Fatebound Dice

Chapter 7 – The Human Convention

“What do you want?”

Chen Qi looked expressionlessly at Tarreno Jeek. The private investigator clearly had his own ideas.

Of course, if those ideas were overreaching or delusional, Chen Qi would have no problem turning him down cold.

“Executor, sir, I have no other intentions—only that I wish to follow by your side.”

Tarreno’s eyes burned with intensity. This was the opportunity of a lifetime.

The moment he had seen the video, he had already made up his mind.

“Heh, as expected of the most famous private investigator. Seems you’ve learned things you shouldn’t know.”

Though the title Executor surprised him, Chen Qi remained calm.

In his view, Executor likely referred to a player.

The King’s Game had been running for who knows how many years. It was only natural that curious people in the underworld would piece together fragments of information.

Facing Tarreno, Chen Qi kept his composure, like an angler with his bait already set.

“Executor, sir, I truly didn’t mean to intrude on your privacy.

“In the Dark Web world, there has long been a rumor: after King Gustav turned the Blue Taro Kingdom into a monarchy, he created fifty-two Executors to help him rule and secure his throne.

“It’s said that Executors not only conceal their identities but also possess special abilities.

“So I merely took the liberty of making a guess about who you are.”

A bead of cold sweat appeared on Tarreno’s forehead. Chen Qi’s calm, unfathomable gaze made it feel like the air was being sucked out of his lungs.

His battle-tested instincts told him that if his answer failed to satisfy this man, he might not live to see the next moment.

“Seems you know quite a bit.”

“Go on then—why do you want to follow me? What makes you worth recruiting?”

Chen Qi’s voice was still even, though it took effort to keep it that way.

Tarreno had certainly given him an unexpected surprise.

The so-called Dark Web world was a network connecting mercenaries, information brokers, smugglers, and underground forces.

Chen Qi hadn’t expected the detective’s business to stretch so far into society’s underbelly.

That was interesting, but what truly caught his attention was the origin of this Executor title.

If, as Tarreno claimed, Executors were indeed players, then combined with the name King’s Game, King Gustav of Blue Taro was suddenly a very suspicious figure.

Suppose all the game’s cards corresponded exactly to a real-world deck of playing cards—then the fifty-two players would hold all the number cards, leaving out only the two jokers.

Could the holder of the Big Joker be Gustav himself?

Chen Qi found it hard to believe this was coincidence. Perhaps the Dark Web rumor wasn’t baseless.

If his guess was correct, Gustav’s ascension to the throne forty-three years ago might also mark the beginning of the King’s Game.

That was a chilling thought.

“Executor, sir, the reason I wish to follow you is for your protection.

“You know the nature of my work—it inevitably offends people, especially with my connections to the Dark Web.

“I believe I have a certain talent for gathering information. I should be able to offer you at least some assistance.”

Tarreno spoke nervously; this was the biggest gamble of his life.

Realizing Chen Qi had no intelligence network of his own yet, he saw his chance and refused to waste it. He had no desire to spend his life as just a private eye.

“I have to say, you’re smart—and I’ve always appreciated smart people, especially those bold enough to seize an opportunity.

“Here’s a check for one million. Take care of Hu Wanhai for me.”

After a moment’s thought, Chen Qi decided to accept Tarreno’s allegiance.

Right now, information was what he lacked most, and Tarreno had appeared at the perfect time.

If he could pass this test, Chen Qi would invest in him even more heavily.

Chen Qi refused to believe other players didn’t have intelligence networks of their own—he could not afford such a weakness.

“Rest assured, Executor. Within three days, Hu Wanhai will vanish from this world.”

Tarreno took the check with barely concealed excitement—he knew he’d made the right bet.

As for how to deal with Hu Wanhai, money had never been an issue. The underworld was full of killers for hire.

Chen Qi was pleased with his performance—clearly a smart man.

By contrast, Erand the ex-homeless man had been both stupid and reckless.

Already a billionaire, and he still fought over women with a g**g boss.

More foolish still, he’d gone in person for a real-life duel.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to bury him in money?

Even with superpowers, Chen Qi had no intention of storming the enemy’s base to kill Hu Wanhai himself.

Once Tarreno was gone, Chen Qi dove back into his sea of books.

He was eager to decipher all of Jomoya’s diaries and uncover more of the King’s Game’s secrets.

Otherwise, a foolish encounter with another player might very well get him killed.

His current wealth and status were nothing but a glittering bubble.

They could be enjoyed, but he refused to become addicted to them like Erand had.

Magic—or more precisely, the magic of Taimoya Academy—was nothing like what Chen Qi had imagined.

There was no meditation like in novels or anime, no magic strings or magic crystals.

According to An Introduction to Magic, mortals who wished to wield magic needed a spiritual awakening.

Once awakened, they could harness the special resonance between Heaven, Earth, and Man to construct a magic array, summon the Book of Four Symbols, and form a contract with the four elements—Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water—to gain magical power.

The books Chen Qi had found earlier, such as Celestial Geomancy and The Structure of Earth Veins, were all prerequisite knowledge for building magic arrays—not urgent for now.

What he needed immediately was spiritual awakening.

The method for awakening, however, was described in a rather resentful tone.

This kind of language in a textbook genuinely surprised him.

“In the year 14533 of the Common Era, under the leadership of the V5, the World Government issued its first Human Convention since its founding—The Human Spiritual Awakening Act. From that moment, all other methods perished, and only one awakening method remained in the human world. The glory of magic faded.”

Uh?

Chen Qi stared, dumbfounded. Was magic… dying out?

Of course he knew about the World Government and the V5.

The V5 were the five great super-empires, and the World Government was a Human Alliance formed by the V5 and every other human nation.

Today, the World Government had 7,000 member states, arbitrating all human disputes worldwide.

But The Human Spiritual Awakening Act was outside Chen Qi’s knowledge—perhaps a sad consequence of living in a small nation like Blue Taro.

The greatness of human civilization rarely showed itself here.