After leaving the telegraph office, Aiven checked his pocket watch and found it was already half past one in the afternoon. He needed to make some preparations to see if he could contact Klein in advance and take the opportunity to join the Tarot Club.
The Tarot Club meeting was scheduled for 3 PM, so he had to perform the ritual earlier.
Thinking of this, Aiven hailed a carriage on the street and asked the coachman to first take him to buy some food that Klein had prepared for his first ritual after transmigrating, and then to the nearest hotel.
The reason Aiven didn't perform the ritual at home was mainly out of fear of alarming Mr. Buck, the butler, and causing him to write another letter to Backlund.
As Aiven boarded the carriage, he subtly glanced at a spot not far to the side, then feigned ignorance and got into the carriage as if nothing had happened.
From the moment Aiven left home that morning, he knew he was being followed. He thought he was well hidden, but in Aiven's eyes, they were so 'obvious'.
This didn't mean the tracker's skills were poor or bad.
On the contrary, his tracking skills were very high and he was very experienced. Ordinary Beyonders might not be able to detect his tracking,
but Aiven had his cheat. Aiven even clearly knew that the person tracking him was a Beyonder from the Hunter Pathway.
Ever since Aiven first drank the Assassin potion and entered the top floor of that city, which greatly resembled 20th-century 'Shanghai', Aiven's golden finger also unlocked.
Not only could Aiven pre-access a Beyonder ability from his own Pathway using his golden finger, but he could also safely consume Hunter Pathway potions, which were adjacent to the Assassin Pathway, and even more, it made Beyonders from both of these Pathways completely exposed before Aiven.
In Aiven's eyes, they were like fireflies in the dark. As long as Aiven closed his eyes and concentrated, he could perceive all people or objects within a hundred-meter radius. In Aiven's mind, they were like computer models from his previous life, which Aiven could explore 360 degrees, except their colors were all gray.
And Beyonders from the Assassin and Hunter Pathways even had black or red auras around them, making them exceptionally dazzling. At the same time, they also evoked a 'hungry' instinct in Aiven, making him instinctively want to 'prey' on them.
Aiven didn't know the limit of this detection effect, but he knew that at least Mrs. Sharon, a Sequence 6 Demoness of Pleasure, couldn't escape his detection.
As a member of a powerful secret organization and a cunning Demoness, Mrs. Sharon was extremely cautious in recruiting peripheral members. She had more than once tracked and spied on Aiven invisibly, but each time, without exception, she was discovered by Aiven.
Therefore, in her eyes, Aiven was a perfect, trustworthy, and completely controlled development target, precisely because she was unilaterally transparent before Aiven.
When Aiven left home that morning, he already knew he was being followed by a Hunter. He only had to think for a moment to deduce that this must be Hai Na Sen. Fan Sen Te's companion.
When Hai Na Sen. Fan Sen Te tempted the original body, he revealed that he could help Aiven prepare a Sequence 9 potion. The original body was naturally overjoyed by this.
However, although he strongly recommended the 'Mysticologist' potion, which was better for studying mysticism, the young and impetuous original body valued the powerful 'Hunter' potion more, because the original body had wanted to follow his brother into the army, but his brother had stopped him from applying to military school back then.
Hai Na Sen. Fan Sen Te was only a minor member of the Aurora Order. After successfully recruiting Aiven, he didn't know the Hunter potion formula and would inevitably report to his superiors.
And Aiven, being such a high-quality recruitment target, could attract the attention of the Demoness Sect, and would naturally attract the attention of the Aurora Order. Perhaps Mr. Z had already arrived in Tingen City from Emmat Port.
The Aurora Order has survived for so many years under the encirclement and suppression of the Orthodox Churches, so they naturally aren't lacking in intelligence. After all, they are merely 'mad', not 'idiots'.
So, after Hai Na Sen. Fan Sen Te sent Aiven the letter, it was inevitable that they would send someone to monitor Aiven's movements. Since Aiven hadn't been officially recruited yet, they couldn't guarantee his loyalty. Who knew if Aiven would sell them out?
But this brought trouble to Aiven, and it was trouble Aiven brought upon himself.
Aiven was distressed that morning about possibly not being able to escape Adam or 008's script, so he thought about smashing the chessboard, reporting the entire Aurora Order, and destroying all of 008's arrangements.
The True Creator's offspring could not descend, and 008 would never be able to write a script again.
So Aiven ignored the Hunter tracker and directly entered Saint Selena Cathedral in front of him.
However, the important news Aiven received from Dunn gave him hope of leaving Tingen, and finally made Aiven decide to abandon the idea of reporting them.
Then the Hunter who had been following him was trouble and had to be dealt with quickly. He couldn't be allowed to relay the news of Aiven entering Saint Selena Cathedral.
It wasn't urgent yet, though. This wasn't the modern world of Aiven's previous life, where everyone had a mobile phone. Aiven had been out and about all day, so the tracker could only follow him and had no time to transmit the information.
Not to mention that Aiven's activity area today was far from Howes Street, where Hai Na Sen. Fan Sen Te was located.
So, Aiven wasn't in a hurry to deal with the tracker yet. He needed to think carefully about what to do.
After the coachman dropped him off at the nearest hotel, Aiven booked a room for two hours. This made the front desk staff look at Aiven more closely, and one male attendant even suggestively mentioned that they had professional masseuses on their second floor.
Aiven politely declined and didn't offer any further explanation, merely instructing the attendant not to disturb him.
After being led to a luxurious suite by the attendant, Aiven casually tipped him 10 sule.
This was something Aiven had specifically prepared before leaving. Tipping with golden pounds would have been too conspicuous, which was also due to Aiven having transmigrated for too short a time and not having an intuitive feel for things.
But even so, it made the attendant leave with profuse thanks and bows to Aiven. One must know that his weekly wages plus tips might not even amount to that much money. This money was an unexpected joy for him.
After entering the room, Aiven took off his overcoat and vest, then, following the instructions from The Lord of the Mysteries that had materialized in his mind, he arranged various foods as Klein had done for his first preparations.
Aiven stood up, surveyed everything again, considered it, and took four candles from the hotel's candelabra, placing them at the midpoint between each of the arranged foods.
Aiven couldn't imitate Klein too closely, as this might arouse Klein's vigilance. After all, Klein's personality could sometimes be a bit too 'cautious'. If something felt slightly off, he would retreat. He would absolutely not take even a tiny risk unless necessary, but when necessary, he would be incredibly 'reckless'.
After arranging everything, Aiven checked his pocket watch again and found it was only 2:15 PM. There was no rush, so he found a chair to rest for a while. At the same time, he flipped through The Lord of the Mysteries that had materialized in his mind, reviewing and learning anew, checking for any oversights.
Aiven was very familiar with the entire content of The Lord of the Mysteries, so he read quickly. But when Aiven turned to the chapter where Klein drank the Seer potion and became a true Beyonder, Aiven stood up from his chair in shock, spitting out the coffee he had brought to his mouth, his eyes filled with horror.
Aiven remembered this original passage very clearly: after Klein became a Seer, he followed Old Neil for a whole morning to learn how to use 'Spirit Vision', which left him mentally exhausted. After leaving the underground, Captain Dunn gave him another warning, and then he went home to sleep and rest, waking up only after 12 PM. The second Tarot Club gathering was then held.
Previously, when Aiven had flipped through The Lord of the Mysteries in his mind, he had seen the same content.
But now the content had changed. As Klein was about to leave, an incident occurred at the church ahead. Klein endured his fatigue, forced himself to help, and finally found it was a false alarm. However, Klein became even more exhausted due to high mental tension and went home to sleep until 2 PM.
The content in The Lord of the Mysteries had changed, and when it mentioned the incident at the church, it did not elaborate on Aiven's situation, only referring to him as a 'mysticism enthusiast'. The entire incident was also written very briefly and simply.
If Aiven hadn't been the person involved in this matter, he might have truly believed it was a simple, ordinary incident.
After Aiven calmed down, he thought that the changes in The Lord of the Mysteries were actually quite reasonable. After all, he was a character who had never appeared in the original work, and he had directly interacted with the protagonist and supporting characters in the first volume, affecting Klein. According to the butterfly effect, this naturally created a ripple effect.
He just hadn't expected this mysterious Lord of the Mysteries to have such a close connection with reality, almost changing in real-time.
Suddenly, Aiven thought of something. He controlled The Lord of the Mysteries in his mind to turn the page, directly flipping to the last chapter of the first volume about 008's script. He read it sentence by sentence and found that some changes had indeed occurred.
...
'“Due to Hai Na Sen. Fan Sen Te’s mistake, the antigonus notebook was read by Aewen. Horn, who had come to visit, causing him to be unfortunately corrupted, but this went undetected by anyone. This is a minor issue and will not affect Ince Zangwill’s plan.”
...
“It’s puzzling, lacking sufficient reason, Klein Moretti did not commit suicide afterward and successfully survived. Aewen. Horn was also the same, except he was never detected by anyone as being related to the antigonus notebook from beginning to end, so no relevant Beyonders noticed that his suicide attempt, which should have succeeded, failed.”
“Klein met Dunn Smith through Welch’s case and joined the Nighthawks team, while Aewen. Horn, who harbored a secret, also came under scrutiny due to his classmate relationship with Welch.”
“Although this exceeds Ince Zangwill’s description, it somehow seems to not affect the story’s development.”
“But how could the cautious Ince Zangwill allow his plan to have loopholes not under his control?”
“Worried that his young master might attempt suicide again, Butler Buck, who had accidentally failed to send the letter, suggested contacting Backlund via telegraph.”
“Aewen. Horn was eager to go to Backlund, so he agreed to this exceptionally expensive proposal.”
“Oh! Poor Ince Zangwill, he is truly too unlucky. The Backlund Telegraph Office seems to have been evacuated due to a terrorist attack by the Aurora Order, which meant that the telegram Butler Buck sent to Backlund was not received. Aewen. Horn was still not sent away from Tingen, which made Ince Zangwill unbearable…”
The script of 008 in The Lord of the Mysteries had clearly changed.
Suddenly, in Aiven's 'eyes', the words on the gray The Lord of the Mysteries twisted and changed again.