Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1655: Chapter 5: Recorder

After Suzuki Natsuya finished a trip to the bathroom, he pondered how to end this boring signing event quickly… or rather, it would be best if it simply didn’t start.

As for the old man he just bumped into in the bathroom, he quickly put it out of his mind.

How should I put it… the old man certainly looked high quality from his perspective, but he had no intention to keep licking up to him—he wasn’t like those guys who just know how to suck up to customers for business all day.

Moreover, as a professional in debt collection, Suzuki Natsuya had acted on behalf of the shop, with no less than eight-hundred interactions if not a thousand, and never once was the target a weakling… if they were weaklings, there would be no need for him to act.

He’s seen a lot, seen a lot; whether people are willing to come or not, as long as there’s an idea, he’d definitely know firsthand—that’s roughly his thought.

He’s really not good at getting business, occasionally making a list as a side income is fine, but to truly fill his bottoming-out performance, the fastest method is to head back to the shop and ask the maid if there’s a bad debt he can handle.

Violence is always the quickest way to make money.

And so, with a devilish look on his face, this young man directly encountered the firefighter whose face was on fire while wandering in the hallway.

Suzuki Natsuya blinked his eyes, and suddenly had an idea, thinking that he could definitely manipulate this situation somewhat.

…

Suzuki Natsuya leisurely returned to the hotel lobby. There was still a while before the signing event began, so he walked over to the little dog at the front of the line.

This little dog looked at him, seemingly curious about why it took him so long.

“It’s an endurance issue, got it?” Suzuki Natsuya grabbed the little dog’s head with his five fingers, leaned down, and said fiercely.

The little dog was half-understanding.

Just then, a sudden series of rapid ringings resonated through the lobby, incredibly piercing, and moments later two hotel security guards rushed into the lobby.

“Fire! Fire! Please evacuate immediately! Please maintain order!”

Everyone was startled; compared to the signing, life was obviously more important. So under the guidance of the security and on-site staff, they quickly evacuated the hotel.

Outside on the street, they looked up, only to see thick smoke billowing from the middle section of the hotel, seemingly from a guest room or such.

“Oh dear! A fire broke out! Looks like there’s no way for the signing event to continue!”

The little dog looked up, filled with confusion, staring at Suzuki Natsuya.

“You think I started this fire?” Suzuki Natsuya snapped fiercely, “You’re not trusting me!!”

The little dog said nothing.

Suzuki Natsuya waved, pulling a booklet with an autograph from his jacket, slapping it onto the little dog… fascinated, the little dog opened the booklet.

This booklet actually had a signed autograph… the little dog stared wide-eyed with disbelief.

Suzuki Natsuya sneered coldly, “You thought they would really sign it book by book? One was prepared long ago! I just snagged one from the backstage earlier… Okay, satisfied now?!”

Of course… still not entirely satisfied, but the little dog clutched the signed booklet tightly, then grabbing Suzuki Natsuya’s coat, squeezed through the crowd.

Afternoon still needs to go debt collecting.

This was the little dog’s first time solo debt collecting—the target this time was a game room owner who borrowed two million yuan from the firm.

“That’s more like it.” Suzuki Natsuya smiled with satisfaction, “You’ve got potential!”

Potential… that’s for the future.

…

“Fire?”

Girl Sao was resting in the lounge with her eyes closed, when Teacher Kurumada brought his personal assistant and the staff who came to call back, informing her of the situation.

“Yes, Ms. Sao.” The personal assistant quickly kneaded his forehead, speaking swiftly: “Looks like the signing event will be temporarily halted… the fire escape has already been opened over there, please Ms. Sao and Teacher Kurumada leave first.”

He and the staff were woken by Teacher Kurumada.

But as for the reason they suddenly fainted outside the restroom, neither had much impression after awakening… yet waking up to a hotel fire scared them both, temporarily dismissing the reasons for fainting.

Through the fire escape, the group quickly reached the ground, with Teacher Kurumada and Ms. Sao under the assistance of the personal assistant, quickly boarded a special car and left the hotel.

Just as this black business vehicle left, another black nanny car quietly emerged at the hotel underground parking lot.

From the vehicle emerged three men in black suits… also accompanied by a young man around eighteen or nineteen, dressed in white Onmyoji attire, holding a fan.

This young man of eighteen or nineteen ascended the hotel via elevator under the protection of the three men in black suits.

Soon after, fire trucks arrived, firefighting began, and the crowd gradually dispersed… the fire incident occurring in the Capital Circle street didn’t cause much sensation.

For most online forums today were still filled with many bizarre events.

…

…

Teacher Kurumada owned a highly valued residence in the Capital Circle.

Just back at the residence, Ms. Sao greeted him and went to her room to change clothes… the personal assistant stayed, while the signing event staff remained as the event party’s representative to discuss the follow-up handling of the incident.

Teacher Kurumada didn’t participate; the personal assistant served this purpose.

He returned alone to his study, remembered the private business card given by Suzuki Natsuya, shook his head, casually pulling out a copy of ‘Homer’s Epic’ from the bookshelf, then inserted the card inside.

Reflecting on the day’s events, Teacher Kurumada pondered for a moment then approached the desk.

He placed his hands on the desk, closed his eyes, seemingly thinking about something… gradually, before him a book with a golden cover slowly formed.

Then, the golden book began turning page by page—finally, stopping at a blank page.

Only then did Teacher Kurumada open his eyes, casually said, “Record it.”

On the blank page, lines of text began emerging, detailing the recent strange occurrences in society… additionally, alongside the floating text, images spontaneously generated, attaching to the page.

Strangely, regardless of the amount of text nor number of images generated, the page continuously accommodated them all… eventually, it returned to blank.

Then dropped onto the desk.

Teacher Kurumada then fetched a pen, began writing something on the blank page.

“The world is beginning to undergo unprecedented changes, accompanying the resurgence of the Spirit Vein in China, transcendent powers are now emerging in society.”

“In the future, the emergence of the transcendent should gradually increase, perhaps this civilization will gradually step into the transcendent realm.”

“The collision of modern science and supernatural civilizations might lead to the destruction, or perhaps the advance, of current civilization. This remains to be observed.”

“Secret Council registered recorder for world number 003 has completed the entry.”

The golden book vanished in an instant.

Teacher Kurumada closed his eyes once again, seemingly resting, while at the same time, a gentle sound of a piano drifted in from outside the window… the performer was none other than Girl Sao who had returned to her room.

At this moment, Teacher Kurumada suddenly opened his eyes again, even standing up.

His gaze was fixed outside the window, toward the sky in the west… Teacher Kurumada lowered his head, pondering for quite a while.

“Rami… is that you.”

…

…

Town.

Lamias walked out of the passage but instead of arriving at Boss Luo’s estate, she found herself in a single dormitory arranged by her original academy.

From Luo Qiu’s words, she learned that to this era, she had only been absent for about four days… the layer of dust in the room clearly confirmed its accuracy.

Only four days had passed here.

But for her… she couldn’t even quite calculate the amount of time—often, she was in slumber, and the stone walls around her granted her body a form of solidification, preventing aging and the sensation of hunger from lack of nutrition.

The cultivation of Fighting Spirit is entirely a cultivation of will; if the human body contains a universe, then it’s about cultivating the ability of this Little Universe within the body.

She spent most of her time cultivating… though the progress was slow, time did not wait—over such a prolonged period, even a pig would likely achieve something.

Just upon returning, Lamias suddenly felt an impulse… this feeling came from a very distant east, but specifically what it was, she couldn’t comprehend, and the peculiar feeling vanished instantly.

Perhaps it was just an illusion.

After all, upon returning again, Lamias felt mostly a sense of unfamiliarity and detachment… she still didn’t know what she should do at the moment.

She had power, but no goal, having been removed from the era for too long, she suddenly felt life had become so Void—Lamias thought perhaps it was Luo Qiu helping to sort out her chaotic mental state.

Logically, a person trapped for so long, upon gaining freedom, would at least feel… elation?

To do all those things that haven’t been done for a long time, fully satisfying various long-standing desires would be reasonable?

But she didn’t… it couldn’t be called rationality, but it was certainly excessively calm.

Lamias felt a bit of a headache, rubbing her brows casually as she sat down. As for Master Plaid, she had tossed him onto the floor indifferently—in fact, after tormenting Master Plaid’s body for ten minutes, she had lost interest entirely.

She was deep in thought, feeling the emptiness and aimlessness, she stood up and stepped on Master Plaid’s body with her foot, but Master Plaid remained unresponsive, making her feel even more bored.

So she opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of soda, but found that she had run out of lemons in the fridge, she pondered on it but thought it was too much of a hassle to go out and buy lemons, she wanted to order takeout but realized she didn’t have a phone.

She felt even more bored, loneliness +1.

She turned on the TV, hoping to see what had happened recently, but couldn’t find the remote control.

She felt extremely irritable, then stepped on Master Plaid a few times, but Master Plaid still did not react.

She felt uninterested again, loneliness +2

She sighed and suddenly wanted to cry; having traversed such a long period, she merely endured a long duration, besides loneliness, there was actually no one to accompany her, no experiences, having seen nothing of worldly changes, nor had she thus seen through worldly issues.

Loneliness +10086.

She shouted once, intending to step on Master Plaid a few more times, but at that moment, the door of her room was knocked.

Lamias was startled in her heart, thought it over, and directly opened the door—a middle-aged man with a troubled complexion and a distressed expression was standing outside the door.

The man saw Lamias and his eyes filled with surprise… the academy’s discipline director, a former undercover Black Religious Congregation personnel, supporter.

In fact, it wasn’t just this discipline director; Lamias even saw someone who surprised her greatly.

An old woman.

Lady Katerina.

…

“Is this… Master Plaid?!”

Wearing casual clothes, Lady Katerina inside the dormitory saw the master that looked like mud on the floor, and her previously weary eyes suddenly turned frantic.

“This guy is my trophy now.” Unconcerned by Lady Katerina’s attitude, Lamias suddenly said playfully: “What, do you want to take Plaid back from me?”

Lady Katerina was silent for a moment before sighing after a while, “We won’t take him back… the Secret Society is finished, this time, nearly ninety percent of the Secret Society’s power was lost here, even General Charles is dead.”

Upon saying this, Lady Katerina glanced at Lamias, but seeing no response from the other, continued, “After confirming Charles’s death, Justin ordered a retreat; he should be piloting the Sapphire deep in the ocean now, without returning to headquarters… but it’s pointless, headquarters is in chaos now too.”

Lamias still showed little response… the turmoil in the Black Religious Congregation was for the best, sparing her trouble.

“So now, no one will be bothering you anymore.” Lady Katerina smiled wryly, “I am just a homeless person now.”

Looking at Lady Katerina for quite a while, Lamias suddenly smiled, “Lady Katerina, have you ever considered resurrecting the Black Religious Congregation?”

Lady Katerina was stunned.

She had come only to meet Lamias… those remaining in the town were just her, two battle nuns by her side, and the six female warriors who had earlier come with Sister Grant to capture Lamias. These six female warriors had hidden away and only dared to come out when the Black Religious Congregation made a big move, but managed to escape calamity.

Lady Katerina had only regrouped with these six battle nuns after the fact; they were in contact with the discipline director.

A total of… nine people; this was all that survived after Black Religious Congregation’s big deployment.

Lady Katerina had lost contact with Captain Justin and currently didn’t know Justin’s intentions… regarding reorganizing the Black Religious Congregation, she felt somewhat powerless.

“What did you say?” Lady Katerina looked at Lamias in surprise.

Lamias then revealed a bright smile, looking radiantly at Lady Katerina and the others, “I think I found something meaningful to do… Moreover, Lady Katerina, I’m probably quite powerful now.”

Before Lady Katerina and the others, she slowly began to levitate…

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PS: The next chapter will be before 03:00, =. =

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