When Jello woke up again, an unbearable pain surged through his body, and his mind was muddled, like he was hungover, with a faint ache from the blackout.
As his consciousness cleared, more pain crawled into his mind along the nerves, making it almost impossible for Jello to breathe, and he could only open his mouth wide and let out low, whimpering moans.
It took him a few minutes to barely endure the full-body pain, tears in his eyes as he looked at the sky overhead.
It was still the familiar gloom of Opus, the sky was gray, making it impossible to determine the exact time, and thus how long he had been unconscious was difficult to know.
Jello struggled to recall, residual fear lingering in his mind, and then a pair of azure eyes pierced through the fog.
Jello almost screamed, the last menacing figure in his memory was completely imprinted in his pupils, even in his mind.
He tried to move his body, which brought on pain and a sense of restraint, Jello was tied up with ropes and couldn’t move.
Just as Jello was bewildered, a hand lifted his collar.
"Wow, this guy’s awake, what should we do next, specialist?"
The voice was very close, it should be the man who lifted him up.
"Put him on the tracks."
Another cold voice sounded, icy like a knife.
"You’re planning to have the train run over him? I’ve seen that move in movies." When saying this, the guy who lifted him up had an unexpectedly excited tone.
"But... this seems too villainous."
In Jello’s moment of despair, the man continued speaking, this brought a slight glimmer of hope to Jello’s heart, unclear about the current circumstances, but it seemed these people weren’t all cruel.
Just as Jello was about to say something to save his own life, the cold voice spoke again.
"Are we the upright kind?"
"Hmm... no." After thinking for a few seconds, the man answered.
"That’s right, since we’re not upright, why not be professional villains?"
"Yes, indeed a specialist, even as a villain, he has to be the most dedicated one." The man let go of Jello, surprisingly clapped his hands.
Jello’s mind felt dizzy, he turned his head forcefully and barely saw the figure standing not far away.
It was the Evil Spirit, the one who knocked him down in his memory.
At the moment, he was facing away from Jello, seemingly gazing into the distance, the wind blowing over, lifting his coat and revealing a blood-stained Sheep Horn Hammer on his waist.
The Evil Spirit turned around, the menacing face looming before Jello, further impacting his spirit.
For Jello, this was indeed the worst day, cursed legends turned into reality, appearing just like that, bloody, before his eyes.
Yet this was not enough to make Jello concede, having lingered in the crossroads of uncertainty for many years, he had faced worse situations than this, more importantly, the appearance of Evil Spirit on some level shattered the fantasy in his heart.
The so-called Evil Spirit was just an ordinary human, not some grotesque oddity, nor a supernatural force enveloping Opus.
The mysterious unknown had become a recognizable entity, its layers of veils to be stripped away.
Yes, it’s not all that bad yet.
"Jello, you’re a known middleman in the crossroads of uncertainty, often selling contraband, and some things even worse than contraband."
The man detailed Jello’s information, stepping on his chest, Jello painfully looked over, only to see a black hood appearing before his eyes, this guy seemed like a bandit, but clearly, this bandit had no interest in his belongings.
"You’ve been in the crossroads of uncertainty for quite a while, you should know there’s a power that transcends all of you, right?"
Jello stared at the black hood, he indeed knew such a power, the power named Order Bureau.
The crossroads of uncertainty was a strange, eerie place, with travelers from afar, daredevils gambling their lives, Condensers drifting between various organizations, and mysterious forces arriving with different purposes.
Here demons ran rampant, no one had good intentions, it was an absolute Land of Chaos, the normal world overlapping with the peculiar Extraordinary World, hence the existence of the Order Bureau was not a secret in some people’s eyes.
But were these two really from the Order Bureau?
Jello’s heart raised such doubts, he feigned calm, speaking, "I remember you never intervene in the crossroads of uncertainty."
"That was the case before, but recently the company’s performance is not too good, deciding to expand business in the crossroads of uncertainty, no! The entire Great Rift."
"As you can see, we’re the salesmen of this area," when saying this, the black hood’s tone was full of resentment, but he quickly became lively again, "Surprised?"
"Enough nonsense with him, drag him over."
The Evil Spirit looked at his watch, then glanced afar, and continued.
"According to the schedule, the next train will pass in a few minutes, move quickly."
The black hood said, starting to drag Jello onto the tracks, Jello tried to struggle, but what awaited him was a powerful punch, causing him agony.
He lay horizontally on the tracks, like a lamb waiting for slaughter, the Evil Spirit took out the Sheep Horn Hammer, then slowly squatted beside Jello.
"You should know why we’re looking for you, right?"