729 Respite ?

Matcha curled up his front paws while sprawled on the pillow with his face full of grievances.

"Disgusting, everyone was rewarded with food and money and my reward was to sleep on this pillow."

Seeing the snoring Zhao Yao, Matcha placed his paw on his head and flicked out his sharp claws. "Humph, if I use my strength now, I will be able to kill Zhao Yao and dominate the Cat Nation."

Laying his claws on Zhao Yao's head, Matcha shook his head and retracted his claws. "Forget it. I will let you off today."

Within a short while, Matcha tossed on the pillow, his four limbs holding onto Zhao Yao's head and snoring loudly.

The next day, Zhao Yao opened his eyes, found Matcha all over his head and tossed him out. Matcha meowed and stood up with a face of sorrow gazing at him.

Zhao Yao stroked his head and said angrily, "Now I know the reason why I had nightmares of my head being hammered." He got up while yawning and remembered his to-do-list—find the King of Death and deal with the Ivory issue.

He brushed his teeth while thinking, "The best scenario is that the King of Death disbands what is left of Ivory and dissociates himself from all the puppets. Although he has turned over a new leaf, it is still difficult for him to give himself up. Moreover, with the disassociation from the puppets, he will not be subjected to the effects of illusion. Will he revert to his old ways?"

Zhao Yao thought very hard but could not come up with a perfect solution. As the King of Death was associated with hundreds of thousands of people, Zhao Yao's various tactics were not feasible. If he accidentally destroyed their awareness, the consequences would be irreversible.

Zhao Yao shook his head. "Ivory is completely destroyed and the King of Death should realize by now that he is no match for me. If he is not willing to comply, I will have to destroy him. Time is on our side. Even if he raises another army, he is still no match for me."

After making a decision, Zhao Yao looked for the King of Death but discovered that the building was already vacant. He and his men were nowhere to be found.

While Zhao Yao was feeling surprised, Uncle Ho called and he told him that Ivory was completely disbanded. The Iron Army was handed over to the government and the King of Death's assets were surrendered to the country. After disassociation with all the puppets, the King of Death disappeared without a trace.

For the next few days, Uncle Ho and his men were busy tying up the loose ends of Ivory. More than a few hundreds of thousands of commoners were controlled by the King of Death for about two years. Within the next few days, it made shocking headlines in the major newspapers of the world.

There were a lot of loose ends to tie up, including management of public opinion. The Iron Army was a ticking time bomb. Although the King of Death had provided all information, a large number of workers were required to understand the information and retrieve all resources of the Iron Army.

However, Zhao Yao was not concerned with all of this. He returned happily to Jianghai and resumed his carefree and decadent days.

…

In the state of Maine in United States.

In a laboratory, an apostle yelled loudly. His body hair grew rapidly. In a blink of an eye, his entire body was covered in thick layers of hair, looking like a Yeti.

The Professor looked at the apostle and asked in astonishment, "Has he grown stronger? How much of improvement is that when compared to existing data?"

The assistant said, "The length has grown by 30%, the speed by 15%. The amount increased by at most 125%. This is incredible. According to normal standards, the superpower to control fur growth is only able to achieve the same results after three years of daily activation."

The Professor's breath quickened as he said, "Repeat the experiment one more time and activate all the monitoring equipment." It was too incredible that the apostle's superpower could be boosted to such level within a short period of time.

If there was that much boosting of the superpower to control fur growth, what would the effect be on Robot Fusion, Gravitation Control, Rapid Regeneration, Super Strength, Super Speed, and other superpowers?

"If we can understand the cause… No, there is no need to research the cause. If we are able to lend Project X's superpower to the apostles in the Army, their fighting capability will be boosted by many times."

The Professor's eyes glinted. The value of Project X was far greater than what he had imagined.

A few hours later, the Professor studied the report of the experiment results and looked at Project X, his gaze becoming more insightful.

Any apostles within a three meter range of Project X would have their superpowers boosted significantly.

"Just like a domain." The Professor shook his head, walked to the single-sided glass, and observed Project X who was reading a book.

During the entire experiment process, Project X was sitting on the table reading the comic book. There were no signs of activation of a superpower.

The Professor asked, "Is there any energy consumption?"

"According to the body statistics, there are no abnormal changes." The assistant said, "His ability is like a constant passive effect."

Project X closed his comic book and asked, "Hey? Can you send in a new batch of books? I have read through these books many times."

"Uh? Really?" The Professor walked up and conversed with Project X, "What do you want to read?" He received from the assistant a copy of the psychological profile report, which was compiled by a few psychologists who studied his data and condition.

The Professor scanned through the report that said: "… Simple and mild mannered… Curious about the outside world… Harmless…"

Project X said, "Any books will do. It's better if they are wordy so they will take me longer to read."

The Professor nodded, shut off the microphone and said to the assistant, "Send him some fantasy novels." After pondering, he could not resist asking, "Project X, are you able to boost the abilities of supercats?"

Project X casually nodded as he flipped open a comic book. He said calmly, "Yes, of course and the effect is even better. The boosted superpowers can be lent as per usual."

"Wait, what did you say?" The Professor exclaimed, "You are able to boost supercats' superpowers before they lend them?"

Project X lowered his head and shielded his face with the comic book revealing a hidden smile. He spoke in a serene tone, "Yes, that is so." He lifted his head and looked blankly at the Professor, "Why? Is there a problem?"