The method of clearing the level was confirmed; all that remained was repetitive labor.
Moreover, Delicious Wind Goose found that the "javelin," after a temporal conflict that ignited black flames, had such power... a mere graze was sufficient to annihilate those "demons" and "hellhounds."
At first, Delicious Wind Goose threw the javelin upright one by one, aiming carefully like throwing javelins.
Latter, he simply tossed them carelessly.
Like bowling... whether he hit several depended on fate.
After a few repetitions, Delicious Wind Goose had killed all the enemies one by one.
They couldn’t even see where Delicious Wind Goose was!
Faced with a barrage of question marks, Annan explained to the others, "Have you noticed? When time moves forward, the BGM is played in reverse; but when time flows backward, the BGM plays normally."
If it was just the BGM, that would be fine.
But since the cutscene mentioned that this music was from a "gramophone," and especially one made by the Eye of Lag Michelangelo—a cursed item... Amos even disregarded the cost to use the power of the gramophone to solve his immediate difficulties.
What were his immediate difficulties?
—The police department of Frostwater Harbor sent people to investigate his gallery.
Annan recalled a phrase mentioned in the news:
"—At 2:15 am on March 4th, Chief Hellehem’s investigation team was attacked in the Morrison Gallery. Three officers unfortunately died, and two officers went insane on the spot due to the excessively brutal scene, later dying from severe injuries days after.
"—The assailant was shot dead on the spot, and the body was retrieved by the police department. The identity is rumored to be a mercenary from Marshland, and more details including the number of assailants are currently confidential."
Why hide the identities and numbers of the attackers?
It is completely irrelevant to this incident. Even disclosing their information could better divert people’s attention.
Unless, they don’t know who the attackers are either.
Because the attackers and them are not on the same timeline!
The attacker was one person—he was Amos, launching an attack from the future, backward in time!
Of course, the method Amos used was probably not as blunt as smashing people with a floorboard... he might have used a gun, or something else. Besides, he was in a hurry and failed to kill everyone.
But in essence, it’s consistent—
Because the "demons" killed by Delicious Wind Goose were exactly five in number!
Possibly, they weren’t insane at all.
It might be because the wounds were too abnormal to heal... or it was also possible they were silenced directly.
Should be a police dog.
Because the newspaper mentioned, "pets were previously not allowed inside the gallery."
It also mentioned that the police found Elle’s body fragments inside the gallery.
This means that the operation involved police dogs.
Although this is a "Twisted" level nightmare, and the images of things inside are distorted by personal will, one can still basically make out what they originally were...
The content of this fourth layer of the nightmare is the second latest in the current timeline.
It’s just ahead of the minus first layer.
This story should be about Amos, harboring some tremendous regret, using the Stilled Time’s Gramophone made by the "Eye of Lag" to kill from the future a team of police officers and police dogs dispatched by the Frostwater Harbor police department, through means that couldn’t be detected or avoided.
"According to the patterns in the previous layers..."
Annan murmured, "This level of the replicant role must be playing police."
How the hell can I avoid attacks that come from the future?!
The difficulty outside the gallery hadn’t increased too much.
Yet the challenge inside the gallery was ridiculously escalating with each level.
This only further solidified Annan’s determination that "I must achieve a full-clear on all endings."
After Delicious Wind Goose killed all the "demons" and "hounds," he once again staggered into the CG.
All around Amos, Elle’s layered voices sounded off again:
"Quick, turn off the phonograph, Amos!"
Her sharp and heightened voice revealed obvious fear and loathing, "He’s coming soon!"
As Elle’s voice sounded, the surrounding space began to shimmer with an alarm-like dark red glow.
Amos fell silent for a moment, then turned his head.
Passing through the corridor as if through a layer of bubbles, he crossed the line.
This time, he saw the real midpoint of the T-shaped corridor.
There sat a phonograph with an oddly shaped design.
It had a tulip-like shape for its dark gold brass horn, similar to the phonographs from another world.
But beneath it was not a sealed wooden box.
It was a transparent crystal box.
Inside, there were no vinyl discs, or even anything at all—
Within the crystal box’s interior, there were only two facing mirrors, top and bottom.
The handle, turning slowly with the melodious music, connected to three short needles made of gold, silver, and copper in the middle of the crystal box.
As the handle turned slowly counterclockwise, these three needles also rotated counterclockwise at a synchronized speed.
Seen from the front, it resembled an inverted square clock.
Delicious Wind Goose noticed a few phrases engraved on it:
"If you have regrets, crank the handle. I’ll give you a second chance, a third chance..."
"But there will not be a fourth."
He reached out and touched the phonograph.
In a daze, the item properties appeared before his eyes:
[Stilled Time’s Gramophone (Twelve-Hour Model)]
[Type: Instrument/Tool (Gold)]
[Description: Crank the handle to project your soul into a negative timeline.]
[Effect: Cranking the handle to rotate the clock face clockwise will make the user temporarily enter the state of "Reverse Time Walk" (i.e., temporarily into a time flow that is consistent with but opposite in direction to normal time), with an effect identical to the Prophet & Idol Spell of the same name, for up to twelve hours. In this state, touching any creature with a soul rank weaker than one’s own will instantly obliterate their soul; the reverse will result in the obliteration of the user’s own soul; the user can attack creatures with any ranged remote method, and this attack is considered a sneak attack (absolutely imperceptible) and will not trigger obliteration.]
[Cost: First use grants the Curse Binding "Transferred Misfortune;" second use adds "Deepened Inscription" to the Curse Binding "Transferred Misfortune;" the third use deducts all remaining lifespan.]
[Note: If this cursed object is successfully used to evade an inevitable death, then the user will immediately die.]