Chapter 344: Fright?

Change to another one? Lu Mi didn't expect to receive a reminder from Termiboros at such a time.

Regardless of whether this angel of fate was trying to set a trap or do something, or simply didn't want the carrier of the seal to have problems at such a time in such a place, it was enough to show that this King Cake game, which looked very ordinary and simple, contained huge hidden dangers. Once triggered, it would lead everyone present to slide into the abyss of danger.

When Count Puifu said this involved occultism and needed to offer a King Cake to the god he believed in or the ancestor he respected, Lu Mi felt that it might really contain supernatural factors, similar to the divination games that many occult enthusiasts liked to play. Who knew the problem was more serious than he had anticipated, enough to harm a dual Sequence 7 like him, or be something he couldn't handle.

As thoughts raced, Lu Mi couldn't determine what Termiboros was thinking, so he could only cautiously stretch his arm and pick one from the remaining five King Cakes in a very casual way.

This time, Termiboros didn't stop him again.

After Lu Mi, Anoli, Ma Lun, Anyong, and Ilet each took a King Cake, only the one originally closest to Lu Mi remained.

"It seems it belongs to me." Count Puifu leaned forward, smiled, grasped that King Cake, and sent it into his mouth, biting off a part gently.

Lu Mi also made a similar movement, feeling the crust crispy and the filling sweet, leaving a lingering fragrance in his mouth, the quality being quite good.

After eating a few bites, Count Puifu laughed out loud:

"It seems I am the king today."

As he spoke, he took a broad bean out of his mouth.

The moment he saw the broad bean, Lu Mi's nose seemed to smell a faint bloody and rusty smell.

At the same time, this corner of the Mechanical Coffee Shop became dull and oppressive, as if everyone was worried about being ordered to do something they couldn't bear.

Count Puifu stood up, with his back to the window facing the street, blocking the sunlight behind him.

This made his face seem covered with a layer of faint shadows, and his smile appeared a bit gloomy.

Count Puifu looked at the novelist Anoli, the corners of his mouth curling higher and higher:

"Go outside the coffee shop and shout 'I am dog shit' at the passing pedestrians."

Anoli, who was unconsciously nervous, suddenly relaxed and responded with a smile:

"No problem."

Short and fat, he stood up with a "swish," walked quickly to the door, and pulled down the gate handle embedded in the side wall.

Amidst the friction sound of zha-zha-zha and slight collision, the mechanical arm tightened, "dragging" the heavy wooden door backward.

Anoli went out of the coffee shop, came to the street, and shouted loudly at one pedestrian after another:

"I am dog shit!

"I am dog shit raised by a sow!

"My whole family is dog shit raised by a sow!"

Those pedestrians cast surprised glances, then laughed out loud.

After scolding himself, Anoli returned to Lu Mi and the others in a happy mood.

"Your psychological quality is really good." Lu Mi finally forced himself to change "thick-skinned" to a statement the other party could accept.

Novelist Anoli laughed "haha":

"Every time I can't write anything, I go to the balcony and scold myself. This is still light."

"You writers have so many weird habits." Lu Mi thought of his sister who called herself a late-stage procrastinator.

Anoli drank a sip of absinthe, sat down again, and watched Count Puifu, who had been standing with his back to the light, cast his gaze toward the pale and handsome painter Ma Lun:

"Slap Ilet."

Ma Lun relaxed, didn't leave his seat, leaned forward, and slapped the poet Ilet with a "pa."

Ilet, whose hair was quite sparse and whose cheek muscles were slightly drooping, didn't get angry, just took another puff of his pipe.

Noticing Lu Mi's scrutinizing gaze, he didn't care at all and smiled:

"As a poet, you have to learn to enjoy the malice around you."

Enjoy malice... truly a literary youth... no, literary middle-aged... Lu Mi observed the participants of the game, finding that except for Count Puifu who ate the broad bean, others couldn't see any abnormalities for the time being.

Count Puifu turned his body slightly, his face still appearing a bit gloomy due to the backlighting.

He said to the literary critic Anyong:

"Pledge allegiance to me."

These people of "Black Cat" often gathered together to do all kinds of outrageous things. Using the recently popular saying, they were pioneers of performance art. Therefore, for kneeling on one knee and swearing allegiance, Anyong did it without any pressure, even feeling it wasn't stimulating or humiliating enough.

Count Puifu looked at the poet Ilet again:

"Send all the money you have on you to that homeless person opposite."

Ilet was stunned for a moment and said with some heartache:

"Okay.

"You know, I'm a pauper. The royalties I've earned from poetry over the last five years add up to less than three thousand verl d'or. Every day, I think about which friend will organize a gathering today so I can drink some wine for free."

This poet is quite honest... Lu Mi thought about whether to sponsor this guy to see what kind of poetry he could write. Anyway, that "sponsorship fee" was provided by Gardner Martin. If he didn't use it, he couldn't really put it into his own pocket. On the contrary, only by specifically sponsoring some artists would he have the opportunity to embezzle a part of it.

Without waiting for Count Puifu to respond, Ilet suddenly laughed. He fumbled in his pockets and announced excitedly:

"So, I only brought 5 Felkin out!"

"5 Felkin? If you go to Vichy Coffee Shop, you can only get half a bottle of natural water and two boiled eggs." Novelist Anoli muttered while watching poet Ilet go out quickly and throw those 5 Felkin to the homeless person opposite.

Vichy Coffee Shop is located in an alley on Boulevard Street, and its visitors include members of Parliament, government officials, bankers, industrialists, financiers, famous socialites, and writers, painters, poets, and sculptors sought after by high society.

Up to this point, everyone had taken a turn, leaving only Lu Mi.

Count Puifu looked at Lu Mi with deep eyes and said:

"This is your first time participating in our 'Black Cat' gathering. I'll give you a simple task: take your King Cake, go to the room in the deepest part of the coffee shop's basement, and exchange it for a piece of white paper."

This sounds a bit occult... If something really goes wrong, I'll burn that basement... Lu Mi muttered, took the King Cake he had already bitten a few times, and found the stairs to the basement in the area near the kitchen according to the guidance of novelist Anoli.

Before entering, he used the mechanical device outside to light the gas wall lamps inside, passing through the "hall" piled with sundries in the slightly dim yellow light, and arrived at the room in the deepest part.

The vermilion wooden door was tightly closed. Lu Mi listened for a while and didn't find any movement.

There were no suspicious traces outside the door either.

Lu Mi stretched out his right palm, grasped the handle, turned it gently, and pushed forward slowly.

As the light of the gas wall lamps in the basement "hall" shone into this room, one thing after another outlined its silhouette.

Those were heads, shrinking in the dim shadows, their eyes staring at the "visitor" at the door without any emotion.

Lu Mi's pupils suddenly dilated, seeing several familiar heads.

They were the heads of novelist Anoli, painter Ma Lun, critic Anyong, and poet Ilet!

Just as a fireball was about to condense, Lu Mi, who was experienced and had tough nerves, forced himself to calm down and noticed the problem:

Those heads didn't have the paleness of the dead, and there was no unique smell of preservatives in the room.

Controlling his reaction, Lu Mi observed carefully for a few seconds, discovering that they were all wax heads that had been taken down.

They were like watermelons, stuffed into different grids of the wooden frame.

The purpose of this task is to create fright? If it weren't for Termiboros's reminder that made me highly vigilant, how could this level of prank scare me? Where is the performance in terms of occultism? Lu Mi pondered for a while, placed the King Cake on one of the wooden frames, and took away the white paper that was cushioning a wax head.

When he returned to the Mechanical Coffee Shop with the white paper, he saw Anoli, Ilet, and others all looking at him with smiles, seemingly wanting to find residual fear.

Count Puifu nodded satisfactorily:

"You completed the task very well."

What if I hadn't completed the task very well? What would have happened? Lu Mi pretended to be frightened and said:

"Those wax heads were too realistic, almost stopping my heart!"

"Haha." Anoli laughed. "This is a meeting gift from the Count to every new guest. He likes collecting wax heads the most, and every friend recognized by him can receive an invitation from the wax master to turn their head into an artwork and put it in the basement of the Mechanical Coffee Shop."

This makes it sound like your heads have already been given to Count Puifu... Lu Mi sized up the necks of Anoli and others, not finding any cutting marks.

After chatting for a while about various rumors in the writer circle and sponsoring 2,000 Felkin to "Black Cat," Lu Mi proposed to leave.

At the moment of leaving, his gaze naturally swept over those two single-legged tables.

Suddenly, Lu Mi's pupils solidified.

He saw that there was still uneaten King Cake in the plates of Count Puifu, Anoli, and others, while the white glazed dessert plate that originally held the King Cake was empty.

There should have been a piece of King Cake offered to the ancestor of the Solon family!

It was gone!

Lu Mi didn't hide his confusion, pointing to the dessert plate:

"I remember there was another piece of King Cake."

Count Puifu laughed and drank a sip of coffee:

"I ate it."

"I see..." Lu Mi had an epiphany and returned a smile.

He turned around, walked out of the Mechanical Coffee Shop, and the smile on his face gradually disappeared.

Count Puifu had only eaten two bites of his own King Cake!

ps: Last day and a half, asking for monthly votes~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 345 =====