"Strictly speaking, it is a super polymer that contains 'White'."
"...You mean, White was...absorbed by this thing?" Inspector Goering opened his mouth in surprise.
"That's probably it," Qi Ji glanced at him, then picked up the crystal with his bare hands, "According to the agreement, this thing belongs to me, is that ok?"
"No, no problem..." Inspector Goering's face looked a little ugly.
From the perspective of the spirit of the contract, he certainly cannot breach the contract, but this thing does not look safe, and falling into the hands of an unknown person... he still feels embarrassed.
"Miss," he thought for a moment and asked tentatively, "Excuse me, how should I address you?"
There are extraordinary people in the Super Management Bureau who are good at divination and remote sensing. If you know the other party's name, you can increase the probability of locking their location, which is considered a backup plan...
There's nothing wrong with this, it's just the sense of responsibility that officials must have...
Qi Ji could guess what he was thinking, but he didn't think it was wrong, so he smiled and uttered a name:
"One six six."
Then, she snapped her fingers with her free hand, and disappeared completely as if she had evaporated.
The remaining three people fell into a strange silence, but the reason was not related to the girl's methods and origins.
But it was because, at the last moment... they saw the flawless and beautiful face with a mysterious smile under the bright silver moonlight.
After a long silence, Inspector Goering glanced around and said in a rather complicated voice:
"Susan, stay here with me to protect the scene and prevent any other abnormalities. Be careful not to get close to the debris. Tam, go back to the Public Security Bureau, report the situation to the Super Management Bureau, and request the executors to take over..."
At the same time, in an open space a few hundred meters away from the small hotel, the space suddenly twisted, and Qi Ji, wearing a simple classical long cloak and with a beautiful and childish face, appeared out of thin air.
"interesting……"
She looked down at the crystal in her hand that was glowing with an eerie light. The smile on her lips remained, but her dark brown eyes seemed to have taken on a more serious tone.
Chapter 184 Antique Shop
In the brightly lit street, a petite figure wearing a simple long cloak and a hood appeared at some point.
Qi Ji walked at a leisurely pace among the towering buildings, his eyes filled with curiosity and surprise as he looked at everything around him.
If Stio is a small town in the Renaissance and Loen is a small county town in modern times, then this city called Sunset Harbor is the Victorian era London with tall buildings and prosperity everywhere.
A large number of concrete buildings with more than twenty floors rise into the night sky, with sharp roofs piercing straight into the starry sky. Bright lights seep through the windows, like a river of stars flowing on the ground.
Walking through this jungle of high-rise buildings and listening carefully to the familiar noises, Qi Ji always couldn't help but have an illusion that she had returned to Earth and to the modern city in a trance.
After saying goodbye to Gary's family and Nancy and taking care of some things, she had been wandering around downtown Sunset Harbor for more than an hour, but even so, she had only been able to enjoy the scenery of one or two blocks.
If you want to travel around this metropolis with a population of over three million, relying solely on human foot strength and five senses...it might take half a lifetime.
"After returning home, Daisy will probably have to spend a lot of effort to explain to her parents the source of her power..." Qi Ji's thoughts were wandering aimlessly while taking a walk.
She didn't bring a map, nor did she deliberately open her senses to scout the environment. She just relied entirely on her intuition and human senses to roam without thinking towards the areas with the most traffic and the brightest lights.
After a few dozen minutes, she arrived at a relatively prosperous commercial area.
The familiar layout and store decorations on both sides of the street successfully aroused Qi Ji's desire to explore.
Looking around, her eyes quickly locked on a shop.
"…It's you."
It was a shop with a very luxurious and elegant decoration style, but I didn't know what it sold yet.
The reason why Qiji chose it is that the style of this store is quite unique, it is a European classical style close to pastoral idyll, with a large number of wooden structures and green plants as decoration.
The contrast with other stores around it is quite big, a bit like those unconventional internet celebrity check-in stores on Earth.
However, there is no civilian Internet in this world, nor does Internet marketing in the strict sense exist, so the fact that it is decorated like this is definitely not just to attract people's attention, but there is really something special about it.
"Ding Dong——"
Pushing open the single wooden door with neat little grids, I walked inside to the sound of the bell hanging on the door frame. Qi Ji greeted me in a cheerful and lively tone:
"Hello~~"
After entering the door, what catches your eye are many wooden shelves filled with items, which are placed very carefully, making the not-so-spacious interior appear full but not crowded.
In front of the wall directly opposite the door, there is a long counter. An old man in a suit and gold-rimmed glasses stands behind it. There is a faint smile on his face, and he has an elegant scholarly air.
"Hello."
When the old man saw that the customer was a little girl in strange clothes, he was slightly startled at first, but soon regained his gentle smile and bowed slightly with just the right amount of amplitude:
"Welcome to Dad's Antique Shop, what can I do for you?"
...Dad's Antique Shop?
This name made Qi Ji's mouth twitch slightly, and he felt a sense of loss as if the joke he thought of was inadvertently played by someone who didn't know the truth.
"Nothing," she shook her head imperceptibly, "I'm just taking a look."
"Please help yourself."
The bookish old man smiled, nodded slightly, and stood there without saying anything else, as if he had no sense of existence like an NPC in a store in a game.
Qi Ji ignored the old man and turned to walk among the dazzling shelves.
“Antique…”
Looking at the items on the shelves that seemed to carry the flavor of time, she was inexplicably moved.
She lowered her head and pulled out a huge crystal with chaotic light from her cloak. She saw that this strange relic...had undergone some subtle changes.
Those dirty, filthy, chaotic colors seemed to be attracted by some slight force and tended to gather in one direction.
"There is something inside these antiques... attracting the power within them?"
Qi Ji suddenly felt that things were not simple.
When she passed by the inn, she just sensed some unusual spiritual fluctuations and was worried that someone might be in danger, so she stepped in to help.
As a result, after approaching White's private room, she noticed... the aura inside did not seem to be the usual evil spirits, evil things or curses.
It's mixed with something higher...
That's why she asked the police officers to leave any possible remains to her.
Later, she got what she wanted and obtained this diamond-like crystal. After careful exploration, she found that... in addition to the remaining spirituality of White, this crystal also contained some very strange elements.
Seems like some kind of... pollution?
The intensity and number are not large, but the level is extremely high, which has surpassed the scope of spirituality, but it is not divinity. It seems to be some kind of extraordinary power between the two.
In short, this matter is definitely not that simple.
She went deep into Sunset Harbor, not only to stroll around and broaden her horizons, but also to investigate White's life and see if she could find any clues.
——According to the information registered at the hotel front desk, White is a local of Sunset Harbor, but it is not clear why he chose to stay in a small hotel in the suburbs.
Unfortunately, due to insufficient information, she was unable to analyze the specific source, composition and function of the "pollution" mixed in the crystal. She only knew that it seemed to come from the residual breath of a great being.
An evil god, or the aura of some hidden being?
Although Qi Ji has his own guesses, he cannot make a conclusion for the time being.
But at this moment, she encountered something that could attract her power in a seemingly ordinary antique shop!
Looking in the direction where the colors in the crystal were concentrated, she saw...
A playing card?
She didn't know what it was, but it was a rectangular piece of cardboard with images and symbols painted on it, placed on the top shelf against the corner of the wall.
It was covered in a glass box of just the right size. It was clean itself, but the outer surface of the glass cover was covered with dust, and it was obvious that no one had cared about it for a long time.
Qi Ji walked under the shelf and looked up.
The outward-facing side of the card depicts a desolate and empty wilderness with exaggerated, abstract, and brightly colored brushstrokes like oil paintings. There is no living thing on it, whether it is an animal or vegetation.
And, shrouding the wilderness is a confused, dirty, and chaotic starry sky.
Chapter 185 Cards
"...Boss, could you please introduce this thing to me?"
Qi Ji held the glass box containing the strange cards in both hands and walked to the counter.
The old man's eyes then moved over and landed on the card that was propped up on a special wooden stand.
He was stunned at first, as if he saw something unfamiliar.
Then, he narrowed his eyes, looked at the cards very seriously for a while, and asked in a slightly puzzled manner:
"Little girl, this... where did you get it from?"
Judging from his expression and tone, it seems that he is not quite clear about the origin of this thing?
You are the owner of this store... Qi Ji was a little confused, but he still explained concisely:
"It's on the shelf in the corner, at the very top, slightly to the left."
As she spoke, she freed one hand and pointed to the side and back to make it easier for the old man to understand.
The old man's eyes moved back and forth between the cards in the glass cover and the shelf that Qi Ji pointed to. After a few seconds, he nodded slightly as if he suddenly understood something, and said slowly while choosing his words:
“This item… seems to be something I bought from a private archaeologist three years ago when he included it in a batch of antiquities.
"Because it's not something valuable, I didn't pay much attention to memorizing its information, and I didn't remember it for a while... I'm very sorry."
A personal archaeologist... isn't he just a tomb robber? And he said it quite seriously...
But this old man is quite interesting.
If it were an ordinary merchant, when he saw that a customer was interested in buying his product, he would definitely describe it with the most flattering words and try every means to portray the product as extraordinary and special in order to raise the selling price and obtain higher profits.
It's rare for someone to be so honest as to say right from the start that this thing is worthless.
"Do you have any more detailed information?" Qi Ji put the glass box containing the cards on the counter and pushed it in front of the old man. "I'm quite interested."
"Of course. Wait a moment."
While maintaining a gentle and calm smile, the old man turned around and rummaged through the cabinet wall behind him, and took out a thick booklet from a compartment.
"Please allow me to look it up."
After he said this, he held the old-looking book in his palm and began to flip through it. He quickly locked onto a few pages and read them line by line and word by word very carefully.
About a minute later, he put down the booklet, still with a natural and peaceful smile on his face. He put one hand on the glass box, dusted off the dust, and introduced it in a leisurely tone:
“This is a card that records a cursed prophecy. It is said to have been passed down from the Fifth Age. One side of the card records a lost history in crazy and absurd language and style.
"It is said that as long as you grasp the right timing and skills, you can interpret the prophecy of the end of the world from it..."
Having said this, he paused, his expression slightly changed, but the peace and naturalness on his face did not show any cracks, and he continued with a mysterious and leisurely tone:
"In the history that can be traced and verified, this card has had five owners, all of whom were nobles or big businessmen in this era. However, their endings were all quite tragic. Either their families were destroyed or they went bankrupt and became refugees...
"Some people speculate that this is due to the curse left on the card..."
"However," the old man snapped the yellowed and wrinkled booklet shut and looked at Qi Ji with a smile in his eyes, "at least it hasn't brought me any misfortune in the past few years that I've had it. Maybe it's just superstition."
Indeed, logically speaking, this so-called "curse" is quite ridiculous...
If a rich man or aristocrat collects an antique, then as a privileged class, he would never sell his collection under normal circumstances.
This is almost certain, because as a resident of upper-class circles, decency is extremely important.
Selling one's own collection is not decent at all.
If a collection was sold, lost, or changed hands, there was almost only one possibility, that is, the noble or wealthy businessman who collected it fell into an extremely embarrassing situation, or even died, and his inheritance was divided up.
In other words, it is not because the collection causes its owner to always suffer misfortune, but only when the owner suffers misfortune will the collection have the opportunity to change hands.
In other words, most of the items in this antique shop had a bad ending for their previous owners.
If you must say, they are all infected with the "Master-killing Curse".
The old man, as the shop owner, obviously understood this truth, but probably due to some industry consensus or unspoken rules, he did not point it out in front of Qi Ji.
It just implies that there is no need to worry too much about this so-called "curse".
Of course, even if there really is a curse, Qi Ji is not afraid. No matter what happens, she still feels bored and has no fun.
