——It must have been a premonition.
Or rather, consider that the part about the future was the premonition.
Annan made his decision quickly.
He didn’t want to avoid it—he believed that Frederick wouldn’t want to choose to escape, either.
After all, at the end of both tilines, "Frederick" was already close to death.
If you don’t know how to choose, think about how the owner of the body would act... then just follow his will.
Whether Annan avoided it or not, he would probably die anyway.
If this was Frederick’s mory before his death, then even if he had dodged the axe flying towards him, how would he face that "Justus who chose to betray" if he chose to run away when facing Ingrid?
That would probably be the Justus from another tiline.
And if the dream of the empty street that Frederick had before was just a premonition that appeared in his mind after reading that book...
Then perhaps if Frederick, who had advanced to silver rank at a young age, chose to roll away after taking a hit and dodged the falling walls, he indeed would not die from it... at least he would still have a breath left.
He was an idol wizard, a rare healer among wizard professions. He should have the ability to heal himself.
But if that was the case, Ingrid’s fate wouldn’t be any different from what was recorded in history—that was definitely the wrong path.
...And Annan didn’t know any idol school spells, either.
After all, he wasn’t the real Frederick, that genius idol wizard.
"Was it a dream... or did I awake from a dream?"
If possible, Annan actually wanted to try the possibility of "both sides are real" or "both sides are dreams."
But ti was of the essence.
The wind wrapped around the axe was so sharp it seed to cut his cheek; the pain from the falling rocks hitting his back was just as real.
Which side should he believe in?
Annan also didn’t know how to choose the third path out of the two options "dodge" and "do not dodge."
Pure idol school silver-ranked wizards obviously didn’t possess spells that could resolve the imdiate disaster—if it were Sculpting or the Decree School, perhaps they might have a chance to struggle.
But no matter what, Annan didn’t know those kinds of spells... and Frederick was a pure idol school wizard. Their family, in order to maintain purity, wouldn’t allow them to learn spells from other schools. Even in childhood, they wouldn’t et anyone, wouldn’t talk to anyone, and couldn’t learn practical knowledge.
The fear was to damage that "divinity."
...Could it be that I’ve entered a mousetrap?
Was I not supposed to enter this alley? Is this a false path?
Is it that once I’m in, there are only two choices left?
Various guesses crossed Annan’s mind.
But in the end, he still did not move an inch.
——Since there is no choice, then choose the path that would not bring sha to Frederick.
About fifteen seconds passed after the world had turned dim and the flow of ti slowed to a crawl...
A huge rock fell from the sky and struck his back with a thud in the quiet, muted world.
Then, Annan’s vision finally went black.
"...Ughh."
Annan awoke with a start and opened his eyes.
He found himself lying on the couch, with the summary data flashing before his eyes.
[Nightmare Purified]
[Purify the nightmare with a designated identity, evaluation increased]
[Purify the nightmare on the first attempt, evaluation significantly increased]
[Comprehensive evaluation——B]
[Gained 2800 common experience points, Perception 1]
[Received dungeon clearance reward: Adaptability of Elent (Understanding) 5%]
[Current soul elent awakening depth: Radiance (100%), Wisdom (47%), Beauty (24%), Strictness (16%), Glory (11%), Understanding (5%)]
[Hidden Elents Unlocked: 33%]
No decryption reward obtained.
A B-level evaluation... This is the lowest rating among all the nightmare instances Annan has cleared.
—This ans he definitely took the wrong path.
This should be an NE, which is a normal ending. If he hadn’t run away at the previous choice due to the fear of death, maybe he would have triggered a BE—the bad ending.
"...Strange."
Annan rubbed his temples and sat up from the sofa.
The first two clues weren’t used at all.
Though he cleared it and it should be considered a win.
But in reality, Annan knew that he had lost this ti.
...But where was the real path?
From when did he start going down the wrong branch?
There must have been divergence points earlier too.
But everything before seed so logical. Annan went straight down a path very smoothly.
It’s just not like the last part, where he was given fifteen seconds to think. Instead, it made him take a natural turn into a fork in the road while he was playing as Frederick.
Or is it that he shouldn’t get too into character in this nightmare?
Annan saw Nefer Tower, lying on the table, suddenly shudder violently, and knew she probably just woke up from a fright.
So he shook his still sowhat groggy head, walked over, and gently tapped her awake, "You awake, Miss Nefer Tower?"
Nefer Tower looked up in confusion.
This was the first ti Annan had seen the expression of an ordinary person after purifying a nightmare... it was like waking up groggy.
The mont she looked at him, there was a flash of residual fear and astonishnt in her eyes. Followed by bewildernt about why she would make such a connection.
"...I think I had a dream," Nefer Tower said hesitantly as she looked at Annan, "in the dream, it seed like you died. But that wasn’t you..."
"Do you rember anything from the nightmare?"
Annan asked Nefer Tower, "Any detail will do."
When he was playing as Frederick, she should have also been playing as Justus in the nightmare. Her perspective and information should be different from his.
Nefer Tower rubbed her eyes.
Then she placed her hand on her forehead and tried to concentrate with a frown, "I can’t rember much. After waking up, my mories faded fast. I only rember that I felt strange in the dream..."
"Even a fragnt is good."
Annan added with a light laugh, "Don’t worry about misleading . I’ll verify it... you just need to provide your opinion."
"I understand. The mission of the wise is to ’pose possibilities’, while the actual conclusion needs to be confird by the wise and the Digger together,"
Nefer Tower nodded and explained softly.
She pondered for a mont, then said uncertainly, "I’m not sure if this mory is real..."
"But I rember, it seed like you died more than once."
Oh?
Annan’s spirits lifted imdiately, "Did I die twice? Once by an axe to the head and once crushed by falling rocks?"
If in Nefer Tower’s mories, Annan had died twice, does that an both incidents were real?
This could completely prove that neither was Annan’s premonition dream, nor his flashback before death—
"...Twice?"
Nefer Tower raised her head in surprise, "Was it two tis?"
"What’s wrong?"
"But in my mory..."
The red-haired, fiery-eyed girl also realized sothing, her brows gradually furrowing,
"—You died three tis, didn’t you?"
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