A Madman’s Guide to Chapter 29: So in the End, You Really Do Need an Inventory S

South District, Flora Restaurant.

More than half an hour had passed, and Samuel and Celt had pretty much finished eating.

Samuel's pace was a bit faster, finishing two or three minutes earlier than Celt. He was currently leaning back in a high-backed chair upholstered in thick velvet, that hefty *The Lunatic's World Travel Guide* hovering over his open left palm, seemingly weightless.

The Travel Guide flipped pages silently, back and forth, no one knew what it was doing.

Celt, sitting across from him, seed much slower.

He elegantly placed the last small piece of short rib into his mouth, then set down his knife and fork.

Seeing Celt put down his utensils, Samuel lifted his gaze.

"Finished?" Samuel asked with a smile.

"Mhm, pretty much done." Celt's tone seed a bit weary, and the tiny, occasionally flickering stars in his golden vertical pupils also appeared dimr.

He picked up the neatly folded, soft white linen napkin beside him and gently dabbed his lips.

"What's up with this?" Samuel's right hand twisted a few tis as if boneless, then suddenly split open. "Feeling down?"

Without warning, without a pained expression, that slender, knuckled hand split down the middle, beginning a silent boiling, twisting, proliferation.

Within seconds, that human hand had transford into several colorful, flexible tentacles shimring with a faint pearlescent sheen.

"No." Celt paid no attention to Samuel's tentacles at all, shaking his head with a smile. "Just feeling a bit tired, that's all."

"Is that so? So, what do you plan to do later? Keep wandering around outside? Or head straight back?" Those tentacles continued to morph and reshape, their tips turning into various forms.

"I'll go back and rest a bit. It's noon, I want to go back for a nap." Celt closed his eyes briefly, raising a hand to pinch his temples. "This body isn't much stronger than an ordinary person's. After losing the energy supply from the main body, I feel especially prone to fatigue."

The tentacle tips continued to change shape as Samuel explained for Celt, "Probably because there are too many Law Rhys and Law Marks, the energy consumption is relatively high."

"I just checked the notes. Generally speaking, aside from 'special Law Rhys' that are innate or arise under certain circumstances, ordinary Law Seekers don't have Law Rhys; you need to be a Law Contemplator for that. Hmm... the two of us are probably so kind of accidental product."

"Two Law Rhys should put quite a burden on the body. Drowsiness and a big appetite are common symptoms."

Soon, the tips of the tentacles Samuel's right hand had transford into gradually beca a small hamr, a high-speed spinning drill bit emitting a buzzing sound, a carving knife thin as a cicada's wing, and even a tiny probe with a suction cup at the end, constantly secreting so transparent, sticky fluid.

These tools landed on the travel notebook in Samuel's left hand and began tapping, cutting, and drilling.

So of these tools had eyes growing on them, allowing Samuel to know what the tools were doing without looking.

"There's actually such a limitation?" Celt pinched the spot between his eyebrows, his voice tinged with helplessness. "Tsk, if I'd known, I would have taken one less Morning Star."

"Just think of it as being hit with a fatigue debuff," Samuel said nonchalantly.

Still a one-life speedrun on hard mode.

"Then you should head back early to rest. I still want to wander around outside a bit more," Samuel replied. The tapping and clattering sounds from his hands gradually ceased.

He raised his right hand, transforming the entire arm back to its original state. Those unsettling tools rapidly retracted and reshaped, becoming that slender, knuckled human hand again in the blink of an eye.

Raising his right hand, he casually waved, signaling a nearby attendant to co over. "Hello, the check, please."

The mont the waiter approached, *The Lunatic's World Travel Guide* supported by Samuel's left hand once again automatically floated up. Its pages rustled as they flipped rapidly, finally settling on a specific page.

Now, its pages were no longer completely empty. The page it settled on depicted several banknotes and a few scattered coins. The notes were stacked from smallest to largest denomination, from one sien to 20 yur, layered together, then fanned out like a hand of cards. The coins weren't stacked but simply scattered around, of various denominations.

The drawing was incredibly detailed, even allowing one to see the texture of the paper fibers and the slight raised texture of the ink.

It was like a soft pane of glass, through which one could see real objects.

Beside it were two annotations, one in larger font, one smaller.

[Item Introduction: Sien and Yur: These are probably so kind of miraculous alchemical items, right? Possessing the alchemical principle of equivalent exchange, they can be exchanged for almost anything. They don't seem very suitable as hidden weapons, though.]

[Money... money... money... Money isn't omnipotent, it can't buy everything, but everything you need is tied to it.]

"I added an inventory backpack function to it," Samuel explained with a laugh, his tone relaxed. "A player setup without a backpack is subpar."

His right index finger lightly brushed over the "drawn" twenty-yur banknote pattern on the page.

Where his fingertip passed, the pattern on the page rippled like water. Two pale grayish-gold 10-yur banknotes simply materialized between his index and middle fingers. "Here's 20 yur, keep the change, the rest is your tip."

The male waiter's eyes imdiately widened. He subconsciously pointed at himself, then looked down at his own body, sowhat hesitant.

"Shoo, shoo, shoo, don't overthink it," Samuel waved his hand.

"Also, please bring our canes and hats over, thank you."

"Yes, sir."

The waiter imdiately concealed the joy in his eyes with a deep bow.

He extended both hands to receive and accept the banknotes. "Thank you for your generosity, sir. You are truly a respected gentleman."

He subconsciously ignored the words Samuel spoke while chatting with Celt and the miraculous act of taking money from a picture in a book. He focused solely on the fact that he had received a 4-yur tip today.

His weekly salary was only one yur and forty sien. This single tip alone could cover nearly half a month's wages.

Without further attention to the waiter, Samuel continued his casual chat with Celt.

"It can probably also serve as an item identification function, since it seems to have cataloged almost all the books within the Kingdom of Liastan." Samuel turned the book around, showing the "Sien and Yur" page to Celt.

"You seem to have installed so weird language systems into it," Celt glanced at it.

"What's weird about it?" Samuel said matter-of-factly. "That's exactly the flavor I wanted."

"Speaking of which, can this Travel Guide be copied?" Celt asked, lowering the hand pinching his brow. "It might be a bit troubleso if we both need this book at the sa ti."

"Hmm... That's a good point." Samuel propped his chin on one hand. "That seems slightly difficult for

right now. After all, I haven't fully figured out the manufacturing principles of this book. Completely replicating it might be a bit challenging..."

"After all, this thing wasn't handmade by

either. I've had it for less than 4 hours, and my understanding of it isn't very thorough yet. Need to research it more."

"Oh, speaking of which, we've only been in this world for four hours, huh? It feels like we've been here a long ti, like a full twenty-four days."

He pressed his index and middle fingers against the corners of his mouth, making them curl up slightly. While thinking, he aimlessly let his thoughts wander, looking around the restaurant.

His gaze swept aimlessly across the restaurant interior, passing over the polished marble pillars, the silver candlesticks wiped spotlessly clean, finally settling on the large, intricately vine-patterned glass window beside him.

The afternoon sun filtered through the glass, casting bright patches of light inside the restaurant. The windowpane clearly reflected the scene inside: several matching tables and chairs, the piano and the pianist, and... himself by the window seat, holding the Travel Guide.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him.

"Oh, I've got it."

He lowered the hand propping his chin, raised the Travel Guide with his right hand towards the window, creating a reflection on the glass. Then he extended his left hand to touch the glass window.

Sothing strange happened.

His palm wasn't blocked by the hard glass. Clear, silvery-gray ripples spread across the window. His hand sank into a layer of viscous rcury as if probing into water, passing through the glass without hindrance, and grabbed the Travel Guide reflected in the window.

"Lend it to

for a bit, I'll return you a new one later," Samuel said politely.

He was as casual as if greeting a neighbor.

Then, he nodded to himself, making the reflected self in the glass logically nod as well.

"Thank you, you're so easy to talk to."

He released his right hand and simultaneously withdrew his left.

The real Travel Guide continued to float in mid-air after Samuel let go, but the reflected copy of *The Lunatic's World Travel Guide* in the glass was taken out by Samuel.

When he pulled his hand out of the glass, he was holding an entire *The Lunatic's World Travel Guide*, while the reflected self in the glass now held nothing.

He casually tossed the new Travel Guide to Celt across the table, then reached out again to take hold of his own Travel Guide. He waved it at the glass once more, and the reflected self in the glass once again held the book.

"See? Borrow and return promptly, and borrowing again won't be difficult." He gently tapped the glass with his fist, treating it as a fist bump with his mirrored self.

Celt caught the Travel Guide, flipped through it, and felt no difference from the original, identical in both feel and weight.

Theoretically, a mirrored book should be completely reversed, but it didn't matter. When the book passed through the mirror, it had to reverse again, becoming an exact replica.

"Can the things inside be copied over too?" Celt asked offhandedly while flipping through it.

"What nonsense are you talking about? How could a mirror reflect what's inside a sealed box? Don't you have any basic physics common sense?" Samuel looked at Celt with disdain, not understanding why his clone had beco so stupid after leaving the main body.

"Does simply taking a mirror image out of a mirror align with physics common sense?"

"Why get rigorous now of all tis?"

"You mind your business? I said no, so no." Samuel raised his head proudly.

Celt shook his head and continued flipping through the new Travel Guide. "But there really seems to be stuff inside it."

"Of course there is, because the backpack is connected." Samuel fanned himself with the thick Travel Guide. "It's like a warehouse with two doors. Going in from either side leads to the sa stuff."

"Of course, if sothing is taken from one side, the other side can't get it anymore."

"I see." Celt casually picked up the nearby *Harvest Scripture* and placed it on a blank page of the travel notebook. "That's quite convenient then. Can be used as a delivery service."

Effortlessly, the Harvest Scripture rged into the paper, quickly becoming a clearly defined image, with an item description generated beside it.

[Item Description: *Harvest Scripture*: A thick cover, a few sheets of paper, so descriptive text—this is the spiritual anchor for so people. Whether the content in the book is true or false isn't important. What matters is that it can indeed bring people hope.]

[The wheat ears bow low, the granaries overflow; O good child of man, the land shall surely reward you with a golden kiss.]

"So this travel notebook can do color illustrations? I thought it only had black and white."

With a crisp *snap*, Celt closed the travel notebook.

"The book's color isn't pure white either," Samuel shrugged. "I feel it's slightly yellowish."

"Artificial aging, makes it look more high-class."

The waiter had by now brought over their hats and canes from the coat rack by the entrance.

"Gentlen, your canes and hats."

"Thank you," Celt took his own cane and the bowler hat hanging on it, casually removing the hat and placing it on his head.

Leaning on his cane, he stood up, straightening his clothes which had developed creases from sitting for a while.

"After you go back, look around the room, find the little toys I made and put them in the book. You know where they are," Samuel reminded him. "If you see anything you like, put it in a different compartnt. I'll process it when I have ti."

During the ti Celt was out strolling, Samuel hadn't been idle either.

He wasn't the type who could stay idle. If he fell into prolonged boredom, he would slowly lt into a puddle of goo, becoming a sleeping beauty, waiting for new fun to kiss him awake.

After simply adapting to the ability of dual-line operation, Samuel, determined to turn himself into a schizophrenic, simultaneously started crafting "toys."

This was the ability of the "Toymaker" Law Mark. He was quite curious about what improvents he had gained in this aspect in this life.

"You're going to take them out to sell?" Celt easily guessed Samuel's intention.

"Joy shared is joy doubled," Samuel's lips curved upward. "It's no fun playing alone."

"True." Celt nodded, turned, and left, heading towards the restaurant's main door.

Right at that mont, the piano music stopped.

Samuel's ears twitched slightly. He turned his head to look at the pianist Falson not far away.

After a brief mont of thought, his eyes rolled around in their sockets.

"Hmm... I suddenly have a pretty good idea."

A mischievous sche is being generated.