Nimrod's voice echoed above "Sefirah Castle," but just then, from the distant Tarot Club stone table, a voice seemed to penetrate the gray mist barrier and reach his ears.
"...Good afternoon, Mr. 'Fool'~"
The Tarot Club had begun... Nimrod took a deep breath and walked a few steps forward, sitting at the edge of this gray mist area.
Although he didn't know why his current situation was so strange, he still conducted a basic investigation of his surroundings.
As he sat down, he also gently pressed the edge of this gray mist area with his hand. The sensation from his fingertips felt like touching rough stone slabs. As Nimrod heard that voice, the originally blurry "Tarot Club" scene before his eyes also rapidly became clear.
"The scenery in this area seems to be able to change according to my will to some extent, but I temporarily cannot leave this area..."
Nimrod reached out and gently touched the constantly writhing gray mist before him, feeling an insurmountable resistance, confirming that he temporarily couldn't leave this place.
Just then, a voice transmitted from the distance. Nimrod identified that profound and mysterious voice, his expression inevitably becoming somewhat strange:
"The Tarot Club has officially begun..."
"Miss 'Justice' has obtained the formula for the 'Audience' potion, and Alger seems to have opened his spirit vision, secretly peering at 'The Fool'... was he really this bold at the beginning?"
He couldn't help but complain:
"Fortunately, the spirituality of the 'Sailor' pathway isn't too strong, not much different from the 'Hunter' pathway that can see 'red and healthy.' Otherwise, the consequences of a Sequence Seven directly looking at a deity would probably be quite miserable..."
Just now, Nimrod had used his " Cryptographer" considerable spirit vision to confirm that Klein had already become an Beyonder.
Although Klein had just stepped into the Beyonder pathway and was only a Sequence Nine "seer," his entire body was genuinely shrouded in "Sefirah Castle's" mist. Any Beyonder with slightly more sensitive spirit vision would probably drop dead on the spot.
"However, my line of sight doesn't seem to be blocked by the mist shrouding them... What kind of state am I in right now?"
Nimrod muttered a sentence, stood up, and while listening to the clear voices reaching his ears, walked toward the "plaza" where numerous light cocoons hung.
His gaze swept across the faces of the figures sealed within each light cocoon, while his ears constantly heard the ongoing discussions of the "Tarot Club."
Just moments ago, our respected Mr. "Fool" had already informed the two Tarot Club members about the "acting method" without understanding anything himself, and demanded that they collect Roselle Gustav's diary.
When Nimrod heard the Tarot Club discussing Roselle's diary, he once again felt grateful for his previous action of burning his notes.
After all, although the "Black Emperor" could continuously resurrect and return, social death was different—once you died socially, you stayed dead.
Unless Roselle could "twist" the memories of everyone in the world who knew about "Roselle's Diary," there was no possibility of salvation.
Time in the Tarot Club passed quickly. Nimrod listened as the three discussed everything from "Roselle's diary" to "Audience potions" and then shifted to Ruen's governmental system. He heard Klein speak up, presenting some solutions that had once appeared on Earth in his capacity as a "keyboard politician."
Feeling this meeting was about to reach its end, Nimrod quickened his pace, walking toward the light cocoons he hadn't finished examining.
He suspected that since his opportunity to come to "Sefirah Castle" was Klein holding a Tarot Club meeting and ascending to "Sefirah Castle," perhaps when Klein left "Sefirah Castle," he might also be brought along to leave this place.
Light cocoons swept past in his peripheral vision. Soon, Nimrod's steps stopped again. He stood in place, looking at the brilliant light gate stained with blue-black color and those "cocoons" formed by light before him, gently raising his head.
Below the light gate, there were only three broken "cocoons" swaying in the wind.
...
Gray mist slowly dispersed before Nimrod's eyes. As he had anticipated, when Klein left "Sefirah Castle," he also felt a strong sensation of falling, then returned to his study.
"Indeed, just as I thought..." Nimrod had just exhaled when he felt a slight burning pain on the back of his hand. He quickly brought his hand to his face and saw a mark slowly appearing below the gray countdown on his right hand.
This mark appeared blue-black overall, curved at both ends, looking just like the light gate he had seen above "Sefirah Castle," only simpler, without those coiled and twisted worms—just a symbol resembling "Ω."
"This is... after ascending to Sefirah Castle, some changes appeared on my body?"
Pale sunlight fell on Nimrod's face. He gently stroked the blue-black mark on his right hand with his left index finger, attempting to inject the "spirituality" he had been able to sense since transmigrating into the area where the blue-black mark was located.
Soon, the blue-black mark on Nimrod's hand rapidly changed with the injection of spirituality. The gray mist space he had seen, hanging with light cocoons, appeared before him again, and his spirituality began to be rapidly consumed.
Looking at the gray mist appearing before him, a bold idea suddenly arose in Nimrod's mind. He casually grabbed a stack of papers beside him and quickly stuffed them into the gray mist before him.
Then he directly cut off his spirituality.
The gray mist quickly dissipated after losing spirituality support. After several seconds, Nimrod took a deep breath and once again activated the mark on his hand with his spirituality. Gray mist reappeared before him, and he reached out, pulling out the papers he had just put in.
"This is similar to Klein's later development of applications for 'Sefirah Castle'..." Nimrod casually placed the stack of letter paper on the table beside him, talking to himself:
"It seems that although I temporarily can't go to Sefirah Castle, I can also have a 'storage space'... Regardless of whether the countdown ending will return me to the original world or cause another transmigration, I can use 'Sefirah Castle' to store some things..."
"I'll go to the Aurora Order's small treasury now to see what useful things there are. Maybe they'll come in handy later..."
"..."
"...Damn, why is Amon so bad? He even steals from his father's subordinates?"
When Nimrod arrived at the completely empty warehouse interior, his expression immediately darkened.
He looked gravely at his surroundings, which had no trace of Beyonder spiritual light, and couldn't help thinking "How could Amon be so bad?"
The Aurora Order member standing beside him was already covered in sweat, his face pale as he explained his previous experiences, trying to excuse his dereliction of duty.
If this were the original "Mr. L," when he heard you trying to excuse your mistakes, he might have directly given you "physical" termination, you know?
Nimrod glanced at the Aurora Order member beside him and spoke indifferently:
"Before evening, go purchase some high-powered firearms and replenish the things here."
"I don't want you to make mistakes even with these simple tasks. Tonight, go confess before the Lord yourself."
...
Late at night, crimson moonlight spilled through the window into "Mr. L's" bedroom. Nimrod stood quietly by the window, watching the countdown on his hand reach zero bit by bit.
[00:00:31]
I've already put enough food and medicine, as well as weapons the Aurora Order emergency-purchased, into the mark on my hand. The mark on my hand shares the same origin as "Sefirah Castle" and has a high probability of still working after the countdown reaches zero...
I've also made marks on my body and clothes. If after the countdown reaches zero, I'm still using this body and these marks haven't changed, then I very likely transmigrated together with my current body.
[00:00:03]
As long as the countdown reaching zero doesn't directly kill me, any outcome is acceptable...
[00:00:02] [00:00:01] [00:00:00]
Gray mist and familiar pain once again emerged in Nimrod's mind.
A strong deep red color followed.
Nimrod opened his eyes to see a blonde, blue-eyed youth holding an axe, looking at him with wariness.
He was about to speak when he noticed terror appearing in the youth's eyes, who turned and ran without hesitation.
Uh... Nimrod was momentarily stunned. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his hand.
He looked down to see the countdown on his hand beginning to jump strangely.
[72:00:00] [71:59:59] [71:59:58] ...
"Great, it's Kordu Village. We're doomed."
After surveying his surroundings, Nimrod spoke with resignation.