Seeing the Southwell beer with its fine white foam placed in front of Sherlock Moriarty, Carlson finally came to his senses.
After the bartender walked away, he lowered his voice and asked:
"What do you want?"
Klein picked up the glass, took a sip, and savored the bitterness followed by an outburst of malt aroma and a faint sweetness for a few seconds.
"Cheers!" He turned to Carlson and raised his glass with a smile.
Carlson shook his head without hesitation, rejecting his invitation, and muttered:
"Yours is beer, mine is a strong distilled spirit; they aren't suitable for a toast."
Klein had only been going through the motions anyway. He took another sip of the Southwell beer, looked straight ahead, and chuckled.
"What I want is very simple.
"I don't know exactly what's inside the tomb, so I can only describe it rather vaguely. Hmm... I hope to choose one item from the gains you get from exploring the tomb. I'm not greedy; it won't involve high-level items. Even if there are any, I wouldn't dare ask for them.
"If you find nothing, or if there are only high-level things there, then I won't ask for anything. Of course, I believe that if the latter happens, you certainly won't be stingy about giving me a sum of cash, cash that matches my contribution."
Since yesterday when he learned about the Amon family tomb from Miss Sharon, he had a rough plan.
The first plan was to blow the copper whistle to contact Mr. Azik and explore the tomb together with him.
However, this plan had many potential problems. First, Klein wasn't sure how much strength Azik, who was still searching for his memories, had recovered. Second, Azik was being pursued by the Military Intelligence Department 9; rashly contacting him would easily cause trouble for both of them. Third, Klein would likely come back into the sight of the Sealed Artifact "0-08" as a result. Of course, he had considered using the gray fog to establish contact and exploration, but the fact that blowing the copper whistle above the gray fog couldn't summon a messenger at all firmly blocked any subsequent ideas.
More importantly, Klein temporarily didn't dare or want to reveal the secrets of the gray fog to Azik Eggers, whose identity was still unclear.
So, he finally chose the second plan: make use of his status as an informant, submit the information to the "Mechanical Heart," and demand appropriate and reasonable compensation.
In terms of the number of high-sequence Beyonders, was there any force that could surpass the seven major churches?
As Klein knew, the Church of the Evernight Goddess had nearly ten high-sequence Beyonders, meaning that out of thirteen archbishops and nine senior deacons, nearly half had reached or exceeded Sequence 4. This didn't even include the Goddess's Blessed and the Pope who led the church.
The Church of Steam and Machinery might be somewhat inferior in this regard, but not by much. Their archbishop of the Backlund diocese, Horamick Haydn, was a high-sequence Beyonder.
Such orthodox churches with deep accumulations would not place too much, too much, too much importance on mid-sequence matters. Klein believed he had a chance to negotiate a reasonable "price."
Simply put, the core element of the second plan was:
When in trouble, find an organization!
Upon hearing Klein's price, Carlson was stunned for a second and blurted out:
"Aren't you a believer of God?"
The one I have in my heart has always been the Goddess... Klein made a triangular holy symbol on his chest and said:
"It is precisely because of my faith in God that I am telling you this news, rather than revealing it to the Nighthawks through Mr. Stanton.
"God said, 'He who strengthens himself, let him be strong.' Only by becoming stronger myself and having more money can I access more channels, grasp more resources, and thus provide you with better and more effective intelligence."
To convince the "Mechanical Heart," he had flipped through the "Sacred Scriptures of Steam and Machinery," which he had bought earlier to decorate his facade, in the morning, and found a few sayings of the deity that suited his needs and memorized them seriously.
Carlson was momentarily unable to refute; he stood there dumbfounded, forgetting to drink.
Seeing this, Klein quickly added:
"Moreover, this is conducive to establishing a harmonious and efficient new-era informant relationship. As long as you publicize the reward I received and your adherence to your promise without any regrets, I believe other informants will be deeply moved, greatly motivated, and will go all out to gather useful information for you.
"Of course, I hope you will use my alias for the publicity."
Carlson listened with a dazed expression. He picked up his glass and took a big gulp, almost choking.
"Cough, Sherlock, the real you is completely different from the impression I had of you before," he sighed.
In his memory, the detective Sherlock Moriarty was good at analysis and reasoning, extremely calm and polite, and had provided very effective advice with a strong sense of justice. He was an outstanding believer of God.
But now this man...
Klein took a sip of beer and chuckled softly.
"Everyone has different sides. To judge the whole by one side alone easily leads to mistakes. This is an issue that must be noted during reasoning."
Carlson calmed down for a moment, then stood up.
"I don't have the authority to agree to such a request. I will report it up immediately. You wait here for a while."
"Okay." Klein beckoned to the bartender and ordered an extra serving of fried potato lattice.
After he finished eating and drinking at a leisurely pace, the "Mechanical Heart" deacon, Icons Bernard, returned to the pub with Carlson.
"Your request is fine, but one condition must be added: items with strong side effects and curse effects are not eligible for selection." Icons looked around, saw there was no one nearby, and said in a deep voice.
What I need are materials... Klein immediately smiled and said:
"Okay!"