Chapter 93

Chapter 95: Rabbit X Thought X Commission (6300 words)

Moyu's absorption of the black, viscous substance was seen by Liz as an exorcism.

At this moment, seeing Moyu faint, she initially concluded that this was a side effect of the exorcism.

Her judgment wasn't entirely wrong, but there was indeed some connection to it.

Because on the black, viscous substance left behind by the bog men, there indeed lingered some faint residual thoughts.

These thoughts were not triggered by Davidson's "Book of Bog Men," but were the only proof that normal humans, after being transformed into bog men, still existed in the world—faint souls.

Though faint, they could still be categorized as post-mortem thoughts.

Moyu's shadow absorbed them, and in a sense, purified them.

Therefore, while the shadow benefited, it also had to endure the mental shock brought by these faint residual thoughts.

Since Moyu and his shadow were one, when the shadow was retracted, the mental shock from dozens of faint thoughts naturally had to be endured by Moyu.

This was the reason why Moyu suddenly fainted.

It was fortunate that his pain tolerance had just reached a certain level, allowing him to hold on and ask Liz to remove him from the center of the incident before he fainted.

Two days later.

The major casualties at the Deltana Restaurant became a hot topic in Spicy City, known to every household.

This was because the Patrick mafia family, created by Toran, would become a thing of the past due to this major incident.

After the incident, some rejoiced while others grieved.

Those who rejoiced were the other mafia forces in Spicy City, all eager to devour the huge pie left behind by Toran.

Those who grieved were the remaining members of the Patrick family and Toran's family, who were powerless to hold onto their legacy and could only wait for the storm to come.

People's focus seemed to be on who would replace Toran.

Liz, as a witness to the incident, instead faded from the public eye.

However—

Some things couldn't be hidden.

The public in Spicy City wasn't interested in the incident itself, but the Hunter Association was different.

"Ah~~~"

Hunter Association's Twelve Earthly Branches member, Rabbit Piaoen, squatted in front of the Deltana Restaurant's entrance.

She formed her hands into a telescope and closely observed the crisscrossing human-shaped burn marks on the ground, exclaiming in surprise.

"The burn marks are so distinct despite overlapping."

Piaoen leaned forward slightly, her peach-shaped buttocks in her short skirt slightly lifting, making the decorative rabbit tail on her lower back move playfully.

"Such a spectacle, if uploaded to Tube, would definitely gain a lot of views!"

Thinking of this, Piaoen took out her pink phone with rabbit ears, excitedly opened the camera, and started filming the crisscrossing human-shaped burn marks on the ground.

Liz was behind Piaoen.

Seeing Piaoen take out her phone to film the burn marks, she agreed, "Indeed, I also think it would gain a lot of views."

"Right, right."

Hearing Liz's words, Piaoen filmed even more enthusiastically.

Liz didn't say anything more but took out her phone and aimed the camera at Piaoen.

Regarding the "Bog Men phenomenon," she had already learned from Qido and knew why the Twelve Earthly Branches' Rabbit had come to find her.

However, in a certain sense, the Rabbit in her eyes seemed a bit off.

Knowing that the confidentiality level of the "Bog Men phenomenon" had been raised to B-level, she still wanted to film the human-shaped burn marks to gain video views.

The temporary shelters around here were not a film set.

In her view, Piaoen's behavior was simply incomprehensible.

So Liz could only take out her phone and prepare to gather evidence to avoid being implicated by Piaoen's capricious actions.

"You're so far away, and the angle is so poor, how can you film well?"

Piaoen noticed Liz taking out her phone to film and blinked, suggesting, "Come over here, get closer to the lens, that way you can capture the distinct layers of the burn marks."

"I'm filming you."

Liz said expressionlessly.

"Filming me?"

Piaoen was slightly stunned, then instantly entered model mode, standing up and striking a cute pose.

"How about this pose?"

"..."

Liz was silent for a moment.

For some reason, she didn't want to speak in front of this Twelve Earthly Branches Rabbit.

"You're so boring."

Seeing Liz's silence, Piaoen stopped filming the burn marks and took a selfie with her rabbit-ear phone, saying in a carefree tone,

"Even if I upload this video to Tube, netizens will only think it's a video made by a fan of the Bog Men, so subjectively I'm violating the confidentiality rules, but objectively, I'm not."

"A very weak excuse."

Liz put away her phone and said calmly.

"Ah... You're so serious, just like Qido."

Piaoen shook her head and sighed, "I could tell from the moment I got here that you're the type I least like to interact with. If I weren't the closest, I wouldn't have come all this way."

Saying this, Piaoen stopped taking selfies, tilted her head slightly, and looked at Liz, changing the subject,

"Lawyer, to save time, can I talk to that handsome young man?"

"..."

Hearing this, Liz remained silent, staring straight at Piaoen.

Piaoen's light pink eyes narrowed slightly, and she waved her rabbit-ear phone, smiling slyly,

"To be honest, my desire to upload this video and your act of deleting the restaurant's surveillance data are not really different. And I'm curious, what could make a serious lawyer like you break the law?"

"Phew..."

Hearing Piaoen's words, Liz took a deep breath, didn't argue, and said calmly, "Let's go, I'll take you to see him."

Two days ago, she lacked knowledge about the Bog Men phenomenon and couldn't have anticipated the Hunter Association's involvement.

So from the moment she met the Twelve Earthly Branches Rabbit Piaoen, she knew her small actions would eventually be discovered.

Compared to Spicy City, which only cared about economic benefits, Piaoen, representing the Hunter Association, was the most difficult to deal with because her mission was to investigate this matter thoroughly.

Most importantly, she was already aware of the significant threat posed by the Bog Men phenomenon and couldn't afford to mess around with it.

She also believed that even if she refused Piaoen's request, it wouldn't stop Piaoen from wanting to see Moyu, so it was better to agree directly and be more straightforward.

"It's great that you're so straightforward, at least we won't waste each other's time."

Piaoen put away her phone, looked at the dimly lit restaurant, and said in a soft tone,

"Recently, there have been a lot of troubles. First, a troublesome growing post-mortem thought appeared, and now this even more exaggerated Bog Men phenomenon. It feels like... there's a storm brewing somewhere."

"..."

Listening to Piaoen's sigh, a bead of sweat rolled down Liz's forehead.

—

In a single apartment in Spicy City.

Moyu sat on the edge of the bed, bent over, and rubbed his temples with both hands.

He looked a bit listless.

He had fainted in the restaurant that day and only woke up now.

During the two days of unconsciousness, it felt like he had a very long dream.

In the dream, there were many people and things he had never seen before, forming a clear dream world.

But after waking up, the initial impressions of the dream quickly faded, and soon he couldn't remember anything.

Moreover, his head felt swollen, like a hangover.

"Being able to improve my strength, enduring a bit of pain is nothing."

Moyu knew that the physical and mental reactions were due to the shadow clone absorbing too much of the bog men's remnants.

Just two days of unconsciousness and a swollen head were enough to double the strength of the shadow clone, which was a great deal.

If he were more ruthless, he could even view these negative reactions as pain tolerance training...

"By the way, how did those mafia bog men appear?"

Moyu stopped rubbing his temples, his eyes filled with contemplation.

He had witnessed the process of bog men converting others, so he could make a basic inference.

First, the way bog men convert others is most likely by "killing" the target they want to convert.

Under this premise, there should also be a condition of "no outsiders present" to switch to the killing form.

Otherwise, bog men wouldn't need to maintain a normal human state all the time; they could just go on a killing spree.

Moreover, given Davidson's nihilistic attitude in the "Bog Men" book, if the "Bog Men phenomenon" were to become a reality, the most likely scenario would be for the bog men to use their superhuman physical abilities to hunt and convert nearby humans rapidly.

Davidson didn't do this.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he couldn't.

There must be some constraints and conditions involved in the ability and oath.

After confirming this information, he considered the situation outside the restaurant at the time.

There were nearly a hundred mafia members outside, but only eight of them were bog men. It was unlikely that they would suddenly go on a killing spree and convert the other members into bog men.

So, in Moyu's view, there was only one possibility.

When Yilimi was dealing with these mafia members, he inadvertently inserted a thought needle into the brain of at least one mafia bog man to create a needle person on the spot.

Thus, the controlled mafia bog man naturally attacked the other mafia members, converting them into bog men by killing them with their own hands.

Since the killing spree was under Yilimi's control, it bypassed the condition of "no outsiders present" to switch to the killing form.

In other words—

Whether in a normal state of mind or an abnormal state, as long as the condition of "personally ending the target's life" was met, the target could be converted into a new bog man.

With this inference, Moyu naturally thought of the replicated thought box given by the Perception.

A thought flickered, and a soft white light appeared in Moyu's hand, forming a black rectangular box.

The surface of the box was irregularly wrapped with white strips of cloth.

A series of densely packed, tadpole-like characters appeared on the white strips, emitting an ominous aura.

This rectangular box was the replicated thought box given by the Perception.

"It actually materialized in the form of 'thought'..."

The way the replicated thought box appeared surprised Moyu slightly.

Could this be used as evidence to determine that the so-called "Perception" is not a system-like existence but an unknown entity born within the hunter's ability system?

The answer was unknown.

Regardless, Moyu had already determined that the Perception was beneficial to him.

That night, he gave Yilimi a heavy punch and received two rewards, seemingly encouraging him to...

Interact and clash physically with more "famous people" like Yilimi to gain more benefits.

Moyu had reservations about this, but he opened the ominous thought box.

Inside was a layer of black soft cloth, and a bead-headed pin lay on it, resembling a lollipop at first glance.

This was the specially made bead-headed pin that replicated Yilimi's thought ability, a one-time consumable item.

Moyu only needed to attach his own thought as a trigger to the bead-headed pin and insert it into the target's brain to create a needle person under his control.

Compared to Yilimi's needle people, this had some differences.

Yilimi's needle people ability was of the forced type.

Most manipulation-type abilities are born from the idea of "complete domination."

So once controlled by a forced manipulation-type ability, the target usually becomes a soulless puppet.

Yilimi's thought needle was a prime example of this.

The one-time use thought needle in the replicated thought box had two usage methods.

The first was a complete replication of Yilimi's needle people, where inserting the bead-headed pin into the target's brain would create a living dead puppet under his control.

The second was inserting the thought needle into the brain of a target who had lost consciousness or had their spirit holes closed, achieving control without erasing the target's consciousness and soul.

Moreover, if Moyu wished, he could access the target's memories and maximize the control value.

In simple terms—

If he had the ability to meet the second control condition on Nitro, he could control Nitro while preserving his consciousness and use Nitro's "Hundred-Armed Kannon" thought ability.

This was the enhanced ability effect of the improved thought needle, which was very powerful.

Moyu thought of the thought needle not because he wanted to control someone on a whim, but because after deducing the reason for the sudden increase in the number of mafia bog men, a thought suddenly came to him.

Since the shadow clone could strengthen itself by absorbing the remnants of bog men, he could hunt bog men to rapidly enhance his abilities in a short time.

However, he couldn't bring himself to kill innocent families like the one he encountered on the spaceship.

He understood the core of the bog men and knew that hunting families like that for the sake of strength...

Because of the perfectly replicated consciousness and soul, it would be no different from killing innocent civilians for him.

Moyu wasn't willing to stain his soul with such dark colors for the sake of strength.

If the target posed a threat or was a criminal, he could take their life without guilt.

So Moyu thought that he could use the bead-headed pin to gain control over a bog man and then convert death-row prisoners around the world into new bog men without restraint.

Finally, the shadow clone could absorb the remnants of these prisoner bog men...

Like exploiting a bug, the combined effects of multiple thought abilities would rapidly and crazily enhance the strength of the shadow clone.

Moyu's thoughts became active.

"Speaking of which, I should thank Yilimi..."

If not for Yilimi, Moyu wouldn't have known about the method of converting bog men through manipulation abilities.

Thanks to Yilimi, Moyu received the replicated thought box from the Perception.

"Next time, if I have the chance to meet him again... I wonder if I can get something else by giving him another punch?"

Moyu thought to himself.

Actually, if possible, he would prefer an exorcism opportunity.

Kukuluk Mountain.

This is a dormant volcano located in the Dentora region, with an altitude of 3,700 meters, surrounded by a dense forest.

The entire forest and the dormant volcano called Kukuluk Mountain are the territory of the Zoldyck family.

The Zoldyck family's mansion is built on the summit of Kukuluk Mountain.

"Attacking in broad daylight in the most reckless way, that's not like Big Brother's style at all."

In a room of the Zoldyck family's mansion, 12-year-old Meiji sat in front of a computer, his chubby face full of confusion.

He received a commission from Yilimi.

Yilimi asked him to eliminate his presence in the assassination in Spicy City as much as possible.

When he received this commission, Meiji felt strange.

This was the first time Yilimi had asked him to do such a thing.

Moreover, the Zoldyck family never cared about hiding anything in the underworld. Even photos, if you could take them, it was your skill, and if you wanted to spread them, it was your ability.

The Zoldyck family's attitude was so indifferent that the entrance to their home had become a tourist attraction in the Dentora region.

However, the Zoldyck family's attitude was one thing, and whether anyone dared to spread photos was another.

No one wanted to be targeted by the Zoldyck family, which was the deterrent power of the world's top assassin family.

That was the logic, but some internet users who were enthusiastic about surfing the web didn't think that far ahead.

Pictures and videos of the Deltana Restaurant incident in Spicy City inevitably spread online.

Some of these pictures and videos inevitably showed Yilimi's figure.

That's why Meiji was puzzled.

Based on his understanding of Yilimi, he thought Yilimi usually wouldn't carry out assassinations in such a high-profile manner.

The most likely approach would be to complete the assassination in the easiest and most certain way.

"Can't understand it."

Meiji shook his head, took a bag of chips, tore it open, and poured a bunch into his mouth, eating while opening the software he programmed.

His current task was to eliminate all pictures and videos related to Yilimi.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, Meiji seemed to have discovered something significant and stared intently at a video located by the software.

The video showed Yilimi being beaten into the room.

From this angle, it was clear that Yilimi was in a very sorry state, and he seemed to have suffered severe injuries, with his side clearly caved in.

"Big Brother... How could