Chapter 129: Old Hand Alger

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
Old Hand Alger

Suggestions? My suggestion is to run as far away as possible and put safety first…

The moment Klein heard The Sun’s question, he answered inside his heart.

However, in order to maintain The Fool’s image and see what different advice the others might offer, he kept silent and did not control The World to speak.

After a brief quiet, The Hanged Man, Alger, turned slightly toward The Sun and said in a deep, steady voice, “The information you have provided is too little. It is difficult for us to give useful opinions.

“We do not know what else exists inside that half-destroyed temple besides the strange statue of the True Creator—that is, the Fallen Creator. Naturally, we cannot analyze the corresponding situation.”

So the Fallen Creator truly is the True Creator… The City of Silver where The Sun lives actually has faith in the True Creator, and even built a temple…

The Magician Fors listened from the side with great interest, almost wishing she had a notebook to record it all. Justice Audrey, meanwhile, began looking forward to The Sun’s detailed description of that strange temple.

Derrick nodded. His eyes tilted upward slightly for several seconds before he said, “Besides the statue, there are many broken murals there. Terrifying evil spirits once wandered about, but they have already been eliminated by an exploration team led by two elders of the six-member council…

“I did not see those murals with my own eyes. They are said to record prophecies about the apocalypse and the Fallen Creator saving His believers, as well as corresponding bloody sacrificial rituals…

“In a corner of one mural, there were strange words derived from Jotun. After roughly deciphering them, several elders believed their meaning was:

“Redemption Rose.

“Perhaps that was the code name of the mural’s original creator. It may also have been the name of the organization that built that temple and the city-state where it stood.

“According to the Chief’s judgment, those murals have a history of at least one thousand years.

“I mean one thousand years according to your understanding. Uh, but I cannot be completely certain. In the City of Silver, we use the stage when lightning is abundant and frequent as daytime, and the period when it is sparse and gentle as night. One cycle is one day. As for the four seasons, they exist only in books. So we cannot grasp the exact number of days. Only the Chief can confirm it.”

By the time The Sun reached that point, Fors almost suspected she was listening to a story.

A city without the sun, without the red moon, without any distinction between day and night, without any change of seasons—it sounded unreal no matter how she thought about it. Only fairy tales and novels would dare describe such a place!

And the author would have to be high on hemp, in a state of convulsive, frenzied madness, before being able to create a city like that…

After her astonishment and shock, Fors’s first thought was: I must write a novel using the City of Silver as the model!

But she quickly gave up that idea, because she did not know what the City of Silver truly meant. She did not know whether it belonged to a secret jointly guarded by the seven great Churches. She feared that the moment the book was published, the author herself would have Nighthawks and Mandated Punishers come knocking on her door to collect the copper pennies deposited inside the gas meter.

So this is what the City of Silver’s environment is like. Mm, and there are the monsters deep within the darkness that The Sun always mentions… What a pity. I am only Sequence 8, or I would truly want to ask Mr. Fool to send me there for an adventure. No, no. Audrey, you are no longer a naive, romantic girl. You should clearly recognize how much danger is hidden in this…

Justice Audrey’s thoughts alternated between wandering and self-reproach.

At least one thousand years? The Aurora Order appeared no more than three hundred years ago, and it may not even have existed for two hundred. This should not have been built by them… Mm, perhaps faith in the True Creator already existed in the early Fifth Epoch, or even during the Fourth Epoch, except the organization that served Him back then was not the Aurora Order… Over the following one or two thousand years, under the heavy suppression of the seven great Churches, the believers of the True Creator repeatedly fell into crisis, their sects destroyed time and time again, before finally rising from the ashes as the Aurora Order?

Having formed a few guesses, Klein allowed his posture and state to remain completely unchanged.

The Sun, Derrick, paused for two seconds before continuing.

“The terrifying monsters inside the city-state ruins and that half-destroyed temple have already been preliminarily cleared away. Our mission this time is to explore the underground portion of the temple.

“Do you have any suggestions? Based on your understanding of the Fallen Creator, what should I pay attention to?”

“My suggestion?”

The Hanged Man, Alger, said almost without hesitation, “My suggestion is: absolutely do not go!

“The Fallen Creator is a true evil god. Even if His temple has already been destroyed, it very likely still hides bizarre, abnormal dangers that are difficult to detect. If another elder of the six-member council were leading the team, then even though the risk would be high, you could still go if you absolutely had to. But you just said the person responsible for this matter is Shepherd Lovia. And the True Creator is the deity at the very top of this Beyonder pathway! Therefore, you absolutely must not go.”

Alger supplemented his explanation.

Your suggestion is the same as mine, but a suggestion like that did not require The Sun to describe the state of the half-destroyed temple at all. The conclusion could be drawn from the initial conditions… I understand. Mr. Hanged Man, you did that on purpose. This way, you paid no price at all and still roughly learned the situation inside that half-destroyed temple… You are simply bullying a child…

Seated at the highest end, The Fool, Klein, leisurely raised a hand and pressed it to his forehead.

The Sun was silent for several seconds, then said with difficulty, “But the mission must be accepted.”

The Hanged Man gave a low laugh.

“Nothing is a must.

“Before this mission, will you still participate in patrols? Find an opportunity and deliberately let a monster injure you. You can refer to past examples in the City of Silver for the specific degree.”

At that moment, Justice Audrey read one piece of information from The Sun’s eyes and movements:

That works too?

After a brief moment of astonishment and confusion, Derrick frowned slightly and said, “But I have no patrol missions recently…”

The Hanged Man Alger gave a soft heh.

“You can pretend that you are close to losing control. No, the more accurate way to put it is: bring yourself close to losing control. Under such circumstances, I believe the higher-ups of the City of Silver will certainly not take a ‘dangerous object’ that might erupt at any moment into an exploration, correct?

“There is a technique to this. As long as, for two consecutive days, you constantly keep your spirituality in a relatively dried-up state, you will begin to experience auditory hallucinations and show signs of losing control. After that, if you stop squeezing yourself further, your condition will improve within a week and will not truly reach loss of control.

“Of course, your City of Silver must have methods and measures for treating those who show signs of losing control. Recovery should be faster. Therefore, you must estimate the timing carefully. It is best to begin two or three days before departure.”

The Sun, Derrick, listened in a daze. After quite a while, he muttered to himself, “Yes. Those showing signs of losing control will be controlled and isolated at the bottom of the round tower. They receive treatment through medicine, rituals, and mystical items. If the situation is mild, only potions need to be taken…”

Sigh. A good, honest, sincere child has been corrupted by an old hand just like that… Still, Mr. Hanged Man, why do you know the technique for bringing oneself close to losing control? If that kind of technique is used often, true loss of control might very well descend…

Klein sighed inwardly.

Justice Audrey was also stunned. She felt she had properly learned another lesson.

Seeing that The Sun was still somewhat hesitant, seemingly unwilling to deceive the City of Silver’s elders, The Hanged Man, Alger, asked in a low, unhurried tone, “Do the other elders of the six-member council know that the Fallen Creator controls the Shepherd pathway?”

“No,” The Sun, Derrick, answered honestly with a shake of his head.

Alger asked again, “Do you think Elder Lovia, the Shepherd, could possibly bring harm to the City of Silver? Answer only yes or no. Do not explain.”

“…Yes.”

In the end, Derrick was unable to deceive himself.

Alger chuckled softly.

“So you are the only one who knows this, yet for the time being, you cannot find a way to warn the other elders of the six-member council. Correct?”

“Mm.”

Derrick’s expression gradually became grave.

Alger shifted his sitting posture and leaned back slightly.

“That mission carries enormous risk. You know that. If you die inside that half-destroyed temple, who will still find a way to reveal what is strange about Shepherd Lovia? Who will still help the City of Silver avoid disaster? The Fallen Creator is a true evil god!

“You would not be pretending to lose control and deceiving others out of selfishness. You would be doing it to save the City of Silver!

“Compared with that, which is more important—your honor, or the City of Silver?”

The Sun, Derrick, clenched his teeth and solemnly nodded.

“I understand!”

“Thank you, Mr. Hanged Man.”

Justice Audrey and The Magician Fors immediately both had the urge to cover their faces with their hands.

He really is a child who is easy to persuade… But this is good too. It prevents the Tarot Club from losing a member in the near future…

Klein sighed soundlessly and controlled The World to say, “I have a question for Mr. Sun.

“This may involve a transaction.

“I request a private exchange.”

Klein hurriedly switched back to himself and gave a calm nod.

“Acceptable.”

After The Magician and the others were blocked off, The World looked toward The Sun.

“Does the City of Silver have a method for removing an evil god’s mental contamination from Beyonder characteristics?”

This was something Klein had wanted to ask several times before. But considering that Justice and the others might also be interested, and that if The Sun could not answer something involving an evil god, all eyes would inevitably turn to the godlike Mr. Fool, he had suppressed the impulse until he obtained inspiration from Miss Justice and thought of the method of a private exchange.

“We have not encountered evil gods,” The Sun, Derrick, answered sincerely. “We only have a method for separating the mental contamination of those who lost control from Beyonder characteristics.”

That is it! That might work, especially because I have the gray fog…

Suppressing his delight, Klein made The World speak.

“What payment do you need?”

“This is not a matter of payment.”

The Sun shook his head.

“That method and the corresponding knowledge require one to be at least at the level of patrol team captain—or even exploration team captain—to be qualified to access. The former requires Sequence 7, and the latter requires at least Sequence 6.”

Hoo…

Klein sighed and made The World speak hoarsely.

“I hope you obtain the qualifications soon.”