Mysteries: Arcana Wars

"Your sandwich, sir."

Emlyn White woke up from his booth, rubbed his tired eyes, took the sandwich, thanked briefly, and left the restaurant.

The great Backlund still had half an hour left to finish its lunch break, the hurried people still had twenty-five minutes left to return to their posts, the sleepy Emlyn needed fifteen minutes to walk back to the hospital, and there was no end in sight for the rest of the working day.

Emlyn lowered his head and tried to keep up with the pace of the pedestrians, finishing his lunch in two or three bites. The last patient in the morning was a little late, and the meals in the cafeteria had long been swept away, but the afternoon patients were already waiting eagerly at the door of the clinic.

I followed my seniors to see patients, made rounds with the dean, and helped the director organize materials... This morning, I saw No. 15 for the third time. If he takes the medicine according to the doctor's orders, then when he comes back for a follow-up visit in two weeks, he will...

A beam of light suddenly squeezed through the busy crowd and fell on Emlyn's face from top to bottom. The giant billboard on the building was testing the lighting effect of a new poster. An ancient and exquisite doll was sitting on the high building, smiling sweetly at the young doctor.

"Prelude to the Steam Age - Special Exhibition of Fifth Century Artifacts at the Harvest Church Museum".

Emlyn was stunned for a moment, then he tightened his coat again, lowered his head and quickened his pace.

"It's just a pastime for those young intellectuals who have money and time."

Emlyn smiled bitterly in his heart. Patients, wards, medical records... that white coat was still waiting for him.

"What does it have to do with me?"

********

The flame jumped out of the red rose like a butterfly. Before the big boy opposite could express his admiration, there was a bang, and the flame and the rose turned into colorful bubbles in the light, flying towards the boy, and finally kissed him on the cheek before disappearing in the sunlight.

The big boy holding the flyer was stunned for a moment, then he started clapping excitedly.

On the busy streets of Backlund, modern buildings made of glass and steel stood on both sides. A wandering miracle magician dressed in simple clothes from the Fifth Epoch performed amid the noise of traffic. Among the passing people, only a big boy in front of him was watching the performance of the wandering magician.

"Mr. Magician! Your performance is so good!"

Klein carefully looked at his only audience. The boy had blond hair and a pretty face. His clothes were simple in style but exquisitely made. It was obvious that they were worth a lot of money. The most eye-catching thing was the earring dangling from the boy's left ear. The clear and pure obsidian was matched with ancient and exquisite craftsmanship. He wore this expensive antique in the street so openly.

The boy shouted with a flushed face, his hands clapping red. After meeting Klein's smiling eyes, before Klein could open his mouth to fool him, the boy took the lead and pulled out a brand new flyer and stuffed it into Klein's hand.

"Our special exhibition of Fifth Epoch artifacts has begun. I believe Mr. Magician will be interested. Please come and visit. It is open to the public free of charge!"

The enthusiastic smile and huge hand strength made it impossible for Klein to refuse the boy's flyer.

Thinking of the flyers he hadn’t distributed yet, the boy was about to say goodbye and leave, but was stopped by Klein.

"Please stay, young sir." The simple magician gave a Fifth Epoch salute. "You are the first audience to watch my entire magic show today. I am the wandering magician Merlin Hermes. I am willing to perform my best tricks for you - to fulfill your three wishes."

The boy scratched his head in confusion, holding the flyer and thinking about it, he found that he didn't seem to have any wishes that needed the magician to fulfill. His family was rich and powerful. For an ordinary family, the boy thought he was happy enough. If he wanted to fulfill a wish, it should be him who fulfilled the wishes of others.

Or maybe he didn't really believe that this wandering magician could really fulfill any wishes, and he thought it was just another performance.

"No, thanks. I don't have any wishes that I need your help to fulfill." The boy laughed heartily.

"Really?" The magician raised his eyebrows.

"Of course!"

As he spoke, the boy dug out two golden coins from his pocket and stuffed them into Klein's hand without saying anything. Then he left in a hurry.

"If I have to give you anything, it should be the money I give you for the performance!"

Looking at the boy's running back, Klein, clutching two coins, could not help but smile bitterly.

Good fellow, I know that you are kind and polite, that you care about street performers, and that you do good deeds without leaving your name. I would like to call you the living ** of Backlund.

But you gave me a chance to accumulate the power of wishes!

Klein sighed in his heart, thinking back to his accumulation of more than twenty years in the Sixth Epoch. It seemed that the only useful wishes left were the wishes for coding accumulated when he was a programmer, and the wishes for architecture accumulated when he was working on the construction site. The rest were just a few scattered and messy little wishes, which were useless under the current over-expanded consumption and seemed a bit useless. Klein only hoped that they could play some unexpected role in some unexpected places.

But this guy was quite generous, giving a street magician two gold medals for just one performance. Who doesn't love gold medals? Klein held up the gold coins and looked at them in the sunlight, unable to let go. These were two pure gold coins, but they were not Loen gold pounds. Both sides of the gold coins were engraved with a complex star pattern. This made them look like two special commemorative coins.

Gold is always good. Klein carefully placed the two star coins in the pocket of the outermost layer of clothing. Now that he could not rely on Sefirah Castle and had no other extraordinary props, he could only carry them physically.

It's rare to see people carrying physical currency or even commemorative currency these days. Klein continued to make sparks on the street while thinking about other things.

However, Merlin Hermes' little tricks seemed somewhat powerless in this sixth era, the "Age of the Bright Moon".

"The Era of the Bright Moon", the era of mankind.

Thin, transparent electronic screens stood on the streets, flashing colorful words and pictures, becoming the bulletin boards of the new era. The bright cold lights did not rest even during the day, outlining the contours of buildings and structures. The light boxes with huge posters were as outdated as the special exhibitions they advertised. Fashionable and luxurious shopping malls had already begun using three-person-high projections to attract customers. Although it was not yet the level of exaggerated giant projections that Klein remembered, the avant-garde young people had already inlaid metal decorations with LEDs on their bodies, and those who were truly disabled had already popularized easy-to-use mechanical prostheses.

As for the radical practice of cutting off healthy limbs and replacing them with prosthetics, at present, it is something that only the lunatics in the Church of Steam would do.

If you want to fly over a canyon, buy a plane ticket. If you want to swim in the ocean, buy a diving suit. If you come back with missing arms and legs, it doesn't matter. Advanced enough prosthetic technology can make you do better than a healthy person. As long as you pour enough Loen Gold List, Backlund can give you what you want.

People of this era seem to no longer need magicians' tricks, they seem to be able to perform miracles on their own.

The two young men took out their mobile phones and paid for their meals respectively. Then one drew a cross with a star and the other drew a steam triangle. After finishing their prayers, they chatted and laughed and started their pleasant lunch.

Behind this prosperity and hope, the extraordinary forces still have a huge influence on this civilization. Klein was not surprised. In the Sixth Epoch, Klein himself was an orphan raised in the Orphanage of the Church of Evernight, and he had a deep understanding of these powerful church forces hidden behind modern technology and humanism.

As he was thinking, the street magician looked up and glanced at the poster for the museum's special exhibition. Klein felt that the puppet on the poster was particularly familiar at first glance, and then he remembered that it was Emlyn's puppet from the Fifth Epoch. When he broke into Emlyn's bedroom in the middle of the night, this puppet scared him to death.

"Now I am an old antique just like you!"

Just as Klein was thinking, he suddenly had an inspiration. A brand new mechanical arm was placed on Klein's shoulder, and the steel component made Klein feel uncomfortable.

"Hey, little bro, your old-fashioned tricks won't attract today's audience! Just look at your look, is it something from the Fifth Century Special Exhibition at the Harvest Museum?"

A clown with a new model of prosthetic left hand came to Klein with a smile. He had the classic red and white makeup of a clown, but his costume had been modernized, retaining the traditional elements of the clown while adding the latest fashion trends. In addition, he had a series of gadgets in his bag and on his hands that flashed cold lights, which gave him a modern feel. He even put a weird retro ruby ​​ring on his prosthetic left hand.

But the most impressive thing is the exaggerated huge red bow tie on his chest. It is like an eye-catching business card. As long as everyone sees this big red bow tie, they can immediately recognize this well-known circus performer.

Seeing Klein's scrutiny, the Joker laughed and drew a triangular holy emblem on his chest, showing off his mechanical prosthesis. Klein noticed that the Joker even had thin, shiny metal wires on his face, which was a bold and crazy practice of prosthesis.

"Look! Do you think I broke my hand when I fell on the wire? No! I cut my hand off specifically to get this special prosthesis I made myself! What is professionalism? This is what a top circus performer should do! Ignore the opinions of those vulgar people, this is the awareness of doing great things!"

As he said this, the clown put the things on the square, stretched his limbs, took a step forward with great energy, gave the junior magician a confident smile of victory, and prepared to do a good job.

"Watch out, magician! I'll show you the top circus of this era!"

Klein grinned.

It seems that there are more crazy people like these who exchange their flesh for prosthetics than just those in the Steam Church.