Whack-a-Mole

"Well done, Hope," Wilbur said. "It's so good that you came."

"Honestly, Wilbur, just surrender," Hope said. "What's the point of continuing? I've already sent Jack and the others over, and the library is surrounded."

Wilbur raised an eyebrow if the patch of hairy skin above his eyes could be considered an eyebrow.

He said, "You're lying, Hope."

Hope nodded. "Yes, I was lying. Maybe it's because of Jack and the security personnel that I can't get back there—but I suspect it's more likely your fault, since Jack is unlikely to do anything to prevent me from returning. Can you tell me how you did it?"

Wilbur laughed, much more than before, and excitedly raised his hands. "It's actually very simple. Do you remember the piece of flesh you cut from my abdomen?"

Hope guessed he was referring to the severed tentacle.

Wilbur went on, sounding like a smug child eager to show off: "I—"

"It's your spell," Hope interrupted him. "Alright, I know. You have a spell that can use a detached body as eyes."

His judgment was based on Wilbur's renewed decrease in Inspiration.

1.76

It's decreased quite a bit; Wilbur must have maintained the spell for a considerable time. Perhaps Wilbur was watching while Hope and Jack were talking.

Wilbur, interrupted, let out an angry growl; the muscles on his grotesque face, no longer resembling a goat, twitched, forming an expression of rage.

That expression quickly faded.

"What role do you think you can play here?" Wilbur asked, at least in a calmer tone. "Or have you given up and are ready to come back to Dunwich with me?"

Hope shrugged—even this movement was a bit difficult for him.

He said, "Not necessarily. I might be able to stop you and accomplish something great?"

Wilbur scoffed.

The gray-green tentacles set down the two professors, who were already somewhat unconscious due to difficulty breathing. They collapsed to the ground after being put down.

Wilbur came over.

He didn't walk in a hurry, but because he was so tall and had such a wide stride, he was quite fast.

At the same time, obscure incantations rang out from his mouth, and his mouth was completely devoid of teeth.

Hope looked at Wilbur and guessed that Wilbur was already close to 2.5 meters tall.

Escaping is now virtually impossible.

Given Hope's current physical condition, even though Self-Being still taller than Wilbur, she still has a certain advantage in agility.

However, the low Spirit Body leaves no room for agility.

So when Wilbur approached, Hope simply stopped leaning against the wall; she neither left nor moved toward Wilbur.

He still held onto the wall with one hand, then pushed it forcefully at an angle.

Unsurprisingly, his weakened body couldn't stand steadily and he tilted to one side.

With a strain of his legs, he fell even faster.

Wilbur's incantation ceased, and his steps stopped.

Hope had just fallen behind the wall, and Wilbur could no longer see him.

There was no need to go behind the wall to confirm; Wilbur was certain Hope was no longer there.

He kept his eyes fixed ahead.

A few seconds later, Hope slowly emerged from behind a huge tree.

"Hello," Hope said. "There are many trees here, which can be of great help to me."

Wilbur didn't speak, but walked towards Hope again, this time seeming a little more eager, his pace quickening.

But as soon as Wilbur lifted his leg, Hope simultaneously stepped back, staggering back behind the tree.

When Wilbur arrived, there was no one behind the tree.

"Hello." Hope emerged from behind another tree.

"A boring trick," Wilbur said.

Although his tone was dismissive, his restless, swaying gray-green tentacles were enough to irritate him.

This time, Wilbur charged forward, his speed absolutely breaking the 100-meter sprint record.

But Hope managed to hide behind the tree before Wilbur arrived, leaving Wilbur only with the damp earth beneath the tree.

"Hello." Hope appeared behind another tree, but this time he only peeked out his head.

"What good do you think this will do?" Wilbur said.

He seemed to have grown tired of it all, and instead of trying to grab Hope from behind the tree, he stood still and began chanting the spell he had just interrupted.

"Wait, wait," Hope called out to him, and although Wilbur ignored Hope, Hope said, "I've discovered something."

"You always try to run and grab me, and only now are you using a spell—so you didn't bring a gun, right? Coincidentally, I did."

Hope groped behind the tree, picked up Old Williams ' flintlock shotgun, his hands trembling slightly from the weight of the gun, but he still tried to aim the muzzle at Wilbur.

Having learned from her previous unsuccessful attempt to shoot Wilbur in the abdomen, Hope aimed directly at Wilbur's chest this time.

Ideally, it would be a thigh, but Hope really doesn't have confidence in his current accuracy.

Fortunately, aiming at the chest and back wasn't too difficult; Wilbur wasn't far from Hope, and he was enormous.

Hope couldn't see Wilbur's subtle movements and expressions clearly, but he could still discern some hesitation in Wilbur's spell.

After roughly confirming Wilbur's direction, Hope rested the butt of his rifle on his shoulder and took a half-step back.

These are two trees growing together. Besides the large tree that Hope used to cover her body, there is also a small tree about the thickness of a hand behind Hope.

He leaned back against a small tree, his finger pulling the trigger.

With a "bang".

The recoil made Hope's shoulders tingle, and he only managed to avoid falling by leaning against the tree behind him.

Without time to observe the results, Hope casually threw down his shotgun, used a large tree for cover, and used "Uncertainty" to return to behind the first tree.

Hope's initial statement to Wilbur that "there are many trees here" was merely to mislead Wilbur.

There were indeed many trees around the library, all old and thick, which could easily provide cover for Hope to hide in.

But Hope cannot apply Uncertainty to every tree.

Due to time constraints and her current physical condition, Hope only managed to remember what two trees looked like, making a total of three, including the one she had before.

His confidence stemmed more from the loss of his initial understanding of how to use it.

Hope has used "disappear" twice since she first met Wilbur.

This averted Wilbur's fate of using hostages to threaten Hope.

This averted Wilbur's fate of "coming behind the tree before Hope hid."

In comparison, eliminating the first fate took Hope much longer.

Hope quickly guessed the reason: the first one was more likely to happen than the second.

From this perspective, "disappearance" is actually not much different from the seventh-order Inspiration phenomenon.

One is turning the possible into the inevitable, and the other is turning the possible into the impossible.

But compared to Wilbur's extraordinary abilities, Hope helplessly found that she couldn't use Vanish without limit.

In addition to the time required for it to take effect, there is also a limit to the number of times it can disappear; at the same time, there can only be three possible fates for an item to be eliminated.

It can only run three tasks at a time.

Once you've completed three items, you must stop completing the previous one to start the next.