Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Whose is Chapter 335, 334?
After exchanging words with a boy who was said to be from "Silver City," Klein returned to the real world.

Because he had only recently been promoted to "Joker," the Night Watchman, quite moved, granted Klein a paid vacation, so he didn't have to rush back to work.

After having dinner and chatting briefly with Benson and Melissa, Klein returned to his room early, citing work pressure, and once again entered the gray fog.

Sitting at the head of the long bronze table, Klein looked at the ancient and magnificent palace, resting his chin on his hand in thought for a moment.

He had other missions to undertake this time and was not in a hurry to leave this mysterious space above the gray fog.

Since being promoted to "Clown," with the growth of his spirituality and his understanding of Sequence 9, the Diviner's Potion, Klein can rightfully call himself a professional diviner. Moreover, he accidentally discovered that the mysterious space above this gray fog has a certain effect of eliminating interference, making it the most suitable place for a diviner to exert his abilities.

Using his unique position above the gray fog, Klein took out a quill pen that could write without ink from the gray mist, and then took out a piece of white paper as a medium to write divination statements.

Of the three magical items provided by Dunn Smith, Klein was more inclined to choose the second one, the boxing gloves.

After all, the first item might have been contaminated by a true creator, while the third item is rather strange.

Of course, as a diviner, it is perfectly normal to follow the rules of occultism when making your own choices.

Just to be on the safe side, Klein decided to perform a divination on all three sealed artifacts.

He laid the white paper flat on the long bronze table and wrote strings of words on it in ancient Hermetic.

"I have chosen the Eye of Life as the sealing artifact, and what will happen next..."

As a Joker who has already advanced to Sequence 8, when faced with a dilemma, he naturally needs to rely on the power of "divination" to achieve his goals.

After silently reciting the divination phrases he needed to know seven times, Klein leaned back and his consciousness drifted into a dream.

In his dream, Klein saw a puppet. The puppet's blurry features looked somewhat similar to the image of "Klein Moretti" in the dream divination, and the puppet was surrounded by a rather blurry darkness.

In the darkness, something surged toward them. The puppet, which was surrounded by darkness, suddenly trembled all over. Then, a large amount of filthy and frenzied things rushed toward the puppet.

It was viscous, as if it were the embodiment of all the filth and depravity in the world.

Upon contact with these black, viscous, and filthy substances, the puppet sprouted one black eyeball after another without whites, and its shadow materialized in the darkness.

The shadow that had come to life wrapped itself around the puppet, and then, incredibly, broke off its neck and limbs, hanging them all up.

Twisted, insane, filthy, terrifying, and depraved – this is Klein's most direct sensory experience.

In this endless darkness, the eyes on the puppet's body suddenly looked in a certain direction.

The dream trembled and vanished abruptly, and Klein snapped his eyes open.

He caught his breath and looked around warily at the unchanging gray-white mist.

To be honest, he had a feeling that the darkness was trying to penetrate the dream and climb up into this gray fog.

After calming down for a moment and seeing that there was no movement above the gray fog, he slowly recalled what he had just seen through dream divination.

"This must be the contamination from the true creator attached to this sealed artifact."

That filthy, insane power, even through a layer of dreams and a layer of gray fog, instilled in Klein a deep, instinctive fear.

This is an evil god.

"However, judging from the revelation of this divination, the final result of choosing this sealed artifact is likely that I will be influenced by the sealed artifact itself, and perhaps unknowingly become tainted with the madness originating from the true creator..."

Finally, they separated his head and limbs completely. Shang Yang…

After recalling some hellish jokes, Klein calmed himself down a bit after feeling cold about himself. He then took out a new sheet of paper and continued writing down the divination statements he would use next.

The second sealed item is the "3-0112" Fighter's Gloves, a sealed item formed from the extraordinary traits of a Sequence 8 Fighter from the Warrior Path.

Compared to the previous and subsequent sealed artifacts, this sealed artifact is quite conventional, without any overly difficult sealing methods or explosive points similar to the pollution by the true creator.

"Possessing some close-combat skills, although not quite at the level of Sequence 7, a Weapon Master, it's just right for the Joker, who already has the ability to protect himself, given the lack of effective offensive means..."

The fortune teller has transformed a boxer into a mastermind: if words can't convince you, then fists will.

Ah, this is a truly hellish joke...

Although he had already formed a preference, Klein still performed a divination on this extraordinary item as was customary. The result was, as expected, quite good and in line with his expectations.

Only one item left...

Klein stared at the strange, extraordinary object that he had simulated using the gray mist.

He remained silent for a moment.

The confusion I felt before, as if my eyes were blinded and I couldn't see the direction clearly, resurfaced. The more I looked at this thing, the more familiar it seemed.

"I feel like I've only seen it somewhere before, and it's something I see often... but why do I have no recollection of it?"

Klein shook his head, then frowned in thought.

And it seems he had thought about this question before when he saw this thing... Why didn't he remember it? Did he only remember it after seeing the actual object?
Is it because this is a Level 2 sealed item, involving extraordinary abilities within the sequence of the Thief's Path?
Klein tapped his fingers lightly on the bronze table, leaned back slightly in his high-backed chair, closed his eyes, and began to imagine.

He always felt that this sealed artifact was not as simple as it seemed.

"Things on the Thief's Path: Tingen City possesses the most powerful 'Mr. Error,' who is the pinnacle of the Thief's Path..."

Could this be the one that was "wrong"?

"No, not really."

While those at Klein's level within the Night Watchers weren't yet qualified to access the names and abilities of potions at the demigod level through the Thief's Path, Klein was still quite familiar with this path.

After all, Miskatonic of Tingen already possessed both the "thief" and "fortune teller" connections.

Theft is prohibited in Tingen, a silent rule that serves as a ban for thieves who need to digest potions.

For thieves outside of Tingen, the moment they steal something, the Tingen police will come knocking to check their gas meters.

As for the thieves in Tingen, all the losses caused by their digestion of the potion will be borne by Miskatonic University itself, and the thieves are always familiar with each other.

The thieves in Tingen City naturally reject outsiders and try to get rid of them. This has resulted in the current situation where there are only two types of thieves: those from Tingen City and those from outside Tingen City.

As one of the two complete pathways controlled by the University of Michigan, Klein, as a Night Watchman, occasionally learns about the extraordinary abilities possessed by these extraordinary individuals of the Thief pathway during missions involving these outside Thieves. These abilities are not recorded in the Night Watchman's database or for which he does not have sufficient access.

"The fire-stealer of sequence 6, the dream thief of sequence 5..."

Theft-related matters begin to involve the memory level after reaching Sequence 5.

Amidst a jumble of thoughts, Klein made a connection to something and began to carefully examine his memories.

These were things he hadn't considered before arriving above the gray fog. Once the interference was eliminated, Klein immediately realized there was a problem.

Klein quickly figured out the way he was most likely to get the right answer.

Divination.

This is a divination performed in a region with unique characteristics that eliminate interference, and it is a divination performed on oneself.

In the field of divination, divination involving the concept of "self" is extremely difficult to be disturbed, especially when one is in this mysterious space.

Klein guessed that as long as it didn't directly confront a great being like a true creator, this space could hold it off.

Not long after, the divination results came out.

The divination result was quite obvious: Klein had indeed lost a period of memory that he had inexplicably overlooked.

The inconsistencies in his memories allowed the already highly intuitive clown to detect clues and discover problems in this unusual space.

"Someone stole my memories?"

His expression turned serious. "Who is it? The one I met once before, perhaps Nicolas Flamel, the predecessor of the time traveler, Mr. 'Error'? Or some other high-ranking figure from the thief path?"

"They discovered my special abilities? But if they discovered them, why don't they just come knocking on our door?"

Let alone that "wrong" man, even if they send out ordinary Sequence 7s or Sequence 6s, Klein himself would have no chance of resisting.

Unless they make use of this gray fog, which they don't know how to use, it's still unknown whether this gray fog can stop that "mistake".

That is the highest level of the thief's path, and most likely the being closest to the concept of "god".

In this era where gods are real and high above, facing such oppression, Klein felt that he should simply hand himself over to Tingen City, which would give him a chance to survive.

"Or rather, they want to use me for something... or perhaps..."

enemy……

The enemy of Tingen City, also a high-ranking person through the thief route, discovered his or her own problem, saw an opportunity to profit from it, and then delivered it to him.
Were those hazy memories also created by that outsider thief?
Looking at the monocle that resembled a crystal sculpture, Klein stared intently for a moment, pondered for a while, and then decided to try his luck with a divination.

After all, if we don't even know who the enemy is, things could get quite complicated later on.

"I feel like I'm about to do something stupid again..."

He opened his eyes, pulled new paper from the void, picked up the quill pen on the table, and quickly wrote down a passage in ancient Hermetic language.

"The origin of this monocle... the origin of this monocle... the origin of this monocle..."

After repeating it seven times, Klein took a deep breath, then leaned back again, his consciousness sinking into a dream.

In a dream.

It was a hazy gold color.

gold?

Klein's pupils dilated as he saw a rather blurry figure.

The figure stood behind another person that Klein knew very well, and seemed to have sensed something, looking in his direction.

It was a figure wearing a black pointed soft hat and a classic magician's robe. The face was blurred, but a single monocle, as if carved from crystal, was the most conspicuous and clear element in this dream divination.

This is--

Klein saw the reflection in the monocle in the man's left eye socket: a scorching, frenzied, all-encompassing, apocalyptic scene, like molten lava.

Noticing someone watching them, the figure wearing a monocle grinned and smiled.

He opened his arms, making a gesture as if embracing the sun.

"Let us praise the sun!"

The dream shattered abruptly, and the entire gray fog boiled over, as if it had divined something incomprehensible and indescribable. The last rays of the sun ignited Klein's entire body.

He screamed and fell off the high-backed chair, his entire spiritual body ignited.

That's incredibly stupid!

The gray fog was trembling violently, and heat waves and madness spread from the cracked spirit. It was like swallowing a mouthful of magma. Klein felt that his brain was about to burn and be burned to ashes.

After an unknown amount of time, Klein finally came to his senses, and his spirit re-formed.

"If I hadn't already been promoted to the Joker, I, Mr. Hanged Man, Ms. Justice, and the newly joined Mr. Sun would probably have already sent the clock to their Mr. Fool ahead of time..."

Despite the pain all over his body, Klein gasped for breath and sat back down in the high-backed chair.

Somewhat weary, he slowly began to recall what he had just seen, following the piece of paper with the divination text written on it.

The shock he just experienced not only ignited his spirituality and nearly took him away on the spot, but also provided him with some incredible knowledge...

The Thief's Path Sequence 4, Potion Name: Parasite.

“Leonard…Leonard…The monocle he’s wearing is exactly the same as the one the captain showed me.”

(End of this chapter)