"Wow, sepertinya kamu benar-benar menyukainya," ucap Lex dengan sindir sambil berjalan dari tepi hutan menuju pintu gerbang kota. Kota itu lumayan besar, dibangun di kedua sisi sungai yang mengalir. Antrian pendek terlihat di gerbang yang mereka tuju.
"Ini cuma saran. Bukan sulit juga. Meski kuat, kedua keluarga itu tidak terlalu besar, jadi peluang bertemu salah satunya cukup kecil."
"Yang kamu lakukan sekarang disebut 'membendera'. Kamu basically memastikan akan bertemu salah satunya, kalau tidak keduanya, sebentar lagi," kata Lex santai.
"Apa?" Hildi bertanya, bingung.
"Membendera. Suatu kepercayaan. Intinya, mengungkapkan sesuatu yang ingin dihindari justru menjemputmu untuk menghadapinya tak lama lagi. Ada aturan lain, seperti 'death flag', 'red flag', 'green flag', dan sebagainya, tapi intinya semakin ingin menghindari sesuatu, semakin besar peluangmu menghadapinya. Aku tidak percaya padanya, sih."
"Lalu kenapa kamu sebutkan?"
"Hmm, tidak ada alasan khusus. Cuma kali terakhir aku 'membendera' untuk diriku sendiri, aku kehilangan kulitku. Semuanya. Hilang. Pengalaman tidak menyenangkan. Masih tidak percaya padanya, trotzdem."
"Baiklah... kalau begitu. Nah, aku sudah antar kamu ke Torrinwood. Tiket masuknya dua koin tembaga. Semoga berhasil dengan urusanmu. Aku punya urusan sendiri, jadi aku pamit dulu."
Lex mengangguk, lalu mengamati dia pergi. Jelas wanita itu tersibukkan dengan hal lain, yang membuat Lex merasa tidak puas. Dia tidak belajar apa-apa yang signifikan, dan juga tidak berhasil bersikap cukup misterius.
Dia menyebarkan indra spiritualnya ke seluruh kota, lalu berteleportasi ke sebuah taverne yang relatif sepi. Dia duduk di sebuah kursi dan mengeluarkan sebuah buku yang sudah lama tidak dibaca — Kaisar Raja Tertinggi: Semua Dewa Memanggilku Ayah!
Jelas dia belum cukup misterius kalau Hildi begitu saja pergi. Dia perlu mengonsultasikan novel ini dan mencatat bagaimana orang misterius yang ditemui tokoh utama bersikap. Apa yang cukup misterius untuk menarik perhatian, dan apa yang terlihat hanya main-main.
Sebenarnya Lex menganggap novel ini sampah total dan tidak menyukainya sama sekali, tapi sekarang dia sudah mengejar hingga bab 13.000! Untungnya penulisnya selamat dari insiden di Bumi. Alih-alih ikut pengungsi, dia bergabung dengan Kekaisaran Jotun dengan berteleportasi ke Vegus Minima. Nyatanya dia terus menulis novel itu dan menjadi fenomena antar-galaksi.
Kali terakhir dia baca, tokoh akhirnya mengetahui sesuatu tentang adik angkatnya yang diculik, sambil mendambakan balas dendam untuk istrinya yang dibunuh, memimpin pasukan sundal-sundalnya.
Seluruh arc itu menjengkelkan, jadi Lex melewatinya hingga tokoh akhirnya naik ke ranah dewa paling tinggi — ranah tempat dewa-dewa ada. Tentu saja, dia harus meninggalkan semua isteri, sundal, dan pengikut setianya di ranah bawah — pengorbanan besar.
"Mau pesan apa?" seorang pelayan wanita mendekat dan bertanya.
"Ya, carikan aku satu setiap menu yang ada. Ini, uang kembaliannya buat kamu." Lex menyerahkan koin perak dan kembali membaca.
Di ranah baru ini, tokoh utama bukan orang paling lemah di sekitar, tapi posisinya di bawah.
Lex membaca cepat sedikit lagi. Dia mencari kekuatan misterius dan… ketemu. Jadi tokoh utama mendapat kalung yang membawa fragmen jiwa dewa ilahi yang seharusnya sudah lama mati.
Lex segera fokus dan mulai mencatat. Mungkin novel konyol ini bukan tempat terbaik ambil catatan. Suara di kepala mengingatkan dia bahwa dia punya batas waktu. Tapi godaannya terlalu besar…
Akhirnya, dia mengizinkan diri sendiri paling satu hari untuk berbuas-buasa. Bersantai mungkin justru membantu performa dia nanti. Setelah itu, lanjut cari, dan manfaatkan kesempatan apa pun untuk bersikap kryptik sebagaimana mestinya.
Dengan itu teratasi, dia mulai mencatat tanpa rasa bersalah. Jadi: kerudung hitam untuk sembunyikan identitas, muncul dan lenyap dari nowhere, menggunakan teknik yang mengejutkan penonton.
Dia tidak akan memasukkan jiwanya ke kalung, tapi bisa menaruh warisan luar biasa di sepotong perhiasan dan lelang. Nyatanya lelang sangat integral untuk bersikap misterius. Yang paling penting: menyumbangkan barang yang akhirnya dijual sebagai item terakhir lelang, dapat booth VIP, lalu beli barang lain sementara orang lain menebak identitasnya.
Dalam novel aslinya, banyak sekali 'face slapping', tapi Lex menganggap itu tidak realistis. Bagaimana dia bisa kebetulan bertemu orang-orang yang dibiarkan sampai bodoh, yang datang mencari gaduh?
Dia menjaga indra spiritualnya tersebar untuk mengamati apakah adegan seperti itu umum, dan untungnya tidak. Namun peran 'mahkota' (crowns) sangat luas. Dia tetap tidak tahu gunanya sebenarnya, tapi mereka menciptakan semacam sistem kasta di mana orang dengan proyeksi berkualitas lebih tinggi diperlakukan lebih baik.
Lebih penting lagi, dugaannya terbukti benar. Orang-orang di sini jauh lebih terbuka untuk bertarung dan membunuh, semua demi meningkatkan proyeksi mereka. Untungnya, kebanyakan targetnya hewan dan binatang buas, tapi tidak semuanya.
Lex menggigit sebelah pai yang diletakkan di depannya, di antara hidangan lain, dan terus membaca ketika pintu taverne dibuka dengan kencang.
"AKU MEMESAN TEMPAT INI, JADI KALIAN SEMUA KELUAR!"
"Wow, you must really like them," Lex said sarcastically as they walked from the edge of the forest to the city entrance. It was decently sized and was built on both sides of a river that was passing by. There was a short line at the gate that they were walking towards.
"It's just a suggestion. It's not really that hard. Despite their power, both families aren't too large so the chances of actually running into one of them is quite low."
"What you're doing right now is called raising a flag. You're basically ensuring that you'll run into one of them, if not both of them, pretty soon," said Lex casually.
"What?" Hildi asked, confused.
"Raising a flag. It's a superstition. Basically stating something you hope to avoid only sets you up to face it pretty soon. There are a few other rules to it, like raising death flags, red flags, green flags and such, but in essence the more you want to avoid something, the more you'll end up facing it. I don't believe in them though."
"Then why did you bring it up?"
"Hmm, no reason in particular. Just that the last time I raised a flag for myself, I lost my skin. All of it. Gone. Was not a fun experience. Still don't believe in them though."
"Alright... if you say so. Well, I've brought you to Torrinwood. Toll to enter is two copper coins. Good luck with your endeavors. I have some business of my own to take care of, so I should get going."
Lex nodded, and then watched her leave. She was clearly distracted with other things, which left Lex feeling dissatisfied. He hadn't learned anything significant, nor had he acted mysteriously enough.
He spread out his spirit sense and spread it over the city, before teleported to a relatively empty tavern he found. He sat down on a chair and pulled out a book he hadn't read in a long while - Ultimate King Emperor: All the Gods call me Daddy!
Clearly he hadn't been acting mysterious enough if Hildi so easily just got up and left. He would need to consult the novel and take note of how the mysterious people the main character encountered behaved. What was mysterious enough to attract attention, and what seemed like fun.
As much as Lex thought this novel was actually completely trash and did not like it at all, he was now caught up to chapter 13,000! It was fortunate that the author had survived the incident on earth. Instead of going with the refugees, however, he joined the Jotun empire by teleporting over to Vegus Minima. Apparently, he had continued to write the novel and it was an intergalactic hit.
The last time he'd read the novel, the main character finally learned something about his adopted sister who was kidnaped, all the while seeking revenge for his wife who was murdered, leading an army of his concubines.
The whole arc was annoying so Lex skipped it until the main character finally ascended to the penultimate divine realm - a realm where deities existed. Naturally, he had to leave all his wives, concubines and die hard followers in the lower realms - a great sacrifice.
"Will you be ordering anything?" a waitress walked up to him and asked.
"Yeah, get me one of everything on the menu. Here, keep the change." Lex handed her a silver coin and got back to reading.
In this new realm, the main character was not the weakest person around, but he was down there.
Lex skimmed a bit more. He was searching for a mysterious powerhouse and… got it. So the main character got a necklace which carried the soul fragment of some divine deity that was supposed to be long dead.
Lex immediately focused in and began taking notes. Perhaps such a ridiculous novel was not the best place to take notes from. A part of him reminded himself that he was on a time limit. But he was so tempted…
In the end, he allowed himself one day at most to do as he wished. Relaxing might actually help him perform better in the long run. After that, though, he would continue his search, and take whatever opportunity he got to behave cryptically as the opportunity arose.
With that out of the way, he began taking notes guilt free. So a black hood to hide his identity, appearing and disappearing out of nowhere, using techniques that bewilder the audience.
He was not about to put his soul into a necklace, but he could drop some kind of amazing inheritance inside some piece of jewelry and auction it off. Apparently auctions were very integral to acting mysterious. The most important thing, however, was to donate the item that would ultimately sell as the last item on the auction, getting a VIP booth as a result, and then buying some things while everyone else guessed his identity.
In the actual novel itself, there was a whole lot more face slapping involved, but Lex found that terribly unrealistic. How was he supposed to randomly encounter people, spoiled to the extent of stupidity, who would just come and start fights with him?
He'd kept his spirit sense spread around him to observe if such scenes were common, and fortunately they weren't. However the role of the crowns was extensive. He still did not know what their actual use was, but they had created some kind of caste system where people with higher quality projections were treated better than others.
More importantly, his assumption had also proved correct. People were a lot more open to fighting and killing here, all in the name of improving their projections. Fortunately, most of that killing was targeted towards animals and beasts, but not all of it.
Lex took a bite out of a pie that had been placed in front of him, among other things, and continued to read when the doors to the tavern were slammed open.
"I'M RESERVING THIS GODDAMN PLACE, SO ALL OF YOU GET THE HELL OUT!"
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