Jane's Choice

Detective Isengard narrowed his eyes as he looked at Abner. After thinking for a while, he said, "I don't care why you want to borrow '2-081.' I only want to warn you that, no matter what you do in this world, you must proceed step by step. You can't be impatient or act blindly, or you'll only end up making things worse."

Abner was deeply touched by his teacher's protective yet non-intrusive attitude. He straightened his expression and nodded seriously. "I understand. Thank you for your advice, Teacher."

"My Sealed Artifact will be placed in the storage room every night. I'll allow you to go in for an hour at ten each night! For now, let's continue with your daily studies and the organization of the materials." After saying this, Detective Isengard returned to his office.

Abner secretly clenched his fist, feeling that he had taken another step toward Sequence 7!

Near Bravehearts Bar, in the apartment where Abner had once prepared the Potion that advanced him to the Reader of Sequence 9, Jane stared woodenly at her father's corpse without moving, like a statue. There were no tears left on her face, yet she seemed even sadder than when she had been crying.

Silent sorrow was far more intense than loud sobbing!

Sitting across from her were the doll-like, exquisite Miss Sharron and the gloomy young man Maric, who wore a white shirt and black vest.

"We've explained everything that happened to you. Sharron and I are both very grateful for your father's sacrifice. It allowed us to escape! Although he wasn't intentionally helping us..." At this point, Maric frowned and glanced at the young girl across from him, who still showed no reaction. He raised his voice slightly and continued, "As for compensation, I'll give you two choices. The first is for me to give you a large sum of money and arrange for you to change your identity and start a new life in another city..."

"What's the other choice? Can I possess those Beyonder powers like you do? I want revenge!" Before Maric could finish, Jane interrupted him in a terrifyingly cold voice.

"That's exactly what I was going to say... We'll help you become a Beyonder! This choice also has two options. For the first, you'll need to wait for a while as Sharron and I gather the materials to prepare a Prisoner Potion for you. The second is for you to directly consume your father's Beyonder Characteristic and become a Corpse Collector. But there's some danger involved, because we don't know the auxiliary materials for this Potion." Maric spoke in a calm tone.

"So my father was a Corpse Collector... No wonder he's been going out at night recently... Abner even said he was doing volunteer work..." Jane muttered before coming back to her senses. She said resolutely, "I choose my father's path! I'll walk this Beyonder path in his place! I'll make sure he stays by my side forever!"

"Have you really thought this through? You should know that while the chance of Loss of Control from directly consuming a Sequence 9 Beyonder Characteristic isn't particularly high, it's far more dangerous than consuming a complete Potion!" Maric reminded her again.

Jane said nothing. She merely stared at him stubbornly.

Miss Sharron spoke coldly at this moment. "Maric, agree to it. There's no problem with such determination."

After a moment of silence, Maric nodded. He then took out a preparation container, mixed the Beyonder Characteristic obtained from Mr. Grant with some commonly used harmless ingredients, and stirred it evenly before handing it to Jane.

Jane didn't hesitate at all. She took it and drank it in one go!

At dusk, Abner was reviewing Detective Isengard's old commissions when his teacher's servant suddenly entered and handed him a telegram.

"From Bravehearts Bar? A telegram from Kaspars? He wants me to go to him..." Abner looked at the contents of the paper, pondered for a moment, then left his room and knocked on the door of his teacher's office.

"Kaspars is still trustworthy. He generally won't do anything detrimental to you..." Detective Isengard clearly knew why he had come and spoke with a smile.

Abner nodded and said cautiously, "Actually, even if he hadn't sent the telegram, I was planning to look for him soon... I just didn't expect him to take the initiative... They shouldn't be willing to show themselves so easily right now."

"Looks like you know something about what happened to that little girl's family..." Detective Isengard was initially somewhat surprised, but then he understood why Abner had come to him. He smiled and said, "Don't worry. I still have some ability to protect myself. Even if they have something in mind, they'll have to consider the possibility of me reporting them!"

Abner relaxed when he heard this. He had a vague idea of who was looking for him, but although Maric, Sharron, and the others weren't bad people in the original story, one could never be too careful. He still needed to keep some backup plans.

At this moment, Detective Isengard thought for a moment, then picked up a hat from beside him and handed it to Abner. "I'll lend you this hat. It'll also give you some means of fighting back if you encounter danger."

"This is..." Abner stared at the hat, his heart stirring. Could this be one of the treasured Sealed Artifacts his teacher had described in the original story? The one equivalent to the Sun Brooch that Klein bought?

"This is a hat that can change its shape. Once you put it on, you can move freely underwater for at least half an hour and use some quasi-spells from the domains of water and wind. Its drawback is that you'll develop a thirst for water, and once you walk on land, you'll grow increasingly weak! Of course, the negative effects won't have much time to manifest during a trip to the bar." Detective Isengard introduced it with great interest.

"Thank you, Teacher!" Abner thanked him again, put on the hat worth at least 2,000 pounds, and took the subway to Bravehearts Bar.

In Bridge Borough, Kaspars was as he always was. He was playing billiards when he saw Abner walk into the game room and said in surprise, "Your bearing has changed so much compared to before! If not for your appearance being the same, I wouldn't have recognized you..."

Abner sighed and said with some emotion, "A lot has happened recently. I've grown a little..."

"Enough. Let's not talk about that. Someone wants to see you. I'll take you there." Kaspars put down his cue and limped toward the door.

"Who is it? Mr. Maric?" Abner followed him while asking in feigned curiosity.

"Why would you think it's him? Heh, he doesn't dare show his face these days! It's a little girl who wants to see you!" Kaspars chuckled.

"A little girl? Could it be Jane?" Abner looked surprised. Since his Transmigration, he had only met a few girls. Xio and Fors had no need to go through Kaspars to find him.

Soon, they arrived in front of a building familiar to Abner.

Kaspars stepped forward and opened the door, then pointed inside, indicating that Abner should enter on his own.

Abner took a deep breath and stepped into the living room.

I took my grandmother to the hospital today, so this chapter is a little short~~ I also had to write it in my spare time. I'll make up for it tomorrow.

(End of Chapter)