436 Kleins Reques (1/2)

Seeing the white foam of the Southville beer being placed in front of Sherlock Moriarty, Carlson finally came to his senses.

It was only when the bartender was a certain distance away from them did he ask in a suppressed voice, ”What do you want?”

Klein picked up his glass and took a sip. He took a few seconds to savor the bitter taste of the malt and the faint sweetness from it.

”Cheers!” He looked sideways at Carlson and smiled before raising his glass.

Without hesitation, Carlson shook his head and refused the offer, mumbling, ”You have beer, while I have strong distilled liquor. It's not suitable for a toast.”

Klein was only going through the motions, so he once again took a sip of his Southville beer, looked straight ahead, and chuckled.

”What I want is very simple.

”I'm not sure what's inside the tomb, so I can only describe it rather vaguely… Well, I hope that I can choose an item from the spoils of your tomb exploration. I'm not greedy, and my request will not involve high Sequence items. I wouldn't dare to take it even if they were one of the options.

”If you find nothing or there are only high Sequence items, then I don't want anything. Of course, I believe that when the latter happens, you wouldn't be stingy with giving me a sum of cash that's consistent with my contribution.”

After hearing about the Amon family's tomb from Miss Sharron yesterday, he had came up with rough plans.

The first plan was to blow the copper whistle, contact Mr. Azik, and join forces to explore the tomb.

However, there were many potential problems with this plan. Firstly, he was unsure of the amount of strength Azik, who was still in the midst of finding his lost memories, had regained. Secondly, Azik was being pursued by MI9, so it was very easy for him and Azik to land in trouble. Thirdly, there was a high chance that Klein would end up reappearing in the sights of Sealed Artifact 0-08 once again. Of course, he could also consider using the help of the gray fog to make contact or embark on the expedition. However, blowing the copper whistle above the gray fog made it impossible to summon the messenger; therefore, ending all of his subsequent plans.

More importantly, Klein didn't dare to reveal the secret of the space above the fog to Azik Eggers whose identity remained a mystery.

Therefore, he finally chose the second method, which was to use his identity as an informant to submit the information to the Machinery Hivemind and ask for a reasonable reward.

When it came to the number of High-Sequence Beyonders, which faction could have more than the seven Churches?

According to what Klein knew, there were close to ten High-Sequence Beyonders in the Church of the Evernight Goddess. In other words, nearly half of the thirteen archbishops and nine high-ranking deacons had reached or surpassed Sequence 4. This wasn't considering the adorer of the Goddess, the Pope who helmed the Church.

Even if the situation regarding the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery was inferior in this aspect, it couldn't be that inferior. Their archbishop of the Backlund diocese, Horamick Haydn, was a High-Sequence Beyonder.

And as such, for an orthodox church, with all its resources accumulated to date, it wouldn't value the Mid-Sequence items very, very, very much. Klein believed that he could negotiate a reasonable ”price.”

Simply put, the core element of the second plan was: find an organization for any difficulties!

Upon hearing Klein's offer, Carlson paused for a second, then blurted out, ”Aren't you a believer in God?”

I've always had the Goddess in my heart… Klein drew a triangular Sacred Emblem on his chest.

”It is because of my belief in God that I've told you this information, not to the Nighthawks through Mr. Stanton.

”God said to let those who wish to be strong, be strong. Only by becoming stronger and having more money can I have more access to different channels and resources, and thus provide you with better and more effective information.”

In order to convince the Machinery Hivemind, he had specifically spent the morning reading through the ”Steam and Machinery Bible” that he had bought earlier. He then found a few sentences from the deity that met his requirements and memorized them.

Carlson was momentarily unable to provide a rejoinder. He just sat there, stunned, to the point of forgetting to drink.

Seeing this, Klein quickly added, ”Moreover, this will help you establish a harmonious and efficient relationship with new-generation informants. As long as you spread the news of the rewards I receive as a result of this, as well as keeping your promise without going back on your word, then I believe that the other informants will be deeply moved and be greatly motivated to do their best to gather useful information for you.

”Of course, I wish that you use my pseudonym when advertising this.”

Carlson listened with a blank face, picked up his glass, and gulped down a mouthful. He almost choked.

”Cough. Sherlock, the real you is completely different from what I remember about you from before.” He sighed.

The Detective Sherlock Moriarty in his memories was good at analysis and reasoning, he was extremely calm and polite, and, with a great sense of justice, had offered very effective advice. He was an outstanding believer in God.

Yet now, he was…

Klein took a sip of his beer and chuckled.

”Everyone has their different sides. Using a single facade to face everything is prone to error. This is a problem you have to pay attention to when making deductions.”

After calming down for a moment, Carlson stood up and said, ”I have no right to agree to such a request. I will report it immediately, so wait here for a while.”

”Alright.” Klein waved to the bartender and added a serving of potato wedges.

By the time he leisurely finished his food and beer, Carlson returned to the bar with the deacon of the Machinery Hivemind, Ikanser Bernard.

Ikanser looked around, and seeing that there was no one around, he said in a deep voice, ”There's no problem with your request, but there's one condition to add on—items with strong side effects and curses are not among the items available for selection.”

What I want is an ingredient… Klein immediately laughed.

”Alright!

”Dare I ask again if is this your personal decision or the response from the higher-ups?”