"Long time no see, Chen Luo. This is my adjutant, Rita. And this is the Overseer of Schicksal, Otto." Durandal introduced her companions to Chen Luo.
"Good evening to you both. I am Chen Luo, an ordinary traveler journeying through various worlds, part-time wish granter." Chen Luo introduced himself to the two.
When he said this, Chen Luo specifically glanced at Otto.
How should I put it? Chen Luo welcomes Otto as a guest, but his appearance together with Durandal is somewhat inconvenient.
Actually, Chen Luo would really like to give Durandal some spoilers.
Not full spoilers, of course, but perhaps ask if she'd like to find her biological parents or something similar—Chen Luo could give her a 10% discount.
But with Otto here, it becomes a bit troublesome.
However, it's not a big problem. After all, Durandal can't possibly always appear together with Otto.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Chen Luo." Rita bowed slightly to Chen Luo with considerable politeness.
"Hello." As the leader among the three, Otto ultimately had to step in front of the other two and shake Chen Luo's hand.
Earlier, Otto stood behind the two mainly to prevent getting slapped the moment he entered the bar.
Otto heard from Durandal that Chen Luo has an ability to pull people into a special space with no signal at all. If this bar is similar, then even coming with this soulium body carries certain risks.
But now it seems Chen Luo doesn't harbor any malice, though he does have some designs.
"Overseer Otto, I've long heard of you. Welcome to the Midnight Bar." When Chen Luo shook Otto's hand, he subconsciously used Furniture Mastery.
Because Chen Luo knew Otto would inevitably take precautions when coming to such an unfamiliar and highly threatening place.
And if Otto used a soulium body... how should I put it? No matter from which aspect, Otto is completely countered by Chen Luo.
Chen Luo's Furniture Mastery could make Otto's soulium body instantly turn traitor, and might even briefly imprison Otto within the soulium.
Chen Luo's Herrscher of Sentience ability can also interfere somewhat with Otto's consciousness transmission.
And Chen Luo's Herrscher of Corruption would deliver the final blow.
This way, Chen Luo might gain a puppet named Otto.
Even if Otto is protected by Durandal and Rita, for the War Domain, that's just a joke.
The War Domain is an absolute counter to any support, leader, or people skilled at escaping.
Although Chen Luo can't guarantee 100% success in achieving his goal, the probability is at least over 50%. Unfortunately, their first meeting had to be in the Midnight Bar.
The damage immunity property of the Midnight Bar is effective not only for guests but also for Chen Luo.
Of course, Chen Luo could also lift the mutual damage restriction between himself and Otto while keeping the restrictions for Durandal and Rita in place.
That way, even if Chen Luo did this and that to Otto in front of Durandal and Rita, they wouldn't be able to stop him.
But Chen Luo doesn't want to ruin his own reputation.
Why can all sorts of demons and monsters coexist peacefully and drink together in Chen Luo's Midnight Bar?
Aside from the delicious drinks and food, another important reason is that no one can harm each other here, or even affect each other.
Although Otto has great value for robbery, ruining the bar's reputation for him would have far-reaching consequences.
"What would everyone like to drink? Make yourselves at home; no need to stand on ceremony." After walking back behind the bar counter, Chen Luo dutifully asked.
"Anything is fine." Otto said casually.
"I'll have a cup of black tea." Rita said.
"Then I'll have a coffee." Durandal said.
"..."
Darn, these three combined can't even produce one commission.
Do you really think this is your home?
While forcibly preventing himself from frowning, Chen Luo served the three their requested drinks.
These three are all clients with immense potential. Just from a long-term investment perspective, Chen Luo wouldn't refuse them over 0.3 Primogems.
However, in this bar, if you can't provide Primogems that are worthless to you, you'll have to give something even more precious to you, since there's no such thing as a free lunch.
You're neither willing to give Primogems nor pay money; this puts me in a difficult position.
Oh, right, except for Durandal.
After all, Chen Luo and Durandal are at least considered friends.
Emmm, except for Rita too, since she's Durandal's friend.
"Durandal, what have you been so busy with all this time that you haven't come back to the bar? Didn't even have time for a cup of tea?" After placing what Durandal wanted in front of her, Chen Luo inquired.
"Just like what you heard that day, Schicksal Headquarters was burglarized. Besides a few hangars being destroyed and some worthless facilities being damaged, three of the most precious items were stolen." Durandal said, slowly rotating her coffee cup while staring intently at Chen Luo, trying to discern something from his expression.
"Eh, that bad? Did you catch the culprit?" Chen Luo expressed surprise.
"Not yet. The person handled the theft traces extremely cleanly; we couldn't find any clues at all." The invincible yet repeatedly failing maid Rita said.
"And the stolen items involved something very important to the Overseer... Overseer, what are you doing?" While explaining the part involving Otto, Rita glanced at him and noticed Otto was staring intently in one direction, lost in thought.
"I see an acquaintance." Otto said.
"An acquaintance? That's... Lord Fu Hua?" Rita followed Otto's gaze and saw a familiar figure.
"Fu Hua?" Durandal, who was conversing with Chen Luo, was taken aback upon hearing this familiar name and looked towards where the Herrscher of Sentience was.
"Old friend, since fate has brought us together in this bar, why not come over for a drink?" Otto called out towards the Herrscher of Sentience's direction.
Otto wasn't too surprised about encountering Fu Hua in the bar. After all, even his granddaughter had been to the bar, along with that K423 and her friend, so Fu Hua getting involved wasn't entirely impossible.
What Otto didn't expect was why Fu Hua hadn't informed him about the bar's matters even a little bit in advance.
This wasn't because Otto had confidence in his friendship with Fu Hua, but more due to vested interests.
"Hmm?" The Herrscher of Sentience, called out by Otto, turned her head to look at him.
The Herrscher of Sentience had naturally seen Otto the moment he and the others entered, but she hadn't spoken up initially.
After all, for the Herrscher of Sentience, Otto is no friend. Being able to resist punching him in the face upon seeing him is already the Herrscher of Sentience giving Chen Luo enough face.
"Are you talking about me? Do I know you?" The Herrscher of Sentience turned her head, looking displeased at the three of them.
"...Apologies, I mistook you for someone else." Otto fell silent for a moment before apologizing.
Although these two people looked almost identical, as if carved from the same mold, Otto found it really hard to imagine Fu Hua speaking in such a tone and saying such things.
Although this person looked like Fu Hua, her entire demeanor seemed to scream "I am not Fu Hua."
Both Durandal and Rita also fell silent.
Even without Otto denying it, if she had spoken first, Durandal and Rita wouldn't have thought she was Fu Hua either.
"May I ask who you are?" Otto asked tentatively.
Otto had a feeling this person in front of him looked somewhat familiar, though he wasn't sure if it was because she bore an extreme resemblance to Fu Hua.
Otto's intuition told him this person should have some connection to Fu Hua.
"Me? I'm Hua, a soldier of the Fire Moth. What about it? Is there something?" the Herrscher of Sentience asked.
"Fire Moth?" Otto's eyebrow twitched.
This term was not unfamiliar to Otto.
Otto had seen this name in Void Archives... back when he had Void Archives, he had seen this name many times within it.
It was the organization established by the United Nations of the Previous Era to combat the Honkai, the largest anti-Honkai organization of humanity.
Void Archives were also created by the Fire moth.
And Otto was still very eager for some special technologies from the Fire moth.
Among them, he had researched the Meta-Morph surgery; for example, Theresa was created using this technology, but Otto's technique was not mature.
According to Void Archives' records, the final thirteen MANTIS warriors of the Previous Era were all capable of tearing Herrschers apart with their bare hands.
It's just a pity that the final few Herrschers of the Previous Era couldn't be solved by combat power alone.
Of course, most importantly, Otto vaguely recalled learning from Fu Hua's memories that Fu Hua was indeed called Hua during the Previous Era and was also a soldier of the Fire moth.
"Yeah, is there a problem?" Facing the skepticism in Otto's words, the Herrscher of Sentience frowned unhappily.
Would I, the Herrscher of Sentience, lie to you?
Is my Hua not a soldier of the Fire moth?
"I never heard from Durandal that this bar has the ability to connect different timelines? I only heard from Theresa that this bar can connect different worlds." Otto turned his gaze towards Chen Luo.
After learning that Theresa had also been to the bar, Otto immediately wrote her a letter. At the time, Theresa had stormed over to Chen Luo with that letter in hand.
Chen Luo just asked her to wait a couple of days before telling Otto the truth, and Theresa indeed did so.
"Eh, didn't Theresa tell you? I thought Theresa should know?" Chen Luo pondered, stroking his chin.
"So, this person really is a soldier of the Fire moth, an existence from 50,000 years ago?" The look in Otto's eyes as he gazed at Hua grew even more special.
"Well, how should I put it? If you had come 10 minutes earlier, you could have seen the Dr. Mobius from the Previous Era. One of the two greatest scientists of the Previous Era, the Dr. Mobius who is as famous as Dr. MEI." Chen Luo didn't directly answer Otto's question, but he cooperated in covering for the Herrscher of Sentience.
But speaking of which, the Herrscher of Sentience has already created several alternate identities now.
In front of Kiana and the others, the Herrscher of Sentience is Fu Hua from the future.
In front of Mobius, the Herrscher of Sentience is just a stranger, at best an alternate-world counterpart.
In front of Otto and the others, she's pretending to be Hua from the Fire moth.
And in front of Chen Luo, she's just the simple Herrscher of Sentience.
Is this considered being a quadruple agent?
A worthy daughter of a worthy father.
Chen Luo is a quintuple agent, so he taught a quadruple agent daughter.
"What a bunch of strange people." The Herrscher of Sentience muttered at the group and then went back to stealing the little fox's fried tofu.
Well, it's almost cold, and the fox hasn't finished it yet.
Seems it really needs my help.
"Manager, I'd like to ask: if we change events in the Previous Era, is it possible to distort the timeline of this world?" By now, Otto had almost forgotten the purpose of his visit to this bar.
Only one thought remained in Otto's mind now.
Sigh, if only Theresa had remembered to mention this properly in her letter, then we wouldn't be so rushed now without any plan.
At the very least, we should have left a good impression on this manager.
"What do you want to do?" Chen Luo looked at Otto somewhat warily.
"I'm just asking. So that when conversing with Dr. Mobius, I don't accidentally leak certain information, fearing it might cause some changes in this world." Otto took a deep breath to calm his emotions.
"I see. Yes, of course it's possible. Why wouldn't it be? Or rather, there's already a successful example. After Durandal left Nagazora City, I met the Herrscher of Corruption from 50,000 years ago and was surprised to find that she actually recognized me, and because of an item I gave her, she didn't descend into madness. Of course, the specific details aren't convenient to discuss." Chen Luo leaked a bit of information.
"So, that means if conditions permit, one can really travel to the past? And change history?" Otto's eyes filled with a hint of fanaticism.
"Wait, what do you want to do?" Chen Luo was slightly startled by the somewhat crazy and fanatical look in Otto's eyes.
"Let me tell you, travel between different worlds is strictly prohibited. At the very least, without my permission, even if you get the other party's agreement, you cannot follow them to their world, or have them bring your items back to their own world." Chen Luo immediately stated.
Perhaps the bar itself shares a similar idea with Chen Luo, not wanting drastic world changes caused by individuals, so it's very strict in this aspect.
After all, what if some suicidal person brought something like the T-virus to an ordinary world? That would be...
"And you must also understand one thing: sometimes, even if you don't want to change the future, it doesn't mean the future won't change. You understand the Butterfly Effect, right?"
"Manager, didn't you say you grant wishes part-time? Then if I want to go to the Previous Era, what price do I need to pay?" But clearly, Otto didn't want to listen to Chen Luo's rambling.
Otto already had a crazy idea.
[Ding! You have a new commission!]