Chapter 520: Chapter 33 Board Games
The sunset dyed the clouds a crimson red, the entire sky seemed ablaze, the scorching sun hung at the horizon’s edge, making it hard to look directly at. In the parking lot outside the Order Bureau, Palmer sat in the driver’s seat, while Bologue took the passenger seat.
"That’s pretty much it, next there’s a small gathering to celebrate our successful promotion, and also to help you vent some inner gloom, make you a bit more optimistic..."
"Alright, alright, just drive already."
Bologue waved dismissively, looking indifferent. He could only bear half of Palmer’s nonsense; without Palmer’s ramblings, he wouldn’t be considered someone with psychological problems.
"Haha!"
Palmer laughed non-stop, this guy always found amusement in odd places, no wonder he got along so well with Serey.
Palmer said, "Speaking of which, we also invited Aimou, but she refused."
Bologue shifted his gaze from the scene outside to Palmer’s face, "What happened?"
"She said she’s busy, nobody knows what she’s busy with, so she declined."
Palmer scrutinized Bologue curiously, "You two don’t have any conflicts..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Bologue shot him a signature stern look, and Palmer’s rambling got stuck in his throat.
Awkwardly coughing a few times, Palmer started the car.
Feeling the vibration of the engine, Bologue reached out and buckled his seatbelt.
"Are you serious?"
Palmer shouted loudly, Bologue’s act of buckling his seatbelt made him feel insulted.
Bologue remained unmoved and said, "Traffic regulations. Didn’t your instructor mention these when you took driving lessons?"
"You..."
Palmer halted his words, almost unable to criticize anything. He couldn’t just say, "You fear getting unlucky with me," as that would admit he’s the jinx.
Regarding the self-awareness of being a jinx, Palmer was always flexible. When convenient, he called himself a jinx to dodge responsibility; when not, he resisted the label, saying others misjudged him.
Bologue couldn’t care less about this, turned on the radio, listening to the noise, and looked at the scenery outside.
Bologue indeed felt some oppression; even though he was promoted to a Prayer Believer, the cheerful sentiments hardly diluted this oppression.
His mind continually replayed the image of the astronaut and various aspects of his "past life." Those memories for Bologue seemed too distant. Reflecting on them now carried an unreal sensation.
Was that real, or some fabrication?
His life was the same.
Does Bologue Lazarus truly possess free will or is he merely a character penned by someone?
He couldn’t comprehend, Bologue wanted to chat with Nesanel but realized he lacked the capability to contact this Minister of External Affairs. Asking Lebius, Lebius indicated Nesanel often goes missing, and he frequently couldn’t contact him either.
No one provided answers for Bologue, nor could Bologue uncover them himself, so he could only strive to forget these chaotic matters, to make his current life more comfortable.
"I’m the Undead..." Bologue muttered to himself, "I have endless time to seek the truth."
"What did you say?"
Palmer turned and asked, Bologue ignored him, pretending not to hear.
Bologue didn’t know the exact location of the gathering; anyway, he left it to Palmer. If Palmer wasn’t unlucky, he was actually quite reliable.
Watching the bustling traffic, stopping and going at intersections, Oubos in Oath City was vast, so large that it branched into various districts, many people spent a significant amount of time on commutes.
Palmer disliked silence, so he started a conversation topic with Bologue, "Bologue, what’s up with your Secret Energy?"
"You mean Flame of the Cauldron?"
Bologue perked up a bit. Unlike Palmer, who inherited a perfect path, Bologue’s path to promotion was completely unknown, including naming, information recording, and so on. All were entirely led by Bologue himself.
"Mm-hmm, during the bout, I felt my Flying Knife was disrupted by you... Given the nature of your Secret Energy, it shouldn’t be, but that’s what happened."
The car halted at a red light. Palmer carefully pondered, "It’s as if you broke through the limitations of Ethereum Mutual Exclusion, thus affecting me."
"Breaking Ethereum Mutual Exclusion? That sounds a bit incredible."
Bologue hadn’t noticed these things, during the bout he constantly thought about how to bypass Palmer’s observation to deliver a fatal blow.
"You and I are of the same Tier, wanting to break through the nature of Ethereum Mutual Exclusion is somewhat too presumptuous."
Bologue provided the denial.
In the disputes among Condensers, Ether from different Condensers interferes and repels each other, which is Ethereum Mutual Exclusion. Among them, Ethereum Mutual Exclusion manifests most obviously, protecting the Condenser’s own shield, which is the Rectangular Soul Critical.
Under the protection of Rectangular Soul Critical, Condensers themselves won’t be disturbed by external forces, but when the Tier difference is too great, or the injury too severe, the self-protective Rectangular Soul Critical will gradually collapse, and then be influenced by the opponent.
Palmer didn’t continue talking and stepped on the brakes; they arrived at the destination.
"Oh? It’s here, you really know how to pick."
Bologue glanced at the surrounding environment, immediately recalling his experiences here.
Here, in Landling District, is not far from the dock. Initially, he and Palmer’s first operation was around here, he remembers it was a raid on a Man-eater’s warehouse.
Bologue also remembers, around this bar, he encountered Afeiya from the flower shop and even helped her solve some troubles.
Palmer patted Bologue’s shoulder, signaling him to follow. Familiar feelings from memory kept surfacing as Palmer led Bologue to the bar where he met Afeiya back then; Bologue didn’t expect it would actually be here.
When the two arrived, the sky had already turned dark. Lingna District was quite far from here, and they spent considerable time on the way.
Nightfall had just descended, and there weren’t many people inside the bar. A person was already seated at a table near the bar, waiting for the two.
"Yo! Church!"
Palmer waved at the figure; Church turned his head and nodded at them.
After sitting down, their gazes intertwined briefly.
"Is it just us?"
Bologue felt deceived by Palmer again; instead of a promotion ceremony celebration, this felt more like a few of them grabbing a drink after work. If so, they didn’t need to come all this way. They could have had a good drink at the Undying Club.
"Temporarily, it’s like this."
Church checked the time. This time his appearance was still as Bologue remembered, unremarkable, hard to notice in a crowd.
With several encounters, through chatting with Church, Bologue also roughly understood Church’s Secret Energy.
Secret Energy·Faceless Man belongs to the Body Ascension school of Secret Energy; it doesn’t have offensive abilities, just modifies the Condenser’s appearance and physique.
Since joining the Order Bureau, Church has been working at Crow’s Nest, hence when choosing Secret Energy as a Condenser, he opted for this perfectly fitting intelligence personnel Secret Energy.
"What do you mean temporarily?"
Bologue felt something was amiss, then immediately understood why.
When night falls, those who can only live in shadows emerge. The bar’s door was forcefully pushed open, a mysterious stranger appeared at the entrance, dressed in a pitch-black long coat, completely concealing his physical characteristics.
Bologue was just getting a bit wary, then the stranger took off his hat, revealing ruby-like eyes.
"What a coincidence! Everyone!"
Serey casually seated, animated in front of everyone.
"Is this all?"
Bologue looked at Palmer coldly; he already wanted to go home.
"Don’t rush, mainly here for some special activities."
Palmer spoke mysteriously, his eyes signaling Serey; Serey seemed to understand, lifting a pitch-black box onto the table.
Under Bologue’s curious gaze, Serey opened the box in one swift motion.
No surprising events occurred; inside the box was just a pile of dices, cards, chess pieces, and a large map.
Serey efficiently spread the map, occupying more than half the table, and selected several chess pieces from it, asking everyone to pick.
Bologue was a bit puzzled, "What are you up to?"
Serey enthusiastically said, "Bologue, you’re a bit ignorant here!"
After the preliminary setup, a complex and grand chess board structure appeared before Bologue, resembling a war game board.
Serey picked up a twelve-sided dice, speaking mysteriously.
"You’ve never played tabletop games?"