"According to intelligence, that Lower God is likely very skilled at stealth and invisibility, and not very strong in direct combat. Therefore, the Divine Law he commands are probably also biased towards this aspect. There are very few True God on Planet Illinois. As long as we can find all the True God and then filter them, we can easily pinpoint this guy's location..."
Thoughts arose in his mind, Gustavo mobilized the Divine Power within him to form a seven-star "Eye of Omniscience" Rune Array.
After Logo ascended to the True God, the "Eye of Insight" also awakened and became Miracle Divine Artifact. As the owner of this Miracle Creation, no one understood its rules and structure better than Logo.
In addition, the vast database of information about the Eye of Insight accumulated by the Aslant Civilization provided Logo with a wealth of references, allowing him to easily and naturally perfect the "Eye of Omniscience" Rune Array to the seven-star level.
This undoubtedly made things easier for Gustavo and Lancelot, allowing them to indirectly utilize the power of the Eye of Insight. While the Eye of Omniscience is not as powerful as the original, it is still far superior to most other insightful and detective-type artifacts.
As for why Gustavo targeted the Lower God being hunted by the Thousand-Eyed Civilization instead of the Thousand-Eyed Civilization's True God, it was because he was playing the long game, waiting to catch a bigger fish.
The best way to Destruction a civilization is to dismantle it from within, ideally through a central explosion.
But as an outsider, if Gustavo wanted to influence the Thousand-Eyed Civilization and push it into the vortex of destruction, the first step he had to take was to establish himself as an absolute ally of the Thousand-Eyed Civilization, or to cultivate his own absolute confidants within its leadership.
Gustavo decided to take a two-pronged approach.
His first step was to gain the trust of the Thousand-Eyed Civilization.
It is worth mentioning that, due to the naturally evil stance of the Dragon-Hunting Spider Clan and its close cooperative relationship with the Void Insect Clan, it naturally had a high degree of goodwill towards the Thousand-Eyed Civilization, which created favorable conditions for his actions.
As Divine Power surged, the "Eye of Omniscience" slowly opened, protected by countless runes. Its pupils shone, radiating an invisible and intangible light that traversed space and swept across the entire Planet Illinois in an instant.
"One, two, three... Good heavens, a full fifteen True God experts! One of them is Middle God, most likely the guardian of Planet Illinois. However, we haven't seen True God from the Thousand-Eyed Civilization or the Water Mirror Civilization; they must still be on their way..."
As he pondered, Gustavo began the process of elimination. He first ruled out the Middle God guardian, then one True God after another who clearly had a fighting style. Finally, his gaze successfully locked onto a female humanoid race whose skin was orange-yellow and whose hair was also a patchwork of oranges, resembling an orange person.
"Hey, found you. Although you hid well, you still couldn't hide from my Eye of Omniscience." Gustavo's lips curled up smugly, two dimples appearing on his cheeks. He then memorized the man's scent but didn't immediately come looking for him.
He had no interest in this guy; the Thousand-Eyed Civilization was Gustavo's real target, and the Orange People were essentially just a stepping stone.
The real show will begin after the True God of the Thousand-Eyed Civilization arrives.
And so, Gustavo stayed on the Planet Illinois for three days, eating, drinking, and having fun, while every now and then using his Eye of Omniscience to observe the movements of the Orange People and to look towards the transfer hall to see if any True God of the Thousand-Eyed Civilization had arrived.
On this day, Gustavo, wearing sunglasses and sipping a straw, was idly flipping through a paper comic book in his hand when suddenly, the "cause and effect bell" he had set in advance was triggered.
"Has it finally arrived? I thought the Thousand-Eyed Civilization was going to miss this opportunity."
Gustavo's eyes brightened slightly as he murmured to himself.
Gustavo, who had been keeping a close eye on the Orange People, understood that this guy was just recuperating on Planet Illinois. Seeing that his injuries were gradually improving, he was already showing signs of leaving. Yesterday, he started buying some supplies on the black market. If the True God of the Thousand-Eyed Civilization didn't come soon, Gustavo would have to intervene.
Of course, when the Thousand-Eyed Civilization arrived, Gustavo still had to intervene. At the same time, he mastered the "Divine Law of Fate," the "Divine Law of the Soul," and the "Divine Law of Cause and Effect," with the old schemer Logo from behind. However, indulging in the role of a behind-the-scenes planner was really not worthy of his top-tier schemer abilities.
Sitting up straight, Gustavo chuckled, "The True God of the Water Mirror Civilization hasn't arrived yet. We're a step too late; the balance is a bit off. How can this be? We need to stall for time first..."
As he muttered to himself, Gustavo stretched out his right hand, fingers spread wide. From a perspective unseen by anyone, lines of cause and effect extended from his fingertips, passing through the dense crowds, crossing the steel jungle, and from all directions, entering the body of the orange-faced man who was disguised as an ordinary tourist enjoying his meal in the distance.
Throughout the entire process, the latter was completely unaware; everything seemed to happen so quietly.
"Is this the power of the Fate Setter? Wow, this is so awesome!!"
Seeing that the causal threads had successfully connected to the Orange Man, Gustavo became even more excited.
These threads shooting from his fingertips were the result of Gustavo's secret planning over the past few days.
Using the "Scale of Exchange" and the various Divine Law he possessed, Gustavo either replaced or secretly controlled the lives that had come into contact with the Orange People, collecting the causal lines between them and grafting them onto himself.
Because these causal lines originated from the Orange Man, the latter did not react after being connected.
This is similar to a small amount of oxygen mixed into the air humans breathe. Oxygen itself is non-toxic and harmless, and it is not rejected by the human body. The quantity is also small, so it can enter the human body undetected.
Gustavo's use of causal lines is based on a similar principle.
Although it looks simple and seems not complicated to explain, True God who can perform such operations are extremely rare, even in the Astral Realm, far rarer than those who are simply powerful in combat!
That said, after connecting the causal link, Gustavo began the next step.
On the information panel, the two abilities named "Fortune Seizure" and "Controller" trembled simultaneously, accompanied by a faint glow.
Gustavo flicked his fingers, which were gripping the causal thread, like a spider lurking in the center of a web, using vibrations to search for its prey. He was silently exerting his influence on the Orange Man.
As time went by, streams of "Fortune" from the Orange People were swallowed up by Gustavo along the cause-and-effect line. At the same time, some deceptive "Fortune" quickly filled the gaps, like falsifying accounts, deceiving the Orange People and making them feel that everything was normal and nothing had happened.
"Fortune," as an abstract concept representing the future trends of one's life, inherently represents the "future" to some extent.
Once the future is devoured, the being itself will lose its direction and become confused and aimless. In this situation, it is the perfect opportunity for a powerful being of the Fate system to intervene and take control.
Gustavo's actions towards the Orange People were far from enough to control them, but they did exert an influence, making them subconsciously feel that they should stay on Planet Illinois longer to buy time for the arrival of the Water Mirror Civilization.
After doing all that, Gustavo took a deep sip of his drink and sighed contentedly, "Being a chess player is so much more comfortable..."