Only one table remained in the restaurant.
Shiller and Jerome sat opposite each other, the center of the table showcasing dish after dish of fresh, steaming hot meals.
The head chef had long since disappeared.
Jerome ate the food on his plate at a leisurely pace, his gaze landing on the extinguished red candle. He revealed a shallow smile and said, "Compared to your exquisite cooking performance just now, the taste of the food is no longer important. Here's to the night."
Shiller also raised his glass with a smile, idly toying with the food on his plate. Having gorged himself, he was still hungry.
He noticed Jerome's line of sight and also looked at the red candle by his side. Shaking his head, he picked up the candle and stored it in his briefcase. Jerome saw that there were two identical red candles and three white candles inside the case.
Jerome gave a puzzled look.
Shiller shook his head and said, "I remember telling you that I come from All Souls College, Oxford University."
"I only recently heard about this, what I mean is, I only recently came into contact with your world." Jerome said with his fork pointed at his lips, "What should I call you, Magician? Wizard? Or some species of elf?"
"I am neither an elf nor a magician; I am a bishop." Shiller neatly cut a piece of meat and then said, "I do have some abilities that are extraordinary, but not nearly as magical as magic."
Jerome looked down at the food on his plate, the words he wanted to say going without saying.
"I am not joking. You might think that I summoned a demon, but that is not the case; that was just a part of me."
"You'd be better off summoning a demon." Jerome commented candidly, "What are you saying? Such a terrifying demon is just a part of you?"
Shiller shook his head again and said, "It's just a precaution."
Although he said this to Jerome, in his mind, Shiller still reminisced about the events that took place when he divided his body.
Each personality trait had a body, and the Tower of Thought acted as a server within the original body; all other bodies were connected to the central server through brainwave streaming to obtain thinking and other abilities. Every person's physique was more inclined towards the past life of Shiller, meaning they all had a bit more strength and inspiration.
However, there was an exception for a part of the personality traits; the Superego gave the system's energy to those traits on the Magic Side, so even though their physiques weren't much beyond ordinary people, they were all allocated a certain amount of energy, and naturally, they had abilities beyond those of ordinary humans.
The ability of the bishop could be said to be more akin to summoning souls rather than magic. The red and white candles in his hand were actually the system's energy. Once the candle was lit, the system would build a soul-summoning channel, connecting other brainwave streaming pathways to this one, allowing other personality traits to log in from different locations.
The white candle summons the normal state, while the red candle summons the morbid state. While the candle is burning, besides the energy needed to maintain the channel, there is also extra energy as a sacrifice. The other personality traits which receive the sacrifice will possess some magic attributes, similar to freely assignable skill points.
For example, gluttony allows one to endlessly digest food, while manipulation gives one the power to defeat the head chef. And if arrogance or greed come, they could also conjure an umbrella, or simply take the sacrifice back untouched.
The abilities of other personality traits on the Magic Side are different, and the bishop, in any life, has never really used magic. Hence, he chose to transform the system's energy into tools, using the method of summoning other personality traits to assist him through some difficult situations.
A red candle was already more than half used up. The next time, the duration it could last would probably be only half of this time. The consumption level of the remaining two red candles should be about the same as this time. Considering the dangerous nature of this cosmos, it is better to conserve them.
"Tell me what you know about the hotel," said Shiller, taking the initiative. This time, he had rescued Jerome, so if the latter didn't give something in return, then there was no need to continue the cooperation.
Jerome seemed still more interested in the candle, but he knew that such things often came with unknown dangers. Even if Shiller told him the details, he wouldn't dare to believe them; what if it was a trap set by the other party. And he had no assurance that he could wrest such an object from Shiller's hands. So no matter how useful the candle might be, that matter had to be postponed.
Shiller was an invaluable partner for cooperation, and Jerome was clear on that point. He was just an ordinary person who struggled to make his way in this hotel. Missing Shiller, it would be difficult to find another.
After pondering for a moment, Jerome spoke, "All the anomalies started 20 days ago, and it wasn't just the hotel that had problems – the whole of Gotham began to change."
"I received reliable information that there might be a source of the anomalies in the hotel, so I chased after it, but unfortunately, my luck wasn't very good. I was delayed too long on the 19th floor, resulting in the hotel's anomalies becoming irreparable by the time I came out."
In his mind, Shiller thought it was indeed Jerome who had left the half-footprint in front of room 1904. Without that clue, it would not have been easy to figure out the elevator's pattern. Jerome was still completely ordinary now; it was normal for him to have been delayed for so long.
So it seemed he and Jerome had not arrived at the hotel at the same time. It was very possible that Jerome came a few days after the hotel's outbreak of anomalies, while Jerome and the others, like himself, arrived later, hence appearing on the future timeline.
But the question was, why had he, who also arrived later, mistakenly entered a past timeline? Was there something special about him?
"After leaving the nineteenth floor, I didn't choose to come to the restaurant right away because there was a problem with the elevator, and I had to explore every few floors."
After Jerome said this, he lifted the hem of his shirt. His abdomen was wrapped in bandages, and Shiller smelled a faint scent of blood. He knew that for an ordinary person to survive under such circumstances, they must have faced many life-and-death challenges.
Jerome let down his clothes and continued, "Actually, I didn't know the restaurant was on this floor; I stumbled in here by mistake. I don't know if you saw the monster in the elevator when you came down, the one I call Kaleidoscope. When every piece of it reflects your image, you'll be completely lost in the glass maze."
Shiller remembered the bright monster he had seen in the elevator, which must be the Kaleidoscope Jerome was talking about. It seemed more dangerous than he had imagined.
"It had its eyes on me at the time," Jerome said. "It wanted to pull me into the mirror, so I had to avoid all reflective objects as much as possible. When I rushed out of the elevator with nowhere to go, I ended up at the restaurant's entrance, just like you, bringing that creature with me."
Shiller nodded. He knew that there were two powers within the hotel, each restraining the other. To break free from the entanglement of one, one must make use of the other. Jerome's reasoning was the same as his own.
"I rushed into the restaurant, and sure enough, the creature didn't chase me anymore. But I was greeted by an even more terrifying situation: the chef here created an endless cycle. In each cycle, someone would die in various ways and then return to the restaurant."
"Have you died?"
"Of course not; I'm very cautious." Jerome sliced a leaf of vegetable and said, "The chef made a fatal mistake. Between each course, he would go back to the kitchen, perhaps thinking I would eventually die here, so he wasn't cautious enough."
Shiller frowned, but Jerome didn't intend to beat around the bush. He continued, "Your guess is largely correct. The rules of the restaurant are simple, and they appeared right at the start of the mutation. The chef is a later Invader. But the monster is not upstairs; it's right next to the kitchen, behind the kitchen walls."
"Those nerves spreading across the ceiling are coming from the kitchen. The chef is just one of the puppets controlled by these nerves. The restaurant and the chef have a restraining relationship. Now the restaurant is closed, but the master of these nerves doesn't intend to let go."
Shiller looked up at the ceiling; it wasn't his imagination playing tricks on him, the network of nerves had changed. But it wasn't that they had become more dense, rather that the nerve structures seemed more realistic now, and some peripheral nerves that hadn't been visible before had also appeared.
Was this thing trying to swallow the restaurant whole?
"The consequences of losing balance are terrifying," Jerome went on. "I'm not trying to alarm you, I've seen it with my own eyes. Once one of the competing powers collapses completely and is devoured, the survivor will grow unimaginably strong."
"They can devour each other?" This was new information to Shiller, but hardly good news. According to the Cthulhu Mythos, there's no such thing as leveling up, and there's no connection between anomalies. If they could really level up by devouring each other, then every Legendary Investigator could become an Outer God.
"At least that's what I've been told." Jerome's tone didn't seem to be lying. He said, "I know there may be some secrets within your Magic realm that are not known to the public, but I must tell you that common sense doesn't apply here. Everything that happens here is too bizarre."
Shiller also nodded. He knew he couldn't view the hotel solely through the lens of the Cthulhu Mythos. Apart from Nya's involvement, there was Little Bruce as well.
Batman is a spokesperson for order. Regardless of which Batman, they are all very skilled at establishing rules. If all the mutations started because of him, then it wouldn't be surprising that some rules of these anomalies could be mastered by the Human race.
"The source is in the kitchen," Shiller muttered as he spoke. "It's not that I don't believe your information, but barging in rashly is not a good method. I need more information."
Jerome understood; he didn't really expect Shiller would be so easily lured in, but he needed the Magician's power. Otherwise, relying solely on himself, he'd never make it into the kitchen, nor would he be able to leave the hotel.
After weighing his options, Jerome still brought out his trump card. He said, "What if it's not a monster in the kitchen, but a person?"
"A person?"
"That's right, a person. In every public facility of this hotel, there's a tainted person hidden. They are the masters of their respective facilities. And if things go as expected, they are not completely irrational; many can still be communicated with."
This reminded Shiller of James Gordon, who was key in setting up the sound trap. Jerome likely encountered him on the nineteenth floor, but his exploration of other floors had given him more information.
Should he believe what Jerome was saying?
As Shiller pondered, this naturally bad seed rarely told the truth. He said he had never died, but who knew if that was true? If he did die here, then the man sitting in front of him would be just like James Gordon, merely a puppet, part of some terrible trap. Shiller didn't want to be fooled.
Suddenly, Shiller recalled that when he was knocking on the bell calling for the dead, the sound was identical to the elevator noise, which meant that the restaurant and the elevator monster might be on the same side.
Could going to the kitchen be a trap set by the restaurant itself?