Chapter 86: Crossroads of Fate

When it was first built they spent a fortune on it. The Labey Street Gambling City, designed to withstand a certain intensity of combat, very "unfortunately" collapsed.After sustaining continuous attacks from over a hundred superhumans, it finally crumbled only after such a long time.

That alone proved how incredibly sturdy this casino had been.

The collapse of the gambling city sent plumes of dust billowing skyward again.

This place once more turned into an environment with no visibility.

Among the superhumans caught in the mêlée, only a very small number of unlucky fighters who were already near exhaustion were mercilessly buried by the falling ruins.

A disaster on the scale of a building collapse could no longer hurt these nearly inhuman mid-tier superhumans.

Most of them shattered the falling casino debris with their attacks.

These powerful mid-tier superhumans were disasters in and of themselves.

Amid the swirling dust,

a tall figure with a pair of wings finally stopped emitting that attention-grabbing faint glow.

Having just dealt with numerous lethal attacks, Loren completed his dodge just as the casino began to collapse.

He had finally completed his advancement.

Sixth tier!

Loren closed his eyes and pushed his mental perception to the maximum, feeling the changes after his ascension.

What differences would this advancement bring compared to previous ones, especially when completed amid such danger?

He was desperate to know.

With his eyes shut, besides sensing that his previous five abilities had each been strengthened to some degree,

he had also gained a new ability.

Loren opened his eyes, intending to find someone to test it on.

Scanning the surrounding rolling dust, he frowned.

Not being able to see anyone would be unacceptable...

Loren swung the wings on his back and flapped them hard, a fierce gust rising.

It seemed the wings’ power had increased too...

Feeling the strong black wings behind him, Loren thought to himself.

The dust was easily blown aside by the sudden wind, even swept into another block.

What came into Loren’s view was a field of ruins, scattered with disheveled superhumans standing everywhere.

When the dust cleared and vision returned, the superhumans stood on the rubble, wary of one another.

Loren picked out a superhuman who had just attacked him the hardest, looked at him calmly, and quietly activated his ability.

The other’s expression instantly went blank.

Two seconds later, his body fell to the ground in a strange way.

He died without a sound.

Loren nodded silently;he was very satisfied with the new ability he had gained from the advancement.

It seemed that advancing while maintaining a certain level of crisis and yearning for greater strength had been useful...

Loren came to that quiet conclusion.

Fortune never lies...

The superhuman who had died silently, after being glanced at by Loren, had actually been pulled into an illusory space.

He found himself standing at a crossroads in a field.

Beside him was an old signpost, four wooden arrows pointing in four directions.

Perched atop the signpost was a phantasmal raven, as if to remind him that this place was unreal.

Upon seeing the raven on the sign, a strong sensation arose in the superhuman’s mind.

“You must choose one of the paths to move forward in order to leave this illusion. There is a one-in-four chance of death and a three-in-four chance of survival.”

His face turned extremely ugly. He knew he had been attacked by, most likely, a troublesome rule-based psychic.

This was a very experienced superhuman.

He did not immediately choose a path;he did not want to gamble with a one-in-four death chance.

As the manager of this gambling city, he had seen many superhumans.

He understood that every superhuman had weaknesses.

He began to cautiously probe the illusion, trying to find a weakness he could exploit, then break the space with an attack.

Eventually, after trying every attack and finding the illusion unchanged, he gave up in despair.

“Rule-based psychics really are the most troublesome!!”

He sighed helplessly.

Then, resigned to fate, he casually picked a country lane and walked forward in silence...

Unfortunately, he chose poorly.

In reality, only two seconds had passed.

Loren’s new ability belonged to the control category.

But this new power came with extreme danger.

Perhaps because he advanced in the midst of a life-or-death crisis, and because Loren subconsciously desired to be stronger,

this new ability’s lethality was the highest among all his powers.

“Within the range of the first ability, Loren can use mental force to create an illusory space and pull an enemy’s soul into it.”

“Once the soul is pulled into the illusion, it appears in the middle of a crossroads.”

“There is a signpost in the center of the crossroads, and a phantasmal raven sits atop that sign.”

“The raven conveys the general rules of the illusory space to the enemy.”

“To escape the illusion, the enemy must choose one of the four paths to proceed.”

“The four paths respectively represent receiving a stroke of Fortune, being possessed by Misfortune, nothing happening, and every ounce of Misfortune Loren can control being instantly dumped upon them.”

“If the enemy’s mental strength is not strong enough and they choose the fourth path, their soul will collapse under the massive accumulation of Misfortune.”

“In reality, any path can lead out of the illusion.”

“But the phantasmal raven provides a false hint about the fourth path, and souls are terrified by such death-implicating suggestions.”

When Loren first learned about this ability, he didn’t think it was particularly powerful.

After all, there was a three-in-four chance of survival.

For a strong superhuman, a temporary surge of Misfortune wasn’t necessarily lethal.

Even for the single-minded, stubborn type, there might be a chance to survive the fourth path.

That type of enemy doesn’t trust anyone’s words, and their mental resistance is often decent.

Also, there was a restriction: only those whose mental power was weaker than Loren would be pulled into the illusion.

But once Loren actually used it,

he discovered a special detail that delighted him.

Before the enemy chose which path to take,

Loren could quietly stack Misfortune on the soul standing in the crossroads using his first ability.

The sixth ability on its own wasn’t terrifying.

What was terrifying was that when he activated the sixth ability, and before the opponent chose a path, Loren could use his first ability.

Hesitation leads to defeat.

Unless the opponent was extremely decisive and immediately stepped onto one path upon entering the illusion,

they would be affected by Loren’s first ability.

Otherwise, the Misfortune from the first ability would be quietly attached.

Those beset by Misfortune always make wrong choices, don’t they?

Misfortune treats no one kindly.

With the first ability’s cooperation, the probability that an opponent chooses the fourth path became extremely high.

Those marked by Misfortune always walked the fourth road.

Facing the full weight of Loren’s stacked Misfortune and having it all applied in an instant,

combined with the raven’s death-suggestion,

even stubborn, single-minded superhumans would suffer a sharp drop in state after leaving the illusion.

Making a soul endure a sudden avalanche of Misfortune in an instant is a very foolish thing.

Very pleased with his new ability, Loren rarely gave the sixth ability a name:

“Crossroads of Fate.”