World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 115 Cognitive Bias
Efron Ruben's Gun Angels are so modern, so Hill can naturally conjure weapons other than cold weapons.

However, there seems to be a limit to the number of times when using others as a medium.

Following Hill's instructions, Lin An raised his hand above his head. He felt the energy wrapped around his wrist fly upwards, blasting a large hole in the ceiling of the conference room like a bomb.

The crystal chandelier crashed down, its beautiful glass shattering into a shower of iridescent fragments.

"Waaaaah—waaaaah—!"

The guards' curses rose and fell, and their piercing alarms echoed throughout the space.

To create the illusion that the Thunderbird has broken free of its restraints and escaped, one must infiltrate silently but leave in a chaotic manner.

Glancing at the hole blasted into the ceiling, Lin An looked at his wrist, where the feeling of restraint had dissipated.

Is the emotion entangled not by silk threads, but by an RPG rocket launcher?
I'm really curious what these energies would look like in person.

Just as I was about to do something, the black card lit up with a message from Hill.

"Stay put, I'll take you to your destination."

Before he could finish reading the last word, Lin An felt those hands abandon their weapons and instead grab his legs and hands, sending him flying toward the large hole blasted open by the energy above.

Having lost its offensive capabilities, it has instead gained the ability to fly...

Like a magic wand, it can only have one function.

As Lin An rapidly ascended, he unexpectedly encountered the second layer of darkness. Hill ordered him to raise his right wrist, and another earth-shattering roar erupted as a large hole appeared in the ceiling once again, large enough for the Thunderbird statue to pass through.

"Boom!"

The casino lobby bulged up like an anthill had been disturbed, with swarms of gamblers running around as if they couldn't bear the light, shouting words of fear and unease, creating a buzzing sound like a vast ocean.

Lin An looked down and saw a dark figure following closely behind.

It's Evancia.

A pair of spotted brown wings tore through her bodysuit and emerged from her back. Evensia skillfully maneuvered the crooked-necked bird's wings, swirling and chasing after her.

Just as he expected.

Lin An was unaware of the specific plans of the inspection team and the MGM Grand Casino, but Evancia was supposed to stay after the explosion and take advantage of the chaos to leave this place of trouble.

After all, her secret technique had already been planted in Lin An's body, just waiting for the final harvest.

A strange sensation surged within Lin An. He pulled open his collar, revealing his chest, which was covered in black lines that were tingling and itchy. The lines, like ink, seeped from his skin into his internal organs, forming a rotating wheel whose patterns were cracking outwards.

The sorceress's ominous sign...

Upon meeting, the senior student performed a mysterious spell on him by snapping her fingers.

But Lin An knew why Evancia had followed him.

It's all because of the power of the magic wand.

As the owner of the brown gemstone, Lin An was fully aware of its abilities. When he activated the energy to cover his eyes, he cleared his mind and first saw the surrounding normal vision, and then began to deliberately fantasize.

First, he arranged for the members of the Dawn Society to "die" one by one.

Hill failed to notice that most people simply collapsed, perhaps injured, but were by no means truly dead.

Next, Lin An saw the Thunderbird statue and the conference table, and he switched the images of the two in his mind. When he walked towards the Thunderbird, he was actually walking towards the conference table in the corner.

There were many chairs on the table, and Thunderbird had many restraints.

They are very similar.

They are the same.

Thus, Hill, unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy, shared the same vision with Lin An through marriage law.

She watched as Lin An carried out the orders methodically, untying Thunderbird's restraints and then standing under the explosive device to wait, everything exactly as she had hoped.

However, in Evensia's eyes, everything was quite strange.

As Lin An spoke to her, he slowly moved chairs down from the long table in the corner.

The two have different perspectives, which creates an information gap. Hill is influenced by the "fantasy of the mind," and everything she hears and sees is a distorted perception deliberately created by Lin An. She cannot distinguish the boundaries of reality at all, while Evancia can see the events that are happening in reality in their entirety.

Although she found Lin An's behavior strange, she remained calm and observed the situation, since "White Dove" had not conveyed Hill's orders.

Perhaps this was an order from the inspection team.

Moreover, Evensia also wanted to hear the information Lin An provided.

This selfish motive led her to help Lin An buy himself a minute. By the time Evancia realized something was wrong and retrieved the communication device, everything had already been settled.

Hill cast a spell and grabbed the conference table, rushing upwards.

This is completely different from the plan!
What about the Thunderbirds?
Don't care?

The two parties only had a temporary employment relationship. The extremely suspicious Evensia immediately began to doubt the purpose of the inspection team, feeling that they had deceived her and the organization behind her and that they actually had ulterior motives.

They went to great lengths, and it certainly wasn't just to get a wooden table!
Maybe they want to protect Lin An?

Could it be that this young man currently belongs to the Dawn Association, and because he possesses important intelligence, the inspection team wants to use chaos to bring him into their camp?
The Thunderbirds were just a smokescreen; the real war was between two factions vying for talent.

Otherwise, wouldn't all of this be insane?
In truth, the few words revealed by the forest ranger were information that only high-ranking officials could obtain...

What about my payment?
Hill's baffling actions left Evancia's mind in turmoil, her imagination running wild, and her confidence growing. All she wanted now was to recoup her initial investment—the "Reader's Fragment"—as soon as possible!
Originally, Evancia wasn't chosen to assist the inspection team. She was after Hill's reward, so she made a deal with him, paying a heavy price to finally get this opportunity.

Since the inspection team breached the contract first, Evancia is not required to cooperate. At this point, the organization would usually have her terminate the cooperation directly, turn around and leave, and then they would negotiate with the other party to discuss compensation.

But for her, if she doesn't get the readers' money back, wouldn't she lose everything this time?

All the initial investment went down the drain!
Evensia clung tightly to Lin An, snapping her fingers frantically to accelerate the effect of the "ominous sign," wishing she could end his life as soon as possible to prevent any further complications.

Feeling the fog in his heart growing heavier, Lin An, who was being pushed upwards by his hand, sighed, turned his head, and saw the shattered clock hanging in the hotel flash and disappear.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock..." The bent second hand stubbornly moved forward, and time passed little by little.

Finally, Lin An traversed the smoke and chaos and arrived at a room that resembled a balcony.

The neon lights of Las Meadows, which never sleeps, spill out from the floor-to-ceiling windows, outlining the silhouette of a drone as it approaches in a cyberpunk style.

At the same time, Hill also delivered a final, brief order.

"Near the window."

Lin An stood motionless, and Hill, unusually, did not urge him. The drone crashed into the balcony with a loud bang, the glass emitting a violent scream that blended with the clicking sound of the rotor blades.

The hands surrounding Lin An swiftly and decisively carried the Thunderbird into the wide-open cabin, and then the drone carried it into the sky.

Watching its silhouette recede into the distance, Lin An touched the bindings that had also disappeared from his neck, switched the gem embedded in the end of his wand to heal the wound from the glass cut, and then placed it on his chest.

The hideous black cracks stopped spreading and showed signs of shrinking back and fading in color.

"Whoosh!"

The crisis had not yet subsided. With the soft sound of wings cutting through the air, the outline of Evensia's slender limbs emerged from the distant smoke. Lin An looked down at the black card.

The interface changed to the familiar employee ID card.

He had anticipated this and put away the black card, shaking his head helplessly.

You're too quick to discard them after they've served their purpose.

After completing the mission, Hill removed Lin An from "White Dove". When Evancia's ominous signs reached their peak, Lin An estimated that he would turn into a small black man as black as coal, as if he had been struck by lightning, a perfect example of destroying the body and erasing evidence.

"clatter."

As Evancia drew closer, Lin An took a step back.

"Could you please show some leniency, considering it's an alumni association?"

"..."

Aren't you curious about how to reduce the level of contamination among 'knowledge seekers'?

Evensia gave a cold laugh and snapped her fingers without saying a word.

"You are the worst senior I have ever seen towards junior students."

The ever-warm winds of Las Meadows howled and blew back. Lin An turned his back and gazed at the clock on the Eiffel Tower in the distance, where the hour and minute hands were about to overlap.

"Can't we chat for another three minutes?"

For some reason, Evensia felt inexplicably uneasy.

What is he waiting for?
The next moment, Lin An picked up his wand, and the energy surged into the air, carrying him through the lingering smoke of the casino and into the dazzling, dreamlike night sky of the City of Ecstasy.

"There are two minutes and fifty seconds left."

…………

The St. Anne-Love Foundation, a temporary headquarters at Caesars Palace.

The inspection team members were reviewing nearly a thousand surveillance videos, but most of them focused only on the screens related to drones.

"The moment Thunderbird destroyed the drone, we immediately transmitted the video to X. Through code recognition, it will be played in the conference room on the 'Queen' floor of headquarters."

"Even the president and his confidants, upon discovering that the research faction's decisions led to the Thunderbird going out of control, thousands of people witnessing mysterious events, and innocent civilians being injured, had no choice but to support the inspection team's decision, whether out of a sense of justice or to protect the foundation's reputation."

"Did the other deacons say anything in the communications?"

“Everything is normal.” A member connected with “White Dove” and said, “The meeting is about to enter the voting stage, and so far, our votes are still at a disadvantage.”

“It’s alright, it’ll be one-sided soon.” The branch leader of Rasmedos was guarding the control system that sent the message. “Once they see this recording.”

“Once we see this video…” one member murmured repeatedly.

"Branch leader, someone's coming for us!"

Suddenly, someone pointed out something unusual in several surveillance videos.

"The Dawn Society? That's strange. Deacon Catherine has already wiped out one squad, but there's a second one? They actually sent so many people to infiltrate Rasmedos?"

The branch president quickly regained his senses, gathering energy in his palm.

"Leave a few people to guard the sending area, we'll go and meet them! As long as we hold out until the voting ends, even the Dawn Association won't have the power to change the outcome!"

Before the words were finished, a terrified voice rang out.

"No, this is impossible... Branch President, please come here quickly! Look at this, the footage captured by the monitoring screen inside the drone..."

Where is the out-of-control Thunderbird?

"This is clearly just an ordinary long table!"

"Huh?" The branch president's eyes widened in disbelief, and he immediately pressed the contact chip onto the device, shouting, "Butler Catherine! Butler Catherine!"

"Operation terminated! Destroy all evidence! Don't let headquarters know about the chaos here!"

The sound of Hill's desperate roar from that side plunged the branch president into despair.

"At least today, we must completely block the news and prevent this from reaching headquarters! Only in this way... there's still a chance for the voting results to change!"

"Yes, madam!"

While directing his employees, the branch manager took a deep breath and gritted his teeth as he watched the Dawn Association getting closer and closer on the surveillance camera.

"We'll hold off the Dawn Society. Everyone, act as Deacon Catherine commands!"

(End of this chapter)