Mystery: When the Fool Meets the Masked Fool

Chapter 380 Three Strange Objects
"Let's talk about the winner's rewards first. They are one level-one sealed item and two level-two sealed items."

“However, calling them ‘sealed objects’ isn’t entirely accurate. After all, they don’t possess any extraordinary properties. In our terms, they’re called ‘strange objects,’” Serres explained simply to the later members of the Tarot Club. “You can think of them as items that have embarked on a destiny.”

Serres materialized three items on the long bronze table in front of him.

The first strange object is a twelve-sided die. Each face of the die has an irregular pattern, and strange light flows freely inside.

The second strange object was something that looked like a syringe, filled with a pink liquid, which seemed rather suspicious. However, it had no needle and did not appear to be usable for injecting medicine.

The third strange object was a blue bottle. But it looked a little different from ordinary bottles. It resembled a teardrop with an oval shape in the front and a long strip in the back, but the long tail at the back of the teardrop curved back and went deep into the oval shape in the front, opening up a hole on the other side of the oval.

Audrey remembered that Emperor Roselle seemed to have mentioned something like this; it was a conceptual hypothesis called a Klein bottle. It was a bottle without boundaries, without inside or outside, created by joining two infinitely extending Möbius strips together.

Serres began his introduction.

"First, Miss Justice's reward for third place is called 'Shining Unconventional Three-Eight-Sided Dice'."

“Do you know about the ‘Shining Divinity 38-Sided Dice Paradox’?” Serres pointed to the projection of the dice. “Oh, I asked a stupid question.”

"Let me give you a brief account. There's a legend that says there's a terrifying and indescribable evil god sealed inside a rolling die, and you must avoid contact with it in the dark. In the past, someone was so bored that he insisted on not believing it and deliberately stayed in a room with that die in the dark. Afterwards, he discovered that the die itself was glowing, and its radiance could not be concealed."

"This is the 'Shining Side Die Paradox'."

"And a fictional historian with nothing better to do brought this paradox to life, making it into this die. And this die is also known as the 'Shining Side Three-Eight-Sided Dice'."

"Its effect is to randomly transform your extraordinary abilities into other effects. For example, if you throw a fireball at your opponent during battle, after using this artifact, a tree might grow on the enemy's body after the fireball hits."

"Um... what if my attack turns into a healing spell just when I'm about to finish off the enemy?" Audrey asked.

“That possibility cannot be ruled out,” Serres replied.

I didn't know how before, but I do now.

This... does fit Mr. Devil's personality all along, Audrey thought.

"A very 'enjoyable' ability," Xing commented. "Living is about being a gambler."

"Thank you." Serris was pleased with the compliment.

“Next up is yours.” Serres turned to Alger.

Alger nodded calmly, though his mind was far from at peace.

"This strange object comes from a planet called Tetis, where the people follow the instructions of their leader and share the standards and results. Individual Tetis people do not need to think and have no right to think. The administrators will periodically extract the independent thoughts of individuals and feed them back to the leader as inspiration."

"This strange object is a product produced on that planet. Its general effect is to temporarily take over your body after use and then complete the goals you set in advance, such as setting up continuous exercise for a whole night while you sleep."

"This won't make you tired the next day, but it will reduce the amount of solution inside."

"However, this is not a one-time use solution; it will replenish itself over time. If it is completely used up, it will take about 24 hours to be fully replenished."

"By the way, this will provide you with a comprehensive enhancement, allowing you to accomplish things that you would normally be unable to do. For example, something as difficult as a Sequence Six taking on a Sequence Five of the same path will become possible after using this artifact."

Alger thought for a moment, then nodded. "I understand, thank you."

"Next, the first place winner of the Little Sun competition will receive a prize called 'Genius's Confusion Time,' which is an educational toy."

"It was probably more than two hundred years ago when the 77th seat of the Genius Club, Ms. Mitu, had a sudden inspiration and decided to contribute to the cause of education in the galaxy."

"She used simple force fields to weave complex spatial structures, including miniature wormholes and imaginary subspace fields, into a Klein bottle, hoping to open the door to the physical world for children all over the universe through this educational toy."

What the hell?
Klein and the others looked completely bewildered.

"Unfortunately, this masterpiece suffered a disastrous sales slump, which clearly shows that there is a significant difference between the preschool education that MiTu understands and the general public."

This string of technical terms left Derrick dizzy and completely unable to understand.

"But Mr. Devil, what's the use of this?" Derrick really couldn't understand.

“Once you understand these things, even the god of knowledge and wisdom will have to come and teach you,” Serres replied.

“Ah…” Derrick fell silent.

The brain is unresponsive.

shut down.

Waiting for a response.

"It seems this shows that geniuses aren't geniuses in every field. At least Ms. Mitu wasn't a good kindergarten teacher," Alicia offered her opinion.

“It seems so,” Serres replied. “I heard from a friend at the Genius Club that she even secretly lost her little pearl because of it.”

“Mr. Devil,” Padmon suddenly asked, “I remember you said you’ve joined almost every organization in the universe, so why do you sound so unfamiliar with the Genius Club?”

Serres paused for two seconds, then said matter-of-factly, "Because I'm too smart, the Doctor thought the Genius Club wasn't qualified to accept me, so he didn't give me an invitation."

"What's your expression?"

“That’s right, I can vouch for it,” Xing replied earnestly, “because I was in a similar situation.”

“Is that so?” Serres nodded. “Unfortunately, the world has too many misunderstandings about us.”

“If it’s just some incomprehensible knowledge, it shouldn’t be comparable to a Level 1 Sealed Artifact, right?” Otto asked. He didn’t believe anyone in Silver City could understand the knowledge contained within.

“Of course,” Serres replied. “It also has another function: to create a small knowledge circle where all information is visualized and can be read by the owner of this artifact. Lady Mystery probably hoped that children could learn that knowledge and then put it into practice in reality.” “The idea is good, but her IQ is too high; it’s hard to understand why ordinary people can’t understand it.”

While Serres was engrossed in their conversation, Klein was pondering another question.

Should he sell that extraordinary trait belonging to the "Druid" pathway, Sequence Five, to the Hermit Lady, to that "Biologist"?

Frank Lee.

Klein, the second officer of the Future, had heard of him before.

It is said that he once devoted himself to planting people in the ground, or hybridizing fish, cows and rose bishops to create the ultimate life.

There is even a "Normal Life Protection Association" at sea dedicated to promoting the theory that "no harm without Frank."

I don't know why they seem to be behaving better lately.

"But the problem is, could this be a step that accelerates the destruction of the world? Or is the recent peace and quiet just an act..." Klein was a little hesitant.

If such a dangerous guy as Frank Lee were to be promoted to Sequence Five, the Bull, Fish, Ocean, and Rose Bishops would all be terrified. After all, no one knows what kind of experiments this guy, who is not much better than a madman, could conduct or what strange species he could create once he has more powerful abilities.

If he manages to plant himself and harvest a bunch of Franks, then the world will truly be in danger... That's one small step for Franks, but one giant leap for the world...

Klein sighed silently and finally decided to leave the problem to the Hermit Lady to worry about.

Anyway, I'm just selling the Druid's extraordinary traits normally. Whether the Hermit wants to buy it or not is her problem... Besides, it's just a Sequence 5. I believe that with the support of the "Mysterious Queen" and the Morse Penance Society, she can definitely keep an eye on it. The Church of the "Earth Mother Goddess" also has a bunch of saints and angels.

Besides, there are also level 0 sealed artifacts, and true gods exist there; they wouldn't be unable to handle related matters, Klein thought.

There shouldn't be any problems that even a true god couldn't handle.

Qiguang: How can you be so selfish?

Seeing that the rewards had been mostly distributed, the last-place star was punished with "not being allowed to rummage through the trash can for three days" and is now sulking under the table.

But after crawling down there, she discovered that she could tie Mr. World's shoelaces together...

Klein made a trade request to the hermit Cattleya.

“The Hermit, I have another Sequence 5 Extraordinary Trait here, the Cultivator Path, Druid.”

Suddenly, the entire palace, which resembled the dwelling of a giant, became extremely quiet.

There's... there's also Sequence Five? What exactly has he been doing these past few days?
The hermit, Cattleya, suddenly had some inexplicable feelings, realizing that all the risks and hardships she had endured for years had resulted in nothing more than the commodities in the hands of the world's Gehrman Sparrow.

"Too...too terrifying!" Magician Fowles thought of what he had seen on the system before, and imagined a series of stories in his mind. He didn't dare to breathe.

Nearly ten seconds later, the hermit Cattleya finally deciphered the hidden meaning behind the world's words:
He's asking me if I should buy it for Frank.
At this moment, Gadriya was in an unprecedented predicament.

As the captain of the "Future," Gadriya had a deeper understanding of the hidden dangers of Frank Lee than others. She knew that the first mate's whimsical ideas could sometimes lead to terrifying and crazy developments. If those "creations" hadn't yet failed to spread and lacked the necessary elements, Gadriya believed that "the world would be different."

Sometimes she would even think of getting rid of Frank Lee first and throwing him into the sea to feed the fish.

But he was also afraid that a bunch of Franks with fish heads and human bodies would grow out of them.

But now he's learning from that "teacher" and has been much more restrained lately... He should be fine, right?

Besides, spending more time digesting the potion might make him tinker less with his mushrooms... right?

perhaps?

After much internal struggle and contemplation, the "hermit" Cattleya finally made her decision:
How much money do you want to exchange it for?

She had a vague feeling that "The World" Gehrman Sparrow seemed to be short of money lately.

Fowles had the same idea.

Perhaps she's keeping wealthy businessman Dawn Dantes as a mistress?
Fowles attempted to deduce based on the known information.

“Eight thousand pounds,” Klein replied. “Since we’re all members of the Tarot Club, I won’t offer a premium.”

“Indeed, this is a very fair price.” Cattleya nodded.

Frank Lee should be able to come up with such a sum of money, and he certainly wouldn't be able to refuse the extraordinary qualities of the "Druid".

Moreover, she also had a little selfish motive.

If you empty his wallet, he probably won't have the funds to keep messing around with those mushrooms.

She was certain that no crew member would be willing to lend him money.

After a moment's thought, Gadriya said, "Deal. Give me a week to raise the funds."

“No problem.” Klein drew Gehrman Sparrow’s attention away from the world.

Next, the free exchange session gradually came to an end, and silence returned to the gray fog.

The tarot reading will end in a few minutes.

…………

P.S.: Hmm... this chapter is almost 4000 words. Did my previous leave request go to waste?

(End of this chapter)