Chapter 22: The Information Wall

Chapter 22: The Information Wall

Hobert showed his badge to the guard at the door and was allowed to enter the room with the information wall.

The room was large, almost as big as his living room at home. Except for one wall that was a window, the other three walls were blackboards.

On the blackboards, there were lines of information written in chalk. Several club members were standing with their hands behind their backs or arms crossed, reading the information on the blackboards one by one.

The handwriting was beautiful, likely written by the staff member sitting in the center of the room.

In the center of the room, there were several tables and chairs, along with coffee, tea, and other beverages, possibly provided for club members to rest when they got tired of reading.

At one of the tables sat a staff member with a box of chalk and writing paper and pens in front of him.

Hobert guessed that if someone wanted to "post" information, they would first write it down with a pen and hand it to the staff member, who would then transcribe it onto the blackboard.

It was only then that Hobert realized that ever since he drank the potion, he had become particularly sensitive to rules and was better at summarizing the rules of a certain area or event.

Is this what it means to be a "lawyer"? Good at summarizing rules.

Hobert shook his head with a smile and began to browse the information on the walls.

After a while, he started to summarize the patterns. On the wall to the right of the entrance, there were mainly task postings or information about finding teammates. The middle wall mostly had information about buying or selling items, and the left wall had various communication messages.

The tasks posted here were both official and unofficial, with some tasks in the Northern Continent and others in the Southern Continent.

For example, an official task was to sabotage and attack the colonies of the Feysac Empire in retaliation for the damage they caused to the Ruen fleet at sea. Someone also discovered a vault in the Southern Continent where the Intis Republic stored plundered gold and was looking for teammates to pull off a heist.

The buying and selling information was the most abundant. Hobert found several extraordinary items and materials being bought and sold, and even some common Sequence 9 potion formulas were being sought.

However, the term "potion formula" was not explicitly mentioned. Since the information was open to all members, words like "extraordinary" were replaced with terms like "magical," but those in the know understood.

There were also long-term sales of common extraordinary materials like Deep Sleep Flowers, Dragon Blood Grass, and Golden Mint.

This piqued Hobert's interest. Although "lawyers" were not adept at soul-related extraordinary abilities, as a Sequence 9 extraordinary, his "spiritual body" and "astral body" were sufficient to support him in performing rituals and conducting mystensis.

For other extraordinaries, the biggest issue with mystensis was not knowing how to perform the rituals, as this knowledge was mostly monopolized by the church and ancient secret organizations.

Hobert's advantage was having Old Neil's "explanations" and the cult leader "Mr. Fool's" "demonstrations." These high-level secrets were not mysteries to him.

Additionally, a few extraordinary items caught Hobert's attention, but their prices ranged from 300 pounds to 3,000 pounds, which was beyond his current means.

As for the communication messages, they were varied. There was information about a cult in Southville County of the Ruen Kingdom, a bizarre murder case in an East Bayland military camp, and even a scandal involving a congressman from the Intis Republic.

Two pieces of information left a deep impression on Hobert. One was about the Feysac Empire's fleet ambushing the Ruen fleet on the Stormy Sea route, resulting in the sinking of one Ruen warship and damage to three others.

The other was about General Anthony, who, although a warlord in West Bayland, seemed to have the support of the Feysac Empire behind the scenes.

Hobert paid attention to the first piece of information because he hadn't expected small-scale military conflicts between the two countries, possibly laying the groundwork for a future war orchestrated by figures like Adam and George III.

He focused on the second piece of information because he remembered his first "follower," Elliot Balk, was in General Anthony's territory.

Most of the other information was about secret matters in the Southern Continent or other countries, such as various nations infiltrating East Bayland or the open and covert struggles in West Bayland.

For some, this information was very valuable, but it was of little use to Hobert at the moment.

After organizing some potentially useful information, Hobert asked the staff to leave a message: "Buying Emperor Roselle's notes, 5 pounds per page. Note: I already have many of Emperor Roselle's notes, so I am only buying pages that are not in my collection."

Since there was information about buying and selling extraordinary materials, it indicated that the mercenary club had extraordinary members, making it normal to buy some items related to mysticism.

As for the "note" at the end, it was because Hobert was a bit reluctant to spend money. When he received the notes, he would glance at them briefly. If there was no important information, he would claim he already had that "collection."

Of course, buying Emperor Roselle's notes was a profitable deal. Hobert could first read the knowledge in the notes to increase his knowledge reserve, which was the first benefit.

Then he could trade the notes with the dear "Mr. Fool," taking advantage of "Mr. Fool," which was the second benefit.

He could also use the knowledge in the notes to trade with "Justice" and "The Hanged Man," which was the third benefit.

Hobert grinned, thinking more and more that this deal was worthwhile.

Finally, Hobert asked the staff to contact the club member selling Deep Sleep Flowers, Dragon Blood Grass, and other extraordinary materials, expressing his intention to buy and hoping to complete a transaction at the club the next afternoon or the day after.

He planned to buy some common extraordinary materials to try out the rituals he remembered.

After providing the staff with his contact address, Hobert, feeling quite accomplished, leisurely went to the restaurant for lunch.

In the restaurant, Hobert did not encounter Christine and Bruno, possibly because they had already left the club.

Lunch was a buffet, very sumptuous, with beef, lamb chops, seafood, and the taste was quite good, though there didn't seem to be many people dining there.

After eating and drinking his fill, Hobert took out his pocket watch and saw that it was not yet one o'clock.

He then went to the sofa in the hall, reading the newspaper while waiting for the gathering to start.

After reading the newspaper for a while, Hobert noticed many people entering the basement, either leisurely or quickly, and they did not return after ten minutes.

Moreover, Hobert clearly heard someone talking about "this gathering," making him wonder if the gathering location had been changed to the basement.

"P.S.: If you find any mistakes or incorrect names, please let me know."

(End of this chapter)