Notes

Built against a sheer cliff, this mountain villa was surrounded by precipices on its other three sides. Only a wooden suspension bridge connected it to the outside road. But now, that bridge had been cut down! This place had become an "isolated island."

Looking at the scene, Abner found it strangely familiar. Before he could say anything, words written in Hermes Script floated before his eyes: "Identify the murderer. (Only one chance.)"

"Looks like the eighth-floor Labyrinth this time is a crime-solving scenario... As for 'only one chance,' it means that if you identify the wrong person, you'll immediately be judged to have failed the challenge and expelled from the Dream Labyrinth." Mr. Gaston seemed to have had similar experiences before and gave a brief explanation.

"Where's the murderer? Could they be inside the villa?" Xio turned to look at the distinctly Loen-style building behind her. It suddenly reminded her somewhat of Rose Song Manor on the outskirts of Backlund.

"We'll know once we go in." With an idea already forming in his mind, Abner pushed open the door and entered the villa first.

Eight people were gathered inside the villa: four men and four women. Among the men was a child who looked only six or seven years old.

Whatever identities the Dream Labyrinth had arranged for Abner's group, their arrival did not arouse the suspicion of the people inside.

"Conan? I actually ran into him again!" Mr. Gaston looked at the child with a miserable expression, and his usually steady voice carried a rare hint of exasperation.

Conan? The first person Abner thought of upon hearing that name was the famous elementary-school God of Death. He carefully examined the child.

Blue formalwear, a red bow tie, glasses with thick frames... The outfit matched, but this child clearly had Loen features and looked nothing like that elementary-school God of Death. Moreover, the villa's decor and furniture lacked any trace of modernity. It looked even more backward than Backlund.

Just as Abner was filled with doubts, Xio quietly asked beside him, "Mr. Gaston, is there something special about this child named Conan?"

"Twice on the eighth floor, and even several times while challenging the ninth floor, I encountered scenarios where he was present. Every time I met him, my challenge ended in failure! This child named Conan always appears in scenes where murders take place, and he's suspected to be a Beyonder of the Detective sequence. His stamina and arm strength far surpass those of ordinary people, and his glasses, bow tie, belt, watch, and shoes are all powerful Beyonder items! His deductive abilities are also formidable. Once he identifies the murderer before us, our challenge is judged a failure! Honestly..." Mr. Gaston took a deep breath before he could stop himself from swearing.

Mr. Gaston seemed to have suffered quite a few losses at Conan's hands... As Xio thought this, she secretly glanced at Abner.

But Abner's mind was full of WTF. If he had merely been suspicious of this so-called Conan before, then after hearing Mr. Gaston's words, he could now confirm that this Conan was the elementary-school God of Death from his memories. Even if his appearance did not match!

This also confirmed something Abner had long suspected—this Dream Labyrinth Tower had indeed been created by Emperor Roselle!

Did he turn every anime, movie, and television series he hadn't had time to plagiarize into magically altered Dream Labyrinth scenarios? Come to think of it, I seem to have seen that trick with the fireplace heating up in the ninth-floor escape room in some film or show... And this scenario might be some childhood-trauma case from Conan's TV series, right? As this thought crossed Abner's mind, inspiration suddenly struck him, and another idea surfaced. In that case, I might be familiar with the plots of many scenarios... Maybe I won't have to stop at the seventh floor. If I understand the scenarios, the dangers on the sixth floor won't be so great.

While he was thinking, the original four men and four women in the room were discussing a bandaged stranger. This person had just attacked Conan's sister in the small forest outside. Though the attack had failed, it had frightened everyone badly.

"That bandaged stranger might be the murderer. It seems he hasn't succeeded yet. Should we set an ambush and see if we can catch him first?" Xio suggested after eavesdropping. Although she could not use Beyonder Abilities yet, she was confident she could handle one or two ordinary people.

"It's not that simple... Cases involving Conan are always complicated. That bandaged stranger who looks like the murderer is often the first one to die. I think we should keep a close watch on everyone except Conan and his sister. Any one of them could be the murderer!" Mr. Gaston shook his head and spoke with a profound gaze. He seemed to have developed Conan PTSD.

At that moment, Abner came back to his senses. He smiled at Xio, then stepped forward and declared confidently, "No need to make things so troublesome. I know who the murderer is!" Because I've seen this episode!

And if one carefully examined the murderer's stomach, it was easy to spot a slight inconsistency.

"What?" Mr. Gaston cried out in genuine surprise this time. He had never seen a Detective solve a case like this. He had only taken two looks and already pinpointed the murderer? No, he had pinpointed someone who had not even committed the crime yet... Was that reliable?

Mr. Gaston's shout also drew Conan and the others' attention. They all looked at Abner uncertainly.

Abner did not keep them in suspense. He directly pointed at the large-faced "fat man" and said in one breath, "He's the bandaged stranger. He isn't actually fat. His stomach is stuffed with cotton or something similar, making it easier for him to hide things after committing the crime without being discovered. The reason he attacked this young lady was because she saw him changing clothes and might have discovered his secret."

Abner's words made everyone around him stare at the "fat man" in shock. The other two adult men even moved to flank him from both sides.

Then, after the "fat man" revealed a gloomy expression and removed the stuffing around his stomach... the surrounding scene suddenly shattered. The villa, the cliffs, Conan, and everything else faded away, and Abner's group of three once again fell into the Reward Room.

The Dream Labyrinth only required them to identify the murderer. It did not require them to provide evidence.

Mr. Gaston still seemed as if he were dreaming. After a long while, he finally sighed, "My 1,000 pounds were truly well spent. Are Detectives all this amazing? I thought that Conan was already the most capable Detective there was! Who would have thought..."

Detectives who have watched the plot are definitely all that amazing! After silently mocking him, Abner ignored Mr. Gaston, whose understanding of the Detective profession had already gone wildly astray. He walked straight to the seat before the bookshelf, eager to find out what this reward was.

Xio was not surprised at all. Ever since she had met Abner, he had always been this "unexpected."

The moment he sat down, a notebook appeared in Abner's hands—Ailnos's Occult Records.

"Looks like this time, the reward is knowledge..." Thinking this, Abner opened the notebook and began reading it carefully. This was not a novel. Abner had always treated knowledge with great respect, especially after changing his faith.

After reading the final page, he habitually pinched his chin with his fingers and pondered, "This person named Ailnos should have been a Sequence 7 Warlock of the Hermit Pathway. I had already learned most of the ritual magic and occult knowledge recorded in his notes. Only the final ritual for borrowing power from a high-level Beyonder item to create charms was somewhat interesting, because this ritual magic bypassed the step of praying to a God!"

What Abner valued was not the specific method of making charms, but this line of thinking. For a White Tower Pathway Beyonder skilled at using ritual magic, a novel idea would allow him to create methods better suited to himself.

"Originally, because I was unwilling to pray to a God, I couldn't create items connected to Sefirah Castle... But following this approach, I can borrow power from the Pure White Eye to accomplish it! Its level is high enough, and the knowledge I obtained for connecting to Sefirah Castle was originally analyzed by it. Temporarily granting it to an item should not be a problem... It's just that I'll probably have to wait until I advance to Sequence 7 before conducting experiments. The Spirituality of a Detective is still too weak to support such a ritual at all."

Although he regretted being unable to put it into practice for the time being, Abner was very satisfied with the eighth-floor reward. This Dream Labyrinth Tower was indeed generous to those who cleared it for the first time.

Turning his head, Abner discovered that Xio beside him was also smiling with curved eyes, looking extremely happy.

"What did you get?" Abner asked curiously.

"The reward was a biography, but it mentioned the name of one of the main ingredients in the Sheriff Potion formula!" Xio answered excitedly.

The two main ingredients for Sheriff seemed to have both been mentioned in Lord of Mysteries... I'll find an excuse to tell Xio about them naturally in a few days. While thinking this, Abner asked, "Whose biography was it? There might be other clues hidden in it."

"It was the biography of a Royal Navy boatswain named Ailan. It described how he rose from an ordinary Sailor to a boatswain, and at the end of the biography, he retired and became the captain of a passenger Ship." At this point, Xio muttered in confusion, "Another unfinished story... Why do I always encounter stories that just stop halfway through?"

Maybe because you often urge Fors to update? Abner silently made a mocking remark.