abnormal mutation

Chapter 124 Chaos or Destiny?
Hotel living room.

Roland inserted the key into the money box, and with a click, the mechanical lock opened. He waved for Evan and the others to step back before yanking open the box.

"Wow..." the boys exclaimed, dumbfounded.

Under the bright lights, the box was filled with bright green banknotes, glittering silver coins, and various gems, a dazzling array that was mesmerizing.

The banknotes were mostly in small denominations, with the top stack consisting of hundred-yuan bills. Roland picked one up and casually weighed it; it was probably around seven or eight thousand.

'This seems to be the money I spent before.' It all came back after going in and out.

He overturned the money box, dumped everything onto the floor, then opened the cloth bag next to it, revealing a pile of wallets, some of which were stained with blood.

"It's up to you now. Count them carefully and organize them properly."

When Evan and his friends saw the wallet, they weren't scared. Instead, they excitedly rubbed their hands together and sat huddled together, unsure of what to do next.

Roland released two wolves to guard against any foolish thieves breaking in, while he hurriedly returned to his room with a box of potions. Compared to the money, the real gain was in the chessboard.

Upon entering the secret vault of the Fugen Tavern, everything was neatly organized and categorized on a chessboard, without the slightest disorder.

Roland was extremely satisfied with the now-empty vault. He put on the Eye of Pro and inspected and counted the contents of the vault.

A chessboard can be appraised, but its uses are unknown, such as various materials. Pro can complement this in this respect, making it easier for him to understand the true value of an item.

The largest proportion consists of various unusual materials, which are bizarre and varied, but their quality is generally mediocre, and some are quite polluting.

There are only a few extraordinary traits, more than twenty, many of which come from the Thistle Merchant Guild. The highest level is the mid-sequence extraordinary trait of the Gluttony pathway.

Aside from the two sealed artifacts and the greatsword, there were two low-sequence magical items, but they couldn't be brought into the spirit world and were immediately swallowed by the Rune Seed.

The trunk in the hotel room contained dozens of potions: healing, calming, detoxifying, hallucinogenic, kidney-strengthening... a whole jumbled mess. Among them were two contaminated Sequence 9 potions, one for the Knight path and one for the Craftsman path.

The more than 7,000 grams of gold had long been transformed into liquid divine metal by him.

Roland summoned the Seed of Runes, letting it devour more than a dozen extraordinary traits, causing the abnormal mutations to continue unabated.

The extraordinary traits from the middle sequence are reserved for the Rune Seed, and the rest are absorbed by the Energy Pool, resulting in 460 Spiritual Glimmers and 12 units of extraordinary traits.

He doesn't plan to touch the most numerous extraordinary materials for the time being. If he needs to use the Paradox Worm later, these materials can be used as normal materials.

If we wait until we need it to buy it, I don't know how much time that will take.

After quickly taking stock of the other spoils, Roland breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, it was time for the three most anticipated magical items.

The greatsword is named "Gluttony's Throat," a Sequence Level 5 sword made from the spine of a high-sequence Extraordinary being of the Gluttony pathway. It is over three meters long and has a ferocious appearance.

The extraordinary abilities are power amplification and flesh fortress, all of which enhance one's own characteristics. The negative effects are even more abnormal: the sword wielder must devour at least one of his own kind every week, otherwise a certain organ will mutate into a "disordered lump of flesh".

'I knew the Thistle Merchant Guild was no good.'

He always thought that binge eating was just about having a big appetite, but he never expected that they would eat people!
He promptly abandoned this thing, what a waste of such a high sequence level.

The other two items were sealed artifacts obtained from the secret chamber, along with the containers that sealed them.

The first one is the [Substitute Doll], Sequence Level 6. It has an abstract appearance, a bloated body, and many hands and feet. It was previously locked in a tight iron cage. When it was in the sealed room, it was very active, jumping around. Now it is locked in an energy shield and is unusually docile.

It has only one extraordinary ability: Stand Suffering. The Stand doll is hidden in the holder's shadow and "randomly" activates when the holder is in danger, absorbing a potentially fatal attack.

The price is that a limb or organ of the owner will be transplanted into the doll, including core organs such as the brain and heart.

'Resisting random attacks, random activation, random organs... what's the point?'

Roland thought this thing was more suited for harming people. It had the ability to forcibly parasitize, and could be thrown at an opponent during battle to unleash a barrage of attacks; perhaps a random attack would trigger the Stand. Even losing a kidney would be outrageous.

'No wonder it was sealed away; its harmful effects outweighed its positive ones.'

The last item was sealed in a square, silver metal box covered with gold inscriptions.

Since the box could be brought in, it must be an extraordinary item of great value. Only after the chessboard was examined did Roland learn how to open the metal box.

There is a phantom image above the metal box; this is an image of the object projected by the energy shield.

It started as a twenty-sided die, bronze in color, of unknown material, with a peculiar symbol on each side, emitting a faint glow.

After a while, the die transformed into a crimson sphere, indistinct and constantly collapsing and expanding, spinning endlessly.

The sequence level is unknown, and the chessboard can only roughly determine its abilities and uses. Fortunately, the box contains a spiritual message that provides some guidance.

This sealed artifact is like Schrödinger's cat, with two sides before it is obtained: chaos and destiny. The moment it is held, it collapses into a possibility, which depends on the holder's attitude towards both.

Chaos refers to a state that is vague, disordered, unpredictable, and uncontrollable, and is not bound by reality or fate; it is full of unknowns.

Destiny is largely the opposite; it believes that everything in the world is arranged by fate, has faith in gods, fears the unknown, and all actions and choices are made in order to strive for the best outcome in a given event.

Many people say they don't believe in fate or God, and that their purpose in embarking on the extraordinary path is to rewrite their destiny and gain the greatest possible freedom.

However, the opposite is true.

For extraordinary individuals at higher sequences, the rules of traits have been integrated into their souls, limiting their actions and thoughts. The higher they go, the narrower the path becomes, and the final outcome is always certain.

If you receive a 20-sided die, it will automatically roll a number from 1 to 20 every morning at midnight. This number represents the holder's fate for that day and cannot be changed.

The holder's task is simple: survive. Each additional day you live accumulates a bit of luck. When you reach twenty points, you can make a wish. If you spend no more than twenty points, your wish will surely come true.

If your wishes are too big, you'll need to accumulate more luck.

However, this is not an easy task. Most people do not live past twenty days. The ultimate misfortune of 1 point is uncommon, but bad luck of 3 or 5 points is frequent, and even the extraordinary cannot withstand it more than a few times.

If one obtains a Chaos Sphere, the holder transforms from passively accepting to actively causing trouble, constantly breaking the established trajectory and accumulating Chaos Points, whether for themselves or for people or things related to them.

Settlement is conducted in 20-day cycles. Any amount less than 20 points will be transformed into "disordered unknowns" that affect the holder, which could result in a traffic accident or being unexpectedly targeted by an evil god.

Chaos can permanently alter reality, such as transforming matter, creating things out of thin air, distorting space and time, creating clones, creating dimensions, and modifying the rules of physics, etc.

However, the actual effectiveness of 20 points remains to be seen.

'This... at least it should reach a high sequence, right?!'

Roland was shocked and remained unsettled for a long time. This thing should be kept in a sealed chamber of the church or the empire, not in a small black market.

It involves making wishes and altering reality; even a fool knows it's incredibly powerful. But since this thing is sealed away, it's because whoever uses it will die.

According to the message in the metal box, once you touch this sealed object, you can't get rid of it; you can't throw it away or break it. Only death can replace it.

He had a sudden inspiration, so he took the equipment reforging device and placed it on the board. It reacted, which meant that equipping the reforging device on his chessboard was effective.

'Since that's the case, could I try [Entering the Unknown] to escape misfortune and accidents? If that doesn't work, I can just reforge it; don't worry about not being able to get rid of it.'

'Then the question arises: am I chaos or destiny?'

(End of this chapter)