by N. Heller
"It had only been two days, how can that skinless person's ability improve to such a degree?"
The intense aura emanating from Lin Sanjiu's body was like an abyss or a giant beast. It created such a suffocating atmosphere that Top Hat quickly made a decision even before fighting with her.
"Let's go!" he shouted to his team members on his left and right. With that, he flung a piece of gray cloth into the air.
[3D Movie Kit]
This isn't some random 3D movie created just to make more money. The content displayed to the target is a high-definition, "hyper-realistic world". The targets would feel as if they had entered into a movie and would not be able to differentiate between what is fiction and what is real. The effect of this item is extremely useful for deception, aiding battles and escaping.
The protruding tree roots under her feet felt hard and realistic. Lin Sanjiu raised her hand and brushed aside the tangle of aerial roots ahead. She looked around but she didn't see any sign of Top Hat and his people. Even though she knew that everything was an illusion, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help stopping, feeling somewhat disconcerted. The illusion was so realistic that Lin Sanjiu could not make out even any semblance of the library.
Just when Lin Sanjiu was feeling unsure as to which direction she should head in, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned behind and discovered that Rena had just stepped out from behind a few trees.
"This is… an illusion they created?" Rena said with a half-gaping mouth, "But, this effect shouldn't last for long, right?"
Lin Sanjiu really couldn't tell either. She took a few steps forwards but finally let out a sigh of resignation.
In reality, the effect of [3D Movie Set] indeed didn't last long. However, for the people from the north wing, one and a half minute was more than enough time for them to escape.
"Hey, can you hear me? Why aren't you replying?"
Reno's puzzled voice sounded once again from the communicator only when the jungle scenery disappeared from Lin Sanjiu's and Rena's eyes and they saw the familiar dimly-lit library once again. Apparently, the [3D Movie Set] could also cut off sounds from the outside world.
"I said, the person who is wearing a helmet is running toward the south wing, can you guys hear me?"
Rena, who had been scanning her surroundings, suddenly snapped back to reality and answered her brother. Next, she looked at Lin Sanjiu and asked, "They've entered the south wing, should we continue chasing?"
Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at the south wing. The south wing was dark. She could only see the vague outlines of te bookshelves. Even though they knew very well that a group of people had just entered the south wing, the south wing was unusually quiet, as if there was no one there.
"Since they have already formed an alliance, it would be difficult to deal with them," Lin Sanjiu replied. Remembering the woman from the south wing, who had only spoken but not revealed herself, Lin Sanjiu felt that the person was going to be trouble. "Forget it, since there is only three of them, I don't think they can create much of an issue."
"What should we do next?" Rena bit her lips and asked. Rena sounded a lot calmer than before. After this confrontation, they might only have a single book, but the numbers on their back had increased significantly. The number on Rena's back was now "21" and Lin Sanjiu's was "29". Reno was the only one with an unchanged number.
"Let's look for your brother before discussing about the books," Lin Sanjiu said as she walked to the banisters surrounding the north wing. "He is kinda stuck downstairs, it must be quite an ordeal…"
Before Lin Sanjiu could finish her sentence, a voice suddenly sounded from the West Wing. The voice was grating against their ears, as the person said with a raised tone, "That's not the people from the north wing. I think they headed toward the south wing!"
" The people from the west wing had been observing the situation here?" Lin Sanjiu and Rena froze for a second and immediately found a spot to hide. They kept quiet and listened for any other movements.
From the looks of it, the west wing team had only lost a single member from their battle with Silvan, and not their overall strength. From the west wing, their murmurs continued for some time before a voice suddenly yelled out, "You people from the south wing! Get out here now!"
The person who spoke was still that leader. When he raised his voice, his words pierced the eardrums of the people around him, "Did you say that we should work together? Now, I know why you didn't send anyone here to help us! You formed an alliance with the north wing! You better give me a proper explanation! What do you mean by this?"
As expected, the west wing and south wing had also formed an alliance. When Lin Sanjiu heard his words, she couldn't help looking at the south wing once more.
"That woman managed to secretly collaborate with the teams from two different wings without them knowing about each other. That is certainly some tactic…" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.
However, the question from the west wing was met with absolute silence. No one replied. There was only pin-drop silence.
"They can't be feeling guilty, right?"
The mushroom man cursed loudly with his horrible, screechy voice, but the woman from the south wing did not respond at all. It was as if she had suddenly become deaf and dumb. Not only that, there wasn't even the least bit of sound of them moving. Just when Lin Sanjiu was feeling slightly suspicious of the situation, a long terrifying, wretched scream rang out from the south wing. Suddenly, a human body was tossed into the air violently, like a ragdoll, before the victim fell heavily down once more.
A top hat flipped a few times in the air before it fell down after its owner.
Amidst the horrible screams, the snapping necks, and the sound of splattering blood, everyone heard the chilling, goosebump-raising last words from Top Hat. With blood spluttering, he screamed, "The South Wing team are—"
Splurt.
A small beam of white light shot out from the south wing, ending Top Hat's words along with his life.
" The South Wing team are?" Just when Lin Sanjiu was still baffled by what the man said, she didn't react when Silvan suddenly shouted, "There is something very wrong with this! I remember that there are two people from the south wing in the central hall. Anyone with light-producing items should just illuminate the central hall so that we can see them!"
"There are actually two people from the south wing in the central hall?"
As every team was moving independently, no one really took note of the situation in the central hall. With those words, Lin Sanjiu felt her heart rising to her throat, Rena also became anxious. "Hey!" Rena repeated over the communicator many times, but she heard nothing from Reno's side. When they thought about it carefully, they didn't know when they stopped receiving Reno's voice from the communicator.
Once Silvan said that, a beam of light came from the flashlight he was holding. The snow-white light pierced the darkness and created a circle of light in the central hall. It immediately drew everyone's attention. When the circle of light first cruised around the central hall, it seemed empty. The light reflected off the tables and chairs with a painful intensity. However, when the beam of light reached Siri's desk, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help letting out a soft, "Ah."
Reno had already left his previous hiding spot long ago. Right now, he was holding his injured shoulder while fighting with another person. It was only when the beam of light hit the person's face that he, along with the other people in the library, noticed that person's face.
It was a bloodless face without any facial features. It was a duoluozhong.
Chapter 267 - Lin Sanjiu’s Prophecy Came True
Almost at the same time that the beam of light lit the duoluozhong's featureless face, a strong gust of wind stirred in the second floor of the north wing. As a figure flew down to the central hall, it was almost as if her speed sliced through the air. With a whoosh, a rush of air spread out in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Sanjiu had already landed beside
Reno. This was quickly followed by the sound of Rena racing down the stairs. She quickly stood behind her brother. With his companions by his side, the teenage boy felt a slight sense of relief.
"Why are there duoluozhongs here?" a voice filled with confusion came from the second floor of the west wing. This was the same question which puzzled everyone. A light flashed from the west wing as if the people there couldn't believe their own eyes. The item that the team used was far brighter than the flashlight that Silvan had found randomly. Half the library was instantly flooded with a white light, illuminating everything. Under this new lighting, the creature standing before them looked even stranger than before.
The duoluozhongs that crossed Lin Sanjiu's path, while she was there in Kisaragi Station, were more or less translucent. Some of them were so faint that even the edges of their body seemed to be foggy and vague. However, the duoluozhong before them certainly looked terrifyingly tangible.
The clear outline of its body, its solid pale white face, and its undeniable feeling of it being a "matter taking up space" clearly proved that it was different from the spirit-like duoluozhongs in this world. It was like a living, breathing person. The difference was that someone had removed the skin from his or her face, erased all facial features, sewn its eyes and mouth, and finally painted that face white.
Though it did have a much lesser creepy "ghostly" factor, at first glance, its appearance certainly was hair-raising.
As the weird creature stood still in its original spot, Lin Sanjiu decided not to make any sudden movements for the time being. Snatching this opportunity, Rena quickly examined her brother's injuries. He had just accidentally torn his previous wounds so it wasn't that serious.
"Why is there only one?" Silvan raised his voice as he searched the central hall with his flashlight while standing on the second floor of the east wing. He frowned slightly. His eyelashes lowered, and a threatening aura seeped from his emerald green eyes.
When Lin Sanjiu heard his words, she didn't know why she suddenly looked up at the east wing involuntarily. The next second, she spotted Silvan's expression changing suddenly. As if he had remembered something, he turned and ran toward the stair.
"You're too late. Hehehehehe!"
A crisp, repetitive toddler's giggle reverberated through the central hall out of nowhere. After they heard that sound, Lin Sanjiu and the siblings noticed the duoluozhong in front of them shrugging its shoulders a couple of times. It was almost as if it was laughing soundlessly. Following that, the people from the west wing repositioned the light slightly upward. It was then that Lin Sanjiu and the siblings discovered that the source of the toddler's laughter was actually from the stairs leading to the second floor of the east wing.
The featureless duoluozhong suddenly let out a screeching laughter. It left Lin Sanjiu and the siblings and ran toward the baby. Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to chase after the duoluozhong, a furious, thunderous roar exploded. The sound was so loud that the entire library even shook a little. Rena almost fell as she lost her balance. A figure suddenly leaped down directly from the second floor of the east wing and landed with a thud. Aggression leaked from the person as he landed directly in front of the two duoluozhongs. For a second, the floorboards even hummed from the vibration of the impact.
Everything happened too fast. No one could anticipate this situation.
When Lin Sanjiu heard Silvan's angry roar, a violent, whistling gust of wind swept through the central hall as Silvan moved. The wind, along with the poor lighting, made it almost impossible for them, being on the first floor, to clearly see what was happening. Lin Sanjiu and the siblings only heard a sudden screech from the baby and the sound of falling items and bookshelves as the wind whistled. They did not know what the people in the west wing saw, but the light from their item trembled a few times.
After ten seconds, the wind stopped. Lin Sanjiu turned around and realized that only Silvan and herself were still standing.
The duoluozhong that had the appearance of a baby had already been shredded. It became a few columns of smoke which finally dissipated into the air. Suddenly, there was some slight commotion from the south wing. Shortly after, a pale white figure trembled as it rushed back to the south wing. Silvan looked up and watched as the duoluozhong escaped. He did not move.
In a rather embarrassing manner, Rena and Reno crawled up from the floor and stood up. Silvan turned to look at Lin Sanjiu and the siblings. Then, he said softly, as if explaining to someone, "Peach is dead."
He turned back and picked up the book on the floor before striding toward them. Lin Sanjiu sensed the shock from the siblings behind her. However, as he walked closer to them, his expression grew clearer in the light. The two teens eventually relaxed a little.
Lin Sanjiu let out a silent sigh.
"Here. This is for you."
Lin Sanjiu looked at the book in his hand. It was the "A Detailed Guide to Forensic Reconstruction of Dinosaur Fossils" book. It was one of the target books. Lin Sanjiu immediately took the book from him without any hesitation but asked, "Why?"
"Did you forget what you said?" A faint bitter smile appeared on Silvan's face. This was the first time Lin Sanjiu had seen such an expression. "I came to join your team," he said.
The siblings behind Lin Sanjiu gasped.
"I am sure that Siri's rules don't include mergers between two teams…" Lin Sanjiu found herself in a difficult position. She tried to decline him, but Silvan interrupted her with a hard stance. "The number of lives doesn't matter to me."
"He doesn't want 25 lives?" Lin Sanjiu wanted to say more but, unexpectedly, the two teens behind her suddenly became very excited.
"Let him come with us!"
"He is a good person."
They said repeatedly. Considering this situation, Lin Sanjiu wasn't in the position to reject Silvan.
The verbal exchanges between the two and Silvan were just very unusual. Lin Sanjiu did not really know how to deal with the man, so she simply responded with a stiff expression and said coldly, "You better not act alone."
"You… you were so angry just a few minutes ago…" Rena suddenly questioned. Her eyes were sparkling and she used an oddly cautious tone, "Is Peach your, uh, girlfriend?"
"I met her outside the library," Silvan patted Rena's head gently. Surprisingly, she stood still and let him pat her. The sight was simply astonishing. "I promised her that we would earn some lives here… I couldn't keep my promise."
"Does he act like that to all women?" Lin Sanju couldn't help thinking.
However, when Silvan talked to her now, his previous strange attitude had fully disappeared. If it didn't make such a strong impression on her previously, she would have thought that she was imagining things. However, these were all unimportant, because when Silvan handed Lin Sanjiu that book, they all knew that they had to get away from the west wing's line of sight. Perhaps, the people from the west wing were too startled, so escaping their line of sight was easier than they thought. When all of them had successfully hidden among the bookshelves in the central hall, they started planning their next step.
"From what I know about the mushroom heads from the west wing," Silvan said lazily as he leaned on a bookshelf with his arms crossed, "considering the circ.u.mstances, they will choose to just wait and see. The most annoying thing about them is that they will always support the winning side."
"The third book had also been found. Who is it with?" Reno asked hurriedly. "South wing?"
"That's my guess," Silvan nodded. "I was wondering, what did you guys manage to find out from Siri?" he asked with a smile.
Chapter 268 - The Twelve Worlds Centrum Is An Extraordinary Place
"We just followed what you did," Lin Sanjiu replied blandly as she looked up and threw a glance at her new team member. "We asked Siri a couple of questions. But, before we discuss this, I want to ask you a question."
Lin Sanjiu wasn't really bothered by the question she was about to ask, but now found it necessary,
just based on the fact that Silvan actually joined their group.
The blond man tilted his head curiously; his expression was a little like a puppy.
"Where are your teammates?"
Silvan paused for a second and seemed somewhat shocked. Then, he rubbed his head of fluffy gold hair and exhaled, "Are you asking this because you know that the Munition Factory always operates in teams, or because you've seen me before?"
Before Lin Sanjiu could reply, he suddenly laughed, "Oh, you must have seen me before."
"How can you be so sure?" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help asking.
"Well, I can feel that you don't have a good impression of me," Silvan looked childish when he tilted his head, grinning. Even in the darkness, his teeth looked white. "Yeah, basically, very few women refuse to tell me their names."
It was obvious to all of them that he tried to be modest when he said that.
That was just the honest truth. That didn't only apply to females. After a short conversation, Reno quickly told Silvan his name and his hometown. Thankfully, the two kids were still clear-headed and rational. They withheld s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e information such as their abilities and Lin Sanjiu's name.
Lin Sanjiu had no interest to reveal her name to other people who came from the Twelve Worlds Centrum. She only gave a slight dismissive hum, "I've seen you before, but don't try to change the subject. Where are your previous teammates?"
"They've died in the line of duty," though his voice sounded just as pleasing, his answer sounded much colder.
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. "Was that residential building that hard to deal with?"
"Regarding that matter, we can slowly talk about it after we leave this place," Silvan did not ask Lin Sanjiu when she had seen him. He lowered his head so that his fringe cast a shadow over his eyes, "Now, tell me, what did you ask Siri?"
Reno cleared his throat, "Siri only informed us about a few rules, so we organized our thoughts and came up with many questions. We simply asked her each of those questions one by one."