The Master of the Strange Realm

"Can I see these bowls?"

He suddenly asked the man in black robe. Seeing no reply, he directly picked up an empty bowl in front of him. Do not handle bowls containing liquids because once touched, they will drink directly and uncontrollably.

Under Barnard's surprised gaze, Jenkins gently rubbed the outer surface of the bowl. He has determined that this thing is really wooden, and the "gold" is just his visual illusion.

Although he had touched this kind of bowl twice just now, he was faced with the moment of life and death. Jenkins had no time to feel the unimportant touch, but he could easily notice the difference when he was quiet.

"Am I hallucinating before my eyes?"

Faintly feeling that this was a very important situation, Jenkins thought in his mind alone and did not rush to ask Barnard.

"No, the influence of that octopus on me has long since disappeared. This is not a malignant hallucination. But why didn't Mr. Barnard see it? What's the difference between him and me? Am I a time traveler?"

Thinking of this, Jenkins immediately thought of the legendary "Goldfinger".

"What is this, an automatic photo-taking cheat?"

He tried to joke to himself to relieve his nervousness. It was somewhat effective. Jenkins felt that he would be able to catch the thread soon.

"Could what I saw be the so-called magical aura? No, whether there is magic in this world is another matter."

He twisted on the wooden stake uneasily and continued to think:

"Suppose what I saw was the reminder from Goldfinger, then is this the so-called [Eye of Truth]?"

Thinking of this, he looked at the bowls again, trying to find new clues, but to no avail.

The delay was almost over, and it was hard to imagine that Barnard would misunderstand anything if he continued to hesitate.

Taking a deep breath and feeling the turbidity of the air, Jenkins made a final attempt. He stretched out his right hand again and lightly tapped his temple. At the same time, he told himself in his heart: "You are using superpowers. Your eyes are magical." ”

This time, the feeling was immediately different. There seemed to be a stream of clear water flowing into the somewhat swollen eyes, and the light on the wooden bowl became more obvious.

At the same time, Barnard, the man in black, and the candle on the table also lit up.

The former's body is covered with seven light spots of different colors, while the black-robed man's body is hazy gray, and only the candle is a vibrant green.

Green only refers to the color of its own wax exudation, and the candlelight is still dim yellow.

"The Eye of Truth?"

Trying his best to suppress the ecstasy in his heart, Jenkins maintained that nervous expression.

"Very good. This extra brilliance is indeed the so-called supernatural light. For now, let's not think about why we could only see the wooden bowl. The way out is right in front of us."

He stared at the verdant candle itself and remembered the introduction: "Green represents healing."

"If you give it a try, if you win, there will be no club... Maybe even if you win, there will be no club."

Reaching out his hand, no one expected that Jenkins would take off a small piece of wax that had solidified on the table and throw it directly into the bowl next to him. Before the liquid in the bowl could splash out, Jenkins drank it directly.

"Nothing happened!"

He said ecstatically in his heart, and at the same time told Barnard the result: "It's clear water!"

At the same time, the boarded door suddenly opened, and the wooden boards were scattered all over the floor. No one can see the scenery outside the door, there is only the dazzling white light similar to when they came.

"You can go!"

Barnard stood up excitedly and then remembered to write these words and show them to Jenkins.

Jenkins also stood up excitedly, but his smile slowly disappeared and he sat back down.

"etc."

Licking his lips, Jenkins looked at the remaining bowls on the table.

"Oh, right."

As if to say these words, Barnard wrote a few words on the paper and motioned to Jenkins to read them.

"Where's our reward?"

he read softly.

"Bowl." The ugly and strange voice of the man in black robe sounded again after such a long time.

Barnard immediately stretched out his hands happily, but could only pick up a bowl.

Satisfied, he motioned for Jenkins to move faster, but the young man stared into the air as if he were thinking something serious.

"etc."

He finally made up his mind.

"Since there's a reward in these bowls, why not try all the liquids?"

Barnard had a look of horror on his face, and he hurriedly wrote: "You are crazy. The rest is most likely poisonous. How are you going to try?"

"The candles are probably the antidote."

He explained softly, but Barnard obviously didn't believe it. He wrote: "If you think about it, it might just be a coincidence. What you picked up was pure water. Boy, our luck is really good. Don't His own greed swallowed his sanity.”

This is not because Barnard is too conservative, it is just because he cannot see the glory in front of Jenkins, so of course he will not be so "brave" when facing an event that is 99% fatal.

"Maybe it's really a coincidence, but when you come to this world, how can you live a more exciting life without some courage?"

Thinking this in his mind, Jenkins had a bright smile on his face. He reached out and took off a large piece of solidified wax from the table again, broke it into four small pieces and threw them into the remaining liquid.

Without looking at Barnard's expression, Jenkins picked up four bowls and drank from them in one go. The sound of clinking bowls and tables could be heard endlessly.

Barnard held his breath and didn't dare to exhale, looking at Jenkins' crazy behavior.

After a moment, Jenkins sighed, "The four bowls are full of water."

Barnard nodded vigorously, motioned to Jenkins to get a bowl and leave quickly.

"Too greedy. Two people make ten choices. How can they get three rewards?"

He thought this with some regret, and reached for a bowl, but did not take it. The bowl seemed to be firmly stuck to the table.

Before he could ask, the man in black robe who had been sitting moved.

He stood up and pointed at the candle while the two people opposite him seemed to be frozen.

"Take it away."

This was the first time he uttered two words.

Jenkins didn't react for a moment, until the ecstatic Barnard next to him gave him a push, and then he belatedly picked up the half-burned candle.

Afterwards, the two of them did not dare to look back, and ran quickly towards the light at the door one after the other, leaving the man in black robe alone to stand quietly in the darkness after the candle disappeared.

The black robe on his body slid uncontrollably toward the light at the door, as if an invisible man was wearing it. Under the clothes, a withered bone was exposed. It fell to the ground and shattered into bone fragments. After a while, the bone powder was completely mixed with the dust on the ground with the same composition.

Section 7 Chapter 6 Legal Gathering

A burst of cold air hit him from his back, but Jenkins was more focused on his tumbling stomach. Jenkins finally stood on solid ground before he squirted out his dinner.

This is a dirty alley that I don’t recognize. Garbage is everywhere on the ground. The smell makes my stomach, which has calmed down a bit, start to fluctuate again. A wild cat bared its teeth and barked at Jenkins, holding an indistinguishable object in its mouth and leaving against the shadow at the base of the wall.

Jenkins staggered to the wall, kicked away the trash with his shoes, spread the newspaper and sat down. This is not the original place to enter [The Strange Realm]. It seems that Barnard missed something important.

“I hope this is still Nolan City.”

He raised his head and looked at the sky. The red and blue moons hung quietly above his head with the sky full of stars. But he knew that there were actually three moons in the sky, and the last one was Barnard's belief, representing the righteous god of May - [The Lightless Moon].

He looked down at his hands. He was holding a partially burned candle in his right hand. This was normal, but why were the sleeves black?

He finally realized that he was actually wearing the black robe of the mysterious man in the strange world.

"when......"

Before I had time to think, slight footsteps came from the other end of the alley. It was a deliberately suppressed footsteps, and Jenkins would never have heard it if it hadn't been so quiet here.

There was nowhere to hide, and the alley seemed to be flanked by the back walls of residential buildings, which also explained the source of the garbage—thrown from the windows. The bare walls were covered with messy symbols. In addition to rusty steam pipes in the corners, the dark yellow traces looked more like excrement. The best option now is to hide herself in the garbage, but Jenkins said that I can't do that.

In just a moment of hesitation, the owner of the footsteps actually appeared.

He was also wearing a black robe, walking quickly against the shadow of the wall, and then suddenly collided with Jenkins.

The man in black robe obviously didn't notice that there was someone else in the shadow. He almost fell down while holding on to the wall, while Jenkins broke out in a cold sweat.

"Going so fast?"

The two of them stood there in a stalemate without speaking. Jenkins tried to distinguish the appearance of the man in black robe, but found that the hood of his robe was specially extended at the front.

"Are you here for the party too?"

Finally, the man in black robe spoke, but the hoarse voice was obviously a falsetto.

reunion? What is he saying.

Somehow, Jenkins nodded, "Yes."

He was immediately surprised to find that his voice was equally strange, like a little boy speaking with a high voice. At the same time, he noticed something was wrong with the shadows on the ground. What was reflected behind him was a fat man wearing a pointed hat and a mask?

"There's something wrong with this black robe!"

He realized this immediately, and the mysterious man spoke again.

"You came too early, it's dangerous!"

After saying that, he sat by the wall like Jenkins, motionless and stopped talking.

"Where did I go? Isn't this a place where gangsters trade?"

He was thinking randomly in his mind while trying to find an excuse to slip away, but things got worse and worse. In the next five minutes, several more strangely dressed people appeared from the left and right of the alley. There are no mirrors, so Jenkins doesn't know how he looks now, but everyone who comes here looks at him for a moment.

As the last masked figure hurriedly arrived, everyone who was sitting or squatting stood up and gathered in one place. Jenkins had to go with them and silently counted seven people including him.

"who is he?"

The man who finally came here pointed at Jenkins and asked, his voice was very calm, not even like a human voice.

"Mr. Hood invited me here."

It was an extremely thin female voice, but it was able to suppress the volume.

"It's not me!" The man who just bumped into Jenkins said in a panic: "He was there when I came, it wasn't you..."

Before he could finish speaking, the people standing together dispersed immediately. One of them threw himself into the shadows in the distance of the alley without looking back, but the other five people just watched nervously.

"Gentlemen."

Jenkins knew what he should say. These people looked even more panicked than he did. This also aroused some interest in him. The person who escaped just now seemed to really blend into the shadows. A paranormal group?

"I was just passing through this city and heard about this gathering by chance, so I showed up here."

He first translated the lingua franca of the Kingdom of Fidictri into Chinese, and then translated it back literally, making his words not only have a strange accent, but also have strange grammar.

"Have you ever heard of it?"

asked the last person to arrive.

"Yes, I have a small ability." He shrugged and said vaguely. The vigilant people did not raise any questions. It seemed that it was really a secret gathering of a supernatural group.

But according to the shadow reaction on the ground, the fat body didn't move at all.

"Can you trust him?"

"No, this may be the law enforcer of the Orthodox Church in Nolan City."

"Stop joking, why are those law enforcers looking for trouble with us? We just didn't register because we didn't want to reveal our capabilities. This is not illegal."

"He may also be a cultist who hunts the Gifted Ones. I heard..."

"If you're afraid of danger, why don't you leave?"

"Hmph, the one who left just now obviously has something up his sleeve. We should change the way we get together next time. The one who left is the one with the problem."

...

The five people talked quickly in low voices, but in the end, they just came to the conclusion that "we have not committed a crime, and it is not illegal to gather in private."

Finally the man who bumped into Jenkins, who had just been called "Mr. Hood," came forward.

"Sir, we welcome new members to join the party, but you must prove that you are a gifted person with a clean background."

The giver?

This is probably what this world calls users of supernatural abilities.