"Do you know what I'm thinking in my heart?"

"Can you sense the source of the camera signal transmission?"

"Or can you change the fingerprint mark on the badge?"

Merka held a small camera and asked the shadow.

"Both can be done."

The shadow took the camera and placed it under his dark face.

"This thing doesn't even have a millionth of the technological content of mechanical divinity."

"In the present situation where all companions have perished, I can rightly say that I am the god of technology."

Timid vines crawled out shyly from the shadow's broken abdomen. Although it may sound strange, that bundle of vines really seemed to have consciousness. It looked around for quite a while before finally emerging from the shadow's abdomen and wrapped itself around the shadow's arm, climbing up to the position of the camera in the shadow's hand.

"What is that... a tiny gear?!"

Merka's face suddenly became very unpleasant.

In fact, it's not surprising that Merka would think that way.

He had long felt that the Red Port incident had never been fully resolved. The once kind-hearted witch doing such a thing, the angel causing such a riot, Judas becoming what he is now, there were still too many unanswered questions.

He never expected to see something similar here.

"Don't misunderstand, this Codechecker has always been with me."

"It's not the one you had before."

Merka's face was so shocked that it twisted slightly. He looked at the shadow, unsure of what to think.

It was the first time he had seen something so anti-human.

If he said such a thing, does it not only mean that he can read the current memories, but also the fleeting memories in his own mind?

If we expand on this, doesn't it mean that he can also read all of humanity's past memories?

This is no longer just mind reading.

It's almost... like a true aside, isn't it?

The vine attached itself to the camera, deliberately rubbing its metal shell until it became soft.

A blob in the shape of a bud-like gray flower exploded on the vine with a "pu" sound, opening its "petals" that looked like a mouth and swallowing the camera.

And then an even more astonishing scene appeared before Merka's eyes.

The camera, originally a lifeless object, grew wings like a butterfly and struggled to fly away from the shadow's hand.

The slender wings, made of spikes and broken iron, gave the bizarre butterfly a sense of life. It blinked like a real creature and aimed its camera at Merka.

"Go find your origin."

With the gentle descending of the shadow's palm, the mechanical butterfly took off and flew into the sky.

A feeling of nausea, a fusion of biology and machinery, stimulated Merka's stomach, almost causing him to vomit.

"What a joke..."

I didn't sense any magic fluctuations...

I didn't hear it chanting any spells...

What on earth is going on...

A strange scent of wormwood entered Merka's nostrils, but he didn't have the opportunity to carefully ponder where it came from.

"Follow it, and you will naturally find the camera signal receiver and the corresponding display screen."

"But you still want to take that badge with you, right?" The shadow pointed to a plate of pits. Merka looked at the shadow with a strange expression and nodded.

"Go quickly, or you will miss the butterfly." Merka felt a little dizzy and walked to the edge of the pit, looking at the girl waiting for her companion to rescue her. He fell into contemplation.

He felt very passive, although he had always been passive, but he had never felt so powerless before.

Of course, that's understandable. Any plan and strategy would be useless in the face of someone who could read minds.

Not that it hindered him, on the contrary, it was too smooth.

The shadow was really too good, a little too good.

Merka also knew that once something suddenly became easy, the cost would often be put at the last.

Gamblers are manipulated step by step by the house and end up losing everything. Every time Romeo uses his mother as an example to mention this, she tears up.

"But..."

"I have no choice now."

Merka quickly used magic to knock out two girls, searched them and found more than a dozen badges, and also rescued them and placed them in a relatively hidden and safe place.

"Is this all... give them to me." The shadow's disproportionately broad palms caught all the badges Merka handed over and put them into his abdomen.

"You..." Merka was about to say something, but his face darkened and he fell silent.

"I will remove the fingerprints marked on these badges, but it will take a little time."

"As for the rest... let's talk about my request on the way."

Merka nodded and followed the floating figure of the shadow.

——————————————————————————

"Mother... it's all my fault, all my fault, I shouldn't have tried to be strong."

"I will never dare again, never dare again."

"Let me go, please... please."

"Please... Lord Kegotua, great divine Lord..."

The rough breath sprayed in the shadows of the cave, causing the footsteps that made people tremble to fall into the deep corner of panic.

"Don't cry... what should I do if it attracts it?"

Three girls praying non-stop, one sobbing constantly, only the leader-like girl could hold her breath, pinching the crying girl's armpit fiercely to keep her quiet.

The three of them crouched behind a dark giant rock, and the captain cautiously peeked out to see if the monster looking for them on the back of the rock had left.

The result was seen.

But I didn't expect it to be so close!

The huge fire-red lion was just leaning against them, circling around the rock.

"This is annoying... I have never heard of such a powerful monster in the mountains behind Crotto."

"This level of monster, even if we use magic, we can't resist it at all."

"But the fluctuation of magic power can attract the nobles of the Altria family." The girl next to the captain stopped praying and said to the captain.

"It's impossible. If that's the case, we would be the first to die, after all, Warcraft would sense our magical fluctuations faster."

"Then what do you suggest we do now..." The girl, who was praying earlier, was clearly on the verge of a breakdown, her voice involuntarily raised a bit...

Suddenly, a horrific sound of chewing interrupted their conversation.

They turned around, only to be confronted by a wild beast with bloodshot eyes.

It was a fierce red lion with bloody saliva dripping from its mouth.

Under its mouth lay the body of the crying girl, whose body was only half intact.

"Tastes like chewing wax."

"I remember humans weren't this hard to swallow."

A heavy breathing echoed in the empty cave, the girls' faces turned pale as they stared back at the red lion slowly chewing on the shredded flesh.