Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3283: Chapter 3284: Opportunity to Take the Stage

Although the time they were given to go on stage was just a brief intermission during a break, and moreover at a point when the main showcase platform was about to close so the popularity would inevitably drop a lot; even with the main platform’s heat dropping, it would definitely still be higher than the split platforms.

Especially since the timing for them to go on stage was given on the spot.

For such a massive gathering and exhibition, being able to temporarily carve out a blank timeslot inevitably requires great expenditure of Heart Power to communicate across many fronts, and also to balance all sides’ opinions and discontent—purely a thankless task. Because of this, even the organizers have to spend quite a bit of effort if they want to make it happen.

So, it’s certain that the Pika Sage paid a considerable price to secure this chance for them to go on stage.

Thus, the answer they were arguing over before has basically surfaced.

Angel: ”The Pika Sage was willing to give up the first and second priority slots; I’d guess what he got in return was our chance to go on stage.”

Of course, even without this compensation, with how strong the current trend of ”fawning over outsiders” is, Pirush’s first-priority slot definitely wouldn’t have been kept.

So it’s better to retreat of his own accord, swap it for some compensation, and send Laplace a favor.

...

”So now, do we need to go make preparations before going on stage?”

This chance to go on stage was rather rushed. In Angel’s view, whether they had this slot or not didn’t really matter; once the news of the Calamity Puppet spreads, the Log-in Device is bound to become a hot target of pursuit.

Still, being able to spread the Log-in Device’s name a bit earlier is a good thing.

It’s just that, if they’re going on stage, they definitely can’t fight an unprepared battle; they have to get their prep work done.

They only have five minutes.

How, within five minutes, can they let more people learn about the Log-in Device and become interested in it?

This is what Angel is thinking about right now.

Angel is seriously asking this question, but though the speaker has no particular intent, the listener has already gone off-track. His words seem, from a very strange angle, to have snapped Luigi out of his daydream.

On stage? Showcase platform? A stage for display? A stage?!!

When the word ”stage” surfaced in his mind, Luigi’s inner monkey began beating drums and bolted off toward an unknown wilderness.

Right, the showcase platform is also a sort of stage!

And this stage is giving them a full five minutes of time! Five minutes isn’t much, but it’s not little either. To arrange a performance, the time is absolutely more than enough.

A strange light flashed in Luigi’s eyes—this is a ”stage” watched by all the major clans. Even if he only sings a short poem, he can bask in countless gazes.

And for a performer, gazes are glory.

The more Luigi thinks, the more immersed his expression becomes.

This leaves Angel, who has been watching him all along, completely confused.

”Luigi?” Angel softly calls Luigi’s name, but Luigi is still lost in his own world and doesn’t come back to himself.

At this moment, Laplace beside him says mildly, ”Ignore him. The moment he hears he’s going on stage, he starts fantasizing.”

”Going on stage? Fantasizing?” Angel seems to understand: ”He wants to go on stage?”

Angel pauses, then adds, ”On stage... to perform?”

Laplace nods.

Angel: ”...” Just going up to introduce the Log-in Device, how does that count as any kind of performance?

”He... plans to perform what on stage?” Angel hesitates for a moment, but still asks.

Laplace waves her hand: ”I won’t let him go on stage.”

Laplace may not care about her own reputation, but that doesn’t mean she’ll just stand by and watch Luigi make a fool of himself on stage. If she weren’t here, that’d be another matter; but since she is, there’s no way she’ll let such an awkward scene happen.

”The matter of going on stage, just leave it to Glaipnir. She’ll handle it well.” After speaking, Laplace seems to realize she’s being a bit arbitrary, and adds, ”Of course, if you want to go on stage, that’s also fine.”

Angel: ”...No need.”

Angel doesn’t mind the question of going on stage; saving a bit of effort is pretty nice right now.

Besides, he fully approves of having Glaipnir shoulder this major task. Compared with Luigi’s occasional lapses, Glaipnir has never once been unreliable in important matters.

Angel believes that if she goes on stage, there absolutely won’t be any problems. With her reputation, she can also suppress those voices of doubt.

As for whether having Glaipnir introduce things alone will marginalize his presence, in Angel’s view, that’s not an issue at all.

For Angel, he adopts different strategies toward different Nightmare Realms.

For the Wilderness of Dreams, he can stand openly at the front stage without worry; after all, the Southern Domain is his home base, and he has the Barbarian Cave as a backing, so he doesn’t need to worry too much about potential hidden dangers. But when it comes to the Crystal Origin of Dreams, he personally prefers hiding behind the scenes, minimizing his sense of existence as much as possible.

After all, he’s not a native Life of the Daylight Mirror Domain. As an outsider, it’s inherently very difficult to earn the trust of the races within the mirrors.

Especially since the Crystal Origin of Dreams possesses the ability to accommodate ”consciousness”—the consciousness of the Dead can undergo Transmutation into Indigenous People and dwell within the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

This ability almost blurs the boundary between life and death; for the Life of the Mirror Domain, this is absolutely a supreme Authority.

If such Authority were mastered by the ”native Life of the Mirror Domain,” they might barely manage to let it go. But if they learn that it’s actually controlled by an outsider like Angel, even if they say nothing aloud, in their hearts they will harbor extra vigilance toward the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

So, to avoid this kind of suspicion and hidden danger, and also to allow the Crystal Origin of Dreams to develop continuously without interference, Angel never planned from the start to personally come forward. Instead, he decided to let Laplace act as a ”spokesperson,” standing at the very front line of fire.

This is both Angel’s own wish and, to a certain extent, also a ”transaction” between him and the Mirror Domain Will.

Moreover, it’s not only the Wilderness of Dreams and the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

In the future, if he can develop more of the ”Dream System,” he will also formulate adaptive strategies based on the circumstances of each world.

Until his strength becomes so great that the Life of the myriad heavens have no choice but to acknowledge him—at that time, even if he fully exposes himself, he will have no more hidden dangers to fear.

With just a few exchanges, Angel and Laplace decide how things will go on stage later. As for Luigi’s shattered daydreams... that’s not important.

On the other side, Dog Deacon, Little Red, and Sipolov also heard their conversation from start to finish.

”So...it turns out you all are the Dream Mirror group.” Little Red looked over in some surprise. She hadn’t quite understood this business about ”choosing, making up, and going on stage,” but she had caught one key word: ”Dream Mirror.”

This ”Dream Mirror group” had also been a heated topic of discussion over on the Ghost Steward’s side earlier.

Angel nodded. ”Dream Mirror does indeed refer to us... Did you see it in the catalog?”

Angel had originally wanted to correct the phrasing—strictly speaking it wasn’t the ”Dream Mirror group” but just ”Dream Mirror.” But after thinking about it, he let it go. It was only a term of address. If calling them a ”group” made it easier for other mirror-dwelling races to accept their existence, then being referred to as a ”group” was no big deal.

Little Red nodded. ”When I went to pick up a task earlier, I heard that the Consciousness Cloud had already submitted the latest catalog information, and it included the Dream Mirror group. But intel on the Dream Mirror group is classified as unknown—more vague even than the Singers and the Feather Forest Clan—which has sparked quite a bit of discussion among the investigators.” ℴℴ𝘮

Little Red hadn’t joined in their discussion, but she’d heard a lot of related information along the way. She had originally assumed that the Dream Mirror group, like the Singers and the Feather Forest Clan, were a race from some other Mirror Domain. She hadn’t expected it to be Cat Brother and Hair Sister...

Since Little Red had already brought it up, Angel didn’t hide anything and briefly introduced the origin of their ”Dream Mirror.” Then he casually asked, ”Since the investigators are all talking about Dream Mirror, are they talking about our flagship product too?”

Little Red thought for a moment. ”They probably are... but most of their attention is focused on Dream Mirror itself.”

Angel nodded in understanding.

For a special item like the Log-in Device, no matter how clear the introduction is written, if you don’t personally experience it, you’ll never truly grasp what’s special about the Crystal Origin of Dreams.

For the investigators not to focus on the Log-in Device—it was only natural.

On the other side, the Dog Deacon closed his eyes and used his own authority to enter the intel network compiled by the Ghost Steward. After a while, it lifted its head to look at Angel. ”Dream Mirror’s flagship product is...the Log-in Device?”

Angel nodded in confirmation.

”The introduction says that via the Log-in Device, from any location in the Daylight Mirror Domain, you can enter a special Dream Mirror world—the Crystal Origin of Dreams.” The Dog Deacon sounded a bit puzzled. ”What does that mean?”

Sipolov hadn’t seen Dream Mirror’s display page, but his ears stood up along with the Dog Deacon’s, full of curiosity.

Angel chuckled. ”As for the specifics, you’ll understand after Glaipnir goes on stage later.”

The Dog Deacon nodded and didn’t press further. Anyway, Glaipnir would be going on stage to demonstrate in an hour; once they saw it with their own eyes, they’d understand.

The Dog Deacon fell silent, but Sipolov’s mind was brimming with doubts.

Whether it was this ”Dream Mirror group” or the ”Log-in Device,” he felt like he was listening through layers of fog. But what puzzled him most was: why had the famous Astrologer Glaipnir suddenly appeared in the conversation?

Moreover, judging by the situation, Luigi had just received a message from Glaipnir.

Yet his Heart Fire hadn’t detected any fluctuation of a transmission. How had Luigi received Glaipnir’s message?

Sipolov inexplicably cared a lot about this point.

Not just because Glaipnir was so renowned, but also for another important reason: this kind of seamless, undetectable real-time communication reminded him of his grandfather’s disciple, the Ice Country’s sole Three-Star General—Vladimir.

Lord Vladimir could also use an undetectable method to carry out real-time communication with the ”Fire of Decay” stationed on the front lines of the battlefield.

And according to Sipolov’s understanding, the reason Lord Vladimir could maintain real-time calls with the ”Fire of Decay” was because the Fire of Decay was Lord Vladimir’s Temporal Body.

By the same logic, if Luigi and Glaipnir were each other’s Temporal Bodies, then real-time communication would be explained.

However, that raised a new problem.

Temporal Bodies weren’t exactly secret within the Mirror Domain; even Sipolov had ways to condense a Temporal Body... But the vast majority of Temporal Bodies condensed by mirror-dwelling creatures were just pitch-black mirror shadows, hard to shape into a realistic appearance with a distinct personality, let alone real-time communication—the mirror shadow had no intellect to speak of.

A truly realistic Temporal Body like Vladimir’s ”Fire of Decay” was extremely rare, possessed only by the absolute top-tier existences.

And Luigi and Glaipnir were, without doubt, highly individualistic, with exceptional intellect—clearly not some mirror shadows.

If they were Temporal Bodies, then their true bodies must be as powerful as Vladimir.

Yet Sipolov could sense that Luigi was very strong, but not at the absolute apex; Glaipnir’s reputation was known to all, and her strength wasn’t a secret either. She was on par with Luigi and hadn’t reached the Pyramid’s summit.

Since their strength was at the same tier, they certainly weren’t the true bodies...so who were their true bodies?

To shape such powerful and realistic Temporal Bodies, the true body behind them was absolutely extraordinary.

Sipolov had been confused earlier about why the Dog Deacon treated Luigi and the others with such respect. Now, it seemed, perhaps the respect wasn’t for them, but for the true bodies behind them?

Of course, Sipolov only dared to keep these questions buried in his heart and did not dare voice them at all.

If any of this were exposed, it would be explosive news.

Even setting aside who Luigi’s true body was, just the fact that Glaipnir was a Temporal Body would be enough to detonate the popularity charts.

Sipolov wasn’t stupid; he had no desire to end up targeted by the existence behind Glaipnir.

...

Sipolov’s thoughts galloped wildly, like a runaway horse, constantly tumbling and flying. Yet his expression remained perfectly normal, making it seem as if he were simply resting.

Only Angel, via Hyper Perception, could vaguely sense the turmoil in his heart.

However, Angel couldn’t figure out why Sipolov’s thoughts were fluctuating so violently.

After all, Sipolov outwardly appeared calm, and Angel wasn’t about to ask. Instead, he continued listening to the Magic Flute Singer’s narration up on the main display stage.

The Magic Flute Singer, just like Lady Mei Ye before, had come on stage purely to promote the Singer’s Monument and the Song Tower.

Even the three Deacons of the Everything House were tempted by these two items.

Seeing this, Luigi once again reenacted his earlier ”slow-acting poison” routine, insisting that the two items had hidden risks. However, this time Luigi didn’t stop halfway through his warning; he also stated that those hidden risks were like half a flower seed and could fade with time.

As for whether the Everything House would ultimately make a purchase, that was another matter.

The Magic Flute Singer pushed the popularity up to nearly 100% before leisurely stepping off the stage.

With the Magic Flute Singer’s departure, Pirush finally appeared as the third act.

Pirush appearing as the third act, in a sense, was a form of discrimination. But precisely because they took the stage after the Singers and the Feather Forest Clan, they enjoyed an extremely high popularity boost.

If they had actually gone on as the first act, their popularity probably wouldn’t have even broken 50%.

You could say this was a kind of blessing in disguise?