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Al Tines reclined on the sofa in Klein's living room, closing his eyes to meditate for a while until he felt his Spirituality had mostly recovered before opening them.
The encounter with Zangwill was completely beyond Al Tines's expectation; if he hadn't made two more Paper Figurine Substitutes in the past few days, the outcome would have been different.
"Spectator is truly an annoying Pathway!"
Being manipulated by 0-08 tonight made Al Tines's impression of the Spectator Pathway even worse.
"The characteristic of 'What is said will be known' is indeed helpless!"
Klein nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, he saw Miss Sharron, dressed in a long black court dress with light golden hair, reappear on the glass window. Her gaze was very wary as she watched Al Tines, who was reclining on the sofa.
"Wraith? How rare!"
Al Tines also looked at Miss Sharron, whose figure had emerged on the glass window.
"This is my friend; he lives across the street, but he went to do something else, which is why I chose to find a bodyguard."
"This is the bodyguard I hired. It was under her protection just now that I wasn't turned into a marionette by Rosago, and I even successfully counter-killed him."
Klein introduced their identities to each other.
"Al Tines, a crew member of the Future."
Al Tines reported the identity he used at sea.
"Sharron."
"Are you the Pyromaniac wanted at sea?"
Miss Sharron's voice was very restrained, showing no intention of saying an extra word.
Al Tines didn't mind, knowing this was Miss Sharron's inherent personality.
"The Pyromaniac at sea?"
Klein looked at Al Tines with a slight hint of confusion.
"Before, when I was at sea, to digest the potion faster, I often stirred up trouble among pirates. Of course, occasionally I also provoked the Navy and the Church of the Lord of Storms. I remember my bounty in Loen was about 5,000 pounds."
"It's a pity that this assassination of Bakerland shouldn't expose my identity, so the bounty probably won't continue to rise."
Al Tines recalled his bounty amount, then explained. At the same time, it was to tell Miss Sharron the reason Klein bypassed him to hire her as a bodyguard.
"Intis Ambassador Bakerland?"
Miss Sharron's question was almost like a statement; if it weren't for a slight difference in tone, Al Tines would have completely thought she was just stating a fact, not asking a question.
"Yes, he was the mastermind who sent people to assassinate this poor detective."
Al Tines gave Klein a look that said, 'You really know how to get into trouble.'
"This really was just an accident!"
Klein defended himself.
Then he looked at Miss Sharron again, and after a moment of thought, said:
"Thank you for your protection. This matter ends here. I will pay you the remaining 900 pounds over two days; this is the withdrawal limit."
"Still to Maric?"
Sharron's voice echoed somewhat ethereally and faintly in the living room:
"Directly to me."
"I promised to protect you for three days, not just once."
Klein was stunned for a moment. This Miss Sharron was unexpectedly principled about contracts. Although he felt a bit helpless, as it would make many things inconvenient for him, he still said:
"Alright."
Miss Sharron slightly lifted her skirt and curtsied, then disappeared from the glass window.
"A very stylish lady!"
Al Tines commented from the side.
Klein nodded in deep agreement, then thought of another problem:
"I haven't been in Bakerland for long, and I've already encountered all these things, and I've even obtained the subsequent potion formulas. Isn't this too coincidental?"
"Although I had done a divination before and learned that the hope of becoming stronger was in Bakerland, isn't this too fast and too simple?"
Al Tines looked at Klein with a strange expression. He felt that the other party had encountered too many incidents and misunderstood the word 'simple.' Then he said:
"Simple? Do you mean it was simple to survive Rosago's hands? Or simple to get on Ambassador Bakerland's assassination list?"
Klein was speechless for a moment, then paused before continuing:
"What I mean is, all of this is too coincidental, as if an invisible hand is pushing the development of everything from behind."
"The Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence. Haven't you noticed that everything you attract is related to the Seer Pathway?"
Al Tines reminded Klein.
"Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence? That's a bit bizarre! This attraction can even indirectly affect fate. Will every Beyonder encounter this situation? Or do I have some strange characteristic?"
Klein fell into deep thought. He intuitively believed that there must be something special about him. Otherwise, wouldn't Beyonders be in chaos under such passive attraction?
"Clearly the latter. The convergence effect between Beyonder characteristics only becomes particularly obvious at the demigod level and above, requiring a certain degree of concealment."
Al Tines gave an answer, but didn't say too much. If he said more, Klein would know that his The Fool identity had already been exposed to him.
Klein nodded thoughtfully, not continuing to speak. His remaining doubts concerned the secret of the gray fog, and he couldn't expose it before fully trusting the other party.
"You can owe me my payment for now. I'm not in a hurry for money. Don't worry, there's no interest. I know you're very poor!"
After saying something disheartening, Al Tines pulled Bugs Bunny and performed a short-distance displacement through the Spirit World, returning to the house across the street.
Looking at the empty sofa, Klein sighed:
"What do you mean, 'I know you're very poor'? I, am indeed very poor."
Feeling his home suddenly become desolate, Klein simply returned to his bedroom to rest.
Upon returning home, Al Tines saw Crow Anu directing a group of spirits to clean the room.
Seeing this scene, Al Tines exclaimed:
"Very good, everyone has learned to outsource tasks."
Neither Al Tines nor Bugs Bunny had the habit of cleaning their room. Before, Al Tines exploited Bugs Bunny, and later Bugs Bunny exploited his Crow subordinate. However, Crow Anu had now learned to exploit the spirits under his command.
Going straight to his bedroom, Al Tines, feeling somewhat tired, collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
It wasn't until the next morning that Bugs Bunny brought some fruit and a few newspapers upstairs.
Al Tines curiously picked up a copy of the "Tussock Post." He was very curious about what explanation the officials would give for the death of Intis Ambassador Bakerland.
Today's newspaper headline was particularly striking:
"Intis Ambassador Bakerland Assassinated at Embassy in Bakerland, Assailant Unknown! Suspected Members of Terrorist Organization Moses Ascetic Order infiltrated Backlund!"
"Moses Ascetic Order? Why would they pin the blame on the Moses Ascetic Order? Did someone discover traces of my Mystical Reenactment?"
Al Tines found it incredibly unbelievable that the Moses Ascetic Order would ultimately take the blame. He had thought they would just find any random force to be the scapegoat, like the Aurora Order; they would have been very suitable.
However, after careful consideration, Al Tines felt that this scapegoat was actually quite suitable. At least the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery on the Intis side would clearly accept this reason, and perhaps they even pushed for it.
Putting down the newspaper in his hand, Al Tines looked at the gloomy weather outside the window and sighed:
"The sunlight in Backlund is truly rare!"
He took out the long-unused Devil emblem and the Conspirer Beyonder characteristic from Bakerland, quickly set up the ritual, and teleported both items to the Library located in the Spirit World.
Al Tines then closed his eyes and meditated, outlining the pattern in his mind while vibrating his Spirituality.
As his Spirituality rippled like water, a broken ring composed of gears and chains appeared behind him.
Al Tines's consciousness quickly arrived at the Library in the Spirit World Depths and saw Red Light Aiur Moria discussing a problem with Mr. Hughes.
"Good morning! Mr. Hughes, good morning! Mr. Aiur Moria."
Al Tines stepped forward and greeted them quite familiarly.
Then he went to the corner where he kept miscellaneous items, rummaging for the Conspirer Beyonder characteristic and the Devil emblem that had just been sent over.
"Mr. Hughes, do you have a way to strip out the part belonging to the fire domain from this characteristic?"
Al Tines handed over the Conspirer characteristic.
"No, if it were still a material, it might be possible, but now it's a complete characteristic. The Unshadowed's Purification ability cannot separate only a portion of it."
Mr. Hughes gently shook his head and replied.
This was the first time Al Tines had heard of something Mr. Hughes couldn't do.
"You want to ask why ancient species in the second epoch could individually converge Beyonder powers of a certain domain? Just like Frost Dragons gathering various frost domain abilities?"
Before Al Tines could even ask, Mr. Hughes spoke the question Al Tines had in mind.
Red Light Aiur Moria, who was beside them, chuckled twice and gave the answer:
"At that time, Beyonder characteristics weren't as systematic as they are now. Except for those angel-level characteristics at the top, the rest of the Beyonder characteristics hadn't converged into a complete Sequence potion."
"So, at that time, creatures could easily find and devour partial characteristics of the same domain. But now, most characteristics have converged completely. Haven't you noticed that most Beyonder potion main ingredients basically only have two materials?"
Al Tines was stunned for a moment but quickly reacted. A long time had passed since the first blasphemy slate appeared. During this period, Beyonder species had clearly not remained unchanged.
Aside from races like Dragons, Giants, Sanguine, Humans, and Elves, which were large in number and had the protection of True Gods, other species must have undergone succession.
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