"The key is in a thousand episodes—the low and hoarse voice of the elder Carlson was like four in my ears, and he reached out and followed my gaze with his dry index finger to point not only the gaze, but your spirit, your will, your mind, all your senses in one place. Point on any point. It could be a brick, a weed, a blue sky, a white cloud, a living person, or even a piece of nothingness and then go through it, tear it open, expose it, and you'll be successful,"

Listening to his instructions, I set my eyes on the moss-covered remnant wall in front of me. Through the cold, damp walls. I could see a tiny crack in the rocky wall. It spreads from the top right of the wall to the bottom left corner. As the rift passed over the surface of one of the rocks, it seemed to expand into the interior of the rock with a small trace of darkness that could not be seen. I stared at this crack with all my might, imagining turning all my spirit into two strong arms, reaching deep into this gap, and then tearing it outward with all my might, trying to tear this darkness apart, a little bigger, a little bigger, until I tore everything in this world into two pieces, and exposed all the things that were hidden deep in the world of the world's origin.

I never knew that it would be so hard to maintain an imagination with all my attention. I stared at the crack for some unknown amount of time, and then I felt as if all my brains were starting to churn violently, rushing to my forehead. My consciousness began to swell, beating my forehead over and over again like a tidal wave, as if I wouldn't stop if I couldn't hold it up. I felt like I had a splitting headache. It wasn't just an ordinary physical pain, it was a radiant pain from the inside out, and it didn't hurt that much even when it was under the spirit spell of a warlock or cleric. Even so, I didn't stop imagining. I pressed my foreheads tightly with both hands, squeezing as hard as I could into the middle, trying to suppress the thoughts that were surging in my mind for a while, trying to imagine how sharp my gaze was, sharp enough to cut through the darkness in the crack, so that I could see what was hidden behind it. I tried my best to plunge my consciousness into the seemingly bottomless darkness, to explore, to search, to try to discover some truth hidden by the appearance of the world.

Suddenly, a sharp pain came from between my eyes, and I felt my consciousness suddenly become violent and sharp. It was like a chisel that cut a hole in my eyebrows. In an instant, all the consciousness, all the thoughts, all the consciousness, and all the volume of my whole body rushed out from here, as if there was a vacuum of consciousness that was about to drain my soul to a trickle.

At first, I only felt my forehead muscles twitch slightly, but soon, the twitching spread all over my body, as if even my bones were spasming uncontrollably. A tingling, itchy sensation desperately stimulated all the nerves in the top of my head, making it impossible for me to concentrate my will to fight against this pain.

"Ah, in a trance, I seemed to hear a terrible scream echoing in the depths of my soul. But it soon became clear that the sound was coming from my mouth, closer to my ears.

I don't know how long this pain has tormented me, maybe it's just a moment, when I come back to my senses. I found myself back in the mysterious stone house of old Carlson. I collapsed to the ground, sweat soaking through the hem of my clothes. A feeling of suffocation and suffocation still stuck in my chest, which made me very nauseous. But I don't want to vomit.

"Are you alright?" Carlson Sr. sat in front of me, worried, and asked.

"Old fellow, can't you see it yourself?" I lay on my stomach weakly, gasping for breath weakly, hoping that the frequent breathing would dilute the congestion in my chest.

"Since you still have the heart to argue, it seems that you are all right to hear my answer. The old troll man smiled.

"Just now, what's wrong with me? I asked, looking sideways at Carlson.

Old Carlson smiled bitterly: "For this question, in fact, I am as curious as you. All I know is that you sat there for about an hour and then suddenly collapsed on the ground. I've never seen anyone like this, and to be honest, if you don't regain consciousness, I'm going to be scared to death by you. ”

"That's a shame, I should have recovered later if I had known you were going to be scared to death, and after a short rest, I feel much better.

"you, you uneducated warrior." As he spoke, Carlson Sr. stretched out his cane and smacked my ass hard I don't know what weird method he used, although it hurt my ass, but it didn't bleed, "This is to teach you how to talk to someone who is older and wiser than you." ”

"Oh!" I immediately grabbed my ass and jumped up. grinned, and then replied with resentment, "If it weren't for your strange spells that I wouldn't be able to beat you at all, I'd teach you how to show your respect to a hero who saved the world."

Carlsen Sr. swung his crutches menacingly again, and I quickly jumped back further, glaring defiantly out of his range.

Then, as if suddenly we were infected by something, we laughed at the same time.

I really didn't feel the kind of "conscious energy" you were talking about. At that time, I had concentrated all my strength to imagine, and I imagined Ann as a sharp blade, trying to use it to cut through the false appearance of the world; Or think of it as a hand and tear it open; Or an arrow, try to pierce it, "I tried everything I could, but as you can see, nothing has changed, the world is still the real irrefutable world in my eyes, I can't see anything else," I told Magnus Sr. a moment later about how I felt. I told him the truth.

After listening to my account, the elder Carlson fell into a brief contemplation, and then said to me, "You know, even though we are both awakened Wishers, there are still many differences between me and you. For me, seeing through the colorful appearances and revealing the truth of the world is just my instinct after waking up, and it is as easy as talking and walking. I can only tell you some of my feelings. Let yourself try it yourself. As for why something like this happened to you, I can't explain it myself. But, anyway. Our attempt was not for nothing. At least, we still know a little

"What? What do you know? I greeted the aged troll witch doctor's face with the marks of age, looked into his wise eyes that seemed to see through everything in the world, and asked with curiosity and respect.

"At least we know that the 'uh' method doesn't work! ”

Even though he had just come up with a stupid idea that almost killed me, why did I think this conclusion was even more stupid than that?

I must have been under the influence of evil just now, so that I could see any bullshit wisdom in those long blue faces full of folds and those eyes that were clearly in the advanced stage of cataracts!! We all know that. Carlson Sr., an elderly troll witch doctor, has a special ability to see through this colorful world and reduce it to a combination of "and". The sum of two characters makes up a flat character world. He called the world that we see with the naked eye "the world of the table." And that character world is called the "source world." He believes that the "surface world" is a form of existence built on the "source world". It is the reality that we can see with our naked eyes; And the "Source World" is the true law of the creation of the gods. It's more straightforward and basic in its presentation. There is a strict and esoteric law, which consists of "0. and "" and "" are the language of God. In this sense, the "source world" should be the world in the eyes of the gods, a reality that is above the real. In the "Source World. Before the undeniable and irrefutable truth, everything in this world was only a superficial appearance

。

As the only being in this world who has a soul in touch with him, he wants me to learn and master this ability as well, and through it to observe, discover, and study more truths in this world, and perhaps more amazing discoveries, and perhaps even find a way to communicate with the gods.

I thought he was so eager to teach me this, hoping that through my discoveries outside the Gravel Fortress, he would find a way to free his imprisoned soul and set him free.

However, when I asked him about this question, he laughed and denied:

"It's not as you think. My young friend," said Carlson Sr., looking at me frankly and meaningfully, said that I did not deny that I was curious about the outside world, and that I had a certain curiosity about the heavens beyond this fortress, but that I was not as eager to go out as you might think. For me, the world is vast enough, and everything in this fortress alone is enough for me to spend my whole life observing and researching. For me, the outside world is so big, it's like the scenery from the window is beautiful, but the inside of the window is my home. I'm not just imprisoned here, I'm here! I wish I could teach you this ability because I think you might need it; And I hope that on the way to the origin of the world, I can have one more companion with me, and that's it. ”

"But what about freedom?" I was very confused and puzzled by his attitude, "Complete liberation, complete freedom, everyone longs for this kind of happiness, but don't people like us yearn for it even more?"

"Utter freedom?. Carlson Sr. grinned and chewed on the phrase, then shook his head and patted me on the shoulder and said, "You're wrong." My friend. No one needs any "total freedom", all we want is the freedom we "need." Nothing more. For me, the freedom within this fortress is already very sufficient: "The king has more freedom, but I may not dare to bear it." ” “…

"But," I was about to retort, but Carlson shook his hand to stop me:

"I don't expect you to understand these words now, my friend. But maybe one day you will also find that there are some freedoms that you dare not touch, and then you will understand my feelings. And until then, I want you to enjoy more of what you dare to undertake

Composed.

I envy you and bless you, but I don't want to be you. You just think it's me, a lonely and quirky old troll man, who is really bored, and wants to find something to do for yourself."

As perplexing as Carlson Sr.'s approach to freedom was, that didn't stop one. An alchemist is curious and eager to learn new knowledge. I thought he would let me learn in that sealed space that he had "created" himself. Instead, he took me to a real stronghold dungeon that some players had carved out. We were at the top of a spire, and the ladder leading up from the bottom of the tower had been completely destroyed, making it impossible for either the players or the Imperial garrison stationed inside the fortress to spot us. But even so, I still have some apprehensions.

"Why do you have to be here?" I asked Carlson. "Isn't it good to be in that little shabby house of yours?"

"Little" broken, house? The elder Carlson, whose pride had been devastated, angrily knocked me on the head with his cane, "You know, I'm at least for that broken room, which has two hundred and seventy-six layers of concealment, and seventy-eight security precautions with different targets, even if you use divine power to scan the outside, you can only see a piece of nothingness. Even the Supreme God is clumsy with all his might. I can also support it for at least a minute and a half without detection, and its security precautions are constantly being upgraded. If you can break that little room of mine. If you can see through it at a glance, then you almost have enough power to recreate a Falvi continent. Now it's up to you to choose for yourself "" Broken, House, or Here? ”

Although I didn't see any difference between the two, and countless tests over the course of a few days proved that there really wasn't any difference between the two for me, I followed Carlson's advice and stayed at the top of the tower.

In the time that followed, I did a lot of practice and experimentation to try to get to the kind of state that Carlson said. Whenever a group of players are about to end their journey in this dungeon. Carlson Sr. would take me to the same location in the quest opened by another group of players and continue my practice. Even though I've done my best and focused, it's frustrating that my practice hasn't paid off.

Carlson Sr. may have been an erudite intellectual, a careful scholar, a keen explorer, and an active researcher, but he was far from what a good teacher was: from the very beginning he kept repeating himself: "Concentrate your attention and don't just look at appearances." to see the truth behind the surface", but there is always no constructive opinion on how to do it. And when I asked him, "Should I think of my attention as a knife to record the world" or "Think of it as a spear to pierce it," he would always tell me with a big grin, "It doesn't matter." As long as you feel this is helpful, you can do anything! ”

As you can imagine, this kind of consciousness cohesion is obviously ineffective, in fact, if it really worked, I would have imagined my consciousness as a pair of pliers that pulled out the two fangs of this crappy teacher.

After many days and many attempts, the Supreme God was above, and before my spirit completely collapsed, I finally realized the fact that for the elder Carlson, seeing through this "surface world" was an instinct that he had been born with since the day of the liberation of the soul, and seeing the "source world" was as natural for him as speaking with his mouth and listening to the sound with his ears, and the more this "instinct" power, the more difficult it was to transmit and learn. Imagine how you can teach someone something like blinking or sniffing? You can't accurately describe these actions that seem natural to you, and no matter how detailed you explain them, no one else can empathize.

I wisely decided to abandon this practice for the time being, after all, I could not make the exploration of the "source world" the whole of my life. In the world outside the fortress, I still have some tasks to complete. There are many friends who need help. And. In my opinion, there is little point for me to stay here: Carlsen has already taught me everything he can teach me, and what he can't teach me is something for me to try and explore on my own.

Carlsen also agreed with me, saying goodbye to me with regret and asking me to come and see him often. I accepted his invitation. And reluctantly waved goodbye to this soul friend again and again, until he planned to use a bowl of "Teddy Sinnoh" according to the custom of the troll tribe. Coming to see me off, I finally made up my mind to step out of the fortress gate without hesitation. It is said that the book is full of umbrellas