Life Game In Other World
Chapter 308: Puzzle (Next Year on This Day, Ascending to the Clouds)

Chapter 308: Chapter 308: Puzzle (Next Year on This Day, Ascending to the Clouds)

The bright sunshine only lasted for a brief time; by noon, clouds had once again gathered in the sky.

It’s early February now, and it’s not normal to have clouds accumulating day after day.

He Ao withdrew his gaze from the sky and looked towards the towering high wall beside him.

Instead of returning to Hope Building, he had been wandering around the city, and at the moment, he was in front of the southern gate.

A guard on duty spotted him but only glanced over before redirecting his attention elsewhere.

This was a quiet time, with fewer people coming in and out; the guard looked around, pulled a cigarette from his pants pocket, placed it between his lips, and then lit it with an electronic lighter.

Wisps of smoke began to spread around him.

The passing merchants paid him no attention, as if they were used to it.

The other sentries, after seeing him smoking, also extracted cigarettes from different pockets; in just a short moment, the area around the sentry post was shrouded in smoke.

He Ao refocused his attention and found a rundown coffee shop nearby, choosing a seat by the window.

The image displayed on his bracelet showed sentry soldiers standing erect and solemn in front of the city gate, meticulously at their posts.

This was the scene he recorded earlier when he went to the North Gate.

After contemplating for a moment, He Ao switched to another folder, which contained information about various public activities and social commentary of the commanders of South and North Cities, collected by Eve.

Footage of North City’s Commander Dick being interviewed was rare; most of it was very serious, discussing various city defense issues.

In contrast, there was more footage of South City’s Commander Noan; he had been interviewed by various media outlets and liked to post comments on social media, even sharing his daily life on video platforms.

He Ao activated his Super Memory and began to rapidly browse through this information.

An abundance of information coalesced in his mind, giving him a foundational model of the personalities of the military commanders of the South and North Cities.

The easiest to form an impression of was Northern Army Commander Dick; it was obvious that he was a stern and rigid man with a strong desire to control and exert power.

During his interviews, it was evident that the journalists felt an intangible pressure; if they dared to stray slightly off-topic, he would immediately shut them down.

Journalists and hosts from Dawn City media liked to provoke with their questions, like the host who interviewed Christos, whose phrasing was very sharp and who often interrupted Christos’s speech.

But in all the videos where Dick was interviewed, not a single journalist dared to interrupt him; it was as if there was a gun pointed at the back of their heads.

Hmm... that’s not entirely impossible.

However, since Dick’s information was limited, He Ao could only roughly abstract these personality traits; a person’s character is surely complex, and to fully study his character, more data would be needed.

Contrary to Dick, there was an abundance of information about South City’s Commander Noan; he was eager to participate in various social activities and prided himself on his tolerance and the affection he received from the military.

But analyzing Noan’s character was even more difficult than Dick’s because Noan’s character was highly performative, with his image and displayed personality changing with the environment.

Sometimes, his stance would change drastically with the setting, and his statements would not corroborate one another.

He was like a person carrying a huge bag of masks, choosing one suitable for each scene from the bag to put on.

To analyze his character, one needs to remove his masks and find the commonalities across different scenarios.

Doing such work required a large amount of effort, and with the current level of artificial intelligence, it was not possible to simulate and discern personality with such finesse; the assistance it could offer was minimal.

However, He Ao had Super Memory, and under its effects, his brain rapidly processed and deduced information, finding the commonalities in all the data.

As images and conversations overlapped, He Ao gradually pieced together some of Noan’s character traits.

Noan liked adventures, and when exploring dangerous areas, he would be the first to enter. Beyond that, he also enjoyed stirring up trouble, "accidentally" using words to provoke conflicts between two people, then smiling and playing the peacemaker as they argued.

In addition to this, he enjoyed lying and relying on lies to tease others.

Not everything he said was necessarily true.

Of course, if someone teased him with lies or encroached on his interests, he would definitely retaliate, he was not as ’forgiving’ as he appeared to be.

At that moment, He Ao’s wristband vibrated, it was a message from Christos.

[Commander Noan of South City’s Talent Sequence is ’Talent Sequence 72: Secret Mage’, with the preceding Talent Sequence likely ’Talent Sequence 40: Magician’, whose ability manifests in the control of fire.

Commander Dick of North City’s Talent Sequence is ’Talent Sequence 160: Warden’, with the preceding Talent Sequence unknown.]

At the end of the message, there was a one-time video link, which showed a battle video of Noan, South City’s commander.

In the video, he was fighting a massive Two-Headed Hound Exotic Beast.

The video was short, just a few seconds. In it, Noan swung his arms, and a huge fireball fell from the sky, striking the exotic beast.

At the same time, the beast counterattacked, its sharp fangs biting toward Noan, tearing his Combat Suit and leaving a gash that revealed blurred, crimson flesh.

The video ended abruptly there, followed by an introduction of Noan where he claimed his ability was Talent Sequence 72: Secret Mage, and the prerequisite Talent Sequence was ’Magician’.

The video then switched to another segment, showing a stern-faced man facing a wolf-like exotic beast, lightly lifting his hand.

A giant black iron box appeared abruptly, confining the wolf-like exotic beast inside.

Then, as he released his hand, the box vanished, leaving nothing but the mangled remains of the wolf-like beast. This was followed by a similar self-introduction.

This man was Dick, the commander of North City, who claimed his transcendent ability was ’Talent Sequence 160: Warden’.

This must have been some sort of ability introduction video.

Christos shouldn’t have sent him these videos, he must have crossed a line.

After pondering for a moment, He Ao replied briefly with a [Thank you] and then deleted all the message records.

He ended his Super Memory, glanced at the high wall, and stood up slowly.

He had roughly worked out the issues that might arise, but he was still missing the final piece of the puzzle.

Reasonability.

He lacked the reasonability of the event’s occurrence. Although various clues hinted at the possibility of the event, and now was the best timing, neither party had a reason to initiate it according to He Ao’s calculations.

It was as if an archer stood opposite He Ao, bow drawn and ready.

But He Ao didn’t know who the target was.

Theoretically, there was one most obvious target, but the most obvious might not be the most real.

He Ao was still missing the final piece that would allow him to understand the real intentions of the person behind the scenes.