World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 138 Changing Lives

"You have obtained the mediums 'Chief Judge' x5, 'Seeker of Knowledge' x3, 'Emperor of War' x2, and 'God of Agriculture' x1."

"By using mystical arts, the radiation value of the [Mystic Encyclopedia] has increased by 0.4%."

Hearing the broadcast, Lin An breathed a sigh of relief.

The wand's gems were still active on the deacons, preventing them from switching to spells of airflow, healing, or illusion. Lin An had to use additional arcane magic, consuming the extra medium.

Joshua's rating was higher than Lin An's, so he couldn't be included in the system. However, he did receive some media and, most importantly, some seekers of knowledge.

At this point, all tasks for this time rewind have been completed.

To rule out any unforeseen circumstances, Lin An decided to wait for the system to announce the deaths of the three deacons before having the moose send him back to the original timeline.

Lin An looked around. Due to Joshua's frantic pressing of buttons before his death, the LED display screen was riddled with mosaics, gradually revealing the mechanism hidden in the double-layered material.

This is the central control room of the highest level of "intelligence," and also the perfect area for murder and cover-ups.

Even so, Lin An couldn't just swagger out like that. Although the main control room was empty, it didn't mean that there were no employees in other parts of the "smart" area.

Even with the blessing of the "God of Truth," if too incongruous an event were to occur rashly, the fragments of time might collapse or deviate from their original path.

However, Lin An was prepared. He walked to the body and put his hand on Joshua's shoulder.

"System, use the [Fairy Kidnapping] skill from Tame the Fairy III: Phantom Spirit."

This is a mysterious spell that consumes 2 'Gods of Agriculture' and 1 'Nature Priest' to allow Lin An to replicate an individual's physical characteristics. As long as he is not recognized by those around him, he can continue to disguise himself indefinitely.

Phantom Spirit, also known as Shapeshifter Spirit or Life-Changing Spirit.

In the folklore of the Western Continent, fairies or elves often secretly replace human babies with a disguised infant and take the latter to their fantasy kingdom.

The concept of phantoms originated from the medieval belief that infants were easily possessed by demons. In Kogshere Ralph's "Chronicle of the Middle Ages," it is explicitly stated that fairies would abduct unbaptized children.

To avoid being discovered by humans, when fairies steal babies, they usually leave behind a fake shapeshifter that looks exactly like the baby, but is an out-and-out fairy.

These phantoms typically have deformities, disabilities, or intellectual impairments that worsen as they grow older, and they disappear on the spot when abandoned by their parents.

There are also legends that fairies would abduct young boys and girls, transform into their likeness, and walk covertly in human society.

Phantoms truly entered mainstream culture during the Victorian era.

Folklorist Charlotte Gere argues that as modern industrial progress swept through rural Victoria, Victorians rediscovered their faith in fairies as a form of rebellion against disillusionment with the world and a pursuit and nostalgia for the spiritual fantasies of the past.

"Unveiling the Veil of Isis" claims that this obsession with fairies is a typical modernist obsession involving West Africans' fear of things outside their own culture.

In conclusion, for spiritualists and theosophists, the fairies offer an imaginative interpretation of the soul, representing that the bond between nature and humanity has not been broken by industrialization.

Feeling the energy covering his entire body, like a thin, delicate new skin, Lin An couldn't help but touch his face.

Deep contours replaced his original facial features, and looking ahead, he saw Joshua's image reflected on the computer screen.

In the real world, such a disguise would be easily recognized, but with the blessing of the "God of Truth," Lin An only needed to play Joshua to get through the next two days safely.

Lin An picked up the lifeless body, stuffed Joshua under the chair, and then sat down in the comfortable chair.

Blood droplets slid down the waterproof coating, revealing a complex and intricate hidden keyboard.

In addition, Joshua's desk was lined with monitors, projectors, and countless glowing ring buttons.

The electronic light flow is like stars within reach, with varying intensity of cool tones that almost dazzles the eye.

"Brother System, since you're a system yourself, could you hack into the St. Anilov Foundation's operating system and get me some instructions?"

"I am not a system, but the [Mysterious Encyclopedia]," the system replied ruthlessly.

"Can't you even try? It's one thing if you can't even collect the source A-level data, but how come you can't even help operating a supercomputer?" Lin An joked a few times to ease his emotions. "Useless."

“The Source B-level is very strong; you were too reckless.” The system’s tone carried a hint of helplessness. “It’s only been three months since I opened my eyes, and you’ve already stormed the St. Anilov Foundation headquarters and confronted the Source A-level. If we had stayed in Dietrich…”

"Playing it safe and developing your character, huh? You want to join me in the farming/development strategy?"

"Yep."

"What a joke! The 'Commerx' radiation only lasted for a maximum of ten years. Now, there might only be seven, eight, or nine years left. Every day is a countdown to the disappearance of the occult!"

"That's true..." the system wanted to say a few more words of persuasion.

"Why does a subconscious mind always like to contradict my thinking?" The system remained silent.

Lin An didn't want to talk to it anymore. The more polluted this thing was, the less he could connect with it. They were simply not on the same wavelength.

"Beep beep beep!"

A loud notification sound rang out, and Lin An saw a button flashing brightly.

A few lines of code flashed through his mind. He quickly connected the keyboard to the input and buttons, then tentatively pressed the Enter key. After testing it about three times, a checkmark appeared on the screen.

The face of a foundation employee appeared on the display screen.

He first greeted Lin An, then began to report on the work situation in the office below, and finally explained the purpose of his visit.

According to the schedule, Joshua should have been off work by now.

The inspection team's working hours are not very humane.

"No need, I still have things to do tonight." Lin An said, mimicking Joshua's tone and accent. "You did a great job, go and rest first. I have robots and artificial intelligence to help me here."

"Team Leader Joshua, we are deeply moved by your enthusiasm." The employee quickly volunteered, "If you need to work overtime, we'll work overtime with you. Is there anything we can do to help?"

Holy crap, where did this "King of Involution" come from?

It wasn't that this employee was overly diligent; the inspection team had just been established, and Joshua was appointed by the president, so these employees dared not leave their posts easily, for fear of losing their jobs.

Lin An didn't want to be bothered by him, and after struggling and pushing away with his employees for a while, he saw that Lin An looked hesitant and was just about to find a way out. After thinking for a moment, he put his hands together and showed an elegant and proper smile.

"My instruction is that you all enjoy your rest time, even if you see other people busy working."

"Oh……"

The employee felt it was time to be persuaded by his boss, so he politely replied with a few words of thanks and praise, then said goodbye to Lin An, who followed suit and cut off contact.

Without X's support, the Foundation's electronic technology is not particularly complex, and Lin An can easily execute some basic commands.

After all, he was an amateur programmer who wrote the World Tree Forum code with Sasaki.

After dealing with the employees in the "smart" area, Lin An turned his attention to the monitoring screen and entered a command, which zoomed in on the details of each area.

The "Wisdom" area consists of two overlapping circular pyramids. The three levels inside, from top to bottom, are the dark and simple corridors and rooms where Lin An first arrived, the circular hall where the deacons rest, and the main control room that belongs exclusively to Joshua.

There are two floors on the outside. The bottom floor is parallel to the circular hall, where dozens of employees walk around and tidy up their things. The upper floor is parallel to the control room, where all kinds of robots are on standby, their lights breathing as if they are charging.

The buttons to operate them were also in the control room, but Lin An didn't want to try it easily. There was no need to disrupt the rare headquarters exploration time just to pilot a Gundam.

He is in the highest level of the deserted "wisdom" zone, where many secrets of the St. Anilov Foundation will be revealed!
Combining his memories and observations, Lin An pondered as he explored the archives in the control room.

Despite gaining access to the control room, he discovered that many confidential documents in the system were locked with electronic locks, constantly stumping Lin An with the first password.

I wonder what password Joshua will set for these files.

During the exploration, Lin An also left his seat and paced around the control room, hoping to find clues about the password, like in an escape room game.

The LED screen doesn't directly cover the floor and walls; it's separated from the actual space by a special transparent material, creating the illusion of being very close by using depth of field.

Unfortunately, Lin An didn't find any clues related to numbers, but he did find a few keys while rummaging through drawers and cabinets.

He tried everything and finally managed to open one of the locked cabinets in the control room, which contained a lot of useful paper documents.

In addition, because Joshua was new to the area, the control room did not store much of the St. Anne's Foundation's top-secret information, and the cloud required password access, so Lin An could not log in.

His biggest gain was obtaining some information that Joshua himself brought from his family.

Although most of them are secured with multiple combination locks.

Lin An dared not blindly enter the password, fearing that too many incorrect attempts would trigger a system alarm. He could only cautiously search for and save information with lower security permissions.

After a whole night, he collected all the unencrypted electronic data in the control room and put them together.

Using fragmented information, Lin An pieced together the truth about Joshua, the inspection team, and the foundation's rules of conduct.

"We are not alone."

The very first sentence of the file piqued Lin An's interest.

(End of this chapter)