The first deciphering

Half an hour later.

The only Inn in the eastern Talin Village.

The conditions here are naturally incomparable to those of the "Trace Wind" Inn; it only has two floors of Guest Room, and the lobby on the first floor also functions as Restaurant.

But Door Opening for business, it's relatively clean.

Fortunately, none of them were picky people. They booked two adjacent rooms at the end of the third-floor corridor and soon gathered at Lorry's room.

By then, he had already brewed three cups of Black Tea.

"Please have a seat," Lorry said with a light laugh.

As he spoke, he locked the door from the inside and used Ritual Silver Dagger to create a "Wall of Spirituality" to prevent the discussion from being heard by people Next Door or outside the door.

After doing all this, Lorry sat on the edge of the bed, offering the table and chairs by the window to the two ladies, and smilingly glanced at them with his teacup in hand:

Who wants to go first?

Hugh volunteered, coughed, and shared his analysis with the two of them, describing the little boy's appearance in detail.

Finally, she concluded:

"I suspect that the family of three and their hired Tour Guide had their perceptions altered, but I'm not sure how."

"Based on my knowledge of Mysticism, the only Pathway I can think of is through the ' Spectator '."

Lorry nodded slightly and wrote it down on the white paper he had prepared in advance.

Seeing Fors shake his head, he curled the corner of his mouth and said, "My opinion is the same as Hugh's. Now, tell me what you've discovered?"

"Okay." Fors quickly composed himself and said without any affectation:

I won't go into the parts that are repeated with Hugh, but I'll add a couple of points.

"First, considering what happened to that family, we can now confirm that there's something unusual about the Woods, but Jansen's warning contradicts what the Tour Guide said..."

She paused briefly, waiting for Lorry's answer.

Lorry understood what she wanted to ask and smiled:

"What he said is true."

Fors hummed in agreement and continued:

"If that's the case, then it means that Jansen must know some secrets that the other villagers don't know, otherwise this wouldn't have happened."

The information we currently have includes:

"He started going crazy around July or August of last year."

"The villagers are imprisoning him somewhere in Talin Village, with at least one woman guarding him, and possibly others as well."

Throughout this process, the scratching sound of writing never stopped.

Lorry gestured for Fors not to continue, and chuckled softly:

"I'd like to add that Jansen was once the best Tour Guide in Talin Village, skilled at driving away snakes, and able to go deep into the Woods ordinary villagers dared not venture."

"My guess is that the anomaly is most likely located deep within the Woods. Of course, this still needs to be verified."

After saying that, he raised his hand to Fors.

Fors took a sip of tea:

"Secondly, of the three college students we met, two of the women were visiting for the first time, so there's not much to say about them, but the man was different."

He claimed that his bad luck improved after he prayed deep in the Woods.

There are two suspicious points:

"First of all, the fact that these three ordinary people came out of the depths of the Woods safely contradicts your analysis that 'the anomaly is most likely deep in the Woods.'"

"Secondly, I personally believe his experience is true. If he didn't firmly believe in it, I don't think he would have needed to invite the woman he liked."

"Isn't he worried about messing things up?"

Hugh frowned deeply. "But those Tour Guide..." She sensed something was wrong, but couldn't think of a way to describe it for a moment.

After a moment's thought, Lorry said:

Are you suggesting that there's an information gap between locals and outsiders, or between Tour Guide and tourists?

"The locals thought the prayers were fake, that they were Lie they made up, but the tourists' wishes—no, some of the tourists' wishes were indeed fulfilled."

"That's why there's a constant stream of tourists here. Well... to use the words of Emperor Roselle, it's what he often called 'Entrapment.'"

Fors nodded slightly, without saying a word.

A brief silence fell over the room.

After writing the last line of words, Lorry slowly began to speak:

First, there have been no accidental deaths or disappearances on Talin Island in the past decade.

"Considering Fors just mentioned about ' Entrapment,' we have reason to suspect that the anomalies are only targeting outsiders who meet certain conditions."

For example, ordinary people, those who are alone, or those who are few in number.

"At least we're not satisfied. This also explains why those three college students got out safely—perhaps because we were there too."

"Secondly, the Battle Nun of the Church of the Earth Mother have come to Talin Island to inspect it several times, but without exception, they have found nothing unusual."

"By analogy with the superhuman squads of the Three Great Churches, I guess their configurations are at least Sequence 7, yet even so, they still gained nothing."

"This is enough to show that the factors causing the anomaly are greater than this level. Of course, it could also be that the ability is rather strange, such as being good at concealing oneself."

"Third..."

As he spoke, he sniffed twice and chuckled:

"The Inn's decor was ordinary, but it was obviously quite new, especially the tables, chairs, benches, and windows, which had a faint smell of paint."

"I suspect it was built or renovated in recent years, and this must have happened after the influx of tourists."

"This will help us investigate the source of the anomaly."

The words had barely left his mouth.

Lorry took a couple of sips of tea to moisten his throat and asked with a smile, "Do you have anything else to add?"

The two women exchanged a glance and then shook their heads.

He then continued:

"Based on the information we have so far, we have identified several general directions for our investigation, which need to be investigated separately."

"First, the family and their hired Tour Guide. Focus on two questions: whether they ventured deep into the Woods, and why their knowledge was altered."

"Second, investigate Jansen and find out why he went mad."

"Third, investigate that History Student to find out whether his good fortune was just something he was bragging to his girlfriend or something that actually happened."

"Fourth, ask the villagers if there have been any cases of missing outsiders in recent years, especially after this Inn appeared."

Fifth, investigate any unusual activity deep within the Woods.

"The fifth direction is the most dangerous, so we'll leave it for last. You two will work together, responsible for the first half of the first direction and the fourth direction. I'll be in charge of investigating Jansen and the History Student, and figuring out why that family's perceptions were distorted. How does that sound?"

The two ladies exchanged glances and nodded to indicate that it was no problem.

At this moment, Xiu asked:

"Other matters are manageable; regardless of their difficulty or danger, at least there's an opportunity to begin the investigation into those three History Student..."

"They didn't say they were going to stay on the island overnight, how are you going to find them?"

"You can't possibly do fortune telling, can you?"

Divination... Lorry chuckled and shook his head:

"I have my own way."

As he spoke, he took out the "Sure-Hit Revolver" from his pocket and handed it to Fors, lending them this Sealed Artifact for self-defense for the time being.

Hugh couldn't help but show an envious look and pursed her lips.

She then pulled Fors away, intending to go to the Restaurant on the first floor to see if she could happen to run into a family of three who were coming down for dinner.

Whew... Closing the door, Lorry let out a soft sigh of relief and took out the "Book of Dimensions" with a Dark Gold cover from a hidden pocket in his black trench coat.