Mystery: From Celestial Venerable's Backup to Red Priest

Chapter 24 The Essence of Role-Playing

After leaving home, Klein walked Evan for a while. Once he could no longer see his rented house, he turned directly to Evan and asked:

"Why did you suddenly come to my house? Is something wrong?"

"As your classmate, I heard you moved, so shouldn't you at least come and acknowledge the new place? Are you saying that now that you're a night watchman and I'm a wild extraordinary being, you're a cop and I'm a thief, you don't recognize me as your classmate anymore?"

Evan covered his chest with his hand and looked at Klein with feigned sadness.

Klein rolled his eyes at these words. "I've already helped you kill someone, and you still say that? You're not human at all!" However, Klein still noticed the key point in Evan's words.

"Have you obtained the potion and become an extraordinary being?"

As he spoke, Klein activated his spiritual sense, only to find that he still couldn't discern Evan's emotional state; it was all a jumbled mess.

"Yes, today I met Heinz Vancent of the Aurora Society, as well as his superior, Mr. Z, and obtained the 'Hunter' potion, officially becoming a 'Hunter'."

Furthermore, I have already received a telegram from Backlund that I will be leaving Tingen for Backlund tomorrow, so you don't need to worry anymore. You can report him to your captain.

I've already thought of all the reasons for your report. Heinz Vancent is a senior diviner at the Diviners' Club, and he often teaches divination enthusiasts some occult knowledge.

You can join the "Diviners" club, and then report to your captain that you saw the person who sold the Welch ancient book with the follower yesterday. This way, you can both digest the potion and reasonably find the suspect, killing two birds with one stone.

By the way, let me remind you of something. Because he developed me as a valuable informant, and considering his previous contributions, he is very likely to receive a reward this time and become a 'Listener' in Sequence 8 of the Secret Analyst Path.

Listeners can hear voices with various mystical meanings, especially the utterances of the True Creator—the pinnacle of the 'Mystic' path. This grants them all sorts of bizarre and unpredictable abilities, but can also corrupt them, turning them into true madmen. So remember to remind your teammates not to be careless, lest they be caught off guard and capsize!

Hearing Evan's flawless plan, Klein nodded to indicate that he understood, then thought for a moment and asked Evan for further guidance:

What are your thoughts on role-playing? What are your opinions on role-playing as a "fortune teller"?

Knowing that there was a mastermind behind Tingen, Klein was eager to improve his sequence, learn more occult knowledge, and play the role more quickly.

Among the extraordinary people he knew, he could hardly find anyone he could communicate with.

Most of the members of the Night Watch team were unaware of the existence of the "Acting Method." The only person who might know about the "Acting Method," Miss Daly, was someone they didn't know well.

At the Tarot meeting, he had to pretend to be a god and could not discuss with the Hanged Man and Justice, so he turned his attention to Evan, his classmate from the original body, who knew that he was a follower of "The Fool".

Moreover, in Klein's view, Evan, a mystery enthusiast who might have even more knowledge of the occult than the captain, was a good person to consult.

Especially since Evan was about to leave Tingen, and such matters couldn't be communicated by letter, Klein decided to seize the opportunity now and quickly ask for his advice.

Evan glanced at Klein in surprise, not expecting him to ask him such a question. This kind of question requires a strong level of trust, because if someone maliciously leads the conversation, it might go astray and the worst thing would be to lose control. It was clear that Klein already had some trust in him.

Come to think of it, in Klein's eyes, Evan was already the person who knew the most of his secrets, so naturally he could trust him.

"The essence of role-playing lies in digestion, not in mastery."

The literal meaning of "mastery" is easy to understand, but its underlying meaning is that you only see the potion as a tool for mastering extraordinary power, as a wild horse and hunting dog that you want to tame.

However, no matter how rigorously the hunting dogs are trained, there are still many reports in the newspapers every year of them harming their owners.

Similarly, no matter how much control you have over potions, they are not your own power and will eventually backfire on you.

Digestion, on the other hand, treats the potion as a source of energy and food for your body. You eat it, break it down, fuse it, absorb it, and truly transform it into your muscles and your strength.

This is actually quite easy to understand, but why does the role-playing method help extraordinary individuals digest potions?

Klein, who was listening intently, rolled his eyes when he saw Evan stop. "Now I'm asking you for advice, not asking me."

Seeing Klein roll his eyes, Evan laughed heartily and, without further suspense, continued:

"The reason why potions hinder the digestion of extraordinary individuals mainly comes from two aspects."

One is an inherent effect of the potion, originating from its source, which is almost impossible for anyone to control.

Another is the spiritual imprint that comes with the previous owner of the extraordinary trait. As you know, extraordinary traits are roughly equivalent to potions.

In my view, the role-playing method is "deception," deceiving the various spiritual imprints and the will of the creator in the potion, making them believe that you are one of them, accepting you, acknowledging you, and no longer rejecting you.

You, on the other hand, gradually conquer the potion from within, digest the potion, and finally replace and break these mental imprints with your own mental imprint.

Therefore, the core of role-playing is to change one's "body," "mind," and "spirit," resonate with the stubborn spiritual imprints within, and then gradually digest them. This is role-playing, and the core of role-playing is the name of the magic potion.

If you are a "fortune teller", you will naturally have to play the role of a "fortune teller". Because everyone's personality, experience and background are different, this means that even if you drink the same potion, the rules for playing the role may vary greatly from person to person.

My only advice to you is this: don't be superstitious about divination. "Divination isn't always a panacea." In the mystical world, there are far too many abilities that can shield and influence divination.

Upon hearing Evan's words, Klein fell into deep thought and remained silent for a long time before finally nodding in agreement.

"The role-playing method is not foolproof; it carries risks, even considerable danger. There's a famous saying in the mystical world: 'When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you!'"

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, so always remember, "You can only ever be you."

Seeing that Klein understood what he had said, Evan gave him some advice.

Klein frowned, somewhat puzzled by the meaning of the statement. He had heard Mr. Hanged Man say something similar, though that was when he was instructing Miss Justice; the original words were: "The audience can only be the audience." Klein felt the meaning might be similar, and Evan continued to explain further:

"We read and write, and learn knowledge, which makes us more knowledgeable and become so-called 'decent people.' But conversely, the knowledge we learn from school also shapes our values, our obedience to social rules and laws, and our principles of conduct change as a result. Can't we say that we are influenced by knowledge in turn?"

The spiritual imprint on the potion is so stubborn that even though the previous owner is dead, it still influences the successor.

When we use role-playing to "deceive" these mental imprints, isn't there a risk of being affected by those imprints instead?

Your behavior and thought processes are becoming increasingly similar to those mental imprints. To this extent, are you "deceiving" those mental imprints, or are you being assimilated by them?

At this point, are you still yourself? Losing control becomes inevitable. Therefore, the core second principle of the role-playing method is: 'You can only ever be yourself!' You must clearly understand what kind of person you are, otherwise you may stop being yourself in the process of playing and processing the role, and gradually lose yourself in it.”

Klein was shocked and horrified after hearing Evan's words. If he hadn't followed Evan's advice and had simply acted according to what he was told, he might have been the one who truly fell into the trap.

At the same time, Klein was extremely relieved that Evan meant him no harm; otherwise, if he had only concealed the second half of the story, he wouldn't even know how he died.

Seeing Klein break out in a cold sweat, Evan couldn't help but chuckle. Klein was still too green and reckless at this point, far less cautious than Sherlock Moriarty, Gehrman Sparrow, and Dawn Dantes later on.

This can also be seen as a reminder to him about his recklessness.

"Thank you, Evan. What you said has been very helpful to me."

Klein sincerely thanked Evan. What Evan said was extremely valuable knowledge that money couldn't buy. Even among the Night Watchers, it was impossible to learn such accurate acting techniques. However, summarizing it himself would take a lot of time, and right now, Klein was short of time.

"It's nothing. We're classmates, we both experienced the same mysterious and extraordinary events, we both survived by sheer luck, we both became extraordinary individuals, and we even joined the same secret organization. We should help each other out."

Hearing this, Klein felt uneasy because he didn't know how he could help Evan. He knew less than Evan, and his family background was not as good as Evan's. Even if he had a cheat code, Evan also had one. It seemed that Evan didn't need him for anything.

"By the way, besides telling you I'm going to Backlund, there's something else I need to remind you of when I came to your house this time."

"What?" Klein looked at Evan with some surprise.

"That day, I went to my house with your captain to investigate my green-eyed night watchman. He might not be as simple as he seems."

"Huh? Why do you say that?"

Klein knew immediately that he was talking about Leonard. Thinking back to Leonard's usual demeanor, he felt that apart from being a bit of a flamboyant poet, he wasn't anything special.

"The ring I'm wearing is a rather powerful sealing artifact. If I don't use it, it looks no different from an ordinary ring. Generally speaking, even extraordinary beings below the level of demigod would find it difficult to detect anything amiss."

But yesterday at the church, he subtly glanced at the ring on my hand, clearly recognizing its difference. And judging from your reaction, he didn't seem to have reported this to your captain, so something's not right about him.

As he spoke, Evan raised his left hand and showed Klein his ring.