novelraw Chapter 248: We wish to borrow your identity
Chapter 248: We wish to borrow your identity
"How about it? Impressive rewards, aren’t they?" Edward couldn’t help but smile, seeing the look of astonishment on Alexander’s face.
"Don’t feel too discouraged. My luck has always been universally acknowledged. I am the luckiest soul in the Dark Hell! Your rewards might not match up to mine, but you only have soldier-level strength.
Participating in a Mist Instance of this caliber with such strength means that although you may not have the quality, you definitely have the quantity of rewards, haha!"
Edward’s words seemed comforting, but he couldn’t suppress the smug satisfaction bubbling within him. Ever since meeting Alexander, the standard fare of showing off no longer seemed to satiate Edward’s inner obsessions.
No matter how much he flaunted his supposed prowess, he felt like he always fell short. Multiple times he had tried to impress Alexander, only to have his attempts thwarted by Alexander’s genuine skills.
Edward finally had a chance to relish the thrill of superiority, and he could hardly contain his joyous grin.
"Yes, you truly are the luckiest in the Dark Hell! I’m incredibly envious!" Alexander mused, holding the card in his hand, seemingly lost in thought.
Emboldened by Alexander’s words, Edward couldn’t resist: "What about your rewards? Show me what you’ve got.
You’re a soldier-level participant with a disproportionately low strength for the number of instance loops you’ve broken. Even if your rewards aren’t as high-quality as mine, they must be abundant, right?"
He aimed to magnify that internal sense of superiority to its fullest extent. For Edward, who thrived on the compulsion to show off, nothing could be more satisfying.
"My rewards..." Alexander hesitated slightly, not wanting to burst Edward’s bubble. After all, Edward was a man who turned showing off into a lifelong pursuit; cutting him off would be cruel.
Nevertheless, thinking of his own intricate plans, Alexander eventually pulled out the ’Perfect Identity Card’ from his pocket and handed it to Edward.
"Is this some kind of role-playing item? Like the ones we got when we first entered? It should be a common item...
Wait, it grants all abilities of the target? Even the forbidden powers of the natives? And it also provides information about the person you’re imitating? Could it be—"
Edward started dismissively but froze mid-sentence, his eyes suddenly aflame with intense excitement. Gripping Alexander’s arm, he exclaimed,
"Alexander, go back to the Mingzhu Apartments and use this card to replace that man who jumped off the building! In that loop, he must be the key to everything. If we can get all information related to him, we can easily crack that loop!"
The loop involving the jumper in Mingzhu Apartments had ensnared four Ghost Imperials. If solved, the bounty in Imperial-level ghost crystals would be astronomical. The temptation was overwhelming.
"Hold on!" Alexander chuckled, shaking his head. "A loop involving four Ghost Imperials can’t be that simple! Are you really satisfied with just a few Imperial-level ghost crystals?"
"Imperial-level Abyssal Ghost Crystals, and you’re not satisfied?" Edward’s eyes widened.
"You wouldn’t be planning on using this to disguise yourself as a Hell Warrior, would you?" Edward felt like his imagination was already quite expansive, but Alexander only shook his head. "Why would I want to impersonate a Hell Warrior? Is there a benefit to that?"
Alexander’s response left Edward momentarily stunned. Upon reflection, it made sense. Hell Warriors might seem powerful, but they had their own constraints.
Besides regular patrols, Hell Warriors seemed confined to their ancient mansion and were even restricted from intervening with participants or commoners within the city. Essentially, they were useless.
"So, who exactly are you planning to impersonate with this card?" Unable to decipher Alexander’s motives, Edward had no choice but to ask directly.
"Follow me, and you’ll see!"
Alexander didn’t answer Edward’s questions directly. He didn’t even give back the Dimensional Imprisonment Card, instead pulling Edward to the roadside to wait. Soon, a city bus rolled up.
Route 46! Was Alexander planning to use the Perfect Identity Card to impersonate one of the bus passengers and break this loop?
Five Ghost Emperors, five Ghost Imperials—rumors said the loop even involved an oil tanker and a courier. That could be as many as seven Ghost Emperors!
Was Alexander aiming for this bus? No wonder he dismissed the suicide loop in Mingzhu Apartments!
Convinced of his theory, Edward boarded the bus and began assessing the passengers, searching for the critical person who would be the ideal target for the identity card.
Among the ten people onbus, the man live-streaming on his phone seemed trivial. The young man with headphones looking like a homebody also appeared inconsequential. An elderly man also seemed unlikely...
Edward quickly scanned each person, evaluating possibilities.
Finally, his focus narrowed down to three individuals: a young girl who wanted to get off before her stop, a woman carrying an assortment of strange pills, and a middle-aged woman clutching a red handbag with icy eyes.
The young girl! She must know something! Noticing her repeated attempts to disembark early, Edward made a snap judgment.
Just as he was about to share this insight with Alexander, Alexander started walking toward the bus door.
The door opened, but the passengers seemed oblivious. The young girl, who had been so keen to get off, ignored the open door, still pleading with the now-stationary driver to stop the bus.
The only entity capable of exerting such an influence would be the system mechanics of a "mist instance," much like the Dining Hall No. 9.
"Alexander, what brings you to the Dining Hall again? We still have more than three days left on our hunger timer, don’t we? Besides, it’s too early for mealtime. Why come to the Dining Hall?" Edward questioned, his eyes wide with curiosity.
Alexander cast a glance over the Dining Hall in front of him and gleefully exclaimed, "Why, to make money, of course!"
"Make money at a Dining Hall? You’re planning to replace the chef at Dining Hall No.9?" Edward’s eyes bulged in disbelief. "Can you even do that?"
Edward had been pondering Alexander’s mysterious visit to the Dining Hall but never in his wildest thoughts had he guessed that the man planned to replace the chef at Dining Hall No.9.
It’s a notion so preposterous, it would escape the average participant’s mind. To most people in their circumstance, figures like chefs, innkeepers, and apothecaries seemed like mere NPCs—easily overlooked and dismissed.
"Follow me," Alexander said, offering no further explanation as he led Edward into the Dining Hall.
The dining hall was a barren landscape, eerily quiet given it wasn’t noon yet. As Alexander and Edward pushed through the door, the sudden creaking noise felt like a jarring interruption to the otherwise silent atmosphere.
Shortly after, a plump chef emerged, spoon in hand.
"What are you two participants doing here? It’s not mealtime," the chef growled.
Unlike other indigenous beings, this cafeteria chef functioned almost like an NPC. Though formidable in his own right, his capacity for havoc was tempered by the mysterious taboos that governed the setting.
Upon recognizing the duo, however, the chef’s guarded stance relaxed. Alexander had made a lasting impression on him.
But rules are rules, and he felt obliged to remind them, "If you’re here to eat, come back at noon. No meals will be sold before then."
"We’re not here for food; we’re here for you," Alexander said with a smile.
"What do you need me for?" The plump chef hesitated, his eyes chilling as he spoke. "Listen, I don’t care what schemes you’ve got up your sleeves. Don’t think you can act recklessly in my cafeteria just because you have a few hundred million in ghost energy. My Cafeteria No.9 is not—"
His words trailed off as his eyes fixated on Alexander’s wrist. Alexander had just absorbed nearly half of the top-tier ghost food he acquired from the public transportation loop, skyrocketing his ghost energy reserves to ten billion.
This time, he had learned from past mistakes; he used red and blue potions converted from ghost corpses. These potions, once ingested, would endlessly convert into ghost energy, making the process far easier than before.
"Ten billion!" The chef’s eyes gleamed anew. Ghost energy was incredibly valuable, especially for special chefs like him in Cangshan City.
A few hundred million might have impressed him but not moved him deeply. Ten billion, however, was a different story—especially considering Alexander had amassed it in just over a week.
"How... how did you manage to do this? The last time we met, you only had five hundred million. Ghost energy is used everywhere in the mist instance. How did you not only avoid depleting yours but actually doubled it within a week?"
"Want to know? Though, it might not be of any use to you," Alexander said with a grin.
"Of course..." The plump chef wanted to say that of course it was useful.
The method Alexander had for obtaining such massive amounts of ghost energy could be invaluable—even if the chef himself couldn’t use it, he could sell it to others who would then become his patrons.
But sensing Alexander’s bargaining power, the chef quickly shifted gears, "It doesn’t matter. I’m just curious. What brings you two here at this time? I’ll help if I can."
Despite his courteous words, the chef’s goodwill meter barely fluttered between 5 and 10 points. Hardly the stuff of helping hands; more like he was itching to give Alexander a hard time.
This suited Alexander fine; any guilt he might have felt was thereby avoided.
With a sly grin, Alexander spoke, "Then we’re in luck, old man. Our aim is simple: we wish to borrow your identity."
"Borrow my... identity?" The chef’s eyes twinkled with confusion. Before he could grasp the meaning of Alexander’s words, a hand was placed on his shoulder, and a Dimensional Imprisonment Card was activated.
Streaks of grey energy shot from Alexander’s palm, quickly enveloping the chef.
"You scoundrels, what are you planning to do?" the chef bellowed, struggling fiercely against the binds.
His formidable ghost powers and the taboo strength he possessed as a native were evident, but they proved futile against the Dimensional Imprisonment Card.
As the grey energy swirled around him, the air behind the plump chef seemed to solidify into a sheet of white paper, about a foot long. The chef was being drawn into it, inch by inch, as if the paper had its own gravitational pull.
Strangely, as the grey stream continued its tug, the chef’s body started to take the form of an oil painting as it entered the paper.
First an arm, then a right leg; bit by bit, the chef was pulled into the paper, filling out the painted figure with each moment.
Finally, only his head remained outside. Enraged, he shouted at Alexander, "Do you even understand what you’re doing? Aren’t you afraid of summoning the Hell Knights from the city?
Aren’t you worried about invoking the wrath of the Mist System? Do you have any idea how terrible things could get without me and the 9th Dining Hall?"
"As luck would have it, I’m really not," Alexander replied. Calmly, he stretched out his hand to reveal the Perfect Impersonation Card. He aimed it at the chef and chose to activate it.
Alexander’s form began to change dramatically, his body inflating bit by bit until he transformed completely into the spitting image of the plump chef.
"Impossible, this can’t be!" The chef’s eyes widened in disbelief. Seeing his doppelganger, his mood seemed to abruptly shift towards resignation. "Please, leave me enough days to live. Just leave me enough days," he pleaded.
His entreaties echoed until they vanished entirely, his form finally blending into the paper to become a portrait of a man.
Meanwhile, Alexander had successfully transformed into the chef, inheriting not just his appearance and abilities, but also a chunk of memories and even the special dashboard belonging to the original occupant of the 9th Dining Hall.