I! Cleaner!
Chapter 264 - 264: 0224_1

With the declaration made by the Director of the Purification Bureau, the "Sun's Eye" in the sky suddenly brightened, the blistering sunlight flowing like a waterfall, pouring directly onto the Aquarius Director.

"Damn it! It's all your fault!"

In the midst of the crowd's shocked expressions, the Aquarius Director, despite being directly drenched in sunlight, was not immediately reduced to ashes. Instead, under the encirclement of some strange, smoke-like substance, he stood up against the blazing light and roared at the platform, his eyes red with fury:

"Why did you come back? If only you hadn't shown up today! We just needed one more day!"

I was startled, thinking my tampering had been discovered...

Realizing that the Aquarius Director's roar was not aimed at him but was directed at the Director of the Purification Bureau, Leon, also standing on the platform, breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately, he hurriedly moved aside, trying to hide behind the Director of the Purification Bureau, afraid that the Aquarius Director's dying struggles might affect him.

As for the illusory figure of the Director of the Purification Bureau, his attention was entirely on the Aquarius Director at this moment and did not notice Leon's small movements. He directly gestured towards the sun with a cold face.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by a sound akin to the roar of a waterfall, the sunlight that covered the scene immediately became several times more intense, the resplendent golden torrent crashing down, thoroughly piercing through the smoky barrier around the Aquarius Director.

And with the destruction of this life-saving anomalous object, the Aquarius Director's body was completely obliterated in an instant, even the scattered ashes were incinerated to nothing by the nearly liquefied sunlight, leaving only a soul wailing resentfully in place.

After glancing at the Aquarius Director's soul and ensuring there were no issues, the Director of the Purification Bureau turned his head to look towards the position of the Gemini Sub-bureau Director, as if he wanted to give some instructions, but after hesitating, he looked towards the Pisces Division Director.

"Medea, the execution of Aquarius is complete, and your Pisces Division is more adept at handling souls, so you should take Aquarius's soul away.

Apart from his actions over the years and his schemes against the Watcher's Palace, try to extract the locations of the anomalous objects he created as well as any knowledge regarding the Aquarius secret technique."

"Alright."

The veil-wearing Pisces Director nodded slightly, accepting the task, and after finishing the arrangements, the Director of the Purification Bureau surprisingly turned to look at Leon behind him and asked,

"You…that…ability…could…it…"

Hmm?

Seeing the Director of the Purification Bureau in front of him suddenly going into "slow motion," his figure even distorting uncontrollably, Leon couldn't help but be slightly stunned. He then couldn't resist asking,

"Director? What's happening to you?"

"It's probably due to the Old Soil, where the flow of time has begun to slow down again."

Leaving the seat of the Pisces Director and coming over to retrieve the Aquarius soul, the veil-wearing woman explained:

"The Director's true form is not here but…in…the…Old…Soil…"

???

No way? Why are you also in slow motion now?

Staring in surprise at the veil-wearing woman, Leon turned his head intending to ask his Director, but was utterly shocked to find that, including his own Director, the entire headquarters of the Purification Bureau had actually slowed down.

Moreover, this slowing down was accelerating, with the veil-wearing woman originally able to say a word every three seconds now unable to utter another word even after more than half a minute.

...

"Unexpectedly, I had prepared so thoroughly, yet you all still messed it up."

Accompanied by a voice devoid of any fluctuation, the Gemini Sub-bureau Director walked over slowly, bypassing the veil-wearing woman blocking the way, and grabbed the soul of the Aquarius Director in his hand, amidst Leon's shocked gaze.

"And you are?"

"I am the Gemini Sub-bureau Director and also the Aquarius Director…or rather the container holding his original brain."

Tapping his forehead, the Gemini Sub-bureau Director took out a small scale and placed it in his hand, then stared lightly at Leon, saying,

"The one just executed was my true body, a replicated brain, and emotions and part of a soul detached. Being licked by a Brain-Eating Demon is far too painful; I really didn't want to experience it firsthand, so I came up with this method.

Moreover, thinking it over recently, though the timing is off by a day and there may be some errors in the surgery's effectiveness, since the brain placed in this body hasn't been affected, the brain of the other me shouldn't be too affected either.

The reason my memory couldn't be fully copied by the Dream Memory Furnace probably doesn't lie with the surgery of the Crolock Kingdom; the issue is likely with the God Tier Brain-Eating Demon, and the only one who directly touched that creature is you...I'm very curious, how did you control it?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Stop it! Another twist?

Looking at the Gemini Director—or rather, the true Aquarius Director—standing expressionlessly in front of him, awaiting answers, Leon was truly stunned.

To say nothing of the others, what the hell were the people from the Purification Bureau doing?

You all acted so badass, not only capturing so many True Gods and Evil Gods, even hollowing out an asteroid as a headquarters, and could even pull the sun over to use; now how come you've all been slowed down? If Aquarius were a bit more ruthless today, wouldn't the Purification Bureau have been wiped out?

"Don't worry, I can't harm them, or even make contact with them."

Seemingly reading Leon's thoughts, the Gemini Sub-bureau Director—or rather, the real Aquarius Director—explained,

"My ability isn't to slow them down, but to speed up you and me. We both are now in a state like two gears detached from the world's 'machine,' allowing us to operate at a rate far exceeding normal time flow.

But if we were to make contact with anyone else, the gears which are only temporarily detached from the machine would begin to engage again, immediately reverting to the original speed. So even though our current state is peculiar, it actually doesn't permit us to accomplish much.

[Through personal observation and the user's explanation, you've gained significant intelligence regarding the "Temporal Rift," activating the Heterochromatic Badge "Materialist Soul (Crimson)."

Having understood part of the rules of the "Temporal Rift," your resistance to this anomalous object has increased, allowing you to deflect lower levels of influence.]

Only lower levels...that's not much help!

Gazing at the true Aquarius Director across from him, who didn't seem opposed to conversing, and holding the belief of struggling a bit even if caught, Leon mustered the courage to inquire,

"If you wanted to retrieve the soul, why only speed yourself up and include me?"

"Naturally, to gain intelligence."

Shaking the scale in his hand, the Aquarius Director replied leisurely,

"This thing is called the 'Scale of Truth.' As long as one party presents secrets of sufficient value, then when they start asking questions, the other party, however unwilling, must honestly answer an equivalent secret.

As for why it's you, firstly because I'm curious about what you did to the Brain-Eating Demon, secondly to know about the situation on the Kingdom's side, thirdly to probe for information on the Virgo Sub-bureau, and the most critical reason being you're weak.

If someone like Olivia or Beverly of the Lion Bureau were accelerated with me, not only would the expenditure be enormous, I might not even be able to defeat them.

But you cost little to accelerate, know a lot of things, have secrets I'm interested in, and are easiest to deal with once I've gathered the intelligence, so of course, I chose you."

"…"

"Hmm…the reasons for there being two of me, the secrets of time acceleration, the ability of the Scale of Truth, why I selected you…these combined should add up to enough."

Counting four different-sized weights and placing them on the left side of the small scale, the sight of the right side balancing high above caused the Aquarius Director to nod in satisfaction, and he then looked towards Leon, asking with calm composure,

"Your turn, the first question, what exactly did you do to that Brain-Eating Demon?"

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