Chapter 190#

The Price 13#

Xina couldn’t help but glance at Claros a second time, thinking to herself: this person may put on quite the act, with his exaggerated and affected tone, but he seemed to genuinely care about Murphy at least a little bit.

Xina: “An opponent of this level, of course, wouldn’t be enough to damage his origin. And look—he’s making a point of not looking our way.”

When restricted by the Lord God’s power, Murphy’s ability was an active skill—he could choose whether or not to use it, and to what extent. But once the restrictions were lifted, as long as his eyes were open, he was passively exercising his ability, unchanging by will.

The amount of power consumed varied depending on the level of the target being probed. This was merely a knight-tier duel; the opponent wasn’t anything extraordinary. As long as Murphy didn’t accidentally glance their way, his origin would naturally remain safe.

In the VIP seats, within the lit-up area, one could see the Lord God, Xiao Yu, Jieli, and Claros—none of them lowly creatures, and none of them looking particularly safe to mess with.

—Especially their Lord God. Try him and you’ll die.

Thinking of this, Xina still added an extra instruction: “Rose, you brought an umbrella. If he really does look this way, whoever he looks at, you shield.”

Claros, gripping the ornate handle of his parasol, swayed it gently and said: “Yes~ Big brother he—”

But regardless, Xina had reached her limit of patience: “Will you die if you don’t call him Big Brother?”

“Hmm? But Vincent really is Big Brother. When he joined the company, I wasn’t even in the Eternal Night yet.”

Xina: “…”

She actually couldn’t refute it.

After all, Murphy had been there since the founding of the Paradise, while Claros’s reputation had only gradually spread through the Eternal Night around the middle of the Eternal Day’s history.

Claros: “So Xiao Yu should call me Big Brother too. Of course, the two of us can also call Amph Big Brother.”

The more he spoke, the more absurd it became. Xiao Yu also seemed to be gradually developing murderous intent, and Xina had no choice but to concede: “Go back to your previous topic.”

“My previous…” Claros’s tone finally dropped its affectation, returning to normal, as though he had lost his interest in performing. He set down his parasol, and his body instantly elongated and shifted, reverting to the figure of a young man in a black raincoat.

However, his normalcy was only a gatekeeper’s kind of normalcy—his voice carried an eerie, sinister undertone.

“As I was saying, Vincent’s origin is something that can’t be replenished once consumed. I know this, and I’ll block for him.”

“Glad to know it.”

Xina said this aloud, but inwardly she was thinking: to know even this much—what exactly is going on between these two?

Yu Feichen, who had been expressionless until now, glanced at Claros from the corner of his eye, a thoughtful look on his face.

—It was just a single glance, with no particular interest in pursuing the matter, but Claros was far too meddlesome by nature.

A low chuckle came, followed by the rustle of rubber raincoat fabric. Claros had moved near Yu Feichen’s seat, even reaching out to rest a hand on his shoulder.

Words of ambiguous meaning drifted into Yu Feichen’s ear: “Surely no one still doesn’t know what origin is by now? Oh—and not just not knowing, but unable to even perceive their own origin.”

“Mentioning that,” Yu Feichen said coolly, “are you trying to tell me something?”

“The boss can’t hear anyway.” Claros leaned close to his ear, his voice dropping to something conspiratorial: “Anything you want to ask, Big Brother will tell you.”

Yu Feichen never wanted to hear the words “Big Brother” again for the rest of his life. After Claros said them, the term had become deeply unsettling.

But Claros did genuinely have something he wanted to hear.

Yu Feichen did want to know what was wrong with him. But he wouldn’t ask directly.

“How about it?” Claros said.

“You said Vincent’s origin can’t be replenished after being consumed. So in theory, origin can be replenished?”

“Of course. But replenishing and strengthening origin power comes with conditions. To understand that, we need to start from what origin actually is…”

Yu Feichen tossed another chip in Murphy’s direction, and continued listening to Claros speak.

Ever since the thirteenth floor, when Claros had been teaching him to control the world, the gatekeeper had been steering their conversations toward topics about power. In the past, Yu Feichen had thought Claros wanted to gain a gate-guarding companion so he could slack off. Now it seemed this person had always been probing into his origin power.

“Origin power is a person’s essence—it’s your fundamental structure as a human, innate from birth. Most people’s origins are unremarkable; a rare few are gifted. Fate can bear the power of destiny, Vincent can see time—both because their origins are inherently special.”

“Will drives origin power, and origin in turn commands external power. Generally speaking, when a person acquires external power, they can quickly feel how their origin governs it, thereby touching upon their origin. You’ve never had that experience.”

Yu Feichen indeed hadn’t.

External power was easily controlled, just as a person could innately control the movements of their own limbs.

So from the very first day he was taught to use power…

“You see, power comes in many forms, and they’re inherently incompatible. Creation is very difficult,” Claros said. “The origin destiny bestows upon each person cannot be easily altered. The seniors discovered many iron-clad rules: to replenish or strengthen one’s origin, one must use equal-level power, or power of the same type at a higher level, and forge it into a flawless structure.”

“The most crucial part of Vincent’s origin is a known fragment tied to the dimension of time. It’s something you might not find a single scrap of in the entire Eternal Night. So if he runs himself dry, even the most powerful person alive could only sustain the continuation of destiny—unable to cure the chronic ailment in her body the way it should be.”

Yu Feichen: “What about him?”

“Who?”

“Your boss.”

In the dim light, Claros’s smile was warm and languid. He lightly licked his upper lip, as if savoring a drop of blood about to fall.

His voice dropped to a level only the two of them could hear: “Since he’s the most powerful person… he must possess the highest origin in all of the Eternal Night, yes? Even if he didn’t at the start, it would gradually become the highest—otherwise how could he sustain the operation of such a vast company. What a pity—once it’s used up, it’s gone.”

Candlelight flickered. One of the branches on the candelabra burned to its end, the flame hissing out with a soft tsss into a clear pool of melted wax.

Yu Feichen was silent for a long time.

In the arena, Murphy had already won seven matches. The eighth was about to begin.

Three more wins, and as the black-side king, he could start considering whether to use his next game of checkers to eliminate Murphy.

After all, an unrestricted Murphy was someone even he would need… a few extra hits to deal with.

Prediction could be anticipated, but human energy and stamina had limits. Time was on Murphy’s side, but that didn’t change his nature as a theoretical god. From this match onward, he should bet more cautiously.

“Black Knight 372, please enter the arena.”

What walked in was a burly man dressed in battle gear.

On the blackboard behind him, his ID was displayed: Nine of Clubs.

Under the shadow of the raincoat hood, the perpetual smile on the lower half of Claros’s face slowly faded away upon seeing this name. A moment later, his thin, scarlet lips curved into a smile of an entirely different kind—cold and dangerous.

“They’ve all shown up, I see…”

Saying this, the person who had sworn to “only bet on Big Brother” was the very first to place his chip on the black side.

Xina rolled her eyes so hard it could have been seen from outer space.