Time goes back half a month ago.

The President gave Josiah, Kenna, and Nagi each a "Seed of Destruction," which originated from the God of Destruction. With it, they could deliver a destructive blow to anything.

In order to please Josiah, Nagi gave his seed to him, and Josiah bought another one from Kenna.

Thus, Josiah had three Seeds of Destruction.

The President knew about this, but instead of expressing dissatisfaction, he smiled and said, "This is just food for the God of Destruction."

The God of Destruction would not be destroyed by its own power.

Even so, Josiah needed the Seeds of Destruction. He needed attack-type tools to make up for his deficiencies.

Later, Josiah encountered the "Outsider" Gust. By a stroke of luck, he discovered that the Seeds of Destruction couldn't destroy Gust; instead, they made him stronger.

Since then, Josiah had a suspicion in his heart: Could the God of Destruction and Gust be the same "species"?

If he could control Gust, would he have the capital to confront the President? Even if he couldn't, faced with the almost invincible God of Destruction, wouldn't he have some strategy?

This kind of thinking was rebellious and dangerous. If the President noticed it, Josiah would face severe consequences, but he had no choice.

Josiah was the first person to join the association, and no one understood the President better than him.

Verily was a rational and ambitious lunatic. Although he could use the power of gods to dominate, obtain everything he desired, he chose to change all of humanity, hoping to make the world perfect in his mind.

The President believed that to change all of humanity, he must first conquer the author and the Horror Novel Web.

Putting aside whether the association could resist the Horror Novel Web, even if they truly dominated the world, what would be the result? They would still be at the mercy of the President. If he grew tired of the association members, would he casually kill them like swatting a mosquito?

Josiah didn't like the feeling of having his fate controlled by others. He wanted to decide his own destiny and needed to have his own leverage, leaving himself an escape route.

And so, Josiah began secretly cooperating with Gust.

Gust didn't have the power to annihilate everything like the God of Destruction, but it had many practical abilities. It could possess others, travel through electromagnetic waves in communication devices, and trigger mysterious events.

With Gust's help, Josiah could become the world's top hacker, freely invading any accessible website. He could also use Gust as a means of attack, trapping enemies in mysterious events.

Gust wanted Josiah to help it seek revenge. Its enemy was the Luo Qingyuan family, who had caused it to become extremely weak in the past. If Josiah helped it, it would agree to form an alliance.

Josiah saw through Gust's true purpose—revenge was secondary; it actually wanted more Seeds of Destruction. To it, this thing was a great supplement.

Perhaps the attacks of the God of Destruction were beneficial to Gust? If so, Gust would not only be the bane of intelligent beings but also the bane of the God of Destruction!

Josiah immediately agreed to Gust's request. Conveniently, the Luo Qingyuan family was wealthy, and helping Gust meant he had the opportunity to take over their assets, adding funds to the association—Josiah was in charge of the association's finances, and his job was to secure a large amount of clean and legal funds for the association.

Josiah revealed the existence of the Horror Novel Web to Gust and told it that the Horror Novel Web was omnipotent, surpassing all authors.

Gust became instantly interested in the Horror Novel Web. It also wanted to become an "author." At that moment, Gust regarded Josiah as a true ally.

With Josiah's help, Gust exacted revenge on Luo Qingyuan. It possessed Luo Qingyuan and tore apart his soul, then launched mysterious events to curse Luo Bing and Bai Wenqiu.

Just as it was about to kill Luo Xiaoming, an accident occurred. Li Xin had transferred Luo Xiaoming from the hospital in advance, causing it to lose its target.

What shocked Gust and Josiah the most was that Li Xin's true identity was a collaborator with the CIA against China. Using some method, she discovered someone trying to frame the Luo family and informed the Boston CIA headquarters, reporting the matter to her superiors.

"Even if Josiah captured Lixin, it was too late to end it all. The CIA vaguely noticed the presence of the author and was secretly investigating. Even if they killed her, it would be in vain.

"Don't expect to get any information from me. If you want to kill me, go ahead. The organization knows where I will disappear in the end. You two monsters, wait to be eradicated!" Lixin was tied to a torture chair, covered in blood, with long nails piercing her back and buttocks, and all ten fingernails pulled out. She was covered in wounds everywhere. After Josiah captured her, he used cruel methods to torture her for interrogation, but he could never force the woman to talk. She even attempted suicide several times, but Josiah didn't dare let her die too quickly.

Josiah was giving a huge headache by an ordinary person for the first time. He had to spend points to find out the ins and outs of the matter from the Horror Novel Web.

Oh, trouble has come.

If it were in the Association, Josiah wouldn't fear the CIA at all. The President could easily erase any exposed clues. But now, Josiah was acting alone and defying the President. He couldn't and didn't dare to ask the President for help.

Fortunately, there was still a chance to salvage the situation.

"I have underestimated you mortals, Lixin. You admire your willpower and dare to confront the unknown, but I will still kill you... no, destroy you."

"Heh heh..." Lixin closed her eyes.

"Do you have a solution? Help me quickly. If we continue like this, we'll both be in danger," Gest whispered.

"Next time you want to kill someone, tell me in advance, so I don't have to take care of things afterward," Josiah replied irritably.

Josiah took out his second seed of destruction, carefully crushed the shell, and poured the black powder inside onto Lixin.

"Annihilate the existence of Lixin, eliminate all traces."

"This is too wasteful!" Gest nearby looked on with longing, wanting to lick up the powder.

"Do you want to attract the attention of the nation's agents?" Josiah said coldly, then turned and left. Meanwhile, Lixin had disappeared without a trace, leaving no bloodstains. Only the glimmering sharpness of the long nails on the chair indicated the suffering someone had endured there.

From this point on, the person named "Lixin" no longer existed in the world. Everything was annihilated in nothingness and destruction.

Lixin disappeared so completely that even Gest didn't remember her existence.

The matter was finally over...

No, was it really over?

Unexpected events occurred one after another.

A stranger intervened in Gest's mysterious case and saved Luo Bing.

What made Josiah uneasy was that this existence mentioned Lixin.

That guy was also an author, and only authors wouldn't forget things that had been erased by the god of destruction!

At that time, Josiah retreated, but Gest expressed interest in that author's body, wanting to possess it for himself.

Josiah felt that cooperating with Gest might have been a wrong decision. Now he had to face two options: one, give up cooperating with Gest and protect himself wisely; two, take enormous risks and confront that stranger.

In his dilemma, he received a message from that author. It was then that he made a decision: to remain neutral and not help anyone.

In the end, Gest ultimately failed.

———————————————

"This is what happened, Lord Verli. I have no intention of betraying you. I just... simply wanted more ways to protect myself. Please forgive me."

Josiah stood with his head bowed in front of the President.

Silence, oppressive silence.

What expression did the President have at this moment? Indifference? Anger? Or the usual smile? Josiah didn't dare to look. He didn't even dare to move his neck.

"Raise your head, Josiah."

After a long time, the President finally spoke.

Josiah slowly lifted his head and saw a pair of cold blue eyes.

Dignity, wisdom, madness, and divinity. These eyes contained no trace of emotion... it definitely wasn't the gaze a human should have. Anyone who met those eyes would find it impossible to resist.

"I'm glad you can tell me the truth. Even though you are my old friend, it is normal to have your own thoughts. I hope next time you won't hide anything from me, Josiah."

Josiah felt like he had just walked through the gates of hell, covered in sweat. He bowed again to the president, expressing his remorse.

"There will be no more next time, sir."

"After it's all over, we will evaluate the punishment for you and Karna."

"Yes."

President Verily squinted his eyes and put on a mask of a smile.

"Your intelligence is very timely, and I am pleased. If demons only had this much ability, God would be enough to destroy them. What I am concerned about is not the demons, but the 'author.'"

What had the president experienced to be so sensitive to the loyalty of the association members? Josiah did not know, but he knew that under the leadership of the president, everyone would fulfill their duties and stand united. The enemy's plot to sow division would not succeed.

...

After the two of them returned to the association headquarters, Jerat, who had been monitoring the Controler, delivered some new information.

The Controler noticed that the orange marker representing the demon had changed from one to two. One of the orange markers moved towards a certain location in the city center and then stopped moving.

Jerat was confused and somewhat anxious. He couldn't understand why the marker suddenly changed from one to two. If they discovered a new unfamiliar author, shouldn't the marker come from outside?

Jerat had no choice but to notify the president and tell him about it.

"This is the ability of the demons," Josiah whispered beside the president. "Demons can split themselves into multiple individuals, and each individual is identical to the original. Gust took over one of his clones, but was defeated by the original."

"An author who specializes in clones, huh?" Verily chuckled. "Doesn't it seem familiar to you?"

"Yes," Josiah chuckled as well.

There was once an author who exploited a bug in the Horror Novel Web—he bought a new body without making the old one disappear, so he could control multiple bodies at the same time.

If one body was killed, he could escape into another.

With this ability and cleverness, he openly challenged Verily, wanting to suppress and destroy the Association in order to establish his authority in the author world.

And so, the president completely eradicated him.

Because all the clones were connected, when the God of Destruction attacked one, all the clones would suffer the same destruction.

It can be said that the God of Destruction is the nemesis of all clone-type creatures. If the demon author dared to let his clones appear in front of Verily, it would be no different from suicide.