by N. Heller
Lin Sanjiu finally knew where her "calamity" would come from.
"I'll switch locations every three hours," Ryuji said. He rubbed his face and his lips curled into a bitter smile. "I don't even dare to sleep. Aside from the Mokugyo Forum and the shop that sells [Smile], I never stop by a place more than once. Still, despite everything I've done, I can't shake them off. I'm terrified and tired."
As they walked out of the Mokugyo Forum, they sensed the first sign of dusk approaching. The sun was beginning to set and the sky was red streaked with orange and gold. It looked as if a group of gods was having a war behind the cloud, far beyond their reach.
After walking in silence for a long while, Lin Sanjiu decided it was time. She pitched her voice very low and whispered into Ryuji's ears, "No one is following us right now."
"Are you sure?" Ryuji said, sounding skeptical. He did not even bat his eyelids as he continued, "They are all very skilled in concealing themselves. If they don't want you to see them, you will never be able to spot them. They will wait in the dark, then strike at the right moment. With their eccentric movements, they will make sure you don't know where or when they will strike."
Lin Sanjiu frowned.
Unlike other abilities, hypersensory was able to detect even the slightest movement. If her hypersensory told her that there was nobody following them, it meant nobody was following them. However, Lin Sanjiu did not confess to Ryuji. Instead, she asked, "So, how did you manage to escape from them?"
Ryuji gave a slight start. He had trepidation written all over his face as if the very recount of the entire event was enough to frighten him out of his senses. "It was just a lucky streak." Then, he grabbed Lin Sanjiu's arm so tightly that she thought he wanted to snap it into two. He looked straight at her, eagerness shining in his eyes, "You will protect me, won't you?"
Lin Sanjiu held Ryuji's gaze for a while then sighed.
Even with the [Mask] and [Smile], it did not help to conceal his gloomy and sullen mien away. He did not have much money, and a single [Mask] was all he could afford. In other words, he didn't have a spare. In such a situation, everybody would be able to recognize him after seeing him once. It was no wonder that he could not shake his pursuers off.
"Come over here," she commanded. Then, she walked to a corner and hid in the shade.
With a despondent face, Ryuji followed her.
"Here, take this," said Lin Sanjiu as she took her own mask off, " I don't have other masks with me right now, so we have to make do with this first. Give me yours."
"B-but, why?"
"Why? To protect you, of course. So long as I put on your mask and disguise as you, you should be fine."
"Yeah, I understand, but…"
Lin Sanjiu did not want to waste any more time. She reached out for Ryuji's chin and peeled the layer of skin off his face. The face underneath the [Mask] was ashen white and wet with sweat. A sad furrow was drawing his brows together, and the corners of his lips were drooping with sadness despite the efforts of his cheek muscles to lift them upward. Regardless of what was the reason behind his Eeyorish demeanor, it seemed that not even the [Smile] could put a smile on his face.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine," Lin Sanjiu consoled Ryuji as she adjusted the [Mask] to fit perfectly on her face. "This way, you will be fine, and I get to see whoever is coming after you. Two birds in one stone."
"But you might get yourself killed…"
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh again. "Yeah, I know that. I was caught up in a checkpoint pocket dimension, and I didn't check in today. According to the rules, something really bad will happen to me today. The reason I'm willing to wear this mask is that firstly, I can't guarantee that I still have the freedom to take care of you when danger strikes, and I can't let you end up being killed because of me. Secondly, if a crisis is bound to happen, then I'd rather face it head-on than run away from it."
She had great faith in her own abilities. After all, not even a powerful fighter like the likes of Silvan or Puppeteer could actually kill her.
"I guess the reason they are hunting you is that they don't want me to know about the deleted messages. When they find out I already know, they will stop the manhunt. After all, there's no point in wasting their resources on hunting and killing a man of inconsequence." After that, Lin Sanjiu pulled out a packet of red crystals and gave it to Ryuji. "Take this. It's always better to have some money with you."
Since she wanted to use herself as bait to lure her enemy out from the dark, she figured it was not the right time to bring Ryuji to Exodus. Therefore, she asked him to wait for her at the Lost Dog's Pod Hotel, which, ironically, suited him very well now.
After she had settled Ryuji down, she took a deep breath and began walking down the street. She began combing through the entire event. It was not hard to figure out who was the prime mover behind the entire incident.
As time went by, Luther's personalities would materialize as an independent individual like Marcie. In order to increase the chance of finding him, she had issued two search notices for 12 and Septimus, whom she had never met before.
If those two search notices were deleted as well, it could only mean one thing. Whoever did this, he or she must be very familiar with Luther and all his twelve personalities, and to become so familiar with his all twelve personalities, that person must be one of the personalities.
'So, which one is it? Why is that personality forbidding her from seeing Luther? What happened to both Luther and Marcie?'
Putting her hands in her pockets, Lin Sanjiu kept her head low and her brows drooped to imitate how Ryuji would usually look like. She kept circling around the Lost Dog's Pod Hotel, hoping that somebody would launch an ambush, but to her dismay, despite waiting until the day darkened, nobody showed up.
"Maybe they are waiting for the right opportunity to attack," Mrs. Manas said, "How about this? Let's go somewhere with fewer people and stay for the night. Maybe they will show up when they see you are alone."
"Don't you think that sounds like a trap?" Lin Sanjiu asked.
Be that as it may, she still accepted Mrs. Manas's suggestion and stayed for the night. She stopped beside a street light and hid behind a huge dumpster. Then, using the light from the street light, she began inspecting the road. After half an hour, she heard loud snoring coming out from the dumpster. Only then did she realize the dumpster might be somebody's home.
The gap between the poor and the rich was at its highest in the Twelve Worlds. Some of them were rich enough to buy a manor in the Twelve World while others could only afford to sleep in a garbage bin
The night was getting dark. The orange glow from the street light shone weakly on the street, casting an eerie outline on the row of vehicles in the distance. There were three to five posthumans sitting in the vehicles. All of them were smoking, and they seemed to be waiting for something. Time continued to tick by, and then, as if they had finally given up living, the street lights went off, and more sinister darkness crept onto the street, filling every inch with deep umbra.
Squatting on the ground, Lin Sanjiu yawned. She had no idea how long it had been since she had been there. To pass the time, she had studied each and every feature on the street at midnight and had them deeply ingrained in her head. She knew there was a nest of nightingales on the roof of the building in front of her and a suspicious bar at the corner of the street. She also knew what time a pushcart would show up to sell supper as she had to turn down the man's offer every time he passed by. She even figured out what was the use of the row of vehicles in the distance.
"Are you staying here for the night?" A square-faced posthuman poked his head out of the window at the driver's seat. " If you aren't getting on, then I'm going home now. Sigh, what a bad day without a customer."
The Heaven Underworld had a rather successful and developed public transport system, so Lin Sanjou could not understand why anyone would choose this vehicle as their means of transportation over the one prepared by the Heaven Underworl
d. After seeing Lin Sanjiu shake her head, the posthuman shrunk back and ignited the vehicle. Several drivers had come to her throughout the night, but she rejected them every time.
When the vehicle glided past her, Lin Sanjiu's heart seized like a critically ill patient and she waved it down. The posthuman hesitated for a moment, but he still stopped the vehicle in the end. He poked his head out of the window and asked, "What do you want?"
"Send me to Black's Market!" Lin Sanjiu opened the door and got into the vehicle. "Hurry!"
"Black's Market? That's so far away. The fare won't be chea—" Before the driver could finish his sentence, Lin Sanjiu hurled him a packet of red crystals. The red crystal illuminated his face, and he shouted gleefully, "Off we go!" Then, he stomped hard on the accelerator.
The vehicle sped forward. Lin Sanjiu turned her head and stared at the back of the vehicle.
If somebody was stalking her, he or she should come out right now. After all, her pursuer could not pretend to be a passenger if she did not take public transport. Under such circ.u.mstances, if they wanted to keep following her, then they had to come out from the dark.
"Can't you go any faster?" Lin Sanjiu turned to the driver and urged, "I can run even faster than your vehicle!"
"Well, maybe you aren't slow, but you can't hold on like this for long," the driver drawled. Apparently, he had this kind of conversation all the time. He raised his eyes and studied Lin Sanjiu through the back mirror. "You look familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"
Lin Sanjiu threw him a glance. The appearance of the [Mask] was pretty common, so it was no wonder that he had seen her face somewhere else. If she took on a [Mask] that gave her Silvan's appearance, then that surely would leave an impression.
"Really, I've definitely seen you somewhere before." The driver's brows were creased in the center of his forehead. "Where was it…"
Lin Sanjiu just gave him an arbitrary answer. Just as she was about to turn her head back, the driver suddenly jerked up. Several seat belts appeared from nowhere and strapped her tightly into her seat.
"I remember…"
Stunned, Lin Sanjiu tried to struggle free, but to no avail. She did not know why the driver would suddenly turn hostile. Just when she raised her head to question the driver, she saw him turning his head back. Her eyes widened. There was no way a human could turn his neck to such a spine-chilling degree. He looked just like an owl staring from a dark corner with his beady eyes.
Chapter 825 - How To Lay Your Hand On Your Friend
Lin Sanjiu grabbed the seat belts and tore them apart. Once she regained her freedom, she seized the chance and delivered a tremendous kick at the driver's seat, sending the driver ramming into the steering wheel. The horn belted out its one-note tune, and the vehicle lurched and swayed side to side before finally crashing into a wall. Flames and sparks then leaped high into the night sky as the vehicle was filled with the sound of bone cracking and flying scrap metal.
When she jumped out of the vehicle, she heard the intermittent groan and m.o.a.n of pain coming out from the pile of wasted metal. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Lin Sanjiu proceeded to pry the door open. She looked into the vehicle, and it took her a long while to make out the driver from the heap of iron and bronze scraps.
"Who do you work for?" she demanded, gritting her teeth as she inspected the driver.
The man was still conscious but was right on the border of losing consciousness. Blood was smeared all over his face and he was gasping in great pain. His mouth opened and closed several times, yet no words came out from it.
Truth to be told, Lin Sanjiu was quite surprised to find that they would send such a weak fighter to come after her. She did not know if she should feel happy or angry that they underestimated her.
"Hey! Wake up!" she called out again.
Just as Lin Sanjiu was about to slap him in the face, she heard a noise from the dark. She jerked her head back and squinted into the distance. The night echoed with undisturbed silence, but very soon, a string of lights emerged at the rim of her vision followed by the rumbles of engines filling her ears.
'Are they his comrades?'
Lin Sanjiu did not plan to find out now, so she opened the rear door and jumped into the vehicle. She lay flat on the backseat and closed her eyes. More and more light flooded into the vehicle and pounded on her eyelids. Sometimes she saw red, and at other times orange. Then, she heard several vehicles stop beside the vehicle accompanied by the conversation of the drivers.
"See! I told you it's him!"
"What the hell is happening to Old Greg? How is it possible that he'd smash his vehicle into a wall? There aren't any obstacles on the road."
"Alright, alright, enough talking. Let's go and check him out first."
'Well, this is quite unexpected. Can it be that they don't know anything?'
However, before she could think further, a dark silhouette rapped on the window and shouted, snapping her out of her thoughts, "Hey, are you okay?"
Lin Sanjiu kept her eyes tightly shut. After a few seconds, the man, who was standing outside, pulled out what Lin Sanjiu thought was a flashlight as she could feel a beam of light on her face. The light moved up and down her body as the man inspected her. Then, he murmured, "This is weird. He doesn't seem to be injured…"
The group of drivers pulled the injured driver out from the wreckage. However, the way they handled a wounded person was rough. There was the ear-grating shrill of metal in the air as they tugged the driver's body out of the wasted metal hull, and were it not for the driver being a posthuman, Lin Sanjiu was certain that he might not be able to wake up anymore.
"Hey, don't you think this man looks familiar?" another voice asked.
"Now that you mention it, he does look familiar," said the man holding the flashlight. The light from the flashlight had blurred him out, so Lin Sanjiu could not see his face clearly. "Has he used our service before?"
"Hey, you two!" one of the men shouted after he settled the driver on the ground, "Can you get him out of the vehicle first? We still need to report this to the organization. Do you two want to stay here for the whole night?"
The two silhouettes did not give any response and Lin Sanjiu could not see anything as the light from the flashlight had blinded her enough to make her vision inaccurate. Just as she had no idea what was happening, she heard a slight click.
Then, the door opened.
"I…remember…who he…is..."
Even though the voice was the same, the tone was different. It was as if a sleepwalker or a duoluozhong was talking. It sounded cold, toneless, and rough as if the voice was struggling to come out from a decayed throat. Lin Sanjiu's c.h.e.s.t tightened and her heartbeat leaped into a gallop. Just when the door opened, she sent out a large gush of Higher Consciousness and flipped the two men outside onto the floor. The flashlight slipped out of the man's hand and rolled onto the floor.
"Hey!" The other two drivers were startled. They ran over in a hurry and shouted, "Hey, stop! What the hell are you doing?!"
In the fleeting light, the two men could be seen wriggling on the ground. Their eyes were highly protruded and their irises had shrunk into slits. As they tried to pull themselves up from the ground, there was a nasal gurgling stuck in their throats, and the air was full of bestial growling that caused all of their skins to burst into goosebumps.
"What happened to them?"
The other two drivers stopped in their tracks, stunned by the scene happening before them. One of the shorter men gazed at Lin Sanjiu with a shocked expression on his face. Then, he turned around and began to flee. As he ran, he shouted, "I'm not a posthuman! I don't know them! Whatever feud exists between you and them, it has nothing to do with me!"
The man's remaining comrade cursed under his breath and then proceeded to pull out his belt, which poised its head up like a snake the moment it touched the ground. Pressed back by the advance of his two companions, who now lumbered forward like duoluozhongs, he l
ooked over at Lin Sanjiu with fear spread across his face.
Lin Sanjiu could see the question in his eyes even though he did not say anything.
"It wasn't my doing!" she said, "They are the ones who attacked me!"
The flashlight finally stopped rolling. It shed a uniform beam of light on Lin Sanjiu and brought her face into view.
The man with the belt frowned. The fear on his face had dissolved away and was replaced by a weird expression. His eyes became blank as he stared Lin Sanjiu down.
"You look familiar…" he mumbled, "Have I seen you somewhere before?"
In just a few minutes, she had heard this sentence about four times, and she knew very well what effect this sentence would bring. Not wanting to be caught in a pincer attack, Lin Sanjiu leaped onto the roof of the car. At the same time, the belt that looked like a snake tore through the air and slammed onto the ground. When the man retracted the belt back, there was a crack on the ground.
"I…remember…who you…you…are..."
The man holding the belt lowered his head, but his eyes were rolling upward as if someone was grabbing his neck. Lin Sanjiu had no idea what was happening. These men acted like normal humans a few seconds ago, but all of them became like this and behaved just like duoluozhongs after that sentence.
Then, Ryuji's words echoed in her head, 'No matter where I go, they keep coming for me…'
"So, that's how it is…" Lin Sanjiu mumbled as she finally figured it out.
With that thought in mind, she gazed down at the three people that were circling around the vehicle. Even though they were posthumans, they were all working at the bottom-most level and earning the lowest pay in the Twelve Worlds. Their abilities were weak and their fighting skills were not worth mentioning. Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment, then she took off her [Mask] and called out the [Ability Polishing Agent]. Holding the little light bulb in her hand, she placed it near her face.
The three men all came to a sudden stop. A bewildered expression flashed across their faces as they stood stock still in their places. After a few seconds that felt like ages, the man with the belt gasped and took a deep breath as if he had just woken up from a slumber. Soon enough, the remaining two people were snapped out of their respective reveries as well. They rubbed their eyes, and when they raised their heads, they had become normal again.