Investigation

"Your combat strength isn't high, so you can choose a Sequence that excels in combat. That way, it might come in handy in a critical moment and could even save your life."

Judging from Portland's hand gestures, you can tell he definitely likes animals, but he's never kept any as pets for fear of interfering with his experiments.

When it comes to his research career, Portland has always been the most reliable one, and nothing can affect him, not even great strength or long lifespan, let alone a pet.

But what Kronos said really appealed to him: a pet that could understand human speech, wouldn't interfere with experiments, and could even save him in crucial moments. It sounded incredibly attractive.

"I don't really like eagles, but if it's a dog, I think I could consider it," Portland said after thinking for a moment.

The moment Portland mentioned dogs, Kronos immediately pictured Philip's dogs in his mind—all plump and strong, three of them capable of killing a leopard.

Kronos grinned and asked, "What kind of dog do you like?"

Portland replied matter-of-factly, "Of course it's powerful! I already said I wanted it to protect me in crucial moments!"

"Alright!" Kronos patted his Chest. "I've found you a dog; I guarantee it'll be the strongest."

Looking at Portland's thin frame, Kronos was certain that any of the dogs at Philip's place were much stronger than him and perfectly suited for the task of protecting him.

Seeing Kronos reveal a meaningful smile, Portland felt a chill run down his spine, but his attention was quickly drawn to Qing, so he didn't say anything.

It wasn't until three days later, when Portland saw the dog in his own home—a dog that was waist-high on all fours and taller than him on twos—that he understood the meaning behind Kronos's smile.

Is that a dog? Or is that thing called Lion?

Because Philip hadn't given clear instructions beforehand, his men couldn't contact Kronos, and the house plan never reached Kronos.

It wasn't until Kronos took the initiative to contact them, wanting a dog for Professor Portland, that they finally got in touch.

So before sending the dog to Portland, this picture was already in Kronos's hands.

Even without knowing whether the house had been renovated, just looking at the plans gave Kronos a number of ambush ideas.

However, the decision to ambush should be made only after witnessing it firsthand.

Today is a perfect opportunity.

Marquis Argel's Butler prepared a Banquet in Kain’s Name, inviting the shareholders and senior Executives of Kain Bank to attend.

Then the chances of Jason being invited to the trip are 100%.

To conceal his true identity as Devil, Jason only had a dog in his house besides himself; that dog was either Sequence 7 Serial Killer from the Abyss Pathway or Sequence 6 Devil.

Kronos was confident he could Hypnosis the dog without disturbing it, and as long as he was careful not to wake it, everything would be fine.

With Kronos's keen observation and memory, it would probably take him less than half an hour to familiarize himself with the layout of the entire Villa, which would be plenty of time.

The Banquet was scheduled to start at eight o'clock, so Kronos left home at seven o'clock. He didn't go anywhere else, just wandered around Edward Street.

Kronos remained cautious. Although the Concealment of Time could mask his malice, the presence of a familiar face near the house was bound to arouse Jason's suspicion.

So he would change his face every time he went around, and he even brought several sets of clothes just to change back and forth.

He kept his eyes on Jason's House, waiting for him to leave.

Sure enough, at 7:30, Jason left his house in a carriage.

After observing for another ten minutes or so, Kronos slowly approached Jason's fence.

The dog in the yard was Paranormal Creature, so Kronos didn't jump in recklessly. If he were discovered immediately, it would cause a huge mess.

Kronos took a piece of meat from his backpack, tossed it lightly over the wall, and then unhesitatingly activated two Requiem Skill Scroll, fearing they wouldn't be enough.

Not long after, Kronos heard footsteps on the other side of the wall, followed by the sound of chewing.

Kronos used more than just the Requiem skill; he also used a potent Sleeping Pills hidden in the meat.

Fortunately, this dog followed the Abyss Pathway. If it had followed the Visionary Pathway like the "Dog of Imagination," this tactic would definitely not have worked.

However, a dog Abyss Pathway had entered the Abyss was not so cautious. It quickly ate the entire piece of meat, but the more it ate, the sleepier it became.

After eating it all, the dog simply lost Consciousness. With a combination of strong Sleeping Pills and Requiem, both internal and external, even an Elephant wouldn't last long.

Since Kronos was behind a wall, he didn't know the dog had collapsed immediately, but fortunately, the dog maintained a fine tradition: snoring.

The snoring coming from inside the wall made it clear to Kronos that his method had worked, so he looked around to make sure no one was there, and then climbed over the wall into the courtyard.

There was a big dog lying by the wall, snoring loudly.

Kronos had no interest in the Paranormal Creature of the Abyss Pathway, because even loyal animals like dogs might not remain loyal once they entered this Pathway.

However, he was very interested in the dog's Beyonder Characteristic. Kronos had just Eyes of Mystery Prying and, based on his estimation, determined that it was a Sequence 7 Devil Dog.

Perhaps it had just been promoted; in the Eyes of Mystery Prying, this dog appeared to be in a chaotic state, with both malice and Spirituality emanating from it.

If it's Serial Killer's Beyonder Characteristic, its value is actually quite ordinary, because unique abilities are few and far between, and wouldn't be very attractive to Kronos.

But Devil are different; the Devil Sequence is the Sequence with the most skills that Kronos knows of.

He was very tempted, but Kronos still didn't make a move.

We're only here to investigate today; we can't alert them like this. Even before leaving, we need to find a way to wake up this Devil Dog and make sure Jason doesn't sense anything unusual, or all our efforts might be in vain.

So there's no rush. Let's deal with Jason first, then we can think about the dog.

Kronos got up and walked into the house.

The house appears to be in good condition, with a layout that matches the plan; it's just a Standard House.

However, upon closer inspection, something seemed amiss.

There's a problem with the internal size of this house. According to the information on the planning map, the house is at least one-fifth smaller.

To verify this view, Kronos even took advantage of the night to activate the power of the Vampire’s Heart and fly into the air to observe.

The final conclusion was that the exterior walls of this house were four to five times thicker than ordinary exterior walls.

If the purpose of this thickened layer is to increase defense, then it won't affect Kronos's plans.

However, if it serves a specific purpose, then the impact can be much greater.

Putting everything else aside, if it's a ZTO Express phone, then this thickness is definitely enough for a person to pass through smoothly.

After Kronos managed to trap Jason, Jason escaped through the wall, resulting in a significant loss for Kronos.

Back inside the house, Kronos knocked on the outer wall, but there was no unusual sound. This was normal; if something had been handled carefully, it wouldn't have given itself away with such a low-level detection method.

However, Kronos was unable to conduct further testing. He didn't understand these things, and if he wanted to test them, he would have to use violent means, but once violent means were used, traces would inevitably be left behind.

Therefore, for Kronos, only one last method remained: "Seeing".

Standing by the outer wall, a Green Light flashed in Kronos's eyes, and then the scene before him began to rewind.

Having researched Jason's background, I knew he had Backlund five years ago, but the house itself wasn't that old; Jason had bought it two years ago.

Kronos could naturally see things that far away from such ordinary objects.

Going back to the time of the house renovation, Kronos saw the renovation workers from that period.

To Kronos's surprise, the workers addressed Jason as "cousin" or "brother" in various ways.

Are all these people from the Beria Family? Did they come to Backlund just to renovate Jason's house?

So Kronos traced his path back to when the wall had just been built.

Kronos was right after all; there were many pipes in the exterior walls of the house, and all the pipes were interconnected, allowing access to every corner of the room.

To enhance his ability to observe through the Eye of Time, Kronos even learned lip reading, since the eyes cannot hear sounds.

So Kronos "saw" a worker pointing to Small Hole in the wall and saying to Jason, "Cousin, do you think this hole is big enough? Can your Desire Incarnation pass through it?"

Desire Incarnation is a skill of the Sequence 5 Desire Apostle. It allows the body to be transformed into a phantom, viscous black liquid formed from various emotions and desires. This is very effective in avoiding damage, concealing one's whereabouts, and influencing enemies.

In this configuration, Jason could easily enter the pipe through the Small Hole and then reach any place through the pipe inside the wall, much faster than a person climbing inside. This would be a High-Speed Passage exclusively for Jason.