Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

So Lacie immediately pulled out the chair next to Charles, sat over, and asked impatiently:

"So, did Crazy John confess and get leniency?"

Charles, who had already noticed Rachel's arrival, replied without even looking up:

"I guess so...but there are some things he doesn't remember."

Lace was stunned for a moment, and muttered, "That's the Riddler," and then asked:

"Tell me about it."

As she said this, she took out her wand and prepared to set up a soundproof barrier.

Charles noticed her movements, stopped her and said to her:

"There's no need to set up a soundproof barrier. They can't hear what we're discussing."

He cast his eyes towards the bar.

But she didn't need him to indicate so, as Lacie could understand his subtext.

Then the witch frowned:

"I can't hear it... Is it a cognitive filter? Psychological suggestion? Or brainwashing or hypnosis?"

She shook her head again:

"Forget it, none of this matters."

The witch's expression began to become serious:

"The important thing is that the wishing well has not fulfilled the priest's wish - at least not until now. Do you understand what this means?"

After a brief moment of daze, the brave man couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"It means that the product of the wishing machine will most likely no longer be able to make a wish to the wishing machine..." He paused, his voice lowered, "At the same time, perhaps it also explains from another perspective what the old lady and Mr. John said to us..."

"Why can't the wishing well fulfill the wishes of the Diesel people?"

Because the product of the wish cannot make a wish to the wishing machine.

He raised his head and looked at the Diesel people who were still eating, drinking, chatting and bragging in the tavern.

A great sense of confusion suddenly enveloped him, making him feel a little breathless, but it was not the oppressive feeling of being imprisoned or surrounded by enemies.

It's ridiculous.

"Perhaps there are no living Diesel people in Diesel anymore. Only the puppets made by the wish-granting machine, which are no different from living people, remain."

Crazy John was fake, the garrulous old gentleman in the hotel was fake, and the kind and friendly old lady they met at the beginning was also fake.

The old lady had clearly told them...

Charles suddenly remembered something, so he raised his head and looked at Lacier and asked:

"Do you remember the old lady, the one we met when we first arrived at Diesel? She clearly told us, she said--"

"Her grandson once told her that he would leave Diesel and go to the White Tower to study!"

"Does this mean that all Diesel people who are the product of a certain wish can leave Diesel freely?"

There were some things he didn't say.

But Lacier, who had always had a tacit understanding with him, thought of it, and her face instantly became solemn.

It has been thirty years since the founding of the country of Diesel. During these thirty years, how many Diesel people have left their homeland and spread across the entire continent like dandelion seeds blown away by the wind?

Among the creations of these wishing machines, are there any that have been contaminated or parasitized?

Lacey shuddered involuntarily.

She looked at Charles and pursed her lips:

"But what can we do? It seems that all we can do now is to pray..."

She smiled bitterly:

"Please hope that the Wall of Sighs is reliable enough to keep out any lanky figures that try to leave Diesel."

……

"This 'wall' is really solid."

Outside of Diesel, legendary investigator Nicholas Kate and his assistant Verdin Tudor are trying to break through the Wall of Sighs.

But no matter what they do -

Be it destructive spells, warp spells, or their most powerful abilities, none of them could penetrate that invisible and intangible barrier.

It was clearly there, but it seemed as if it didn't exist.

It seemed as if any spell had never landed on the ground, and it passed through it lightly, blasted through the rain curtain, and disappeared into the ruins behind the barrier.

Those spells created from pure destruction and lethality couldn't even wake up the thin ghosts wandering aimlessly in the ruins.

Finally, after another unsuccessful attempt, the black cat gave up on this futile act of wasting magic power and couldn't help but sigh again:

"We've tried so many ways to deal with it, but nothing works. I'm almost at a loss as to how to deal with it."

The assistant beside it responded:

"If you really can't think of a way to break through this 'wall', then I'm afraid we can only wait for the advance investigation team to arrive. They will be here soon."

"It might be too late by the time they get here!" The black cat shook the whiskers on his cheeks in dissatisfaction. "Justice delayed, even if it can still be called justice, has long lost its due meaning to the victims!"

After saying this in a decisive tone, it swung its tail and circled around a small section of the Wall of Sighs in a somewhat impatient manner, thinking about how to break through this almost impenetrable barrier.

Spells are ineffective, brute force is of no use, and even some of the magical items it carries with it have no effect on it.

Is it true that only a wishing machine can deal with a wishing machine?

Do we have to use the limited wishing machine in the White Tower to break through the "wall" in front of us?

Thinking of this, the black cat stopped, raised its head, and carefully looked at the "wall" in front of it with its dark yellow vertical pupils.

As it should, it can't actually see the "wall" at all.

No one can see it, but everyone seems to be able to touch it, even though it has no magical reaction at all, and even though any flying beast, any dead thing without thoughts can pass through it...

"etc."

The black cat suddenly thought that it had "grasped" the essence of the "wall".

So it turned around and said to its assistant:

"I understand. This 'wall' does not exist in front of us, but exists in..."

The black cat raised its paw, and a sharp nail popped out from its pad, pointing at its head:

"It exists in our brains. It is a certain cognition, a certain concept. It binds our souls and bodies, and it limits our actions—"

“When we ourselves firmly believe that we cannot pass through the wall, it stands to reason that we cannot pass through it.”

"This should be the closest explanation to the nature of the wall," Nicholas thought again, "but then what? Then what should we do?"

The black cat suddenly realized helplessly that even if it saw through the essence of the "wall", it would most likely not be able to break through it and enter Diesel.

"Do we have to wait until the advance investigation team arrives?"

It became increasingly irritable.

But at this moment, the thinking tentacles it had placed around the entire Diesel to detect the situation suddenly sensed that something was approaching.

So it quickly became alert and told its assistant:

"Something is approaching, be careful."

After saying this, it leaped lightly onto the assistant's shoulder and ordered:

"That doesn't seem to be our White Tower's advance investigation team... Let's go and take a look, but don't forget to hold your wand tightly and be ready to fight at any time, my assistant."

"is teacher."

The assistant responded in a low voice, then tightly grasped the handle of the black umbrella, ready for battle.

They left the Wall of Sighs and slowly walked into the increasingly heavy rain, turning into phantoms floating on the mirror.

But before they had left the Wall of Sighs for long, they saw something that touched their minds...

No, it's "people".

Countless shadowy "people" walked in the rain, and no one knew where they came from or why they appeared here.

But Black Cat, who had roamed almost the entire Pangaea, recognized that some of them were dressed in clothes from different countries and regions.

Victoria, Ceylon, Aurora, and even an adventurer from Kangkel with an adventurer's medal on his chest.

What they all had in common was a dazed look on their faces, as if they were trapped in a dream from which they could not wake up.

Their numbers were still increasing, and in the increasingly heavy rain, they slowly walked towards Diesel, which had been completely closed off from the outside world.

just like……

Like a minister who was recalled by the emperor.

Nicholas and his assistant Veldin silently watched these returnees who had left Diesel in the past return to their long-lost hometown like dandelion seeds.

They watched as the Diesel people, after passing through the invisible and intangible barrier, took off their disguises and returned to their original appearance.

Slender ghost.

Countless tall and thin ghosts are returning to their eternal homeland from every corner of Pangaea.

[To be continued]

-

57. Feeling Strange

The witch and the hero in the tavern still had no idea what was happening in the outside world.

They are still exchanging information gained from their respective investigations.

"So, can we piece together the full picture of the anomaly that occurred in Diesel that year through all the scattered intelligence we know?"

Rachel asked.

Charles was silent for a moment, then nodded:

"You can try it."

"Well then," the witch took out her wand and used the tip of her wand to draw some glimmering words on the table, "let's start reasoning, in the most intuitive, timeline way -"

She drew a line to start:

"The exact time is unknown, but it is predictable that it was probably more than 30 years ago when Longin Tyr, who was studying in the White Tower, and his servant John returned to their homeland, Diesel."

Charles considered for a moment, then continued:

"Later, in the ruins of a former civilization in Diesel, they unearthed a limited wish-granting machine..."

"?"

Hearing this, Lacie couldn't help but feel a little confused.

Long Jin I and Crazy John...did they dig out that limited wishing machine from the ruins of some former civilization?

This is not right.

What she heard was clearly that "a scholar wanted to create a truly infinite wishing machine, but failed, but by accident, he ended up creating a defective product, a limited wishing machine."

But in the end she suppressed her doubts.

There was no point in discussing such things with the Charles. After all, the Charles was not one of those learned old denizens in the White Tower.

So she decisively skipped this element which would not affect the integrity of the story and continued listening:

"After obtaining the limited wish machine, a disaster befell Diesel, and the entire country was destroyed by the disaster. The only one who survived was probably Long Jin I."

"Longjin I didn't want his people to die, and didn't want his country to be destroyed, so he made a wish to the limited wishing machine..."

When Charles said this, Rachel interrupted him:

"It was at this time that we didn't know whether it was the disaster or Long Jin I who activated the wishing machine. Anyway, the White Tower on the other side of the Pan-Continent, the newly completed abnormal magic monitoring array, detected abnormal magic fluctuations coming from Diesel."