The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 583: The Comedic Player

Thirteenth Fragrance fell silent.

He couldn’t even get angry, but looked at Husky helplessly, “Are you asking me how to kill me? Then, you are quite polite.”

“Ah, I have a clue about this.”

Husky said plausibly, “I have already tested it, and I can punch through the wall directly. I can cross a distance of 100 meters in a second. I think it will be easy to kill you, so I don’t need to ask you.”

“Then, you are quite polite.”

“That’s right. The main reason is that the step of ‘convincing you that this is a dream’ is a bit difficult… What kind of dream is this? I don’t understand the inception.”

Husky took a pen, copied that part, and asked Thirteenth Fragrance, “Here is it. How can you explain this? Can you give me a chance?”

“How?”

“Just believe it.”

“Then, I believe it.”

“Don’t make trouble. My mission here is not completed at all. If we two fight later, I won’t have time to ask you what to do.”

There was no intentional mischief on Husky’s face, but rather an unusual level of concentration.

It was like when the player was playing solo and he leaned in to ask “What should I use to beat you” or “What weapon is best to destroy you”, that kind of question. His tone was natural.

Even after entering the game, he asked for pieces of equipment.

Annan understood the situation a little.

Husky was not stupid.

The fact that Husky was able to immediately recognize the need to gather information and the possibility of a combat encounter in the future during this safe period demonstrated that he was quite intelligent.

After Husky woke up, he found that he couldn’t wake up Thirteenth Fragrance, so he immediately went out to gather all the nearby resources. He didn’t waste time waiting for Thirteenth Fragrance to make a decision, nor did he run too far away by himself.

This indicated that Husky had a pretty good reaction speed and ability to take action. Although his logical and comprehension abilities were slightly inferior, that was because they were overshadowed by Thirteen Fragrance’s strong abilities in that area.

The reason why Husky behaved like this was not because he was a noob.

However, it was because he “reacted too quickly.”

When most people see a problem, they would subconsciously think about it for a while, trying to see if they could solve it; some people immediately sought for help without looking at the problem.

Husky was not the latter.

He was able to quickly assess what he was capable of doing and what he could not do or was not as good at as others. Then, he immediately proceeded to do what he could and sought help directly on tasks that he could not do, without wasting any time.

The most important thing was that Husky would not hide any confusion or incompetence because of “shame” and “ego”.

“I can’t do it”, “I can’t remember”, “I forgot a lot”. Most of the people were like that… However, they would not say it immediately. Instead, they would try to remember it by themselves and then do it first by relying on ambiguous memory.

However, when Husky encountered things he could not remember, he simply admitted that he couldn’t. In this task, if he did not understand or did not know how to do it, he wouldn’t pretend to understand it, but rather straightforwardly tell Thirteenth Fragrance, “Help me Doraemon”.

—Probably the so-called comedic player.

Nobita* Husky.

[TN: A reference to Nobita [1] in Doraemon.]

“It’s a wonderful duo.” Annan whispered.

Thirteenth Fragrance and Husky were unique characters. Just one who trusted his reason, and another one who trusted his intuition.

Thirteenth Fragrance was suited for solving puzzles in nightmares, and Husky probably did not perform too poorly in situations where he did not have teammates to rely on. In levels that relied on intuition, he might have even been able to demonstrate his strength.

“Slow down.”

In desperation, Thirteenth Fragrance could only explain, “Let me think of this as a dream. This part was probably not meant to be taken literally as “change my perception.” After all, it was just a thought. I might have thought it was a dream one moment, and then the next moment I might not have. Could you really have won just by me having that thought? That was obviously not true.

“If I’m not mistaken, it refers to the fact that I will make a different choice in terms of ‘whether this is a dream’ or not. My plot introduction has not appeared yet, but I have read it in advance in the guide.

“There is no doubt that this is a dream. That’s why it didn’t give me a mission. When I die here and go back to the ‘past’, I will receive the main mission of [Changing My Fate].

“—But there is no doubt that this mission is a fake.”

Thirteenth Fragrance made a wise judgment.

Thirteenth Fragrance cleared his throat and touched his hoarse throat.

Husky immediately handed over the fruit. He also took out the mead and juice found in other rooms from the cloth bag. Then, he also took out a bag of tea and brewed it with freshly boiled water.

Then, Husky sat on the chair with an OvO expression on his face and stared intently at Thirteenth Fragrance.

“Brother, tell me.” He nodded humbly, “I will try my best to understand it.”

Thirteenth Fragrance was used to the Husky behavior.

Thirteenth Fragrance glanced at Husky, and further explained, “Your mission mentioned that this is my ‘dream within a dream’. In other words, what the ‘I’ saw in the youth period was also a dream.

“Then, why was ‘I’ able to receive the mission at that time? It was also a dream, so what is the difference between the dream at that time and the dream now?”

The answer was of course no different.

Annan knew what he was going to say.

When he saw the plot introduction of Husky, he grasped the whole picture of this nightmare.

Neither their plans nor their speculations were wrong.

This was a nightmare born on “trust”.

As long as the two parties exchanged information, the difficulty of the nightmare would drop significantly.

Each of them had a main mission that happened to be “what the other person wanted to do.”

Frederick’s main mission was to change fate. The destiny he changed was to keep Ingrid from dying.

But the one who truly harbored feelings for Ingrid was Justice. Would Justice have stopped Frederick if he knew Frederick wanted to save her?

No, he would help instead.

But why didn’t Justice help?

Because he knew it was false — it was Frederick’s dream. Changing fate in a dream was useless.

Justice’s mission was “to make Frederick think the dream was real”. So he wouldn’t say anything and instead would act… so all three “Justice” that Annan saw in different age groups were the same person internally.

It was “Justice” played by “Justice” in the play.

If Frederick knew that both sides were dreams, would he struggle with which side he would choose?

Neither would he.

The answer was the same. Changing fate in a dream was useless.

The only difference was that only one person knew this truth, but the other did not.

“So, the real main mission should be in the world on the third level.” Thirteenth Fragrance said slowly.

“That’s where ‘the sleeping Frederick’ is, the real world!

“The so-called ‘believing that this is a dream’ just requires me to do nothing, and it will naturally unravel. Because only when I believe that this is a dream, I will violate the received main mission and choose to stand by and watch.”

Husky had two missions. On one hand, Husky was asked to kill. On the other hand, the mission required him to stand and watch. Waiting for the karma to come, and killing Frederick.

Frederick’s mission was to change his fate, but he could only pass the level without doing anything.

It was a battle of fate…

…No, no.

Annan narrowed his eyes slightly.

He recalled the actions of the two before and frowned, “It’s not quite right.”

“What’s wrong?” Delicious Wind Goose asked.

“This nightmare has flaws.” Annan replied.

Its [symmetry] was not perfect.

Is there something wrong with the Tragedy Writer’s plan?

That’s unlikely…

“Thirteenth Fragrance may have guessed wrong.” Annan thought for a while in silence, then suddenly realized.

He said slowly, “Maybe, I mean… just maybe.

“—Maybe there are more than three levels to this nightmare.”

But four levels.