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After knocking out the masked clown killer, George did not take him away immediately. Instead, he remained where he was, continuing to observe the conclusion of the battle occurring up ahead.
"That thing looks absolutely filthy!"
To George, the monster's strength was negligible; he could have easily crushed it with a single finger. However, the creature appeared to be pieced together from countless rotting corpses, which was truly nauseating to look at.
"However, that object is somewhat interesting."
Turning his head to look at an iron-black box lying on the ground, he could sense a strange energy fluctuation emanating from it.
"Extraordinary power losing control!"
After a round of gunfire failed to inflict any damage on the monster, the leader—a middle-aged man in a black windbreaker with a slightly receding hairline—quickly spoke in a deep voice to a woman wearing a shirt nearby:
"Lorotta, he appears to have become a wraith. Find its weakness, quickly!"
The woman's pupils rapidly turned grayish-white as she gazed at the monster.
Meanwhile, George, observing from the shadows, couldn't help but inwardly lampoon the scene:
"The heavy fog has arrived; quickly find the weakness of the monster, Ray Biel."
While the black-haired woman utilized her Beyonder powers to search for the monster's weakness, the leader and the others unleashed their respective abilities.
Some used poetry to confuse the monster, some emitted a special field to control it, and others engaged in close-quarters combat.
There was also a young man who seemed to be just along for the ride, doing nothing but firing a pistol from start to finish.
However, it was precisely this young man who attracted George's attention.
This was because, after the black-haired woman finally located the weakness and the group combined forces to finish off the monster, they accidentally knocked over the black box possessing special powers.
A palm-sized clown puppet, wrapped in brownish, oil-stained cloth strips with a grotesque appearance, crawled out of the box.
The moment the clown appeared, George sensed a concealed thread of energy emerge from it and quietly wrap around the young man.
The young man's body stiffened rapidly.
Meanwhile, the other five who had just combined forces to defeat the monster were heavily injured by its dying counterattack; they were either unconscious or incapacitated, unable to move over to help.
Just as the young man was about to be completely controlled by the puppet, he struggled to take a few steps counter-clockwise. His soul suddenly detached from his body and entered another space. When he returned moments later, he had recovered to normal.
"He actually possesses an independent space, and one containing power of such a level. This young man is not simple at all!"
George, who had witnessed the entire process, couldn't help but let his eyes light up with interest.
Regarding the space the young man's soul had just visited, George could faintly sense that its level was no lower than the world he himself had created.
Moreover, it contained extremely powerful energy.
"I am becoming more and more interested in the power system of this world!"
Seeing that the young man had recovered and begun to aid his companions, George dragged the unconscious clown killer and vanished from the spot in a few leaps.
In a patch of woods on the outskirts of Tingen City.
George threw the clown killer onto the ground. He casually snapped a wrist-thick branch from a nearby tree and lashed it fiercely against the clown killer's body.
The clown killer was instantly jolted awake by the pain and slowly opened his eyes.
When he saw the infant holding a stick in front of him, he immediately recalled the bizarre events from earlier. He raised his right hand, intending to fire an Air Bullet at George.
He estimated that this infant, whom he had previously killed, must have been possessed by some powerful evil spirit.
However, just as he raised his right hand, the stick in the infant's hand had already landed on his arm.
"Argh!"
A scream rang out as his right arm was broken on the spot by the strike.
As a Sequence 7 Magician, although he possessed many spell-like abilities, the improvement to his physical body was not particularly significant; he was certainly not invulnerable to weapons or blunt force.
"Ahhhh..."
Before he could recover from the pain of his broken right arm, the clown killer faced a barrage of lashings, causing him to scream incessantly.
Soon, he was beaten to the brink of death.
"Now, I ask, and you answer. If you dare to hide anything or lie, I will show you what it means to wish for death!"
George threw away the stick in his hand, his body radiating a majesty akin to a deity.
Currently, he could not directly search the soul to view the clown killer's memories, so he had to use this method to extract the relevant intelligence.
The aura pressure, stemming from a completely different level of life, made the bruised and swollen clown killer feel his entire soul trembling; he couldn't even control his basic bodily functions.
You are so terrifying; was there a need to beat me like this? Would I dare not answer whatever you ask?
This was the bitter thought rising in the clown killer's heart.
At this moment, the infant before him felt like a legendary deity.
And deities must not be looked at directly.
Therefore, even if the other party hadn't beaten him, just that terrifying aura alone would have prevented him from harboring any ulterior motives.
"Tell me, who are you, and who were those people fighting you just now?"
Seeing that the clown killer was thoroughly cowed, George began to interrogate him for intelligence point by point.
He knew, of course, that with his life level, he could have intimidated the other party solely with his aura without needing the physical threat of a stick.
The beating just now was purely to avenge the infant who was the original owner of this body; otherwise, killing the killer immediately after questioning would have been letting him off too easily.
An hour later, George reached out and snapped the neck of the killer wearing the clown mask, watching as the body gradually precipitated a Beyonder characteristic rippling with special energy fluctuations.
"Potions, Sequence pathways, becoming a God... so that's how it works."
Holding that Magician Beyonder characteristic in his hand, the corners of his mouth tilted up slightly, and he swallowed it directly into his stomach.
The supernatural power of this world originated from potions. Ordinary people could become Beyonders by consuming potions, gaining various magical abilities.
The main ingredients of potions were various monsters possessing extraordinary power, combined with supplementary ingredients and corresponding rituals.
The lowest level of a Beyonder was Sequence 9. After slowly digesting the potion, one could advance to Sequence 8, and continue ascending until reaching Sequence 0, which meant becoming a True God.
This was just like the Righteous Gods of the seven major churches in this world.
There were a total of twenty-two such Sequence pathways, each with different abilities, advancement materials, and rituals.
However, this knowledge all originated from the Original Creator.
Regarding the Original Creator, this world possessed a unified myth.
The Original Creator awoke from chaos, shattered the gloom, created the first ray of light, and dissolved His body into the universe, transforming into all things...
To summarize, it was a combined version of Pangu splitting the heavens and earth and God creating the world.
He now suspected that the seven fellows naturally maintaining the strengthening barrier might be the seven Righteous Gods of the seven major churches.
Looking at it this way, as long as he followed any random pathway to become a Sequence 0, he could become a True God of this world, and his power would multiply.
If possible, he could later gather the remaining twenty-one pathways, allowing his power to increase another twenty-one times over.
Of course, that was a matter for later; whether it was feasible remained to be seen.
After all, the clown killer was only a Sequence 7. He didn't understand the true situation of this world very deeply, and it was hard to say if much of what he knew was even true.
(End of Chapter)