Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 209: The Leaker (End of Backlund Volume, this chapter will be updated in small amounts)

Ten days later.

On a sunny afternoon, Klein, wearing a half-high silk hat and a black double-breasted formal jacket, and Sam, who was dressed almost the same, pushed open the door of 15 Minsk Street.

In the living room, the brothers Alister and Perseus were reading the newly arrived "Tussock Humorous Stories" with Bandit, while Roger and Cecilia were sitting together talking about something. Cecilia was amused by the former and giggled, and seemed to be in a very good mood.

"You're back? How's things going?"

Seeing Klein and Sam returning home, Roger smiled and asked.

"It's done. Although it took some time, they finally got Prince Edessak away."

Klein answered as he took off his half-high silk hat and hung his coat on the coat rack.

After Cecilia completely digested the "Gravedigger" potion, Roger rushed to Prince Edessac's estate and rescued him from being nearly killed by the assassins sent by the royal family.

This completely ruined the Loen royal family's plan to use the long-unpopular prince as a scapegoat.

Because Triss had escaped in advance, the witch was not caught in the prince's manor, but the many witnesses and evidence left at the scene were enough to prove that the prince had had an affair with the witch.

However, considering that Prince Edessak had no prior knowledge of the situation, the Storm Church, with the assistance of conservative nobles, protected the third prince as a tainted witness.

And today is the day when the prince was secretly transferred.

"Thank you for your hard work. What did the king say?"

Roger nodded slightly and continued asking.

“…I heard, just heard.”

Klein plopped down on the chair and gulped down a few gulps of cold water before continuing:

"The king is being questioned by the three major churches, but there has been no substantive result so far."

"Well, now this has become a troublesome matter for the three major churches."

In this steam age, secular royal power has gradually begun to compete with divine power, so it is very difficult for the church to openly arrest the king.

Overall, George III did a pretty good job of self-packaging in the past, so the public opinion that knew nothing about the truth would not accept such an outcome.

On the other hand, considering that there are many angels and demigods in the Augustus family, they will not allow such a direct slap in the face and lose face.

But no matter what, with such a big incident, George III was completely defeated.

After that, either he would be strictly controlled and deprived of actual power, or the power would gradually be transferred to Prince Covington, who would ascend the throne and take power, so as to quell the negative influence of George III.

It is hard to say what would have happened to George III after that.

However, in Roger's opinion, it is highly likely that this will not be a "good" ending.

On the other hand, George III originally wanted to use the public crisis caused by smog and the large number of deaths as an excuse to eliminate the traces of human trafficking and shift the blame to the conservative aristocrats who had been obstructing the passage of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act.

If he succeeds, those conservative nobles and parliamentarians will be accused of sedition, arrested and even stripped of their titles, and even the church will find it difficult to survive.

However, thanks to the collaboration and early intervention of Roger and the Orthodox Church, the negative impact of the "Backlund Great Smog" was minimized. Apart from the deaths of a very small number of people with pre-existing chronic diseases or elderly people with relatively weak bodies, the conditions of the remaining victims were generally not serious, and they gradually recovered after a period of hospitalization.

Without the king's interference, the Loen Kingdom Parliament finally passed two major bills, the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act" and the "Labor Welfare Protection Act," as well as a series of other related bills with a high vote.

This was naturally welcomed by workers and civilians, and smokeless coal companies represented by Coim also ushered in new development opportunities.

Because they anticipated this, Roger and Klein bought a lot of Coim shares at the right time and have already made a huge profit.

But Roger had no plans to sell his shares for the time being, because the stock price of the promising Coim Company must have only just begun to rise.

Instead, it was Klein who cashed in part of his shares ahead of time and paid off all the money he owed Roger.

"By the way, there's one more thing."

Sam suddenly smiled and said, "Cousin, I have completely digested the 'Fortune Teller' potion."

"Congratulations."

Roger nodded, unsurprised.

After Cecilia was promoted to Sequence 7 "Psychic", Sam had been scratching his head and was very envious.

After all, he originally thought that he should be promoted earlier than Cecilia, but the latter progressed much faster than him.

This made Sam very anxious.

But fortunately, he finally managed to digest the potion successfully.

"It just so happens that you came to my place today, so I might as well mix the 'Joker' potion."

What Roger said was exactly what Sam expected. The boy's eyes lit up immediately and he nodded repeatedly.

"Let me do it... After all, I don't know when I'll see Sam again."

According to the agreement, after Sam was promoted to Sequence 8, Roger and Klein would both leave Backlund.

Before leaving, Klein wanted to help his "diviner" disciple fulfill his duties as a teacher one last time.

He then went to the basement storage room with Roger to get the ingredients for the "Joker" potion that he had prepared for his apprentice.

He lit the alcohol lamp and added various auxiliary and main ingredients into the beaker in turn. Klein completed the preparation of the "Joker" potion with ease.

The liquid in the glass was dyed with gold, yellow and red, which intertwined with each other yet were extremely clear.

Bubbles rolled and surged in the liquid, but could not escape and could only shatter sadly.

Sam stared at the "Joker" potion he had been looking forward to for a long time, swallowed his saliva, drank it all in one gulp, and began to sit on the ground to meditate and stabilize the power of the potion.

Seeing this, the two naughty boys Alister and Perseus also consciously shut their mouths and did not disturb their cousin's promotion.

After a long while, Sam finally opened his eyes.

He looked around, then looked at Cecilia and smiled.

"What are you doing?"

The long-haired girl immediately took a step back warily and looked at Sam nervously.

When she was promoted to Sequence 8, she placed an apple on Sam's head and then kicked it to pieces.

Now she suspects that Sam, who has been promoted to "Joker", wants to use her brain to play the same "throwing knife to pierce apple" thing.

"Tsk tsk, I can't afford to play with it."

Sam shook his head, somersaulted several times in the living room, trying out his newfound strength, and then took a tarot card handed to him by Klein.

He took a deep breath, and the tarot cards suddenly flew out and accurately cut a grape that Roger had placed on the dining table for him into two halves.

"Congratulations on becoming 'The Joker'."

Watching Sam display an ability that was very familiar to him, Klein finally felt relieved and celebrated.

"Well, everyone, pack up, we should leave."

Roger glanced at the wall clock and spoke.

When they heard they were going out, the twins cheered immediately. They got up excitedly and soon changed into their most formal clothes. Then they went out with Roger and others, stopped two taxis and got in.

After more than half an hour, the carriage stopped at the door of the Royal Art Troupe, and people came out one after another and looked at the magnificent building.

But what was different today was that outside the building, there were actually many people from all walks of life, with different clothing and styles, queuing up to check their tickets, and they were extremely happy.

Today is the day of the monthly performance of De Work Music Company and the premiere of "Aurora Love Letters" co-produced by Alice and Roger.

Considering the great success and popularity of "Aurora Love Letters" among the common people, Roger wrote a letter to Baron de Walker, asking him to use part of the public welfare fund generated by the auction of the phonograph to give out 100 tickets in the form of a lottery, and invite the people who won the tickets to listen to the cultural performance for free.

Most of the people queuing in front of me are the lucky winners.

"What a coincidence... Little Sun told me earlier through Mr. Fool that today should also be the day when several musicians from the City of Silver collaborate to perform the Dawn Quartet for the first time in public."

With the previous experience of "Four Seasons Autumn" and "Four Seasons Winter", "Dawn Quartet" was spread with almost no obstacles.

Although many people still argue about which ancient musician they were created by, it doesn't matter.

Roger thought of this and smiled slightly.

He straightened his clothes, touched the bandit on his shoulder, and entered through the VIP ticket channel with his relatives and friends.

On the way, many people who were queuing recognized the kingdom's famous musician and excitedly greeted Roger, thanking him for providing free tickets. Some brave girls even loudly expressed their love for Roger.

Roger responded one by one with a half smile and half embarrassment. After calming down the emotions of the fans at the scene, he walked through the somewhat dim VIP passage with his relatives and friends.

As the scene before them suddenly became spacious and bright, they arrived inside a huge performance hall.

After Thomas Doyle and other members of the Steam Church had helped Alice successfully transform a new stage effects device, the latter had installed this mature device in the backstage of the performance hall in advance.

Not only that, Alice also kindly invited Fors to help her control these devices at critical moments and appropriately shut down some mechanisms.

Roger naturally had no objection to such an arrangement. On the contrary, he was happy for Fors, Abraham's loyal student, to gradually get closer to the members of the Abraham family through Alice.

After Roger and others took their seats in the VIP seats, ordinary people and so-called successful people in the stands at the back also filed in through several entrances.

Although those proud people were dissatisfied with the arrangement of Dwork Music Company, there was no better solution.

After all, this was the first public performance of "Aurora Love Letters", and they also wanted to see the famous singer Miss Alice Yeman in person.

Soon, as Mr. Edmund De Work and Roger took turns to come on stage to deliver their welcome speeches, the gas lights in the performance hall suddenly dimmed, and the opening performance of "Four Seasons - Winter" with its cool and cheerful rhythm resounded throughout the hall.

For many people, it was their first time to attend such a high-level concert. They held their breath and immersed themselves in it for a moment.

Roger smiled as he felt the excitement on the scene, and watched the performances and announcements begin and end, feeling quite emotional.

Soon, as the announcement of "Aurora Love Letters" sounded, Alice Iman, wearing a white long dress and full of elf-like temperament, also slowly walked onto the stage.

The atmosphere at the scene reached a climax in an instant. Many people, whether rich or poor, regardless of their education level, regardless of their etiquette for music, cheered and applauded in unison at this moment.

At this moment, barriers and prejudices between people are broken, and everyone resonates with the same spirit and emotion.

Elsewhere, in a bleak and gloomy corner of the City of Silver, hundreds of people, including Derrick, sat together, watching the musicians in front of them tune their patched-up ancient instruments as they listened to the opening beat of the "Dawn Quartet."

For a moment, they seemed to have returned to the glorious era when the gods still existed.

There are no monsters, no haze, and no endless lightning and thunder.

The sun rises every day, horses gallop across the grassland, and singing and laughter still exist.

People do not have to fight monsters, nor do they have to risk their own happiness for the fate of their tribe, becoming moths that fly into the fire and die one after another.

This is the obsession that has supported generations of human survivors in the "God-forsaken Land" to fight for it, and it is also a hymn of strength and hope.

Inspired by the music, Derrick gently wiped away the tears from his eyes and silently clenched his fists.

At this moment, he truly understood what Mr. "Wheel of Fortune" had said:
Even in the eternal night, there is thunder in my heart.

As the bright anchors coming from the unfathomable mystery on the other side of the Sonia Sea lit up before Roger's eyes one after another, "Aurora Love Letters" also reached its climax.

"The feathers are stranded between the collarbones,
"The sunset glows on the unsent letter,

"Your name runs through my veins,

"A birthmark vein that grew into a rose shape..."

As Alice's voice suddenly became louder, a dreamy white mist and flashes suddenly rose from the stage where Fors had quietly turned off the scenery device, making Alice look like an angel descending to earth.

That was the performance of the "Master of Magic".

All the audience were stunned for a moment.

They looked at Alice, listened to her singing, and felt the music connecting their different hearts into one.

Benelux Jones, no, Roger Abraham's musical rules penetrated all barriers at the same time and crossed the vast ocean, from Backlund in the west to the God-forsaken Land in the east.

"This is the true meaning of 'composer'..."

Roger quietly felt the shattering sensation and listened to the sudden crisp shattering sound in his heart.

The "Composer" potion was completely digested.

……

That night after the performance, somewhere in the deserted suburbs of Backlund.

Roger paid for the carriage and watched the coachman go away.

He found a clean stone to sit on, and then looked at the bright moon in the sky.

A moment later, the figure of a man wearing a simple white robe, with a light golden beard and a warm and peaceful temperament gradually appeared behind Roger.

This is Adam. "You're here."

Roger didn't even turn his head, just nodded slightly and said hello.

"Ah."

Adam slowly walked to Roger's side and looked at the moon in the sky with him.

After a moment, he shook his head slightly, as if recalling something, then looked at Roger sitting next to him and asked:
"are you ready?"

"Otherwise I wouldn't have asked you to come."

Roger smiled and stood up.

According to the agreement, when he completely digested the "Composer" potion, Adam would come to help him complete the promotion ceremony of "Judgment Star" Path Sequence 5 "Leaker".

The content of this ceremony is: "Overcoming numerous obstacles, witnessing with one's own eyes a huge secret that can affect the fate of many people, and refraining from revealing it in any form until the promotion is completed."

Roger knew this secret, but he didn't witness it with his own eyes.

"Go."

Adam nodded slightly, signaling Roger that he could begin.

The latter nodded, thanked him softly, and suddenly an indescribable powerful aura burst out from his body.

This imposing figure even completely surpassed the angel king Adam next to him.

Adam, who had seen this scene before, had no emotion in his eyes. He watched Roger's figure leave the ground and rise rapidly to the top of the sky.

Along the way, Roger felt a lot of indescribable attention and malice directed at him, as if those great beings were paying attention to his every abnormal move.

However, he simply followed the guidance given by Adam and moved forward without hesitation, feeling the waves of malice, the obstruction of extraordinary abilities, and even direct attacks passing by his body by chance.

Not only that, numerous dark clouds inexplicably drifted and gathered towards the northern continent, almost blocking out even the moonlight for a moment.

Soon, Roger arrived at a place very high in the sky, close to the dome, where there was nothing but the moon and starlight.

As if sensing the noisy oppressive feeling from him, a violent, daylight-like light suddenly bloomed in the originally dark starry sky.

It was in this moment of supernova-like light that Roger witnessed with his own eyes the extreme oppression and indescribable horror outside the barrier.

That is the biggest secret in the world right now.

However, Roger seemed to be completely unaffected. Instead, he shook his right hand in the air, and a small crystal that was almost pure black, but full of dense cracks and emitted a faint light appeared in his hand.

Then, without any auxiliary materials, he swallowed the "Leaker" Beyonder characteristic directly into his mouth.

As Roger closed his eyes, he felt as if he was connected to countless secrets in the world and even in the universe, and felt countless secrets that were difficult to describe in words flooding into his heart.

At this moment, he felt like he had almost become an extremely active volcano, with an irrepressible desire to explode, to confide, to release pollution, and to spread these secrets to the whole world to release his stress.

However, with the protection of the power of "All Things Return to One" and the immense secret scene pressing on his heart like a mainstay, Roger finally succeeded in ensuring that his mind was not dispersed by the flood of information composed of those secrets, did not lose control, and did not have his brain explode directly.

About a minute later, Roger opened his eyes and looked at the starry sky, which had returned to darkness.

At this moment, he successfully got promoted.

Promoted to "leaker"!
However, before Roger could calm down, he suddenly had the strange feeling he had experienced this evening.

The "Leaker" potion has been completely digested!

He was slightly stunned, then realized something.

"Yes, I revealed so many secrets before..."

Roger's mouth twitched wildly. Through his past experiences, he summed up a lot of experience as a "leaker" almost in an instant.

Before the power of "One of All Things" disappeared, he returned to the ground again.

The "angel of fantasy" Adam had quietly left at some point, and the dark clouds in the sky gradually began to dissipate, revealing the moon and stars again.

And Roger finally had the chance to truly understand his newfound abilities.

In addition to further strengthening his existing abilities, he mainly gained three new abilities.

The first ability is called "Secret Insight".

The power of "Leaker" allows Roger to easily gain insight into the secrets of opponents or organizations that are not much higher than his own sequence level, even if the target is protected by extraordinary powers such as "Secrecy" or "Hidden".

This kind of secret insight is not only manifested at the factual level, but also at the mystical level. The "leaker" can discover the hidden connections between things that are composed of secrets. The weaker the connection, the easier it is to "see the secret."

Not only that, "leakers" can easily use their intuition to identify which secrets are the most important and focus on uncovering them.

This ability has great restraint on the extraordinary people of the "Gate" path and the "Darkness" path. Even Roger, who has completely digested the "Leaker" potion, has a certain probability of gaining insight into the truth that has been blocked by the high-level extraordinary people of these paths.

The second ability is called "leak".

In his previous life, Roger had read a theory: All the power and concentration of authority in the world must start with keeping secrets.

When great secrets are revealed, strength and power tend to disintegrate and collapse.

And "leaking" is a realistic expression of this idea.

Based on the successful realization of "secret insight", Roger can directly expose these secrets through occult means.

This release is not just about revealing the secret itself, but its greater significance lies in temporarily abolishing the power or privilege that the opponent has gained through the secret.

For example, abilities like "Secret Keeping" and "Exile" used by Butis were all maintained through secret connections between himself and multiple "worlds behind the door", while the "leaker" had the opportunity to directly leak and abolish part or all of this secret, which would cause Butis's "Secret Keeping" door to open and temporarily lose control of those "worlds behind the door".

Another example is that for certain secret organizations or privileged institutions, Roger can use his "leak" ability to create various fateful coincidences to leak the secrets on which they rely to maintain their power, thereby undermining their power advantage over those who do not know these secrets.

Like George III's previous secret mausoleum plan, it seems very secretive, but it relies heavily on rules and the information gap deliberately created by the "Witch Sect" for internal grassroots personnel to keep it secret.

However, the "leaker" was able to leak this information one by one, and finally gradually pieced together the truth of the incident to the outside world, thereby dismantling the "Black Emperor" promotion ceremony plot.

In Roger's opinion, this ability is likely to exert extremely buggy power at a high sequence, but he cannot imagine the specific details yet.

Both "secret insights" and "leaks" are restricted by the sequence level.

Although Roger has a certain possibility of influencing high-sequence extraordinary people, he will also be used by them in return.

For example, High-Sequence Beyonders from the "wrong" path are, in a sense, more restrained against "leakers."

The third ability Roger obtained is called "Fate Twist".

This is another ability of the Destiny Realm.

Like power, a person's destiny comes from the accumulation of countless personal choices and the secrets of his or her past.

For example, some people made their first fortune through shady means and gained power and status. Roger can see through these secrets and temporarily distort the remaining influence of these secrets to create bad luck for the other party for a period of time.

Of course, this is just one of the ways to use "Fate Distortion". It can also distort the fate that brings suffering to people and improve their situation for a period of time.

However, this capability also has two limitations.

The first is that if the corresponding secret involves the fate of many people at the same time, the effect of "fate distortion" will become worse, because in essence it is a distortion of the fate of a certain group, just like it is easy to break a chopstick, but breaking ten chopsticks will become very difficult.

The second limitation is that it is difficult for Roger to distort his own destiny because the code of the role of the whistleblower dictates that he needs to maintain his own secrets.

Even if you succeed by chance and forcibly distort your own destiny, your destiny will be truly distorted and cannot be easily restored.

This is not a good thing, as it means that Roger will lose control of his own destiny to a great extent, and may not even be able to accurately predict his future fortune.

On the other hand, he cannot exchange the distorted fate of others for his own, because the secrets of others are not his own secrets. This can only be achieved if both parties share the same secret.

Overall, Roger is very satisfied with his new abilities.

He gently threw the "traveler's dice" and returned to 15 Minsk Street.

……

three days later.

In Pritz Harbor, the sea is calm and the sky is clear.

Roger and Klein, with Bandit standing on their shoulders, stood side by side on the dock, carrying their bags, facing Sam, Cecilia, the twin brothers, Alice, Sharon, Maric, and other relatives and friends.

"Then I'll leave the house to you. Supervise Alister and Perseus' studies. If they don't behave, you can write to me and I'll use the 'Traveler's Dice' to rush back and deal with them.

"Alice should also pay more attention, especially to Fors."

Roger said to Sam and the other three with a smile.

"Teacher, you can go with peace of mind."

Alice nodded and then touched Perseus' head.

"Yes, cousin, you and Detective Moriarty can go ahead without worry. I can still control these two little guys."

Cecilia also pulled Alister's face.

After receiving their assurance, Roger looked at Sharon and Maric again:
"Ms. Sharon, Mr. Maric, thank you for your assistance during this time. I hope everything is going well for you."

Sharon said nothing, but bowed slightly, while Maric pounded his chest lightly.

Klein also thanked the two of them, then looked at Sam, who was wearing the same style of clothes as him:

"From now on, the Moriarty Detective Agency will be handed over to you."

Sam's nose felt slightly sore. He nodded vigorously, then came up and gave Klein a big hug.

In fact, what Klein didn't say was that he also reminded Mr. Azik to pay more attention to the people left in Backlund and protect them appropriately.

Roger also hugged and said goodbye to several people. Even Bandit seemed reluctant to leave and jumped down to rub their trouser legs.

Behind him, a loud whistle sounded.

A middle-aged man with an unshaven beard walked over along the pier and said to Roger:

"Little Roger, your boat with Detective Moriarty has been arranged and is ready to depart at any time."

"Thank you, Uncle Wiseman."

Roger thanked him sincerely. The man in front of him was actually Old Wiseman, an old friend of the Abraham family, the owner of the "Flame Dragon" bar in Pritz Harbor, and Ethan Wiseman's father.

Wiseman nodded slightly and didn't say anything polite to Roger.

Then, Roger turned to Klein, and the two stood facing each other.

A sea breeze blew, making the two men's clothes rustle.

"Write to me more often and return to Backlund alive."

Roger spoke up.

Klein smiled and shook his head:

"It's like a farewell between life and death. You have the 'Philemon's Bell' in your hand. If you miss me one day, just come find me.

"Besides, I have several Sealed Artifacts on me, as well as the 'Blood Cross Brooch' you lent me. Keeping myself alive shouldn't be a big problem."

Roger nodded slightly when he heard this:
"If you really can't win, you can call on me as a backup."

"Shit."

Klein laughed and punched Roger, who also burst out laughing.

"Back to business."

After the laughter, Roger solemnly extended his right hand towards Klein.

"Then, see you later, Klein Moretti."

"Thank you for your care. See you later."

Klein also put away the smile on his face and shook hands solemnly with Roger.

"It's getting late, let's go."

After hearing Wiseman's words, Roger and Klein both nodded.

As Sam and the others watched, Roger and Crane boarded two different ships and headed for two different destinations.

Only when Roger could no longer see them did he carry Bandit onto the deck, look at the azure Sonia Sea in front of him, and take a deep breath of the salty sea breeze.

"Here I come, sea."

(End of this chapter)