Odd Containment Specialist.

Chapter 995 1999: The Tamuka Agreement

"Isn't this similar to the superpower effect of Angang Xiongwu? However... Tamuka's business scope seems to be broader, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a superpower." Xia Shou muttered to himself, continuing to read.

Tamuka can do things including, but not limited to: exchanging the supernatural abilities of two parties, transferring one party's supernatural ability to another party (the same applies to negative curses), trading between the five senses and vision, trading authority in the mystical realm, etc.

In each transaction, Tamuka does not charge any extra price, but emphasizes "favor," which we can regard as part of the price.

The effect of a Tamuka's favors on worldly matters is that he will ask you to borrow something, and the more favors you owe him, the less you can refuse.

When a Tamuka comes to borrow something from you, if you owe him very little favor, he will inform you in advance, for example, a month in advance, about when he needs to borrow it and hopes you can make time for it.

If you owe very little favor, you can refuse, or you can decide on the appropriate date and duration for lending yourself; everything can be discussed with Tamuka.

If you owe a lot of favors, your influence will increase. As the number of favors you owe grows, you might even suddenly and forcibly take something from someone without any prior notice.

This sudden and unexpected theft of abilities often leads to accidents and even death for superhumans.

Every time you ask Tamuka for help, he will make you owe him a favor. This favor is generally impossible to erase unless you complete a task for Tamuka that is beyond your own capabilities. Such a task requires the person involved to take the initiative to ask Tamuka for help and express their willingness to repay the favor.

In 1990, Tamuka remained very active. Due to Tamuka's activities, supernatural abilities were frequently traded, resulting in superhumans often acquiring power far exceeding their normal abilities, which had a significant impact on social security.

Because of Tamuka's pursuit of trade, the Control Authority ultimately proposed a business monopoly deal to Tamuka in 1999.

The details of the transaction are roughly as follows:

1. Tamuka must ensure the general secrecy of its existence.

2. The Control Bureau is required to provide Tamuka with twice the average annual business volume between 1990 and 1999, with corresponding targets for the number of business transactions, quality of business, and expenses related to personal relationships.

3. Tamuka must have a 60% share of the business under the control of the Control Bureau (according to the Control Bureau's investigation, Babel Tower also reached a similar agreement with Tamuka, with a 20% share).

...]

The following content devoted a large portion to the various clauses, and Xia Shou also discerned the Bureau's attitude towards Tamuka.

Simply put, the actions of this named human being would cause great social instability, but the Bureau of Control was unable to handle it, so they eventually reached an agreement with the other party.

By having the Control Bureau satisfy Tamuka's borrowing desires, the Bureau's strength is enhanced, while social instability is reduced.

For the time being, this appears to be a very good deal; the regulatory authority has strengthened its power and its control over the named Tamuka.

At least in terms of information control, it is perfect. After more than 20 years of public relations management and Tamuka's own cooperation in keeping secret, it seems that there are indeed not many people who know the name Tamuka.

Moreover, even if they knew, they could not spread the word because of Tamuka's promise to keep his name a secret.

Edward had talked to him about Tamuka last time, and the reason Edward was able to bring it up so easily was probably because he also knew about Tamuka.

Xia Shou continued browsing the document while thinking.

Soon, he saw at the bottom of the document a method to contact Tamuka, who was stationed at the control bureau, through official channels.

"Reservations are possible..."

Xia Shou glanced at the application form and realized that he needed to fill in the specific details of the transaction, so he immediately gave up his plan to make an appointment.

"I'll have the minister pull some strings later," Xia Shou thought to himself.

If this named person truly has a way to help him increase the lending volume of the Superpower Bank, that would be a huge help. Since the optimization ideas for the Superpower Bank cannot be implemented immediately, the only hope lies in that advanced fusion ritual.

Which two skills should be fused together?

It's rare to be able to precisely control the effects of cropping and blending; you must find the two skills that are most compatible.

He couldn't know how much freedom his cutting skills offered, but his intuition told him it certainly wasn't up to him.

Otherwise, if he simply removed the negative effects of reaching the pinnacle in a deserted place, wouldn't he be invincible?

Some skills have a cost and effect that are like yin and yang, where there is no life without death, and no right without wrong.

The triple ceremony should only be able to cut out a limited portion of it.

Perhaps... while we can't eliminate the cost of sinking into the ocean where one has reached the pinnacle in an uninhabited place, we can eliminate the cost of dissemination?

Thinking of this, Xia Shou became excited.

Give it a try, it might actually work!

……

……

The empty, pale, square room was a ritual room on the fifth basement level of the control bureau. It was completely sealed off, and rituals related to the waning moon were set up to ensure the non-flow of information between the inside and outside.

Given Xia Shou's current rank, he is now capable of arranging such a ceremony on his own.

With the detailed information about the ceremony in hand, Xia Shou began setting up the magic array in the room. According to the level of this ceremony, the information was not allowed to be printed. He had to apply for permission to bring the paper materials.

These items will be destroyed after the ceremony.

Xia Shou first used a pencil to draw the rough outline of the magic circle on the ground, and then used bear blood to start outlining the magic circle.

The bear blood was specially obtained because the Flower Shepherd's mother was a female bear, so materials symbolizing bears were added to the magic circle.

In addition, honey is needed, which is a very easy material to obtain.

In fact, to make this ritual work at its best, a female bear that has never eaten meat since it was a cub needs to grow up eating honey, and its blood needs to be used as a material to draw the magic circle.

Because the bear was raised for more than a year, it could not be created using prefabricated materials, so the ritual had to be performed using slightly inferior materials.

The complex magic circle was completed. Xia Shou took a deep breath and went through all the ritual steps in his mind. His hands, which were holding the ritual materials, began to tremble slightly with tension.

He had never been this nervous before when he fused skills so many times, because in the past he could use [Self-Destruction] to repeatedly backtrack and try and make mistakes every time he fused skills.

But this time it's different. The ceremony of the triple ritual lasts far longer than three hours, which also exceeds the duration of [Self-Destruction]. Therefore, he cannot activate [Self-Destruction] before the ceremony begins.

This restriction brought him unpredictable risks.

For Xia Shou, this was a great adventure!

(End of this chapter)