Reading this book full of "taboos" and related punishments under the warm gas light, Angel didn't close the title page until the light outside the window dimmed, and breathed a long sigh of relief.
The good news is that in the few hours she has been here, she has not violated any of the taboos and will not be held accountable or punished later.
The bad news is that this book has been revised dozens of times, and the last third is almost all laws that add regulations. It has closed almost all the loopholes she can think of, and even includes many undiscovered loopholes that she only thought "this can still be like this" when she saw the regulations.
For example, the loophole that Angel once thought of by refusing to be assigned an identity and not becoming a "resident" was closed by a revision many years ago. If a guest entering "Dream City" does not see the Archon within 24 hours and is not assigned an identity, he will commit the crime of "illegal entry", which is a felony. Violators do not need to go through Judgment and will be directly Sentenced to Death.
This description of punishment also attracted the attention of Angel, because most felonies have to be tried by an agency called "Tribunal", which imposes various penalties according to the degree of the violation. Only a few will specifically indicate that they do not need to go through Judgment and will be directly sentenced to death.
Angel speculates that this "death penalty" is most likely caused by the "Hand of Order" characteristic that maintains the city's operation, activating some kind of force to directly kill the target. Otherwise, for a lawbreaker who wants to escape from the city, the death penalty Intimidation would be insignificant at all and would be difficult to execute.
Of course, there is an obvious loophole here. It is not illegal to leave by various means within 24 hours of entering "Dream City" before becoming a resident.
It's a pity that no information about this city has been released to the outside world. I'm afraid that behind this loophole is some kind of trap that can kill people... Angel subconsciously felt that it was not that simple.
As for most other crimes, they are actually not much different from the laws of the North Continent countries that Angel knows, and are more detailed. For example, once the owner discovers theft and fails to stop it in time, it will be upgraded to robbery. The latter is a felony, which can be up to Sentenced to Death. This effectively avoids the use of triggering misdemeanors to escape felonies; on the contrary, the same type of behavior will not be repeatedly punished, so as to avoid the rapid superposition of punishments for some misdemeanors and the consequences of a felony...
What surprised Angel even more was that this set of laws was also very targeted to Extraordinaries, and some of the details clearly pointed to Extraordinaries in a specific way. For example, it was prohibited to peek into other people's privacy or observe private areas through mirrors. It was prohibited to use hair, blood and other human tissues to create dolls and avatars that had mystical connections with others. It was prohibited to curse others through names and blood. The spiritual world and the mirror world where private areas were located were also private areas... Almost all the methods that a witch could use to harm other people's physical and mental health were prohibited.
The "objects" that are not residents but are controlled by the stand-in, Marionette, etc. are regarded as part of his body, and the crime committed will be borne by the person. This is obviously aimed at another Pathway that Angel is very familiar with.
Of course, Angel's previous behavior of looking around the city by shooting Ice Mirror into the sky did not violate the law, because it was a public area, and the "snooping" was not aimed at a specific target.
As for the "evil god sacrifice" that Angel did not perform out of caution, it was also on the list of serious crimes. As expected, except for "Night Emperor" and "Beauty Goddess" who were allowed to perform sacrifices, all beliefs belonged to the evil god...
"Night Emperor" Trunsoest As the emperor who built "Dream City", it is normal for him to still be believed in after a thousand years, but "Beauty Goddess" is not The queen of Sanguine, Subordinate Deity who took refuge in Elf King at Second Epoch, actually lived to Fourth Epoch and became one of the Trensoest Empire's beliefs?
Angel, who was pleasantly surprised to find the hidden history of Fourth Epoch in a book of laws, continued to read through various details and compared them with those regulations that were added later, and soon found more interesting facts.
For example, at first, the set of laws that appeared with the birth of "Dream City" supported the nobility's supremacy over the common people, but the hereditary inheritance of the nobility was soon cut off through supplementary regulations. Since no new nobility was born, the old nobility died of old age. This privileged class quickly disappeared in the long river of time, allowing "Dream City" to eliminate the nobility thousands of years before Intis, achieving superficial equality for everyone.
Similar to this, is the legal treatment of "Beyonder". In a certain revision, a large number of restrictions on Beyonder's power were added, and a regulation appeared that could be said to have undermined the foundation of Beyonder, which prohibited Beyonder from having offspring.
In line with the regulations added during the same period to collect and dispose of the remains of the deceased, Angel can give a glimpse of the determination of the "Archon" at that time to cut off the inheritance of extraordinary power.
As long as Beyonder cannot give birth to offspring who can inherit the characteristics, and the characteristics extracted after death will be taken away, then in a few years, there will be no living Beyonder in the entire city.
Of course, Angel can also guess the reason why the consul who was determined to cut off the inheritance of extraordinary power did so. In a completely closed city, it is impossible to have the production of various Sequence Potion's Auxiliary Materials, even if it has illegal characteristics, and Acting Method, can only absorb the characteristics during promotion, and bear the risk of losing control with a high probability. Once it fails, it will pose a great threat to the city and residents.
"Moreover, without Beyonder, the possibility of residents breaking the law and threatening their rule will be greatly reduced. This is probably what most countries only dream of..."
Thinking of the arrests and severe punishment of wild Beyonder by major countries and churches, Angel couldn't help but sigh.
As for whether the enactment of these laws will cause resistance from Beyonder in the city, Angel is unknown, but compared to catching and killing wild Beyonder, the relatively mild strategy of "sterilization" should cause much less backlash.
No wonder "King of the Five Seas" Nast asked me to read this law carefully before going out. Otherwise, with my usual way of doing things, it would be easy for me to violate taboos and be punished by relying on divination to seek information or using Mirror World to rush... And in this house, which is completely controlled by the high-ranking In a city supported by Beyonder Characteristic, even if you violate the law in a deserted place, you are likely to be recorded and sent to Tribunal to receive Judgment... Angel muttered, looking out the window at the sky that was already a little fish belly white, and was surprised to realize that he had spent an entire night sitting at his desk.
Fortunately, after entering Sequence 3, her need for sleep has been reduced. In addition, her mental state was a bit high at this time and she did not feel sleepy at all. She simply called room service and ordered a breakfast with coffee. She immediately finished washing and enjoyed her first meal in "Dream City" on the sofa by the window.
To her surprise, the breakfast provided by the hotel was not the ancient style of the Fourth Age that she had imagined, but a fusion of the characteristics of various countries in the Northern Continent. It had smoked bacon, cream soufflé, and even latte art on the coffee. It made Angel dream of returning to a high-end restaurant in Loen.
This kind of breakfast appeared in a city that was isolated from the world more than a thousand years ago. There is only one possibility - they truly accepted the "outsiders" who entered the city by mistake, integrated them into the group, and used the new knowledge they brought with them into society.
Is this really a "Dream City"?
While sipping the coffee, which had excessive sugar and milk and was in line with Loen people's habits, questions lingered in Angel's mind.
Near noon, Angel saw Cliff who had been waiting for her in the hotel lobby.
He was still wearing the black formal suit, trousers of the same color and top hat, like a butler serving a nobleman. When he saw Angel, he immediately showed his slightly flattering smile.
Angel, who knew from the city's laws that there were no nobles anymore, asked curiously:
"Since you said yesterday that few 'guests' come to this city, what is your usual job?"
She wanted to say, "Do you usually serve other people like this?" But it sounded a little impolite, so she could only be more tactful.
"Valentina and I are both receptionists in this hotel. When no guests arrive, we work in the hotel."
Cliff answered with a brighter smile.
"But there don't seem to be any other guests here?"
After looking around the hall, Angel didn't see any staying guests except Nast who had already walked up the stairs, so he asked curiously.
"No one is willing to use up their 'quota'. By the end of the year, before the quota is cleared, the number of guests coming to the hotel to spend a few days of luxury Watson will increase."
Quota... Angel was a little stunned when she heard this strange word, but she immediately remembered some of the laws about this word in the law she had read all night, and guessed that it was some kind of special currency in "Dream City".
Because in all descriptions of the value of items, it plays the role of currency.
Fortunately, this city seems to be quite friendly to outsiders at the moment. You will have a lot of time to learn about this information later, and you can even go to the library to borrow relevant books... Well, if you are Klein, you should be very happy to have the opportunity to learn about the hidden history of Fourth Epoch...
Angel muttered and stopped asking questions until Nast met him, then followed Cliff to take the four-wheeled carriage outside the hotel door and walk along the bustling street toward the city center.
Looking out from the car window, she found that the pedestrians on the street were very different from the residents of Backlund who were rushing to and fro. A leisurely atmosphere enveloped the entire street. Most pedestrians would nod politely as they passed by each other. They would also stop to chat a few words when they met people they knew. Everyone had a faint smile on their face. Although the style of clothing was mixed with the conservative and solemn style of Fourth Epoch, it did not look old-fashioned.
Compared with a "city", it is more like a rural town, and there is not much pressure in life, and the material supply should be abundant... Angel was analyzing silently, but Nast, who was sitting diagonally opposite her, suddenly asked:
"How many people came to the city last night? Will they all meet with the Archon?"
He looked at Cliff sitting next to him. Although his tone was low, he was not arrogant. It was obvious that he had adjusted his position and mentality well after reading the law thoroughly.
"Including the two people here, a total of forty-five people came to 'Dream City' last night, the most in the past century..." Cliff took out a palm-sized notebook from his coat pocket and replied while reading, " A girl appeared near the city center, two men and a woman were in a hotel not far from you... In addition, there were two men in a bar on the outskirts of the city, and thirty-eight people appeared in a factory on the outskirts of the city, but when the receptionist arrived, both groups of people were already... dead."
At this point, even Cliff, who had been smiling all the time, had a dim expression, obviously frightened by this message.
The one in the city center is Anne, the ones further away should be Klein and Georgina, and there should be Chunas as Marionette. As for those who died, I am afraid they are the other "Marionette" on the ship, break away from After being controlled by Klein, they will only stay in place for a short time, but once the time is too long and Spirit Body Threads is not retrieved, these Marionette will truly and completely die... Angel retracted his gaze out of the window and quickly determined the identities of the people who "landed" at different locations based on the other party's description.
This confirmed her previous guess that the location where outsiders entered "Dream City" was indeed closely related to the Sequence she was in. The higher the Sequence, the closer to the city center, and ordinary people would even end up in the suburbs.
"By the way, was there a black Three-Masted Sailing Ship that followed the others yesterday?"
She suddenly thought that "Queen Anne's Revenge" should also come to "Dream City", and then asked.
"Yes, it appeared in the lake in the city center park," Cliff glanced at Angel curiously, nodded and replied, "Normally, the boat would appear in the lake outside the city, not in the city... Fortunately, it was night time, and no one was hurt."
That's because "Queen Anne's Revenge" is also the real Sequence 2. It's good that it didn't hit your consul's head... Angel cursed, finally letting go of his worries.
Nast seemed to have confirmed his thoughts. He stopped asking any questions, closed his eyes and waited quietly until the carriage stopped in a secluded street. Cliff said:
"City Hall is here."
The next step is to become a "resident" of this city under the assignment of the consul. If you want to leave, I'm afraid you can only take advantage of now and enter "Mirror World" to stay away from this floating city. You should be able to escape from this Spirit World Between and reality, return to the real Mirror World, and of course, avoid the traps that may be hidden behind this loophole... Angel hesitated in his heart and glanced at Nast Solomon secretly.
This "King of the Five Seas" has an indifferent face, the dark red in his black eyes has completely disappeared, the sense of majesty emanating from his body is no longer there, and the crown is missing. Apart from being taller, he is almost the same as an ordinary person.
It seems that he is ready to accept his "new identity", is he confident because he knows some key information, or is there really something worth taking the risk of not being able to leave, such as seizing Beyonder Characteristic from Sequence 2?
Angel pondered for a moment, gave up the idea of using the glass window on the carriage to enter "Mirror World", stepped out of the carriage one step ahead of the other party, and stood in front of the City Hall, which was three stories high and eight Black Stone Pillar's stood along the street.