After observing for a while, Wen Wen knew where the problem lay.
The old man’s complexion was dark, not because of impending bloodshed or any such nonsense, but because he was very sleepy, much like someone who had stayed up all night at an internet café.
He was so sleepy that he could fall asleep standing still.
Yet, this old man would rather splash cold water on himself or pinch himself to stay awake, unwilling to fall asleep easily.
There could be many reasons why someone wouldn't want to sleep, but Wen Wen was currently investigating a coma case, so his first thought was that this man’s reluctance to sleep was related to the coma cases.
After eating, Wen Wen staggered to the owner, lightly patted him, and then gracefully left the distinctive restaurant in the Aifei district, waiting in a secluded alley.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, the owner walked towards Wen Wen like a puppet. He only snapped awake when he reached Wen Wen.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
In his perception, he had just been in his own shop, and with a blink of his eyes, he found himself in front of Wen Wen.
However, to others, this owner had walked into the alley with a clear mind.
Such a small trick was child's play for Wen Wen now.
“Don’t panic, I just have a few questions for you.”
Wen Wen asked in a deep voice, “You look very tired and desperately need sleep, but why are you resisting it?”
“I just don’t want to sleep.”
The owner thought Wen Wen was crazy, taking him out of his shop for such a trivial matter.
However, the process of him getting here was peculiar, so he didn’t express his dissatisfaction.
“I went out with friends yesterday and didn’t sleep all night, that’s why I’m so tired.”
“There’s a custom in our hometown: no matter how tired you are during the day, you cannot sleep. Otherwise, you will be dragged into hell for punishment.”
The owner said this to Wen Wen in a joking tone.
He knew himself that this custom was a bit ridiculous, but it had become a habit. Therefore, he tried his best to avoid sleeping during the day.
“Cannot sleep during the day, or you’ll be dragged into hell…” Wen Wen frowned. This was the first time he had heard of such a custom. He continued to ask, “Where is your hometown from?”
The owner answered without thinking, “From the Inkos region.”
“The Inkos region…” Wen Wen repeated it a few times and suddenly his eyes lit up. This Inkos region was precisely the location of that mysterious pyramid!
Before the federation was established, the Aifei region was the most backward place, with many primitive tribes. Therefore, some Aifei people still had ancient tribal customs today, customs that might have been passed down from thousands of years ago.
If the customs of the Inkos region were linked with those murals, everything would make sense.
The mysterious deity imprisoned in the pyramid liked to drag people into hell for punishment, but the murals didn’t specify how. They only depicted small figures lying down.
And in the Inkos region near the pyramid, there was a custom of not sleeping during the day, or being dragged into hell.
Therefore, the way that mysterious deity dragged people into hell was most likely through sleep!
The people of the Inkos region, out of fear of that mysterious deity, had this strange custom.
The comatose people in the Mega region were also pulled into ‘hell’ through the same method.
The perpetrator was a Calamity-level expert, which was why no clues could be found no matter how much they investigated.
The appearance of the Sand Sea Priest also corroborated this. His constant search in the Mega region indicated that the mysterious Calamity might be within the Mega region.
This was just Wen Wen’s conjecture, but at this stage, he had no other leads to investigate besides this one, so he decided to follow this line of inquiry first.
After sending the owner back, Wen Wen returned to the local Hunter Association, preparing to tell Moya Di and Mei Fu Na his conjecture. However, as soon as he entered, the two of them came over.
“What, have you finally found something?” Wen Wen asked, raising an eyebrow. Their expressions showed joy, indicating they had made a discovery.
Moya Di happily said, “We’ve made a breakthrough.”
In the past few days, Moya Di and Mei Fu Na had been wearing gloomy faces. Their sudden change in attitude today must mean they had found something.
“Tell me quickly,” Wen Wen urged.
Moya Di smiled and said, “At first, I thought it was an illusion, because there were traces of illusion magic being cast on them. At least the process of sudden sleep was achieved through advanced illusion magic. The traces of illusion magic on them were very faint, only a great illusionist like myself could find some clues.”
Mei Fu Na continued, “And I thought that the other party was using dream manipulation to achieve all this. Firstly, everyone was in a sleeping state, and secondly, the dreams they were having were all harmonious. So I believe it must be advanced dream manipulation.”
“However, both of our theories had some loopholes. Pure illusion magic couldn’t make them sleep so soundly, and pure dream manipulation couldn’t keep the victims in this state.”
“Later, we switched our thinking and stopped fixating on whether it was illusion magic or dream manipulation, but rather on how to achieve such an effect.”
“After repeated experimentation, we finally replicated the state of the coma victims on one person.”
The two led Wen Wen to an adjacent room, where a young man was sleeping.
Wen Wen sensed the young man’s state and found it to be very similar to that of the comatose individuals.
Moya Di pointed to the young man and said, “This is a volunteer. We used him to replicate the coma cases.”
“I used illusion magic to put him into a forced sleep state, and Mei Fu Na pulled him into a deep dream, weaving a personalized dream for him, making it impossible for him to wake up within the dream.”
“Then Mei Fu Na brought me into his shallow dream, and I used illusion magic to conceal the shallow dream, creating the illusion that the victim was in a shallow dream.”
“Afterward, Mei Fu Na and I erased each other’s traces, finally creating such a comatose person.”
“This comatose person’s state is the same as those victims. We have reason to suspect that the perpetrator used this method to create the victims.”
Wen Wen nodded with satisfaction, “Since you have figured out the method to create comatose people, you must also know how to save this one.”
Mei Fu Na smiled and placed her hand on the young man’s head. A moment later, he woke up.
“As long as the dream I wove is destroyed, the person can naturally wake up.”
“So, you can now save the victims of the coma cases?” Wen Wen asked expectantly, wanting to rescue Dillya and Hu Youling first.