Chapter 145: "At Least You Still Look Human"
"Is that child Will Auceptin?" Allen asked the question he was most concerned about.
"Yes," Alice blinked.
Alice's nonchalant response left Allen silent for a moment. He reorganized his thoughts and asked, "How did he manage that?"
"It's 'He'," Alice corrected.
"'He'?" Allen repeated, puzzled.
"Let me reintroduce this world to you," Alice said, finishing her last sip of orange juice and putting down the glass with a smile. "First of all, in this world, gods are real."
For a moment, Allen felt as if his heartbeat and breathing had stopped. Everything around him seemed both distant and close.
To confirm that he had heard correctly and it wasn't just his imagination or a hallucination, he repeated, "Gods are real?"
Alice looked at him and asked, "Aren't you a follower of the Goddess?"
"I..." Allen opened his mouth but didn't know how to explain.
"So, you're just looking for a spiritual anchor, you agree with the Goddess's teachings, but you don't really hope for the existence of gods?" Alice looked at him thoughtfully.
After a long silence, Allen asked, "If gods are real, then what about mysticism..."
"Why do you think Will Auceptin ended up in your wife's belly?" Alice raised an eyebrow.
Allen opened his mouth, then closed it again. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Is he, no, is He also a god?"
"Hmm..." Alice frowned at him. "Have you heard of the Extraordinary?"
"The Extraordinary?" Allen's expression answered the question.
"Alright, you haven't," Alice sighed. "Humans can become Extraordinary by taking potions, from Sequence 9 to Sequence 1. Above Sequence 1 is a true god."
Allen nodded thoughtfully. Before he could ask another question, Alice's voice echoed, "Knowledge of mysticism is very expensive..."
"How much do you want?" Allen asked hesitantly.
"I think you should be more worried about whether Will Auceptin will find out you came to see me," Alice smiled ambiguously.
Allen was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized something, "You... have a grudge?"
Alice lowered her gaze and replied, "For beings at Sequence 2 and above, we start using 'He' to refer to them. Will Auceptin is a Sequence 1 on the same path as me."
"Path...?" Allen asked, confused.
Alice frowned and explained briefly, "There are twenty-two paths... Ah, it's too complicated to explain. You just need to know that each path can only have one true god, and they ascend by stepping over the corpses of other Sequence 1s."
Only one true god... stepping over the corpses of other Sequence 1s...
Allen recalled the two giant snakes confronting each other in his dream and the girl hiding nearby, realizing that this might be why they were enemies.
So... how strong is Sequence 1?
As if reading his question, Alice smiled and asked, "Do you remember your streak of bad luck recently?"
Allen was slightly startled, but if that was the power of Sequence 1, it didn't seem particularly strong...
Before he could say anything, Alice continued, "Hmm... That was probably just a bit of bad luck you accidentally brushed against."
Allen suddenly realized how dangerous his situation was.
"Treasure your last moments of peace, Dr. Allen," Alice said with a hint of pity, standing up and signaling the end of their conversation.
Allen instinctively stood up with her, then realized and urgently asked, "Wait, what should I do?"
Alice looked at him thoughtfully and said, "Why do I feel like you trust me a lot? Even though my image in your dream is far from that of a good person..."
Allen was silent for a moment and then said, "At least, at least you still look human..."
Alice couldn't help but laugh.
It was a reasonable answer, but it was particularly amusing when applied to the Extraordinary—yes, she did look human, after all.
Looking at Allen, Alice suddenly had an idea. She smiled and said, "Go back. Don't worry, we won't start fighting for now."
"But..." Allen seemed to want to say more.
Alice shook her head and said, "Even if we did fight, what could you do?"
Allen fell silent again.
He thought of his long-standing bad luck, which was merely a bit of misfortune he had accidentally brushed against—what would it be like if real misfortune targeted him?
Allen thought about this and voiced his question.
Alice pondered for a moment and then replied:
"Let's assume you're crossing a river, and the water is very shallow, barely covering your ankles.
"You might accidentally step on a stone or something else and fall.
"Maybe you die from the fall—though I usually prefer more dramatic endings, like...
"Actually, when you fall, nothing happens, but you happen to land face-first, and the cold river water makes you cramp, so you can't get up.
"In the end, something very bad happens—you drown in a river that's not even ankle-deep."
Allen was momentarily speechless.
"If you're still curious..." Alice said thoughtfully, "You might want to find some people with very peculiar luck and learn from them?"
Allen walked towards the door, deep in thought.
"By the way," Alice said as he was about to leave, "make sure Will Auceptin doesn't notice anything unusual."
"What will happen if he does?" Allen asked, turning back.
Alice curled her lips into a mischievous smile and blinked, "Nothing much, really... After all, it won't be me who dies."
Allen suddenly doubted the correctness of his choice.
If these three fought, he and Velma would inevitably be caught in the crossfire. But... would the one in front of him really care about him and Velma?
Allen took one last look at Alice, said nothing, and left.
—He had no other choice.
After learning about Will Auceptin's special nature, he couldn't pretend that the child in Velma's belly was his own, nor could he ignore that dream.
From the moment he knocked on Alice's door, he had already made a choice between Will Auceptin and Alice.
—After all, you couldn't expect him to really go find Ouroboros .