Siles listened to the voice in his mind with shock and uncertainty.
It was a real person’s voice. The speaker seemed like a youth because the voice was young and light enough. But the voice couldn’t be said to carry any particular emotion—just instinctive pronunciation and enunciation—making Siles feel the voice’s owner might be very young.
But what truly made Siles uneasy was the content of this statement.
Calling him Keeper and asking him to make a roll? What did it mean? Why would this happen… at this moment?
The next instant, Siles’s gaze fixed on the extraordinarily handsome knight commander before him. Bunyan was patiently waiting for Siles’s answer, without impatience or irritation, as if—frozen.
Yes, as if time had frozen at this moment.
A premonition slowly arose in Siles’s heart. He instinctively glanced out the window and discovered that on what should have been a bustling street, people’s movements and voices had all stopped. The world had become quiet.
The world was waiting for his roll.
Siles instinctively gasped and pulled out from his coat pocket the dice that had transmigrated with him. It still looked the same—ordinary and common. Anyone would think it was just a regular dice.
Siles glanced at it, then gripped the dice tightly. He felt that the premonition lurking in his heart these past few days had come true.
The world he’d transmigrated into had once appeared as the background setting for the tabletop RPG game he’d played. And he had been the game master of that session. Now, this game master identity seemed to have followed along with his transmigration.
But the problem was…
How could such a thing happen? Was this world real? How could he, an ordinary person, a novice Revelator, possibly possess such power?
He gripped the dice tightly, feeling its edges pressing into his knuckles, bringing a sore sensation.
Siles closed his eyes and calmed himself down.
Roll—yes, roll.
On Wednesday, at that book vendor market, after seeing the name of the merchant Lanmere, he discovered a vague feeling arising in his mind.
He could make a roll for anyone present.
That afternoon, in Room 666 of the Historical Society, when he took the potion and entered the brief ritual time—that feeling was strengthened again. He even felt he could designate any of the Revelators present to make a roll.
But that was all a… feeling he could actively choose or even suppress.
It was an impulse. He could indeed make a roll for others, but it wasn’t mandatory, whether for him or for the humans his gaze rested upon.
He could choose to let these humans’ fates proceed along their original paths, or choose to intervene, using the dice roll to create a possible turning point and change in destiny.
But now, he had no choice.
When Knight Commander Bunyan asked him a question, the world fell into a static state—this was a forced roll, and neither Siles nor Bunyan himself had the power to choose.
What was the content of the roll? What was the result?
Siles narrowed his eyes, observing Knight Commander Bunyan, then suddenly understood. The result of the roll lay in whether Bunyan would discover Siles was lying. This was why a Psychology roll was needed.
A Psychology roll could reveal the target’s current emotions, further understand their psychological state, and thus confirm whether they were telling the truth.
Siles certainly hadn’t seen the apostate Hamlin’s figure near Logan Market. This was something he’d fabricated, though he did know Hamlin should be in some corner of the Old City at this moment.
He had indeed lied.
Whether this lie would be discovered by Bunyan wasn’t decided by Bunyan or Siles at this moment, but depended on the result of this roll—that is, the dice number.
In games, numbers determined fate; but when this happened in reality, Siles couldn’t help but feel alarmed inwardly that fate was instead decided by a small dice—truly incredible.
From another perspective, Siles at this moment possessed dual identities.
The first identity was Siles Noel himself, this ordinary novice Revelator, this man about to become a professor of literary history at Lafami University. He seemed to have discovered the apostate’s existence and thus mustered the courage to come to the cathedral to inform the church.
The second identity was Siles He Jiayin Noel, the Keeper who had transmigrated from Earth. He looked down from above, knowing the course and partial truth of the apostate incident, and thus could examine the direction of the scenario and the occurrence of events from a god’s-eye view.
What triggered this roll was Siles’s first identity, but what determined the result of this roll was Siles’s second identity.
Siles thought with mixed feelings—what did it mean? Was he his own sock puppet? The Keeper was actually himself?
He felt the development was truly unexpected—when he left home, he hadn’t thought the outcome of this trip would depend on the dice number!
But perhaps such development was logical.
After all, this Knight Commander Bunyan before him was one of the character cards from Siles’s tabletop RPG game. And he was also the first game character Siles encountered after coming to Fisher world.
A realization arose in Siles’s heart.
Perhaps if he intervened in this apostate incident and encountered those characters from the tabletop RPG game, such rolls would inevitably occur.
He—in a sense—would determine the development of this incident, and even the entire world.
He would be the Keeper of this world.
He would know the truth behind the scenes; he would keep all secrets. He would become—the helmsman of fate.
Siles stared blankly at the face before him that maintained a hint of curiosity, then suddenly smiled bitterly.
That was truly… truly an enormous responsibility and burden.
As a stranger, Siles didn’t know what changes would occur in this world after his intervention. He didn’t even have a deep understanding of this world’s essence.
Yet he had been pushed into such a situation.
Although this was just an ordinary, simple roll now, and Siles even hoped Bunyan would believe him, but… Siles had keenly glimpsed from this dice roll countless major events that might occur in the future.
He couldn’t help but take a deep breath, then turned his wrist and casually tossed the dice into the air.
[Psychology: 70/96, Critical Failure.]
[Bunyan chose to believe this man before him without thinking, partly because of Archbishop Grosvenor’s words, and partly because he believed this man with a composed and calm expression couldn’t possibly lie about this matter—although he had indeed lied.]
The instant the dice landed in Siles’s hand, it vanished like a splash of water merging into the ocean. But Siles knew it was only because this mysterious dice had merged with him.
Before he could react to this, he breathed a huge sigh of relief at the dice number.
Bunyan’s Psychology was actually 70! Such a high attribute—no wonder he was the church’s knight commander. Moreover, it seemed even higher than Siles’s impression of that character card’s attributes—it appeared that in the real world, these characters seemed more real.
Yet he had rolled a critical failure (dice number 96-100), and thus believed Siles without any doubt.
Normally, as the church’s knight commander, even if he was willing to believe Siles’s words, he should have reservations and maintain a more cautious attitude regarding the apostate matter.
But based on various reasons, he unfortunately—or fortunately—completely believed Siles’s words.
After the dice merged into Siles’s hand, the world resumed its operation. Siles was silent for a moment, then spoke about discovering the apostate Hamlin near Logan Market.
Bunyan immediately nodded seriously.
Afterward, he asked for Siles’s contact information to facilitate following up on this matter’s progress. If Siles’s lead proved accurate, then Siles could later receive a substantial social reward.
Siles didn’t hesitate. He first gave the address of 13 Milford Street, then added, “However, I’ll soon move to the staff dormitory at Lafami University. I’ll be teaching there after the semester starts.”
“You’re a professor?” Bunyan said somewhat surprised.
Siles nodded. “Literary history of the Age of Silence—that’s my research focus.”
Bunyan hesitated, then said with some goodwill, “Professor Noel, if you need anything for your research in the future, you can also come to the cathedral to find me. We also preserve many archives and classics here.”
Siles smiled slightly and thanked him for his kindness.
Afterward, Bunyan bid farewell to Siles and hurriedly changed into casual clothes, probably planning to make a discreet inquiry near Logan Market first.
With complex feelings, Siles watched him leave, unsure whether he hoped he would actually find that apostate right now. Perhaps he should find him, but finding this apostate wouldn’t be the end of everything.
Siles lowered his eyes and rubbed his brow, then also left the Central Cathedral.
After this ordeal, not much time had passed, but his energy was considerably depleted. He walked around the neighborhood, then came to Atherton Central Square.
Here, he once again encountered that thin young man carrying a drawing board and wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
He was still standing at the edge of the square, holding a pencil, head down, concentrating on sketching something.
Roughly calculating, this was the third time he’d coincidentally encountered this painter who was suspected to be a Revelator.
Siles had no intention of disturbing his painting. When he noticed him, his gaze casually swept over his drawing board. Then Siles was slightly stunned.
Because what was on the canvas wasn’t what he’d imagined—a sketch of the crowd in the square.
