<h4>Chapter 152 Suspension of Belief</h4>


    [2800 PSs bonus]


    Even an impure Grimde should have around a 50 Stat Limit at Level 0. For Mental, that meant he could have abined total of 150 stat points across Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, while Will was outside that calction. So, assuming that Ss'' Intelligence and Wisdom were weak, it still made sense that his telekinesis could be so strong.


    ''That isn''t all. From my understanding, even having high Charisma and Will alone isn''t enough to use telekinesis to this extent. You need a talent for visualizing your environment and excellent spatial awareness…''


    Lucius was very surprised that the best performance came from Ss. He didn''t know whether he should be disappointed in his first overall pick or not, but then again… he hadn''t chosen Nathan for hisbat prowess, but rather his administration abilities.


    Still, Nathan hadn''t performed poorly either, he had shown some shes. It could be said that Ss was just on another level.


    ''He''s as good as the family''s seedlings… his ability to adapt is excellent and he also didn''t try to hide himself, he shone brightly even though he didn''t have to…''


    Lucius tapped a finger on his desk.


    He had taken a risk in drafting Nathan. While thetter was a genius, the kind of ces he would need him to disy his abilities in would also leave him quite vulnerable. That meant that he would need to take a great amount of care and time before he could trust Nathan with anything.


    But Ss… not only was he his second overall pick, but he had given him quite a good surprise.


    ''We''ll take things slow. I''ll see if I can trust him by giving him a few tasks and see how he performs.''


    **


    "Scout?" Ss raised an eyebrow after listening to Mark''s exnation.


    "Yes. Lucius wants us to take a trip to Lone Star and get ay of thend. Paradise is actually pretty important to Lone Star. You probably know but Lone Star is a huge city and it''s always constructing new skyscrapers and attractions. Much of the refined metals they need for thate from right here, but those metals are important to our operation. We need to go and find out how Lone Star ns to deal with this matter.


    "It''s unlikely that they''ll be in the mood to build attractions when they just lost half their city''s poption, but it''s our job to find out."


    Ss nodded slowly, but he had a feeling that with how flimsy this exnation was, this was hardly the real exnation.


    Something like the steel used in skyscrapers had to go through countless processes, from mining, to refinement, and then shaping. There was no one location that could do all of this, especially not a single town. Maybe if it was a chain of towns he''d believe it, but this exnation was too stupid.


    Second, even if he was willing to suspend his disbelief and take them at their word, what did they mean by "find out how Lone Star ns to deal with this matter"?


    The real reason for this flimsy exnation was just a subtle nudge.


    First, it let Ss in on the fact that they were at odds with the government, and second, it let him know that while they were increasing the length of his leash a little, it wasn''t to the point of letting him have free rein. Even now, they were willing to lie right in his face and not blink twice.


    ''Even so… I don''t think they''d make up such an exnation for no reason. It should at least be somewhat rted to metals… this is a good opportunity.''


    "Okay," Ss nodded. "When do we set off?"


    ...


    The path to Lone Star wasn''t as smooth sailing as the road to Paradise had been. There wererge numbers of beasts that had slipped through the cracks, and it even seemed that some of the creatures born and raised on Earth had begun to change as well. In all likelihood, they were undergoing a simr process to what had urred during the first night of the Trial, but it was taking ce over a longer period of time.


    However, rtively speaking, the issue wasn''t veryrge.


    The Portal was attractive because of therge concentration of Aether, but thisrge concentration quickly dissipated the further from the Portal you were. It seemed that the Portal was a funnel of sorts that was increasing the Aether concentration of Earth, but it would take a significant amount of time for it to have arge effect. In fact, it would most definitely take several portals working together in conjunction for such a thing to ur.


    What Ss did find, though, was his answer to why Lucius hadn''t used guns.


    Originally, he had just dismissed it. This was because he assumed that Lucius was just trying to test them, and if they were all using guns, that wasn''t much of a test.


    However, it seemed that the problem was much deeper than he thought.


    On the way, he saw a few of the deputies and policemen fighting against waves of beasts, and for some reason, their guns continuously jammed.


    A jam or even two wasn''t a problem. Over arge enough period of time, it was bound to happen. But the frequency was frightening.


    ''It seems I''ve been naive,'' Ss thought to himself. ''Why would electricity stop working in the presence of Aether? It''s easy to just wave it away as a quirk of the special energy, but what if what''s really happening isn''t that Aether is suppressing technology, but rather that thews of physics and chemistry that we''re all used to are slowly changing over time?''


    When Ss had this thought, he finally understood. It was no wonder, then, that they were even walking on foot. Setting aside the fact that most cars these days were full of electronics, maybe even thebustion that the engines relied on couldn''t be produced reliably anymore, just like the gun powder of their guns were misfiring at least 30% of the time, it seemed.