by N. Heller
'What?'
Lin Sanjiu was slightly taken aback. She knew that the question must be some kind of condition to activate his ability or Special Item, so she pressed her lips tightly and remained quiet.
"What is your favorite color? Blue or white? Do you love hiking or surfing? Are you more of a cat person or a dog person?" the man continued to ask several questions in quick succession, and Lin Sanjiu's mind could not catch up with his talking speed. Even though he was talking rapidly, his enunciation was clear. After he spurted out a barrage of questions, he took a deep breath and heaved out his last question with a smile, "How long have you have been trapped here for? A minute, or a day?"
He waited for a few seconds, and after he did not receive any answer from Lin Sanjiu, he clapped his hand and continued, "Since you refuse to answer my questions, you have been disqualified."
It was only until now that Lin Sanjiu realized what the last question was. She could not hear it clearly just now because she could not keep up with his talking speed.
She decided she had to do something right then. Throwing everything to the wind, she launched towards the man with her [Tailored Learning] highly raised in the air. However, the man did not run away. Instead, he remained steadfast and finished an entire sentence in the blink of an eye, "Curry, yellow, playground, rabbit, you can't go unless I let you go."
As the last word tumbled off his lips, the tip of the [Tailored Learning] had landed on his shoulder. Several lines of silvery fonts hopped out and glittered in the air.
However, it was too late.
"A glib talker. Specializes in speech-related ability and has a fast-talking speed. Be extra careful of his multiple-choice questions."
The man turned to look at the letters on his shoulder. He laughed, shook his head, and smirked as he turned to face Lin Sanjiu. When he began to speak again, his talking speed had become normal. "That's pretty accurate, but unfortunately, it's too late."
His eyes trailed along with the silvery fonts and fell on her [Tailored Learning]. Her c.h.e.s.t tightened, so she immediately kept the pointer back into her card. A look of annoyance and indignation replaced the greedy gleam that flared in his eyes. He stared at her wrist for a long time then snorted, "You have great reflexes, but my talking speed is still faster than yours. Whenever you give up answering my question, I can arbitrarily pick an answer for you that isn't within the range of choice based on my liking. Every time I activate my ability, I can only make one answer become real. As for which answer I pick, I believe that you know it very well."
For each question, the two given options were fundamentally different but not entirely unrelated to each other. It now occurred to Lin Sanjiu that the man had a rather peculiar ability. She was confident that a lot of posthumans must have fallen victim to his ability when facing him. After all, who would expect the man to help them decide an answer if they refused to reply to his question? Maybe while the man's ability was not very useful in killing people, it was extremely convenient at holding people off.
'Is there really a way to counter his ability?'
However, it was already too late to come up with a way to counter his ability.
Stuck in her lunging position, Lin Sanjiu could not move even an inch no matter how much she tried. It was as if her feet had been cemented to the ground and her body was frozen stiff. She stared fixedly at the man who was circling around her. He moved his face closer and began inspecting the bandage on her neck.
"This bandage looks old," he said, cl.i.c.k.i.n.g his tongue. He put on a glove, then moved towards her neck. "What are you trying to hide with it?"
Lin Sanjiu heaved out a long sigh. Even though her movement had been frozen, she could still talk, "The third…no, it should be the fourth apocalyptic world."
"What?" the man asked as a perplexed expression flashed across his face.
"Oh, pardon me. I'm talking to myself." Lin Sanjiu grinned. "I was saying that when I went through the third apocalyptic world, my ability at that time was about the same level as you are now."
The man fell into a thought, but he soon understood what she was trying to say, and his face turned grim.
"I can't remember how many apocalyptic worlds I've been to." Lin Sanjiu offered him a genuine grin. "In other words, you are weaker than me. Also, why should I crack my head while I can just break through your ability with brute force?"
She was speaking in a rather casual tone and speed, but she did not give him any chance to retaliate. Before her voice faded away, she sent a deluge of Higher Consciousness at the man and sent him flying into the air. Unable to stop the momentum, he whizzed through the air and thunked into the wall at the other side with a meaty smack. The collision caused half of the wall to crumble down and cover him.
Lin Sanjiu shook her hand and stood up. Usually, the effect of a certain ability would be canceled after the ability wielder was dead or had been knocked out.
"Excuse me? Brute force?" Mrs. Manas said, "Do you know how precious and how hard it is to get Higher Consciousness? If you train your Higher Consciousness to the extreme, you can do whatever you want and even can move things telekinetically! Do you understand what it means?"
"It isn't important if I understand or not," Lin Sanjiu said as she strode towards the back door. The air was cleared up by the wind that came from nowhere which was breezy and comfortable. She did not bump into Dali along the way. She had no idea where she was, but she felt slightly relieved. "I just hope that whoever is behind all of his, he or she should send someone more powerful to me."
"The reason I didn't send somebody powerful to you is that I just want to stop you here." A light and an androgynous voice rang out from the back door, "As long as I have enough people, it doesn't matter if they are weak or not."
Lin Sanjiu stopped.
The door was wide open. She could see the moonlight and feel the breeze. A figure stood near the gate, silhouetted darkly in front of the moonlight. The wind was playing with his robe and made it flutter about his legs. Dali was standing not far away, her face blank as she stared at the ground.
"I have long heard of your ill.u.s.trious name, Lin Sanjiu." The figure laughed. "I finally got the chance to meet you in person."
Lin Sanjiu looked at the figure for a while and then used the back of her hand to wipe her lips.
"Yeah, nice to meet you," she said softly, "I have heard of you as well, Septimus."
Chapter 828 - Septimus’ Kindness?
The moonlight flowed over Septimus like a river of light, outlining his slim body figure and dying the air particles white. Seeing the man's refusal to respond to her statement, a sardonic smile flitted across the tip of her lips.
"Why do you look so surprised? This isn't rocket science." Lin Sanjiu smirked. She straightened her back as a card appeared in her palm. "After meeting Ryuji, the staff working in Mokugyo Forum, I already knew the person behind this manhunt must be one of Luther's twelve personalities. Besides, you have a rather distinctive characteristic, so…"
When she was in Oasis, 12 had deceived Marcie into thinking that he was Septimus. During that time, she learned that "Septimus" had a gender identity disorder.
Instinctively, Septimus lifted his hand and ran his fingers across his collarbone.
"I see. Well, to be frank with you, lately, I've been wondering whether I should be a male or a female," said Septimus. His voice had an erratic pitch and he sounded as if there was a glut of smoke in his throat. Sometimes, he sounded like a mezzo-soprano singer while at other times, his voice lingered around the vocal range of a man talking with his nose pinched. "I just materialized not long ago, so I'm still not a real human being yet."
The sentence brought Lin Sanjiu back to an incident that she had long buried within the depth of her psyche. "I remember when I first bumped into Marcie and Luther, a duoluozhong said that she is made of fake flesh and bone."
The slim silhouette shrugged. "Well, that duoluozhong isn't wrong."
Then, both
of them fell silent.
After a moment of dismayed silence, the card containing the [Power Of Word Picture] finally stopped flickering and laid flat in Lin Sanjiu's palm. This was the first time she was summoning the Special Item after snatching it from the man who had sold her Exodus.
Septimus turned his gaze to her palm for a second and commented, "Your ability is really suitable for cheating in card games."
Without waiting for her to reply, he switched to another foot but still leaned lackadaisically against the frame of the gate. "But you don't need to use your ability against me. After all, I'm not your enemy.
Lin Sanjiu could not believe what she just heard. She turned around to point at the mass of posthumans behind her with a cold sneer upon her face. "Not my enemy? Then, your way of saying hello was a real eye-opener."
Septimus lowered his head and let out a sigh. Due to the uniqueness of his voice, it gave people the impression that smoke would spill out from his mouth when he sighed. "If I didn't do that, how was I supposed to get to you? I know those posthumans cannot harm you, so I hypnotized them and got them to waylay you."
"Why would you want to do that? What is your purpose?"
"You're looking for Luther and Marcie, aren't you?" Septimus tilted his head and said, his voice slowly becoming solemn. "Don't you want to know what happened to them while you were away?"
Lin Sanjiu wanted to know everything about them so badly. She was so eager that her words tumbled out her lips before she even realized it. "Are you willing to tell me where they are?"
"Of course, otherwise why would I go so far as to reach out to you?"
Lin Sanjiu fell into silence, and she only spoke after a few seconds, "But I don't trust you."
Stunned, it was apparent that Septimus did not expect Lin Sanjiu to reject him. He crossed his arms in front of his c.h.e.s.t and squinted his eyes.
"Ryuji," Lin Sanjiu said as she used the hypersensory to read the air movement around. All of the posthumans had been liberated from their hypnosis as they returned to their respective rooms one after another. "Weren't those going after him hypnotized by you? You're willing to lay your hands upon an innocent person just because you don't want him to get in touch with me, yet you expect me to believe you that you're here to help me?"
Septimus put his arms down and chucked, tickled pink by what he heard. His robe slid down his shoulder and made him look even smaller.
"You're wrong," he said nonchalantly, "I'm not the one who makes the decision to go after that staff. It's just that my ability is particularly useful in this kind of thing, so they want me to hypnotize a group of posthumans to hunt him down. Since I don't really care about him, I just do what they told me to do. However, tracking you down and intercepting you is my own decision."
A thought flashed across Lin Sanjiu's brain when she heard Septimus mention "they". She was stunned into silence and could not come around for a fair share amount of time even though Septimus had finished speaking. It was only when Septimus called out to her that she snapped out from her reverie and asked, "Is Bliss one of the twelve personalities as well?"
This time, it was Septimus who was taken aback. He moved half step forward into the light. On his exquisite face was a shocked expression. His two beautiful eyes were wide and fixated while his mouth was open in shock and disbelief. "How did you know that?"
Lin Sanjiu did not know what to say. She patted her face and then began to inspect the person, who had not decided to be male or female yet, in front of her.
Similar to the impression left by 12, although Septimus was a beauty in his own right, he had a kind of cold aura enveloped around him which made him look somehow unapproachable. He had slanted eyes that tilted slightly upward and a pair of thin lips. His skin was as fair as snow and so smooth as if no expression could stay on his face. His beauty was like a hollow ice shell that did not leave a strong impact. Instead, it would reflect one's gaze back.
Generally, Lin Sanjiu was pretty good at seeing through somebody. However, she had been observing Septimus the whole time, yet she still could not tell whether she should trust him or not.
In the end, she let out a long sigh. "Alright, I'll believe you for once. Just tell me whatever you want to say."
"Here?" Septimus looked around and threw his hands up. "Honestly, my hypnosis has a time limitation, and they are about to wake up soon. I suggest we go out first and talk along the way."
There was a probability that this was yet another trap set up by the twelve personalities to kill her, but Lin Sanjiu had no other choice left. She could either take a chance on the truth or be continued to be hunted by them. It was not a hard decision to make since, after all, she was not a coward.
"Even if you all come for me together, I can still keep myself safe, so…" She waved her hand and continued, "lead the way."
Septimus looked at her as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Really?" He turned around and walked into the alley. "You seem pretty confident."
The alley was dark. The moonlight and the streetlight in the distance could do nothing to light up the deep darkness that seeped into every inch of the red-bricked alley. As both of them walked down the staircase, Lin Sanjiu asked, "Now that I already know everything, you don't have to hunt Ryuji anymore, do you?"
"You're exactly the same as the rumors say," Septimus commented without turning his head. His long robe flowed behind him as he smoothly went down the staircases, moving as one.
"What do you mean? What have you heard about me?"
"Nothing. The rumors say you're a kind and lovable person. Don't worry. Nobody is interested in Ryuji."
When they were halfway through the red-bricked alley, Septimus snapped his fingers. The Lost Dog's Pod Hotel fell silent for a moment before a round of shouting burst out. Dali's voice tore through the sky and fell clearly into their ears, "What the hell happened here?! My hotel! Argh, my hotel! Who did this to my hotel?!
Her guests seemed to finally come around as well. In that split second, an undulating scream, shouts of fear and pain, and cries filled the air. The person who was responsible for the tragedy was now in front of Lin Sanjiu, humming a tune as he strode down the alley.
"Where are we going?"
"Nowhere." Even though she did not tell him about the checkpoint pocket dimension, Septimus hopped onto the roof when they reached the end of the alley. The way his robe fluttered behind him made him look like a butterfly that was dancing under the moon. He then leaped down from the roof and stood behind the checkpoint. "Didn't I tell you earlier? We will talk as we walk."
'Perhaps he doesn't want to expose the location of Luther and the twelve personalities,' Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly.
"I've too many questions." This was the truth. Lin Sanjiu's mind was filled with so many doubts and questions that she did not know where to start. After she combed through everything in her mind, only then she began to ask, "Right now, how many personalities have formed?"
However, she did not expect Septimus to give her the cold shoulder.
"I don't know." He cast a glance at her. "Don't look at me like that. I'm telling the truth. I really don't know."
"How is that possible?" Lin Sanjiu stopped walking, her face livid with rage. "Aren't you all going to stay beside Luther all the time?"
"Yes, but that was only in the initial stage of the splitting. Take me and Marcie, who you met at Hyperthermal Hell, for instance. As personalities that have just been formed, we can't stay too far away from the main body. Otherwise, we will be f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y 'reclaimed' back. I guess you should know very well about this, don't you?"
Septimus slowed down and stayed about five steps away from Lin Sanjiu. They walked shoulder to shoulder under the moonlight and the hovering streetlight. "Now, I'm going to tell you something you don't know. During the later stage of splitting, we are largely unaffected by distance. So long as all of us are in the same world, a soon-to-m.a.t.u.r.e personality is completely free to move based on our own will. There
are only three circ.u.mstances under which we will return to the main body: Luther decides to call us back, we decide to return on our own, and world leaping."
"What if you die?"
"Then, we will disappear," Septimus answered with a nonchalant smile, "Even though we are personalities, we are just like all the humans. We only have one life. Of course, once one of the personalities dies, the main body, Luther, will suffer some damage."
"So, are you telling me that since you all don't need to stay beside Luther, you don't know how many personalities have formed?"
"Bingo."
A question rose in Lin Sanjiu's heart, but she could not reveal what she was wondering. Besides that, there was one question that preceded all the others. "Tell me, where can I find Luther and Marcie?"
Chapter 829 - A Dark Room
The night was unexpectedly quiet.
When there was wind, the row of spherical street lights that hovered overhead would sway about and cast a lambent light on the ground. The aircraft that were massive as whales were floating high above the clouds, and only through the occasional moonlight could they make out their huge silhouettes amongst the dark sky.
"There is one thing you've misunderstood."
Septimus strode into an alley on his left, his robe flapping like a butterfly's wings in the air. "I'm not here to offer you help, nor I have the obligation to answer each of your questions. I don't know where Luther is right now, and even if I know, I won't tell you. After all, the last thing they wanted was to expose Luther's whereabouts. Thus, for the sake of my own safety, I'm sorry."
"Why did you come for me, then?"
"Because I'm the one who needs help."
'Septimus is in trouble?'
Lin Sanjiu frowned. There were too many questions left unsolved. Worse still, Septimus refused to tell her anything. Forcing her anxiety back to the pit of her stomach, she pitched her voice low and said, "I don't have time to mess around with you. If you really need my help, then tell me everything. Start from scratch."