by N. Heller
The man did not notice her, even though Lin Sanjiu was very close to him.
Lin Sanjiu kept about ten meters away from the man. The man's steps were light, he was humming a tune, and there was an air of insouciance about him. There were times Lin Sanjiu had to hide behind a tree or a rock whenever the man turned around a corner. However, by the time she came out from her hiding spot, the man would always be there, sauntering down the hill.
The closer they were to Mid Mountsburg, the more aircraft appeared. Some of them glided across the sky nimbly like a swallow while the other drifted about like a whale, casting a massive shadow on the town below. Both the man and Lin Sanjiu entered the town one after another. Lin Sanjiu deactivated the hypersensory state and slipped into the crowd. As she tailed behind the man, there was only one thought in her mind. No matter where he was heading, Lin Sanjiu just hoped that he wouldn't board onto any aircraft, for she would be unable to follow after him if that happened.
It appeared to her that this was the first time the man came to Mid Mountsburg. He looked excited, his eyes glowing as he hopped around the town in snow from one spot to the other like a chirping little bird. There were times Lin Sanjiu thought she had been discovered. He bought a packet of "popping candy" from a vending machine and then stopped in front of Bliss for a while. He eyed the building that was emitting a kaleidoscope of light and chuckled, as if he remembered something funny. Then, he walked away.
He seemed just like a normal posthuman, that's if he did not go to the mountain.
Perhaps God had listened to her prayers, the man strode towards the other side of the town after he had enough walking in the town. The area the man was heading was the highest point in Mid Mountsburg. There was a long and zigzaggy staircase built in between the rocks, and at the end of the staircase was a wide platform. The people waiting on the platform were scarcely clear. They looked so small as a dot and the sole perceivable movement was when they looked up in the sky.
Expelling a long breath, Lin Sanjiu took cover behind a corner and switched to a mask when the man was climbing up the stairs. She put on a new shirt—a denim jacket, and then waited for several minutes before mounting the steps.
The platform was where Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan got their inspiration from to makeshift a tarmac on the top of the mountain. The platform was the airbus terminal in Mid Mountsburg. Initially, she thought only the buses from the central station would stop at this bus terminal. It was not until recently that she finally found out this bus station accepted buses from Black's Market and other bus terminals as well. This realization did not make her any happier, as whenever she thought about how she had to travel hundreds of miles from Black's Market to Mid Mountsburg every day by foot, she only felt sad.
After she stepped onto the wooden platform, she saw the man was sitting on a bench. His pair of long legs were stretched out in front of him. He assumed a rather relaxed posture as he soaked himself in the last sunlight before the sun set.
He did not notice Lin Sanjiu at all.
Well, truth to be told, with her current level of strength and power, not many people were able to notice her, let alone she had changed a few masks along the way. She walked into a corner of the platform and found herself a spot where she could have the entire view of the platform. She stood with her arm crossed over her c.h.e.s.t, keeping her eyes on him as she fell into thought.
Lin Sanjiu couldn't figure out his motive at all no matter how much she thought about it. The man found her aircraft, but he did not steal it and walked away just like that. After that, he roamed around in Mid Mountsburg like a normal posthuman, and now he was waiting for a bus as if nothing happened.
As the night slowly rolled in from the horizon and the sun began its final descent, the sunlight pierced through the canopy of the platform and c.a.r.e.s.sed the man's cheeks like the fingers of a lovely mother. The man had brownish black spiky hair that tapered off at the nape of his neck. He had a straight-edged but large nose. At first glance, he looked like a handsome young man, but upon closer inspection, one would notice the crow's foot at the edge of his eyes and his lips that had grown thin over the years. All of which suggested that he might not be as young as he seemed.
However, what made Lin Sanjiu queasy the most was his eyes.
His eyes were well-hidden under the deep shadow of his eyebrows, and there was always a strange light swirling in them. He had a pair of abnormally large irises to the point that they filled his eyeballs to the brim. Like a reptile, he never blinked once. Most of the time, he just rotated his eyes around, and that was the very rare moment where the white part of his eyes was revealed.
Lin Sanjiu did not want to look at him any longer. She retracted her gaze and began inspecting her nails. After a short while, a slight whirring which slowly grew to an incessant w.h.i.n.e rang out from the sky.
Although both of them worked the same way, the skybus was different from the skytrain of the Munitions Factory. The most distinctive difference was that the skybus was purposely designed to accommodate more passengers, as opposed to the skytrain, which emphasized more on safety and speed. It hovered next to the platform as it kept spewing jets of strong airstream to the back. Lin Sanjiu moved her hands to cover her eyes as if she was blocking the sun and followed after the man to alight the skybus.
Lin Sanjiu did not use red crystals when purchasing the ticket but instead used Rondo, the main currency in Heaven Underworld. To prevent the man from growing suspicious, she even had changed her walking pattern. She slumped her shoulder and hunched her back. She stood behind the driver's seat, which was the only seat in the skybus, and kept her distance from the man.
"We will be taking off soon," the driver's lackadaisical's voice spilled out from the speaker, "Hold on tight."
As the engine whirred up loud again, the skybus began to edge away from the platform like an old man who had his stomach fully filled. However, the moment it rose into the air, the skybus suddenly tilted to one side and caused every passenger to fall down. Then, the driver's angry voice erupted from the speaker, "What the hell are you all doing?! Can't you have some common sense? The people on both sides have to be equal to keep the balance! You, you, you, and you, move your *sses to the right side now!"
'Just how primitive and crude this skybus is?'
As the thought rose up in Lin Sanjiu's mind, she saw the driver was waving his hand, gesturing for her to move. Since it would be too strange if she did not do what the driver had asked, she gnashed her teeth and walked towards the man. Like other passengers in the skybus, the man had fallen down as well. Right now, he grasped the window ledge and rose to his feet. When he sensed Lin Sanjiu was walking near him, he offered her a grin and said, "This is the first time I have taken such a poorly designed aircraft."
"Yeah, me too," answered Lin Sanjiu flat-footedly.
Lin Sanjiu did not expect him to talk to her. Since she did not want him to remember her face, she turned her face to the window and kept silent. The skybus had completely taken off, the ground turned from a square to a circle, and then to a dot until it completely went out of sight. Right now, what laid before her eyes was the vast twilight sky, the cloud had taken an orange hue of the coming evening. Another large aircraft approached them and cast a huge shadow on the cloud. She stared into the sky, looking at the aircraft that came and went for a long while. After she had calmed herself down, she peered through the corner of her eyes at the man.
She noticed that the man had just moved his gaze away from below.
'What is on the floor?'
There was nothing on the floor aside from the shoeprints and dirt.
The man was indeed staring at the floor. Even though she couldn't tell how long he had been staring at it, she knew it was definitely not a careless glance.
She raised her head and began searching for the man. It wasn't long before she found the man. He was now standing at the back of the vehicle with his hand grabbed tightly at the handle. She then lowered her head and sc
rutinized the floor.
Then, she saw a blade of yellowed grass that stuck in the creases of her jeans.
Lin Sanjiu knew where she got the grass from. There was a large swath of grass on top of the mountain...
Lin Sanjiu's heart galloped and she quickly leaped into action. She sprung towards the back of the bus and shouldered past several passengers along the way, eliciting curses from the passengers. After the passengers moved and made way for her, she reached the back of the bus.
She looked around, and then she froze.
The man was gone. He had disappeared from the bus.
Chapter 816 - Scapegoat
"Mrs. Manas! Mrs. Manas!"
Lin Sanjiu called out to Mrs. Manas in quick succession, her adrenaline spiking up. Scanning the crowd, her breathing was rapid and she broke out in a light sweat. "Where are you, Mrs. Manas? I need your help right now!"
It was impossible for a grown man to vanish completely and without any traces. The skybus was now flying a thousand kilometer high in the air. There must be a place for the man to go!
Lin Sanjiu's first thought was that the man had changed his appearance and outfit while she was looking at the floor. After all, she wasn't the only one who had a [Mask].
"Mrs. Manas, hurry up!" She hollered out again in panic. Her eyes hopped from one passenger to the next over and over again, desperately looking for the man. For her, anyone could be the suspect. "Did you capture the footage just now? Quick! Replay it for me!"
"Just what do you think your subconscious is? A tape recorder? Do you really think your subconscious mind would record everything you see?" Mrs. Manas said slowly. Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, Mrs. Manas's voice rang out again, "But since it happened not long ago, I will try to look for it. Perhaps your subconscious mind did capture something."
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath to calm herself down and then activated the [Defense Forcefield]. Since she had already exposed herself and if the man was hiding amongst the passengers, then she had to be cautious.
"Are you ready?" Mrs. Manas returned with good news very soon. "I'm now pushing the footage into your conscious mind."
After Lin Sanjiu gave the green light to Mrs. Manas, an image unfurled before her irises. Then, just like a video, the people in the image began moving.
However, she was disappointed when the "footage" stopped.
A few minutes ago, she had been examining each and every one of the passengers present in the skybus, so she had memorized all of their faces. Yet, every passenger in the footage captured by her subconscious mind was standing right in front of her—except for the man.
Not willing to give up yet, Lin Sanjiu recounted the faces in her mind again, for she feared that she might have overlooked something. Be that as it may, since there were only a handful of passengers behind the bus, her effort availed her nothing. After she'd cross-checked multiple times, she unwillingly dismissed the probability of the man using a mask to masquerade as another person.
'Could it be he has a Special Item that could conceal his presence?'
The [Truth Revealing Candle] could dispel any disguises. The last time she used it, she had successfully exposed Hegel, who was wearing the [Criminal Suspect Suit] at that time and forced him out of the dark. However, everything remained the same this time.
Overwhelmed by disappointment and dejection, she blew out the candle. She was totally clueless about where the man had gone and how he disappeared from the sky. She took a deep breath and decided to collect information from the passengers around about the situation. Just when she spun around, she found that most of the passengers had surrounded her in a half-circle behind her. All of their faces were grim and ugly.
"What the hell are you thinking," a woman growled, her arms coiled in front of her c.h.e.s.t and her face livid, "Do you not know how dangerous it is to light up a candle in a bus?"
"If you don't want to take the bus, then get off the vehicle," a bald, stumpy man added angrily, "This vehicle belongs to the Ubume, so you'd better watch your manners."
Lin Sanjiu was certain that the man had no relation to the Ubume and that he was just using the name of the organization to fortify himself. After all, when an overwhelming power gap existed between the confrontation of two posthumans, even if there was no physical exchanges, it would serve as a deterrent against both sides doing something stupid.
Lin Sanjiu did not wish to argue with them, so she paid them no mind. When the skybus descended in Black's Market, she was the first one to alight the bus. No one seemed to have any connection with the man, and no one looked at her when they got down the bus. She watched as the skybus began to rise into the air, slowly leaving her sight as it merged into the sky above.
She was so fraught with anxiety that she wanted to kick something.
Black's Market began to wake up from its slumber after the sun had completely submerged into the horizon. Countless beams of strong lights filled the air with a livid light. The famous slogan was cast into the sky, and the voices and laughter of people began to spread across the market as the cold night turned warmer.
Walking elbow to elbow with the rest of the patrons of Black's Market, Lin Sanjiu found that the feeling of novelty and the dazzling fascination she previously had about Black's Market was gone tonight. She only felt that the hollering of the crowd was irritating and the iridescent lights hurt her eyes. Just as she was about to push the woman in front of her, the communication device that was strapped to her body buzzed to life.
"Where are you?" Yu Yuan asked. "I thought you said you were waiting for me here? Anyway, I am already inside of the aircraft."
Lin Sanjiu had forgotten about Yu Yuan after being distracted by the man. She expelled a long sigh and rubbed her temples as she said, "I am at Black's Market now."
"Black's Market? Why did you go there?" Yu Yuan replied, half crying, half laughing. There was a slight whirring coming from the speaker, and Lin Sanjiu wondered what Yu Yuan was doing. Perhaps he was adjusting the chair? She didn't know.
"It's a long story. I think somebody is shadowing me..." Lin Sanjiu said.
"Somebody is following you?" Yu Yuan's voice took on a serious tone.
Suddenly, she was assaulted by a sense of uneasiness. She turned around, but her eyes found nothing. Even though it was impossible for anyone to wiretap the communication device, she still felt queasy. Every posthuman looked suspicious to her, and she daren't dispel her [Defense Forcefield]. "I will explain it to you when we meet."
Perhaps Yu Yuan could help her to figure something out.
"Okay sure," Yu Yuan said. After some contemplation, he continued, "How about this? After you come out of Black's Market, find a spot you think is safe and wait for me. I will come to pick up you."
"That's not necessary…"
"The day has gotten dark. It will take a hell of a lot of time for you to get to Mid Mountsburg and climb the mountain. Besides, if someone is keeping tabs on you, the sooner you get rid of them, the better it is for you. Also, it is safer for us to fly at night."
The image of her aircraft merging into the night sky appeared in Lin Sanjiu's head after she listened to what Yu Yuan had suggested. His suggestion might be the best possible approach, but there was something she needed to tell him. "Oh yeah, when I was waiting for you at the mountain, I saw a man. He—"
However, before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a commotion. She raised her head and looked ahead. Somebody shouted, "Stop him!" as a figure barreled out of the crowd in front and dashed towards her. He was holding something in his arms, and they were falling off along the way. Just when he was about to ram into Lin Sanjiu, she stepped aside and made way for him. The man's reaction speed was obviously slower than hers. He couldn't stop his momentum and nearly fell to the ground. As he stumbled past her, Lin Sanjiu retracted her gaze from him.
Not only did she feel as if she knew the man, but the scene was familiar as well.
"Stop that thief!" a sharp voi
ce erupted from a shop nearby. "He stole my stuff! Somebody stop him!"
Most of the people paid no mind to the owner's plea and just craned their necks to look. However, there were a few warm-hearted people who went after the man. Lin Sanjiu backed a few steps, only to hear Yu Yuan's voice, "Hey, are you okay? What is happening over there?"
"I am fine," she backed away from the crowd and stood under the eaves of a shop, "Just a robbery."
With a faint whirring, Yu Yuan's relieved voice rang out, "You scared the hell out of me. By the way, what was the thing you wanted to tell me?"
Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, another figure, a man of portly stature, shouldered through the crowd and appeared in her sight. He bent his body and picked something up from the ground along the way.
Like the thief, he looked very familiar to Lin Sanjiu. She frowned and fell into deep thought.
"Watch your steps!" the fatty exclaimed as he picked another thing up from the ground. "You have to pay for it if you step on one. Twenty Ronde each!"
Thanks to the Scrooge McDuck's Power in her body, the price stirred up her memory. Just like the man, she felt as if she had heard the price from somewhere before. Stunned for half a second, she lunged forward and picked up the merchandise before the fatty.
It was a plastic box in the shape of jelly.
"Hey! Give me back my "Smile"!" the man shouted as he wiped the sweat on his forehead.
'No wonder he looks so familiar…' Lin Sanjiu then returned the "Smile" to the man. As he went away grumpily, Lin Sanjiu then realized she had bought a "Smile" from him. It was a very interesting object that would make you happy for hours.
"Hello?" Yu Yuan called out to her again.
"Yes? I am sorry," Lin Sanjiu replied. "It's okay. It is the unfortunate shop owner whose shop was robbed. What I wanted to tell you is when I was waiting for you, a man came to the mountain…"
"Okay, then?"
As Yu Yuan spoke, Lin Sanjiu heard the engine of the aircraft. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat. She asked, "Have you taken off already?"