Mystery: When the Fool Meets the Masked Fool

Chapter 5 Above the Gray Mist
June 28th.

Klein, who had just finished shopping and received a divination from a beast trainer, was walking home when a man dressed as a bartender suddenly approached him with a frivolous smile.

The bartender was tall and muscular, yet handsome. His nearly two-meter height and baby face looked quite out of place. He had fuzzy light pink hair, earrings in his ears, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

If you must say it, he's a combination of the words "gentlemanly villain" and "suit thug."

"Sir, our tavern will officially open tonight at 8:00. We're having a promotion right now: buy one, get one free on all drinks, 30% off. Interested in checking it out?" The bartender's delicate face was filled with a flattering smile, but his tall figure stood in front of Klein like a wall. He stuffed a flyer into Klein's hand, and he kept leaning towards him, sending a chill down his spine.

"Uh, thanks." Klein couldn't stand the man's enthusiasm. He stretched out his hand without the bag, pushed him away, and walked around him.

The bartender didn't continue to stop them but turned around to hand out flyers to other people. Klein gradually walked away, and the flattering voices behind him became increasingly quiet. He could only vaguely hear MLM terms like "discount" and "conscience."

After returning home, Klein casually placed the flyer and the bag on the table. He didn't rush into the luck-changing ritual, but first translated the phrase "Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianzun" into ancient Feysac and Loen. During this time, he discovered a tiny wound on his left index finger, so tiny it wouldn't be noticeable without careful observation. Although he didn't think much of it, he still washed it, fearing it would be bad if it caught some kind of disease.

After doing all this, he took out four loaves of rye bread from the paper bag, placed one in the corner where the coal stove used to be, one on the inside bottom of the dressing mirror, one on the top of the cupboard where the two walls met, and one on the right side of the desk where miscellaneous items were piled.

Walk to the center of the room, take a deep breath, and walk counterclockwise in a square step while chanting in a low voice: "Blessings be born to the Xuanhuang Immortal Venerable, blessings be born to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Monarch, blessings be born to the Xuanhuang God, blessings be born to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Venerable."

In Klein's uneasy mood, whispers that were sometimes subtle, sometimes sharp, sometimes illusory, sometimes alluring, sometimes manic, and sometimes crazy rang in his ears.

On Daffodil Street, on the second floor of a pub that hadn't officially opened yet, Cyrus was sitting on a sofa, flipping through the best-selling novel Storm Heights, one of the most famous novels by the renowned author Fowles Wall.

At this moment, a voice rang out from "Gornez," who was sitting at the other end of the sofa. He had "invented" a tavern employee by using the appearances of several old friends through the power of [mystery]. After all, he was too lazy to manage the tavern; it was too much trouble.

"Boss, it's reacting, look."

Gornez extended his left hand, with a drop of blood floating in the center of his palm, which was now emitting a faint gray-red light.

Ceres reached out and took it, a frivolous smile on his face: "Hey, pick up a cat, family, he wants to come home with me."

【Eh, what a pervert.】

When Klein opened his eyes again, he found himself floating in an endless gray fog.

The gray fog flows like water, dotted with crimson "stars". Some of them are big, some are small, some are hidden deep, and some float on the surface.

Looking at this holographic scene, Klein stretched out his right hand, half confused and half exploring, trying to touch a deep red "star" floating on the surface on his right side, looking for a way to leave.

When his fingers just touched the surface of the star, water ripples suddenly surged from his body, causing the "deep red" to explode like a dreamy firework.

Klein jumped in surprise, hastily withdrawing his right hand, accidentally touching another Crimson. In the instant he wasn't paying attention, a star glowing orange-red darted from nowhere at breakneck speed, crashing directly into the wound on his left hand.

Three stars shine brightly.

…………

In a luxurious villa in the Queens district of Backlund, the capital of the Loen Kingdom, Audrey Hall sat at her dressing table, stroking the cracked bronze mirror with an ancient pattern.

"Mirror, Mirror, wake up!"

"In the name of the Hall family, I order you to wake up!"

She tried one explanation after another, but the mirror showed no reaction. After more than ten minutes, she finally gave up, pursed her lips in frustration, and muttered softly:
"Dad really was lying to me. He always told me that this mirror was a treasure of the Black Emperor of the ancient Solomon Empire, a special item...

Before she finished her words, the bronze mirror placed on the table suddenly emitted a deep red light, enveloping her.

On the Sonia Sea, a three-masted sailing ship, clearly outdated, was sailing through the storm. Alger Wilson stood on the deck, his body rising and falling with the turbulence, maintaining his balance with ease.

He was wearing a robe embroidered with lightning patterns and holding a strangely shaped glass bottle in his hand. Sometimes bubbles were rolling inside, sometimes frost turned into snow, and sometimes there were traces of wind.

"We still need the ghost shark's blood..." Alger whispered.

At this moment, a deep red burst out between the glass bottle and his palm, instantly flooding the surroundings.
On the second floor of the tavern, Serris closed the doors and windows, sat back on the bed, and felt the subtle pull on his spirit.

He slid the mask across his left temple, closed his eyes, and let the power of Memory envelope him. His body began to become slightly transparent, transforming into a meme. Mr. Fool couldn't pull him up into the gray fog yet, but if he took the initiative to climb up, that would be another matter.

The "Holy Blood of Fool" floating in his palm suddenly emitted a deep red light.

[Yeah! That’s awesome!]

Inside Klein's home, a trace of power containing protection and memory drifted out from a flyer casually placed on the table, passing through the wall and entering Klein's body, helping him to maintain his connection with the gray fog space. This would prevent Mr. Fool from going offline prematurely due to the presence of one more person.

…………

Above the grayish-white mist, Serris sensed his own state. Unlike the others, whose only psychic bodies were pulled up, Serris in the memetic state was a whole psychic body in itself.

He tried his best to minimize his influence on Klein. It felt like floating in the air, reducing his own gravity. Of course, this wasn't weight in the physical sense, but rather a mystical "presence."

He slowly opened his eyes.

[The gray fog was shaking, and Serris opened his eyes.]

If you're not my friend, why are you here too?

Looking around, I found that there were three other people around. One was looking around in panic, and the other two were pretending to be calm and looking around in panic.

"Sir, where is this?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Hey, guys, are you four going to play mahjong?" Audrey and Alger were stunned and fell silent at first, then they spoke at the same time, and Ceres also joined in the fun.

The same Loen language, the same solemn and tense feeling, plus a discordant noise.

"Where is this place? What do I want to do? I also want to know... uh... Mahjong? There's still Mahjong in this world? And you're a little too out of touch..." Klein calmed down, silently repeated the two people's questions, and then complained about someone's words.

What caught his attention most was not the sentences formed by the words or the meaning contained in the sentences, but the panic, vigilance, fear and awe shown by the man and woman, except for the person who seemed relaxed.

Three people were inexplicably dragged into this gray foggy world. Even as the "culprit", I was extremely surprised and shocked, let alone them who were on the passive side.

In their view, this kind of thing, this kind of encounter, was probably beyond imagination, right? And that seemingly frivolous person was perhaps feigning composure, attempting to seize the initiative. As a keyboard expert who knew a little bit about everything in his previous life, Klein had some understanding of this negotiation tactic.

At that moment, Klein thought of two options. One was to pretend to be a victim, hiding his true identity in exchange for a certain degree of trust, wait and see, and fish in troubled waters. The other was to maintain a mysterious image in the eyes of the three people, actively guide the development of the matter, and obtain valuable information from it.

Without time to ponder or deliberate, Klein seized the fleeting thought that flashed through his mind and quickly made a decision, trying the second method. Taking advantage of the opponent's current psychological state, he seized his greatest advantage!
There was a brief silence above the gray fog for a few seconds. Klein chuckled softly, his tone calm and his voice low but not deep, as if responding to a visitor's polite greeting: "An attempt."

An attempt... an attempt? Audrey Hall looked at the mysterious man shrouded in gray mist and felt that everything was absurd, funny, terrifying, and weird.

I was just in the bedroom, in front of the dressing table, and then I turned around and came to this place full of gray fog! How unbelievable!
Audrey took a breath, put on an impeccably polite smile, and asked nervously, "Sir, is the experiment over? Can we go back now?"

Alger Wilson also wanted to make a similar attempt, but with his rich experience, he was more calm and suppressed his impulse.

Even though Alger was still a qualified angry person, he knew when to remain silent.

Klein looked at the questioner and could vaguely see her figure through the blur. She was a tall girl with smooth blonde hair, but her specific appearance was not clear.

【She is so pretty. 】

"Hey, don't mess around." Serris thought to himself.

Although it wasn't difficult for Ceris to see through the gray fog directly, Klein's current control over the gray fog was not as stable as it would be later. If he accidentally used too much force and pulled out Mr. Fool's network cable, he would miss out on a lot of fun afterwards.

[He's afraid to do something himself, yet he's stopping others from doing it. Pu Xinnan is truly despicable. Who among his family members understands?]

"Quack, it's version T0, everyone, retreat quickly!" Serris shouted in shock in his heart.

【What happened? 】

Klein didn't rush to answer the girl's question. He turned and looked at the two men on the other side. One had dark blue hair, messy like seaweed, and a medium build, not particularly muscular. The other had black hair and something like a mask pinned to his left temple. He was similar in build to the former, but thinner.

At this moment, Klein suddenly had an epiphany. When he became stronger, or gained a deeper understanding of this foggy world, perhaps he would be able to truly see through the haze and clearly see the appearance of the three people.

In this incident, they are the guests and I am the host!
With a change of mindset, Klein immediately noticed some details that he hadn't noticed just now.

The girl with the sweet voice, the calm and reserved man, and the seemingly frivolous man were all quite illusory, stained slightly red, just like the projections of the three crimson "stars" above the gray fog.

This projection was based on the connection between him and Crimson, a connection that was invisible and yet could be clearly grasped. If this connection was severed, the projection would dissipate, and they would be able to return... Klein nodded imperceptibly, looked at the blonde girl, and chuckled softly.
"Of course, if you formally propose, I can let you go back now."

Audrey, who couldn't detect any ill intentions, breathed a sigh of relief. She believed that a man capable of such miraculous feats would strictly abide by his promises. Miss Justice was still young and hadn't yet grasped the cruelty of the extraordinary world.

Having calmed down a bit, she didn't rush to leave. Instead, her emerald eyes flickered from side to side, gleaming with a strange brilliance. She spoke with a mixture of trepidation, anticipation, and eagerness, "This is truly a wonderful experience... Well, I've always looked forward to something like this. I mean, I love mystery, I love miracles beyond nature. No, my point is, sir, how can I become a Beyonder?"

[Of course, it uses its own magnetic field to propel the current, spreading it to the surroundings and driving the magnetic field around it, becoming a powerful, dominant, and strong magnetic field master!]

"Shut up! The name Audrey clearly means she's going to be a magical girl! Magical Girl Audrey, listen, what a great name!" Serris charged in the team's internal voice chat. He was determined to defend the honor of Magical Girl Audrey to the death.

"Foolish thing, is your head filled with dendrobium? A so-called magical girl, someone who controls power through love and faith, who doesn't care about others' opinions, who steadfastly follows her own path even when not understood... Tell me what that person is!"

"Could it be? No! I don't want it! Don't say it!"

[That’s right, it’s the magnetic field! ]

"Quack! I don't want to see Audrey turn into a lunatic! Goo, I can already see it. Audrey is using her imagination to spin a million-horsepower Mind Dragon Fist to knock Klein to the ground. She's definitely going to..."

[Damn caterpillar, what's the use of such a good imagination! ]

No one paid any attention to Ceres, who was freaking out in the corner. Audrey grew increasingly excited as she spoke, even to the point of being a little incoherent. The dream that had sprouted in her childhood, when she'd heard her elders tell all sorts of strange stories, seemed to finally have a glimmer of hope. In just a few words, she had completely forgotten her previous fear and panic.

Good question! I want to know the answer, too… Klein mused to himself. He began to think about how to maintain his mysterious image.

At the same time, he felt that standing and talking like this seemed a bit low-class. Shouldn't such a scene have a temple, a long table, and many chairs with backs carved with ancient patterns and full of mystery, with him sitting at the top, quietly gazing at the guests?
Just as Klein finished his thought, the gray fog suddenly rolled up, startling Audrey and Alger, and forcing Ceris to come out of his frenzied state.

In an instant, they saw towering stone pillars appearing all around them, and a vast dome looming above them. The entire structure was magnificent, grand, and majestic, like the palace of a giant from legend.

Directly below the dome, amidst the gray fog, stood a long bronze table, with ten high-backed chairs on either side, and similar seats placed in front and back. The backs of the chairs shone brightly, then darkened with deep crimson, outlining strange constellations that did not correspond to reality.

Audrey and Alger sat opposite each other, closest to the top. Ceres sat to Alger's right, slightly further away from the top.

【It seems you are disliked. 】

"Who asked you?"

We had an awesome party and everyone was sitting together. Guess who wasn't invited? You!

Looking back at Audrey, the girl glanced left, then right, and couldn't help muttering, "It's amazing..."

It's truly magical... Klein stretched out his right hand and gently stroked the edge of the bronze table, appearing calm.

(End of this chapter)