Odd Containment Specialist.

Chapter 988 The Gap Between Books and Reality

However, whether it was a solo crime or a crime committed by accomplices, we can ignore her for now; you just need to provide your name.

The reason you are in danger now is that you belong neither to the present world nor to the world in the book.

As for the realm of being named, you don't need to pursue it in any special way, because you were already able to exercise the authority that only the named person can use when you were still in the book.

I have nothing more to say about this matter, because not only do I not know, but neither Mo Yusi nor any of the other named individuals can understand it. Perhaps even the proxy doesn't know the answer, because it is simply against common sense.

Logically, this is something that should be impossible, but in reality, you did it. While you were still in the book, you came to the real world through a dream and were able to exercise the power that should only be exercised by the named.

So, the "taking one's name" you mentioned in the past was actually just a way to completely detach oneself from the book, that is, to fully enter the real world.

"So, have I already traveled through time?" Xia Shou asked rhetorically.

No, that's not it. It's hard to explain your current situation. Although you are in the present world, you are not actually in the present world. You are in the gap between the book and reality. The reason you can remain in the present world is because of Alice.

In your own real life, what lies ahead is reality, while what lies behind is the world of the book. This is the fundamental reason why you cannot turn back.

Note that when I say "forward" and "behind," I don't mean in the physical sense of "forward" and "behind," but rather from a mystical perspective, the progress of a ritual, the progress bar of a ritual that has already taken place. It's like liquid evaporating; moving forward is like water vapor, and moving backward is like condensing into droplets.

This process is confined by Alice's power to the symbolic action of looking forward and backward in a physical sense.

Therefore, even if you just turn your head to look back, the information your consciousness receives will directly connect with the world in the book, and you will establish a link with the world in the book the moment you turn your head.

Although the story in the book is not set on Paper Curtain Mountain, the narrative itself originates from the authority of the Demon Poem. You will be immediately sensed by the Demon Poem, and the wandering poet who has been hunting you will have your clear coordinates.

As we all know, one cannot directly interfere with the present world with the power of one's name, but the moment you turn your head, you are no longer entirely in the present world, and the wandering poet then has the opportunity to take direct action.

So, your signing doesn't actually mean ascending to some divine kingdom, but rather completely becoming an outsider from the narrative, descending into the real world, and thus completely escaping the wandering poet's pursuit.

Now your situation is the most dangerous, because giving up entering the mortal world will allow you to return to "The Season of Falling Stars," where you have no natural enemies, where there are no superhumans, and where this book miraculously does not exist on Paper Curtain Mountain.

If you take another step forward, you will enter the mortal world. Even if the demonic poets are named, they can only descend in human form. The threat you pose to the named agents transcends the narrative layer. Even if the named agents and agents of the demonic poems are truly willing to descend, the risks they would have to bear are extremely exaggerated.

After all, you do have supporters.

But your current reality is that you are neither in the real world nor in the book, but in an intermediate state between narrative and reality, a Schrödinger's cat state. If you were killed at this point, you wouldn't wake up in the book, because the character "Xia Shou" no longer exists in the book.

"Oh my god, so that's how it is. I wish I had known sooner."

Before you helped the person who transmits the secret reveal his name, once these words were spoken, they would have been spread to who-knows-where, and the consequences could have been something we couldn't afford at the time.

Now, the people under the Secret Messenger's command are doing this partly to repay you, and partly because they've reached an agreement with Remnant Moon. They won't actively spread information about you anymore, which is why I can speak of this. But there's really not much to say; it's just to give you more confidence in me. These past events are of no help to what we're about to do, yet they've wasted a lot of words.

"It's not a waste; at least it reduces the possibility of a trust crisis."

Xia Shou took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts, saying, "Now I know why I had to sign my name. I've read the document you wrote about the signing ceremony and have been thinking about it in my spare time, but there are many parts I don't understand. Is there really no more suitable explanation?"

How can I put it? You're still too young at 18.

If you really can't understand it, you'll have to go find Daniel Wallace.

"You mentioned him last time too. You said that this ritual was a new spell variant he created by further modifying Hamlet's spell based on some kind of magic. I can't see the prefix of that spell in the notes. Is it a person's name? Or the name of some secret deity?"

It's not a secret, it's just how it's expressed. It's a person's name, or rather, it should be a person's name, but we don't know his name. Although I think "anonymous" could be used to replace it, Daniel wouldn't allow it.

I won't go into the long reasons, just go find him. He can explain the ritual to you and help you with the setup.

"Actually, you only have a vague understanding of this ritual, right? That's why you asked me to find the original creator."

No, it's just that I'm not good at teaching. This kind of obscure and abstract ritual teaching definitely requires using a lot of different concrete analogies, which is very tedious.

In reality, even speaking is incredibly tedious; translating that into words makes it even more staggering—it could take years to finish just a portion of it.

“Okay… Daniel Wallace, is this guy easy to find?” Xia Shou pressed.

It should have been easy to find him, but now it's hard to say. After all, it's related to you, and the traitor might also think of him. He might have been killed.

Hopefully he's smart enough to have already gone into hiding.

In short, you should first find an author named Daniel Wallace, who wrote a novel called *The Giant Fish*, which was later adapted into a movie. However, you shouldn't be looking for this author, but rather the person who provided him with that inspiration. You'll have to ask that person in person.

Xia Shou nodded and memorized the name.

"By the way, I'd like to adjust my ability configuration. Do you have any good suggestions? The uncertainty of skill fusion is too high, and I remember you said there's a limit to the number of fusions. What if we reach the limit?"

Skill fusion is like smashing two pieces of porcelain to pieces and then gluing them together. There will inevitably be cracks. The more times you fuse, the more vulnerable points there will be, and eventually you will reach your limit.

The Death Notes say that the number of times is usually three, and only those with exceptional mending skills can reach four.

However, the term "three-fold fusion" can be more accurately described as a maximum fusion of four independent skills.

(End of this chapter)