Fanatics of the Magic Academy

"But I find it very sacred."

Rose looked at Joel with a sense of bewilderment.

Seeing Rose's expression, Joel shrugged and said:

"We come to collect corpses for research purposes, rarely for organ transplantation."

"So these corpses with unusual deaths have great research and collection value, so I can give you more money for these seven corpses."

Rose thought Joel's thought process was a bit peculiar:

"But don't you find it strange? Why did these people die in the tent, and die such a gruesome death?"

Joel stood there for a moment and thought for a moment, then said:

"You know what, let me take a look."

Joel examined the corpses as if they were new toys.

Then he crawled into the tent, rummaged through the things inside, trying to find some clues.

A moment later, he emerged from the tent, clutching something written on it in his hand.

Through the glass goggles of the gas mask, Rose could see that Joel was somewhat bored and disdainful.

He stomped his foot, kicked off the sticky stuff on it, and said:

"Hey, what did I think it was?"

He threw what he was holding on the ground—a bag of needles and a booster.

He explained to Rose:

"It's not for any other reason, it's just that a few of them were simply using enhancement drugs together."

"These are obviously from small workshops that buy materials that are used in large quantities."

"Then they all got high, and then they started self-harming, tearing and biting each other."

And because this enhancer masked their senses, this unbridled revelry continued indefinitely.

"Until organ failure and excessive blood loss, then he died."

"What a boring reason. I thought there was some kind of monster or some kind of ritual performed by cultists."

Then Joel seemed to realize something, and he looked at Ross:

"By the way! Did you know? We've recently found a cult member hiding around here. He's probably about your age, but he's much more ruthless than you."

Rose's hands and feet were a little cold, but his high level of rationality allowed him to control his body and facial muscles and prevent him from doing anything abnormal.

"Yeah?"

"Although it's already impressive that you could survive alone in the slums at such a young age, that guy is even more impressive, it can't even be called impressive."

"He slaughtered more than 30 people like dogs, including many nobles!"

"Holy crap, do you know how much his bounty is? A whopping 500 million marks! That's enough for me to live a life of luxury for the rest of my days!"

He pointed to the sweat-drenched Luo Sai track:

"I'd fucking like to use [Flesh and Blood Modification] to create a pair of golden vertical pupils for you and put them on, so you can collect your bounty!"

Rose was now truly sweating profusely; he was filled with fear and tried to awaken Joel's conscience:

"Brother Joel, stop joking..."

Joel shook his head and said:

"Alas, even if I wanted to do it, I couldn't. The alienated characteristics of believers are easy to detect, and no amount of modification can imitate them."

"That's really strange. Logically speaking, someone with golden vertical pupils should be quite obvious when they enter a slum. How did they manage to hide?"

"Unless their faith collapses, believers cannot change their alienated appearance, but if their faith collapses, they will surely die."

Rose keenly grasped this information.

Can believers not easily change their alienated appearance?

This is important; Rose understood why his wanted poster didn't even have a name, only a description of vertical pupils.

Also, do believers die after their faith collapses?

I really don't know about Rossai.

Indeed, if reason can collapse and decline continuously, then faith should also decline and collapse for some reason.

But the price was death. Was the price really that serious?

The cost of a complete breakdown of reason is not this severe; it merely results in a decrease in strength and the inability to use magic.

Even the life-transcending effects brought about by rationality can be preserved; just look at the old homeless man to understand.

"Or is it that the power he used to kill so many people was a deal he made with an evil god?"

So now, after the costs were recovered, it's just rotting somewhere in the slums?

Joel is completely absorbed in his own world and can't pull himself out.

There was no thirst for knowledge in his eyes, only a longing for 500 million.

"Even just providing clues is worth 2 marks!"

He then kicked the corpse dismissively and said:

"I thought it was done by some cult member. They could get 2 marks for reporting it and providing clues."

Rose tried to steer Joel's thoughts toward the corpse:

"Brother Joel, did these homeless people die simply because they gathered to use enhancement drugs?"

Joel's thoughts returned, and he nodded, saying:

"You don't need to question my judgment on the cause of death of the bodies of homeless people; I'm a professional in this area."

"If I say they died from a group of people using performance-enhancing drugs, then it must be true, there's no mistake about it."

He then removed his mask, placed it in the car, and frowned as he looked at the body lying on the ground:

"However, it is true that this kind of group use of enhancers is not very common among the homeless population; it might happen once every few months."

That's very rare.

Joel frowned, deep in thought. Then, as if struck by a sudden realization, he asked Luo Sailu:

"Have they issued any supply vouchers recently?"

Rose nodded:

"Yes, I received mine too."

Joel nodded and said:

"I was wondering why you hadn't come to see me lately. I thought you were dead."

Then he pointed to the corpse and said:

"That's not surprising. Generally speaking, homeless people spend their money on boosters as soon as they have it, and they use them themselves first."

"I didn't say I was going to host a party, since I don't even have enough for my own."

"But if they issue supply vouchers, it's different. They can go to the gangs and exchange the vouchers for cash. About 400 marks can be exchanged for about 160."

Rose remembered that day when a gangster stopped him at the store entrance and wanted to exchange his supply vouchers.

"Supply vouchers can't buy enhancement agents, but cash can. A group of homeless people who had money spent it all on enhancement agents."

"Then some people, like this group, invited each other to smoke together."

They didn't have much money normally, but now that they suddenly had some, they started using drugs without any limits. Plus, those small workshops were really ruthless with their methods.

"This makes it very easy for sudden, large doses to cause organ failure."

Or it's like this—absorbing so much so that you lose all sense of the world and start engaging in unrestrained, chaotic fighting.

Rose seemed to remember something, and continued Joel's words:

"I also found several bodies with organ failure. I thought it was another setup by some magician, but I didn't expect it to be for this reason."

Rose suddenly remembered the many high-dose corpses he had found using [Wind Network Perception].

He had initially thought it was a scheme orchestrated by some magician, but it turned out to be just because of the distribution of resource vouchers.

Upon hearing this, Joel shrugged and said:

"Then it all matches up."