"Holy crap... What just happened?!"
This strange move shocked everyone!
Why, in the middle of the fight, did he suddenly shove the Shadow King into Dr. Beth's mouth??
Not just Dr. Beth, who had no idea what was happening, even the Red Devil watching was totally confused. Even Raymond, who had been watching as John set up the magic circle from the beginning, was stunned!
Raymond had imagined many possible outcomes after letting John take over.
Maybe John would go all out and crush the Shadow King.
Maybe it would be an even match, with John barely winning.
Or maybe he'd lose, and Raymond would have to switch to Tao Pai Pai or Akainu for a long, tough battle.
But he never expected it to end ...
Dr. Beth was just watching, doing nothing, and now suddenly she became the center of it all?
"What are you doing?" Raymond asked, a bit speechless.
"Wait, let me finish this first, I'll explain later..."
John replied in Raymond's mind and got back to work.
He first signaled Dr. Beth to stay still, then bit his own fingertip and began drawing on her forehead with his blood.
More precisely, he was drawing strange symbols.
These symbols didn't look like any known language, but clearly came from the same system. And he wasn't just scribbling—it was clear he knew what he was doing.
Half a minute later, her forehead was covered in blood-red symbols.
John then drew the final mark on the tip of her nose and placed his palm on her forehead—
"Klaatu Barada Nikto…"
He started chanting again, faster and faster.
At the same time, Dr. Beth's eyes suddenly lit up with a yellow glow, just like the people in the yard who had been controlled by the Shadow King.
A furious voice came from her mouth: "What did you do to me?!"
But John ignored him and kept chanting.
Seeing this, the Shadow King started begging, promising to stay far away from Raymond forever, even offering to serve him.
When that didn't work, he began cursing and yelling threats, saying he'd kill everyone Raymond cared about.
John never looked at him—not even once.
Over a minute later, with a loud scream from the Shadow King, the yellow light in Dr. Beth's eyes slowly faded, and her normal expression returned.
The symbols on her forehead also started to disappear, as if they had been absorbed into her skin.
At that same moment, Raymond received a system notification:
[You have killed A-Rank 'villain' Amahl Farouk. You slightly changed the world's path. Development Points +300.]
[You may convert Development Points into Universal System Points at a rate of 1 to 5.]
[Special Note: Any level of change to the world's path may trigger unpredictable butterfly effects and bring unknown risks. Please proceed with caution!]
Seeing another 300 Development Points added, Raymond felt quietly pleased.
He had guessed early on that if meeting storyline characters earned him system rewards, then maybe interacting with them could also bring benefits.
When he later joined the Hellfire Club and became a core member—"Black Bishop"—the system rewarded him Development Points for the first time, confirming his guess.
However, the interaction needed to be significant—like joining a group and becoming one of its core members—for it to count.
Now that he had killed the Shadow King and received Development Points again, it confirmed that killing a major storyline character also met the system's criteria for "interaction."
Plus, with the 50 Exploration Points from earlier after meeting the Red Devil, he now had a total of 1,550 Universal System Points in hand.
The gains from this trip were truly great.
Not only did he get revenge for almost having his memory changed last time, he also earned a huge amount of Universal System Points.
The only concern was the new "special note" from the system—something he hadn't seen before.
"Any change to the world's path will bring unknown risks?" Raymond fell into deep thought.
Based on past experience, every message from the system had meaning.
Like when it told him to explore the Beginner's Guide carefully—he had ignored it and missed a lot of useful information.
After that, he paid close attention to every tip the system gave him.
This time, the system clearly highlighted two things: "slightly changed the world's path," and "any level of change will bring unknown risks."
If Raymond was right, the system didn't reward him just for killing a Level 4 mutant, but for killing this particular A-Rank villain—the Shadow King.
It sounded contradictory at first, but actually made perfect sense.
He had already noticed that the system's rank ratings didn't depend purely on a character's strength.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. Director's SS rank, for example, and others he'd met later all proved that.
He had thought before about what the system's rating was actually based on.
Now, it seemed clear that it was tied to something the system called the "world's path."
"In other words, the system might be ranking people based on how much they could change the future… The more impact they can have on the world, the higher their rank?"
Thinking back on the people he'd met, this guess made the most sense.
Still, it was only a theory.
But with what he currently knew, it seemed closest to the truth.
If he had killed a random Level 4 mutant with no story importance, he might have received no reward at all.
"If an A-Rank gave me 300 points… what if I killed the Director…"
A bold thought suddenly came to Raymond.
But he quickly shook it off.
The Director had always treated him well—he wasn't heartless enough to betray a friend just to level up.
More importantly, the system's warning—"any change to the world's path brings unknown risks"—made him take things seriously.