They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 180 Deep Breath

Since this stuff is harmful to the eyes, I wonder if it will have any effect on eyes that are already contaminated with pollutants.

With that thought in mind, Ria made a slit in her wrist and brought it close to the corrosive fumes.

The moment he made contact, his skin began to show signs of burning, and many eyes appeared like bubbles, moving erratically.

However, they quickly submerged again, perhaps because the gas was too shallow and the contact time was too short; the rate of the burns could not keep up with the rate at which Ria's skin healed itself.

Undeterred, Ria tried several more times before finally seeing obvious marks on her skin.

This injury was exactly the same as what the people at the hospital described: it was completely painless, but possessed extraordinary characteristics.

Those people were thrown here to purify the factory's exhaust fumes. They inhaled the fumes into their lungs, and the exhaust fumes naturally corroded their internal organs, leaving them in a terrible state.

“Corroding internal organs…” Ria reached up and touched her chin, then turned to look at Little Swarth, whose mouth was wide open and throat was glowing, clearly not taking the gas seriously.

Even the rate at which those gases were emitted couldn't keep up with its rate of consumption. Left with no other choice, the mythical creature had to chase after and devour those gases, and its belly visibly grew much rounder.

"Goo-"

Little Swarth let out a burp, his stomach returned to normal, and then he opened his mouth again.

“These things are no problem for you, but we’d better go check on Mr. Ivand now. If he stays in the fumes too long, he’ll turn into a dried-up corpse.”

As she spoke, Ria went to the wall separating the two rooms and knocked on it twice, discovering that the wall was hollow.

"Tsk, what a cheap and unscrupulous building."

He couldn't help but feel contempt for the people who originally planned the factory.

Ria took a step back and used the strong acid contamination on his tentacles to dissolve part of the wall, allowing him to easily pass through it.

"Click, click-"

The dust on the wall turned into a semi-solid and fell to the ground. The moment the two rooms connected, the yellowish-brown gas rushed into this side all at once, and Little Swarth immediately flew onto Ria's shoulder, his feathers bristling.

"It's alright." Ria knew that the mythical creature was worried about him being hurt, but this was nothing to him.

"By the way, what are your criteria for judging injury?"

Ria wasn't sure if Little Swarth knew that sometimes the danger came from itself, but now was not the time to explain.

Because he had discovered a curled-up object in the thinning gas, which occasionally twitched as if to prove that it was still alive.

"Ivand!"

Ria rushed over and found that he had wrapped his body in his coat, trying to cover himself up completely. Ria told little Swarth to hide to the side, while she tried to touch him.

"Those gases have stopped being emitted. Are you feeling better now?"

"..."

Ivand did not respond, which alerted Ria.

He tore away the other person's covering and found that the person had faint burn marks on their body and was already semi-conscious.

But Lia knew that his semi-consciousness had little to do with the exhaust fumes; the man's current condition was simply due to holding his breath for too long.

Can you hear me? Take a deep breath, take a deep breath—

Lia grabbed the other man's collar and shook him for a long time before he finally reacted.

A few minutes later, Ivand opened his eyes and the first thing he did was look at his legs.

"My wheelchair! My wheelchair has been stolen!" "Relax, detective. A true detective shouldn't panic like this. After all, you should have expected that your legs would be targeted one day."

"you're right……"

Ivan gritted his teeth, seemingly trying to stand up on his own two legs, but he could not succeed.

Lia stood beside him and noticed that his legs were no different from those of a normal person, and there was no prosthesis or broken bone, but he just couldn't stand up.

"Can I ask you a question?"

“I know what you want to ask… you want to know what happened to my leg.”

Pain was evident in Ivand's eyes, but before he could continue, Ria shook her head.

"This is your sore spot. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but the question I'm about to ask is very crucial to me—"

Tell me, you're not the one in the white mask.

"White mask?"

Ivand was stunned, not understanding what Ria meant.

Lia stared at him for a moment before closing her eyes: "I'm sorry, I've been involved with those people lately, and I'm always worried that they might suddenly appear and scare me."

"Those people sound like a bunch of naughty, strange kids."

"Hahahaha, you're so humorous."

Ria hadn't expected anyone to compare the White Mask to a naughty child, but he had only asked casually. Ria's intuition told him that Ivand was not the White Mask's person.

Those people were already considered his followers, so if they suddenly got close, he wouldn't be completely unresponsive.

Ivand could tell that Ria was not in a good mood; clearly, the group he had just mentioned was not a pleasant memory for him.

"What do we do now? The door is locked, how do we get out... Wait, weren't you locked in another room?"

"I used the strong acid over there to melt the wall, but there was only one barrel of strong acid, and it's all gone now."

Lia could lie without batting an eye, but Ivand felt it wasn't worth it.

"You had a chance to escape on your own, so why did you come all the way to save me?"

"Because you haven't been paid yet."

"what?"

"Ahem, what I mean is, weren't you the one who came to take revenge and was in charge of this case? If you don't get revenge and end up dying, that would be terrible."

Just imagine how miserable a person must be to lose the ability to walk, and then, after finally reaching the territory of their enemy, be easily killed by them.

I've always believed that death is a serious matter, and everyone should treat it with reverence. So you can't die yet; you have to witness the downfall of the wicked, even personally put an end to this, and then give me the money.

"But given our current situation..."

"That's no problem. As long as you pay me enough, Detective, I'll break down the door for you, even if I have to."

With that, Lia flexed her wrists a couple of times and walked toward the iron gate.

Ivand was his employer, and according to the principles of black market trading, he should have taken the money and left, or even sold the other party out halfway and made them count the money for him. However, based on the principles of trade, he respected every transaction process.

If someone gives him a job, he will take responsibility for that job.

(End of this chapter)