Chapter 149
But both of them turned a blind eye to the money, their indifferent attitude making Professor Ashford question when his goodwill had become so worthless.
Am I still a Tier Three?
Professor Ashford's figure quickly vanished into the dark passage.
In the underground sanctuary, only Shaer and the unconscious Lucy remained.
Shaer lowered his head, reflecting on Professor Ashford's earlier words.
It seemed that the professor's main purpose for coming here was to persuade Adele to return to the Redemption Society. Did the higher-ups of the Redemption Society see some potential in Adele?
Moreover, the notebook had mentioned the professor seeking out Adele, which likely had nothing to do with his own misfortune... But why did the simulated version of himself encounter disaster right after meeting him?
Could it be that the person arriving here isn’t the key...
That meeting anyone isn’t the key...
The key is...
"Establishing contact with the extraordinary"?
Shaer quickly recalled the mind map he had created in the hotel, and after cross-referencing it, a clearer thread emerged before his eyes.
Almost every time misfortune struck, he had somehow established contact with different extraordinary beings beforehand.
When he interacted with Aivina and the others, it was just minor troubles, but when he engaged with higher-tier individuals, did his own disasters intensify?
If this line of thought holds, then a significant portion of his misfortunes could be accounted for.
Does encountering extraordinary beings bring me bad luck?
Had this happened before?
Shaer's thoughts hit a dead end.
Just then, a soft cough broke the silence. Shaer looked down towards Lucy, who was lying there, and saw her slowly opening her eyes, then painfully raising her hands to clutch her head.
"Ugh..."
She emitted a sound like a gurgle, as if she were drowning, as if something was lodged in her throat.
**Chapter 102: The Great! The Respected! The Omniscient Mother Goddess!**
"Hah... Hah... Hah..."
Heavy breaths echoed in the underground sanctuary.
Less than four meters away, the "Destined One," Lucy, propped herself up slowly, gasping violently like an injured beast.
Shaer could sense the complex and volatile negative emotions swirling in her mind, which indirectly affected him, forcing him to take two steps back, trying to distance himself from the influence Lucy had on him.
Crack—
In the process of retreating, Shaer's boot accidentally stepped on a piece of rubble.
The slight sound immediately caught the attention of Lucy, who was in an unknown state. She suddenly turned her head to look in Shaer's direction.
At that moment, Lucy's facial wounds pulsated rhythmically, and countless indescribable foreign substances began to burrow into her cheeks through the cracks in her skin. Her yellow-green right eye trembled as three purple pupils fixated on Shaer.
A sense of crisis surged in Shaer's heart, and a faint spiritual alarm buzzed in his mind. In an instant, four shadowy figures emerged from the darkness beneath him, standing protectively in front of Shaer.
"Hah... Hah..."
Lucy forced her head up, her chest heaving violently, but her breaths gradually weakened.
The indescribable substances on her face accelerated their invasion into her cheeks, until two minutes later, Lucy, drenched in sweat, let out a long sigh and lowered her head again.
Her body swayed slightly, and then she pushed herself up from the ground, slowly turning to face Shaer.
At that moment, the various abnormalities on her face had vanished, leaving only a few seemingly bottomless dark cracks and her right eye with three pupils.
Her left eye was completely red, the central black pupil no longer moving, appearing utterly ruined.
"Thank you..."
Lucy looked at Shaer and spoke, her voice hoarse.
She took slow steps toward Shaer, who cautiously moved aside. It seemed Lucy was heading toward the sealed object.
Shaer didn’t interrupt her; she needed to understand the function and side effects of that coin. If necessary, she could take advantage of Lucy's extreme weakness to kill her and take the coin before the simulation ended. The system would provide her with the answers.
Under Shaer's watchful gaze, Lucy staggered to the coin. Upon seeing its orientation, she finally lost control of her body and knelt before it, a faint smile appearing on her face.
Only after laughing until she was exhausted did Lucy lean against the boulder beside her, reaching for the coin and looking weakly at Shaer, saying, "Judge... do you have any more questions?"
"I want to know the source of your misfortune."
Shaer spoke directly.
"You are the 'Destined One'; it’s unusual for these misfortunes to occur to you."
"Indeed, it is unusual..."
Lucy tilted her head back, resting it against the boulder, and said, "But I don’t know the specific source of the misfortune."
After a moment of silence, Lucy continued, "I have a habit of divining my fortune before doing anything, then acting according to the results."
"Over a month ago, I received a task to investigate in Boren City. Before starting, I did a divination, and the result was... extreme danger, with a small probability of great reward."
High risk, high reward... Even as a "Destined One," does she still maintain a gambler's mindset? Or is it just Lucy?
"But after arriving here, I sensed something was off..."
Lucy closed her right eye, calming the dizziness in her mind before reopening it. "It seems that everything I do here ends in failure, even more absurd than when I drank the 'Harbinger of Misfortune' potion."
"But gradually, through divining my fortune, I discovered a pattern..."
A pattern?
Shaer perked up slightly.
Just moments ago, he had deduced part of his own misfortune's pattern, much of it stemming from "contact with the extraordinary."
"This pattern is 'tasks.'"
Lucy raised her hand and tapped the stone floor beside her, saying:
"My task here is to investigate the cultists in this manor..."
"But as soon as I do anything that deviates from 'investigation' or strays from the task's objective, misfortune arrives as expected, even if I leave the Dedton Manor."
So... this is why Lucy has been repeatedly investigating in Dedton Manor?
What is this pattern... or rather, this "rule" that prevents her from leaving Dedton Manor? Who established it? What kind of existence would impose such a "rule" on a Tier Three "Destined One"?
"Can this rule explain all the sources of your misfortunes?"
Shaer asked, continuing his inquiry.
Upon hearing Shaer's question, Lucy looked up in surprise, gazing at him as she murmured, "How do you..."
How does this red-haired girl know that there is more than one "misfortune rule" affecting her?
Even if a "Missionary" or "Glorious Bishop" were to come, they wouldn’t be able to deduce that there are multiple "misfortune rules" from mere snippets of conversation and her emotions, right? Because everything she said was the truth.
Lucy propped herself up, sitting a bit straighter to appear more formal.
She looked at Shaer and said, "Judge, allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Lucy Silufar, a Tier Three 'Destined One,' and a senior external officer of the Dedton Group. May I know your name?"
Why do these Tier Three extraordinary beings always add such lengthy prefixes when introducing themselves?
"Shaer."
Shaer replied, but the next moment, she suddenly realized something and closed her mouth.
In this simulation, she had already revealed her name to two individuals above Tier Three.
In other words, she had made substantial contact with two Tier Three extraordinary beings, even allowing them to know her.
This definitely counts as "contact with the extraordinary."
Had the "misfortune rules" been inherited by her simulated "Judge"?
"Do not contact the extraordinary" was a rule Shaer had only recently deduced could bring her misfortune, but before arriving at that conclusion, she had already interacted with two Tier Three extraordinary beings.
If the "misfortune rules" in the simulation were inherited by her "Judge" record, does that mean a greater misfortune is brewing at this very moment...
"Shaer..."
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