Mystery: Lucky One

"Can you tell me..." Alice heard Amon ask her with a smile, "Who is the other protagonist?"

Alice quickly entered a meditative state and threw away all the messy thoughts in her mind.

She knew that Amon had the ability to steal thoughts. Theoretically, even if she couldn't defeat Amon, Amon shouldn't be able to steal her thoughts at will. Unfortunately... she had the power but didn't know how to use it.

Facing this incarnation of fraud, Alice knew that she could never outsmart Him, so she chose to play to her strengths and avoid her weaknesses - she chose not to use her brain.

She is good at this.

All her thoughts were forcibly terminated. Alice looked up at Amon's smiling face with a blank mind, took a deep breath, and made the most instinctive reaction.

——She dropped the book and ran away.

Facing such a dangerous enemy, running away is of course the best solution. When there is no quick way like teleporting, of course you should run with your legs... Without thinking, Alice came to this conclusion naturally.

However, after only three or five steps, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was obvious that the hand came from Amon, whom she had always been thinking about. Alice's escape came to an abrupt stop. She slowly turned around and looked at Amon. He did not seem angry, but had a strange smile on his face.

"...You know this is useless, right?" Amon took back his hand, leaned over and asked her, "You even run on your own two legs..."

——So, if you are caught after escaping, what should you do?

As Amon stared at her with a smile, Alice came to a conclusion again. She argued earnestly:
"I'm sorry, I just haven't seen you for a long time, and I was so excited that my hands and feet were a little out of control.

"Um... could you please help me pick up that book?"

"Ha," Amon laughed, "Okay."

As if expecting her to make some unreasonable response or say some nonsense, Amon slowly turned around, walked back step by step, bent down and picked up the book on the ground.

His movements were extremely slow, as if he was intentionally giving Alice time and opportunity, but Alice did nothing. She still stood there, watching Amon pick up the comic book, wipe off the dirt on it, and then hold the book in front of her with one hand.

Alice blinked, reached out to take the book, and then held it against her chest with both hands like a textbook, continuing to look up at Amon, her mind blank.

They stared at each other in silence. Facing Alice who seemed to be concentrating but actually had nothing on her mind, Amon was the first to hold back and asked:

"So, you tell me... who is the former lover that I can't forget?"

As he spoke, he walked towards Alice step by step. Alice instinctively stepped back holding the book. When the last voice fell, Amon stopped, Alice dropped the book, turned around and ran for the second time, like a frightened bird.

So the hand was placed on her shoulder again, this time obviously not as gentle as the last time, and she was pulled back to her original position.

"?" Amon didn't seem to understand her behavior, "You..."

He looked Alice up and down, and asked thoughtfully:

"How about... I teach you how to escape first, and then you try to run?"

Look, what a considerate suggestion! Alice nodded as a matter of course and accepted the suggestion:

"Okay."

Amon was silent for two seconds, then his expression turned cold and he asked in a commanding tone:
"Tell me who my old lover is and who is the other protagonist of this book."

The order or threat from the Angel King was much more effective than the previous playful questioning. Rational thoughts took over again. Alice suddenly remembered the title of the book, and her mind uncontrollably recalled the content related to Amon's question.

An old lover, of course... Wait, shouldn't Amon's lover be...

Several inappropriate paintings for children turned into pop-up windows in her mind and were then stolen by Amon - apparently, even when she was thinking, Alice's way of thinking was unusual.

Amon narrowed his eyes slightly. Alice instinctively felt threatened, and her instinctive response was to drop the book and run away. However, faced with this strategy that had failed twice, Alice, who had regained her ability to think, chose to reject it.

She closed her eyes resigned to her fate, raised her head and said to Amon: "Kill me, and remember to throw my body to the edge of the Western Continent."

Amon looked at Alice, raised his eyebrows, and asked with a puzzled look:

"Is this person important to you? So important that... you would rather die than tell him?"

"Well," Alice shook her head, "No, but, but you can't really kill me..."

She shrank her neck slightly, but soon regained her confidence and continued with sparkling eyes:

"Yes, you don't dare to kill me, why should I be afraid?
"You don't even dare to keep me here for too long, because..."

This realization made Alice much bolder. She looked at Amon, adjusted her facial muscles, and smiled exactly like him. Then she imitated his tone and said:

"In that case, you will be the one who dies."

The coercion from fate, at this moment, became her most powerful confidence.

This was a naked provocation. Amon put away the smile on his face and looked at her with cold eyes.

Ai Li looked at Amon without any fear. After more than ten seconds, Amon's mouth slowly formed a smile, and his voice was gentle with gnashing teeth:

"very good.

"very good.

"Well, what will you do to tell me, little Alice?"

Alice suddenly shuddered, and she realized that Amon must be really angry now.

This was not the situation she wanted - you know, if she didn't plan to pray to the "True Creator" and didn't plan to go there step by step, Amon might be the last way to go to the Western Continent.

Wait, why didn’t He beat me this time? He didn’t kill me when he was angry before, but he beat me… And if He wanted to know, He could have tried to interrogate me. His way of asking questions was a little too gentle…

This thought flashed through my mind, and soon I got feedback from Amon:

"...So you prefer being beaten?"

Alice was silent for two seconds, then shook her head firmly, denying the incident:

“That’s not the case.

"I prefer to watch other people get angry but don't know what to do with me... I'm not talking about you!"

The moment Amon raised his eyebrows at her words, she immediately defended herself. Anyway, the atmosphere was no longer as tense as before. Facing the much more relaxed atmosphere, Alice hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively:

"How do you know that I'm the one who drew this comic?"

Amon looked at her as if she were a fool.

Alice was silent for two seconds, then silently changed the question:
"Why do you want to know who the old lovers and protagonists in the comics are? Maybe they have no prototypes at all and I just made them up?"

Although the hope was slim, Alice still wanted to confirm it - what if Amon was just angry because of the content of the comic, instead of guessing the hidden meaning behind it? What if?
Unfortunately, her prayer failed, and Amon continued to look at her as if she were a fool.

Alice covered her face with her hands and asked in a self-deprecating tone:
"Then why don't you just interrogate me directly? You...you haven't done anything to me yet?"

Alice tentatively lowered her hands and shook her arms twice.

Amon watched her actions in silence for a few seconds, then couldn't help but remind her:

"If you're infected, you can't detect it like this."

"How do we check it?" Alice turned her head and asked seriously.

Amon paused and looked her up and down, as if to confirm whether her question was serious.

Alice felt uncomfortable with this look, she raised the comic book in her hand and threw it at Amon's face.

Amon just raised his hand slightly, and the comic book suddenly appeared in his hand from the air. He looked at Alice, shook his head and sighed:

"You can even see that I don't dare to kill you...but you can't see this?"

Alice looked at Him in confusion.

"I'm..." Amon chose his words carefully, "I'm trying to build a good relationship with you."

This answer was so frank that it seemed unreal. Alice opened her eyes wide in astonishment and her mouth opened in surprise. After more than ten seconds, she reached out and closed her jaw.

After trying to move her jaw to make sure it hadn't dropped in surprise, Alice said with a blank look in her eyes:

"Are you kidding..."

The absurd yet reasonable answer - indulge her rude request, ignore her blatant provocation, and do not take action when he could have gotten the answer in other ways, but instead try to persuade her to make a deal... This seems to be what someone who wants to build a good relationship would do.

But looking at what Amon had done as a whole, Alice couldn't help but ask:

"Who taught you to build relationships like this?"

This is clearly a psychological shadow.

After a pause, Alice frowned again and asked, "Wait, why are you doing this?"

The angel Amon described by Song Shu is a guy who does things based on his interest, and the honorific name of Amon seems to emphasize this point. If we really judge by this point...

Alice blinked, and suddenly recalled a sentence Amon had said to her a long time ago:

"I like you very much."

At the same time, Amon smiled and lowered his head and said to her:
"Well... because I like you very much, little Alice.

"You are so funny."

Terror almost overflowed. At that moment, Alice didn't care about the risk of being teleported in the "God-Forsaken Land" with the help of the underlying chaotic power. Her figure quickly faded until it disappeared.

She was completely integrated into the chaotic power of the "God-Forsaken Land".

And at the original place, Amon looked at the place where Alice disappeared and slowly frowned.

Unlike Alice expected, she was not lost. Although she could not identify the direction of the "God-Forsaken Land" and did not know where she was, Alice knew where she was going.

——That power has been calling her all along.

Ouroboros used hand-painted paintings that were imbued with his own power to form "coordinates" so that he would not lose his way even if he merged into the chaotic power of the "God-forsaken Land".

It is enough for Him to stabilize Himself amidst the pull of chaotic forces and reach the predetermined coordinates.

But when Alice fell into this state, she realized that everything she had done before was redundant. She did not need to fix the coordinates in advance, nor did she need to try to stabilize herself, because among these chaotic forces, there was a force that had never changed.

That force was pushing her towards a certain direction, where something seemed to be calling her.

Alice suddenly remembered what happened in the Sea of ​​Ruins, and Heath Doyle who claimed that he was going to find the key that could unlock all treasures.

...Did he "hear" the call?

A strange thought flashed through her mind, but she had no time to ponder it deeply because the situation she was in was not suitable for thinking. The chaotic power of "God's Forsaken Land" was in close contact with her spirit. Even if she did not need to find the direction or move by herself, it was still very dangerous.

Alice stopped all thinking and action, and focused all her energy on preventing herself from being contaminated by the power of chaos.

She felt like she had turned into a small boat - no, that was not accurate, because a boat without oars or sails would just drift aimlessly on such a sea.

Alice felt like she had turned into a kite, with a string holding her from a distance. There was someone at the end of the string, constantly trying to reel it in.

During the time when she was focused, time passed extremely fast and extremely slow. Alice had no idea how much time had passed, nor how far she had "floated". She was just waiting in a daze for the moment when she would reach the end.

After an unknown amount of time, Alice seemed to be awakened from a dream when she heard a chaotic noise.

Like all people who wake up from a long sleep, Alice was confused at first, and then tried to open her eyes and see the surroundings clearly.

She struggled and tried hard to open her eyes, only to meet an ugly and deformed face.

This man had no nose. Where the nose should be were two empty round holes. His eyes were one big and one small, squeezed together. His mouth was distorted, and the empty space on his face was filled with tumors.

Even though she hadn't remembered what had happened yet, nor had she figured out the current situation, Alice still reacted normally to this terrifying face:
"Help ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

She screamed as if she had seen a ghost.

The sound frightened the person who was approaching her and he fell to the ground. Alice jumped up and found that he was not the only one - there were more than a dozen people with strange looks staring at her. (End of this chapter)