Execution

Under the cover of night in Bekeland, the brightly lit city offered no sense of tranquility. Amidst the bustling nightlife, no one noticed that a murder was taking place inside a villa.

As the gun, fitted with a makeshift silencer, fired, the man in expensive clothes fell to the ground. Without hesitation, the shooter pulled out a pre-prepared card from his pocket and threw it at the deceased before quickly searching the room.

"Damn it, living in such a nice house and not keeping any money at home?" After a while, the murderer stuffed the relatively valuable watch, ring, and other items into his pocket and quickly left the crime scene.

He didn't drive, but took off the Skull Mask from his face and quickly walked towards the nearby subway station. Although it was a bit late, Bekeland's nightlife had begun to recover after the murderers were caught a few months ago, and with the influx of foreigners from the Olympics, walking on the street at this time wouldn't seem out of place at all.

Just as he was walking through a park, a chilling bell suddenly rang out from nowhere.

"[Victoria's profanity], playing this kind of bell in the park, are you sick?" The startled killer swore and tried to leave quickly, but just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a shadow.

That is...

A pale, Skull Mask!

Just like the one he wore before!

"Biu--"

The killer pulled out a pistol from his bag and pulled the trigger almost without hesitation, but even after he emptied the magazine, he couldn't cause any damage to the figure less than five meters away from him.

"Let me tell you three good things."

The figure wearing Skull Mask, an expensive suit, and a pair of gold Lapel Pin on the collar slowly approached. The extremely imposing, hoarse voice made the murderer, who had just committed a murder, tremble uncontrollably.

"First, true Libra members never use firearms."

As soon as he finished speaking, the figure took another step closer. The killer tried to back away, but found that his legs were so weak that he couldn't even move an inch.

"Secondly, true Libra members do not take any valuables with them."

With another sentence uttered, the figure, like a demon crawling out of hell, was already in front of him. The killer collapsed to the ground with a thud, but still struggled to move his body, trying to escape.

But the man was already standing before him, head bowed, two eerie lights seemingly flickering within his Skull Mask—

"Third, Libra does not reject imitators; as long as justice is upheld in the name of Libra, one can be considered a member of Libra."

These words seemed to give the murderer a glimmer of hope. Taking advantage of the man's brief pause, he immediately shouted:

"That man is a bastard. He's rich but heartless, he takes advantage of female employees in the company, and he even drove two employees to jump off a building. He's not a good person. I'm just defending justice..."

"Don't misunderstand." The man wearing the Skull Mask interrupted him, grabbing him by the neck with one hand and lifting him up.

"What I mean by this is not that I want you to join Libra, but that I want to tell you that when you are considered a member of Libra but violate Libra's rules, it means you are already on the execution list."

A chilling voice came from beneath the Skull Mask, but the killer was no longer able to make a sound.

The man casually tossed the body to the ground and took out a card from his pocket. However, unlike ordinary Scales Card, the back of this card did not bear the classic motto, but rather the Ten Covenants, which were already known to everyone.

The following day, inside the villa where the murder occurred, a group of police officers were cleaning up the crime scene, while outside, a group of people in police uniforms were talking quietly.

"Mr. R, another copycat." The young man frowned as he flipped through the case file he had just received from the police. With the attention brought by the Olympics, the Libra organization's popularity was growing, which also led to the emergence of copycats.

This caused a lot of trouble for MI9's work.

"Looks like another wasted trip." The middle-aged man, referred to as Mr. R, shook his head and was about to leave when he heard a series of hurried footsteps. His colleague, who had just gone to answer the phone, was now walking quickly towards him.

Based on his experience, Mr. R immediately realized that this incident might not be a simple imitation.

As soon as he gave a look, his returning companion immediately spoke up:

"Mr. R, a body has been found in a park about 200 meters from the Qiaowude District 3 subway station. Based on the valuables and weapons found on the body, as well as the physical characteristics of the victim, it can be basically determined that this is the murderer in this case."

"Just tell the Xivilas Field about this," Mr. R said somewhat displeased. His subordinate immediately added:

"However, we found a Libra card on this person, but it wasn't the common kind; the back of it had the Ten Covenants written on it."

"The Ten Covenants card... Is this the one that was previously identified as a copycat?" Mr. R had some memory of this card because, unlike other shoddy imitations, a few cards with exquisite workmanship and materials had recently been discovered. If it weren't for the fact that the back didn't have that famous Sherlock Holmes quote, they wouldn't even be able to distinguish the genuine from the fake through technical means.

But now it seems that these cards may not be as simple as they imagined.

"Could it be another rule governing the monstrous ghosts?" Mr. R frowned. It wasn't impossible for more rules to emerge after the ghosts monstrousized, but they should all be traceable...

"Is there any relevant information in that book?" Mr. R thought of the novel that could be considered the source of ghostly anomalies and immediately asked, without doubting that the publishing Newspaper Agency had any problems.

According to their experience, the freaking of ghosts is shaped by the legends they create, but the Scales Organization is different. Its original prototype should be the "demon" ghost that distributes coins everywhere. It obviously wanted to debut with legends about trading demons, but the popularity of that novel forcibly distorted this ghost, which led to the birth of "Libra".

This almost completely overturns the original legend of that ghost, so it can only be a coincidence.

However, this coincidence is not without its advantages, because unlike ghosts that actively create legends and become bizarre, these creatures that are twisted and bizarre due to accidents often have more uncontrollable weaknesses.

Therefore, that novel could even serve as a strategy guide for winning over this ghost.

To Mr. R's disappointment, all his subordinates shook their heads, but this was understandable.

If a novel contains any content related to these Ten Covenants Cards, it would not be considered a copycat at all.

Thinking of this, Mr. R immediately took out his phone, and soon Ms. Q's voice came through the phone.

"I remember you went to investigate the 'Libra murder case,' so you're not a copycat?"

"It's definitely a copycat, but there's another discovery." Mr. R shook his head, even though he was speaking into his phone, before continuing:

"Investigate the deceased related to the Ten Covenants card... the one with the Ten Covenants on the back, the one that's very well-made. Also, check if there were any other Imitation Case in the vicinity before his death."

"No problem, give me ten minutes." Ms. Q hung up before she could finish speaking. Ten minutes later, Mr. R's phone rang again...

(I fell asleep while typing, sorry)

PS1: My bad, [Arrow Protection] is an ability from Fate. Although it's called "Arrow Avoidance," all projectiles are categorized under "Arrow." In other words, this ability can dodge anything from spittle and rotten eggs to missiles and ship cannons. As long as it's a long-range attack that requires aiming, you can sense it before it's activated (including its trajectory, impact point, and shrapnel splash) and dodge it. It doesn't mean it can only dodge arrows and not bullets.

The intensity of the Weird Tale in this book is directly linked to public awareness, so it increases with fame. Theoretically, when a Weird Tale reaches the level of fame of Sun Monkey (the Monkey Zhonghua Family), even if Star Destroyer Cannon is aimed at you, you'll be able to sense it before it fires and avoid it.

Of course, whether you can get to a safe enough position before it hits its target is beyond the scope of this ability.

However, generally speaking, with physical strength several times that of an average person, one can evade even a barrage of artillery fire, unless it is a supersaturated attack with a radius exceeding twenty meters.

PS2: Regarding strength, as I said before, [setting] determines the upper limit, and [understanding] determines the lower limit. No matter how strong the setting is, if the [understanding] is insufficient, the effect will be degraded. If the [setting] is not strong, no matter how much [understanding] you have, you will not be able to break through the bottleneck.

Taking the "Mirror of Clarity" among the Seven Blessings, Discern Right from Wrong, as an example, with more "cognition," the "Mirror of Clarity" can even be used to read minds; with insufficient "cognition," it can only barely sense whether someone is lying.

Here, "cognition" can be roughly equated with "recognition" and "fame".