The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 208: Chapter 207: Decryption

Unlike receiving the “Black Umbilical Cord” from Lene Histera, which was instantly recognized and fused into the body upon contact and could be detected through gentleman’s clothes for related attributes,

the “Madman’s Box” before him,

had it not been for the product information inscribed inside the Golden Box, he wouldn’t have been able to access any information at all, not even able to discern whether the object was a Relic.

Reaching out to touch, a sensation both soft and firm like touching the back of a slender girl’s hand transmitted to the fingertips.

Hiss—a silk thread born from Gentleman’s Skin emerged from between the sleeves, attempting to touch and decode the magic cube’s information, when buzzing!

A force field burst forth, flinging the silk thread aside and at the same time violently shattering Yi Chen’s right hand, breaking all five fingers.

The magic cube seemed like an independent organism, bouncing back into the Golden Box by the reaction force.

“This… it seems I can only proceed with normal decryption.”

Clang—the chain links, the umbilical cord nourishes.

The finger bones were rapidly repaired and connected, and he gripped the magic cube in his hand again.

Yi Chen did not start meddling aimlessly but observed first.

“Little Grape, deeply integrate.”

“You want to deeply integrate right from the start? Alright then.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ɴονǤ0.сο

Little Grape, in a perfect diving motion, swam towards the brain area, his mouth containing the eyeball sprouted at the front of the brain, significantly enhancing vision.

Filtering out all environmental materials except the magic cube, reaching a concentration level of 100%,

he scrutinized each face’s cerebral grooves, and since his intelligence had reached its limit, Yi Chen could precisely and accurately remember these circuit patterns in his mind.

When he had observed and memorized the patterns on all six sides, these patterns spontaneously combined inside his brain, forming a larger, more complete map of the maze.

A “consciousness connection” formed between Yi Chen and the Madman’s Box, accompanied by a faint pull.

Yi Chen tried to relax slowly, dropping all defenses in his thoughts and followed the pull.

In the blink of an eye, he found himself standing at the start of a giant maze.

The maze walls, as if made of brain matter, shot up to the sky, making it impossible to cheat by climbing over them.

“The patterns on the six sides actually conceal such a vast consciousness maze. If I can reach the center, or exit the maze, would it mean I’ve completed deciphering and decoding the magic cube?

“Mazes, I’m quite good at those.”

Yi Chen had special decryption courses at the Orphanage, including mental training concerning mazes. Moreover, the Orphanage itself was somewhat a sealed maze, and Yi Chen had long grasped the key tricks in navigating through mazes during his multiple escapes.

Half an hour passed,

Yi Chen had reached a deep enough area, even feeling a premonition of about to clear the level.

Standing at a crossroad pinpointing the correct direction, a ‘woman’ suddenly emerged around the corner of the correct path.

She was called ‘woman’ because she wore a white long dress and had a distinctly feminine body shape.

Without any head structure,

over her neck was mounted an oversized brain, approximately a meter and a half in diameter, which she even had to hold with both hands to maintain balance while walking.

The brain appeared to suffer from some sort of inflammation, overall yellowish, occasionally spraying out hot, corrosive yet nutritious yellow fluid from the top.

In her staggering walk, the yellow fluid flowed over the ground everywhere.

Intuition told Yi Chen to absolutely avoid contact with this woman, even attacks using the iron chains were out of the question… because it was very likely that the woman was an independent entity derived from the maze, inherently a part of the maze itself.

If he killed her, it might destroy the real-life magic cube,

Sine the woman blocked the correct path forward in the maze and he couldn’t approach or attack, the only option was to find a way to bypass her.

Think!

Yi Chen immediately constructed the nearby maze routes in his mind, assured that the woman would continue to follow him and began taking detours, successfully maneuvering her to behind him through looping paths.

As the exploration of the maze continued, other similar entities appeared,

even two or three surfaced in succession; if he couldn’t devise a correct detour in time, he would be completely trapped.

Constantly taking detours, sometimes even having to go back to a maze junction he had passed half an hour before to completely bypass all the head-bearing individuals.

Yi Chen’s brain gradually smoked in this process, but he maintained his focus throughout.

I didn’t know how much time had passed, nor how many bizarre creatures spraying brain fluid I had bypassed.

Finally, I arrived at the very center of the maze, and the brain entities that had followed also stopped moving, each embedding their heads into the walls of the maze.

In the center,

the “Madman’s Box”, identical to the one in reality, was placed on the central display stand.

When Yi Chen reached out to touch it, whoosh—a blade engraved with ancient patterns sprung out from within the cube, piercing through his palm.

This pain also pulled Yi Chen’s consciousness out of the maze, returning him to reality.

In the secluded basement,

Yi Chen’s real palm was similarly impaled by the blade,

not a drop of blood was wasted, all of it absorbed by the cube along the engravings on the blade’s surface, even showing obvious sucking actions. It seemed to be performing some kind of ownership ritual, recognizing Yi Chen as its new owner.

Click, click~

Without any external force, the cube began to morph on its own.

Just when Yi Chen thought he had completed all the decryption work, the shape of the “Madman’s Box” finally stabilized into a strangely structured elongated spheroid, thin in the middle and thick at both ends.

Testing with the Gentleman’s Skin still induced a force field effect, unable to retrieve information about the relic.

“Is the Consciousness Maze just the first level of decryption?”

Yi Chen continued his observation, but this time not needing much care.

The surface of the spheroid structure no longer had any brain folds, but was covered with extremely durable bio-metal bars, with a very obvious slot gap in the middle.

When Yi Chen tried to grasp both ends of the spheroid,

whoosh! Spikes grew from both ends, piercing the back of his hand, testing his blood!

If the holder was not Yi Chen, the blood test would fail, and the cube would release a strong force field, shattering the holder’s arm, and if unable to escape, it would self-destruct within seconds.

This meant that the subsequent decryption process could only be completed independently by Yi Chen.

“Structural changes, identity verification. If I’m not mistaken, this Three Attribute Relic corresponds to three different types of decryptions.

The first level, the Consciousness Maze, corresponds to intelligence which I have already successfully passed through.

The current second level corresponds to physique, requiring pure strength to fold it… Let’s try.”

Although Yi Chen’s physique had reached a level of 5+, it was still a bit shy of the true limit.

No matter using iron chains for reinforcement or various forms of leverage, he could not budge the rectangular structure of the cube, and could even distinctly feel that he was just a bit of strength short of bending it.

“The settings on this thing are really cunning, one must reach ‘Limit’ to be able to bend it, and it still requires how long a bend to switch it to the next form.”

Having no choice but to put away the rectangular cube,

just as Yi Chen pondered how to store this spheroid-shaped item, the Golden Box surprisingly adapted to the cube’s new structure, immediately forming a corresponding storage compartment.

Having sorted everything out, he felt a wave of hunger coming from his stomach.

And also because of the excessive mental effort, a strand of sticky brain blood ran out from between his nostrils, urging his body to get some nutritional replenishment.

Looking at the time, he had already spent two days and nights in the basement.

“Better go find something to eat quick, or I reckon I’ll faint from hunger in another hour.”

Putting on his coat and pulling down his hat brim, Yi Chen quickly exited the shop,

his gaze rapidly searching for nearby restaurants when suddenly a figure flashed by his side, even brushing slightly against Yi Chen’s arm.

“Hmm?”

Yi Chen slightly frowned and turned his head to see who was being so impolite.

In his field of view flashed a young man with white hair, walking hurriedly and looking quite familiar.

He suddenly recalled a peer gentleman he had met, a member of another team heading to Holy Grail Mountain.

Iskarion Lottson, belonging to the Magician Association, had suggested that everyone introduce themselves at the dinner table; his white hair and cheerful disposition left a deep impression on Yi Chen, and it seemed that the other party was also skilled in ancient magic.

This white-haired leader’s team had chosen the tougher “Septicemia” route at the time.

“This guy seems a little off…”