Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 347 346 The Legendary Investigator

The man took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it with a flame, and stood up again. He looked at Zilingus, who was still trapped in his own hallucination on the ground, squinted, and took a deep drag on his cigarette.

A pungent smell of smoke lingered around the man, and his half-face, which had been covered in crawling worms, disappeared in the flickering smoke, revealing his normal appearance.

The man then threw the cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out with the foot he had previously stepped on Zilingus.

“He deserved to die, and they all deserved to die.”

He laughed. "That's what keeps me alive. I'm grateful to Mr. 'Mistake' and that other man for giving me the chance for revenge."

The man said, glanced at Mr. "Power" again, and then left the alley without looking back.

After the man left, Zilingus, who had been lying on the ground, stood up unsteadily.

He was in pain, numb, and his limbs didn't seem to be under his control. At first glance, he looked like a puppet, but he started to look more and more like a normal person, and the numbness and pain on his face disappeared.

Each piece of flesh pieced together becomes a puppet in the hands of others. Although it appears to be a normal face, a careful observer can still detect its inhuman abnormality.

He was smiling, a happy smile, but because of the details, this smile, which was clearly happy, looked particularly terrifying.

“So, Mr. Power,” Ziringus bowed to Gal Bly, “please, make sure you kill me properly.”

"This is a great honor for me."

Gal Bly remained silent.

When Zilingus stood up again and left, humming a song, he turned his head to look at the huge red moon in the sky.

Same here.

The Eastern Continent is hell for its inhabitants.

For some, this place is also hell.

"I want to create a peaceful world..."

On the roof beams nearby, the ageless witch Archerley hummed a tuneless melody, also gazing at the red moon in the sky.

With her ever-present, faint smile, she was mentally counting down the days until the story of Backlund came to an end.

"So, just as Emperor Roselle said, do I need to master a secret technique called 'Infinite Tsukuyomi'?"

A story is just a story; that person is right, and an absolutely ideal world never exists.

So how can we make the world the way we want it to be?

The ageless witch Archerley smiled slightly, happy with the future she imagined.

-

Using the Faceless Man's abilities to disguise himself, Zilingus infiltrated a gathering that included Pallas Negan, a leading figure in the conservative party of the Kingdom of Rune, and quickly began to carry out the plan he had received from the Twilight Hermits.

His infiltration initially went unnoticed by "Justice" Audrey Hall. He was cautious, and with a real "Faceless Man" manipulating things behind the scenes, Zillingus's disguise was almost flawless. It was Susie, the golden retriever, who noticed something strange.

“Sometimes, well, he twitches, like he’s on some strange drug, Audrey, do you think he might have a problem?”

As a spectator, Susie the big dog sometimes has a better eye for observation than Audrey the noblewoman.

After all, it was just a dog, and almost no one would care whether a dog stayed or left.

That's the puppet master unconsciously relaxing when operating their puppet and being alone.

It can only be said that Zillingus's first mate was not an outstanding or excellent "Master of Mysteries".

But that didn't stop him from manipulating Zilingus and making him die.

Audrey noticed something amiss after being alerted by the big dog Susie. She also observed the nobleman who was being impersonated by Qilingus and finally confirmed her suspicions.

This is very likely a fake.

The one who came in disguised as an invited nobleman might just be that pirate general who recently came to Backlund for some unknown reason.

But why would he attend such a banquet?
Audrey didn't know if Mr. "Power" was nearby, so she contacted Mr. "Error" and asked him to relay that Mr. "The Hanged Man" and Mr. "Power" might be at the banquet.

"The error of all errors... the embodiment of fallacies and loopholes... the hand that guides fate..."

After praying and informing Mr. "Mistake" of the matter, out of caution, and knowing that Zilingus possessed a powerful sealed artifact that she could not possibly handle, Audrey quickly informed her father, Duke Hall, that someone had disguised themselves as someone else and infiltrated the banquet.

Duke Hall reacted just as quickly, contacting Duke Negan and informing the Church of Storms that someone might have infiltrated the banquet and requesting that they send more people.

The church arrived quite quickly, without delaying Storm Pigeon's walk. "Singer of God" Ace Snake arrived just in time, and Zilingus' assassination attempt failed, forcing him to flee.

Then, during his escape, he was ambushed by an angel.

When the demigods of the Church of Storms arrived, half of Zilingus's body had already vanished without a trace.

From afar, "The Singer of God" Ace Snake noticed the person blocking Zillingus's escape.

His eyelids twitched slightly, and he realized something.

Following closely behind, Alger Wilson, a loyal follower of the Church of Storms and the "Hanged Man" of the Tarot Society, saw the man who had stopped Zillingus wearing a uniform that looked somewhat familiar to him.

Judging from his physique, the man looked a lot like "Strength," who had just joined the Tarot Club.

A true demigod, a demigod who casually killed his greatest threat, a Sequence 6 Wind Chosen One, a pirate general carrying a terrifying sealed artifact, with just a single move.

"What is a man from Miskatonic doing here?"

The demigod of the Church of Storms gasped as he watched the figure rapidly fade away and disappear.

"Miskatonic University, the demigod under Mr. Error's command..."

The Hanged Man quickly drew a line between Mr. Strength and Mr. Mistake.

Mr. "Strength" was either Mr. "Mistake"'s proxy in certain decisions, or he represented the Miskatonic investigators, which is why Mr. "Mistake" brought him into the Tarot Club. Whether it's his strength or the network of relationships behind him, "The Hanged Man" believes Mr. "Strength" is powerful enough.

And this existence is the bargaining chip he uses to make this deal...

Mr. Hanged Man suddenly felt a little insecure.

Well, I don't know what Mr. "Power" wants these things for... I'll add two, no, three percent when I get back.

The news of Zilingus's confirmed death came from Backlund on the third day after Klein received his Miskatonic University pass.

Thanks to the wireless telegraph, the news traveled from Backlund to Tingen. The newspapers in Tingen were quick to type, print, and sell the news, and Clyne learned of Zilingus's death just one day later.

"Zilingus, dead?"

Klein was somewhat incredulous when he heard the news, after all, he had just heard about the pirate general from Mr. "The Hanged Man" not long ago.

Unexpectedly, he died in Backlund not long after.

"Well, our investigators happened to be in Backlund. When they saw this guy who had a bounty on his head and had countless lives on his hands, they naturally had to kill him. It was a way of eliminating a menace."

Such a big event didn't even need publicity; the students in Miskatonic were already buzzing about it.

After all, killing this notorious pirate general...

"It was done by one of our legendary investigators."

A legendary investigator...

"Ah, Klein, you might not be familiar with our classification system here."

Tang, stroking his chin, swallowed the crispy potato in his mouth before saying, "Among the investigators here in Miskatonic, the most capable are still those legends... Hmm, I remember Emperor Roselle once said something like that legends are all clustered in their graves, or something like that. I don't know why Emperor Roselle would say that..."

"Among the investigators, there are only a handful of missions that are considered legendary. They, no, each of them is at least a Sequence 2 angel and one of the core pillars of Miskatonic."

"The one who took down that pirate was someone like this, but I don't know exactly who he is. He's a legendary investigator, you know. Most legendary investigators don't show themselves easily; they're usually traveling all over the world. But I don't know why he's being so high-profile this time..."

However, such a news story will soon fade away without any further revelations.

Klein shook his head and stopped paying attention to that, focusing his attention on the Miskatonic library.

Today is the last day. He has investigated most of the things he needed to and the things that piqued his curiosity. In addition, apart from the very first time, the Magic Mirror Arodes has not approached him. Klein felt that he should find an opportunity to try asking the mirror a few more questions.

No, it's better for the mirror to come to him, rather than for him to go to the mirror.

After returning home on the first day, Klein used divination to determine whether he was being monitored before entering the bathroom and ascending above the gray fog.

He repeated the above actions and performed the divination again. Only after confirming that his divination results had not been disturbed did he breathe a sigh of relief.

What followed was a lot of tedious, yet reassuring, divination content.

After confirmation, it seemed that Miscatori and Don Eggers had not deceived him, and Klein also tried divination regarding the coincidence and the sun as mentioned by the magic mirror Arodes, but the results were unsatisfactory.

This mysterious space above the gray fog did indeed help Klein eliminate most of the interference, but it did not improve his own divination skills.

In other words, if he can't predict something, he can't predict it. If the prerequisites are not met, it doesn't affect the result of the divination, regardless of whether it's above the gray fog.

Klein breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart quickly jumped into his throat again.

After all, being wary of the sun and unexpected coincidences is like a fishbone stuck in your throat—not fatal, but extremely irritating.

After realizing that he hadn't attracted Miskatonic's attention and was simply scaring himself, Klein spent the next two days in Miskatonic's library, studying ritual magic while researching ancient history that wasn't recorded within the Night Watchers' organization.

That's the advantage of having official Extraordinary Individuals. Wild Extraordinary Individuals are fine if they have a secret organization backing them, but if they don't, they have to pay a heavy price to learn about these things.

Of course, this knowledge wasn't necessary for them, and they didn't have the opportunity to spend time studying it.

On the last day, after having lunch with Tang, Klein returned to his work at the library.

His choice was right.

In the afternoon, the magic mirror Arodes approached him again.

Sitting by the window, Klein saw blood-red words wriggling and emerging on the window beside him, feeling both curious and wary.

You must be extremely wary of these thinking beings whose heads you don't know where they are, otherwise you won't even know how you got tricked to death.

"Supreme, great master, your humble, wretched servant Arodes has finally found an opportunity to contact you again."

Having learned from his first experience, Klein leaned back in his chair and glanced at the glass beside him out of the corner of his eye.

He deliberately chose a quiet corner where few people often passed by. Since the Magic Mirror Arodes could communicate through lip movements, Klein believed that the Magic Mirror Arodes must have already considered the problem of being discovered in order to avoid being discovered while communicating with him.

As the great "Fool," the master Arrodes spoke of, Klein nodded, then mouthed, "Arrodes, what did you mean by 'beware of the sun'?"

This was what the Magic Mirror Arodes told him on the first day, and a continuation of the question he asked Don that day.

But Klein couldn't ask this question directly because Arrodes hadn't mentioned "beware of the sun," and if he asked, he would only give himself away in front of Don.

The words that appeared in the magic mirror Arodes were very fast.

"The city of Tingen is about to suffer an unavoidable major disaster. 'Mistake' left this place. After being contaminated, the Sunwell mining area will experience an abnormally rapid increase in activity at a certain time, and then..."

All the ore in the Sunwell mine gushed out, flooding the surrounding area.

"Arods has come to remind you, great master."

"You absolutely cannot leave here today!"

"It's about to erupt—!"

The entire city of Tingen will be utterly destroyed today!
(End of this chapter)