Chapter 423: It’s a Hallucinogen, I Added a Hallucinogen to It

Chapter 423: Chapter 423: It’s a Hallucinogen, I Added a Hallucinogen to It

Without needing to guess, the person before me is definitely the Sorcerer Supreme.

Master Wong really wasn’t wrong; the Sorcerer Supreme is indeed petty, and not just in an ordinary way.

Just because someone spoke ill behind her back, she directly sent them flying over a dozen meters away.

However, this power is simply too outrageous!

Strange was still startled out of his wits by this scene when he saw Darian suddenly turn his head, narrowing his eyes to look at him: "Earlier, did I seem to hear you say I was petty?"

"No, absolutely not, you definitely misheard."

Strange shook his head like a rattle-drum.

He would never admit to this even if beaten to death; he certainly didn’t want to end up with the same fate as Master Wong.

"Fine, let’s just say I misheard."

Fortunately, Darian didn’t intend to pursue the matter, waving his hand cheerfully: "Don’t be nervous. I’m actually a very easygoing person. As long as you don’t fabricate false rumors about me like certain people do, I won’t do anything to you."

This doesn’t look like a rumor at all, though.

Strange’s mouth twitched, but he nodded very sensibly: "Alright, okay."

Darian was quite satisfied with his attitude and turned to walk inside the house.

"Come with me."

Strange hesitated for half a second and quickly followed.

As soon as he stepped into the house, he was completely stunned.

He had originally thought that the Sorcerer Supreme’s residence would be similar to the style of secluded experts in his impression—stone walls, wooden beams, green lamps, ancient scrolls, plus a futon and a few exceptionally plain furnishings.

As a result, what came into view was unexpectedly a recreation room decorated with a strong modern aesthetic.

Looking around, all kinds of entertainment equipment were readily available, and a full set of karaoke equipment was even placed in the corner. Every single item was a custom design, and from the workmanship to the materials, one could tell at a glance that they were exorbitantly expensive, much more luxurious than his former mansion.

Strange watched with dumbfounded amazement.

Are otherworldly experts nowadays all this trendy and this wealthy?

"Sit wherever you like."

Darian leaned back into the large sofa and raised a hand to gesture.

Hearing this, Strange sat on the large sofa on the other side, his posture obviously somewhat restrained.

This was also normal; facing a humanoid ferocious beast that could slap someone flying over a dozen meters away with a single palm, no one would be able to relax.

Darian leaned back against the sofa and spoke first: "I know you, Stephen Strange, a well-known neurosurgery Doctor in America, a publicly recognized genius in the industry."

"Unfortunately, your luck hasn’t been good. A while ago, you got into a car accident, your hand nerves were severely damaged, and various treatment methods proved ineffective. Finally, through the clues provided by NJadaka, you managed to find this place."

Holy crap, doxxed!

Strange widened his eyes: "How do you know this so clearly?"

Darian did not answer, instead asking in return: "What would you like to drink? Tea or cola?"

Stunned by the doxxing weapon, Strange instinctively replied: "Tea, I suppose."

"Alright, then cola it is."

Strange: "..."

Darian snapped his fingers. Amidst Strange’s shocked gaze, a mass of Shadow emerged from the floor, walked over to the refrigerator, pulled open the door, took out two cans of beverages from inside, opened them, and poured them into cups filled with ice cubes, also adding two slices of lemon.

Immediately afterward, the Shadow handed the two cups of iced cola to their hands respectively, and then melted back into the floor and disappeared.

"What, what is this!?"

Strange lowered his head to look at the iced cola in his hand, his face full of disbelief.

Darian’s tone was casual: "Just a little magic, not worth mentioning."

"Ma... magic?"

Strange’s mouth opened slightly, his expression looking just like a dull-witted person.

Darian nodded: "That’s right, you’ve seen movies, right? It’s that kind of magic where you recite a couple of incantations to mobilize extraordinary power."

Strange wore an absurd look: "But isn’t magic fictional? How could such a thing exist in the real World?"

Darian chuckled: "Back then, everyone also thought Norse mythology was made up, until that Thunder God holding a hammer landed on Earth. Since even deities exist, why can’t magic exist?"

This remark left Strange with no way to refute.

Now who doesn’t know of the existence of Thor Odinson? That is a deity truly living in the real World.

"Moreover, Thor Odinson’s brother Loki is a mage skilled in illusion magic."

Darian took a sip of the iced cola and said leisurely: "If you really cannot understand it, you can imagine the entire World as an oversized game, where most players can only operate within the framework of normal game rules."

"Only a small fraction of players use cheat software to perform operations outside the framework of the game rules, and this is magic. These cheating players are called mages. You should be able to understand now that I put it this way, right?"

Strange: "..."

Understand, he understood.

But for you, a proper mage, to use a game to explain magic, isn’t that a bit too Strange?

"But magic is simply not scientific."

Strange felt his throat go dry, picked up the iced cola in his hand, and took a big gulp.

Darian shook his head: "Strange, you look at things too narrowly. This World is far more complex than you imagine, but I can actually let you witness it with your own eyes."

Before Strange could react, Darian raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

The crisp sound exploded in the air.

The next second, Strange only felt his body suddenly plunge, the scenery around him instantly tearing apart, his field of vision stretched infinitely, and his entire person along with the sofa he was sitting on was tossed high into the sky.

He looked down and saw that Kamar-Taj had already shrunk into a tiny dot beneath his feet, followed by the Himalayas, then the entire Eurasian landmass, and finally even Earth had become a blue marble in the vast sea of stars.

"Ahahaha——!"

Strange let out the sharpest scream of his life, his body being pulled by a force to continue flying outward.

Innumerable stars burst into dense points of light before his eyes, converging into a dazzling galaxy, only to be quickly left behind.

His consciousness completely failed to keep up with the amount of information received by his vision, and his head was buzzing.

Immediately after, the Universe beneath his feet began to fold.

All galaxies, Nebula, and networks composed of dark matter seemed to be lifted open by an invisible giant hand, revealing a completely different structure underneath.

Time lost its meaning here, and space no longer followed three-dimensional laws.

Countless brightly colored geometric figures grew, split, and reorganized themselves in the void; order and chaos flashed alternately, with fractal structures nested within fractal structures, extending outward endlessly.

His body passed through an ocean composed of pure light, entered the macroscopic Universe, and was then dragged into boundless darkness.

Deep within the darkness surged some enormous and indescribable existence.

That thing had no specific shape, exuding an aura of grotesqueness, distortion, and eeriness. Taking even one more glance seemed to contaminate one’s soul and spirit, making one feel as though the entire brain was trembling.

Then the light exploded once more. He seemed to suddenly emerge from the bottom of the Water to the surface, gasping heavily for air, and found that he was sitting back on the sofa.

The living room was still that same living room.

The iced cola in his hand was still emitting chill; the ice cubes hadn’t finished melting, and Water droplets condensed on the cup wall.

It was as if nothing had ever happened.

"Is this what the World truly looks like..."

Strange was plunged into immense shock, unable to recover his wits for a long time.

He felt that the World-view he had stubbornly guarded for most of his life had completely shattered into scum at this moment.

After a long while, Strange finally recovered his energy.

He looked at Darian with shining eyes, his voice trembling slightly from excitement: "This must be magic, right!"

As a firm materialist, he only believed in science his entire life. Regarding something that sounded as abstruse as magic, in the past he would have scoffed at it completely and considered it a deceptive trick.

But now, he was the firmest occult believer; whoever said magic was fake, he would be desperate with them.

Darian chuckled: "That’s right, this is called astral projection, which can help you understand the magic of the real World."

This was a lie.

The magic of astral projection did indeed exist, capable of separating the physical body and soul, traversing different dimensions in an astral form.

However, Darian hadn’t learned this magic yet.

Therefore, he adopted the simplest method.

That was adding a strong hallucinogen to the iced cola, combined with the newly learned hallucinatory magic to achieve a similar effect.

Right when Strange was about to go crazy, he then used the newly learned purification skill to clear away all the negative statuses on the other party’s body.

Perfect!

Strange sighed with lingering fear: "magic is truly so miraculous. If I hadn’t witnessed magic beforehand, I would have thought I drank an entire bottle of hallucinogen."

No, your intuition is extremely accurate.

Darian’s face remained unchanged as he took a sip of his own unlaced iced cola, wearing an unfathomable smile on his face.

"How about it, do you still doubt the existence of magic now?"

Strange shook his head repeatedly, his eyes still retaining the lingering fear from just now, while a brand-new awe was added: "No... not anymore, I really didn’t expect the World to be like this."

Darian crossed his legs and said leisurely: "There are still many things you can’t imagine. What you saw just now is merely the tip of the iceberg; real magic is far more wonderful than what you experienced just now."

Strange’s eyes lit up, and he asked with anticipation: "Sorcerer Supreme, may I ask if magic can heal my hands?"

Since science had no way to heal his hands, unscientific methods might just have hope.

Darian’s answer did not disappoint him either.

"Of course, magic is omnipotent."

Strange’s breathing suddenly grew hurried, and he excitedly asked: "Then can you help me heal these hands?"

Darian nodded, agreeing quite readily: "Yes, but my charges are relatively expensive. Seeing as it really wasn’t easy for you to find this place, I’ll give you a discount."

Strange asked tentatively: "Then how much money will it take?"

Darian did not speak, raising a single finger.

Strange pondered for a moment in his heart and tried guessing a number: "One million U.S. dollars?"

"No, one hundred million U.S. dollars."

Strange: "..."

Why don’t you just go rob a bank!?

Of course, he could only hold this remark back inside his stomach.

Strange said with a crying face: "Sorcerer Supreme, but I heard from NJadaka that it only cost one million U.S. dollars."

Darian’s expression didn’t change: "That was because we were running a limited-time event—buy one hundred million and get ninety-nine million free. Now that the event has expired, naturally it’s charged at the original price."

Strange: "..."

Is there actually a limited-time event for this shit?

Strange was on the verge of tears: "One hundred million U.S. dollars is simply too much, and besides, I have no money left now."

"No money?"

Darian’s expression changed, his tone instantly turning cold: "Sorry, our Kamar-Taj only ferries fated people. Someone, see the guest out!"

No, is it this realistic!?

Strange waved his hands hurriedly and said anxiously: "Wait, can it be a bit less? This amount is truly way too huge; even if I work hard my entire life, I wouldn’t be able to cough up this much money."

Darian wore a look of disgust: "So poor, you can’t even afford one hundred million."

Strange was choked up and unable to speak.

I am not Tony Stark, how could I possibly cough up so much money.

He took a deep breath and asked with a shred of last hope: "Sorcerer Supreme, is there any other way? Preferably the kind that doesn’t cost money."

Darian thought about it: "There is one, it’s just that the effects are relatively slow."

Strange’s eyes instantly lit up.

He wasn’t afraid of being slow; he was only afraid of not even having hope.

He hurriedly pressed: "What method?"

Darian slowly said: "That is to join Kamar-Taj as an apprentice, start learning magic from scratch, and by some future day, perhaps you might be able to heal your own hands with magic."

Strange widened his eyes: "Can I also learn magic?"

Darian nodded: "Of course. As long as you step into Kamar-Taj, you have the qualification to learn magic. Although your aptitude isn’t much, not even reaching one-ten-thousandth of mine, you’ve still barely stepped onto the threshold."

He was looked down upon by Darian once again, but Strange completely couldn’t care less, instead becoming extremely excited.

He felt that he had practically picked up a colossal bargain.

Originally he was in despair; clearly a treatment method was placed right before him, yet he had no way to pay that astronomical fee.

Who would have thought that things would take a favorable turn and he actually obtained the qualification to learn magic.

"Sorcerer Supreme, I want to learn magic!"

Following the Eastern custom of apprenticeship, Strange directly knelt down to Darian on the spot.

At this moment, he felt that after experiencing so much suffering, he finally parted the clouds and mist to see the true light.

Darian reached out to block in front: "Don’t bow to me, I don’t take disciples, I only take seats... cough cough, if you want to bow, bow to that one over there."

Strange looked in the direction of his finger. Hanging on the wall was a black-and-white photograph, inside of which was a bald woman who looked like an expert at a glance.

Strange asked curiously: "Who is she?"

Darian explained: "The previous Sorcerer Supreme, who sacrificed herself not long ago. If you had come a bit earlier, perhaps you could have caught her banquet."

"Ah, how did she sacrifice herself? Could it be that she encountered some powerful enemy?"

Strange was startled at once.

Under the effect of the hallucinogen, his horizons were now completely opened up, no longer being that ignorant mortal from just before.

In his view, the Sorcerer Supreme should be an extremely powerful existence.

Even a figure of this caliber had actually fallen; just how terrifying must the opponent have been?

Darian shook his head: "Oh no, she tripped her left foot over her right foot and died from falling from a high altitude."

Strange: "..."

He suddenly felt that the Sorcerer Supreme didn’t seem all that impressive after all.

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