The Truth Within Reach

The entire world fell silent.

It was as though even the light cast by the chandelier hanging in the apartment lobby had frozen. Faced with such power, Ian felt he should have realized long ago that it was not authority an ordinary Reaper could possess.

Perhaps his intelligence stat simply was not high enough to support his own wisdom, causing it to periodically malfunction at inconvenient times.

Just as Ian was lamenting inwardly,

Fake Tessa's clear black-and-white eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at him. Her brows were furrowed so tightly that she looked as though she might twist herself from an eighteen-year-old young lady into a twenty-eight-year-old mature woman.

Ian's heart skipped another beat. Since he had already decided she was a big shot, he pondered for a moment before cautiously testing the waters.

"You seem to be in a bad mood?"

Ian knew this definitely was not the time to expose her lie. No matter how old a woman was, having her lies exposed would make her fly into a rage.

"Could it be... Reapers also have those few days every month?"

He knew perfectly well that his strength was nowhere near enough to provoke a furious big shot. Fortunately, his emotional intelligence was high enough that he knew he should play dumb right now.

Ian brought out the acting skills Madison had taught him.

However.

Fake Tessa's expression stiffened slightly at his words.

"Do you think you're funny?"

Her voice sounded as though it had been squeezed out through clenched teeth.

"Huh?"

Ian blinked, looking somewhat bewildered. Seeing this, Fake Tessa took a deep breath and tried to maintain her composure. She even raised a hand to rub her temple.

Not because her head actually hurt.

It was because if she did not keep her hands occupied, she feared she would slap Ian to death—though that would be terrible. She really did not want this guy staying by her side.

"In just a few hours, I have sensed you coming infinitely close to death several times... You were merely investigating. It should have been impossible for you to encounter any danger."

Fake Tessa voiced her confusion. Perhaps that was why she had come looking for Ian again so soon. Each time Ian triggered the curse, she had seen things she could not understand.

"I live in Metropolis. Gotham is right next door. Of course there are dangers everywhere when I go out." Ian blinked, trying to muddle through with cuteness.

However.

"You aren't telling the truth. I can feel it... Yes, you are drawing power from a near-death state." Sure enough, the older a woman was, the sharper her eye.

She had clearly already guessed Ian's situation.

However.

Perhaps the System stood on a higher level than she did. She had only made her judgment by observing Ian, so her tone still carried a hint of uncertainty.

"What can I say?"

Ian realized that even a big shot like her apparently could not see through his greatest secret. While pondering this, he gave a rather vague explanation.

"MacArthur once said that death never misses, but humanity can always find a loophole." Ian spoke with righteous conviction, pinching his throat as he imitated the old general's voice.

"????"

Fake Tessa was dumbfounded again.

"Wasn't that something Morpheus said?"

She examined the boy before her with suspicious eyes.

"Oh, fine, you caught me. Then let's say Morpheus said it... MacArthur quotes wouldn't be missing that line anyway." The regret on Ian's face was completely undisguised.

"So you know not only Death, but also Sandman." Fake Tessa narrowed her eyes meaningfully, her gaze seeming to pierce straight through Ian's soul.

Ian did not avoid her gaze.

He nodded despite the dizziness he felt when their eyes met.

"Sooner or later, I'll figure out your secret." Rather than getting angry, Fake Tessa suddenly smiled, as though she had discovered something interesting.

Her reaction also brought a faint smile to Ian's lips. Honestly, compared to those people who liked to act superior as "prophets" before ordinary people, then immediately cowered and started hiding things when facing big shots, Ian preferred not to deliberately conceal himself. Of course, he had genuinely put some thought into this.

If powerful beings wanted to know something, they could scour a person's soul in minutes. No matter how cautious one was, could an ordinary person's soul really hide anything from an existence that had lived for countless years?

Even Ian's [Blood-Reversal Furnace] had already been noticed!

Forget whether he had left traces behind—so long as he jumped around too much, attention would inevitably bring risk. And if he wanted to gain the long-term blessing of immortality, Ian could not avoid dealing with the big shot before him.

Rewards and risks were always proportional. That was precisely why Ian did not want to live in constant trembling anxiety. He recalled his first meeting with this big shot. Back then, he had also mentioned information he should not have known, yet his secret had not been discovered afterward.

That either meant she did not want to search his memories, or... she could not search his memories. Knowing that she would not give him a chance to save people for no reason, Ian was more inclined toward the latter.

With that judgment in mind,

he tentatively gambled once more.

And reality proved it.

The value of Metropolis's God of Gamblers was still rising.

The bigger the storm, the pricier the fish. I should slick my hair back too. Ian gave himself a mental thumbs-up, and his expression left Fake Tessa even more baffled.

However.

Fake Tessa did not ask. She had something serious to say.

"I remember telling you that you could only rely on yourself in this matter, didn't I?" It was unknown whether the fake Reaper still did not know what Ian had gone through, or simply did not care whether Ian had seen through the truth.

She acted as though she had noticed nothing about Ian's performance.

"Boss lady, take a good look. Look at my face... Does it look like the face of some useless rookie?" Ian wanted to tactfully express that he could not handle trouble even Superman could not resolve.

"If you keep making people angry like this, you won't need to worry about whether you're useless anymore." Fake Tessa gritted her teeth and glared at Ian angrily.

"Got it."

Ian chose to shut up.

Fake Tessa stared at him for several seconds, then turned to look at Kara, who was frozen in place and had shown a slight abnormality not long ago. Her clear black-and-white eyes carried a trace of complexity.

"You did not follow the rules. I originally wanted to teach you a harsh lesson, but you showed me an unusual possibility." Fake Tessa's voice paused slightly.

As though she were weighing something.

"You may ask her for help, but only her." Fake Tessa made her decision. Her tone allowed no doubt or objection, leaving Ian standing there as though he had been struck by lightning.

"That's not safe enough, is it? Let me find one more—no, two more!" Ian tried to bargain. He had already made his plan, yet it was about to fall apart.

First, he would find Supergirl, who would not harm Superman. Then he would use Supergirl's connections to invite Flash, and use Flash's connections to find Wonder Woman. What a perfect networking plan!

And the client rejected it outright?

Did she seriously not understand proposals and project plans?

Faced with Ian's reluctance,

Fake Tessa did not show the same emotional fluctuation as before.

"Believe me, merely allowing you to do this is already a great risk for me." Her voice was low and carried an inexplicable meaning. There was even a trace of exhaustion in it.

"Why is it such a great risk?"

Ian was deeply perplexed.

In response,

Fake Tessa gave no answer.

"Our hand is truly not strong. Every loss will be irreparable." She merely sighed, played Riddler for once, then turned and stepped away, vanishing directly beyond the entrance.

Ian felt there was heavyweight information in the big shot's words.

However.

Before he could sort out any clue,

the world resumed its ever-paused motion.