They all call me an Outer God.

A feeling of exhaustion washed over Ria. He moved his fingers and realized that he really didn't want to do anything right now, let alone make money.

He had no energy left, and he even considered whether he could just starve to death.

"It seems that this building, in order to restrict me, has directly made me an insider. Is this an honor for me?"

Lying in an alley in a town, with the cold wall against the back of his head, he felt increasingly sleepy.

His body was not in a normal state, and Ria could only struggle to wake himself up. Seeing a rock next to him, he picked it up and smashed it on his head without hesitation.

"boom!"

Bright red blood dripped down the contours of his face.

The slight pain brought Ria back to his senses. He wiped the blood off his clothes and stared at the bloodstains for a moment, even finding himself somewhat nostalgic for the feeling of bleeding.

He couldn't even remember the last time he had seen his own blood, though this probably didn't even count as his own blood.

"Where are Schwarz and the others?"

Ria looked around but couldn't find little Swarth. He even realized that the body he was in wasn't his own. When Ria finally managed to stand up and search around until he found a window and looked at his reflection, he realized that the person in the reflection was the child he had seen at the hospital not long ago.

"It seems that the child is the key to this building. It's just that my previous behavior was too flamboyant, which ruined the mysterious item's plan, so it left me in this body."

"Right now, I have no power and can't sense Swarth. I can only be manipulated."

Thinking about it this way, he actually began to look forward to what was to come.

Ria can now vaguely sense the will of the mysterious object. This building is not entirely under Sofia's control, and his progress in exploring this mysterious object may not even be 30 percent complete.

Using such a high-level mysterious item will inevitably come at a high price.

"So what is the price?"

Ria stared at his reflection in the window and rubbed his face. The child in the glass followed suit. Suddenly, he noticed that the sky had darkened, followed by the cawing of thousands of crows.

A man in a black suit ran quickly toward them. Pedestrians on the street quickly dodged him. Lia had no interest in having a direct confrontation with someone of unknown origin. Just as he turned to leave, the man suddenly vanished from the spot.

The next second, Ria's current body was lifted up by the back of his shirt, and an old-fashioned gun was pressed against his forehead.

"Since you've been pressuring me like this, it's only fair that I take a hostage, isn't it?"

As he spoke, the man lifted the child in his hand as if he were carrying some kind of merchandise, and Ria could now see clearly who was chasing after the person who had grabbed her.

He is very familiar.

It's more accurate to say that it's all too familiar.

Under the dim, reddish sky, a person wearing a bird-beak mask stood quietly at the other end. This person was tall, and his bow tie, double-breasted clothes, and palm-sized top hat were all impeccably tailored. The cold lenses reflected a scarlet luster.

“James Johnson, my plague doctor.”

The man's use of the plague doctor's name piqued Liya's interest.

He realized he might be experiencing something that had happened long ago, and the plague doctor in front of him was James from many years ago. Perhaps he hadn't lied to Ria at all; back then he was indeed quite tall and not as obese as he is now.

Ria didn't know what James had gone through to transform from such a tall and imposing figure into his current spherical shape, but since the man beside him called James the Plague Doctor, he must also be a disordered one. However, it was unclear why their relationship seemed to have become somewhat tense.

“Perlmand”.

James's voice was deep, as if it emanated from all directions.

“You betrayed the keeper of the secrets and sold our secrets to a third party. You violated a matter of principle and angered our superiors. This time, even I will not let you off the hook.”

"So, are you going to kill me?"

Perlmand laughed as if he had heard something funny: "I'm a black marketeer. I sell whatever is valuable. Your principles are less valuable to me than a Schwarz. Why don't you guess who I sold the secret to and for how much?"

"If it weren't for the fact that no one could beat the plague doctor, I would have really sold you all out too. I suppose some people would like to buy crows as pets, right?"

Perlmand's eyes were already squinting into slits with laughter, but Ria could feel that his breath was getting weaker and weaker, and he was just putting on a brave face.

"Admit it, Plague Doctors, you can't save anyone. You are all a bunch of extraordinary puppets, feeding us and turning us into memes. Even you yourselves are pathetic ingredients."

"Those old gods are about to awaken, and the first thing they will do after they awaken is to feast on us, the fattened livestock."

"Don't think I don't know. It was you who spread the plague in the first place—after the divine entity parasitized this planet, it began to spread pollution. And you used the guise of healing people to actually make patients' illnesses worse and make them wish they were dead."

James stared at him expressionlessly, as if he were looking at a dead man.

“You seem to have a deep misunderstanding about us. We doctors have been working hard to eradicate the contamination.”

"There's no misunderstanding here. You know, ever since I discovered your true colors, I've felt at ease. This world is a giant slaughterhouse. Unless you become a god, no one can remain unaffected. The time until its destruction may be tens or hundreds of trillions of years away, or it may be as early as tomorrow."

"However, I couldn't wait that long, not even a day longer, James. As you can see, I gave up."

"Permander suddenly said."

“I traded your secrets for the curse of death. Before I die, I have one more chance to spread the contamination to others.”

"Perhaps many patients don't know how to properly spread the disease, but that's okay, I know it myself."

This body's limits are estimated to be limited; however, after I use this ability, my life will rapidly end, and the ability will automatically transfer to a second person.

"Then, my soul will wait for the chance to awaken again from that person's body. After the second person dies, the ability will not disappear; it will continue to be passed on."

Extend it further and further, until it reaches infinity...

"Having been granted unlimited opportunities to inherit my power, I will grow ever stronger, James. One day, I will kill you with my own hands."

"But now, hahahahahaha James, you'll just watch me die in front of you, and then be terrified. You plague doctors can't judge me, no one can judge me. Sooner or later, I will replace the memes and make everyone submit to the feet of capital."

"I am capital—"

(End of this chapter)