Chapter 10: Negotiation
At the center of the Seventh School District stood a windowless building. This building not only lacked windows, but more precisely, it had no entrances at all—completely sealed. Its official name was the "General Board Headquarters Building."
This windowless building had a foundation extending 15 meters deep, with the surrounding three kilometers of underground area serving as its base. Combined with several massive pillars buried deep in the earth, there was no possibility of this building collapsing or tilting.
The entire structure was covered with "Computational-Type Impact-Diffusion Composite Material" armor plates. Not even ordinary missiles, let alone a nuclear bomb landing on it, could destroy its protective layer.
Such a completely sealed, astonishingly sturdy building was the lair of the science side's leader, Aleister Crowley. He would never leave here—more precisely, he didn't want to leave. The consequences of leaving were somewhat severe.
Seeing such a fortified building, Su Xiao's first reaction was: just how afraid of death was Aleister Crowley? Could it be that after "dying once," death had instilled fear in him?
That was correct—Aleister Crowley had "died" once, nearly killed by someone from the magic side.
Aleister Crowley—some had called him the greatest magician of the twentieth century, while others dismissed him as a third-rate sorcerer.
Based on Su Xiao's understanding, there weren't many people who killed their wives to prove their dao. Crowley was even more ruthless—he sacrificed his own wife to summon a guardian angel, Aiwass. Afterward, even when his daughter died, Crowley showed no reaction, even going so far as to use children of similar age for experiments.
In the end, Crowley stood at the pinnacle of magic. For unknown reasons, he suddenly abandoned magic and turned to technology. At that time, from the magic side's perspective, the science side's technology was heresy—a group of fools daring to challenge divine authority. Crowley's defection was almost equivalent to stomping all magicians' dignity into the ground, then spitting on it before leaving.
All magicians were enraged. The result was that Crowley was "killed" by a British Puritan magician in a remote English town and buried in a desolate place. In reality, Crowley wasn't completely dead at that time—he was essentially buried alive.
A certain doctor dug Crowley out and, with superb medical skill, saved the nearly dying Crowley.
Without that doctor, Crowley would have long since rotted into dust, becoming nutrients for herbaceous plants.
That doctor created a life support device for Crowley. To this day, Crowley still remained inside the repeatedly modified life support apparatus.
It could be said that Crowley could no longer be considered human. His abilities were unknown, his specific strength unknown, his lifespan unknown, his personality unknown, and his ultimate goal was suspected to be the destruction of magic.
Faced with someone whose information was mostly unknown and whose strength was likely extremely formidable, Su Xiao felt some wariness. Although his strength had increased rapidly, he had never entertained the thought that he was invincible.
Before reaching some consensus with Crowley, Su Xiao couldn't safely carry out his third-rank promotion mission. The other party was a ticking nuclear bomb—the entire Academy City was under his control.
Standing before the windowless building, Su Xiao pondered his opening words. Lies were clearly unworkable with this non-human who had existed for who knows how many years, entrusting all his life activities to machines for execution.
"Prepare for spatial movement."
The girl beside him, Index L. Prologue, spoke. She was visibly nervous. To avoid accidents while bringing someone into the building, she couldn't just teleport the "guest"—she had to enter the building together with the "guest." This meant that Index occasionally met Crowley.
"Mm."
Su Xiao grabbed Index's shoulder with one hand.
"You don't need to hold onto me. I'll sue you for harassment."
"This is my second spatial movement. If I don't hold onto something, I feel 'uneasy.'"
Su Xiao was clearly talking nonsense. He frequently performed spatial movements, but before each one, he often got "hammered," which gave him an almost instinctive aversion to spatial teleportation.
Spatial power began to fluctuate. Su Xiao and Bubu Wang instinctively felt a chill at the backs of their heads.
Light and shadow flickered. Su Xiao entered a somewhat dim, massive room. He subconsciously touched the back of his head.
"Looks like I'm not the only one averse to spatial movement."
Index gasped for breath. A past accident had left her with psychological trauma. If she moved herself more than four times, she would feel nauseous, unable to stop the contents of her stomach from spewing out.
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing, his gaze sweeping the surroundings.
In the dim, massive room, various pipes were everywhere. The interior of this building was an entire large-scale life support system.
At the center of the massive room stood a glass tank three meters thick and over ten meters tall. The tank was filled with life-sustaining solution. A man with long white hair and green eyes—his skin as pale as an infant's from prolonged immersion in the solution—hung upside down in the liquid.
The upside-down Crowley was suspended about two meters above the ground. Su Xiao met Crowley's gaze.
"You seem to have sensed my presence."
Crowley "spoke," his voice sounding hollow. This wasn't Crowley himself speaking, but the life support equipment in the massive room emitting the sound. Even for speaking, Crowley used mechanical substitutes.
When investigating Crowley's information earlier, Su Xiao had come across a description: Crowley was like a man and like a woman, like an adult and like a child, like a saint and like a sinner.
After meeting him in person, Su Xiao felt this description wasn't very accurate. Crowley was just a white-haired upside-down man. His only distinctive feature was his very long hair—if he were standing upright, it would reach his ankles.
"I've heard something about it. When I sensed those 'jellyfish monitors,' I suspected they might be your surveillance method. If anyone else in Academy City did that, it would be a direct provocation to you."
Su Xiao walked up to the tall glass tank. The negotiation had officially begun.
"Is that so."
The hollow voice came, followed by dead silence in the massive room—a deathly silence.
Not far away, Index used her spatial ability to leave. She was tactful and clever, understanding that some things were better left unknown.
"Entering your territory without permission is discourteous, but I'm only here to find something."
Su Xiao broke the silence. Time held no strong concept for Crowley; dragging things out would be disadvantageous for Su Xiao.
"Finding something?"
Crowley's tone shifted slightly, but his facial expression remained unchanged.
"It's a codex. I only have a few clues. Someone in Academy City knows the whereabouts of that codex. This is an order from my organization—find that thing and obtain it. In critical situations, consider destroying it."
Full-blown lies wouldn't fool Crowley, but mixing a few lies into mostly truthful statements made detection much less likely.
---
Apology Letter
After the "meticulous" and "friendly" persuasion of an unnamed reader (your neighbor's old dad Wang), Fei Wen has deeply realized the issue with update times. Regardless of Fei Wen's sleep schedule, Fei Wen will strive to update earlier. That's all. Also, there will be another chapter later. Today, we promised four chapters.
*Reincarnation Paradise* Apology Letter
Currently being typed. Please wait a moment. After the content updates, please refresh the page to get the latest updates!
*<b>Reincarnation Paradise</b>* Full text updates, remember the URL: m.qiushu.cc