After the meeting ended, Klein sat in the bathroom, deep in thought.
He stared at the amulet in his hand, which looked like a toy sticker, and his mind froze for a long time.
"...Fuck."
After that long crash, he finally let out a phrase that had survived countless eras, in a tone far from gentlemanly.
"This sticker-like amulet can actually curb loss of control and corruption..."
Klein was at a loss.
Because of the repeated warnings from Old Neil and Captain Dunn, he had developed a strong understanding of the dangers of losing control. So he was well aware of how terrifying it was for a Beyonder.
Among them, corruption was even more serious than mere loss of control.
But the very thing that Old Neil and Captain Dunn had said was unavoidable, unstoppable, and irreversible now seemed to have a countermeasure.
And that countermeasure was currently lying quietly in his palm, looking as ordinary and childish as a toy.
He hadn't believed it at first, but after the Tarot Club's weekly gathering, he performed several additional divinations above the gray fog to confirm it. Each divination showed the same result—this amulet did have the power to curb loss of control and corruption.
That answer made Klein feel as if his entire worldview, newly formed in this strange world, was about to collapse.
An amulet made so casually, yet capable of suppressing loss of control and corruption. It made those pioneers of the past who went mad or were corrupted seem like a cruel joke.
"What a bad joke."
Klein felt a deep irony. He let out a slow breath to ease his mind. He needed to think about another problem now.
"Should I tell Captain Dunn about the amulet?"
There was no doubt that this amulet could greatly change the fate of Beyonders. But at the same time, it could also easily expose his identity.
If Mr. Hanged Man or Miss Justice realized the amulet came from him, then the identity he worked so hard to conceal would be revealed in an instant.
"But if I don't tell Captain Dunn, how can I, who just joined the Nighthawks, ever come in contact with corrupted or out-of-control Beyonders?"
Although the divinations had already confirmed its effects, Klein still felt the need to personally verify it.
The problem was how. He was just a rookie who had barely stepped into the Beyonder world. How could he test it?
Klein felt extremely conflicted.
And what troubled him wasn't just the amulet. There was also the matter of the mysterious guest who had appeared in the gray fog—someone he had no knowledge of at all.
Just thinking about that made a chill run down his spine.
There had been an uninvited guest above the gray fog. Didn't that mean his little secret could be exposed at any time?
Of course, that still wasn't the most important issue.
The key point was that the intruder could even influence the gray fog. Klein clearly remembered the man uttering the term "Sefirah Castle."
Klein wasn't sure if Sefirah Castle referred to the same mysterious space he called the gray fog. He had no way to confirm it.
But his instincts told him that "Sefirah Castle" was the more accurate and formal name for the gray fog.
"Mysterious guest… Sefirah Castle… Amulet… and Joker."
Others might not know, but as a transmigrator, he did. Joker was a word from a pre-transmigration language. Yet, this language system did not exist in this world at all. In fact, it was so alien that its encryption was even more complex than Chinese.
The reason was simple—this world had no such text, nor any record of it.
And it was exactly because of this word that Klein felt the other party might be the same kind of person as he was.
All these puzzles now swirled in Klein's mind, forming a massive deadlock.
Without any clues, this impasse couldn't be broken.
Klein paused mid-thought. He had forgotten something important. He had forgotten it earlier, but for some reason, he suddenly remembered it now.
"That strange sensation."
That man's voice had been like a whisper in his ear during his advancement—but even stronger.
His blood boiled, and his spirituality felt like it was being pulled out of his spirit body.
When that happened, Klein noticed that Mr. Hanged Man experienced a similar condition, while Miss Justice didn't appear to be affected at all.
Perhaps, this was more evidence that Mr. Hanged Man was also a Beyonder.
Miss Justice didn't display the same symptoms. Maybe it was because she wasn't a Beyonder yet.
"The identity of that person still needs to be explored."
Looking down at the amulet in his hand, Klein felt troubled. How was he supposed to verify something like this?
If he went to Captain Dunn and claimed the amulet could suppress loss of control and corruption, Dunn might think he had already gone insane.
After careful consideration, Klein still didn't have a good solution.
In truth, Klein also knew he could try praying to a god for help. But the real question was, would the goddess even pay attention to him?
Besides, the Evernight Goddess wasn't his mother. Would she really respond to a prayer like this? If she didn't, wouldn't that make things worse?
After calming himself, Klein finally decided to hide the amulet for now and look for an opportunity to test it later.
Just as Klein was about to put it away, the Evernight Goddess was staring at the same amulet in front of her, a question mark practically floating over her head.
"???"
She stared at it for a long time, but her brain simply didn't process it right away.
"It can suppress loss of control and corruption? Is there something wrong with Klein's minds?"
Normally, prayers from ordinary believers didn't attract the goddess' attention. But this time, it was the aura of Sefirah Castle that caught her notice.
And the content of the prayer? The goddess was at a complete loss for words.
Asking if this sticker-like amulet could curb loss of control and corruption?
There were tools that could suppress loss of control, sure. But a tool that could suppress corruption?
As a true god at Sequence 0, how could she not know whether such tools existed?
And yet, this made her all the more curious.
She examined the amulet before her and let out a very unbecoming exclamation.
"…Fuck!"
(To be continued.)
***
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