Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 299 Living Star Chart

Adam?

King of Angels?

Find me?

Klein, who should have been somewhat frightened, showed no reaction whatsoever.

It wasn't that he was particularly brave, but rather that the scene before him was too incongruous.

The King of Angels seeking out a mere Sequence 5 is reminiscent of a multinational corporation chairman visiting a slum to discuss business cooperation with a high school student.

It focuses on an abstract concept and a magical realism.

The main theme is an outrageous mother opening the door for an outrageous person; it's outrageous to the extreme.

"What brings you here?"

After a long while, Klein finally came to his senses. To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure if the other person was the legendary King of Angels, Adam, so he still needed to find a way to confirm it.

Roger Abraham is in danger.

Adam, ignoring Klein's strange expression, continued:

"You should have sensed the anomaly of 'Source Castle,' right? Roger Abraham also carries something similar, and the two are currently resonating with each other."

"If you want to save his life, go to the 'Source Castle' and offer him any help you can think of."

"'Source Castle'?"

Klein didn't understand Adam's meaning at first, so the latter added:

“There is an endless gray fog there.”

After saying this, Adam nodded slightly to Klein Moretti, and then disappeared again, as if he had never been there at all.

"Gray mist... Source Castle..."

Klein muttered to himself, but at this moment he didn't have time to think about the relationship between the two words. He simply took four steps backward without hesitation and arrived at "above the gray fog"!
At this moment, the mysterious space within the gray mist was constantly vibrating. The gray mist at Klein's feet was also mixed with a rusty aura. The red and gray mists intertwined in front of Klein, creating an indescribable eerie neon effect.

The rust-colored star that originally represented Roger had expanded to almost the size of the moon. One of the eyes on the huge rust-colored sphere had opened a third of its length, and the bright rust-colored light illuminated the bronze table, casting long shadows of the table, the chair, and "The Fool" Klein himself in the gray fog.

At this very moment, in this gray fog space that Adam called "Source Castle," the scene Klein saw was almost an apocalyptic, bizarre spectacle, full of incongruity and unreality.

Even without touching the massive, rust-colored disc, Klein could feel the agonizing will of his friend Roger.

He was struggling, groaning, and screaming.

He was frantically muttering the name of "The Fool" in a low voice!

"Roger..."

Seeing this, Klein struggled to suppress his instinctive fear of the rust-colored disc, resolutely reached out, and gently touched it.

"I am coming."

Above Mars.

Roger, whose body and mind had been almost completely taken over by the Geheros Source, had only his head protruding from the blood-red ground. His hair was extremely messy, and half of his face was stained with blood.

Even as the rusty ground below continued to rise slowly, attempting to devour his last vestiges of sanity, Roger struggled to keep his frantically battering eyelids open, muttering to himself:
"Fool who does not belong to this era, you are the mysterious ruler above the gray fog, you are the king of yellow and black who holds the reins of good fortune..."

"I pray for your help."

I pray for your favor.

"I pray you..."

Soon, it seemed that Roger's prayers had worked, or that the help he had anticipated had finally arrived at the designated location.

He struggled to open his eyes and found himself surrounded by layers of gray fog, thick with the scent of rust, and the figure of Mr. Fool stood there, speaking softly to him:
There is no need to be afraid.

"There's no need to be afraid..."

In that instant, Roger felt the protection that Mr. Fool had given him.

This protection is not illusory, nor is it merely a simple act of kindness.

Roger suddenly felt the gray mist rushing directly towards him, enveloping his body, mind, and spirit, which had been nearly rendered numb by the high-temperature molten iron.

This immediately relieved the pressure on Roger's body, and the burning sensation also subsided considerably.

Driven by instinct, he wandered through the boundless gray fog, stumbling and crawling as he struggled toward the place of salvation he intuitively felt he had found.

Finally, Roger saw the light.

Rather than light, it was more like an endless series of starlight gates, seemingly leading to the ultimate infinity.

These doors are like sunlight scattered by a prism; each one is unique in its position on the spectrum, creating an iridescent time tunnel at first glance.

Roger couldn't run anymore when he was only 5 meters away.

He collapsed to the ground, all his strength gone.

"No...it's too close."

Roger strained to lift his head and look toward the rainbow-colored, layered gate of light at the end of the gray fog.

Suddenly, Roger's chin lifted up and then slammed heavily into the stone floor of the "Source Castle".

The next moment, he tried to tuck his chin in, and his trembling legs kicked backward with all his might.

Finally, he moved a little bit more.

Little by little, and little by little.

Just as Roger's mind was about to completely dissipate and be annihilated by the violent "celestial sound" that resembled a pulsar signal, his hand finally rested on the rainbow-colored door.

The layers of light gates suddenly shone brightly.

Time flows like a river, never to return, and the expanding space separates the connections between all things.

Fate cannot break through the cone of light; what has been settled can only be changed, not reversed.

However, at this moment, everything is being reduced in dimension; the end of the river becomes the beginning, and what has already happened never happened.

The rainbow gates, representing countless opportunities, began to close one by one from the infinitely distant horizon.

When the last door closed in front of Roger, the rusty color that permeated the gray mist also disappeared completely, and Roger once again found himself.

His body, which had expanded into a massive, rust-colored planet, began to shrink rapidly.

With lightning speed, the shrinking occurred in less than a minute, and the weakened Roger was restored to human form once again, floating in the infinite universe.

Roger opened his eyes almost immediately.

"Success..."

Roger let out a long breath and looked once again at the "Goddess of Fortune," the "Ring of Destiny," and the "Unending Whispers," which had already reached Jupiter's gravitational field, beyond the asteroid belt.

In the previous relay race where all four parties worked together, the "Lord of the Storm" used updrafts to allow Roger to break through the barriers of the troposphere, stratosphere, and beyond the atmosphere without activating the power of the "One Who Reunites All Things," and then use the power of the "Key to the Gate" to guide him into outer space.

Before Roger left the barrier, Amanisis, the "Goddess of Night" in the "Dark Kingdom," intervened in time, using her "Secret" authority to bestow a blessing upon him, which temporarily concealed Roger's state. Combined with the "Lord of Storms'" violent lightning strike as cover, Roger was able to successfully enter "The Travels of Groselle."

Adam's appearance was something Roger had not planned in advance.

Fortunately, it seems that the "Imaginary Angel" has fully grasped Roger's plan, which gives Roger a safer way to detonate the "Primal Hunger" and inflict a heavy blow on it.

That is, instead of directly opening the third level of the "Box of the Old Days," one should enter from the first two levels in sequence, throw the silver medal tainted by Yog Sothoth, the "One of All Things," and Gherros, the "Star of Judgment," into the third level, and incidentally, self-destruct as originally planned, using numerical superiority to contend with the "Box of the Old Days'" vomiting instinct, so that when Roger's exploded flesh and blood were completely expelled, a larger piece of flesh and blood, enough for him to regenerate, was successfully sent into the Martian sphere of influence.

The plan was meticulously crafted, with each step leading to the next. Roger had anticipated that Geherus would revive within him and attempt to break free from the seal of the "Key to the Gate."

In fact, during Roger's ascension from the lower to the middle sequence, due to two reasons—firstly, the level of his status, and secondly, the delicate balance maintained between the corruption within him—the "Star of Judgment," Gherros, did not exert much influence on Roger's humanity.

However, when Roger began his pursuit of advancement to a higher sequence and first saw the meteorite fragment at Rothman's stall in the Portluy Market, he was met with Bandit's question about whether Rothman was afraid of running away with the money. Roger surprisingly said, "If they are just ordinary people, they would hardly have free will if I disagree with them."

This statement immediately struck Bandit as odd, and the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. So, after a while, he tried to remind Roger, and Roger, now out of the context of the original conversation, realized that his thinking might have been influenced by some force.

After that, although Roger himself did not feel much abnormality, he still deliberately amplified certain behaviors to highlight his humanity, such as emphasizing certain food preferences, empathizing with others, solving other people's problems, and so on.

In addition, he would try to get along well with his crew and friends, and even talk about unrelated gossip at the "Tarot Club". He would also try to make friends with different people and understand their thoughts and preferences.

These efforts had some effect, but after the Kingdom of Rune began planning a war against the Fusak Empire, which caused serious economic problems in the country, many families that were originally well-off or even moderately well-off suffered a severe economic downturn, and many people lost the will to continue appreciating Roger's music. This caused Roger's anchor to loosen considerably.

Therefore, before Roger's ascension, he predicted that Gherus might take advantage of the weakening of the seal by using the power of the "Key to the Gate" and the interaction between the planetary phases and his own source matter to try to revive him. Roger had made contingency plans for this.

That is, to use the source matter from adjacent pathways to strengthen one's own seal!
The principle behind this plan is simple: because he had entered the "Source Castle" multiple times and had even used the power of the "One Who Unifies All Things" to influence the "Source Castle Avatar" in ritual magic, there was significant contamination of the "One Who Unifies All Things" power within the "Source Castle."

As for the "Chaos Sea," this is even more true, because Roger obtained divinity through the "Black Knight" pathway and, through this mystical connection, influenced the will of "God" hidden within the "Chaos Sea"—which was originally part of the agreement between Roger and Adam.

Both of these actions actually disrupted Roger's own "One of All Things" contamination. Therefore, when he took the "Living Star Chart" potion, entered the advancement process, and inevitably triggered the revival of Gherros' will, both the "Source Castle" and the "Chaos Sea" would simultaneously exhibit abnormalities.

At this point, Adam would contact Klein Moretti, the lord of the "Source Castle," and ask him to provide Roger with protection. This would allow the portion of the "Key to the Gate" within the "Source Castle" to be corrupted and mixed with the power of the "Source Castle" and descend upon Roger. Through the aggregation of homogenized power, the seal of the "Key to the Gate" would be strengthened once again, giving Roger's will a chance to breathe and ultimately prevail.

Adam was actually helping himself in this process, because the pollution in the "Chaotic Sea" could also overflow, which was an outcome he could not tolerate. Therefore, Klein's help became an inevitable result.

Of course, Roger also discussed this matter with Adam before leaving Grossell's Travels to ensure that the latter fully understood his intentions and made the right decision.

In this way, although the pollution in the "Source Castle" has been reduced, giving the "Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianzun", the strongest "Miracle Master", a chance to revive, considering that Klein will soon advance to Sequence 4, the effectiveness of the agreement between Roger and Amon will also be weakened. Therefore, the revival of the "Tianzun's" will definitely make Amon hesitate to act.

Although Roger had allies with both Amon and Klein, and emotionally supported Klein more, he didn't intend to interfere too much if they wanted a fair competition. Competition itself was a testing ground for determination; after all, becoming the "Lord of Mysteries" required true resolve and willpower, and this was true for both of them.

With the pollution of "Source Castle" greatly reduced, the competition between Amon and Klein will once again return to a contest of pure intelligence and willpower. He will no longer be able to use positional suppression to prematurely exploit weaknesses and disrupt the game's balance.

Gherros experienced a return to a suppressed state after a period of resurgence, which gave Roger more opportunities to understand and master His own essence.

At this moment, Roger's promotion was complete, which meant that he had completely rediscovered himself and was temporarily freed from the crisis of Geheros's resurgence.

Without a second thought, he used the power of the "Key to the Gate," which had been refreshed due to the reinforced seal, to return to the deck of the "Star Lord," leaving behind the "Goddess of Fate" and other ancient beings whose symbolic meaning was similar to that of Gherros, as well as the "Primal Hunger," which had been blown into a pile, to continue wandering in the starry sky.

"Phew, thankfully it was just in time. It prevented the 'Super Star Overlord' from following its aggregation instinct into the Oort Cloud, otherwise we would have been finished."

Roger glanced at the sky with lingering fear and muttered to himself.

Because of the immense gravity of the "Superstar Overlord," even if they are extremely far away, most of the celestial bodies in the entire solar system would be instantly torn apart, bringing unpredictable disasters.

Perhaps it was because of Roger's insights before entering the starry sky, or perhaps it was because of the revival of Geherus himself, but he felt that the "Living Star Chart" potion had been digested a little bit after his advancement.

Upon seeing Roger appear, Bandit, the tabby cat still waiting on the deck, burst into tears. Seemingly due to a loss of sensory perception, the cat actually grabbed Roger's calf and bit him.

However, because of the "Living Star Chart" strengthening Roger's physique, this guy almost broke his own teeth, which is why he grimaced in pain and looked up at Roger.

"Hiss... It worked?"

"Ah."

Roger nodded.

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

Bandit asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Eye?"

Roger was slightly taken aback. He looked in a mirror and discovered that the iris of one of his eyes had turned a fiery red, similar to that of Mars, and it didn't fade away for a while.

"pretty ugly."

As the saying goes, red and blue clash, even dogs would hate it, and at this moment Roger's eyes are that perfect combination.

Fortunately, Roger could sense that this was the result of the "Living Star Chart" potion and the power of Mars merging together, and it should subside in two or three days.

Having confirmed this, he looked at Philip, who was looking concerned, and joked:
"First Mate, it seems your hopes for promotion have been dashed."

Philip remained silent, his eyes slightly red, and simply saluted Roger.

"Just come back."

Dionysius said with a chuckle:
"That Zeus fellow said he wanted to pray for you, so he went off to the Saturn."

“That guy didn’t know that the prayer room he went to was the one that the ‘Abyss’ believers usually used… I couldn’t stop him either, he was running too fast.”

"As long as he's happy."

Roger couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"So, boss, what sequence are you at right now?"

Linsaya asked with some confusion. Roger had been saying that he was going to advance to demigod, but he suddenly showed demigod-level combat power. This made Linsaya a little confused as to whether Roger was a Sequence 4 or a Sequence 3.

"Sequence 4, but stronger than a regular Sequence 4."

Roger didn't explain much. He looked around the southern shore of the Minsk Strait, where the fiery white and azure blue had weakened somewhat but were still locked in a fierce battle. It seemed that neither Andrea Einhorn nor Radar Valentine could gain the upper hand, but they were both fired up and neither was willing to let the other go.

"Perfect timing to test my newly acquired power."

Roger took a deep breath, made a strange gesture with his left hand, and then pointed to the blazing white light that was flying in the air.

A few seconds later, an indescribable feeling of palpitation arose in the hearts of all Sequence 6 and above Extraordinary individuals on both sides of the Minsk Strait.

Soon, they found out where the palpitation was coming from.

A meteorite burning with crimson flames, about tens of meters in diameter, rapidly expanded from a small red dot and appeared in the sky above the northern shore of the Minsk Strait in an instant!
"what?"

Andrea Einhorn, who was about to transform into a blazing white flame spear, looked up and was horrified.

Although the meteorite wasn't particularly large, its oppressive presence was overwhelming. What was even more terrifying was its incredible speed and the immense wind pressure it generated. Considering the area affected and the surrounding terrain, Andrea Einhorn had virtually no room to dodge.

Seeing this in the open area, Radar Valentine, who had originally intended to give chase, turned around and used his levitation ability to escape desperately. He finally managed to escape the meteorite's influence just as it was about to hit him.

"Boom!"

Like a super-powerful bomb exploding, the shockwave spread out instantly. Some nearby ships rocked violently, and some smaller ships even capsized. The scene was filled with terrified screams and cries for help.

Even the artillery fire on the north bank has temporarily subsided. Many Rune and Fusak soldiers have completely given up attacking each other. As if witnessing a miracle, they chanted the names of their gods. Some of the more timid ones even collapsed to their knees the moment the meteorite appeared and have been prostrate ever since, too afraid to get up.

As the mountain stopped collapsing and the dust completely dissipated, Andrea, whose metallic parts were almost deformed, whose hair was disheveled, and who lay motionless on the ground, finally emerged.

He wasn't dead yet. In fact, under normal circumstances, this "Iron Knight" was fully capable of dodging the meteorite's attack. However, because he was almost exhausted, and the meteorite was extremely fast with wind pressure that almost locked onto him, he took the hit head-on and completely lost his ability to fight.

Roger, the one who started all of this, coughed lightly:

"...Cough cough, this took a lot of energy. It truly lives up to its reputation as the 'Living Star Chart's' trump card."

This ability to summon meteor impacts is one of Roger's newly acquired abilities, and it's also an enhanced skill he obtained through a mystical connection with Mars:
"Star Punishment!"
This is the manifestation of the "living star disk's" authority in the physical realm of the stars. It can interfere with the orbits of some asteroids and even comets that are close to Earth, pull down objects that meet certain mass and size requirements, use wind pressure to lock onto targets, and ultimately severely damage or even directly destroy opponents with its scorching outer shell and powerful impact.

Because Roger has just advanced and his ability to digest potions is not high, he can only summon one meteorite with a diameter of tens of meters at a time. As a result, his spiritual energy consumption is not enough to release a second one.

Roger estimated that if he fully digested his potion, he should be able to summon meteorites hundreds of meters long, depending on his luck and his condition during the battle. Depending on the size of the meteorites summoned, he could summon two to three meteorites in a single battle.

In addition to further enhancing his physical and mental abilities and his previous skills, Roger also gained several new offensive abilities.

First is "gravity," an ability similar to that of an "astronomer," but at a higher level and with greater influence. Roger could use his ability to manipulate the trajectories of celestial bodies to strengthen or deflect the gravity in a certain area, or even create anti-gravity to intervene in battles or to enable himself to float and fly.

Secondly, there is the "Astral Outburst." Roger can easily discern the planetary aspects in his opponent's natal chart, find the weaknesses, and trigger the outburst of unfavorable planetary aspects, causing physical, spiritual, or mental harm to his opponent, manifested as a sudden burst of light of an uncertain color.

This kind of outburst is a direct means of attack, but the specific attack effect depends on the nature of the celestial body that exerts the effect and varies from place to place.

In terms of "music," Roger can currently send demigod-level "mental boost" and music with combat effects into the mind of the other party through mystical "contact" without "singing" or even playing his own music.

Unless there is a powerful purification method, these voices will echo repeatedly in the opponent's mind and affect them. The weaker the opponent, the shorter and more frequent the effect of these voices will be. If Roger attacks an extraordinary person below Sequence 6, he can "play" a piece of music that originally lasted five minutes in the opponent's head in almost two seconds.

At the same time, this ability can also be used to enhance the various capabilities of friendly forces and greatly improve the team's combat capabilities in a very short period of time.

In the realm of "fate," Roger's gains, while not as significant as in warfare, were still quite substantial, with the core being "fate bestowing" upon him.

This is an advanced skill of "Fate Twisting," which can forcibly grant a false fate to everyone within a certain range for a period of time, accelerate the arrival of their original fate, and even tamper with the other party's identity on a mystical level for a period of time.

The smaller the scope of the influence of "fate bestowed," the less the degree of alteration of fate, and the lower the sequence level and resistance of the recipient, the stronger the time and influence that can be bestowed.

This ability is a manifestation of the "living star chart's" authority in the field of astrology, because Roger himself can be seen as a living starry sky, so he can influence the interaction between other people and the starry sky within his range through his ability.

If Roger uses "fate-granted" to alter someone's identity, he will truly possess the corresponding identity and, to a certain extent, enjoy many of the rights and obligations that this identity should have.

However, if the reference for identity tampering is a real person, and the other party's sequence level is higher than sequence 3, the success rate of "identity tampering" will also decrease.

Compared to the drawback of being unable to influence oneself due to "twisted fate," being able to influence Roger himself due to "given fate" is entirely possible.

In this way, he can forcibly bestow upon himself good or bad luck or even identity without the aid of the "Life-Gambling Revolver"—this bestowal can be specific to certain areas, such as greatly increasing the probability of success of a certain extraordinary ability that requires gambling, or achieving certain goals outside of combat that rely on luck, or temporarily becoming another person.

The most direct benefit of this is that Roger can greatly extend his lifespan through continuous manipulation of fate. He can live longer than most demigods. As for whether he can live as long as the "ageless witch," that will only be known after Roger has fully digested the "living star chart" potion.

In addition, Roger can use "Fate-Granting" to temporarily bestow upon himself a false identity and strip it away at any time, thereby purifying certain mystical attacks, including curses, negative influences from the realm of "Fate," and so on.

As an adjunct to "Fate's Gift," "Secret Insight" evolved into "Secret Gift," which is a manifestation of "Fate's Gift." This means that Roger can forcibly bestow a fictitious secret upon his opponent and use a demigod-level "leak" to exert a mystical influence on them.

The longer this secret is given, and the closer it is to the opponent's own destiny trajectory and in line with his own destiny logic, the more profound the effect will be, and the better the "leak" effect will be.

As for how the "Living Star Chart" ability can be integrated with the "Black Knight's" ability, further exploration is needed.

However, as things stand, Roger could already think of several possibilities, such as bestowing a special fate upon his "fallen shadow," enhancing its combat performance and control, or using "shadow manipulation" to make mystical contact with the other party and forcibly inject the mystical influence of music.

On the other hand, Roger is now able to completely unleash "Demon Slayer" without any pressure, because he can temporarily give himself a false identity and let this identity pay lifespan to "Demon Slayer" in place of himself, thus paying almost no real price.

Overall, Roger's strength has been enhanced in all aspects, which undoubtedly greatly improves his combat and survival abilities, allowing him to gain a firm foothold in this apocalyptic world and protect what he wants to protect.

"One more thing..."

Roger glanced at Philip and said:
"Philip, continue navigating the ship towards the inter-sea area. After all that commotion, the Fussacks should be hesitant to attack us for the time being."

"His Excellency Valentine should be fine. He will help if anything goes wrong, so don't worry."

"I need at least half an hour of quiet time."

"Yes, Captain."

Philip stood at attention, saluted Roger, and then called Zeus over. The two of them went together to arrange the work and steering matters on the "Star Lord".

As for Roger, he instructed Bandit to stay on the deck, then turned around, went down the deck, entered the cabin, returned to his captain's cabin, sat down, and held his breath.

He closed his eyes and silently recited the name of "Star of Judgment," Geherus, once again in his heart.

A moment later, the rust-colored sphere with spoke-like patterns and closed eyes that Roger had seen before reappeared in front of him.

"This is the source of Gheros..."

"Original Motion Core!"

(End of this chapter)