The Blue Avenger floats quietly next to a stranded sunken ship. The huge sail on the mast is still down. There is obviously no one on the deck, but there are faint footsteps lingering around, as if there is something transparent and invisible.
The servants are walking around.
Last night, he went deep into the seabed alone to reach his real target. His body suffered a certain impact. His left arm lost strength and he was slightly anemic. At this moment, Alger stood alone in the captain's cabin on the slope of the sunken ship, looking at the books that had been soaked by sea water and most of them were rotten.
, silently.
Boom, boom, boom.
There was a rapid knock on the door, and the first mate, Kira Gawman, standing by the doorframe, was full of excitement, and her slightly red face was covered with oil reflected by oily sweat.
"Captain, the brothers have packed everything. Looking at the general view, there is about nearly 20,000 pounds of property, as well as a lot of remaining spiritual materials and special supplies. Even the extraordinary properties scattered on the ship have been collected.
alright."
"Extraordinary characteristics?" Alger, who was injured and casually found an excuse not to participate in the search, turned around at this moment, his dark blue eyes looked at the first mate who was filled with joy, and asked softly.
According to the rules of the Church of Storms, any "captain" who is out and about only discovers an ownerless treasure can keep most of it for himself, but if he acquires extraordinary characteristics during battles and explorations, he must hand it over to the church.
Depending on the superior's evaluation, you can get part of the loot.
The first mate, who was swept away by his captain's gaze and a little carried away by joy, shuddered, was stunned for a moment, and then said quickly:
"Yes, there were about seven extraordinary properties found on those corpses. Most of them belonged to the 'Peeper' category, and only one belonged to the 'Artisan'. Captain, we will make a lot of money now!"
As he spoke, the first mate became excited again, and finally even involuntarily raised his right hand and hit his chest hard.
"Praise the storm." Thinking about the approximate harvest this time, Alger raised the corners of his mouth, also beat his chest, and returned the greeting sincerely.
"Peepers" are rare auxiliary talents in the Church of Storms. The church already masters the potion formulas from sequence nine to sequence seven. Even if the ship has higher mid-sequence characteristics, the church's "craftsmen" are entrusted to make it.
It is no small feat to become a sealed object, not to mention that this time they themselves obtained a "craftsman" characteristic.
Alger nodded with satisfaction, walked out of the captain's room with small steps, and said in a deep voice to the first mate who was following him:
"Be optimistic about all the characteristics. The situation this time is quite special. We must not let the punishers take away our credit."
He walked to the deck and looked down at the crew members who were organizing their trophies. His dark blue eyes were stung by the sunlight penetrating the clouds of fish scales and the reflection of the gold coins and gems in the wooden boxes. He couldn't help but raise his right hand to block it.
Above the forehead.
On the bronze skin, an illusory dark blue brilliance mark flashed.
...........
"There is a strong, depraved aura about it." Carl Bryan, who had a meticulous appearance and a pair of exquisite glasses hanging on the bridge of his nose, was carefully observing the rotting corpse in the police morgue from the front.
A strange stream of light was reflected on his lenses, which were constantly changing forms, decomposing, and reorganizing. It seemed that he was undergoing some kind of special "decryption", but due to the power behind the corpse, he was unable to successfully deduce it.
Dunn, who didn't know much about autopsies and had only barely learned some basic skills from Fry before, silently watched the operation of this member of the Heart of Machines in silence.
Because he had used "Darkness" once before, he now felt very tired, and even felt the negative effects of this sealed object on his body.
The spectacle-shaped sealed object that was placed on the bridge of his nose seemed to be made by a powerful "artisan". The negative effects were surprisingly low. Especially for Dunn, the negative effects of this item, as long as it was not his own
If the condition is not good, or if it is worn for too long, he will not even feel anything.
Watching the time passing by and Mr. Carl's eyebrows furrowing deeper and deeper, Dunn took the initiative and said:
"This does not seem to be the traces of a 'devil' and a 'shepherd' committing a crime."
Although he had never actually seen the "Shepherd" in his past life, when he first became the captain of the Nighthawks, Dunn had seen a similar scene during the dream teaching in the Winter Church.
Karl, who had been using magical items for too long, took off his glasses. While moving his body, he took out a bottle of clear potion from his pocket and carefully poured it on the lenses of his glasses.
With a splash, the liquid flowing out of the glass tube seemed to be bound by some force, and a drop without falling flowed onto the two lenses, and then slowly disappeared.
Taking back the glass tube and putting on his glasses again, Karl looked at Dunn who was silent on the side and explained with a smile:
"This is not a permanent magical item. I only need some special potions and I can use it as normal glasses."
As he said this, Mr. Carl looked at the incomplete and ferocious corpse, and then he became serious and answered Dunn's doubts just now:
"The aura of depravity does not necessarily belong to the 'devil' and the 'shepherd'. It may also be that the perpetrator himself was infected by strong pollution before committing such a crime."
"You're saying that someone is secretly spreading pollution in the East District. This case is related to the rotting male corpse that has been in the newspapers and the Ripper?" Dunn guessed, recalling the many cases he had seen in the newspapers recently.
Karl, who had already completed the basic investigation, took off his gloves and lowered his head to answer.
"Perhaps, who knows, we don't have a definite statement internally at the moment. We can only wait for the next crime to be committed and then arrive at the scene faster. You know, if it is really a 'demon', you will never be able to get there before the crime occurs."
find him."
They walked out of the morgue underground of the police station together. Watching Karl hand over the key to the inspector waiting at the door, Dunn withdrew his gaze and said in a mellow voice:
"I recently plan to use the cover of a newspaper reporter to go to the East District to investigate."
"Newspaper office, this may be a good method. As long as you don't show any obvious malice, it shouldn't alarm those 'devils'." Carl chewed on the idea that Dunn just mentioned, nodded slightly and agreed, "But I advise you to better
It’s better to be conservative, the ‘Devil’ is no less dangerous than the ‘Bishop Rose’ you encountered last time, and is even more troublesome to some extent.”
Recalling the "devil" he had only seen in documents and information, Karl couldn't help blinking his eyes, his expression became serious, and his movements did not appear to have glanced at the informant beside him.
"I know." Dunn responded softly, but his pace quickened again.
On the other side of the first floor of the police station, a woman with old-fashioned makeup was standing by the door, seemingly consulting something.
............
In a hotel in the East District, Klein stepped into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror, nodded with satisfaction, then opened the small door and walked out with a pile of formal clothes that were incompatible with the environment.
He carefully laid out the black formal clothes he usually wore on the bed in the room, folded them quickly, and placed them under the quilt.
Huh, there should be no problem with this... Klein, who was wearing a set of dark gray workers' clothing, stepped back, looked at the bed without any signs of bulge, sat on it, and took it out of his pocket.
A small folding mirror and a bunch of strange little things were applied to the face.
Directly in front of him, on the dirty glass of the hotel room, a bodyguard lady wearing a soft hat and an exquisite face appeared quietly.
She seemed to have found an illusory high-backed chair and sat down. She was supporting her right elbow with her left palm and her cheek with her right hand. She looked expressionless and carefully "appreciated" Klein's performance on her face.
I feel like a clown now...Klein, who had never thought that his bodyguard seemed to have such a hobby, twitched the corners of his mouth, his hands suddenly increased in speed, and his ice-blue eyes no longer looked around from time to time.
, but concentrated on looking at himself in the mirror, and completed the remaining steps in just one minute.
As he carefully placed the fake beard under his nose, he slowly breathed a sigh of relief and moved his gaze to the window a little further away.
It turns out that she likes to "watch plays"... Klein, who was already dressed, looked at himself who looked older in the folding mirror, so he put away the various props scattered beside the bed, bent his back slightly, and walked out of the room.
On the streets of the East District, from a distance, he looked just like the workers beside him. Even the clothes he bought were second-hand, so that except for the brilliance in his eyes and his hands without calluses, he could hardly see anything.
It turns out that he is not an old worker who has lived in the East District for many years, but more like those former middle-class people who unfortunately ended up in this hell on earth due to various encounters.
Klein, who had sold all his trophies and obtained enough gold pounds, had not had anyone come to his door through his advertisement in the newspaper recently, so he planned to take advantage of his rare free time to pay attention to what he had heard about for a long time.
The Rotting Man Corpse and the Ripper were never explored in depth.
As a former night watcher, with his new identity, he certainly does not need to directly involve himself in danger and solve problems himself.
But the time he spent as a guardian left a strong imprint on his heart, still driving him to do his best to fight against the madness and darkness lurking around the world.
I don't need to do anything more. I just need to find relevant clues and then anonymously deliver them to the church's mailbox. There will be dedicated official personnel to handle the matter...
Although he didn't meet reporter Mike at the newspaper office today, Klein still used his lunch time to sort out all the crime locations in the newspaper.
Among them, compared to the Ripper cases, which have no pattern at all, the cases of rotting male corpses are relatively concentrated in the East District and around the Backlund Bridge area, with most of the corpses found in sewers and the Tasok River.
And the place where the first body was found was right here... Klein, who had put on some disguise, stood in front of a garbage recycling station on the edge of the East District and walked in on his own initiative.