Chapter 144

The Viewpoint

In the night of Igewent, under the dim orange light, on Knight Road.

In Anna’s bedroom on the second floor of No. 26, Anna, awakened by intense gunfire, was huddled in bed, somewhat panicked. Next to her were two Searchers disguised as servants providing protection. In front of her, Elena, dressed as a maid, was on the balcony, firing at the enemies below. The chaos was too great; both sides were engaged in close combat. It was hard for Elena to aim accurately. As a “Lamp” shooter, she found it difficult to be effective in such a situation.

“d*mn… We can’t aim properly when everything is so mixed up…”

Frustrated, Elena complained. However, the situation turned around after the thugs started attacking each other. The thugs were thrown into disarray, and the Searchers, no longer debuffed, immediately counterattacked. After several comrades were cut down, the thugs scattered like birds and beasts.

Standing on Knight Road, Gregor, now free to move, sighed with relief seeing the fleeing thugs. He then shifted his gaze to the injured Searcher team members nearby and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Huff… Huff… We’re fine, Captain. Their weapons are poor quality and hard to penetrate our armor… Most of us just have minor injuries… We were so disoriented because our bodies wouldn’t listen to us…” replied one of the Searchers. Gregor nodded in understanding.

“I get it. Just now, my body suddenly froze, as if possessed by an evil spirit. Fortunately, these few helped us. Otherwise, I might already be lying down.”

As he spoke, Gregor looked over to the other side of the road where a muscular thug wielding a hammer stood. This thug had just saved him from his companion. Two more thugs were with him.

At that moment, the three thugs were looking around cautiously, seemingly wary of something. Gregor, wanting to greet them, said, “Hey, could you come over here…”

“Swoosh!”

Before Gregor finished speaking, a sharp sound pierced through the air. From the darkness, a swift shadow swooped toward the remaining thugs. The thug with the hammer had his head severed instantly, bl**d spurting from his neck.

“What…”

Seeing his “savior” fall, Gregor’s eyes widened in shock. More sharp sounds followed, and something fast flew towards the remaining thugs and the Searchers. One object was heading straight for Gregor. Sensing danger, Gregor blocked it mid-air with a clang, deflecting it away. Upon closer inspection, it was a saw-toothed bone blade without a handle!

“Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!”

More bone blades charged into the Searchers’ ranks. Some managed to deflect them, while others were slashed and fell screaming. The bone blades then circled back into the air, attacking from different angles. The Searchers drew their swords to counterattack.

For a while, the crisp sound of metal clashes echoed in the night. Gregor and the Searchers struggled to hold off the bone blades, which attacked like mosquitoes from all directions.

Compared to a weapon-wielding opponent, these bone blades, flying freely without anyone holding them, were much harder to deal with. With unrestricted attack angles, they could only be blocked but not countered.

Moreover, these bone blades moved quickly, making them very difficult to block. Even if they blocked one, another would follow. Being constantly on the defensive would eventually lead to a fatal mistake. Already, Searcher team members were being cut down and eliminated. The losses were mounting.

“Get inside!”

Facing this overwhelming disadvantage, Gregor ordered everyone to retreat indoors. Out in the open, they would be even more vulnerable to the bone blades.

“Hmph… None of you will escape…”

From a hidden position on the fourth floor of a building, observing the scene below, Godfrey changed his strategy. He manipulated the bone blades to fully obstruct the Searchers’ retreat, even reducing his offensive efforts to focus on defending against them entering the building, seemingly aiming to eliminate them all outside.

…

Meanwhile, on the rooftop somewhere, Dorothy was growing anxious watching the situation unfold.

“What the hell is this… Swordsmanship? No… These things were controlled by the ghosts that just possessed them. They’re using ghost manipulation! That hidden guy isn’t simple…”

Dorothy thought. This level of extraordinary ability was beyond what an Apprentice-tier Extraordinary Being could achieve. The one controlling these things must be a higher-tier Extraordinary Being, likely a Black Tier!

“Huh… Looks like Igewent has some visitors recently…”

After a cold laugh, Dorothy refocused on the battlefield. Seeing the bone blades reduce their attack frequency and instead try to lock the Searchers in the streets, she was taken aback.

“They’d rather stall us in the streets than continue the attack? Why? If the Searchers enter the house, the small space would make the bone blades less effective? Or is there another reason? Could it be…”

Seeing this, Dorothy was puzzled. Then, an idea came to her.

“Perhaps… I should give it a try…”

As she thought, Dorothy began seriously manipulating her zombie puppet.

Under the bone blades’ assault, Dorothy’s zombie puppets, originally positioned below, were almost wiped out, leaving only one. This was a short but agile thug, seemingly a former thief, killed by stray bullets during the earlier chaos. Once brought under control, Dorothy noticed how unusually flexible and responsive this corpse was.

Relying on its excellent physical condition, this thief thug became the only surviving zombie puppet in Dorothy’s lineup, the others having been sliced beyond use. Now, Dorothy needed to use him to conduct some experiments.

Under Dorothy’s control, the thief zombie puppet dodged a bone blade that had already destroyed all her other thug puppets. This was the last one, and the bone blade was determined to destroy it. Under Dorothy’s full control, the thief zombie puppet moved even more nimbly than when alive, evading the bone blade’s pursuit.

In an opportunity, Dorothy maneuvered the thief zombie puppet into the open door of No. 26, where the bone blade pursuing it suddenly halted at the entrance, not following inside.

Seeing this, Dorothy’s eyes lit up. Just as the bone blade prepared to rejoin the fight with the Searchers, Dorothy made the thief zombie puppet run out again.

The bone blade, reacting, chased after the newly running thief zombie puppet. Dorothy then controlled the thief zombie puppet to run out of the lamplight, into a dark flower garden. The bone blade stopped again, not following into the darkness.

“Huh… So that guy can’t let his controlled objects leave his sight. He can’t share real-time senses with the ghosts he manipulates…”

Observing this, Dorothy chuckled softly. Clearly, she had discovered why the ghost manipulator didn’t want the Searchers to enter the house. Once inside, the Searchers would be out of his line of sight, and he couldn’t control the bone blades to keep attacking them!

The ghost manipulator controlled the ghosts differently from how she controlled the zombie puppets. She could share sensory input with her puppets, enabling long-range control. But the ghost manipulator needed the ghosts within his field of vision to maintain real-time control.

During the day, Dorothy had seen ghosts enter No. 26 for reconnaissance. Those ghosts seemed to have some autonomy, often appearing confused or fearful, which was uncharacteristic for mere puppets. At that time, Dorothy believed those ghosts were akin to familiars or servants, sent to investigate and report back.

In the current battle, the ghosts acted more like remote-controlled weapons, lacking autonomy and always under the manipulator’s control. The manipulator remotely controlled the ghosts’ actions at any distance, offering greater efficiency than familiar-like control, allowing for immediate adjustments based on his will, adapting to battlefield changes, unlike commanding Pokémon in battle.

Dorothy controlled her zombie puppets similarly. Those puppets were not her servants or familiars but her puppets.

Both Dorothy and the ghost manipulator controlled their puppets remotely. The difference was that Dorothy could control her zombie puppets over a wide range due to her ability to share their viewpoint, while the ghost manipulator could not extend his control beyond his own sight.

“Only able to manipulate ghosts within sight… That’s quite interesting…”

With clear knowledge of the ghost manipulator’s limitation, Dorothy chuckled. Armed with this crucial information, she began strategizing how to counterattack the masked opponent hiding in the shadows.