Chapter 182: Mad Ring
Wait, can your 600 pounds...
Mr. A in the study had already turned his gaze, and Angel swallowed the words he hadn't said.
"Very good, it looks like you've reached a consensus." His chin twitched beneath his hood, as if he were grinning. "By the way, this cat lady doesn't seem to be the same person as last time?"
Mr. A looked at Angel, his eyes under the hood were inquiring and examining, as if he was asking a question casually.
"Just another partner." The Dominican Federation stepped forward and said, "Where's that magical item you mentioned?"
Retracting his scrutinizing gaze, Mr. A took out an exquisite palm-sized wooden box from under his robe, opened it, turned it around, and placed it on the table.
In the box was a silver-white ring with an ancient shape and intricate but regular patterns printed on it. But strangely, as soon as Angel looked away, he found it difficult to recall the style of the ring and the shape of the pattern.
"It's called the 'Frenzy Ring.' It's a magical item formed from the Beyonder characteristics released after the death of a Mid-Sequence Beyonder. The wearer will experience a psychological sense of strangeness. Even those who have seen the wearer before or are familiar with him will feel like they're seeing a stranger, unable to recognize his true appearance and leaving no deep impression afterwards."
Picking up the ring, Mr. A put it on the index finger of his left hand as if demonstrating, and then took off the hood of his robe.
Under the hood was an ordinary face with regular features but lack of appeal, like any other middle-aged man you might see on the street.
Then he took off the silver ring in front of the two of them.
Angel felt a flash before his eyes, and Mr. A's unimpressive face became beautiful and charming, as if he had taken a "witch" potion, but had not yet completely transformed into a female state.
“That’s how it works.”
Mr. A said slowly.
It's much more than the "strangeness" described in the description... When he was wearing the ring, I didn't even realize how outstandingly handsome he was. Hmm, is using this word to describe a man a bit...
As thoughts raced through his mind, Angel suddenly found that he could not recall Mr. A's indistinguishable face when he wore the ring.
Based on this magical "psychological strangeness", she guessed that this ring was most likely left by a Beyonder from the "Audience" path. It should be a sequence after the "Mind Reader", with Sequence 7 being the most likely. If it were any higher, it would not be worth only 2,000 pounds.
Putting the ring back into the wooden box, Mr. A continued:
"In addition, this ring also allows the wearer to gain an extraordinary ability that can be used actively, 'Frenzy'."
"It can trigger the target's negative emotions or psychological state, causing them to fall into a frenzy, lose themselves, become crazy, and even cause some mentally unstable people to lose control."
He looked at the two of them, his mouth curled up in a graceful upward arc.
"Do you need me to demonstrate?"
"No need, we trust you," Angel responded quickly, his mind racing with descriptions of Mr. A like "stinking ditch" and "overconfident challenger." "So, what are its negative effects?"
The key to whether a magical item is powerful or not lies not only in the strength of its ability, but also the impact of its negative effects.
"As long as the owner wears it, the desire for any need will continue to accumulate and amplify, whether it's physical needs like eating and drinking, or the psychological need to talk and confide," Mr. A said, smiling slightly as if thinking of something happy. "Even if you take the ring off, it will only stop the intensification of the desire, not make the effect disappear directly. You must satisfy this psychological need to stop the negative effects."
"Psychological craving? So not really hunger or thirst?"
Angel asked back.
"That's right. So if you wear it for too long, you'll either go crazy with hunger and thirst, or overeat and burst your stomach. That's the negative effect of the ring."
Mr. A closed the lid, picked up the wooden box containing the ring, put on his hood again, and walked forward.
He seemed to know who was the mastermind behind the transaction and looked towards "Cat Lady" Angel, rather than the "Clown" Dominican Federation with whom he had been in contact before.
If he were to tear off my mask right now, he would discover that I was one of the Nighthawks who had stopped his Creator from descending in Tingen City...
Angel subconsciously took a step back, moving away from the Aurora Society's messenger, and then took out the file bag containing the differential engine manuscript.
"Oh, right," she said, suddenly remembering that all the cash she had on her wasn't enough to pay the Dominican Federation the 30% profit it was supposed to receive. She withdrew her outstretched hand. "This transaction, um, I mean, regarding the portion that's paid to us, can you add another 200 pounds?"
Mr. A's hand, which had been stretched out to take the briefcase, stopped in mid-air, and his fair skin seemed to be covered with a hint of blood.
"reason?"
After a moment of silence, a low, inquiring voice came from under the hood, which was more suspicious than angry.
"We, we have no money..."
…
"I was ready to break through the window and run away. You crazy woman, I didn't even dare to provoke him!"
Walking out of the study and along the corridor back to the hall, the "provocative" Dominican Federation whispered with a trembling voice, looking behind him from time to time, as if he was afraid that Mr. A would chase him out.
Angel also felt that he had lost his mind. How could he dare to bargain with an Aurora Society messenger who was most likely a Sequence 5?
"I'm here to help you with the money. I don't even have 600 pounds on me... But I must have been affected by this 'Ring of Madness' just now. It amplified my need for gold pounds."
She thought of a reason.
"(Rune curses), the ring wasn't even in your hand just now."
Fortunately, Mr. A did not lose his temper and send the two men into a stinking ditch. Instead, he sent his men to take out 200 pounds in cash and exchanged them for the manuscript of the difference engine together with the "Ring of Madness".
Looking at the newly acquired £200 in various denominations, Angel guessed that Mr. A wasn't as prosperous as he appeared. Perhaps he had to rent this house in Queens and support a team of subordinates, and was currently struggling to make ends meet...
Back at the meeting place, free communication was still going on, but some members had already left the noisy hall. Now there were only a dozen people left sitting scattered around, discussing some occult information in groups of two or three.
The two returned to their seats and moved them back towards the crowd, blocking other people's sight and the gas lamp that was hung high but deliberately dimmed.
Angel took out 400 pounds with a distressed look on his face and handed them to the Dominican Federation together with the 200 pounds he had just asked from Mr. A. He watched him turn sideways, count the bills one by one in the light, then put them in his pocket and patted it pretentiously.
"Then we're even."
He said with a smile, the tension he had just felt when facing Mr. A had been diluted by the gold pounds.
Even though he'd been complaining about only getting 30%, the 600 pounds in his pocket still made the provocateur look satisfied. Angel took the opportunity to ask him how to get to the rally on time, and easily got the answer, so from now on, he could come on his own.
"Every day in the Backlund Morning Post, if there's a rally planned, there'll be a missing person notice on page five, 'Looking for Mr. A.' The contact address inside will be a reminder of the meeting time."
He just put his name in the newspaper so brazenly?
Angel was a little stunned, but when he thought about how this Aurora Society envoy dared to convene a Beyonder gathering in the Queens district of Backlund, he felt that this was not a strange thing.
The two of them were chatting casually when Angel suddenly felt a probing gaze from behind her. She thought it was Mr. A who had returned to the venue, so she subconsciously looked back and found that it was the two ladies who were the last to enter before the rally started. The taller one couldn't help laughing when he saw her kitten mask, but was hit on the waist by the shorter one's elbow, and her face frowned again.
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"Let's go, don't look at it anymore. What's so funny about a kitten mask? Maybe there's a powerful Beyonder behind it who will follow you back to your residence and burn you to ashes."
Hugh Dilcha used his elbow to nudge Fors Wall, who was about to burst out laughing. Unfortunately, due to the height difference, he only hit her waist. However, he succeeded in stopping his friend's laughter, preventing her from waking up the next day to find that she had become the ghost of a Beyonder's subordinate.
"Okay, okay, but it's really cute..."
Fors suppressed her smile and followed Xio out of Mr. A's gathering place and onto the street where the red moon hung high.
Looking at the almost full moon above her head, she secretly sighed and looked at Xio who was looking at her worriedly.
"Let's go back and get some rest. We have to go to Miss Audrey's tomorrow to get the reward for this commission. Maybe you'll be able to buy the formula for the 'Sheriff' soon."
"That's 450 pounds. Is Miss Audrey really that generous?"
"More generous than you think."
Two figures, one tall and one short, slowly walked away under the crimson moonlight.
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