Chapter 20: An Old Method, Used Anew

Chapter 20: An Old Method, Used Anew

A true opportunity… Pasha, Byers, and Phil felt joy rise in their hearts, as though, after groping forward for a very long time through a pitch-black night, they had finally seen the light of dawn.

“What kind of opportunity?” Roy blurted out after recovering from his numb state.

Klein was not in the least anxious. With a smile, he said,

“Have you not noticed?

“Those announcements never clearly state who the enforcement body is.”

As a former keyboard warrior, Klein had always prided himself on “knowing a little about everything.” Moreover, in this life, he had dealt with quite a few lawyers and had once possessed a Fallen Count marionette. When it came to laws, decrees, and rules, he still had a basic level of competence.

That’s right. The announcement only mentioned a newly appointed consul. It never clearly stated who would enforce the law… What we encountered before was an invisible judge… Pasha and the others more or less revealed thoughtful expressions.

Seeing this, Klein reached out and stroked the Magic Mirror’s surface, as if smoothing the fur of an animal.

“Under normal circumstances, everyone defaults to the police department and the official organizations responsible for supernatural cases as the law enforcement bodies. This is determined through a series of legal provisions or through the corresponding cognition of the people. But this time, the rules have not yet reached that level of strictness.

“If the blanks in the new rules were filled by the original statutes, decrees, and regulations, then when we committed unlawful or criminal acts, we would certainly have seen the police, the Nighthawks, or the Mandated Punishers. But that was not what actually happened.

“In other words, the corresponding law enforcement body truly is ambiguous.”

Among the four Beyonders, Pasha was comparatively the most educated. After thinking, she said,

“Perhaps the enforcement body is an abstract concept, or perhaps it defaults to that newly appointed consul.”

“The latter is likewise unclear, because it never says who the newly appointed consul is. In that case, anyone could be. As for the former, it fails to fulfill the duty of notification…” Klein briefly responded with a couple of sentences.

Phil frowned.

“But we and the citizens are also unable to enforce the law.”

“That is determined through a kind of label-based, exclusionary division of authority,” Klein explained with a smile. “Outsiders are the targets who are rejected and hunted, so of course they lack enforcement authority. As for the citizens, they possess it only when dealing with outsiders. This was established by the announcement.”

Before Roy or Byers could speak, Klein continued,

“That is why I used the implicit contradiction here to let Roy test it just now, and the result matched my prediction.

“First, the Magic Mirror is not an outsider creature, nor is it a local resident. It is only an item possessing a certain degree of intelligence. It does not belong to any of the groups classified by the rules. In this way, when the enforcement body is unclear, and it has not been excluded, it theoretically possesses law enforcement authority.

“Second, it punished an outsider. Those announcements implicitly contain the definition that ‘those dealing with outsiders are law enforcers.’

“Finally, the Magic Mirror itself possesses rules of punishment. Before such rules are declared illegal, it possesses punitive authority.

“Based on these three points, I believe 0-02 should now have fallen into multiple contradictions. Next, it will definitely promulgate new clauses to clarify the enforcement body and repair this loophole. Once it clarifies the enforcement body, a great deal of information will be revealed, and that will help us lock onto the target.

“Heh. If 0-02 uses a prohibitive method, it will certainly restrict itself, which has the same attributes as the Magic Mirror. That will absolutely not be its first choice.”

At that moment, Roy, Pasha, and the others, listening to Klein’s explanation, inexplicably felt that the man before them was learned and extraordinarily wise.

Could this Mr. Magician be one of those sages from myths and legends who likes to walk among the people? The four Beyonders each formed similar yet not identical guesses.

Just then, the Magic Mirror in Klein’s hand radiated a hazy waterlight.

Within that light, the silver mirror surface reflected the noticeboard.

Below the original white sheet of paper, two new clauses had silently appeared:

“All law enforcement actions must and can only be carried out by the Trunsoest Brass Book or by groups authorized by it.

“No private regulations may supersede formal laws.”

The Trunsoest Brass Book… So this is 0-02’s full name? The opportunity has come! Klein’s expression turned solemn, and he immediately entered a meditative state.

He had forced 0-02 to clarify the enforcement body precisely to obtain more information, so he could further understand the circumstances of this terrifying Sealed Artifact.

And according to Klein’s deductions, 0-02 was more or less connected to a certain sefirah, just like how he himself had been before truly becoming the master of Sefirah Castle.

Therefore, gaining a deeper understanding of it would inevitably bring reverse contamination and establish a certain connection.

To a certain extent, a sefirah was equivalent to the Great Old Ones, the Outer Deities, and the cosmos.

Back then, Klein had used a method based on this mysticism knowledge to lock onto the position of the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar. Now, he was applying it in reverse.

In his view, the degree to which 0-02 was contaminated by a sefirah was certainly greater than his own. After all, Sealed Artifacts all presented a certain state of losing control. That was precisely why they needed to be sealed.

Under such circumstances, as long as he gained even a little more understanding of 0-02, contamination would follow.

Reality proved Klein’s conjecture.

It was precisely because of this danger that he did not show the new contents displayed by the Magic Mirror, Arrodes, to the four Beyonders.

In meditation, Klein swiftly sensed an invisible connection form between himself and a certain location. Indescribable contamination surged toward him.

Clang!

As he flicked out a gold coin, he used the aura of Sefirah Castle to sever the connection and isolate the contamination.

Immediately afterward, a clear scene appeared in his mind.

Klein’s left palm grabbed the falling gold coin. The moment the glove suddenly turned transparent, his entire figure vanished from the room and appeared inside a hall filled with bookshelves.

Near the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hall stood many rectangular tables. On one of those tables lay a book made of thin brass pages.

Found you! A faint smile appeared on Klein’s face.

He had used the connection he had sensed for an instant to perform a divination, then relied on the attraction between sefirot to make Teleportation extraordinarily precise.

The law of convergence between sefirot could make Klein, on some random walk, accidentally enter this library and discover this brass book. But that might happen two days later, two weeks later, or even two years later, far too late to stop anything. And the premise was that 0-02 itself did not interfere or avoid him.

Pa!

The clothing on Klein’s back suddenly split open, revealing one bloody mark after another.

This was the punishment for entering a public area that was not open.

Flogging!

Fortunately, this crime is a minor one… and for at least one or two minutes, I won’t be punished again for the same crime. The rules do leave intruders time to leave… Klein immediately reached forward and grabbed into the void a few times.

He did not truly drag out the figure of Arianna, leader of the ascetics, because for “people” who did not acknowledge it, a historical projection was a form of fraud. He merely used this method to transmit his location to that Servant of Concealment.

For the same reason, Klein dispersed the human-skin glove on his left palm.

During this process, the brass book began flipping with a rustling sound, revealing one page of rules after another:

“…When rationality drops to 20% of its original level, signs of losing control will appear…”

“…Ancient Scholars possess the ability to summon images from the historical void. The success rate of summoning depends on familiarity and friendliness with the target…”

“…”

“…The Trunsoest Brass Book is the most precious object. No living being may touch it without permission. Violators shall be sentenced to death!

“…No one may alter the state of the Trunsoest Brass Book in any way. Violators shall be sentenced to death!

“…”

Reading rule after rule, Klein’s eyelids twitched. He felt as though his rationality was continuously decreasing.

This caused the Primordial mental imprint within him to grow somewhat active.

“The earlier rules are grayish-black, seemingly in an unchangeable state… Does 0-02 need to awaken further for that? If it awakens to the point where it can change the earlier rules, that would be terrifying. Perhaps it could lower my summoning success rate, or make Beyonders show signs of losing control as soon as their rationality dips even slightly… So, we fixed this version of the Seer being too overpowered? As expected of 0-02. It doesn’t disgrace its number…

“The later text is mercury-colored… Does this mean this portion of the rules can be modified or added?

“No touching, no changing its state. In other words, I can neither take it away nor directly Conceal this Sealed Artifact… Perhaps I could use the Staff of the Stars or the Box of the Great Old Ones to directly transfer this library into the cosmos, letting 0-02 face those Outer Deities… But if the Outer Deities gained control of this Sealed Artifact, the problem might become even worse than now…” Klein hesitated briefly and did not risk punishment by summoning his Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.

The next second, a pa sounded beside his ear.

Arianna, wearing a simple linen robe and a belt made of tree bark, rapidly appeared beside him. Invisible lashes carved one clear bloody mark after another across Her body.

“The first problem has already been resolved. Now we need to consider the second problem: how to seal this thing.” Klein seized the time and spoke.

It would not be long before he encountered the punishment of losing a hand for the second time.

Arianna shook Her head.

“The corresponding documents have been destroyed. We can only resolve this through trial and error.”

That’s a little dangerous… We don’t know, but one fellow definitely does… Klein’s heart stirred. His spirit body abruptly left his flesh and entered the spirit world.

Across the invisible barrier created by 0-02, he spoke to Larrion, Patriarch of the Church of the God of Combat, who was waiting for the “curtain” to disappear.

“Perhaps we can make a deal.”

“You want the method to seal 0-02?” Larrion turned around and chuckled. “Do you think I would agree?”

“I’m actually quite puzzled. Why must you sacrifice yourself for the fallen God of Combat? If you join the Church of Evernight, you can still be an angel, still obtain protection, still live for a very, very long time.” Klein did not answer directly, instead speaking in another direction.

Larrion’s expression darkened.

“A mythical creature like you, who has no devout faith, cannot understand me.”

…As an evil god, isn’t it perfectly normal for me not to have devout faith? Klein couldn’t help muttering inwardly.

This was his humanity.