The Foundation of the Hundred Tales
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In the Eastern District of Infinite City, inside Old Li's temporary residence, Feng Xue and Old Li stared at each other, unable to speak for a long time. Finally, Feng Xue couldn't bear the awkwardness of the two men staring at each other any longer, and reached into her bag to take out a bottle containing seawater and a coral staff, handing it to him, saying:
"Do you think this thing is worth selling?"
"What the hell... Holy crap!" Old Li stared at the contents of the bottle, letting out a loud curse before sighing.
"Looks like you really killed Sea Monk!"
"Just say what you want to say. Did I disrupt your plans, or will you be hunted down by Hundred Tales next?" Feng Xue raised an eyebrow and asked, looking at Old Li's hesitant expression.
"No, to be precise, his death makes things much easier for me. As for the pursuit... don't worry, it shouldn't be a problem in the short term." Old Li shook his head, but Feng Xue asked with some surprise:
"Are you sure? That Sea Monk is at least a high-ranking official, right? Or are these kinds of Hundred Tales?"
"It's not that exaggerated!" Old Li rolled his eyes upon hearing this, before explaining:
"It's precisely because we don't have enough manpower that we won't come after you!"
"Every year in midsummer, around June, the Hundred Tales holds a large-scale festival throughout the country in the Eastern Kingdom called the 'Midsummer Night Festival.' Through a ritual called 'Hundred Tales,' the role-playing stage can be skipped, and Mu can directly obtain the Supernatural Tale Entry. This is also the origin of their organization's name."
"But while this ritual creates Weird Tale, it also generates a lot of detached cognition, creating an environment in which the Progenitor Supernatural Tale are easily awakened."
"Therefore, every year from July onwards, the main focus of Hundred Tales is on dealing with the Progenitor Supernatural Tale, killing the powerful Weird Tale, and handing the weak ones over to the organization members to try to devour."
"This process usually lasts three months, but this year they need to allocate some manpower to suppress organizations that are trying to cooperate with Real Worlder, and they also need to send people to close down their gates in the real world. In addition, there are those resurrected Progenitor Supernatural Tale, so they probably won't be able to spare any manpower."
At this point, Old Li's tone became serious. He put down the glass bottle containing the coral staff and solemnly said:
"If you can actually get the Residence Right the Tower of Babel this year, then everything will be fine. But if you can't, my advice to you is to find a landlord who rents you a door and go hide in another world for a few years before the challenge ends. Otherwise, once they have some free time, no matter if you are in the Infinite City or the real world, you will not be able to escape their pursuit."
"Is it really that mysterious?" Feng Xue frowned, her tone tinged with doubt, but Old Li shook his head and said:
Do you know what 'piece' means?
After asking the question, without waiting for Feng Xue's answer, he continued to explain:
"That's a legendary monster that can make a prophecy at the cost of its own death, and there just happens to be such a Weird Tale in the Hundred Tales, and it has already devoured the Progenitor Supernatural Tale."
"You mean... this thing can make predictions an unlimited number of times?" Feng Xue felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing Old Li's words, and Old Li nodded in agreement.
"That's right. Although it dies as soon as it makes a prophecy due to its limited abilities, it is weak enough that it returns almost every year during the Midsummer Night Festival. And the range of its abilities covers the entire present world and the Infinite City."
"Gulp..." Feng Xue swallowed hard, finally realizing how troublesome the Hundred Tales were. The setting was paramount, and having just given his enemy a taste of it, he clearly didn't intend to personally test the authority of this law.
Old Li didn't pay attention to Feng Xue's reaction, and continued:
"Don't think that the Real World Rules are absolute. There are quite a few abilities and Phantom Object that can prevent teleportation. Take the Hundred Tales for example. There's the [Fox Possession] that can possess a target to disrupt the Supernatural Tale Fire, the [Following Monk] that can 'descend' with you, and the [One-Eyed Monk] that can insult you (usually 'shut up' or 'get lost') so that you can't do anything except attack it, etc... And these are just Weird Tale. There are countless Phantom Object with similar functions."
"..." Upon hearing this, Feng Xue's expression also became serious, but then she showed a somewhat puzzled look.
"This item is so powerful, why doesn't Hundred Tales use it to capture the resistance? I heard the human resistance in the Eastern Country is causing quite a stir."
Feng Xue, recalling the information she had gathered from Chen Xiyao about Weird Tale from various countries, couldn't help but ask a question. Old Li gave her a somewhat strange smile and said:
"Because it's not worth it! The prophetic ability comes at the cost of death, and it must be something that is 'possible to happen.' In other words, it can't conjure up tens of thousands of people into an ambush out of thin air, nor can it wipe out an entire organization out of thin air. Using a prophetic opportunity once a year to capture a few ordinary people is too low a cost-benefit ratio. Of course, for an individual like you who has an instant-death weapon and a grudge against the Hundred Tales, you can't be calculated using common sense."
"So I should feel honored?" Feng Xue rolled her eyes, but in her heart she was already calculating. The kung Weird Tale in Yan Country were already on the right track, and it was unlikely that they would make further progress in the short term. So, it didn't seem so hard to accept that she should find New World to develop a completely new Weird Tale?
"No, if I were the Hundred Tales, I should feel honored to be able to oppose a monster that takes a year to Weird Tale, two years to digest them, and three years to potentially obtain Residence Right."
Old Li spoke with such sincerity that Feng Xue almost believed him.
However, having said that, Old Li felt it was enough, and picked up the coral cane on the table, saying:
"You probably don't lack Tower Coins, what kind of things do you want to exchange them for?"
"Armor, something lightweight, and ideally with instant-death resistance," Feng Xue replied almost without thinking. It has to be said that the fact that he had killed the Sea Monk with two shots had left him with considerable psychological trauma.
"Forget about instant death resistance. Anyone who gets their hands on that would treasure it. Okay, I'll look into it for you first, and I'll contact you if I find something suitable."
After saying that, Old Li handed the glass bottle containing the coral staff back to Feng Xue, and then walked towards the door.
Seeing his carefree demeanor, Feng Xue was stunned for a long time before calling out to him just as Old Li was about to push open the door and leave:
"Hey, this is your house!"
"Damn it! You're driving me crazy!" Old Li cursed, abruptly changing the subject:
"Take these two months to digest the Weird Tale. Try not to go out if you can avoid it. Although the Hundred Tales won't bother looking for you at this time, if you run into them, they definitely won't mind taking care of you first!"
Each generation of Kamen Rider is essentially independent, so it's not really a Group Supernatural Tale, but rather a series of Weird Tale (similar to Hundred Tales, where each individual is independent). As for Group Supernatural Tale, the Eastern Kingdom also has one, which is the previously mentioned "[Everything Can Become a God]". In a sense, Infinite City also made its first fortune by riding on this Weird Tale, which is no different from Lee and his Old Li riding on the "[Yan Country People Know Martial Arts]" myth.
At the protagonist's point in time, the main world hasn't yet created Kamen Rider Build, and the protagonist's Orca Rider is an original version, so there won't be Progenitor Supernatural Tale targeting him. However, as his understanding of various Kamen Rider increases, there might be Innate Supernatural Tale for other Kamen Rider series.
However, in terms of strength, it's not that much stronger. It's about the same as the protagonist's armored form without martial arts. After all, the Innate Supernatural Tale are quite mechanical. Even if there is a concept of idealism, it can't be truly idealistic. It's basically just data on paper (4 or 5 seconds to run 100 meters, punching power of 20 or 30 tons, which is about the same as the output of a dump truck).
As for abilities like stopping time or transcending dimensions, just like the Sun God mentioned before, humanity's level of understanding is insufficient to create such things. Stopping time might be possible if it were a matter of physical perception or time within a certain range, but it would require an enormous amount of knowledge.