Chapter 2794: The Forbidden Zone of Strange Demons (Part 1)

Only one table remained in the restaurant.

Shiler and Jeremiah sat opposite each other. In the center of the table were plates of fresh, steaming big meals.

The head chef had long since disappeared.

Jeremiah ate the food on the plate unhurriedly. His gaze was placed on the extinguished red candle. He revealed a shallow smile, and then said, "Compared to your exquisite cooking performance just now, how the food tastes is no longer important. Cheers to this night."

Shiler also raised his glass, revealed a smile, and fiddled with the food on the plate lightly. Gluttony was full, but he was still hungry.

He noticed Jeremiah's gaze and also looked at the red candle by his hand. He shook his head, picked up the candle, and put it into the briefcase. Jeremiah saw that there were two identical red candles in the box, as well as three white candles.

Jeremiah cast a puzzled gaze.

Shiler shook his head and said, "I remember I once said that I came from All Souls College, Oxford University."

"I also just heard about this recently. I mean, I just came into contact with your world recently." Jeremiah pointed at his lips with a fork and said, "What should I call you? Magicians? Wizards? Or some kind of elf?"

"I am not an elf, nor a magician. I am a bishop." Shiler cut off a piece of meat in an orderly manner, and then said, "I do have some abilities that are different from ordinary people, but it is far from as magical as magic."

Jeremiah looked down at the food on the plate, and what he wanted to say was self-evident.

"I am not joking. You might think I summoned a demon, but in reality, that is not the case. That is just a part of me."

"You might as well have summoned a demon." Jeremiah evaluated objectively, "What do you want to say? Such a terrifying demon is just a part of you?"

Shiler shook his head again and said, "Just a little precaution."

Although he said so to Jeremiah, Shiler still recalled what happened when he allocated his body in his mind.

Every personality trait had a body, and the Tower of Thought was placed in the original body as a server. All other bodies relied on brainwave streaming to the main server to obtain thinking and other abilities. Everyone's physique was more inclined toward Shiler's previous life, which was adding some strength and inspiration.

However, a part of the personality traits were exceptions. The Superego gave the system's energy to the magic-side personality traits. So although their physique didn't exceed ordinary people too much, they were all allocated a certain amount of energy, so naturally, they had abilities beyond ordinary people.

The Bishop's ability was less like magic and more like soul-summoning. The red and white candles in his hand were actually the system's energy. Once the candle was lit, the system would set up a soul-summoning channel, connect the streaming routes of other brainwaves to this side, and let other personality traits log in from another place.

The white candle summoned the normal state, and the red candle summoned the pathological state. And during the time the candle was lit, in addition to the energy cost to maintain the channel, there would be extra energy as a sacrifice. Other personality traits that received the sacrifice would possess some magical attributes, similar to skill points that could be freely allocated.

For example, Gluttony could let himself digest food infinitely, Manipulation could let himself obtain the power to defeat the head chef, and if it was Pride or Greed who came, they could also make an umbrella, or simply bring the sacrifice back intact.

The abilities of other magic-side personality traits were different. In any life, the Bishop had never truly used magic, so he chose to turn the system's energy into props and use the method of summoning other personality traits to assist himself in passing some difficult levels.

One red candle had already been used for more than half. The next time he came, the duration was estimated to be only half of this time. The consumption level of the remaining two red candles was about the same as this time. Considering the danger of this universe, he still had to save them.

"Tell me the things you know about the hotel?" Shiler took the initiative to ask. This time he had saved Jeremiah. If the other party didn't give some return, then there was no need to continue the cooperation.

Jeremiah seemed to want to know more about the candle, but he knew that this kind of thing was often accompanied by unknown dangers. Even if Shiler told him the specific situation, he wouldn't dare to believe it. What if it was a trap buried by the other party? And he had no confidence to snatch this thing from Shiler's hand, so even if the candle was useful, this matter had to be put behind.

Shiler was a rare partner, Jeremiah knew this point. He was just an ordinary person, struggling in this hotel. If he missed Shiler, it would be difficult to find another one if he wanted to find one again.

Jeremiah pondered for a while and then said, "All the abnormalities started 20 days ago. It wasn't just the hotel that had problems; all of Gotham started to have abnormalities."

"I received exact news that there might be news of the root of the abnormality in the hotel, so I chased after it. But unfortunately, my luck wasn't good. I was delayed for too long on the 19th floor, which led to the hotel's abnormality being irreversible after I came out."

Shiler thought in his heart, *Sure enough, the half footprint in front of the door of room 1904 was left by Jeremiah. * Without this hint, it wouldn't be easy to figure out the rules of the elevator. Jeremiah was still a complete ordinary person now. It was normal for him to be delayed for so long.

Then it seemed that he and Jerome didn't come to the hotel at the same time. It was very likely that Jeremiah came a few days after the hotel's abnormality broke out, while Jerome, like himself and others, came to the hotel later, so he appeared in the future timeline.

But the problem was that he also came later. Why did he mistakenly enter the past timeline? Did he have anything special?

"After leaving the 19th floor, I didn't choose to come to the restaurant for the first time, because the elevator had problems. I had to conduct exploration every few floors."

After Jeremiah finished speaking, he lifted the hem of his upper garment. His abdomen was wrapped in bandages, and Shiler smelled a very faint bloody smell. He knew that an ordinary person had to experience many life-and-death tests to survive in this situation.

Jeremiah put down his clothes and continued, "In fact, I didn't know the restaurant was on this floor. I entered here by mistake. I don't know if you have seen the monster in the elevator when you took the elevator down. I call it Kaleidoscope. When every fragment of it reflects your appearance, you will be completely lost in the glass maze."

Shiler remembered the bright monster he saw in the elevator. That should be the Kaleidoscope Jeremiah mentioned. It seemed to be a bit more dangerous than he imagined.

"I was targeted by it at that time." Jeremiah said, "It wanted to pull me into the mirror, so I had to avoid all reflective objects as much as possible. At that time, I rushed out of the elevator, had nowhere to go, and also came to the restaurant door with this monster like you."

Shiler nodded. He knew that there were two forces in the hotel, and the two sides restrained each other. To get rid of one side's entanglement, one could only use the other side. Jeremiah's train of thought was the same as his own.

"I rushed into the restaurant. The monster really didn't chase me anymore, but I welcomed a more terrifying situation. The head chef created an endless cycle here. Every round, people died in various ways, and then returned to the restaurant again."

"Have you died?"

"Of course not. I am very cautious." Jeremiah cut open a leaf of vegetable and said, "The head chef made a very fatal mistake. He would return to the kitchen during the interval of every dish. Perhaps he thought I would eventually die here, so he wasn't cautious enough."

Shiler raised his eyebrows, and Jeremiah did not intend to beat around the bush. He continued, "Your deduction is roughly correct. The restaurant's rules are very simple and appeared at the very beginning of the mutation. The head chef is a later intruder, but the monster is not upstairs; it is right next to the kitchen."

"The spines on the ceiling spread from the kitchen. The head chef was just one of the puppets controlled by these nerves. The restaurant and the head chef existed in a relationship of restraint. Now the restaurant is closed, but the owner of these nerves doesn't intend to let go."

Shiler looked up at the ceiling. It seemed it wasn't his illusion. The neural network on the ceiling had changed, but it didn't become denser, but it seemed that those neural structures were more real, and some terminal nerves that hadn't been presented before also appeared.

Was this guy trying to swallow the restaurant directly?

"The consequence of losing balance is very terrifying." Jeremiah continued, "I am not alarmist, because I have seen such a situation with my own eyes. Once one side of the two sides that restrain each other is completely defeated and swallowed, the side that survives will be unimaginably powerful."

"Can they swallow each other?" This was a new piece of information for Shiler, but it couldn't be counted as good news. Logically speaking, there was no such thing as leveling up in the Cthulhu mythos system, and there was no connection between abnormalities. If they could really rely on swallowing others to upgrade, then legendary investigators could all upgrade to Outer Gods.

"At least the news I got is like this." Jeremiah's tone didn't sound like he was lying either. He said, "I know there might be some unknown news within your magic world, but I must tell you that this place cannot be speculated by common sense. Everything that happened here is too bizarre."

Shiler also nodded. He knew that he couldn't look at this hotel with a pure Cthulhu mythos system, because besides Nyarlathotep being involved in it, there was also a little Bruce.

Batman is the spokesperson of the order side. No matter which Batman it is, he is very good at establishing rules. If all the abnormalities were caused by him, then it wouldn't be surprising that there were rules in these abnormalities that could be mastered by humans.

"The root is in the kitchen." Shiler muttered while saying, "I don't not believe your information, but rushing in so rashly isn't a good way. I need more information."

Jeremiah could also understand. He didn't expect Shiler to be tricked in like this, but he must borrow the power of this magician, otherwise, relying on himself alone, he would never enter the kitchen in his life, nor could he get rid of the hotel.

Jeremiah weighed it and still took out his trump card. He said, "What if it's not a monster in the kitchen, but a person?"

"A person?"

"That's right, a person. Every public facility in this hotel hides a person who has been polluted. They are the owners of this public facility, and if there are no accidents, they aren't completely irrational, and many can still communicate."

This made Shiler think of James Gordon, the key figure who set up the noise trap. Jeremiah very likely met him on the 19th floor, but the exploration of other floors gave Jeremiah more information.

Should he believe what he said?

Shiler thought. This born bad seed almost didn't have a true sentence in his mouth. He said he didn't die here, but who knew if it was true?

If he died here, then the him sitting here now was the same as James Gordon, just a puppet, a link in some terrible trap. Shiler didn't want to fall for this trick.

Suddenly, Shiler recalled that when he knocked to call the deceased, the bell sound and the elevator sound were exactly the same. In other words, the restaurant and the elevator monster might be on the same side.

Would going to the kitchen be a trap set by the restaurant for himself? ===== CHAPTER 2795 =====