Robin had joined the Destruction Squad.
How to find out about Penacony's internal conflicts? Find the Clockmaker's Legacy as soon as possible.
How to find the Clockmaker's Legacy? Start slaughtering people in Penacony.
As long as you kill everyone in Penacony, the Clockmaker's Legacy will naturally reveal itself.
Robin thought these people might have a screw loose. But after Stelle had laid out the inner workings and logic of Penacony, she began to suspect that there might be a traitor within The Family.
Not a traitor to The Family, but a traitor among the traitors within the Harmony's Family.
Robin had come here to investigate the betrayal of Harmony within The Family. But after what Stelle had said... Robin was starting to have doubts.
Could it be that there were still some people who leaned toward Harmony, lurking among this group of traitors?
And that the Clockmaker had sent out the invitations through the hands of people like them.
"Our job is simple. In the dreamscape, everyone is practically an atomized unit, but they have no communication with the outside world. So what we need to do is much simpler: make them desire to communicate with the outside world. And the method is very simple: make them realize a very real fact."
"The Family can't protect their dreams! I said it!"
Stelle's gaze was incredibly sharp, as if she were the one who held the life and death of The Family in her hands. She didn't care if The Family was aligned with Harmony or had betrayed it or any of that nonsense.
No matter which Aeon The Family served, didn't they ultimately have to maintain control over Penacony? It was just a matter of which Path's route was better for Penacony.
And these minor details were completely irrelevant to Stelle.
In today's world of increasingly advanced and competitive fishing techniques, anyone without a bit of skill would become the line used to pull the fish. Letting this bunch of bastards dangle bait over her head, Stelle was already being civilized by not cussing them out directly.
The Astral Express had faced numerous crises, and these people just kept playing their boring riddle games in a cloud of ambiguity. They made it sound so easy, saying they couldn't tell her beforehand, saying their interactions wouldn't cause harm.
This was the situation Stelle had faced before she met Noldrei.
But Noldrei was a guy who didn't speak in riddles. What he said and wrote was remarkably simple and straightforward, so much so that she understood it instantly and even knew exactly what choice she should make.
Stelle was gradually beginning to understand the attitude of those riddle-makers from the past.
All that emotion, all that protection, all those riddles—in the end, it was all just to gain a crucial "initiative" over her.
They tried to influence her perception and cognition in the fog, then told her, "This is your freedom of choice." In reality, there was no so-called freedom in the cognitive choices made in such a fog.
But when information is deliberately obscured and controlled, the so-called "freedom of choice" becomes just a tedious information game.
And these guys even enjoyed performing it in front of Stelle time and time again.
Stelle might not have understood the inner workings during her adventures with the Astral Express crew one or two times.
But when she used this method on others, she quickly grasped the essence of it and knew very clearly what she had gone through in the past.
She may not have many past memories, but that didn't mean she was a pure-hearted fool.
"Actually, it's quite simple to make the dream unsustainable. The entire dreamscape is built on Memoria. If we could extract the power of Memoria from the dream, it would be like pulling the rug out from under Penacony. But such an action would consume too much energy. Even I would find it difficult to accomplish."
Acheron didn't really care if the Penacony dreamscape could be maintained. In her eyes, a grand slaughter was pretty much the same wherever it took place.
But to destroy the Penacony dreamscape, that endless supply of Memoria became a real problem that had to be dealt with.
Not a dream problem, but a real, material problem.
"Could the abilities of a Memokeeper solve this?" Acheron asked, a question that had been on her mind.
Firefly thought for a moment. "Memoria is the foundation of the dreamscape. Just like when you cleaved the door open, Acheron, it flows like some kind of fluid, or becomes like foam. In that state, the virtual material structure of the dreamscape becomes ineffective because of the disruption to a person's own cognition."
Firefly had some understanding of things like Memoria. She had experimented with similar methods to solve her physical problems more than once, and Memoria was one of the paths.
"Then can Memoria be consumed?"
Stelle also asked a question. Since there was a substance that was emerging, there must be a way to consume it. It was impossible for Memoria to only increase and never decrease, which meant it must be consumable.
"Memoria... should be under the control of The Family," Robin said, not entirely sure. She knew some things about Memoria. She also knew very well that simply "killing" wouldn't be enough to take everyone away from Penacony; it would only wake them up in the dream.
To reach the path of death in Penacony, one had to borrow another power, one that originated from the Clockmaker, as a guide.
And the Clockmaker's power...
Robin glanced at Stelle. That power was on Stelle, whether it was the chronometer or the power of Clockie.
These were all manifestations of the Clockmaker's infiltration of Penacony.
In other words, if this group took the initiative, they could lead others to the Clockmaker, and thus have a path to obtaining the Clockmaker's Legacy.
"So, which department of The Family controls the consumption of Memoria?"
Stelle looked at Robin and asked.
"The Dreamweavers! The Dreamweaver team!"
Robin nodded affirmatively. "Only a large enough team of Dreamweavers can complete the reconstruction and construction of this Memoria. If we want to find the key to dismantling the Memoria, we need the help of this Dreamweaver team."
"See? This is the benefit of having someone who understands The Family. A method we outsiders would rack our brains for and still not figure out is quickly found by a member of the anti-Family faction." Stelle was very proud of recruiting Robin to her team.
Otherwise, the few of them would probably still be running around like headless flies.
Firefly and Acheron nodded repeatedly in agreement with Stelle. The two of them had already become firm supporters of the Destruction Squad. And how to efficiently complete the "Gotham-ization" of Penacony had become the top priority of their current work.