Chapter 826: The Thought of Being Forgotten
Monday evening. 160 Böklund Street.
Klein set up a ritual and summoned himself. He planned on investigating
the secret hidden in the sewers.
While responding above the gray fog, he was in a dilemma about the card
to use---the Black Emperor or the Tyrant card. It was like the selection
of clothes before heading out.
In consideration of how Backlund was a place where the Church of Storms
was a very powerful faction, and being afraid that he would end up
attracting High-Sequence irascible bros, Klein ultimately chose to use
the Black Emperor card. He wore a crown and black armor with a cape
behind him.
Aside from this Card of Blasphemy, he also brought Creeping Hunger,
Azik's copper whistle, Senor's gold coin, and Broken Finger, the
Marauder pathway's mystical item which Cattleya had given him three
hours ago, as well as some ordinary explosives.
Of course, Klein didn't bring the entire crate of explosives. For a
Spirit Body, it was just too heavy. He only took out five sticks and
left Senor to hold them in his body.
As for Death Knell, he had left it in his room. This was to prevent
himself from having the urge to participate in a battle. He had very
clear goals, so once he discovered any problems, to avoid danger, he
would immediately leave and not stay behind. On the contrary, a powerful
weapon would end up making him act bold, making him wish to probe deeper
and resolve the matter by himself.
*This is Backlund. It's best that I don't create too great a
commotion... As for what's hidden in the sewers, I have no way of being
clairvoyant about it. I can only divine whether it will be
dangerous...* Klein looked at the wall clock in his room, and he
confirmed that there was another hour and a half before Hazel took
action like she usually did.
His figure suddenly vanished as he passed through the balcony's glass
and flew into the streets before entering the sewers.
In the dirty and humid environment, Klein took out a Loen gold coin and
made Wraith Senor appear in front of him with his dark red coat and old
triangular hat.
Following that, he handed over the tweezers that resembled two ground
bone fingers to his marionette.
Just holding it on him for a short period of time had nearly made him
steal the sewer's manhole cover.
Senor held Broken Finger and walked ahead. Dressed as the Black Emperor,
Klein turned invisible and walked behind, allowing his marionette to
open up a gap of at least fifty meters from him.
With this distance between them, he was no longer affected by
kleptomania, and as a dead person, Senor also lacked the thoughts of
stealing.
He didn't even have any thoughts!
Turning in at the corresponding fork and passing through the hidden
door, Wraith Senor held the grayish-white tweezer and appeared inside
the half-natural, half-artificial cave.
Unlike before, the oilskin-wrapped tools like shovels had changed
positions. The hidden passage on the right had deepened a little.
That was clearly Hazel's main focus.
Right on the heels of that, Klein, who didn't enter the fork, stayed
close to the wall of the sewers without touching it, his back facing the
target region. He controlled his marionette as he walked deeper into the
right passage.
Soon, Senor came to the end.
At this moment, Klein suddenly felt the grayish-white tweezer in his
marionette's hand tremble subtly, as though it had been attracted by
some unknown object not far away.
The unknown item was deep and profound like a calm ocean. It made it
difficult to pry into its exact state.
*A characteristic that's alive, much closer to that of a
spirit...* Klein was only able to determine this as he
immediately let Senor use Mirror Leap to return to the half-natural,
half artificial cave, onto a shovel that hadn't rusted. He didn't
attempt to head deeper underground via the passage.
Then, Senor appeared again, took out the five ordinary sticks of
explosives from inside its body, and placed them in different spots.
Every Wraith was a demolition expert!
After doing all of this, Senor's figure phased away, appearing on the
surface of the gold coin in Klein's hand.
As he stuffed the gold coin into his body, Klein raised his right hand,
in preparation to snap his fingers and trigger the five sticks of
explosives!
His idea was very simple. It was to deliver an explosion of a suitable
scale in order to destroy Hazel's hard work and traces. It would attract
the Nighthawks and resolve everything.
This way, regardless of what was hidden deep in the passage, it wouldn't
bring him danger!
In Backlund, knowing how to ingeniously "sound the alarm" was more
effective and safer than rashly attacking by himself. This was
especially so when Klein wasn't capable of determining that the matter
involved a demigod!
I'm such a good citizen! As Klein gave a self-deprecating
remark, he prepared to snap his fingers to ignite the explosives.
Suddenly, his head swayed a little as he lowered his arm, as though
nothing had happened.
The cautious Klein immediately ended the summoning and returned above
the gray fog. Then, he returned to the real world and entered his
physical body.
Just as he was about to busy himself to bring back Creeping Hunger,
Senor's gold coin, and the other items from the mysterious space above
the gray fog, he frowned slightly.
He seriously recalled the entire process of his late-night exploration
when he was alarmed to realize that he had apparently lost a small
portion of his "memories."
He didn't remember if he had triggered the five sticks of ordinary
explosives!
As he turned his head to sense his surroundings and confirmed that the
entire street was very silent, Klein began to believe that he hadn't
snapped his fingers.
*This is a Beyonder power of a Dream Stealer? It seems to be much
stronger than Mobet... If not for the gray fog and my habit of doing an
after-action review, I might not have discovered that my thoughts of
triggering the explosives were stolen away... The other party might have
also snapped his fingers, but without the Flame Controlling powers to
work in concert, nothing happened...* Klein's expression turned
grave as he thought, prepared to make another attempt.
Similarly, to prevent himself from being tracked, he still summoned
himself and responded to himself.
With the Black Emperor card, Klein left 160 Böklund Street from another
side, deliberately circling two streets away before arriving at the
sewer's manhole.
This time, he didn't approach the fork. Staying not far from the
manhole, he used his enhanced Flame Controlling to sense the explosive
and lifted his right hand.
He raised it and lowered it as Klein rapidly ended the summoning and
returned above the gray fog to prevent himself from being attacked by an
unknown existence.
Not in a hurry to return to the real world, he sat at the chair of The
World, doing a debrief of the entire process.
*I forgot to trigger the explosives again... If I didn't force myself to
recall this, I wouldn't have even considered such a problem... Truly
quite impressive. The one that steered Hazel to the sewers to dig is
probably a demigod... Why didn't he directly parasitize Hazel? Could it
be due to particular reasons that he's sealed somewhere in the sewers
and can only release some of his powers to drive Hazel to help him via a
dream? The one that caused Broken Fingers to react abnormally via the
law of Beyonder characteristic convergence is also him? He is unable to
control the signs in regards to this?* Klein thought as he
rapped the corner of the long mottled table.
After having a rough guess, he discovered that there was apparently no
way of truly carrying out his original plans.
This was because his thoughts would be stolen once he entered the
distance in which he could use Flame Controlling to ignite the
explosives. Even if he recalled it later, there was no way to make up
for it.
Considering how Hazel would be affected by her dream, Klein suspected
that the limits to the person's powers didn't stop at the manhole. If he
discovered that Hero Bandit Black Emperor was related to Dwayne Dantès,
then he would lose his corresponding thoughts and memories even while
sleeping in his bedroom.
*However, he has no way of locking onto me by passing over the gray
fog... Heh, does he think it's so easy to stop me from "sounding the
alarm"?* Klein thought as he cautiously summoned a paper
figurine and used a tiny amount of the powers of the mysterious space
above the gray fog. With the ritual that had yet been terminated, he
conjured an angel and forcefully created an interference effect.
After doing this, he carried the Black Emperor card and entered his
bedroom with his Door of Summoning.
Klein's new plan was to head to another street, find a random house, and
borrow some pen and paper to write: "At the end of the sixth left fork
in the Böklund Street sewers, there's a secret passage that's suspected
to hide a demigod from the Marauder pathway" or something similar. Then,
with the image of Böklund Street, he would plaster the piece of paper on
Saint Samuel Cathedral's entrance as a public notice!
Of course, he would politely knock on the door to let the bishops inside
sense it to prevent ordinary people from first seeing it.
*At times, the most primitive methods are the most effective
ones!* Just as Klein was about to leave 160 Böklund Street from
another area, he suddenly felt a tremor as a deep rumble sounded from
afar.
It was ignited? The explosives were ignited? Who did it? Klein
paused in surprise.
It was definitely not done by him, as it couldn't have been delayed for
so long. And previously, there wasn't anyone in the sewers. Even if
there was someone, the thought of igniting the explosives would be
stolen away.
*Unless a demigod happened to come. But how could it be this
coincidental...*
*There's another possibility. It was done by the demigod from the
Marauder pathway... He had repeatedly stolen my thoughts before,
preventing me from using Flame Controlling. It was to buy time to leave.
Now that it's finally done, he triggered the explosives to destroy all
the evidence?*
*That adheres to logic, as he should know very well that a powerful
being whose origins can't be traced cannot be stopped if he insists on
"sounding the alarm." The best solution is to drop its tail in order to
survive, just like a gecko...*
*However, if he can leave, why did he steer Hazel into digging the
secret passage? Doing so will deal tremendous harm to him?*
Klein thought of certain possibilities, but he was unable to verify any
of them. Furthermore, he was certain that the underground explosion was
bound to have already attracted attention. Hence, he immediately left
Creeping Hunger and other items behind, terminated the summoning, and
returned above the gray fog.
After returning to the real world, he stopped the ritual, cleared the
altar, and cleaned all traces before getting into bed.
39 Böklund Street, Member of Parliament Macht's house.
Hazel, who didn't sleep at all, was alarmed by the tremors and deep
humming sound. She walked to the balcony and drew the curtains to look
towards the sewer manhole. However, she didn't notice any anomalies.
After observing for a while, the uncertain her had decided to cancel her
operation for the night and sleep in peace.
At this moment, she suddenly heard squeaking as she turned to look at
the corner of her balcony.
At some point in time, there was a gray rat sitting there covered in
sewage water.