"The current Klein is indeed still much more inexperienced compared to his Backlund period." Returning to reality, Snow immediately deactivated the "Conceptual Theft" concept that connected him to the Sefirah Castle, closed his eyes, and began silently praying:
"The Fool that does not Belong to this Era,
You are the mysterious ruler above the Gray Fog,
You are the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck,
I pray for Your help,
I pray for Your favor,
I pray that You will allow me to smoothly digest my potion..."
This set of prayer incantations was so standard, but if there were others present, all they would see was Snow continuously drawing inverted crosses on his chest—longer at the top, shorter at the bottom—while chanting,
"The Lord who created everything,
the Ruler behind the curtain of shadows;
the fallen nature of all living beings."
The reason for this state was due to the passive ability Snow had inscribed in White Horse is Not Horse. Besides the one used to shield against knowledge pollution and divine observation, there was another:
"The True Creator is a hidden existence, and the object of my prayer is also a hidden existence, so in the eyes of others, when I pray to a hidden existence, it points to the True Creator."
The reason for inscribing such a statement was mainly to disguise his "impiety." After all, living in a cult where one had to pray to the "Lord" morning, noon, and night, if you didn't pray, it would be equivalent to loudly announcing yourself as a heretic. But once you prayed, you would irreversibly slide toward the abyss. Therefore, Snow added this set of camouflage to himself. As long as he prayed to himself in situations requiring prayer, those Aurora Order members would naturally see his "devout" side.
Actually, he had originally wanted to achieve the effect of "anyone who sees him praying would think he's praying to the deity they believe in," but he discovered that doing so would require more spirituality than he could afford to activate this ability.
The activation of White Horse is Not Horse was somewhat similar to using electrical appliances. When deploying the ability, one first had to pay an instantaneous high voltage to complete activation, then stabilize the output at low voltage to maintain the effect. If he couldn't even gather the minimum voltage for startup, even with the "The One-Foot Staff" perpetual motion machine, he couldn't add abilities. This also meant that while Snow could theoretically borrow all abilities of this pathway through the Source Quality (Sefirot), what he could actually deploy were only abilities below Sequence 6—of course, another major factor was that with his Sequence 9 rank, he could only understand ability information below Sequence 6.
Incidentally, this "high voltage" for activating abilities wasn't linked to the difficulty of the ability, but to the rank of the ability itself. Simple Concept Theft was only a Sequence 6 ability. Even if he used this ability to directly shield cosmo pollution and True Gods' scrutiny, the activation consumption didn't exceed his Sequence 9 spirituality limit.
Of course, without The One-Foot Staff, even maintaining it for just five seconds would drain the spirituality of a Sequence 7 dry.
Based on this clue, Snow judged that the ability "making observers think he's praying to the deity the observer believes in" should involve certain high-sequence Beyonder abilities of this pathway beyond Concept Theft. Although with Snow's current authority, he had no idea what sequence or what ability it was, he knew that at least in the low-sequence stage, he absolutely couldn't afford the cost.
...
Snow's prayer lasted until evening. During this process, he could clearly feel that with each Hermes prayer that left his lips, the solid "shell" of the potion would develop another crack.
"Praying to Mr. Fool is indeed very effective!" Snow contained his excitement as he looked at the already dusky sky and rang the bell at the door to order dinner.
If he could maintain this pace, digesting the Secrets Suppliant potion within a month should no longer be impossible.
After resolving the most pressing crisis, Snow finally relaxed and began thinking about a question—
Why was it that despite both possessing Source Quality (Sefirot), and he even had uniqueness, praying to himself yielded almost no feedback, while praying to Klein provided feedback comparable to the True Creator?
Was it because of his own mindset?
It shouldn't be.
If it were because he knew he wasn't a big shot and thus couldn't get feedback, then Klein, who was also only Sequence 9, shouldn't be able to provide feedback either.
After pondering for a long time, even unconsciously finishing dinner, Snow finally came to a seemingly reasonable speculation—
Because when praying to the Fool, what was being pointed to wasn't just Klein, but also the mark hidden in the Sefirah Castle, hidden within him, belonging to the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings. It was precisely this mark that provided sufficient feedback to the Secrets Suppliant potion.
Then conversely, did this mean that there were no remnants of hidden existences on White Horse is Not Horse?
If this speculation was true, it would undoubtedly be tremendously good news. Ever since crossing into this world and realizing his golden finger was a Source Quality (Sefirot), Snow had always suspected whether he was some big shot's resurrection backup plan. But now...
"No, I can't be certain yet. Perhaps this is just a trap deliberately laid by that being. I must be cautious, maintain my humanity, and remember that I'm only acting!"
Snow forcefully slapped his face that was handsome enough to make the Aurora Order actively recruit him, using the stinging pain to pull himself out of the slight relief that had just been born.
He was now in a world only 19 years away from the apocalypse. Each passing day meant the apocalypse drew one day closer. Not wanting to be powerless when the apocalypse arrived, if not like Klein who became a True God in three years and an Great Old One in five, he at least needed to climb to Sequence 4 within nineteen years. Only by becoming a demigod would he have a chance to protect himself in the apocalypse.
Although Tarot Club members averaged Sequence 4 by the ending, with occasional Sequence 3s, this was absolutely no reason for Snow to relax.
Relying on White Horse is Not Horse's protection, he once again recalled the original story's plot in his mind, then began formulating his next action plan...
...
"Give me a list of the Beyonder materials you have here." In the hidden room of the underground trading post at the Bravehearts Bar's, a beautiful girl with a round face looked at the black soft hat-wearing elder before her and said. Although she had covered most of her face with a veil, she still couldn't conceal her beauty. Her soul-stirring sweet voice made the elder's heart tremble.
Although this woman was very alluring and her tone was like that of an experienced hand, the elder didn't violate the rules because of it. The burly man reached under the counter to pull out a notebook, flipped to the latest pages, but only gave it a symbolic glance before speaking:
"Water Ghost Brain Tissue, depending on completeness, 3 pounds to 15 pounds, Star Crystals 150 pounds per 50 grams, Queen Bee Grass 200 pounds per plant, Adult..."
"I'll take the Queen Bee Grass." The girl casually announced the material she needed, without any intention of bargaining.
The elder wasn't surprised by the girl's generosity. He took the scattered bills she handed over, quickly counted them, and after confirming the amount was correct, rang a bell to have someone retrieve the materials from the safe.
The girl took the tin box containing the materials, confirmed the contents were correct, then immediately turned and left the bar—
"No Black Abyss Demon Fish eyeballs. I'll check another gathering. If there aren't any, I'll have to find those people..."
(End of Chapter)