Chapter 41: The Fool's Gift

After a night of purging, the last player in the "Beautiful Friend" instance committed suicide by swallowing a gun. Before dying, he remained indifferent to the pile of "Beyonder characteristics" and "Sealed Artifacts" that Amon had laid out before him.

"Nothing I could do, the Duke of Venice offered too much," he said just before taking his own life.

The massive vortex belonging to "Beautiful Friend" was still expanding, and the combat preparation costs for entering the instance had skyrocketed to exorbitant figures. Such a bizarre phenomenon caught the attention of the Deep Sea Corporation's upper management, and specialized penguins had now cordoned off the area in front of the vortex, strictly forbidding players from entering.

Unlike other minor, trivial instances, and falling outside the scope of a [Major Event], this had transformed into an unstable powder keg that could trigger a "Deep Sea Collision" between the two worlds at any moment.

Amon, who was still in the world of "Beautiful Friend," adjusted the monocle over his right eye and sighed.

His search for the aura of the Sefirah Castle had failed, and the players had resisted his sugar-coated bullets with a bizarre sense of "solidarity." After all, people in the Lord of the Mysteries world were afraid of death, but players certainly were not. Entering the game was just putting on an avatar, and if they died and exited the instance, they were as good as new.

Having failed his two main objectives, Amon was naturally somewhat disappointed, but this trip was not without its harvests. He had learned about the situation of the world where Chen Lai resided. Their "Deep Sea Game" was a mysterious force that could actually help him resist the Outer Deity corruption from the cosmos!

No, rather than calling it resisting corruption, it should be called "perfect mimicry"!

What is corruption? It is one worldview's rejection of another!

And the players? They were like water; leap into a pond and they are frogs, jump onto a branch and they are sparrows, crawl into a cesspool and they are...

This ability, this authority, would be the pillar that allowed Amon to truly roam the cosmos. The gaze behind his monocle revealed a deep yearning—a craving for a new "authority."

"We will have a chance to meet again."

Amon stripped off this layer of the players' protective shell, vanished from the world of "Beautiful Friend," and returned to the Lord of the Mysteries world.

...

Chen Lai, sitting in the deep-sea warehouse, was playing video games with Toji Fushiguro.

They were playing "Double-Edged Warriors," a very casual and puzzle-oriented mini-game. In Chen Lai's words, he had already done everything he possibly could; things had reached this point, so he might as well play games first.

Although he was also terrified that upon returning to reality, his mother might suddenly put on a monocle, the probability of that happening should be quite small... right?

"That wild boar, smash him! Smash him!"

"The pig hit the tree! Jump attack, jump attack!"

"Toji, with such well-coordinated physical reflexes, why are you so terrible at video games?"

Chen Lai alternated between bantering and shouting, as if trying to vent all the pressure pent up in his chest.

"Double-Edged Warriors" was truly a good game; there was no need to worry even if you died. Unlike the "Deep Sea Game," which scammed you out of money and risked your life, almost trapping him inside. He had no idea which malicious author had come up with such a cursed thing that had made his life miserable.

The two of them stumbled their way through to the final victory, and checking the time, they realized it was already the next day. Chen Lai opened the forum posts and abruptly discovered that the matter had been resolved—Amon had returned empty-handed!

"Ha! If he dares to invade again, I'll make sure he suffers a crushing defeat!"

A glowing-with-excitement Chen Lai shouted. He just loved seeing Amon thwarted; that guy caused trouble with complete irresponsibility, and someone should have put him in his place long ago.

Throwing the controller aside, Chen Lai let out a long sigh of relief. The excitement on his face faded, revealing a weary, dejected expression.

Entering this instance had cost him twenty thousand, yet he hadn't managed to rake in a single penny and had even taken a loss. For a debt-ridden Chen Lai, this was indeed rather difficult to accept.

Just as he was feeling glum, a cat's meow suddenly rang out from the coral beside the game console.

"Meow~"

Chen Lai raised his eyes in astonishment and caught only a glimpse of a black cat's tail flashing past. He stepped forward and looked inside the coral, only to find a pristine invitation card printed with an illustration.

The art style of the picture was exquisite and intricate, resembling Victorian-era hand-drawn illustrations, with every detail rendered vividly to life.

In the picture, a sword-wielding feline combatant was toasting with a black-cane-bearing cat, the champagne in their glasses sloshing around. In a corner not far away, a black cat wearing a monocle over its right eye squatted on the ground, somewhat dejectedly drawing circles.

[The Fool's Handcrafted Invitation Card (Unique) (Closing): Open this invitation card only when you are prepared. Fate arrives as scheduled, and we shall create a bright era. Value: 0]

Chen Lai stared at the invitation card, repeatedly rubbing the patterns on its surface, and then placed it into a small compartment deep within the coral.

The Fool of the future was extending an invitation to the present Chen Lai; He had seen the variable that would influence the entire situation from the gaps in history.

That sword-wielding feline combatant was undoubtedly Chen Lai, the cane-bearing cat was Klein in his role as a Seer, and the black cat drawing circles was Amon... The Fool acknowledged him, deeming him worthy of becoming a partner to jointly forge a way out for the Lord of the Mysteries world.

"In my current state, I probably don't even qualify to enter the Lord of the Mysteries world. I know too much, yet can do far too little."

"To be able to slip this invitation card directly into my warehouse, the divine might of a god is truly beyond my imagination."

"A concept-tier ability, completely mastering a certain authority—is this what a god is?"

"Me, a stinking gamer, can actually win the acknowledgment of a god?"

Chen Lai self-deprecatingly chuckled a few times, then pushed the matter of the invitation card to the back of his mind.

Regardless, the Cthulhu world was temporarily far away, and Chen Lai had gained a deeper understanding of the Deep Sea Game. Next, he needed to carefully plan and search through the hundreds of large vortexes currently available to see which ones were worth entering.

He needed power. Currently, the Six Eyes and the Heavenly Restriction within him were as incompatible as water and fire. If he could find something to make them compatible, then Chen Lai's future would be limitless!

Watching Chen Lai oscillate between dejection and high spirits, Toji Fushiguro found it immensely amusing.

Following Chen Lai into the Deep Sea Game, Toji Fushiguro had experienced many things he had never encountered before. It turned out that human nature was not as devoid of humanity as the jujutsu world described; on the contrary, the brilliance of their human nature was far stronger than that of sorcerers!

"What kind of world is our next stop?" Toji Fushiguro asked Chen Lai, resting the back of his head on his arms amidst the glowing turquoise light of the ocean.

He was beginning to look forward to the future, curious about what the next stop would look like.

Chen Lai glanced at him sideways. "I don't know yet. I'll decide after I figure it out. Anyway, there will definitely be a major event... and definitely no Cthulhu!"

"Are you scared?"

"Who's scared? That's called playing to one's strengths and avoiding weaknesses, a strategic repositioning. Can matters of the Deep Sea Game be called fear?" Chen Lai argued eloquently.

"Fine, fine~" Toji Fushiguro didn't mind and fell asleep lying on the ground.

Seeing that he had fallen asleep, Chen Lai didn't say much more and chose to log out.

This gaming session had lasted for over half a month. The supplies he had ordered should have arrived by now, so it was time to go out and take a look.