Chapter 167

After closing the door, Miss Miss Beiya signaled for Xia De to find a seat wherever he liked. But Xia De only glanced at the holy emblem of the Sun God 【The Old Man with the Lantern】 hanging on the wall, then took out his notebook and flipped to a page with writing on it.

On it was the matter regarding the 【Wight Finger Bone】 for the 【Witch's Copy Paper】.

"Why be so cautious? It's very safe here, and no one will eavesdrop."

Miss Miss Beiya said lightly.

Xia De immediately flipped to the next page, which still had the words he had prepared in advance:

"Worried about the ability to eavesdrop on past time."

Such as the spells he had mastered.

"Oh, Detective, this is our stronghold; there's no need to be so concerned."

Miss Miss Beiya waved her hand, then saw the detective flip another page, on which was written:

"Still need to be cautious."

"Oh? Did you anticipate in advance what I wanted to say?"

This time Xia De didn't flip the page, but nodded directly. So Miss Miss Beiya snatched the detective's notebook, closed it with a *snap*, and shoved it back to Xia De:

"Speak properly; it's really safe here."

"Ahem, alright then."

Xia De felt that if he didn't speak, the other party might get angry. He looked around before asking:

"Do you agree to this barter trade?"

"With such a good thing, of course I agree. Detective, you really are reliable... Speaking of which, can you introduce this kind of trading location to me? I won't report it to the Church; you can be completely assured of that."

Miss Miss Beiya asked, but although she was trustworthy, Xia De couldn't introduce Old John's pawnshop. He thought for a moment and said:

"Regrettably, I asked just now, but the shopkeeper said they don't do business with the Orthodox Churches. However, if you need it, I can tell you a location where sensitive knowledge can be traded; that is the library."

The Black Raven Library had no specific connection to the group Xia De was in, so Xia De didn't have to worry too much about introducing Miss Miss Beiya there.

"Then I'm very grateful to you. I've been transferred here for three or four months and still haven't found a way in."

Seeing Xia De writing the address on paper, Miss Miss Beiya looked at the time on the grandfather clock in the corner of the lounge and couldn't help but sigh:

"Big cities are just better; all kinds of relics can be found. Detective, you've helped me again, yet I have no opportunity to repay you. If you have trouble recently, you can come find me at any time, but don't come find me the day after tomorrow, which is Wednesday. On Wednesday, our team has to go to the Tobesk station to welcome an honored guest from afar."

"That 13th-level Knight, Mr. 'Sun Greatsword' Hoger Rendell?"

Xia De asked casually while writing; this was news he had heard on Saturday afternoon.

"You even know this? Is our Church infiltrated so severely?"

But Miss Miss Beiya didn't ask for the source of Xia De's knowledge regarding the arrival of this 13th-level Knight in the local diocese.

"Let's return to the main topic, Detective. Since it's 【Witch's Copy Paper】, are you interested in copying my 'Sun Gun'? This is an ability that only high-level Knights can use. Even if it doesn't directly let you learn 【Sun Gun】, you will definitely be able to obtain other very powerful spells."

The brown-haired girl was slightly smug.

"I haven't decided how to use this relic yet."

Xia De politely refused. It wasn't that the "Sun Gun" wasn't strong, but he had a very good relationship with Professor Garcia. This Saturday, the Professor would bring news of the *Code of Sublimation*, and when the time came to have the Professor demonstrate some high-difficulty spatial spells, the Professor certainly wouldn't refuse.

Even, if it weren't for the fact that 【Relics】 couldn't be brought into the white fog door opened by the time key, he would even have wanted to try and see if he could copy the power of a god.

The voice in his head was laughing.

"I know this is impossible, but people always have to have dreams."

Returning to Old John's pawnshop from the Black Stone Security Company, after trading two pages of 【Witch's Copy Paper】 using the Secret Keeper-level (Level 3) relic 【Wight Finger Bone】, he returned to the Black Stone Security Company again to hand one page of the paper to Miss Miss Beiya.

With all this back and forth, it was already noon. So he returned to St. Derand Square, preparing to go out to eat with the cat at home.

When Xia De opened the door to go home, the cat, which should have happily run over, suddenly stopped on the stairs halfway through. The cat stared with amber eyes, looking suspiciously at Xia De.

Xia De thought there was something wrong with himself, only later realizing he had hugged another cat not long ago.

"Hmm... you can smell that too?"

So he took off his coat and hung it on the shoe cabinet; Mia hesitated for a moment before happily running over.

Perhaps this cat was smarter than Xia De thought.

Since he had obtained a new 【Time Key】 from Old John, he naturally had to try it out. Although the key for the 5th Era-1068 could only be used for the last time in the early hours of this Thursday, this one was new, and Xia De wasn't sure if the rule of the key opening once a week was shared between different keys.

Time exploration couldn't carry any supernatural items, so Xia De didn't need to make any extra preparations to deal with the adventure. He came to the door, aimed the key at the door, inserted it, chanted "May the World Tree protect me in infinite time," and then turned—

The key wouldn't turn.

"Hmm?"

He pulled the wooden key in his hand back out and tried again, but it still wouldn't turn. At this moment, the woman's voice finally arrived late to narrate the information she had obtained after touching the key:

【Outsider, you are currently in the mission of the 'Father of the Infinite Tree'. Before it ends, you cannot open another door.】

"Then after the mission ends early Thursday morning, can I immediately open a key? Or wait another week?"

He asked again.

【Cannot be determined.】

"Alright then."

He looked regretfully at the key in his hand, then locked it in the study. He patted the cat's head, preparing to go out to eat.

(Little Mia is running...)

In the eyes of the general public, MI6 is the most mysterious intelligence department in Deraerion. And according to the Outsider's imagination, the strongholds of such intelligence departments are usually disguised as unexpected departments.

He guessed right.

When he went out in the afternoon, the sky was a bit gloomy, as if it were about to rain, so Xia De didn't take his cane when he went out, but took an umbrella instead.

Following the address given by the current director of MI6, Mr. Dark Director Anluosi, that night, he found the "City Waste Management Center" located in the West District of Tobesk.

The office of the management center was a gray, inconspicuous small building, with a snuff shop on one side and a shoemaker's shop specializing in rain boots on the other.

While Xia De was looking at the small building downstairs while holding his umbrella, he couldn't help but sigh that no matter which world it was, secret agents liked using such strange government departments as cover.

He knocked on the door and walked in. On both sides of the door were two long benches, a style that looked like it had been borrowed from a church's preaching hall. Inward, the other three directions of the lobby were wooden counters for reception, and between the counters were four black iron-colored metal doors of the same style leading to different rooms and floors of the building.

People were holding document papers or clutching notebooks, coming and going between the doors; the work here looked very heavy.

Seeing no one paying attention to him, Xia De walked to the counter closest to him and tapped it with his finger; the sound of the wood was quite pleasant.

The yellow-haired female receptionist, who appeared to be writing a report, looked up at Xia De:

"Do you have an appointment?"

The voice was monotonous and dull; she had probably long since lost her enthusiasm for the work.

"Looking for Mr. Johnson."

Xia De replied.

"Door number two, keep going inside, enter the 'Equipment Maintenance' door."

After saying this, she continued writing her report. Xia De nodded. Seeing that the people here were all busy with their own things and no one cared about the visit of a stranger, he walked toward door number two.

Behind the door was a long, narrow corridor, and the smell of toasted bread permeated the air.

Xia De walked inward while clutching his umbrella, dodging the people rushing past, looking at the rooms on both sides of the corridor as he walked. But not a single door was open; whether people were entering or leaving, they would close the door in time.

The "Equipment Maintenance" room was almost at the end of this corridor. After Xia De politely knocked on the door, he was granted permission to enter.

Inside the room were rows of filing cabinets. The middle-aged man sitting behind the desk facing the door had been reading a newspaper. After Xia De opened the door, he tilted his head to look at the person who had entered, his brown eyes scanning Xia De's attire from top to bottom:

"Mr. Xia De Suren Hamilton?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Director Anluosi told me about you. Here to pick up your documents, right? Please wait a moment."

After saying this, he got up and walked to the depths of the filing cabinets, not even giving Xia De a chance to look closely at the newspaper on the desk, before returning with a small cardboard box.

He placed the box on the table:

"I am Giles Johnson. From now on, all your matters will be handled by me. Documents."

Mr. Johnson spoke very quickly; he was probably a very efficient person.

While speaking, he handed Xia De a military-green, palm-sized hardcover booklet. After opening it, the left side had the logo and name of MI6, with the document number and the surname "Hamilton" written below. The right side contained the rules and regulations, probably something like police should provide assistance upon seeing the document.

"Quite official."

Xia De thought to himself.

"If the document is lost, you have to write a report to get a replacement. Don't take it out to show others if it's not necessary. I don't know the reason you were recruited, but you should know these basic things."

Xia De didn't know any rules, because he didn't have to do any work at all. It seemed the gentleman in front of him thought he was a secret agent engaged in covert work after being secretly recruited.

Mr. Johnson said, and took an oil-paper package out of the box:

"Service pistol, Luger revolver, six rounds in the cylinder. This kind of gun isn't easy to use, but Mr. Director Anluosi instructed to give you this kind of gun."

He said with slight confusion, handing the gun wrapped in oil paper to Xia De. Xia De unwrapped it and checked, finding that the style of this pistol was extremely similar to his own 【Gun of Kindness】. He probably guessed that it was Miss Galina who instructed them to give him a revolver, to make it convenient to hide his other gun.

"I thought it would be a Glass pocket single-shot pistol."

Xia De asked while checking the newly acquired weapon. The Luger revolver in his hand was a new gun, and the black metal material felt cold to the touch. It had probably been maintained recently, and the smell of oil was very strong. Checking the cylinder, there were no bullets inside, so he lowered the hammer, aimed at the wall, and pulled the trigger, satisfied to hear the *click* sound.

Although he already had a gun, that gun couldn't be fired at all. Now that he had a real firearm, Xia De's feeling was about the same as obtaining a new spell.

"The Glass pocket single-shot pistol is the service pistol for regular operations. If a secret agent also carried that kind of gun, wouldn't their identity be exposed immediately?"

Mr. Johnson glanced at Xia De, and Xia De nodded to indicate he understood.