One-Eyed Monster-Chapter 682 - 679: Starting from Here (Part 1)

Igor found a connection from a unique detail: storytelling.

Deep within him, the old lady who represented the Scale of Faith was also a master storyteller.

The old lady's stories were unique; each one contained a profound philosophy, and it was these philosophies that made them evergreen.

Igor desperately wanted to communicate with the old lady right now. He wanted to know if she had confronted the Dark Force attacking his body with stories.

Others competed with skills; they, with stories. The thought itself was quite amusing.

But Igor knew it wasn't the time to indulge in this amusing process. He first needed to verify if his discovery was correct, so as not to waste his efforts.

He felt he had found a breakthrough, so he could barely contain his excitement. However, since this was a rather nebulous matter, all his current excitement stemmed purely from his own assumptions.

At this point, he longed to discuss it with someone, to share his discovery and have them join in his excitement.

He tried, sharing his thoughts with Kuren, Yuga, and Stan Sol…

However, the feedback from these seniors was surprisingly similar and mostly unhelpful.

They just offered perfunctory acknowledgements.

Even the few words they did speak were mostly irrelevant.

This made Igor miss Kadi and Hustace.

But now, Hustace had become a puppet soldier, and Kadi had vanished. He could only rely on himself to explore whether he was right or wrong.

This was a common phenomenon; sometimes, on the journey ahead, one is alone. That's why Igor cherished every friend and was sincere with each.

Indeed, one should cherish what they have as they go.

Most of the time, one had to explore their own path slowly, by themselves.

Igor understood this. He wouldn't abandon all hope just because no one helped him.

So now he felt lonely.

But loneliness often led to growth, allowing him to have different ideas than others. This could be considered a form of compensation, perhaps.

These insights all stemmed from contemplation—contemplation born of loneliness, contemplation fueled by the ample time loneliness provided…

Just like Igor right now. After finding a potential breakthrough, countless thoughts flooded his mind. Whether these thoughts were helpful or not, they simply arose naturally.

Igor was thinking about Kadi, imagining what Kadi would do if he were in this situation.

What would Kadi do? That was truly something no one could say for sure; Kadi didn't act according to a normal person's mindset.

For instance, Kadi hadn't helped Igor and the others confront the Dark Force. Instead, he had embarked on his own journey to find the Great Mentor and the Little Black Hands.

This journey was not simple. Others wouldn't even consider it because, without any clues, tracking them would be impossible.

Yet Kadi did it, without a shred of hesitation.

He just did things, without overthinking.

As for how he searched, that was even harder to say. He seemed to be running all over the place, looking here and there, not following any conventional search methods.

He didn't follow a set plan; he just searched according to his own whims.

It looked like searching for a needle in a haystack, or a single leaf in a vast forest.

This was truly a task of immense scale.

But Kadi, all by himself, faced this massive undertaking without any sign of retreat.

And even more incredibly, he had actually made some progress.

If Igor finding a suspected breakthrough point was a significant gain, then what Kadi found this time could be called a major find.

Yes, it could truly be considered a major find.

He had found the Little Black Hands.

When Kadi first found them, these Little Black Hands were huddled in some corner.

Uncared for and lost, they themselves didn't know where to go.

This very question—where to go—was essentially their ultimate pursuit, yet now they couldn't even find a temporary place to stay.

Truly a sad state of affairs.

Kadi asked curiously, "Why are you here?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Then where should we be?" one of them retorted. "Or you can just tell us where to go."

The Little Black Hands were overwhelmed with a sense of desolation, like a flock of lost lambs, bleating, BAA! BAA! BAA!

But their cries were useless; no one would help them.

Originally, they had found a talkative fellow, but in the blink of an eye, their haven had suddenly vanished.

This left the Little Black Hands feeling utterly helpless.

What made them feel even more helpless was that the young man they had trusted had suddenly disappeared.

And those beings who used to chat with them had also fallen silent.

They didn't know what had happened; they only knew they couldn't go back for now.

They waited and hoped, longed for a hero to appear.

And as luck would have it, or perhaps not, one actually did appear…

Kadi's appearance stirred complex and contradictory feelings within the Little Black Hands.

Firstly, their anticipation was realized: a hero had finally appeared. This made them very happy; after all, the moment an anticipated event occurs is indeed exciting.

But when they saw the true face of this tardily arrived hero, they couldn't help but sigh.

This build, this aura… isn't it that long-lost young man?

This unreliable boy, who always leaves his sentences unfinished—how could he be a hero? He's more suited to be a troublemaker!

Disappointment, desolation, a torrent of negative emotions suddenly overwhelmed the Little Black Hands…

It was like painstakingly climbing a mountain, just about to reach the summit, then suddenly missing a step and tumbling all the way back to the bottom. The disparity was simply too vast.

Moreover, as soon as Kadi opened his mouth, his unreliability became glaringly obvious. He actually asked, "Why are you here?"

Why are we here? Don't you have any clue yourself?

Who was it that coaxed us out here…?

Who said they could definitely take us where we needed to go?

And who was it that inexplicably vanished…?

If they could have, the Little Black Hands would have attacked him long ago…

But now, their condition was extremely fragile. After all, without a haven, they could only fall into a death-like slumber—a slumber with severe consequences.

They might never wake up again. Even if they did, they could lose all their memories and become something entirely different, something unknown.

That precious little bit of self-awareness they had painstakingly regained… they didn't want to lose it so soon…