Bam!
The huge gunshot echoed across the sparsely wooded open ground, spreading in every direction. If this were a normal island and a normal forest at night, countless birds would surely have taken flight, flapping their wings and circling amidst the roars of wild beasts. But here, it remained silent—so silent that it seemed as if no living thing existed.
As for that black curly-furred baboon, its head suddenly exploded. Blood, brain matter, and fragments scattered violently in all directions, as if a sudden downpour had swept over the area.
The black crystal on its head also shattered, not a single piece remaining intact.
Klein bent his arm and slowly withdrew the
"Travel" to close in, "Wraith" for hard crowd control, and seizing the moment for the "Death Knell's" lethal blow—an instant kill!
Klein hadn't done this to show off his strength. Rather, from his observations, he believed this mutated baboon possessed special abilities. If he didn't quickly eliminate it while it had zero understanding of him, it could very likely turn the tables and make things extremely troublesome. On a dangerous, primitive island, such a situation was something that must be avoided at all costs. No one knew what a fierce battle might attract.
So, after possessing the mutated baboon with his Wraith, Klein abandoned the attempt to manipulate its Spirit Body Threads—a safer, more thorough, and less conspicuous method of disposal—and directly cocked the hammer, using the Death Knell revolver to exploit the stiffness and sluggishness the Wraith's possession inflicted on its target.
The effect was exactly as he'd predicted. The twists and turns that could have occurred also matched his imagination. That mutated baboon indeed had enough ability, through "Distortion" or "Chaos," to escape the disadvantageous possession state of the Wraith and make the bullet's trajectory erratic, forcibly dodging it.
Unfortunately, before all these efforts could take effect, they were abruptly cut short. Klein seized that brief moment of stupefaction and decisively, explosively triggered a "Lethal Blow."
If he had instead chosen to manipulate the Spirit Body Threads, the outcome of the matter would likely have been very different.
Bearing a weakness for this was worth it. Moreover, the further he went, the more likely he was to use the Death Knell revolver. It was better to understand the problem in advance and learn to adapt to and avoid similar situations, rather than discovering what he was afraid of in a dangerous environment. Klein let the iron-black pistol hang naturally at his side and walked over to the mutated baboon in two or three steps.
At this moment, under the control of the Wraith, the Beyonder characteristic of this supernatural creature was accelerating its precipitation.
Alger, holding an oil lamp, saw this from a distance and couldn't fully come back to his senses for dozens of seconds. What remained frozen in his mind was the image of the iron-black muzzle of Gehrman Sparrow's revolver flashing with fire and the baboon's head shattering.
The initial encounter with "Chaos" had already made him understand that this supernatural creature was on a higher level than the Bewitching Whispering Tree and was a very difficult opponent. If he fought it, he had to be extremely cautious, and there was no guarantee he would win. Yet Gehrman Sparrow had resolved the battle in two or three seconds, as quickly as if he were just practicing his shooting.
As a fellow Sequence 5, such a disparity was simply unbelievable to him!
"Short-distance 'Teleportation,' the strange ability to control an opponent for a certain time, combined with that terrifyingly powerful revolver—the effect is unimaginably dreadful. If I encountered it for the first time, I'd definitely be instantly killed. And even if I were prepared, resisting wouldn't be easy. The best approach is still to use 'Song' ahead of time for a wide-area indiscriminate effect, preventing Gehrman Sparrow from completing his 'Teleport' so smoothly. No wonder he's a mad adventurer with a bounty of 50,000 pounds! Even without Mr. Fool's help, relying purely on himself, he's no worse than the 'Admiral of Hell'—in fact, he's even stronger." Alger withdrew his thoughts, silently sighing a few times as he hypothesized himself in the mutated baboon's position, considering how he should have responded.
Compared to others' accounts and his own conjectures, witnessing it firsthand seemed much more convincing and shocking!
Inside the corpse of the curly-furred baboon, amidst the shattered black crystals, tiny points of light rapidly precipitated and coalesced into a tightly clenched, semi-transparent pitch-black fist.
This fist intuitively conveyed a sense of power and eeriness. The patterns, specks of light, and nails on it seemingly followed normal rules, yet were filled with an incongruous implication, as if they harbored a vast amount of madness and chaos.
"A Sequence 5 'Instigator' from the 'Black Emperor' pathway?" Klein wasn't sure what weakness he had just acquired. "I hope it's not too ridiculous. Well, within the next six hours, the 'Death Knell' can be used freely." Muttering to himself, he bent down, picked up the mass of Beyonder characteristic, and placed it into a metal box prepared in advance.
He could actually have tried to Shepherd this mutated baboon, to see if he could gain the corresponding Beyonder powers of the "Instigator" and replace "Corrupted Baron" in his glove. But he eventually abandoned the idea because he didn't know what this supernatural creature had done in the past and whether it deserved to be tortured.
What had just happened was a clash on the battlefield; it was normal for one of them to die. But Shepherding was a matter that caused the spirit great pain and a longing for release. Klein had his own principles and convictions, and he wouldn't do it lightly, always carefully choosing his targets.
Of course, in his mind, creatures of low intelligence were not equal to humans. Even if he tried to Shepherd one, it wouldn't cross his own moral threshold. However, previous experience had taught him that adhering to one's principles and not relaxing the demands on oneself wasn't just a matter of morality; it was also a dike against the flood of losing control and madness. One shouldn't bend the rules because something seemed insignificant. Small things accumulated and would eventually lead to disaster.
In this crazy, chaotic mystical world, you don't act for others to see; you do it for yourself. A person can deceive others and even gods, but they cannot deceive themselves. "Well, I don't know if high sequences of the 'Spectator' pathway can deceive themselves." Klein's mind wandered for a moment, and he was about to take out 'Grosell's Travels' from inside his jacket to smear the baboon's blood on its cover.
At that moment, his heart tightened, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end one by one.
This was a powerful premonition of danger!
And within this premonition, no corresponding image surfaced in Klein's mind!
Not good! A thick shadow instantly fell over Klein's heart, and everything before his eyes seemed to be covered by a dark layer of glass.
Ignoring whatever was happening, the glove on his left hand, hanging at his side, turned transparent again.
His figure became intangible in an instant, then materialized beside "The Hanged Man," Alger, extending his hand to grab the other's shoulder.
At this moment, Alger also sensed the abnormality. His heart contracted and expanded as if it were the source of a storm, blood surging like a tide through his arteries and veins.