Endless Debt

"You are late."

As the door opened, Teda looked at Bologue and Palmer with a sullen expression, his voice devoid of emotion, "I don't like people who are not punctual."

"We encountered some minor problems on the way."

Bologue tried to explain, shaking his clothes as he spoke.

The coat was tattered, emitting waves of a bloody smell. From the damaged holes, one could glimpse the Iron-Repelling Armor Bologue wore inside, which seemed to be entwined with a snake-like presence.

"The Great Rift is a place full of surprises, isn't it?"

Upon hearing Bologue's explanation, Teda didn't pursue the matter further. As a former member of the Order Bureau, he knew well what these Field Staff represented.

Field Staff were the Blades of the Order Bureau, sent wherever judgment needed execution, a group living on the edge of life and death.

If not for the study of Overlord Xilin's Alchemy Matrix, Teda wouldn't actually want to share his Alchemy Workshop with them as a base.

This would only drag him, a recluse Alchemist, into the turmoil of the Field Operations Department.

"The supplies have arrived. I've cleared out a room for you. You can rest and prepare there. Here's the key."

Teda said as he handed them two sets of keys, one to Bologue and one to Palmer.

"We'll try our best to solve the troubles outside." Bologue said, taking the key.

"You know not to bring troubles in here, don't you?"

Teda replied disdainfully, still seemingly irritated, with a surprising adherence to punctuality.

"Another function of the base is as a safe house. When a safe house is used, it means we are facing an overwhelming enemy, and there's no immediate support... Although I won't die, who can say I won't encounter a similar situation?"

Bologue explained as he took out another key, its surface shimmering faintly.

"But I still have this Key of the Crooked Path, which I can use to leave in desperate times."

Despite saying this, Bologue didn't want to take his work to the Undying Club if possible. These Undead are detached from the Extraordinary World, entirely absorbed in indulgence, and likely unwilling to revisit nightmares.

In fact, Bologue kind of liked this group of companions and didn't want to bring trouble to the members of the Undying Club.

"The Key of the Crooked Path cannot be used within the Great Rift." Teda's words shattered all of Bologue's thoughts.

"What... did you say?"

Holding the Key of the Crooked Path, Bologue always regarded it as the ultimate solution to problems, capable of saving him from any peril as long as there was a door.

On the way here, Bologue even discussed with Palmer the possibility of taking a door with them into the Great Rift, touching bottom, and then using the Key of the Crooked Path to open a door and thereby return.

"The Alchemy Matrix embedded in the Key of the Crooked Path belongs to the Deceitful Structure School. All unclassifiable Alchemy Matrices fall under this category, and spatial folding is clearly one of them."

Teda looked at Bologue uncomprehendingly and asked, "Didn't the person who gave you the key tell you about the Key of the Crooked Path's limitations?"

"I only know its limitation is that it can only open fixed doors," Bologue said.

"Is that so? In fact, such spatial folding Alchemy Armaments require quite harsh activation environments, like the surrounding Ether needing to maintain a certain concentration and Ether fluctuations not being too chaotic."

Teda warned, "You wouldn't want to open a door only to find half your body reached the destination, would you?"

"The Deceitful Structure School is like this: special, mysterious, and difficult to understand. But this has nothing to do with the Great Rift. You can't use it inside the Great Rift because there is a... indescribable force interfering."

Teda walked to the side, poured himself a cup of tea, and then gestured for the two standing at the door to sit down.

"When I first came to the Great Rift, I also thought of establishing a door directly connected to the 'Transfer Station,' but the Key of the Crooked Path couldn't open a door within the Great Rift. After some research, it might be related to the fog within the Great Rift."

"Fog?" Palmer asked in confusion.

"You guys know about the peculiar nature of the Great Rift. People throw all sorts of stuff into it, including Alchemists like me living inside," Teda said, somewhat embarrassed, "Handling alchemical residue is troublesome, and most Alchemists choose to dispose of it directly into the Great Rift."

"I suspect that years of accumulation, the mixing and reaction of different alchemical residues, created this peculiar environment within the Great Rift. The fog affects the use of the Key of the Crooked Path, and even a forced Curved Path Breakthrough is impacted."

Bologue nodded and put away the Key of the Crooked Path, his wariness and suspicion of the Great Rift deepening further.

From Teda's words, he surmised that the Ninth Group's method of appearance might have been the so-called forced opening, the Curved Path Breakthrough. Bologue doubted they would have prepared a Key of the Crooked Path to open a church door in advance.

These people had reasons for being late; the Great Rift impacted the Curved Path Breakthrough, causing them to be a few minutes behind.

"Alright, I understand now."

Bologue stood up and moved towards the supplies at the side, calling Palmer to help organize them.

"By the way, this part is yours, and the other part is mine," Teda said.

"But... aren't these our supplies?"

Palmer pointed at himself, then at Bologue, looking at Teda warily, who now resembled a bandit about to rob them of their supplies.

"You all have felt the peculiarity of the Great Rift, and here, I not only have the protection of the Void Realm but also a Negative Power User at your service, even though I'm an Alchemist and not adept at combat."

Teda was amused by Palmer's cautious reaction and said.

"This is your rent, but there's nothing to worry about, the Order Bureau has already paid for you."

Bologue and Palmer really didn't know what to say, they could only nod and carry their supplies into their room.

"Aimou, come help these guys, don't let them damage my stuff."

Teda then shouted loudly, and soon a quick series of footsteps came from the stairwell.

"Do you need any help?"

Quickly, Aimou appeared before them, wearing a lab coat similar to Teda's. It seemed like all these Alchemists each had a lab coat, and they were all the same style.

Teda's lab coat looked like it had been worn for many years, the white fabric had turned grayish, the edges of the cuffs were frayed, and threads protruded messily. Aimou's, however, looked very new, like it had just come out of the washing machine.

"Where is our room? Please show us the way."

The space inside the Alchemy Workshop was larger than the two had imagined, with various pipes interwoven in the corners, different instruments buzzing, and both of them needed some time to get familiar with the place.

"Okay."

Aimou seemed very excited, the halo in her eyes spun rapidly back and forth; she seldom interacted with living beings other than Teda, so Bologue and Palmer seemed like precious animals to her.

The Silver Snake crawled out from under Bologue's clothes, with Ether infused, the Deceitful Snake Scale Liquid began to proliferate, and in the blink of an eye turned into a silvery-white giant serpent, swallowing all the supplies whole.

Bologue carried a few boxes by hand, following behind Aimou, from another perspective, it was as if a silvery-white tail extended from under Bologue's clothes, wrapping around these boxes and dragging them along.

The base's room was located in a corner of the first floor of the Alchemy Workshop, the space inside was quite large and relatively tidy, already cleaned by Teda beforehand.

Bologue and Palmer unpacked the boxes, filling the room with their contents.

The Order Bureau had sent a lot of gear, like conventional armaments and medical supplies. In this ghastly place of the Great Rift, to maintain emergency communications with the outside, they had also prepared a miniaturized Secret Core Ceremony device for the two of them.

If necessary, they could use this to extend the communication range of Whistle and even connect directly to the Order Bureau. Unfortunately, it was just a shrunken version, with communication time and stability far inferior to the original. The advantage was that it did not require a communicator to maintain operation.

There were also some intelligence documents about the Great Rift, which Bologue directly locked in the safe that had been sent along."

Actually, they didn't need to prepare these things at all, in Teda's Alchemy Workshop, any kind of demand would be met, but Bologue didn't want this.

They were maintaining a cooperative relationship with Teda, and a certain boundary had to be drawn, even if it would bring some troubles.

But what really made Bologue unable to let go of his guard against Teda was the call from Belli that night, her commission to him.

It wasn't that there were any other emotions involved, but Bologue believed that when a madwoman became serious and solemnly commissioned him, the matter must have already developed to a disastrous stage.

Belli suspected that Teda was overly obsessed with his research, on the verge of madness.

She did not explicitly inform him of the more in-depth matters nor handed this over to the Field Operations Department, she just privately entrusted it to him. She knew full well that if the Order Bureau took notice and got involved, the matter would not be settled easily.

Although Belli always seemed to have that rebellious attitude, she did genuinely care about her mentor.

It didn't take long to tidy up the room, and soon the two had turned it into a base, with shelves hung full of weapons, medical boxes placed below, and on the other side were potion boxes, containing important Alchemy Potions, some were for saving lives, others for quickly replenishing Ether.

The miniaturized Secret Core Ceremony device was placed under the table by Bologue, and when not activated, its appearance looked just like a black cube, and there were some less important intelligence documents nailed to the wall by Bologue, with a large red web strung across.

Looking at his information network, for a moment Bologue felt as though he had returned home.

"Palmer, are you done?"

Bologue wiped the sweat off his forehead. He appeared to be relaxed, but it still made him sweat.

"All done?"

Behind him, Palmer's voice sounded, Bologue turned around, only to see a single bed placed on the other side, with a mattress and bedsheet spread on top, the blanket neatly folded, and a pillow placed on top.

Palmer was lying leisurely on the bed, and he had hung a rack on the wall, filled with books to pass the time.

"Is this what you applied for?" Bologue was stunned.

"Is there a problem? Aren't we supposed to rest here?"

Palmer felt he did nothing wrong, the atmosphere fell into an eerie silence, and after a few seconds, Palmer showed a suddenly enlightened expression.

"Oh, oh, oh, don't worry, I applied for two single beds, got mattresses, blankets, and pillows, but you'll have to make yours yourself."

Palmer didn't forget to remind at the end.

"I suggest you put your bed over there, it's a bit cramped, but if you set the bed next to mine, it would seem like we're sleeping in the same bed. Although we're comrades through life and death, it still feels rather weird, you know?"

Bologue really wanted to draw his gun and shoot Palmer, to see whether his lousy marksmanship was worse, or if Palmer was luckier.