Otter da Rhodes's Cipher / An A3 Who Can't Act Isn't a Good Lord

"Yet, the Prophet survived time and time again."

"He returned time and time again, died and came back to life time and time again, descended again and again... his ravings and unfounded speculations provoked the strongest reactions from the townspeople."

"..." Kal'tsit raised her sleeve.

Amiya's eyes were wider and rounder than ever before.

Chapter 197 The Code of Oute da Rhodes

"Doctor?" Amiya tugged at Kal'tsit's sleeve.

"I'm just a little... sad." Kal'tsit's slightly red and swollen eyes looked at Oute's retreating figure.

In Oute's fragmented memories and mind, the connection between the "The Ancestor" and the "pre-civilization" is undoubtedly extremely powerful. Based on this, Oute's former codename was "Prophet".

This whole set of information was practically laid out before her, yet she just couldn't see through it before Oute unconsciously revealed the truth.

The imagery of "the secret of the old house" had been used during the previous exploration of the Cove, but Kal'tsit hadn't explored the term in depth then. Now it seems that this phrase... is probably directly related to the end of the previous civilization.

The old house...

Orion Arm, middle section, the third planet from the Solar System in our solar system.

If we're talking about "old houses," this is definitely the place.

What secret does it hold?

Oute... why were the warnings of the "prophet" ignored by the previous civilization?

Kal'tsit composed herself.

Imprisonment, drowning, stabbing in the back... could these be abstracted as the prophet suffering unjust treatment?

But this doesn't match what I know... The Prophet oversaw a large number of projects in the final moments of the previous civilization, and although he and they didn't often talk about their lives in the past, there was no indication of being targeted in those few words they uttered.

The cat gradually calmed down: perhaps these images represent Oute's dissatisfaction with the previous civilization's long-term disregard for his warnings.

Or perhaps, being "imprisoned in a death row and submerged in deep water" signifies the severing of social channels, while "stabbing him in the back" suggests he suffered betrayal from those close to him?

Wait a minute, are these fields referring to projects that Oute once managed?

No... not all projects have deviated from this...

Kal'tsit shook her head.

Our current focus and energy should be on protecting Doc Otter and getting him safely out of the dungeon!

"Doc Otter, there's no need for you to be standing so close to the front," Kal'tsit cautioned. "Even with Specter in front of you, your body is still very vulnerable."

Specter had already raised his torch, illuminating the gloom. In the distance, beneath the towering spire of the church, a group of enemies loomed in the shadows.

When Kal'tsit issued the warning, the enemy group also spotted Oute and his party.

Behind the two bloodthirsty cultists stood a monk wearing Iron Crown and a madman. They were startled at first, but before they could make any move, Saw charged into the enemy ranks with Specter.

"Come on! More! More!"

The nun's black headscarf restrained her long, silver hair, yet it seemed to replace it as well. With the Abyssal Hunters and his weapon's graceful dance, the black headscarf and black nun's habit swirled in a beautiful circle. And at the center of this bloody yet magnificent circle was Laurentina's fiery body.

A severed arm flew past Oute's ear, but he rolled up the wide sleeves of his uniform to stop it.

The severed arm, half weapon and half torture instrument, transformed into an amorphous mass of metallic "gel" in Oute's hands, which then slowly solidified and piled up into a strangely curved dagger.

As the arm spikes deformed, Oute strolled forward leisurely.

And just as he reached the dying madman, the dagger had taken shape.

The ragged madman suddenly sat up, ignoring Mon3ter who was eyeing Oute menacingly beside him, and reached out to grab Oute's arm.

Oute let him grasp his dagger and plunge it into his chest.

The madman, as if in a final burst of lucidity, rambled on incoherently.

Kal'tsit heard it clearly.

"Ah! It's you!"

"You're right!"

"You're right!"

He then burst into tears, crying, "Of course you're right!"

We were all wrong!

"You're absolutely right!"

"But why are you right!"

"You!"

Even in the moments before crossing the threshold of death, his cries remained piercing, his chest, like a broken bellows, straining to provide air for his final confession.

After he remained motionless, Oute pulled out the dagger, wiped the remaining blood off the blade with the clothing under his elbow, and then hung the dagger on his waist.

"..." Kal'tsit's expression was complicated. "You just... he..."

Increase the pressure by twenty!

Amiya seemed to realize something as well, and she looked at the madman with pity.

After glancing around and confirming that we were still within a safe range, Oute said, "I've just realized exactly where this place is and what I'm capable of."

But I wasn't asking about the dagger.

The madman's corpse lay to one side, subtly contrasting with the scattered, ubiquitous cultists and acolytes.

"Just as we left Hamlet."

"Black Snake's 'escape' actually helped me define the boundaries of this world."

"Since we are heading to the dungeon, then we will arrive at the dungeon."

"Since I am using the Fate Reconstruction, then I am the 'Mystic Scholar'."

"Since I am a scholar of the occult, then I should have a dagger."

And a skull with a candle.

Oute waited quietly for Kal'tsit and Mon3ter to clean up the mess—after all, the time since leaving the dungeon would be exactly one week since their last visit to the town.

Kal'tsit stood up and recorded the preliminary test results in her notebook.

Humans, just like last time.

She replied, "You're trying to manipulate the laws of this world."

"Confusing key concepts might make things easier for you, but..." Kal'tsit suddenly realized, "But you really can't add anyone to the team..."

"Not exactly," Oute replied. "Just this once."

It turns out that this time, Oute didn't join the group as a "player," but rather participated in the dungeon adventure as a "mystical scholar."

"Why did you do this?!" Kal'tsit exclaimed, her voice trembling with emotion. "I see no benefit in putting yourself in such danger!"

Kal'tsit is always particularly prone to getting angry when faced with Oute's reckless actions that disregard her own safety.

Oute picked up the acolyte's head from the ground and blew on it from a distance.

The skin and flesh attached to the surface of the skull fell off like sand, revealing a beautiful skull.

A delicate hand tilted the candle, and drops of scalding wax gathered on the top of her head.

"It is the mystic who uses Fate Reconstruction, but the mystic can do more than just Fate Reconstruction."

Oute straightened the skull, while Specter placed the candle he had taken from the church on it.

"And coincidentally, we recently killed the Shambler, so it's quite fitting."

Excess wax dripped along the curve of the skull into the eye socket, then left a long mark on the facial bone.

Oute turned the skull around with satisfaction, so that it faced him.

A flash of red light appeared and disappeared in his eyes.

Mystic, but no complete mystic.

You're completely disrespecting the crawler!

Chapter 198 An Indian who can't be a good actor isn't a good lord

Kal'tsit glanced discreetly at Amiya: Is he mentally sound right now?

Amiya gave an answer that left Kal'tsit completely baffled, "It's perfectly normal."

As the torches drew closer, the outline of the church became increasingly clear. And the "noisy the Prophet" was entrenched inside the church's main hall.

The terrain here is relatively open, so if you rush into the hall to fight the Prophet, monsters from other rooms might accidentally wander into the battlefield.

It would be best to clean up the surrounding area first.

After considering his options, Oute turned and called out to the two girls who had fallen behind. "Kal'tsit, Amiya."

"Doc Otter! I'm here!"

"Um."

Kal'tsit was still somewhat distracted.

Oute himself remains in Hamlet, but while the heroes infiltrate the dungeons, a week will pass in the Hamlet Town by the time the heroes return.

For Oute, who remained in the town, the moment the heroes ended their adventure was also the "moment" in which Hamlet spent a week.

Recently, in order to speed up the project, Oute has been sending the heroes to conquer dungeons, while he himself is buried in blueprints, working seven to twelve hours a day in hellish overtime with the Engineering Department staff—which is probably one of the reasons why the Engineering Department has not complained so far.

The second reason is the huge subsidies that would make most people shout, "I am willing to dedicate the rest of my life to this leader, until death do us part."

The third reason is that Oute granted them "vacations," allowing them to rest for one day in reality for every "night" they worked in Hamlet. This "special treatment" aroused envy, jealousy, and resentment among many uninformed bystanders.

It can only be said that when this kind of "good fortune" falls upon them, they will know whether or not they should be envious...