However, Shinji wasn't in a rush, casually fishing for information from Black Light.
Black Light was an information broker after all; he reacted quickly, smiling as he said, "Any information related to Hegemons is the most sought-after and valuable news in the circle. Your measly ten thousand Black Card points won't be enough!"
Shinji asked directly, "How much?"
Black Light was stunned for a moment, then stared at Shinji suspiciously, "Hey, you didn't get into some kind of trouble, did you?"
Shinji raised his 'Blue Dream', took a sip, and said, "Knowing a bit more information makes one prepared for anything."
Black Light nodded, "The news I have about Hegemons is all very basic, so I won't ask for too much. How about one hundred thousand points?"
"Deal!"
Shinji took out the Black Card.
After the points were transferred, Black Light said, "Actually, there are quite a few newcomers like you. After learning about the existence of Hegemons, anyone would worry about their own world being targeted. However, you're the first one to swipe your card so generously without even considering it."
A smile played at the corner of Shinji's mouth.
By now, he had roughly understood the value of the one million points in the Black Card. Undoubtedly, this was a huge sum.
This was likely one of the reasons Black Light was so attentive to him.
An ordinary 'Lampbearer' would probably be impatient to purchase weapons, energy sources, prosthetics, or cybernetic bodies—items that could rapidly increase combat power. Even if they wanted to know about Hegemons, they would carefully weigh the price.
But Shinji was different. Although he was interested in the technological products of this world, since he had found a channel to understand the Hegemon, he naturally couldn't miss it.
Black Light cleared his throat and said, "There are currently six known Hegemons: the Plague Hegemon, the Propagation Hegemon, the Silence Hegemon, the Fear Hegemon, the Flame Hegemon, and one that was discovered not long ago and hasn't been formally named yet."
When he heard the words 'Fear Hegemon', Shinji's gaze sharpened, and he whispered, "Six? That many?"
"These are just the known ones!" Pausing for a moment, Black Light said, "Many in the circle speculate that the number of Hegemons is more than six, it's just that some haven't been detected by us yet."
Whenever a Hegemon targeted a world, it would consume it completely, leaving not even wreckage of the victims. Therefore, unless other 'Lampbearers' happened to encounter them, information about Hegemons was very difficult to circulate.
This indirectly suggested that those Hegemons still hidden behind the curtain were probably even more powerful than the known ones.
Black Light continued, "According to our speculation, every Hegemon has devoured at least ten worlds or more, so being 'omniscient and omnipotent' is a basic capability of a Hegemon..."
Hearing this, Shinji couldn't help but interrupt, "Omniscient and omnipotent?!"
Black Light explained, "Of course, not truly 'omniscient and omnipotent.' This is just an exaggerated description of a Hegemon's abilities. Because they have devoured too many worlds and collected too many 'Power Spectrums,' in terms of expressive power, every Hegemon is nearly omniscient and omnipotent!"
Shinji nodded slightly, indicating he understood.
Every world has its own power system, which was what Black Light called a 'Power Spectrum.' Every time a Hegemon devoured a world, it would absorb everything from that world. Therefore, the more worlds it devoured, the closer its displayed abilities would be to omniscience and omnipotence.
For example, the Fear Hegemon devoured the 'Demon Slayer World.' This meant the Hegemon mastered everything from that world: the flesh and blood power of demons, the Breathing Styles of swordsmen, and the technology of that steam age—all absorbed by the Fear Hegemon.
As long as the Fear Hegemon was willing, it could create the strongest demon, the strongest swordsman, and the strongest steam-age weapons.
And that was just the 'Demon Slayer World.' If one counted the worlds the Fear Hegemon had devoured previously, only it knew how many power systems it mastered. Under these circumstances, saying the Hegemon was 'omniscient and omnipotent' was not actually an overstatement.
Black Light continued, "Besides being 'omniscient and omnipotent,' every Hegemon possesses a unique characteristic exclusive to itself. For example, the most terrifying one, the Plague Hegemon; it can spread plagues and pollute an entire world."
Shinji asked, "Is it some kind of virus? What is the transmission route?"
Black Light answered, "Its name, its information, or rather the very act of knowing its existence will cause pollution. Only we 'Lampbearers' are immune to this pollution! And what it spreads is not a specific virus, but a conceptual virus. Once polluted by the Plague Hegemon, the life in that world will die, the environment will be polluted, and even the upper limit of that world's 'Power Spectrum' will slide downwards."
After a pause, Black Light said with a heavy tone, "It has the ability to make everything sick, whether living or dead!"
Shinji listened with a tingling scalp.
Black Light continued, "Although the other Hegemons aren't as despair-inducing as the Plague Hegemon, they are all existences without a solution."
Shinji couldn't help but glance at the distant booth again, whispering, "Since Hegemons are so terrifying, what do they use to fight against them?"
Black Light shook his head, "I'm not sure, but the one they are attempting to fight is not the Plague Hegemon, but the Propagation Hegemon."
Shinji asked a few more questions, but Black Light didn't know the answers.
Obviously, those three kept their secrets well.
Next, Black Light told Shinji some small tips on how to evade if he encountered a Hegemon in a spatial rift.
This kind of accident was something every 'Lampbearer' might encounter. Even though 'Lampbearers' were immune to Hegemon pollution, if they were too close to a Hegemon and their aura was captured, there was a probability the Hegemon would track them to their world. Therefore, these tips on dodging Hegemons in spatial rifts were the bulk of Black Light's information trade this time.
As for the basic information about Hegemons earlier, that was just a bonus for the trade, not worth one hundred thousand Black Card points at all.
Because knowing basic information about Hegemons was meaningless; once targeted by a Hegemon, knowing more was useless—the difference was only dying sooner or later.
After completing the transaction, Shinji stood up and found Old Crocodile, the arms dealer in the bar.
Black Light thought he wanted to buy weapons, but Shinji's true purpose was only to judge his ecological niche in the 'Lampbearer' circle by checking the weapons.
After all, weapons were the most intuitive items to measure the power system of a world.
And arms dealers serving 'Lampbearers' certainly possessed weapons from more than one world. As long as Shinji understood the weapon levels of various worlds, he would roughly understand the upper limits of power in those worlds.