One-Eyed Monster

However, the laughter did not subside because of Igor’s rebuke, it continued unabashedly.

”Ignorant, aren’t you?” Igor suddenly raised his voice, seeming confident in dealing with the soul spirits.

Igor’s action surprised the others present; what’s happening here, wasn’t Stan Sol supposed to be the protagonist? Why is Igor stepping in?

He didn’t seem to be doing anything, yet now it feels as if he is the master here, as if all of this is his doing.

Does this guy have a halo over his head? This is just too much, he’s acting like he owns the place, shamelessly.

To outsiders, Igor appears as a shameless person selling the fruits of others’ efforts...

Except for Stan Sol, no one knows what Igor did, nor does anyone know that these results would be hard to achieve without him.

Stan Sol shrugged, indifferent to it all; his question had been ignored, so he felt it was more reliable to leave this to Igor.

And Igor was quite willing to take on this task, so naturally, the handover was smooth...

However, the dead souls still don’t heed Igor!

Because their laughter became even more rampant.

”You really think there’s no one here who can deal with you? You think no one here knows what you are? Sending you back isn’t difficult.”

”Hehe haha...” The laughter remained, as if nothing mattered.

”Fine, then laugh all you want, eventually you’ll sleep here, never to be awakened again.”

”Hehe...” The laughter subsided a bit, but remained unrestrained.

”The Soul Binding Bottle can trap them, right? Now that they’re out, let them stay inside the bottle.” Stan Sol unwittingly assisted.

The laughter abruptly stopped.

It seems Stan Sol’s assistance proved quite effective.

”Finally settled down, you spineless lot, do you understand what this feeling is now?” Igor said, appearing to have a confident demeanor.

The feeling was odd, even Stan Sol wasn’t sure if the dead souls would cooperate.

Yet Igor exuded confidence, as if he had ways to control the dead souls.

During an earlier conversation with the Scale of Faith’s old lady, Igor learned that these spirits were able to generate emotions; the old lady said the soul binding spell posed no threat, but Igor felt otherwise.

The emotions are varied; while they might not fear extinction, the fear of eternal imprisonment and never being awakened must be daunting.

Especially when ancient hunters possess seemingly unsolvable spells.

Thus Igor decided to gamble.

If successful, it could lead to uncovering Tobin’s issues.

Neither Stan Sol nor the others knew that a large network of connections was already mapped out in Igor’s mind; now it was time to test them step by step.

The dead souls remained silent for a while, wondering how he knew things they didn’t want mentioned.

”Answer Sol’s question, why are you hesitating? Want to be locked up?” Igor’s words carried a threat only the dead souls could perceive.

The others were clueless, in a muddle.

Even the well-informed Perkins was speechless.

Aside from Governor Rostov, who maintained a politician-like image, the others were wide-eyed, anticipating what would happen next.

The dead souls murmured among themselves, seemingly discussing something.

Soon, a sharp voice rang out: ”Do you really think you can threaten us?”

The appearance of the voice shocked everyone, revealing the dead souls indeed have simple consciousness.

”Believe it or not, I’m starting a countdown, don’t waste your time.” Igor initiated a psychological battle, gambling, having no real means to restrain the dead souls.

”You talk as if you really can...”

The dead souls were interrupted as Igor started his countdown; regardless of whether he could bluff them, he knew he couldn’t back down at this moment.

”Ten!”

”Stop pretending, we know all about you humans...” The dead souls continued talking as Igor reached seven.

”Six!”

Igor paused briefly, allowing the dead souls to utter a short sentence.

However, the dead souls were chatterboxes, never-ending once they started a topic.

”You think you can scare us? We’re not pushovers, you’d better think carefully...”

”Four!” The chatterbox trait resulted in the countdown nearing its end quickly; Igor’s determination visibly unsettled Stan Sol.

He couldn’t be sure if Igor really had the ability to make the dead souls comply.

”Stop wasting time!” The dead souls seemed a bit panicked, as Igor reached two in the countdown.

”I don’t believe you have means...”

”One!”

Igor finished his countdown, without further ado, he glanced at Stan Sol and softly said, ”Seal the bottle!”

This calm demeanor left Stan Sol in awe; this play ran deep!

”Wait—hold on...” The dead souls suddenly became nervous...

Igor smirked internally, another successful gamble.

Just as he thought.

The spirits wished to hide their burgeoning fear; wishful thinking!

Here, he remains in control.

”We are not Bruell Family undead; we are superior to Bruell, merely using his resources...”

Being dominated by fear is painful, as evident with the spirits.

Igor feigned signaling Stan Sol to stop, then said in an lofty tone: ”That’s better.”

”Don’t imprison us, we don’t want to sleep...”

”Then answer what we ask, don’t dodge the questions.”

”Certainly, certainly...”

No one expected Igor to actually handle these dead souls...