Little Snake's Choice

This statement left Klein somewhat bewildered. In an instant, he recalled some inspirational stories he had read before, such as someone who, after receiving help, continued to help others and eventually helped their former benefactor.

But all of this seemed to have little to do with what was happening before him. He felt that Gillian was implying something, but he couldn't think of anything in a short time, so he couldn't help but frown.

While he hesitated, Gillian hurriedly added, "Just a small act of help will suffice! You won't need to give anything in return! Just, just when the other person needs it, when they're dying—"

Her posture made Klein feel even more uneasy. He instinctively felt that she was trying to get him to make a promise. He frowned and was about to refuse directly when he suddenly felt a faint chill. He heard Neph's familiar voice in his ear. "Say yes to her."

"Then tell her that you don't like birds that fight with their own kind and get hurt."

Klein paused for a moment upon hearing this, but replied without hesitation, "Okay."

"But I don't like birds that fight with their own kind and then get hurt."

Gillian paused for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "Okay, okay."

"In that case, it should be considered that you've agreed—"

Her expression was confused and dazed. Klein frowned, and before he could urge her, Gillian shoved the birdcage into his hands and helped Quinn away.

Klein, carrying the cage, hesitated slightly before asking to confirm, "Neph?"

The white mist instantly condensed into a human shape in front of him. Neph emerged from the White Mist, glanced at Gillian's retreating figure with a strange expression, and exclaimed, "You two really are quite destined for each other."

"What exactly is going on?" Klein asked, puzzled.

Neph smiled gently, reached into the cage, poked the bird a few times, then lowered her head and asked, "Ais, can you turn into a bird?"

"Squeak?" Ais made a sound that no one could understand.

Neph withdrew her hand, as if she understood, and shook her head, saying, "No, no, no, not this one—hmm, its feathers are a nice color, suitable as decoration. With you like this, I'm worried I'll pluck you bald."

"Can you understand what it's saying?" Klein couldn't help but ask.

"I don't understand." Neph shook her head.

"----?" Klein opened his mouth slightly, looked at Neph, then at Ais, and decided to shut up.

Neph smiled again before explaining to Klein, "That woman—well, from what I saw, she's probably pregnant with a very important child."

Neph had just left Palenque Tasibu; she had finished her experiment and her current plan was to show Klein the hat full of surprises. However, when she turned her gaze to Klein in the Pure White Space, she noticed Gillian, who had just left, first.

Neph saw a small, white snake curled up, its eyes closed as if it were asleep. It seemed to sense Neph's gaze, its eyelids twitching, but ultimately it did not open its eyes. It appeared it did not want to greet Neph.

After reviewing their conversation, Neph understood the situation, which explained her earlier statement.

Klein, however, seemed extremely surprised. He exclaimed in astonishment, "She's pregnant?"

"Yes," Neph nodded, "Judging by the timeline, it should be a month or two? It's definitely less than three months, she hasn't shown yet, so it's understandable that you can't tell—"

Klein was greatly surprised, and he immediately guessed what had just happened. "Could it be that the one who needs my help is the baby in her belly?"

Neph nodded firmly.

"Who is it?" Klein asked.

"Will Unsettin," Neph answered him.

Klein looked surprised. Considering their respective identities, he instantly understood the conversation and asked with a hint of curiosity, "How did He end up in the Southern Continent? Hmm, you're just going to let Him go like that? I thought—"

"He was never destined to die," Neph shook her head. "And whether He lives or dies is not up to me; it's Your Grace His Ouroboros, or Fate itself—I dare not presume to speak of Fate's thoughts, but if His Your Grace Ouroboros harbors murderous intent towards Him, there are generally only three reasons."

"Which three?" Klein asked.

Neph held up one finger and chuckled, "First, Fate wanted Him to die."

The reason was obvious. Klein only paused for half a second before nodding. Neph held up a second finger. "Second, primarily because He dies."

Another reasonable answer, and Klein nodded again. Neph then held up a third finger, her expression somewhat strange, and replied, "----The third."

He offended the Lord.

Klein paused for a moment, then subconsciously asked, "What about offending Fate?"

"I think—" Neph began cautiously, "He shouldn't mind."

Klein fell into deep thought.

"I have a question," he said, "Suppose, I mean suppose, your Lord's and Fate's ideas conflict, whose will He listen to?"

"Good question," Neph shrugged, "Perhaps you could ask her in person."

"No," Klein refused. "Let's talk about Will Onsetin instead—why would He have thought of coming to the Southern Continent? This isn't a good place; there's the Rose School," and the Numinous Episcopate, and the Church's power is relatively weak here—"

"I don't know either," Neph shrugged. "The Little Snake — Will Onsetin—I have no ill will towards Him, but I don't think He'll have any good feelings towards me."

"Little Snake?" Klein repeated.

"You should be able to guess who the Great Serpent is," Neph said to him with a smile.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Klein's expression turned to one of astonishment. He blurted out, "You gave an King of Angel a nickname?!"

"Strictly speaking, I didn't choose that name," Neph shook her head, "but you reminded me, the one who gives nicknames to the other King of Angel doesn't seem to remember giving himself one too—"

"----?" Klein looked at her, lost in thought.

"Oh, right," Neph thought for a moment and added, "Actually, I just thought of a very good answer to your question—although it doesn't quite fit His Your Grace 'Ouroboros image."

"What?" Klein asked curiously.

"Simple," Neph smiled slightly, "I'll just become Fate, won't I?"

"----?" Klein pressed his hand to his forehead. "I always feel that this sentence structure..."

"It looks somewhat familiar."

Neph blinked innocently and replied, "That means you used to be online quite often, Mr. Fool."

"Ahem." Klein coughed lightly, seemingly reluctant to bring up his past as a Jiang Shan on the internet.

Neph didn't bring up the topic again. She blinked and invited Klein, "Would you like to find a place to sit for a while? I want to show you something."

"Alright," Klein nodded, "I'll go find a craftsman first."

He lifted the birdcage slightly, Neph shrugged in agreement. A feather was thus handed to the Hat Ornament. Klein carried the birdcage away, then thoughtfully asked Neph beside him, "What do you think about Dwayne Dantès keeping a bird?"

"Whatever makes you happy," Neph replied.

Klein immediately decided to take the bird back as a Travel souvenir. He led Neph to a restaurant and, after ordering, asked, "What do you want to show me?"

"Try taking over its origins," Neph said, blinking.

Klein paused, looking at Neph with some confusion. Neph added, "We'll Divination right here."

Klein tried the Divination with suspicion. After a moment, he opened his eyes and asked hesitantly, "Is this... a sign of the initial success of the Money Tree Plan?"

"No, that's not it," Neph shook her head, "But you reminded me that I haven't been in contact with Frank for a long time. I wonder what he's cultivated using my flesh and blood."

"Uh—" Klein swallowed hard, "I have a question."

"What?" Neph asked, puzzled.

"If he uses these things to cultivate something—" Klein carefully began, "Wouldn't it feel like you're eating your own offspring?"

"That depends on whether Mysticism acknowledges that they are descendants of the True God," Neph shrugged.

"You can't even calculate it yourself, can you?" Klein retorted. "Isn't the Child of God' thing just something you used to fool people?"

"It's hard to say," Neph's expression was somewhat strange. "In fact, I could probably be considered that person's posthumous child—unless you're discussing issues like blood relations, which are indeed difficult to determine among Mythical Creature."

Klein looked at Neph with some confusion. Neph stroked her chin and said, "In terms of form alone, there is no doubt that I am the Child of God. After His death, I awoke in His divine kingdom, dug up the corpse, left from within, and with the Lord's help—ah, so what I received after praying might actually be somewhat similar to the slap after giving birth—"

"In short, considering only the form, I certainly fit the concept of Child of God."

"From a spiritual perspective, my soul was not born of Him, but in my personal experience, we have many similarities. During the time I spent in His Kingdom, my soul has been imbued with many of His marks, which can probably be considered a kind of acquired Mother and Daughter relationship."

"The Uniqueness problem is that my body shouldn't originate from Him—but from Mysticism perspective, the spirit and body influence and adapt to each other, perhaps—"

Klein's mouth gaped slightly as he looked at Neph, and he suddenly couldn't help but chuckle.

"I've discovered something," he said.

"What?" Neph looked at him in confusion.

Klein shook his head and pointed to the waiter walking towards them. Neph wisely shut her mouth. Although she blocked the sound to prevent passersby from hearing their conversation, she didn't like to chat like that in front of the waiter.

After the waiter finished serving the food, Klein finally spoke, "You've told many lies, such as being Child of God, a White Angel, a Oracle— "

"But the lies you told seem to have become the truth."

Neph paused for a moment, then widened her eyes and exclaimed, "Fate has played a trick on me!"

"----?" Klein glanced at her, as if waiting for her to explain.

Neph rested her chin on her hand, carefully choosing her words: "You know, extraordinary events always have various means of creating coincidences, such as Author," or the power of Fate, or the Law of Beyonder Characteristic Convergence—

"When there are too many coincidences in a person's life, I usually suspect that something is wrong."

"No, what I actually meant was," Klein swallowed the food in his mouth and slowly began, "That this experience sounds a bit like the Authority to make Lie come true—like turning a lie into reality."

Neph blinked upon hearing this, and hesitated before asking, "----I've been tricked by Amon?"

"This is Amon's Authority?" Klein was taken aback.

"You could say that—?" Neph's tone was slightly hesitant. "To be precise, it should be called 'Error '? This is the name of His Sequence 0, a name that—was given to me by my My Lord in the past, derived from the word 'bug'—"

"—" Klein put down his cutlery. "Did I mention my job?"

"No," Neph shook her head, "But I know a little—it should be in the I domain? I don't know the details beyond that."

"Pretty much," Klein nodded, picking up his knife and fork again. "I'm all too familiar with the word 'bug'—"

Neph shrugged and replied, "In that case, perhaps you can better understand His Authority?"

"More than that," Klein glanced at her, "I'm curious why you don't question that this is your own Authority?"

Neph argued, "No matter how you look at it, memories don't seem to have anything to do with fraud, right? Although I admit I played this Pathway like a con artist—"

"That's not necessarily true—" Klein said between bites. "I once read that the human brain can deceive itself. For example, when there's a particularly Affliction experience, the brain will beautify and embellish the memory—isn't that just deceiving yourself?"

Neph paused slightly, and Klein added, "This sounds much worse than fraud. If you look at it from this perspective, playing this Pathway —no, never mind, I actually think your description is quite apt—"

"In short, it's not entirely your fault for turning this Pathway into a scam. First, memories inherently have this aspect; second, you still have Amon's memories, so they shouldn't be completely unaffected; and third—"

He paused, looking at Neph with a slightly strange expression, and then said, "If there were no other Pathway, I doubt you would have hesitated..."

He embarked on the Pathway a "Marauder."

Neph was silent for half a second, then suddenly laughed and said, "I would never take the Pathway a ' Marauder '."

"Why?" Klein looked at her in surprise. "I thought you would like it? Are you worried about Amon?"

"That's not the reason," Neph shook her head. "I'm not confident I can lie when everyone knows I'm a liar."