Chapter 606: Intimidation
Above the gray fog, inside the palace that looked like a giant's
residence.
Klein tapped the edge of the mottled table as his thoughts revolved
around the strange die.
*It can influence me without me realizing it... This is already somewhat
similar to 0-08 from back then. It's just that one is right in front of
me, while the other is hidden... It's definitely a Sealed Artifact, and
it's the kind that exists at the very pinnacle. Even if it's not a Grade
0, it has to be a very special existence among Grade 1s...*
*I'm temporarily unable to interfere with matters regarding fate, but I
can't just passively face it. With the passage of time, objects at the
level of Sealed Artifacts will often cause more severe damage. It might
begin to affect people around the chubby Apothecary, such as me or all
the passengers on the ship...* Klein thought over the matter
seriously without any solutions in mind. He decided to immediately
return to the real world.
He didn't know how to seal the die or how to reduce its influence, but
he knew someone had a clue.
It was the Snake of Mercury, Will Auceptin, who was still inside his
mother's womb as a fetus!
Entering the master bedroom, he took out the paper crane in his wallet
and placed it on the table. Klein took a look at the surface which still
had signs of being erased. He picked up a pencil and wrote a simple
question: "How do I deal with that die?"
He folded the paper crane back to its original form, stuffed it in his
wallet, and went to the door of the servant's room before knocking on it
twice.
This wasn't in violation of Gehrman Sparrow's persona, because he was a
gentlemanly madman. Of course, Klein was mainly afraid of bashing
Darkwill to death by rashly opening the door. This was something that he
had learned from the movie franchise, "Final Destination."
In addition, Klein was also worried about witnessing something
disgusting or unpleasant.
*With the preferences Darkwill has exhibited, when he realizes that he's
in extreme danger and unable to extricate himself from it, with waiting
for death being the only option available to him, there's a nonzero
chance of him pleasuring himself to climax one last time...*
Klein lampooned as he heard the chubby Apothecary's weak reply, "What's
the matter?"
It's good that you aren't dead yet... Klein carefully opened
the door and leaned his body a little forward, looking at Darkwill and
the opened ring box which was sitting in front of him. He calmly asked,
"What's the score?"
"Can't you check it from the papers yourself... Sports section..."
Darkwill remained listless.
"I'm asking about the die," Klein simply added.
"It's still at 3 points..." Darkwill first answered instinctively before
turning his head and jumping up. "You believe me?"
Klein didn't reply so as to prevent him from recalling how Gehrman
Sparrow had been fooled by the die.
He turned around and said in an unperturbed tone, "Bring the die
outside."
"Alright!"
"Alright!"
Darkwill and Harry cried out in joy almost at the same time.
They either raised their arms or wings!
After the chubby Apothecary carefully carried the ring box out, Klein
pointed at the coffee table and said, "Put it on there."
As he said, he sat on the sofa beside it. He placed his arms on his
thigh and leaned forward to observe the strange die.
On the surface, the die didn't seem strange in any way when it came to
mysticism. The only difference from an ordinary die was that it was dyed
in red, even for three points.
Klein didn't touch it out of caution. He slightly straightened his body
and looked at Darkwill, who was seated across him on a chair, as well as
the fat owl, Harry, who was perched on the chair's back.
"Describe the exact situation."
Darkwill didn't hide the matter any further as he said with a smile
which looked worse than crying, "This is an important Sealed Artifact in
our organization. My mission is to send it to a particular person in
Oravi Island.
"But, as you can see. It's extremely dangerous. It will roll itself even
when there's no space for it to do so!
"When it rolls a six, the wielder will be sufficiently lucky. Everything
can be done with relatively easy success, just like how my clumsy lie
was able to fool you."
*Don't mention this matter... You will one day be taught a serious
lesson because of that mouth of yours...* Klein listened with a
stoic expression.
Darkwill continued, "1 point means that the wielder will be extremely
unlucky. Nothing will succeed; you wouldn't believe me even if I were to
tell you the whole truth...
"2 points should be bad luck of a lesser degree, but as for why it would
cause me to be struck by lightning... It's inexplicable!
"3 points and 4 points are normal levels of bad luck and good luck. This
can be confirmed. 5 points is the opposite of 2 points."
*You aren't considered unlucky enough; otherwise, I would've already
beaten you up...* Klein thought and calmly instructed, "From
this moment forth, both of you will take turns to monitor this die. Once
it drops below 3 points, you are to inform me immediately."
"Both of us?" Darkwill wore a blank look for a moment.
"Including me?" The owl perched on the edge of the chair's back raised
its right wing.
Klein leaned back into the sofa and crossed his right leg as he said
calmly, "This will help in maintaining focus and energy."
With that said, he gestured at the owl with his chin.
"You're up first."
"My name is Harry," the owl grumbled.
Harry... Klein resisted the urge to laugh as he said to
Darkwill, "Pull the bell and get an attendant here. From this moment
forth, we will choose to have room service for our meals.
"Before reaching Oravi Island, you have to be in the living room at all
times. You are not to go anywhere.
"Even if you wish to use the washroom, it will be when it's at 3 or 4.
"If you really can't hold it in, I'll give you a bucket."
Upon hearing Gehrman Sparrow give instructions with regularity and
thoroughness, Darkwill calmed down a little at a time. He was no longer
as horrified as before.
The matter he was most worried about prior to this was that firstly,
Gehrman Sparrow would be enticed by greed and choose to kill him for the
die. Secondly, this somewhat crazy and cold adventurer might be
frightened by the die, and that he would choose to terminate the mission
and stop providing protection.
And now, Gehrman Sparrow didn't show any fear, and he even seemed very
confident!
Darkwill secretly sighed in relief and thought, *His performance was
really professional...*
He isn't afraid at all!
*He can even escape the influence of the die and accept my explanation.
He lives up to his name of being the powerful adventurer who easily
hunted Wormtongue! He's definitely a powerhouse at the pirate admiral
level!*
Darkwill stood up and walked to the door to pull the service bell.
Just as he returned to the sofa, he heard Harry's sharp screech.
"It has changed! It has changed!
"2 points!"
Suddenly, Klein exerted strength in his legs as he rose up from the sofa
without warning and rushed to Darkwill's side.
Bang!
As a gunshot rang from outside, Klein pulled Darkwill's arm, swung his
arm backward, and shook his wrist, throwing the chubby Apothecary to the
side.
At this point, in the wall opposite to where Darkwill was standing,
there was a bullet hole.
*Did a sailor's gun misfire? Or did the bullet ricochet when aiming at
some seabird or something? Regardless of the situation, the chances of
that happening are very low; yet...* Klein turned his head to
the chubby Apothecary.
"Are you injured?"
Darkwill shook his head with a lingering sense of fear.
"I'm fine."
In the time that followed, Klein resolved more than ten accidents, one
after another. It included the sudden collapse of the chandelier in the
room, a hammer dropped by a slipping maintenance worker headed straight
for Darkwill's head, as well as Darkwill nearly dying from choking on a
fishbone.
These didn't seem like anything serious, but for Klein to remain highly
focused, it was inevitable for him to be exhausted.
Thankfully, the die automatically rolled to 4 points later, finally
ending the hour which was fraught with disasters.
*No, I can't continue like this. Who knows if something will happen to
me when I'm rescuing him...* Klein sent away the captain who
came to apologize and said to Darkwill, "I'll sleep for half an hour.
"Both of you are to watch the die. Immediately wake me up when there's a
problem."
The chubby Apothecary and the owl nodded like a hungry woodpecker.
Leaning back into the sofa, Klein used Cogitation to quickly fall
asleep, hoping to receive a reply from Will Auceptin.
When he woke up in his dream, he heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the
pitch-black desolate plains. He followed the same-old path and reached
the depths of the black steeple.
In the protruded ground surrounded by tarot cards, there were many new
silvery lines that were densely written.
Klein stopped walking and quickly read it.
"It's called the Die of Probability.
"It's a Sealed Artifact of the highest level in our School of Thought. I
believe it can reach the standard of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.
"It controls the probability of everything. 1 point will maximize the
probability of unfavorable matters occurring to the target. 2 points
will raise the probability of unfavorable matters greatly. This doesn't
mean that 2 points is safer than 1 point. This is because once the
probability is high enough, any accident can happen. 3 points is to
increase the probability of unfavorable matters. It's the opposite for 4
to 6 points.
"Even for me, a being who can reset it to a certain extent, it's a
rather dangerous Sealed Artifact. A demigod can be killed using it, but
of course, it can also kill yourself."
*I know, your contest with the Die of Probability is likely the
equivalent to the battle between the God[It's a reference to how gamers will try attempt to save and load the game to beat a game's RNG for a better item.] of Save and Load and
the RNG[Random Number Generator.] gods...* Klein lampooned inwardly as he
continued reading.
"The Die of Probability has living characteristics. It always makes the
wielder swing back and forth between having good and bad luck. If one
isn't careful, it's possible to die from an accident. When it awakens to
a certain degree, it will control the people and objects around the
wielder, controlling the probability of their actions.
"Although it hasn't been confirmed, I suspect that given enough time, it
will be able to influence the entire world, making every action of all
life be determined by its score. Of course, this is excluding deities."
*To put it simply, it's digitizing the entire world... Th-this is
definitely at the level of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact. It's extremely
dangerous! How terrifying...* Klein couldn't help but frown as
he eagerly continued reading.
"To truly seal the Die of Probability is rather complicated. To put it
simply, it's to use specific Sealed Artifacts to isolate it from the
spirit world, astral world, and the real world. You can give it a try.
"Haha, I'll reveal my cards. I have long discovered that you can resist
my prophetic senses. Perhaps you can use it to seal it.
"There's another way, but it can only briefly reduce its influence.
However, this should be enough to send the Die of Probability to the
hands of someone who can seal it.
"That method is to use the fact that it has living characteristics. Use
an effective method to intimidate it. That way, it will behave,
no---calm down for a period of time. It will last about 12 hours before
continuing.
"After repeated acts of intimidation, the influence it receives will
decrease. After a week, it will mark you and madly control your
probabilities.
"Finally, thank you for your help.
Sincerely yours,
Will Auceptin"
*As expected of a Snake of Fate. He has indeed discovered my
uniqueness... Throwing the Die of Probability above the gray fog should
be able to seal it. But the problem is that a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact
with living characteristics might influence the space above the gray fog
and chase me away, making itself the owner... Such matters cannot be
answered with divination. It will definitely be able to resist, just
like 0-08...* Klein rejected the idea of using the gray fog.
As the thoughts whirled in his mind, he suddenly had an idea.
Klein quickly left his dream and woke up. He said to Darkwill, "I have a
method of suppressing its influence."
"What is it?" Darkwill asked in pleasant surprise.
Klein didn't answer and picked up the Die of Probability, which had 4
points facing up, before entering the washroom.
*What does he want to do? I remember that in some folklore, the way they
treat evil objects is to throw sh\t... Ugh... Darkwill didn't
wish to think further.
After entering the washroom and locking the door, Klein immediately set
up a ritual to summon himself. Following that, he went above the gray
fog and brought out the iron cigar case.
Then, he picked up the Die of Probability and opened the cigar case.
Inside the cigar case was the All-Black Eye which came from the
Marionettist.
Under the darkness, Klein's face was cloaked in the shadows and he
watched with a deep and gloomy gaze as he brought the Die of Probability
close to the strange eye. It was a Beyonder characteristic which
contained the True Creator's mental corruption.
The corners of his mouth cracked open as he revealed a genial smile and
whispered to the die in his hand, "Here, let me treat you to a concert."