by N. Heller
"The cliff and the law are the restricting conditions in one's environment. The "freedom of action" refers to the ability of a person to decide on his course of action based on his knowledge to pursue a certain goal. Meanwhile, those conditions are usually what one will consult to make a judgement. Nevertheless, there is one thing—"
Before he could finish his sentence, both of them made it to the entrance of the town hall. Lin Sanjiu jerked her head back and saw that the reinforcements finally arrived. However, due to the flames, they were not able to come to them. Lin Sanjiu retracted her gaze and turned to Yu Yuan. A smile broke across their lips as they looked into each other's dirt and sweat-laden faces.
They closed the door and began examining the town hall.
"So, what were you saying before?" Lin Sanjiu walked silently as she asked in a hushed tone. She gripped the rifle so tight that her fingers were turning white, even though she knew very well that a rifle could not do much against Mayor Orlean. Their only chance of defeating him was by attacking him from the dark.
"The condition for making a decision cannot be constructed with the will of a certain individual or a small group of people. For example, a citizen in Peanut Town knows that if he does not finish the food or does not go strolling, he will be punished. However, since this is a law made by Mayor Orlean's will alone and not a social system that draws up through the collective will of Peanut Town's community, himself included, he still does not have his freedom," Yu Yuan stated, his voice turning cold.
"The coercion is an action or practice of persuading you to do or not to do something by using force or threats to achieve one's own goal." Yu Yuan beamed at Lin Sanjiu. "The people in Peanut Town regard their lives as perfect because they have lost the "positive liberty". Hence, they can't make their own judgement. Speaking of which, positive liberty is the possession of the capacity to act upon one's free will. Hence, if you want to know about the storyline of your libretto, you can ignore what they said to you."
Lin Sanjiu began to understand the whole scenario after she heard what Yu Yuan said.
She raised her head and looked skyward at the spiral staircase. This was where she met Mayor Orlean and Yu Yuan, but right now, it seemed that there was no one on the second floor.
"When we meet him, we should ask what he wants from the people of Peanut Town."
"He is just a spokesperson for the black mountain. We should ask what the black mountain wants." As they carefully moved up the staircase, Yu Yuan chortled gently. "Talking about these theories really brings me back to the time where I used to go to school every day." He raised his head and there was something glistening in his eyes, but Lin Sanjiu couldn't be sure. "Alas, I miss my hometown a lot."
Lin Sanjiu responded with a smile. She gripped her own hands tight and said, "The next fight should be a tough one."
Both of them realized a problem.
The sound of the piano slowly dissipated. As Lin Sanjiu climbed up the staircase, the corridor suddenly turned dark.
Chapter 764 - Boxing Hele… Lin Sanjiu?
There were no lights on in the second floor. The only light source came from the swaying flame that spilled through the windows on the wall, which were distant from one another, causing the entire corridor to fall into a limbo of light and dark. Peering outside through the window, the sky was red, looking as if somebody had spilled an entire bucket of red paint onto a canvas.
Both of them moved with bated breath up the stairs.
The door had been restored to its original condition. It seemed as if the fight had never happened here previously. Carefully and quietly, Lin Sanjiu pressed herself tight up against the door. She put one eye right up to the slit. First, she looked around, fearful that Mayor Orlean might somehow be watching her.
But the room was empty; there was no one there. Aside from the massive lifelike depiction of the black mountain that took up the entire wall, she could not see Mayor Orlean anywhere.
Lin Sanjiu turned over to Yu Yuan, frowning. Both of them then looked into the corridor at the same time and scanned over the row of office doors starting from the one furthest away from them.
Yu Yuan mouthed something, to which Lin Sanjiu replied with a nod of assent. She gripped her rifle tightly, the barrel feeling hot underneath her palm.
Yu Yuan c.o.c.ked his rifle and nudged a door open. The door hinge was apparently well-maintained, being oiled from time to time. It glided off smoothly without making any noises. Inside the room, there was a huge couch and a coffee table; the floor was carpeted. They both examined the room for a second and realized that this room was connected to the office next door.
They continued their search down the rooms. When they arrived at the second to last door, both of them stopped.
There was a faint, almost indiscernible rattling noise, which sounded like marbles spilling onto a concrete floor behind the door.
It did not sound like anything like a human being, but more like the clattering of the wind when it blew through an unlatched window. Lin Sanjiu gestured to Yu Yuan to standby at the door. After that, she pushed the door open and scurried into the room.
The office was small. There was no window in there, and the entire room was occupied by row after row of massive filing cabinets that reached the ceiling and blocked out the light. The air was filled with dust motes, and the slight rattling noise continued to ensue.
Following the sound, she walked forward and went around a desk in the corner. Compared to the desk in Mayor Orlean's office, this one looked small like a cage covered with four wooden plates. Then, as she raised her rifle, her gaze met with a man's eyes.
The man was the largest man she had ever seen and she wondered how he managed to squeeze himself into such a narrow space. The man's teeth were chattering, and it was now clear to Lin Sanjiu where the rattling noise was coming from.
And then she saw something flickered on the man's face. Lin Sanjiu squinted her eyes and realized he was crying.
As the man shuffled underneath the table, Yu Yuan poked his head inside and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Yes, there is a man over here," Lin Sanjiu replied, her eyes fastened on the man. She had no idea why, but the way he squirming his body under the table gave her the impression of a sausage squeezing out of a sausage casing.
"Are you a staff member here?"
"Yes, yes.."
He had a face full of jowl, just like the other people in Peanut Town.
"Where is Orlean?"
"Mayor Orlean… is gone…" His watery eyes swiveled around in their sockets. When he caught sight of Yu Yuan, who was standing at the door, his face turned even paler and he shifted his gaze back to Lin Sanjiu. "But I don't know where he went…"
He looked very scared, but something inside him prevented him from begging for his life. Rivulets of sweat were streaming down his face and pooling on the floor. He burped as he stared Lin Sanjiu down. There was something more complicated than fear flitting behind his eyes, and when Lin Sanjiu looked again, it disappeared.
"When was the last time you saw him?" Lin Sanjiu asked in a harsh voice, casting away the suspicion she had. The town hall had only two floors, and since they couldn't find Mayor Orlean here, there was a huge probability that he had already run away.
"This morning. After our strolling session ended," the man answered. He darted his gaze between Yu Yuan and Lin Sanjiu, who was holding him at gunpoint. He gagged from time to time, but he fought back the urge to puke. "I… You... "
Yu Yuan walked into the room and began examining him, his brows furrowed. It was at this moment that Lin Sanjiu realized something was amiss. She took a few steps back and asked vigilantly, "What did you eat?"
The man refused to respond to the question. He pressed his mouth into a deep drawn-in line as he swallowed his saliva. Huge droplets of sweat oozed out profusely from his body and dampened his shirt in the blink of an eye.
Yu Yuan suddenly had a bad feeling as he shouted out, "Quick! Get out of her
e!"
"Mayor… made me… eat this…"
The man's eyes rolled back. When he saw Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan rushing towards the door, all his fear evaporated and his face contorted into rage.
"You—" He screamed, a mindless and rage-ridden scream that pierced through their eardrums. Lin Sanjiu couldn't hear what he was saying because the moment they pounced into the corridor, the room behind them exploded.
Both of them were thrown into the wall by the blast. Shrapnel of wood and broken bricks hurled onto their bodies, causing them a lot of pain. Lin Sanjiu's eyes went black for a moment. She couldn't hear or see anything, and even her brain had gone on a strike and stopped working. The only movement came from her soul, which kept trying to get out of her battered body.
No matter how fast they were, it was impossible for them to run away unscathed from a point blank explosion.
When Lin Sanjiu finally felt the pain, she quickly rolled over to grab Yu Yuan. Even though they couldn't feel much pain in the dream, she could still feel a splitting pain coursing across her entire body. Just as she was digging at the pile of rubbles, a hand shot up and grabbed her wrist.
"I… I am here." Yu Yuan's voice wafted out from below the half-destroyed wall, followed by his bloodied face. Even though he was not in good shape, he was still alive.
"What happened?" Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth and asked. A plume of dust saw its chance to rush into her mouth and nostrils, almost making her gag.
After she dry-heaved a few times to ease away the discomfort, she then continued to finish her question. "Did he eat a time bomb?"
"It seems so."
She was stunned for a good while before realization dawned upon her.
If Mayor Orlean planted the bomb at a random location, there were two complications he needed to solve. First, he needed to know the exact time to detonate the bomb, and secondly, he had to make sure that both of them were in proximity of the blast when the bomb exploded.
However, things would be different if he used a human bomb. After all, he was certain that Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan wouldn't let go of any person they found if they wanted to know his whereabouts.
"Are you alright?" Lin Sanjiu massaged her temple to lessen the dizziness. Truth to be told, she was quite surprised that both of them survived the explosion.
"Still alive." Yu Yuan helped himself up by using his right arm. "Even though we are in a dream, we are still posthumans."
Although they had lost their evolving abilities, their awareness of being posthumans had saved their lives. There was no way they would be injured by this kind of bomb if the explosion happened outside of the dream world. Hence, when they came across something they thought wouldn't cost their lives, they wouldn't die.
"Don't move."
Both Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan remained stunned for a long while. They looked into each other's eyes, nodded, and slowly turned their heads back.
Due to the explosion, there was now a large hole in the wall of the last room. Right now, Mayor Orlean was standing behind the hole.
He pulled a pair of white barrels that resembled air cannons and put them on. There was no smile on his face as his words tumbled off his two fleshy lips. "Since neither of you are going to stand on my side, I think it is safe for me to say that you are against me?"
Neither of them replied. A dead silence ensued.
After a short while, Lin Sanjiu spoke, shattering the silence. "So you have been hiding in the last office room? As simple as that?"
"As simple as that?" Mayor Orlean harrumphed and narrowed his slanted eyes. "It might seem simple, but I knew that my plan was going to succeed. I already knew you were here the moment you stepped into this building. Also, I knew that you would start searching from the first room."
The Reverie Libretto treated all its participants equally. Just like how it gave Lin Sanjiu a hint about the daily schedule of the police officers, in the same way, it also leaked their location and plan to Mayor Orlean.
"I don't care about your storyline." A ruthless and cruel expression crawled upon his face, and something danced behind his gaze, but Lin Sanjiu couldn't be sure of what it was. "But don't you dare interfere with my town."
Lin Sanjiu raised her brows and asked, "What?"
"I said," Orlean shook his head and blinked his eyes hard, "Don't you dare interfere with my storyline."
"What are you going to do if we interfere with your storyline?" Yu Yuan asked coldly, sitting in the pile of rubble. "Kill us?"
"It would be great if it were that simple, but unfortunately, no. I can't kill you two yet, as I still need your librettos to finish my storyline." A smile danced around Mayor Orlean's lips. "However, I do have an idea on how to make you two give me less trouble."
Then, he pointed the two white barrels at each of them.
"You've seen this thing before, so you should be very familiar with it. All I have to do is dismember you. Without your arms and legs, there is nothing you can do." The smile on his face grew significantly. "Moving forward, Peanut Town will evolve into its ultimate form and I will accomplish my mission."
Chapter 765 - The Sky Has Cleared Up
Lin Sanjiu's heart went pit-a-pat when she heard a cl.i.c.k.i.n.g noise from the two white barrels. She hastily asked, "Hold on a second! What do you mean by the ultimate form?"
"I suggest you drop the thought. There is no way you can save yourself this time."
Standing in the center of the pile of rubble, Mayor Orlean glanced at her through the corner of his eyes, his cheeks high and ruddy. Just as Lin Sanjiu thought he wasn't going to go on anymore, Mayor Orlean opened his mouth, a triumphant smile flashing on his face. "You know what? I guess you are right. Perhaps I should leave you a bit more time to spend with your arms and legs intact. After all, I am the benevolent Mayor Orlean."
Ironically enough, Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan were the only ones he could really talk to in Peanut Town. His plan was about to succeed, and it would be too sad if there was no one for him to share his victorious moment with.
"Perhaps for you, this is merely a pocket dimension inside of a dream." He licked his teeth and his voice shook, "But let me tell you something—you are too naive. You can't see the whole picture. When our dreams crashed together, it became the foundation for something that was bigger and greater."
"Foundation for what?" Lin Sanjiu quickly followed up with another question when Mayor Orlean was taking a break from talking. "You feed those citizens as if they are pigs. What can you gain from that?"
Mayor Orlean did not answer her question immediately. He had to take a few breathers before he could speak again. "Although those citizens have no hearts, they could be used as an energy supply for the black mountain. I can't explain the whole thing more specifically to you, but the fatter they become, the more energy they could provide to the black mountain."
Mayor Orlean turned entirely to Lin Sanjiu, grinning wide like a Cheshire Cat.
"When they do their daily reports, the black mountain absorbs the energy through their foreheads. Since they were pretty thin and malnourished in the beginning, the energy absorbed was far too less. However, things have changed now. Do you have any idea how hard I worked and how many orders I had to give to get what I have today? The energy I receive is growing exponentially everyday. I don't think you guys can understand what it's like to have such a vast amount of energy in your hands."
His gulped heavily, his cheeks turning fiery red.
"Then?" Lin Sanjiu pressed on.
While she diverted Mayor Orlean's attention, Yu Yuan silently inched himself back and reached out for the rubble underneath him.
"Then? After I've gathered up all the energy, the next step is to allot a very, very small portion of the energy to create everything they need to stay alive." Mayor Orlean paused for a second before continuing. "I guess you've seen it already. I can materialize whatever is in my mind. However, the function of the energy is not only used to feed some hoofed mammals."
Sin
ce Yu Yuan had lost his left arm, he could only rely on his stomach muscles to nudge himself sideways. As Lin Sanjiu continued to keep Mayor Orlean distracted, he successfully moved away from the rubble.
Lin Sanjiu did not look at Yu Yuan, as Mayor Orlean was looking at her right now. In order to buy Yu Yuan more time, she kept asking more questions to Mayor Orlean, "Besides that, what can it do?"
"The energy is shared amongst the black mountain and me. The more energy, the bigger the black mountain becomes and the stronger I will be," Mayor Orlean said, champing his fleshy lips.
There was a manic light in his eyes, and Lin Sanjiu did not have a good feeling about it. "Very soon, this town will become me and the black mountain's personal power supply. By then, nothing will get in our way of connecting to more people's dreams. Can you see it now? My storyline is to conquer everybody's dream and become the king of the Reverie Libretto!"
By degrees, his voice was gaining strength. And by the time he shouted out the last word of his sentence, it became so loud that it sprang off the ceiling and spread over the corridor like a large gong being struck. It was also at this moment that he aimed the white barrel in his hand at Yu Yuan. A black bullet shot out of the barrel and shattered the piece of rubble that flew at him into smithereens.
Lin Sanjiu did not take cover but instead threw herself into the blast. Just as she crouched down and rummaged for her rifle, Mayor Orlean's angry shout pierced through the air, "Did you really think that I wouldn't see what you did there?"
His cheeks were livid, his lips quivering. "Let me tell you, I am not white gloves. I am the real supreme will of—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Lin Sanjiu got her rifle. She pulled it out and c.o.c.ked it. However, she did not get a chance to pull the trigger, as she saw that Mayor Orlean had aimed his weapon at her. Even though she did not know what kind of weapon it was, the power it displayed earlier on was enough to make her shudder. She made a quick decision and threw herself on the floor. At the same time, a gunshot rang out and black shadow flew towards her.