Garbage Man Cow [Bleep]!
"Tortuous?"
Feng Xue repeated Aoyagi Lantern's words meaningfully, Aoyagi Lantern, probably understanding Feng Xue's meaning, explained:
"I was among the earliest members of the Infinite City. When I appeared, the Infinite City Tower of Babel didn't exist yet. Or rather, the Tower of Babel grew into what it is today under my watchful eye. So I know some rather secret things."
As Aoyagi Lantern finished speaking, Feng Xue realized that because of Aoandon's youthful appearance and Aoyagi Lantern relatively unremarkable status in the Eastern Kingdom's Weird Tale, he had always overlooked the fact that the Hundred Tales was the earliest organization to have been entrenched here since the appearance of the Infinite City.
As the core of the Hundred Tales, Aoyagi Lantern's status in the Infinite City is probably far more ancient than he imagined.
Seeing that Feng Xue agreed with her, Aoyagi Lantern didn't continue, but instead changed the subject:
"Did you know? When I arrived in Infinite City, the people here still spoke different languages."
"Different languages..." Feng Xue pondered this statement, and couldn't help but think of the Tower of Babylon in the Old Testament of the Bible, her brows slowly furrowing.
"You're not saying that this Tower of Babel is the legendary...?"
"More or less," Aoyagi Lantern gave an ambiguous answer, explaining before Feng Xue could ask:
"In the beginning, Infinite City was a Garbage Dump that constantly received all kinds of garbage. But garbage is also divided into different types. In mythology, the Tower of Babel, which was destroyed by the gods, and the Common Language, which was abandoned by the gods, can also be considered garbage in a sense."
"But this is a myth, right? If it's a ghost Weird Tale based on this story... Oh, you mean this Tower of Babel has Tag like [trash] or [junk]?" Feng Xue originally wanted to say that Phantom Object of this level couldn't possibly be considered trash, but thinking of her Golden Finger, she immediately realized what she meant.
Aoyagi Lantern was quite satisfied with Feng Xue's comprehension ability, and abandoning her original plan to continue explaining, she continued:
"I remember it was around the 1970s or 80s when something that could be called the [remains of the Tower of Tower of Babel] appeared in the Landfill Area east of Infinite City, which is now the Eastern District. Back then, there was no Garbage Mountain yet; apart from being a bit bigger, it was similar to the Garbage Dump in ordinary Landfill Area."
"Although everyone wanted to possess it, it was simply too big, so after trying and finding that it couldn't be moved out of the Garbage Dump, they gave up."
"You also know about the decomposition capabilities of the Garbage Dump. After Garbage Day, the remaining tower, with only its foundation, was decomposed by the Infinite City. At the time, everyone thought that was the end of it, but three days later, all the Weird Tale inside the Tower of Babel had a common language, and the central main control building in the Residential Area became the Tower of Tower of Babel we know today."
"So, the Infinite City picked up the Tower of Babel from [junk] and then swallowed it? That junk-picking ability is just too amazing!"
Feng Xue grinned, and a bag of salt unconsciously appeared in her hand. Aoyagi Lantern, however, rolled her eyes, which was uncharacteristic of hers, and sighed:
"Actually, if you stay in Infinite City long enough, you'll realize that there's far more trash here than you imagine. For example, those old guys above the sixtieth floor—weren't they dug out of the dustbin of history by Infinite City?"
"Ah, this..." Feng Xue's right hand Teleportation to his left hand, and he was completely dumbfounded. He had been wondering before that it was one thing for those Old Fossils to have originated from nothingness, but how did old Weird Tale like Seth, Cain, and Kukulkan enter the Infinite City? But according to Aoyagi Lantern, they might not even be the original Weird Tale of this world, but rather they were dug out by the Infinite City from the forgotten information of some unknown world and then revived by absorbing the knowledge of this world.
But if that's the case, does the so-called "Legacy of Old Gods" in the Secret Shop also include the Old Gods themselves?
Seeing Feng Xue's expression, Aoyagi Lantern added in a rather resentful tone:
"In fact, the reason why Hundred Tales has gone down this path is largely due to the resurrected ancient ghost Weird Tale. After all, it was because we saw the method of their revival that we, who were still exploring the path of Weird Tale at the time, tried to impersonate and absorb existing Weird Tale."
"You've said all this just to explain the rationale behind Hundred Tales's actions?" Feng Xue raised an eyebrow, her tone somewhat subtle. Aoyagi Lantern naturally shook her head.
"How could that be? It was just to help you understand what the 121st floor is like."
"What do you mean?" Feng Xue thought she had missed some details, so she immediately tried to recall them again, but she still couldn't find where the 121st floor was mentioned.
Seeing Aoyagi Lantern had no choice but to suppress her riddle-solving instincts and explained:
"The Tower of Babylon was a tower where humanity stole Divine Authority. Fearing that humanity would gain the same power as him, the gods destroyed the tower and took away humanity's Common Language. So, what do you think the Tower of Babylon wanted to do?"
"Reclaim the Common Language... Hmm, that's already been reclaimed, so it means, seize Divine Authority? But aren't Weird Tale gods? Or has Yahweh truly become Supernaturalized in that world?" Feng Xue's face showed disbelief, because given the sheer size of Yahweh, it simply didn't possess...
Oh, right, if we consider the timeline of the Tower of Babel, Yahweh was just War God worshipped on a small scale. Thinking about it that way, it doesn't seem impossible for him to have come into being...
However, Aoyagi Lantern sighed at Feng Xue's lack of understanding and said:
"It has nothing to do with Yahweh. After saying all this, haven't you realized that the Tower of Babel was never actually built?"
"Huh? Oh! You mean this? So the 121st floor was for the construction or repair of the Tower of Babel? After the 121st floor is finished, will there be a 122nd floor? How long will that take?"
Feng Xue finally understood Aoyagi Lantern's meaning, but for the sake of more information, he pretended to be a little naive. Upon hearing this, Aoyagi Lantern's eyes flickered slightly, as if trying to see if Feng Xue was truly feigning ignorance, but in the end, he gave up on this futile attempt and said directly:
"The height of the Tower of Babylon is meaningless; its very existence is meant to grant people the same power as the gods. In a sense, the current process of accumulating faith from 'nothingness' into 'Weird Tale' is merely an intermediate stage towards this goal. Becoming a floor master is essentially about traversing the path 'from nothingness to Weird Tale, and then to real existence.' Once this process is completed, you can be considered a human being, and then, as a human being, you can acquire Divine Authority. At that point, the consciousness behind the construction of the Tower of Babylon will be complete. Do you understand?"
The story of finding an Old God while scavenging in the Infinite City can be roughly understood as follows.
Suppose that in some world, when the Iberia completely destroyed the Aztec, leaving no trace of Mayan legends, then in that world, would Feathered Serpent God and the other Aztec deities also be completely absent from Records of the Grand Historian?
In this way, the Weird Tale they knew would naturally disappear completely and would not be resurrected, but they might still leave some indiscernible traces.
For example, Feathered Serpent God left behind a mask adorned with feathers. After decades or centuries, the feathers on the mask would have fallen off, and no one would know what the patterns were. Since it wasn't particularly ancient, even the most skilled archaeologists would be helpless if they obtained such a unique artifact, right?
However, these traces themselves carry information and can be seen as anchor points for the resurgence of the gods. They are somewhat similar to torrent files that no one is seeding anymore. Although they can theoretically be downloaded, no one is seeding them anymore, so they cannot be downloaded.
To this world, this thing is undoubtedly garbage, and it just happens to fall within the Infinite City's acceptance range, so the garbage arrives in the Infinite City.
In the main world linked to Infinite City, the Aztec civilization, though extinct, wasn't completely wiped out, leaving behind some legends and fan creations. When this seed file receives a new seed, the Weird Tale on it are revived in Infinite City. That's roughly the process. However, it's important to note that these revived Weird Tale are actually closer to the kind of Role-playing Supernatural Tale in Hundred Tales. After being revived, they still have to compete with the Progenitor Supernatural Tale from the home world.