With the Goddess accompanying him, the "corpses" that had originally been hanging inside the church appeared exceptionally quiet, no longer performing the "chorus" they had when Ebner passed through here last time.
They even made efforts to twist their bodies, trying their best to turn their "fronts" away from the Goddess's direction.
The Queen of Terror indeed… Seeing this, Ebner muttered inwardly. Then, following the familiar route, he walked step by step until he arrived before the pitch-black altar deep within the church.
Turning his gaze toward the slanted rear of the altar, he unsurprisingly saw the handsome man seated cross-legged there, his hair as black as the night curtain itself—Alvin Abraham.
However, unlike the last time, now that Ebner had already advanced to Cognizer, he could clearly see that the statue of "Mother of Heaven" atop the altar was extending countless invisible tentacles, binding Alvin's body tightly.
"No wonder last time, after I used the method of controlling the 'bone dragon' to achieve 'mental synchronization' with Alvin, I could briefly use his abilities but couldn't move at all… So he was tied up airtight by the Goddess!"
Ebner complained inwardly for a few lines, then turned to look at the Goddess beside him.
The Goddess understood his meaning, gave a slight nod, and without any visible movement, the invisible tentacles binding Alvin's body retracted back into the statue.
"That will do," the Goddess said softly.
Her voice was gentle. Just a few short words sounded like a softly hummed lullaby.
Already fully prepared, Ebner did not waste time. He directly took out various materials and arranged them around the body of "Wanderer" Alvin, providing assistance for the imminent casting of the "Alvin Revival Technique."
—"Alvin Revival Technique" was the name Ebner had given to the secret technique that had been perfected after generations of his own efforts.
After finishing the setup, Ebner rested for another dozen minutes, recovering the spirituality he had expended and adjusting his condition to its peak.
Only then did he connect to his White Tower space, construct the framework of the secret technique within it, and release it outward.
A blazing beam of light condensed at the tip of Ebner's index finger and shot straight toward the center of Alvin Abraham's forehead.
In the next moment, a slender stone as brilliant as the starry sky manifested at Alvin's brow, as if a "celestial eye" had opened.
That was the "soul stone" Alvin had condensed after death—and the key to resurrection.
At the same time, Ebner used his spirituality to connect to "Alvin's Quiz Labyrinth," releasing the resurrection "miracle" he had "purchased" from "Zaratul" on the first floor of the Dream Labyrinth Tower. It merged with the soul stone, instantly completing the previously framework-only technique and causing it to begin functioning.
Reversal, restart, connection to the River of Eternal Darkness, resurrection, becoming a clone…
Everything proceeded smoothly. Yet just as the process reached the final step—mental synchronization—a sigh sounded within Ebner's mind:
"You didn't use 'theft' to seize my destiny… Aren't you afraid that the source of our endless 'restarts,' that 'God of Luck,' might revive through this?"
Ebner was not surprised at all by the sudden voice. He cast his consciousness into his mental island, looked at the blurry figure that had only an outline, and smiled as he replied:
"To seize destiny, one doesn't necessarily need 'theft,' right? 'Herding' and 'beast-taming' reach the same effect at high sequences."
The figure laughed upon hearing this.
"So that's how it is… My scheme was completely seen through… Was it because of that illusory 'Omniscient Eye'? Indeed, that was a factor I hadn't considered back then."
Ebner shook his head.
"Not entirely. You and I are the same person—how could I not understand myself?
"You deliberately hid the hint about 'theft' very deeply, trying to make me think you were merely unwilling to accept things and were intentionally making trouble for me, so I'd overlook the danger of stealing destiny…
"But based on my understanding of myself, if I were truly cornered, even if I might play some pranks, I wouldn't hide something that important so deeply. After all, it really could be missed.
"Heh—if I'm not mistaken, the reason you set the highest level of authority in 'Alvin's Quiz Labyrinth' to require your approval was because your contingency was hidden in the function only accessible at that level, right?
"And it's not just me who suspected this. Danitte Tinekerr before me should have seen through your plan as well.
"Although some of his memories regarding the reason for conducting the Chaos Sea experiment are missing, that experiment—though it relied more on using corruption to counter corruption—also aimed to use clone personalities woven by the abilities of the 'Three-Headed Sanctuary' and 'Dreamweaver' to oppose, or even seize, the fate of the main personality.
"Although it wasn't very successful, what I'm facing now isn't an 'Unknown' with an obvious Old One status."
The blurry figure fell silent for a few seconds, then spoke in sudden realization:
"So that's it… As expected, only I truly understand myself! No wonder you named the technique 'Alvin Revival Technique'… This really is a technique prepared specifically for me!"
After sighing with emotion, he continued:
"You and I—and even the 'God of Luck'—are ultimately one person. Our calculations and struggles were merely about who would take the dominant position… The final goal was always that one sleeping within the 'Unknown'…
"Now, everything I have is handed over to you!"
With that, he smiled freely and vanished completely.
At that very moment, Ebner touched the imprint Alvin had left within the Land of the Unknown. Vast amounts of memories surged along his spirit.
Caught off guard, Ebner was instantly submerged in a flood of memories.
...
Early Fifth Epoch—a time more than a thousand years before the Industrial Revolution would begin.
The future industrial capital, Loen's second-largest city Conston, was at this time merely a small coastal town, utterly unremarkable.
Within a manor outside the town, over a dozen members of the Abraham family stood ready with various sealed artifacts, staring tensely at a certain room on the second floor.
Inside, the Abraham family's only "Recorder" in recent years was concocting a potion, preparing to advance to Sequence 5 Traveler.
At this moment, the young "Recorder" in the room had indeed reached the most critical stage. Relying on coordinates left by his ancestors, he had successfully positioned himself and avoided getting lost while roaming the spirit world.
Yet just as his consciousness returned and he was about to complete the final step of advancement, familiar yet maddening mutterings sounded in his ears.
"At a time like this!"
Blood and tears flowed from the young man's eyes as he let out an unwilling roar. Nevertheless, his spirit continued to decline uncontrollably, and his body began mutating, taking on a monstrous appearance.
Just as he reached the brink of loss of control—his sanity collapsing, his life and death becoming "unknown"—a burst of "pure white" light suddenly erupted from his blood-red eyes.
Immediately afterward, his condition rapidly improved. The mutterings vanished, and even his mutating body returned to normal.
Only now, his eyes carried a trace of confusion as he murmured to himself:
"Who am I?
"Oh, right… I'm Liu Bo, I'm Alvin of the Abraham family, and I'm also the future… Ebner!
"Heh, I'd just said that if there truly were no hope, I'd at most pull some pranks to disgust the successors… and you immediately tampered with the memory inheritance and made my words come true?
"Should I say—worthy of me?"
Ebner mocked himself for a few lines, then looked around and suddenly realized:
"This should be the scene when Alvin first transmigrated… So he immediately gained Sequence 5 strength upon arrival?
"He didn't directly touch the Sequence 3 threshold Lilith and the Goddess spoke of, yet already had enough power for self-preservation early on—what good fortune!
"No wonder the Goddess valued him so much… although she probably didn't know back then that Sequence 3 would be subject to 'Unknown' morning inspections…
"But what's going on now? Aren't I supposed to be receiving Alvin's memories? If I've already awakened my own consciousness, even moving within this memory world, I wouldn't follow his 'life trajectory,' would I?"
After thinking for a while, Ebner directly Teleported outside the manor to investigate.
He first found the Abraham family patriarch and tried to tell him about his successful advancement, while also testing whether he could ask for some sealed artifacts.
However, the patriarch—holding the Demon Painting—did not answer his questions, only repeatedly saying things like "he is the family's hope" and "the ancestors have blessed his success."
This gave Ebner a strong sense of déjà vu, and he formed some guesses.
Next, he attempted to Teleport to Backlund, but failed, leaving him only able to conduct detailed observation around Conston.
"People are repeating the same tasks…
"Time never changes…
"When speaking to them, only the same few lines repeat…
"No method can harm them…
"So that's it. I understand now.
"This is a zero-degree-of-freedom RPG game!
"If I don't advance the 'plot,' NPCs only have those limited interactions… even most 'maps' aren't unlocked!
"And the worst part—there are no quest prompts at all… I have no idea where to trigger the 'plot'…
"This mode of memory inheritance… truly is the kind of vicious trick I'd come up with!"
After fiercely condemning his own "terrible" personality for a few lines, Ebner finally curled his lips into a "proud" smile and muttered:
"Although as Alvin I can't use Insight, at least I have a cheat!"
Before the words even fell, the illusory Omniscient Eye and the uniqueness of the Wheel of Fortune descended simultaneously. A brief line of text appeared before Ebner's eyes:
"Clean up the containers that held the potion…"
...
I don't know how much time later.
Before the altar in the central church of the foggy town within the Evernight Kingdom.
Ebner and Alvin opened their eyes at the same time, then turned their heads together to look at the Goddess standing beneath the statue—identical to it in appearance.
"Alvin, or Ebner?" the Goddess asked calmly.
"Ebner!"
(End of chapter)