Chapter 28: Chapter 19: World that Judges by Appearance_1

Dealing with this young girl was not dangerous for Duanmu Huai, but it was a hassle.

“Listen to me……”

“Don’t come closer!”

“I am not your enemy…….”

“No, don’t come closer! My father told me not to talk to strangers, stay away!”

“Haah……..”

At the sight of the purple-haired young girl across from him, Duanmu Huai was nearly speechless.

At first, Duanmu Huai thought he was in for a fierce battle, but when the fight actually commenced, he realized that this girl’s combat power was not that strong, about on par with his own. This came as a relief to Duanmu Huai. Thankfully, this girl was not a strong fighter, if it had been Ogis, just one punch would probably have had him begging her not to kill him.

That’s the strength that could tear apart a bloodthirsty demon with bare hands. His present 20th level Judge couldn’t withstand it at all.

But soon, Duanmu Huai regretted it.

He would rather fight with her.

Perhaps due to witnessing her father’s murder, the girl had descended into a crazed state of hysteria. Regardless of what Duanmu Huai said, she would simply refuse to listen, nearly driving him to despair.

With no other option, Duanmu Huai decided to use force!

With that thought, Duanmu Huai gritted his teeth, lunged again towards the girl, this time wielding his War Hammer and struck powerfully at her. His hammer knocked the wrench from the girl’s hand and without waiting for her to react, Duanmu stretched out his large hand, capturing her delicate wrist and pinned her against the wall.

The girl’s wrist was exceptionally slender and fragile, one of Duanmu’s hands was enough to grasp it completely. The girl fell into a state of fear, writhing and struggling desperately. Duanmu sighed, extended his free hand, removed his helmet, and stared at the girl.

“Look at me properly!”

“Eh—————!”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s roar, the girl froze in fear, then instinctively raised her head to look at him.

Then……her head tilted sideways, and she lost consciousness.

Simultaneously, the surrounding land began to shake again, as if an earthquake had hit. The entire mansion collapsed, and boundless darkness devoured Duanmu Huai instantly.

When he opened his eyes again, the mansion was gone. It was replaced by ruins overgrown with vines and wild grass. The morning sunlight beaming down through the trees illuminated the detritus in front of Duanmu Huai.

” …..Haah……”

Despairingly, he let out a sigh, quietly picked up his helmet, and put it on.

It was a failure.

Even though it had been a failure, Duanmu Huai did not leave. This place was akin to a dungeon; it was a recurring world. That meant he could re-enter the mansion tonight and re-iterate what he had seen till he found a solution, damn it, how would he solve it!

Duanmu Huai had a decent guess about what had happened. A father lost his beloved daughter and wanted to resurrect her, but his resurrected daughter wasn’t the one he knew; she was a new being. Nevertheless, he touched the forbidden area of resurrection and was eventually exterminated. The girl who had witnessed her father’s murder went into a frenzy. As the Elf Scout told the story in full, does it mean the good had defeated the evil in the end?

So how should the situation be diffused…..

Even though this was the Novice Planet, Duanmu Huai had not experienced the Empire’s narrative. He was routed towards the far Eastern Zhen Dan territory initially because initial areas were assigned depending on server location. He had merely heard about some quite famous events from the Empire’s narrative but did not participate. In the case of fragmented dungeons like this, he was utterly clueless.

“I do not understand, Master.”

As Duanmu Huai was pondering how to break the deadlock, Ogis suddenly spoke.

“Hm? What’s the problem?”

“That gentleman.”

Ogis took a moment to gather her thoughts, and then spoke in a low voice.

“I do not understand why he acted so contradictorily. I can see that the gentleman showed love for his daughter, but at the same time, he harbored intense hatred for her. But if he hated her so, why would he risk his life to protect her?”

“Humans are just contradictory like that.”

Duanmu Huai shrugged his shoulders and began to speak.

“I can guess why. On one side, he was indeed heartbroken because the one he resurrected was not his daughter. On the other side, his daughter had indeed been resurrected.”

“…I don’t understand what you mean, Master.”

Ogis furrowed her brow, thought for a moment, and still shook her head.

“For humans, there are two ways to recognize oneself. One is appearance, the other is soul.”

While speaking, Duanmu Huai pointed at Ogis.

“Look, just like the name Ogis, it represents your existence. It’s a name unique to you. When I call out ‘Ogis’, I’m referring to you, the doll girl with silver hair in twin-tails, dressed in a beautiful dress, cute-looking, reticent but full of curiosity. The first part describes your appearance, the latter your personality and inner being. If one day, your soul was replaced by someone else, and you became outgoing instead of reticent, then to me, you wouldn’t be you anymore…..at least not the you that I know.”

“But am I not still me?”

“Self-awareness and others’ perceptions often do not align.”

It seemed just like when playing a game everyone thought they were a hot-tempered Sichuan girl, never expecting that inside was a huge guy who picks his feet.

As Duanmu Huai spoke, he stood up, intending to search again in the ruins of this western mansion, to see if there were any clues left behind.

“Hence, humans are indeed complex.”

Upon hearing this, Ogis remained silent, unsure if she understood or not… But for Duanmu Huai, all he could say was this much.

“By the way.”

At this point, something came to Duanmu Huai’s mind. He turned around, removed his helmet and looked at Ogis.

“Ogis, what do you think of my appearance?”

Ogis had seen Duanmu Huai without his helmet more than once, but she never reacted which intrigued Duanmu Huai.

This time, Ogis quickly responded.

“I quite like your appearance, master.”

“Oh? Really?”

The puppet girl is usually quiet, but Duanmu Huai believes she would not lie. He felt a little happy hearing this response, so there are people who like my style.

“Yes, I currently cannot distinguish humans well. Your appearance is very distinct, I like it very much.”

“……………”

Upon hearing Ogis’s response, Duanmu Huai silently put on his helmet and turned his back to her.

Well, thank you.

After being slightly betrayed by Ogis, Duanmu Huai quickly composed himself and resumed his search for clues.

He first revisited the graveyard he had seen in his soul’s memory —— well, it was smashed into pieces already, even the tombstone was pulverized, there’s no way of knowing who was buried there. Helpless, Duanmu Huai had to return to the ruins of the western mansion to see if he could find anything useful.

Yet, during his search, Duanmu Huai was filled with doubts.

Simply because the man’s death was too… mundane.

If someone not in the know saw the previous scene, they might think that the soldiers were too aggressive, but Duanmu Huai knew that if the man was truly a necromancer then the soldiers’ approach was absolutely correct.

However, the problem lies here.

A proper necromancer, no matter how much he specialized, wouldn’t die so unimpressively.

Did he fake his death?

Doesn’t seem so…..

Assuming what Duanmu Huai saw before was the truth, then the man resuscitating his dead daughter could definitely be considered a standard operation for a necromancer —— but… there were slight discrepancies.

As a veteran gamer, Duanmu Huai is very familiar with undying spirits and necromancers, along with necromancers’ various methods. Simply put, if a necromancer wants to resurrect the dead, there are usually only two options.

One is to use forbidden necromancy to imprison the soul of the dead in their body, creating an illusion of resurrection.

The other is to only resurrect the body, turning it into a zombie or a puppet-like thing without self-consciousness.

But the purple-haired girl was neither. She had no previous memory, nor was she a puppet without a self.

Of course, it’s also possible that the necromancer made a deal with the Chaos Evil God, who deceived him in some way —— but Duanmu Huai ruled this out too, because when the purple-haired girl went berserk, he didn’t sense any power or aura from the Chaos Evil God.

The last, baffling conclusion is that, the man… somehow created a brand new soul in the body of the deceased?

That’s not impossible, because at the end when Duanmu Huai subdued the girl, he also noticed, the bandage on her neck, the seam-like marks on her body and chest, and the bolt on her head that looked like it pierced through her skull. These elements easily made Duanmu Huai think of a famous character from his world.

Frankenstein.

This story is quite well-known. Dr. Victor used the bodies of the dead and created a new life, and awakened it. Of course, the story ended tragically, but what’s important is that if you consider what happened here along with Frankenstein’s story, all the questions here seem to find their answers.

First of all, the man was not a necromancer, he might be some sort of scholar or scientist, who revived his daughter using a method similar to Frankenstein. Of course, outsiders wouldn’t care about these details, once they see the man revived his dead daughter, they would only think he either sold his soul to an evil god or succumbed to the dark and turned into a necromancer.

This could also explain why the man seemed so weak, because he might have been a helpless scholar, naturally he didn’t have the power of a necromancer.

Secondly, the soul inside the purple-haired girl’s body, a newly born soul, to Duanmu Huai’s knowledge, neither magic nor evil gods could create a brand new soul out of thin air, the only possibility lies in Frankenstein’s story.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t help his current investigation at all.

Duanmu Huai practically turned the western mansion upside down but still found nothing useful. He didn’t even know the name of the purple-haired girl —— well, if he knew her name, perhaps communication would be a bit smoother.

Or maybe… who knows?

As the night falls, Duanmu Huai had to give up hope of finding clues among the tangle of wild plants and vines. Time had pretty much wiped out all remaining traces here.

Currently, it seemed like he could only return to that world again to look for clues.