Everything had exploded.
Completely exploded.
Roger, having just transmigrated, stared at the brain matter scattered across the ground and the corpses lying in disarray. His mouth twitched frantically.
The corpses wore luxurious formal wear and cloaks, and several bore the Abraham family crest. While Roger had always loved the mysterious world and felt "lucky" to transmigrate into the Abraham family—a major mysticism household—who could have predicted that upon opening his eyes, he would witness a scene of family extermination?
Before his transmigration, the original body had been holding a meeting with family members. Suddenly, everyone let out painful groans, and within seconds, they all exploded.
Considering ancestor Bethel Abraham's influence, the Abraham family going mad and dying violently was quite normal—nothing strange there. After all, this "Door" gentleman was known as one of the mysterious world's three greatest sources of madness, a legendary mental patient who single-handedly eliminated all the demigods of his own family.
This was especially true on full moon nights, when his mad ravings were most severe.
"But today isn't a full moon night!" Roger cried out in despair.
He vigorously shook several clan members but received no response whatsoever.
At that moment, Roger felt suddenly dizzy and instinctively shook his head. With that shake, he actually dislodged a phantom, twelve-segmented worm that fell to the ground with a soft "splat."
This looks like a Worm of Time... Roger quickly made the judgment based on his understanding of the original work, then nodded slightly.
"Wait—a Worm of Time?"
The timing of his transmigration roughly coincided with when Zhou Mingrui had transmigrated to become Klein and was being investigated by the Nighthawks team. At this point, only two Sequence 1 angels existed in the "Error" pathway.
One was Pallez Zoroast, the portable grandfather bound to Leonard—unlikely to appear here.
The other was...
Roger was greatly shocked.
Before he could react further, his peripheral vision caught a figure leisurely emerging from the darkness behind him. The relaxed "tap, tap, tap" of footsteps was particularly prominent in the silent night.
The figure had black hair and black eyes, a broad forehead and thin face. He wore a classical black robe and pointed soft hat, with an exquisite monocle particularly eye-catching at his right eye socket.
In an instant, Roger's mind filled with galloping alpacas.
My transmigration is so cursed! Not only did the whole family explode, but I'm about to be scammed within minutes! Where is justice? Where is the law? And where is Adam? Come manage your younger brother—no, your son!
As the saying goes, Amon is like cockroaches—you think there's only one beside you, but actually there are countless. Plus, this guy has no integrity and loves pranks above all else. Beyonders who encounter Him either lose their sanity and become废人, or get assimilated and end up wearing monocles.
Except for the outer gods in the starry sky, Amon could be called the mysterious world's number one public menace.
"Interesting, very interesting," Amon said with a face full of surprised delight, gently clapping. "To actually resist my assimilation—you really are something special. Can you tell me how you did it?"
Resist... assimilation...
Roger's heart suddenly calmed as memories surged like tidal waves.
The current him was Great Clock Ghroth—or rather, the carrier of Ghroth's extraordinary characteristics. This powerful Old One, known as the "Star of Judgment," seemed to have crossed some red line with Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Nyarlathotep, and was dismembered by these three pillar gods working together. His extraordinary characteristics were sealed within his own body.
As compensation—or perhaps contamination—Roger could briefly borrow Yog-Sothoth's power projection once every three days for three minutes each time. Even this tiny fraction was enough to provide tremendous help on his path as a Beyonder.
However, his current self had exclusivity toward other sequences and could only use specific auxiliary materials and the extraordinary characteristics within his body to prepare potions, walking the path of Ghroth—that divine pathway starting with Sequence 9, named "Show-off."
This sequence name gave Roger a strong sense of disconnect. As a lifelong believer in the coward's creed of keeping a low profile, he should have gotten the script of using Abraham family resources to advance to mid-sequences of the "Apprentice" pathway, then seeking to jump to other pathways among the three coward families to avoid "Door" gentleman's demigod-killing law.
However, considering the Abraham family members who had exploded everywhere around him, one had to admit he was indeed very conspicuous...
"This... resisting assimilation and such—I'm not too clear about it either. May I ask what business Mr. Amon has?" Although Roger felt settled in his heart, he still wore an embarrassed smile.
Amon stepped forward. "You actually know me. I don't really have any business—it's just that I have unfinished matters with your family's elders. I need Abraham apprentices to work for me, but this situation makes it very difficult."
He gestured toward the corpses scattered across the ground.
Hearing these words, Roger's heart became clear. In the original work's future, "Door" gentleman and Amon would make a deal. The latter would have people find three demigods from the three coward families' pathways for sacrifice, opening the passage from the astral realm to Earth and letting "Door" gentleman return.
After that, Amon would take one Sequence 1 extraordinary characteristic and uniqueness to become a dual-pathway true god. In return, he would block the Fallen Mother Goddess who followed closely behind and return the remaining two Sequence 1 extraordinary characteristics to the Abraham family.
Now it seemed Amon had planned this matter early on.
Roger quickly adjusted his mindset. "Respected Mr. Amon, you should be able to see that I'm not a Beyonder of the 'Apprentice' pathway and am of no use to you."
Amon adjusted his monocle and pointed to a jelly-like object nearby. "Mm, I can see that. Your extraordinary characteristics are still on the ground in a lump."
So this is how the exclusivity of the Ghroth pathway works? He's not even dead yet and the extraordinary characteristics have already precipitated? Truly worthy of being mockingly called a stellar orphan with no mature god—a lone star with no father's love or mother's care.
"Although I don't know what's going on with you, regardless, you're an unsafe variable," Amon said with a smile devoid of warmth. "I have a premonition you'll bring big trouble, so you should just die."
Unable to parasitize, can't figure it out—then just kill. This fit Amon's style of having no human emotions.
Roger's expression showed great shock, but his mind raced with thoughts.
Should I use Yog-Sothoth's power to save my life?
He immediately suppressed this thought. Yog-Sothoth's power was certainly of much higher standing than Amon, a mere King of Angels, but it had a three-day cooldown. This could only serve as a last resort, because it was unstable.
As the saying goes: fear Amon's theft, but fear more when Amon holds grudges. This guy was famously petty. Even with Klein's Sequence 3 "Ancient Scholar" strength plus the powerful cheat of Sefirah Castle, he was still dragged by Amon to play escape games in the God-Forsaken Land for several days.
Even if he used Yog-Sothoth's power to slap Amon away, the other party would still find him eventually. Moreover, doing this might attract the attention of Adam or even higher-level deities, being treated as a spy sent by outer gods and dealt with accordingly.
As cautious as Roger was, how could he take such risks? At least he had to prepare contingencies.
The optimal solution became very clear. He took advantage of Amon not yet reacting, lunged forward to eat the nearby "Apprentice" extraordinary characteristics, while his other hand hugged Amon's thigh with a radiant smile.
"Respected Mr. Amon, I want to join you! From now on, you're my big brother. Please feel free to give orders wherever this 'Apprentice' can be useful."
At the end, he added another sentence: "I really like Mr. Amon the most!"
Meanwhile, he secretly activated Yog-Sothoth's space-time authority, preparing to summon the Ancient Sun God's phantom from the historical gap at any time to give Amon a powerful slap—letting Him feel what fatherly love like a landslide was like.
Hearing this, Amon's raised hand suddenly froze.
You... like Amon?
Known as the God of Mischief, He had encountered countless people who avoided Him like the plague, but this was the first time hearing someone say they liked Him.
He lowered his hand, adjusted his monocle, looked again at the Abraham family members scattered across the ground, and after a long while revealed a playful smile.
"You really are a show-off..."