In the midday sun, the huge bell tower, located on the central axis of the city of Selen, once again sounded its own loud sound on time.

A total of three bells rang.

The first is dedicated to the eternal god of the sun, thanking him for witnessing the peace of the city of Seren.

The second is dedicated to the gentle Goddess of March, thanking her for protecting the stability of the city of Seren.

The third is dedicated to the armistice treaty signed here between the Kingdom of Wattel and the Kingdom of Teresa two hundred and ninety-nine years ago, without which there would be no present city of Selen.

This is the city of Seren.

A neutral city that has been destined for war, contradiction and conflict since its inception.

However, in today's city of Selen, there are no traces of war, and the prosperous streets and buildings are full of sculptures and decorations with the theme of peace.

It's all about commemorating the hard-won peace and the precious friendship between the two mighty kingdoms, and although there have been several frictions and conflicts between the two behemoths over the past two hundred and ninety-nine years, they have fortunately been able to agree in the end.

As the old proverb goes, "When Wattle and Derain greet each other, there will be no more storms and waves in the world." ”

The special geographical location and special historical status give this small city a unique style, the west of the central axis belongs to the Kingdom of Waterl, the buildings here are as cold as a knife's edge, most of them have sharp and cold lines and high spires, and the streets are mostly decorated in gray and black.

To the east of the central axis, the city belongs to the kingdom of Deresa, which is full of rich colors, blue, green, and vivid reds and yellows adorn almost all the houses, and from a distance, people will even think that they have come to the world-famous flower landscape of the kingdom of Dereland.

Those who come here see it as a wonder of the world, those who have lived here for a long time are accustomed to enjoying the customs and cultures of two different countries at the same time, and only those who are very suspicious will see East XC as the claw of two behemoths tempting each other......

Shuge falls into the last case.

Now, he looked at everything in the city of Salem with the utmost malice.

On the streets, you can already see people decorating houses and hoisting festive flags, all of which depict two tightly clasped hands, which are used to celebrate the "Salem Armistice Day".

"Armistice Day" is a very special holiday.

In commemoration of the hard-won peace, every year for the first ten days of the "Armistice Celebration", the city of Salem will be put into a strict lockdown, and no free entry and exit will be allowed until the day of the festival, that is, eight days later, the heirs of the Waters Kingdom and the Kingdom of Deland will arrive in the city at the same time, and the two sides will meet and talk under the large bell tower of the city of Salem, and reaffirm the will of both sides for peace, and then the official start of the celebration will be announced.

It is said that this cumbersome process was designed to mimic the real situation during the armistice.

"Why don't I remember writing anything like this?"

Somewhat reluctantly, Shuge withdrew his gaze from the busy and joyful inhabitants, and began to re-examine the people and objects in the tavern.

"Now that the city of Salem has been locked down, I can't leave easily, so I have to think of something else."

Shuge's eyes fell on the customers who came in and out and Sally the sommelier who swirled between them, and his mind turned.

In the past two days, he had been gathering as much information and intelligence as he could in the city of Selen, but until now, he still knew nothing about the events that were about to happen in the city in eight days, and his fear of the future was like a deep black haze that weighed heavily on Xiuge's heart, making it difficult for him to breathe.

Xiuge stared at the cup on the table, the tea in the cup swayed gently, and the light and shadow flickered in it, dazzling.

In this state, the noise in the tavern seemed to become a little more distant.

In order to solve the current predicament, Xiuge has "returned" to the strange world he saw after his death more than once, although he never saw the strange figure in the black suit again, but the objects that were hung with various "prices" and "conditions" still stopped in place.

After browsing the entire office area, Xiuge found that most of the conditions in that world were not what he could afford and pay for now, and the only thing that could be regarded as "cheap" was a locker in his desk.

He had double-checked, and in front of the penultimate drawer, the words "Twenty Silver Coins" were written in the black mist.

It's a condition that looks cheap.

For those who have a certain amount of money or a wealthy family, this is a small amount of money, but for those who are busy every day and night to make ends meet, twenty silver coins is enough to become a huge burden.

In order to be able to collect these twenty silver coins, Xiuge turned his old house up and down, and in the end he only managed to make up ten silver coins and a bunch of bits and pieces, which is why he still had to calm down and continue to write the manuscript left by his body in this situation.

"Tomorrow is the day of delivery, and the remuneration for a total of thirty silver coins ......"

Xiuge silently calculated in his mind: "But if I only use these silver coins to 'open' those cabinets tomorrow, it means that I will waste almost a whole day, which is not a wise choice. ”

Thinking like this, Xiuge couldn't help but raise his head, and his gaze drifted to the dexterous figure that was spinning like a butterfly between the dining tables not far away.

Xiuge sighed: "I didn't expect that I would have to borrow money from someone within three days of my arrival in this world. ”

……

"Twenty silver coins?"

After listening to Qing Xiuge's words, the young and beautiful barmaid's eyes suddenly became cautious.

In desperation, Xiuge had to explain: "Don't worry, Miss Sally, I will return this money to you tomorrow...... It's urgent, and you should know that I'm not in the habit of gambling and visiting Splash Street......"

Sally wrinkled her nose: "Wow, who's paying attention to these!" ”

Xiuge looked at her patiently, trying to make his demeanor and eyes appear as honest as possible.

Finally, the girl was defeated in the eye contact, and she sighed: "Okay, okay, that's almost all my savings......"

She complained as she went to the grocery room next to the back kitchen, where she quickly retrieved a small, locked wooden box.

"For the sake of our friends!"

Sally neatly shoved the wooden box into Shuge's hand, and the weight passed from his hand left Xiuge speechless for a moment.

The girl carefully examined the look on the young man's face before her, and then smiled with satisfaction, as if she had exchanged her large savings for something precious.

"Remember to return me to-morrow, Mr. Ernst, I know where you live!"

With that at the end of the sentence, Sally left Shuge behind and returned to her work, and only after a moment had she left, someone in the tavern had already started to make a loud noise.

Having obtained what he wanted, Shug did not intend to linger in the noisy beer hall any longer, so he wrapped his coat in the heavy wooden box and left the tavern with his manuscript that had yet to be refined.

As for the "sneaking version" promised to Schubert, he was going to talk about it in the evening.

It took him about half an hour to finally return to his residence, a small three-story building, which is said to have been purchased by the Ernst family in the city of Salem nearly a hundred years ago, for unknown reasons, the only thing Shuge knows is that it has indeed been abandoned here for a long time, so that there is even a legend of "the ghost in Ernst's old mansion" that there is no new legend among the people.

However, every time he returned to the old mansion, Xiuge felt that there was some truth to the legend, and whenever he walked among the old ornaments and walls, he would feel that he was the ghost of the legend.

After returning to the old house, it took him a long time to close and lock all the windows and doors, and then he went to the bedroom on the second floor, and then lay on the bed in a daze with the heavy wooden box in his arms.

Soon, a faint sleepiness hit, so Xiuge obediently closed his eyes.

The moment he fell asleep, a dream of nothingness descended, and an invisible strange force acted on his body in a strange way, stripping his spirit away and leading him to another world.

Soon, a cold sensation reawakened Xiuge's consciousness, and he opened his eyes suddenly, and the familiar desks and various devices appeared in front of him again, but in this oppressive darkness, he still saw no one else.

The heavy wooden box was in front of him, so he stretched out his hand and opened it, took out the twenty silver coins that the industrious maiden had saved, and crouched down in front of the table with them.

In the penultimate drawer of the locker, Xiuge remembers very well that he had been using it to store some useless things, such as useless documents, replaced work cards, unused mobile phones, and mooncakes and zongzi coupons that were too late to redeem.

The moment he stretched out his hand, Xiuge wanted to laugh inexplicably.

It was somewhat ironic that he pinned his hopes for a change in his fate and future on a drawer that he would never want to open.

As the distance between Hugg's palm and the line of writing shortened, the silver coins lying in his palm began to vibrate and hum faintly, and eventually, when his palm reached in front of the floating black words, the change occurred.

I saw that the silver coins turned into fine dust in the violent trembling, and then the strange words composed of black mist immediately changed, and the original words disappeared, replaced by black tentacles suspended in the air, they swayed rapidly, scrambling towards the silver coin powder floating in the air, like anemone tentacles busy filtering the sea water in the ocean, swinging back and forth in the cloud of powder.

The predecessor of this body had been an apprentice in the magic academy of the Kingdom of Wattel for two years, although during that time, he was busy with all kinds of manual work and chores every day, just like other apprentices, he had also seen many strange scenes, and those memories that remained in his mind provided Xiuge with some confidence, and also allowed him to witness these strange changes without being too caught off guard.

As a magician apprentice who had wasted two years in the academy but was only worthy of learning two basic "tricks", Xiuge was very much looking forward to the changes in front of him at this time.

"I hope my twenty silver coins will be exchanged for something useful...... Otherwise, I'll have to find another way. ”

Xiuge carefully studied the constantly swinging black tentacles, as if observing his own pets, only to see that under their activity, the silver-white powder formed by the bursting of silver coins quickly disappeared, and then these "well-fed" black tentacles also regrouped together, forming a spherical thick fog.

Then the fog gradually dissipated.

Sugg tentatively reached out to the drawer, and this time, without touching the invisible wall again, his fingers successfully touched the handle of the drawer.

He suddenly felt that such a scene was somewhat familiar.

It seems to be similar to the card draw when playing mobile games by yourself.

Thinking about it this way, he relaxed a little.

"It's a pity, there's no way to play songs now, otherwise at this important moment, I have to put some festive songs, and then go to wash my face and hands......"

Shug shook his head with a smile, then gathered his thoughts, reached out and grabbed the handle of the drawer, pulling it violently outward.

Then Xiuge regretted it.

The moment the drawer opened, he saw a huge black mist erupt from the drawer, and at this time he was half-kneeling on the ground, leaning forward, and it was too late to dodge, so he was drowned in the thick black gas on the spot.

In the next instant, these black mist suddenly contracted, forming a huge condensed tentacle in Xiuge's horrified gaze, and on this tentacle, countless shadows continued to shake, like huge suckers attached to the tentacles.

In extreme fright, Xiuge hurriedly pulled back, but before he could take two steps, the tentacle suddenly stretched out, it was like the wrists and feet used by those soft creatures to hunt, and firmly wrapped Xiuge's legs and waist in an extremely rapid posture, the huge force made Xiuge's legs unable to move, and before he could make the next reaction and action, the huge tentacles were further tightened, and then Xiuge was lifted into the air.

"What the hell is this...... What the hell?! ”

Shuge opened his mouth and roared silently.