World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 48 Zomo Rabbit
"Boom boom boom!"

The knocking sound woke Lin An from his deep sleep. He blinked his sleepy eyes and saw Mi Xi's face appear outside the hotel room window.

As soon as she opened the window, she blurted out, "Lin An, Barry betrayed us!"

"What?!"

The lightning strike at the opening ceremony instantly banished Lin An's sleepiness. He grabbed his coat and weapon, pushed open the door, and rushed out, only to hear Mi Xi explaining the situation incessantly.

"I was just woken up by a strange noise. I looked out the window out of curiosity and saw Barry leaving! By the time I rushed out the door, he was gone, the next room was empty, and James had run away too!"

"So, it's just that the two of them left at the same time," Lin An corrected. "You can't be sure that Barry is really the traitor."

“Uh…” Mishi nodded awkwardly, “I mainly wanted to get your attention.”

Goodness, no wonder they work for a newspaper, this is definitely clickbait.

Seeing Lin An's pout, Mishi quickly added, "But the captain said that James alone couldn't break free of the restraints. If Barry hadn't let him go, how would he have escaped?"

"Have you contacted the captain?" Lin An didn't want to argue with her and was adjusting the Bluetooth device. "X, call Simon Lloyd."

"Sorry, the user you dialed is offline."

“I’ve tried, the equipment won’t connect, and there’s no one in the room.” Mish pointed into the distance. “James and Barry ran in that direction. Lin, maybe this is the captain’s test. We can only rely on ourselves to bring them back!”

She took out a black restraint belt and car keys.

"Found it in Barry's room. I'll drive."

Farmington was quiet in the early morning. The dark houses were left behind by speeding cars, their still outlines illuminated by the moonlight. Apart from the hooting of owls across the sky, the streets were deserted.

"Are you sure it's this direction?" Lin An asked. "It's one thing for James, the Mystic, to be so fast, but how come Barry is running faster than a car?"

“Barry is very likely already a Mystic, Lin.” Mishi turned the steering wheel and swerved into the left street. “I saw his eyes glow with a creepy green light, like he was about to devour someone.”

"If you keep going forward, you'll be out of town."

"Hmm?" Mish slammed on the brakes, the tracks screeching. "This place looks familiar. It's the place the captain told us to stake out tomorrow... This is James Nacher's house!"

No matter how cynical and eloquent Jim may appear on the surface, he is still a child at heart, and his first instinct when faced with danger is to run home.

Unfortunately, the Nacher family had already been transferred to the police station, and the house was empty.

"It has made our operations much easier."

Lin An and Mi Xi got out of the car together. The gate was wide open, and two footprints in the mud led them straight to the backyard.

The moonlight was dim, the grass was damp, and Barry stood beside a towering cedar tree, frantically punching the trunk.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Above the cedar tree, Jim was clinging tightly to a branch. His face was pale, and his hair was soaked with what looked like dew or sweat, clinging to his scalp and cheeks, making him look extremely disheveled.

When Mishi and Lin An went around to the side, they saw that Barry's eyes were shining, his muscles were several times larger than usual, and his hair and beard were thicker and more abundant.

“Barry Fenton!” Missy shouted, “What on earth has happened!”

"I'm going to kill that little bastard!" the usually calm and collected Barry said viciously. "He deserves to die!"

"Calm down! Misusing 'Commerx' energy will increase the level of pollution! You have no idea what kind of mystery you've awakened!" Mishi shouted. "Don't misuse your power!"

Barry ignored him and punched the tree trunk hard.

"You little bastard, get down here!"

The teeth-grinding creaking sound echoing from inside the wood suddenly changed into a cracking sound, as if Barry had actually broken the wood inside, finally unable to withstand the weight above.

"Wow!"

As the snow fell, the tree trunks swayed and collapsed with a crash.

"Mishi, over here!"

In a split second, Jim nimbly slid down the tree trunk, dodging Barry's powerful punch, and quickly passed by Mishi and Lin An, leaving only a fleeting afterimage.

"Melissa, get out of the way!"

Lin An predicted the direction in which the cedar tree would fall and waved to Mishi from a safe spot, but the latter was so focused on stopping Barry that he didn't hear her shout.

A huge shadow loomed over Mishi, and only then did she think of running away, but it was too late.

Barry had no choice but to abandon his pursuit of the fleeing Jim, grabbing her arm and rolling to the side, barely managing to get away from the area where the trees had fallen, thus escaping unharmed.

"Give up, you can't catch me." Jim's laughter came from the tree.

He stood with his arms crossed in front of a treehouse. In just a few hours, the boy's figure had become strangely distorted. Lin An blinked and noticed that Jim had grown a pair of long, thin ears on his head.

Do they look like rabbit ears?

Deception, escape, cunning, delusion...

Jim's mystery lies with Anansi's companion—Zomo!

"With your witness, [Zomo]'s encyclopedia entry has been unlocked." The system notification sounded in his mind at the same time.

[Name]: Zomo
[Rating]: Ghost Stories - Level C

Radiation level: 7.8%
[Pollution Level]: 31.5%
[Media]: Dreamer

Anaxi is the god of deception, insight, and wisdom in the South. He usually appears in oral folklore as a human or a spider. He is skilled at devising riddles, fooling others, and getting what he wants.

In the animal worship of the South, rabbits are also popular deceptions, and are also known as followers of Anansi.

One of the rabbits was named Zomo, who sought wisdom from the sky god and used trickery to accomplish three nearly impossible tasks.

Get scales from big fish, milk from buffalo, and teeth from leopards.

Therefore, the sky god granted Zomo the ability to "run," enabling it to escape death from the hands of hunters and avengers every time.

Dreamer's Medium...

Based on his previous experience in Elysium, the Dreamer's medium should be related to "imagination." Combined with Jim's elusive and stealthy methods in town, Lin An suspected that his mystical arts were similar to "telekinesis."

To steal an item, Jim must first determine its "location," then use arcane magic to create an illusion that ignores space, and simply take the item.

Jim was cunning and eloquent, able to extract information from his opponents with just a few words. Moreover, having grown up in this small town, he knew the townspeople's personalities inside and out.

Through persistent, subtle probing, he managed to extract information from Barry and steal his belongings.

However, Jim doesn't seem to need to "know" too accurately.

According to the baker's testimony, she suddenly felt the urge to check her heirloom ring that day, probably because she had casually mentioned it to Jim during a conversation earlier that day.

If the shop owner and Jim explicitly discussed the ring and the attic safe, even if she didn't want to talk to Jim anymore, she would at least mention it to the police.

So, did Jim "imagine" the location of the object through fragments of words, and then activate the "theft illusion"?
After all, they are dreamers, and they mostly don't need logic or evidence.

At this point, Lin An was basically certain that Jim could steal without anyone noticing, regardless of spatial distance, through guesswork and conjecture.

I wonder what he took that made Barry so furious?
Moreover, Jim's own level of contamination has increased significantly.

Barry walked silently toward the treehouse, his hands clenched into fists, his muscles bulging and veins popping out. Mish followed behind him, pulling out a pistol and aiming it at Jim.

"Hands up, behave yourself!"

"Wait, let's not hurt him," Lin An suddenly said.

“Lin, he must die. If you don’t support him, get out of my way right now.” Barry’s tone was filled with suppressed, frantic, and desperate rage. “Otherwise, I will force you to make way.”

“I’m not asking you to let him go, Barry, just don’t ‘hurt’ him,” Lin An explained. “When he was escaping your pursuit, he was as fast as a whirlwind, but while you were on the ground, he just stayed in the same spot. Was he mocking our incompetence?”

Barry's brow furrowed, hot breath escaping his nostrils, and he took a step forward.

“It has nothing to do with me. I just want to kill him.” “Don’t go any closer to him!” Lin An stretched out his arms. “Since he has the ability to escape, why doesn’t Jim run into the forest and disappear from our sight forever? Because this ‘escape speed’ only works under the premise of ‘being hunted’!”

"What did you say?"

“His speed boost is pure fantasy.” Lin An gently pressed down on Barry’s arm. “As long as we have murderous intent, we will never catch him.”

Like all the southern deities who migrated to the Eagle Kingdom, Zomo, the animals only display cunning, intelligence, and unexpected powers when faced with "oppression and tyranny."

After so many days of whipping, burning, and torture, so many nights spent in shackles, so many separations and pains, hatred had scabbed over and desperately needed some healing, even if it was illusory and unrealistic.

At this point, "fantasy" became their tongue to lick their wounds and escape reality.

Lin An pointed to the treehouse and said to the two of them.

"We split into three groups and climbed up to the treehouse, keeping our composure throughout. Jim, on the other hand, became a slightly thin teenager, losing the speed of the wind, and couldn't run away at all."

“I think… I understand.” Barry forced back his trembling body and pushed away the restraints that Mishi offered. “However, I can’t stay calm—just seeing his face makes me unable to control my murderous intent!”

"Why?" Mishi asked.

“I also… have a child.” Barry’s voice suddenly became very low. “James asked me for help, and I couldn’t help but think of my child… I wanted to comfort him, at least to make his life at the Foundation a little easier, and then he smiled.”

Jim's voice eagerly interrupted, clearly impatient to show off.

"A lack of self-control is the same as granting power to others. He wants to put mental shackles on me, just like he sends his children to authoritarian institutions to learn, brainwash, and deprive them of their spiritual freedom!"

The boy clutched his head and yanked hard on his two rabbit ears.

“How was I supposed to know… that the ‘authority’ you admired was actually a hospital! I didn’t know it was your child’s ventilator mask! I thought… I thought I was just rebelling against the mainstream, against authority, against the rules and regulations that bind us!”

"A ventilator?" Lin An was taken aback.

Judging from Jim's reaction, he seems unaware of what he's about to steal.
That's really quite "fantasy"...

“James somehow took his breath away—the poor kid’s lifeline!” Barry clutched his cheek in frustration, suppressing his urge to explode. “I begged him to return the things to the hospital, and he told me to let him go, so I…”

“Zomo doesn’t have the ability to ‘return’ his money,” Lin An said. “This is yet another scam of his.”

“Am I wrong?” Jim screamed in rebuttal. “Simon, my friend, you can understand me! I want to confuse everyone, I want to prove… to break every worldly shackle!”

“Shackles, what do you know about shackles!” Barry roared. “I need money, I need professional institutions! I don’t care about human rights, blind obedience, or any of that bullshit soul! I just want my child to live! You little bastard, your grand principles have made everything meaningless!”

Lin An and Mishi exchanged a glance. Lin An then pressed down on Barry's shoulder to prevent him from getting close to the treehouse, making Jim feel the fear of being "hunted" and activating the arcane spell to escape again.

Zomo's perception range is limited.

"What can they give you? Can your mystery be controlled? Has your child been cured? These fears are just voices placed within you by the highest power. Once they take over, we will lose our freedom completely!"

"If I don't believe in this possibility, I might go crazy from despair!"

Jim shook his head, as if heartbroken by realism.

"Hopeless!"

While stopping Barry from rushing toward Jim, Lin An kept an eye on Mishi's movements out of the corner of her eye. She had already climbed up another tree to the back of the treehouse and was tentatively stepping onto the wooden planks.

"Crench."

The shrill sound made Jim turn around abruptly, only to see Mishi's harmless smiling face.

"Little friend, don't run away, let your big sister help you."

"You habitual liar!"

Jim tried to escape, but without a dramatic "hunt," his mystery failed him, and he awkwardly moved to the other side.

Mishi jumped onto the platform of the treehouse, gripping the restraint straps with both hands.

“Fine, just consider me a con artist,” she said cheerfully. “I’m pretty sure that no matter what happens, the sun will rise again tomorrow, and we will never find freedom. But if I catch you, I’ll get a $2000 bonus and 3 points.”

"Damn you! You vile adults!"

Jim retreated to the edge of the platform, the wooden planks creaking warningly. He looked down and was suddenly met with Lin An's dark eyes.

this person……

We used to get along really well!

This shows that they are similar in both experience and personality!

Jim had a sudden inspiration: if he stole one of Lin An's things now and used the same method to threaten him into betraying his companion, he might be able to save his own life!
You understand me, don't you!

Jim shouted hoarsely to Lin An, the totem pattern of the Southern Continent creeping onto his dark cheeks.

"You, like me, see superpowers as the most important thing in your life! Please, let me go! Otherwise, I'll steal the thing you value most! I'll destroy it the moment I get it! I'll make you lose it forever!"

Lin An rolled his eyes, too lazy to respond.

"Am I wrong, my friend? Why won't you speak up! Answer me! Ask me! Debate with me!"

"..."

Fuck!
Jim was completely helpless now. Mishi had driven him to the brink, but he still maintained a warm smile on his face.

His only hope was Lin An!
Jim believed that as long as Lin An and his companions turned against each other and stood by his side, he still had a chance to escape!

I'm going to take a gamble!
Where will Lin Anhui keep his "treasure"?
A safe? A storage room? A bookshelf?

The box—what's inside the box?!

Endless wild fantasies swept through his mind until he sensed an unusual, subtle fluctuation from somewhere. Overjoyed, Jim immediately activated a mystical spell.

The next moment, the whole world fell into chaos.

Candles illuminate the mist, a wooden boat glides across the long river, a scepter gently knocks on the door—the atmosphere of life and death is so ethereal and romantic.

"rustle……"

Ripples broke in the boundless Sea of ​​the Dead, and the shimmering water reflected a face that was both strange and familiar, a face that was a mix of infant, boy, youth, middle-aged and old.

This is where?

The rustling reeds, the boundless ocean, twelve eternally burning candles, and...

Why are "Lin An's" things here?
No, let me leave!

I can't face this imagery!
Jim's body trembled, and he lost his footing, immediately falling towards the treehouse below. At the critical moment, Mishi reacted quickly, swinging the restraints to wrap around his feet.

"Zizzizi..."

However, a sudden change occurred!

The panel provided by the system floated in the air. Lin An watched in astonishment as Jim's pollution level soared, rising from 31.5% to 100% in just one second!

What happened?!

"Boom!"

The rabbit's soft paws slipped easily from the restraints, and Jim's body, like an autumn leaf in the wind, crashed heavily to the ground. In the midst of the excruciating pain, his consciousness gradually faded away.

He vaguely sensed that he was surrounded by eyes, and that the crowd was whispering and talking about his death.

They finally noticed a person hanging on the lamppost.

But the body had already decomposed.

"Ah, God of the Sky... take my soul with you..."

He gazed at the picturesque night sky, as if murmuring to himself, or perhaps softly speaking to the unknowable distance.

Thank you to NovaPigeon, Book Friend 20230626110034034, Half Moon Knight, Huhu Haha, Reader 1655823857265487872, Ball's Inner Cube, and Yunshan Youyin for the monthly tickets; thank you to Raziel and Dragon Squirrel for the rewards; and thank you all for the recommendation tickets!
Some readers have commented that publishing the two chapters at separate times made the reading experience less than ideal. Therefore, we are combining the two chapters into one and releasing them together this time. We hope this will improve the reading experience for all readers.
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(End of this chapter)