Chapter 114: Heaven and Earth Inverted |
First floor of the inn.
Having understood who the new rules targeted, the group dispersed once again.
After all, even if they wanted to make detailed plans for their next moves right now, they could probably only give "improvise" as an answer.
In the end, the solutions Grill had proposed were all hypothetical. They didn't even know how to add new rules.
Their next course of action could only be to temporarily try finding patterns.
"Speaking of which, you said your surname is Burroughs." Grill looked at Falson. "Then what's your relationship to Baron Burroughs?"
"Mm, of course, if there's anything awkward to talk about, that's fine too."
Falson's fingers scratched at the back of his other hand.
"It's not that awkward to talk about. I'm an illegitimate child." His tone was fairly candid as he answered.
"And I'm just an illegitimate son who doesn't matter at all. No money, no power, having to work multiple jobs by myself."
Falson spread his hands out in front of Grill.
"The calluses on my hands are probably more than most middle-class people have."
"Sounds like you don't have any respect for your father at all," Grill asked. "Did something unpleasant happen?"
"Not exactly unpleasant," Falson replied, withdrawing his hands. "It's just that I can't find any reason to respect him."
"He lost his title the year after I was born, so ever since I can remember, he was just an old man who insisted on keeping up appearances despite having no money."
"Half the time, he'd even come asking me for money."
"Rather than calling him my father, it's more accurate to say I'm his meal ticket."
He was a human-shaped lucky cat, the type who'd trip over gold bars just walking down the street.
"Is that so? Then there really is no need to respect him." Grill was straightforward, directly affirming Falson's perspective.
"I'm not completely ignorant about old Burroughs either. I've heard a little, and he really isn't anything good."
"Oh, I'm badmouthing him right in front of you, but you probably don't mind, right?" Grill said with certainty.
Falson shrugged. "Clearly not."
As they chatted, Grill kept glancing at Samuel not far away.
Creating extraordinary items with bare hands. Was he a high-rank craftsman?
He wondered which organization he belonged to. In any case, he was genuinely envious.
Even their Public Security Bureau didn't have a dedicated craftsman. If they wanted custom Law Objects, they could only go to headquarters or contact the Orlis Institute.
But unfortunately, Samuel wasn't willing, and he couldn't force it.
He wondered if there was a chance to establish a connection in the future.
"Hm?" Samuel, who had just finished making a pair of handcuffs, let out a slightly rising hum.
He blinked, tilted his head, then quickly lowered it again, placing the handcuffs on the nearby table, waiting for Evina to try them out.
Evina, sitting beside him, reached out and picked up the handcuffs from the table. She turned them around and cuffed herself, admiring how she looked with them on. There was indeed a certain intriguing charm to it.
The silk blindfold, being an extraordinary item, didn't obstruct her vision at all.
She pulled her hands apart to both sides. The cuffs, originally linked together by a chain in the middle that kept her hands from spreading far, suddenly stretched open to nearly half a meter.
"The chain can extend?" she asked Samuel.
"Yeah." Samuel nodded matter-of-factly. "You can even cosplay Obito with his Six Paths powers later."
Evina noticed a lock clasp at the center of the chain, which could separate the two linked ends. She gently shook her wrist, and the two linked ends easily came apart. One end of the now considerably longer chain dropped to the floor.
"How far can they extend?" Evina asked with keen interest.
"If your spirituality is abundant, theoretically there's no upper limit. Use it as a whip."
"Calling it a whip, it looks more like tentacles, doesn't it?" Evina replied, looking at the chain bound around her wrist.
As she injected spirituality into it, the once ordinary silver chain became covered in a faint layer of pinkish-blue spiritual flame.
Defying gravity, it floated upward, twisting a couple of times.
Evina extended her hand toward a nearby table. The chain wrapped around her wrist automatically extended over, coiled around the table leg, then quickly released itself and retracted. Finally, the two ends of the chain touched each other, locking the clasp once again, turning back into a chain less than 10 cm long.
"Not bad at all." She nodded with a fair evaluation.
"Want a collar?" Samuel asked as he packed away his tools.
"A collar?" Evina thought for a moment. "Forget it. I'd rather put a collar on someone else. I'll pass on wearing one myself."
"Alright."
…
On the other side, on the streets of the West District in Reins.
The carriage left the Continuity Church, swaying as it headed toward Samuel's house.
Celt, with the jellyfish Sereia perched on his head, held the Travel Guide in one hand, casually flipping through a few pages.
Now that Samuel had reinforced the Travel Guide, it had been updated on his end too.
He gave it a quick test. Felt pretty good.
This Travel Guide, capable of stealing content from various books, now displayed the latest newspaper headlines.
Celt skimmed through them lazily.
"Federal Internal Turmoil Intensifies, War on the Horizon."
Celt saw that headline and suddenly raised an eyebrow.
Federal? Which Federation?
Celt recalled the common knowledge of this world.
Right, there really was a Rondos Federation in this world.
Propping his chin with his hand, Celt suddenly felt a bit unsettled.
"Coachman, do me a favor," he called out to the driver ahead.
"What?" The coachman, busy driving, spared a response.
Celt glanced out the window. He was passing by a fairly spacious lane.
Since they hadn't left the bustling area too far behind, he could still see street vendors a few hundred meters back.
"Go buy me a pie. I'll eat it on the road," Celt said.
"Huh?" The carriage slowly came to a stop. The coachman turned back to look. "Then I'll turn around now—"
"No need." Celt cut him off. "Just run over and buy it."
"Uh... alright." The coachman hesitated for a moment, but remembering this customer had booked the carriage for the whole day, he chose to hop off and run toward the street vendors a few hundred meters away.
Money is hard to earn, shit is hard to eat.
This employer was already considered fairly good-tempered.
Celt propped his chin with one hand, watching through the window as the coachman ran farther away. The anxiety in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
Suddenly, his spirituality was triggered.
The moment his intuition was stirred, the road the carriage was traveling on shook like an earthquake.
Celt instinctively turned his head. Through the carriage window, which had no curtain, he saw the scenery outside begin to spin.
The ground cracked and shattered. Broken stones floated upward, flying toward the sky. The sky too showed fissures.
Then the ground flipped. Heaven and earth inverted.
The ground became "up." The sky became "down."
The entire carriage turned upside down, beginning to "fall" from the ground, plummeting toward the "sky."
Although he didn't know what was happening, Celt instinctively felt it was probably not good.
Without time to think, Celt instinctively reached up, grabbed Sereia, yanked her off his head, and pressed her into the open Lunatic's World Travel Guide in his hand.
The next moment, the carriage accelerated instantly, dropping rapidly. Then, as if it had slammed heavily into something, this fairly decent carriage shattered into pieces in an instant.
This carriage had probably never experienced a fall from a kilometer-high altitude. It was smashed beyond repair, completely and utterly destroyed.
The carriage lay collapsed on a blue-and-white plane full of cracks, broken into pieces.
It looked as if the entire sky had been turned into a painting, now serving as the floor.
Aside from the dense cracks in the "sky," it was identical to the sky above the Kingdom of Liastan.