A ray of sunshine broke through the dark clouds and fell on the homeless man's face covered with black beard and mud, coating him with a golden divine light.
"My memory serves me well, it's me, Taim."
He walked to the shocked Karl and squatted down, his vicissitudes of expression like the god of death greeting the deceased.
"Why are you here?" Dean quietly tightened his grip on Colt, and then released it. If the other party had any ill intentions, he should have cooled off a long time ago, so why not be more open-minded, "Have you been following me?"
"Relax, I'm not an enemy. It's rare for me to meet a young man that I like, so I took a few more glances." Taimu shook his head and sighed, "This guy is about to die. Do you want to save him?"
"Is there anything you can do?" Dean has countless questions in his mind, but saving people is more important now.
"Of course, but you have to pay the price." Taim raised his head and scanned Dean's body with one eye, looking at him with scrutiny, "Think about it carefully, what are you willing to give in exchange for his life?"
"Chips?"
This understatement sounded like the devil tempting people to make deals in legendary stories, which made Dean feel a little uneasy.
The tramp seemed to see his worry and laughed, his beard swaying like weeds, "I am a real person, no matter the soul or the body. I put forward this condition just because I can't help you voluntarily all the time." .”
"Make up your mind, the poor guy is back in Limbo in a few minutes."
Where is Limbo?
Cold sweat broke out on Dean's palms,
"Anything can be traded? Life, health, body?"
"I'm not a god, I can't take away these conceptual things. You can exchange it for a future favor, or the most precious item you have."
Old Taimu looked at him with bright eyes, a little expectation hidden in his eyes.
Favor?
Dean thought about the telex.
Who can say for sure what will happen in the future? Isn’t a promise just a promise? But a strong intuition made him reject this option. He took out the teardrop-shaped tablet from his arms, spread out his palms, and
"The soul of the Death Eater who just died?"
The soul of the Death Eater has no physical attributes. Dean can only gain some proficiency by destroying it. It is most cost-effective to exchange it for the life of a companion.
"Did you kill that cunning 'fox'?" the tramp sighed with an expression on his face, his bright black eyes shining, "It's not easy to catch."
"Should I keep it alive?"
"No, you did the right thing. If you don't decisively deal with the Death Eater, it will definitely escape and then become your constant frame, making you a wanted criminal and having no place in human society."
"Its soul is of no use to you, but it is valuable to me." Taim touched the beard on his chin, "Well, I agree to this deal. Let it go first, and then I will help your friend recover."
Just as Dean was about to agree, a tearful face flashed before his eyes, and he gritted his teeth and made a second request.
"You are so powerful, can you do me another favor? A friend of mine was framed by the Death Eater and is still in the detention center. Is there any way you can rescue her legally and compliantly?"
Taim stared at Dean in silence for two seconds. His unfathomable gaze made Dean's heart beat like a pounding.
But he suddenly shrugged and sighed,
"Okay, saving one is saving, and saving two is saving. I agree, two lives for one soul!"
Dean stopped as soon as he felt good. With a thought in his mind, a cold wind blew out from the palm of his hand and fell to the open space between the two of them.
Dean looked there through the glass, and saw a translucent spirit standing quietly, with its limbs, head, and torso maintaining a basic human shape.
It has human facial features, but its eyes have snake-like dark green vertical pupils, and its expression is vivid. It is looking around blankly. Obviously, unlike other ordinary spirits, it still maintains a certain degree of sanity after death.
Its skin was covered with ugly dark green folds and scales, like melted candles and asphalt, radiating a faint dark green light around it. Just looking at this light made Dean feel sore in his nasal cavity.
The true form of the Death Eater still spreads sorrow after death.
But Dean raised his eyebrows in disappointment. There was a lot of artistic processing in the legend, and this appearance was far less terrifying than the image of the abyss with the maw in Tribeca's folk tale book.
opposite.
As soon as the Death Eater's soul appeared, there was no time to react.
The one eye of the homeless man Taimu widened, and his whole temperament changed drastically. The careless laziness in his body faded away, and he was filled with craziness and desire that made people cringe.
He grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowed rotten teeth. The whites of his eyes were surrounded by dense bloodshot threads like sandworms. Deep folds like tree bark suddenly appeared on his weathered face.
call--
He opened his mouth suddenly towards the spirit body and exhaled.
It's as dark as night, and it's as bright as the wind.
The black sky turned into a high-speed surging wave and rolled up the spirit body of the Death Eater.
Black, swallowing everything.
Dean glanced into the black space and then closed his eyes, but it was too late.
The suffocating despair, sadness, and fear came to life in an instant, tearing through his skin, burrowing into his body, and eating away at his flesh and blood.
His heart was racing, his head was splitting, his temples were stinging, and a tearing pain erupted in his chest.
The pain is extreme, deep into the soul.
This was followed by a wave of dizziness, weakness and weakness.
He seemed to be floating in a black ocean, with the undercurrent tightly hugging him, drifting, sinking, unable to live or die.
Del——
Suddenly there was a crisp snap of fingers.
It was like a ray of clear spring in the desert pouring into Dean's heart.
Washed away all the pain.
Dean opened his eyes and lay weakly on the ground, as if he had just crawled out of hell, his whole body covered in hot sweat and white mist.
"Sorry, I was in such a hurry just now that I forgot to remind you to stay away." Tam's gentle voice sounded, his expression was extremely relaxed and comfortable, his single eye was shining with joy, and his originally dark skin became gleaming. Hui, he seemed to be reborn and reborn.
And the spirit of the Death Eater in front of him disappeared without a trace, and there was no trace of it left in the world.
"What's that black thing?"
Dean staggered to his feet, his body still shaking with residual fear.
"You can think of it as a mental illness." Taim smiled apologetically, and Dean fell into deep thought, "The soul of the Death Eater can accommodate a large number of negative emotions. It is a good carrier and can effectively alleviate Mental illness…Thanks to you I can relax for a while again and now it’s my turn to fulfill my promise,”
Taim snapped his fingers a second time at Karl, who was as quiet as a corpse leaning against a palm tree.
A breeze picked up.
Dean was in an inexplicable trance and confused.
All the sounds around him disappeared, his heartbeat and breathing came to a standstill along with the air, and the pause button on everything was pressed.
But this strange feeling only lasted for a moment.
The next second.
Time begins to rewind.
It was as if an invisible hand called the Creator had reshaped Karl's seriously injured and dying body.
The blood-stained bandage and the bloody hole on Karl's neck disappeared in an instant, and the skin was as smooth as if it had never been injured.
This can no longer be described as a treatment, it is simply a miracle.
A hint of realization flashed across Dean's eyes in horror.
Almost at the same time, Karl groaned and his closed eyelids squirmed, but as Taim waved his hand like he was driving away mosquitoes, his body trembled again and he snored.
Dean quickly knelt down and checked, and breathed a sigh of relief. He found that the other person's breathing and heartbeat were normal.
"Don't worry, he has recovered, but in order to prevent him from hearing things he shouldn't hear, he has to sleep a little longer. Come on, it's your friend in the detention center's turn." Taimu turned around and walked towards the Death Eater whose body and head were separated before. body.
"A crazy masterpiece."
Taim looked at the corpses that had been brutally beheaded and stabbed into pulp and moved his fingers. They floated spontaneously and gathered into a pile.
Del.
The third time he snapped his fingers, a breeze blew by.
The mutilated corpse that looked exactly like Karl suddenly regained its integrity, as if it had never been injured, and its appearance also changed. Long black hair grew from the Mediterranean, the outline of the poker face was soft, the bridge of the nose was straight, and the eyes became larger. , his body grew taller and thinner, and he turned into a handsome man full of artist temperament, the bar owner Jack.
"It's him?"
Taim turned to Dean and asked. Dean swallowed, shook his head, and had a clear judgment on his ability.
time.
Controlling time and returning individuals to their past state?
This is crazy.
"Don't ask." Taim saw his doubts. "It's taboo to explore other people's abilities. Didn't I ask you? As for how much you can tell, that's your own ability, but don't make it public."
As he spoke, he snapped his fingers for the fourth time.
Jack's appearance changed again, and in the blink of an eye he turned into a thin tomboy with short black hair and a few pimples on his face that reflected in the sun.
She was wearing that baggy and surprisingly large men's suit, with her eyes closed like a sleeping "ugly duckling."
"That's her, that's Abby!"
Dean squatted down and tested the girl's breath. She was panting slightly, and her heartbeat and breathing were still there. Dean turned around in surprise,
"Wait, you revived the Death Eater?"
Dean's head thought. If he kills her now, will he still be able to trigger the supernatural hunter to absorb the attributes?
"Without the soul, it is just an empty shell. It is worse than an ordinary vegetable. It poses no threat to the outside world and no longer has supernatural properties." Taim shook his head, with a trace of fatigue on his face. A few snaps of his fingers seemed to have consumed him a lot. Energy, "Take her back to work and get your friend out of the detention center. But remember to reconcile your confession with your colleagues."
"I understand." Dean nodded.
"Now, the deal is completed." Taimu nodded and looked at him expectantly.
"Wait a minute, I have some questions to ask." Dean asked decisively, "Are there many people like us in this world?"
Taimu rolled his one eye,
"It's rare that there are no outsiders to disturb us, so let's have a chat."
"There are not many supernatural individuals. Most ordinary people will never encounter them once in their lifetime. But there are more of them than you think. They are all over the world and have all kinds of strange abilities. They are not just people, but also legendary species like the Death Eater. , other 'monsters'."
Tam recalled,
"After most of them awaken for the first time, they will try to use their abilities to satisfy their curiosity and selfish desires. Most of them will quickly abandon their ordinary lives and act as they please..."
Taimu paused and looked at Dean as if he were a rare animal.
"But you know what? You are very unique. You are an honest high school student, go to school, and work part-time as an LVPD volunteer to repair the loopholes in society. An impulsive and irritable teenager, you obviously have the power to easily obliterate ordinary people. But he has never abused his power to do evil or dominate others. He has never even stolen or robbed. He occasionally kills people and only picks out bad people to kill. It is unbelievable."
Dean thought that this was thanks to the influence of a harmonious society in his previous life.
"Am I being too conservative?"
"Conservative? On the contrary, it's called principle, a precious advantage. If you become an arrogant idiot, I won't bother to talk to you." Taim mentioned it disdainfully, and then praised it without hesitation, "And you It’s a half-assed effort. Only by keeping a low profile in our world and learning to hide yourself can you live a long life, but it’s best not to repeat the heroic behavior in Lake Mead. I don’t have time to wipe your butt for you.”
Wipe my ass?
Dean vaguely caught something, "What if you don't keep a low profile?"
"Either go crazy or die."
"What's threatening us?" Dean's head twitched. Shouldn't those with superpowers be more capable of surviving than ordinary people?
Tam's single eye looked into his,
"Remember the warning I left for you outside Balka Disco?"
"Is that right?" Dean recalled, "Darkness prefers aliens. Hide it well and don't let it get too close. Be careful not to leave any dead bodies. What exactly does it mean? What does darkness refer to?"
Taimu scratched his greasy, sticky black hair, picked out a louse, pinched it and flicked it away.
"Split into two sides."
"On the first side, people with spiritual superpowers are under tremendous psychological pressure, and darkness will quietly grow in their hearts. When it accumulates to a certain level, it suddenly bursts out, and they will become crazy, desperate, and destructive..."
"The symbol on your tablet, the pale pupils, represent the sleepless ones. They are a group of mentally ill patients who often lose control. They pursue immortality, detachment, and power...and are not bound by social rules, and they do whatever they can."
Taim's voice penetrated Dean's mind like a symphony.
"And people like us can only maintain our sanity in the future by using a strong will to unswervingly implement our principles."
Dean looked surprised.
He had done research before. The more the spirit exceeds the will, the easier it is for people to go crazy, split, and lose control. This is consistent with Taimu's advice. He also thought about the pile of terrifying black unknown objects spit out from the other party's mouth just now. Even with such a powerful There are so many indescribable "dirty things" in Taimu's body. It seems that the balance of will and spirit is more important than he imagined.
"By the way, this stone tablet of yours is quite rare. It has miraculous effects on spirits. Please keep it well." Taimu glanced at it casually.
"Yeah, I understand. So the Sleepless Ones are an extremely radical supernatural organization? So do you belong to another organization?"
"I'm just a tramp with a lazy temper. I'm not used to restraint. I like to be alone. I'll chat with people of the same kind who I like and have a compatible temperament with. I don't recommend that you join any organization as a newcomer."
Dean felt a little flattered.
Taim crossed his arms and leaned back against the palm tree.
"Back to the topic, the second side of darkness represents a kind of destiny - all supernatural things will attract each other and gather spontaneously from the day they are born."
"After you awakened, didn't you notice that there were more and more abnormal things around you?"
Dean thought for a moment, and it was indeed true. In less than half a year since he traveled through time and awakened his system abilities, he had experienced the "Shadow of the Past", the ghost Alexander, and the Death Eater incident.
The frequency is a bit too high.
"This is not an accident, Dean. When you embark on this road, you are destined to be entangled with mystery and the supernatural for the rest of your life. A few months, a year, two years, the interval is irregular, but generally no more than five years, it is inevitable Will come into contact with the same kind once."
"Most of these supernatural things will not directly target you, but they will inadvertently affect the choices and decisions you make, making you involuntarily move closer to them and involve you."
"For example, when you took pity on me outside the Barca Disco and donated a few dollars to me, it was the effect of the convergence law that quietly affected your mentality and made you connect with me."
Taimu paused and touched the black eyepatch, his single eye flashing with a breathtaking light.
"But the encounters of 'destiny' one after another will not always be as peaceful and friendly as between us. More encounters will bring nightmares and destruction. You haven't seen it yet. Some supernatural things come from other indescribable spaces. , the world will bring an experience more terrifying than death."
Other spaces?
A chill ran down Dean's back. The water in this world was deeper than he imagined.
"You can't escape the law of convergence even if you hide in an isolated, completely enclosed place?"
"You can seal yourself off from contact with the outside world, but other supernatural beings will come to your door. In short, in most cases, no supernatural being can escape the law of convergence."
Dean interrupted, "In most cases, that means there are exceptions?"
"Those exceptions are probably worse."
"Okay, I heard you say that supernatural existence is extremely dangerous, so there is no relevant management agency or department in the official government?"
"I can tell you clearly that there is. But the scale is small, the confidentiality is extremely strong, and it is only responsible for a few extremely harmful events, such as the destruction of a small town."
"In fact, their biggest role is to block news, wrap up supernatural events, cover up the facts from the public, and prevent some special powerful beings from taking advantage of the situation after panic spreads."
A trace of fear flashed in Taimu's eyes,
"If a supernatural accident that kills a few or a dozen people doesn't have a certain impact on society, they don't have the time to deal with it."
Dean was thinking that the Internet has not developed yet, and in the future when information technology is extremely developed, it will be too difficult to hide the supernatural.
"But why isn't it big? Shouldn't there be some sort of bureau?"
"Did you watch some weird movie? It's not mysterious if it can be controlled on a large scale." Taimu shook his head and smiled.
"And due to the existence of the law of convergence, all superpowers, including you and me, are unstable bombs that attract unpredictable risks. Therefore, the smaller the number of supernatural beings gathered in the same place, the safer it is."
Dean nodded, taking it to heart.
"In addition to the deeply hidden official and various supernatural groups, there are also some private organizations, which were founded by human rich and capital and spent a lot of financial and material resources. They specialize in studying the supernatural. They are also the organizations you can most easily come into contact with, but they are not We are all full of malicious intentions. You have to be careful, you can show off your skills on a daily basis, but try not to reveal your superpowers."
"I will keep this secret and hide it well." Dean said,
"Say more, Dean. At this stage, your superpower has just started and has limited impact on ordinary people around you. You can make friends and maintain good relationships with them, and use this as an anchor to maintain your sanity. This is very effective."
"Especially since you have suffered continuous mental shocks from the Death Eater not long ago, your mood and personality will inevitably have ups and downs in the next period of time."
Dean's cheeks twitched, these words contained a bit too much information, "Can you help me snap your fingers again, just like you did to Carl?"
"Unfortunately, it's not very effective."
"Then why is it important to keep in touch with other people?" Dean wondered.
"Have you experienced so much and yet you haven't realized it? The corruption of the entire world lurks in the human heart, but it also contains miraculous kindness and beauty, and positive emotions can resist negative emotions."
Taim squinted his eyes and looked in the direction of the entrance to the botanical garden, then turned and walked towards a protruding boulder.
"That's all I've said. Now that you're on your way, it's time for me to leave Las Vegas and start the next unknown journey. Dean, if Convergence Law asks us to meet again, I hope you will keep your heart and remember - "
Taimu turned around, narrowed his one eye, and spoke in a low voice,
"Fight monsters, be careful not to become a 'monster' yourself."
Dean's head trembled, and a thick fog suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. Taimu's back quickly faded with the fog, and he shouted loudly,
"Wait, Taimu, how can I contact you in the future?"
The only answer he received was a gust of misty wind.
(End of chapter)
