A glass filled with a strange liquid was gently pushed in front of him. The glass has a dull blue translucent liquid that bubbles up and bubbles, in stark contrast to its viscous state.

The slender boy with a scar on the side of his face stared at the glass, his left hand behind his back nervously gripping his right wrist. The only window in the room was obscured by a heavy, dusty curtain, and a strange fragrance permeated the dreary air, making people feel dizzy.

"This is your potion." A soft, languid female voice sounded, uttering seductive words, "Drink it, and you will become an 'apprentice', a true 'extraordinary'." ”

The boy walked forward slowly, took the cup of potion and brought it to his mouth with the greatest courage in his life, and took a few deep breaths to try to calm his mood, but his nose was filled with the bewildering aroma. He gritted his teeth, tilted his head, and swallowed the potion. The slippery liquid slides all the way down the esophagus, causing a cold, stinging sensation.

His body twitched involuntarily, his vision blurred, and everything he saw in front of him instantly became more colorful, red and blue, and many color blocks were randomly patched together, presenting a completely different world. Many indescribable and even non-existent things floated around, and in the distance there were several clear rays of light of different colors.

Maybe it was a minute, maybe it was two minutes, and the boy gradually regained his ability to think in a daze, and his consciousness returned to his body. The color patches faded and lightened, and the world returned to its original state, and he could see the wood-colored desk in front of him, the transparent glass in his hand, and ......

He endured the sharp pain in the corners of his forehead and looked at the woman sitting behind the desk who covered all her physical features with a heavy black robe.

In the dim light of the candlelight, he could see the corners of her lips slightly raised, revealing a smile that was not warm at all.

"Welcome to the world of extraordinary."

-

Douglas slowly opened his eyes, sat up with a blank face, and picked up his pocket watch on the bedside table to check the time.

The shortest hand stays between the numbers three and four. He rubbed his eyes in exhaustion, sat on the edge of the bed and sighed.

The quality of his sleep was not very good this night, and in the first half of the night, he always dreamed that he had felt the pain and fear that hit the depths of his soul before he fainted, mixed with the faint whispering sound, which directly woke him up two or three times, and repeatedly lifted the quilt to confirm that he was not out of control, and did not grow any six, seven, or eight hands or feet.

"I managed to stay up until the middle of the night......," Douglas muttered, getting up and going to the bathroom to solve his physical problems, and then returning to the bedroom and opening the window to let the night breeze blow him a little sober.

He had another dream, this time when he had just drunk the potion and became extraordinary.

The dreams of the extraordinary are reminders given by their own spirits, and this dream that is so close to reality that Douglas is once again sure that the fragrance that he smelled on Tyron at MI9 in the afternoon is the fragrance of the member of the "Gnostic" who led him on the path of the extraordinary.

It's really a day and a night...... Douglas couldn't sleep at all now, anxiety and countless questions taking over his mind. For example, he was forcibly suspended from applying for labor arbitration before he was about to become a regular, how could a serious civil servant in MI9 smell of a member of a secret organization, why did the "Gnostic" member return to Beckland after disappearing for more than three years, and was he a little too unlucky?

Haha, on the bright side, what if I'm too worried? Maybe it's just an ordinary fragrance for women? Probably Mr. Taryn got it when he was intimate with his girlfriend, right? Douglas tried to comfort himself, but he couldn't deceive his spirit, and once he recalled the scene in his dream, the sweet smell of the air that filled his throat with the potion seemed to linger in his nose.

What's more, everything was coincidental and unsettling to him. From the moment Taryn took out the photo of John Jr., Douglas had a sense of trance that he couldn't keep up with the rhythm. Beginning with the anomalous arson case in December last year, Taryn claimed that the series of arsons was the same Fursaker Winkel who had been on the bounty. Agassis and John Jr. is the former's informant, responsible for spreading misinformation among the bounty hunters. Winkel himself was a spy sent by the Vorsack Empire.

And Fernand, the intelligence dealer who first issued a bounty to find Winkel, also has a mysterious instigator standing behind it, that is, the "black hair, face covered, and smelly" female extraordinary person described by John Jr. in the wrong information, codenamed "The Witch". Unfortunately, before Fernand disappeared, the last person to communicate with him about the bounty was Douglas.

“…… But I was not able to provide him with any useful information at the time. Douglas looked at the simple diagram that Taryn had drawn on paper, still unsure of what effect he had had on these events.

"Please stay quiet." Taryn said as he wrote a new name on the other side of the paper, "The real problem is the death of Nighthawk after this operation. ”

"Perhaps you know that I was in a coma for at least two hours after the operation due to the backlash of extraordinary objects, and I haven't left the Harvest Chapel since last night."

"I'm not accusing you of murdering Nighthawk."

The sharp-eyed man turned to Father Schulz, who had been listening silently: "Perhaps, Mr. Douglas has not yet known the new information that has been prying from the mouths of those 'demons'?" ”

In Douglas's bewildered gaze, Father Schultz seemed to sigh shallowly, and explained to him in a calm tone, "You should know that they choose their victims based on the revelation of the evil gods. Agassis is exactly the next victim they are destined to be. However, since the former may have reached the middle order, these cultists were unable to succeed, so they chose to hold a ritual to get the help of the real demons in the abyss, and to obtain more information about the sacrifices. ”

Ah, that's what that ritual was really about...... Douglas was subconsciously pleased with the increase in what could be written in the mission report, but when he came back to his senses, he saw Schultz subtly turning his gaze to himself, and continued: "And you, Douglas, your name appears on the list of sacrifices at the back. ”

…… Ah, this?

Douglas felt a chill creep up his spine, shivering uncontrollably, trying to resist the urge to burst out in Chinese.

But after the initial shock, the fear and worry quickly faded again, after all, the "demon" has been caught, and the danger is long gone. Douglas's mouth opened and closed, mobilizing his somewhat stiff lips and tongue, and asked with a dry smile, "No, that...... There's also the possibility of duplicate names, right? ”

"If it weren't for the fact that you 'keenly' found the common denominator of all the victims." Tyron interjected at this point, still looking businesslike, and said indifferently, "I'm curious why you pay so close attention to this detail in time. ”

Because that's when I crossed over...... How can this possibly tell you! Douglas clasped his hands tightly together, trying to maintain his expression in a state of numbness from being hit by the bombshell news, trying to interrupt the other party's exploration in this regard: "Wait...... So what does this have to do with Nighthawk's death? ”

"In the course of our investigation, we discovered that the Nighthawk was connected to the 'witch' who had repeatedly confronted the Fursack spy, and the death of the Nighthawk led us to pay attention to you."

Taryn said as he held up the diagram, which listed several names, and in the course of the connection, Douglas saw that his names had become the focus of the tangled thread.

"At this point, you should understand. Mr. Douglas, someone is trying to get you involved in this series of events, and all the details have been premeditated until then. "That's why I said this conversation is good for you, MI9 wants to work with you to find a solution to your problem while keeping you safe." ”

Douglas, who had gradually given up struggling, leaned back, his eyes drifted to the roof, and said with a wry smile: "...... me?" How can I help you? ”

Taryn looked at him, smiling lightly on the first and last of the conversation.

"This 'demonic' incident proves that you and Winkel may have some occult commonalities, and we hope to use this commonality to find the spy who may cause great damage to society and the people......"

-

After revisiting the long conversation from beginning to end, Douglas opened his eyes and stopped unconsciously tapping his fingers on the window frame.

He happily forgave himself for his restless sleep, who can sleep with such a!

In the end, Father Schultz and Taryn agreed that Douglas's other assignments would be suspended and that he would cooperate with MI9 in the relevant investigations for the next two weeks. Although Father Schultz came down to comfort him with what he had encountered and remembered to tell the church about his situation, and gave him a few charms, Douglas was still immersed in the trance of "how it seems that the whole world is designing me" during the whole process of returning home from the church and having dinner and lying in bed.

It wasn't until the night breeze was blowing slowly combing his mind that Douglas really calmed down, got rid of the interference of the atmosphere at that time, and found some problems.

From his own point of view, the information of his own church must be true, which means that he is indeed with Winkel. Agassis was the predestined sacrifice of the "demon" family. This strongly supports his previous conjecture, which means that Winkel. There is a high probability that Agassis is also a "traverser".

In other words, he has the opportunity to directly contact the living suspected "traverser", which is much more efficient than carefully verifying the information of the previous victim.

Secondly, the MI9 member named Tyron may not always tell the truth, especially when it is pointed out that the "witch" tried to introduce herself into the incident, there was no reliable basis to support it, and it was almost a subjective decision.

How did the "witch" know that Winkel and I were sacrificed by the "devil" and that she had so accurately pulled me out of all the possible traversers? Douglas mumbled and closed the window, lay back on the bed, and stared silently at the ceiling. Of course, combined with that familiar aroma, it is likely that this "witch" is a member of the "Gnosis Society" who disappeared after the Great Smog Incident, hoping to reuse me as a downline for some purpose......

If this assumption is true, Douglas will have to carefully consider whether to backhand an anonymous report to kill Taryn, who is suspected of having an affair with the "witch".

Unfortunately, he had a hard time finding a way to send Taryn in without following him.

…… Damn, it's so familiar, it's not the same as when I first crossed over...... Douglas turned over speechlessly, and decided that he must be a good person in the future, leave no stains, and stay away from the secret organization or something.

Otherwise, it is easy to put yourself on the hook in the process of sweeping away the evil and eliminating evil.

With the church as his backing, Douglas was more afraid that his backing would be kicked away than he was worried about his personal safety. When the Red Glove was investigating in his dreams, he lied about the origin of his extraordinary traits by virtue of the special that he had traveled through. Now that the "Gnosis Society" is suspected to be making a comeback, Douglas can think of how the other party will threaten him with his toes: hide his identity as a member of the secret organization and join the church as a spy, and guess how many days you can live after being exposed?

He pulled up the quilt and put it on his head, his mentality was infinitely close to that of a college student who opened a new textbook to study on his own the night before the final exam, and spread his wings on the edge of rottenness.

-

She looked at her face in the mirror. It was a beautiful face belonging to a mature lady, although the cheeks were not as full and round as a girl, the lines were soft enough, just right to dissipate the cold feeling brought by the high nose bridge and slightly raised eye corners, and the smart dark purple eyes and the corners of the lips that seemed to be smiling but not smiling together created a temperament of intellectuality and gentleness.

Reaching out to pull up her long strands, which were tied up in silky satin, she patiently untangled the tangled strands, and arranged her waist-length black hair little by little with an old wooden comb. As the door of the room opened and closed, the tuk tuk of the hard-soled leather boots tapping on the wooden floor drew closer, and the reflection of another figure in the mirror became clearer.

"Welcome back, Taryn. How's it going? She leaned back in her chair and lifted her hands up to grab the man's collar and ask him to bow his head.

The MI9 intelligence officer, who had always had a sparse expression, had a somewhat helpless look on his face, and obediently bent down so that the other party could hold his face: "It's smoother than expected, he seems to be worried." ”

"Of course." She chuckled, her eyes mixed with a hint of mockery, "I don't know how he got into the church, but how can people erase the mistakes he made in the past?" He'll be obedient. ”

"I still don't get it." Taryn lifted his gold-rimmed glasses with a free hand and muttered in a low voice, "He's not even a full member of the Church, and the Mother Earth Church isn't strong enough to be involved in those matters in Rune......

"Of course, the more things you can use, the better." She scratched the man's chin like a cat or dog, motioning for Taryn to look in the mirror and explaining in a languid, soft voice, "Blame it, blame the impermanence of fate for letting him meet me again." Do you feel that this is very much like the fate described in those secular novels? ”

The reflection of the man in the mirror was visibly frowned, and he did not like this argument. Taryn took her wrist and freed herself, helping her up from her seat and sighing lowly, "Rest early, Corti." ”

"It's Cortina." She nonchalantly corrected the other person's mistake, and naturally took Tyron's arm and followed him to the bedroom, "By the way, let me see him as soon as possible, just tomorrow." ”