Of course, Curt did not know what was going on. He had only heard from his cousin that a small cabin had been newly purchased, and it was said to have a good environment suitable for spending holidays, so he brought his friends over.
Who would have thought that this old cabin would hide so many cameras? Did his cousin have some special hobby?
He felt like he was taking the blame for his cousin. He just wanted to find that guy now and ask him clearly what was going on. How was he supposed to contact his cousin again?
Curt felt that something was wrong, but his friends did not realize it.
Just as he was agonizing over how to explain, Ethan suddenly spoke up and stopped the young people's questioning. "Don't ask him, he actually doesn't know anything. He is a victim, just like you."
Dana turned to look at Ethan. Actually, among these young people, Dana's personality was also affected to some extent, but relatively speaking, her intelligence was still at a normal level.
"What exactly is going on, and who exactly are you? You said you came to save us? Why would you do that?"
Even if Dana did not ask, Ethan needed to say something to appease these young people, but before that, he needed to clear the influence on them.
"Wait a moment, I'll help you deal with some issues first, and then I'll answer your questions."
Ethan glanced to the side. Ada Wang casually took out a small instrument the size of a finger, and then gently pressed a button.
The young people were all looking at Ada Wang. They were very sensitive to any movement now, afraid that these people would suddenly pull out weapons and kill them all.
"Don't be nervous, this is just a disruptor, it can disable the remaining cameras."
Although the young people did not know whether they should believe Ada Wang, at this moment they still felt a sense of relief. No one liked being filmed by cameras of unknown origin, even if they were not planning to do anything that could not be seen by others.
After "turning off" the cameras, Ethan walked up to Jules.
Curt immediately shielded Jules behind him. He was worried that Ethan wanted to do something to his girlfriend.
"No need to be nervous, I just need to clear the... toxin?" Ethan did not know what to call that strange thing. It seemed like it could only be treated as some kind of drug.
The reason he chose Jules was that he was not sure how the "toxins" were administered to the others. Only Jules' situation was directly described in the film. The hair dye Jules used was mixed with the latest drugs, so the power affecting her was in her hair.
Ethan extended his hand, and then something unbelievable happened to the young people.
A mysterious light suddenly bloomed in his empty hand. The light condensed around Ethan's palm into mysterious symbols and magic circle patterns, slowly rotating and emitting a beam of light that enveloped Jules' hair.
Jules was stunned. She had no idea what was happening before her eyes. The other young people were also too shocked to react. Only Curt wanted to stop Ethan, but he was casually pressed onto the sofa by Ethan and could not move.
Looking at Curt's flushed face, Logan, who was not far away, suddenly remembered the time Ethan bullied Thor badly with the Space Stone. At that time, Thor could not even touch the hem of Ethan's clothes, and he was so red-faced that he looked like he was about to die of anger.
Compared to Thor, the power gap between Curt and Ethan was even greater. He did not even need to use any special power. Just pressing with his hand, his powerful physical strength could suppress Curt, who was considered strong among normal people.
Holden, who was about to do something when he saw the situation was wrong, saw this scene and decisively chose to sit still. This person named Ethan seemed to be using some strange method, but Jules did not seem to be hurt.
Marty nearby looked relatively calm. Although Ethan displayed methods that were definitely not something ordinary people could use, he did not show too much surprise. Instead, he complained, "Are you going to brainwash us all into your puppets?"
"What?" Ethan looked at Marty in surprise. "No, I'm helping you remove someone else's control."
"Control? Who are we being controlled by?"
Dana was about to ask further when she suddenly saw grayish-white smoke constantly coming out of Jules' head. The ethereal smoke slowly left Jules' head and finally gathered in Ethan's palm.
"It seems worse than I thought. He's going to extract our souls..."
Marty's words left Ethan speechless. This guy's imagination was really too good.
"This is not your soul, and besides, souls do not look like this. This is a special agent mixed into Jules' hair dye. Those people are using this drug to affect your personalities and intelligence."
Sensing that he had extracted this component, and that it seemed to contain some unnecessary elements, Jules' blonde hair became less golden. Ethan had accidentally stripped away some of the hair dye ingredients as well.
Seeing the light on Ethan's hand dissipate, with only a sphere of grayish-white smoke suspended in his palm, and at the same time releasing the hand pressing down on Curt, everyone looked at Jules together.
"Are you okay? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" This was Curt.
"Do you feel like you're missing something?" This was Marty.
"Marty!" This was Dana.
But no matter how they asked, Jules just stared blankly with a bewildered look. Curt immediately became angry. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing, she just needs some time to clear her head, she'll be fine in a moment."
Ethan stepped back half a step and began to observe the wisp of smoke in his hand.
It contained that strange effect. After Ethan's observation, he found that this thing was largely synthesized through pure chemicals, but some inexplicable power was mixed in.
"It should be power from those evil gods."
By this time, Jules had recovered. She felt like she had a hangover after drinking too much. She had an impression of what she had done before, but it was like many people recalling their drunken selves after a hangover, feeling that it was completely another person.
"I'm fine, I just feel a little strange."
"Do you feel like something is missing?"
Dana glared at Marty again, then turned to look at Ethan, but found that Ethan gently waved his hand at everyone.
Ethan had already figured out the composition of this drug. With this reference object in hand, he could successfully extract the latent drug properties from these people directly.
Moreover, with a specific reference object, the extraction speed also became much faster. Ethan gently raised his hand, and this time no magical light appeared. A large amount of smoke instantly rose from the young people, and it all gathered in Ethan's hand.
Like Jules before, the few people fell into a momentary trance, and it took a moment for them to recover.
Ethan moved a chair and sat down opposite everyone.
"Are you clear-headed?"
Everyone understood what Ethan meant. Curt kept pressing his temples, his face a little pained. "This feeling is terrible, why did we do that before?"
"Because of this."
Ethan raised the hand that was holding the wisp of smoke and took out a bottle from his storage space. Then he poured juice into the cups Ada Wang had brought.
"Drink this glass of juice, it will make you feel better."
Everyone was still a little skeptical, but Curt was the first to pick up the cup in front of him and drink the juice completely.
"It seems you already understand that I am indeed here to help you."
Curt's action did not surprise Ethan. Compared to the others who were completely clueless, Curt was the one who knew best how much he had been affected.
Jules just felt that she had been living in a daze recently, while Curt knew that he had somehow been implanted with non-existent memories.
"Yes, because I can't figure out why I came here. I don't even know where I heard about this place... More importantly, I don't have a cousin."
The last sentence was directed at his friends. As soon as he said this, the other young people finally believed that Ethan had been saying he was here to help them.
Seeing that Curt's spirits improved significantly after drinking the juice, they all raised their cups and started drinking.
"You are very lucky. This is juice personally brewed by the famous wizard Merlin. It has the magical effect of refreshing the mind and restoring energy."
The others just thought Ethan was talking nonsense, but Marty believed him. "That legendary wizard Merlin?"
"Yes."
"Then those things you just used... are they magic?"
"That's right."
"Who exactly are you?" Dana grabbed Marty, who was showing signs of becoming a fan. Feeling better, she asked the question everyone wanted to ask. "It's not a coincidence that you suddenly appeared here, is it? Who is it that made us like this, led us here, and installed so many cameras?"
Holden had recovered mentally, but the current situation still gave him a headache. "This isn't some TV show, is it?"
Ethan put the juice away again. The amount of juice he got from Merlin back then was not much, letting these young people drink a glass was already the limit, it was impossible to let them drink endlessly.
His identity?
"Ahem... Actually, I am an exorcist. I came here to eliminate the countless monsters hidden in this area." This was the identity he had thought of long ago. There was no need to let these ordinary young people know about the identity of a mage who could travel through countless planes for the time being. "As for the reason you are here? Because you were chosen to be sacrifices to the evil gods."
(To be continued.)