Chapter 138: The Question-and-Answer “Game”

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Eight
The Question-and-Answer “Game”

After an entire half hour of uninterrupted peace, Klein opened his eyes and slowly rose.

He took his cane, put on his hat, left the church, and, in the darkness, hired a rental carriage back to Minsk Street.

By then, the alert and search in the surrounding area had inevitably relaxed, becoming merely a patch of shadow beneath the gaslamp glow.

Shortly after midnight, Klein took out his key, opened his own front door, and first entered the empty guest rooms to search for the Book of Secrets.

It took no effort. He found the old book, bound with thick parchment, inside the wardrobe of a first-floor room.

The book’s hard cover was deep black. Written upon it in crimson Hermes were two lines:

“Book of Secrets.”

“Karman.”

Hoo…

Klein exhaled. He was not in a hurry to read it. Instead, he stayed in that room, quickly created a wall of spirituality, and performed the ritual of summoning himself and responding to himself. Then he threw Azik’s copper whistle, the Master Key, the All-Black Eye, his Beyonder bullets, the Biological Toxin Bottle, the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic, the Book of Secrets, and the containers holding them above the gray fog. He planned to wait until the disturbance subsided before deciding which to take out and keep on his person.

After finishing all that, he did not even study the specific conditions of the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic or the Biological Toxin Bottle. He simply washed up, then lay down on his bed.

One reason was that studying items and flipping through books would waste too much time. On this not-so-peaceful night, it could easily bring trouble to his body in the real world. The second was that Klein had deeply recognized a shortcoming he currently possessed: the growth of his own spirituality could not keep up with the increasing number of Beyonder abilities and mystical items.

After just one intense battle, his spirituality was already dry, his head aching, and sleepiness weighing heavily on him.

Mm. The greatest burden on my spirituality is the Paper Figurine Substitute technique. Second is using the brooch to create Sun Holy Water, though I did not use that tonight. Next comes Summon Holy Light and Fire Jumping…

Klein yawned. Through meditation, he escaped the state of being so exhausted that he had instead become highly tense and unable to fall asleep.

In less than ten seconds, he entered dreamland, where all kinds of fragmented scenes appeared in rotation.

…

Within the open space enclosed by abandoned warehouses, the Machinery Hivemind came and went, left and returned. The personnel responsible for this incident had already changed from the team captain to a deacon-level powerhouse.

Ikanser Bernard’s brown hair remained messy from beginning to end, stubbornly extending outward. Even wearing a hat could not hide that fact.

So much so that many Machinery Hivemind members privately joked that this deacon must be cutting his hair with bombs.

At this moment, Ikanser, whose facial lines were firm and clear, held an ancient-patterned silver mirror.

On either side of the mirror was an eye-like ornament. They were based in black gemstones and looked deep, shadowed, and fascinating.

Ikanser looked around once and said, “Although those rats in the sewers are experts at interfering with divination and spirit channeling, and although they dealt with the scene effectively, this is the mysterious, supernatural world. No method can guarantee one hundred percent success.”

As he spoke, he looked down at the silver mirror in his hand and stroked its surface three times with his right palm.

After pausing for two seconds, Ikanser took a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Honorable Arrodes, my question is: what participants were involved in what just happened here?”

The surrounding darkness suddenly became hazy, and waves of watery light rippled across the silver mirror’s surface.

Very soon, an image appeared inside the mirror:

Amid rising firelight floated a human figure in midair. He wore a black double-breasted formal frock coat and a half silk top hat. His body twisted and flickered unsteadily, and his face was so blurred that it could not be seen clearly, with greasepaint over it as well.

At his feet, tongues of flame rose upward, swallowing him.

With a flash of watery light, the image changed, showing a middle-aged man wearing a dark-red cloak. His arm burned with dazzling flames, but his head was hidden in darkness.

Scene after scene alternated. Ikanser and the others then saw a woman in an elaborate black court dress, pale-gold hair falling messily. Yet her face was completely transparent, as though it did not exist.

Beside that lady stood two men whose bodies were covered in black fur, and a back view being dragged by one strange arm after another.

At last, the changes ended, freezing on a scene of columns of fire roaring into the sky. “Fireworks” bloomed brilliantly, and light shone across the area.

Within that dreamlike scene, the man in the black double-breasted formal frock coat appeared once more.

His body stretched and twisted sideways. Facing forward, he pressed the hand holding his hat to his chest and gave a slight bow.

His features were not only blurred to an extreme, as though disrupted, but also faintly showed the colors of greasepaint.

Ikanser was just about to ask his team members for their opinions when lines of ancient Feysac words suddenly appeared across the silver mirror:

“According to the principle of equivalence, it is my turn to ask a question.”

“If you answer incorrectly, or if you lie, you will suffer punishment.”

The word “punishment” was red as blood, as though liquid still dripped from it.

Ikanser’s expression first twisted slightly, then became exceptionally solemn.

Immediately afterward, watery light shimmered across the silver mirror, and a new line of words appeared:

“What is your sexual orientation?”

Ikanser froze, suddenly feeling every team member’s gaze fall upon him.

…

At six in the morning, just as dawn began to brighten.

Klein, sleeping deeply, woke to the punctual chime of a church bell.

According to his usual habits, he would have turned over and continued sleeping until close to eight. This time, however, he sat up directly and examined his surroundings.

“Mm. No one has come to check the gas meter…”

He let out a breath of relief. Without bothering to wash up, he got out of bed, took four steps counterclockwise, and entered above the gray fog.

He needed to study last night’s harvest!

After sitting in the seat belonging to The Fool, Klein began with the simplest item.

He picked up that dark-green fang, observed it for several seconds, then manifested paper and pen and wrote down the divination statement:

“Its function.”

This did not mean divination could replace experimentation. Klein merely had the physical object, and he had already learned quite a bit about Prisoner, Lunatic, and Werewolf from Sharron and Maric. Since he felt he had enough prerequisites, he was trying to see what revelation he could obtain.

After reciting silently, he quickly entered a dream and witnessed scene after scene:

A ferocious wound appeared across Werewolf Tyre’s abdomen, so deep that his intestines spilled out and dragged onto the ground. Yet he merely washed the injury with clean water, stuffed the intestines back in, and held both sides of the wound together with his hands. In the end, the wound healed just like that…

Beneath the perfect red moon, he howled toward the sky. Black fur sprouted inch by inch across his body, and sharp fangs stood clearly in his mouth…

He swung his claws, and with a shriek, tore through a steel plate that was not especially thin…

He ran across the wilderness, leaving a pack of gray wolves chasing at full speed farther and farther behind…

He made wooden-eyed yet cold attendants charge toward enemies as though they had no fear of death at all…

He also used all kinds of implements to kill, including bombs, and he became even stronger after growing furious and losing reason…

…

Opening his eyes, Klein roughly understood the traits of Werewolf and grasped where the hidden danger of this Beyonder characteristic lay:

Werewolf Tyre had been under the full moon’s illumination at the time, his desires extraordinarily indulged. After death, he had therefore left behind a comparatively strong mental imprint. A Beyonder using this characteristic as the main ingredient to brew a potion and advance would need to resist that influence at the beginning, or else show signs of losing control.

However, that negative influence had not yet reached the level of a Sealed Artifact. The Beyonder characteristic left behind by the Werewolf could still be used directly as a potion’s main ingredient.

“Fortunately… What a pity that Living Corpse Jason’s Beyonder characteristic was swallowed by that strange door… I wonder where that door leads, and whether there is any way to pick it up again…”

Feeling both regret and pain, Klein set down the dark-green fang and picked up the translucent brown Biological Toxin Bottle.

Using the same method as before, he performed dream divination. This time, however, he did not have confidence that he would obtain detailed revelations, so he changed the statement to:

“Its positive and negative effects.”

In the gray, shadowed dream world, Klein once again saw one惨烈 scene after another:

Someone collapsed on the ground, scratching at themselves, tearing off skin and flesh, scraping until white bone was exposed…

Someone clutched their head, their eyes losing focus as their aura grew weaker and weaker…

Someone kept vomiting, vomiting until, at the very end, they convulsed and died…

Someone suddenly began laughing, laughing until they could no longer breathe…

Two people, in the middle of fierce combat, suddenly stopped at the same time and looked at one another. Then they embraced, and kissed…

As the scenes changed toward the end, the translucent brown little bottle was placed inside a cup of water. The clear liquid within slowly turned amber, then was drunk by a person… The person holding the Biological Toxin Bottle first became weak, then started coughing. Afterward, they touched their forehead, only to find it burning hot. Their illness grew steadily more serious…

The dream soon ended. Klein tapped the edge of the long table with his finger, somewhat troubled as he interpreted the revelations.

“Combined with what Steve said, the earlier images mean that once the Biological Toxin Bottle’s lid is opened, it constantly diffuses toxins outward. As for what poison the opponent suffers, it is completely random—something even the holder cannot control? Some of the toxins inside truly are wicked…”

“I cannot interpret its effective range from the revelation… Mm. Soaking it in water and drinking the amber liquid beforehand can prevent poisoning? But how many minutes does it need to be soaked? Even if the holder of the Biological Toxin Bottle does not open the lid, their body will gradually worsen, slowly contracting illness, which slowly becomes serious? Uh, what exactly are the time thresholds…”

Klein rubbed his forehead, planning to perform experiments above the gray fog when he had time. Yet he did not know whether the Biological Toxin Bottle would function here.

For instance, in his current Spirit Body state, he was not afraid of poisoning at all.

Let us leave it like this for now. I will study it properly later…

Klein shifted his gaze toward the Book of Secrets before him, bound from parchment, and casually flipped to the first page.

It was a title page with only simple patterns and no content at all.

He turned the page again, and at last, Klein saw the opening of the Book of Secrets:

“We worship the moon, not the Evernight Goddess.”