Lord: Sequence Overlord

Chapter 157 Intelligence Bureau and Transformation of Strength

Chapter 156

"Today's stage play is a death gamble."

Ford explained with a cold laugh, "Next, I'll be playing a one-on-one blackjack game with you. The stakes are our lives. Only the winner will walk off the stage alive. I know the script and the order of all the cards. What makes you think you can beat me in this game?"

Rosen tried to use his supernatural abilities, only to find that he couldn't even use his divinity.

On this stage, both sides' extraordinary abilities were simultaneously sealed.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they probably won't even be able to hurt each other.

The playwright on the other side knows the script, which naturally gives him an absolute advantage.

The Sequence 5 playwright is indeed terrifying, but such a powerful ability shouldn't only have benefits without any drawbacks.

If it can be performed so easily, how can other sequences be played?
As Rosen pondered how to deal with the playwright across from him, a gambling table was raised between the two of them.

"Now I will explain the detailed rules..."

Ford smiled confidently, "This time, there's no dealer in blackjack. There's only an automatic card dealer. Each round, three cards are dealt to each player to compare their hands. Two cards are face up and one is face down. If a player has more than 21 points, they lose. If neither player has more than 21 points, the player with the higher hand wins. If the hands are the same, it's a tie."

Each bet guarantees a minimum bet of one chip, with a maximum additional bet of three chips per round.

If someone raises, and the other person calls, they immediately show their cards. If the other person refuses to call, they lose one chip and are declared the loser.

The rules are simple: now we'll show you and me our chips, and I'll start as the dealer..."

As soon as Ford finished speaking, Rosen immediately saw a pile of chips appear on the table to his left.

He only has 34 chips, which corresponds exactly to his spiritual strength.

Looking at the other side, there were a full 61 chips.

The rules are very simple, but the playwright knows that the size of all the cards has an absolute advantage.

The automatic card dealer on the gambling table instantly dealt two face-up cards and one face-down card to Rosen and Ford respectively.

Ford's face-up cards are 5 and 9, while Lawson's face-up cards are A and 7.

Ford's points are 14, and Rosen's points are 8 and 18, because an A can be either 1 or 11.

Rosen turned over a corner of his face-down card. The Jack of Hearts represented 10 points, which meant that his three cards must have a total of 18 points. If the Ace was counted as 11 points, then he would have a total of 28 points and would lose immediately.

If Ford's hidden hand is greater than 5 and less than 8, Ford will win the first round.

In a game like this, it's impossible to win unless you cheat.

Rosen began to experiment with his various abilities and soon discovered that Ford's stage could not contain the divine power he wielded.

Thinking about it carefully, it's not surprising. If a Sequence 5 skill could seal the divine authority of a Sequence 3 at will, wouldn't the playwright become a demigod killer? Since he can use the power of divine authority, his chances of winning are very high.

Rosen didn't flip the table directly because breaking the script would definitely be punished.

He simply activated the Eye of Time and saw the result a few seconds later.

"I'll raise three chips and then open the hand..."

Rosen threw three chips into the middle of the table and revealed his face down.

Ford folded and lost a guaranteed chip; his hidden card was a 3, giving him a maximum of 17 points.

But it doesn't matter, his hand will definitely be bigger than Rosen's in the next round.

However, this time Rosen showed no intention of raising the bet at all, and actually conceded defeat before Ford could raise.

In the next round of betting, if Rosen's hand was higher than Ford's, he would immediately raise; if it was lower, he would immediately concede.

The game lasted for half an hour, and Rosen actually won a few chips.

Ford had already realized that Rosen could also know the value of both players' hands in advance.

This means that raising the stakes with the hidden cards becomes a joke, and the game between the two sides becomes a pure test of luck.

However, Ford still has an advantage because he has more leverage than Rosen.

However, as time went on, Ford found that he had fewer and fewer bargaining chips.

He could decide the rules of the stage play of fate, but he couldn't influence the automatic card dealer. Now that his chips were dwindling, it meant that Rosen's luck far surpassed his. When the last chip disappeared, Ford's spirituality was completely extinguished, and he lost his life.

Spirituality is the bargaining chip; losing all the chips is equivalent to losing all spirituality.

Such damage is so great that even the divine realm cannot revive the divine lord who has lost all his spirituality.

If Ford had known it would turn out this way, he would never have gotten involved in gambling, a kind of stage play with no way out.

At the moment Ford died, three more orbs of light appeared in Rosen's scavenging space.

He originally had no intention of killing the playwright; he was even hoping to capture him alive if possible.

Unexpectedly, the playwright brought about his own demise, effectively killing himself.

Rosen possesses several miraculous treasures and even keeps hundreds of miraculous Ash Bees in captivity.

Without the ability to restrain divine authority, for this playwright to compete with him in terms of luck is tantamount to suicide.

Although the playwright is dead, the assassin and the doctor are captured alive.

Rosen continued to harm them, constantly weakening their spirituality.

Only when their spirituality is weakened to the point that they cannot resist the mental prison of the canvas of the mind, can their weakened spirituality be pulled into the mental prison to interrogate their memories.

The playwright's name was Ford Amos, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Amos.

The man who murdered this time was the heir of Duke Amos, who was also his half-brother. His secondary objective was to seize the title of Duke Amos, while his primary objective was, of course, to seize the power of the demon god.

Although Ford was an illegitimate child, the Duke of Amos treated him quite well.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have received a non-hereditary earldom before awakening his spirituality, nor would he have had such a smooth career as a playwright. However, greed knows no bounds, and Ford secretly joined the World Government's intelligence agency.

After the demon god was executed, his divine authority and divinity disappeared without a trace.

According to the normal plot, Delia should have gone into hiding after obtaining the power of the demon god.

However, Delia did not obtain the power of the demon god, and suspected that he had obtained it.

So Delia didn't distance herself from him; instead, she kept investigating him through various channels.

As Vittoré's adopted daughter, she naturally fell under the intelligence agency's investigation.

The intelligence agency followed Delia and eventually investigated him.

However, he was already a hereditary duke, not someone that Ford, as an intelligence officer, was qualified to arrest.

As for reporting it to higher authorities, Ford was reluctant to part with the legacy of the demon god.

So Ford even went so far as to delete his own investigation records, preparing to take two trusted confidants and act secretly.

He also framed someone else and managed to get the dukedom he had always dreamed of.

As for why it was a frame-up, it's because Ford also suspected that there was a powerful figure behind him.

Otherwise, how could he have gone from a hereditary lord to a hereditary duke in such a short time?

If he couldn't obtain the Demon God's legacy, Ford felt that getting the title of Duke Amos's heir wouldn't be a bad deal.

Ford never expected that three Sequence 5s would die at the hands of a Sequence 7.

Now that Ford had deleted the investigation records, Rosen breathed a sigh of relief.

The Demon God's divinity has been completely consumed by the main god's computer, and he has no choice but to hand it over if the World Government demands it.

Rosen, wielding the Dragon King's Wrath, shot the doctor and assassin one by one, killing them both with headshots.

The spirit still tries to struggle, but it is ultimately worn down by the canvas of the mind.

Both of them have been transformed into trophy orbs, making it easier to activate the power of the Hunting God's Authority by killing opponents of higher levels.

Rosen crushed the orbs of light dropped by the assassin and the doctor, only to find, to his disappointment, that they contained nothing of value.

If someone is already at Sequence 5 and still willingly plays the subordinate role, it already indicates that their skill level is average.

Given that their skill level is only average, why are they still ranked 5th in the sequence?

There are two reasons. First, average skill level does not necessarily mean average talent in cultivation.

Secondly, having average talent for cultivation does not mean having average comprehension.

Simply put, they are very talented in spiritual growth, but poor in learning skills. So, despite having a Sequence 5 level, their extraordinary skills are not as good as some Sequence 6 players.

Such cases of specialization in one area are countless throughout the human world.

There are also some who have neither talent for cultivation nor talent for learning, but whose sequence level is not low.

This type of extraordinary ability usually involves using unconventional methods to elevate one's sequence level.

Theoretically, a Sequence 5 extraordinary source contains more than 90% of the power of a Sequence 5. If an ordinary person fully absorbs this extraordinary source, they can advance to Sequence 9 without needing magic potions and directly obtain the upper limit of Sequence 5 cultivation potential.

However, this is very dangerous; the mortality rate for ordinary people fusing with high-sequence extraordinary source matter is extremely high.

However, there are always people who are unwilling to be ordinary. Therefore, the truly great nobles will try their best to collect high-sequence extraordinary source materials, and then find a large number of ordinary people to refine these extraordinary source materials. Finally, they will spend many years cultivating a group of extraordinary followers.

Rosen put away the extraordinary source energy of the doctor and the assassin, intending to save it for later to give to fearless citizens for refining.

Although all the people in the territory have awakened their spirituality through the trials of the virtual spiritual realm.

However, only a very small number of potentials reach Sequence 5, and the opportunity to raise the potential cap to Sequence 5 is not common.

Rosen eagerly crushed the orb of light that Ford had dropped, and three Sequence 5 treasures appeared before him.

Each of these consists of a sealed divine territory, a skill crystal, and a special extraordinary building.

The divine territory is of course Ford's divine territory, and it will be destroyed within an hour at most after the seal is broken.

How much he can rob in an hour depends on his own skills.

Next is the skill crystal, a Sequence 5 skill crystal Fate Mark. After being transformed by hunting, it has been converted into a Hunter Sequence skill crystal. All prey locked by the Fate Mark will suffer continuous damage from the Fate Mark.

This is not needed for the time being; Rosen is still several years away from Sequence 5.

He brought out the last extraordinary building, which was the stage for destiny that Ford had previously set out on.

[Stage of Destiny: Extraordinary Architecture]

[Level: Sequence 5]

[Attribute: The Stage of Destiny can transform the script of destiny into various forms of performance stages]

[Fate Script: Fate Casino, Fate Escape, Fate Puppet Show, Fate Musical, Fate Magic] Rosen studied it for a long time before he finally understood what was going on with this extraordinary building.

The stage of destiny is similar to an empty gallery, a very rare and extraordinary structure for playwrights.

Ford is a rare exception, having taken control of the stage of destiny by Sequence 5.

The Destiny Stage integrates different destiny scripts, generating corresponding rule scenarios on the stage.

For example, in a casino of fate, both parties imprison their spirituality and then set up a betting game with spirituality as the stake.

For example, in the game "Fate Escape," you can set up an escape room to seal away the enemy's power and trap them inside.

The puppet show of fate allows one to manipulate enemies like puppets.

The Fate Stage is very powerful, but there are prerequisites for using it.

First, you need the extraordinary skills required for the Destiny Stage Play. Second, you need preparation time. After all, ten minutes on stage requires ten years of practice off stage. If you forcibly drag the enemy onto the stage without any preparation, you will not be able to unleash the true power of the Destiny Stage Play.

If Ford is given a few days to prepare, then he can be drawn into the stage play of the casino of fate.

Ford could then devise more complex gambles to cut off the enemy's escape routes to the greatest extent possible.

“No high-ranking noble should be underestimated.”

Rosen incorporates the stage of destiny into the scavenging space.

After being transformed by the hunt, the Stage of Destiny has been integrated with Ford's extraordinary essence, so the prerequisite skill of Stage of Destiny is no longer needed. This extraordinary building can be used at will after it is integrated into the territory. It's just a pity that its quality is as high as Sequence 5, which is not yet masterable.

At the edge of the divine realm, Rosen lifted the seal on Ford's divine realm.

The palm-sized, sealed divine territory expanded and appeared at the edge of his divine territory.

After the spatial barriers between the two territorial boundaries came into contact, they quickly assimilated and became interconnected.

Rosen, carrying the Brilliant Lighthouse which had transformed into the form of a sun jellyfish, forcibly entered Ford's divine territory.

Because Ford's spirituality was extinguished by the stage of destiny, the ancient tree of sequence at the core of the divine realm has also been destroyed.

All the extraordinary buildings within the territory have been paralyzed as a result, and now only the citizens are able to move around.

Those citizens who were loyal to Ford rushed at Rosen when he appeared.

However, the highest-ranking Transcendent beings were only Sequence 6, and they were all picked off one by one by the Glorious Beacon using its radiant beams and sunlight rays.

"Anyone who wants to live has one hour to line up to enter my divine domain."

Rosen's voice echoed throughout Ford's divine realm.

Those who did not want to die immediately lined up to register with their families.

Rosen took all the visitors without hesitation. Ironically, Ford's wife and children, whom he kept in the castle of the Divine Realm, also wanted to join his Divine Realm. I wonder what Ford would think if he knew this in the afterlife.

Rosen originally intended to eliminate the threat completely, but then he thought of something else and decided to stay.

The reason is simple: he and Duke Amos have a blood feud.

The current Duke Amos has three sons, but only one has exceptional talent in cultivation.

This one has already been killed by Ford, and now even Ford, the most talented of the illegitimate children, has been killed by him.

Although Duke Amos has sons, they are all of poor talent and are not qualified to be his successors.

In such cases, the Duke of Amos's heir is usually chosen from among his grandchildren.

However, Duke Amos will certainly not let this go, and sooner or later he will find out that Ford's death was related to him.

Even if he told Duke Amos that his heir was killed by Ford, Duke Amos might not believe him, and even if he did, he might not let him go. After all, shifting hatred and anger onto others is an excellent way for many people to vent their pain.

Therefore, Rosen decided to keep Ford's wife and children, as this would be a good card to play against Duke Amos in the future.

A few days later, Rosen saw Duke Amos's exorbitant bounty on the virtual network.

It seems we can't find him yet. Several days have passed, and the World Government's intelligence agencies haven't come looking for trouble. It's clear that Ford is quite efficient and clean in his work, but he only messed up because he ran into someone with cheat codes.

With the external threat temporarily gone, Rosen continued his vacation.

This time, however, he wasn't on vacation alone.

At the Paradise Grand Theater in Lanyi City, Rosen only managed to get a top-tier box because of his hereditary duke status.

The entire private room felt like being inside a giant surround sound system. There was no need to worry about any noise coming from outside, nor about the music being too loud. Inside this room, you could enjoy the most perfect music from Thunder Empire.

Today's concert at the Paradise Theatre features musicians who are all above Sequence 6.

The finale even features Sequence 3 musicians, as well as an orchestra of hundreds of musicians.

Rosen lay on Stephanie's lap, letting her give him a head massage, while Maggie massaged his feet on the other side. Little Drops fed him fruit. The three of them—one mature, one aloof, and one adorable—made Rosen lose all interest in the concert.

However, the moment the song started, he was completely immersed in the music.

The singing of high-sequence musicians can produce powerful destructive effects, as well as powerful auxiliary buffs. If one's spiritual strength doesn't increase by 35 points after listening to this concert, he might as well smash up the Heavenly Grand Theater.

Because the tickets for the private boxes are too expensive, if they dare to sell them at such a high price, then they must at least be worth the price.

The entire concert lasted three hours, and at the moment it ended, Rosen's spiritual intensity had increased to 35 points.

However, his gains were not the greatest, because a portion of the profits were shared with his three lovers.

"I...I actually achieved Sequence 9 perfection..."

Stephanie excitedly lowered her head and left a bunch of lip prints on Rosen's face.

She never dreamed that one day she would become a transcendent being, and that she would soon become a Sequence 8 after changing to Sequence 9.
Maggie was also very happy, as she had changed jobs earlier and was ready to be promoted to Sequence 7 at any time.

The only one who didn't react was Xiao Di. Although she changed jobs at the same time as Machi, there was a slight age difference between them, so it would take her a few more months to change to Sequence 7. However, this already surpassed all the other citizens from Meteor City who were in the same period as Machi.

The concert was the second-to-last item on the vacation itinerary, and the last item was naturally spending a night in a state of blissful tranquility.

Early the next morning, Rosen arrived at the Divine Realm to prepare for upgrading his skill level.

Currently, there is only one point left to reach the 36-point spirituality cap, but the skill levels in each sequence are still quite far from being reached.

Rosen arrived at the Ash Hive and retrieved a new Ash Hive from inside the main computer.

This is the second Ash Hive that he finally managed to synthesize recently using the Hunter's Eye.

The two Ash Hives were instantly sealed by the Hunter's Eye in the right eye, and then combined and upgraded.

The Ash Hive, originally a Sequence 9, has now been upgraded to Sequence 8.

Half of the Ash Bees evolved from Sequence 9 to Sequence 8 this time, thus breaking the level cap for Ash Bees.

Rosen continued filming the composite, but this time it was a slime nest.

This type of troop building is almost never trained by nobles, so he managed to buy three of them in the Thunder Empire.

After two rounds of synthesis, the slime nest has been upgraded to sequence 7.

From then on, the initial level of slimes produced by slime nests will be Sequence 7.

Rosen released several Sequence 8 Ash Bees from the Ash Beehive, and a Gluttonous Nen Beast appeared in his palm and swallowed them whole.

The Ash Bee's miraculous armor-piercing power quickly upgraded Death Strike from LV3 to LV4.

[Ash Armor Penetration LV4: Base damage passively increased by 230%, ignores physical defenses lower than the user's damage output]

[Miracle Trait: True Damage - Damage caused by Ash Armor Penetration cannot be healed by conventional means]

Rosen had anticipated that Death Strike would undergo a fundamental transformation at LV4, but he hadn't expected even the skill name to be changed.

It's likely that the power of the Ash Bee was too strong, and Death Strike couldn't perfectly fuse with the power of the Sequence 8 Ash Bee. So, it was instead absorbed and fused by the power of the Ash Bee. Not only did Ash Armor Break become a passive ability, but it even gave birth to the miraculous characteristic of True Damage.

Rosen then took out a Void Shadow Stone, a special treasure born from the Void Shadow Plane.

With a quality of Sequence 5, it is already the limit of the treasures that can be fused with Shadow Escape.

[Void Shadow Cloak LV4: Able to instantly merge into the void and control the void shadow]

[Enhanced Trait: Dimensional Concealment - Greatly improves the user's stealth abilities]

[Enhanced Trait: Shadow Clone - Ability to transform void shadows into shadow clones]

Rosen summoned the gray rat and then unilaterally severed the link to the Nightmare Shackles.

He activated Void Shadow Cloak and appeared in the gray rat's shadow.

No matter how much the gray rat's divine sense perceived its own shadow, it could not detect Rosen's whereabouts.

The original Shadow Cloak allowed him to blend into shadows, but directly attacking the shadow where he was hiding could actually harm him.

But now he can create a void space within the shadow of the gray rat. Being inside it not only makes him more stealthy, but unless the gray rat uses a skill that can pierce through space, it cannot harm him when he is integrated into the void shadow.

That's not all; he can also control the void shadows formed by the shadows of gray rats.

Rosen tried to control it, and the gray rat's shadow immediately came to life and pounced on the gray rat. The void shadow in this state was very weak, but when the gray rat's shadow became his shadow and formed a shadow clone, he could use all the abilities he had mastered.

Of course, it can't compare to the original body; the strength of the shadow clone depends on the strength of the gray rat's shadow.

Rosen continued to experiment with the teleportation ability and found that while the cost of teleportation decreased, the teleportation speed was reduced.

The original Shadow Cloak involved teleporting from one shadow to another in an instant.

However, now, Void Shadow Cloak is a teleportation from one space inside a shadow to another. Entering and exiting this space takes a little time, which is equivalent to reducing the teleportation speed, but increasing the safety of the teleportation.

Rosen finally took out a fragment of the mysterious skull and ate it into his Gluttonous Stomach to enhance his extraordinary five senses.

[Sixth Sense LV4 - Passively and significantly enhances intuition and insight]

[Enhanced Trait: Extraordinary Senses - Passively enhances one's basic five senses]

[Enhanced Feature: Mind Reading - Gain the ability to read the target's thoughts]

Just like with the Death Blow, the Mysterious Skull has taken the lead this time as well.

Although the five basic senses can no longer be arbitrarily transformed, the sixth sense, or extraordinary intuition, has been enhanced to the point where it can truly foresee danger.

Moreover, with enhanced insight combined with mind reading, those with lower spiritual strength have no secrets from him.

It took Rosen quite a while to get used to it before he mastered the ability to freely switch on and off.

While reading thoughts is certainly desirable, those with keen senses can easily detect that their thoughts are being spied on.

Therefore, unless in combat, this ability to read minds can easily attract killing intent.

(End of this chapter)