Chapter 37: Bestowal and Regret

The night sky sparkled with stars. H'el soared through the night sky, his hair disheveled by the cutting wind, his flowing coat rustling. His eyes held a gentle glimmer, and a smile played on his lips as he felt quite satisfied with his recent gains.

Indeed, the wisdom of the masses was essential. Among them, exceptional individuals could burst forth with breathtaking insights.

His initial use of psychic abilities left H'el in awe. In the past, before he possessed psychic powers, he had assumed that delving into someone's memories would be akin to reading a book or watching a movie—switching frames at will, pausing, and so on.

However, when he acquired psychic abilities, he discovered that it was nothing like what human literature and cinema had described.

The first time H'el used his psychic power was when he touched Edward's forehead to access his memories. In an instant, Edward's entire life was laid bare in his own mind.

This kind of insight included every detail of Edward's existence, from the moment of his birth, everything his eyes had ever witnessed, even the things Edward himself hadn't consciously noticed. It encompassed his insights about life, his accumulated knowledge, thoughts at any given moment—a complete, holistic experience of a person's character, directly transferred into H'el's mind.

For an ordinary person possessing psychic abilities, reading someone's memories like this would lead to a chaotic and overwhelming flood of thoughts. It could cause confusion of thinking, memories jumbling together, personality fragmentation, and even mental illness, making it impossible to distinguish oneself.

Minds were open to one another in the realm of psychic abilities. Especially for those without psychic abilities, defending against intrusion was nearly impossible.

If you possessed psychic abilities, examining someone's mind took almost no time at all. Their entire life, every thought they'd ever had, and even forgotten memories would be transferred into your mind, one by one.

It was nothing like flipping through the pages of a book or pausing a movie.

Whether you could handle a complete personality and experiential memory depended on the capacity and processing power of your own brain.

H'el had this capacity, so it didn't pose any problems. But the first time he did it felt somewhat overwhelming. However, his immense cognitive capacity sorted and extracted the useful experiences he needed from the massive flood of information.

This experience made him more determined and eager to spread psychic abilities to humanity.

"Humans are truly creative beings," H'el mused as he flew through the sky.

He carefully examined Edward's experiences with manipulating human psychology, combining them with his psychic abilities, and found them highly beneficial.

But what truly delighted H'el were Edward's own ideas, ideas about manipulating minds with psychic abilities, ideas of imagination and manipulation for those with psychic powers. These thoughts opened H'el's eyes, and he couldn't help but marvel at Edward's genius, realizing that he needed to protect him.

Even though Edward didn't possess psychic abilities, he could envision numerous ways to manipulate minds. His instant thoughts resembled what H'el had initially grasped when he first acquired psychic abilities.

Freeze-frame analysis, mental control, mental refraction, creating personalities, mind partitioning, the maze of the mind, consciousness breakdown, mental frequency communication, mental barriers, God's whispers... Edward's ideas covered a wide range of intriguing angles, some of which H'el hadn't even considered. Those fleeting moments of inspiration showed H'el that these ideas could become reality with a single thought.

H'el immediately decided to nurture this talent.

"Dawn, focus on Edward Jordan. Send him a dose of the superpower genetic serum," H'el commanded as he soared through the sky. He couldn't wait to see if Edward would awaken his own psychic abilities.

The superpower genetic serum was designed to enhance the user's most prominent abilities based on their genes and conscious tendencies. Since Edward had dedicated his life to understanding the human psyche and controlling it, there was a good chance that he would develop psychic abilities with the serum.

H'el anticipated that Edward would gain psychic abilities and hoped that they could collide, sparking a brilliant synergy between them.

While absorbing Edward's experiences with manipulating human nature hadn't yet allowed H'el to create a "thought imprint," it had deepened his understanding of consciousness, will, thoughts, thinking, ideas, memory logic, and taken him a significant step forward.

He could already create a shallow but powerful thought loop. However, what he truly sought was a thought imprint that would instantly convince the brain, bypassing conscious thought, and making it believe a specific piece of information was unquestionably true.

Life, whether it's in genes or in the mind, naturally carries a stamp called "survival." H'el delved deep into the mind, intending to create a thought imprint that delved even deeper than the innate survival imprint found in living beings. This imprint would have no impact on the natural talents, thoughts, ideas, and thinking processes of the recipient. That was the perfect ability he sought.

"I need extensive experimentation," H'el thought, as he realized that creating the desired thought imprint would require a significant amount of experimentation.

His gaze, fixated on Earth in the radiant night sky, now shifted towards his laboratory. H'el, who had already absorbed every thought of Edward's, knew that crafting the necessary thought imprint required substantial experimentation.

In an instant, H'el altered his course. He had been heading towards Anchorage Base but now aimed for space.

Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., at the Hoglinway Manor, a courier from Dawn had just delivered a long, narrow box directly into the hands of the man who had returned home, Edward.

Edward squinted his eyes, a glint of anticipation in his gaze. He had expected to come home and carefully observe the alien's actions, attempting to manipulate him from another angle under the guise of "eradicating criminals." However, he hadn't anticipated that H'el would send him a gift.

The brown box was not particularly large, and its packaging wasn't especially fancy. It was long and slender, perfect for one-handed holding.

Edward opened the box, revealing a vial filled with a bright blood-red liquid that emitted a radiant red glow under the light—a captivating sight.

He remained calm and picked up the superpower genetic serum, then turned his attention to the accompanying letter.

"Mr. Edward, as the highest representative of a certain discipline among Earth's humans, your experiences have helped the master save a considerable amount of time. The master has specifically instructed the delivery of a superpower serum for you."

"We hope that you can create astonishing abilities that will hurt the master."

"Dawn, respectfully presents."

Edward's eyes narrowed, reflecting a dangerous message. He gently set the letter aside and focused on the exquisite superpower genetic serum.

"No wonder Jupiter is so filled with hatred. H'el, you are truly arrogant," Edward sighed with a sense of regret.

"In that case, I will bring you heartfelt remorse!" He reached out to touch the serum.

°°°

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