I Have a Friend...

9:00 p.m.

South City Tavern.

Dim yellow light spilled across the wooden tables, and the air was thick with the scent of ale and roasted meat. The innermost private room, however, had been sealed off into a separate space.

Silver Wolf leaned against the back of her chair, spinning a game token between her fingers. She had already been waiting for a while.

At last, a knock came from outside.

"Knock, knock."

"Come in."

The door opened.

Yanlin White Tower appeared right on time. After entering the private room, he gave Silver Wolf a slight nod. "Wolf Venerable."

Silver Wolf raised her eyes. "Sit."

Yanlin White Tower sat down without exchanging pleasantries or wasting time. "I've contacted peripheral members of the Radiant Law Church, as well as people connected to the Court."

"I didn't enter the royal district directly, but I confirmed things through information from the outskirts."

"Also, I personally entered the Radiant Law Temple."

He paused.

"So far, I haven't found anything unusual."

Silver Wolf looked at him without answering immediately. She merely tapped the tabletop lightly with her fingers. "Are you sure?"

Yanlin White Tower's brows drew together slightly. That reaction made him realize that the situation might be more complicated than he had imagined.

"Is there a problem?"

Silver Wolf did not answer. She lowered her head and glanced at her hand.

The next second, a stream of silver-blue data flashed.

A black card appeared at her fingertips—Ace of Spades.

"This."

Yanlin White Tower looked at Silver Wolf's outstretched hand, then—

Silence.

His gaze remained fixed there.

Three to five seconds passed, yet there was still nothing.

Silver Wolf tilted her head. "You can't see it?"

For the first time, Yanlin White Tower's expression changed.

It was not confusion, but disbelief.

"How could that be..."

Silver Wolf cut him off. "No need to doubt it. I have no reason to lie to you."

Yanlin White Tower fell silent.

Silver Wolf continued, "This is the Ace of Spades I took from the hand of the Radiant Law Statue."

Yanlin White Tower went quiet. His first reaction was not to doubt Silver Wolf.

Instead, he began reconsidering everything.

If this was true, it meant players possessed the system bestowed by Phanes.

It could assign panels to people and objects.

It provided prompts and all kinds of auxiliary functions.

But...

If something could evade the players' system—

Then the world players had seen all along was not the complete world.

"This is bad..."

Silver Wolf snapped her fingers.

Snap.

Ace of Spades' existence was rewritten back into the range of his perception.

Yanlin White Tower's vision blurred. In the spot where there had been nothing, the card slowly emerged.

He activated a scan almost instantly, data streams covering the card's surface.

"Unknown..."

At the same time, he noticed something strange. This card was clearly an entertainment product from the modern era. How had it appeared at the Radiant Law Statue, let alone escaped detection?

"Playing cards..." Yanlin White Tower murmured. "Even the system is starting to fail..."

Confusion flashed through Yanlin White Tower's eyes. Then he rose and gave a deep bow. "Thank you, Wolf Venerable, for the warning."

Silver Wolf waved the Ace of Spades in her hand. "You've never seen one before?"

"I can say for certain that I haven't."

Silver Wolf put away the Ace of Spades. "This may be the source of the contamination, or it may be a product of the Abyss."

Yanlin White Tower nodded, not showing the slightest doubt toward Silver Wolf's words. "If that's the case, we must investigate when it first appeared."

Silver Wolf asked, "When did you discover that the God of Radiant Law had gone missing?"

Yanlin White Tower was silent for a moment. "One month ago—more precisely."

He looked at the table. "Sister Zhi Ting held a meeting yesterday, and she reminded me of Them. I began trying to contact Them, but there was no response."

"Afterward, I confirmed that the God of Radiant Law had lost contact."

Silver Wolf lowered her head to look at her hand. "So this card has existed for at least a month."

"Possibly..."

Silver Wolf's expression was extremely serious. Only then did she understand that the real grand adventure had arrived. If there was only recklessness and no danger, could it even be called an adventure?

Dear audience, you must be wondering: where did Da go?

What do you think?

Poor Silver Wolf had no idea she was being teased. She only knew that she had become entangled in enormous trouble—and an exciting Trailblaze.

Silver Wolf looked up. "Can we find out who came into contact with it a month ago?"

Yanlin White Tower shook his head. "I don't have that authority, but..."

He paused. "I know someone."

Silver Wolf looked at him. "A friend?"

"Mm. She's a Court judge."

Ostorli was practically a medieval city-state. Without the internet, it was difficult for Silver Wolf to learn what had happened a month ago.

"Sounds like a pretty high-ranking official."

"By comparison, she's just the supervisor of a department in a company."

"That depends on the company."

Yanlin White Tower froze for a moment, then laughed. "Still, she does have the authority to investigate the foot traffic records near the statue over the past month."

Silver Wolf stood up. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

Ostorli's Court was located on the north side of the city-state.

It did not have towering spires like the Radiant Law Temple, nor did it have the lavish ornamentation of the royal palace's outer walls.

The entire building resembled a silent fortress.

Gray-white stone walls rose from both sides of the street, their surfaces bearing the marks of years of wind and rain. Two rows of stone pillars stood outside the tall arched gate, each engraved with judgment inscriptions from different eras.

A low iron fence circled the outermost perimeter.

There were no flower beds behind it, only an impeccably laid gravel path.

Several Court knights clad in black-and-silver armor stood at the entrance.

They did not speak.

Longswords hung at their waists, and their cloaks swayed slowly in the night wind.

Occasionally, people in judicial robes emerged from inside. They would pause briefly at the entrance, show their badges to the knights, then leave along the street.

There was no clamor throughout the entire process.

There were not even any unnecessary footsteps.

This was completely different from the rest of Ostorli.

People were still drinking near the tavern.

The shops had already closed, but vendors were still pushing carts as they packed up their goods.

Now and then, discussions among players could still be heard from street corners.

Only the area around the Court seemed like a naturally formed zone of silence.

Ordinary residents would instinctively lower their voices whenever they passed through here.

Even though no one had told them to do so.

Yanlin White Tower stood at a street corner several dozen meters from the Court and did not enter directly.

He glanced at the knights by the entrance, then raised his hand.

A tiny silver-white rune emerged from his fingertips.

The rune hovered in the air for less than a second before turning into an extremely thin line and vanishing along the base of the wall.

As long as the other party had the corresponding identification mark, it could deliver one very brief message.

Yanlin White Tower lightly tapped the air twice with his fingers.

The rune reappeared.

[Meet at the usual place to discuss the Abyss]