Hell's Handbook

“Durand?” Oscar looked puzzled. “What brings you here?”

Durand glanced at the others in the room and Oscar motioned to them to leave. After they left, Oscar smiled and said, “What a strange way to visit your friend! Why didn’t you use the door instead?”

“If you were really my old friend, Oscar, then I’d definitely use the door. But you aren’t!” Durand glared steely at Oscar with a look of disdain in his eyes.

Oscar was a little stunned by this answer at first, but he soon revealed a sinister smile as he asked, “Oh? How did you know? Also, how did you manage to break through my seal and enter this world?”

“I have my own means, of course. How should I address you? Mr. Genius?” asked Durand.

“Looks like you know quite a bit, huh! But you shouldn’t have said anything. If you continued pretending that you didn’t know anything, I would still be your friend and I would still go through adventures and dangers with you,” said Oscar.

Durand burst out laughing. “What did you just say? Go through adventures and dangers with me? You think you’re even qualified to say that?”

He emphasized all the words of his last sentence that culminated in a shout, making Oscar’s expression look nastier and nastier. He was an immortal genius who could make even the will of the universe give in to him. He hadn’t suffered such humiliation in a long time.

“I’m going to kill you!” Oscar transformed into a shadow that dashed toward Durand. He was excellent at using this Spirit Power and was able to cover the entire building and more within his own shadow, making this place his own little world.

Durand glared at Oscar and just before Oscar got to him, a bright light suddenly exploded from inside him. The shadow that Oscar had created instantly dissipated like ice in a mighty fire.

“We’re friends, you said? Then you should know that the closer friends are to one another, the more they know about each other’s weaknesses!” Durand continued to shine brightly as he ran after Oscar. His physique was really incredible, so not even Su Jin would have dared to say he could defeat him while he was still an ordinary owner.

Boom!

His punch hit the shadow that Oscar had created and it flew backward like smoke that was blown away by a strong wind. But one main section continued to hang onto Durand’s fist.

“Now!” Durand’s arm shook, and a force whooshed out from his arm. As an owner that developed his physical body the most, he was very familiar with techniques related to the body itself.

Oscar’s shadow kept shaking but refused to let go. After a while, Durand began to pant as he realized that his strength was waning, as though something was sucking it away.

“You’re… you’re absorbing my energy!” Durand’s eyes widened.

“Ha! Looks like you don’t really know your friend well enough! Don’t you know that this is something that this Spirit Power can do?” Oscar cackled.

Durand grew weaker and weaker, and there a tinge of indignation in his eyes, but he had no choice. He called out, “I can’t do this anymore! I need your help!”

“Are you talking to me?” asked Oscar puzzledly.

“Nope, he’s talking to me!” Su Jin’s voice came from the office desk behind the two men. Su Jin was sitting on the swivel chair as he fiddled with the ornaments on the table.

“Su Jin! You’re… you’re that insurgent!” An icy glint flashed in Oscar’s eyes.

“That’s right!” Su Jin nodded.

“I didn’t think you would dare to come here… Now, I just need to…” Oscar started off strong, but halfway through his sentence, he suddenly transformed into a shadow and flew in the other direction. He clearly intended to escape and not fight Su Jin right from the start.

Su Jin laughed. He had guessed that this might happen, so after Oscar had flown a few hundred meters away, he found himself blocked by a gray wall of light.

“There’s no point in trying to escape. If I let you escape, then my friends would have suffered for nothing!” Su Jin got up and gripped the air, making Oscar fly right back against his will.

The fake Oscar knew that he couldn’t get away, so he decided to fight Su Jin with everything he had. He spread himself out in order to cover Su Jin with his shadow. But Su Jin did not dodge and casually grabbed hold of him. Oscar suddenly realized that he couldn’t use his Spirit Power anymore.

“Damn it… you’re… you’re absorbing my Spirit Power!” Oscar paled in horror. It was just like how he had absorbed Durand’s energy just now.

As Su Jin sucked all the Spirit Power out of the fake Oscar, he said curiously, “I see. I was wondering where you got this body from, since Oscar managed to dodge your takeover. So, it’s that arm you took from him. You used the powers of the Handbook to recreate a full body for yourself.”

“Please, please… let me off! You need very powerful assistants, don’t you? I found out from this man’s memories that you’ve invited him to join your temple before! I’m a lot more powerful than him and I’m a real god too! I’m willing to help you, so please, let me off!” pleaded the fake Oscar.

But Su Jin ignored his pleas. While it was true that these geniuses that had survived many cycles weren’t truly immortal, they had been given special rights because the will of the universe was wary of their powers. If these geniuses came together, they would be a terrifying force. And if Su Jin was surrounded by a good number of them, he was definitely going to lose. But killing just one of them wasn’t a problem.

Slowly, the fake Oscar’s body melted into nothing but a pool of blood, while a grayish ball of light remained in Su Jin’s hand. That was the Spirit Power of shadows, which was the power that belonged to Oscar.

There was a small, bright spark outside the ball, which was the spirit of the genius. But his spirit was now in Su Jin’s control. Su Jin could literally crush him with his hand.

“Do we look for Oscar now?” asked Durand.

Su Jin was about to nod when he heard a whooshing noise that sounded like a fighter jet had just flown over the building. The two men exchanged glances, then leaped out of the window that Durand had smashed when he came. They looked up to see a very unique looking fighter jet above their heads.

“This guy! This isn’t technology that this planet has!” Durand’s eyes lit up with joy because he realized that the pilot of the fighter jet was none other than Oscar himself.

A smile spread across Su Jin’s face as well. Oscar was a top owner after all. He couldn’t possibly lose all confidence in himself after going through a few setbacks.

Oscar had clearly noticed the two of them and landed the plane on the roof. He jumped out and said to them, “I’m sorry for taking some time to be depressed. I hope I’ve arrived in time!”

“Of course! You’ll always be in time! Returning this to you!” Su Jin threw the gray ball in his hand to Oscar.

Oscar instinctively caught the ball, but the ball was immediately absorbed by his body once it came into contact with him and disappeared from his palm.

His body began to shake wildly and crackled loudly like he was peas in a frying pan. That was the sound of his Spirit Power filling up the cells in his body.

A few moments later, Oscar opened his eyes again and it gleamed with the same confidence he used to have. But he also looked terribly surprised. He looked at Su Jin and asked, “This… this…”

“It’s your Spirit Power, so it naturally goes right back into your body. Oh, your arm too!” Su Jin took the spirit of the genius and slapped it against Oscar’s shoulder, causing an arm made purely from energy to appear.

Oscar was really flabbergasted. He stared at his new arm in disbelief and was speechless for a while.

Su Jin said to him, “Once you become a god, you won’t be able to do Challenges anymore and you’ll have to find another way to restore your arm. But I felt that since this guy took your arm away, it would be best if he compensated you with one.”

Su Jin had used his immense powers to turn the genius’s spirit into a physical arm for Oscar, and this arm would eventually be able to display shocking levels of strength, since it was made from the essence of the spirit of a genius.