The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

The "mortal puppet" just looked down at his boots, as if he had just kicked a stone in the way.

Romano's shouting stopped abruptly. He kept his forehead pressed against Li Shanze's boot, his bloodshot eyes slowly moving upwards to meet Li Shanze's face. His expectant, slightly provocative gaze froze at that moment.

"How...is this possible?" Romano muttered to himself, his voice full of confusion.

As an expert in illusion, Romano had fought against various illusions countless times. Every time, as long as he found a flaw or exerted enough impact, those false images would burst like soap bubbles.

But the "mortal puppet" in front of him was more solid than he could imagine.

He tried to push Li Shanze's boots away with his head again, but the boots seemed to have taken root and did not move at all.

He could even feel the cool touch of the boot leather and the outline of the hard bone and muscle beneath it.

This sense of reality caused his ability to identify illusions, which he was so proud of, to waver for the first time.

Could it be that? Could it be that all this isn't an illusion?

This thought was like a cold poisonous snake, instantly wrapping around Romano's heart.

He suddenly pulled back his head, and his fat body moved stiffly on the ground, trying to distance himself from Li Shanze.

In his bloodshot eyes, doubts quickly grew and then turned into an incredible suspicion.

He looked around: the damp walls, the cold iron door, the musty and bloody smell in the air...it all seemed so real and terrifying.

The cold touch of the shackles on his wrists and the pain that penetrated his bones became extremely clear at this moment. He had previously attributed all of this to the realism of the illusion and the strategy of attrition war, but what if... what if this was not an illusion?

Romano's breathing became rapid, and the blood color on his face, which was twisted by anger and fatigue, gradually faded, replaced by a sickly paleness.

He recalled all the "performances" he had just put on - cursing at the air, self-righteously exposing the illusion, and even hitting the mortal puppet with his head.

What did he just say?

"You coward! You don't even dare to show your true self, but only dare to hide behind illusions and play such tricks!"

"The magical powers of Marco Giuseppe Romano are beyond your imagination!"

"This kind of childish illusion is not worth mentioning to me!"

Every word and every sentence was like a loud slap in the face.

The illusions he was proud of and his self-proclaimed identity as a master of illusions became a complete joke at this moment.

He was not fighting a battle of wits and courage with a great wizard. He was just a captured prisoner, performing a ridiculous one-man show in a real cell, facing a real interrogator!

The feeling of shame instantly overwhelmed him like a tide; from head to toes, every pore was clamoring for embarrassment.

His face flushed the color of liver, not because of anger, but because of extreme shame. He wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into, wanted to faint immediately, wanted to turn back time, he wished he had never woken up from the coma.

"You...you..." Romano opened his mouth, but no complete sound came out.

He wanted to refute and deny, but the hammer of facts smashed all his fantasies.

After the shame faded, a surge of fury surged from the depths of his heart. Half of this fury was directed at his own stupidity and arrogance, and the other half was directed at Li Shanze, who was watching him with indifference.

He was actually watching him perform like an idiot, even smiling with amusement! He was laughing at himself! He was laughing at his own joke!

"You...you bastard!"

Romano suddenly roared, his voice sharp and piercing with anger, with a kind of hysteria on the verge of collapse.

"How dare you... How dare you play tricks on me!"

He struggled, his fat body twisting violently on the ground, trying to break free from the shackles, pounce on Li Shanze, and tear him to pieces.

But the shackles didn't move at all, only making an even harsher friction sound, fixing him firmly in place. The cold shackles reminded him that he was now just a poor wretch trapped in a cage.

Then, Li Shanze's boot stepped on his head again.

The kick was so strong that it suffocated Romano.

"Calm down, calm down, Mr. Marco Giuseppe Romano." Li Shanze said with a smile, "I just walked into the cell. I didn't say anything and didn't do anything."

"If you insist on slandering me, we'll have to check the surveillance footage to see what's going on."

There is also a video!

When Romano thought about his ugly behavior being recorded in full, his eyes went dark and he wished he could faint immediately.

"Of course, in order to protect the prisoner's privacy, as long as you are willing to cooperate with our work-"

Li Shanze's well-timed pauses leave room for rich subtext.

Then Li Shanze felt that the head he was stepping on was squirming desperately and nodding hard, expressing his joyful thoughts and feelings.

332 Frightened Romano

However, even with the mixture of shame and anger, Romano's mind was still a mess.

He didn't understand why all the witchcraft props on him were ineffective, why his witchcraft was greatly reduced, and how he was caught by this "mortal" in front of him.

After Li Shanze's boots were removed, Romano gasped for breath. He raised his head, and in his eyes there was not only shame and anger, but also a lingering confusion.

"How...how on earth did you do that?" His voice was hoarse, with a hint of unwillingness and disbelief in it. "My witchcraft...why is this happening? I can clearly feel it's still there, but...I can't use it!"

He struggled to lift his handcuffed hands from behind and tried to condense a spell, but he could feel the spell condensing and could not release it no matter what.

"And...and why did I faint?" Romano stared at Li Shanze, as if trying to figure out something from him. "It was you...what did you do to me? How could a mortal...how could a mortal do such a thing? What kind of witchcraft did you use?!"

He still stubbornly believed that what could subdue him must be some kind of witchcraft unknown to him, rather than purely mortal means.

Li Shanze didn't care about Romano's thoughts.

"Mr. Marco Giuseppe Romano, it seems you haven't figured out the situation yet."

Li Shanze's voice was filled with an unquestionable coldness. He took a step forward and looked down at the fat man on the ground.

"Now, do you think you are still qualified to ask me questions?" Li Shanze's tone was very stern, and his eyes were as sharp as a knife, piercing Romano's heart.

"Your witchcraft? You fainted? That's your problem. I just need you to answer my question." Li Shanze pointed at Romano's fat face with the tip of his shoe in an humiliating manner and said contemptuously.

"So, put away your foolish questions and self-righteous fantasies. Now, only I ask questions and you answer. Do you understand?"

Seeing the dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction hidden in Romano's eyes, Li Shanze added.

"As someone who openly claims to be a spiritual wizard from the 'Delusion Society,' I wonder if your behavior, if properly edited and published, would be interpreted as someone having an existential crisis?"

"By then, not only will you be abandoned by Drummond, but there will probably be a lot of wizards who want to cause trouble for you, right?"

As soon as Li Shanze finished speaking, Romano's fat body suddenly stiffened and his pupils suddenly contracted.

The color on his face that had originally surged with shame and anger instantly faded, becoming paler than before, with dense beads of cold sweat oozing from his forehead.

The word "existential crisis" was like a bolt of lightning, splitting open all the chaos and unwillingness in his mind.

As spiritual wizards of the Delusion Society, what they are most proud of is their control over the spirit and mind.

Existential crisis is a wizard's worst nightmare. For wizards of the Delusional Society, it means the complete collapse of their minds and the disintegration of their self-awareness.

If his ugly appearance of talking to himself and rushing around randomly just now were made public and interpreted as an existential crisis, it would make him feel worse than death than any physical torture.

He would become the laughing stock of the entire wizarding world and would be ruthlessly abandoned.

And those wizards who were once suppressed and ridiculed by him, those guys who coveted his status and resources, would pounce on him like sharks smelling blood and tear him to pieces.

Romano's body began to tremble uncontrollably, not from the cold, but from the fear that came with the thought.

The anger and shame he had just felt turned into cold despair at this moment.

He finally understood that the threat posed by the man before him was far more deadly than he had imagined.

Li Shanze was not threatening his life, but everything he had as a wizard, his dignity, his status, and the foundation of his survival.

The only thing that made Romano feel a little relieved was that he was not killed by a "mortal". He knew about the existential crisis and could talk about the Delusional Heart Society. He was undoubtedly an insider in the wizard circle.

Yes, the partner of Theodore Lancaster and Cyrus Morton, and of course also an insider of the wizarding circle - Romano still couldn't overturn his own guess.

"I...I understand..." Romano's voice was so low that it was almost inaudible, with an unprecedented level of resignation and fear.

He stopped struggling, stopped trying to gather his magic, and even the sound of the shackles on his wrists rubbing against each other disappeared.

He collapsed on the ground like a puddle of mud, with only his eyes left. Occasionally, he would secretly glance at Li Shanze, his eyes filled with fear and unspeakable pleading.

"I... I'll cooperate... I'll tell you everything..." He spoke intermittently, his voice filled with tears. The arrogance and conceit he had just shown were gone, leaving only a fat man who was completely defeated.

Li Shanze looked at Romano's appearance, and the sneer on his face finally disappeared completely.

He nodded in satisfaction. He knew that this arrogant wizard from the Delusion Society had truly surrendered at this moment - if he still harbored the same resistance as Vikram Chandrasekhar, it would inevitably take more effort.

"Very good." Li Shanze said calmly, his voice no longer filled with any emotion, as if the threat just now was just a casual remark. "So, can we begin now, Mr. Marco Giuseppe Romano?"

Li Shanze just asked in a pretentious manner. In fact, he did not wait for Romano's answer, but started asking questions directly.

"You know Ms. Barnum, the great wizard of the Boiling Sage, right? Do you know the cause of her death?"

Since he had just promised Charlie, Li Shanze simply started asking questions from Barnum.

As soon as Li Shanze finished speaking, Romano's fat body trembled violently and his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Mr. Barnum..." Romano repeated subconsciously. This name was like a bolt of lightning, instantly splitting all the chaos and unwillingness in his mind.

Barnum, his teacher—to be precise, his teacher in alchemy, and his guide to the Boiling Sage.

Romano only semi-revealed his identity as a member of the Delusion Society after he was sure that Barnum was dead.

Romano never expected that it was the ghost of the late Barnum who caught up with him, which made him subconsciously frightened.

He jerked his head up and looked around.

The metallic-luster walls and the cold and hard iron door, these seemingly ordinary cell features, now became extremely strange in his eyes.

How could an ordinary cell completely suppress his witchcraft? How could it completely render his witchcraft props ineffective? He had always thought it was Cyrus Morton's illusion or some kind of advanced witchcraft, but now...

If this was Barnum's RV—the one he had been searching for so long, then it all made sense!

His witchcraft was suppressed not because of an illusion, but because of the special barrier inside the RV!

That barrier could completely neutralize the wizard's power, rendering the wizard as powerless as a mortal! His magical props were ineffective not because they were illusions, but because they were completely neutralized!

The reason why he fainted was not because of some sophisticated witchcraft, but because... his powerful teacher had countless strange and bizarre methods to punish others.

Although he made inferences from the wrong starting point, he accidentally guessed where he was at the moment.

"Barnum...Barnum!" Romano's lips trembled and he uttered an incoherent whisper.

His fat body twisted violently on the ground, like a fish thrown into a hot pot, every cell in his body screaming with fear.

He thought he had done everything perfectly, that Barnum's death would be a stepping stone to his promotion, and that the RV would become his new wealth.

But now, this RV has become his prison, and the teacher who he thought had completely disappeared seems to be conducting a belated trial on him in some strange way.

"No... Impossible! You're dead! You can't be alive!"

Romano yelled hysterically, his voice shrill and piercing with sheer terror.

"I saw you take the medicine with my own eyes! How could you still be alive?!"

Hearing Romano's words, Li Shanze raised his eyebrows.

Li Shanze remembered that the old knight talked about Barnum's death, but did not mention that there was a third person present.

Maybe the drug they mixed to murder Barnum was a delayed-onset drug?

At this time, Romano struggled desperately because of fear. The shackles on his wrists rattled as he pulled them. The iron chains dug into his thick flesh, leaving deep red marks, but he did not feel any pain at all.

He just wanted to escape from here, escape from this cage shrouded in Barnum's shadow.

He banged his head against the cold wall, making a dull "bang" sound, trying to use the physical pain to dispel the fear in his heart, or simply knock himself unconscious.

He even began to scratch the ground with his nails, making a harsh friction sound, as if he was trying to dig himself out of this hell.

Sweat and tears mixed together, blurring his vision, but the fear in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

"You... who are you?!" Romano suddenly raised his head, staring at Li Shanze with his bloodshot eyes filled with despair and a hint of madness. "Are you Barnum's... Barnum's puppet?!"

Looking at Romano's expression, Li Shanze shrugged.

At least Romano has explained almost everything about Barnum.

So Li Shanze pulled the slide of the pistol, and the crisp click sound was particularly loud in the cell.

"Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Romano. Well, goodbye--" Li Shanze spoke deliberately slowly. He slowly put the gun to Romano's forehead, giving Romano enough time to react.

Sure enough, Romano, with a strong desire to survive, shouted: "No! You can't kill me! Although I gave you the medicine! But only Vikram Chandrasekhar can make this medicine!"

"And, and everyone in the Boiling Sage wants you dead! Everyone wants you dead! This isn't, this isn't my fault alone! I just, I just did what they wanted!"