Most cases of dissociative identity disorder occurred without warning during a switch, but after years of conscious training, Mo Tan could now buy himself roughly five minutes of buffer time. These were five minutes that could not be underestimated—countless crucial five-minute windows that kept him from being hauled off to a psychiatric hospital.
During this period, he briefly possessed both personalities at once, while the one about to emerge would immediately suppress the obvious abnormalities in his personality and emotions, allowing for a smooth transition...
After all, every personality was actually Mo Tan himself. They shared the same memories, identity, and intelligence. Although their personalities differed, they were not several completely different people forcibly crammed into the same shell.
Strictly speaking, there were four.
The first personality had been shaped by Mo Tan later on. He was relatively mild and gentle, had hobbies similar to those of his peers, was fairly considerate, and had a few ordinary friends whose personalities meshed well with his. He was also Hei Fan, who had previously been Absolute Neutral in Innocent World.
The second personality possessed a mind that drifted across countless channels. Unlike the first, everything he did lacked any purpose. If he wanted anything at all, it was merely the indescribable joy and satisfaction in his heart. Had he been born in another era, he would either have been a debauched pleasure-seeker playing with the world or a mad, deranged terrorist or revolutionary.
The third personality was difficult to describe. Calling him a holy mother was inappropriate since Mo Tan was male, while calling him a holy father risked copyright infringement. In short, he was a moral paragon in every sense. There was no need to mention how much he hated evil. If Mo Tan could maintain this personality permanently, then with his intelligence, he could obtain a green card and run for chief justice of the Supreme Court in that wicked capitalist country. At worst, he could transmigrate and become a Holy Knight who punished evil and upheld justice. But one point had to be emphasized: uprightness did not mean rigid stupidity. Justice backed by wisdom would not be exploited; it often made the filth hidden in every dark corner even more exposed.
As for the final one...
No one wanted to remember it. It was the personality Mo Tan had sealed away himself at the very beginning. It might indeed exist, but it was the one least necessary to exist. Every version of Mo Tan had absolute consensus on that point.
Back to the matter at hand...
Mo Tan had played mental-simulation games before. However, because his mind fluctuated violently whenever his personality changed, even with five minutes of buffer time, he would still be forcibly disconnected afterward. This time, though, he had guessed neither the beginning nor the end.
The disconnection itself was unsurprising, but this time it happened instantly, without any buffer.
Logging back in was also unsurprising, but the system prompted him to recreate his character...
"Hahahaha~! This is simply too interesting!" The second time he stood on the stone platform and surveyed the surrounding void, Mo Tan froze for a moment before bursting into laughter. "This game hasn't helped me find my 'true self,' but it's unbelievably interesting!!"
As if repeating a familiar scene, nine massive doors descended from the sky.
This time, Mo Tan did not hesitate at all. He went straight to the door he had tried before, the one marked Chaotic Neutral, and said with a light laugh, "Open."
Rumble!
As if it had been waiting for him, the door trembled and swung open. Its rapidly opening panels seemed to welcome him inside.
"Or perhaps the true 'me'..." Mo Tan chuckled under his breath. "Can these four words, Chaotic Neutral, explain it directly?"
He rolled his neck and walked into the doorway as if unable to wait any longer.
The system's voice still came from the darkness...
Your alignment is Chaotic Neutral. This alignment can never be changed. Calculating your initial talents, race, and abilities.
"A complete individualist, avoiding authority, hating restrictions, challenging tradition..." Mo Tan softly recited Dungeons & Dragons' definition of Chaotic Neutral from memory. "So this is 'true chaos'..."
Calculation complete. Your initial character data is:
Race: Half-elf
Gender: Male
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Talents: Chaos (extreme emotions grant you additional damage and success rate), Cunning (Cunning School level +3), Sophistry (makes others more likely to believe you)
Base attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 8, Intelligence 9, Constitution 4
Mental attributes: Eloquence 8, Charisma 8, Knowledge 8, Leadership 5
Combat attribute: Cunning Level 3
"We're both me, yet the difference really is enormous~" Mo Tan showed no intention of standing up for himself. No one knew why he was so happy.
Please name your character.
"Tan Mo. No need to confirm it again. If it's wrong, then it's wrong~" Mo Tan answered casually with a chuckle. He actually just wanted to test the system's intelligence and did not care about the name at all.
Would you like to adjust your appearance?
A slender man appeared before Mo Tan. He possessed most of a human's features, with only his hair and eyes a vivid green. Naturally, he looked exactly like Mo Tan.
"You really didn't ask me to confirm the name again. Smart~" Mo Tan praised it, then said, "No major changes. Just dye the hair black."
The half-elf model's long green hair immediately turned jet-black. This time, Mo Tan was satisfied.
Character creation complete. Tan Mo of Chaotic Neutral, welcome to Innocent World.
Control of his body returned. The familiarity was déjà vu, but this time both the surroundings and Mo Tan's state of mind were entirely different.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing on an ordinary town street. There were not many passersby, most of them farmers carrying hoes or hunters wearing crude equipment. The races were diverse: dwarves, halflings, trolls, Lizardfolk, and others Mo Tan recognized or did not recognize. Yet everything seemed harmonious.
"Tsk, tsk. Compared with that reality where even different skin colors could become a reason for attack, this really is a simple, unsophisticated world~" Mo Tan murmured as he strolled along. "Although trouble seems to be coming soon..."
He said this because he had seen the system-issued guidance quest.
—Stop the necromancer Medi before he causes a bone plague in Maple Sugar Town.
No matter how he looked at it, this did not resemble a normal beginner's quest...
But Mo Tan did not care. Instead, he was rather pleased~
"Hey, buddy!" He suddenly greeted a human man who was bent over sorting some kind of red vegetable, smiling at him. "Could I trouble you for a little of your time?"
The man looked at Mo Tan suspiciously. "May I ask who you are?"
"A bard, from a faraway place." Mo Tan lied smoothly, then suddenly lowered his voice. "Of course, before I began wandering, I had a stable home as well—that warm place called home... until... Oh, Ellie, why did it have to be you..."
He sighed forlornly and stopped himself, then gave the visibly bewildered middle-aged man an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I always find myself thinking about those things..."
"No, buddy, I'm the one who should apologize." The man sighed with an expression that seemed to say, I've got stories too. "So, what can I do for you?"
Mo Tan lowered his voice. "I heard there's a mage in Maple Sugar Town. If possible, I'd like to have a few words with him. Even bards run out of inspiration sometimes, and children eventually grow tired of hearing stories about dragons and knights, so..."
"A mage?" The middle-aged man frowned hesitantly. "In Maple Sugar Town?"
"That's what I heard." Mo Tan did not change expression.
Perhaps his facial acting was simply too expressive, or his performance too convincing. Perhaps it was because of his initial Charisma of 8. In any case, the human uncle, who had been in a hurry to buy vegetables and return home, stopped to think, stroking his chin as he muttered, "I really don't remember there being a mage in town..."
"Oh, right!" Mo Tan slapped his forehead. "I remember his name was... Medi?"
"Mr. Medi?" The man cried out softly. "He lives outside town. He's a mild-mannered old man who occasionally comes here to buy necessities. He... he's a mage?"
Mo Tan blinked. "Where does he live?"
"The two-story wooden house east of town. He..." The uncle had just handed two copper coins to the shopkeeper when he turned around. "Huh? Where did he go?"
The young man with a story had already vanished.
Medi Le was outlining something on a crumpled piece of parchment with a quill. He worked with focused seriousness. Two minutes later, the old man let out a long breath, stretched, then turned around with a smile. "Sorry for the wait."
Mo Tan, who had been leaning against the door for some time, shook his head. "I haven't been here long. Besides, watching you busy yourself with this pointless busywork wasn't boring."
"Pointless busywork?" Medi scoffed. "Do you think I'm copying notes, young man?"
Mo Tan walked into the house without the slightest guard and stopped in front of Medi. He raised one index finger and wagged it. "Since you've never heard of deduction, I won't bother explaining in detail. In short, I learned from certain features of your body and the furnishings in this house that your wife probably died of illness several years ago. Earlier, I also spent two laps near the ornamental gravestone in your backyard and determined that there was nothing beneath it, and furthermore..."
"And furthermore what?" Medi's eyes gradually turned cold. He appeared casual as he stroked his ring.
"And furthermore, I sensed that aura of death before I even crossed the threshold." Mo Tan walked around Medi and sat in his chair, crossing his legs. "That's enough to prove you're preparing an unimaginably foolish resurrection ritual."
That was the only part where he had lied. Given Mo Tan's current abilities, he could not sense a damn thing. The so-called "aura of death" had been entirely inferred from the guidance quest.
But Medi did not know that...
Seven years after changing class to necromancer, three months after his beloved wife had died, this was the first time anyone had exposed his identity to his face!
Medi Le
Race: Human (NPC)
Gender: Male
Level: Bone Controller Level 9, Priest Level 11
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Attributes: Strength 10, Dexterity 3, Intelligence 41, Constitution 15
Combat attributes: Necromantic Knowledge Level 7, Holy Light School Level 15, Arcane School Level 10
Skills: Flesh Perception, Bone Propagation, Bone Spear, Bone Shield, Curse of Pain, Undead Summoning, Insight, Forceful Prismatic Ray, Purification (unusable), Radiance (unusable), Blessing of Wisdom (unusable).
The reason for switching to the omniscient viewpoint to display Medi's stats was mainly for the following purposes.
First, if Medi wished, he could annihilate Mo Tan in minutes.
Second, with only Level 7 Necromantic Knowledge, making someone who had been dead for years return to life was utterly impossible.
Finally, I want to say that under certain circumstances, data is not the only standard determining the outcome...
"Give me one reason not to kill you, young man." Medi stared into Mo Tan's emerald eyes. The ring on his left hand glimmered faintly, and the barrier he had arranged around the cottage years ago had unfolded, preventing Mo Tan from escaping.
Yet the latter had never considered fleeing. Instead, he suddenly burst out laughing!
"Ha! Hahahaha~!" Mo Tan, who had looked calm and composed, suddenly covered his cheek theatrically with one hand and pointed at Medi with the other, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. "Ha, you... you actually... hahaha... asked the stupidest question possible. I'm so disappointed in you. Honestly, Medi, I'm terribly disappointed!"
Medi watched him coldly. His withered right hand clenched at empty air, and a ghastly white bone spear appeared in an instant, locking onto Mo Tan's heart. He said heavily, "What do you think I should have asked?"
He had not killed Mo Tan immediately because, when the latter entered the house, Medi had secretly used Flesh Perception and Insight on him, yet received no abnormal feedback whatsoever. This proved that the other man was either completely fearless or utterly insane. Out of caution, Medi had not attacked at once and instead continued probing him.
"I think you should have asked whether, apart from that clumsy and useless busywork, I had a real way to resurrect your wife..." Mo Tan shook his head, his face full of exasperation. "Or, if you were a little smarter, you could simply ask me to resurrect her."
His expression was relaxed and natural, his voice calm, his heart rate normal, his muscles loose, his smile composed, and his gaze steady.
Insight and Perception gave Medi the same result. The man before him was not lying. He was merely stating a fact—a fact that caused Medi's burning heart to gradually sink.
"Please don't make that expression~" Mo Tan shook his head. "The bond between soul and body is extremely complex and cannot tolerate the slightest carelessness. The knowledge and resources required to resurrect someone far exceed your impoverished imagination, Medi."
The old man finally lost his composure. His face twisted as he growled, "You mean I'm certain to fail? Mana will never come back?!"
Mo Tan's combination of assorted nonsense knowledge, ambiguous deception, and actor-level performance had already left Medi somewhat unsteady...
"You'll have to ask her first." Knowing that the other man was overwhelmingly unlikely to manage it, Mo Tan spoke slowly and provocatively. "That's the only way to create a vessel with a high degree of compatibility without causing your beloved's soul to scatter completely~"
Medi's eyes immediately dimmed. He stroked the ring on his hand and said in a trembling voice, "I can't. Although I can sense her, I can't communicate with Mana's remnant soul at all. Even after becoming a necromancer, I still can't do it..."
"See? This is where your stupidity lies." Mo Tan sneered. "After I've explained this much, you still don't understand why I appeared here?"
"You..." Medi abruptly raised his head. "You're going to help me?"
"Drink it~" Mo Tan casually tossed over a bottle. After Medi caught it instinctively, he said, "It'll temporarily allow you to communicate with souls. You have five minutes. After that, I'll help you complete the resurrection ritual."
Medi's expression shifted as he stared at the flask filled with clear liquid. He narrowed his eyes at Mo Tan. "Why should I believe you?"
"You have no choice." The latter smiled confidently. "Or you can try attacking me. In a few seconds, you'll get your wish and meet your wife again. Of course, I can't guarantee that you'll still have a soul left by then."
Medi fell silent. Rather than label all this a prank by some madman, he would rather believe that this unfathomable young man was telling the truth...
"I'm not a philanthropist." Mo Tan's expression turned cold. "After your cherished wish is fulfilled, plenty of new work will be waiting for you. So stop wasting time..."
"If my wife is resurrected, I'll allow you to command me until the day my life burns out." Medi nodded, pulled out the cork, and drank the bottle's contents in one gulp.
Mo Tan smiled, smiling very happily.
Holy Water
Consumable Item
Effect: Increases your mana recovery speed for ten minutes.
Note: The devout can convert ordinary water into holy water through prayer.
Third Chapter: End
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