Lord: Sequence Master

At Redstone City's Security Bureau, detectives from various precincts were already overwhelmed shortly after dawn.

In just one night, more than a dozen supernatural murders had occurred in the outer city.

The manner of death varied widely.

Some had been burned to death…

Some had bled out from multiple wounds…

Some had died after falling from a great height inside their homes…

The ways in which they had died were bizarre, yet no trace of a culprit could be found at the crime scenes.

It wasn't until a criminal hunter from the central Security Bureau personally investigated that traces of spiritual energy were detected at the scenes. They also discovered tens of thousands of static images scattered throughout the outer city, each one containing a faint trace of spiritual energy.

While these images appeared ordinary to extraordinary Sequence holders, once touched by an ordinary person, they would instantly dissolve into the individual, vanishing from sight. From the collected evidence, it became clear that the deaths resembled the ways depicted in these static images.

By the second day, over a hundred more people in the outer city had mysteriously died.

Chief Investigator Jonathan of the central Security Bureau set down the phone, his expression grim.

He had just consulted a noble from another city who belonged to the Artist Sequence, and the conclusion was that all these static images were keys to entering a Spiritual Realm. Without locating the Spiritual Realm or its master, every ordinary person who came into contact with one of these images would continue to enter the realm in their dreams.

Jonathan had also enlisted the help of a doctor from the extraordinary Sequence to examine the brains of the deceased.

He hoped for good news—otherwise, Redstone City was facing a potential disaster.

The estimated number of static images exceeded 100,000.

Although the death rate was currently low, if word spread, the fear and chaos stemming from the thought of tens of thousands of people potentially dying could plunge the city into turmoil. Jonathan was also deeply concerned about the mastermind's intentions. What were they aiming for?

If the Spiritual Realm had been created by an artist, then the artist had to be at least Sequence 6.

And Jonathan himself was only a Sequence 8 criminal hunter. In a confrontation with a Sequence 6, whether he lived or died would depend entirely on their mood.

Knock, knock, knock! "Come in!"

Jonathan's heart tensed as he heard the knocking. He quickly stood up and opened the door.

He hoped for good news this time. He had heard far too much bad news recently.

"How's it looking?"

Jonathan stood at the door, staring directly at Bensom, the chief medical examiner and the only doctor of Sequence 8 at the Security Bureau. If Bensom couldn't provide the answers he needed, Jonathan would have no choice but to report the situation to higher authorities. That would also imply his own incompetence, significantly reducing his chances of career advancement.

"Here's the report you asked for."

Bensom handed over the folder he was holding.

Jonathan took the report and immediately opened it. The report contained the memories extracted from the deceased's brains. While some memories were fragmented, there were over a hundred reports in total. Jonathan quickly summarized the key points after reviewing them.

First, the Spiritual Realm was unusual—its scope was small but not limited to a single scenario.

Second, the realm's environment was flexible, capable of adapting to the person who entered it.

Third, for the majority of people, the Spiritual Realm was harmless.

All the deceased had one thing in common: they had been unrepentant in life.

Within the realm, every scenario tested the individual's will to survive.

This meant the artist behind it had no intention of mass slaughter. At most, they were using the realm to cleanse a portion of what they considered the dregs of society.

Jonathan let out a deep sigh of relief. He really didn't want to face a Sequence 6 artist unless absolutely necessary.

With this understanding, all they had to do was keep an eye on the scum of the outer city and ensure the bodies were collected quickly after death. This would prevent too much unrest. After all, the outer city housed hundreds of thousands of people, and on any given day, a few hundred deaths were considered normal.

Now, the death toll had merely doubled. As long as the horrific nature of the deaths wasn't publicized, widespread panic could be avoided.

At this moment, Rosen was completely unaware that his spiritual artworks had caused a Sequence 8 criminal hunter to lose sleep and peace of mind.

Nor did he know that this same criminal hunter, to protect his career and avoid facing Rosen, had secretly helped him cover up the events in the outer city. The Security Bureau had even discreetly distributed the collected static image keys to law-abiding citizens.

A few days later, when Rosen noticed that all the static images had been activated, he could only guess that the Security Bureau had lent him a helping hand.

As time passed, the Saw virtual realm gradually gathered more and more spiritual energy.

Of this, only one percent was stored for Rosen's use. The remaining energy was consumed as nourishment for the virtual realm itself.

Additionally, the virtual realm had executed over a thousand people like the drunkard John.

Since these people had been executed within the virtual realm, their entire spiritual essence had been drained in a single sweep. This led to an unexpected development—the virtual realm began to manifest a special extraordinary ability. Had Rosen not checked his personal attributes through the Main God computer, he wouldn't have noticed this change.

On this particular day, Rosen was, as usual, honing his drawing skills, typically converting two units of spiritual energy into spiritual artworks.

He hadn't rushed to create a new virtual realm. For one, Redstone City had only so many ordinary people.

Milking a single target dry was fortunate enough—asking for more would be inviting trouble.

Rosen didn't believe the static image keys would remain unsolvable forever. During these past few days, he had read through all the inherited books from young Rosen's family. As expected, there were certain passages that could only be read with spiritual vision, which contained knowledge about the extraordinary world that young Rosen hadn't been aware of.

One sentence in particular stuck with Rosen: In the extraordinary world, spiritual energy is the core of all things.

The strength of one's spiritual energy determined the strength of their extraordinary abilities.

The static image keys he mass-produced, while attached with spiritual energy through the Main God computer, hadn't received a significant investment of his energy. The spiritual energy attached to each image was pitifully small.

Against ordinary people, this wasn't an issue. But if any Sequence 8 artist decided to investigate seriously, they could easily dismantle it.

Without the keys, the virtual realm would stagnate, deprived of new external spiritual energy. Rosen would then have no choice but to inject his own energy into the realm, a process akin to pouring water into a sieve.

Thus, Rosen had no intention of stirring up more trouble in Redstone City. He planned to quietly wait for the virtual realm to fully materialize.

Once that happened, he would leave Redstone City and move to a more prosperous place to begin his new life.

But to leave the city safely, he needed enough strength to protect himself.

Therefore, during these days, Rosen had focused on creating two types of static images: the first was a shield, and the second was a flying bullet. The former could manifest a shield to block attacks, while the latter could summon a fast-flying bullet from the drawing to strike an enemy.

The more of these combat-capable spiritual artworks he could stockpile, the better.

This also led Rosen to discover a hidden benefit of the mysterious study. Spiritual artworks were not immune to decay; no artwork could last forever. Even if an artwork could survive for 100,000 years, it would still fade in the 100,001st year.

The lifespan of spiritual artworks was determined by the artist's Sequence level, the quality of the paint, and the materials used for the canvas.

Rosen lacked all of these elements. By all rights, the spiritual artworks he created should last no more than twelve days. Yet, his older artworks showed no sign of losing their spiritual energy.

This confirmed his suspicion: the mysterious study had the hidden ability to prevent the dissipation of spiritual energy.

While this wouldn't enhance his combat strength, it would significantly extend his ability to endure in battle.

(Chapter End)