Strange Voyage: Summoning the Fourth Disaster.

Chapter 824 Withered Fingers, the Cause of the World's Collapse?
Despite having already obtained the origins and background story of the House of Giants and the Box within the House from the giant's remains.

But the storyteller and Li Miao did not stop their exploration.

Storytellers always like to get to the bottom of the story of the magic candle.

There are other giant corpses nearby, each likely bearing different memories, which he must examine one by one.

Li Miao had no objection to this, and led him to wander among the giant skeletons around them.

As time passed, the two of them made no noteworthy discoveries.

Until the two began to delve deeper into the skeleton below.

"wrong."

After touching the giant's skeleton beneath him again, the storyteller suddenly frowned, as if he had made a new discovery.

The spirit candle had edited out most of the repetitive skeletal memories they received, leaving only the different parts, so the two of them weren't about to experience a brain explosion.

But the giant skeleton beneath their feet led to some unexpected discoveries.

"The uprooted land and lives..."

The storyteller muttered to himself, then his gaze fell on another giant skeleton below, before turning to Li Miao.

"where to!"

He pointed to the giant's corpse.

The giant's corpse was clutching its skull with both hands, its body contorted, as if it had seen something terrifying before it died.

Li Miao quickly brought him there.

The storyteller eagerly touched the giant's corpse beneath his feet, and upon seeing the memories within, his pupils immediately contracted.

The "hollow" beneath the House of Giants originated from the disaster caused by the Twilight Giant devouring the sun.

The two giants who entered this place to make repairs, due to the disorder of the rules, gave rise to an infinite number of "what ifs".

At this moment, the giant's corpse beneath the storyteller's feet, in its dying moments, saw the terrifying secrets of the past from within this void.

……

In the course of the world's operation, the burning sun brings life and order.

Its energy is inexhaustible, its radiance spreads across the earth, and no one has ever doubted its existence; people have always believed that it will continue to burn forever.

Until… a withered finger touched the sacred sun…

……

The twilight giant, devouring the sun, roars and howls, reveling in the power the sun brings.

But at the point where the sun is shattered, a faintly visible finger mark emanates an extremely ominous power, corrupting the sun and the twilight that devours it...

……

"Ho!"

The storyteller suddenly awoke with a start, instinctively covering his head, his body breathing heavily and uncontrollably—it was instinct, the most primal fear.

Such a terrifying secret was hidden within the giant's corpse...

"what happened?"

Li Miao, who was standing to the side, was astonished. Seeing the storyteller's reaction, he frowned and leaned down to touch him as well.

The next moment, he also withdrew his hand, his forehead covered in cold sweat, panting heavily, but he looked much better than the storyteller.

"Fuck..."

Li Miao swallowed hard and immediately understood the reason.

"The sun's imperfection... actually originated from a withered finger?"

"And the sun's pollution is because of the fingerprint left by this withered finger under the sun?!"

Li Miao was startled.

The giant eating the sun event in the background story of Spirit Candle is extremely epic. Not to mention a top-tier player, even casual players who haven't actually played the game are very familiar with it.

However, the origins of the sun's partiality during the giant eclipse and the reason for the giant's rampage at dusk remain mysteries.

But now, from this corpse, the two seem to have glimpsed only the tip of the iceberg of its hidden secrets.

However, they weren't entirely without excitement; they only felt a chill run down their spines upon closer examination.

A single withered finger can cripple the sun, and the fingerprints left behind can contaminate both the sun and the fire... What kind of being could do such a terrifying thing?

"Could this be the final boss of Spirit Candle?"

"Perhaps this is also the reason why the Spirit Candle World collapsed and went out?"

Li Miao calmed his breathing, but the fear within the Candle Spirit's body still left him terrified, his heart pounding.

"It's hard to say." The storyteller calmed himself by channeling his inner energy, his eyes serious. "We need to continue examining more giant corpses; there might be more among them..."

"careful!"

call--

Before he could finish speaking, a strange gas rushed straight towards him.

Li Miao reacted quickly, pulling him over with one hand and using his other hand to block with his shield.

The gas seemed to have no offensive power; when it landed on the shield, it was like being blown on by secondhand smoke.

But the two of them weren't focused on the secondhand smoke at that moment.

"That is……"

Upon seeing the location of the attack, the storyteller's pupils constricted.

"fingerprint……"

Li Miao's heart pounded, and that instinctive fear returned, so intense that it took the ignition of war to suppress it.

At this moment, they were on the shoulder of the giant skeleton, and the source of the attack was the giant skeleton's head.

Where their view was unobstructed, a pale gray fingerprint was faintly visible on the giant's skeleton, amidst rising mist.

Near the fingerprint, one after another, some shapeless monsters were appearing.

Even in death, there is life.

[Rank: ???]

[Note: The monster born from the withered finger's imprint seems to exist between death and life; attempting to kill it is destined to be futile...]

[Hint: You have encountered a hostile target that you cannot currently kill. Fleeing may be your best option.]

Death or life?
Enemy targets that are currently unkillable?
What the hell is this thing?

Li Miao felt a chill run down his spine, but he had no intention of leaving.

As a top-tier player, even if he couldn't kill the monster in front of him, he had to at least test its strength!
"No health bar, huh?"

Li Miao muttered to himself, took out his knight's longbow, took out an arrow, and nocked an arrow.

With a whoosh, the arrow tore through the air with immense force, heading towards the monster called "Death is Life" with a sharp and penetrating edge.

However, faced with this terrifying blow...

Death and life showed no intention of dodging; the arrow pierced its misty body without hindrance and flew into the distance without diminishing its momentum.

Although he had expected this, Li Miao still narrowed his eyes.

"Kainara, use magic and prayer!"

"Use every type of attack one by one!"

Li Miao raised his hand, and Kenara appeared from the ring. After hearing Li Miao's request, she nodded slightly and began to chant, casting spells and praying simultaneously.

In addition to these, Li Miao tried all sorts of attack methods, including soul attacks, sound wave attacks, item attacks, and evil artifacts.

But... without exception, none of them could cause any harm to Death and Life.

Fortunately, these so-called "death is life" creatures do not seem to possess any particularly powerful abilities. They also lack consciousness and simply rely on their previous weak and slow attacks.

But... it wasn't until Li Miao summoned his remnant soul to deliberately take the hit that he realized it wasn't a "soft" attack at all.

The moment the remnant soul touched that strange mist, its entire body was transformed!

It also became one of those who "die but live"!
"By the long night... what the hell is this?" Kenara couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief.

There was no war, no breath, no warmth of life, and no coldness of inanimate objects; there was only a bizarre form of existence.

She had never even heard of such a thing before.

Fortunately, although this thing cannot be killed, its aggression and attack power are not very strong, so Li Miao can deal with it if he is cautious.

After the storyteller summoned several more surrogate creatures to study for a while,

The two finally gave up.

"Let's go first." The storyteller's expression was solemn: "These things must have come from that withered finger that touched the sun. It's too strange."

The two left the giant's skeleton.

However, instead of leaving the illuminated area immediately, they continued to delve deeper to explore the remains of other giants.

In terms of memory, the other giant corpses were no different, but those who covered their heads mostly died from those horrific memories.

There are only slight differences in the details.

Apart from that, there's nothing special about this place.

The two ended their exploration and returned to Candlefire Island.

……

With the return of the two and the return of information about the giant's remains.

This caused a huge uproar on Candle Island and the Spirit Candle Forum, with players in an uproar.

"Holy crap, the House of Giants has a Lighthouse of the Other Shore and a Port of Spirit Fire of the Other Shore? That's absurd, there's no water in that place, why would there be a port???"

"Don't be so harsh, there is still water. Both the Kingdom Giant and the Monster Giant can hold back."

"A word with multiple meanings, awesome!"

"I give up. I was actually the first one to go outside the Box in the House instance, but I never expected that touching the corpses would actually give me memory information... (crying)"

"What's the use of intelligence? A little wax would be more useful. (Picking nose)"

"It's really useless for a newbie like you."

Some players were discussing some less important topics.

However, most players focused their attention on the more important information.

"I never expected that these Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Chick were actually subordinates of the Twilight Giant. They have such a powerful background. Now it makes sense why they are so strong."

"Not only that! You know, even monsters with the Eternal Flame Ignition Point can be dealt with by players with the Burning Spirit Point. The fact that these two giants are so much stronger is obviously unreasonable. Many people complained about it before, but now that the background story has been revealed, it finally makes sense."

"What do you mean? I don't understand."

"These two giants, in order to fill the void, have assimilated with the 'void' of that Spirit Candle World and become part of the world's rules. No matter how strong you, the player, are, you can't go against the rules. Do you understand?"

"666 No wonder, the foreshadowing has been resolved. Damn, the spirit candle making team is so meticulous. They had already thought of the later story during the early stages, right?"

"Indeed, the Spirit Candle does a really good job in this regard. It's just like a real world, and the sense of immersion is too strong."

"...Don't overhype it, isn't this basic stuff? When making a game, you definitely have to get the rest of the process right. Compared to technical skill, the story setting is already the simplest part... (speechless)"

"That's true, but some game companies just can't even do the most basic things right..."

Next comes the focus of this discussion, namely the "withered finger" in the memory information and the "fingerprint" that gives birth to both death and life.

Many candle enthusiasts emerged at this time and chatted enthusiastically.

"...A withered finger can cripple the sun? A single finger imprint can give birth to an invincible monster, how terrifying..."

"Terrifying? What nonsense! Dare to show your health bar and I'll kill you right now! (Proudly) (Chest out)"

"Another foreshadowing. I never imagined that the sun's imperfection stemmed from a single finger, and that the Twilight Giant's rampage was also due to this..."

“Strange, why didn’t Redrolta, the brother of Long Night, realize this, but these two subordinates of the Twilight Giants did?”

"Indeed, it doesn't quite make sense."

"I do have a guess about this... Since the giants in the House of Giants are just the successful branches among many 'what ifs,' then is there a necessary premise in all these successful branches—that we cannot explore further?"

"You know what, that's possible. There are very few corpses that are about the same height as the House of Giants, but the skeletons below are incredibly dense."

"So, the reason this memory is found in the giant's remains is because they explored downwards and died there?"

"But does that have anything to do with whether Redrolta is aware of it?"

"Because Redrolda didn't die at the time."

"Then why do we, as players, gain memories by touching corpses, but not die?"

"Perhaps it's because the world has collapsed? Or perhaps it's the protection of the omnipotent candlelight? (doge)"

"...Hard to say. (Suppressing a laugh)"

"What is this? I don't understand it, and I don't know how to use it either..."

The discussions among candlestick experts left some novice players bewildered, while most players' ideas were relatively simple.

"Damn, I just touched the giant's skeleton and it really terrified me. It was a completely instinctive reaction..."

"A mere fragment of memory can terrify me? How interesting... It seems this body is far too weak to bear my will..."

"666, you're the one who can show off."

"Why were we scared? It was just a withered finger and a fingerprint... (puzzled)"

"do not know."

"Actually, it's not you who's frightened, it's the spirit body that's frightened. This is the spirit body's instinctive reaction..."

"Then why was the Candle Spirit's body frightened?"

"How the hell should I know? Go ask your own Candle Spirit body!"

"We might as well ask the candlekeeper..."

Many players have also developed endless imaginations about the storyline of the Spirit Candle because of this.

Some players speculate that the owner of the withered finger is the final boss.

"Let me guess, the owner of this withered finger must be the final boss of the Spirit Candle, the culprit who caused the world's collapse... It's because he tasted the benefits of absorbing the power of the sun that he set his sights on the Eternal Altar, so..."

"You know what, you really shouldn't have said it! (Surprised)"

"It seems very likely. I'll place a ward first and come back later. (Grinning)"

"This story... feels a bit cliché."

Some players also spoke with absolute certainty.

"Is it possible that the owner of this withered finger was actually the predecessor of the Spirit Candle? Because he died, or caused the collapse of the world, he transformed into the Spirit Candle to atone for his sins? (Thinking)"

"you……"

"Atonement? Atonement includes players? Doesn't that make the crime even worse?"

"They've settled in Bengbu..."

Some players even made up stories out of thin air.

"In my opinion, the mastermind behind this might be Redrolta, the old man of the Night. After all, he is close to the sun and has enough seniority. Perhaps he is just faking his death to plot!"

"666, top-tier strategic thinking, is that right!"

"Redrolda never imagined that she would be the subject of rumors even after her death."

"You ruled out all possibilities and chose the least likely option? Dude, you're something else! (laughing and crying)"

The players' imaginations and assumptions remain interesting and absurd, providing plenty of entertainment; after all, bragging doesn't cost anything.

"By the way, has anyone tried touching that fingerprint?"

One player recklessly tried to get hit by the "Death and Life" attack.

Then, unsurprisingly, he died. There was no blood loss during the process; he died very easily, perhaps without even realizing it.

Moreover, the punishment of death is just as severe as falling into the Dark Frontier, if not worse...

(End of this chapter)