The next morning.
After breakfast, Chen Lun picked up the newspaper Connie ordered on the table.
He flipped through a few pages and finally saw a small-format job advertisement in a corner.
"It's the secret code of a mysterious society."
Chen Lun understood it clearly.
Yesterday he learned from the code in the newspaper that the association meeting that was originally scheduled to be held has been postponed to today. The code he saw now is a confirmation.
He hesitated for a moment and finally decided to go.
Although it has been basically confirmed that "Black Skull" and "Civet Cat" are people from the shelter, he also needs to contact other people in the association to find clues to Philip's inheritance.
"It's probably not time for them to close the net completely yet, otherwise they wouldn't be hunting 'fins' alone..."
Chen Lun thought.
But he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be too late for the shelter to make a big move, and that he didn’t have much time.
late at night.
Chen Lun did not take the road to the former site of Pompeii Manor, but chose the previous exit, the drainage outlet of Xiashuitan in the outer city area.
He had prepared to conceal his identity in advance, wearing a top hat and a black scarf that completely covered his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. With his powerful memory, he familiarly bypassed the winding sewers and returned to the crypt.
A dim light bulb illuminated the round table. Six people arrived early, and "Fin" was naturally absent.
"Welcome back, Mr. Spade."
The black skull was wearing a mask and greeted him indifferently.
"Please take a seat."
Chen Lun took his seat calmly.
The hammer was still indifferent, lost in thought. The scholar was reading a book leisurely. The civet cat and the gentleman were talking in detail, seemingly discussing some unimportant topic. The miser was playing with a few gold coins in his hand, making a jingling sound.
More than ten minutes passed.
"It looks like 'Fin' won't be coming tonight, let's get started."
Black Skull looked at his pocket watch and said softly.
Chen Lun glanced at him calmly and secretly praised his good acting skills.
After hearing the host's words, everyone started the first round of trading on their own.
There was nothing special about it. Tiechui sold another metal tennis ball-shaped man-made weird object and exchanged it for two low-sequence mysterious substances from the gentleman.
The others had their own deals. When it was Chen Lun's turn, the gentleman said first:
"Mr. Spade, regarding the request you made last time, I have a relevant document here... You can take a look first. If you are interested, we can discuss it in detail."
Yin Hutou shook his head, took out a manuscript and handed it to Chen Lun.
Chen Lun picked it up and saw that there were fine pinholes on one side of the manuscript, like a cover page that had fallen off a notebook. He looked closely at the text on it:
“—Hey, man, let me tell you a secret.
I have been to a strange place, encountered many strange things there, and gained a lot of strange things. I don't know where it is, but I have a strange sense of familiarity.
I'm sorry I can't tell you how to get there because I can't figure it out myself.
But I can tell you about my experience..."
A paragraph of text was smeared in blue-black ink, and then several key words were written below, namely "fate", "nature", "nightmare" and "love".
"—I discovered that my extraordinary power was affected there, and it became stronger and weaker. When it was strong, it could even burst out with power beyond its own sequence, and when it was weak, it was even weaker than an ordinary person...
If I were to use one word to describe it, I think "absurd" is the most appropriate.
… I also met my beloved there, she helped me a lot and built a 'love nest' for us, where we could live without worrying about strange things happening. In this way, I could also have a foothold and explore the place slowly.
The experiences recorded below are only presented to you from my own perspective..."
This is the end of the content of the title page.
The signature was a name Chen Lun was familiar with—Philip.
The time is June 8, 4405 in the solar calendar.
It has been 13 years since then and 2 years since Philip’s last entry in his diary.
Discover a special mysterious book! Philip's Adventures in Wonderland (badly damaged)!
Chen Lun's face remained expressionless, holding the title page in his hand, but he secretly complained in his heart:
"Other mysterious books are just for fun. If you want to become stronger, you have to look to Philip... And this kind of coquettishness has even continued to the names of his own works. It's really cruel."
Now it seems that most of the belongings that Philip had buried here have fallen into the hands of the "gentleman". Even if they are not in his hands, they are closely related to him.
"Mr. Gentleman, I am very interested in what is written on this piece of paper. I wonder how you would like to trade."
Chen Lun said in a hoarse voice.
A buzzing laugh came from the silver kettle, and then said:
"Since Mr. Spade is interested, that's great... But I don't have the follow-up information with me. If Mr. Spade wants it, I can prepare a C-level weird item or ten low-sequence mysterious substances in exchange... It won't be too late for us to trade at the next party."
“It’s too expensive.”
Chen Lun said in a deep voice.
"Oh, it's not expensive at all. The content below is guaranteed to satisfy you. It's worth the money!"
The gentleman with the silver kettle head expressed his opinion with exaggerated body language.
Chen Lun pretended to hesitate, then gritted his teeth and agreed.
After Yin Hutou confirmed the deal, he tapped his fingers lightly on his thigh, looking very pleased.
The following intelligence exchange session was full of bland content. Chen Lun did not pay attention but was thinking about how to get the things in the gentleman's hands.
He didn't plan to spend real money to exchange it. First, it was too expensive, and second, there was no guarantee that it was all Philip's belongings...
The best way, of course, is to rob!
This urinal head didn't have any good intentions, because when he was reading the title page just now, he felt that his sanity had inexplicably decreased by 1 point.
This was not the SAN value that was lost due to witnessing mysterious content, because his Maggie's Tears were not triggered, it was more like it was sucked away by the cover page.
To use an inappropriate metaphor, the title page stole his reason and hid it in a strange way.
In this river? This is not in the river.
Chen Lun had never seen or heard of such a bizarre thing.
For the time being, he couldn't figure out why this title page of "Philip's Adventures in Wonderland" could steal other people's minds, but he knew that the gentleman must be using this feature and preparing to do something.
"This is the end of this gathering. As usual, everyone knows the rules, so I won't say more."
Black Skull stood up and arranged for everyone to leave.
This time, the gentleman was the first to leave. He slowly moved towards the side door of the tomb, and then chose a fork in the road to leave.
At this time, a big black rat followed him quietly and slipped in.
Kick, tap, tap…
The gentleman swayed and looked very happy, tap dancing in the dark corridor.
The heels of leather shoes made crisp sounds on the ground, echoing gently.
Bang!
He stepped on the rat to death, splashing a pool of blood.
"hehe… "
Yinhutou turned around and glanced at the tomb chamber behind him.
"A little trick."