C137

[Sure enough, the scale of our previous adventures was far too low...]

[Compared to this, those really were just temp-job-level adventures...]

In a roofless hall supported by a thousand pillars and spanning thirty thousand square meters, he sat on a leather sofa made from some unknown animal hide, enjoying a mind-relaxing massage from an eight-armed alien.

After half a year, Morty was finally enjoying his first multiversal high-end private club service. He felt Rick should have brought him here much sooner.

I mean, if you'd shown me your financial strength sooner.

Why would I have spent so much time figuring out how to guard against you?

Now it was too late to change anything!

Sigh! This Rick was loaded too. Should he be even more wary of him?

Watching Morty in the distance conduct business with that chestnut-faced alien, he slowly sighed and adjusted his sitting position.

Just as he was about to signal for the eight-armed alien to bring him another drink.

A green light flashed, and a portal appeared less than three meters away from Morty.

[The Rick concentration in this place seems pretty high, huh?]

The next second, a Rick emerged with a Morty.

The former reeked of alcohol and kept belching. There was little color in his eyes, but when he saw Rick's back, a flicker of surprise and killing intent appeared in them.

As for the latter... he talked far too much.

"Jesus, Rick, what kind of place is this? My mom only told us to buy some seasonings, but we ended up here. Let's go back already. This place looks really dangerous."

"Eh? There's a Morty here too? Rick, what's going on? Why are there other Mortys? And there's another Rick over there..."

"Whoa! He looks exactly like you, Rick. Jesus! Is that your twin brother?"

"Jesus!"

Rick, who had been discussing business, heard the voices behind him. When he turned around and saw that Rick and Morty, his expression visibly darkened.

From an observer's perspective, Morty recalled the more than one hundred Ricks and Mortys they had encountered over the past six months.

Even the most outrageous gender-swapped Rick and Morty had never made his Rick look so grim.

Yet these two, who looked nearly identical to the pair of them—even down to their hairstyles.

Had clearly put Rick in a bad mood.

"Rick, what's wrong?" Morty asked.

Rick looked at that Rick, then at Morty. A smile returned to his face as he said in a deliberately casual tone, "Nothing. I just didn't expect to run into a Rick here."

Before Morty could continue.

That Rick pulled an energy pistol from his pocket and aimed it at Rick.

With icy killing intent devoid of anger, he asked a question that sent a chill through everyone present, speaking with the utmost calm.

"If you answer incorrectly, this gun will freeze both your body and soul. After capturing you, I'll use a soul blade to slice your soul apart piece by piece, then place one million soul fragments into one million forms of torture until you're willing to tell the truth."

Morty: "Is this a torture-type Rick..."

Despite being threatened by this unfamiliar Rick, Rick kept smiling without changing expression. "Since you're a Rick and I'm a Rick, do you really think I wouldn't have thought of whatever you thought of?"

"Enough. I'm not one of those idiots in the Citadel of Ricks, so don't think that junk gun of yours can take me out."

Hearing that, Rick narrowed his eyes, his thumb already near the trigger.

Rick stretched his right hand behind him, ready at any moment to counter Rick's attack.

Morty and the other Morty...

They exchanged a look, saw the deep Morty-ness in each other's eyes, and decided to sit down and watch the two old bastards fight.

However, the chestnut-faced alien from the Cosmic Trading Market stepped in and forcibly extinguished the battle that was about to erupt.

"Stop! You Ricks are the greatest troublemakers across countless universes!"

"If even the slightest fight breaks out here today, we'll mobilize everyone to find the Citadel of Ricks and enter into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Galactic Empire!"

"If you don't believe me, then pull the trigger!"

Threatening a Rick should not have worked, but when it involved the Citadel of Ricks, those threats miraculously had an effect.

That Rick, whose cold exterior concealed nothing but killing intent, holstered his gun. After staring at Rick for a while as if looking at a dead man.

He opened a portal and left with his Morty.

This sudden incident came and went quickly. Morty, who had no idea what had just happened, felt certain that Rick knew the other man's identity.

And if he asked now, Rick would probably tell him at least part of the truth.

So he asked.

After asking, he was stunned.

"Rick from Universe 137... R-Rick?"

[Holy shit! The Rick from the main story! The man standing at the very top among all Ricks! The Rickest Rick!]

With a storm raging in his heart, Morty could not calm himself for a long time.

Because when he had first met Rick.

That appearance identical to C-137 Rick's, combined with his alcoholism and his air of dwelling in a nihilistic mental world.

Had made Morty mistakenly believe that his Rick was from Universe 137.

It was only later that Morty had inferred from certain details that his Rick was not from Universe 137, but another Rick.

But if a Rick who was not from Universe 137 could be this Rick-like, then how Rick-like could the true Universe 137 Rick—The Rickest Rick—possibly be?

Today, Morty had seen it for himself.

Ruthless and sparing with words, he pulled out a gun the moment he arrived. But then he suddenly backed down, which seemed a little out of character...

Rick over there, can I ask if you need a Morty? I want to follow the protagonist of the main story!

That chestnut-faced alien was a character who did not even exist in Rick and Morty. It merely handled "minor" transactions like trading universes.

Yet with just a few words, it had made Universe 137 leave.

Something was off!

At that moment, Rick, who had not moved from where he stood, seemed to read Morty's mind and added, "The Citadel of Ricks is very important to Universe 137. It's part of his grand plan." Essence Book Pavilion

"But what matters to us is that he's looking for a murderer—the one who killed his wife."

"I'm also a suspect. He just happened to find me this time."

"Let's get out of here quickly."

Seeing Rick act less and less like a Rick, and hearing the concern in his voice, Morty felt that while his Rick was usually quite a bastard.

At critical moments, he still cared about him.

Before leaving, however, Rick took a flyer printed with mercury from the chestnut-faced alien.

He had originally wanted to give Rick a surprise.

But after Universe 137's interruption, he could only go back and let him pick for himself!

That bastard would never let him off without making him pay for the Galactic Empire's advance into the Cthulhu World.