No one could have guessed that Baron Morin's treasure was sitting right in Ryan's own hands.
Ryan knew that with Quinn coming up empty, the shadowy figure behind the assassination wasn't about to let it go. Quinn would come questioning him again — that much was expected.
But that also meant the danger was closing in.
The man behind the assassination hadn't given up the hunt for the treasure, and if he still came away empty-handed, he'd surely try other methods. A person with that kind of reach posed a threat on a completely different scale than Pisces alone.
So Ryan understood one thing clearly: he had to get his hands on the cure and get out of the Weasel Bandit Gang, and fast.
Forcing Pisces to reveal the formula had only been step one. The crucial part was still getting an actual, finished cure.
...
Quinn, ever the unwitting accomplice, kept things moving right along the lines of Ryan's script.
Not long after his questioning, the chief sent over a good quantity of Thousand-Year Mummy Skull Powder — a finished material looted from some past robbery, already ground and purified, ready to use without any further processing.
With the material delivered, Pisces had run out of excuses. The old man was still riding high on the joy of his new Golden formula, and though he resented having been outmaneuvered, he had no choice but to compound the cure.
Throughout the entire refining process, Ryan played the obedient assistant, staying close by to help and observe.
Pisces made no effort to hide any of it — after all, while the antidote formula for the Zombie Serum was far simpler than a gene serum, it still wasn't something an ordinary apprentice could manage.
Let him watch — what could he possibly make of it?
The technique, the timing of the fusion, the temperature control — these details were the real difficulty, the true dividing line between a licensed serum master and a mere apprentice. Without a year or more of hands-on training, an apprentice couldn't even keep the properties of the raw materials straight, let alone actually compound a finished product.
Pisces himself, gifted as he'd been, had spent over a year on the fundamentals at the Royal Academy before his own teacher had let him so much as touch a finished-product compounding.
...
Sorting, purifying, distilling, heating — all in one smooth, unbroken motion.
Every step flowed without the slightest hesitation — the mark of a seasoned two-star serum master's skill.
"Compounding a serum is all about steady precision in the fine details. Early-stage purification and extraction of materials determine the final potency, while the later reaction, fusion, and cooling stages are what decide the yield rate... anyone below One-Star Serum Master, the success rate on something like this is essentially zero..."
Pisces made no effort to shield his work from Ryan's intent gaze — quite the opposite. As he worked, he narrated freely, tossing out mouthfuls of technical terminology.
Much of what he said touched on fairly advanced serumcraft theory — not just beyond an apprentice, but likely beyond a One-Star Serum Master's full comprehension too.
The old man, of course, wasn't genuinely trying to teach Ryan serumcraft. Mostly he was showing off, and needling the boy's overreach.
Heh — think you'll master serumcraft just by watching a formula and a refining session? You, a so-called apprentice of a few measly days?
Hmph. Naive. Foolish.
The mockery at the corner of the old man's mouth was sharp enough to sting, though Ryan's expression stayed perfectly composed.
"Oh... Teacher, that's far beyond me. You truly are a great serum master!"
"Goodness, Teacher, your technique is masterful..."
"..."
While flattering the man with words he didn't mean, Ryan listened to every word of the explanation with total focus.
The deep, technical content naturally left him hopelessly lost — every specialized term the old man used was something he'd seen written in a book somewhere, but strung together like this, he genuinely couldn't parse the meaning.
In other words: knowing your Arabic numerals doesn't mean you can solve an advanced equation. Serumcraft was one of the most complex disciplines in this world.
But even without understanding it — he could still "memorize" it!
At that very moment, the AI Core had already recorded the entire compounding process, start to finish. The order the materials were added, the heating temperatures, the reaction durations, the concentrations — even the angle and frequency at which Pisces shook the test tubes — every last detail, captured.
Watching the actual formula earlier had only been Ryan's first layer of insurance. He'd worried Pisces might tamper with the cure somehow — and watching him compound it in person now finally put that worry to rest.
At least as far as he could tell, the old man was following the formula's procedure exactly, with no tricks involved.
"Finally getting the cure, huh..."
Ryan felt a faint stirring of anticipation. Only once he had the cure in hand could he truly settle down and plan his next move — the escape.
...
The cure for the Zombie Serum wasn't especially complicated — particularly not for a seasoned two-star serum master.
About an hour later, Pisces finished compounding the purple serum.
"This is the cure. Once you take it, the toxin in your body will be completely cleared out. From now on, stay by my side and study serumcraft properly..."
"Yes, Teacher."
"..."
The two of them hadn't fully broken the pretense yet, so the act had to go on.
Without thinking twice, Ryan took the vial and downed it in one gulp.
But moments later, his hopeful mood turned cold in an instant.
Because the readout the AI Core projected onto his retina showed that the toxin in his body hadn't been cleared at all — its onset had simply been delayed!
【Warning: unknown toxin still present. Estimated time to lethal onset: 1,094 days, 23 hours, 44 minutes.】
*What's going on? Wasn't this supposed to clear the toxin? Why is there still a toxin warning?!*
Ryan stared at the countdown displayed by the system, his stomach dropping.
Could Pisces have tampered with the cure somehow?
That didn't add up — the entire compounding process had followed the formula exactly. When could he possibly have pulled something?
Besides, the old man had no motive here. The original poison triggered once a month; now it had been pushed out to three years — what would that accomplish?
Pulling a stunt like this risked Ryan discovering it and blowing the whole thing wide open by telling Quinn the secret, ruining everything for nothing. A move that reckless just didn't fit the calculating old bastard's style.
Could there be something else going on here?
...
This sudden twist threw Ryan's whole plan into disarray. The cure he'd schemed so hard to obtain — turned out to be nothing but a "suspended sentence," merely delaying the poison's onset?!
Pisces noticed something odd in Ryan's expression and asked, puzzled, "What's wrong?"
Ryan composed himself and probed carefully, feigning ignorance. "Teacher, is this really the cure for the Zombie Serum? I don't feel any particular change after taking it..."
Without the AI Core, he genuinely wouldn't have been able to tell anything was wrong with the cure.
"Heh... what kind of change were you expecting?"
Pisces raised an eyebrow. Being doubted clearly irritated him somewhat. "You've already awakened as a Transcendent — surely you can feel that cold, biting sensation in your body is gone now? That's the sign the poison's been cleared."
Assuming Ryan's usual suspicious streak was worried about causing trouble, he added, "If you don't believe me, ask any of the other veterans in the gang — they all took the exact same cure..."
"Teacher, you misunderstand — I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that the good news came a bit too suddenly..."
Ryan studied Pisces's face and it didn't look like the man was lying — he genuinely seemed unaware that this cure only suppressed the toxin temporarily.
He couldn't rule out that the old man was simply an excellent actor. But thinking it through, if Pisces had really wanted to keep Ryan under control, he had far more sophisticated means available than sabotaging the cure.
And yet the toxin clearly hadn't been removed. So what exactly was going on here?
...
Three years until onset?
Wait... hadn't Pisces come to the Weasel Bandit Gang exactly three years ago?
A spark of insight flashed through Ryan's mind. Piecing together the layers of clues...
The more he thought about it, the more chilling it became!
If everyone had taken this same "cure," it meant the vast majority of the entire Weasel Bandit Gang — including all the old-timers — never actually had the Zombie Serum removed from their systems at all. It had simply been put into temporary cold storage!
Now, with the three-year mark approaching, the first batch of people who'd taken the cure would start dropping dead one after another — there was no way to keep something like that hidden much longer...
Ryan had a vague but growing sense that this wasn't nearly as simple as it seemed — the whole thing reeked of some deeper conspiracy.
But... what exactly was Pisces after here?!