Chapter 100
Aivina was taken aback when she found herself back where she started, but seeing the look on Charles's face—one that suggested he might give up at any moment—she quickly spoke up:
"I don’t mind. If you really have nowhere to go, you can sleep in my room for the next few days... My bed is quite big, so you won’t have to sleep on the floor."
Upon hearing this, Charles's expression shifted to one of relief, and he smiled at Aivina. "Thank you, Aivina."
"It’s nothing. It won’t affect me at all; it’s just a small favor."
Aivina shook her head expressionlessly, stepping out of Charles's room. She placed her hand on the doorknob and said, "You can move your things to my room later."
"Wait a second, Aivina."
Charles called out, stopping her in her tracks.
Aivina paused at the door, pushing it open a bit more and looking at Charles. "What is it?"
"Are you planning to invite Adele over tonight to discuss things together?" Charles asked.
In the first simulation, Aivina had called Adele to her home in the early hours of the 21st, and the three of them had discussed matters in the room. The outcome of that discussion was that by noon on the 21st, they would report the cultists hiding in the Dutton Manor to the church.
With Adele leading the charge, Aivina would quickly find High Priest Yulis. However, in the first simulation, the version of herself had an important task to activate the "Gambler" role, and perhaps because of that, she hadn’t recorded Aivina’s invitation for her to share a bed.
In the second simulation, without the "Gambler" task, the simulated version of herself had agreed to Aivina's request just to mess with things a bit, not letting Aivina invite Adele over. As a result, the unsuspecting Charles woke up to find himself in Aivina's bed.
Today was the 20th... and by midnight, it would be the 21st.
Time was indeed a bit tight for Charles.
During this period, Kiti had already begun investigating Adele. Unless something unexpected happened, Adele would likely be captured and brainwashed at Dutton Manor on the 22nd.
What remained uncertain was whether Kiti would still kill High Priest Yulis on the same day without Charles's influence.
Even if Kiti didn’t kill Yulis on the 22nd, once the "Glorious Bishop" from the Holy Light Sect arrived at Dutton Manor on the 23rd, Kiti would have to execute her plan to prove her loyalty and atone for her mistakes in order to survive.
At that moment, Aivina looked at Charles in surprise upon hearing his words.
She... indeed had that thought; she was planning to invite Adele over tonight.
However, after Charles agreed to sleep in her room, Aivina had changed her mind, deciding to visit Adele together with Charles early the next morning.
As expected, Charles always seemed to be in sync with her thoughts.
"I was thinking about it," Aivina nodded, but immediately felt a twinge of regret.
If she called Adele over tonight, it would be a bit awkward to send her away afterward, especially since danger was indeed present.
It was hard to come by a chance for the two of them to be together...
Oh well, if she came, she could just let Adele sleep on the floor.
Although Adele hadn’t done anything wrong, Aivina’s fondness for her had slightly diminished.
"Are you planning to report this to the Goddess of Salvation Church?" Charles continued to inquire.
"I... do have that intention," Aivina nodded.
"When the time comes, you could let Adele report this to High Priest Yulis on her own," Charles suggested after a moment of thought. "Actually, there’s another way to stir the waters even more."
"Stir the waters?"
The phrase clicked for Aivina almost immediately, and she asked, "Dutton Group?"
"Exactly."
Charles nodded. "You could try reporting this matter to the Dutton Group again. If possible, it would be best to drag the Redemption Society into it as well, since Sheren is practically a cultist, and all the crises stem from him."
Hearing this, Aivina couldn’t help but feel a bit ashamed.
While she could have thought of that angle herself, things had happened too quickly, and she had only just received the information. Her mind hadn’t caught up yet.
She had even been thinking about some odd things... In contrast, the calm Charles had grasped the crux of the issue and provided a solid solution.
No wonder he was Charles.
It was his calm and rational demeanor that had always drawn Aivina to him.
"I’ll do my best to reach out," Aivina nodded.
Fortunately, she didn’t voice her admiration, or it would have been Charles struggling to maintain his composure.
After all, this idea had originally come from Aivina; Charles had only thought of the initial plan to kill first.
Since gaining the system, it seemed as if Charles's "wisdom" had been gradually stripped away. Whenever faced with danger, he thought of simulating it rather than avoiding it.
After all, thinking and planning can sometimes lead to oversights, especially when encountering extreme situations that could derail a plan.
But if one experiences the "facts" firsthand and tests all extreme scenarios, it could actually be the most reliable approach.
The more extreme Charles acted in the simulations, the more stable he appeared.
Aivina left Charles's guest room.
Once she was far enough away, Charles let out a slow breath.
The continuous simulations, combined with the repeated summoning of those spiritual beings, had left him feeling somewhat fatigued.
However, compared to the Charles at the beginning, he seemed to have gained a significant boost in mental strength, perhaps due to having advanced to the second tier in the save file.
Now, two choices lay before Charles.
One was to restart a pure simulation, directly drink the "Instigator" potion in the simulation, and after saving the "Instigator" file, reopen it to execute the previous sacrificial plan.
The second was to directly use the "Judicator" file and go in for a killing spree.
But there was a problem.
While the "Judicator" was more aggressive and could easily deal with the extraordinary beings at Dutton Manor—if he ambushed Kiti, the others wouldn’t stand a chance against him—he lacked the "Instigator's" abilities. Just using [Art of Conversation Lv.2] along with the interference of spiritual beings, Charles really wasn’t confident he could intimidate a third-tier "Glorious Bishop."
Dealing with a third-tier opponent, both the "Judicator" and the "Instigator" would likely end up dead; there wasn’t much difference between the two.
The only distinction was that it might be easier for the "Judicator" to kill Kiti.
Charles decided to let the system's randomness make the call.
If the timing could align just right before the "Glorious Bishop" from the Holy Light Sect arrived, and he could meet the "Glorious Bishop" directly, he would choose to use the "Judicator" file and go for a round of killing first.
If there was no chance to see the "Glorious Bishop" during the simulation, he would simply switch to pure mode and drink the "Instigator" potion, saving the file first.
Overwriting the save file of No.1, which had just advanced to "Avenger," wouldn’t increase the first-tier slots in the save file.
Currently, his save files were as follows: No.0 was his real self, No.1 was the initial "Avenger" save, No.2 was the "Judicator," and No.3 was the "Gambler."
If he fell into the new sealed object's side effect of [Time Distortion], the probability of landing on the "Judicator" would be one in four.
If he opened a new save for the "Instigator," the probability of landing on the "Judicator" would drop to one in five.
Overwriting the "Avenger" save would make the side effect of [Echo of the Silver-White Timebinder]—[Time Distortion]—more likely to jump to the second-tier save rather than the first, without inadvertently weakening his combat power.
After finalizing his plan, Charles summoned the system and clicked on the "Simulation" interface.
[Future: 8h (Year 741, June 21, 00:10) (Cost: 10 Fate Points)]
[Past: 10 days (Year 741, June 10, 11:55) (Cost: 10 Fate Points)]
[Old Days: ***, *** Day (???) (Cost: 10,000 Fate Points)]
Seeing this time, Charles let out a slight sigh.
None of the options would get him to 1 PM on the 23rd.
Even simulating further into the future would allow him to see the consequences of letting the simulated version of himself handle everything.
After some thought, Charles decided to choose the future simulation.
The future simulation involved events yet to unfold, and experiencing them again would be beneficial for him.
Although choosing the past simulation wouldn’t have any negative impact, he could still wipe out Dutton Manor, but he would have to use the "Judicator" save.
After all, at that time, High Priest Yulis hadn’t yet arrived in Boren City.
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