The castellan chatted with Ren with a smile for a few sentences before saying with a laugh, "I’ve prepared a welcoming banquet for you. Shall we head to the dining hall?"
"I’ll follow your lead." Ren smiled with refinement.
Both parties exchanged pleasantries, both acting like gentlemen with good upbringing. Watching from the side, Betty was also dumbfounded. Until this moment, she still hadn’t realized what exactly had happened...
Under the castellan’s guidance, the two arrived at a dining hall. Soon, a dignified and beautiful-looking woman led the Princess in from outside. The castellan quickly stood up and happily introduced them to Ren with a smile. "This is my wife and daughter..."
You could tell the castellan truly loved his wife and daughter, but Ren’s gaze was a bit strange. He seemed to understand what kind of existence this Mirror of Depravity really was!
The castellan’s wife... had been dead for over ten years!
Did the Mirror of Depravity make people sink into sweet dreams?
Ren shifted his gaze to the Golden Princess. This was the real Golden Princess, who’d just been pulled into this dream. It seemed she’d also fallen into depravity.
Interesting... Without showing any emotion, he quietly conversed and dined with the castellan’s family. When the banquet ended, he used fatigue from his journey and wanting to rest as an excuse and was sent to a room specially set aside for distinguished guests.
Even Ren couldn’t help but sigh—worthy of the City of Gold indeed. Even just a guest room was extremely luxurious, resplendent with gold and jewel, gorgeous to the point where even He felt it was extravagant. They’d even prepared two rooms.
"What’s going on here?" Seeing that all the surrounding servants had left, Betty finally couldn’t help but speak up. "I keep feeling something’s weird, but I can’t see what the problem is! Except for that castellan suddenly becoming energetic."
"...Are you really unable to see or are you pretending?" Ren looked at Betty somewhat helplessly. "From the moment I touched the Mirror of Depravity, we’ve already been pulled into a virtual world similar to an illusion."
"???" Betty looked at Ren with a shocked expression. "You touched the Mirror of Depravity? How come I didn’t see? I thought the reason you were eager to split up was to go search for the Mirror of Depravity!"
Ren’s gaze sharpened. It seemed Betty’s memory had been affected, just like the Golden Princess. "Tell me about what happened after we left the divine realm."
"We normally submitted documents. After both sides confirmed the meeting, you brought me over here, then we mixed in and attended that banquet just now... What? Is there something wrong with my memory?" Betty finally seemed to react, looking at Ren with some surprise. "I... my memory is different from humans’. It’s stored in memory crystals. How could it possibly be affected?"
Ren directly explained what they’d actually experienced.
"..." Betty was silent for quite a while before finally speaking. "So you’re saying the core of the Mirror of Depravity is pulling us all into a ’sweet dream’? I... also fell into a sweet dream?"
"Actually, my identity is the same. It’s just that my memory wasn’t affected."
Ren walked to the window and looked at the outside scene through the expensive crystal window, as if wanting to see just how large the range of this Mirror of Depravity’s sweet dream could be.
Eagle Eye flashed by. His eyes clearly emitted traces of light. The distant blur began gradually becoming clear, but further away, it suddenly disappeared.
The range was very limited.
Probably only about three kilometers around this castle could be accessed.
"Since we’re already in the virtual world outlined by the Mirror of Depravity, can your authority directly affect this world?" Betty seemed to have finally fully accepted what had just happened, and her brain started becoming active.
"Should be possible." Ren’s eyebrow quirked up slightly. Then he waved his hand casually, and black and white light particles shot out from his hand, actually outlining a tower-like building right on a nearby sea area. Light particles danced, making everything look so unreal.
But when the light faded, a small reef appeared on the nearby sea, with an island resembling a lighthouse on the reef. "Looks like it’s possible. I’m now increasingly certain this is one of my authority fragments. But how should I recover the authority?"
According to the Goddess of Magic, he needed to corrupt and assimilate this authority, letting it naturally integrate and become an area under his control. That way, he could recover it.
But for a moment, he couldn’t think of how to corrupt it. Before, it had always been others corrupting him...
Just as the two were troubled, Ren suddenly discovered that a clear crack had appeared at the top of the tower he’d just "created." That crack seemed to be constantly wriggling, growing, as if it could spread to the entire tower at any moment, as if it could annihilate that tower at any time!
This was definitely the power of the Mirror of Depravity. The Mirror of Depravity was eliminating a suddenly appearing external data... To the Mirror of Depravity, the tower Ren had just released was very likely a product similar to a computer virus.
Ren stared intently at the tower before him, constantly comprehending, comprehending the source of that fissure. It couldn’t be omnipresent. If it really were omnipresent, it definitely would’ve already realized Ren’s uniqueness.
Betty seemed to have noticed this too.
Just as the two of them were staring intently at that crack, suddenly, footsteps sounded, and then knocking could be heard.
Ren’s eyebrow quirked up slightly. He quickly walked over and opened the door. It was actually a middle-aged rough-faced man he’d never seen before, looking very strong, with a full beard, reeking of alcohol.
"May I ask who you are?"
"You shouldn’t have come."
"Hm?"
"I know you’ve already broken free from depravity. Your Highness the Prince, you shouldn’t have come. This isn’t a place you should be." The big man stared intently at Ren, his eyes full of bloodshot veins. "The King of the Kingdom of Dawn is indeed severely corrupted, but you won’t find a solution in the City-State Alliance, much less in this City of Gold. Go back. Depravity can’t solve the corruption of the God of War. If depravity could solve it, we... It can’t be solved. Go back! This isn’t a place you should be."
Listening to these words, Ren blinked his eyes, thoughts constantly flashing through his mind. What this drunkard was saying had quite a bit of information!