One-Eyed Monster

This familiar crack was the hope Igor staked everything on. Sometimes, gambling is a last resort, a desperate measure when one is pushed to the brink, and that was precisely Igor’s current state. He knew that if his gamble went wrong, the consequences would be severe. At that point, no one would be able to help them; they could only rely on themselves to survive.

Imagine if Igor’s entire conjecture was wrong: this Dark Force would not fear any of their attacks, as all their attacks would only be aimed at the mere vessel that housed him. Attacking the vessel would be pointless, as the Dark Force could simply find another one. Consider the Dark Force being in a state of invincibility, where no one could defeat him.

Since this world adhered to the principle of Equivalent Exchange, there had to be a countermeasure for everything. Igor firmly believed that no being in this world was truly invincible; the current difficulty in defeating this Dark Force was simply because they hadn’t yet found the right approach.

Igor even felt as if everything was a race against time. In this race, whoever could find the opponent’s weakness first would be the one to achieve victory.

Igor was currently searching for this Dark Force’s suspected weakness. It was deemed ’suspected’ primarily because Igor himself was unsure if his idea would succeed. He had a recollection that the crack on this skull was special, and now he needed to verify if it truly was the one he remembered. If it was, they still had a chance of victory. If not, they would immediately need to find a contingency plan...

This certainly wouldn’t do, Igor understood. After all, their time was not as abundant as their opponent’s.

The opponent only aimed to destroy and take revenge, so he had fewer concerns. He didn’t care about the duration and, if perverse enough, might even deliberately prolong the revenge to torment his adversaries...

But it was different for Igor and his allies; they were protectors, guardians of the home behind them.

Once bearing the mission to protect, they had to change. Guardians needed to embody their role, to pay attention to every aspect of their mission. The responsibilities of protectors far exceeded those of invaders.

Invaders spread their territory, whether to extend their own land or plunder resources from others; they came and went like the wind. Their ultimate goal was to gain, and compared to the Guardians, the consequences of their failure didn’t seem as grave.

If the Guardians failed to protect, it meant much more than just failure; it meant annihilation.

As for the invaders, if their attempts failed, they could just retreat and return after some time to try again...

What Igor feared now was that if this Dark Force was truly unstoppable, then they theoretically would have no chance of counterattack. If it really came to that, they would have to consider changing their strategy, attempting to break through from another direction.

As for what direction that might be, he wasn’t sure yet. But deep within, he had strong confidence that his gamble would pay off.

This confidence might have seemed strange, but Igor indeed possessed it.

He had been jumping and searching along the Timeline, skipping past numerous moments. There were many points where he had wanted to stop and look closely, but an inner voice kept telling him he had to find that specific moment as quickly as possible...

That crack, specifically the one on the skull, could confirm something—something that might have a significant impact on their upcoming challenges.

Igor knew that if the crack was as he remembered it, then the vessel the Dark Force had chosen to reside in was unique. It would be tough, perhaps impossible, for it to find a replacement. If that was the case, they had a chance to defeat the Dark Force.

But, if the crack was not the same one he remembered, then they would face an endless darkness, and the invincible Dark Force would annihilate them all.

What exactly was the crack in Igor’s memory, and what did it look like? Why could they determine the uniqueness of the vessel through this crack?

These questions might have seemed strange, but Igor had long held the answers in his heart. It was an instinctive judgment Igor had accumulated over time. This kind of instinct was like the excitement a knife expert would feel upon touching a well-made blade. It was a natural-born skill to seize upon details; no deliberate searching was needed, it just came naturally.

It was because they had paid so much attention to these things that, at critical moments, this instinct emerged spontaneously.

This was the instinctual reaction ingrained within their bodies.

The things Igor usually paid attention to were related to Adventurers. Teacher Hadi, his instructor for Distant Travel and a renowned madman, had told him many insane things. His mind was filled with these wild ideas every day. This interest in these insane things had made him determined to become an Adventurer, as only they could legitimately explore these sorts of chaotic things.

In today’s world, there was such a grave emphasis on Equivalent Exchange, and many professions had become thoroughly commercialized. They would refuse to do anything without compensation…

Only Adventurers were an exception; they would embark on exploration journeys without hesitation, even if they gained nothing in the end...

His thoughts had strayed. I need to get back to the crack, he reminded himself. Igor had once explored this fascination with Teacher Hadi at the academy.

Cracks on a skull could form for many reasons.

But the cause of most was external force, such as injuries from weapons. These cracks often bore no pattern and were a significant cause of serious injuries and death.

However, not everything was so absolute. There was a mysterious power in this world known as the Puppet Master. These Puppet Masters preferred using living beings as their Puppets, making others risk their lives while they themselves avoided danger...

These Puppet Masters primarily used a type of delicate Silkworm to control others. And what these Silkworms loved most was the human brain…

To ensure the intactness of the human body, the Puppet Masters had developed a method of embedding the Silkworms into human heads…

The controlled individuals, or Puppets, unknowingly lost their lives but retained their bodily functions. Their minds, taken over by these Silkworms, became a paradise for the worms. But Silkworms were, after all, still Insect Worms and subject to human control. The Puppet Masters raised them using Secret Spells and thus naturally had methods to control them.