Extraordinary characteristics left behind, or other normally controlled Extraordinary individuals.
As long as this theater was given time, with its speed of expansion, it might not be long before it could envelop the entire Tingen.
Everyone in the entire city jointly performing a grand drama. In this way, perhaps the very existence of the theater itself could soon meet the ritual requirements for a Sequence Two advancement of the Seer pathway.
The risk was indeed not taken in vain, Tang sighed silently.
"So, with the 'Proprietor's Ring,' this Extraordinary item, can the theater also be considered my 'marionette'?"
"What did you find?"
Tingen City, the northwest corner, dilapidated and desolate, under tents that looked severely damaged and falling apart.
This place was shrouded in the power of the night, and everything was hidden in areas invisible to ordinary people.
Wearing black robes with red trim, with a kind and quiet face that gave off an unspoken sense of fear, the old clergyman examined the traces left at the scene. Hearing the question, he simply shook his head at the old man beside him, who was clearly white-haired but looked strong and vigorous.
"No special traces left behind."
"According to the testimonies of those rats we caught in the gutters, a great battle should have taken place here before."
Archbishop Stavenger of the Storm Church frowned. "Tingen is not like Backlund. The Church's power cannot radiate to all parts of Ruen. These damned heretics always find all sorts of loopholes."
"There must be high-sequence Extraordinary individuals lurking nearby! Perhaps they haven't gone far yet! We can still track them!"
For the Extraordinary individuals of the Storm Church, finding—asking—drawing conclusions was a simple three-point line.
"But they didn't leave anything." The old man remained calm. "The traces have all been erased, leaving only some insignificant things that allow us to confirm that this place was indeed subjected to some kind of 'concealment' erosion. Even divination is extremely difficult."
The intervention of high-sequence Extraordinary individuals was inevitable, but their purpose couldn't be determined. What happened here after those civilians and Extraordinary individuals fled?
"No matter what the heretics want to do, we only need to abide by the divine decree given by the Lord, protect the people, and isolate the danger..."
A gust of wind blew through, the darkness dissipated, and the remaining traces were completely razed to the ground, as if a circus had never appeared here, and no one had ever come.
Controlling his marionette to catch a few wild rabbits and also taking some bird eggs, Tang slowly and leisurely went deep into Mount Mutt.
He took out the pendulum he had prepared in advance from the System storage, divining while determining the next location where the theater needed to unfold.
Using mystical methods to find a suitable location and waiting for the pendulum's response, Tang put the game into the System storage in the meantime, preparing to go back and use the newly obtained white sugar to make some new delicacies.
When the pendulum gave Tang the correct response, he took out a black box from the storage.
The box was square and looked unremarkable.
It was very light and also very small in volume, making it very convenient.
Tang opened the box, revealing the delicate and small puppet inside.
In an instant, an invisible force emanated from within.
The night seemed to shroud the sky, and a huge curtain silently and invisibly appeared overhead, blocking the sun.
"What should the secret organization be called?"
Tang thought.
He tilted his head. "How about... Miskatonic* (Note 1)?"
Miskatonic University.
Did this truly exist in the real world, was it a certain period in the past?
Note 1: Miskatonic: Abbreviation for Miskatonic University, a fictional university in the Cthulhu Mythos. The university has extremely high levels in fields such as archaeology, psychology, mysticism, and medicine. Its library has a rich collection of books (on mysticism) and has cultivated many legendary investigators.
(End of this chapter)