Chapter 1566
Chapter 1566: Section 1567 Lisa's Brother Chapter 1566: Section 1567 Lisa's Brother Angel's sudden interjection made everyone stop and turn around with puzzled faces.
Frode stepped forward and, pointing at the man Angel was looking at, said, “You stay, the rest can leave.”
Once the others had left, the room was occupied by just Angel and his companions, and a man who appeared to be in his thirties.
The man looked quite ordinary, but he seemed shrewd and capable.
He seemed to have no clue what was happening, displaying an obvious unease on his face.
“Sir, have you noticed something?” Frode asked Angel in a low voice, while Sanders looked on curiously; he had sized up the man and saw nothing but an ordinary person, no distinctive features at all.
Angel looked at him and shook his head, “Nothing particular, just thought he looked somewhat familiar.”
Frode turned to examine the man and after a moment, as if recalling something, said, “I remember him. He's the brazen one who obstructed our path when sir last visited the Sky Tower.”
Upon Frode's mention, Angel too remembered that there had indeed been a minor incident during his last visit to the Sky Tower. A staff member had suddenly stopped him, knelt down and began mumbling, “You're the master of the new world, right? I beseech your forgiveness…”
Since it was an insignificant event, Angel had not paid it much mind, but now, comparing the past, the man who had stopped him was indeed the man present.
Frode continued, “Given his strong work capabilities, after I reprimanded him, I reassigned him to a new job within the Anomaly Investigation Group as an investigator.”
“His name is Lisa, and the report we are discussing today was submitted by him…” Frode trailed off suddenly, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
“What's wrong?” Seeing Frode becoming silent abruptly, Angel asked with puzzlement.
At that moment, a memory flashed through Frode's mind; it was the scene right after he had used the Scroll of Fortune.
Then, he had been wondering if the Scroll of Fortune had failed to work, when he noticed Angel and Sanders were fixated on the Anomalous Events Investigation Report on the table. He looked down and saw that his sleeve had brushed against the report, causing it to flip open.
Eventually, the report settled on the page of an anomalous event–Alley Song.
Frode remembered that what caught his eye first wasn't the content of Alley Song, but a line of inconspicuous text–the submitter of the Alley Song report.
Almost mumbling to himself, Frode whispered lowly, “What I first noticed wasn't the report's content, but the name… Right, the name, the name is the key!”
Frode lifted his gaze to look directly at the man before him, his voice suddenly raised, “What I noticed was his name, Lisa.”
Without context, Lisa had no understanding of Frode's abrupt statement, but Angel and Sanders did–they realized that Frode's implication was that:
The ripple caused by using the Scroll of Fortune might not be about the report itself, but rather the person who submitted it, Lisa!
Could it be that Lisa somehow relates to the dissipated Authority?
Angel, though grasping Frode's point after careful observation, did not discern anything special about this Lisa. From any perspective, Lisa was just an ordinary person.
Moreover, having always lived in Originheart City, his social circle overlapped with others–how had he come into contact with the dissipated Authority?
Angel was puzzled.
Frode himself couldn't explain, “I don't know, but when I realized that the first thing I noticed was the name Lisa, I had this feeling that the report isn't the focus–the focus is him.”
Frode had a hunch that perhaps the dissipated Authority truly related to Lisa.
But he found his hunch absurd. How could Lisa have come into contact with the dissipated Authority?
As Frode found his thoughts muddled, Sanders suddenly said, “Could it be that the Scroll of Fortune wasn't referring to Lisa specifically, but because Lisa was the only option at the moment, and someone around Lisa has touched the dissipated Authority, that's why the Scroll of Fortune made you notice the name Lisa?”
After pondering for a moment, Frode said, “Now that you mention it, that does seem possible, but who around Lisa could have access to the dissipated Authority?”
While Frode had intended to interrogate Lisa, Angel suddenly said, “It's highly possible, it's his brother.”
Frode paused, then immediately nodded, “Indeed, it could be his brother!”
Sanders looked at Frode and Angel with confusion. Who was Lisa's brother?
Angel briefly explained to Sanders.
Initially, Lisa had intercepted Angel hoping that Angel could forgive his brother.
Lisa himself was not a bad apple; he was serious about his work and very talented, genuinely a good talent. However, his younger brother was a different story–a rotten one, at that. He always viewed women with a derisive and disdainful eye, particularly aggravated that a mere woman like Monroe had become the City Lord of Originheart City, and so he started spreading some disgraceful rumors outside the city.
Monroe could actually have ignored Lisa's comments, but she had just become City Lord and had indeed heard many voices of dissent, although those were spoken privately and none as blatantly arrogant as Lisa's brother. To avoid any potential trouble in the future, Monroe decided to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys, and Lisa's brother became the chicken meant to be made an example of.
As a result, Monroe requested Frode to issue a punishment upon Lisa's brother.
After consideration, Frode agreed.
Upon catching wind of this, the guy got scared and ran off before Monroe could come for him.
He fled outside the city and has not returned since.
Frode had suggested whether they should capture Lisa's brother and bring him back, but Angel, upon hearing the story, did not agree.
Outside of Originheart City lies a vast, endless wilderness. Even if one escapes, they don't gain freedom. In Angel's view, the true prison was outside the city.
The monotonous scenery, day in and day out, coupled with boundless loneliness–this kind of exile was a terrifying punishment.
Having heard the story, Sanders also understood the intention behind Angel and Frode's decision. Lisa's brother, being banished in the endless wilderness, might indeed come into contact with scattered Authority compared to Lisa inside Originheart City.
Sanders and Frode looked at Angel; now that Lisa's brother might have encountered scattered Authority, it was natural to search for him. And currently, in that vast barren wilderness, the only one who could find his tracks was Angel.
“I'll go find him,” Angel immediately nodded. Now that there was a lead, he naturally would not ignore it.
Just as Angel was about to enter God Mode by harnessing the Nightmare Realm's aura, the ever-silent Lisa suddenly spoke up, “Honorable sirs, are you looking for my brother?”
Frode nodded.
Lisa cautiously said, “My brother's words were somewhat fanatical, but he never truly hurt anyone, nor did he do anything evil. If found, could you forgive him? Or, could I take his punishment on his behalf?”
Angel glanced at Lisa but did not reply; instead, he entered God Mode on his own accord and, combined with the Authority of the Wilderness of Dreams, began searching for Lisa's brother's whereabouts in the infinite wilderness.
Frode replied indifferently, “He did nothing evil? Words can hurt people too, sometimes even more painfully than scraping bone or flaying flesh. So, it's impossible to plead for clemency with such a request.”
Of course, if Lisa's brother indeed helped them identify the scattered Authority, there might be a chance for clemency. They would weigh his merits against his faults. If his faults outweighed his merits, he would receive appropriate punishment accordingly.
Lisa wanted to say more, but Frode waved his hand, signaling him to leave for now.
About an hour later, Angel opened his eyes. Under Frode and Sanders's watchful gaze, Angel's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and after a long silence, he said, “I found him, but something about the situation feels odd.”
Odd? Frode and Sanders didn't quite grasp Angel's meaning.
“The situation there is hard to describe; you'll understand once I take you there.”
With that, the three exchanged glances and left the Wilderness of Dreams. When they re-entered, Angel modified the settings of the Gate of Dreams, transporting Frode and Sanders to a location within the wilderness thousands of miles away from Originheart City.
Once Frode re-entered the Wilderness of Dreams, he found himself not inside the Sky Tower but in the vast, boundless outdoors. All that met his eyes was an endless wilderness, devoid of anything.
Was this the location of Lisa's brother? Frode curiously looked around to find where Lisa's brother might be.
However, Frode did not see Lisa's brother; instead, his attention was drawn to a patch of black mist.
It was black mist that appeared at the edge of his vision, continuously churning as if some creature was writhing within.
The area enshrouded by the black fog was about a mile wide, not too large, but the edges of the fog kept surging, slowly spreading outward.
At that moment, Sanders and Angel also appeared by Frode's side.
“What's the situation with that black fog?” Frode asked.
Angel pondered for a moment: “I'm not sure exactly what the black fog is, but I feel that perhaps it is some manifestation of the scattered Authority.”
The black fog related to scattered Authority? Frode and Sanders were both surprised. Authority is an abstract concept of rules, and the black fog was clearly not Authority itself, but very likely a byproduct of the rules of Authority!
But what kind of Authority would create such black fog? And what was the role of this fog? These were the questions in their minds.
“Then where is Lisa's brother now?”
Angel pointed towards the distant black fog: “He is inside there.”