World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 296 Some Strange Things

monkey?

Lin An looked around, but he didn't see any monkeys.

Misuru must be in some kind of danger.

Many of the mysterious archetypes in the Southern Continent are based on animals. For example, the carpenter Zai uses animals to create illusory spaces that make it difficult for people to distinguish between reality and illusion, eventually leading to their emotional breakdown.

If they encounter a "visionary," Misuru might see something different from what Lin An sees.

Have you seen that free spirit/mysterious figure?

“Yes, I just tied him up not long ago,” Misuru said. “He was wearing a straw hat and a jersey with the number 37 on it.”

The blacksmith in front of Lin An was wearing old camouflage clothes, completely different from the one described by Misuru.

When you met him, was he repairing a large pot?

“Maybe, after all, he’s a blacksmith.” Misuru seemed a little puzzled. “According to my informant, when he strikes the anvil with his hammer, a bright flash of lightning is produced.”

What other characteristics define his mystery?

"I briefly sparred with him for a few seconds. In summary, besides being good at quickly processing iron and copper, he can only manipulate flames in direct combat, and the force is very weak. I estimate that he is a 'god of agriculture' of the supernatural level."

"The Holy Blacksmith... [Finz], huh?"

Legends of the god of forging often appear in the myths of various civilizations. The gods or races that hold this power often live in seclusion, usually in places where they can access the earth's natural minerals, such as deep caves or near volcanoes.

The techniques of forging and smelting determine the hardness of weapons and are an integral part of human life.

As a nomadic agricultural civilization, the Bantu people naturally valued forging techniques.

According to legend, Fenz was a river god who lived in the lower reaches of the Kuba River.

He had a similar appearance to humans, and therefore did not want to see his "kin" being bullied by animals. So he revealed himself and showed humans how to process iron and copper to make weapons and armor.

“Finz? I’ve heard his story.” Misuru suddenly realized, “Then he might be a disaster-level, but his awakening time was too short, his radiation level was not high, and he was not good at direct confrontation with the medium, so I easily took him down.”

"Are you sure?" Lin An asked suspiciously, "Because the blacksmith is standing right in front of me, but you're not at the place we agreed to meet."

"I'm gone?" Misuru was also taken aback. "Speaking of which, Lin, are you really on Udim Street?"

“Of course.” Lin An turned and walked out of the alley back to the main road. “Not only did I not see you, I couldn’t find a single one of your soldiers either.”

"I will send someone to bring you to join me."

After waiting for ten minutes, Lin An still hadn't seen a single ghost. He couldn't help but send a message: "Misuru, I suspect there's a 'visionary' lurking here."

"A visionary?"

Lin An recounted his experience fighting Zai, and Misuru seemed to fall into deep thought, only sending a message after a long time.

“It doesn’t seem like it. There’s nothing unusual about the surroundings.” He paused, then said, “You want me to try killing this blacksmith?”

The blacksmith in the alley was on guard against Lin An's actions, working half-heartedly. The pot, after being carelessly hammered and banged several times, became even more crooked and twisted.

Even so, he had no intention of attacking, but simply kept using his eyes to shoo Lin An away, hoping he would leave on his own.

“It might not be him. This dreamer may be hiding in the shadows. Don’t move. Let me meet him.”

Lin An immersed his consciousness into the "One Eye of God," and his field of vision suddenly rose, allowing him to observe the movements of the entire block from above.

Perhaps the "Dreamer" was too well hidden, because Lin An only discovered the blacksmith, a mysterious figure.

Just then, Misu suddenly wrote a message.

"Are you really my ancestral spirit?"

Lin An, who was exploring, caught his breath, thinking that the other party had discovered his fake identity, but then Misuru continued.

"It's like this, Lin, you're actually right next to me right now... We're on our way back to the hotel."

"What?" Lin An didn't react at first.

“My soldiers found you, and you confirmed that this free agent is [Finz], a disaster-level being. We've decided to escort him back to the hotel for 're-engineering.' You just asked me to participate in the Ranger members' meeting this afternoon because you have something to say.”

I go.

Is someone impersonating me?
“Misuru, that’s an imposter!” Lin An warned hurriedly. “You’ve entered the Dreamer’s Space, and everything you experience here is unreal! Don’t let your imagination run wild, and don’t agree to anything!”

"Uh……"

Sensing Misuru's wavering, Lin An flew over Mbanbuka and expanded the search area of ​​[God's One Eye], continuing his search for the possible visionary.

In the bright daylight, this "flying man" act immediately attracted a crowd. Residents put down their work, some kneeling in worship, some rubbing their eyes, and some discussing it loudly.

Something flew by!

"My grandmother, was that a person, or a rather large vulture?"

"Evil Eye, begone! Evil Eye, begone! Please don't punish me!"

Unfortunately, despite the pressure of public panic, Lin An still came up empty-handed.

Half an hour later, he landed and was about to change his search strategy when he suddenly heard a system notification.

"You have received a message from user Ranger_10. Do you want to check the user's status immediately?"

Ranger_10 belongs to Meyer's system, Lin An nodded.

"Check."

He happened to want to talk to her about something.

"Lord Ancestral Spirit, do you know when the Grand Elder's legs were healed?" To everyone's surprise, Meyer sent a strange message.

“August 7th, 2038,” Lin An said truthfully, which was his first day back on the planet. “What record are you making, Maye?”

“The Lion Clan and your chronicle,” Mayer wrote meticulously in French. “Once I’m done, could you import it into each employee’s file?”

"Alright, it's a historical event now." Lin An was about to take control of the conversation when he saw Meyer reply with an even stranger message.

"Who exactly are you? Lord Ancestral Spirit just rejected my proposal a few seconds ago."

what happened?

If it were just that Misuru was unfortunately ambushed by the "Dreamer," how come even Meyer saw a fake version of him?

Could that mysterious person be at the Lambridge Grand Hotel?
"You have received a message from user Ranger_6. Do you want to check the user's status immediately?"

"You have received a message from Ranger_7..."

"You have received a message from Ranger_8..."

Immediately afterwards, a flood of messages came from Misuru, Edward, and Fu Bin, all asking Lin An a similar question.

Forest rangers are all around us, but who exactly are you?

A chill crept up Lin An's spine. He stared at the cold, flashing code moving rapidly, then simply waved his hand to hide all the data and decisively returned to the Lambridge Grand Hotel.

Shortly after entering the hotel, Lin An waved to the hotel's butler, instructing him to immediately summon all members of the Ranger system to the top-floor office.

Only four people arrived as promised, and Lin An scanned their puzzled faces one by one.

"Where's Misuru?" "He went down the mountain with Ogunkavo, saying he wanted to test his skills against those gangster warlords." Seeing Lin An's serious expression, Fu Bin used humor to smooth things over, "Looks like he didn't select you in his group message. Just have him add you next time."

Lin An frowned and remained silent.

The unbearable silence lasted for a long time before Maye broke it with her voice: "Lord Ancestral Spirit, what are your orders?"

"It's nothing..." Lin An waved his hand, "I'm just a little confused."

"Can't tell what?"

"true and false."

If these people are real, then who is the one who keeps replying to him at the World Tree?
“Forester, have you been working too hard lately?” Edward asked with concern. “Life without coffee is unbearable.”

“I remember there’s a Star9 delivery service in Kinsasha. Why don’t we check if their dedicated Star delivery service can deliver to Mbanbuka?” Fu Bin suggested.

“Star Nine is practically soapy water!” Edward exclaimed, his eyes wide. “I absolutely refuse to admit that’s coffee!”

Lin An listened to his increasingly familiar companions bickering. Their personalities were just as vivid as he remembered. Most importantly, the light spots and panel data they displayed in the "empty mode" couldn't lie.

It's not a counterfeit.

Does that mean the World Tree itself is malfunctioning?

Is the system acting up again?
There has been no recent effort to reduce pollution levels, and Lin'an's readings are already close to 30%.

"I haven't encountered any bugs," the system's cold notification sounded. "All data modules are functioning normally, code monitoring is normal, and data display is normal."

"Has the current level of pollution not affected the World Tree?"

"no."

"Are you sure?"

"I never make mistakes." The system's voice, which should have been emotionless, was tinged with impatience at being questioned.

But Lin An had no time to worry about it. He anxiously chatted with his companions for a while, and after confirming that they were all normal, he decided to go to Mbanbuka to look for Misuru.

After all, the strange thing was that he had captured a free-spirited mystery man.

The World Tree system's location indicated that Misuru was in the Grand Hotel. Following Fu Bin's directions, Lin An walked down the hillside that connected the city and the wealthy district.

The sun was blinding, and the air was thick with moisture. People came and went on the streets of Mbanbuka, with women carrying children on their backs and men carrying cement, all busy at work.

Having visited the pharmacy for seven consecutive days, Lin An walked the route with practiced ease when suddenly a very familiar conversation reached his ears.

"I heard the big hotel on the mountaintop has changed hands."

"It's Kinsasha's elites again."

"This time there was bloodshed! The leader of that group is called the 'Forest Ranger'..."

Lin An was struck dumb. She turned her head sharply and saw a group of old people gathered under the shade of a tree, surrounded by a woman haggling over prices, a tailor, a hairdresser, and her sons who were filling palm oil containers.

"This honey is so sweet, it's totally worth all these pimples on our faces. Ouch, don't touch it—leave some for me!"

Several stylishly dressed teenagers, carrying a beehive, emerged from the alley, their hands and faces covered in honey. They brushed past Lin An, who stood there dumbfounded, and glanced back at him.

"Is that person lost?" they whispered, while the bolder one shouted, "Hey, where are you going?"

His words seemed to have flipped a switch, and Lin An ran towards the pharmacy without looking back, the place he had become most familiar with these past few days.

"call out--"

The short woodland, like a long-nosed elephant, grazed beside the neo-Romanesque building, while a slender man wiped his sweat and hummed a song as he swept the ground.

Lin An patted him on the shoulder. The man was the herbalist, who looked completely bewildered with a confused expression.

"Are you alright?"

"It's nothing, I'm just here to buy some medicine."

He clearly has the face of a herbalist, but he is not a mystic.

It turns out that it wasn't Misuru who encountered the "Dreamer," but rather I who was truly attacked by the mystery.

Lin An released the innocent herbalist and walked straight to the pharmacy, speaking in a cold tone.

“Zai, no… ‘Prophet,’ it’s you who’s behind this.”

"They discovered it so quickly. Forest rangers, you truly are the source of knowledge seekers."

The usually gentle and calm voice echoed in his mind, but now it carried a hint of gloom.

"Don't be so aggressive, I won't hurt you... it's just a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"what do you want?"

"Your time."

"What a joke, do you think you're a capitalist?" Lin An pushed open the door of the pharmacy while talking to the prophet.

The prophet did not answer.

The pharmacy was brightly lit, and plump women chatted about village gossip while cleaning up the greasy floor. They thought Lin An was just an ordinary customer.

The young man sat at the cashier's counter, fiddling with an old-fashioned flip phone. Only the old man in the corner, yawning, glanced at Lin An with his cataract-bearing eyes before leaning back against the wall to continue his nap.

No one exuded that lifeless, numb, and indifferent aura.

Is this reality?
Lin An, too lazy to waste any more words with the prophet, decided to explore on his own.

He walked straight toward the familiar basement entrance, where an employee leaning against the shelves stepped forward to stop him.

"Young man, the toilet is over there."

"Where does this door lead?" Lin An asked casually.

"The warehouse is usually brought in by trucks from the other side," the female employee replied.

"Can I come in and take a look?" Lin An took out his wallet from his pocket and gave her a 2-yuan note. The old lady was overjoyed and quickly opened the door with her key.

"Come, let me take you down."

Following the familiar staircase, Lin An arrived at the bottom. He looked around and compared the current view of the basement with the view in his memory.

After a moment of thought, the strange truth became clear.

“My world and Misuru’s world are all real. Even the world of the first seven days exists in reality. The shapeshifter is a real person, and the herbalist is also a real person, but they exist in different timelines.”

Lin An took a deep breath.

“The previous warehouse walls didn’t have these marks from years of moving goods, and there was no moss or fungi on the sides. So I guess I went to the old pharmacy.”

The prophet remained ambiguous and silent.

"The moment you met the herbalist, you manipulated time."

"..."

"Am I right, God of Truth?"

(End of this chapter)