On the "Night Owl" show, the demon was still putting on a big show.
After Max and Drew exchanged profanities about each other's families, they were both pretty heated.
Then the demon continued to spill their secrets in between.
"Hehehe, Max, you might not know this, but Drew often uses your name to pick up chicks at bars, and he always does a hit-and-run after hooking up."
Max's expression changed. This was damaging his reputation!
"You bastard, how could you do that! What about your girlfriend?"
Drew looked a bit embarrassed, but now that they had reached this point, it wasn't about who was right or wrong. He immediately started revealing Max's secrets too.
"You think you're such a good guy? Aren't you the one who's always sleeping around at bars! You fake pastor!"
Hearing this, Max didn't hesitate to start revealing the bad things Drew had done, and Drew retaliated in kind, each trying to expose the other.
Having worked together for so many years, they both had dirt on each other. All sorts of dirty and scandalous things opened the audience's eyes, and the ratings soared.
By the time Sultana drove to the Disney studio lot in Hollywood, the "Night Owl" show's ratings had already reached second place in its time slot.
Even though it was already late at night, the Disney studio lot was still brightly lit.
The film and television industry never has normal working hours. Shooting day and night is very common.
"Roy, should we climb over the wall?"
Looking at the high wall, Sultana looked eager to try, but Roy stopped her.
"Sultana, you should stay outside and be my backup. If there's any trouble, you can call for help."
Roy handed the laptop to Sultana. Sultana frowned slightly, but finally nodded.
"Okay, I'll wait for you outside for half an hour. If you don't come out, I'll contact the FEA and then force my way in."
Roy put on a ghost face mask from his inventory and quickly blended into the shadows. Then he slowly walked towards the Disney studio.
Sultana watched Roy's actions with some surprise. She felt like she still didn't know him well enough.
On the screen of the laptop in her hand, a new situation arose.
Max and Drew weren't satisfied with just revealing each other's secrets, or maybe they had already exposed everything about each other, so they started throwing punches.
In this regard, the much larger Max had a clear advantage. Drew was beaten black and blue, bloody and battered, and collapsed unconscious on the ground.
"Son of a beach! I won!"
Max's face was twisted, and he was unusually excited. This mental state was very abnormal.
The demon laughed heartily, looking at Max with admiration, and spoke with seductive words.
"You did great, Max! But why don't you just kill him?"
Max was stunned for a moment. He did indeed hate Drew's betrayal, but as a normal modern person, he only wanted to beat Drew up to vent his anger, not kill him.
"I... I can't do it!"
"No, you can do it! Weren't you just sneaking glances at this girl? As long as you kill Drew, I'll let this girl go, and then you can have her. Wouldn't that be great?"
Drew's girlfriend, Lan Li, was quite attractive. Although she couldn't compare to beauties like Heather Penny, she was still a solid seven or eight out of ten among ordinary people. Especially after the demon activated its powers, Max saw Lan Li's face as even more beautiful.
Max's expression showed inner turmoil. The demon conjured a paring knife and dropped it in front of him.
"Pick it up, plunge it into Drew's heart, and feel the blood gushing out!"
The sharp paring knife reflected Max's twisted face. He slowly bent down, picked up the knife, and walked towards Drew.
Drew happened to wake up at this moment and saw Max standing in front of him with a paring knife.
"Max, what are you doing! Have you completely lost it?"
Drew's shout startled Max. Max looked at the paring knife in his hand with disbelief. Clearly, picking up the knife hadn't been his own conscious decision, but rather the demon had tempted him.
The demon naturally wouldn't let Max escape its control so easily.
"Look at this guy in front of you. You considered him your good friend and partner, but he used your name to pick up women, secretly embezzled your money, and talked bad about you behind your back! Do you want to keep putting up with this trouble? Kill him and end it all!"
Drew lay on the ground, crawling backward, his face filled with terror.
"No! Max, don't listen to him! He's trying to hurt you! Please!"
Max's eyes gradually turned fierce. The demon had tempted him once again, and he began to approach Drew step by step.
"Drew, this is the end! I don't want to hear your nagging anymore! Let me send you off!"
"No—ah—"
Max suddenly pinned Drew down, and the paring knife repeatedly plunged into Drew's body, splattering him with blood.
Drew struggled at first, but soon went limp.
After killing him, Max abruptly dropped the paring knife, looking at everything in front of him with confusion, unable to believe what had just happened.
The demon looked at Max triumphantly.
"Max, you did great! You're not the same as before!"
Unfortunately, Max probably didn't want this change. He clutched his head in terror, muttering to himself.
"I killed someone! I killed someone! I killed someone!"
"Look at me, Max! Don't be afraid of this change, come to me!"
Max lowered his hands and dazedly walked towards the demon.
"Now, kneel before me, and I will grant you everything you desire!"
Max suddenly knelt on the ground. The demon easily tore off the device that was restraining his hands and reached out to place its hand on Max's head.
In the blink of an eye, Max turned into a man of fire.
"Whoa—"
"Hahaha... I tricked you!"
Lan Li, possessed by the demon, stood up, walked to the camera, and stared into the lens with a pair of dark golden pupils. The image froze there.
Just as the live feed on "Night Owl" was cut off, Roy also found Stage 13.
Because of the ghost face mask, Roy wasn't discovered by anyone.
The door to Stage 13 was closed, with a heavy padlock on it. Roy used his master thief skills to open it and went inside.
This stage was quite large, mainly filled with movie sets of various classic rooms—the kind where one wall of the room is removed to facilitate camera work.
Soon, Roy found the classic villa set where Max and Drew were on the show.
Lan Li, still possessed, was actually sitting here, and Drew, who had been stabbed to death, and Max, who had been burned to death, were also here.
The demon looked at Roy, a hint of surprise in its eyes.
"Huh, only one person came? What a waste of my time!"
Roy raised an eyebrow, understanding the meaning behind the demon's words.
"So you deliberately stayed here, wanting to lure people in to kill them? This is all a trap?"
The demon didn't mind Roy figuring out its plan, probably because it thought Roy couldn't escape and would be killed sooner or later.
"Yes! Someone told me that there's a troublesome organization in Los Angeles that might prevent the Master's arrival. Someone needed to set a trap to weaken their forces, so that's why I'm here! Unfortunately, that person's plan seems to have failed!"
Sure enough, in that case, it was actually a good thing that Gerald wasn't in Los Angeles. Otherwise, if he had used FEAR, encountering this demon might have resulted in heavy losses.
And the number of FEAR agents is limited; they can't be replenished in a short time. If there were too many casualties, it could indeed change the situation.
However, Roy still had a question.
"The person you mentioned, is it Jack Dell?"
The demon looked at Roy with some surprise, seemingly wondering why he knew so much.
"Hehehe, you seem to know quite a bit, but you'll naturally find out the answers to these questions later! Now, kneel before me immediately!"
The demon's voice boomed in Roy's ears like thunder, causing an impulse within him to obey its command.
However, this impulse was quickly negated by his 40 points of Willpower.
After all, even Elizabeth hadn't made Roy kneel, unless she was lying down with her back to him first.
Ahem!
Roy stood motionless, looking at the demon, making the demon lose face a bit. It pointed a finger at Roy and continued to issue commands.
"You, why aren't you kneeling! I command you to kneel!"
Roy tilted his head and glanced at the demon with a sideways look.
"Even Belial hasn't made me kneel. What makes you think you can?"
The title of the King of Sloth made the demon pause. This name had a different significance for demons.
However, the demon quickly thought that there was no way a mortal like Roy could have come into contact with the King of Sloth.
So this guy stood up in a fit of anger.
"Damn human, how dare you mock me!"
In anger, this demon directly burst out of Lan Li's body, revealing its true demonic form.
This guy's true form was actually a giant raven with curved, sharp horns on its head, dull charcoal-black feathers, and a beak and claws with a rusty, iron-brown hue.
The two pairs of pitch-black pupils on its bird head revealed a sinister and cunning light.
Roy immediately identified this guy's true identity using the Key of Solomon.
Malphas, the 39th of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Solomon's Demons, who enjoys deceiving and manipulating others and possesses the ability to read minds.
No wonder Max and Drew's secrets were discovered. It was this guy!
Although the name of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Solomon's Demons sounds impressive, they aren't actually as terrifying as one might think. They were just 72 familiars that King Solomon, an ancient demon-warlock, once contracted with.
Most of these familiars were actually functional, and their combat power wasn't necessarily that strong, like this Malphas here.
Of course, they are indeed very powerful relative to ordinary people, but for Roy, there's nothing to be afraid of.
After all, the truly powerful of the Seventy-Two Pillars had already ascended, like Baal, who was ranked first.
After Baal ascended, he had a new name, which was Beelzebub, who is now the King of Gluttony.
As for the remaining demons, they are basically just tool demons with no real potential.
However, Malphas didn't think so. He arrogantly spread his wings, creating a gust of wind.
"Mortal, I command you to kneel before me, or I will show you what true fear is!"
"Ha! You actually dare to talk about fear in front of me! That's hilarious!"
Roy took out the chainsaw sword from his inventory and then quickly entered his Demon Child form, his golden pupils looking at Malphas with boundless coldness.
"Scumbag, look me in the eyes! How dare you talk to me like that!"
The terrifying aura emanating from Roy in his Demon Child form made Malphas's body tremble involuntarily.
"Wait, you're the Son of a Demon? It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding!"
Malphas could sense Roy's power just from his aura, so this guy immediately chickened out.
The Key of Solomon recorded that Malphas liked to deceive and manipulate people, wasn't that because his direct combat ability was relatively weak?
Now that Roy was completely ignoring Malphas's mind control abilities, how could he fight?
Looking at Malphas's initially arrogant but now obsequious attitude, Roy let out a cold laugh.
"That's not what you were saying just now!"
"Misunderstanding! I can sense the aura of the King of Sloth on you. You must be a member of the King of Sloth's retinue! I used to work for the King of Sloth too, so how about we just pretend nothing happened?"
Malphas's face was full of smiles. It was hard to imagine a giant raven making such a human-like expression.
Roy leaned on his chainsaw greatsword, which was burning with hellfire, and looked at Malphas with a face full of mockery.
"Then tell me now, what's your plan! Tell me, and I'll let you go."
Malphas started sweating. Clearly, revealing the plan might lead to an even worse fate for him.
"It's... it's..."
Malphas suddenly flapped his wings and flew up, preparing to break through the ceiling of Stage 13 to escape.
Roy had already guessed that this cunning guy might choose to escape and quickly took out a Remington M870 from his inventory.
The power of the Demon Child transformed the Remington M870 into a hell shotgun. Then, a flaming skull shot out of the muzzle.
The flaming skull exploded right in Malphas's bird face, blasting him out of the air.
"Ah—"
Malphas let out a piercing scream.
Roy rushed forward in one stride, his finger pulling the switch on the hilt of the hellfire chainsaw greatsword. The built-in motor erupted with a piercing screech, the serrated chain spinning wildly, causing the hellfire to burn even more intensely.
With two simple and brutal strikes, the serrated teeth of the hellfire chainsaw greatsword easily tore through Malphas's wings, preventing him from flying again.
Then, Roy grabbed Malphas by the neck, his golden pupils staring directly into the demon's four black eyes.
"Scumbag, look me in the eyes! Tell me what the hell you guys are planning!"
Fear energy began to affect Malphas's mind through Roy's golden pupils.
Although Shadow of Fear had been upgraded to Fear Domain, it didn't mean Roy couldn't continue to use the abilities of Shadow of Fear.
"No! I can't tell you! Please, I really can't!"
Even demons can be afraid. Malphas was now emitting a large amount of fear, clearly terrified to the extreme.
It was unclear whether this guy was afraid of Roy or the mysterious "Master."
"Scumbag, last chance! Don't test my patience!"
Roy held the chainsaw sword horizontally in front of Malphas's beak.
"Marbas, save me!"
Malphas's sigil