I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

"That's good."

The ancient capital seemed somewhat somber, but ultimately found solace in its state of mind.

"You should leave. Staying here too long is not a good thing."

He waved his hand, urging the three of them to leave.

The mission is complete, and Lu Ban has no reason to stay here any longer.

They pushed open the wooden door, and outside was a deep night. The town no longer existed, only endless ruins remained.

The rented car was parked outside, quiet and still, like an old friend.

Lu Ban glanced one last time at the ancient capital sitting in front of the bronze gate. The other person didn't look in his direction, but instead lowered his head, picked up a pen, and prepared to write another story.

He will continue to create those horrifying, terrifying, and chilling stories to please the sleeping god. This struggle will continue forever, until the end of the universe. No, even after the universe ends, perhaps he will still be writing tirelessly in the dream of the Great Old One.

Lu Ban closed the door, and the door disappeared completely. The road was empty, as if nothing had ever existed.

Suddenly, at the other end of the seemingly endless ruins, Lu Ban saw a glimmer of dawn.

Beyond the pitch-black horizon, where even the stars are invisible, a ray of light pierces the darkness and stretches across the sky.

Immediately afterwards, brilliant, magnificent, and dazzling sunlight illuminated a patch of sky, and a golden sun slowly rose from the horizon.

In the dawn light, the world was shrouded in a layer of mist. The light shone on the broken walls and ruins, and on the slightly bumpy road, leaving dazzling spots of light.

Everything seemed to be reborn, full of hope.

No one knows that there was once an ordinary person here who, through his wisdom, imprisoned an indescribable deity.

"Give this to Stone; he should understand everything."

Lu Ban handed the newly completed "Old Tales of the Ruined Capital" to Trist.

"You mean, he's from the ancient capital..."

Drizzt quickly understood as well.

"This task may not be as simple as we think."

Having experienced so much, Lu Ban had already made some guesses about the Silent Land.

"If something goes wrong in the middle, we might become cannon fodder, detectives who failed in the previous investigation, nameless monsters, or dead people with names."

This is the essence of alienation.

Although the ancients did not explicitly state it, perhaps many similar chosen ones had participated in this mission before, but they all failed, ultimately becoming one of those townspeople in suits, or being torn apart by the dogs that jumped out of the painting, or getting lost in the roads outside the ruined city.

Those indescribable great beings seem incompatible with each other, and some even have obvious conflicts and hostile relationships.

Lu Ban and his group came here precisely because they were the key to bringing the story of the ancient capital to a close and ultimately allowing the sleepers to continue their slumber.

Therefore, the gods of the Silent Land may not wish for this one in the ruined capital to awaken.

Aren't you coming back with me?

Drizzt got into the driver's seat and asked.

"No, I don't like sitting in this thing, it makes me dizzy."

Xia's reasoning was very genuine.

"I don't want to sit in a car with a man."

Lu Ban's reasons are more genuine.

"..."

Helpless, Drizzt could only start the engine and glance at the two of them again.

"I hope we can meet again someday, no matter what."

Lu Ban nodded, and then the system's text appeared in his field of vision.

[Mission complete, now returning to base]

【3......2......1......】

The surrounding ruins were a jumbled mess, and Lu Ban felt dizzy. In that extreme dizziness, he seemed to see some slippery tentacles sweeping around his body and some fluttering cloaks. Like sinking into a cold, dark lake, a suffocating feeling enveloped Lu Ban.

"...Something's not right?"

In the past, although returning from foreign lands was sometimes bizarre, it was generally just an experience similar to flying.

But now, this unnatural feeling of suffocation is unreasonable.

Lu Ban tried to find some clues in the colorful world around him, and he saw at his feet a emerald eye without pupils staring at him.

However, the eyes disappeared just moments later, covered by dreamlike, colorful bubbles.

Everything quickly distorted, the suffocating feeling that had been plaguing Lu Ban disappeared, and his feet once again touched solid ground.

He saw himself sitting at his computer desk, the tattered and decaying book on the tabletop drifting away in the wind. On the cover, a slightly deranged-looking man was writing furiously, and countless monsters escaped from his pen.

The last thing to disappear was the book title, which Lu Ban saw was called "The Mouth of a Madman".

Chapter 232 Behind the Door

Congratulations on completing the task!

Settlement will now commence.

[Mission Exploration Progress: 99%]

[Task Completion Status: Perfect]

[Is this bizarre and grotesque world merely the ravings of a madman, or a reflection of harsh reality? Did those mad things bring misfortune to this world, or did the madness of this world breed evil? In the gap between reality and illusion, you witness the story's ending.]

[Gained Silence Points: 84500]

[Obtained Class Reward: Item: Maw of the Madman]

Settlement complete

[Refine your worldview, satisfy your audience, bring more excitement and screams, and drive the world crazy for your work!]

[Choose to complete career development tasks and receive career rewards]

Welcome back to the Silent Land!

Lu Ban was stunned when he saw the reward.

He counted the zeros again carefully to make sure he hadn't made a mistake.

"Over 80,000 Silence Points?"

Lu Ban immediately had two thoughts.

First of all, they made a fortune.

Secondly, the difficulty of alienation is truly a good civilization.

The previous [Erosion] difficulty required a lot of hard work investigating everywhere, and even with full completion, you only got a little over 10,000 Silent Points. Now, with [Alienation], although the exploration progress is also high, the rewards have increased several times over.

Lu Ban finally understood why the items sold in the high-end shops of Silent Department Store were so expensive.

Two missions at the [Alienation] difficulty level yield tens of thousands of points, enough to buy any refined materials you want. Once you accumulate 500,000 points, you might even be able to unlock the selling function. At that point, you can just plunder the alien realm and make a fortune.

Thinking about this, Lu Ban felt a sense of anticipation.

Of course, he is still a long way from reaching 500,000 Silent Points. Even if he could get 60,000 to 70,000 points every time, it would take several missions. He can only think about those things for now.

Lu Ban checked his haul and discovered that he actually had all the books from the ancient capital, totaling several million words from beginning to end. If Lu Ban hadn't been so particular, he could have copied all of these books and published them.

However, he is not that kind of person, and the publishing industry is in a slump right now. After painstakingly going through three rounds of review and proofreading to publish a book, the money earned might not even be as much as the tips Qin Tiantian gets from a week of live streaming. It's really a thankless task. At most, a small section of these texts can be used as a bonus or Easter egg in a movie.

As for the other scenes, Lu Ban glanced at them and quickly found a video file.

The video file is labeled as a door.

Upon clicking, he saw a large bronze door with an ancient design, the very one located in the church's underground area.

However, Lu Ban always felt that something was missing from this door.

He looked at it for a while before suddenly noticing that the strange, exotic script was no longer on the door.

The video kept shifting between near and far, as if something was watching the gate. Lu Ban stared at the screen for a moment, then suddenly slapped his thigh.

"This is the view from inside the door!"

The moment Lu Ban realized this, he saw the camera pan to him.

A corner of a colossal, indifferent, grand, absolute, and irresistible figure came into his view.

hum-

In an instant, Lu Ban's ears rang, his eardrums ruptured, he lost all hearing, his eyes turned bright red as if blood had been sprayed into them, blood seeped from his nose, and his entire brain seemed to be being violently churned and pulverized in a blender, boiling over.

A wisp of smoke emerged from Lu Ban's ears, nose, and mouth, accompanied by a strong, acrid smell.

thump--

Lu tripped and fell to the ground, twitched twice, and then remained motionless.

The video continued playing, and everything in Lu Ban's room seemed to be suppressed, not daring to peek out.

Even the grass on his body grew extremely slowly, as if it were being suppressed by something.

At that moment, the door to Lu Ban's room was suddenly pushed open, and a person walked in.

He frowned slightly when he saw the image on the screen, turned it off, and then shook Lu Ban's body.

Seeing that there was no response, she pulled Lu Ban up, put him on the bed, and carefully wiped the blood off his face with a wet towel.

As the curtains were drawn back, sunlight streamed in, and the grass on Lu Ban's body finally began to grow vigorously again.

It wasn't until the afternoon, when the sun was setting, that Lu Ban opened his eyes again.

"I never imagined I'd spend my Spring Festival like this..."

He moved his head and looked at the blanket covering him. Just as he was about to say that his roommate was already so considerate, he suddenly smelled a fragrance.

It looks like stir-fried crab?

The aroma emitted by the shells of crustaceans after being heated to high temperatures is quite unique, and Lu Ban's appetite was already whetted by the smell.