When Luo Shu had tricked the Dark Heart into becoming an Anomalous Friend, he had already noticed that he had nine such friends.
Just one more, and it would be double digits.
With ten Anomalous Friends, shouldn't the milestone level up?
Compared to the Priest-King John's mystical abilities, Luo Shu was far more excited about the milestone upgrade.
To be honest, Luo Shu already had plenty of anomalous abilities—46, to be exact. One more or less from the old fraudster didn't make much difference.
Especially since the three abilities the old fraudster had demonstrated so far were all unimpressive to Luo Shu.
The first ability was shooting down planes…
No, wait—more accurately, it was the white bone spears that could be used to shoot down planes.
Luo Shu was a thinker, not a fighter. This kind of ability was practically useless to him.
If he ever really needed to deal with a plane, wouldn't it be better to just deal with the malicious pilot? Why harm an innocent aircraft?
Is it the gun's fault when someone fires it?
Of course not—it's the shooter's fault.
The second ability was reverting gunpowder weapons back to raw materials.
This ability was even less necessary for Luo Shu.
Wasn't the Degradation Aura of Anomalous Entity-166, the Succubus Girl, much better?
Not only could it revert gunpowder weapons, but it could even turn a nuclear bomb back into uranium ore!
Of course, there were differences between the two abilities.
The old fraudster's reversion was nearly instantaneous—basically bullet time.
Meanwhile, Gaia's Degradation Aura worked slowly, making it useless in emergencies.
The third ability, the one Luo Shu called the fraudster ability, was indeed stronger than the previous two.
But it overlapped too much with the Mental Enslavement of the Dominating Mask.
So unoriginal…
And if using this ability required reciting such a long, cringeworthy chant, Luo Shu would rather not have it at all.
Too embarrassing!
What truly made the Priest-King John formidable was his identity as a Level 5 Reality Bender.
But Luo Shu had already acquired several reality-warping abilities and had noticed a problem:
Being a Level 5 Reality Bender didn't mean possessing Level 5 abilities.
The strength of a reality bender wasn't determined by their abilities but by their personal Hume level.
If abilities were external factors, then Hume levels were internal.
Internal factors could only be improved by strengthening oneself, not by stealing others' powers.
From his first use of Evolutionary Distortion to later acquiring the abilities of Aeolus and Jianjia, Luo Shu's peak personal Hume level hadn't shown any significant increase.
This proved that the number of abilities had no direct correlation with their strength.
That being said, since Luo Shu wasn't a Level 5 Reality Bender, even if he obtained the fraudster ability, its effectiveness might not surpass Mental Enslavement or Martyr's Light.
So, compared to the new abilities the old fraudster could offer, Luo Shu was far more excited about the upgrade of the Anomalous Friends milestone.
With an excited heart and trembling hands, Luo Shu's gaze lingered on the title page of the Anomalous Entity Catalog, refusing to flip further.
As he wished, the first Level 2 Milestone was born!
[Milestone Name: Anomalous Friends]
[Milestone Level: 2]
[Milestone Effects:]
1. You will receive the anomaly's support and protection.
2. You gain the right to actively activate the anomaly's known abilities once per day.
3. Your friendship will be further solidified—you won't leave, they won't abandon!
What a perfect "won't leave, won't abandon"! So satisfying!
What Luo Shu had always feared most was his Anomalous Friends turning against him.
The milestone upgrade was secondary—the real pain would be if his friends betrayed him, rendering their abilities unusable.
Now, he didn't have to worry. They were locked in!
As long as Luo Shu didn't betray the friendship first, the other party couldn't turn against him.
But this raised a question in Luo Shu's mind:
Can friendship be forced?
How many times in this world does someone's kindness get met with cold rejection?
Plenty of people consider others friends, only to find out the feeling isn't mutual.
Without genuine willingness, it's impossible to form a true friendship.
But the Anomalous Entity Catalog wouldn't lie to Luo Shu.
Which could only mean one thing—
The Anomalous Entity Catalog is a meme!
Only a meme could impose its will onto others!
Once the Catalog recognized someone, there was no escape!
This realization left Luo Shu speechless.
In the world of anomalous containment, the most terrifying entities were Reality Benders, Memes, and Anti-Memes.
And yet, Luo Shu himself was carrying around a meme, swaggering about unchecked.
If the Foundation found out, he'd be locked up for life.
Of course, this was Luo Shu's greatest secret. If he didn't talk, no one would know.
The only thing he couldn't figure out was—why was he chosen for such good fortune?
Maybe this was also part of the Truth.
But compared to the Truth, after tasting the sweetness of a milestone upgrade, Luo Shu grew even more eager for the others.
He needed to find a way to interact with more anomalies!
But being stuck in Area-14 or Site-19 all the time made that goal difficult.
The number of new anomalies Luo Shu could encounter would only keep decreasing.
Sitting in the Black Hawk helicopter en route to Anomalous Entity-3221, he turned to look out the window.
From the skies over the Roof of the World, the land stretched endlessly beneath him.
At the foot of snow-capped mountains, beneath rolling clouds, lay billions of lives.
Countless anomalies were either contained in other Foundation sites or hidden in some corner of the world.
For the first time, Luo Shu thought: "The world is so vast—I want to explore it."
But as a D-Class personnel, Luo Shu lived a semi-imprisoned life. He didn't have the freedom to come and go as he pleased.
If all else failed…
In the seat beside him, Barbie kept her eyes fixed on Luo Shu, lost in thought, trying to figure out what was really going on with this man.
"God" had insisted that Luo Shu was a Chaos Insurgency plant, and Barbie herself felt he was suspicious.
But it was all just intuition—there was no concrete evidence.
And Luo Shu's actions so far had given the Foundation no reason to doubt him.
This left Barbie deeply puzzled.
If nothing else worked, she might have to resort to that move…
Meanwhile, Luo Shu pulled his thoughts back to the Anomalous Entity Catalog.
He flipped to the newest page.
[Page: 47]
[Entity Number: Anomalous Entity-3221-2]
[Entity Name: Priest-King John]
[Entity Class: Keter]
[Entity Image: …]
[Entity Description: …]
[Special Containment Procedures: …]
[Entity Ability: Fraudster. Since you insist on calling it a fraudster ability, then so be it—Fraudster it is. But you know this is actually a reality-warping power, one that grows stronger by gaining believers, ascending toward divinity! Every reality bender should set a small goal first—become a god!]
[Entity Status: Successfully Contained]
[Interaction History: Click to Play]
[O: x2 (Anomalous Friends Milestone Activations Remaining Today: 0)]