Entering the study was a housekeeper who had served Phocas for many years.
His name is Reiner, and he is nearly sixty years old, which is already considered a long life among the non-superior people of Ash Earth.
Reiner's hair was obviously gray, and the wrinkles on the corners of his eyes, lips, and forehead were quite obvious, but his body was tough and his spirit was good. In his blue eyes, there was only the stability that had settled down over the years, and there was no vicissitudes of exhaustion.
"General, the bath water is ready." Reiner saluted.
Phocas' yellow eyes swept across the butler's face, nodded and said:
"it is good."
He got up slowly, led the guards at the door, touched the statue on the handrail, and went to the second floor.
The guards stayed at the door of the bedroom, and only two maids followed, helping Phokas to take off the general's uniform and enter the bathroom.
The general's habit was to go to bed after taking a bath at night, and no one was allowed to disturb him until he woke up on his own.
As usual, Phocas drank a glass of red wine and took a comfortable bath. When the maids simply tidy up the bathroom, they immediately got into the large bed and covered it with a velvet quilt.
As an elderly man, the mattress of this bed has been changed to a firmer type, which helps him ease the pain in his lower back.
Whenever he feels the firm support of the mattress, Fokas always misses the early years.
At that time, his bed was so soft that he seemed to sink into it.
At that time, his wife was still alive.
With the curtains closed and the bedside lamp turned off, the whole room was drowned in rich darkness.
Phocas' breathing gradually became longer.
A quarter of an hour later, the bedroom door quietly opened.
The guards who were supposed to prevent anyone from disturbing the general's sleep either disappeared or turned a blind eye.
The person who entered the bedroom was medium in height and wore a black formal suit.
Walking in the dimly lit environment, he came to Phokas's bed step by step.
Then, he took a needle from his clothes pocket.
After pushing out a little liquid, the dark man leaned down and aimed the needle at a vein in Phokas.
Snapped!
The bedside lamp suddenly turned on, and the originally warm yellowish light was quite dazzling to humans who were used to the dim environment.
The man who tried to inject the poison into Phokas couldn't help but closed his eyes, straightened up in panic, and stepped back.
After getting used to the light, he opened his eyes again and saw that Phocas had sat up, his yellow eyes looking at him coldly, the whole person was full of momentum and extremely majestic.
The man who infiltrated the room held his breath subconsciously, as he has every time he encountered a similar gaze over the years.
With gray hair and obvious wrinkles, he was actually Phokas' most trusted butler, Reiner.
"Why?" Phocas asked in a deep voice.
He was not at all alarmed by the attack.
Reiner overcame his inner fear, and the corners of his mouth curled up, revealing a weird smile:
"Because I am 'Pastor' Bouillon."
"You?" Phocas sneered, but didn't say much, and asked calmly, "Why did you choose such an opportunity to attack me, which is not an opportunity at all, did you also lose your IQ?"
Reiner laughed:
"You ask such a question, it shows that I am not wrong.
"If you want to deal with you, a senior awakened at the level of 'Spiritual Corridor' and a general who can command the entire city defense force, recklessness will not solve the problem. You must patiently observe the details, carefully collect information, find out your weaknesses, and then Waiting for an opportunity like tonight when the city defense army is strictly guarding everywhere but slack here.
"Fortunately, you can deceive everyone for a period of time, and you can deceive some people forever, but you can't deceive everyone forever. This sentence is not what I said, it is a famous saying in the old world, and it is just right for you. Suitable.
"I sneaked into your mansion and spent so long, not to find an opportunity to influence you, but to look through the memories of the people around you little by little, to find clues." (Note 1: Lincoln's famous quote)
Phocas laughed instead of anger:
"what have you found?"
Reiner shrugged:
"I found that you have a habit that has not changed for many years. Whether you are commanding the army outside or facing the turmoil in the first city, you must go to bed before ten o'clock in the evening, and never exceed this time.
"Also, when you are sleeping, no one can disturb you. Once, an emergency military situation reported to you by phone, but you didn't answer.
"It was eleven o'clock at night, and you didn't call back until two in the morning.
"In addition, I have tracked many awakened people in the 'Dawn' field, and I have looked through their memories when I have the opportunity to summarize some common costs, including 'deep coma for a certain period of time'.
"Based on this information, I judge that you will be in a deep coma between ten thirty in the evening and one thirty in the morning."
As a soldier who has been born and died many times, Phokas' abilities and characteristics have never been a big secret, and those who are interested can easily investigate them.
As far as "Pastor" Bouillon knows, the two most clear distinctions are:
"Create a coma" and "awaken the physical potential".
As for the third one, it is a relatively hidden type, and not many people know about it.
As a senior awakener at the "Spiritual Corridor" level, "Pastor" Bouillon is very clear that after entering the "Spiritual Corridor", the corresponding boundaries of Phokas's two abilities must be expanded. look at.
- After being promoted to "Spiritual Corridor", the number of shots that Phokas made was significantly reduced, and most of the time, the two types of "creating a coma" and "awakening the potential of the body" were displayed.
Phokas did not speak, and still looked coldly at Reiner, the housekeeper in front of him.
Reiner laughed:
"Your inquiry just now made me sure that your price was 'deep coma for a certain period of time', but I made a certain misjudgment at a specific point in time.
"The reason why I'm telling you so much is that I'm waiting for the time when you'll be in a coma.
"I'm surprised that you didn't panic at all, and you were willing to talk to me. Do you want to forcibly show calm and scare me to interrupt subsequent attacks
"Don't worry, every quarter of an hour, a group of people in your mansion will come here and try to kill you. Except for your two children, I think there will always be someone who will bump into you when you are unconscious.
"Don't struggle, even if you let everyone in this house pass out now, there will be killers in the surrounding area one after another, your only way is to make a phone call now and ask for help from the consul or the Senate, and when you arrive At that time, there may be my puppets among the people who came to protect you."
After listening quietly, Phokas sighed:
"You're really patient, unlike most of the 'anti-intellectual' people.
"I did play some tricks on the timing. I didn't answer the phone when there was an emergency military situation. In fact, I did it on purpose. Just like having to go to bed before ten o'clock every night, it constitutes a secret observer of you. misleading.
"As a general, you must know how to leave a margin. In the early days of the old world, there was already the concept of a reserve team. How can I not make corresponding arrangements now?"
Having said this, Phokas laughed:
"Ten o'clock in the evening to two in the morning is not my coma time.
"Also, you may not have heard a sentence. This is what the emperor once said: The Awakened should protect the secret of what he paid for as he protects his eyes."
The smile on Phocas' face became more and more obvious:
"Actually, my price is not 'deep coma for a certain period of time' at all. Since I have a certain strength, I have been working hard to build an illusion, that illusion is 'my price is a certain period of deep coma', in order to cover up me The real price to pay.
"There is an old saying among the Ashlanders that fighting with soldiers cannot rule out tricky and deceitful tactics. The same applies in the battle between the Awakened.
"Otherwise, do you think I will talk to you so peacefully?"
The expression on Lena's face gradually solidified.
Phocas slowly rolled over and got out of bed, and said casually:
"Have you noticed that your insomnia has gotten worse during this time?"
Reiner didn't answer, but his brows were furrowed.
"Since the team of Xue Yueyi and Zhang Qubing left here and were followed by the fake 'priest', I was wondering if the 'pastor' Bouillon was already lurking nearby and plotting some kind of conspiracy against me." Fuqua Si touched the top of his head where there was not much room left, and said with a smile, "Since then, I have been targeting everyone in this block indiscriminately, except for my two children."
Reiner was silent for a while and said:
"Your third ability is to make people sleepless to varying degrees?"
"Yes." Phocas smiled, "In addition to making you more and more insomniac, I also awakened your physical potential, so that you can maintain a good state while insomnia, without affecting your daily life, so, you It is also possible to continue to scroll through the memory of the crowd on a large scale, bit by bit.
"In this matter, I have been taking it step by step, and I shouldn't let you notice anything. After all, when you look at your memory, you must focus on various details related to me, not the life of the person being looked at."
Reiner was silent again, and asked after a while:
"What's the point of that?"
"Of course it makes sense." Phocas paced slowly and glanced at him, "The intelligence system of the 'First City' is still very strong, and part of the price of your 'Last Man' domain has been grasped long ago, and I found that among them Many are physical and physiological costs, such as sleep disorders, such as high blood pressure, such as decreased physical fitness, etc., etc.
"I don't know if your price is in this part. It's just a try. If you fail, you won't lose anything. If you succeed, hey..."
Phocas laughed:
"After a long-term overdraft of the body to fight insomnia, once no one awakens your physical potential, what do you think will happen
"A mild serious illness may lead to sudden death in a serious one."
Lena's face darkened.
He looked left and right and said:
"There must be many people in the surrounding area who are not in good physical condition. Are you not afraid of affecting them?"
"There is a saying among the gray people that soft-hearted people are not suitable to be generals." Phocas raised his chin, showing his majestic gesture, "I don't check the surrounding area and look for suspicious people, in order not to frighten me. Let's go and have a chance to teach you a lesson."
Having said that, Phokas glanced at Reiner and laughed at himself:
"What do I tell you so much? You're just a puppet..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Reiner fell and fell on the carpet.
The guards outside the door and others in the mansion also fell into a coma.
Fucas put on a suit and went to his two grown children, carrying one in each hand, hurried to the garage, and got on a bulletproof off-road vehicle.
Immediately afterwards, he drove the vehicle to the green olive area to the north.
During this process, he did not call the Senate or the Government Affairs Office, nor did he contact the subordinates of the City Defense Army.