Frick woke up, and when he got out of bed, he found himself shivering for some reason, covered in sticky, wet sweat. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

His room had an easy view of the courtyard outside the window, and the headlights lining the courtyard of the large library always illuminated the surroundings too brightly. Looking at the lead gray of the fish belly in the east, Flick speculated that it was still some time before the morning.

However, his eyelids were still heavy, and even after more than ten hours of sleep, his mind did not seem to be rested, and his body was full of exhaustion. So he closed his eyes as he relaxed, wanting to take another good rest before he started working.

But in his consciousness, there was still a faint flash of the nightmare that had just woken him up from his deep sleep, as well as the scenery that appeared in the dream. He churned over in bed uneasily, trying to leave the dream scenes behind, but no matter how long he tossed and turned, they didn't disappear in the slightest.

For some reason, he suddenly remembered a passage he had read in a book last night: You try to turn the tide, but you don't expect to choose a worse route. This sentence kept flashing in his mind, as if there was some kind of "power" reminding him.

"yes, it doesn't seem like there's any work scheduled today. ”

Flick was so troubled by this sentence that he couldn't sleep, so he rolled over and sat up from the bed: "What's going on lately...... The number of dreams of fragmentation suddenly became so frequent. Even if it's to remind me that something troublesome is going to happen, there's no need to repeat it so many times. ”

The words that swirled in Flick's mind were hard for him to ignore, so he subconsciously moved his eyes to the bookshelf, as if to make another confirmation. However, no matter how he looked at it, he could not find a book that wrote this sentence...... He couldn't even remember which book had written it.

What the hell was going on - Flick wished he had calmed down and thought carefully about where he had read the words that had penetrated his brain. It seemed to have some kind of poison that lingered in Frick's brain, making it impossible for him to ignore it.

Forced to endure this uncomfortable feeling, Flick forced himself to do a morning workout, and after his usual physical activity, he also checked the short raft that had to be prepared beforehand. It is a short sentence that has been recorded in advance, so that it can be prepared more quickly when performing the "magic book".

Then, guided by some power, he walked up the streets of the Gate of the North, and the strange senses of his subconscious showed him a way to cross the snow-covered path. It was still early in the morning, and there were not many people on the streets, only a few workers who were responsible for cleaning the streets.

How long has it been since he'd seen such peace and quiet?Frick couldn't help but think back to the days when he came to the Gate of the North. The peace and leisure of the past were like a dream past, and after visiting the city, he seemed to be entangled in trouble.

From what happened in the past, it seems that Flick was not wrong at first, and when he chose to follow the "clues" of unknown origin to find traces of his father's activities back then, it meant that he would be involved in trouble. The person who sent this parcel may not have wanted to drag them into such a complicated storm at first, but I am afraid that things have developed beyond their expectations and are running in a worse direction.

So far, Flick and the people on the other side who have maliciously designed him have made the "right" choice, but in the end, it is clearly up to them to decide how things will turn out. At this point, he can only hope that the situation does not develop to the point where no one can solve it with the combined efforts of everyone at present.

Frick doesn't know exactly where the "intuition" that is now directing his path comes from, but this force seems to be leading him to more troublesome places.

He could smell that smell -- or maybe "smell" was not quite right -- that there was something unpleasant at the front end of the path. His will told him that he might not go in the direction where danger lurked, but his intuition told him that something important was there.

And as he progressed, the anomaly was also detected by the perception that was hidden in his vision, and there were many black shards floating around him, like snowflakes. It was a fragment of a thought that had been scattered not so long ago, like a young leaf that had just been plucked from a vegetable patch, apparently emanating from the embers of the soul not long ago.

Not far ahead, someone died in a moment, and the method of death was probably no less "exaggerated" than the deceased found in the bookstore last time. Frick wanted to get in touch with more, but the fragments scattered around had broken down, and there was only so much to be learned from the fragments he had collected.

The sun had risen, and the distant rays of sunlight had penetrated into the cracks of the streets, casting a series of faint, dim flickering afterimages. After yesterday's fierce blizzard, the lead clouds quickly dispersed, and in the clear sky, you could see the stars shining in the deep and boundless sky.

Before Flick even went out the door, he was sure it would be a sunny and not too cold morning, so he opted for a suit that was easy to move around. This proved to be a suitable choice, as the snow in the vicinity had not been cleared at all, and there were not even footprints left by pedestrians.

The edge of the city was known to be a colony of thieves and criminals, so the municipal workers were reluctant to go near the edge of the city walls, which were covered in overgrown shantytowns. But Frick walked on the edge of the slum in a scholar's suit, where he walked like a drop of oil poured into the water.

But his target was not the shantytown he had visited not long ago, perhaps because he had been so troubled by the curse of the adventurer, which was still in semi-lockdown and the inhabitants of the neighborhood had been driven elsewhere.

Although he was concerned about the results of the garrison's investigations since then and wanted to know the signs of street children and slum dwellers, he lacked access to information. The so-called "invisible monsters" have apparently caused an uproar in the garrison system, so they are constantly on the lookout for new monsters to breed in the slum.

Frick glanced at the street entrance, which was barricaded off by a fence and barbed wire, where the words "Danger Ahead" and "Monster Destruction Zone" were left on the boards with conspicuous paint, and two security officers on duty were there to scess anyone passing by.

It's better not to go in that direction now--Flick noticed that the two expressionless guards were also looking at him, and immediately came to the conclusion of a "temporary retreat". He turned the other corner of the street, and the black fragments of the pursuers had not yet fully broken down to their destination.

It was a four-story mixed-use building near the banks of the White River, and the exterior decoration and broken windows alone showed how cheap the rooms were. He looked up at the sky, illuminated by the sun, and could faintly see a large number of scattered black fragments gradually disintegrating in the light, and this building was clearly the center point of their dispersion.

Before Frick approached the entrance to the building, he saw a security officer standing there, and there was no doubt that what had happened in the building had been discovered and reported to the security guards. It wouldn't be long before he read the report of the incident in the newspapers, and he ran past the security officer as if he was in the middle of morning training, nodding his head in greeting.

"That scrivener, it's Mr. Frick Sierra Leone, don't hurry, please come here, I need your help in our investigation. ”

But just as he ran past the security officer, about to make a circle back to the Great Library, and then look for Akuli to report on what had happened recently, a familiar voice came from inside the building. He looked back and saw the security officer he had seen in the bookstore not long ago, standing there.

After a few days of not seeing him, he seemed to have become a little haggard, and his face was much paler, and he looked as if he was about to collapse just by standing there.

He seemed to be investigating something, holding a wrought iron scraper in one hand and a small bag of wet mud in a transparent bag in the other. Apparently, he was collecting the dirt when he spotted Frick passing by, so he immediately stopped him.

Then there must be no good thing, looking at the security officer who looked tired from overwork, Frick couldn't help but sigh. He hadn't forgotten the note he had handed him at the time, and it didn't contain any important information, but a list of books he wanted him to investigate.

There were fifteen people on that list, and several of them died after William Coulter's death for a variety of more strange reasons. They were all private booksellers without exception, and they traded with groups that specialized in printing complete editions of rare and exotic books.

If it weren't for the fact that the case the officer was investigating had something in common with what Frick wanted to know, he would have given up on investigating it a long time ago. So it took a lot of effort for him to finally process all the information he could gather two days ago, and then send it to the place he designated.

However, looking at the guard's terrible face, it seems that he has not been able to get a good rest for several days, and although Frick thinks that he has provided a lot of help, it is still a small amount compared to the amount of work that needs to be done. He didn't know what the security officer's purpose was to investigate this troublesome case, but he believed that at the end of all events there was the information he needed.

And the fact that he would now ask Frick for help meant that the case that happened in the building was related to what he was investigating, and that group had taken action again.