Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
With that idea in mind, Klein immediately began making preparations.
It was to explore the spirit world and select a suitable target to become a messenger. After he left the Rorsted Archipelago and its surrounding sea, he could bring the Sea God Scepter along with him to reason with the target and convince them to become his messenger.
Once I find myself lost or in a dangerous situation, I would immediately halt the summoning and return above the gray fog. There’s basically no risk… Klein thought for a few seconds, then he locked the door and began the ritual of summoning himself.
At the end of the ritual, he quickly arrived above the gray fog, but he was in no hurry to respond to himself. Instead, he sat down and let the Sea God Scepter fly out from the junk pile and land on his palm.
He intended to scan the prayers of the believers as per routine for anything to respond to.
During this process, Klein discovered that some of the prayers were actually quite interesting, because humans could deceive friends and relatives, but it was difficult to keep their truest thoughts when confessing or praying to the gods. At most, they would modify the truth to make them look less bad.
A mixed-blood, who had clearly changed his faith to the Lord of Storms, had already reached the middle ranks of the Bayam police department, but in his confession, he tried hard to portray his behavior as a plan of burdening himself to carry out a mission. For the sake of a brighter future for his kinsmen, he could only confess to god in misery, hoping that “He” would protect him, so that he could climb up the ranks in the police system as a believer of the Lord of Storms.
Although his words sounded flawless, the fluctuations in his thoughts and emotions during his confession were clearly displayed in the prayer scene. It was something that couldn’t be hidden.
Trying to deceive God while you are deceiving yourself… If it were a gigantic sea serpent like Kalvetua who lacked intelligence, it might’ve believed you… Should I give him a lightning bolt or ten wind blades? Yes, it’s pretty impressive to have a mixed-blood rise up to the ranks of senior inspector. I’ll keep him. There are benefits to having a snitch… Klein raised his Sea God Staff, making one of the blue gems glow.
The light poured into the scene and imperceptibly seeped into the senior inspector named Boulaya.
This wasn’t a curse, nor was it a cue. It was a mark of divinity that almost no one could discover.
Simply put, it’s a unilateral way for me to “keep tabs” on you… Klein silently added inwardly.
He continued browsing and saw a young believer with slightly curly bronze hair praying for a man named Zangmo to be caught in a storm and buried at sea. He claimed that Zangmo wasn’t pious enough, but the truth was that, as a competing fisherman, Zangmo was always able to harvest more fish than he did.
What kind of nonsense prayers are these? The human heart sure is hard to fathom… Klein frowned and mumbled to himself. Then he had a vague idea.
For a Faceless to engage in real acting, it not only requires a flawless performance in terms of external appearances and habitual actions, but it also needs to maintain the core personality. Not many changes are allowed. As for personality, every person is different, so there must be a difference to a certain degree…
By browsing the prayers of my believers, it’s equivalent to me realizing different kinds of personalities and mental states without going through the trouble. When talking about the many masks we wear, it’s not only about looks…
This will be rather important for my subsequent acting as a Faceless. It can save me time from figuring things out through accumulated experiences.
Klein increasingly felt that acting as Sea God was very beneficial towards him.
When you are acting the role of a demigod, even if you don’t get any feedback, you will still definitely get some considerable benefits… This is a way of gaining experience of being someone of a higher level… Klein perked up, no longer being perfunctory about skimming through the prayer scenes.
After quickly browsing through one scene after another, his gaze stopped at a merchant named Ralph.
The businessman praised the miracle of the reappearance of the sea god, and he had indicated that he planned to offer a third of his fortune—worth 20,000 pounds—to the Resistance, half for military expenses, and half for the reconstruction of God’s statue.
Actually, there’s no need to go through all that trouble. Just directly offer it to me… Klein muttered half-jokingly.
He thought for a moment, and then he conjured a background of waves and storms with heavy rain and lightning falling together. He responded in a low voice, “You have honored my name by helping your compatriots and companions.
“The young lambs need help, food, and education.”
He intended to get Ralph to set up a charity fund with the 20,000 pounds, and to seek donations widely from the community to make up for the damage, create a consensus; and help to provide local children with food, clothing, and education under the pretext of governance.
As for the military expenditures of the Resistance, Klein understood that in a world with Beyonder powers, it was very difficult to rely solely on the opposition from the natives of the colony to succeed. Therefore, they needed the help of foreign countries like Feysac and Intis.
Funding was undoubtedly needed.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to add a line in the Ten Commandments about “boldly and confidently seek funding”; that would damage the image of Sea God… The Resistance shouldn’t be thinking about annihilating the garrison troops. They should just focus on destroying the transportation infrastructure and make it more difficult for the governor-general’s office to rule, so as to initiate talks… As a keyboard warrior, Klein wasn’t lacking in ideas in such areas.
He quickly restrained his wandering thoughts and made a divination to see if it was dangerous exploring the spirit world today.
After obtaining the revelation that it wasn’t considered dangerous, Klein took the Dark Emperor card, naturally changed his image, and stepped into the Door of Summoning.
After entering the real world, he stuffed the mystical items he needed into his body as a precaution. Then, like last time, he used Cogitation to sense the spirit world.
Taking a step forward, he passed through an invisible curtain as Klein’s illusory figure floated up.
Around him, red, yellow, blue, green, and other colors were superimposed, like they were like the most abstract oil painting ever. The concept of direction that humans were used to could no longer be used here. If one used the old means of distinguishing direction and one’s location, they would definitely find themselves lost.
Klein roamed carefully and casually, sometimes seeing a yellow sun like a child’s sketch, sometimes brushing past an incorporeal river that flowed quietly.
There was also a flat women with her upper body naked and a face resembling a smiling moon, a canoe with its end upturned, a tangled ball of thread, and a serpentine staircase leading to the seven pure lights.
In this extremely chaotic world, other than spirit world creatures, all kinds of information existed as abstract symbols. Thus, what one received from a divination process would only be a revelation that required one to interpret it on their own.
As for those symbols, there was a chance that they would come to life and become incorporeal monsters.
This was the spirit world that couldn’t be understood and viewed with common human knowledge.
The last time he came in, he had easily discovered spirit world creatures, and he had noticed the creepy gazes from unknown locations that made his hair stand on end. There was the headless woman who carried four heads, a round eye with clear blacks and whites, and a giant jellyfish with a skull attached to each tentacle. He had easily encountered all of them back then.
But this time, he failed to see a single spirit world creature despite roaming for so long. Even the indescribable figures in the distance had disappeared, as if they had hidden themselves.
It can’t be that you’re afraid of being my messenger, can it? Yes, I entered the spirit world in the form of a Soul Body. Perhaps the thoughts in my mind will appear in a special, formless manner here, turning into hidden symbols that interact with the spirit world. This then naturally affects my path options? Klein was puzzled, but he couldn’t find the reason.
All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind when his body suddenly sank down and he fell freely.
After a while, Klein could only see the vivid superposition of the colors and the various symbols that took physical form.
What’s going on? He began to consider whether he should write to Mr. Azik and ask him about it, or to throw the radio transceiver above the gray fog and get it tainted with the aura, so that he could contact the magic mirror, Arrodes.
While floating, Klein’s heart suddenly palpitated as he quickly dodged to the side.
A tinge of yellow and green flashed across his eyes as a giant foot that was large enough to squash his entire body landed, stepping into the interlaced red and blue color spots.
Above the sole of the foot was a long, festering leg covered in a yellowish green liquid. The leg was over three meters long, and above it was a huge body that was wrapped in corpse oil bandages.
Amidst the solidified aura in the area, the two legs that were filled with yellow-green pus alternated as they rose up. Carrying a body that was difficult to discern, the legs quickly disappeared into the depths of the spirit world.
Klein stood at a distance, not daring to make a sound.
Finally, he confirmed that he was fine as he grimaced and thought, The spirit world is really scary. You can accidentally encounter a powerhouse just passing by… A powerhouse among the spirit world creatures?
Klein shook his head and continued his search.
At that moment, he had no idea where in the spirit world he had wandered to.
After drifting for a while, he finally found some traces of spirit world creatures.
Just as he was about to switch from flying forward to descending to his left, he was surprised to find that his body continued to move forward uncontrollably at an accelerating speed.
In front of him, the chaotic superimposed colors and the grayish-white mist that filled the area suddenly split open, and a large, purely black three-masted sailboat leaped in.
The boat was nearly a hundred meters long, and three pitch-black sails were hanging high up like flags.
On the left and right sides of the ship, there were cannon muzzles and all kinds of sailors were running around on the deck.
All of this was so real, so substantial, and so out of place when it came to the spirit world as a whole.
However, as the ship entered the spirit world, its black color quickly turned richer, tainting itself with an ethereal vibe.
On its deck stood a mottled stone chair that was two to three meters high; its back facing the cabin. Leaning against the chair’s back, a colossal figure that was comparable to an ancient giant sat there.
He had a black beard that went just past his neck, and he wore a tall, pointed crown on his head. He wore a gorgeous black robe with silver fringes. The wrinkles on his face looked hardened and filled with magnificence. It made one subconsciously wish to bow their heads.
Under the slightly wrinkled forehead and on the high nose bridge, Klein’s pitch-black full-body armor and black crown were reflected into those two dark red eyes.
As for Klein, he was having trouble stopping his slow flight toward the giant.
Their gazes met among the layers of colors and symbols in the spirit world, and then Klein disappeared.
The giant on the mottled stone chair didn’t withdraw his gaze as he continued staring over in a long silence.
