Mystery: Lucky One

As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning, everything is difficult in the middle, everything is difficult at the end, everything...

In short, even though she spent half an afternoon mustering up her courage, Cattleya still felt uneasy when she really had to tell Frank Lee about Alice's commission.

Objectively speaking, this is a good thing - if Frank Lee can stop conducting experiments on the "Future".

But then again, this commission was actually given to her. Perhaps she should give Frank Lee something as compensation, such as... a Sequence 5 Beyonder characteristic?
Cattleya felt even more nervous.

Under Frank Lee's questioning gaze, Cattleya took a deep breath and carefully told Alice's request:
"He needs a crop that can grow in a completely dark environment. In addition, the land there is polluted and crops cannot grow normally. There are also many monsters around..."

"Hmm..." Frank Lee frowned slightly, as if thinking about how to achieve this result. "Crops that grow in extreme environments... Got it!"

He paced around the room as if he had suddenly come up with a good idea:

"We can improve the direct results and change the absorbing fish into..."

"Ahem," Cattleya couldn't help but cough as a reminder, "I think you need to eat something first."

"Oh, yes," Frank Lee said as if he had just remembered this, "I need to eat something first, yes..."

Having said this, Frank Lee walked past Cattleya and headed towards the Pirate Restaurant in a daze.

Cattleya followed him worriedly, and it turned out that her decision was not wrong. After Frank Lee selected some mushrooms and fish, he sat in the seat in the corner without moving, and seemed to have no intention of eating.

Just as Cattleya was about to go over and ask, Frank Lee suddenly moved. He picked up the mushrooms and placed them on the fish, then poured the milk in the cup onto them.

Cattleya walked over unable to bear it any longer and heard Frank Lee muttering:

"No, this alone won't work. We also need to eliminate the pollution..."

"?" Cattleya began to reflect on whether her decision to tell Frank Lee about this matter was correct.

"Frank," she couldn't help but walk over and say, "maybe you can finish your meal first, and then write to Hermann - I remember you have his contact, you can talk to him or Miss Fortune, maybe this will give you some inspiration."

Miss Destiny probably can’t reply to the letter now... I hope the “world” won’t bother Mr. Fool to deliver the letter.

Cattleya's proposal was agreed by Frank Lee - judging from Frank Lee's performance.

In Cattleya's shocked eyes, Frank Lee's eyes lit up and he said excitedly: "Yes, I can talk to them!"

Next, he grabbed the fish and mushrooms soaked in milk and quickly stuffed them into his mouth. He chewed them and swallowed them along with the fish bones.

“……?” Seeing that he was about to go back, Cattleya followed him worriedly and did not stop until he returned to the room.

She did not stay at the door of Frank Lee's room, but returned to the captain's room, took out a crystal ball, and after reciting a spell, the scene in Frank Lee's room appeared in the crystal ball.

After returning to the room, Frank Lee took out two written letters and opened the envelopes. Cattleya's mind moved, and the crystal ball automatically zoomed in and out, clearly showing the contents of the letters.

Well, mainly about those mushrooms...

As Cattleya watched, Frank Lee added a few words to each of the two letters, mentioning Alice's commission and his ideas, and finally stuffed three dried mushrooms into each.

After doing all this, he took out a piece of notepaper and after enlarging it, Cattleya recognized that it was written about a ritual to summon a messenger.

This is Germann's messenger... While she was thinking, Frank Lee arranged the ceremony and summoned German Sparrow's messenger.

A headless lady holding four heads walked out of the flames. Her gaze paused on Frank Lee for half a second, then suddenly turned and looked at her through the crystal ball.

Cattleya felt a burning sensation in her eyes, and tears flowed down her cheeks. She quickly closed her eyes, waved away the image in the crystal ball, and murmured in a low voice:
"…Ancient evil?"

……

She decided to go to bed, on the one hand because it was too boring to stay awake and wait, and on the other hand Alice really felt that she needed a good sleep to soothe her spirit - this was not a physical or spiritual need, but a psychological one.

The latter was the main reason, but Alice had another hidden thought.

...Maybe, I can continue with my previous dream?
Although she was not in a hurry, she still wanted to know the specific content of the bet, or rather, she actually had two questions that needed to be answered.

When the "winner" potion was completely digested, what exactly did she win?
What was the turning point she found when the ritual of the "Doom Wizard" was completed?
Alice didn't think about the problem carefully at that time, or rather, she thought that the information left on the "Get Rich Accessories" was all, but now, she gradually realized a problem.

Even if the guy disguised as Song Shu, suspected to be the "Key of Light", really wanted to play a game with her, his confident attitude at least showed one thing - he was confident that he would not get out of hand.

This kind of self-confidence, combined with the promotion ceremony of the "Destiny" path, gave Alice a very subtle feeling.

Let’s not talk about the Sequence 5 ritual for now. After all, there is really nothing much to say about the lucky moments. The core of the Sequence 4 ritual has already been determined to be finding a turning point, and the Sequence 3 ritual is more like taking it a step further on this basis.

——Disrupt an already established story and write a new one.

This was the description of the Chaos Walker promotion ceremony, a ceremony that, to be honest, felt like it was tailor-made for her.

After all, as Crane had said, she might have entered a book, but by now it was a new story.

But if it is combined with the previous ceremony, plus what Alice guessed, that escaping the original fate through death is also exactly the "opportunity" - if these are combined, except for the "prophet" promotion ceremony that still has no apparent connection, all of this seems to reveal a very deep hidden meaning.

It's like a process of gradually breaking free from the control of fate.

Sequence 5 is luck, Sequence 4 is finding a turning point, Sequence 3 is breaking the predetermined ending, Sequence 2 Alice doesn’t understand for the time being, Sequence 1 and Sequence 0 are finding true life in death...

...Is this also your deliberate arrangement, great incarnation of destiny?
But if she thought along the latter line, Alice would have to start considering a question - since this idea was already before her, then what was the turning point she found in the first place?

Obviously, throughout this whole incident, she was just like a toy in the hands of fate, at its mercy, no different from those who were toyed with by her... um, wait.

Alice suddenly woke up from her dazed and half-asleep state. She sat up from the ground and muttered absentmindedly:
“It can’t be that the mentality is so… uh, it sounds so much like chicken soup, right?
"No, what's the point of changing my mindset after realizing that I'm also a toy? Can you give me an extra bargaining chip?"

As she questioned him angrily, the chief, who had just fallen asleep, sat up silently and looked at her. Alice did not notice the chief sitting up, and she continued to talk to herself:

"No, maybe I shouldn't use too much - I actually didn't have any chips at all. I only had one dice, which was given to me by fate.

“…So can something as simple as a chicken soup mentality really help people win a bet?
"That sounds like something a casino would say to get people to gamble... like, uh, 'You're going to win on the next hand'?
"Reassuring everyone not to be anxious and not to give up easily is essentially to get people to continue playing... Is He afraid that I will just die and stop playing?
"Or maybe I'm not trying hard enough, and this game will become boring..."

Alice muttered and looked around, then saw the chief sitting up opposite her.

After they looked at each other for two seconds, the chief spoke first:
“If you want to try to erase my memory by rewinding my state to before I heard your words, you’d better be careful.

"Before, I encountered the remaining power of another angel of destiny, Ouroboros, and entered a cycle. After leaving the cycle, I recovered my memory..."

Alice paused.

She had indeed been considering this possibility just now, but the Chief reminded her frankly, which reminded her of the previous speculation of "The Hanged Man" Alger.

Not all "Restart" and "Fate Loop" will take away the victim's memory. In fact, part of this depends on the will of the releaser, and the other part...

Sometimes, extraordinary beings who have reached the level of demigods may retain a certain degree of autonomy, and they will recall their lost memories for a period of time after the influence has worn off.

For example, the chief in front of us.

He really remembered it. He is so good at pretending... uh, he and Little "Sun"... no, he and Big "Sun" should be two people who know each other's secrets and are acting now... I just don't know if he knows that Derrick knows it.

Alice rolled her eyes, looked around, picked up the animal skin mat on the ground, ran to sit next to the chief, and asked curiously:

"You remind me like this, aren't you worried that I might kill someone to silence him?"

The chief replied calmly, "I thought if I didn't remind you, you would be even more angry when you realized it later."

...It seems so.

Alice touched her chin and asked curiously, "Did you hear that from Derrick?"

The Chief paused. He was used to the tacit understanding between adults, and he obviously didn't expect that there was an outlier like Alice hidden among the high-sequence people - how could a child really become an angel?

No, in Silver City, even the children are much more mature than her, as long as they are not the kind that cannot take care of themselves.

While the chief was thinking, Ellie did not hesitate to lift the fig leaf:

“Don’t pretend. I know you know that Derrick has problems, and Derrick knows it too. I also know that you are hedging your bets. You don’t completely trust Mr. Fool…”

The Chief sat there stiffly, not knowing what to say.

——He did guess from Derrick’s hints and Alice’s behavior that Alice might prefer frank people, but this was a bit too frank.

He looked at Alice stiffly, not daring to move at all. After more than ten seconds, Alice blinked and asked:

"Do you want to know why I'm not angry even though I know all this?"

The chief was silent for two seconds and gave a dry response: "Yeah."

Alice kindly gave an explanation: "Of course, that's because our great Mr. Fool also knows this~"

…What does she mean?
The Chief looked at Alice blankly, trying to comprehend the content of her words.

Alice kindly continued to explain:

“You didn’t bet on me, and Mr. Fool knows about this himself. It’s certainly not my turn to settle accounts with you.

"I'm just a weak, pitiful and helpless little girl who gets into trouble here and gets scolded when she gets home!"

Good, what a little girl… The Chief swallowed, trying to connect Alice with the words coming out of her mouth.

Alice stared at the Chief for a few seconds, then brought up another topic:
"Anyway, you're awake, and I'm awake too... I remember you had something to say to me just now?

"Oh, by the way, there's something I want... Well, you can give it to me later, or have Derrick give it to Mr. Fool."

The chief nodded silently, then explained to Alice:
"After Derrick and the others came back, I took the deck of tarot cards you left behind when I led the team to explore Afternoon Town..."

"Ah," Alice suddenly realized, "you think it's useful and want to stay?"

Her guess made the chief pause for a moment before he continued, "...No, I'm just worried that you would mind this."

"That's what you deserve," Alice shook her head. "That deck of cards is your reward."

The chief paused for a moment, and Alice immediately asked, "You don't think I'm going to get it for free, do you?"

“……” The Chief remained silent.

Alice gritted her teeth and glared at the chief angrily, then she put away her temper with grievance and glared at the chief and said:

"I have one more thing I need your help with."

"What?" the Chief looked at her and asked.

Alice stroked her chin, pointed in the direction of the sanctuary and said, "I will go find Ouroboros later. If He is willing to help send me back, that would be great. If He is not willing, I might... well, I might need you to help send my body back."

"Send... the body back?" The chief was stunned.

"Yes," Alice blinked, "I'll explain it to you when I get back." (End of this chapter)