Visiting the Neighbors

Feng Xue didn't pay much attention to the renovation of the 107th floor; she simply moved her villa up there and replaced it with something in the same style.

After all, it cares more about the problems that follow than about such trivial matters.

The library and Secret Shop are open, but for Feng Xue, they're not very useful.

Because the library NPC kept giving Feng Xue the wrong information about things like "Lord of the Infinite City," "Lord of the Tower of Babylon," "Details of the 121st Floor Challenge," and "The Formation of the Tower of Babylon," with the response "Insufficient permissions."

Considering the previous talk of "gaining partial permissions," it seems that it really is necessary to complete that 121 challenge to unlock it.

"But if I've already cleared Challenge 121, what would I need this information for?"

Rolling her eyes, Feng Xue walked into the Secret Shop. Despite its name, it was quite conspicuous on the 107th floor, which Feng Xue had expanded into Suzhou-style Garden.

"Dear poster, what do you need?"

Upon seeing Feng Xue push open the door, a shop assistant resembling Fortune Teller Witch sat behind a table displaying all sorts of strange and grotesque items and politely inquired.

Looking at this mystical demeanor, Feng Xue asked directly:

What do you have here?

"The Legacy of Old Gods, the Illusions of the Past, the Traces of History."

"Can you speak like a human?" Feng Xue asked, exasperated by the other party's riddle-like response.

"Phantoms left behind by Died-out Supernatural Tales Phantom Object, Remnants Collapsing World-type Supernatural Tales, and Coordinate Items to a certain world." The shop assistant explained patiently, and Feng Xue nodded. "Do you have an invoice?"

"The quantity is large. You can tell me your needs and I will search for you."

The shop assistant remained polite, but Feng Xue shook her head and said:

"It doesn't matter if it's big, just I Think the invoice."

It wasn't that Feng Xue was deliberately picking a fight; he genuinely had no idea what could be searched.

Hearing him say that, the clerk finally stopped objecting and handed him a terminal that looked like a work badge. With a swipe of his finger, a very complicated catalog appeared in front of him.

The list is very messy and disorganized.

From the World Remnants spanning over 100,000 square kilometers, if you spend some time cultivating them, you might be able to create Supernatural Tale World like Construction Hell.

From the unknown Weird Tale and Companion Phantom left behind by primitive people hundreds of thousands of years ago, studying them might just allow us to swallow the last echoes of their original owners.

There were even some strange True Thing, such as Alien Ear Spoon, wine glasses the size of human heads, and eyeballs carved from stone. These were basically props used to anchor the objects. The only difference between them and the True Thing collected from the Garbage Dump was that each one had a clear Tag.

Using the mechanics of the Tower of Babylon, these items are undoubtedly very useful for high-level Weird Tale, but Feng Xue doesn't have a particular need for them at the moment.

If he really intends to cultivate Hell, wouldn't it be better for him to go to that Supernatural World and farm dungeons instead of cultivating it himself?

"Looks like I still need to visit my neighbors." Feng Xue shook her head and left the Secret Shop, heading all the way to the 114th Floor. Here, as long as you don't challenge the floor master, the rule of Forbidden Weapons is still in effect, so Feng Xue calmly knocked on the door of the seemingly unguarded Japanese-style Manor.

Aoyagi Lantern was quick; just three seconds after knocking, she appeared, dressed in a somewhat unconventional low-cut light blue kimono, looking at Feng Xue with a rather surprised expression.

After a brief moment of confusion, she spoke softly in a voice that sounded distant and ethereal:

"I knew you would come, but I didn't expect it to be so soon. Judging from your expression, it seems you have already qualified as the thread leader?"

"Just lucky." Feng Xue shook her head slightly, but the atmosphere between the two suddenly became awkward, as if neither of them knew how to continue the conversation.

A moment later, Aoyagi Lantern moved aside from the doorway and turned half her body to the side, saying:

"Come in and tell me, I think I know what you want to ask."

"Then I'll accept." Feng Xue stepped into the manor, and after passing through a rather long Japanese-style garden, she arrived at a Tea Room amidst the cries of startled deer.

With a gentle Aoyagi Lantern of her hand, Aoandon conjured up a woman whose face was covered by a white cloth with the character "tea" written on it. She knelt before the tea table and began to brew tea with practiced ease.

"The power to create Japanese Supernatural Tale?" Feng Xue glanced at the "Tea Girl," who, despite being newly born, already possessed the Supernatural Tale Fire. He knew she was demonstrating her abilities, but he had no intention of reciprocating. He simply said:

"What can you tell me about the 121st Floor Challenge?"

"I thought you'd talk about something else first." Aoyagi Lantern calmly picked up her teacup, took a graceful sip, and Feng Xue didn't touch the tea offered by the Tea Girl. She simply shrugged casually and said:

"There's nothing between us that needs to be discussed with words. If I could, I would just kill you, but I'll exercise restraint until I'm sure I can do it. I believe you think so too, right?"

"I don't have such terrible ideas," Aoyagi Lantern, shaking her head.

"It's your business if you want to kill me, but since you can't kill me right now, let's talk about cooperation."

"How do you want to cooperate?" Feng Xue remained noncommittal in response to Aoyagi Lantern's reply, and Aoyagi Lantern didn't force Feng Xue to believe her, simply replying:

"It's what you want to know, about the 121st floor."

"Oh, tell me about it?"

Feng Xue perked up, while Aoyagi Lantern reached out and wiped away all the tea utensils on the tea table. The Tea Girl serving her also vanished into thin air, replaced by a virtual Infinite City Sandbox.

The towering Tower of Babylon, the outward-expanding Residential Area, the four major Landfill Area resembling Cyber City, and countless smaller Landfill Area spreading out across the land like Fractal Diagram.

Feng Xue was familiar with this picture, but she didn't quite understand why Aoyagi Lantern had taken it out at this moment.

Seemingly knowing what Feng Xue wanted to ask, Aoyagi Lantern paused her finger at the tip of the Tower of Tower of Babel and posed a question—

Do you know how the Tower of Babylon came about?

"The central control computer building of the ultra-modern community, Infinite City?" Feng Xue gave the standard answer found in the Residential Area library, but Aoyagi Lantern shook her head upon hearing it:

You're referring to the outer shell of the tower.

Upon hearing this, Feng Xue immediately recalled many questions from before, such as why the Tower of Babel would have the ability to actively traverse through a place that didn't fit the definition of a "Garbage Dump," why there were old-timers like Sugawara no Michizane, Cain, and Set on the Tower of Babel, and the very symbolic name of the Tower of Tower of Babel.

He went through his previous thoughts in his mind, then frowned and said:

"So, the inner and outer parts of this tower are not part of the same system? Is it a later development? Or is this tower older than the Infinite City?"

"No, the Tower of Babylon did indeed appear after the Infinite City, but the process was much more complicated..."

Why haven't there been Weird Tale about how Identity Replacement can turn one into a real person...?

This is something the protagonist shouldn't know from their perspective, but since there's no foreshadowing, I'll mention it anyway.

Gaining "authenticity" is not simply a matter of changing one's "identity." If we had to summarize it, there are probably three conditions.

First, there must be sufficient knowledge.

Second, it is the ability to replace one's identity.

Third, it is the ability to sever/isolate/shield one's destiny.

Sufficient knowledge is simple: if you want to become a true being, you need to have enough "scale".

The bottom line is the [consciousness] that a real person's Digitized Body would possess after entering the Infinite City (roughly the level where the [consciousness] remaining in the corpse after death can become a Super Large Supernatural Tale). However, most Weird Tale that can be challenged to the hundredth floor or more can meet this requirement.

The ability to replace an identity is a given, a basic requirement. However, in the challenge world of the floor master, this function is inherent. If you don't follow the Layer Master Route, you'll have to acquire the power yourself.

The most troublesome issue is actually the third one, which concerns fate.

Even if you can take over his identity, you can't completely inherit his fate, otherwise it wouldn't be "you replaced him," but "you became her." Therefore, there must be a world where fate has a bug as a stage.

[Fate Train] and [Backrooms] are stages that separate people from their destiny. Theoretically, [Infinite City], [School Hell], and [Construction Hell] would also work.