"If my mission fails, will my teammates and I recover our memories?" Lu Mingze asked again.
This is what he cares about the most. After all, the game is immortal, and the ultimate reward is their memory.
Narrator: "No, but this won't affect your real life. Nothing will change. Of course, to ensure the secrecy of the game, your experiences in this world will be forgotten if you fail."
After hearing the narration, Lu Mingze felt a little sad. He looked at Cao Qian, Linlin, Qian Jinlai, Guan Ling, Yan Hebi, and Xing Ye.
If these people, who were so far removed from their real lives, lost their memories, they might never have the chance to meet again. Losing these friends wouldn't have had much of an impact on his life, but Lu Mingze was feeling miserable right now; he didn't want to lose them.
Cao Qian and others also heard the narration. They also did not want to lose their memories, not just for this legendary experience.
Lu Mingze was depressed for a moment. Wu Zi Shu was about to comfort him when he heard him say, "No, five times the difficulty doesn't mean there's no chance of winning. It just means the probability has dropped from 10% to 2% or even lower. As long as we don't give up, we'll definitely win!"
"It doesn't matter if you forget," said the Wordless Book. "I still remember, and I will find you."
"Then you're really pitiful," Lu Mingze said softly, placing his hand on the cover of the wordless book. "It's hard for you to be the only one who remembers it. I will work hard to complete the task. We'll all recover our memories together and meet in real life."
"I will help you." Wu Zi Shu whispered.
His low and slightly emotional voice was like a small brush, tickling Lu Mingze's heart.
Sometimes, memories fade, but feelings remain. Just like when Lu Mingze met Xing Ye at the airport, his heart was throbbing, and it was this throbbing that made him accept that inexplicable phone case.
"Let's put the Diamond Heart aside for now," Lu Mingze said, "let's go find the Ocean Blue Eye and the Combat Boots."
During this time, Yuna and the statue couldn't understand their conversation. Yuna felt like they had suddenly switched to a different language, as if they were discussing something. However, when Lu Mingze stopped discussing the system and memories and returned to the mission content, Yuna could understand again.
She said, "I have seen the Ocean Blue Eyes. Those eyes are said to be the most beautiful eyes. If you wear them, you can see through all the truths in the world. So they were bought by a noble girl in the city."
Everyone: "…"
Lu Mingze asked, "Is she going to replace the so-called Son of God's eyes with her own?"
Yuna nodded: "It seems so...but she never found the opportunity, and now it is just a collection."
Lu Mingze was furious. "Eating diamonds for gemstone eyes? How ignorant are these people? Lack of education is killing people! I think our city needs to hold some common-sense science education activities in the future, such as chemistry, physics, biology, etc., instead of always studying philosophy. With insufficient knowledge and low productivity, they still indulge in romantic activities. No wonder the city is in trouble."
"But this world already has gods..." Qian Jinlai said in a low voice.
"God hopes that everyone will have a full stomach first, right?" Lu Mingze patted the base of the statue.
Statue: "...Hmm."
"Do you know where the Ocean Blue Eye is?" Lu Mingze asked.
The statue seemed to have the ability to perceive parts of its own body. He was the one who found the Holy Sword and the Golden Armor. When he saw Lu Mingze, he also wanted to use the mirror to seize the Diamond Heart.
"I can't see clearly," the statue said, "but I'm sure there's no longer any distinction between nobles and poor in this town. Everyone is the same. They hide underground during the day to avoid the sun, and come out at night to forage for garbage and weeds to eat."
"So the noble girl is among the shadows we encountered last night..." Lu Mingze touched his chin and said, "I asked the shadows to help me count the remaining people last night. Maybe we can find a clue when we see them tonight. We have to wait until tonight to find the Ocean Blue Eyes. Where are the combat boots?"
He raised his head and looked at the statue eagerly.
Statue: "...It's no use looking at me that way. I haven't seen the boots since they were worn by that warrior."
"I've always been curious about one thing. How far can you sense?" Lu Mingze asked. "You know the approximate location of the Ocean Blue Eye, you know there are monsters in the City Lord's Mansion, you know the golden armor is underground, and you know the bandits transform into half-demons at night. But you don't know the location of the Holy Sword and the combat boots."
"The holy sword is sealed in the church. I can't sense it," the statue said. "My perception only covers this town. As for the bandits, that's what the armor told me."
"I see," Lu Mingze said, "So the combat boots are either sealed somewhere, or they are outside the city."
At present, there is no clue about the combat boots. It is still half a day before nightfall. Everyone gathered in the square. Yuna was using tools to apply golden armor to the statue.
"I have a question," Guan Ling asked, rubbing his stomach, "Aren't you hungry?"
"I'm not hungry," Lu Mingze said, "Isn't this a game world? I shouldn't be hungry... Are you all hungry?"
Several people nodded heavily. Except for Lu Mingze, everyone else felt tired and hungry.
The swan crystal and the wordless book are props. They don't have human bodies and cannot feel hunger. But Lu Mingze has a human body, so it is really strange that he doesn't feel hungry, tired or sleepy.
"I have food at home," Yuna said. "After the disaster, the food in the town didn't rot. My family was quite wealthy at the time, so we stored a lot of food. I was the only one at home, so I saved it and there's still plenty left. You can go get it."
Several people quickly rushed to Yuna's house to get bread and had a full meal. In order to save food, Lu Mingze did not eat.
"It seems that I am really not a human being..." Lu Mingze touched his stomach and felt nothing.
Cao Qian said as she ate bread, "I have two questions. First, if the speculation in the Wordless Book is true, and the Little Prince is the result of the prayers of the king and his people, will this new faith give birth to another Diamond Heart? Second, since the statue is the Son of God and is devoted to this city, he certainly wouldn't create anything evil. Then who gave him this strange mirror that can steal a person's body? The Little Prince is the heart of the statue, so why bother giving him the mirror?"
The wordless book, which had been silent the entire time, spoke up, "The first point makes sense. This might be a breakthrough. Second, the person who sent the mirror had ulterior motives. He definitely doesn't want the statue to return to normal."
"I've been wondering what the bishop sealed with his life. This city is already filled with terrifying monsters, and this is the result of the bishop's seal. So, what he sealed must be something even more terrifying, something that, once the seal expires, will be enough to destroy the entire city."
Everyone listened quietly to the analysis of the wordless book.
But the leader of this mission was Lu Mingze. Wu Zi Shu did not continue speaking, but asked Lu Mingze: "What do you think?"
Lu Mingze frowned and said, "I'm still thinking about combat boots."
"Any conclusion?" asked the Wordless Book.
Lu Mingze said, "I'm thinking the statue can hear whether a person's heart is kind or malicious. He was willing to lend the boots to the soldier because he believed he would wear them and seek help from the outside world. I thought the statue wouldn't be wrong, but the message never got through, and the boots disappeared. The statue believes the soldier deceived him, but is that really the case?"
"You believe the warrior didn't embezzle the boots," Wu Zi Shu said. "If that's the way you think, then the warrior who got the boots back then was most likely killed before he even left the city. If I were the city lord, I wouldn't let this hidden danger escape and seek help."
Lu Mingze said, "I see. The combat boots are in the City Lord's Mansion! It turns out the root of everything is still there. Let's go find it."
"Wait!" Guan Ling pulled Lu Mingze aside. "Just now, I heard Wu Zi Shu's explanation quite logically and he was still listening to the reasoning process. How come you jumped straight to the answer? How did you come to that conclusion?"
Lu Mingze: "...The City Lord killed the soldiers, so the boots must be in the City Lord's Mansion... right?"
The last word "吧" revealed Lu Mingze's inner uncertainty.
The Wordless Book confirmed his answer: "Lu Mingze is right. The City Lord's Mansion has many special features. The City Lord and his companions shared the Diamond Heart underground. The bandits were also born there. All the items in the City Lord's Mansion are contaminated by demonic energy, but other buildings in the city do not have this characteristic. The shadow residents dare not approach the City Lord's Mansion, which means that there is a terrible power hidden here.
"Another point is that the statue can't find the whereabouts of the boots, which means the boots are either outside the city or sealed. Currently, there are only two places in the city that may be sealed. We have searched the church, but didn't find the boots. The other seal, I believe, is underground in the city lord's mansion where the demonic ritual was originally held, so the boots are likely there."
Guan Ling said: "I understand, but I think it's better to copy the answers."
He gave up, thinking that he would never be able to make such precise inferences in his lifetime.
After coming to a conclusion and eating and drinking their fill, they returned to the square of the City Lord's Mansion. It was exactly noon, and the sun was at its brightest. They believed that this was the best time to enter the underground of the City Lord's Mansion.
They had entered once before when they were imprisoning the bandits, but the city lord's mansion was very deep underground, with several floors, and the bandits were only imprisoned on the first floor. According to Yuna, there were three floors underground, and the ceremony was originally held on the bottom floor, but the map only marked the first floor.
Yuna told them how to enter the secret passage on the third underground floor. They all walked downstairs with a lamp in hand. Xing Ye said to Lu Mingze seriously, "Get ready to clap your wristbands."
"Okay." Lu Mingze was a little nervous and held the wordless book in his arms.
Yan Hebi did not follow everyone downstairs. He stayed with Yuna, who asked him to help her put on the golden armor.
Regarding this matter, Wu Zi Shu said: "Let him stay. He can keep an eye on the progress of the mission and get in touch with the mission target more often. Maybe he can get some new information."
They originally thought they would encounter some danger, but surprisingly, they walked all the way to the third underground floor without any obstruction. The third floor was a large hall, covering an area of 300 square meters. There were oil lamps in the four corners of the hall. Everyone lit the lamps and could see the entire picture of the third underground floor.
On the third underground floor, eight skeletons were lying in a disorderly manner, and strange patterns were carved on the ground, stained with blood.