I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

He had no friends and no family.

Being able to have New Year's Eve dinner with Feng Yu today is enough to feel the festive atmosphere of the New Year.

Nothing happened overnight. After getting up in the morning, Lu Ban glanced at the system.

Number of companions: 2/1

The conditions for starting the mission have been met.

[Start the mission?]

[Participants will enter the Silent Land after confirmation of participation.]

"All done in one night?"

If it were two people, it would mean that both Trist and Sia agreed.

Lu Ban was still somewhat moved.

Since they didn't even know what the mission was yet, the two of them accepted Lu Ban's invitation, which shows that there is still genuine affection in the Silent Land.

"Let me check out the mission."

On the table in front of Lu Ban, a tattered book appeared. The book was not very thick and looked like it had been bought from a bookstore.

The book is both fantastical and real, and seems out of place in its surroundings.

"Ok?"

Lu Ban found it strange that there was only one book.

Normally, he should be given three options to choose from.

Could it be that there are different tasks in the open book?

He glanced at the book cover, which depicted a man driven to madness. The loss of reason had altered his appearance, his face contorted and his body moving inhumanly. He seemed to be muttering something, and Lu Ban felt as if he were hearing the ravings of an evil god. Just looking at the cover a few more times made him feel dizzy and lightheaded.

Lu Ban opened the book. On the yellowed pages, the system's cold and indifferent words appeared as if they had been hastily written with a fountain pen.

The mouth of a madman

All truth is illusion, all delusion is reality.

The high society of the ruined capital was, of course, filled with endless banquets, mellow grape juice, and romantic tales.

The manuscript of a new book has gone missing from a renowned family. It is a masterpiece that drives people to madness, an immortal work that captivates all who see it. However, the ending remains unknown.

You've been hired to investigate this case, but the eerie atmosphere suggests that this is no ordinary missing person case.

[Task Difficulty: Selectable]

[Mission Requirements: Find the missing home]

[Mission Requirement: Witness the ending of the story]

"A masterpiece, a perfect masterpiece, without a doubt, this will change the world!"

Lu Ban flipped through the pages, but didn't see any other task options.

In a daze, the words on the pages of the book changed again.

[Side quest item detected; quest changed]

[Mission Difficulty: Alienation]

[Mission Requirements: Find the missing home]

[Mission Requirement: Witness the ending of the story]

[Task Requirements: Find the fragments of Du Danping's melody]

"Is this a place Du Danping visited?"

Amidst Lu Ban's surprise and doubt, he also confirmed a few things.

"Is this the ruined capital, which is also Trist's own alien realm?"

"The difficulty of the mutation is high, and it's in the ruined city. I wonder what I'll encounter?"

"But it seems unlikely that we'd be attacked by monsters in a ruined city?"

"Looking for someone? Shouldn't we be able to find this Sia directly using scouting techniques?"

However, the sudden change in the difficulty of the transformation made Lu Ban feel a bit mentally challenged.

In his own words, all difficulties are about the same; just go for it.

However, since he brought teammates this time, if Trist and Sia couldn't handle the challenging mission and something happened to them, Lu Ban, who invited them, would feel somewhat guilty.

"At this point, all we can do is prepare as best we can."

Lu Ban thought to himself.

Since this is a high-difficulty task that we have never encountered before, we need to gather more information first.

After all, Lu Ban doesn't have many Silence Points left after refining [Last Words], so the support he can provide is limited. Buying more items is not as good as Trist finding a way to fire a shot or Sia casting a spell.

So what Lu Ban can do is use his advantage to fire more "Madman's Knowledge" shots and get more information about this mission.

According to Lu Ban's experience, after the mission is determined, the "Madman's Knowledge" will have a higher probability of drawing the corresponding mission or information from other realms related to the mission.

Having decided on his strategy, he immediately bought a "Madman's Knowledge" item at half price.

This time, what appeared in Lu Ban's hands was a human skull, no different from the one in the medical textbook.

The skull had a sticky texture, as if it were covered with a layer of grease, but when you actually touched it, it just felt smooth.

There were no flames burning inside the bones, nor any black mist; they were empty, like a granary that had been completely devoured by termites.

Lu Ban crushed the skull.

In an instant, countless murmurs echoed in his ears.

"...This is the best work, the highest masterpiece. Believe me, once you've read even one page of this manuscript, you won't disagree with me..."

"...He was incredibly talented and a romantic, but why did he disappear? Did he grow tired of the hustle and bustle of fame and fortune and yearn for a peaceful environment..."

"...He is not your father, you don't have such a father..."

"...I don't think this kind of manuscript will have a perfect ending. Do you understand this feeling? Being driven crazy by inspiration and feeling helpless? I believe he felt the same way. Perhaps that's why he disappeared..."

"...In any case, I just want to confirm his manuscript. As long as I can secure this copy, then I definitely can, I definitely can..."

"...It wasn't that I wrote these stories, but rather that these stories entered my head; they were already there, and I just happened to pick up these words..."

Countless murmurs burned, churned, and exploded in Lu Ban's mind.

The next moment, thick black blood flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. It felt as if ants were crawling inside his body, his skin swelled and contracted, and his whole body twisted and deformed.

thump--

Lu tripped and fell to the ground, losing consciousness.

Chapter 215 [The Mouth of a Madman]

When Lu Ban woke up, he found that it was already late.

He lay in bed, covered with a blanket. The window was closed. Outside, the wind and snow were raging, but inside, it was warm and cozy.

The blood on his face had disappeared, and his wounds had long been covered by grass and trees, healing without leaving any trace.

Sitting up, Lu Ban felt somewhat incredulous.

He looked into the bedroom; two wisps of mist swirled in the corner of the ceiling, and a figure seemed to be sitting in a chair, but it was indistinct.

"Is it you?"

no respond.

But there was no further response.

It seems so.

Since Lu Ban's previous accident, the people living with him in the house could barely get in touch with him and could only wait for him to recover naturally.

But now, it seems that these cohabiting partners have begun to have the ability to influence and interfere with reality; at least they can help him wash dishes, clean, close windows, and cover himself with blankets.

"Is it really true, as Feng Yu said, that the world is becoming increasingly polluted?"

Lu Ban felt the situation was becoming serious.

His idea after talking with Feng Yu was simple: to improve the world's ability to withstand pollution to some extent. The primary way to do this was to first cause some minor pollution.

Just like vaccines, we can first raise people's threshold in a painless way, making them tolerant of strange and indescribable things from other places. Then, if the whole world falls into a state of erosion, then humans will not be easily alienated.

After achieving this, Lu Ban's next task is to find a way for human civilization and pollution to coexist.

Now, after thinking about it carefully, he realized that most of those alien realms were worlds that had survived severe erosion and widespread pollution.

Every world has its own way of coexisting with pollution.

For example, the Crystal Core Disease in the wasteland is said to have destroyed civilization, but it may be precisely the existence of the Crystal Core Disease that allowed the humans of that alien land to complete their evolution, enabling them to survive in the desert and fight against swarms of insects.

For example, in the Kingdom of Night, magical knowledge is inherently a form of pollution, and the mages of the Gray Tower isolate this pollution from ordinary humans through the magic network. Even mages who constantly need to use spells resort to praying to the magic network to temporarily gain knowledge in order to resist the corruption.

As for He Island, the system of purifying fire and priestesses was originally the vanguard in combating pollution. At least the purifying fire burned away the filth, slowing down the progress of erosion and pollution on He Island.

As for the ruins of the abandoned capital, those endless stretches of wasteland teeming with monsters, they might be the traces of civilization being invaded by evil gods. As for how the abandoned capital and pollution could coexist, Lu Ban couldn't see it for the time being.

Therefore, Lu Ban needs to figure out how these pollutants work and find a way to resist them suitable for this world.

This isn't something that can be solved by singing "Good Luck".

"Wait a minute, maybe singing 'Good Luck' would work too, wasn't that how movie theaters were back then?"

He decided to hold off on the proposal for the time being.

After getting out of bed, Lu Ban washed himself, changed into clean and refreshing clothes, packed his backpack, and took some necessary tools.

Although it is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the hardworking Lu Ban decided to set off immediately.

He sent Feng Yu a message and only received the reply "Have a safe trip".

It seems that Feng Yu is neither surprised nor worried about Lu Ban's upcoming journey to the [Alienation] difficulty level.

It's also possible that she doesn't really care whether Lu Ban lives or dies.