Deal and Klein

Max opened his eyes in a white space. There was nothing in front of him and nothing behind. Suddenly, a figure in priest robes appeared in front of him as though he had been standing there the whole time.

"Adam-" Max though, but his voice surprisingly echoed all around him, and Adam smiled as though trying to sooth someone, but it only seemed more sadistic to Max.

Max also realised where they were… inside his mind. Perhaps if he were to find a way to leave the inside of his mind, he would find himself in the ocean of collective conscience where Mr. Justice would venture to one day. 

But first, Max needed to get Adam out of his mind. Max quickly called upon the Amalgamation of All, and utterly destroyed the white illusion using the black solidifying tar from the Sefirot. Instead of using the weak mist that he had used only a wisp of to instil the scent of the Sefirot in the items he created a while ago, this time Max used a handful of the almost solidified tar, which was denser than the liquid!

Quite literally, Max used overwhelming power to make Adam leave his mind. Naturally, this was only possible since it was inside his own mind, where his soul resided. This was impossible to do in the real world, as Adam would just utterly crush him.

…

Back in the real world, Max regained his senses and saw Adam looking at him with a bewildered gaze. 

Max decided to egg the madam onto returning to his goals.

"You can keep trying to invade my mind, and I can keep removing you for as long as it takes. But by then, your… story will alter beyond your ability to fix it. So? How does my initial offer sound to you now? We both just ignore each other as though we do not exist? In fact, let me tell you something, I will most likely end up helping you and a certain Goddess in your goals, since my goal is also the same."

"Though I may be different to you all, our goals are still the same. Why fight?" Max said, a smile on his face as he continued, "Or do you wish for us to continue this charade? Should I call Him? I'm sure you would not like that. I bet even She would not like His interference. Plus, He will throw all your plans into chaos."

"Why bother trying to destroy and rebuild what is not broken. Especially when what you think is a crack is actually just a repairman, trying to prevent cracks from occurring due to its own existence."

Max had essentially thrown out most of his cards, and he was hoping one of them was enough to persuade Adam into leaving him alone. In fact, if he could get Adam's permission to stick around in Tingen, it would be even better as he would no longer have to worry about being discovered by one of the most powerful beings still able to live on Earth, considering the True Gods of Sequence 0 could not descend onto Earth unless special circumstances permit.

Max held his breath while Adam contemplated. Meanwhile, a Concealed Goddess and not so concealed Great Old On that covered the moon, turning it red had their attention placed on this conversation. Max knew that the Mother Goddess was observing him from the Amalgamation of All, while he had a feeling that the Goddess of Evernight was also looking at him since she had almost all her focus here, in Tingen. 

In fact, from what Max vaguely recalled about the latter parts of the novel, Multiple Gods worked together to rid Klein of the original Lord of Mysteries' will, as well as dispose of the tainted Beyonder characteristics ranging from Sequence 9 all the way to Sequence 0 of the Fool's pathway, that had been sealed into the Sefirah castle to make it easier for the will of the Lord of Mysteries to take over Klein's body and ascend to Great Old On quickly.

Thus, as long as Adam agreed, and no natural disaster occurred in the immediate vicinity, Max would have gotten the tacit approval of a few True Gods as well as a rather active King of Angels.

"Why are you so sure?" Adam said before Max's vision turned dark once more. But this time, he was already connected to the Amalgamation of All, so it did not even take an instant for his mindscape where Adam had invaded to shatter into nothingness once more, returning both their minds to the real world.

"You have a Sefirot? Not one of the originals, but a Sefirot nonetheless."

After a while, Adam just nodded slightly before vanishing from Max's view.

'Well… that was one way to handle it…' Max thought to himself as he realised Samuel's gamble this time around had actually paid off. He now no longer needed to be afraid of being smitten into oblivion from the heavens, or chased down by a rapid King of Angels while in Tingen.

The only thing he needed to be careful of was the normal Beyonders in Tingen, though this was much more manageable.

'My bullets!' Max exclaimed as he rushed out of the alley and began searching the cobbled ground for the three bullets he had fired at the king of Angels. Although it would be hard for someone to find him from just the bullets, if official Beyonders got involved, especially those with divination or tracking abilities, his stay in Tingen would really be cut short by one single incident.

As he picked up the bullets from the grounds and stone wall to the other side of the alley, Max thought about one fact.

'I do not have anything that is actually useful against Mid and High Sequence Beyonders. I had not approached the Beyonder gatherings of Backlund for fear of being investigated by the official Beyonders who keep an eye on every gathering to look out for individuals like me, and possibly being reported to a True God. Well, now this matter is no longer of concern, I should go visit the underground Black Market of Tingen to take up some Beyonder items.'

'What was the name of the kid again? From the black market… Ah yes, Monster. Maybe I could even recruit him to my organisation!' Max had a wonderful idea and decided to act on it at once.

Although he had come here to search for the old man, the only possible lead he had was the Knowledge Magisters, whose location he did not know. As such, searching for their whereabouts in the Black Market of Tingen was also one of his goals.

Max began to walk down the street as the ball of fiery death gradually set in the horizon and Tingen welcomed the reassuring red glow of the moon.

June 28th, 1349 of the Fifth Epoch

As midnight passed and Max was busy exploring the Black Market without actually buying anything, another very significant event was occurring in Tingen.

Klein Moretti had killed himself after returning home almost in a daze, while Zhou Mingrui, the college student from China had taken his place in a twist of fate. However, in reality, it was all a well-thought-out plan by the original Lord of Mysteries, who was often called the Celestial Worthy.

Thankfully, Evernight and a few other Gods had been present to prevent Klein from turning into the body of the Celestial Worthy and instead allowed Klein to organically grow into a new Lord of Mysteries.

As Max shuffled through the dark streets of the underground market, Zhou Mingrui found himself in an unfamiliar room with a throbbing headache as memories of Klein fused into his own, resulting in him turning into Klein as well.

Zhou Mingrui struggled to open his eyes, only to faintly see the crimson moon in the sky, while a throbbing pain continued to persist in his head. Turning his eyes, he saw a desk with an opened book with yellow pages on it, next to a stack of neatly piled books numbering eight.

The walls had pipes connected to lamps that were about half the size of a human head but were currently off. The only source of light was the red glow from the crimson moon.

Next to the notebook, Zhou Mingrui found a revolver, something he was accustomed to only seeing in movies and comics.

Instantly he began to panic. The pain pulsing in his head, the darkness only mitigated by a dull crimson glow, a revolver, and the unstable control over his own body caused Zhou to rapidly dart his eyes and observe the surroundings as his breathing quickened.

Soon enough, he spotted a mirror and noticed that he was no longer himself. He had black hair, and brown eyes, and was wearing a linen shirt. He had rather average-looking features and was not particularly well-built. 

After another moment of panic, Zhou began to calm himself, right before he received a flood of information in the form of memories. These were the memories of Klein Moretti.

A citizen of the Northern continent's Leon Kingdom, currently living in the city of Tingen. Klein was a graduate of the Department of History at Khoy University, which was only possible due to the private education he had received from the bereavement allowance of his sergeant father's sacrifice in a colonial conflict.

Klein was currently an orphan as his mother also passed away in the same year he had passed the entrance examination for the university. Together with his elder brother and younger sister, they lived in a two-bedroom apartment

Many memories rushed through Klein's mind as the souls of Zhou Mingrui and Klein combined and fully fused. However, compared with the perfect fusion between Max and Samuel; where the two were one while still being aware of the existence of the other half, Klein and Zhou were not so perfectly fused. Instead, most of the mind was occupied by Zhou, while only a small portion was taken up by Klein, only in the form of memories and his love for his family.

Klein proceeded to follow through with the exact same process as he did in the original novel, with no change at all. If Max was here, he would indeed find this a little odd, since his mere existence should have changed the future, at least by a little. However, all of this would soon change.

Klein finally noticed the bullet wound in his skull, and took a while to process it, realising that his transmigration had allowed him to recover from this deadly wound.

After a while of contemplation, something he did rather often, he recalled his 'Luck enhancement ritual' that he assumed had brought him here and decided to place all his bets on this and try it out.