Inside the manor's gym, Benjamin finished tidying up, took a shower, and then came to familiarize himself with his body.
*Thump*, a punch.
1686 pounds!
Benjamin punched the punch strength tester with slightly more force, looking at the number displayed.
It was indeed beyond human limits.
This kind of punching power would basically send an ordinary person flying, a skull-crushing blow.
The average person's muscle utilization rate is generally around 20% to 30%.
Even with professional training, it's only around 40%; any more than that would damage the body.
If an ordinary person could utilize 100% of their muscles to deliver a punch, they could even deliver a ton-sized blow.
Of course, the result would be shattered bones and internal organs after just one punch.
But Benjamin was different.
He had already tested his physical strength, exceeding human limits by more than double.
And because the core is the heart,
he can also break through the brain's safety restrictions on muscles, unleashing a self-destructive, extreme attack, recovering afterward through blood circulation.
His phone beeped, and Benjamin picked it up to check.
It contained a series of text messages, all from Detective 1, Detective 2... up to number 20.
They were divided into ten groups of two, responsible for reporting on the activities of Kirsty's family of three in Brooklyn, and Frank from India, 24 hours a day.
The messages mentioned that Kirsty's father was putting his current property up for sale,
and that Frank had withdrawn £10,000 worth of Moroccan francs from the bank an hour earlier.
Benjamin then flipped through the police report on the table. Of Kirsty's four properties, only this cabin in Hatton best matched the description in the story.
It was about to begin; he needed to find Kirsty and get out of there quickly.
The Cenobite from the Frozen Hell might realize at any moment that his soul had escaped Hell.
Curse disciples are good, but just like mortals escaping from prison, being caught really can't even save their souls
With Benjamin's current abilities, if discovered, he would definitely be dragged back to hell.
His soul would be tortured and twisted, leaving no possibility of escape.
He activated the traps he had set inside the wooden house.
He handed over the five black thugs tied up in the next room who had smashed his car's trunk to the police station, then turned and left the manor.
These thugs were his backup plan, in case the collected old blood couldn't be used, but unfortunately, he didn't get to use it.
The Ice Cultist's intermediary was just an ordinary person obsessed with hell.
When the other party came to the wooden house to collect the Ice Crystal Ball, he believed that the fully automatic machine guns and high-explosive mines would give them a surprise.
Cenobite generally don't bother with ordinary people who have no soul value, so the safety of the servants in the manor wasn't a major concern.
...
Frank, far away in India, sat in a teahouse in Molok, the sweltering heat making him drenched in sweat despite wearing a white vest.
A hedonistic playboy, he had long since grown weary of worldly pleasures and sought more thrilling experiences.
Frank tossed a wad of banknotes onto a round, red wooden table.
Across from him sat an old man in a blue shirt. The old man slowly asked, "What do you want?"
"A box."
The old man took the banknotes and placed a cube-shaped box covered in gold patterns, each side centered with a gold circle, on the table.
"Take it. It's yours."
Frank picked up the box and turned to leave.
The old man in blue sat there, staring at Frank's retreating figure, and uttered a strange, eerie sound: "It... will always belong to you."
...
"The contract is signed, here's the payment."
"No problem, sir. This shop is now yours. Best wishes for a prosperous business."
Inside the "Fat Cat" pet shop in Hatton, Benjamin signed a contract, watching the old man who owned the shop leave.
This pet shop was the one Kirsty would be looking for work at in a few days.
Benjamin checked his phone; Frank had already boarded his return flight and was expected to arrive tomorrow morning.
Benjamin fed all the cats, dogs, and birds in the pet shop, making sure they were all full.
Then, camera in hand, he closed the pet shop door and, following the map, headed west along a main street.
Hatton wasn't large; after about 20 minutes, he found his target.
A European-style wooden bungalow stood on a green lawn.
White walls and blue tiles—this was the home of Dr. "Chandler," the doctor at the local Hatton Mental Hospital.
Although it was daytime, there weren't many pedestrians on the street. Chandler was working at the hospital at this time, making it a good opportunity to infiltrate.
Make sure he had found the right place.
Benjamin leaped, grabbed the edge of the 2.5-meter-high sloping roof, and with a powerful push, squeezed through the roof and into the house through the second-floor attic window.
Chandler's living room was filled with models of various human anatomy structures.
He went to the bedroom, searched it but found nothing, and returned to the living room. On the right side of the living room, he found another room.
He twisted the doorknob and pushed hard; the door was locked.
Benjamin remembered the key he had seen in the bedroom drawer, so he went back to the bedroom, retrieved the key, and returned.
After some probing, click! The door opened.
The walls of the room were covered with various skeletal diagrams and disassembly diagrams of the Lemarchand's Box.
On the mahogany table in front of the bookshelf were five glass domes, each containing a replica cube-shaped box.
Benjamin couldn't help but sigh at Chandler's reckless behavior.
Of all the puzzle boxes he could have replicated, but he choose this one—the one featuring the High Priest of Hell, Pinhead.
Obviously, there is a low difficulty, but it starts directly with the highest difficulty
Benjamin chose the Ice Crystal Puzzle Box because the Ice Cenobite wasn't considered particularly strong among the cenobites.
Ignoring the replica boxes on the table, Benjamin began searching for the main target of this infiltration.
A green folder sat on the table.
Benjamin opened it.
The first page of the folder contained a black-and-white photograph of a Hell Cenobite. The cenobite had a sack over his head, with two spikes protruding from the sack into his eye sockets.
A sticker was tucked into the lower left corner of the folder, covered in densely packed small print containing information related to Leviathan.
Benjamin picked up his camera and began taking pictures as he looked through the document. This information was crucial for his future plans.
He quickly found what he was looking for,
It was a black-and-white, half-profile photograph of a young officer in uniform.
The sticker below read:
Elliott Spencer, a graduate of a public school, joined the British Expeditionary Force during World War I as an officer due to family reasons.
The brutality of the Battle of Basherdale robbed him of his humanity and faith in God. He buried his past trauma with pleasure and enjoyment. In 1921, he discovered a Lemarchand's Box in British India, and then disappeared without a trace.
Benjamin carefully examined the photograph, surprised that the High Priest Pinhead was quite handsome in his youth.
He took out his camera, focused on the photograph, and only felt relieved after confirming he had taken a clear picture.
This photograph, in the second part of the story, will awaken Pinhead's humanity; it will be a talisman against his past.
Benjamin then photographed the remaining documents, closed the folder, and put everything back in its original place.
After checking that no one was around, he climbed out the window again and returned to the pet shop.
Benjamin began reviewing the footage he had taken. He didn't bring back the green folder, not wanting to interfere with the plot of the second part.
At 30% exploration progress, Benjamin obtained a story world entry ticket.
Although he didn't know its use yet, he guessed it would likely be related to re-entering this world.
However, this exploration progress was hard to obtain.
Although Benjamin seemed to have easily reached 35%, he had actually died once, gone to Hell to check in, and completed two story missions to get it.
There was a reward for 30% exploration progress; he wondered how much exploration progress he could achieve after completing all the story missions, and whether there would be any rewards.
Now that he had Spencer's photo as his trump card, all that remained was to wait for Frank's return.
Benjamin arrived at the pet shop entrance and looked up at the sky.
The evening clouds burned from west to east, a fiery red as if the sky were on fire, like a burning hope.
He could almost see Frank flying in from the west in a plane which was soaring through the clouds, relentlessly heading towards hell.