The next evening.
Stark Industries' private jet emerged from the clouds, flying smoothly toward Miami.
Lin Huai sat on a leather sofa, explaining the situation to Tony Stark beside him.
"The second Erosion has already begun; its essence is theft."
"I performed a divination, and the answer is clear." Lin Huai opened his eyes and calmly announced the result, "The location points to Miami, a theater on Laurel Street named Joker's Folly."
Tony Stark was watching with great interest as three brand-new backup suits of armor were secured in the cabin by mechanical arms. Upon hearing this, Tony raised an eyebrow.
"A theater? Joker's Folly?" Tony was clearly intrigued by the name, "Sounds like a good show. Jarvis, pull up the information on this theater for me."
"Yes, sir."
A document appeared on the holographic screen in front of both of them. It stated that Joker's Folly was a fairly well-known cross-dressing comedy club in the area. The screen also scrolled through funny reviews from patrons, accompanied by pictures of clowns with exaggerated makeup and flamboyant clothing.
The cabin fell silent.
The expectant expression on Tony's face turned peculiar, eventually morphing into one of barely contained amusement (old man subway phone.jpg).
"Lin, I have to say," Tony cleared his throat, "your understanding of your god's script might be a bit... too uniquely personal?"
Tony pointed at a performer on the screen with a colorful afro, telling risqué jokes.
"Maybe I should look at it from a different angle. There are indeed clowns here, and they are indeed stealing people's joy—through an ancient mystical ritual called joke-telling. How's that? Am I a decent divine oracle translator?"
...Half an hour later, when they actually stood before the neon-flashing, music-blaring Joker's Folly club, watching the cheerful crowds coming and going, the calm expression on Lin Huai's face finally cracked.
The air was filled with the scent of cheap perfume and alcohol, with noisy music and bursts of exaggerated laughter seeping through the door cracks.
Tony Stark was stunned for a full ten seconds before he couldn't hold back any longer, bursting into loud laughter.
"Ha! Hahahaha!"
Tony laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up, leaning against a nearby lamppost as he looked at the dumbfounded Lin Huai.
"I take back what I said earlier. Your divination ability isn't bad; it's fantastic." Tony began his sarcastic remarks, "Look, you've accurately pinpointed Joker's Folly. Should I suit up and give their sound system an EMP blast to stop this evil ritual you mentioned?"
Lin Huai's cheeks flushed with heat; he had never been so embarrassed before.
Lin Huai gritted his teeth, pushed through the crowd, and forced his way into the club's interior. The dance floor was a chaotic scene of revelry, and the clown on stage was riling up the audience's laughter with highly provocative banter. Lin Huai activated Spirit Vision and scanned the entire area, but everything in his view appeared completely normal.
Nothing was found.
This was the first time since becoming a Seer that Lin Huai felt confused about his own divination results. He repeatedly recalled the entire divination process in his mind, confirming that every step was correct.
So where did the problem lie?
When Lin Huai walked out of the club with a dark expression, Tony was already leaning against the car waiting for him, holding a Coke and a cheeseburger.
"Well, my great Seer? Did you find that villain stealing people's joy?"
Lin Huai ignored Tony's teasing remarks, got straight into the car, and spoke in a heavy tone.
"Head to the hotel. I need to perform another divination. The first one's scope was too broad."
In the luxurious hotel suite in Orlando, Lin Huai forced himself to calm down, recalling the images he saw in the gray mist. He changed to a more precise divination phrasing, locking onto the key elements in the vision.
"I saw a little girl who lost her smile and a spinning carousel." Lin Huai whispered to the pendant, "The place where children lose their smiles and spin."
This time, the result pointed to a children's daycare center named Cradle of Joy.
However, when they arrived, they found it was an expensive elite daycare center. Parents were anxiously watching their children learn various advanced subjects through the glass. Several children were on the verge of tears because they couldn't solve difficult math problems, and the nearby carousel stood empty, with no one playing on it.
Tony crossed his arms, thinking this was utterly ridiculous.
"See? Children, a carousel, lost smiles—all three elements are present, no issues here." Tony analyzed with a straight face, "The joy here wasn't stolen; it was spent in advance by this forced, accelerated education. Lin, I think your divination is fine. Apart from not being accurate enough, everything else is great!"
For the third time, Lin Huai, with a livid expression, took out the yellow crystal pendant to perform another divination.
"A couple kissing passionately, then suddenly growing distant."
Lin Huai issued the instruction again, "The place where passionate love dissipates."
The pendant pointed to a large wedding photography studio. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, newlyweds were mechanically posing for various kissing and embracing shots as directed by the photographer. The moment the flash went off, their smiles vanished instantly, replaced by expressions of exhaustion and impatience from a long day of shooting.
This time, Tony didn't even bother speaking. He just patted Lin Huai's shoulder with a look that said, "I understand, I get it," though his barely suppressed grin gave him away.
All the logic lined up, yet every result was absurdly off the mark. Lin Huai was certain he hadn't made a mistake; every step of the divination followed the proper procedure. Yet the results kept veering off course, as if it were a malicious, precisely targeted prank against the Seer class itself.
"What's wrong, my great Seer? Receiving garbled signals?" Tony teased, seeing Lin Huai's state, "Want me to use my servers to filter it for you? See if someone hacked your mystical hotline? This feels like you forgot to pay your subscription, and the signal's being jammed."
Lin Huai completely gave up on this futile divination.
Exhausted, Lin Huai sat by the hotel window, staring at the distant sky without a word. The successive failures had turned his divination ability into a joke and even shaken his confidence in his connection to the gray mist.
He felt as if he had been led by the nose on a wild goose chase all across Florida.
Just then, the television in the hotel room, which had been playing the news, suddenly cut to an emergency broadcast.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
The news footage showed aerial shots of numerous Military vehicles speeding through New York. The reporter's voice was filled with urgency.
"...According to a statement just released by the Military, Harlem and surrounding areas have been designated as a temporary Military zone. Citizens are advised to avoid the area..."