World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 156 Seekers' Tree Diagram
"It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon when the Minister of Civil Affairs and the Minister of Logistics approached me, a highly capable individual who had stood out among the new recruits, and gave me a task..."

“Mike, but I’ve taken the day off recently, and I don’t have time to deal with these things.”

"Let me tell you first. I've made a lot of plans for the future of our advisory group!"

Lin An was sitting in a separate temporary office in the administrative department. There were two tables, a projector and a whiteboard. Mike was using a laser pointer to present his carefully prepared PPT on the development strategy of the consultant team.

Before that, he explained the responsibilities of the advisory team to Lin An.

The Dawn Association is about to launch the "Commerx Radiation Period Act" nationwide, which outlines how to promote and popularize "Commerx" education.

The process involves the logistics department contacting local organizations to arrange for each resident to take turns attending classes, the administrative department providing basic introductions to mysticism, the publicity team demonstrating the application of energy to induce mystical awakening, and the advisory team supervising the entire process and providing suggestions for improvement.

This team consists of the god of agriculture and seekers of knowledge. The former listens to the voices of the people to prevent anyone from getting out of control, while the latter examines the individual circumstances to obtain the tendencies of various media and further plans management schemes.

Similar to the academic affairs office.

Once the public is awakened, the task will be handed over to the instructor team and the assessment team.

As for the original three squads, they are special police forces from the future, tasked with capturing, judging, and punishing the mysterious individuals who do not act in accordance with the law.

However, before recruiting members for the four new teams and perfecting and promoting the new legislation, Lin An, like Simon before him, had no important work to do.

Ignoring the incessant chatter of Mike, Lin An fell into deep thought.

Something's not right.

"System, search for ways to 'expand your thinking'."

"Based on the entry 'Misina: Laws for Maintaining the Purity of the Soul - Tohoyot,' a solution that meets the criteria has been found: [A ship unaffected by impurities]."

"Consume 3 'Judge' and 1 'Prophet' media to use?"

"According to the entry 'The 72 Demons of King Solomon II: Stoth'..."

"Use the first one."

Next up is an old acquaintance, [Starry Sky to Me], who is also a mysterious and treacherous person who believes that once someone dies, their mental traps will no longer exist.

Besides simple killing, the "Judge" also has some auxiliary abilities, such as Guy Agnimo's "Commandments of Mount Sinai," which can trap people in a certain space.

The "ship unaffected by impurities" that Lin An used this time belongs to the law used by the butler, Tohoyot, who intercepted the RV in the tunnel, to maintain the purity of the soul in the Reincarnation Reader.

The term "ship" refers to the earthly vessel in which God places the human soul, and is a sacred term for the body. Due to the influence of the seven original sins, the inherent fragility of the body is called "impurity" by rabbis, because it can always affect the purity of the soul.

Therefore, Tohoyot has a mystical art of creating a private meditation space during which an individual can briefly obtain a pure respite and abandon distracting desires.

Golden Hebrew characters rose from the ground, transforming into a large cocoon that enveloped Lin An, immersing him in a pure realm of thought.

Why do I always feel something is off?
Let me think back carefully. It all started when President Emmanuel said he wanted to see me, but when I arrived, I found that he wasn't in his office.

If he wasn't there, why did he call me over to meet him?
If you're just notifying people about moving to a new office building, can't you just send an email?

But I didn't realize anything was wrong at the time?

Cognition, logic, ways of thinking... a dead end in fate...

Prophet Medium!
An idea flashed through Lin An's mind, and he instantly understood where the sense of incongruity came from.

The president had used a prophetic spell on him at some point, which maliciously guided his logical thinking.

Moreover, Chairman Emmanuel's rating and radiation levels are probably not low.

There is still one thing that needs to be confirmed.

Lin An closed his eyes, and his vision suddenly rose, revealing a mysterious, transparent world before him.

Mike became a flickering point of light, like an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt, breathing and moving along the trajectory of life.

Beside this vibrant dot of light appeared hazy, data-like green text, with only one clearly visible at the moment, which read "New".

After Lin An's radiation level increased, this was the new function mentioned by the system.

The name "[New]" is inaccurate. After experimentation, Lin An believes it should be called "Mysterious Tree Diagram".

As long as Lin An's thoughts lightly touch the "button," a complex array of data, like a World Tree, will appear next to Mike's dot of light, linking one link after another until the end of its vast and diverging branches.

The tree diagram records all the mediums that Mike might attract, along with their corresponding mystical archetypes, ratings, and all mystical arts.

However, the data can only display the "pictures" witnessed by Lin An, so most of the tree diagrams are unreadable question marks.

Based on what is visible, if Mike attracts the "Lord of the Earth," there is a chance that he will awaken the three strange mysteries that Lin An saw during the previous riot: the Dog Demon, the Water-Seeking Beast, and the Bigfoot.

The "God of Agriculture" is attracted by the ghost camel and the swamp monster; and the Wild Hunt is also from the "Judge" branch.

Everything else is unknown.

Lin An was unsure of the purpose of this tree diagram. Perhaps more functions would be unlocked as the radiation level continued to increase, since it could only observe the potential of ordinary people at present and was of no use to the awakened mystics.

The increase in radiation levels expanded the area covered by the green light, from a radius of 50 meters to about 70 meters.

Looking up from the administrative office on the third floor, Lin An could clearly see the situation in the president's office on the fourth floor. The physical obstruction was blocked, and a light source appeared.

It is not like the sun, which has only intense light, or like the pale and hazy moon like Simon.

It was the light of a gas giant, with a faint reddish tinge at the edges.

A large amount of hazy, dust-like material surrounded the center, obscuring the flow of light.

A beam of gas emitting a faint white light shot out from the dust cloud, the gaseous substance concealing indistinct spots of light, like a cloud edged with silver.

It should be at the mythological level. Lin An roughly confirmed its prototype.

Without a doubt, the owner of the light spot is none other than Chairman Avia Emmanuel!
The president was indeed in his office just now!
Based on the building's structure as it appeared in the epidemic prevention mode, Lin An sketched out a rough blueprint for the chairman's office in his mind.

Besides the outer office, there was a secret room hidden at the back of the room.

When Lin An arrived, the chairman was hiding in a secret room, looking out through a small hole located where the "Remembering Death" oil painting was. Using colorful fruits and skulls as cover, he cast a mysterious spell on Lin An.

Before the "ships unaffected by impurities" disappeared, Lin An typed away on his keyboard and sent an email to headquarters.

Lin An was a new employee with a clean resume. The Dawn Society had wanted to recruit him back in Rasmedos, and Lord Arthur also intended to make him a member of the new inspection team. He gave him a new email address so that he would not be tracked by the branch.

In the email, Lin An reported the chairman's unusual behavior and his own suspicions, and requested that the new inspection team send someone to investigate as soon as possible.

Given the power behind the Dawn Association, it would be easier for them to uncover the chairman's shady dealings than he could.

Moreover, the Dawn Association had just replaced the Inspectorate and Xi Yong as the managers of the St. Anilov Foundation, and its power in various regions was not yet stable. Lin An's report was undoubtedly a good opportunity to get rid of the current president and replace him with their people. Mike was still presenting his PowerPoint presentation; this guy probably hadn't even done a group assignment this diligently.

"Clap clap clap." Lin An clapped loudly. "Well said, but pause for a moment."

Where are you falling behind?

When did the minister find you?

"Damn, he's been daydreaming since the beginning!" Mike nearly snapped the laser pointer in his hand. "Alright, I'll say it again, it was a beautiful, sunny day—"

"I already told everyone I've applied for a temporary leave," Lin An interrupted helplessly. "I'll draw you the kind of pancake you want next week."

"Lin, never give up! A bright future lies ahead!"

"Who agreed to act in Pip's Journey with you? Look at this."

Lin An turned the computer screen around, displaying a wrinkled face in full view of the old professor, whose eyes, hidden behind his high-prescription glasses, were filled with anger.

"Professor Emmett?"

"No wonder you haven't been coming to university lately, turns out you're all working for the same shady company! Mike, whatever makes you happy, you won't get an A anyway; Lin, you have to go back to university to make up for your classes right now! And explain your absences on February 18th and 19th!"

"Ouch! That hurts." Mike clutched his chest.

"The company lost power..." Lin An explained softly. The 18th and 19th happened to be around the time he and the four local gods fought against Jericho.

No matter how hard he tried to squeeze in time, he couldn't attend online classes for those two days!

"Come to the office tomorrow. My working hours are from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m."

After saying that, the professor ended the video call.

“That’s it.” Lin An turned back to the screen. “I’m going on paid leave. Anyway, the advisory team hasn’t recruited any members yet, and we’re just slacking off here every day. I might as well go back to university and catch up on some classes.”

“You bookworm,” Mike muttered.

"Does staying at the Foundation make you the king of parties, Smith, you perennial old man?"

While arguing with his former roommate, Lin An tidied up his desk and headed home.

The foundation can no longer stay.

Before receiving a definite reply from Lord Arthur and the Dawn Society, Lin An decided never to return to the facility again, to stay away from the center of the president's influence, at least not like before, when he didn't even realize he had been tricked by his mystic arts.

Lin An had no plans to be enemies with the chairman. First of all, the man's intentions were unclear, and he hadn't done anything outrageous during his tenure. Perhaps his reluctance to meet with him was simply due to "social anxiety."

Lin An is currently unaware of this person's motives.

Secondly, he couldn't figure out how to kill the Dietrich city branch president while under the influence of the "prophet," and then escape unscathed without being discovered by any foundation employees.

Those who seek knowledge are quick-witted, but the more they think and the faster they think, the more susceptible they are to being invaded by prophets.

As the notes state, the medium of the prophet is inherently one that restrains the seeker of knowledge.

Lin An couldn't tell anyone around him about his discovery.

This prophet had already taken control of the entire foundation, which was a "private cult" that believed in him.

To be his enemy is to be his enemy, especially Simon Lloyd, who used to spend every day in the chairman's office and often communicated with the chairman online when transporting Thunderbirds. He has been "incurably" irradiated.

The best solution is for the Dawn Society to arrest the leader and suspend him from his duties for investigation at headquarters, or to make him travel a long distance to become a scapegoat...

After all, Lin An didn't want to become a fugitive wanted by the entire United States.

Damn, thinking about it carefully, a prophet with high radiation levels, a high rating, and who is secretly developing is just too disgusting.

Although their physical combat strength is not strong, even extremely weak, they are almost at the bottom of all mediums.

Without the aura of the Séance and a bunch of fanatical followers, Lady Ava is just an old woman on her deathbed; Kim Ji-eun, a legendary mystic, needs a bunch of catastrophic puppets for protection because he can't fight.

But Lin An preferred to deal with a medium that only knew how to fight.

Perhaps this is why the chairman uses a mysterious technique to avoid meeting with employees in person?
For a prophet, revealing their true identity is extremely dangerous.

Stopping his thoughts, Lin An got into the ride-hailing car waiting at the intersection and sped away.

The foundation's facilities are located in the suburbs, where the streets were initially quite quiet, with only the distant rumble of ships on the transcontinental bridge.

The sky had just rained, and it was clear and open.

Winter in Dietrich has passed, and a wet and short spring is on its way.

As the car gradually drove into the city center, noise followed, and colorful lights lit up all around.

On the faded zebra crossing, traffic lights frantically changed colors, and the buildings standing on the street lit up, making the city look like a giant disco, with colors combined like a jigsaw puzzle, every corner filled with chaos and energy.

Cigarette and cigarette smoke mingled with car exhaust, along with blaring music, deafening monotonous horn blasts, the smell of fast food restaurants, and alleyways piled high with garbage cans.

The ride-hailing driver dropped Lin An off in front of an old apartment building.

The stairs to the rented apartment were still creaking. Lin An took out the key from under the carpet and opened the door.

I didn't want to ask my parents for money before, so I just asked a real estate agent to find me a random apartment. But now I not only have a monthly salary of over 20,000 dollars, but I've also become a philosopher's stone who can make gold bars with my bare hands. Should I move to a better rental place in the future?

Lin An occasionally experiences ordinary troubles, but these emotions are mostly fleeting.

He walked into his rented room, which was spotless. Things that used to be scattered all over the place were now neatly organized and stored away. The air was filled with the scent of artificial perfume, and there was no trace of smoke or grease in the kitchen or on the dining table.

It was as clean as a laboratory, as cold as a morgue, with no trace of life to be found.

Lin An glanced at the time.

Around 6 PM, my last university class ended, and my mother should be on her way.

After ordering pizzas for two, Lin An went straight into the storage room.

A row of old, worn books stood on the bookshelf. His fingertips traced the spine of the "Complete Book of Magic," written in Carolingian calligraphy, which shimmered with a dark gold hue.

The system notification tone sounded simultaneously.

"The entry 'Encyclopedia of Magic IV: The Dark Wind - The Black Witch, the White Witch, the Red Witch and Their Allies' has been added. You have obtained the media 'Seeker' x5, 'God of Truth' x4, 'Mother of Desire' x3, 'God of Agriculture' x2, and 'Lord of the Earth' x1."

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(End of this chapter)