Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 1700

Chapter 1700: Gluttony Disciple Candidate

Sylas’ eyes narrowed.

"Put it back on!" Fanelei’s voice came out almost too high-pitched. It was as though she was trying to strain against herself and speak out in a tone that sounded a lot calmer than she was, but the result was instead her voice coming out in a thin line that pitched it up.

Sylas didn’t react to her words immediately, but Fanelei seemed far too shaken to actually touch the Madness Key herself. In fact, ever since it landed on the ground, she hadn’t moved a single inch other than to speak. However, her feet, her arms, and even her strands of hair were deathly still.

Of course, Sylas had noticed this already, and he had a few guesses as to why that might be the case. But seeing her reaction now, he wondered if he was only seeing half of the picture.

He raised a hand, and the Madness Key shot back up to his palm.

"Put it on. Put it on," she repeated.

"Why?" Sylas asked.

"The effects of the Madness Key are suppressed by your Scorned Wraps. They’re chains, but they also protect you. Without them, the Madness Key doesn’t have its normal limits. The range it can sense others from is extremely large now, and it won’t limit the level of Disciple either."

"I see."

Sylas didn’t rush to put it back on. He could make a few guesses about this.

Namely, this was something that the little girl—or Fanelei—should have told him long ago. She barely mentioned it just now, but she said something about "limiting levels."

If Sylas was correct, this likely meant that the Madness Key would only ping at you for Madness Disciples that were at your tier level. Otherwise, it would remain dormant. Maybe it would even ping you about Disciples at or higher than you in tier, but it wouldn’t do the reverse.

Second, considering how Fanelei was reacting now, this was likely a matter that was more involved than it seemed. The Madness Key had its own system, which meant that theoretically, there was nothing stopping it from issuing its own Quicktime Events.

If Sylas had to make a guess, the Madness Key’s range was probably rapidly increasing right now the longer it spent separated from the suppression of the Scorned Wraps. If the range went wide enough, it would consider whatever Madness Disciple it was sensing right now to be close enough that it might trigger such an Event—whereas usually, they would be separated by too far of a distance or too much of a tier gap for the Madness Key to do such a thing.

And what would happen to Fanelei if the Madness System suddenly awakened?

Well, it would probably notice that the spirit that was supposed to be overseeing one of its Disciples was gone, and it would certainly try to figure out why that was.

This spelled trouble. Madness Disciples normally made their livelihoods in far weaker Sectors and Horizons. That was because, unlike in those places, territories like ones controlled by the Weaver Guild or their rivals were aware of the existence of Madness Disciples and would kill them on sight.

She was already taking a large risk by bringing Sylas here, but now he had gone and done something like this. If a Legend had been paying attention just now, they might have sensed what happened.

But the frustrating part was that she couldn’t even confidently call Sylas stupid.

For one, because he was a Virtue Disciple now, it would be basically impossible to prove that he was a Madness Disciple even if someone wanted to cross a line and investigate him thoroughly.

Second, she knew quite well that he had thrown the Madness Key like that to: one, gain a psychological edge against her; and two, because it would be invisible so long as he didn’t take it off. Plus... the fact he could take it off in the first place proved he was, indeed, a Virtue Madness Disciple.

No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t find fault, and she was painted into a corner.

"...What do you want?" she finally asked coldly.