Chapter 475: The Gaze from the Stars

Chapter 475: The Gaze from the Stars

The mysterious gray fog, the unknown space, the figures exuding an ancient aura—all these made Leonard, who had been stimulated tonight, feel speechless once again.

It seemed like everything had been targeting him recently.

"Where is this place?" Leonard suppressed his chaotic emotions and asked humbly.

"A space for gatherings."

"What kind of gathering?"

"The Tarot Club."

"You are the Fool!"

Upon hearing the term "Tarot Club," Leonard instantly realized the true identity of the ancient being before him.

This was an ancient resurrected entity recorded alongside the stars in the archives, suspected to be from countless epochs ago.

Klein, who was seated at the head, merely smiled as he looked at the panicked Leonard.

Tonight, he originally intended to enter Leonard's dream through Will, but Will happened to have something to deal with.

So he thought of pulling Leonard into the gray fog for a meeting, indirectly providing him with some help.

As for the resurrected Klein, he could interact with Leonard through his identity as the World.

This was an excellent way to handle things, although it did scare Leonard a bit.

However, with his ability to adapt, he should soon be able to integrate into the Tarot Club, even though he looked a bit silly right now.

"What do I need to do?" Leonard took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Choose a Tarot card as your code name."

Klein laid out the remaining Tarot cards in a row in front of Leonard, letting him choose his favorite.

"I choose the Star card."

With just a quick glance, Leonard grabbed the Star card. The star was also a symbol of the goddess, and he was a believer in the goddess.

Klein put away the other Tarot cards and looked at the still somewhat bewildered Leonard. He smiled and said, "I can answer some of your questions for free."

"Why did you choose me?"

"Everyone who can come here has something special about them. In other words, every member of the Tarot Club could be a protagonist of this era."

Leonard shuddered inexplicably, thinking about the old man inside him. Was it because of the old man that he was chosen by the Fool?

But just now, he kept calling the old man, but there was no response, as if he was isolated in the real world and did not follow him into this gray fog space.

"Is the Tarot Club held regularly?"

"Every two weeks, on Monday at 3 PM. The next Tarot Club meeting is in three days."

Leonard was silent for a while before asking the question he wanted to ask the most, "What is Mr. Fool's purpose?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

The light teasing tone made Leonard shiver, and he finally shook his head, refusing the Fool's answer. He was afraid he might accidentally hear knowledge he shouldn't be exposed to.

"The members of the Tarot Club are similar to you. I believe you will get along well with them."

Without further conversation, Klein sent Leonard away from the gray fog.

Back in the real world, Leonard first nervously looked around. The familiar surroundings of the room made him feel at ease.

"Where did you go just now?" The curious voice of the old man came from deep within him.

Leonard was now certain that the old man was not in his body just now. After all, with the old man's state, how could he hide from the Fool?

"I met the Fool."

This time it was the old man's turn to be silent. After a while, the old man's voice came again, "The Night Goddess, the stars, the Fool—are you lucky or unlucky?"

"Old man, what do you mean by that?"

"The literal meaning."

"Let's hope it's good luck."

Leonard himself was not sure. At this moment, the outside was still silent and dark, with the light of the crimson moon and the stars seemingly obscured.

...

In the dock area, the midnight chase on the streets came to an end here.

Most of the yellow-robed monks in Backlund gathered here, searching every inch of suspicious land.

In the end, they followed the trail left by the mysterious shadow all the way to the abandoned Sunrise Poorhouse.

When they opened the dungeon and saw the map with dozens of names hanging on the wall, the gardener and cook in charge of the matter silently put the map away.

...

During the day, Backlund's weather was gray and hazy as usual, covering the entire sky. Workers of all professions were already busy and tense.

"Damn it, where did this map come from!"

Leonard, as usual, went to the office on the second floor of the Chowood District, picked up a teacup, and before he could take a sip of hot tea, he saw a neatly folded map on his desk.

Curiously opening it, he almost spilled the hot tea.

A map of Backlund was densely covered with many names, many of whom he knew.

There were Hastur, Klein, Dawn Dunstay, and even his own name!

More critically, his name was one of the five circled in red.

What was this?

An April Fool's joke?

Moreover, the more he looked at this map, the more uneasy he felt, as if he was holding a bomb that could explode at any moment.

Leonard hurriedly put the map back on the table, took a sip of hot tea to calm down, and gradually regained his composure in the tea smoke.

He began to ask the Red Glove members who were on duty last night if anyone had placed the map on his desk, but the answers were all negative. No one had entered his office, nor had anyone seen anything suspicious.

But this map couldn't have appeared on his desk out of nowhere!

And this behavior of writing names on a map seemed to be the work of a psychopathic criminal.

With no results from the investigation, Leonard tightly closed the office door and hurriedly asked the old man inside for his opinion.

If it were usual times, he might not care too much about such things, but the recent events made him feel too bizarre.

"You have attracted too much attention. This may not be a good thing."

"Old man, why are you being cryptic again? Can't you just tell me the answer clearly?"

"Heh, this is something you need to think about yourself."

"Alright, I admit I'm dumb."

Leonard admitted defeat, trying to get more useful information from the old man.

"You probably won't die."

"Probably?"

"Is there anything in this world that's 100% certain?"

"Old man, are you trying to scare me?"

"Think whatever you want."

After leaving this sentence, the old man inside him fell silent again. Leonard leaned quietly on his chair, looking at the map on his desk with a complicated expression, not knowing how to deal with it for a while.

Late at night, when the black clouds covered the starlight again, that familiar shadow appeared outside the window.

"Hehe."

Leonard, who had been sleepless and forcibly keeping himself awake, saw the shadow reappear outside the window and gritted his teeth, "Damn thing, if you have the guts, don't run!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Leonard threw off the blanket, and with the gun he had been holding tightly, he fired several shots accurately at the window!

The fragile glass window shattered, and sharp glass shards flew everywhere.

The shadow merely crouched down, seemingly undergoing some kind of transformation, easily avoiding the incoming bullets.

But before Leonard could fire again, a large black net fell from the sky, trying to trap the shadow.

Sensing danger, the shadow tried to escape but was knocked back by a weapon resembling a frying pan. Its body twitched and was soon enveloped by the black net.

"Hiss..."

The shadow in the net crouched, its limbs on the ground, making a sound similar to a snake's hissing.

Leonard, who had turned on the lights in the room, saw the true form of the shadow in the net—a spider with a human face!

It had black hair as long as a finger, a white furry abdomen, four pairs of blue eyes, and eight spider legs as tall as a human.

At this moment, it was half-pressed down by the black net, its eight eyes staring fixedly at Leonard, its mouth hissing and spewing foul-smelling liquid that could corrode the black net.

Leonard felt disgusted at first, then a chill ran down his spine.

But he did not raise his gun to shoot the spider in the head.

Because he noticed that around the black net stood a group of yellow-robed monks.

They stood silently in his yard, as if waiting for something.

Were they waiting for my judgment?

Leonard realized something, but also felt like he understood nothing.

But before he could figure it out, the spider in the black net let out a hoarse, low, resentful voice.

"Found you!"

"Leonard!"

"Leonard Mitchell!"

For some reason, when he heard the spider call his name, Leonard felt an inexplicable panic, his whole body cold as ice, as if he was being watched by something terrifying!

And the gaze came from the starry sky above!

Leonard's breathing quickened, his hands and feet cold. He wanted to say, "It's not me, you've got the wrong person!"

But in front of him, the spider in the black net suddenly burst into flames, black flames rising from its body, emitting nauseating black smoke.

The black smoke floated upward, forming the shape of a large spider or a mysterious curse pattern.

The black clouds in the sky dispersed, and the light of the crimson moon and the stars gradually dissolved the black smoke.

The yellow-robed monks bathed in the starlight, their expressions solemn and devout.

Leonard's throat was dry, wanting to say something, but the yellow-robed monks silently left his yard.

Soon, only he was left, along with the still brilliant starry sky above.