They all call me an Outer God.

“How can we continue our business if things continue like this? This is not what we agreed upon in the first place.”

"Forget it, asking a bunch of lunatics to follow the rules is undoubtedly the most foolish thing to do."

Sofia lowered her eyes to look at the pile of gold coins on the ground, and stepped over it as if it were trash.

As his gaze shifted, the pure gold floor, tables, chairs, and bed came into view, and another tall man stood at the entrance.

The man, wearing sunglasses, a black suit, and a perfectly tied red bow tie, stood there stiffly, expressionless.

“Triston.” Sofia sat back down and took out a cigarette. The man named Triston immediately took out a lighter, walked over to him, and lit it for him.

"Boss."

"It seems that this clause was not included in our original deal with those lunatics."

"I understand."

The man lowered his voice and then snapped the lighter's metal cap shut, the smooth metal surface reflecting the image of their conversation.

The Black Hand once made some deals with the Hephaestus and his ilk, who provided the Hephaestus with clones to transform into, and these clones were priced differently according to their quality.

For example, the price of superhumans is much higher than that of ordinary people, and the higher the meme level of a superhuman, the higher the information value of that superhuman.

They provide intelligence and promote the development of the White Mask, in exchange for Hephaestus and his ilk not interfering with the operation of the Black Hand or taking action against its members. Otherwise, the Black Hand members could easily create chaos for them using their own methods.

For black market merchants, although the Hephaestus may seem difficult to control, that is ultimately because they have not grasped their true needs.

These lunatics only have one real need.

That is to grasp the ultimate truth, obtain all instances related to the Outer God's descent into chaos, and then kill Him to gain true freedom.

All of this seemed absurd, but Sofia respected their ideas and even sent people across borders to explore the tombs of the pharaohs in the pyramids, looking for clues related to the rampant chaos and then selling them to that group.

That's how it should be; the Black Hand and Hephaestus, being bound by interests, should keep to themselves and not interfere with each other.

However, they were the first to cross the line.

"The contracts of black market dealers cannot be broken. Is it possible that someone offered a higher price than us, so high that they would be willing to suffer the backlash even if it meant doing so?"

Sofia picked up the wine glass on the mahogany table and swirled it for a moment. A pure red, jewel-like liquid automatically flowed out, sparkling like stars in the light.

Tristan's attitude became even more obsequious. He bowed to the leader and walked towards the door, passing straight through it to the other side.

Then, not long after, the man returned, holding a piece of paper in his hand.

"Sir..."

"What's wrong? This stammering isn't like you."

“I found this outside, and it was posted on the door.”

As he spoke, the tall man handed the object in his hand to Sofia, who took it and then discovered that it was a wanted poster.

Moreover, it was his own arrest warrant. The amount involved was 1-9999, 99, 99, 99.

It is very close to 10 billion.

However, this is actually a very common number trap. The numbers appear to be random, but black market dealers usually prefer to offer the lowest price to mock those they are dealing with in order to maximize their own profits.

It's like a lottery wheel with 99 grand prizes and one "thank you for your patronage." People don't usually think they're the unluckiest one, but the probability of getting that "thank you for your patronage" is 100%.

"So, someone spent a gold coin to put a warrant for my arrest?"

"Wait... there seem to be some characters in the bottom right corner of this 'one'."

Sofia took out a magnifying glass and looked at it for a moment before she could tell that it was a tiny Swarovski International logo.

In other words, the person who issued the warrant is offering a Swarovski crystal for the capture of this notorious underworld boss of the Black Hand.

Sofia couldn't help but laugh: "So I'm actually worth a Schwarz."

The tone wasn't angry, but rather joyful. This scene puzzled Triston. In his opinion, anyone would be angry to see such a wanted poster, let alone Sofia, the leader of the Black Hand. However, Sofia was just laughing by herself, and even took a smoke after laughing.

The ashen smoke blurred his face: "Triston, so you still have a lot to learn."

"Appreciate further details."

"For black market merchants, what matters is not the amount of money, but the nature of their 'black heart' and the nature of 'commerce' and 'trade' itself. To be honest, I can still handle a few hundred million gold coins, and tens or hundreds of billions are also easy to collect with a little effort, but the premise is whether the things being exchanged have that value."

"So, do you think a Schwarz is valuable?"

"Have."

Sofia continued to smile: "The point isn't the Schwarz, but the person behind it... Triston, have you heard of doomsday prophecies?"

As someone who had made some deals with Hephaestus, Sofia naturally knew a thing or two about those people's intentions.

The awakening of the radiant sun will bring disaster, the gods will revive, and the stars will return to their places, but this is only the beginning.

Among the stars, there exists an Outer God, known as the Star of Judgment or the Star of Calamity. Many extraordinary beings have heard of His name to varying degrees in their research on the end times, and some have even speculated whether that Outer God is the Radiant Sun Himself.

Outer God Gerheros.

His awakening will disturb the Sovereign who slumbers in the highest dark court, and then, a truly indescribable and terrifying destruction will descend upon the edges of all universes.

In order to prevent His awakening, Nyarlathotep decided to fight fire with fire, creating the three pillar gods to jointly create a divine core that contained the souls of all things. The one that survived and took the lead became the target of the investigation.

The divine essence will devour the Judgment Star before it tolls its death knell, and after ascending to the divine throne, it will be responsible for guarding and suppressing the slumbering Supreme God, thus becoming the true seal.

This is the truth that Sophia obtained from the Hephaestus at great cost: the gods had created a trade authority, calling themselves the Lord of Trade, and now acting as agents of money and transactions, and guardians of black market merchants.

"But even so, it's far from being a [meme]. We should at least see him become a [meme] for black market traders. It's about time the image on the meme card was changed, isn't it?"

“Sophia, you have to help him. He can't possibly grasp the essence of memes by just groping around on his own, especially since he doesn't even consider himself human anymore.” (End of Chapter)