Back at the facility, Wen Wen felt a sense of relief, knowing he had managed to pull through this time.
The mysterious powerful individual, Black Cross, remained a Disaster-level threat, capable of repelling the Tins Hound with ease.
Fortunately, the Tins Hound wasn't solely driven by its desire to consume time, as it had been during its first appearance. Otherwise, the chains might not have intimidated it, and Wen Wen would have lost face in front of all the superhumans.
After a brief moment of composure, Wen Wen didn't linger in the facility. With a snap of his fingers, he vanished.
Wen Wen reappeared in a burnt-out, abandoned mansion in Nim City, a place shrouded in a terrifying legend.
A young single mother, who had recently moved in, went out to buy groceries, leaving her two-year-old child locked inside the house.
However, on her way, she was struck unconscious by a falling flowerpot. By the time she woke up in the hospital, ten days had passed.
Upon returning home, she found her child had starved to death. She lived in a state of madness with her child's corpse for several years, until finally, a raging fire consumed everything.
Since then, children passing by the area often disappeared, only to be found in a charred cradle within the house, having starved for days.
Having learned from the previous incident where he was confronted by the Guides, Wen Wen visited this place before searching for Stein. He easily apprehended the young mother who was haunting the area.
Considering she ultimately did not starve a child to death, Wen Wen merely implanted a chain within her and allowed her to continue living there, serving as an exit for his facility.
After emerging from there, Wen Wen feigned ignorance and quietly joined the main force of demon hunters. He followed the directives of Xun Qing and others to handle the aftermath of the Mist Box and the Tins Hound.
Aside from the massive battle between the Guides and the True Order powerhouses, Nim City did not suffer severe casualties.
As the Mist Box had only been unsealed for a short time, the monsters were concentrated only around Wen Wen and a mist vortex escorting Stein. Only a few residents, who disregarded the Nim City government's warnings, provoked the mist monsters and were killed.
This was considered fortunate amidst misfortune.
Moreover, due to the agreement between Black Cross and the Golden Eagle District Hunter Association, the appearance of the Disaster-level powerhouse Black Cross did not cause any unrest in the Golden Eagle District.
However, later, during his operations, Wen Wen distinctly felt a mysterious aura circling him twice, as if conducting an inspection.
The aura's level far surpassed that of Xun Qing and the others; it was likely the Punishers of the Golden Eagle District.
That Punisher probably intended to have a word with Black Cross, but unfortunately, they could not find him.
After witnessing Black Cross taking away the Mist Box and capturing Stein, the superhumans of Nim City did not feel disheartened. Instead, their fighting spirit soared even higher.
As their morale surged, the monsters of Nim City met their doom. Within a day and a half, Nim City was thoroughly swept clean.
All sorts of creatures, whether they were vampire clans, werewolf tribes, or wizard gatherings, were all eradicated.
Only near the Dark Kitchen was the cleanup handled a bit more gently. However, monsters with a history were not spared. Of course, there were some accidental casualties, but compared to other factions, their mercy was considerable.
If it weren't for Old Tins having influence with a high-ranking official in a Golden Eagle District association and contributing significantly to the process of dealing with Stein, the Dark Kitchen would have been cleaned out as well.
Now that the mist had completely disappeared, eliminating the monsters' hiding environment, and after such an intensive cleanup, it would take at least several decades for any monsters in Nim City to pose a threat.
Finally, after the monster eradication operation concluded, Nim City underwent a collective memory alteration.
The citizens would not remember the strange events of these days and would deliberately overlook the abrupt changes in the mist. However, they did not completely abandon masks. Instead, they gained a mask-related festival on the third Friday of every early spring.
It is worth mentioning that after three days of treatment, the superhuman named Boyev finally woke up.
However, his strength had directly dropped by one level, and his physical condition resembled that of an elderly person on the verge of death, with none of his former vigor.
Wen Wen considered extending an invitation to him if the opportunity arose, to see if the facility's power could help him recover slightly.
...
After a day and a half of busyness, Wen Wen finally had some leisure time. The next day at noon, they would be heading to Hunter Island. Wen Wen could use this time to return to the facility and sort through his gains.
Upon returning to the facility, Wen Wen's first stop was Stein. Seeing Stein's appearance, Wen Wen was slightly taken aback.
At this moment, Stein was left only with a pair of boxer briefs, tied up in a mid-air position in his cell in a rather suggestive posture. For some reason, his skin had all turned green, and he wore an expression of complete despair.
Wen Wen scratched his head. Before he left, he had asked the troublesome demon Rodney to inflict some non-injurious punishments on Stein. Now it seemed the punishments were very effective.
But this was for the best. Stein was now completely submissive. No matter what Wen Wen asked, he answered honestly, not concealing anything, not even the fact that he still wet the bed at eleven years old.
Thus, Wen Wen easily obtained all the information he desired, such as details about Stein's time travel and everything that happened after he encountered the Guides.
Wen Wen also successfully obtained the method for deceiving the Tins Hound from Stein.
However, Wen Wen was not satisfied with this method. He had originally thought it would be some profound forbidden secret technique, or a magical method only usable by time travelers. To his surprise, it turned out to be a mere sleight of hand that ordinary people could use.
Using such a thing might fool creatures without intelligence, or common beasts and insects. But to trick the Tins Hound?
Given the intelligence displayed in the Tins Hound's eyes when it last looked at him, Wen Wen couldn't believe this method would work.
So, Wen Wen intensified his efforts with Stein, employing more methods. However, Stein did not change his story and even provided Wen Wen with plenty of evidence.
Finally, Wen Wen had to accept that what Stein presented was indeed the true method of deception.
"Is it possible that the Tins Hound is really that easy to fool?"
"Hiss..."
A sudden thought struck Wen Wen. He considered another possibility.
"Perhaps it wasn't the method that fooled the Tins Hound, but rather that the Tins Hound was willing to be fooled by such a trivial trick!"