Enrold Town’s municipal hall.
A five-story building, the tallest in the surrounding area, resting high above the ground, it’s well-suited for observing the Earth Core Cult headquarters just across the street.
Wayne entered the municipal hall and made his way to the rooftop patio without any hindrance.
He encountered no resistance, nor did anyone ask for his ID.
For good reason, everyone had gone to join the fray.
Even civil servants can’t resist free eggs.
“Damn it, what has this country come to!”
Wayne muttered to himself, took out a pair of binoculars, and looked over at the Earth Core Cult headquarters—a set of four two-story buildings arranged in a square, each one occupying a corner.
In the central square, the crowd was bustling with activity, packed with believers who had come for the gathering, and they were mostly local residents of Enrold Town.
The binoculars’ lenses were somewhat blurry, not allowing him to see much, but Wayne could vaguely make out a few well-dressed, upper-class political figures who appeared to be standing together with a bald man dressed in white.
Even if he wasn’t the leader of the Earth Core Cult, he was undoubtedly a high-ranking church official.
Wayne put down the binoculars, took off his gentleman’s hat, and flicked it, allowing a pigeon to hop out.
Wayne took some corn kernels from his jacket pocket to feed the bird, then released the pigeon.
He silently recited a spell and covered his right eye with his hand.
The dark vision of his right side suddenly brightened up, connecting with the pigeon, giving him an aerial view of the Earth Core Cult headquarters.
The pigeon landed on a tree near the square, and Wayne observed from close range, making out the bald man’s true appearance.
The bald man wasn’t young, his face creased with many wrinkles, and the most striking feature was his lack of eyebrows, giving his features a rather gloomy aspect.
The impeccably dressed dignitaries next to him were extremely respectful towards the bald elder, bending over to listen to his teachings—so much so that the restraint on their faces could even be called sycophantic.
Seeing this, Wayne was fairly certain the Earth Core Cult had used magic to bewitch the minds of Enrold Town’s political leaders, trapping them in their net.
Wayne steadied his mind, focusing his gaze on the bald elder’s moving lips, eavesdropping on the conversation among them through lip reading—a skill that came with his original body.
As Wayne continued his meditation, his mind became stronger, and he gained increasingly assured control over himself, unearthing his potential and awakening various little tricks in the process.
Rather than awakening, it was more like reawakening.
Disguise, reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, proficient operation of vehicles, combat…
A couple of days ago, while soaking in the bathtub, he discovered he could hold his breath for a long time.
He hadn’t practiced it, but his body was adept at swimming and knew many underwater tricks.
Lip reading was one of the skills he had reawakened.
Wayne had never formally practiced lip reading.
This skill requires a lot of experience to achieve proficiency, so even though he had awakened this ability, he could only interpret a limited number of words.
“Today is very important…
our great lord, the void…”
“A couple of days ago, there was an intruder in our headquarters…
who has been detained…”
“There might be accomplices…”
Wayne was in the midst of reading when, suddenly, the bald elder stopped and looked directly at the pigeon—and, at the same time, made eye contact with Wayne.
Wayne’s heart skipped a beat as a powerful psychic blast swept towards him along the connection of their gazes.
Compared to the world behind the Gate of Truth, it seemed rather unimpressive.
Wayne had braved the trials of the cosmic starry sky, his thoughts and will teetering on collapse.
Compared to the crisis where his SAN Value almost hit zero, the gaze of the bald elder held no lethality whatsoever.
Who do you think you’re trying to intimidate?
Believe it or not, I could take off my shirt and a Great Eyeball would scare you to death!
The pigeon perched on the branch, cocking its head to look at the bald elder, its eyes reflecting a clear stupidity, devoid of any trace of intelligence.
The bald elder withdrew his gaze, no longer paying attention to the pigeon.
After giving a few cautions to his followers, he joyfully blended into the crowd of devotees, joining them in dance.
A complete about-face, an astonishing display of acting.
At that moment, his demeanor was warm and pleasing, making everyone who saw him think fondly of their own venerable father.
The pigeon remained in the tree, curiously watching the believers below, but startled by the sound of a champagne popper, it flapped its wings and flew away.
Wayne retracted the pigeon, put on his gentleman’s hat, and turned to leave the roof.
He had gathered two important pieces of information.
The Earth Core Cult possesses mages, in varying numbers and unknown strength; at the very least, the bald elder was more formidable than Wayne;
A few days ago, an infiltrator was captured, Isabella wasn’t dead, but the location of her detention was unknown.
“What a powerful mage, ending up , not even as good as me!”
“What kind of infiltration is this, surrendering upon meeting, lying down as a prisoner to enter the enemy’s lair, and then not being able to open the steel door, getting stuck in a tiny dark room?”
Wayne grumbled to himself, had he known that Isabella had been captured, he wouldn’t have foolishly waited, but would have had the butler arrange for a luxury car to leave Enrold Town right away.
“It’s still not too late to leave now…”
Wayne stopped in his tracks, standing in the corridor on the fourth floor of the town hall, looking out the window at the townspeople queuing for eggs, he pondered in silence, then shook his head wordlessly.
Forget it, he’d rescue Isabella and give her another chance.
It wouldn’t be too late to leave Enrold Town by car then.
At the end of the corridor, two female civil servants in town hall uniforms were chatting and laughing as they walked over, one carrying a briefcase, the other holding a teacup.
Engrossed in gossiping about the feasibility of stealthily taking extra eggs more than once, they saw Wayne’s unfamiliar face but didn’t think much of it; they ignored him like a passerby.
As they passed by and took two steps forward, the two women suddenly turned around; one pulled a handgun from her briefcase, while the other threw her teacup at Wayne.
Wayne, as if with eyes on the back of his head, ducked the tea cup.
With a loud crash, the glass shattered, tea splattered everywhere, and a smoky gray haze rose from the wall, with flesh-like masses spreading rapidly, covering the walls and windows in the blink of an eye.
Resembling an eight-legged starfish, each leg was alive, stretching and contracting in all directions from its tips.
Their bodies, damp with a layer of yellow mucus, had a gray-white, semi-translucent skin showing the blood vessels underneath and the organs wrapped within their thoracic cavity.
Wayne’s eyes narrowed at the sight; had he not been on guard, he would have almost merged with this clump of starfish.
As he ducked, moving swiftly away from the wall, he pressed one hand on the ground before the gun could aim at him, summoning an earthen wall to shield himself.
Earth Release Technique: Liquid Crystal Fast Solidification Technique!
A two-meter-high and wide earthen wall rose from the ground, not only blocking the sight of the two female civil servants but also barricading most of the corridor, causing them to stand their ground, hesitant to attack rashly.
In a few breaths, the damp, soft earthen wall solidified rapidly.
When the women heard the sound of running footsteps from behind the wall, they realized they had been tricked by a feint; without hesitation, they went around the wall in pursuit.
A pigeon flew over the earthen wall, and the women glanced up instinctively, only to see the pigeon dropping a white “bomb,” which splattered onto the face of the woman with the gun with a splat.
The insult was minor, but the humiliation immense; the woman with the gun screamed and raised her sleeve to wipe away the stain.
At that moment, Wayne, who should have run far, suddenly appeared from behind the wall, and upon closer inspection, it was clear that his shoes had disappeared without a trace.
He had indeed run off, releasing the pigeon and then returning without his shoes.
Wayne moved incredibly fast, reaching the gun-wielding woman in the blink of an eye, his left hand formed into a sword, with a water jet blossoming her makeup, taking advantage of her impaired sight, he struck fiercely with his right hand, knuckledusters in place.
The heavy blow hit her square in the chest armor.
A dull thud sounded as her uniform jacket rippled, and her body, now unbalanced, was thrown swiftly backward into the wall, where she plunged into the softness of the starfish.
Eight tentacles wrapped around the woman and the gun, and soon, there were crunching and chewing sounds in the corridor.
The woman with the gun had no chance to scream throughout the ordeal.
The other female civil servant was still bewildered; everything had happened too fast for her to react, and she was terrified by her colleague’s fate.
By the time she realized she was facing a formidable enemy, a whooshing fist was already coming at her.
Wayne punched rapidly, all strikes focused on the woman’s abdomen, pain from intestinal spasms and stomach churning made her curl up on the floor, sweat soaking through her clothes, and gasping for breath with a choking sound.
“Where’s the heavy woman who broke into your headquarters?
Where did you lock her up?” Wayne pressed in a low voice, his hand moving carefully over the female civil servant to check for hidden weapons.
The woman looked as if she had just been pulled out of the water, her hair sticking to her face, glaring at Wayne fiercely, grinding her teeth as she desperately said, “I’m always ready for my master’s call, I’ll be proud to return to the void, kill me if you want, I won’t talk!”
What a brave warrior!
If I hadn’t seen the Followers of the Goddess of Death before, I might have believed you!
“Heh, quite the tough talker.”
Wayne chuckled coldly, extending his right hand, he slapped the ground hard.
Earth Release Technique: Wall Blend!
The woman was lifted into the air by the rising mud, and as she was puzzled, the earthen wall solidified quickly, trapping her hands and embedding her halfway between the front and the back of the wall.
What was that all about?
The woman didn’t understand, but her face quickly turned white; her skirt-clad legs kicked frantically.
After a couple of slaps on her rear, a voice came from behind the wall: “The lighting is perfect from this angle, I can’t tell, your home layout is quite nice, isn’t it!”