Klein had been thinking about how to create the Marionette Town for a long time and had already come up with three preliminary plans:
If we exclude external factors, his best option would be to have the Marionette Town rise overnight in a certain place in a certain country on the Northern Continent, and connect it to the surrounding cities via railways, rivers, and highways.
As a result, the Marionette Town will see a large influx of outsiders every day, leading to strong interactions with the surrounding area. On the one hand, the town, lacking surrounding villages, will certainly purchase necessities such as grain, salt, cloth, ore, and sugar from other places. On the other hand, it will also have its own production, which can be sold to surrounding cities, towns, and villages. Under these circumstances, the comings and goings of merchants, laborers, and travelers will be very frequent, and their interactions with the residents of the Marionette Town will be quite extensive.
Under the influence of various strong interactions, it won't be long before the Marionette Town will be able to create a corresponding region in the Spirit World. Once the residents' Fate become more detailed and realistic, Klein will be able to take a Potion to advance to Sequence 1, " Attendant of Mysteries ".
This whole process should take less than three months.
The problem is that this plan cannot be kept secret.
In the present era, the sudden appearance of a town in a certain place cannot be concealed. Government employees, police, and reporters will soon come to investigate. The subsequent strong interactions will also make more and more people aware of and understand this city. This is a problem that cannot be solved by Illusion abilities, unless the Marionette town does not interact with the surrounding cities, towns, and villages at all, or interacts very little, but that would contradict the needs of the ritual.
Once news of the Marionette Town spreads, Klein will undoubtedly be targeted by enemies such as Zaratul and Amon himself. At that point, destruction will be easier than protection, and he will have no choice but to move his Marionette Town to another location. This will cause the initial interactions to lose their effect, just like the Dark Demonic Wolf's experience.
Therefore, Klein only presented this as a possible solution and would basically not choose it unless some " Visionary " was willing to provide assistance so that all the creatures on the Northern Continent would naturally believe that there was indeed a town there, and that it had not suddenly appeared.
Considering the influence of various external factors and his own extraordinary abilities, Klein's safest choice is to establish the Marionette Town on a sufficiently secluded uninhabited island, away from safe routes, and to use the " Sefirah Castle " to make arrangements against Divination and prophecy.
At the same time, Klein will use that " Curtain " to " Grafting " a section of the highway, river, and railway to the outside of the Marionette Town, making it a stop on some people's journey.
This cannot be kept completely secret, but once the "grotesque phenomenon" spreads and may attract the attention of Zaratul and Amon, Klein can easily undo the original " Grafting " and change the "entrance" irregularly.
Under this strategy, only the "entrance" is transferred, not the Marionette City itself. The effects of various interactions on the Spirit World can be preserved and will not be interrupted, allowing the ritual to proceed steadily.
Of course, this approach also has significant problems. The scope of interaction is limited, and it cannot have a comprehensive and in-depth impact on daily life. In addition, the frequency and intensity of interaction will not be very high.
Choosing this option means Klein will have to spend six months or even more than a year on the ceremony.
If he were to insist on a complete cycle for each Marionette's Fate to ensure everything goes smoothly, the ritual would take at least fifty years. However, there is a workaround: once everything else has met the ritual requirements, a meteorite, an earthquake, or a volcanic eruption could be thrown at the town, causing all the Marionette ' Fate to end simultaneously. Such a scenario exists in reality and is quite plausible.
Between the radical and conservative options, Klein also had a compromise.
That is, to replicate a certain city, assign Marionette to one of the city's residents, and then, the more evil ones simply erase that city and replace it with their own Marionette town, while the more benevolent ones hide that city to ensure the supply of resources. The reason for not transforming the target city is that it already has a corresponding area in the Spirit World, it is not newly born, and does not meet the requirements of the ritual.
Klein, relying on the " Curtain " formed by the Beyonder Characteristic of the " Attendant of Mysteries," had a better option: to " Grafting " a certain stage of that city onto his own Marionette Town.
In this way, his Marionette town becomes the dark side of that city. Outsiders who enter during the corresponding time period will encounter Marionette instead of real people. After that period passes, they will leave the Marionette town, return to reality, and deal with real people.
During the process, Klein will also send out Marionette to Acting of outsiders and interact with the corresponding real people, so that the real outsiders can seamlessly integrate after returning to reality.
In other words, two different lifestyles are unfolding simultaneously in the same city, but no one can perceive it. Only occasionally will someone feel that a certain detail is not quite right, but they have no way of explaining it and ignore it.
This fits the " Mysteries " characteristic quite well, and has a certain degree of Concealment.
Of course, this approach also has its own problems. The Fate of the Fate Marionette mimics that of a real person, lacking its own independence, which may cause certain aspects of the ritual to fail to achieve the desired effect.
Klein tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the mottled long table, hesitating between the second and third options.
After several minutes, he followed his heart and chose the second option, preferring to spend more time rather than affect the Fate of the innocent.
" Zaratul and Antigonus most likely chose the third option back then..." Klein sighed, preparing to return to reality.
Then he glanced at the pile of junk again, considering whether to issue a divine decree to have City of Silver revise some of the descriptions in the holy book.
For a deity, sacred texts are not actually that important; their greatest use is to facilitate missionary work and increase the number of anchors.
Klein had already concluded this point from the contents of the sacred texts of the Orthodox Church, such as the " Revelation of Evernight " and the " Book of Storms ":
Most of the content exaggerates the true God, boasts wildly, and portrays Him as benevolent and merciful.
If, in ancient times, believers' perception of the image of deities could indeed have a negative impact on the deities, then the current practice of using symbols instead of idols eliminates this potential problem. At least deities such as the " Evernight Goddess " and the " Lord of Storms " openly declare that they are manifestations of a part of the Original Creator, without any concern that this might exacerbate the resurgence of the Primordial will within them.
In other words, if there really is a problem in this regard, Klein believes that the " Evernight Goddess " must have changed the corresponding description, from the Original one eye of the Creator to the offspring that He conceived and gave birth to, which also has a very high status.
At the same time, the believers' acknowledgment of certain things will not impose a mystical burden on the deity itself. Otherwise, Amon would have secretly helped Klein, or rather the previous " Sefirah Castle," prepare a group of believers, induce them to form the understanding that the " Angel of Time " is the incarnation of the " Lord of Mysteries," and establish sufficient contact with the " Sefirah Castle " by using instinctive responses that meet the conditions, thus opening a "back door."
For the divine, aside from the needs of missionary work, the most important parts of the sacred texts are only two:
First, Error in the description of the deity's authority and name can lead believers to pray to the Error, unknown entity, which is not only dangerous for believers but also causes the deity to lose its anchor. Second, descriptions involving other churches can easily lead to conflict.
As for Angel and Saint, the gods don't really care too much. What they care about are the Angel and Saint themselves, because they need to gain a certain anchor from them.
Therefore, the descriptions of Angel and Saint in the major scriptures are detailed enough, with authority and honorable names, making it convenient for different believers to choose and identify with them. However, this is not enough to form a stable anchor, because it is covered by faith in the divine.
To address this issue, the Orthodox Church assigns different patron Angel and saints to different churches, precisely defining the scope of their respective churches.
Because of this understanding, Klein never paid much attention to the Holy Scripture. After reading the part describing his authority and honor, he was so embarrassed that he didn't want to read any further. He only used " Divination " to confirm whether he would have any conflict with the Church of the True God.
After some consideration, he abandoned the idea of directly issuing a divine decree ordering City of Silver to revise the holy scriptures, and decided to use a gentler approach:
During the Tarot Club's discussions, "The World" Gehrman Sparrow induced " The Sun " to adjust his perception, shifting the content related to " The Angel of Time " towards the direction of Pallez Zoroast, thus revising the relevant content without arousing suspicion in the City of Silver.
Bayam, Verdue Abraham, acquired considerable occult knowledge from several circles of Beyonder.
He turned on the gas lamp and, taking advantage of the darkness, began to read carefully.
Turning to the end, he suddenly came across a piece of information he had never heard of before:
" Bansy Harbor is a place imbued with mystical power, its connection to the Spirit World and Astral World beyond imagination... Even though the Church of Storms directly destroyed the port, it couldn't completely eliminate its anomaly..."
"Many researchers of the occult are buying up items related to Bansy at high prices..."
"Bansy... "Verdue muttered to himself, suddenly developing a strong interest in the port.
He began to consider whether he should also acquire some items from Bansy and study them in depth, since the Spirit World was related to " Teleportation," and the Astral World and Starry Sky were related to " Roaming," both of which could be related to Mr. "Door" Bethel Abraham's escape.
Perhaps, if there's a chance, I could go and see Bansy... Verdue nodded almost imperceptibly.
P. S.: Updated first, revised later.