The Stone of God

Hope soon discovered that he was less credible to Nancy than Wilbur.

He quickly realized that this was actually reasonable, since he was now a "thief" who had secretly hidden in someone else's car. Hope had arrived here with Uncertainty, but Nancy would think he had been hiding inside beforehand.

If he revealed his identity, his connection to both Elizabeth and Professor Armitage would make "Love" a more credible persona for Hope.

The consequence is that if he cannot persuade Nancy, Nancy might tell Wilbur about "the albino patient Love".

Wilbur certainly wouldn't care about an albino patient showing up at Miskatonic University, but it would be a different story if that albino patient wanted to hinder his plans.

Hope told Nancy to slow down the car even further.

He feared that once he arrived in Arkham, he would lose all memory of the the Whateley family again.

Hope asked Nancy if she had ever been to Dunwich before.

After receiving a negative answer, he said, "So it seems you haven't heard of Whateley of Dunwich before?"

Nancy shook her head.

Hope waited several Hope without receiving a reply before realizing the other person was shaking their head.

He then asked Nancy to temporarily abandon body language and communicate entirely through her vocal organs.

"Yes," Nancy said, "I've never heard of Whateley before."

"The Whateley family —has produced dark wizards," Hope said. "Many people consider this a rumor, but it's true. The last dark wizard in the Whateley House was recently buried, and the current one is Wilbur."

Hope hesitated for a moment, avoiding the word "cultist," and instead portrayed himself as someone who knew a little about the the Whateley family, but not much.

"Wilbur— " Nancy murmured, "but he—"

Hope handed him a newspaper and told Nancy to just stop the car.

This newspaper was the Hope discovered the day she concocted the Reading Potion, "Arkham GG-Man," which featured the Whateley family—a microcosm of the declining physical condition of young adults in Dunwich.

Below the report is a photo of Wilbur as a child.

Because Whateley's secrets would be forgotten once he left Dunwich, Hope chose to warn him indirectly, hoping it would be effective.

"Guess how old Wilbur is now?" Hope asked.

"Twenty—" Nancy thought for a moment, "I'm not so sure, maybe I'm thirty."

"Look at that person in the newspaper."

"Fourteen years old," Nancy replied. "Or fifteen."

"Madam, please take your hand off the car door." Hope suddenly said, "I told you, I meant no harm. Look, I deliberately sat this far away; I really just wanted to talk to you about Wilbur. It's just—"

"

Hope didn't actually see Nancy trying to open the car door, but he heard that Nancy's voice was slower than before, almost uttering each word one by one.

Hope could deduce that Nancy was speaking like this to calm the assailant while simultaneously concealing her own actions.

But her voice was just too obvious. Maybe if she said nothing and suddenly jumped out of the Door Opening, it would have had a better effect.

Hope sighed. "However, if you're unwilling—you know, I did use some underhanded methods to get a chance to speak with you."

His implication was that if Nancy tried to escape, he would use unethical means to "catch up with her" and wouldn't be as easy to talk to as he was now.

But in reality, this is just a scare tactic.

Because once Nancy gets out of the car, Hope simply can't catch up. How could a half-blind man possibly catch up with a normal person in the forest?

Uncertainty can only exist in places we have memories of, and it is impossible to use it for tracking.

But Nancy didn't know that Hope was partially blind.

Hope wasn't exactly thin to begin with, and with the help of the slightly oversized formal attire, he looked like a burly man, which made Nancy feel somewhat intimidated.

"He can't be more than sixteen," Nancy said, looking at the photo in the newspaper.

"That certainly seems to be the case," Hope replied. "He's seventeen."

Nancy crumpled the newspaper, making a rustling sound, Hope guessed she was carefully examining the photos.

He then said, "No, not the seventeen-year-old in this photo, but the Wilbur you see now, he's seventeen."

The car was quiet for a moment, then the sound of newspapers turning could be heard again. Hope knew Nancy was checking the time on the newspaper.

"This is ridiculous," Nancy said.

"If you had the opportunity to look through the government's population registries, you would find that what I said is true," Hope replied.

This is not impossible; many things were not managed as strictly in this era.

You can tell a lot from how she obtained her Driver's License, and Nancy comes from a wealthy family, so such a car wouldn't be cheap.

"I'll figure it out myself," Nancy said. "Is that all you're telling me?"

"Wilbur is dangerous," Hope said. "Did he give you anything?"

"No," Nancy said.

Hope knew that her saying this didn't mean she still trusted Wilbur.

Humans are quite prone to suspecting their companions. Even if Hope didn't have that newspaper and just made baseless accusations that Wilbur was a dark wizard, Nancy would still suspect Wilbur, after all, they hadn't known each other for very long.

She simply didn't trust Hope, this guy with a cardboard box in his head.

Hope said, "You'd better tell me—oh. Whatever he gives you, I can actually use some form of violence if I want to."

This is a threat.

Hope heard Nancy sigh, but she still gave the stone to Hope in the end.

Hope held the rough, oval-shaped stone, feeling a sense of closeness within it.

His fingers traced the carvings on the stone, which eventually formed an abstract key shape.

He suddenly had a guess:

The Great King of Kings.

At the same time, a connection is formed between Stone and Hope.

Hope knew that the source of connection was exchange.

He can exchange what's inside the stone for something of equal value.

The value of what's inside the stone is----

Hope transferred the target of the swap to the counter.

May their souls find peace—except for Robert's; may Robert's soul reach the Kingdom of King of Kings.

The numbers behind the counter began to decrease. Those who died from the Transparent Monster had the same function as Wilbur, only less valuable, each with a rank of only 0.01".

There are nineteen people in total, and the total is 0.19.

Even after the digital resources were exhausted to zero, Hope still hadn't gained enough value to exchange, so he contributed 0.01 from his own Inspiration.

Inspiration: 0.11-0.10

Source-ification:0.30--0.50

Hope returned the stone to Nancy.