Endless Debt Chapter 727 - 209: Identity Card

"Why Blue Jay?"

Faced with Cinderella’s question, Ewen was silent for a while, trying to say something several times, but the words extinguished at his lips, as if Ewen couldn’t provide an exact answer either.

"I like birds, especially the Blue Jay. Its plumage is beautiful, and it holds a unique feeling as one of the few blue hues in nature."

Ewen explained to Cinderella. As an author, no matter how mysterious and reclusive Ewen was, he inevitably had to communicate with people. People often asked Ewen this question, so Ewen had long prepared a set of responses to handle such situations.

Cinderella said, "You’re lying."

"Why?" Ewen didn’t understand, "You’ve read my books, you know this, I genuinely love birds, that’s a fact."

Cinderella certainly knew that. In the story of "Night Hunter," Ewen didn’t describe the real names of the hunters but instead used bird names as code names one after another.

In reader exchanges, some suspected Ewen was actually an ornithologist, while others believed Ewen was just too lazy to come up with names and bought a "Bird Anthology," picking random bird names for character naming.

Cinderella furrowed her brows tightly. Ewen indeed seemed truthful, but she still shook her head vigorously, "No, I just feel you’re lying, and you’ve already said it, authors are masters of deceit."

"Oh? Does that mean we’ve switched roles?"

Ewen found the situation amusing, "Earlier, you were deceiving me, now it’s my turn, so guess, which parts are true?"

Cinderella thought for two seconds, her head stiffened, unable to comprehend, her voice raised a few pitches, "Hey! Your pen name, is that it, just that simple?"

"Otherwise? What did you think, it’s so complex?"

Ewen burst into laughter. He loved seeing Cinderella flustered—it was more interesting than fighting.

"After getting off the train, I arrived in a small town. As usual, I worked several jobs, living in a dark, damp basement. Whenever I rested, I began to write. Only after finishing the first manuscript did I realize I needed a pen name."

Ewen recounted his story of creation, "People always say a name is crucial, for a while I agonized over what kind of pen name to choose."

"I thought for a long time, then I noticed a corner of the newspaper; it was a science section precisely discussing the bird species Blue Jay."

Ewen fluently repeated the newspaper’s words, clearly remembering them even after so many years.

"The plumage of the Blue Jay is beautiful, possessing a unique allure rarely seen in nature."

Ewen explained to Cinderella word by word, "I thought, why conform? Why attach meaningless symbolism to a pen name when I could be more whimsical."

Cinderella raised her voice, "So you used Blue Jay as your pen name? Just because of a damn newspaper!"

"Yes, what’s meaningful is not the pen name, the significant part is that moment. If the newspaper had introduced Red Falcon or similar birds, my pen name might very well have been Red Falcon."

Ewen spread his hands, effortlessly shattering all of Cinderella’s illusions about him.

"Do you have anything else you’d like to ask? Something about story plot design, character arrangements?"

Ewen felt addicted to this; watching the girl’s innocent fantasies crumble bit by bit had an indescribable thrill.

"Well..."

Cinderella’s gaze towards Ewen completely changed; sometimes, Ewen seemed more detestable than demons. Demons merely sought to kill, but Ewen aimed to utterly destroy her dreams.

"Such as..."

"Shut up!"

Cinderella threw the half-eaten apple at Ewen. She regretted asking Ewen, wanting to block his mouth before he completely shattered her beautiful fantasies.

Ewen couldn’t stop laughing. He had longed for such interactions with readers, believing it improbable, yet he truly encountered it.

After a while, the room became peaceful again, Cinderella sat on a nearby chair, staring blankly out the porthole. Eventually, she failed to see whales and, like Ewen, was temporarily detained on the Horror.

Ewen remained unnoticed, but Blue Jay wielded a certain social influence and maintained a friendship with Nolen.

It could be said that Ewen’s identity was exceedingly complex, causing the Tide citizens and Special Operations Group to momentarily not know how to deal with him. With matters far more important than Ewen, he was temporarily set aside, calmly recuperating on the Horror, as if forcibly on vacation.

As for Cinderella’s identity, Ewen casually made up a story to brush it off.

Ewen said to the angry Cinderella, "You’re now like my niece, better behave."

When questioned by Bologue and others, Ewen spontaneously concocted this story, unsure of Cinderella’s true identity.

This wasn’t a perfect lie; anyone checking Ewen’s identity relations could easily uncover the deceit, but these Condensers evidently didn’t care.

"What niece!"

Cinderella raised her hand to knock Ewen’s head, but her arm length was far shorter than Ewen’s. Ewen simply raised his hand to hold her head, making her unable to reach him.

Cinderella continued, "I dislike this Identity Card."

"Identity Card?"

Ewen didn’t understand the term. Cinderella often used words he didn’t comprehend, leaving Ewen no choice but to attribute it to generation gap.

"Haven’t you played tabletop games?" Cinderella retorted, "Role-playing Identity Cards?"

Ewen was entirely unfamiliar, "What is that?"

Cinderella paused silently, cautiously inquiring, "Have you heard of ’Journey of Absolute Night’?"

Ewen didn’t understand what Cinderella meant, "Of course, that’s the setting in my book."

In the "Night Hunter" setting, hunters would cruise aboard armed trains, hunting demons along the way, this journey being termed as Journey of Absolute Night.

Cinderella was taken aback, she pursued further, "Ewen, do you know your novel has been adapted into a tabletop game?"

"Ah?"

Ewen pondered for a long time, "I need to check the contracts."

Cinderella screamed, "Are you truly Blue Jay? You don’t even know this!"

Ewen responded, "I’m just an author, I only type on a typewriter. I’m clueless about how to handle such matters; specialized fields have their expertise, I leave these things to my editor."

"You’ve never played this even once?"

"No... I live alone, there’s no one to play with," Ewen tried recalling, "I remember recently my editor mailed this thing to me, it’s probably stuffed in a cabinet..."

Listening to Ewen’s nonsense, Cinderella felt as if something inside her was crumbling bit by bit, turning into dust.

"Let me explain, tabletop games are where everyone plays different roles, immerses themselves in the game, collaboratively completing the storytelling. The Identity Card encompasses all information about the role you play, such as character story, ability values, etc., and determines your position in the story."

Cinderella described to Ewen, her wine-red eyes keenly fixed on him.

"For example, if everything we’ve experienced were a game, then ’Cinderella’ is my role name—her backstory being a girl wanting to see whales for strange reasons, with mundane ability values but incredibly lucky and quirky..."

Cinderella became increasingly excited, comparing with Ewen again, "Ewen is the player, Blue Jay is your Identity Card, the name of the role you will play. Does that make sense?"

Ewen nodded uncertainly for the first time encountering tabletop games; he liked the Identity Card concept.

"It’s like wearing a mask and performing on stage."

"Exactly," Cinderella affirmed, "You don’t have to be yourself, you can act out another role."

Ewen recalled a remark, unable to remember whose it was, "Sometimes wearing a mask is ironically removing it."

"Yes!"

Cinderella was exceedingly thrilled, "Masks can conceal your appearance, allowing you to unleash your true self without constraints, no matter what your nature is!"

Ewen felt Cinderella was implying something, yet her wine-red pupils were pure, she simply found it intriguing.

Just as Ewen intended to say something, a knock sounded, and the door was once again pushed open.