Chapter 56: Sti-A dou: Is that you, Prime Minister Father?

Backlund, the Masked Fool Tavern.

Recently, two special guests had arrived at the tavern: a Wraith young lady and a Zombie gentleman.

Under the amused gaze of the bartender, Masked Amon, they entered the establishment and rented a room for a long-term stay.

According to them, they had been rescued by a certain gentleman while being hunted down, and upon hearing that this place belonged to him, they intended to stay here to lie low for a while.

They felt that Mr. Amon, the bartender, was a very good person—civilized, courteous, and modest. Truly quite a fine gentleman.

More than two weeks passed, during which nothing particularly important occurred.

Every Tuesday night, Klein entered the Simulated Universe in his dreams, a total of three times. He witnessed many bizarre occurrences. He had seen a down-and-out bounty hunter and a merchant trying to pitch products to him. He also learned that the entity that had opposed him back then was called an Antimatter Legion - Ravager.

This gave him a vastly different perspective on this universe and provided him with a certain understanding of the so-called Paths and Aeons.

Even once, he was dropped onto a planet full of bugs. Bugs larger than humans filled the sky and the ground, overwhelming everything.

Yet, the very next second after entering, he was kicked out. The reason given was allegedly that his level was too low.

He agreed with this assessment. The dense swarms of bugs made him feel that one had to become at least a demigod to even attempt a challenge.

During these three simulation runs, he encountered no more Ravagers, nor did he meet that formidable ancient-style martial arts heroine. The final stage of each run had changed to fighting ordinary people wearing armor, reportedly called something like "Interastral Peace Corporation Lowest-Ranking Employee (50%)."

Klein had no idea what that fifty percent meant, but he felt they were much easier to fight than the entity called a Ravager he had faced before. They possessed no special abilities, and their reaction time was mediocre. After failing a dozen or so times, he could always manage to beat them.

Whether because the opponent's difficulty had been lowered, he no longer obtained any Curios. Instead, every time he finished a battle, his existing Curios were enhanced.

Wearing these Curios now gave him an increasing sense of security, which brought him great relief.

During this period, the Tarot Club convened three times. Neither Justice nor Hanged Man had new diary entries. The Demon provided diary entries consistently every single time, but they were basically just Roselle's trashy erotic books. The occasional one or two pages from the original Masked Fool's diary were nothing more than meaningless daily trivialities.

Those two weeks and more had passed quite uneventfully. The most interesting part was probably when Klein returned to the security company and was startled to see Stelle playing on her phone while linked up with Roxanne. Lately, there were truly a bit too many things that shocked him.

***

Audrey made the acquaintance of the two Beyonders known as Brainless and Unhappy, and she sneaked into their Beyonder circle to observe them covertly.

As for Alger, he had followed his childhood sweetheart, Qilingos, to the mainland, intending to find an opportunity to finish him off to cover up certain matters. Klein did not know what those matters were. However, Selyris had once asked Alger at a meeting if it was he who had sold that hook-selling dark history to Qilingos.

Trash Cake would occasionally go to find Susie to play, and their relationship grew better and better, but whenever Susie wanted to give Trash Cake a new name, she was rejected. Trash Cake liked its own name very much.

……

Today, Selyris suddenly received a message—a message from another universe.

This made him break out in a cold sweat. It wasn't because he had received a message; after all, he had even summoned Hysperia over; he didn't believe that Aeons like Aha and Fuli hadn't followed.

Since Aha had come over, Selyris wouldn't even be surprised if he connected to the network of another planet, let alone the network of another world.

What made him slightly uneasy was the content of the message. It was a sentence and a video.

[Snake Ruan (Note): "Shall I assist you?"]

[Snake Ruan (Note): A video (30 seconds), click to view.]

Selyris suddenly felt a chill running down his back. Damn it, who is plotting against me?

Selyris guessed who was harming him in just one second.

"Aha, you son of a *banana*, I'll *banana* your *banana*."

It was said that the four Geniuses who created the Simulated Universe had already manufactured a device capable of coming to this side. Selyris refused to believe that cross-world devices could be successfully built without some unnamed Aeon secretly helping behind the scenes.

However, due to limited resources, they planned to let Screwllum, who was an inorganic lifeform, come over to scout the path. After all, he had many bodies.

Actually, Herta's puppet could have been sent instead, but they unanimously agreed that Screwllum's personality was indeed more suitable for interacting with people.

Screwllum's arrival would undoubtedly signify yet another massive leap forward in machinery.

***

[Damn it, it's already impossible to tell whether Cristiano is a Perfectionist or the Wheel of Fortune.]

……

In the suburbs of Backlund, a portal full of mechanical aesthetic quietly appeared.

A gentleman wearing a tailcoat stepped out from the gateway. His attire was not particularly flamboyant, but worn on him, it always carried an indescribable noble aura.

Surprisingly, the gentleman beneath the tailcoat was actually a robot. Of course, here he needed to be called an inorganic lifeform; after all, on Planet Screwllum, calling an inorganic lifeform a robot was considered quite disrespectful.

The very moment the gentleman stepped out of the portal, a dozen burly men immediately leaped out from the bushes and surrounded him tightly.

Leading them was a poker-faced young man, and trailing slightly behind him was a middle-aged man, beneath whose white bishop's robes rippled unmistakable muscles.

The young man bowed deeply to the gentleman: "Welcome to your arrival, Your Excellency."

Amidst the fanatical gazes of the surrounding clergy, the gentleman's elegant, gentle, and calm words echoed in the ears of everyone present. A strange object known as a Synesthesia Beacon translated the meaning of his words for each person.

"Hypothesis: thought always precedes language, yet no words can define this joy."

The gentleman placed one hand over his chest and bowed slightly in return to the young man.

"My name is Screwllum, pleased to meet you, friends from another universe."

PS: Did everyone watch the preview? Hahaha. Great, it's Firefly, we're doomed.

Ah, the monthly votes, the monthly votes!