Chapter 1327: Three Plans

As for the marionette town, Klein had been thinking about how to build

it a long time ago. He had already come up with three plans:

If he eliminated any interference from external factors, his best choice

would be somewhere in a certain country of the Northern Continent. He

would allow his marionette town to rise up overnight. Furthermore, he

would connect it to the surrounding cities through railways, rivers, and

roads.

This way, the marionette town would have large numbers of outsiders

arriving on a daily basis, and it would create a very strong interaction

with the surrounding areas. On the one hand, a town without a city

nearby would definitely purchase grain, salt, cloth, ores, sugar, and

other daily necessities. On the other hand, it would also produce its

own products, which could be sold to neighboring cities, towns, and

villages. Under such a situation, merchants, workers, tourists, and

other groups would go back and forth frequently. At the same time, they

would interact more with the marionette town's residents.

Under the influence of all kinds of interactions between the parties, it

wouldn't be long before the town of marionettes could produce a

corresponding region in the spirit world. Once the lives of the

residents became more detailed and real, Klein could consume the potion

to advance to Sequence 1 Attendant of Mysteries.

This would take less than three months.

But the problem was that this approach couldn't be kept confidential.

In the present era, to have a town suddenly pop up was something that

couldn't be hidden from people. Soon, there would be civil servants, the

police, and reporters coming to investigate. And after that, the

interactions between the parties would also make more and more people

know and understand the city. This was a problem that couldn't be

resolved through illusions unless the town of marionettes didn't

interact with the surrounding cities, towns, and villages and had

relatively minor interactions. However, that wouldn't meet the

requirements of the ritual.

When news of the marionette town spread, Klein would undoubtedly be

targeted by Zaratul, Amon's true body, and his other enemies. When the

time came, the destruction caused by others would definitely be easier

than him protecting it. He could only migrate his marionette town

elsewhere. This would cause the interactions generated in the early

stages to be for naught, just like what the Dark Demonic Wolf had

experienced.

Therefore, Klein had only listed down such a plan, so he basically

wouldn't choose it. Unless a certain Visionary was willing to provide

help, making all the living beings in the Northern and Southern

Continents naturally believe that there was indeed a town there, one

that hadn't suddenly appeared.

Considering the influence of various external factors and his Beyonder

powers, Klein's best choice was to establish the town on an uninhabited

island that deviated from the safe sea route and was sufficiently

well-hidden. He would then use Sefirah Castle to give it anti-divination

and anti-prophecy properties.

At the same time, Klein would use the "curtain" to "Graft" some roads,

rivers, and railways to somewhere outside the marionette town, making it

a stop for random groups of people during their journeys.

This couldn't be kept completely confidential, but once the "strange

phenomenon" spread and attracted Zaratul's and Amon's attention, Klein

could easily remove the original "Grafting" randomly and switch the

"entrance."

Under such a strategy, the movement was limited to the entrance, not the

marionette town itself. The effects of various interactions in the

spirit world could be preserved without being interrupted. The ritual

could steadily proceed as planned.

Of course, there was a big problem with this plan. It was that the

interaction would be limited and couldn't influence matters at a daily

level in all its aspects. In addition, the frequency and intensity of

the interaction wouldn't be too high.

If he chose this plan, it meant that Klein had to spend more than half a

year or even a year on the ritual.

If he wanted to be safe, forcing every marionette's fate to have a

beginning and an end, the ritual would take at least fifty years.

However, there was also a way to get around the limitations---once the

rest of the ritual's requirements were met, he could deliver a meteorite

strike, an earthquake, or a volcano eruption to the town, causing all

the marionettes' fates to come to an end in the real world. It was

something that happened in real life and was rather reasonable.

In this radical and conservative proposal, Klein had another solution.

It was to replicate a city and make the marionette correspond to the

residents of the city and be mapped one-to-one. For evil Miracle

Invokers, they could wipe out the original city and use their

marionettes to replace its inhabitants. Those who had a kind heart would

hide the city and ensure a supply of goods. The reason as to why one

didn't convert the target city into marionettes was that it already had

a corresponding region in the spirit world. Without being a newly born

one, it didn't meet the requirements of the ritual.

With the "curtain" formed by the Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder

characteristic, Klein could make a better choice: "Graft" a city at a

particular stage to his marionette town.

This meant that his town of marionettes had become the dark side of the

city. In the corresponding period of time, outsiders would encounter

marionettes and not real people. Once that period of time passed, they

would leave the town of marionettes and return to the real world to deal

with real people.

During the process, Klein would send his marionettes to act as an

outsider and maintain interactions with the corresponding real person,

allowing the real outsiders to return to the real world without any

gaps.

In other words, there were two different lives playing out in the same

city at the same time, but no one could notice that. Occasionally, some

people would think that some details weren't right, but would find it

inexplicable and might just ignore it.

This was rather in line with the characteristic of an Attendant of

Mysteries, and it had a certain level of concealment.

Of course, this plan also had its problem. It was to simulate the fate

of a marionette to a very high level---almost as similar as a human's.

Without its own independence, it would cause the ritual's effects to

fail.

Klein tapped the edge of the long mottled table with his fingers and was

in a dilemma over the second and third plan.

After a few minutes, he did as his heart willed---cowardice---and chose

the second plan. He would rather spend more time than affect the fates

of the innocent.

*Back then, Zaratul and Antigonus likely chose the third

plan...* Klein sighed and prepared to return to the real world.

At this moment, he looked at the junk pile and considered whether he

should send a revelation to change the descriptions in the City of

Silver's Holy Bible.

To a deity, the Holy Bible wasn't anything too important. Its best use

was for its convenience to spread its teachings and increase the number

of anchors.

Klein had long come to a conclusion from The Revelation of Evernight,

The Book of Storms, and the contents of the various orthodox Churches'

Holy Bibles.

Most of the content elevated the orthodox deity, making random claims of

grandeur and expressed mercy and pity.

In ancient times, the impression the believers had of the deities would

indeed have a negative impact on the deities. But now, with the use of

symbols instead of statues, this latent problem no longer existed. At

the very least, the Evernight Goddess, the Lord of Storms, and other

deities openly declared that they were parts of the Creator's original

body. They weren't worried that it would exacerbate the awakening of the

Oldest One.

In other words, if there really was a problem with this aspect, Klein

believed that the Evernight Goddess would definitely have changed the

corresponding description. "She" would've changed the description of

being one of the eyes of the Creator to a child spawned by "Him." It too

enjoyed a very high status.

At the same time, the believers' acknowledgment of certain matters

wouldn't have any burden on the deities themselves in a mysticism sense.

Otherwise, Amon would've secretly helped Klein, or rather, prepare a

batch of believers for the former Sefirah Castle to lure them into

forming the belief that the Angel of Time was the manifestation of the

Lord of the Mysteries. With the aid of an instinctual response that met

the requirements, "He" could establish enough connections with Sefirah

Castle and open a "back door."

To a deity, the Holy Bible only had two important components other than

for spreading the faith:

Firstly, it was a description of the authority and honorific name of the

deities themselves. If there were any mistakes, it would lead to the

prayers of the believers pointing to an unknown target. Not only would

it be dangerous to the believers, but it would also cause the deities to

lose their anchors. Secondly, any descriptions that involved the other

Churches would easily attract conflict.

As for the angels and saints, the deities actually didn't pay them too

much mind. The ones that cared were the angels and saints themselves

because they needed to obtain a certain level of anchors through this.

Therefore, the Holy Bibles' descriptions of angels and saints were

detailed enough. They had authority and honorific names, making it

easier for different believers to choose and be immersed. In addition,

this wasn't enough to form a stable anchor, because it was under the

faith of a deity.

In order to resolve this problem, the orthodox Churches would define

certain cathedrals to different guardian angels and guardian saints and

clearly differentiate them.

Due to this knowledge, Klein didn't pay much attention to the Holy

Bible. After he finished reading the description about his authority and

honorific name, he stopped continuing out of embarrassment. He only used

divination to confirm that the contents wouldn't result in a conflict

with the orthodox Churches.

After some thought, he gave up the idea of directly sending the

revelation to change the Holy Bible and decided to use a gentler method.

During the Tarot Club's exchange, he could use The World Gehrman Sparrow

to guide The Sun into adjusting his understanding of the situation,

turning the parts involving the Angel of Time to Pallez Zoroast,

allowing the corresponding content to be fixed without causing any

suspicion in the City of Silver.

Bayam, Verdu Abraham had obtained quite a bit of mysticism knowledge in

a few Beyonder circles.

He lit up the gas wall lamp and carefully read it in the night.

Towards the end, he suddenly read a piece of news that he had never

understood before:

*Bansy Harbor is a place filled with mysticism powers. Its connection

with the spirit world and the astral world is beyond imagination... Even

with the Church of Storms directly destroying the harbor, it still can't

completely eliminate the abnormality of its existence...*

*Many mysticism researchers are purchasing items related to Bansy at a

high price...*

Bansy... Verdu muttered to himself silently, suddenly having a

strong interest in the harbor.

He began considering if he should buy some items from Bansy and do a

thorough study of them. After all, the spirit world was related to

"Teleportation." The astral world and the cosmos involved "Wandering,"

and might involve Mr. Door Bethel Abraham's method of escaping.

*Perhaps, if I have the chance, I could go to Bansy to take a

look...* Verdu nodded indiscernibly.