Deity Investigation Report

Chapter 88: A 100% Safe Route?
No matter how nervous Han Su was, the black cat clearly didn't care at all.

It didn't even bother to exchange a glance with Han Su, just barked impatiently, wagged its fat rear end, and headed straight for the stairs.

Han Su looked around and had no choice but to tiptoe after it.

"Monster, come on, let's see if I don't cut you down..."

"Damn it, you actually came..."

Upon arriving on the third floor, in a room not far away, Han Su could hear a woman's eerie yet cheerful laughter, along with a violent little boy's fearless and unrestrained cursing. Han Su felt another pang of anxiety.

This guy never disappoints; he's still fighting...

But the black cat ignored him, turned straight into a nearby storage room, went behind a cabinet, crawled inside, and passed through a deeply hidden half-height door.

Han Su's heart stirred slightly. The path the cat was walking on was one that he had never discovered before, a hidden passage or gap.

This castle is peculiar. It appears to be clearly divided into layers, and you can go up the stairs on both sides. However, Han Su had long ago discovered that there are often some strange and huge rooms in this castle.

For example, on the same floor, one room might have a ceiling height of three meters, while another large hall could be as high as seven or eight meters.

There are countless other eerie and bizarre structures, some containing machines whose purpose is incomprehensible, and others displaying unknown objects like an exhibition. Walking among them is like traversing a chaotic and indescribable nightmare.

Han Su's consistent principle for escaping has always been to stay away from these strange things and only follow the logic he can understand to find a route that might allow him to escape.

But now that I'm following this fat cat, it's like an unknown, hidden passage is being fully revealed before my eyes.

He saw countless bizarre parts within the castle, seemingly arranged in an orderly fashion. There were rooms that shouldn't exist in terms of space, and secret passages that shouldn't have been built in theory, yet they did exist.

Normally, even if Han Su discovered the existence of such a passage, he would never think of going in, lest he be blocked by monsters inside.

But this time, he had no choice but to follow the Black Cat Duke through one huge showroom after another, where he saw countless broken machines, dim crystals, and huge, empty paintings.

The instruments of torture placed on the table were stained with blood from an unknown owner.

There were pieces of human parts, like clay, carelessly discarded. Han Su looked at them carefully and wondered why they looked so similar to the dummy he had seen when he was taking an assessment at the Disaster Management Bureau.

'Is this part of the grotesque fragments?'

Even amidst the tense escape, Han Su felt a sense of dread: 'Why are there so many bizarre fragments related to reality in this ancient castle?'

His doubts had grown dramatically with this brief visit.

If the castle appears merely gloomy and mysterious on the surface, then these hidden corners and spaces seem to hold endless cruelty.

It's a pity that his only companion was a cat, otherwise he didn't know how many questions he would have wanted to ask...

However, just as the initial shock of seeing these things began to fade, Han Su suddenly realized an important issue:

"The route this cat led me on was extremely important..."

"..."

There are so many hidden corners that I wouldn't have discovered even if I went back ten times more than this cat hadn't led me there.

Moreover, these passages seemed to be part of the castle itself, unlike the damaged parts he had previously borrowed. Theoretically, these places should not be repaired by the mysterious will.

Every time I try to escape from the castle, there is always a risky process, because the only places I can choose are stairs, windows, pipes, etc., and I can never avoid these monsters, and I even have to encounter them head-on.

"If I figure out the location and purpose of all these hidden passages, and with the invisibility spells I've mastered, then next time..."

"Is it possible for me to bring a small child out without taking any risks?"

"..."

He couldn't help but be moved by the idea.

They even subconsciously began to combine their knowledge of the castle in their minds, automatically piecing together and connecting the dots to form possible escape plans.

Several of the plans, almost the instant they were first conceived, gave him an urge to try them out…

He always felt like a child playing hide-and-seek with adults in this castle.

In this game, space is key.

However, the mysterious will of the castle destroyed this advantage, but the appearance of this cat seems to have made up for it.

Almost as if in a dreamlike state, Han Su followed the cat through the various nooks and crannies of the castle, occasionally hearing faint, frantic sounds.

There were faint, giggling and chattering sounds; it was the wooden puppets on the fourth floor bullying Li Manman.

There was the sound of an old record player; it was the pale giant listening to a record.

There were faint, frantic shouts and curses; the irritable little boy had been caught. Han Su, having endured countless moments of anxiety, had gradually become numb. Instead, he looked at the calm, languid cat, finding it increasingly familiar, yet tinged with an inexplicable strangeness.
"Did I ever own it?"

"I must have raised it before, right? The more I look at this fat, stunted creature, the more familiar it seems, but why can't I remember it?"

"..."

As I was pondering this, I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

He stopped and turned around. He was now in what seemed to be a secret passage between walls, with some holes in front of him letting out a little light.

Holding his breath, he looked out through the hole and saw a thin, upright figure from behind.

It was the old butler who had just returned to the castle, and he was speaking to the person in front of him.

The room's layout was familiar to Han Su. Upon closer inspection, he recognized it as the room where he had found the key during his last escape.

The old butler faced the bronze coffin that bore the cross-shaped scar on him and smiled as he spoke: "I have personally retrieved the mechanical fragment you were concerned about. Since it was inconvenient to bring it back here, I placed it in the Lilac Mansion."

"When your great power comes into reality, that mechanical fragment will naturally appear on its own."

"..."

After he finished speaking, he listened intently, and a strange sound emanated from the air, like the friction of metal.

The old steward replied with a smile, "You need not doubt the great emperor's sincerity."

"The lies of traitors will eventually fade away, and wise men will always hear the true voice of history. When the king reigns, his followers will be kneeling on the steps."

"..."

Hearing these words, Han Su felt a strange tremor in his heart, filled with a peculiar feeling.

He knew the old butler would leave the castle on the first night, but he never knew his purpose. Was he going to retrieve some mechanical fragments?

Mechanical fragments, mechanical fragments...

The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Suddenly, a thought popped into his head: the message Black Rose had given him was about the mechanical fragment on display at the Midtown Science Museum. Wasn't that the one that was stolen on the day of the kidnapping?
Could it be that the culprit behind that theft was actually the old butler of the castle?
The possibility he had never imagined suddenly appeared before his eyes, and Han Su found it difficult to connect all of this together.

He realized the importance of the message in an instant and remembered the name "Lilac Mansion".

Amidst the surprise and doubt, wondering what was said inside the bronze coffin, the old steward laughed proudly: "Seven days from now will be the night of the divine descent, this is the promise of the great emperor."

"All you need to do is patiently wait these seven days and find the right person."

"..."

'The Night of the Descent of the Gods?'

This strange word once again pulled Han Su back from his doubts.

This was the first time he had heard this word, but he knew that from the first day the children were kidnapped, it was a night of crying, a night of deathly silence, a night of joy, a night of transformation. Each day represented a change in the monster's attitude towards the children.

The Night of Crying is about letting go, allowing the fear of these children to spread and their cries to erupt.

The dead silence of the night is the despair of children.

The Night of Joy is a grand feast that these monsters host for the children. The children, who have been imprisoned for three days, will reunite and enjoy a rare treat.

But the night of transformation is when the real nightmare begins to descend...

After that, Han Su didn't know anything. The latest time he escaped was after the night of reformation and before the fifth night arrived, so he didn't know what happened to the children afterward.

As for the night of divine descent, he knew even less about it, and couldn't even imagine anything from those four words.

"And the request you made..."

As Han Su pondered quickly, the old butler paused slightly, put away his proud narration, sighed, and said, "There's no time to look any further. If you're not satisfied with the current one, then this is the only suitable one."

As he spoke, he gently patted the shoulder of a little boy next to him and pushed someone forward.

The guy stood timidly beside the butler, his face even showing a fawning smile out of instinct, though it looked worse than crying.

The old steward looked at him with some appreciation, even reaching out to brush the dust off his clothes, and smiled, "This child may not be very adaptable, but as a servant, he may be sufficient."

Han Su looked at it and was slightly taken aback.

I hadn't noticed that there was a child hiding next to the old butler. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was Secretary Number 2's child, and there were footprints on his body from when I kicked him.

(End of this chapter)