Chapter 173: Blind Spot in Thinking

Chapter 173: Blind Spot in Thinking

Based on Klein’s experience from watching so many detective dramas and detective anime, people who covered their faces with scarves and hid their bodily features beneath coats usually had a problem. There was a high probability they were concealing some unspeakable secret—especially when it was not currently winter, and the Berserk Sea’s temperature was far from cold.

But that has nothing to do with me. Even if a locked-room murder happens, the one with a headache should be the captain… I will go above the gray fog later and divine whether this journey will be smooth…

Klein thought with apparent lack of concern, though not the slightest carelessness.

He promptly withdrew his gaze and looked toward the Desi grilled fish the waiter had brought over.

After dinner, he returned to his own cabin and performed a divination above the gray fog, obtaining the conclusion that his present environment would not undergo any major change and that everything would proceed relatively smoothly.

This allowed Klein to fall asleep easily even without relying on meditation. He slept all the way until morning.

Woo!

The steam whistle sounded. The passenger liner went from stillness to motion, slowly leaving Harman Harbor.

While the docks were still faintly visible, Klein saw a figure suddenly appear there.

This person wore a white shirt and dark-blue coat. He had a high nose bridge, sunken eye sockets, light-blue eyes, and slightly curly brown hair. His facial contours were hard, and his chin was faintly lifted, giving him the air of looking down on everyone.

His gaze swept once and swiftly locked onto the passenger liner Klein was aboard.

At that very moment, the sky abruptly darkened, as though it had become a door leading to a pitch-black illusory place.

A deafening hurricane sprang up from the seabed, carrying large amounts of deep blue as it rushed upward. Profound lightning, like cracks in the void, appeared again and again, then vanished again and again as they healed themselves.

This cut off all vision between the passenger liner and the docks, making the two seem to be in different worlds.

The Berserk Sea once again revealed its terror.

The passenger liner could neither dodge nor resist. It could only follow the safer route where the storm was weaker and continue forward.

What a coincidence… No, this probably is not a coincidence…

Standing behind the glass window of his cabin, Klein first sighed inwardly. Then he immediately believed that the sudden change in the Berserk Sea’s weather contained an unnatural factor.

—Although the Berserk Sea’s weather changing at the drop of a hat was normal, for it to change precisely at a certain key moment was still suspicious.

“Is that gentleman on the pier tracking the suspicious passenger who boarded last night? And once the passenger saw that his trail was exposed, he simply changed the weather, forcing the passenger liner away?”

Thinking of the earlier matter, Klein vaguely formed a few guesses.

And if that was truly the case, then the suspicious passenger who covered his face with a scarf was very likely a demigod, or else carried a Grade 1 sealed artifact!

One had to know that with Klein’s current strength and items, if he did not use the Sea God Scepter, he would also be unable to trigger a weather anomaly of this scale.

Of course, he had another possible method: throwing out Azik’s copper whistle to see whether he could make the entire Berserk Sea go berserk.

“Honestly, I only wanted to travel to the Southern Continent like a normal rich man, yet I still run into a demigod-level pursuit along the way… Sigh. I have shouldered too much pressure that never should have belonged to someone of my Sequence…”

Klein gave a self-mocking smile and finally chose to trust the divination he had performed the previous night.

Inside the storm, the passenger liner sailed unsteadily through the comparatively calm gaps in this doomsday-like scene. Most of the passengers aboard were perfectly calm, as though long accustomed to such conditions. Only the few traveling through the Berserk Sea for the first time trembled with fear, clutching tightly at anything they could grab.

Minute after minute passed. The violent winds and lightning gradually subsided, and the sky brightened little by little.

At that moment, Klein, who was on deck, felt his spiritual intuition suddenly stirred. Instinctively, he turned his head toward the direction of Harman Harbor.

Above the restless deep-blue sea, beneath the drifting white clouds, a point of blazing-white firelight flew from far away to near at high speed.

The firelight grew larger and clearer until it finally revealed its complete appearance:

It was a gigantic flaming spear!

The flaming spear split the sky and landed on the front section of the passenger liner’s deck. Yet it did not ignite anything or burn through even half a wooden plank. It directly scattered, then reassembled into a human figure.

This figure had a high nose bridge, sunken eye sockets, and blue eyes. He was the man who had suddenly appeared on the pier earlier!

His appearance was close to middle-aged. He slowly swept his gaze around, walking past passenger after passenger whose eyes were wide and mouths half-open, then entered the cabin.

Dawn Dantes, who was likewise “stupefied,” silently breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that the other party truly had not come for him.

That entrance just now really was very cool. As expected of a demigod… The only problem now is that I hope those two do not fight. Even if conflict is unavoidable, they should at least go fight on the neighboring sea. Otherwise, this ship will be finished… I can still Teleport away myself and remain relatively fine, but with so many passengers, how many could I save?

Klein habitually drew a crimson moon on his chest, praying for the Goddess’s blessing.

He had just let that thought pass when he saw a figure fly out of the cabin door and crash heavily onto the deck. It was precisely the suspicious passenger who had used a scarf to cover his face.

At this moment, the gentleman had already revealed half his face. The front of his nose was red, his beard around his mouth was thick, and traces of saliva remained.

His almost triangular eyes were filled with fear. His hands pressed against the deck as he continuously dragged his body backward.

“Who told you to bring that thing and dress this way?” At the cabin door, the middle-aged man with the high nose bridge and blue eyes slowly stepped out and asked in a low voice in Intis.

The suspicious passenger shook his head frantically.

“No, I don’t know. He was dressed like this too. He gave it to me—gave me 100 pounds—and told me to take this ship to the Southern Continent, then return by myself!”

The middle-aged man watched silently, his gaze sharp, as if capable of piercing a person’s soul.

This caused sweat to burst from the suspicious passenger’s forehead. His body shook violently, and he stammered out another explanation. Yet the content he described did not change at all.

The man withdrew his gaze, and blazing-white flames suddenly rose from the surface of his body.

Then, transforming into a gigantic flaming spear, he shot toward the region where Harman Harbor lay.

The flaming spear grew more and more distant. Before long, only a point of fire remained.

Throughout the entire process, apart from the initial moment, this demigod never again spared the surrounding passengers a glance, as though they did not exist.

“A very simple yet very clever trick… Have someone pretend to be himself and board the ship, give him an item, not to lure away the pursuer, but to manufacture a blind spot in thinking, making people subconsciously eliminate this ship as the wrong option. In reality, he remained in the harbor all along, waiting for the enemy to chase after the ship before finding another way out…”

Klein came to a sudden understanding and made his own judgment.

This made him somewhat suspect that the one being chased might have once been a Conspirer, a Magician, or some other Beyonder skilled in deception.

As for that man from just now, from details such as transforming into fire, the blazing-white spear, arrogant behavior, an intensely irritating manner, and speaking Intis, Klein believed there was a high chance he was a demigod of the Hunter pathway—possibly an Iron-blooded Knight.

I wonder why those two came into conflict…

Klein shook his head and walked back to his cabin.

On the deck, the passengers finally recovered, each quietly discussing the supernatural phenomenon they had just seen:

A person could actually become fire, and a ball of fire could reassemble into a human!

Amid the noisy commotion, the passenger liner continued along the safe route. Along the way, it encountered no further accidents and arrived at another harbor by evening.

As usual, Klein did not leave the ship, avoiding any chance of running into something else.

He took out his gold-cased pocket watch and pressed it open, checking when he should go to the restaurant.

Another thirty minutes…

Klein silently muttered and lifted his head, gazing out the window.

At this moment, many passengers scheduled to disembark at the current harbor were carrying suitcases down the gangway toward the pier.

As Klein’s eyes swept across them, his gaze suddenly stopped on a particular figure.

This figure wore a black soft hat. His sideburns were dark gold, his nose bridge was high, his lips were tightly pressed, and the lines of his side profile were deep, like a classical sculpture. Not a single wrinkle could be seen.

He carried no luggage. Very quickly, he followed the flow of people onto the pier and vanished around a corner in the road.

Klein stared like that, his body completely motionless, as though it no longer belonged to him.

He only felt his blood cooling little by little, while a name exploded inside his mind:

Ince Zangwill!

…

On the pier, gas streetlamps had already lit one after another. The passenger liner’s different windows responded with scattered specks of light.

Inside Dawn Dantes’s first-class cabin, all was dim and deathly silent.

Klein had already sat down. There was no expression on his face, and thoughts flashed uncontrollably through his mind.

“This is the first time Ince Zangwill’s trail has been discovered after the Great Smog of Backlund…

“The demigod from earlier was probably chasing Ince Zangwill…

“His trick had one deeper layer than I imagined. He found someone to disguise himself, gave him an item, not to lure away pursuit, but to create a blind spot in thinking, making people subconsciously exclude this ship as a wrong option…

“He was here from the very beginning…

“That coincidental weather change was probably created by Ince Zangwill using 0-08…

“Why would he be pursued by an Intis Hunter demigod… What exactly is he plotting…”

Amid the tumbling thoughts, Klein suddenly took out his adventurer’s harmonica, brought it to his lips, and blew.

Silently, Miss Messenger Reinette Tinekerr, carrying four blond-haired, red-eyed heads, appeared before him.

Klein opened his mouth, then closed it again. He took out paper and pen and rapidly wrote:

“Mr. Dawn Dantes discovered traces of Ince Zangwill on Midway Island in the Berserk Sea.”

Folding the letter paper, Klein handed it to Miss Messenger along with a gold coin.

“Deliver this to the mailbox at 7 Pinster Street in the North Borough of Backlund.”

The four heads held in Reinette Tinekerr’s hands turned at the same time. Eight eyes looked at Klein in unison.

She said nothing. She simply bit down on the letter paper and gold coin.