The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 273

“Are you sure? This is the compensation you want?”

Imogen, not believing it, confirmed again.

“Absolutely sure.”

Ciel’s expression instantly turned serious. Then she took out a pen from her pocket and said, “Do you need to sign a contract?”

“…No need.”

For some reason, the other party’s sudden change in attitude made Imogen feel a little more relaxed.

It felt like being back in the Society of Merriment.

“If this is entirely a mass memory disorder created by the ‘Nightmare’ ability, there’s really no way for others to use it,”

Imogen thought for a moment about what she could and couldn’t say, then continued, “But this was created by that esteemed individual using my flesh and blood…”

Ciel listened intently. Soon, she understood why she had been subjected to such terrifying influence upon entering the simulation.

She did want to play with this ability, but the main reason was to ascertain what kind of sealed artifact or transcendent item this ability was, so she wouldn’t be caught off guard if she encountered it in reality.

According to Imogen’s introduction, this wasn’t a sealed artifact. Instead, it was a “modulator” created through the cooperation of two Tier 4 transcendents.

This was a special transcendent item born from the fusion of the Tier 4 “Calamity Apostle’s” bewildering potion, a subsequent development of the “Poison Master” path, combined with the Tier 4 “Nightmare’s” memory manipulation.

At this moment, this item was directly placed before Ciel.

It was a strange sandbox encased in transparent glass. The sandbox was circular and palm-sized, but the fine sand inside meticulously carved out almost the entire architecture and appearance of Ansu City. There were even dense, different-colored grains of sand wriggling within, seemingly representing different people.

“The emitters have been placed in various locations by me. This is the control terminal,”

Imogen pointed to the sandbox before them and explained:

“The emitters will continuously release bewildering potions etched with the ‘Nightmare’ ability. And I can directly control the released hallucinatory mist through the control terminal, adjusting the release amount.”

“If there’s any memory that needs to be modified, I just need to modify it for one ordinary person who has inhaled the mist. The modified memory will then spread like a virus, and all infected people will have their memories and common sense synchronized and altered.”

“If there’s anything you want to… play with, I can help you modify it.”

Ciel looked at the sandbox before her with a hint of contemplation in her eyes.

The fact that the other party dared to place these items before her indicated that these items were actually not important.

The real key was the potion formula in the “emitter” and the Tier 4 “Nightmare’s” own ability to alter common sense. The so-called “emitter” and “control terminal” were merely auxiliary items.

Essentially, this was just a fusion technique combining the Tier 4 “Calamity Apostle’s” bizarre infection ability and the Tier 4 “Nightmare’s” common sense alteration ability.

Ciel herself had experimented with fusion attempts between different transcendent paths, such as “Coroner” and “Queen Bee.” They usually produced unexpected combined effects.

She probably got infected by the bewildering potion released from the “emitter” the moment she entered the simulation, which caused her common sense to change… Since this infection itself didn’t directly destroy or damage Ciel’s memory, only made Ciel subconsciously forget the original and remember the new, it didn’t trigger a defensive counterattack.

Later, when Imogen attempted to directly attack her mind, she sensed the existence of a defensive counterattack and forcibly stopped her attack.

And 【Calm Mind】 only ensured that Ciel continued to think, but what was thought based on incorrect memories was inherently incorrect.

If the “Subverter’s” ability was to make people collapse in illusions of uncertain truth, then “Nightmare” was to make people subconsciously believe in a false worldview and live without noticing it…

As long as it didn’t intentionally twist consciousness against human instinct—such as suicide—it wouldn’t trigger the infected person’s awakening and thus a counterattack.

However, the knowledge or “common sense” in Ciel’s mind somewhat exceeded the modifier’s own imagination—Ciel possessed the worldview and memories of her previous world. With the help of 【Calm Mind】, by cross-referencing and thinking, it was easy to find many unreasonable points.

When there were enough unreasonable points, Ciel would directly “self-reset,” clearing the incorrect memory cache and re-examining this world—because this was just a simulation.

“Interesting.”

Ciel gently clapped her hands, as if praising the other party’s creativity in transcendent abilities.

“Before, I only thought about inserting bacterial gene fragments into viruses to try and create ‘new species,’ hatching new infections and parasitic life forms… I didn’t expect that combining it with ‘Nightmare’ could actually create something so interesting… A virus carrying memories for memetic infection… this can already change the world.”

Ciel held her right elbow with her left hand and pinched her chin with her right, muttering to herself.

But her words reached Imogen’s ears, which made Imogen pause.

No?

How could that first idea be more terrifying?

The destructive power of memetic infection is not high. It exists more for a certain purpose. And after the task is completed, if the subsequent conclusion inevitably collapses, everyone will awaken and fall into chaotic memories—of course, this scene is very spectacular.

But the method of hatching new parasitic infections that young girl named Ciel mentioned earlier… that is truly changing the world, isn’t it?

To some extent, this can even be considered creating new life!

Suddenly, Imogen remembered the desolate Ansu she had once seen in the young girl’s memories, covered in terrifying bloody mycelium, and those towering flesh and blood demon pillars…

Was this the future that this young girl named Ciel envisioned in her mind?

I just want to play in Ansu. You really want Ansu to die, don’t you?