I! Cleaner!

Although I knew before coming that the odds against the Director were slim, this is just too miserable…

Just like Leon, who immediately went silent after losing, facing a battle outcome that couldn't be described as anything but a total, disheartening defeat, the three Cleaners of the Scorpio Branch had no choice but to return dejectedly into Leon's belly, filled with despair.

This can only be said as that even though the three experienced Second-level Cleaners combined could muster a Contamination Value of 59, they couldn't craft a carefully designed set of abnormal objects to handle various situations, couldn't accumulate years of experience dealing with abnormal objects, and absolutely couldn't react at the True God level.

Faced with Leon rushing forward holding a knife, the Scorpio Director immediately sent out a batch of sturdier puppets. Just after a slight test, he discovered the problem lay with the [Silver Dagger of Cutting], and then instantly shifted to target Leon's wrist.

When he found that Leon wouldn't get hurt under attacks and couldn't damage his wrist no matter what, the Scorpio Director changed tactics again, beginning to use restraining abnormal objects to avoid direct contact with the [Silver Dagger of Cutting] as much as possible.

After Leon wildly slashed down six or seven puppet abnormal objects, finally, a speed-type puppet successfully dodged the blade of the [Silver Dagger of Cutting], gripping Leon's wrist.

With the only weapon capable of breaking through the "puppet domain" being restrained and lacking other powerful offensive means, confronting a crowd of indestructible dolls, Leon had no other path but to surrender.

Having finished his harsh words, Leon didn't even reach the Scorpio Director; he was just five or six steps away when a swarm of dolls shot out from a suitcase and "buried" him, pinning him down with numerous hands, completing a textbook falls from grace at lightspeed.

And from the time Leon valiantly charged up to being seized by a group of dolls, only more than twenty seconds had passed. The [Whale Shark Puppet], which was previously bound by branches, had not even sunk to the lake bottom yet.

...

"Never mind if you don't want to talk."

Seeing Leon refusing to communicate, keeping a sullen face without uttering a word, the Scorpio Director shook his head and gave up trying to converse with this defeated opponent.

He picked up a bizarre-looking rapier, casually slashed it twice through the air, cutting the tree roots binding the [Whale Shark Puppet], and controlled the two halves of the [Whale Shark Puppet] to slowly meld together as he did with other puppets destructed by the [Silver Dagger of Cutting].

"Hey!"

However, just as he awaited the [Whale Shark Puppet] to rejuvenate, Leon, who had been silent, suddenly raised his head and asked:

"Director Edward, since you're so powerful, why were you almost blasted to death previously?"

"Oh, that…"

Hearing Leon's question, the Scorpio Director hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure if it would breach confidentiality, but seeing Leon couldn't escape now that he had caught him, he contemplated and decided to answer:

"Two weeks before the attack on Ruben and me, the entire Crolock Kingdom's sprinkler system had been infused with diluted adrenaline antidote. Though normally unnoticeable, at critical moments, my reaction speed couldn't rise, so I couldn't even activate my life-saving surrogate doll.

By the way, when you suddenly vomited on me at that time, though I couldn't dodge and got it all over, that was the adrenaline antidote taking effect… It's a pity, if only I had realized it then, maybe I wouldn't have ended up like this."

"Knocked down by just a little bit of antidote?"

Glancing at the somewhat unwilling expression of the Scorpio Director, Leon frowned and said:

"After Mona and the others died, they almost came back from the Realm of the Dead. With your ranking, even if your physical body was destroyed, couldn't you have fought on for a while relying on your soul?"

"Yes, but my soul was sealed."

Sighing deeply, the Scorpio Director chatted leisurely with Leon while waiting for the whale shark to merge:

"Prince Andre is a member of the Slaughter King Association. He got their help to kill a True God, burned its flesh and blood, and sent the power of one of its members into the scene.

When I was preparing to separate my soul from my body, part of the power from the Slaughter King Association forcibly pushed my soul back. And because the soul's dependence on the body is the law of this world, the soul can't remain conscious separately when the body faints, which is how I got captured."

Slaughter King Association…

After firmly remembering that name, Leon continued to ask with disdain:

"So you didn't even resist and got caught right away?"

"Not really, I resisted a bit."

The Scorpio Director shook his head and explained:

"But Prince Andre dismantled and decomposed all the abnormal objects seized from the Gemini Branch's warehouse and made something called 'Position Stones' from the materials, spreading them across over eight hundred districts of the Crolock Kingdom.

When I strived to fight back, I was already on the brink of exhaustion, and then being dispersed by those Position Stones, rendering only one-eighth of the effect, it didn't cause much damage and was blocked. It probably just jolted the entire Crolock Kingdom."

After detailing the failure, the Scorpio Director simply sat cross-legged smilingly, proactively inquired:

"Do you have any other questions? Considering that you saved Ruben and the others once, before your immortal abnormal object's effect ends and I kill you completely, I can satisfy a bit more of your curiosity."

"No, I've asked about everything I wanted to know."

Hearing the Scorpio Director's words, Leon slightly shook his head, pondered for a while, and then spoke:

"Director Edward, how about this: considering how patient you are with me, after this is over, if you want to know how you actually lost, I can give you a proper answer then."

"?"

The Scorpio Director paused slightly, then frowned and said:

"What are you trying to say? I don't get your point."

"Hiccup… You'll understand soon… Oh, by the way…"

After a hiccup full of the smell of alcohol, having achieved the goal of stalling for time, Leon grinned, then indicated with his chin towards the foot of the Scorpio Director feet, happily asking:

"Do you like pretty feet?"

"???"

Still unable to follow Leon's train of thought, the utterly baffled Scorpio Director could only follow his gaze to his feet, and then he noticed a sculpture of a human right foot with smooth muscles and clear bones, looking just like marble.

"What is this?"

With new curiosity, Scorpio Director heard Leon smilingly explain:

"This is called [The Foot of Fitness], an abnormal object I crafted myself, its effect is to make the right foot especially beautiful, and now it's yours."

"???"

For me? What am I supposed to do with this?

Still not understanding Leon's intention, the Scorpio Director was just about to continue his question but suddenly realized something was amiss: at the moment that "beautiful foot" appeared, it felt as if "something" was suddenly "missing" from his heart.

Meanwhile, the [Whale Shark Puppet], already sunken to the bottom, eerily turned around, flapping its chest and tail fins for a full charge, crashing into the cooling lake bottom's intelligent core.

Before the sound of this violent impact could reach them, the glass protective layer, two meters thick around the intelligent core, exploded in the Scorpio Director's shock-stricken gaze, and a massive volume of lake water poured in, crushing the structure of the exceedingly intricate machinery inside!

?!!!