Theft

The personal quest [Dazzling], highlighted and pinned at the top of the quest list, was clearly the task the True Creator had assigned to Aster.

Steal Sealed Artifact 1-27, kept by the Mandated Punishers of Tingen City, from the Church of River and Sea. To Aster, this task was simply a fantasy.

There were indeed similar gameplay modes in the game—"storm a church and seize the Sealed Artifacts guarded by official Beyonders"—but the lowest challenge level for such entertainment instances was Level 60.

In other words, anyone below demigod level who attempted such a task would just be throwing their life away.

Aster's first reaction upon seeing the quest was, "Can't do it. Goodbye."

He was merely reckless, not stupid. Though he often made assumptions and blundered because of them, he still refused to go die just because someone wanted him to.

But that was precisely the problem.

The True Creator was a Sequence 0 true god. His oracle and corruption had already been thrown right in Aster's face. Should he do it or not?

Of course, Aster did not like this evil god. Or rather, as a player, he did not like any god.

The game's official forum had once opened a thread: "Which deity do you like most? If we were to introduce another deity, who do players think would be the best candidate?"

The highest-rated response had been posted by Aster. With one sentence, he had surpassed every other reply: "I'm the fucking best fit for the job."

Though it had only been a joking response, it undoubtedly represented the feelings of many players: Princes and generals, true gods and Angels—were they born that way?

Aster's answer revealed the players' rebelliousness and distaste for authority. Though he was not as extreme as some players, Aster still kept his distance from the gods of this world—whether righteous gods or evil gods, stay the hell away from me.

But after going in circles, the problem returned to the beginning: Aster had countless reasons to refuse this task and countless ways to drag his feet, but he could not refuse it, because that was a god.

Refusing a work assignment would at worst get him fired. Defying a god's oracle, however, could get him killed.

After figuring out the chain of events that had led to his corruption, Aster finally began to genuinely fear those calculating, indifferent, and cruel gods.

He had no right whatsoever to refuse the task given by Him. His only path to survival was to do as the True Creator demanded.

This was not something he could survive merely by doing his best and leaving the rest to fate. Aster was certain that if he failed to complete the task within three months, death would be the best possible outcome.

That was what gods high above were like. They did not care about the process, only the result. No matter how hard you tried, failure was still failure.

"This is trouble..." Aster twisted his body as he complained while walking toward Kuman City's urban district. "Doesn't the True Creator have the Aurora Order and that Cross Society under him? Why does he need me to do it when he has his own people...?"

From that perspective, Aster also understood very clearly that the True Creator had gone to such lengths just to corrupt an ordinary Beyonder unrelated to the Aurora Order, then make him steal 1-27 from the Church of River and Sea. The implication was obvious: this was something inconvenient for the Aurora Order to handle.

Why would this be something a true god would even hide from his own subordinate cult organization... No, perhaps the Aurora Order had received the same task. Maybe when I went to steal the Sealed Artifact, they could even help draw the fire... Blood from his sleeve smeared against a tree trunk. As he cleaned it off, Aster indulged in a little bitter amusement.

In truth, putting all external factors aside, Aster had indeed wanted to seize 1-27... In the equipment build he had planned for himself, once he reached Level 60, the first piece of equipment he needed to obtain would be 1-27.

1-27 was equipment of the Storm Pathway and could effectively bring out Aster's advantages as a player—his main class in his previous life had been the Storm Pathway, allowing him to maximize this equipment's power. But that was not the main reason.

The most important reason was that among all demigod-level equipment, 1-27 was the only Sealed Artifact Aster had some confidence in controlling!

"You went to see Miss Daly? And she also thinks there's nothing wrong with you?" In the guard room beside Chanis Gate, Leonard held a copy of The Aesthetics of Ladies and asked with undisguised curiosity.

Klein shot him a wary glance. "Miss Daly didn't find anything unusual."

After killing Ray Bieber, Klein had gone with Dunn Smith to Miss Daly's residence. The examination results had been both reassuring and unsettling: she had not found anything wrong at all.

Although Klein had evaded scrutiny at the mental level through his ability to retain his sense of self in dreams and Spirit Channeling, Daly had found no issues with either his spirituality or physical condition.

"Although you insist that something happened to Klein..." Daly had shaken her head as she saw them out. "I truly found no lingering traces of corruption on him. Perhaps you should find a more authoritative Beyonder to examine him."

"So," Klein spread his hands helplessly, "after the captain followed procedure and examined me a few times, he let me continue guarding Chanis Gate."

Both of them knew that Leonard's presence in the guard room on Klein's shift was meant to monitor him and prevent anything from happening to him. Klein actually agreed with that arrangement. First, he was indeed still somewhat worried about the change in his eye color. With Leonard around, at least he would not suddenly die of some strange illness in the guard room without anyone noticing. Second, this was his first time guarding Chanis Gate, and he was somewhat uneasy. Having a living person to talk to beside him helped put him at ease.

Casually pulling a novel from the guard room's bookshelf, Klein noticed that it had a strange title.

"Notre-Dame of Trier"?

It must be one of Roselle's masterpieces... Klein silently mocked. Though the author's name on the book was not Roselle's, Klein was ninety percent certain that this was one of the works copied by that transmigrator senior, Roselle.

Klein opened the novel and, sure enough, saw the name of the bell-ringer Quasimodo.

The plot was largely the same as what he had read in his previous life, but Klein felt that the ending, where two butterflies flew from the grave after Quasimodo and Esmeralda died for love, seemed oddly familiar.

Emperor, why are you mixing Chinese and Western elements too... At this rate, The Butterfly Lovers will start crying... Klein had a hard time suppressing the twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Leonard noticed this and felt rather puzzled.

Klein was reading Notre-Dame of Trier, wasn't he? Wasn't that book a famous tragic novel? Why was he smiling while reading it? Could he be some hidden Lunatic who enjoyed watching tragedies?

Leonard was confused.

About two hours later, Leonard left the guard room and went upstairs to relieve Kenley and the others—this had also been discussed among the Nighthawks, taking turns going down to accompany Klein during his shifts.

Klein glanced at Leonard's back as he disappeared at the stairwell, recalled how this fellow had once rolled down the stairs, and could not help revealing a gloating smile.

Just then, he suddenly heard a series of thumps coming from behind Chanis Gate beside him.

"Th-this isn't some emergency that requires sounding the alarm, is it?" Klein jumped in fright and instinctively slipped his hand into his coat, gripping his revolver.

He wondered whether shouting loudly enough now could call back Leonard, who had just left.

Seeing Chanis Gate begin to tremble slightly as the sounds behind it grew louder and louder, Klein did not hesitate to pull the alarm bell.

At the instant he pulled the alarm, a crack opened in Chanis Gate. A small doll poked its head through the gap, clutching a strange piece of paper.

The doll had a pair of bronze-colored eyes.

"Gone?" By the time Aster had walked all the way from the outskirts to the Red Moon Bar, it was already noon.

He had returned to retrieve Rawlins's luggage and the equipment he had dropped, but after sneaking into the room, Aster discovered that it was completely empty. Take the dagger, for example. Since Rachel had not had time to determine its negative effects through Spirit Channeling, divination, or other methods, she had not taken it away for safety's sake. Instead, she had left it in the room, intending to return for it after killing Lanevus. Yet when Aster returned, the dagger had already been taken by someone else.

Aster was in an extremely bad mood.

He had chased from Tingen City to Kuman City, spent a considerable amount on travel, fought two battles, drained all the spirituality stored in the Witch's Kiss gloves, and even had his mind corrupted by the virtual personality inside the gloves... Most importantly, he had been burdened with the True Creator's corruption and now had to work for Him!

Aster had already lost his shirt on this operation. He had been counting on selling their dropped equipment back in Tingen to make up for the hole in his wallet, yet someone had actually dared to steal his things!

He absolutely could not tolerate it.

But at this stage, even if Aster could not tolerate it, he had to endure it, because his current condition was already terrible.

After the battle, Aster removed the Witch's Kiss gloves. Since he was out in the wilderness, it was inconvenient for him to use the improved Wall of Spirituality to seal the Witch's Kiss, resulting in his spirituality being continuously drained by the gloves and preventing him from recovering properly.

His body was in much the same state. Although he had been using Rachel's body while pursuing Lanevus and had not expended his own stamina, after leaving the Demoness form, he had walked a long way on foot. Both his body and mind were exhausted.

In other words, neither his health bar nor his mana bar was full. He had to rest.

After climbing out of the Red Moon Bar again, Aster found a nearby inn and rented a room. After releasing several spirits as guards, he quickly fell asleep with the aid of meditation techniques.