Igola had discovered that as long as your imagination was rich and intricate enough, you could conjure an illusion capable of interacting naturally with you in the dreamscape even without a real person's help.
And so he had created a beast of burden illusion. Together with this draft beast, he explored treacherous ruins and mystical sites. If danger struck, the beast went to die; if all was calm, the beast did all the drudgery. His past few days had been thoroughly enjoyable.
As for the romance mission Annan had assigned him, he fully intended to keep slacking off. When the second leaderboard was released, he would simply explain to the young lady: "I'm terribly sorry, but I can't tell my affection apart from my bloodlust. The moment I fall in love, I kill my partner."
Emerging from beneath the bed after concluding tonight's dreamscape excursion, Igola was just about to run a bath to unwind when his heart gave a violent thump.
*The first heartbeat is the final warning.*
The revelation he had received while brushing his teeth that morning was fresh in his mind. Before his other senses could falter, Igola immediately cast Heart of Rock and Steel Will upon himself, withstanding the hormonal turmoil wrought by the withdrawal with absolute composure.
He didn't even need to glance out the window to deduce that the density of the white mist outside had dropped to levels unfit for survival. Even if it didn't encompass all of Fanmula, the Sennheiser District was certainly suffering; otherwise, residing in the heart of Sennheiser, he would not have suddenly plunged into withdrawal.
For a city-wide catastrophe to strike Fanmula at such a delicate juncture, their group of outlanders was naturally inextricably linked to it.
*If I were the attacker, my first target would be...*
Tying the sash of his bathrobe, Igola took two steps in his slippers before kicking them off. Grabbing the emergency escape satchel he had prepared well in advance, he left the room barefoot, summoning his Book of Gospel to open the Funeral Agency chat group as he moved.
[Mr. Bogin: I'm heading over to rendezvous with Yaxiu. Where are you all?]
[Death Artist: I'm on my way to Yaxiu as well.]
[Butler: Same.]
[Butler: Miss? Miss?]
[Butler: Why hasn't Miss checked the group?]
[Mr. Bogin: Can the young lady not handle the withdrawal on her own?]
[Butler: Impossible.]
Igola narrowed his eyes, thinking that Banjie and Annan had indeed prepared themselves to leave Fanmula at a moment's notice.
He himself had only suppressed the withdrawal symptoms temporarily with mind miracles. If Igola wasn't mistaken, the necromancer hadn't suppressed them at all, but had instead satisfied the craving directly with cigarettes and sugar. Word was Harvey had been trying to quit smoking recently, but that seemed destined to go up in smoke now.
Meanwhile, Banjie and Annan neither specialized in the mind faction nor smoked, yet they had recovered from the withdrawal instantly. That proved beyond doubt they had come prepared.
Making his way toward the elevator shaft, Igola passed several Sennheiser clansmen lying quietly along the corridor. Their gazes were glassy and their minds blank, like cheap clockwork toys whose mainsprings had snapped. Igola spared them a glance and hurried past. Fortunately, the elevator was free of any such breathing corpses.
Yet even now, Annan, Lisi, and Yaxiu had said nothing. Igola's heart sank—could Yaxiu have succumbed to the withdrawal?
[Mr. Bogin: Why hasn't Yaxiu checked the group either?]
[Death Artist: Yaxiu, run.]
The Swindler instantly hammered the elevator panel, canceling the stop on the 72nd floor where the gaming parlor was and selecting the 73rd floor instead. Harvey's warning was never baseless; going to the gaming parlor where Yaxiu was right now would be walking straight into a trap. Igola inquired of the Book of Gospel, "Report human activity within a hundred-meter radius and display a three-dimensional perspective map. Maintain real-time surveillance for ten seconds."
The Book of Gospel shifted to display a live surveillance map: [Cost: 50 Gospel points. Please view the map.]
Across the gaming parlor were numerous green dots representing living beings. Most of them were arranged in neat rows, presumably the Sennheiser clansmen lying like corpses inside the gaming pods. In an open area nearer the windows, however, gathered a cluster of green dots that remained fully mobile—undoubtedly the intruders who had breached the premises after the white mist dispersed.
According to the map, this cluster of green dots was confronting another flickering green dot, who was evidently their dear Mr. Primitive, too slow to check the chat group in time.
[Mr. Bogin: Yaxiu has been cornered on the 72nd floor. I'm going to the 73rd. Where are you?]
[Death Artist: Heading to the 71st floor.]
[Butler: I have already slid down the outer wall to the 72nd floor. There is a squad of Red Hats inside, eight in total. Among them are two three-winged sorcerers: 'Weeping Red Hat' Cleios and 'Deadshot Red Hat' Wright. Yaxiu is doomed.]
Two Sanctuary Sorcerers?!
Igola felt as though he had plunged into an icy abyss. They couldn't even defeat a single Sanctuary Sorcerer, so how could they possibly contend with two? Was deploying two Sanctuary Sorcerers truly necessary just to apprehend an infant-tier criminal like Yaxiu? Such flagrant wastefulness ought to be outlawed!
If Sennheiser were still functioning normally, Qinna would definitely have helped them break free due to the constraints of their contract. Whether through official channels or brute force, a local tyrant like Qinna would have made those Red Hats pay dearly.
Yet with the white mist gone and Sennheiser practically paralyzed from top to bottom, Qinna was completely out of the question! Igola even suspected she had been reduced to a broken toy as well, her Sanctuary Sorcerer strength serving merely to make her an upscale model—a broken Sanctuary Sorcerer, Matriarch, and Elf toy.
It was worth remembering that Igola and the others had only arrived in Fanmula a few days ago, yet the withdrawal caused by the mist's dispersal had swiftly incapacitated them, leaving them barely a second or two of grace before their power cut out.
If cured meat were the benchmark, these outlanders hadn't even marinated through yet.
As for the locals who had lived in Fanmula for decades, marinated to the core from the pores of their skin to the crevices of their souls, their fuses had likely blown with an instant snap, cutting power without so much as a second's grace.
Or rather, the fact that the people of Fanmula hadn't dropped dead on the spot and had merely blacked out like crashed systems awaiting a reboot proved that the family reincarnation dreamscape truly preserved their primal human essence, keeping them from degenerating entirely into grotesque aberrations dependent on inhaling the mist to survive.
[Butler: Abandon Yaxiu. We've lost contact with Miss as well; we must prioritize protecting her.]
[Mr. Bogin: No.]
[Butler: Do you have a way to wrest Yaxiu from the Red Hats' grip?]
The elevator ground to a halt on the 73rd floor, which served as a warehouse level. A thousand thoughts flashed through Igola's mind, and he exhaled softly.
[Mr. Bogin: I do. Harvey, do you have a way to disrupt them from below? Don't worry about dealing lethal damage.]
[Death Artist: Against Sanctuary Sorcerers, any disruption can only be measured in breaths.]
[Mr. Bogin: That's enough. Banjie, stand by outside the wall. The moment you receive my signal, breach the gaming floor and lay down suppressing fire on those Red Hats.]
[Butler: Our opponents are Sanctuary Sorcerers who far outmatch us! Nothing we do stands a chance of success, and attacking the Red Hats will only get us arrested alongside him! Miss's condition is unknown right now; we should secure her safety first. Once she is safe, Miss will find a way to rescue Yaxiu from the Red Hats!]
[Butler: Mr. Bogin, Mr. Harvey, for now, we have no choice but to abandon Yaxiu.]
Chapter 345