Interlude Between Life and Death

Dear Mr. Heron Campbell:

The Bokeya Wine you ordered had been replaced with poisoned wine, and the intended target was Grand Duke of Bavaria.

If you believed my warning, please come personally to the wine cellar of the Cairns Hotel.

—Night Watch - Rhine

That was right.

Although Su Wen had never heard of the Night Watch organization, he could obtain related clues through the Time Travel Game.

The Night Watch was an order-keeping organization that had emerged among the extraordinary to deal with disasters.

Moreover, Campbell himself had already awakened an Extraordinary Trait.

So.

After learning of Zero-Sum Game's plan.

For Su Wen, whose moral bottom line was flexible, the best choice was to find another organization to pit against those antisocial lunatics.

As long as it had nothing to do with him.

He sat before the computer.

Looking at the plot prompt provided by the game:

Your warning made Mr. Heron Campbell suspicious, but also more cautious.

He decided to meet you, though he had secretly summoned the Security Force he had hired from the Sua'gair Duchy.

What you did next would be key to whether you could enter the Transcendence Act as a member of the order-keeping faction.

You chose:

1. Enthusiastically approach the young nobleman to discuss classical poetry, build rapport, and establish a personal friendship.

2. Explain the current situation from his perspective and lay out the subsequent effects of the Transcendence Act.

3. Pretend to be mysterious and leave behind a few cryptic remarks, preparing to play the Riddler after joining Gotham City.

This third choice.

Left Su Wen utterly speechless.

Whenever he played plot-driven games, what annoyed him most was when certain characters, like some mysterious old man, left him with a few cryptic hints.

Then, before he could ask any questions, the old man would slump over and die.

Only after clearing the game would he discover.

That those incomprehensible words were merely an incomplete background introduction, completely unrelated to the game itself.

Could the Riddler just get out of Gotham already?

Maintaining a serious and studious attitude, Su Wen decided to try option one first.

After Mr. Heron Campbell arrived at the wine cellar.

You seriously discussed Percy Bysshe Shelley, the most gifted lyric poet in the history of English literature.

You also deeply analyzed an excerpt from To Wordsworth:

"O poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know / That things depart which never may return."

Ten minutes later, the two of you were chatting merrily.

A waiter from the Cairns Hotel came to the hotel and, unable to find the missing Master Samuel, chose to call the police.

As the most conspicuous stranger in the banquet hall, you were shot dead on the spot.

"I got shot dead just like that?"

Su Wen watched the cutscene death caused by the game's trash automatic simulation function.

He finally understood why he had been chosen as the Chief Player.

The AI was just too lousy.

And besides.

Brother Heron, we were getting along so well. Couldn't you save me for Shelley's sake?

What a plastic friendship.

Far too plastic.

Speechless, he still decided to follow the original plan and complete option two.

After Mr. Heron Campbell arrived at the wine cellar.

You told him the intelligence you knew.

And your identity as a Night Watch member was not questioned.

"Mr. Rhine, are you saying that someone wanted to use the precious wine I was presenting to poison Grand Duke of Bavaria?"

"That's right. You don't have to believe what I say."

Rhine was the name Su Wen called himself.

"But this 'fake Master Samuel' lying on the ground is probably the clearest proof."

Heron was half-convinced.

Then, the last trace of his doubt was dispelled by his men's examination of that bottle of wine.

"According to the chemical analysis, there is indeed something wrong with this bottle of wine. Trace amounts of Mutated Lily of the Valley Venom were detected in it. It is highly poisonous."

"We must notify Duke Reinhardt immediately."

After Su Wen explained the current situation, Heron realized that this was a crisis, but also an opportunity.

And Su Wen.

Had been waiting for him to say exactly that.

As a fake Night Watch member.

He likewise needed a more powerful witness.

A Duke Heir.

Heron Campbell, who needed to clear his name after becoming embroiled in an assassination attempt.

Because your interests aligned, he did not care, nor did he have time to verify whether you were a genuine member of the Night Watch.

You successfully persuaded the nobleman Heron Campbell (heir to the duchy).

The situation is urgent. Proceed immediately to the main banquet hall to protect Joseph Reinhardt and Sophia Reinhardt.

At that very moment.

An ordinary assassin who had originally been concealed within the banquet hall due to Cognitive Correction was discovered acting strangely by the venue guards after Zero-Sum Game's psionic extraordinary died.

"The disguiser is dead. Begin the assassination operation immediately."

Hearing the prompt through their earpieces.

The remaining assassins hidden in the venue understood that this was their last chance.

They emerged from concealed corners. The already exposed assassin first shot at the crystal chandelier illuminating the banquet hall, while the others prepared amid the chaos to assassinate Duke Reinhardt.

This assassination team was highly professional and coordinated.

So Su Wen died more than a dozen times in succession.

Sixteenth reload.

Reload point: ten seconds before entering the banquet hall.

While completing the game objective of protecting Duke Reinhardt, he could only attempt to clear it by constantly recording where the enemies had appeared in the previous run.

The instant the enormous glass chandelier crashed down.

Su Wen calmly leaned against cover and carried out the planned elimination sequence.

First was the assassin at table three, near the corner, disguised as an interpreter.

Appraisal: Dark Web Assassin, hired by Zero-Sum Game for a hefty bounty.

Bang!

One shot, one kill.

Next was an assassin disguised as a cleaner, pretending to flee toward the emergency exit.

Su Wen rolled and kicked a nearby chair away. Along a perfect straight trajectory, the chair slammed into the assassin and threw him off balance. Then, a silenced Glock round struck him precisely between the brows.

Finally, there were two assassins dressed as guards, preparing to ambush Duke Reinhardt at close range.

He charged forward.

Using a body with more than twice the normal person's health, he blocked the fatal dagger strike aimed at the veteran duke.

Then he fired twice in rapid succession, finishing them off despite his injuries.

In the banquet hall alone, he eliminated four of the deadliest assassins by himself.

And Heron, the heir to the duchy, was no coward either.

The Extraordinary Characteristics of Leadership granted him powerful battlefield awareness and command ability.

With only a silver dinner knife grabbed at random, Heron Campbell also engaged in close combat and killed an assassin who had blended into the crowd.

Although they did not find Zero-Sum Game's third extraordinary.

Su Wen looked at the hereditary duke of Northern Europa standing close by, blood staining his formal attire yet still imposing and composed.

He understood that this game was more than halfway complete.