Chapter 1179: Chapter 1180: A Strange Encounter

The Teapot Building has a total of three floors, with the first thing catching the eye being the entrance hall.

In the hall, a strange scent wafts around, seemingly from some type of plant. Even with Green’s familiarity with over ten thousand odor maps in the Wizard World, he is unable to accurately identify this smell; it’s something beyond the existing maps.

Splish, splash...

In the center of the hall lies a pool, with a rockery at its core. Atop the rockery stands a two-meter-high lifelike statue of a boy-like creature, from whose lower body a steady stream of clear water flows, splashing into the pool.

Ribbit, ribbit!

A frog at the pool’s edge puffed up its cheeks, and just as Green glanced at it, it leapt into the pool with a splash.

Simba walked over first, while Green’s Truth Mask was full of seriousness; clearly, there was no sign of life, yet the frog—what’s going on!

"Roar, Oblivion Sorcerer, look at these fish!"

Fish?

Amidst the black and white dots and lines structure of the Truth Mask, the pool seemed completely empty, with nothing in it. Yet Simba surely wouldn’t deceive him. Cautiously, Green stepped forward, gazing into the pool, and his Three-Colored Light Eyes widened as his body stiffened slightly.

There really were fish, more than twenty of them!

These fish were about two meters in length, with bodies otherwise not much different from the ordinary carp in the Wizard World. Strangely, these fish have mouths like those of humans, complete with red lips, incisors, canines, molars, and even light pink gums, blowing bubbles on the water’s surface.

"I wonder what these fish taste like."

Simba remarked, reaching down with a lion paw to snatch one up. The bizarre fish squirmed on the stone floor, its tail thrashing madly, scattering foul-smelling droplets everywhere, its big mouth as if pleading not to be eaten.

"Don’t..."

Green was about to stop him, but Simba already took a bite, swallowing the fish that to him was merely a snack, which made a sound like a baby’s cry.

"It tastes great!"

With a splash, Simba grabbed yet another fish.

Greedily devouring, Green shook his head. As a wizard, he couldn’t quite adapt to the behaviors of these primitive, passive-evolution creatures, even after more than a year of exposure.

These weird fish showed no sign on Green’s Truth Mask; they were far too eerie, and without confirming their edibility, Green wouldn’t make any contact.

Hm!?

Green raised his head again, suddenly realizing the boy statue on the rockery seemed different from before, like its head had slightly moved, the gray-green eyes fixated on him, while the water stream from below continued to "splish-splash" into the pool.

He stared at the boy statue for quite a while, locked in a gaze with it in a bizarre atmosphere.

Beside him, Simba seemed addicted to eating the strange fish, continuously consuming them. Green shook his head, intending to call Simba to explore upstairs when suddenly the room’s hanging clock began to "dong" and strike the hour. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Yet, even so, Simba seemed undisturbed.

"It tastes so good, roar, Oblivion Sorcerer, you really should try it; I’ve never tasted anything so delicious."

Simba was ecstatic, while Green swallowed his words, murmuring deeply, "Be careful; although I don’t feel any danger, I feel something’s off about this place."

Saying this, Green walked to the room’s hanging clock alone.

This "dong", "dong", "dong" time-striking clock was layered with a patina of bronze rust, decorated with patterns of indistinct nature, and a cuckoo bird figurine at the top left as if made from a dried living cuckoo specimen, looking vividly lifelike.

And within this clock marked thirty-six time segments, not uniformly distributed, very curious, leaving questions about the world it times, and the rules it obeys.

After researching in front of the clock for a while, Green frowned as Simba still indulged in consuming fish, with no sign of following him upstairs.

"Aren’t you coming up to see?"

Green’s question went unanswered by Simba.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp...

The wooden staircase creaked under foot, supporting Green’s weight as he stepped up ring-by-ring toward the second floor. Meanwhile, the creaking sounds from above eerily blended with Green’s footsteps, seemingly seeking his rhythm. As Green paused, the upstairs creaking halted too.

Huff...

It seemed someone was breathing on the back of his neck, damp and cold, akin to the tricks of the Tower of Decay’s dark stairway in Black Cable Tower Academy.

"Hmph."

He pressed on, moving quickly over the "stomp, stomp" sounding wooden stairs, ascending to the second floor.

The empty room bore only a giant golden lion skin rug, while on the wooden floor an armchair rocked "stomp, stomp". A large frog holding a pipe, droopy-eyed, appeared to be half-asleep.

"Welcome, far-traveled guest. It’s been over a dozen epochs since I last spoke with a stranger."

The large frog spoke while puffing smoke rings.

However, Green stared at the golden lion skin rug on the ground unbelievingly, until he reacted despondently, "Who are you?"

This lion skin rug was clearly Simba’s fur, yet Green wouldn’t accept such absurdity, not even in this so-called Dimensional Esophagus!

"Who am I? Who is me? Is I who? It’s me, who is...?"

As the old frog’s belly kept expanding, seemingly ready to burst, it suddenly scattered into countless little frogs hopping into the lion skin rug, which painfully animated itself with flattened posture.

"Simba!"

Green shouted downstairs with no reply.

"I’m so hungry, Oblivion Sorcerer, I’m really starving..."

The lion skin rug howled desperately, part reprehensible, part mad with hunger, standing upright screeching, "Why won’t you let me eat you? You taste so delicious, why!?"

As the skin howled, the wooden floor slowly revealed a grotesque, twisted smile, somewhat familiar, sparking a distant blurry memory in Green.

This...

This was astonishingly the Viscount Mansion’s Old Housekeeper, a childhood hatred of Green, devoured by Sorcerer Apollo’s red-eyed frog in the Biser City of East Coral Island.

On the floor, this terrifying face laughed sinisterly, watching Green, its sparse hair shaking and sprouting from the floorboards.