Dong Anning's account held Kubota spellbound.
As a pure "merchant," Kubota had no intention of challenging any Instances, but he loved hearing gossip and secrets about them.
When Dong Anning finished, Kubota sensed nothing amiss. His attention was entirely on the chocolate Trade Route.
Angel was different. The more he heard, the more things felt wrong.
If Dong Anning had completed a hidden quest and discovered a "door" to the outside world, Angel could have understood it. Such a door would surely have been a mechanism granted by the Wonderland Authority.
But Dong Anning had not left through a door. He had obtained a Trade Permit from a native NPC of Chocolate City that let him reach the outside world.
What kind of NPC could bridge the inside and outside of an Instance?
Was it someone with a special gift like Mei Ji—a fragment of one of Laplace's Time Doppelgängers?
Angel set his questions aside for the moment and pressed Dong Anning for details about how he had obtained the Trade Permit, especially the identity of the important figure who had given it to him.
Dong Anning then described the entire hidden quest in detail... Angel heard nothing unusual in that part.
But when Dong Anning reached the important figure, he hesitated, then revealed something he had not mentioned before—
"That important figure seemed to be a demon."
Angel frowned but said nothing.
Kubota, however, looked stunned. "A demon? Do you mean an Abyss demon?"
Dong Anning said nothing. Instead, he extended one arm to the side. From elbow to palm, it began to blur, as though distorted by transparent mist.
It was the typical motion for retrieving a Wonderland item.
Some Wonderland items had storage spaces of their own. The Text Panel for such an item would say: "This