Warlock Apprentice

Other than Angel, everyone present was quite confused and eager to know how exactly Sanders managed to extract the live thread?

Therefore, when Sanders initiated the discussion on this topic, everyone fell silent, observing Sanders intently.

Sanders, who isn’t one to keep people in suspense, spoke directly, ”The parasitic calamity in Night Demon City a few years ago is quite similar to the situation now. How I expelled the parasites back then is how I expel these live threads now.”

”As for why it was ineffective earlier but works now, the reason is simple: the aura of the Nightmare Realm.”

The aura of the Nightmare Realm, emitted through the Mare Stone, was completely absorbed by the live threads.

In Sanders’s view, the live threads that have absorbed the Nightmare Realm’s aura are entirely different organisms compared to the original live threads.

The initial live threads had almost nothing to do with the Nightmare Realm and didn’t require the Nightmare Realm’s aura for its survival, and could indeed be considered indigenous entities of the Wizards’ Realm.

But once they absorbed the Nightmare Realm’s aura to saturation, the live threads seemed to have become true Nightmare Realm creatures.

Unable to manage ordinary live threads, Sanders found it quite easy to handle a Nightmare Realm creature.

Sanders dealt with the live thread just as he had dealt with the parasites in Night Demon City before. The effect was evident.

The live thread was extracted without any hindrance.

Old Hanmu also somewhat regained his primary consciousness.

It could be said that the key to all this was indeed the aura of the Nightmare Realm.

While Sanders explained, Angel was also frequently nodding in agreement in his heart. He clearly felt the difference. Previously, without the aura of the Nightmare Realm, he couldn’t influence the live threads at all. But now, having absorbed the Nightmare Realm’s aura, Angel noticeably felt the change.

The live threads felt much more ”approachable” in his perception compared to before, and within a limited range, Angel could exert some indirect influence on them.

For instance, Angel could now also make the live threads leave the patient just like Sanders. Moreover, he’d do it with more ease, as Sanders forced the live threads to appear through his own strength, whereas Angel, to some extent, used ”class suppression” to compel the live threads to leave voluntarily.

Besides, Angel could also simply command the live threads to perform some activities, but it was limited to staying still and moving. Commands for attacking, proliferation, or splitting couldn’t be executed. Perhaps it was because the live threads have an ultimate mission that surpasses Angel’s interference level, or perhaps the live thread’s intelligence wasn’t high—the things Angel could command it to do were limited in any case.

However, at least for now, the problem of the live threads seemed to have a phased victory.

”Since Hanmu can be treated, what about the others?” Greya asked a crucial question, which everyone was concerned about.

Sanders pondered and said, ”This still requires experimentation.”

”Currently, it can be ascertained that infection duration has an impact on the final result. As for why, I personally speculate that it might be the compatibility of the live thread with humans.”

Compatibility? While everyone was still pondering the meaning of this term, Sanders suddenly changed the topic, ”Why were the live threads created? What is their ultimate purpose?”

Sanders didn’t wait for others to ponder, directly sharing his speculation:

”I have conceived many situations for why the live threads were manufactured, but later, when I saw the dancer, I overturned my previous ideas.”

”Just as I discussed with Angel before, the thoughts of Nightmare Realm creatures might be bizarre and straightforward, but they’re definitely surprising. Their actions and words carry a bit of absurdity, like reading a stream of consciousness novel—idealistic, solipsistic.”

”So, perhaps the various conspiracy theories I previously speculated about might be set aside for now. Maybe the reason they created the live threads is very, very simple—simply to—”

”Transform this world.”

This transformation might be different from all imaginations, more absurd, more bizarre. Like a madman’s thought—

”To make the world a stage, and the people controlled by the live threads actors.” Angel spoke, already understanding what Sanders wanted to express before others.

Sanders gently nodded to Angel and continued, ”This conjecture might not be complete. There might indeed be some conspiracies, such as using the live threads to control humans and occupy the Wizards’ Realm since Nightmare Realm creatures, though eccentric, have a Terror Queen revered by all of them behind the scenes.”

”However, these purposes are unimportant because Nightmare Realm creatures are inherently xenophobic, thus humans are naturally opposed to them. As long as the initial intent behind the creation of the live threads is understood, it’s easy to deduce their ultimate goal.”

”To make all infected, thoroughly mad actors.” Sanders paused, ”This is very likely their purpose.”

According to the information Sanders received from the Tree Spirit, it can be confirmed that as time goes by, the ”actors” become more proficient in their performances.

Obviously, this is the live threads increasingly ”compatible” with the infected, the longer the infection, the deeper the performance.

Saying this, others finally understood what Sanders wanted to convey.

”The deeper an actor is into a role, the harder it is to separate from it,” Greya said softly, ”In other words, the more compatible the live threads are with the actors, the harder it is to break away from the actor state.”

Old Hanmu was just infected, and he hadn’t yet had the chance to embody the role he needed to play, not to mention ”depth” and ”compatibility,” so Sanders could quickly extract the live thread.

On the other side, the dancer, who had been infected for a long time, had virtually merged into the dancer’s role, making it relatively more difficult to extract the live thread from the role compared to Old Hanmu.

Perhaps a longer time is needed to extract the live thread from the role and saturate with the aura of the Nightmare Realm.

Sanders: ”Of course, this is just my speculation, maybe once becoming an actor, the live thread can no longer detach, who knows.”

Greya softly muttered after hearing, ”Just try it to find out.”

Sanders: ”I was thinking the same.”

In the following time, Sanders selected two people from the patients—a dancer from before and Yva’s sister, whose infection time wasn’t that long either.

Sanders decided to conduct a control experiment to determine the relationship between infection duration and live thread detachment, as well as the relevant proportions.