Preparation: Vortex, Attraction, Preparation (Please Keep Reading!)

"Snail effigy?" Xia Lun asked.

Hearing Xia Lun's question, the information broker White Line nodded. He slapped one of the packages onto the table. "That's right. What I'm selling is called a snail effigy—this thing might be a little disgusting. I suggest you prepare yourself."

As he spoke, he hooked a finger beneath the string binding the package. With a nimble flick of his index finger, he unwrapped it as though untying a rice dumpling.

Xia Lun curiously leaned over to inspect the package. Before he could see what was inside, however, wave after wave of indescribably foul stench surged into his nostrils.

The smell was so horrifying that it felt as if someone had punched him squarely in the nose, leaving it instantly sore and swollen.

He forcefully suppressed his discomfort and hurriedly glanced inside.

Within the brown kraft paper package lay a flesh-colored mass of soft material, topped by a pale, spiral-shaped shell.

"Is this some kind of mutated snail?" Xia Lun looked up at White Line and asked quietly.

White Line chuckled and shook his head. "Of course it isn't a snail. Look more carefully."

Xia Lun narrowed his eyes and examined it closely. A moment later, he frowned slightly.

That soft substance was not truly a mass at all. It was merely a single threadlike strip of flesh twisted and piled into a spiral—and its texture looked somewhat like human skin.

The next instant, cobalt-blue streams of information emerged from the strange object.

[Item Name: Snail Effigy]

[Item Type: Paradox Item]

[Item Description: In one world's legends of the apocalypse, everything in existence would collapse back into a single point. Thus, spirals and rings were regarded as symbols of ill omen. Yet when the end truly drew near, those who had isolated themselves from all spiral patterns discovered in terror that snail-like spiral markings had instead appeared upon their backs.

In the end, their flesh was stretched into strips by the spiral markings, twisting and rotating until their remains became things resembling snails. Perhaps this was because their refusal to face the spiral of the end had instead aligned with a snail's instinct to flee.]

[Item Effect: By burning a "Snail Effigy," you may designate a category of items with a specific purpose, greatly increasing the attraction between yourself and that category. This will make it easier for you to enter scenarios where such items appear. The more "Snail Effigies" you burn, the stronger the attraction, with a maximum of four.]

"Can you tell what this is now?" White Line's faintly amused voice suddenly came from across the table.

Without looking up, Xia Lun said, "It was made from a human corpse."

"As expected of someone with mastery-level marksmanship. Your perception is impressive." White Line picked up his coffee, apparently unsurprised that Xia Lun had figured it out. He took a light sip. "You started playing this game to treat your lung disease, right?"

Without waiting for Xia Lun's response, he continued, "Now, your opportunity has come. You only need to light these snail effigies and, as you do, recite your wish to cure your lung disease three times in succession. Then, in your next scenario, you'll have a chance of encountering something that can cure it.

"This item can only be used after one has become a player. In other words, the user must have cleared at least one scenario. That's why I didn't bring the snail effigies last time."

Xia Lun nodded to show that he understood. "Are there any restrictions or rules for this 'wish'?"

"Of course." White Line chuckled. "First, the 'wish' must be reasonable. At the very least, it cannot contain a formal logical contradiction. For example, if you wished for something strange like 'new blood of the dead,' 'an earthworm's eyeball,' or 'black white snow,' then such a wish would definitely be difficult to fulfill.

"Second, the easier the 'wish' is to fulfill, the more likely related items are to appear in the next scenario. For example, the wish 'to eat until full' is clearly much easier to fulfill than the wish 'to become immortal.'"

"So the wording of the wish is important?" Xia Lun asked.

"Yes." White Line answered succinctly. "There are many paths to the same goal. Only by choosing the right path can you maximize the odds of success. For instance, between wishing 'to eat until full' and wishing 'to fill up on bread,' the former clearly has a higher chance of succeeding.

"Likewise, between wishing 'to cure lung disease' and wishing 'to slow the progression of lung disease,' the latter has a greater chance of success.

"Finally, there is one more rule. The more snail effigies you burn, the greater the chance of success. Burning four snail effigies can absolutely guarantee that you'll find a way to cure your lung disease in the next scenario. However, the more you burn, the more difficult the scenario will become accordingly. You'll have to weigh the balance yourself."

Xia Lun lightly tapped the table with his knuckles before asking, "What's the price?"

The information broker did not answer immediately. He picked up the stolen coffee and took a delicate sip as if tasting fine tea, then leisurely named a price that hovered right near Xia Lun's bottom line.

—The offer was extremely high. If he accepted it, Xia Lun would not be able to rely on his money to buy game items for quite some time.

"I can't scrape together that much money anytime soon." Xia Lun shook his head and tried to bargain. "Do you accept collateral?"

"No." White Line refused flatly. "Your remaining assets are either poorly managed or involve people and matters that are too complicated, so I won't take them. Same rules as always—cash only."

Xia Lun fell silent for a moment, quickly calculating in his mind. Shortly afterward, he made his decision.

He raised his head and looked into White Line's eyes behind the black mask. "Do you need manifestation rights for the Evil Flesh Codex?"

"Of course. Given our friendship over the years, I can even give you a discount." White Line's cold, impersonal tone suddenly softened, but halfway through his sentence, he froze. "Huh? What did you just say?!"

"Do you need manifestation rights for the Evil Flesh Codex?" Xia Lun repeated expressionlessly.

"Huh?!" White Line was so shocked that he was momentarily speechless. Even his mechanical synthesized voice emitted a brief crackle of static.

—He had originally intended to lecture Xia Lun as an experienced player, warning him not to bite off more than he could chew by scheming for high-tier items such as the Evil Flesh Codex. But when he thought of Xia Lun's absurd mastery-level marksmanship, he wisely shut his mouth.

White Line's hand trembled slightly as he held his coffee cup. He took a deep breath and barely steadied himself.

—Perhaps Xia Lun was not referring to the Evil Flesh Codex that could grant occult specialties and occult skills, but something else?

"To exchange manifestation rights, you need to upgrade your information panel first." He chose his words carefully and spoke cautiously. Then he took another sip of coffee, trying to steady himself. "The Memory Points required to upgrade the information panel are no small amount..."

"I already upgraded it." As Xia Lun spoke, he raised his hand. The next moment, lines of cobalt-blue information emerged from it.

[Memory Manifestation Rights—Prayerbook of the Drowned]

[Prayerbook of the Drowned: An evil tome written in corpse blood upon paper made from wax refined from the fat of drowned people. To ordinary people, it is a blank book, but to those resurrected from death and to madmen, it is filled with blasphemous words. Between those crooked letters are recorded grotesque and insane occult arts.]

[Detailed Classification: Evil Flesh Codex]

[Memory Points Required: 10,000 Points]

[Note: Manifestation rights holder: "Xia Lun"]

White Line's pupils abruptly contracted behind his mask. He shot to his feet, knocking over the chair beneath him with the force of the movement. He cried out, "You really have manifestation rights for the Evil Flesh Codex?!"

At that moment, his psychological invisibility, which he had been maintaining all along, dissipated because of his intense emotional fluctuations.

Bang! The chair crashed to the floor, and everyone in the café instinctively looked over.

A moment later, the waitress at the counter let out a piercing scream. "Who are you people?!"

White Line blankly turned his head. It took him a moment to realize that his psychological invisibility had vanished due to his emotional turmoil.

An overwhelming sense of embarrassment surged through him like boiling lava. He hurriedly snapped his fingers and reactivated Psychological Invisibility.

With that crisp snap, everyone in the café seemed to have been hypnotized. They withdrew their curious gazes and returned to what they had been doing as though nothing had happened.

"That skill of yours is really powerful," Xia Lun praised from across the table.

White Line righted his chair and sat back down. Looking at Xia Lun's faintly amused expression, he felt the embarrassment in his heart burn even hotter.

—He had actually been lecturing Xia Lun as an experienced player, telling him not to bite off more than he could chew!

Though he wore a mask, White Line still felt his face burning.

"I'll trade you the purchase rights for this Evil Flesh Codex. Is that enough?" Xia Lun tapped the table and brought the conversation back on track.

White Line took a deep breath. "What exactly did you do in that scenario? How did you get manifestation rights for something like this?!"

Xia Lun replied calmly, "Nothing much. First, I used the terrain to badly injure the Abyssal Hand. Then I beat up the pirates hostile to the Abyssal Hand, used a few tricks to gain control of the pirate group, and finally joined forces with them to kill the Abyssal Hand. That's all."

"Huh?" White Line blinked blankly. The next moment, he repeated in disbelief, "You killed the Abyssal Hand?!"

Xia Lun's words were so outrageous that White Line instinctively wanted to refute them. But before the words could leave his mouth, this veteran player recalled how he had just been proven wrong...

Perhaps, maybe, possibly, Xia Lun really had killed the Abyssal Hand?

"More accurately, I didn't solo the Abyssal Hand. The pirates and I took it down together." Xia Lun calmly corrected him. "That thing was intelligent and had many supernatural abilities. It was extremely difficult to deal with."

From a veteran player's perspective, Xia Lun's account was absurd to the extreme. By common sense, even experienced Investigators with more than a dozen scenarios under their belts would struggle to fight back against the Abyssal Hand. Yet at this moment, White Line somehow felt that Xia Lun was not lying...

"..." White Line fell completely silent. For an instant, he even felt a trace of alienated detachment. Xia Lun's casual words were like a sledgehammer crashing down, shaking the very worldview of the game that White Line had built over more than twenty years.

Could someone really kill a terrifying evil entity on the level of the Abyssal Hand in their very first scenario?

At that moment, White Line felt as though his brain were buzzing. He subconsciously looked up at Xia Lun across from him.

"So, do you accept this offer?" Xia Lun asked with a smile. "Manifestation rights for the Evil Flesh Codex in exchange for your four snail effigies."

"You'd be taking a loss this way." White Line took another deep breath and barely adjusted his mindset. "Besides the four snail effigies, I'll give you some cash to make up the difference. I don't have any suitable game items to offer right now."

"No need for cash." Xia Lun transferred the manifestation rights while putting the four snail effigies into his bag. He raised a hand to stop him. "Consider the remaining difference your commission."

"Commission?" White Line did not react at once. "What commission?"

"I want to hire you to investigate a secret organization." Xia Lun turned his head and glanced at the canal outside the window. Amid the churning, murky white foam, several bruised corpses drifted in and out of sight.

After watching for a while and confirming that none of the corpses were acquaintances, Xia Lun withdrew his gaze.

White Line followed Xia Lun's gaze toward the canal outside, then nodded. "No problem. Who do you want investigated?"

"The Seer Club."

"The Seer Club?" White Line repeated, disbelief in his voice. "Isn't that an organization invented by a bunch of conspiracy theory enthusiasts? Xia Lun, you and I both know that a small secret conspiracy group could never push through political reform in the Grand Alliance—you don't actually believe that nonsense, do you?"

Xia Lun did not answer his question. Instead, he directly took several photographs bearing the Seer Club's emblem from his bag. "I found the Seer Club's emblem in an abandoned factory near where I drowned."

"Could it be a coincidence?" White Line asked.

"I'm afraid not." Xia Lun shook his head. "Use your information panel to examine this emblem."

White Line lowered his head. A moment later, he picked up his coffee and took a large gulp as if trying to calm himself. "This emblem is actually an occult ritual? The conspiracy theory... was real?"

Xia Lun picked up a croissant and took a bite. Its soft wheaty fragrance was refreshing. "There's a strong chance they caused my illness. And they aren't just plotting against me—they're also plotting against Bird from Emerald Pharmaceuticals. By that logic, they must be targeting quite a few people. I think this is a breakthrough for the investigation."

White Line pondered for a moment before setting down the photographs. "Xia Lun, if that's true, then your illness probably can't be removed through ordinary treatment. With my limited knowledge, you may have been afflicted by an occult curse."

"Do you have any game items that can remove curses?"

White Line shook his head cleanly and decisively. "Bad news: I don't. Good news: items that remove curses can definitely be found in the next scenario by burning snail effigies too—as long as you remember to come up with the right prayer when making your wish."

"All right." Xia Lun nodded, then stood up and picked up the leather bag from the table. "Then I have no more questions. I'll leave the investigation into the Seer Club to you."

Ding-a-ling.

Xia Lun pushed open the door and left the café.

White Line sat in his chair in a daze for quite some time. After a while, he suddenly gave a bitter smile.

"I never thought someone could really clear a scenario through combat alone."