Chapter 22: Key Intelligence

Chapter 22: Key Intelligence

Although Byers had witnessed Phil’s severed hand, Webber’s hanging, and Mr. Magician’s worms gathering to form a palm, and although he possessed a certain understanding of the terrifying mutations brought by 0-02, his level was ultimately insufficient. He could not see or clearly grasp the horrors hidden behind these events. He mostly understood them as ghost stories becoming reality.

Therefore, at this moment, though he was afraid, under the gazes of that miraculous Magician and the angel walking the earth, he still mustered his courage and quickly approached the rectangular table. Of course, this was also influenced to a certain extent by the Sailor pathway itself.

In only two or three steps, Byers reached a place where he could stretch out and touch the brass book.

He did not think. He directly extended his right palm, grabbed the front brass pages of 0-02, and flipped through them rapidly.

During this process, the back of Byers’s hand remained pressed against the brass page that had not yet been fully filled, preventing it from being covered, so that both he, Mr. Magician, and the angel lady could observe any changes on it in time and respond in advance.

Amid the rustling sounds, this Sailor saw the clause stating that “touching the Trunsoest Brass Book” would result in the death penalty. First, fear surged through him. Then strong doubt arose—the doubt over his own current condition.

However, this did not affect his movement of flipping forward through the book. Meanwhile, different brass pages were reflected one after another in Klein’s eyes, each one containing different rules and clauses.

The projections of these brass pages did not appear in a manner where one vanished and the next replaced it. Instead, they existed side by side, increasing little by little.

By the end, different numbers of brass page images remained in Klein’s two eyes. They were arranged neatly, row after row, as if 0-02 had been disassembled into individual pages and placed on a glass table to bask in the sun.

This was a dream-divination technique at the angelic level. Klein recreated everything he had just seen before his eyes.

As time passed, within his deep brown, almost black pupils, those brass pages began to rotate, highlighting one among them:

“…The Trunsoest Brass Book originates from the Uniqueness of the Justiciar pathway, contaminated by the Nation of Disorder…”

Just as I expected. Since the Trunsoest Brass Book can present all the foundational rules, then the corresponding contents must contain a description of itself! This is determined by its essence—unless it has fully awakened or activated, possessing sufficient wisdom to know how to hide things selectively… Joy had just flashed through Klein’s heart when he saw new mercury-colored words begin to appear on the brass page that had not yet been filled.

This meant that 0-02 had finally separated part of its power from the infinite loop and was preparing to add a clause, provide an explanation, and repair the loophole.

“Leave!” Klein shouted without hesitation.

Byers strictly obeyed the higher-level existence’s order. He immediately withdrew his right hand, turned around, and sprinted toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

“Pretend you are about to attack me.” Seeing that this Sailor with dual attributes had already left the municipal library, Klein suddenly added another instruction.

Byers was filled with confusion, but he still raised his right arm, pulled back his shoulder, and assumed the posture of someone about to swing a fist at Klein.

At that moment, the new clause finally formed:

“In regard to the above rules, the Trunsoest Brass Book and the people permitted by it possess immunity when enforcing the law…”

However, even though this clause had been successfully promulgated, Byers did not suffer any punishment.

Clearly, for problems that occurred during an infinite loop or during unclear definitions, the Trunsoest Brass Book did not pursue them retroactively—just as, after it had previously repaired a loophole in the rules, it had not added any additional charges against Arrodes the Magic Mirror.

For the same reason, Byers, who had truly touched 0-02, did not suffer contamination from the sefirah. Before the supplementary clause was issued, Byers had been part of Belltaine and could not suffer damage in any sense, so he could not be contaminated. After the supplementary clause appeared, his previous behavior would not be “held accountable.”

In truth, after Byers left the municipal library, he had also violated the curfew decree again. But Klein had earlier noticed a problem: when Belltaine’s citizens hunted outsiders, they were not restricted by the curfew decree. Therefore, he had Byers assume a posture of attacking him, thereby avoiding the corresponding punishment.

Immediately afterward, seizing the opportunity created while 0-02 repaired this loophole, Klein swiftly recalled the detailed information regarding the Trunsoest Brass Book:

“…This book possesses the characteristic of being alive, though most of the time it remains at a very low level…

“…Its first half presents nearly all major foundational rules. The latter half is blank and requires writing on its own…

“…Once unrestricted, it will naturally formulate biased laws for the surrounding area and strictly enforce them. During this process, it will revise and amend them at any time according to the problems fed back to it.

“…As the laws gradually become stricter and more comprehensive, its living characteristic will deepen… Once a strict legal system capable of interfering in every aspect takes shape, the Trunsoest Brass Book will fully come alive, possessing true wisdom and the ability to modify the foundational rules in the first half to a certain extent… The exact degree it can reach is as follows…

“…If contradictions arise between legal clauses and cannot be repaired, or if all pages are filled but no sufficiently strict rule system has formed, the Trunsoest Brass Book will, after one hour, add a clause at the boundary between the first half and second half: ‘The following rules are invalid.’

“As this clause forms, the rules written after it will gradually vanish, causing the pages to return to blankness…

“…After the latter half becomes completely blank, the clause ‘The following rules are invalid’ will be erased, and the Trunsoest Brass Book will repeat its previous behavior until a strict legal system capable of interfering in all aspects is formed…

“…The rules it formulates must be publicly displayed or announced before taking effect… When there is no explicit clause governing a behavior, whether that behavior is illegal follows the general cognition of the surrounding living beings…

“…The Trunsoest Brass Book detests twisted rules that lack aesthetic beauty and hates having loopholes found…”

Such a detailed description… Hidden inside this should be a method to seal 0-02… Klein’s thoughts turned rapidly as he tried to find usable information in every section of text.

At that moment, Arianna, leader of the Evernight Church’s ascetics, spoke in a low voice.

“Find a way to make the later pages of 0-02 fill with clauses, but not form a sufficiently strict system.”

That’s right! In this way, the Trunsoest Brass Book will declare the following rules invalid and start anew. At that time, its restrictions on the surroundings will briefly disappear, giving us a chance to touch it, take it away, or directly pray to a god… But how do we accomplish that? The Trunsoest Brass Book detests twisted, aesthetically displeasing rules and hates having loopholes found… Klein’s heart stirred. Inspiration had already come to him.

Without hesitation, he immediately extended both hands forward, as though embracing the air.

The next second, inside Belltaine Municipal Library—now reduced to one-tenth of its original size—a hall paved with deep black stone slabs and covered everywhere in slash-like patterns descended into reality.

Eight black stone pillars rose within the hall. From the high dome hung one metal pole after another. At the bottom of each pole was a candleholder carved into a different living creature—forty-one on the left, forty on the right.

This was the governing hall of the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire, which Klein had once seen. At that time, both Consuls were Sequence 1 Princes of Abolition of the Black Emperor pathway. Therefore, this place was filled with distorted rules that did not conform to normal conditions and lacked all aesthetic beauty.

Besides that, when summoning this historical scene, Klein also used the powers of this domain to add many Fourth Epoch details he had mastered, making the order originating from the Black Emperor increasingly detailed and complete, almost substantive.

Pa!

Both of his hands were severed at the wrists at the same time and fell to the ground. From the wounds, blood gushed out just like from an ordinary person.

This was Klein’s second time committing the crime of fraud!

After the two hands and spurting blood fell to the ground, they swiftly decomposed into transparent, twisted worms and slightly viscous, almost invisible liquid.

As those Spirit Worms twitched and died, Klein let pain twist his expression while numerous worms crawled out from the severed ends and gathered into new palms.

At the same time, he worked hard to maintain the scene he had built through multiple summons, preventing it from dispersing.

On the rectangular table, within the book bound from brass pages, numerous new clauses appeared in response to the stimulus:

“…All buildings and layouts must conform to the golden ratio and symmetrical aesthetics…”

“…Strange clothing is forbidden…”

“…The following crimes must be punished by death…”

“…”

The Trunsoest Brass Book rustled as it flipped. At intervals, it issued correction after correction in response to the order originating from the Black Emperor. The further it went, the faster the new clauses appeared, until there were no longer pauses of dozens of seconds or even ten-plus seconds.

Within the hall, first the candleholders hanging from the ceiling snapped and vanished one after another. Then all other places underwent all kinds of changes, causing the details that expressed the original order to be erased one by one.

In the end, the hall could no longer be sustained. It collapsed and disintegrated directly, returning to the historical void.

At this time, the Trunsoest Brass Book had flipped on its own to the final two pages and lay open there, no longer making any movement.

Seeing that the final page was also filled with clauses, and that those clauses could not form a strict system together with the rules 0-02 had previously formulated, Klein silently exhaled and relaxed slightly. Then he felt that his spirituality had been nearly exhausted.

“Let us go to Byers’s home and wait for an hour,” he said, turning his head toward Arianna.

If they remained where they were, they would suffer increasingly severe punishment because of repeated violations of the curfew decree, until they were sentenced to death.

As for the task of monitoring the Trunsoest Brass Book and ensuring no accident occurred, that naturally had to be handed to Arrodes. Although the Magic Mirror could not directly look at 0-02, it could monitor the noticeboard and judge the progress of events from the disappearance of the decrees there.