Chapter 278: Plan

Bathed in the dazzling glow of the laboratory’s enchantment array, Punk sat quietly on a “handcrafted” stone chair, eating a fruit pie. Within his sapphire-blue pupils, faint traces of purple magical light swirled gently—clearly, Punk was deep in thought.

The quiet Magic Tower was devoid of any sound other than the slow, steady hum of the old Elemental Pool. Every room in the tower stood empty, not even a mouse in sight.

The laboratory where Punk resided was equally silent. The only sound was the quiet chewing of his fruit pie. His back faced the core of the enchantment array, and even the brilliant magical radiance couldn’t illuminate his pale face, hidden in the shadows of his hood.

Punk was deep in thought, and the focus of his contemplation was the small eyeball in his hand.

This small eyeball was the one Punk had obtained—the one containing a fragment of law and eerie Legendary energy. It was unclear which Legendary creature it had belonged to, but this peculiar eyeball had the ability to slowly grow larger by absorbing ordinary energy and shrink when ordinary energy was drained from it.

After discovering that it offered no resistance to the extraction of ordinary energy, Punk had simply used an “Energy Siphon” to shrink the eyeball. Over the past few days, it had reduced to the size of an ordinary human eye.

The shrunken eyeball was now easier to carry, though it also appeared even more eerie when held in Punk’s hand.

Punk stared quietly at the vertical pupil on the eyeball. Its gaze, which seemed to pierce straight into the soul, remained as sharp and vivid as ever.

That a long-dead eye could still emit such an intense gaze—one capable of seeing through the soul of a Master-Level Mage—made it hard to imagine how powerful and imposing this creature must have been in life.

Truthfully, Punk was deeply troubled by this eyeball, which held such a treasure. The treasure within, entwined with thorns, was incredibly difficult to obtain. Even after all this time, Punk had only come up with one somewhat effective method, but… it still felt unreliable.

To Punk, the eerie eyeball now resembled one of those Mimics hidden in mountain caves.

Those monsters preferred to hide in rocky crevices, and the clever ones would even conceal themselves in abandoned chests or backpacks left by travelers. Lurking in dark corners, they emitted a dazzling glow to lure in greedy adventurers and curious small animals, then dragged their prey into narrow gaps to devour them.

Most importantly, these monsters had a habit of hoarding valuable treasures. Over time, their lairs would fill with riches or rare ores, leaving travelers who encountered a Mimic torn over whether to risk delving deeper.

Now, Punk was the conflicted adventurer. He faced a massive, unmissable treasure, but this treasure represented not just opportunity but also danger. If he couldn’t resolve the threat of the Legendary-level negative emotional energy, not only would he fail to obtain the fragment of law, but he would also pay an extremely painful price.Fortunately, Punk had come up with a relatively reliable solution—since he couldn’t experiment on himself, he’d just find a “lab rat” instead.

“Though it’s still somewhat risky, it’s far better than risking my own safety.”

After frowning and swallowing the last bite of his fruit pie, Punk finally resolved to execute his plan.

Punk was no master schemer who accounted for every contingency, and the memories left behind by that “bookworm” Grand Arcanist Vedrasha contained little in the way of convoluted plots or calculations. Thus, the plan he devised couldn’t be considered particularly ingenious, but at least for the current Punk, it was the most feasible approach he could conceive.

Punk’s plan was actually quite simple: leveraging the Eerie Eyeball’s slow erosion of external organisms, he would implant the eyeball into another creature after applying sufficient disguise enchantments and energy seals. This creature would then continuously expend the negative emotional energy within the eyeball through its happiness, joy, and delight—while the terrifying side effects of those negative emotions would naturally be borne by this unfortunate “positive emotion generator.”

According to the System’s estimates, as long as the implanted subject maintained a sufficiently optimistic outlook on life, it would take roughly five hundred years to completely erode the Legendary negative energy within the eyeball.

Of course, any creature below the Formal-Level would struggle to endure the eyeball’s dreadful influence day and night for more than twenty years without going insane. So, after initiating this “positive energy generator” plan, frequent “replacement” of the eyeball’s host would be necessary—and, of course, properly disposing of the previous mad host was essential.

The candidate for this “positive energy generator” unquestionably had to be a professional; otherwise, an ordinary person’s soul likely wouldn’t last even a day.

However, considering Punk’s own capabilities, if he wanted to firmly control the Eerie Eyeball’s host, he could only select a creature below the Formal-Level as the “host.”

For Punk, executing this plan wasn’t actually easy—at least, not as straightforward as it sounded.

First, finding a professional who was consistently optimistic, positive, and obedient to his commands wasn’t simple. Purchased slaves might meet the obedience requirement, but a slave couldn’t possibly remain happy every day while enslaved (and don’t think about finding a masochist—obvious ones had all joined the Church of the Lady of the Lash, while finding a subtle one would take forever).

On the other hand, once the eyeball was implanted into a “host,” Punk’s control over it would be unprecedentedly low. If anything happened to the host carrying the eyeball… the consequences would be disastrous.

Moreover, this issue couldn’t be resolved simply through disguises. A host who was both a professional and exceptionally optimistic might easily go out and stir up trouble. At such times, Punk—to avoid drawing suspicion—couldn’t appear overly concerned… Yet this involved the fragment of law he valued most. Losing it through carelessness would be utterly unacceptable.”What a complete hassle, and I only have this one path available. To get the fruit, you must plant the tree; to make the tree grow, you must let it bask in the sun; and if it basks in the sun, there’s inevitably the risk of it getting scorched to death. Once it gets scorched… that precious seed will have gone to waste… Now I understand why Vedrasha felt so weary recalling his path to becoming Legendary!”

Punk muttered a few complaints under his breath, then stood up and began pacing slowly around the Laboratory.

There was no way around it. No matter how displeased or worried he felt, the necessary investment couldn’t be skipped, and the risks had to be borne dutifully. This world was simply never as accommodating as one would hope.

Puck quickly set aside his pointless complaints. He knew that rather than wasting time grumbling about something that had to be done, it was better to focus on refining the plan as much as possible!

(End of Chapter)