Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 339 338 A New 'System'?
When Dunn saw Leonard easily step out of the room that was sealed off by ritual magic, he involuntarily took a step back.

Leonard's expression remained unchanged; it was as if that smile was welded to his face. All sorts of abnormal behaviors and actions he usually exhibited flashed through Dunn's mind, and then his expression turned ugly.

"I learned this move from that person. Isn't it interesting?"

Implanting the Time Worm with memories, cognition, and consciousness is essentially no different from using mad knowledge to turn the other party into a puppet of fate; both are high-level, sophisticated applications of a certain ability.

The Leonard in Dunn's mind was replaced by a young man wearing a black pointed soft hat and a magician's robe of the same color. Like Leonard, the young man wore a monocle made of crystal in his left eye socket.

That was the former King of Angels of the Thief pathway—as the highest-ranking Extraordinary in Tingen City among the Night Watchers, Dunn was qualified to know some general information about the two pathways mastered by Miskatonic University at the demigod level and above.

This also includes what the "Mr. Error" once did: He reclaimed the Sequence 1 Extraordinary trait from the defeated "Blasphemer" Amon, making him the highest-ranking being in this pathway.

But this does not mean that Amon is dead; he has invaded Tingen in another way, trying to do something to Mr. "Wrong" in Tingen.
When Dunn realized that the item Leonard gave to his player was likely Ammon, his expression froze again.

He reached into the empty space beside him and a monocle, which looked like it was carved from crystal, appeared in his hand.

He has been parasitized!

"Oops--"

Dunn was startled. He instinctively tried to throw away the monocle, but it seemed to be stuck to his hand. No matter how he shook it, the monocle wouldn't leave his palm.

Leonard's smile never changed, and a strange light flickered in his eyes behind his monocle.

"Then, Captain, please take good care of yourself..."

Before he could finish speaking, the two Miscatornic parasites behind him opened the locked door and caught up with him.

Upon seeing Leonard's intention to attack Dunn Smith, the Tingen City Nightwalker captain, the parasite who had already reached the range of his extraordinary abilities had already raised his hand.

"Amon! Don't even think about causing trouble—!"

He made a stealing motion, intended to separate Amon and Dunn and interrupt the other's stealing and parasitism.

On Dunn's body, several Time Worms with twelve segments struggled to crawl out of his spirit body, only to be crushed in the hands of the parasite.

The extraordinary properties inherent in the crushed Time Worm did not return to its original body according to the law of aggregation of extraordinary properties, and one Time Worm after another continued to emerge from the parasite's body.

The parasite from Miskatonic fully revealed its incomplete mythical creature form, manipulating the Time Worms stolen from Dunn and belonging to Amon, thus capturing their extraordinary characteristics.

Leonard glanced at the two parasites who followed him as they rushed out of the office.

Although it's not very useful, it can certainly cause him a lot of trouble in these matters.

“The surrounding clones are all gone... That ritual magic isolated the entire building from the outside world. Even a decipherer would need some time to reverse the process to get out, so…”

He squeezed his monocle, and it immediately lit up.

The former blasphemer shrugged:

"Alright, since you're so willing, I'll give you something nice as a gift."

"After all, how can this be appreciated by only me?"

The two Miskatonic parasites, along with Dunn who had just recovered from being parasitized, all sensed something was wrong. The next instant, a dark, insane black sun suddenly burst forth from Leonard's monocle.

The two parasites, along with Dunn Smith who hadn't even had a chance to retreat to a safe area, were instantly enveloped by that dark light, which seemed to be the final destination of all things in their depravity.

"Extraordinary traits are not the only criterion for judging the abilities of an extraordinary individual."

Leonard's smiling voice echoed within Blackthorn Security Company, "Just like me and you."

"Why do you think you can easily deal with me if we're on the same level?"

"You only have those, well, ritual magic, and the two of you Sequence 4 parasites? The 'Faulty' entity isn't in Tingen City. Attacking me at this time isn't a wise choice..."

The two Miskatonic parasites tensed up, and their expressions changed.

The Time Worm within me is going berserk?

"Get out of here, don't come any closer."

One of the parasites grabbed Dunn by the shoulder and shoved him backward.

With Amon easily exploiting the loopholes in the protective effects of ritual magic, Dunn Smith, a Sequence 6, was no longer safe in the center of the battlefield.

They initially thought that Amon was at most a Sequence 4 clone here, which could be easily dealt with with the ritual magic set up by Miskatonic. However, as expected, this kind of ancient being who has survived since the Third Age, a great figure with all sorts of legendary auras, is a great threat to the same Sequence even if it is just a clone of the same level as them.

Madness is spreading. The corrupt sun, the filthy sun, the mad sun is causing the already unstable Time Worms to develop their own sentience, each attempting to replace the original body.

This is one of the symbols of the Black Sun: filth and depravity, causing all things to fall into the depraved self-confidence shared by all living beings.

The ritual magic that maintained the internal environment of Blackthorn Security Company reacted under stress. The world shrouded in black sunlight suddenly became filled with the warm light of a normal sun. The light tried to dispel the black, corrupt sun, but soon, the ritual magic itself was also fatally contaminated.

The black sunlight that Leonard released suppressed the light generated by the automatic response of the ritual magic in terms of both rank and ability.

He adjusted his monocle, then casually prepared to leave and find another place to hide.

If He escaped because these guys were too weak, then that guy shouldn't have any reason to target him anymore.

After all, it's because our own people are incompetent.

As Leonard walked up the stairs and reached the first floor, in the world shrouded in black sunlight, a bell suddenly rang out, seemingly originating from ancient history and the source of time.

"when--"

Leonard slightly raised his eyelids, adjusted his monocle, sighed, and said regretfully, "Alright."

It seems that even if those two parasites are dealt with, that guy won't let Him go. The door was opened from the outside, and Palez Zoroaster stood in the doorway, backlit by the dark sunlight, looking at Amon, who was parasitizing Leonard.

"Amon."

"Paris, it's been a long time."

Leonard's lips had just unconsciously curled into a smile when he suddenly collapsed to the ground, his body convulsing.

One after another, twelve Time Worms emerged from Leonard's body and flew swiftly into a huge, ancient, and mottled clock that had appeared in mid-air at some unknown time.

The bells, seemingly from the most ancient times, kept ringing out, the broken ritual magic, the affected parasites, everything within this range, everything was rapidly regressing.

"Really... they don't give me any face at all..."

Amon's figure quickly disappeared, and the surrounding darkness rapidly dissipated. Pales glanced around at the situation inside, and after seeing that there were no problems, he looked at the two parasites who had quickly descended the stairs after escaping the black sun's shadow.

The two parasites, upon seeing that it was Pales Zoroaster, were somewhat embarrassed and annoyed: "I'm sorry, Mr. Zoroaster, we failed to stop Amon."

Pales shook his head and said in a deep voice, "It's not your fault. It's normal that you're no match for Amon. You're too young. He's an old monster who has lived for who knows how long. He has far more experience than you."

"Yes."

The two parasites who were released to practice one-on-one with Amon could only grit their teeth and prepare to go back and vent the humiliation they had suffered today by stabbing Amon's little mannequins.

Ahhh, Mr. Flamel, just kill Amon already!
"I'll leave things here to you. As for this child..."

Pales glanced at Leonard on the ground and said in a low, emotionless voice, "Send him to St. Peter's; they'll find a way to solve his problem there."

-

The next day.

St. Peter's Hospital, Tingen.

When Leonard woke up, the first thing he smelled was the usual pungent smell of disinfectant in the hospital.

"I am..."

He stared blankly at the snow-white ceiling above him, opened his mouth, and licked his dry lips, unable to distinguish whether it was a dream or reality.

He felt as if he had a very long dream, but what else was in the dream... his mind was a complete mess, and he couldn't figure it out for the time being.

"You finally woke up."

The young man in the ward noticed Leonard's awakening and took a few steps forward. Leonard then saw what the young man looked like.

"You are... Klein's friend?"

"Yes, I am Don Eggers, and also one of the investigators from Miskatonic University, Mr. Leonard Mitchell."

The young man smiled at Leonard and said, "I know you're wondering where you are and why you're here... To make a long story short, this is St. Peter's Hospital. You just had major surgery because of what I'm about to talk about, and you need to rest as much as possible, but we need to figure out some things."

His expression gradually turned serious: "Because this is not only for your own sake, but also for the safety of the entire city of Tingen."

"Major surgery...?"

Leonard struggled to his feet and glanced around.

This is a standard ward at St. Peter's Hospital, which he is very familiar with; the vast majority of official Extraordinary individuals are sent here after being injured.

After all, St. Peter's Hospital, as a comprehensive treatment hospital, is also quite authoritative in treating mystical ailments and injuries.

The official extraordinary person has a special ward floor in St. Peter's, and he often comes here to visit patients... However, the only thing that surprised Leonard was that there seemed to be someone guarding outside his ward.

"What...what happened to me? Why do I need major surgery?"

Leonard's memories were somewhat chaotic, filled with many disjointed images. Because he couldn't find a specific thread connecting these images, they all looked bizarre and abstract, exuding an eerie feeling.

"You have been parasitized by an outsider."

Tang said, "Think carefully, did you encounter something a few years ago?"

Leonard's somewhat stalled brain began to work slightly again with Don's prompting. After a while, he said with considerable difficulty, "There is indeed such a thing."

"In the Backlund parish, during a mission by the Church of the Night to investigate whether wild extraordinary beings were cultists, you encountered a strange thief."

Tang picked up a document from the table, opened it, and looked at the contents, saying, "After that, you had something that called itself a 'system,' right?"

Leonard looked at Don, remained silent for a few seconds, and then asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "You already know?"

"Yes, but it's also quite normal. Parasites are inherently difficult to detect, and the parasite that parasitized you was a master of manipulating people's minds. It's quite normal for someone with a low sequence to experience something like this."

Tang nodded and put down the documents in his hand: "Also, Mr. Mitchell, your major surgery was thanks to Mr. 'Mistake,' otherwise, do you think anything would be left in your brain after being parasitized by a high-ranking parasite?"

It's estimated that their thoughts, memories, and destiny will all be devoured. If the pathways are adjacent, even their extraordinary traits will be lost.

“We’ve slightly readjusted and pieced together the thoughts, memories, and destinies we regained after killing that parasite. It’ll probably be quite messy, but we have a solution. You should be able to hear me…”

'Dear host, the 'Mind Island' system will be at your service for the foreseeable future.'

Seeing Leonard's horrified expression, Tang stood up and said with a hint of instruction:
"Don't accept any strange systems in your daily life. Who knows if one of them is a real system or just some parasite in disguise?"

He clicked his tongue twice and said with a hint of emotion, "After all, parasites love nothing more than deceiving others and making them willingly become their nourishment, don't they?"

(End of this chapter)