chapter12

 "Congratulations you have successfully passed the [Fairy Tale I - Hameln], the points are being settled for you, please wait."

　　The woman's voice resounded in his head, and the blinding light faded away. Gregorio opened his eyes, and the familiar scenery was reflected on his retina. On the off-white table were two Pure White Earth Realm Newcomer's Instruction Manuals, and a pen was pressed on the mostly written A4 paper - the notes he had taken. He was sitting in the middle of the table, holding a box with colorful crayons on it.

　　He was sitting at the table, still holding a box in his hands, with simple childish designs drawn in colored crayons, the originally blurred drawings clear after the passage, in the shape of a frog and a flute.

　　The lid of the box is half-open, and inside is only a box of pills.

　　Gregorio takes the box out and opens it, and there's one pill left in it, with the instructions "eat me" followed by the words "Where's Alice? It's time to take your pills."

　　Marvin sat down in another chair next to him, no longer covered in any blood, and the teenager stared incredulously at the box in Gregorio's arms, reaching out incredulously to touch it and saying, "It just came out?"

　　To be honest the difficulty of this box, well ... it seems about the same as the novice guide in the first place.

　　Surprisingly it passed in a blur.

　　"Settlement complete, successfully passed [Hameln] gained 20 points, defeated Henry gained 20 points, detected abnormal energy violation use, deducted 30 points, your team's existing points is 44 points, obtaining can bring out props [Paranoia patient's medicine x1]."

　　Once this result came out, both Gregorio and Marvin were confused.

　　"Unusual energy violation detected? What's that?" Marvin was dumbfounded, "No, why was so much deducted at once, isn't the normal pass only 20?"

　　Gregorio frowned as he pressed on the Prisoner tattoo on his left hand and called out, "Sylver?"

　　"I'm in." The teenager's figure appeared out of thin air, he did not focus directly on the two men before him but instead looked sideways at the blue-white sky outside the window, his gaze imploring but still detectable with a hint of nostalgia.

　　It was a sky of pure white earth that he had not seen in years.

　　Gregorio: "The settlement just showed that we violated an unnatural power in the box."

　　"That." Sylver turned back and looked at the young man in front of him, Gregorio's facial features were well formed, his silhouette was handsome and straight, the aura of a superior person flowed out of his body unobtrusively, his light-colored lips were pursed into a straight line slightly, and especially that pair of eyes, dark and sharp, as if they were able to see through everything.

　　It was thought that he wouldn't be an ordinary person in the real world.

　　"I retrieved a soul fragment, it might have been detected."

　　The cloudiness in Sylver's tone managed to make the frowns of the two men deepen, and Marvin was bewildered, this whole plot development of the box had confused him, but that didn't stop him from getting a little fired up, "What shard? We've lost a whole 30 points for that, and this whole trip through is only 20 points!"

　　Sylver instantly said in a submissive manner, "That's something that has to be taken back, and I apologize if it caused you any trouble because of it."

　　Then he changed his tone, "But don't forget, without me, you'd all be dead in that easy-as-hell low-level box, and I saved your asses twice."

　　Marvin choked, the angry words he had just said hadn't crossed his mind he knew full well that if it wasn't for Sylver, he and Gregorio would have been out cold a long time ago.

　　Marvin's words of sorry were on the edge of his mouth, he wasn't the kind of person to be unreasonable, he finally whispered, "Sorry, forget I said anything."

　　"Let's leave the matter of the points aside for now, but can you explain what a soul fragment is? As you should be able to tell, we've only been here for a short while, and this just now is the first official box we've experienced, and there's still a lot that's not clear."

　　Sylver's attitude was slightly better towards the cultivated man who could barely keep his eyes on him, other than when the man tried to order himself around as his master when he first signed the blood pact, the rest of the time his behavior was very satisfactory to Sylver.

　　The teenager held out his right hand and showed the man his wrist, a pale green tattoo faintly illuminated.

　　"The flower-clad Pied Piper in that box isn't a normal NPC, normal NPCs and monsters in normal boxes are turned into people who have died, but he's different, he's a piece of the soul of a friend of mine, or rather, a lost 'goodwill' from long ago".

　　This explains a lot of the confusion in the box, and Gregorio probably understands, "So he said there was something familiar about me because you became my prisoner?"

　　Sylver: "Yes, of course, he recognized me at the end and I took the shard with me in a little way."

　　Gregorio: "Going to give it back to that friend of yours? I remember you called him Zoey."

　　Sylver hmmm's.

　　Gregorio nodded, then threw out another question, "When I used [Kronos' Fingerprints] at that time, why wasn't the Pied Piper restrained for as long as the instructions said? It was around the eighth second when he instantly came to me."

　　How did this person ... ask all of them so right to the point?

　　Honestly, for this question Sylver didn't want to answer, this layer of the Time Prisoner's identity wasn't the right time to let other people know, at least not right now.

　　Like Sylver, Fu Zhe had also been chosen by the elements of this world to control the power of space, although he had become a prisoner of space because of Hera's curse, and the Pied Piper was just a fragment of his soul, but a mere fingerprint of the God of Time was not enough to trap him at all.

　　"That can't be said yet."

　　Marvin pressed, "Why?"

　　Just because Sylver was impressed with Gregorio didn't mean that he would treat Marvin well for it; up until now, the teenager's performance had been nothing short of abysmal in his eyes. Even if his brain didn't work so well, he talked so much, and his first instinct when it came to anything was to ask his brother for help, and if he didn't know any better, he'd think he was a three-year-old.

　　He nonchalantly said, ''Do you know what the core of the Cthulhu myth is? The more you know, the crazier you get, and the less you know, the more stabilized you become. Again, words apply here, you are far from being exposed to these things, so don't ask too many questions if you want to make yourselves feel better."

　　Marvin leaned back in anger as he was disliked by Sylver, but in front of the heavenly gap between the two men's strengths, he could only shut up no matter how unconvinced he was.

　　Seeing Sylver like this, Gregorio became more and more certain that this teenager was not ordinary, from the time he had known him, Gregorio had never seen any warmth in Sylver's eyes, even when he retrieved his old friend's soul fragments, those bright eyes were cold, only a crumbling depression remained.

　　Would a normal person not hesitate to kick an old friend in the face?

　　"Marvin and I will both be upgrading ourselves as soon as possible, I can sense there is a lot of story in you, it's normal to be wary when you've only just met, but regardless, I hope that there will be a day when we can be truly honest with each other."

　　Gregorio puts the box cover on the sitting, stares at Sylver's eyes, and says with the most sincere attitude, "With the relationship between the prisoner contract and the blood contract in place, I guess we still need to get along for a long time, in the box the situation was so urgent that we didn't have the chance to formally get to know each other properly, it's just that we have the chance to do so now."

　　Gregorio's good attitude made Sylver quite flattered, there were only two chairs in the room, so the teenager moved away from the cup of water and sat down directly on the coffee table, saying, "Well, you guys come first."

　　"Gregorio, 26 years old, did some work in the family business in the real world, died in a car accident three days ago."

　　The global top 10's dual-degree master's in finance and management, the young entrepreneur's identity was an item of capital in the real world, but here, it was of no use at all.

　　Gregorio was very self-aware.

　　"Marvin, 18 next month, just finished his college entrance exam, died with him." Speaking of his death, Marvin moved uncomfortably, "I'm a gym student, my physical condition is quite good, at least better than my oldest brother."

　　Two rich kids?

　　Sylver nodded in understanding, no wonder Gregorio had the air of a superior person while Marvin had the feeling of being spoiled growing up.

　　"Sylver, prisoner name Renato, age is ... 16 years old, I can't tell you guys what I experienced in the Pure White Earth Realm for now, but just remember one thing, I'm much stronger than you think. With my help, you guys will be able to live here for a long time, or at least won't die on something stupid like most newcomers."

　　There would never be help for nothing, Gregorio picked up on Sylver's words, "Your terms?"

　　Talking to a smart person is comfortable, Sylver nonchalantly said, "Don't just use the existence of the blood contract to make me do anything, don't use those three absolute commands without my knowledge, and don't let yourself get hurt easily. I'm quite afraid of pain, pain puts me in a bad mood, and when I get mad, even I'm afraid of myself."

　　It wasn't a difficult condition to fulfill, Gregorio immediately agreed, "Yes, what else is left?"

　　"Nope, you guys can ask me any questions at any time, and I'll tell you whatever I know and can tell you."

　　"Now for the most important question." Gregorio took his cell phone out of the drawer and opened the app with the all-white icon on the desktop, this one had automatically appeared on his phone after arriving in the Pure White Realm.

　　He studied it for a while, and it encompassed many of the functions needed here, including basic information, an online trading platform, and an intelligence center, among others.

　　Gregorio tapped on the basic information and handed his phone to Sylver, "Right now Marvin and I only have 44 points on our team, and Clearance Night is coming up in five days, if we don't have enough for 60 points before then, one of us will be cleared."

　　Sylver scanned the screen for his team's information, then went to the date in the upper right corner, April 3rd, it was indeed time for the Night of Blood to come.

　　In the Pure White Realm, it wasn't just a matter of successfully passing the box to survive, points were one of the most important things. Points are deducted for every day spent in the Pure White Realm, points are needed to buy things from the store, and on the 8th of every month is Purge Night, when anyone with less than 30 points is "purged".

　　The most widespread way to earn points is to clear boxes and trade items. Gregorio and Marvin only had 40 points after completing the newbie box, and each of them spent another 3 points to survive, so they thought they could stay here for a while by clearing another box, but they didn't realize that they only had 10 points left after all the deductions they had made.

　　"That's fine, it's not just points, just go past another box." Sylver returned the cell phone to Gregorio with an "I thought it was something big" look and said easily, "You guys take a break for the next two days, and when you're refreshed, you'll go earn some points back."

　　Said the teenager no longer looking at the two people's reaction, straight up, walked to the window, reached out, and pushed open the narrow window of the silo, looking far away at the city's high and low buildings, vein-like intertwined roads, as well as the very far away that all pure white territory.

　　There a circus operated, and the Endless Train passed by the tent door every day, with smiling clowns in charge of greeting first-timers and guiding them to live in this world after death.

　　Further afield, giant trees are connecting the vaults of heaven and earth, winding up train tracks between clouds, whales born from the afterglow of 10,000 bolts of lightning, flowers, and fire spawning infinite snowfields amid tears.

　　Farther away, Kether dominated the information highway, the entrance to the dream world had twisted in the roar of the steam engines, sea mist filled the air to hide everything, entropy flowed upstream against the current, and the palace of Hera stood for all eternity in the backyard of the gods.

　　It was the pure white realm he knew so well.