Chapter 137: 135 The Storyteller

Ever since Li Nuowei died, Drake, having regained consciousness from his fish-man state, felt a strange power transferred onto him; this power undoubtedly originated from Li Nuowei.

By telling stories that could loop infinitely, the consciousness of the target creature would be trapped within the told story. The deeper the level of storytelling, the shallower the target creature's cognitive awareness became, making it harder for them to discover the "falseness" of the story, thereby sinking them ever deeper into the fabricated tale. And this so-called storytelling was not merely limited to oral narration; any form involving "communication" could trigger the ability, such as text, eye contact, touch, and so on.

But it is worth noting that this power also affects the storyteller, only the influence is slightly weaker compared to the listener. The deeper and more immersed the storyteller becomes in telling the story, the more they will slowly forget that they are the creator of the story.

If both the storyteller and the listener forget the initial reality, they will undoubtedly fall into another world, while their bodies in the Real World will enter a state similar to a vegetative state, gradually starving or dying of old age.

Upon obtaining this power, Drake also discovered another characteristic of this ability, which was the "Inheritance of the Story."

The last story told by the previous storyteller before their death could be inherited by the listener who had the ability transferred to them, though to maintain this story, one must tell it perseveringly at a certain frequency, otherwise the story itself would disappear.

Originally, having obtained this ability, Drake could have easily chosen not to inherit Li Nuowei's story, but he discovered that Li Nuowei was actually still alive within the story, and what shocked him even more was that the individual wills of the Sea Monster and the God of the Sea were also trapped within Li Nuowei's story at some unknown point in time.

In other words, the Sea Monster and the God of the Sea that people see in reality can only be considered Abnormal creatures with mere instinctual reactions; their souls and wills are all trapped within Li Nuowei's unbreakable "story."

This is a seal! That is what Drake believes.

The consciousnesses of the two Alien Gods are trapped in the world of the story; as long as people in reality do not actively intrude upon their resting place, no one will be harmed. They will continue to sleep, and even if their believers and kin are summoning them to return, they will still be trapped within the story.

Drake does not know how Li Nuowei managed to do this, or when it was done.

But ultimately, if he wants to avoid chaos in the world and prevent Calamity from affecting the entire world, he, as a human, must guard this seal as much as possible. All he can do is tell the story to every listener to stabilize the seal.

Yet, the greater good is only a small part of the reason he continues Li Nuowei's story; in reality, for him, this reason is not even steadfast. A much larger part of the reason is actually that he wants Li Nuowei to live well in the world of the story, and at the same time, only by maintaining the world of the story can he continue to prevent the awakening of the God of the Sea, so that his own fish-man bloodline will not easily awaken again, allowing him to continue maintaining his human identity.

For Drake, even if a fish-man possesses a stronger physique and a longer life than a human, he would still hold it in contempt. It is not that he loves the human identity so much, but rather that he is accustomed to being human and insists on the feeling of having individual will. If he were to become a fish-man, he would lose all of this and turn into an ugly monster that only knows how to serve the King of Fish-men, losing his own heart, which would make him feel disgusted and uneasy.

In order to tell the story well, Drake, after recovering his human form, changed his name and returned to the shore. He settled down in Modu, which is also a port city, obtained a new identity on the black market, and blended into the group of Modu citizens. Subsequently, relying on some special skills he learned in Hawaii, he successfully secured a position as a bartender at Haoyunlai Bar.

His learning ability is good, and because he often frequented bars in the past, he was influenced by what he saw and heard; he quickly got the hang of it under the guidance of the master bartender Crystal and learned more in-depth bartending techniques. Before long, he became the bar's gold-medal bartender, and his ability was no longer inferior to the master who taught him.

In the two months he has lived here, he, who has experienced Abnormal events, has the blood of an Alien God flowing in his body, and has even awakened before, discovered that his perspective on the world has changed. His sensory abilities in all aspects have been enhanced; simply put, it is an increase in inspiration. He gradually discovered that even in this modern metropolis of bright lights and bustling streets, there are hidden, unknown Abnormal factors.

For example, the man and woman before his eyes right now appear to be a close couple, but in fact, when Drake first met them, Xin Junmao was acting as a lookout for Miss Zhao while she was swallowing a cat abuser alive in a small alley. He was even startled by the terrifying scene at the time.

When the duo of Xin Junmao and Miss Zhao first met Drake, the atmosphere between the two sides was tense, but in the end, they did not fight each other. The reason was that Miss Zhao said she smelled the scent of a Curse and the scent of an acquaintance on Drake, and Drake also felt that both sides were very familiar.

And Drake soon remembered that the two were actually the strange people Li Nuowei met in that "real but desperate world" within the inherited story.

Drake felt extremely amazed, because assuming Li Nuowei and Drake really had met in that world, then was the story left behind by Li Nuowei real, false, or not entirely false?

Or perhaps, is the world they are currently in also fake?

Drake could not let himself fall back into a cycle of terrifyingly deep questions. He then asked Xin Junmao if he had ever met a young man named "Li Nuowei" in the "real but desperate world." After receiving an affirmative answer from Xin Junmao, Drake finally realized with a start that the barrier between the story world and the real world was even more fragile than he had imagined, and the two worlds actually intersected.

When Xin Junmao learned that the handsome mixed-blood man before him was actually related to the friend he had met once, Xin Junmao immediately asked Drake about the other's whereabouts.

After listening to the ins and outs explained by Drake, Xin Junmao could not help but let out a sigh of regret; the feeling of suddenly losing a friend is always melancholic.

From then on, Drake got to know the strange duo of Xin Junmao and Miss Zhao, and Xin Junmao and Miss Zhao would also often come to the bar where Drake worked to ask for drinks.

The three "people," who strictly speaking could not be considered human, often gathered together like tonight, enjoying each other's company and talking about everything.

Of course, they actually had a common goal in gathering together—revenge!

They discovered that the guys who had caused them to end up in their current state could all be traced back to the same source.

House of Cards, Inverted Sanctuary, Yellow Sand Truth School... they were all actually related to an unknown organization, and this organization was definitely not founded by humans!