Jiang Xiang grumbled inwardly, but his expression remained unchanged as he continued explaining, "A Dimensional Lifeform is a being born or raised in a particular dimension.
"When a being from that dimension gains a certain degree of authority over it, it becomes what we call a Dimensional God. Of course, our predecessors established this definition, so it's bound to differ from reality.
"Even if there are discrepancies, there's nothing we can do about it. The gap between humans and those naturally born beings is simply too vast."
"Then... what's a dimension?" Victor was rather overwhelmed by all this information.
"A dimension... generally seems to mean a space attached to a complete world. Its rules differ from those of the complete world, and some of them might be very strange... but that's not the point." Jiang Xiang offered a rough, vague definition.
Besides, Old Man did indeed have records about Dimensional Lifeforms, though they were rather vague.
With that thought, Jiang Xiang reclined in the rear half of the lifeboat and left Victor to pilot it.
He took out his phone to check for a signal and entertain himself while he was at it.
He had explained more than enough to Victor, considering how little Emotional Value he had provided.
He planned to open Tetris, play for a while, then rest.
But barely ten minutes after he opened the game and started playing, sparks suddenly burst from his phone. It had short-circuited.
"Even phones can't keep working here?"
Jiang Xiang seemed to suddenly remember something.
This was bad!
Boom-
Boom-
Explosions rang out one after another aboard the Tech.
A short while later, several people came out of the lifeboat's interior, supporting one another.
They stared at the Tech, shrouded in flames and smoke.
"It exploded?"
"What about the other survivors?"
Everyone felt sick at heart. So many lives might have just been lost.
"Things here don't look good. We'd better keep our distance to be safe."
Jiang Xiang took out a Dried Lizard.
"Demons and monsters, begone-"
"Demons and monsters, begone-"
Dark green magical light enveloped the stern of the lifeboat.
[Emotional Value from Gwen Stacy +30] [Emotional Value from Tony Stark +120] [Emotional Value from Pepper Potts +30] [From...]
(ノ⊙ω⊙)ノ Whoa!
Just what you'd expect from that filthy-rich Tony Stark.
He really did provide a lot of Emotional Value.
The "worldly and knowledgeable" agent Victor remained utterly unfazed. He even felt like laughing.
Still, Jiang Xiang's ability to cast magic had genuinely surprised him.
The dark green light gave the lifeboat a push.
The lifeboat sped away from the cruise ship.
As far as Jiang Xiang was concerned, Tony was giving him far too much.
If there was a next time, he would definitely show off more magic in front of him.
He'd rake in a few more payouts first.
Victor had no time to pay much attention to the cruise ship. He was still doing his utmost to steer the lifeboat.
A short while later.
Victor's slightly surprised voice rang out. "Our distance from the cruise ship... doesn't seem to be changing."
"This probably..."
Jiang Xiang waved the Dried Lizard. "It's probably just as I suspected!"
Escape plan failed.
Prepare the backup plan.
Tony struggled over to the controls and worked his way through a series of devices.
Then he said in disbelief, "There's no signal at all! Most of the wiring is damaged. Luckily, the lifeboat runs on a gas engine, so it still works."
"If we can't leave, we can only wait for that thing to come down."
Jiang Xiang looked up at the eyeball flickering in and out of view.
The others readied their weapons to face whatever lay ahead.
Jiang Xiang went over to Gwen Stacy and gently put his arm around her. "Scared?"
Gwen Stacy shook her head and smiled at him. "I won first prize in a chemistry competition. Why would I be scared?"
Jiang Xiang smiled back. They looked at each other in silence.
Without any warning, the Tech began to roll over.
The Warning Artifact lit up again.
Something had happened!
For some reason, Jiang Xiang felt that as the cruise ship rolled over, it seemed to fall utterly deathly silent.
This intuition came from his increased mental power.
Happy stood at the stern of the lifeboat and surveyed the Tech.
"Something's changed over there." Jiang Xiang trusted his intuition.
"Maybe we should head back and try to solve the problem. There's too little equipment on this lifeboat," Tony said bluntly.
The disaster had struck without warning. Although the lifeboat had food and drinking water, it had very few other useful tools.
Everyone agreed with Tony's suggestion.
After all, they couldn't leave, the lifeboat was cramped, and they lacked weapons. Waiting around was no solution.
They followed the route they had taken to escape.
And returned to the Tech.
Before their eyes.
The cruise ship was a complete mess.
The tables, chairs, and benches looked as though something had sprouted out of them.
They lay shattered and scattered everywhere.
Flowers and wine littered the floor.
Contrary to what everyone had expected, the floor wasn't stained red.
"No blood? Does that mean they're okay?" the man with glasses asked.
"To be precise, there's nothing here at all," Tony said gravely.
When they had left earlier, at least a dozen people had been gathered in this spot.
Under normal circumstances, surely they couldn't all have vanished in such a short time.
"All the screens are dead."
Tony Stark tried to turn on some of the equipment.
"Someone's here!"
Jiang Xiang drew a gun with one hand and tightened his grip on the Dried Lizard with the other.
At this point, no one cared where the gun had come from.
"That looks like the Storage Room?"
Jiang Xiang aimed his pistol in that direction.
"There's something alive in there."
"Whether it's human is another matter."
Jiang Xiang signaled for Victor to investigate.
After all, he was the professional.
Victor understood what Jiang Xiang meant. He drew his gun and cautiously tried to push open the Storage Room door.
"Who's there?"
"Come out!"
Victor called out sharply from a safe distance.
"Don't shoot!"
A blond, blue-eyed white man dressed as a waiter came out with both hands raised.
"It's me, a waiter from the Tech."
"Demons and monsters, begone-" Jiang Xiang fired off a dark green spell without hesitation.
"Aaah!"
A sizzling sound came from the waiter's body as it began to dissolve.
Then he looked at Jiang Xiang in disbelief.
"You... how did you spot me...?"
How had he spotted him?
He hadn't, of course.
He'd just felt like taking a shot, so he did.
At worst, an ordinary person would have been knocked sprawling.
"Demons and monsters, begone-"
Jiang Xiang unleashed another powerful spell.
As though immersed in sulfuric acid, the man rapidly dissolved into ash.
On the deck.
Everyone gathered again.
They looked at one another in silence. Clearly, no one had found any other survivors in the area.
"Did you find weapons? Any communications equipment?"
Almost everyone produced one or two pistols, but no communications equipment.
"Looks like..."
Everyone followed Jiang Xiang's gaze toward the enormous eyeball drawing ever closer.
"We can only wait for it to come down."
Jiang Xiang led them to a large conference room.
Inside, Jiang Xiang made a point of telling everyone except Victor about the Evil Eye Lord.
Even a few basic details about its appearance broadened their knowledge. However, they couldn't sense the Evil Eye Lord approaching. As the only person versed in the supernatural, Jiang Xiang naturally became someone they relied on heavily.
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