Chapter 142
The progress of the Aivina Reenactment Ceremony was slow, but Adele was moving much faster. The antidote for the "dehydration syndrome" she had previously concocted seemed to have unwittingly helped her complete most of the "Plague Doctor" reenactment. The potion was already prepared; now, she was just waiting for the right moment.
"Enough of that, I'm off to lunch. I should have news about the investigation by this afternoon."
**June 24, 4:50 PM**
This afternoon, there weren't many patients, but quite a few visitors came to see Aivina. Among them, I spotted some familiar faces.
The first was Lucy Xiluofa, a senior commissioner from the Dutton Group. She was there to apologize on behalf of the Dutton Manor, and the compensation plan was still under discussion. She promised to return with the compensation once it was finalized.
The second and third visitors were "Bishop of Radiance" Hugh and "Missionary" Yulis. They didn’t know me, but I was quite familiar with them. However, when they arrived, I was busy helping Adele test the potion, so I didn’t meet them directly.
According to Aivina, they came to ask if she had sensed anything unusual and offered to check if she had been brainwashed by cultists for free. It seemed they were screening people who had visited Dutton Manor for any overlooked cultists—I'd better keep Amy hidden.
—By the way, if Adele asks you to test a potion, you absolutely must refuse.
She insisted that she didn’t want her enemies to be able to use her potion directly if they found it. No mint, she said, and insisted on adding poison to the potion, which had to be taken with the antidote; otherwise, it would cause trouble.
The fourth visitor was an old professor from the Redemption Society, a third-tier expert who seemed to be Sherrin's teacher. He was unaware that Sherrin's incident had occurred at Aivina's home; he simply came to apologize to Adele and hoped she would return to the Redemption Society.
Aside from these four, there was actually a fifth force involved, but they weren’t visiting; Aivina had gone to visit them instead. It seemed the royal family had also sent someone to investigate. This was a major incident in Ansu, and the royal family couldn’t afford to ignore it.
You’re right; various interested parties began to emerge after this incident. The only concrete information we have is that the aftermath at Dutton Manor was handled very cleanly—there were no casualties aside from the cultists, just a few people with minor to serious injuries.
They could only trace the Saintly Sect and the sacrificial ritual, and the investigation had hit a deadlock.
The only force that could uncover something within was the Saintly Sect, but they seemed to have made no move at all.
Tomorrow night, there’s supposed to be a banquet where these people will gather to discuss the Dutton Manor sacrificial incident, and many extraordinary individuals will be invited.
As the person involved and the "local expert," Aivina was naturally invited. Since this was a simulation, I decided to go along with her, treating it as an investigation.
I hope this situation resolves soon.
Are members of the royal family also attending?
The appearance of unexpected yet predictable forces was not surprising, but it shouldn’t affect the overall situation.
In reality, Charles would never attend such a banquet, but in this simulation, for the sake of information, I chose to accompany Aivina.
They say criminals like to return to the scene of the crime; I never believed it until now.
Up to this point, the events recorded in the notebook seemed relatively normal.
Charles flipped through the pages until she reached one particular event, stopping her reading to flip back a few pages, her brow furrowing.
Chapter 99: The Inescapable Doom (6000-word chapter)
Words like "doom" and "misfortune" appeared too frequently in the notes.
Charles was not someone who often complained about "luck."
If something went wrong unexpectedly, she would only think it was her own oversight, pondering where she could improve to reduce the chances of a similar situation occurring again.
But in the simulation, even she could see through the words the misfortunes she had faced.
On the evening of June 25, while on her way to the banquet hall, Nia's warhorse went out of control, crashing into Charles along with the carriage. Although she managed to dodge in time, she still suffered a fractured leg and had to recuperate at Adele's for several days, missing the banquet.
All the details about the banquet were relayed to her by Aivina.
Not only that, but every few days thereafter, the simulated version of herself faced unexpected calamities.
These included, but were not limited to, an antique crystal chandelier in Aivina's home falling due to age, nearly being stabbed by a knife thrown from an upstairs argument while walking down the street, and stray bullets from gang shootouts…
All low-probability, trivial events, yet they nearly caused Charles fatal harm.
Fortunately, with the [Prophet's Vision], she managed to avoid most disasters, but the more she dodged, it seemed like some major catastrophe was triggered, forcing the simulated version of herself to use saved points to escape.
Not just Charles, even Aivina and the others noticed this anomaly.
But no matter how they checked, they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Charles.
No curses, no signs of extraordinary abilities, and she hadn’t even come into contact with any other extraordinary individuals.
It was as if these disasters were purely a matter of bad luck.
Aivina had proposed a hypothesis.
The next tier of the "Gambler," the second-tier "Doom Bringer," might experience such situations while digesting potions.
However, a "Doom Bringer" could only resist "doom" themselves or use their own "doom" to trap enemies in very close proximity; they couldn’t impose doom on others from a distance.
Yet during those days when Charles faced misfortune, there were no extraordinary individuals nearby.
Initially, Charles suspected the third-tier "Fate Weaver" sent by the Dutton Group, but the key point was that this "Fate Weaver" didn’t even know Charles, and she hadn’t attended the banquet that day.
According to the information Adele gathered from her sister Yulis, that "Fate Weaver" had been busy investigating leads related to Dutton Manor and had even hired a few "detectives" for assistance.
Aivina, by inquiring with detectives connected to the Russell family, received the same answer—Commissioner Lucy, the "Fate Weaver," was overwhelmed with work at the manor and hadn’t left the estate at all except for the day of the banquet.
In the simulation, Charles speculated that this "doom" was definitely related to her "fated death," the perpetrator pushing the simulation closer to its inevitable conclusion.
But what was the source of this "doom"?
Charles continued flipping pages, her mood growing heavier.
Just looking at the words made her feel oppressed.
Every day felt like she was living in a scene from "Final Destination," even drinking water made her worry about choking to death. In such circumstances, she still had to investigate the source of the doom.
After experiencing several terrifying misfortunes, Aivina could no longer bear to watch. She advised Charles to leave Brolin City for a while.
Knowing that staying in Brolin City wouldn’t yield much progress, the simulated version of Charles decided to follow the original plan and take her sister to leave Brolin City for Ansu, hoping that departing from Brolin City might lift the influence of this doom.
Looking at the last page of notes she had previously read, Charles still felt confused, prompting her to flip back to the first page and start her research anew.
This time, she didn’t immerse herself in the simulation; instead, she observed from a bystander's perspective.
She tore off a piece of paper and created a fishbone diagram with time as the main axis, sorting all the events in the notes by date and adding key annotations for the days when "doom" occurred.
Thus, a clear timeline of events emerged before Charles's eyes.
The timeline was organized, but she was still in the dark about the triggering conditions of the "doom."
The arrival of "doom" was completely unpredictable.
Whether lying at home or out investigating, doom shadowed her, and the disasters it triggered grew increasingly terrifying.
Moreover, this was a doom that couldn’t be resolved by simply leaving Brolin City.
Just like earlier, when Charles boarded the train leaving Brolin City, there wasn’t a single extraordinary individual on board, including herself.
Yet even in such circumstances, a massive disaster still struck, causing the simulated Charles to exhaust all her fated points and fall into a state of impending death.
Had she not arrived, that death would have been inevitable.
Charles tapped her pencil against the table, and after a while, she shifted her approach, marking the days when she was forced to use fated points against those without disasters for comparison.
Major catastrophes…
Swish, swish, swish—
Table of Contents
