Michael looked at his open palm and decisively closed it, as if crushing something in his grasp. A bright prismatic light emanated from the cracks in between his fingers. Right at this very moment, he was using immense pressure to crush down all eight mana elements in his palms, condensing them to a single point.
After a while, he opened his palms, revealing a solid crystal made out of Unity. This was simultaneously a battery and a bomb, with the only difference being its size. With a perfectly small and adequate size, it was an infinite power source. But make it big enough, it could level an entire city.
Right now, he held Unity the size of a small grape.
Once he threw this crystal into the ground, it would erupt in an explosion that destroyed everything within a half kilometer diameter.
He wanted to emulate what would have happened if the fake GodForge pieces had successfully exploded all by themselves. That way, ’they’ wouldn’t be suspicious that someone else got a hold of it.
With one last look at the dismembered, charred, and macabre remains of the zombies around him, Michael tossed the Unity crystal into the air high up in the air. It broke through the leafy foliage of the forest before it finally fell back on the ground at the same place Michael tossed it, except this time, he was gone.
The Unity crystal crashed into hard soil, turning the crystal into a prismatic incandescence.
Half an instant later, the entire forest erupted into a bright white light, destroying everything in its path.
...
...
...
Michael arrived back into the Nation of Reborn, with the fake GodForge pieces floating beside him.
He was extremely eager to experiment on this little artifact. And he wasn’t the only one.
[Would it be possible for me to conduct this experiment?]
Sure, he immediately agreed. He was going to have her take charge anyway. She was the brains of Reborn, after all. Do you have any ideas?
[Positive. In the brief moments that you were in close proximity to the zombie, I took it upon myself to study their physical bodies.]
And what did you find?
[These fakes were installed in the same place as the real GodForge pieces. Somehow, this item was able to give them the equivalent cultivation that a GodForge piece would have given them.]
Everyone knew that GodForge pieces were limited in quantity. It was finite. Every single one in circulation came from the original GodForge that mysteriously shattered during the Ancient Era.
Because of this, GodForge pieces were extremely costly. Only the elites of the elite could afford them.
It cost 10,000 Sand Dollars each kilogram, to be exact. The normal person wouldn’t even be able to get that much in their lifetime, and that would just be enough to get them to the 1st stage of Body Formation.
But everyone was okay with this exorbitant price because... there was no alternative. You could only gain a Diva and an Aubility Power through GodForge pieces.
Unless there was something else.
Michael didn’t know how these fakes were found, but he would reckon that they were a lot more abundant than GodForge pieces.
The fact that the Faux-Stil company was able to transform twenty people into Maugnetics said a lot about the fake’s rarity.
But if this were true, then why was it still unknown? Why would they keep it a secret?
If people found out that GodForge pieces weren’t the only way they could achieve demigodhood, then they would immediately turn their focus on this new alternative.
Prices of GodForge pieces would plummet, while this new object would match its value, making it a win for the Faux-Stil company,
But they didn’t. They chose secrecy instead of earning billions of Sand Dollars.
Why?
Michael wouldn’t find the answer unless he sought out the people behind Frick and the Faux-Stil company.
But it seemed that ChatJK5 had a clue.
[The subject’s hearts were in a decline.]
What do you mean by that?
[Their heartbeats are weaker than normal. During times of great stress, a person’s heart would naturally increase its activity to provide the human with an excess of energy—even more so for Maugnetics. Their hearts exceed normal pace, reaching up to 200 beats a minute at the very least.
But these people were the complete opposite. From the start, their heartbeats were on the lower side, about 30 to 40 beats a minute. But once they activated their Aubility Powers, that number dropped drastically, reaching single digits.]
No wonder their hearts looked cold and listless in his Drone Vision. They weren’t pumping!
Instead of GodForge pieces making someone more lively, this fake one made them more dead instead.
It finally made sense how they were able to move despite being killed by him. It’s because they were already technically dead even before he shot them with his [Unity Gun]!
Somehow, this fake could make the cold, lifeless body move as if it was still alive—a zombie.
The reason for its obscurity showed itself. Knowing that one’s own heart would stop beating after using this fake would certainly creep a lot of people out.
It was very unnatural. GodForge pieces could defy reality, but it couldn’t bring back the dead. Yet this one could.
One could certainly wonder if this was a gift or a curse.
It was certainly divisive. He could see some people being okay with it, and some people think that it was an abomination.
He was part of the latter.
[The only way to see the item’s true effects is if we test it on a living being.]
What?
Michael couldn’t do that to someone. He couldn’t ask them to endanger their lives for a little experiment. Even if they volunteered, he would still say no.
[I also feel repulsed at the thought. But what if they weren’t ’alive’?]
He raised his eyebrows. You mean...
[Positive. The Unity Clones will be the perfect subjects for this experiment.]