Pastor's Tantra

At this moment, a gunshot suddenly sounded downstairs. Another shot followed.

Aiwass's heart tightened slightly. But his steps downstairs did not become faster, but instead slowed down a lot.

He leaned against the wall quietly and tiptoed downstairs. At the same time, he pulled out the pistol from under his coat, lowered it slightly and hid it in the shadow of his slightly larger cuffs.

Unlike when Aiwass arrived, the oil lamp was already lit at the door.

From a distance, he saw a young man with brown hair and deep and handsome features standing at the front desk holding a gun. The smoke from the muzzle has not completely dissipated.

The thin young man who was originally lying on the front desk fell backwards on the shelf in a twisted posture, and had lost his life. There was a bullet in his forehead and chest, and blood slowly oozed out.

If he noticed something, he turned his head slightly and saw Aiwass standing quietly by the wall.

The tall and strong black-haired man stood as straight as a sculpture. The lights in the hall were projected over, hiding half of his body in shadow.

When the young man saw this, his pupils shrank slightly.

He dropped the gun on the counter and spread his hands in a friendly gesture.

"Calm down... Mr. Agni. Don't attack me. My weapons have been lowered."

The young man said in a deep voice: "We are on the same side."

"you know me?"

Agni said slowly and walked down the stairs step by step.

His steps were slow, making a creaking sound when he stepped on the somewhat worn wooden floor. But it also puts huge psychological pressure on people.

At this moment, a burst of lightning fell from outside the house, illuminating Agni's face instantly through the window. Then came the rumble of thunder.

"I'm Jacob Alexander. A reporter for the Cow and Harbor newspaper..."

At this point, he saw that Agni's slow and heavy steps still showed no intention of stopping, so he subconsciously took a half step back and gave more precise information: "I mean, I know you from the upper level.

"I know that you at this moment are different from the one above, so I guess we are on the same side. I think you are...living silver?"

"continue."

Agni said briefly.

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now that you say it, I guess we are indeed on the same side, right?"

He hurriedly continued to explain: "That's it... you may not know that the time flow rate of each layer or the entry time node is different. At least it is asymmetrical. Because in another history, I have already worked with' You've communicated, and I've also conducted some experiments and determined some rules-"

"Have you seen the couple quarreling in Room 204? That woman is Jacaranda, but she is not yet. She came down from a higher level to my floor before, and we have already exchanged information. After that, I want to She will be down to this level soon...she can back up my words.

"The reason why I killed this receptionist was simple. Because I thought he was Merlin—or, I thought he couldn't be Merlin.

"According to my investigation, the people in this hotel are you and your daughter Daya in room 202, plus the old supervisor in room 203, the couple in room 204, the dancer in room 205, plus I have exactly seven people in room 206. Room 201 is vacant, and including the front desk, there is no one else - there is no one in the kitchen, and there is no one in the basement. I have already looked for them."

The reporter raised his hands and spoke very quickly and seriously: "In this case, the extra front desk is a destabilizing factor.

“Merlin said that he would ‘enter the body of any character in any layer of the dream at any time’. But he did not say ‘it must be the body of one of the seven of us’, so we cannot rule out the front desk.

"And considering that Merlin cannot enter the body that has been controlled by us, if someone comes, he will be squeezed out, so you can immediately tell whether he is Merlin. From this point of view, we need to try our best to exclude the seven of us. Everyone except him. Because he is a marginalized person, a person who will not come to the 'right master', and therefore cannot verify the authenticity... Can you understand what I say?"

Seeing Agni still slowly walking towards him, the reporter had some sweat on his forehead.

He sighed helplessly and put down his hand: "Forget it, just kill me if you want. It seems that it doesn't make sense to you... This is also a kind of intelligence."

Agni also put the pistol against his forehead. Feeling the cold muzzle approaching, the reporter closed his eyes.

"--boom."

Aiwass simulated the sound of a gunshot with his mouth.

He half-smiled and looked at the "reporter" who closed his eyes and then opened them in shock: "My dear Mr. Detective, he seems to have no confidence in my brain.

"……Who are you?"

"I'm a fox."

Aiwass said with a smile, not caring about revealing his identity.

"It turns out it's your boy——"

The reporter gritted his teeth and said, "You like to scare me when you have nothing to do, right?"

"No one has come down yet."

Aiwass did not answer the reporter: "They are quite calm. Or... their ears are not very good and they can't hear the gunshots?"

"Maybe he was scared, so he hid in the house."

The reporter calmed down and continued to analyze: "Fox... No, in order to prevent your identity from being leaked, I'll call you Agni first.

"Listen up, Agni. To make a long story short - since each of us appears in different dreams, it means that there is only one original inhabitant of each layer of dreams. And as long as another person appears, it means that at least this is not the top floor. In the same way , the more people show up, the closer they are to the bottom.”

"good."

Aiwass nodded: "But there is another problem. As you said - on the one hand, the time flow rate of each layer is different, or the starting time point is different. This will lead to inconsistent progress.

"Furthermore, if someone among us appears at the top but doesn't have the courage to come down...for example, Lulu. Will that make us think that we haven't reached the bottom yet, but in fact, some people haven't arrived yet?"

"Then we have to use the elimination method."

The reporter thought for a while and said seriously: "Because if I don't explain the principle to others quickly... someone might kill everyone on this level. So I decided to descend quickly... In fact, I have already Descended two levels.

"I didn't see anyone on the first floor. In order not to miss meeting other people, I immediately committed suicide and went down to the next floor. And on the upper floor, I saw Jacaranda. And at that time , I suspect that the receptionist is Merlin... because he is deliberately stalling for time and making excuses to make me wait a little longer."

Young Jacob narrowed his eyes: "I wanted to do an experiment. So after I made an agreement with Jacaranda, I first killed the front desk and then committed suicide to get to your level."

"You're verifying that both front desks are the same, right."

Aiwass replied: "If the two front desks are different, then one of them is Merlin."

"That's right. And as long as you go down one level, you can know which one is the normal front desk."

"But you're ignoring the possibility that the front desk could be one of us."

Aiwass said slowly: "And with your verification, Merlin may also be able to disguise himself as the front desk more perfectly."

"——So, I chose to kill the front desk."

The reporter replied: "No matter what, the variables can be reduced. Not only that, I will kill the front desk at every floor. If he is a promotion, let him tell me himself."

"...I see. I understand what you are thinking."

Aiwass narrowed his eyes.

If the front desk is not a promoted person, then killing the front desk can increase Merlin's possession cost; if the front desk is a promoted person, then if he is killed, he will fall to the next level with his memory.

"Judging from this idea, we can kill anyone like this once. Since we were born on floors 1-7, and the target is floor 0. That means even if I am on floor 1, we can die at least once more. .”

Aiwass thought: "As long as there is memory after death, it can prove that he is true, right?"

“But there’s one variable to rule out here.”

The reporter then said calmly: "If someone claims to have committed suicide and comes down to this level, but no one on the level above him can verify his identity - then there is a possibility that he is pretending to be here, but in fact he is pretending to be here. Merlin.

"I considered this issue, so I determined the secret order when communicating with Jacaranda. This proves that we have indeed communicated with each other, and they all came down from the upper level.

"But even so, there will be another problem..."

"--Time difference."

Aiwass continued: "The process of waiting for Jacaranda to come down is also delaying time. According to the previous inference, the longer the delay, the more unstable the lower level will become."

The reporter snapped his fingers and said with a satisfied smile: "That's exactly it."

"So what's your plan?"

Aiwass asked.

"——It's simple."

The journalist, who shares the same name as Aiwass's grandfather, replied: "We will die together and live together."

As he spoke, he picked up the revolver on the table and pointed it at Aiwass' forehead.

"If you weren't Merlin, you'd be a real fox."

The reporter said calmly: "Let's go directly to the next floor - when Jacaranda comes down, she will definitely understand what happened when she sees our posture. She will also find someone to kill each other and confirm each other."

"Jacaranda and I can confirm each other, you and I can confirm each other, and she can also bring someone with her. In this way, we have confirmed the identities of four people... We only need to exclude Merlin from the remaining three people. Enough."

"...Heh, two-person team? Okay, then I'll listen to you. Then let's go to the next floor and investigate again, partner."

Aiwass chuckled, raised his pistol without fear, and pointed it at the reporter's forehead, and then used his other hand to move the muzzle of the gun that the reporter aimed at his forehead down to his heart.

"You shoot first."

Aiwass said calmly: "Even if I get shot in the heart, I can still fire the gun instantly."

"good."

The corners of the reporter's mouth raised slightly.

After a brief pause, two gunshots were heard in the hall.

Just like at the beginning of the ceremony... Aiwass felt his consciousness slowly sinking in the dark sea.

Then, he suddenly felt a little suffocated. He woke up suddenly, as if emerging from the water and causing waves.

——He seemed to have taken a nap and opened his eyes.

A very soft voice came from behind him: "Dad...?"

"...Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

Aiwass looked at the water-soaked clothes placed in front of him, and the corners of his mouth slowly raised.

He turned around, opened his arms, and showed off the new clothes he had changed into: "Aren't I wearing my clothes well, Daya?"

Da Ya was stunned for a while, then nodded slowly: "Yes..."

"What makes you think I'm not wearing any clothes?"

Aiwass was not angry, but asked patiently.

"……I have no idea."

Daya covered her forehead in distress: "I seem to have had a nightmare... I dreamed that my father was naked and swimming in the river..."

Aiwass walked over and gently touched her hair.

"it does not matter."

He said softly: "Sleep well, good night."

Between his fingers, Daya's brown hair was thin and soft, giving people a warm feeling when touched.

Update completed meow!