by N. Heller
Cladded in her red blouse, Bliss stood quietly in the corner, staring at her.
When she realized Lin Sanjiu was turning her head, she turned away, not wanting to see the disappointment in her eyes. She was the one who put her through this, but now she felt extremely guilty.
Slowly, Lin Sanjiu dragged herself to the window.
Mid Mountsburg was surrounded by a range of snowy mountains dotted with patches of green. All the buildings in the heart of the town had different shapes and styles, each more bizarre than the last. The posthumans were weaving in and out of the crowd, keeping their heads low as they hurried towards their respective destination. None of them seemed to know that the interior of the building had changed. She turned her eyes down and saw that several posthumans were pacing back and forth in front of the Bliss Convention Center. When she saw them, she couldn't help but think about the posthumans she bumped into on the first floor. Were they still inside the building when Bliss unleashed all her monsters? Were they still alive now, or were they already dead?
Bliss had mentioned before that she knew it was her the moment she stepped into the building even though she was wearing the [Mask]. If that was the case, then why didn't she release all her "collections" on the first floor straightaway to intercept her?
Lin Sanjiu then thought of the first duoluozhong she met. Bliss released it from its cage but she did not allow it to come onto the second floor and instead kept it on the first floor. Why?
Why did Bliss want her to go to the second floor? No, the question should be, why did she not want her to stay on the first floor?
There was only one answer to that question.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath to calm herself down and then shot a glance at Bliss through the corner of her eyes. She was now standing in the corner, very far away from her. She kept her head low and her expression unreadable.
"Why don't you just give up?" Perhaps she sensed her gaze, for Bliss suddenly raised her head. "There is no way you can check-in now. Look at the time. Why don't we just sit down and have a chat?"
Lin Sanjiu turned her body entirely to face Bliss. Her heart picked up its pace again, and she could even hear the sound of her blood rushing and gushing in her veins.
"Have a chat, huh?"
A ghost of a smile flitted across her face. Then, before Bliss could understand the meaning behind her smile, she jabbed her elbow into the window with all her might. As the window shattered into hundreds of pieces, she could sense warm liquid streaming down her arm and soaking into her sleeve.
She could feel her muscles tightening as the sharp wind cut through her thin garments like a knife. The snowfield was getting larger and larger in her eyes, and finally, she landed, eliciting screams of surprise from the crowd. Without wasting any seconds, she hopped up and darted straight towards Bliss's main entrance.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Somebody stop her!"
"Stop now or I'll shoot you!"
Lin Sanjiu ignored all shouts and threats as she rammed herself through the door. She stormed towards the first floor, but the scene that welcomed her eyes made her heart drop. She had passed through five window displays, but all of them were empty. No duoluozhongs or posthumans were in sight.
Could it be that there was no duoluozhong on the first floor?
Not wanting to give up, Lin Sanjiu commanded Mrs. Manas to scan the area with her [Higher Consciousness Scan]. Her [Higher Consciousness Scan] tumbled forward and soon covered every window display she passed through. She even checked the ceiling. By the time she stormed to the end of the corridor, she found out that the arctic white duoluozhong had already been put back into its own window display by Bliss. When it saw her, it stamped its face into the glass.
"Did you see anything?" Lin Sanjiu asked, a note of hysteria in her voice. Mrs. Manas had been too quiet the entire time, and she did not have a good feeling about it.
"Nothing," Mrs. Manas replied. She sounded agitated like a cat on a hot tin roof. "I didn't see anything! Let's go back one more time!"
There was nothing in the window displays on the first floor.
She felt that her action was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack. Every window display was linked to a small cubicle. The cubicle was a few times larger than the window display, and looking at a single cubicle was enough to use up all her remaining time.
If the checkpoint was not in the cubicle, how about the ceiling? There was also the possibility that Bliss would keep the checkpoint in the ceiling. If that was the case, how was she going to look for it? What's more, if the checkpoint was situated in the ceiling between the second and third floors…
She had only three minutes left. Even though she knew her chance of finding the checkpoint was slim, she did not plan to give up yet. Driven by her rage and unwilling to reconcile to her fate, she continued to kick the door open one after another. Until Mrs. Manas said, "Time's up."
As if somebody had hit the pause button, Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a long while. Mrs. Manas's words had deprived her tongue of utterance. Her brain was blank, and that realization was the final straw. She kicked the door in front of her with all her strength. The door slid open to reveal a small room that had the same pattern as the other cubicles.
The room was dim, and her harsh intake of breath seemed to stir the air in the room.
A silhouette dr.a.p.ed in a red blouse slowly raised her head to reveal her pair of blue eyes. With the darkness as the background, her eyes looked just like the sea.
"Time's up," she sighed.
For a moment, Lin Sanjiu thought it was nothing if she didn't check-in for once. After all, she had been thrown into countless life or death situations before, and she triumphed over each of them. This was just another pocket dimension, there was no way she couldn't...
Lollipop was locked up in jail. What's more, Exodus was in the sky at that time, so there shouldn't be anyone who could hurt her. Never did she expect that in the end, the one who would cause Lollipop's "calamity" was none other than Woyu.
"Where did you move the checkpoint to?"
Bliss was hesitant to tell her the location of the checkpoint. Her expression was calm, and there was a light in her eyes that suggested that she was torn on whether or not to tell Lin Sanjiu the truth. Be that as it may, after a short bout of rumination, she decided to spill everything. "Even if you check-in now, you can't escape from your "calamity"."
As she talked, she lowered her head to avoid Lin Sanjiu's gaze.
"The reason you couldn't find the checkpoint is that I hid it inside the cement."
That's why Lin Sanjiu couldn't see the checkpoint from outside. It was never a fair game, to begin with.
"It's located in the ceiling between the second and third floors," Bliss continued to say, her voice sounding like a dream that refused to go away after you woke up from a slumber. "Unless you destroy the entire building, there is no way you can find the checkpoint. Besides, even if you really go so far as to tear down the entire building, I am certain that my speed of rebuilding it will be a lot faster than your tearing it down."
She had achieved her goal, yet she did not sound happy.
But nothing could be changed now. Lin Sanjiu might meet her end in the next 24 hours, just like how Lollipop had met hers.
Lin Sanjiu did not say anything. Her breathing was slowing down again. She turned around, and just as she was about to close the door, she suddenly thought of something. She looked at Bliss and asked, "Do you feel guilty?"
Bliss nodded.
"Then, do me a favor," Lin Sanjiu said. "If you can help me with this, I promise I won't hate you."
"What's the favor?" Bliss asked.
"Go to the mountain and help me look for a friend of mine," she said, looking into the ceiling. "One of your "comrades" planted a bomb in my aircraft in an attempt to kill me. However, what he didn't expect was for my friend to go on the aircraft and unknowingly activate the bomb instead. I want you to find
my friend and save him because…" She paused for a while, her lips curling into a bitter smile before she continued, "I can't do it anymore."
Chapter 823 - Deleted Message
Ten minutes later, a slight whirring, which gradually grew into an incessant w.h.i.n.e, rang out on top of the Bliss Convention Center. A tower-shaped aircraft slowly ascended into the sky. It hovered momentarily and wafted on the breeze. Then, as its cadence rose another notch and the engine powered up, it turned around and flew towards the mountain range in the distance.
Lin Sanjiu watched the aircraft fly until it was out of sight. There was a series of emotions, both subtle and conflicting, flowing behind the surface of her face. After a short while, she turned around and walked towards the other side of Mid Mountsburg.
She didn't know if she should trust Bliss or not, but she had no one else to rely on. In the end, she still didn't know who they were. Bliss kept her lips very tight about her comrade's identity, and the only thing she leaked to her was that the brown-haired young man who planted a bomb in her aircraft was one of them. The afternoon sun was warm, and she felt very comfortable basking in it. It was hard for her to imagine that there was actually a "calamity" waiting to claim her life.
Like always, Black's Market was congested. Her muscles were pulled taut, her heart leapt into a gallop, and she was seized by a sudden sense of trepidation when she saw the scene. It was only after she had checked-in that her apprehension gradually ebbed away and her heartbeat began to slow down once more. In this way, she only had to take care of herself in the next 24 hours, and then she would be fine afterward.
"I think it is best for you to go back to Exodus and don't come out until tomorrow," Mrs. Manas suggested in a solemn voice.
"I want to find out who they are," said Lin Sanjiu as she paced reluctantly towards the entrance of Black's Market, "I have been in a passive state the whole time, and I've had enough of it. I must find out their identity."
This was one of those moments where she hoped that her grand prize would be by her side. She felt that she was very close to the truth. It was just that she lacked the ability to perform a thorough breakdown and comb through an incident like how the grand prize did, so she could see the incident in its entirety. Take a puzzle as an example. Lin Sanjiu could only see the pieces while the grand prize could see the result after the puzzle had been pieced together.
'I wonder how he is doing right now. Is everything going well for him? Did he win the war against the Veda? Or has he already lost?'
Lin Sanjiu couldn't stop thinking about her grand prize as she continued to walk forward. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that it took her quite a long while to realize somebody was calling for her from behind. She looked over her shoulder and saw a chubby face that she couldn't quite place. She took several minutes to examine the man's face—sweaty forehead and oily lips. Then suddenly, it all clicked together.
"Thank you for your help yesterday," the man said with a smile.
She then gazed towards the shop behind the chubby man. Row after row of [Smile] was arranged neatly on the shelf.
"Don't mention it," Lin Sanjiu responded with a nod. She continued to measure the row of Smiles on the shelf. She had bought a [Smile] from this man as well. Right now, she had no idea why, but she felt something strange about them.
"That man was one of my loyal customers. He dropped by several times a day and bought a [Smile] from me, but yesterday, he came to me and said he wanted to buy on credit because he had no money left. I didn't agree with him, so I guess that's why he decided to snatch my Smiles away while I was serving other customers. I wonder why he would go so far to do that? My Smile isn't addictive at all," the man said. When he saw that Lin Sanjiu's gaze and attention was on the Smiles behind him, he continued, "If you are interested in my Smiles, I can give you a 50% discount. Oh yeah, remember to return my container."
"You want the container back?" Lin Sanjiu took out the [Smile] she bought last time and returned it to the shop owner. "I bought this one from you last time. Take it, I have no use for it anymore."
"Why though? You didn't like it?"
"Nope. I bought it for someone else. I had a friend. He always looked sullen and unhappy, and I thought this might cheer him up. But then, he went missing, and I couldn't…"
All of a sudden, Lin Sanjiu fell silent as if she was struck by a lightning bolt. The light bulb in her head went off and she could finally link all the dots.
"I know who the thief is!" she exclaimed as she smacked the shop owner's arms. "[Smile]! It is because of your [Smile]! Why didn't I think of this earlier?"
The shop owner was so startled that his words jumbled together. "You, you know who the thief is?"
Lin Sanjiu ignored the shop owner's question and asked in haste, "What happened to the thief after that?"
"He ran away," the shop owner answered. "I recovered most of the Smiles, but he escaped! Do you know who he is?"
Lin Sanjiu did not answer him but turned around and left. Instead of going to the pilot, she hopped onto a bus and bought a ticket to the Mokugyo Forum.
'Why didn't I think of that earlier?'
"So… that's how it is," Mrs. Manas said. "I didn't think of it either…"
As she held onto the handrail, Lin Sanjiu began to tell Mrs. Manas about her conjecture. "Do you still remember the young man I almost bumped into the other night?"
"Of course I do. I am part of you," Mrs. Manas mumbled sourly.
"At the time, I was walking out while he was going inside. Apparently, he was going to use the Mokugyo system. Then, when I went up to the first level, I remember that a message flashed across the board. It's about somebody looking for a free bodyguard service."
At that time, there were very few people in the Mokugyo Forum. In terms of time, it was likely the message was published by the young man.
"I just felt a sense of familiarity when I saw the thief, but I couldn't place his face. And now after some thinking, I realized that he was the young man I almost ran into at the Mokugyo Forum the other night. He must be in some kind of trouble, otherwise, he wouldn't ask for bodyguard service. However, I couldn't figure out why he wanted to steal Smiles from the shop owner even though it would put his own safety at risk; a [Smile] can't protect him whatsoever."
"There is only one explanation," Mrs. Manas consented.
"Yeap. That man must be Ryuji," Lin Sanjiu sighed. She felt relieved as the fog in her brain finally dissipated. "Other than his facial features, Ryuji has one prominent feature that makes him stand out from others—his despondent look. No matter how hard he tries to hide his face, as long as he has that gloomy look to him, he is easy to identify. In other words, somebody is going after him. [Smile] and [Mask] are his approaches to changing his appearance so that he would be unrecognizable."
This explained why the thief needed so many Smiles and why he would go so far as to steal them when he had no money to buy them anymore. He needed to use the Smiles to force himself into showing a smiley face at all times.
"Ryuji went missing after you went to the Mokugyo Forum. His disappearance may as well have something to do with you," Mrs. Manas added.
'What has this got to do with me, then?'
Almost at the exact same time, she heard a "ding" ring out somewhere nearby.
Dumbfounded, Lin Sanjiu slowly turned her head around.
The blue light from the screen tinged the young man's face, accentuating the bruises on his cheeks, which weren't there last night. His eyes spoke of suffering, his face drawn, but there was a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his lips. The smile was rigid and fake. It was as if he didn't want to smile anymore, but the muscles on his cheeks continued to pull his lips up.
He was staring attentively at the screen in front of him. It took him quite some time to realize something was amiss. He jerked his head back, and the moment he locked gazes with Lin Sanjiu, he turned and ran. Lin Sanjiu made a few quick steps to catch up with him and grabbed firmly
to his shoulder. Then, she pitched her voice low and hissed into his ear, "Stop! It's me. I am the one who responded to your request. You are Ryuji, right?"
It was only then that the man finally came to his senses. Greatly baffled, the young man stammered, "How… how did you know…"
Lin Sanjiu sighed. He apparently did not know that he shouldn't expose his real identity to someone he barely knew, especially under the circ.u.mstance where he was being hunted.
"Keep your voice down," Lin Sanjiu grabbed his arm and pushed him out, "Act normal."
"You, who are you?
"You don't remember me? It was you who led me to level B2 when I first came here. I published a lot of messages in the Consular Officer channel. Do you remember?"
At that moment, Lin Sanjiu didn't know how to describe the expressions that flitted across Ryuji's face.
A mixture of anger, fear, and relief flitted across his face. Combined with the effect of the [Smile], the muscles on his face twitched so much, it made him look bizarre.
"Is it you?" he stammered. "Is it really you? You've really put me through a wringer!"
"What happened?"
"I also don't know what happened! All I did was see some of your messages being deleted and talked about it with my friends. I am not sure who sold me out, but starting from then, someone kept coming for me. I don't even know who they are!"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. After publishing the messages, she hadn't gone through each of them, as she'd published a lot.
"Which ones and how many of them were deleted?" she asked hastily.
"There were four." Ryuji took a deep breath to calm himself. "I remember it very clearly, as I have been thinking about it. The names are Luther, Marcie, Septimus, and 12. You will protect me, right?"
Chapter 824 - Hide And Seek