America: The Cremator

As soon as the light blue system panel unfolded on his retina, Su Long's attention was focused on the newly acquired [Intelligence Insight★] entry, and the panel also displayed a detailed description.

【Intelligence Insight★】

Type: Blessing

Description: When interacting with others or fighting supernatural entities, you have a chance to obtain crucial information about them. The trigger probability is directly affected by the host's Charisma and Mental attributes. Information detail level: Low.

Comment: I know your weaknesses.

Su Long nodded as he looked at the description of the entry.

This is an extremely valuable auxiliary ability; whether in combat or social situations, the value of key intelligence is immeasurable.

He habitually glanced at the upper right corner and found that his experience points balance had reached a substantial 51 points. Without hesitation, he spent 20 experience points to upgrade [American Dream] and [Intelligence Insight].

After all, based on long-term experience, the benefits of upgrading affixes are much higher than those of upgrading attributes.

A pale blue light flashed across the panel, and the attributes of the new entry were updated accordingly.

The American Dream ★★

Type: Blessing

Description: You can transform a severe injury you've suffered into a dream, thus completely negating the injury and returning you to your state before the injury. Upon activation, the host will be drained of most of their physical and mental strength, leaving them in a weakened state. (Cooldown: Once every 3 days)

Evaluation: Reload!

The significant reduction in cooldown time, coupled with the decrease in stamina and energy consumption, has dramatically improved the practicality of this ability!

[Intelligence Insight ★★]

Type: Blessing

Description: When communicating with people or fighting strange entities, you have a chance to obtain key information about them. The trigger probability is directly affected by the host's charm and mental attributes. Information detail level: medium.

Review: The art of judging people! Dark psychology!

Looking at the completed entry, Su Long thought the upgrade would be in terms of trigger probability, but he didn't expect it to be an improvement in the detail of the information.

Having never experienced the information about the one-star state, Su Long had no way to compare the specific improvements, but it was definitely much better than no improvement at all.

After all, who wants to receive a bunch of vague and ambiguous information when they've finally triggered crucial intelligence?

After upgrading the entry, Su Long's gaze naturally shifted downwards to look at his current basic data.

Five-dimensional attributes:

Physical condition: 10 (healthy)

Agility: 10 (Swift)

Vision: 30 (Eye of Truth)

Charm: 15 (Handsome)

Spirit: 14 (Resilience)

Looking at the five-dimensional attributes that were beginning to grow before him, Su Long couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Now that all the available affixes have been upgraded to two stars, I can start thinking about allocating attribute points to them.

My spiritual vision has increased to 30 points, but my other attributes are only a little over 10 points, which is obviously not conducive to my development.

Moreover, the ability to gain intelligence insight has significantly increased his need for charisma and charm.

After figuring it out, Su Long split the 31 experience points into smaller parts and used them to comprehensively enhance his basic attributes.

The instant the distribution was confirmed, a surge of intense heat rose from the end of the spine and rapidly spread throughout the body. The bones emitted a slight popping sound, the senses instantly became sharper, and the brain's processing speed was significantly enhanced.

He brought up the system panel again and examined his completely refreshed data.

Attributes:

Physical condition: 20 (robust)

Agility: 20 (Swift)

Vision: 30 (Eye of Truth)

Charm: 20 (Handsome)

Spirit: 20 (Calm)

Entry: [Prometheus☆☆], [Ode to Flesh and Blood☆☆], [King's Aura☆☆], [Sirius's Contract☆☆], [Raphael's Contract☆☆], [American Dream☆☆], [Intelligence Insight☆☆], [Elena's Clay Sculpture☆], [The Butterfly's Pursuit★]

Su Long closed the system panel and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

The balanced improvement of all attributes gave him an unprecedented sense of control.

Whether facing a drug trafficking ring or the B-grade eerie Nightmare Butterfly, he felt much more confident.

Time passed slowly until two in the morning, when the villa's ornate iron gate made a dull thud as it opened.

Elena pushed open the door and entered, taking off her tactical jacket, which was covered in gunpowder and dust, and casually hanging it on the metal coat rack in the entryway.

Su Long put down his mug and asked, "Shall we continue removing the marks tonight?"

Elena shook her head, slumped heavily into the single sofa, and replied in a hoarse voice, "Let's call it a day. We can continue erasing it another day. Right now, I just want to get a good night's sleep."

Su Long nodded in understanding, then asked, "Was there something urgent today? Why are you back so late?"

Elena waved her hand wearily and said, "The two gang members' cars that escaped yesterday were caught and destroyed by an armed helicopter. We captured one surviving gang member, but he died in the hospital before we could interrogate him."

"Is the injury too serious?" Su Long asked, frowning.

"No, although this is inside information, I think you should take a look." With that, Elena handed a tablet to Suron.

Su Long took it, opened the internal video, and saw that it was surveillance footage from a hospital ward.

The time displayed in the upper right corner of the video footage is 12:32.

The seriously injured and unconscious assassin lay on the hospital bed, his body covered in tubes from monitoring equipment.

At 12:32:05, the unconscious killer on the hospital bed suddenly began to convulse without warning, and the convulsions became increasingly violent.

The electrocardiogram monitor's curves began to show dramatic fluctuations, and a piercing alarm sounded in the ward.

The next moment, the assassin's abdominal flesh began to writhe strangely, faster and faster, the flesh bulging high, as if something was pushing outward from the inside.

As the flesh tore open, a butterfly the size of a basketball, covered in sticky blood, emerged from the mangled wound, spread its wings, circled halfway in mid-air, crashed straight into the ward window, and flew into the night.

Immediately afterwards, two nurses pushed open the door and entered. Upon seeing the horrific scene on the bed, one of them instantly collapsed to the ground with her legs giving way, while the other covered her mouth and retreated repeatedly.

"The way this little thing emerged from its cocoon is quite unique." Su Long handed the tablet back to Elena and picked up the mug he hadn't finished drinking from earlier.

Elena took the tablet, looking exhausted. "Unique? Call it what you will..."

Su Long took a sip of water, shrugged, and joked, "What a pity, the French only studied how to roast snails, not whether these butterflies are edible. They're so big, they must be delicious."

"I won't eat either snails or butterflies," Elena said with a disdainful purse. Then, as if remembering something, she suddenly sat up, took an envelope from her pocket, and handed it to Su Long: "Oh, right, take a look at this."

"Although you've already seen the sniper's weapon at the scene today, this is what it looks like after it's been pieced together. If you have time, could you help me investigate the origin of this gun? Maybe we can follow this line of inquiry and find some clues."

Surong took the envelope and chuckled, "How come you think I'm capable of tracing the origin of this thing? Isn't that something you or the FBI excel at?"

Elena waved her hand and said, "Who knows? You have so many secrets. What if you really have the ability?"

After saying this, she stood up, supporting herself on the armrest of the sofa, and dragged her heavy steps toward the bedroom on the second floor.

He suddenly stopped midway, turned around and said, "Also, if your butterfly killer only appears once a day at dawn, then you don't have to worry all day tomorrow. I just killed a colorful butterfly at the entrance."

Upon hearing this, Su Long nodded gratefully, "Thank you!"

Watching Elena go upstairs, Su Long took out the paper photo from the envelope and examined it carefully under the bright lights of the living room.

The firearm in the photo is much more complete than the fragments I saw in the afternoon; it has been pieced together.

Once the fragments are transformed into a complete firearm, its grotesque nature becomes even more apparent. The heavy steel components of the sniper rifle, such as the receiver, bolt, and rear half of the barrel, barely retain the outline of an industrial product, with dark scorch marks on the surface caused by high-temperature burning.

The bullets used in this gun were also lying to the side; they looked thicker than an adult male's thumb.

Next to the firearms and bullets, there were two white evidence cards with markings.

One of the photos had the rifle's specific model written on it in black marker: "NTW-20 Anti-Material Sniper Rifle".

The other card indicated the bullet's type: "14.5×114 B-32".