Chapter 17 – The Bluff
Klein scratched his head, not quite grasping Ning Lu's meaning, but he brushed the aside off and asked,
"By the way, when did you arrive here? Which Pathway are you on? Your Sequence seems pretty high… oh, I'm just curious—if it's inconvenient, forget it."
"Nothing inconvenient." Ning Lu shook his head and gave a vague number.
"I transmigrated only about ten days ago. The reason I already have my current level of Beyonder power is that I landed straight inside a Beyonder's body."
"As for the Pathway—well, I'm a Beyonder of the 'Marauder' Path."
Marauder… ten days ago… he arrived only a little later than I did… Klein's heart tightened; he probed,
"Do you know what Roselle wrote in his diary—about being able to choose again if given the chance—"
He wanted to ask about the three Pathways—Apprentice, Seer, Marauder—mentioned in Roselle's diary.
The two were in a private booth of the café, sealed by a Wall of Spirituality, so there was no fear of being overheard. Ning Lu tapped the table thoughtfully and said slowly,
"I know. It touches on an important Beyonder theory—perhaps even the secret behind our transmigration."
He smiled and added calmly, "We come from the same place; I don't want to lie to you. But let me say up front—I intend to return to our original world, and I won't give up advancing along this Pathway."
Klein hesitated, suddenly awkward. "Er… isn't it a bit early to talk about this? We don't even know how to get back…"
"Early? Not at all." Ning Lu sighed softly.
"I want us to be friends who can trust each other, so I'm telling you now. I can see you want to go home too—but what if only one of us can make it?"
Ning Lu leaned forward earnestly, arms braced on the table.
"I'm not sure I can reach the end, but an extra person means an extra chance. If I fail, I hope you can carry me back to our world—and vice versa. If I succeed, I'll do everything I can to send you back to yours."
Right now your trust is just the fondness of meeting a fellow countryman in a foreign land; I don't want to exploit that. Friendship built on lies is a bubble on water—but friendship backed by shared interests and positions lasts."
[Hah, unwilling to exploit,] The Celestial Worthy suddenly quipped in Ning Lu's ear, as if mocking his lie.
Unlike Zhou Mingrui, Ning Lu was a genuine Transmigrator, not an old-day remnant.
Klein listened quietly, catching the undercurrent in Ning Lu's words.
After a moment he nodded. "All right, I understand."
Then a smile flashed across Klein's face.
"Still, it's good we cleared the air; otherwise there'd always be a hidden thorn between us."
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"Whew—looks like my luck's not bad; the first fellow countryman I meet is a decent guy…"
Hearing Klein's wistful remark, Ning Lu smiled too. "At first I thought of inviting you straight to my place, but it seemed inconvenient—and we'd only just met—so I chose this café instead."
"I understand."
Klein nodded. Knowing Ning Lu was a fellow Transmigrator, his manner slipped closer to "Zhou Mingrui." He cut a piece of cream bread with knife and fork, stuffed it into his mouth, and mumbled,
"Right—how did you cross? Maybe if we swap stories we can figure out the mystery."
"Me?" Ning Lu said. "It was simple: I saw a gray fog, then woke up here—already a Cryptologist."
"Cryptologist?" Klein caught the unfamiliar Sequence name. "You said you're on the Marauder Path? Which Sequence did you land in?"
Ning Lu smiled triumphantly, like a silent boast.
"sequence 7. I'm currently re-digesting the potion."
You rolled an SSR account? Damned European!
The thought flashed through Klein's mind; he secretly cursed—then heard Ning Lu add,
"But it's also a trap of a career. Believe it or not, Old Zhou, high-Sequence Beyonders of the Marauder Path actively—or passively—hunt their lower-Sequence kind. That's why I worry I might not reach the end."
"You've read that diary page of Roselle; you must have some guesses about 'True Gods'…"
Ning Lu sighed and continued his pitch.
"From what I've learned, even an ordinary person can climb all the way to True God by drinking potions—and becoming one probably needs special conditions."
He deliberately lowered his voice.
"I suspect the Marauder Path already has someone near divinity—maybe you must wipe out every other Beyonder of the same Path to ascend, or maybe that god is clearing obstacles."
After all, each Path has only one god.
Ning Lu knew the original plot, of course, but he had to speak within his current persona's knowledge.
Compared with Klein—now only Sequence 9 "Fool"—Ning Lu at sequence 7 might glimpse higher mysteries, but his information had to be riddled with gaps.
Nine parts truth, one part lie—only that could deceive the future "Fool."