N-A-A Chapter 285 The Winner
Chapter 285 The Winner
Chapter 285 The Winner
A "mysterious queen"?! What's she doing here?!
After a brief moment of shock, Lorne quickly regained his senses.
"Madam, who are you?" he asked tentatively, his tone tinged with fear and unease.
The person named "Scott" shouldn't know her.
"This is a police station! You can't—" Lorne tried his best to control his facial muscles, making his expression as realistic and terrified as possible.
but----
"Hmph—" Bernadette didn't speak, but let out a soft, ambiguous hum from her nose, staring at him with a smile in her azure eyes that seemed to see through everything.
She hadn't expected that Monkey Brando would possess such outstanding acting talent.
'
"call----"
After a moment, Lorne gave up. He slumped onto the cold, hard bed in the detention cell, sitting there quietly without saying another word.
Now that I've been seen through, there's no point in pretending anymore.
"Don't you have anything you want to ask me?" Bernadette finally couldn't help but break the silence first.
"Since you've come to my door, what else can I say?" Lorne shrugged, adopting an indifferent attitude.
"However, I am indeed very curious, how did you know I was here, and how did you find me?"
According to what the other party said before, they possess some kind of "special quality" that makes them impossible to find through conventional divination and prophecy. Otherwise, given that they already have information about their "Roselle affair," they could have simply performed the divination themselves; there would have been no need to go through Cattleya's channels to find them.
Upon hearing this, Bernadette slightly curled the corners of her lips and, mimicking Lorne, shrugged lightly.
Take a guess.
Lorne understood the meaning in the other person's eyes. He rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought.
"Is it... that letter?"
He was referring to the reply Cattleya had given him. It was Bernadette herself who had handed him that letter.
Bernadette nodded noncommittally.
"It's boring." Lorne lay down on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, looking as if he had seen through the illusions of the world.
"I thought you would be very angry," Bernadette said softly, looking at him.
"No," Lorne shook his head, his voice a little muffled, "It was my own fault for not being careful enough. Actually, I was already thinking about this when you didn't give me your contact information last time, but instead said you would contact me if necessary. It's just that I was too busy at the time and didn't pay attention to it."
"Now that I think about it carefully, I understand everything."
"As for getting angry—I don't have the time to think about that right now."
Lorne stretched out his hand, pointed to his surroundings, and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "As you can see, I'm locked up now."
.
"Moreover, I'm still torn between declaring bankruptcy or trying to earn that £200,000."
"It sounds like your luck has been exceptionally bad lately," Bernadette remarked, unable to help but sigh upon hearing Lorne's almost self-deprecating statement.
"Everything is predestined, and it doesn't forgive anyone." Lorne looked at the ceiling and gave a bitter smile.
Bernadette was momentarily stunned by these words. She dropped her composed expression, pursed her lips, and murmured softly, "He—he once said something similar."
"Him? Russell?"
Damn! You can even copy something like that?! Don't you have any shame, Russell?!
I finally managed to come up with what I thought was a profound statement, and even remarked it with an air of self-importance, only to have the person next to me suddenly say, "Oh dear, that's something Emperor Roselle said."
Do you know how embarrassing that is?!
After mentally ranting about Rosell for a while, Lorne couldn't help but become curious again.
What exactly is the relationship between this "mysterious queen" and Rosell? Not only does she have so many of Rosell's diaries, but judging from her tone, it seems she has even met Rosell in person.
"Um."
Could it be that she was Roselle's old flame? After Roselle's death, she refused to accept reality, which is why she searched the world for information about him?
Lorne's gaze involuntarily lingered on the other person's exquisitely handsome face.
Given Russell's womanizing ways, it seems—it's not impossible.
However, it turns out that the "mysterious queen" is already quite old.
"You seem to be thinking about something very rude." Bernadette noticed Lorne's strange gaze.
"————" Lorne pouted, then quickly changed the subject, "Madam, I must say, you're quite bold. This is a police station, and there might be substitutes lying in wait nearby."
"You really don't take them seriously at all?"
"You're a famous pirate, this is too audacious of you"—Lorne didn't say this aloud.
"Don't worry," Bernadette said calmly, as if it were a matter of course. "If they really wanted to take action, even if an angel came, they couldn't stop me."
An angel—that's at least Sequence 2 level. Is the "Pirate King's" foundation really that strong?
However, I'm not worried about you! I'm worried about what I'll do if you get caught and I have to explain it to them.
If the person being punished is discovered, he might really be locked up in a dark room for life.
well----
Taking a deep breath, Lorne asked in a low voice, "So, madam, what brings you here? If you're here to take me away, then please forgive me for refusing."
"Although I've been detained, I'm only a suspect now. If you take me away, I really won't be able to explain myself no matter what."
"I didn't come to take you away." Bernadette gently shook her head, the toes of her black leather boots lightly touching the ground.
Do you remember our deal?
"Do you remember our deal?"
"Russell's Diary?"
"Hmm." Bernadette nodded slightly. "I brought a few pages with me; I'd like to know what's in the diary."
"This is the reward for this."
As she spoke, the small crystal bottle containing the golden liquid in her hand floated up slightly and came to Lorne's eyes.
"A Sequence 5 potion?" Lorne immediately sat up straight and asked curiously.
"Yes, Sequence 5, the potion of the winner." Bernadette nodded.
"The winner—" Lorne chewed on the name of the potion and repeated it softly.
"Giving it to me now won't do you any good."
"Promotion to Sequence 5 requires a ceremony. And my current state is—"
"You've been having a lot of bad luck lately, and this has been going on for quite a while now, hasn't it?" Bernadette asked abruptly.
"Yes, it's been about a month," Lorne readily admitted.
"Then take a look at this." Bernadette's fingers twitched slightly, and a piece of paper covered in Hermesian writing floated lightly in front of Lorne.
Lorne curiously leaned closer to take a look, his pupils slightly contracting.
"This is... the winner's potion recipe?"
"That's right, it's a free gift."
"A free gift—" Lorne pondered Bernadette's words, but couldn't resist taking a closer look at the contents of the recipe.
Sequence 5: Winner's main materials: one Divine Blessing Crystal, one Heart of the Crimson Flame Treant;
Auxiliary materials: 80 ml of Red Flame Treant sap, 20 g of Divine Blessing Crystal attachment, 10 g of white mustard seeds, 9 drops of sweet chestnut flower essential oil, and a share of luck from someone else;
Promotion Ceremony: For a whole month, you must keep yourself in a state of bad luck and absolutely cannot have a single lucky moment.
"Damn it—" Looking at the contents of the ceremony, Lorne was somewhat incredulous.
A month of bad luck—could it be that all of this that has happened to me recently is—
He subconsciously clenched his fists, feeling a dryness in his throat. If that were the case, then wouldn't this month-long ordeal have been a lucky accident—completing the most difficult part of the promotion sequence 5?
"Even if the ritual has coincidentally been completed, what about the supporting materials? They come from someone else's good fortune," I don't have those kinds of things right now.
"No, you do," Bernadette interrupted him, her tone firm.
"Although we're not on the same path, I can see that you possess this quality. Moreover, this 'luck' is quite high-level."
The "Blasphemy Card" was created by Roselle using the power of the "Knowledge Emperor." It inherently possesses a high status corresponding to the path, allowing the holder to acquire certain traits of that path to a certain extent. Having held the "Fate" card for so long, Bernadette naturally also possesses a certain ability to discern the fates of others.
Could it be—Will Unsett?
Bernadette's words suddenly reminded Lorne of the strange, lame little boy. Could he be a high-sequence Extraordinary being with the "Destiny" pathway? Then why would he help me? Or is this—another special trait brought about by my transmigrator status?
"I—I roughly know what's going on." Lorne suppressed the surprise on his face, not wanting to appear too intimidated in front of the "Mysterious Queen."
What is your suggestion?
"You can try to get promoted here."
"No, it's too dangerous." Lorne shook his head in denial without even thinking.
He is currently still under official detention, and the risk of being promoted on someone else's turf is simply too great.
"My magic is around here."
She stretched out her finger and gently touched it. Suddenly, three adorable, half-orc-like, pig-headed children appeared in the space that had been enveloped by lush green vines. As they moved, strange patterns appeared on the surrounding walls.
"A barrier, huh? What a peculiar ability." Lorne remarked, but he still didn't intend to change his mind.
"Your promotion might change your current situation, who knows?" Bernadette said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?"
"Sequence 5 of the 'Monster' pathway is the winner." The name itself speaks volumes.
"Perhaps, after the promotion, you can solve the problems you're facing now in a peculiar way," Bernadette analyzed.
"Moreover, after being promoted, your ability to take risks will also become greater."
"Even if the officials discover you're an Extraordinary, they might not do anything to you. Faced with a Sequence 5 wild Extraordinary, they're unlikely to take extreme measures; they're more likely to try to win you over."
"—" Lorne lowered his head in silence. He knew that Bernadette was probably trying to observe him. But what she said was indeed true—
"Can't you just help me get rid of all these problems?"
"Taking you away is simple. But you don't want to, do you?"
"Moreover," Bernadette said, resting her smooth chin on her hand, "my current resources are not sufficient to directly solve this problem for you."
"I've heard about what happened to you. In this matter, you yourself may not be important; the key is that you inadvertently triggered a power struggle between the church and the authorities."
"I can't directly interfere in this kind of thing."
"I—" Lorne opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he swallowed his words back.
The other party's analysis is not without merit. Moreover, even if she could help, I couldn't offer enough compensation. A transaction needs to be equivalent, or at least appear to be equivalent.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Lorne turned his gaze to the glass bottle floating in the air, radiating an alluring golden luster, and reached out to take it.
"Glug."
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