Chapter 195: Fierce Tiger Landing Style

Chapter 195: Fierce Tiger Landing Style

At the same instant the gunshot rang out, Anderson’s entire body suddenly collapsed downward. In an awkward posture, he forcibly dodged the bullet.

Klein, not understanding what was happening, had already leaped to the other side, activating his Spirit Vision while drawing his revolver.

In that instant, his first reaction was that Anderson must have gone too far in hunting pirates the previous night and drawn retaliation. Klein almost wanted to shout, “I don’t know him! This has nothing to do with me!”

At that moment, beside Anderson Hood, at a dining table, a burly man wearing a shirt with rolled-up sleeves threw away his knife and fork. From beneath his chair, he abruptly drew out a double-barreled shotgun that had long since been loaded. Aiming downward from above, he pulled the trigger.

His actions were almost simultaneous with the innkeeper’s shot, but because there were more steps involved, he was half a beat slower.

Bang!

Shot flew out, countless tiny pellets blasting the floor into a honeycomb. Although Anderson rolled in time and avoided most of them, he was still struck by some. The side of his body immediately became a bloody, mangled mess.

Klein was just about to shoot and kill the burly man with the double-barreled shotgun, helping Anderson Hood break free from danger, when he discovered that the other man, like the innkeeper, suddenly looked blank. His expression was filled with surprise and fear, as though he had finally sobered up.

No. They aren’t the true attackers… Klein rationally stopped his finger from pulling the trigger and quickly swept his gaze across the dining hall.

Seeing that Spirit Vision revealed nothing, he immediately pinched the first joint of his index finger twice with his left thumb, activating his observation of Spirit Body Threads.

By then, the ladies and gentlemen in the dining hall had already stood up in panic because of the shooting, surging toward the exits.

As they passed near the rolling Anderson, a rather pretty, elegantly dressed young lady suddenly stopped. She opened the dark glass bottle she was gripping tightly and splashed the liquid inside toward the Strongest Hunter.

Sizzle!

Where the liquid touched, surfaces swiftly turned black, suffering intense corrosion. Anderson covered his face and sprang up first, avoiding this attack.

Immediately afterward, a quiet and lovely lady, a gentleman holding a newspaper, a waiter in a red waistcoat, and a five-year-old child whose hands were sticky with candy all launched attacks against Anderson Hood in their own ways at the same time.

Flour, lit matches, fruit knives, scalding coffee, and high-proof alcoholic drinks came one after another. Everyone inside the inn’s dining room seemed to have only one goal left: to kill Anderson Hood!

In this situation, without Beyonder abilities involved yet exceptionally dangerous all the same, Anderson, already surrounded and unable to break free, rolled and tumbled. At times he leaped up, at times he kicked tables away, at times he ignited objects in advance. He barely avoided vital points and suffered no serious injuries.

By now, Klein had also discovered something abnormal:

At a seat in the corner of the dining hall, blocked by a decorative cabinet, dense illusory black Spirit Body Threads clearly extended outward, yet no movement came from there at all.

In a hall filled with chaos and terror, that was extremely abnormal!

The true attacker who planned this “passerby murder case” is sitting there? Judging from the confusion, incomprehension, fear, and panic shown by the innkeeper, waiter, and customers after they attacked Anderson, they did not become marionettes. This is manipulation on another level… An illusion, an Apostle of Desire’s emotional seeds, or some other influence at the mental level? A flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Klein’s mind. He immediately took two steps forward, slamming aside a customer who still had cream at the corner of his mouth and opening a path for Anderson Hood.

The Strongest Hunter instantly rolled out of the encirclement in that direction, following Klein as they rushed back to the inn’s second floor. Leaning against the wall at the stairway turn, he began panting heavily.

“Has my Provocation ability really reached this level? Even ordinary citizens who don’t know me want to beat me to death and actually put it into action? Hiss…” As Anderson spoke, he tugged at the wound on his right ribs and nearly screamed.

No, no, no. The truth is that when someone is burdened by misfortune, they shouldn’t go hunting pirates… The reason Klein had just abandoned the plan of approaching the target and attempting to control him with Spirit Body Threads was because he had thought of one possibility:

The passersby seemed to have been implanted with suggestions, or subjected to some sort of mental manipulation, causing them to suddenly attack Anderson in an orderly fashion. This did not quite match the Beyonder powers of an Apostle of Desire, because the controlled attackers displayed directionality, precision, and clear signs of prior preparation. And Klein had once heard of a Sequence 4 potion formula called Manipulator!

Furthermore, according to the words of the Psychiatrist soul released from Creeping Hunger, Klein had long suspected that Toscarter Island had a Psychology Alchemists-related mission or figure.

Adding the fact that mental suggestions and mental manipulation greatly matched the traits of the Spectator pathway, and that Klein had long believed Manipulator was very likely part of the Spectator pathway, part of the Dragon pathway, the outline of the matter became rather clear:

The Psychology Alchemists indeed had an important stronghold on Toscarter Island, guarded by a Sequence 4 demigod. This demigod had influenced a few pirates, making them unconsciously do certain things for him. Unfortunately, those pirates had become Anderson Hood’s sponsors last night. Thus, this morning, the true investor had come knocking!

Controlling his expression, Klein looked at Anderson and said in a detached tone, “One or several of the pirates from last night were probably connected to a hidden demigod on this island.

“Do you think what happened just now is something a mid-Sequence Beyonder could do?”

“It can’t be that unlucky…” Anderson’s voice grew softer and softer, turning naturally into a mutter. “So those people just now were all controlled. They were innocent. Good thing I didn’t fight back. Otherwise, I’d have become the main culprit behind a shocking massacre and ended up on a bounty notice! Then things would be troublesome. I’d have no choice but to become a pirate.”

The corner of Klein’s mouth moved slightly as he said, “If the ones being controlled just now had been pirates with Beyonder abilities, or Mandated Punishers and priests of the Church of Storms, how would things have developed?”

“I would already be dead.” Anderson spread his hands. Then he seemed to realize something. “You mean he didn’t want to kill me. What happened just now was only a warning?”

Klein nodded seriously.

“So you still have a chance.

“Go apologize.”

Go and see what that demigod truly wants to do.

“Apologize?” Anderson’s face instantly wrinkled up as he said with difficulty, “In the Misty Sea, my reputation is still quite famous.”

Klein said nothing. He straightened, patted down his coat, and prepared to leave.

At that moment, Anderson suddenly lunged forward. He rushed ahead of Klein to the stairway entrance and shouted loudly, “I’m sorry! I was wrong!

“Everything can be discussed!”

After pausing for one second, he repeated it again.

“I’m sorry! I was wrong!

“Everything can be discussed!”

Clap! Clap! Clap! From the first floor came slow applause. A figure appeared at the entrance to the stairs.

Amid soft footsteps, that figure gradually reached the turn in the staircase. But Klein instinctively and subconsciously shifted his gaze away, as though he did not wish to know what the newcomer looked like.

In addition, he discovered that he had not the slightest thought of raising his arm and aiming his gun. It was as if he had been suggested into losing the notion of resistance.

This is terrifying… Mm, because this isn’t face-to-face hypnosis, I can detect it. But if I were directly targeted, the result would be unimaginable… According to Miss Justice, the reason I’m being affected now is that the other party silently reached the side of my consciousness island through the ocean of the collective subconscious and performed a certain degree of operation? Klein was just beginning to understand when he suddenly felt the urge to leave this place and return to his room.

This is that demigod’s silent “order”? Klein roughly understood that the other party wished to speak with Anderson alone. Therefore, he did not resist. He walked out of the stairway entrance and all the way back to his own room.

Less than five minutes later, Anderson knocked on his door, looking deeply pained.

“Finished talking?” Klein asked as if casually.

Anderson nodded heavily.

“Phew… Yes. He wants me to help him do something. I can’t tell anyone the specifics.”

“Do you still remember what he looked like?” Klein deliberately asked.

Anderson thought carefully, then suddenly frowned.

“I don’t remember…”

As expected… Look at you. Was provoking a demigod worth it, just for 1,600 pounds? Klein sighed inwardly, then changed the topic.

“Can we leave tomorrow?”

“Yes. That matter isn’t urgent. Solving the bad-luck problem comes first,” Anderson answered without hesitation.

Klein said no more. He pointed downstairs.

“Still going for breakfast?”

Anderson first froze, then revealed a smile.

“Of course!

“No worry can be allowed to affect eating and sleeping!”

The two went down to the first floor and discovered that the waiter was quietly cleaning up broken objects, while the innkeeper and customers had completely forgotten what had happened earlier.

…

After breakfast, Anderson continued going out, busily collecting bounties and money for Beyonder characteristics while making preparations. Klein remained inside his inn room, reining in the spirituality overflowing after his advancement and using little insects to test the Marionettist’s Beyonder abilities.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, he entered above the gray fog ahead of time, running a private rehearsal for the upcoming Tarot Gathering. After all, Mr. Fool had to give The Hermit Cattleya a warning in an airy, effortless manner.

Sitting in The Fool’s seat, Klein rehearsed one by one according to the three warning plans he had devised over the past few days. Among them, two plans required leveraging a small amount of power from this space, while two required the help of props. Therefore, how the entire process should proceed had to be fixed in advance and mastered thoroughly, lest he expose any lack of fluency at a critical moment.

After an unknown length of time, Klein exhaled and finalized the matter.

Then he conjured The World. Without needing any object, he directly saw countless dense black threads extending from the other party’s body.

“Items conjured using the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog themselves possess a certain spirituality… That’s why they have Spirit Body Threads. In the real world, inanimate objects don’t have them.” Klein skillfully manipulated those black threads. Very quickly, he truly and completely controlled The World.

Now, not only could he make The World’s expressions more delicate and his reactions more lifelike, he could also make the marionette’s spiritual fluctuations close to natural, no longer lifeless and deathly still!

Besides that, like a player running two clients at once, he directly obtained The World’s vision, hearing, and other senses!

After completing all this, Klein glanced at his gold-cased pocket watch and transmitted a message to Little Sun, telling him he could begin silently counting his heartbeats.