The old man furrowed his brows as he thought about the problem. After pondering for a while, he looked at Richard and asked, "Have you ever heard this saying?"
"Knowledge is the most precious wealth and the most powerful force in this world. Those who grasp it will find their path always advantaged."
"I’ve never heard that. But I have heard ’knowledge is power,’ which must be similar."
"Uh, that makes things much easier. I admit, I can’t have others give you benefits, but I can provide benefits myself. Though many of my memories are blurred, some knowledge has remained. If you can successfully resurrect me, I can teach you that knowledge, how about that?"
"That seems very economical." Richard nodded in agreement. "However, I am worried about one thing, what if you go back on your word after I successfully resurrect you?"
"My character, you can trust it, I do not break promises," the old man said earnestly.
"Considering we’ve only been in contact for a mere fifteen minutes and I know nothing about your past—not even mentioning that you aren’t completely clear about your own past—I feel that doesn’t provide any guarantee."
"I..." The old man paused, fell silent for a while, and then asked, "Then what do you want me to do?"
"My thought is that you first impart the knowledge to me, and then I’ll resurrect you. After all, each method of resurrection requires a significant investment, and I need to ensure that I am not at a loss before I take action," Richard explained.
"But... how then can you assure me that after I give you the knowledge, you will definitely resurrect me?"
"In fact, I can’t assure that," Richard said calmly. "Just as I told you earlier, our contact has been too brief and we are completely unaware of each other’s backgrounds, so promises hold no meaning. If it really came to making a promise, it would be like gambling. And in gambling, I always prefer to be in a position where I am not likely to lose. That’s why I made my previous request."
"So you’re saying that we are at a deadlock?" the old man asked.
"You could say that."
The old man suddenly became anxious: "Won’t you reconsider? You should know, after you resurrect me, what I can give you isn’t just knowledge, but also my wisdom! I tell you, in my lifetime I was an extremely knowledgeable wizard, capable of helping you resolve various issues."
"Then, shall we do a test?"
"There is a puzzle," Richard said. "There exists a creature in the world, which has four legs in youth, two legs in adulthood, and three legs in old age, what is this creature?"
After a moment of silence, the old man became somewhat angrily embarrassed: "Nonsense, what kind of creature is that? What kind of puzzle is that? You’re just making it up!"
"Then should I ask you about the grand unification theory of the universe or about the value of pi?"
"Never mind." Richard shook his head, dismissing his own idea, and looked earnestly at the old man. "I don’t want to waste too much time with you. I just want to tell you that the so-called wisdom you offer is of no use to me. The true wisdom I need, you cannot provide.
Of course, I would be happy to hear about some things from your era, but that does not match the cost and risk of resurrecting you. Therefore, our deal is still hard to achieve."
Shaking his head, Richard seemed to have lost interest.
The old man was panicking and couldn’t help but say, "Don’t, kid! Actually, I can also remove many other things for you besides knowledge and wisdom. For example, if you really resurrected me, it wouldn’t take long for me to recover some of my combat power, and then I could help you attack the enemy together. Think about it, an ancient death mage fighting alongside you, how prestigious that would be!"
Richard looked deeply at the old man.
The old man felt a shiver under his gaze, "What’s wrong, don’t you agree with what I said?"
"I’ll tell you a story."
"Once there was a programmer, uh, a bricklayer, who went to the river to bathe and suddenly encountered a frog. The frog jumped in front of him and told him that she was a princess cursed by a witch. If he kissed her, she would turn back into a princess, and to thank him, she would be his pretend girlfriend for a day.
The worker refused and directly put the frog into a bag. The desperate frog kept jumping inside the bag and raised the stakes, saying if he kissed her, after she turned back into a princess, she could be his girlfriend for a month and allow him to kiss her again.
The worker still refused, and the frog increased her offer again, saying if he kissed her, after she became a princess, she could be his girlfriend for a year, and he could do anything he wanted with her. Yet, the worker still refused."
As Richard told the story, the old man was enchanted and couldn’t help asking, "Why?"
Richard said, "The princess turned frog was also puzzled and angrily asked the worker why. The worker told the frog that he already had a lover and didn’t need a princess as his girlfriend. Compared to that, a talking frog was much more rare; he could take it around and perform with it to make a fortune."
After Richard finished the story, the old man was stunned, and after a while, he skeptically said, "You don’t mean to say, I... am that frog? Are you... insulting me?"
"Actually, I just want to tell you again: I really don’t need what you offer, and what I do want from you, you can’t provide. I haven’t thought about forcibly exploiting what remains of your value, that’s being fairly kind. So...don’t bother me again until you’ve changed the terms of our deal."
After Richard finished speaking, he walked straight to the control panel and busied himself, leaving the old man hanging.
The old man was silent for a long while, feeling somewhat insulted and shouted loudly, "Hey, kid, are you saying that I owe you a favor now? I’m telling you, I am indeed a powerful wizard, you better be polite to me. You better..."
Two objects were suddenly thrown by Richard and landed on the table beside the old man, interrupting him.
The old man looked and saw a book and a Golden Mask with tooth marks.
"What are these?" the old man asked, puzzled.
"In a sense, they can be considered your companions," Richard answered without turning back, "Specifically, they are containers harboring souls.
The Golden Mask with a tooth mark contains a soul about as old as you, but after I asked a few questions, it seemed to provoke some reactions and then there was no more sound.
On the other side, the ’Monroe Chapter’ of the Wizard Book also has a Book Spirit; I asked him some questions, which seemed to have exceeded his cognitive limit, and he too became unresponsive.
By the way, just to mention, that question I tested you with earlier—what creature walks on four legs, two legs, and three legs, was actually asked by the Book Spirit. The answer is quite simple; it’s a human.
That’s about it, I showed them to you as a reminder not to mess with me, not to try and become the third similarly silenced entity."
"I..." After hearing this, the old man’s face completely changed. He glanced at Richard as if he had seen a ferocious beast and gasped in horror, "Who... who exactly are you?"
Richard shrugged and did not answer. He took out the Devil’s Horn Powder given by Sande from the Space Iron Ring and began researching.