Mystic Overlord: Reading Gives Strength
Chapter 182 - 181: Inappropriate Timing for Disturbance

Chapter 182: Chapter 181: Inappropriate Timing for Disturbance

That night.

Ronald left the exhibition hall.

Alone, he walked on the road back to Greenwich.

The outcome was just as Everton had expected, Hansen had successfully stormed out of the exhibition hall, and he disappeared in the vast suburbs of Greenwich.

What followed...

Most likely would go as Everton had planned.

In just a few minutes inside the exhibition hall, the merchant was able to quickly come up with such a handling method.

It was clear that the other party was adept at using means to solve problems.

A sudden betrayal, nonchalantly erased what should have been a major issue.

And the cost...

Thinking of the gatekeeper who was injured during Hansen’s escape.

Ronald shook his head with mixed feelings and couldn’t help but sigh,

"Sigh—"

Honestly, while this approach was effective and direct, he was still somewhat uncomfortable with it.

For the most part of Ronald’s life, what he had done was to probe his surroundings and then find ways to collect information for entry into the digital library’s database, at most, he would chat and laugh with colleagues.

Almost subconsciously, Ronald muttered softly to himself,

"Really..."

"I need to change my way of doing things a bit."

Very subtly, his thoughts began to shift.

Today, Ronald hadn’t experienced any life-and-death battles, nor had he unraveled any exceptionally complex puzzles, and equally, nothing too out of the ordinary had happened around him.

Everything was not much different from the past few months of his life.

But Everton’s choice, the merchant with whom he had merely an employment relationship,

Suddenly gave him a sense that ’this world is completely different from the Earth of the past.’

It wasn’t that Ronald had just realized he had crossed over.

Perhaps because he watched many movies, played many games, and read many novels, at the beginning of the crossover, Ronald wasn’t too frantic; it was as if he were also experiencing, or rather, creating those wonderful stories.

—But now it was different.

He, who liked to gaze at the stars at night,

Knew that the twinkling stars in the night sky of this world were entirely different from those on Earth;

He, who enjoyed hiking during holidays,

Also knew that the land on which he now stood no longer had any of the cliffs he had once climbed;

He, who liked to look out at the ocean from the deck during business trips,

Also knew that the sea adjoining Greenwich didn’t have any name or current that corresponded to the ones he was familiar with.

...

Unconsciously, these little details appeared in his experiences.

Each piece of information brought its own shock, which Ronald, with his fairly good capacity to adapt, had taken in and accumulated.

Until today,

When Everton, in his human guise, explained his thoughts to Ronald.

Behavior so utterly different from his own.

That finally shattered Ronald’s ’adaptation.’

From that moment, a sense of complete severance from his past life descended upon him.

Walking alone on the road back to Greenwich, Ronald felt a loneliness far colder than the pitch-black winter night.

Even though his physique now feared no cold, for some reason,

Ronald suddenly stopped in his tracks, as if he was very cold and shivered.

"..."

In silence, Ronald summoned the original text and removed the power that enhanced his physical constitution.

Instantly, the cold winter night, along with a breeze, blew over him.

But it seemed as though his body was somewhat warm...

Anyway, the outskirts of Greenwich at night were eerily quiet.

Caw caw caw—

Suddenly, the cry of a crow echoed in the sky.

Hearing this sound, Ronald’s gaze darkened.

His neck stiffly turned as he then looked toward the direction from where the sound came.

It was a pitch-black crow, poised to sweep down.

The same one he had seen last time he had returned to Berenguer from Celephis.

—Lama.

But it appeared that it had learned its lesson from last time.

This time, the demon in front of him didn’t choose to land in a distant spot; instead, it came to a halt directly atop the road that Ronald must take to return to Berenguer.

Just one second before it fully descended, the crow’s body began to twist and swell, quickly transforming into the human form Lama had used before.

When the transformation was complete, it was also perfectly timed to land on the ground.

As if it had always been standing there.

Boom—!

Suddenly, a surging black fog engulfed Lama in a world of darkness.

Standing not far away, Ronald held up the black tome in his right hand, his gaze ice cold, as his spell completely overwhelmed the stretch of road around them.

For a moment, Lama, now swallowed by the black fog, fell silent.

It seemed that everything was settled.

Had the demon lost for good?

"..."

Of course, it couldn’t be that simple!

A few breaths later, Ronald saw a gap violently open in the black fog before him.

At this time, Lama had abandoned its human guise, fully embracing the form of the demon from the vineyard.

It burst out of the black fog, defying the laws of physics by hovering about ten meters in mid-air.

—Unlike a frail human body.

While using this demon form, Lama’s own physique was enough to break through the physical blockade of the black fog.

At least until it triggered the power corresponding to the forces of Hell.

For now, the black fog alone could not hurt it.

However, being harmless didn’t mean it was completely ineffective; in an instant, deciding on his next tactic, Ronald directed the black fog to pounce towards Lama once more.

And in that instant.

Lama, warily eyeing the black fog below and Ronald in front, then shouted loudly:

"Mister Ronald, I mean you no harm!"

"I’m only here tonight to inform you!"

"You’ve successfully passed the test of the invitation, so please carry on."

With that, Lama seemed to think it could move Ronald and so it waited in the air for his response.

But the next second, without any hesitation, the black fog engulfed it again.

"Ah—!"

A scream of agony echoed, and Ronald felt Lama vanish from within the black fog.

His own attack had just begun.

It couldn’t possibly be that Lama had perished from his attack.

So...

Soon, Ronald figured out the key to the demon’s disappearance.

After all, the demon had been summoned here.

The most likely possibility was that its summoner had sensed the danger and recalled it.

Shaking his head slightly, Ronald commanded the black fog to return to his side.

At the same time, the half-transparent souls of two sinners, previously concealed within the black fog, also descended.

Eventually disappearing into the tome in Ronald’s hand.

Looking at the empty road in the suburbs, as still as it had been before,

Ronald’s expression gradually relaxed from its severity, and he couldn’t help but burst into laughter:

"Hahaha—"

"What’s this now?"

"Such a perfect opportunity—if any pretty girl had given me a warm hug right now, she definitely would have reached my heart."

"And who interrupts me during my moment of self-sympathy..."

"Turns out to be a demon whose biceps are bigger than my head?"

"..."

His expression growing more ferocious, Ronald spoke out with great irritation:

"I’ve decided!"

"I will have no truce with your organization!"