Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 349 The Nature of the "Abyss" Path and Opportunities for Positive Roles

"To understand what happened to Jordan, we must first analyze the imagery of the 'fallen angel' potion itself."

"You should know the ancient name for the potion called 'Fallen Angel,' right?"

Luna didn't answer Roger's question directly, but instead asked him a question in return.

"I know, 'cold-blooded'."

Having fully mastered the "Abyss" pathway, Roger answered without hesitation.

"Correct."

Luna extended her long, slender, fair right hand and snapped her fingers:

"'Fallen Angel' is the corrected version... It originates from a long-standing conjecture that has never been verified by anyone."

"But do you know the difference between the two?"

"the difference?"

Roger was taken aback; he hadn't really thought about the question Luna had asked.

He tentatively said:

"'Cold-blooded' simply emphasizes that the potion itself endows extraordinary beings with cold-blooded, ruthless, and merciless attributes, but 'Fallen Angel' seems to point out that evil is the collapse of good."

"correct."

Luna nodded:

"For the vast majority of divine pathways, the word 'angel' only appears in the names of Sequence 2 or even Sequence 1 potions. Don't you find it very strange that such a word appears in a Sequence 8 potion?"

"It is indeed very strange."

Roger nodded slightly and tried to analyze, "I had thought about this question before, because even a fallen angel is still an angel in essence, implying divinity and the favored one of the true God."

"But for a low-sequence potion name, this word really shouldn't appear... Even if we say they are fallen angels, and their divinity went from existence to non-existence, it doesn't make sense, since they never gained divinity."

"What's even more interesting is that even if they reach Sequence 2 or even Sequence 1 and possess the angelic rank, they are still high-ranking 'fallen angels,' and this essence does not change... This seems very contradictory. They are both angels and not angels, yet they possess true angelic divinity. What does this mean?"
"...So there's a possibility that the divinity contained within the 'fallen angel' is not acquired later, but rather some kind of innate product, perhaps corresponding to the original creator?"

Luna smiled noncommittally, and then said:
"Didn't you just ask me what made Jordan different from those other 'fallen angels'?"

Before Roger could respond, she continued her story to herself:
"For ordinary 'fallen angels,' the moment they take the potion, they gradually begin to become selfish, cruel, and cold-blooded. This tendency develops extremely rapidly, especially when they begin to engage in extreme behaviors such as killing or persecuting others. In a short period of time, it can completely change a person's mind and make them lose their original good self."

"But I didn't observe that extinguishing of goodness in Jordan Phillips... Do you know what the first thing he said to me when he came back was?"

"What is it?"

Roger asked with great interest and curiosity:
He said, "Sir, I really got into trouble with those Intis this time; I almost died there."

"'You promised to give my friend the second batch of medicine after completing this mission. Will you deliver on your promise? How is he doing now?'"

"Hmm? Is his friend the childhood friend who is seriously ill?"

Roger then remembered that Jordan, the penniless hoodlum, had joined the "Honesty Demon" program precisely to pay for his friend's medical treatment.

"Yes, Jordan was covered in injuries at the time, but his first reaction was not to ask me to find him a medical facility, but to ask me when I would deliver the medicine I promised to his friend."

Luna nodded:

"Don't you find it very strange? For a 'fallen angel,' this is definitely not a normal reaction."

"Indeed, in my opinion, the vast majority of 'fallen angels' are extremely selfish and self-serving. In addition, a guy like Jordan, who has been on the streets since he was a child, should have a survival instinct far greater than that of ordinary people, so he would definitely try to save his own life first."

Roger nodded, agreeing with Luna's opinion.

"So your conclusion is most likely correct."

Luna placed Bandit on the table beside her, stroking its fur as she spoke:
The divinity lost by the so-called "fallen angels" should be the divinity of the "original creator," a broad divinity, rather than a specific, transcendental divinity.

"From a philosophical perspective, we, as the products of the division of the 'original creator,' should all be extensions of His divinity, and there is no difference in the level or quantity of this extension."

"Although this theory is somewhat similar to the 'Aurora Society' theory, it must be said that some of their ideas are actually based on theoretical grounds."

"Roger, have you ever thought about this question: why do humans and highly spiritual animals exhibit love? If the original origin of love was for socialization, reproduction, and survival, why do many humans, under the conditions of modern civilization and having escaped the survival crisis, still feel strong affection for their fellow human beings and even other species?"

Roger thought for a moment and then spoke:

"Because you are able to perceive yourself and the differences between yourself and other individuals, you will have all sorts of opinions about others...?"

He then shook his head:

"No, that still doesn't explain why love can arise between different individuals. Just tell me your opinion."

Luna nodded slightly:

"The original divinity manifests differently in ordinary people and extraordinary individuals. When a person begins to care about others, shows compassion and pity, and wants to love and be loved, it is essentially an expression of that individual's recognition of the value of other individuals and their desire for unity."

This can be understood as a broader aggregation rather than a matter of extraordinary characteristics.

"Or to put it another way, this broad 'divinity' can also be called the core of 'humanity.' It also has a tendency to converge, but because it is more human, it is usually distinguished from 'divinity' in the narrow sense."

"What the gods seek in the essence of believers is actually the special effect of this aggregation on humanity in reality—when this aggregation of identification and empathy reaches a certain scale, it can form a pulling force, pulling the gods' humanity out of the divine vortex brought about by their extraordinary characteristics, and keeping the two sides in balance."

Roger pondered this for a moment, then spoke:

“That makes a lot of sense; it’s a fresh perspective for me.”

Luna hummed in agreement and then continued:

"Furthermore, as I just said, any human being or animal of a higher spiritual level is no different from any other individual in a symbolic sense, just as the anchoring power that a person can provide to the divine is completely equal, without any distinction of rank, regardless of whether they are rich or poor."

"If the 'original' possesses infinite power, then from this perspective, there are two interpretations of this infinity:"

"First, from a phenomenological perspective, the more individuals there are, the stronger the anchoring effect becomes, but this is only a discussion of the phenomenon at a lower level."

"Second, from an essential perspective, whether we talk about the individual or the whole, there is actually no difference in symbolic meaning; otherwise, we would fall into a philosophical paradox regarding the meaning of 'original'."

"Because the infinite power inherent in the 'original' cannot be summarized by enumeration; otherwise, it is merely a fitting of the limit. To truly understand it, one must recognize that all existence and life are inherently and completely unified, that is, the individual is the whole, and even humanity itself is a manifestation of the 'original creator' in a broad sense."

"To put it simply, you can't say that one of the 'original' fragments is more noble than another, or even that many fragments combined are more valuable than a single fragment, because that would limit the concept of 'infinity' and make it lose its integrity."

Luna couldn't help but laugh as she said this:
"Doesn't it sound more and more like the theories of the Aurora Society the more you listen to it?"

"really."

Roger nodded. Although Luna's explanation was a bit mind-bending, he still understood most of it.

To put it simply, it is very likely that from the "original" starting point, no one being is more noble than another, and it is even meaningless to discuss whether the individual or the whole is more noble, because fundamentally they are all the same and are expressions of His own will.

Seeing that Roger had no objections, Luna continued:

"Therefore, human love has two possible directions: love for others and love for oneself."

“I once discussed this issue with my grandfather Hermes, who believed that the extraordinary ones on the ‘Abyss’ path did not fundamentally eliminate love and compassion, but rather showed more of the ‘love of self’ aspect inherent in the ‘original’.”

"If you love yourself more, you will love others less and become indifferent to the lives, feelings, and even the general good of others."

"The heart of an extraordinary person on the 'criminal' path is like a hole, from which all happiness leaks out, like a cave that can swallow all light, downward, and downward, where humanity ultimately falls into the 'abyss'."

The reason why the "criminal" pathway is adjacent to the "prisoner" pathway is that both are pathways that symbolize "binding" in a broad sense, one corresponding to the body and the other to the mind.

“‘Binding’ means that power is concentrated at one point. Just as the body of a ‘prisoner’ through extraordinary means will exhibit various ‘alien’ characteristics and show many possibilities at the ‘original’ material level, the ‘criminal’ will infinitely concentrate the power of the mind, trap his mind in a vortex, and become more and more self-centered.”

"This contradicts the benevolent image of 'angels' that we usually talk about, because 'abyss' naturally symbolizes falling into the abyss within oneself and never being able to fly again. This is also why even if the extraordinary ones who follow this path become angels, they are still high-ranking 'fallen angels' in a consensus sense."

"This also illustrates that the 'criminal' and 'prisoner' paths are the only two among the 22 divine paths that involve the conflict between humanity and divinity at the lower sequence level. However, this conflict is significantly different from the conflict of the extraordinary at the higher sequence level. The latter points to the spiritual imprint in the potion, while the former points to the 'abyss' that is naturally present within oneself."

"Compared to the 'Rose School,' which has both hedonists and temperanceists, the extraordinary individuals of both the Blood Cult and the Demon Family have long focused solely on digesting potions, neglecting this essential aspect. This may be the reason why the 'Abyss' pathway has been played in reverse for so long."

"I understand."

Roger suddenly realized that after listening to Luna's words, he finally understood the difference between the "Abyss" pathway and the "Hanged Man" pathway in terms of the symbolism of "fall".

The "Hanged Man" approach reveals more about the power of the shadowy parts inherent in the mind, highlighting "the darkness hidden beneath the light," rather than delving too much into the relationship between the self and others.

The "Abyss" path symbolizes the contraction of the self and the denial of others, and more so, "extreme cognition" or the "initial" tendency to concentrate power on oneself.

Following this line of thought, Roger finally came up with a guess about Jordan's special qualities:
Because Jordan himself is not the kind of person with a strong sense of self; on the contrary, he is inherently very timid and insecure, which naturally limits his potential in terms of "arrogance."

On the other hand, he regarded his close friends as the foundation for his livelihood, and was even willing to risk his life to participate in potentially fatal intelligence activities for them.

In other words, Jordan's ego was not only weak, but he even had an "anchor" from the beginning to prevent himself from being swallowed up by an inflated sense of self.

Under the dual influence of these two motivations, Jordan, while carrying out his killings and seeking revenge, was also thinking about completing his mission as soon as possible, returning to Rune alive, and providing his friends with the second batch of the drug. This made him hardly experience any pleasure from brutality and power, but instead made him feel extremely anxious.

Catalyzed by various internal and external factors, an unusual "fallen angel" was born. He not only absorbed the magic potion, but also did not become corrupt and cruel as a result.

The reason for this is that ordinary "fallen angels" are often very confident and lack the reason and strong belief to die for others.

Therefore, these people are easily attracted by the "self-concentration" tendency inherent in this potion, falling into the abyss of their own inner self, thus causing them to have violent tendencies towards others.

But Jordan was different. He never took his own life too seriously. Instead, all his motivation was directed towards an external self that he valued more than his own life—his best friend who had been with him on the streets since childhood.

Therefore, compared to the vast majority of "fallen angels," Jordan's difference lies in the fact that his cold-bloodedness and brutality were always directed at people other than his friend, and even included Jordan himself.

This obsession prevented him from sharpening his self-awareness while committing cruel and brutal acts, and from successfully digesting the "fallen angel" potion while retaining more of his good humanity.

In that instant, Roger suddenly felt a pang of jealousy towards Jordan's friend. In this world, most people are selfish. Even the best of friends would instinctively choose to protect themselves and plan for the long term when faced with a life-or-death crisis.

But Jordan always put himself second in order to protect his friend's life.

This could be called sincerity, ignorance, lack of autonomy, or even a form of dependency, but in any case, it led Jordan down a completely different path in the "criminal" route.

On the other hand, Jordan's foray into this new path may not have been purely accidental. Rather, the "abyss" may have undergone some inexplicable change due to Roger's previous series of aid operations for Fabti, which made positive role-playing possible in practice.

In other words, if the method is appropriate, Jordan's case can be replicated, rather than just existing as a single example.

"Therefore, our direction for cultivating and selecting 'righteous demons' is now clearer."

After a moment of contemplation, Roger looked up at Luna again:
"First, candidates can have the potential to become cold-blooded, but they cannot be the kind of people who are more confident. They must be weak as the main trait, and their nature cannot be bad."

"Only when these two conditions are met will his subsequent cold-bloodedness be directed toward 'solving difficulties' rather than purely serving himself."

"Secondly, Jordan's case also shows that we did one thing right before, which is that candidates must have people in this world with whom they have a strong emotional attachment and are willing to give their lives to defend them... From this point of view, I think Alyssa Chamberlain's motivation to serve her mother may also be a good catalyst."

“And Mikael Zeke, whom we originally thought was the most qualified, may actually be the least suitable one, because the family member who became his anchor has passed away, and his mind no longer needs to consider the well-being of his family members, but only revenge. In addition, his thinking is too flexible and has the potential to develop in an extreme self-interest direction.”

"This makes it very difficult to maintain one's own stability in the long run... To be honest, I was quite optimistic about him at first, but I never expected that his strengths would become his limitations."

At this point, Roger sighed softly.

"No need to sigh. According to Emperor Rosell, we were just feeling our way across the river... Actually, I was originally quite optimistic about Michael's wisdom, but now it seems that sometimes dullness can be a form of protection on certain divine paths."

"This might be what they call 'fools are lucky'."

Luna patted Roger on the shoulder like a buddy.

"Oh, right, here's yours back."

Roger took off a transparent bracelet from his wrist and handed it to Luna:
"It helped me a lot."

He then recounted how he helped his subordinates get promoted, rescued Leomaster, and so on. He also told Luna about his various miraculous experiences in the "Forsaken Land" recently.

Luna listened intently. Although she was actually older than Bernadette, like Bernadette, the duchess only knew a lot about the “Forsaken Land” but had never actually set foot there.

"So you plan to bring the people from 'New Fog City' and 'Silver City' out in the future?"

After listening to Roger's story, Luna asked with some curiosity.

"Yes, but I don't think the time is right yet, so don't tell anyone about this."

This is not only because of the pollution present in the people of "New Fog City", but also because both "New Fog City" and "Underground Midnight City" have the problem of the "Chaos Sea" tributary.

Roger knew very well that this was a problem Adam had thrown at him that he urgently needed to solve, and if what Amon said was true, he should have a good chance of benefiting greatly from this incident.

Before this, any hasty relocation of people would be reckless, otherwise it might cause some unpredictable changes in the tributaries of the "Chaos Sea". Therefore, Roger can take this opportunity to teach the people of these two city-states as much as possible about astronomy and calendar, thereby facilitating the digestion of the "Living Star Chart" potion.

"Oh, right, this is also for you. I promised you this when I asked you to borrow the 'invisible bracelet' before."

"The only problem is that it is written in Giratina, and you can roughly read it by referring to the roots of Old Fussac."

Roger then took out a book from the "Old Box" that was written in the language of giants and was called "The Dark Journey".

This is a record of all the major events that have occurred since the beginning of recorded history in "Fog City," written by the "readers" of "New Fog City," spanning from the middle of the Third Age to the Fifth Age. It also includes the memoirs of Alexis, the former Archbishop of "Fog City."

This book can be described as an encyclopedia of the history of "New Fog City". The original name of these records was simply "History", but at Roger's suggestion, they were compiled into a collection and named "The Dark Journey" by him.

There are currently five handwritten copies of "The Dark Journey". Roger left two copies for "New Fog City", prepared one copy for Luna, and kept the other two copies for the time being, planning to find an opportunity to publish them after "New Fog City" leaves "The Forsaken Land".

"Thank you."

Luna seemed very happy, her eyes crinkling into two crescent moons as she smiled.

“I understand the language of giants… In fact, I understand almost every language that humans can speak that you can name right now.”

"Speaking of which, could it be that your ancient Hermes language was personally taught by Old Master Hermes?"

Roger suddenly had a strange guess and asked.

"What do you say?"

Luna blinked, but instead of giving a definite answer, she said:
"Come on, I'll treat you to a meal."

"What are we eating? It's not going to be some military mess hall again, is it?"

Roger immediately became wary.

"Making everything based on stereotypes will only harm you."

Luna shook her head:

"It's a newly opened barbecue restaurant in the city. It operates normally to the public, but also serves as a secret rendezvous point for intelligence purposes."

"That's good."

Roger breathed a slight sigh of relief, nodded, and went to eat with Luna.

……

After dinner, Roger temporarily sent Bendit back to Worston Gardens and left him in Cecilia's care. He then took out the "Traveler's Dice" and rolled it to the sixth side, which was engraved with a question mark.

After a moment of disorientation, Roger reappeared in the desert of bones.

As soon as he landed, he floated up and flew towards the deepest part of the White Bone Desert, guided by his own faint clues.

Soon, Roger saw the "De La Hoya Giant Rat," a creature as large as a small mountain. This enormous half-rat, half-rat creature was lying on the ground sleeping, its short ears twitching occasionally, as if it were dreaming.

Seeing this, Roger did not disturb it, but sat down quietly beside it and took out a bag of nuts offered by the "Blue-skinned Ones".

Sure enough, after Roger did that, the "De La Hoya Giant Rat" woke up with a twitch of its nose.

"Give me."

It rolled over and sat up, extending its large, furry hand as if it were very familiar with someone.

"Okay, this is for you."

Roger nodded repeatedly, making his stance clear, but he didn't rush to hand over the nuts:
"There are 13 different alien nuts in this bag, and I have three things to ask you about."

"The first thing I would like to ask is for you to use the material information carried in these nuts to help me open a path from the spirit world to the corresponding coordinates in the starry sky, so that I can go there directly in the future."

"Okay, I promised you that before."

The "De La Hoya Giant Rat" nodded, and then said:

"What about the second thing?"

"The second thing I need is for you to help me find at least 30 grams of dust from a creature that lives in the spirit world called the 'Spirit World Raider'."

Roger then stated his second request, something he had promised Mr. "The World" at the Tarot meeting.

“Sure thing, I’ll capture a ‘Spirit Realm Raider’ for you alive. You can peel off as much dust as you need.”

The "De La Hoya Giant Rat" was very agreeable and even offered a solution that far exceeded Roger's terms.

"Thank you very much."

Roger handed the cloth bag to the "De La Hoya Giant Rat" and continued:

"The third thing I want to ask you is, how did your little guy manage to enter the 'Forsaken Land'?"

"It has a contract with you, so it can go wherever you can go."

The "De La Hoya Giant Rat" didn't seem to care, taking out a nut from Planet Butak and sniffing it greedily as it casually answered.

"But there is no projection of the spirit world there."

Roger shook his head.

"Oh, no spirit world projection?"

Upon hearing this, the "De La Hoya Giant Rat" seemed to finally realize what was happening.

He put down the nuts in his hand, thought for a moment, and carefully picked out 3 nuts from the 13 nuts, returning them to Roger.

"Hmm, these three should be enough."

It nodded and said.

"What does this mean? Are you unable to answer this question? Or are you dissatisfied with the compensation?"

Roger was somewhat suspicious. He reached out and took the nuts, then pressed for an answer.

"Actually, I don't know the answer to this question either, and I don't know how that little guy got in."

The "De La Hoya Giant Rat" was somewhat helpless:
"It could be due to your unique circumstances, or it could be due to the contractual relationship between the two of you."

"If we really want to get to the bottom of this, I estimate that only the one above me can answer your question, because the knowledge we possess will not exceed our own level. In fact, I still don't know the significance of constantly opening up independent spaces as territories in the spirit world. I only know that opening up spaces is a very important thing."

"what?"

The words of the "De La Hoya Rat" were completely beyond Roger's expectations. Roger originally thought it knew almost everything about him, but now it seemed that Roger might have to find that angel-level "De La Hoya Rat" to find out the truth.

"By the way, what should the 'De La Hoya Rat' at the angel level be called? 'De La Hoya Super Giant Rat'?"

Roger pondered this as he pressed on with his question:

"Is there any hope that I can see Him?"

"He has not yet explicitly stated that he wants to see you."

The "De La Hoya Giant Rat" shook its head, and then continued:

"Come see me in three days. I will give you an answer to the first two things you asked me to do then."

"……All right."

Roger was somewhat disappointed, but fortunately, his first two commissions had been taken by the "De La Hoya Giant Rat," so he was satisfied.

As for the third point, it may take some time to figure it out. Roger guessed that only when he became an angel would he have the opportunity to meet the "De La Hoya Giant Rat," who was also an angel.

"...Let's call it that for now."

Roger muttered to himself as he left the special space of the "De La Hoya Giant Rat" and returned to Worston Gardens.

"Cousin, are you leaving again?"

Cecilia was somewhat helpless. She had originally thought that Roger could stay at home for a day, but she didn't expect him to leave so soon.

Even more regrettably, Sam was away at work and not at home at the moment, so he didn't even get to see Roger.

"Yes, I need to go to Port Pritz."

Roger nodded, hoisted Bandit onto his shoulder, and then asked:
"By the way, you've already been promoted to 'Necromancer,' right?"

"Yes, cousin."

Cecilia nodded, and then said:

"But I haven't figured out a way to digest the 'Necromancer' potion yet... There seem to be some special conditions that I don't fully understand."

"It's okay, you can try to figure it out first. If it really doesn't work, I'll help you think of a solution."

Luo Jie comforted her, saying he hoped his sister could figure things out on her own, and if that didn't work, he had another option with the "Goddess of the Night" church.

"Okay, thank you brother."

This time, Cecilia didn't call Roger her cousin, but rather "brother," and at the same time, she gave Roger a grateful hug.

Roger was about to tease Cecilia about when she had learned to act cute, but then he felt that his emotional intelligence was very low.

In the end, he said nothing, just hugged Cecilia and patted her head, then took Bandit away from Worston Garden and into the restroom of the "Flaming Dragon" bar in Pulitzer Harbor.

"Bandi..."

Roger was about to speak to Bandit when he noticed someone squatting on the toilet next to him.

He was a tall, thin middle-aged man with a stubble beard and red eyes, as if he had just woken up from a hangover.

"...You little brat, do you think I have to barge into the bathroom uninvited?"

The voice belonged to old Wiseman, who spoke in a low voice with a hint of helplessness.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Uncle Wiseman."

Roger was immediately embarrassed, and he scratched his head while laughing awkwardly.

"Get out and wait for me outside."

Old Wiseman whispered:
"If you're thirsty, go ask Ethan for a glass of mint water."

"well."

Roger sniffed, then quickly led Bendit out through the door.

About ten minutes later, old Wiseman came out of the bathroom and looked at Roger, who was sitting and chatting with Ethan.

Since it wasn't yet the opening hours for the "Flame Dragon" bar, only the three of them, along with a waiter and a bartender, were making preparations for the evening's opening.

"What brings you here this time?"

Old Wiseman sat down next to Ethan and looked at Roger.

"Two things. First, do you have my book? I ordered it from Rembrandt, and the address is here with you."

Upon hearing Roger's question, old Wiseman nodded slightly:

“There are so many books in the dock warehouse, you’ll have to figure out how to take them with you.”

"No problem, I have a seal that makes it easy to carry things."

Roger waved his hand, then looked at Ethan:

"The second thing, Ethan, do you want to become an Extraordinary?"

"Huh? You mean me?"

Ethan was a little taken aback and stared blankly at Roger.

(End of this chapter)