The Negative Repercussions of Deception

The murmuring in his ears slowly faded. Leaning on the filter woven by White Horse is Not a Horse, Sno heard words like "Leodoro," "Herabogen," and "Osekhus" from the True Creator's whispers – words that clearly didn't belong to the same linguistic family as the previous ones. Only after the True Creator's rap finally subsided and his brain, stiffened by the True God's whispers, began to function again, did Sno remember that those seemed to be the names of three gods.

"So the True Creator was just cursing..." Sno rubbed his throbbing temples and began to sort through his spirituality.

The enhancement brought by Sequence 8: Pavlov's Dog was simple. Besides the Extraordinary Ability, Consciousness Projection, which he had been using based on the Attendant of Mysteries' [Whisper], it also greatly boosted his physical fitness, especially his dynamic vision and neural reflexes, elevating them to a level beyond human limits.

Furthermore, according to the information granted by the potion, he now possessed a strong learning ability for techniques that required "muscle memory," such as combat, shooting, and even cheating. With professional training, he could master a martial art in just two or three days and apply it in actual combat.

Apart from the power of Pavlov's Dog itself, the buffs from the Attendant of Mysteries potion also remained. As a reward for listening to the True Creator's rant, he gained three resistances and one Extraordinary Ability.

The three resistances corresponded to fire, wind and lightning, and spirit, respectively. As for the Extraordinary Ability, it was called Divine Profanity.

Sno guessed that the three resistances likely corresponded to the names of the three gods, and as for Divine Profanity... well, it was best not to mention it.

As for the negative side effects brought by Pavlov's Dog...

It was somewhat embarrassing to talk about, but this negative effect could be called "Reactive Neurological Attack," or colloquially, a mild, sudden onset of mental illness.

After consuming the potion, its exuberant spirituality established several "high-speed channels" between his mind and body, essentially constructing conditioned reflexes for him. As long as a certain condition was met, he would instinctively react.

This reaction was not under his control; his body would often move before his mind could even process it.

The most frustrating part was that he wouldn't even know a conditioned reflex existed until it was triggered.

In other words, it was entirely possible for someone to wave hello to him, only for him to slap them in return.

The only consolation was that, whether it was because Mr. Fool always replied "I know" after he prayed to him, or because he had clearly understood the True Creator's whispers, or simply because he had heavily pre-emptively used Pavlov's Dog's Extraordinary Ability, he had already digested about two-fifths of it after drinking the potion. This allowed him to barely suppress some of the known conditioned reflexes from being triggered.

Although he didn't even know what new reflexes his body had developed...

Having roughly sorted out the effects of the potion, Sno slowly emerged from his meditative state, opening his eyes in confusion, and then...

"Whoosh!"

Mr. A was very satisfied with Sno, especially after he drank the Attendant of Mysteries potion. The obvious changes in him were enough to prove that he had truly heard the Lord's voice and understood its meaning to some extent. To be able to understand the Lord's intentions right after drinking the potion couldn't just be described as good aptitude; it was simply being a born excellent believer!

However, just as Mr. A was wondering what kind of enhancement Sno would receive, Sno opened his eyes.

Then, Sno jumped up...

Sno went up the wall...

Sno was hanging from the ceiling...

"What's going on?" Mr. A stared blankly at Sno, who was also hanging upside down from the ceiling in a state of bewilderment, and then activated his Spirit Vision.

Sno's spiritual body's appearance seemed fine. Although his spirituality was a bit scattered, that was a normal phenomenon after consuming a potion. But why was he...

"Um, Mr. A... could you please set that test tube upright?" Sno, hanging from the ceiling, awkwardly extended a hand and pointed at the fallen test tube on the lab bench. Mr. A, though full of questions, still propped the test tube up.

Then, Sno came down.

"Is this an effect of hearing the Lord's voice?" Mr. A had this thought, but so far, no Attendant of Mysteries had shown such a pronounced stress reaction.

He, who had previously considered Sno a loyal subject, couldn't help but harbor some doubts. After a moment's thought, he maintained his Spirit Vision and used the power of shadow to quietly push over a test tube.

"Crack!"

The light clatter of the test tube falling caught Sno's attention. In Mr. A's Spirit Vision, as Sno's gaze shifted, his spirituality exploded almost instantly. Immediately after, he shot up in a bizarre posture, crashing into the ceiling again...

"It really is spirituality..." Mr. A revealed a twitch of his mouth that he would never usually show. He didn't quite know how to describe Sno's reaction.

In fact, Sno himself was also bewildered because he had finally figured out his first conditioned reflex—

When he saw a long, cylindrical object fall, he would instinctively jump up...

"Am I a cat?"

Sno felt an urge to flip the table, but looking at the pile of test tubes on it, he wisely abandoned the idea.

Forcing his spirituality to suppress his impulse, Sno "carefully" climbed down from the ceiling and said to Mr. A with lingering fear, "I don't know why, but when I see long things lying horizontally on the ground, my body instinctively moves away..."

"It's alright. This is just a side effect from just having consumed the potion. Once you digest it, you won't have this trouble anymore." Although he said that, Mr. A had never seen such an intense and obvious mental influence before and could only comfort him based on past experience.

Sno nodded slightly, but in his heart, he was estimating the situation. Judging by the activation of the "high-speed channels" in his body during the previous conditioned reflex triggers, there should be at least three forcibly fixed conditioned reflexes on him. Until he figured out what the remaining two conditioned reflexes were, he felt it would be better not to go out casually.

Otherwise, if he saw someone with dark skin and immediately pulled out a gun to shoot, that would be a huge problem.

"I'm going to rest. You meditate properly. In a few days, I'll need you to go to the East District to develop lambs." Apparently confirming that Sno had no further problems, Mr. A relaxed and skillfully left the basement, picking a guest room and then falling silent.

Sno looked at the table full of test tubes, his expression twitching slightly. After hesitating for a long time, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to clean them up. He simply turned and left the basement—

At least until he had fully digested the Pavlov's Dog potion, he had no intention of coming down again.