Chapter 519

After hearing Leon’s words, the three cleaning agents who were already deceased couldn’t help but reveal a look of astonishment. Algernon then snatched the nail gun and obstinately fired another shot towards the front of his foot.

“Puff!”

This time, with mental preparation, the reaction was much better than before. Before the nails even hit the ground, Algernon’s right foot once again scattered into countless threads, tightly binding the nails that had been shot out.

But despite the successful experiment, Algernon’s face didn’t show any sign of joy; instead, it instantly turned extremely grim.

“Indeed, I’m much slower…”

Bang bang bang, after firing all the remaining nails in the nail gun, looking at the two nails caught by the “skin threads” and the four nails that slipped through and embedded themselves into the ground, Algernon couldn’t help but say with an ashen face: “I feel like my speed is less than one-eighth of what it used to be, maybe even less. My reaction speed is almost the same as that of an ordinary person! Damn it! Why didn’t I notice this earlier?”

“I’m not entirely sure either, but I blindly guess that you’ve fallen prey to some sort of trick that has lowered your reaction speed.”

Looking at the four nails embedded in the ground, Leon also frowned and said:

“The more frequently a cleaner carries and uses high-level anomalous items, the more susceptible they are to contamination from those items, causing their bodies to transform into something ‘non-human.’ However, no matter how strong this transformation may be, it still ultimately relies on human flesh as its foundation.

In simple terms, no matter how high our taint value is, we can still feel hot and cold, we get thirsty, hungry, and injured, just like normal people. It’s just that our vitality is far stronger than the average person’s, our reaction speeds are faster, our bodies are tougher, our souls are more vibrant, and we can use anomalous items more extensively and for longer periods.

But these changes usually don’t manifest so clearly in everyday life. Even though our reaction speeds are much faster than ordinary people’s, it doesn’t mean we see others speaking or acting in slow motion. We only perform at higher limits when we need to react.”

At this point, Leon paused slightly and then pointed at the pedestrians on the street:

“It’s like the relationship between running and walking. When ordinary people are chased by fierce beasts, they can run a hundred meters in just a few seconds, but when they’re strolling leisurely, it might take them over a minute to walk a hundred meters because that speed is sufficient for walking.

And it seems that the other party has somehow locked down your ability to ‘run.’ Since you don’t need to move so fast during regular walks, you barely notice it, but when a fierce beast suddenly attacks and you need to run at full speed, you’ll realize you’ve lost the ability to run.”

So that’s why we failed! After understanding the origins of those “rapid-fire cannons” through Leon’s tests and explanations, the three cleaners suddenly understood. Female cleaner Mona couldn’t help but urge anxiously:

“If that’s all, let’s quickly go find the director! If we tell him the secret behind this, he might still have a chance…”

“Sorry, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Before the female cleaner could finish her sentence, Leon immediately interrupted:

“You might have died too early and didn’t see what happened later. Nicole told me that Director Edward’s body was blown apart, and his soul was forcibly sealed inside his broken remains. They no longer have any chance of turning things around.”

“But we can’t just…”

“I’m not heartless; I just lack the ability to save him.”

Leon shook his head firmly and said:

“The more critical the moment, the more cautious we must be in making decisions. The information we have isn’t enough. Acting rashly won’t save anyone; it will only ruin our last hope and completely mess things up.

Mona Senior, although it may sound harsh, I must say this: if your suggestion stems from rational judgment, I will seriously consider it. But if it’s merely emotional impulse, I can only ask you to calm down first.”

“I… Sorry… I was too hasty…”

“So what do we do now? Investigate the thing suppressing our reaction speed and help you and Algernon get rid of its influence?”

“This can be investigated, but we should put it on the back burner for now.”

Hearing this, Leon shook his head and said: “Even if we figure out how they pulled the strings, we might not have the ability to undo it. So we should investigate more important things first, like the location of the palace and the true form of Apheta 01, as well as the current state of the royal family.”

“But how do we investigate?”

The female cleaner couldn’t help but ask:

“The Crocodile Kingdom’s zones change too frequently. The director and we have been investigating for nearly two weeks and only found some trivial information. There’s still no clue about these two places. And the royal family has been reclusive for years, making it impossible to investigate.”

“Don’t worry, I already have a lead.”

Taking out his identity card and casually tossing it away, Leon reached out to Algernon while indicating for him to destroy his own identification card, and replied:

“Once we reach the embassy district, we’ll have a chance to get closer to these two places. As for the situation of the royal family… Princess Phelia, don’t you have anything to say?”

Turning his head to glance at the jade-eyed maiden who was still “unconscious” beside him, Leon narrowed his eyes and asked: “Princess Phelia, why did you feel a surge of joy rather than panic upon hearing about our troubles?”

Oh no!

Realizing her thoughts had been exposed by Leon, the seemingly unconscious Princess Phelia trembled all over and could only open her eyes, fearfully saying: “Because… because you guys are kidnappers! I’ve been kidnapped by you. Of course, I couldn’t help feeling… a little happy when things weren’t going smoothly for you…”

“Alright, you pass.”

Hearing this, Leon nodded indifferently. While twisting Algernon’s handed-over ID card to pieces, he calmly asked: “Then here’s the second question. While we were discussing the method that locked down our reaction speed, I detected obvious ‘satisfaction’ in your soul. How do you plan to explain this?”

“This…”

“If you can’t explain, then I’ll have to guess.”

Seeing sweat beads forming at the corners of Princess Phelia’s temples, her large eyes darting around restlessly, and her inability to make direct eye contact, Leon expressionlessly said:

“Since you feel ‘satisfaction,’ it proves that this method is related to you, or it might even be something you proposed. Princess Phelia, am I correct?”

“…”

“Not answering means I’ll take it as your admission.”

Glancing at the turmoil in the soul of the jade-eyed maiden, Leon couldn’t help but sigh and asked with a furrowed brow:

“The third question follows… Besides you and Prince Andre, are there any other living members of the Crocodile Royal Family?”

(End of Chapter)