Chapter 138: The Narrator
Ever since Li Nuowei died, Drake, who regained consciousness from the merman state, felt a strange power transfer onto him, and this power undoubtedly came from Li Nuowei.
Through narration of a story that can loop infinitely, the target’s consciousness is trapped in the narrated story; the deeper the narration, the shallower the target creature’s cognitive consciousness becomes, making it less likely to discover the story’s “falsity,” thus becoming more deeply immersed in the fabricated story. And the so-called narration is not simply limited to oral telling; any form involving “communication” can trigger the ability, such as text, eye contact, touch, and so on.
But it is worth noting that this power will also affect the story’s narrator, though the influence is slightly weaker compared to the listener; the deeper and more invested the narrator becomes in telling the story, the more they will slowly forget that they are the story’s fabricator.
If both the narrator and the listener forget the initial truth, they will undoubtedly fall into another world, while in reality, they will exhibit a vegetative state and gradually starve or die of old age.
When obtaining this power, Drake also discovered another characteristic of this power: “story inheritance.”
The last story narrated by the previous narrator before dying can be inherited by the listener who received the transferred ability, but to maintain this story, it must be narrated persistently at a certain frequency; otherwise, the story itself will disappear.
Originally, upon gaining this ability, Drake could have chosen not to inherit Li Nuowei’s story, but he discovered that Li Nuowei was actually still alive in the story, and what shocked him even more was that the individual wills of the sea monster and the Sea God of Anhai had somehow been trapped in Li Nuowei’s story.
In other words, the sea monster and Sea God of Anhai that people see in reality are merely anomaly creatures with only instinctual reactions; Their souls and wills are trapped in Li Nuowei’s unbreakable “story.”
This is a seal! Drake thought so.
The consciousnesses of the two abnormal gods are trapped in the story world; as long as people in reality do not actively disturb Their slumbering place, no one will get hurt, and They will continue to slumber, even if Their believers and kin summon Them to return—They will still be trapped in the story.
Drake did not know how Li Nuowei achieved this or when he did it.
But in any case, to avoid chaos in the world and prevent disaster from befalling the entire world, he, as a human, must do his utmost to maintain this seal; what he can do is tell the story to every listener to thereby stabilize the seal.
But justice is only a small part of the reason he inherited and continues Li Nuowei’s story; in reality, for him, this reason is not even unwavering. A larger part of the reason is actually that he wants Li Nuowei to live well in the story world, and as long as the story world is maintained, the Sea God of Anhai’s resurrection can be continuously prevented, and his merman bloodline will not easily awaken again, allowing him to continue maintaining his human identity.
For Drake, even if being a merman means having a stronger physique and longer life than a human, he would disdain it—not because he particularly loves the human race or identity, but because he has grown accustomed to the feeling of being human and persevering with his personal will; if he became a merman, he would lose all of that and turn into an ugly monster that only knows to serve the merman king and loses his true heart, which would make him feel disgusted and uneasy.
In order to narrate the story well, Drake, after recovering his human form, changed his name and returned to land, settling down in Modu City, another port city, where he obtained a new identity in the black market and blended into the group of Modu City citizens; then, relying on some special skills he learned in Hawaii, he successfully secured a bartender position at the Good Luck Bar.
He had good learning ability, and bartending came naturally due to his frequent visits to bars in the past, so he quickly got the hang of it under the master bartender Crystal and learned more advanced bartending techniques; soon he became the bar’s golden bartender, with skills no less than those of the master who taught him.
In the two months of living here, he—who had experienced anomaly events, had abnormal god bloodline flowing in his body, and had even awakened—noticed that his perspective on the world had changed; his perception abilities in all aspects had improved, simply put, an enhancement of inspiration; he gradually discovered that even in this modern metropolis of gaudy lights and wine, there were some hidden anomaly factors unknown to most people.
For example, the man and woman in front of him now; they appear to be a close couple, but actually, the first time Drake saw them, Xin Junmao was still standing watch for Miss Zhao while she devoured a cat abuser alive in an alley, and he was even startled by the terrifying scene at the time.
When the pair Xin Junmao and Miss Zhao first met Drake, the atmosphere between them was tense as if swords were drawn, but in the end they did not fight each other, because Miss Zhao smelled the scent of a curse and a familiar person on Drake, and Drake also felt they were very familiar.
And Drake soon remembered that the two were actually the monsters Li Nuowei encountered in that “true but despairing world” in the inherited story.
Drake was doubly astonished, because if Li Nuowei and Drake had truly met in that world, then was the story left by Li Nuowei real, false, or not entirely false?
Or perhaps, the world they were in was also fake?
Drake could not let himself fall into another cycle of chilling questions, so he asked Xin Junmao if he had met a youth named “Li Nuowei” in the “true but despairing world”; after getting Xin Junmao’s affirmative reply, Drake finally had a realization— the barrier between the story world and reality was even more fragile than he had imagined, and the two worlds actually intersected with each other.
When Xin Junmao learned that the mixed-race handsome man before him was connected to a friend he had met once, Xin Junmao immediately asked Drake about the other’s whereabouts.
After hearing Drake explain the ins and outs, Xin Junmao could not help but let out a sigh of regret; the sudden loss of a friend always leaves one feeling melancholic inside.
From then on, Drake became acquainted with the strange pair Xin Junmao and Miss Zhao; Xin Junmao and Miss Zhao would often come to the bar where Drake worked to get drinks.
The three “people” who were not strictly human would often gather like tonight, chatting freely about everything.
Of course, they actually had a common purpose when gathering together—revenge!
They discovered that the guys who reduced them to their current state all traced back to the same source when investigated.
House of Cards, Inverted Sanctuary, Yellow Sand Truth School… they were actually all related to an unknown organization, and this organization was definitely not founded by humans!
