Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 291 Battle Summary

Roger was very satisfied with Michael Zeke's personality and intelligence. Most importantly, he also possessed the various skills and knowledge that a surgeon should have, which gave him an extraordinary ability to survive and even, when necessary, the ability to infiltrate some hospitals or even military medical departments and transmit relatively more valuable intelligence.

As for Mikael's demand for revenge for his mother, that was a piece of cake for MI9.

Compared to the bureaucratic superintendents at the Westville Police Department who wouldn't actively handle cases without pressure from superiors or direct benefits, MI9 was a serious military intelligence agency.

If they want to find someone in Rune, unless the person has a high-sequence extraordinary power protecting them or is influenced by a very special mid-sequence extraordinary ability such as the "Faceless Man," it is as easy for MI9 to disfigure themselves or change their voice as eating and drinking.

Judging from the scene of Mikael's mother's death, the criminals who killed her and set the fire were clearly not extraordinary individuals, but rather petty thieves who wanted to make some money on a whim.

If MI9 is ​​willing, those scoundrels can be arrested and brought to justice immediately, and Michael may even have the opportunity to execute them personally.

Before that, MI9 could have given Mikael's mother a proper burial to comfort her spirit.

This was an irresistible driving force for the young man who was determined to take revenge—provided, of course, that he could survive the grueling training that MI9 was so intense that even Roger could only imagine it.

After reviewing Mikael Zeke's file, Roger turned his attention to the last file.

"Alia Chamberlain, female, 25 years old, Bayamese."

"After graduating from high school at the age of 18, Aria moved to Backlund with her parents. Due to family changes and her own financial reasons, she became a sex worker. With her intelligence and outstanding adaptability, she became a manager within two years."

“Aria Chamberlain sought to become an extraordinary person because she contracted an incurable disease, which is why she contacted us through an informant at the Moriarty Detective Agency to express her desire.”

"Huh? People working in the sex industry?"

Roger was slightly taken aback when he read the file. He flipped to the back and found that Aria Chamberlain was a beautiful woman with light brown skin and long black hair. Her tall figure stood out from most women in Loen, and her temperament far surpassed that of her "colleagues," most of whom had not even completed basic education.

Most importantly, Aria has a pair of eyes that sparkle with a special light, and it's clear that she's very good at scheming and knowing how to treat people differently based on their status.

The "Skills" section states that Aria Chamberlain's strengths include managing the sex industry, financial management, and she has some unique insights into herbal medicine preparation.

"She was a very pretty lady, it's just a bit of a pity."

Although Sam didn't write it very explicitly in the document, Roger could easily guess the nature of the so-called disease.

"Although the sex industry is rife with exploitation, as a mid-level manager, Aria shouldn't be so short-sighted as to not be able to afford even one dose of medicine from a 'pharmacist'... Could it be that she can't find a 'pharmacist'?"

Roger shook his head slightly, quickly dismissing the possibility. Although the "Life School" of pharmacists was not common in Backlund, it did exist. The fat "pharmacist" Darkwell, whom he and Klein had met on the Iron Gate Street of Backlund Bridge, was a good example.

Judging from Aria's demands, she should have known about the existence of Extraordinary Ones. As someone who has long been involved in the lower classes, is intelligent, and has many informants, she shouldn't be unable to find the "Pharmacist's" potion on the black market.

The most likely explanation is that Alyssa Chamberlain tried, but the attempt failed.

It's possible that her disease is so rare that even the medicine of the "pharmacists" cannot completely cure it, and only a higher sequence is possible. However, "pharmacists" of sequence 8 and above are extremely rare in Backlund, and even Roger is not easy to find.

Another possibility is that Aria was deceived. In either case, the result is that her illness was not cured.

"That's interesting."

Roger took a breath:

"Aria Chamberlain is similar to Zeke in that she is an intelligent person. Although she is not as smart as Zeke, her long-term involvement in the lower class has given her a deep understanding of all kinds of people. Her reaction, adaptability and communication skills are superior to those of people who have grown up in ordinary environments. She is suitable for intelligence work in some complex environments."

"Aria Chamberlain's primary motivation for wanting to acquire extraordinary abilities was to survive, to truly enter the circle of extraordinary individuals, and to find a way to survive... The will to survive is indeed an effective driving force that can sustain a person's arduous struggle for a goal year after year."

“Aria’s problem may seem complicated, but that’s only true for ordinary people. For truly extraordinary individuals, it’s not a difficult problem at all.”

"It cannot be ruled out that the physical enhancement brought about by taking the 'Criminal' potion will improve her condition. Her illness may not even require MI9's intervention. I estimate that I can find the right medicine in the 'Star Lord's' medicine library... The medicine prepared by a 'pharmacist' at the Sequence 7 or even Sequence 6 level should be more than enough to cure her illness."

"But this would make her lose the motivation to continue serving in the intelligence department... Once people get what they want, they will look for a way out."

"Fortunately, according to the information, Aria Chamberlain's mother is still alive, but she has lost her ability to work due to a stroke. Aria has been working hard to earn money for a long time, mainly to take care of her mother."

"This is a long-term anchor. As long as her mother can be taken care of, it shouldn't be a problem for Aria to maintain a stable job."

After careful consideration, Roger decided that all three of them could be sent to Luna for training. He personally favored Michael and Aria, while Jordan, although not quite up to the standard of serving MI9, would be a good choice to gain experience and improve his resilience.

Because Sam was on a mission, Roger sent the letter directly to Cecilia, who quickly replied.

Judging from the content and writing style of the letter, Cecilia must have been writing this letter to Roger for the past two days, only forcibly inserting the sentence "Dear cousin, the letter has been received and will be handled according to your instructions" at the beginning of the letter.

Then came the main body of the letter, in which Cecilia informed Roger of her messenger's contact information.

In the letter, Cecilia seemed very excited. As a "psychic," this was the first time she had her own messenger, so she talked on and on about her experiences with Roger.

“Indeed, being a ‘psychic’ has its advantages in this respect…”

Roger quickly scanned Cecilia's messenger's summoning words, then looked at the rest of the message.

That was information Sam and Cecilia had compiled and filtered together from various newspapers and rumors about the current battle between the Kingdom of Rune and the Empire of Fusak. The information that could be basically confirmed was marked in red, while the uncertain information was marked in black.

This intelligence indicates that Rune has already engaged in more than a dozen battles, large and small, with the forces of the Fusak Empire in the Intersea and the northern foothills of the Hornachis Mountains. One of its ironclad fleets even launched a nighttime bombardment of Indo, the largest port in southern Fusak.

In retaliation, Fussac bombed several important military-backed factories of the Intersea County Coal and Steel Complex and also launched a surprise attack on the fleet stationed there in the port of Laus in northeastern Loen, causing considerable damage.

However, overall, because Rune was well prepared for the war, those important arms factory production lines were moved to other cities or even underground in advance, and did not suffer devastating damage.

The Fussack fleet, which originally set out from the "Sea of ​​White Whales," was intended to join forces with friendly forces on Sunia Island to jointly attack East Chestershire. However, due to the latter's annihilation in extremely bad weather, the fleet found itself in a predicament.

Furthermore, because the fleet branch used to cut off the sea transport route of Loen was completely wiped out by Roger's "Star Fleet", the main force heading north is no longer safe to turn back, so it has no choice but to bite the bullet and head towards East Chestershire.

Cecilia wasn't entirely certain about the rest of the information, but since Roger was at sea, she was able to ascertain the reliability of about half of it.

Overall, Roger's "Star Fleet" played an extremely important role in the entire battle. Because Rune's maritime transportation and logistics were not affected, the sea colonies not only did not fall into riots, but were also able to continue to carry out production and life smoothly, providing Rune with enough goods to stabilize its economy.

On the other hand, he also indirectly protected East Chestershire and Port Pritz.

In particular, the port of Pritz, a large port city directly connected to the Backlund region, was spared shelling and subsequent bombing because the Fussack fleet was put on the defensive in the North Sonia Sea. This also prevented Backlund from experiencing the devastation and hellish scenes depicted in the original story.

From this perspective, Roger's battle can be said to have protected Backlund's safety to the greatest extent. If it weren't for intelligence security considerations that prevented his identity from being revealed for the time being, he would at least have received a medal as a combat hero after returning home.

However, this is not important, because appearances can be put aside for the time being; Roger cares more about substance.

In other words, it is enough that those who truly grasp the overall situation know the contributions they have made and regard themselves as allies.

"I must say, although Adam's way of doing things doesn't take others into consideration, in terms of results, he really did his best to pave the way for my promotion."

Roger sighed inwardly, then looked at the battle report about Sonia Island:
"But speaking of which, the Fusak fleet on Sunia Island encountered extremely bad weather... What the hell is that?"

"Since when could a strong wind and torrential rain wipe out an entire naval force anchored on the coast?"

Roger's first thought was that a demigod-level extraordinary being from the Church of the "Lord of Storms" had made a move, but then he realized that was unlikely.

This is only the early stage of the war, and it has not yet entered the fierce final battle stage. Currently, apart from the "Witch Cult", none of the demigod-level beings of the participating forces have directly intervened. Otherwise, the situation on the battlefield would not be what it is today.

In high-level battles, whoever is impatient and strikes first often loses half the battle, because their strategic intentions will be exposed too early, making them vulnerable to countermeasures.

On the other hand, Roger saw in that "rumor" that local witnesses mentioned that although there was lightning and torrential rain on the coast of East Sonia Island, there were also inexplicable flashes of sunlight. This seemed to be an extraordinary being of the "Sun" pathway fighting against something.

"Intis has also been substituted off?"

The only possible way for an extraordinary individual to assemble a complete group of "Singers" in one go is through Intis, which has the "Eternal Sun" church as its backing.

Like Fussac, Intis had long been secretly clashing with Rune. According to Dionysius, the gold that Bratov had previously obtained from Rune was clearly transferred from Intis to Feneport for loading.

So although the two countries did not formally declare war, Intis should have participated in the siege of Rune. It can be said that if Rune had not been prepared, there would have been a really big problem.

Roger immediately became very interested in the details of the battle, and he decided to contact "Admiral" Cattleya "Star General" through "The Fool" and "Source Castle" later to ask the pirate general for specific information.

After all, judging from Roger's previous experience of buying meteorites, Cattleya should have her own informants on Sonia Island, so she should have a more detailed understanding of the situation in this battle.

Overall, the intelligence sent by Cecilia is quite reliable, and judging from the description, Sam was mainly responsible for information gathering, but Cecilia was responsible for the verification work.

"Why do I feel like Cecilia is more suited to be the intelligence chief? She hasn't received any professional training in information gathering and filtering, yet she's managed to compile so much useful information just from news media and rumors. That's truly remarkable."

"If Cecilia were sent to Luna, Luna would be very pleased... Just kidding, I wouldn't let my sister get involved in such a dangerous thing."

Roger sighed and muttered to himself. He immediately picked up a pen and wrote to Cecilia, informing her of the information he had gathered and encouraging her to continue what she was doing, provided she could ensure her own safety. He also offered to help verify any uncertainties.

During the Fourth Age, the Abraham family held a leading position among the most powerful angelic families, thus controlling a large amount of military and political affairs in the Thodol Empire for many years. At that time, the Abraham family had a special intelligence agency to deal with enemy countries and even political enemies within their own country.

Roger couldn't help but wonder what level Cecilia would have reached in Abraham's intelligence agency if she had lived in that era.
He then wrote another letter to Cattleya, and then summoned the "Rat of Dela Hoya" and Cecilia's messenger—a gray, ball-shaped creature with two cute little black eyes, whose name was simply "Tuan Tuan," somewhat like Luna's messenger "Sparkling."

"Maybe girls like spirits with names that use reduplicated words to act as their messengers."

Roger muttered to himself as he handed the letter to "Tuan Tuan," which suddenly swelled up into a loose ball of yarn, wrapped Roger's letter inside itself, and then rolled into the darkness and disappeared.

After finishing this task, Roger returned to the deck. The post-war cleanup of the "Star Fleet" was now largely complete. Apart from a few Fussack soldiers who were still bound and wailing on the deck, most of the rest had been locked up in the lowest-level cells of each ship and were under strict guard.

Those who resisted the most and had the worst attitude were directly tormented by Linsaya, who was already in a bad mood and extremely irritable, before being handed over to Philip, who very sensibly threw them into several special rooms on the "Star Lord".

Those rooms aren't likely to kill people, but they are all in terrible conditions. Some are extremely hot, some are extremely cold, and some are like "cave spaces," creating all sorts of anomalies that gradually destroy people's mental will and cause their rationality to collapse rapidly.

Some others, who were forced to join Fussac's army and expressed their willingness to serve the "Star Fleet," were divided into groups and assigned to various ships after being tested by Dionysius. They were sent to work alongside the surrendered members of the "Black Death Fleet" to compete in the same arena.

"Captain, there's something I need to tell you."

Upon seeing Roger emerge, Zeus immediately stepped forward and reported to Roger:
"Our sailors on the lookout tower spotted ships in several directions around 15 nautical miles away that seemed to be following us... but they didn't look like warships, but pirate ships."

"Should we change course or retaliate?"

Upon hearing Zeus's words, Roger suddenly realized something and immediately replied:

"No need, those people probably don't mean us any harm."

Roger has already grasped the backgrounds of most of the well-known pirate generals. After the elimination of "Twilight Admiral" Bratov, the remaining pirates, even those still receiving funding from Fussack, are no match for the "Star Fleet".

Based on the battle situation on Sunia Island reported by Cecilia, those ships were very likely escorted by the Church of the "Lord of Storms," ​​and it's even possible that Captain Alger, the "Hanged Man," was among them.

"Yes, Captain. We should reach Simim Island by tomorrow. We'll hand over those unruly prisoners to the local garrison, and then where will we go?"

Zeus breathed a sigh of relief, then laughed and asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

"Sail the boat toward the Minminsk Mountains, then turn west."

Roger laughed:

"Let's go to the sea and join in the fun with Fusak."

"Yes!!!"

Upon hearing Roger's audacious plan, Zeus immediately responded in a sharp voice, then scurried away to deliver the message and assign tasks.

In fact, Roger's plan was extremely risky because to the northwest of the Minnminsk Mountains, that is, across from it, was the Evernight Plain of the Fussac Empire in the polar region, with only a very narrow strait between the two sides.

Unlike the Kingdom of Rune, which is surrounded by the sea on three sides and has several warm, ice-free ports, the Fusak Empire has a very long and narrow coastline, but most of it is close to the polar regions. It has very few truly ice-free ports and safe outlets to the sea, which is one of the core reasons why Fusak has long harbored strategic concerns about Rune.

One of the most important reasons they wanted to attack Rune was to seize the ice-free port of Laus in eastern Rune as an outlet to the sea, thereby resolving Fusak's geopolitical strategic predicament.

Currently, the strait northwest of the Minsk Mountains is the only outlet to the sea for the Fusak Empire from the Inter-Sea to the island of Sunya, making it a truly strategically important location.

Theoretically speaking, if the Fusak Empire wanted to protect this outlet to the sea, it had to guard against the Rune army in the direction of the Minlminsk Mountains. In order to prevent the Fusak fleet from going to sea, the Rune army should also harass the Minlminsk Mountains.

However, the Minsk Mountains have a very harsh natural environment and a very high altitude, which means that only small-scale corps can cross the mountains to carry out combat operations. All heavy weapons and even airships cannot cross them.

It is this unique geographical location that makes the Minsk Strait a natural barrier, directly protecting Ruen and Fusak from attacks by both sides. This seems fair, but the result is that Fusak has a very safe outlet to the sea. Not only do a large number of warships and merchant ships pass through here, but even the most famous Intersea Shipyard is located nearby.

If Roger chooses to enter the Interstellar Sea from there, there is a high probability that he will face a direct confrontation with the Fussac Empire's warships.

However, the advantage is that, due to the existence of the Minlminsk Mountains as a natural barrier, the Fusak garrison in the Minlminsk Strait has been in a state of complacency and slackness for many years. Even if Rune were to launch an attack here, it would inevitably be a small-scale military operation, unlikely to shake the foundation of the Fusak Navy here.

Therefore, this was a decision with both opportunities and challenges. Roger was willing to take the gamble because he had some ideas that he needed to verify within the territory of the Fussac Empire.

Roger, seeing Zeus busy, didn't idle either. Instead, he took the initiative to tour the various ships of the "Star Fleet," visit the leaders, and finally, while in the galley of the "Giant," he grabbed a large pot of Dipsy coffee that Jennifer had just brewed and a pudding before returning to his captain's cabin.

Whether by coincidence or not, after Roger returned to the captain's cabin, he found a brightly colored yellow parrot that seemed to be deliberately provoking Bandit, constantly darting through the warp. It would appear and bite the cat's tail, then disappear again when Bandit turned around to retaliate, much to the annoyance of the tabby cat who was sleeping.

Upon seeing Roger appear, Bandit immediately yelled and hid behind Roger, while Gilgamesh accidentally bumped into Roger's arms and was then lifted up by him.

"Sparkle, don't bully my cat."

To be honest, seeing Gilgamesh was a relief for Roger, because Luna hadn't replied to his messages, and he was wondering if the "Law Master" had run into some trouble.

"Oh, you're back."

Flashy snapped out of her daze, flapped her wings, and retrieved another letter from the warp:

"A letter from Miss Luna to you."

"OK, thanks."

Roger thought for a moment: "Where is she now?"

"Frontline, frontline."

She answered, chattering away.

"The front lines? The lieutenant general from MI9 has gone directly to the front lines?"

Roger was slightly taken aback, but before he could ask any more questions, Flash flew away.

Before leaving, it made a face at Bandit, which angered the cat so much that it almost transformed into its panther form and fought the bird to the death.

Roger opened the envelope and looked at the elegant handwriting inside:
"I apologize for the late reply. I am currently handling some work in Jianhai County, so I was unable to reply immediately."

"The information you provided is very important. As you guessed, we were not aware of the role the 'Witch Cult' played in this war before."

"Fortunately, you successfully defeated Katarina Pelle. We are currently conducting a comprehensive assessment of the 'Witch Cult's' motives and their cooperative relationship with the Einhorn family."

"As for the wooden alarm clock that you mentioned that Katarina was carrying, as far as I know, it should be a Level 1 sealed artifact that came from the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom in Remburg, numbered 1-066, the 'Warning Bell'."

"This item has been lost for a long time, and I never expected it to fall into the hands of the 'Witch Cult'."

"It corresponds to Sequence 3 of the 'Reader' pathway, 'Insightful One'. Due to the manufacturing philosophy, it has abandoned most of the abilities that the 'Insightful One' originally possessed, and only retains one, which is to gain insight into 'a specific person or a specific item' within a certain range and transmit the insight results directly to the holder in the form of an alarm bell, so that only he can hear it."

"It is precisely because of its limitations that this item is very powerful, capable of barely affecting the angel level, and has very few side effects. It will only occasionally affect the holder's sense of time, and even make it difficult for them to accurately judge their age and the era they live in on many occasions."

"What you said about Katarina being able to prevent the '0' level sealed artifact on you in advance must be its function."

"Its usage is also very simple. You just need to anchor the object you want to 'observe' through ritual magic, and then drip your own blood onto the surface of the alarm clock. The contract will be formed until the contents of the contract change or the 'alarm clock' is sealed."

I see……

Roger suddenly realized that this could indeed explain why the "White Witch" Katarina Pelle was always able to foresee Roger's use of the "Old Box" for exile and avoid it.

Judging from Luna's words, she believes Roger might need this item in the future and hopes he will keep it with him.

Having figured this out, Roger looked at the following content again.

“I have already seen the list of intelligence personnel candidates that your sister submitted earlier.”

“I think Mikael Zeke and Aria Chamberlain have potential for development, but I’m not so optimistic about Jordan Phillips. However, if it’s just about providing military-style training, I can help.”

This view is very similar to mine...

Roger nodded slightly and turned the letter to the last half of the page.

"Furthermore, your performance in the previous operation against the Fussac Empire fleet was outstanding, greatly relieving pressure on the east coast and protecting sea lanes, which is of great importance to the kingdom. I will report your reward to the military later; rest assured, it will be very generous."

"Next, if you wish, I suggest that you and your fleet take a detour north from Denos Island. There are several naval forces and transport ships of the Fussac Empire there, with varying levels of strength. You can harass and annihilate them as you see fit, and create as much trouble for them as possible."

"As far as I know, their transport ships have some high-value supplies, including precious metals and standard weapons. If you can find them and destroy them, all of that is yours."

"You may have noticed that the Church of Storms has probably secretly dispatched extraordinary individuals to escort you in ships nearby. You can use them as needed."

Goodness, is this a disguised way of giving "Star Fleet" official treatment? That's incredibly generous...

The scheme Luna described is a common practice among the countries of the Northern Continent to secretly raise pirates in order to achieve their strategic goals. However, a portion of what they plunder must be handed over to the state, and the frequency and intensity of their attacks are strictly controlled.

However, compared to them, the "Star Fleet" clearly received more preferential treatment. Luna did not give Roger clear combat instructions or fully guarantee his freedom of command, and she also promised him that he could receive all the looted supplies.

This may be because the two countries are currently at war and weapons are not restrained, and on the other hand, it is also hoped that Roger will give full play to his initiative and do something big.

After all, he demonstrated exceptional combat prowess on the battlefield, not only successfully achieving his strategic objectives but also killing a high-ranking member of the "Witch Cult."

On the other hand, Luna directly sold Roger the whereabouts of the Church of Storms and explicitly suggested that Roger could use friendly forces, an action that was full of the bad habits of MI9.

Roger readily accepted the proposal, as he already had plans to head north. Currently, the area east of Pasu Island had been intervened by the "Church of Storms," ​​so the area west of Pasu Island was indeed a problem that needed to be addressed.

Roger had always wanted to do guerrilla warfare. As a military enthusiast, he had read many books on guerrilla tactics when he was in college in his previous life, but he never had the opportunity to put it into practice.

Now, he finally has the opportunity to put his plan into practice and has a chance to break through the Sunia Sea!

(End of this chapter)