by N. Heller
She waved her hand and the card in her palm turned into a bunch of keys.
Slowly, Ryuji opened his mouth and said, "So…"
"Yes, this is a locked room, and this is a locked-room mystery just like the one in the detective fiction."
"That used to be my favorite genre." Ryuji scratched his head. "I'm not a cool kid in my school, so I kept to myself all the time. I don't like to study, but I love reading fiction. Therefore, no matter where I went, be it eating or walking, I had a detective novel with me all the time."
The second half of his sentence passed Lin Sanjiu's ears as the wind.
The locks on the window were generally faced inward, but that was the opposite case for the main door. It required somebody to lock it from the outside. In other words, to leave both the keys of the window and the door inside the building, the murderer could not have left through either one.
However, there was something Lin Sanjiu could not comprehend. Why would the pocket dimension tell her that this was a "locked room escape" in the first place?
"Maybe it's because this building is indeed a locked room for you." Ryuji began to draw out his vowels after he heard Lin Sanjiu's query. "You were thrown into a locked-room murder scene, so you have to think of a way to get out of here."
Lin Sanjiu nodded thoughtfully.
It was not easy to get out of here. After connecting the pocket dimension, the dead body, and the traces, it occurred to her that she had to figure out how the murderer got out of here first.
"Look out, it is coming at you again," Ryuji warned her again while she was deeply immersed in her thought. Lin Sanjiu took a quick glance and then barreled towards the other side of the warehouse. The dead body kept trailing her like a frigging shadow, and it made her very uncomfortable.
It seemed that a less motivated person would have a hard time standing up as well. Ryuji was still sitting in the bush, his face drawn. The only occasion he would jerk up was when the dead body walked past in front of him.
"Don't you have any more torchlight?" After Lin Sanjiu went around the warehouse and returned to him, he suggested, "Take them out and put them around if you got more. It is too dark here and that freaking dead body is too scary."
The grand prize had given her several back-up torchlights, but she lost most of them in Shamballa and the rest needed to be recharged. Waving her [Ability Polishing Agent], she replied, "Nope. I only have this one."
Raising his head to stare at the silver bottle, Ryuji sighed, "Is this even a torchlight?"
"Nope. But I have been using it as one." Even though Lin Sanjiu was having a casual talk, she was still thinking about the possibility of "locked room murder". After she thought for a while, she asked, "Since you said you often read detective stories, what is your thought on this?"
Even if the topic of their conversation was something he liked, there was no spark in Ryuji's eyes.
"Well, most of them are not really a locked room," he said in a gloomy voice, "It is just some tricks the perp used to misdirect people into thinking that it is a locked room, but actually it is not. To achieve that effect, they would use something we called a "device". There are plenty of devices, and some of them could be used to lock the door from outside. However, that is only applicable in novels as there are too many variables in reality."
After hearing what he said, Lin Sanjiu threw a glance at him and asked, "Have you tried it before?"
"Yes, when I was in secondary school. There was one exhibition, and I was going to demonstrate how to close a door with a fishing line. But sadly, something went wrong and my demonstration ended up as a failure."
In short, Ryuji had been branded as a "loser" since he was young.
So what was the "device" used in this locked room?
As she sank into her thoughts, she tried to rebuild the wall and the window. To her chagrin, the window restored from the glass fragments was so small a child might not be able to squeeze through, let alone the murderer, who had a high chance to be a grown-up male.
'How good it is if I can imitate the grand prize or Nüwa…' But Lin Sanjiu knew that both options had been crossed out from her list.
Ji Shanqing was calling her.
When the second long note came, the blue spot was blocked by a shadow. As if it knew Lin Sanjiu was going there, the dead body dragged itself over and stopped in front of the communication device.
Chapter 840 - The Only Sentence She Heard
"You've been neglecting your Higher Consciousness practice ever since Magus was gone," Mrs. Manas said, sounding exasperated, "Do you regret it now?"
If Mrs. Manas were a real person, Lin Sanjiu swore that she would have stuck a cloth into her mouth to gag her before she could say any more. Immediately after another failed attempt to lift her communication device from the ground using her Higher Consciousness, the last thing she wanted to hear right now was Mrs. Manas's merciless lecture and her repeating "I told you so".
The dead body was blocking the communication device and in front of her was a wall. She did not want to go near to the dead body, but her Higher Consciousness was not fit for actions such as turning, avoiding, and picking which required a high degree of precision. The only thing she could do was send a large wave of her Higher Consciousness forward to disperse a large crowd of enemies.
However, she could not do that now as that might destroy the communication device as well.
Like the call of the nightingale, the communication device rang out again, spewing its single-note tune far and wide into the dark. As time ticked by, Lin Sanjiu grew even more restless.
This was the fourth time the communication device rang out, but there was nothing she could do right now. Gnashing her teeth, she decided to take the risk and began walking towards her communication device.
"Stop!" Mrs. Manas shouted, "That's not an ordinary corpse. It's a pocket dimension being! Have you forgotten the pocket dimension's warning? Bad things will happen if it gets near you! Stop right now!"
"Then, do you have any better idea than this?!" Lin Sanjiu yelled back. The moment she heard Ji Shanqing calling her, she already lost her sanity.
As an entity living in Lin Sanjiu's consciousness, Mrs. Manas was infected by her nervousness and panic as well. She stammered, "T-there must be a better way…We just need to think…"
Lin Sanjiu had been looking through her Special Items, but she realized none of them were useful in this kind of situation. The [Unfinished Painting] could pull the communication device towards her, but she did not have the confidence to catch it before it got absorbed into the painting. [The Phoenix] was only effective towards a living human but not an inanimate object, and the [Tornado Whip] was too destructive to handle a fragile device like the communication device.
The fifth call faded away and silence returned to the night, causing Lin Sanjiu's heart to clench a smidgen as her eyes shrunk. Just when she stopped breathing for a second, the sixth call rang out. Her heart resumed its normal steady rhythm and she heaved out a long sigh of relief.
Previously, she was afraid to contact the grand prize, but now, things had changed. She feared that her grand prize could not get to her.
'Even though it was a bit of a waste, there seems to be only one option now.'
With that thought in mind, Lin Sanjiu spun her head around and looked at Ryuji. He was sitting completely still in the bushes, his mouth half agape in shock. She seemed to have heard him asking her something like "Is that a phone?" but she did not have the luxury to reply to him.
Right now, She could only test her luck on her [Pygmalion Choker]. If she fully utilized the 5-minute ability the choker granted, then she might have a chance to retrieve the communication device.
Just as she was about to call out to Ryuji, the seventh call was dropped.
She seemingly could still hear the tone of the communication device spiraling in the air as if it was an illusion. It spread very far into the night sky, and she could imagine the disappointed and anxious grima
ce of her grand prize as if he was right in front of her.
Setting her jaw firmly, she clenched her fists so tightly that her fingers turned white. The sound of the communication device was still ringing in her ears as if it was she was having an illusion. She could not believe she had once again missed Ji Shanqing by an inch. That was her family, her friend, her comrade, and her closest brother, and the feeling was even more terrible than herself getting physically hurt.
The dead body swayed a little as if it realized that something was wrong with the communication device.
Lin Sanjiu could feel a lump forming at her throat. Just as she thought her grand prize had given up, the communication device, which had gone silent for a long time, rang out once again as the blue indicative dot flitted in the night sky.
He had not given up yet!
Lin Sanjiu let out a long relieved sigh as she began to walk towards the corpse, intent on throwing everything into the wind. Screw the dead body and the pocket dimension! The only thing on her mind right now and the only thing she wanted to do was to talk to her grand prize.
Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu froze, her eyes widening.
The silhouette was stooping down further and further, then with a ding, the single-note tone from the communication device was cut off.
"Huh?"
She stood and stared blankly at the dead body and the communication device. She thought she would be welcomed by darkness, but surprisingly, the blue dot was still there, blinking.
'So, that means…' Lin Sanjiu could not fathom the situation happening right before her eyes. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like her brain was exploding.
The night seemed to have been frozen in stillness. That half-second felt as long as an eternity, and the atmosphere was oppressive until a low, bestial growl that gave people an impression of the deathly, corrupted wind from the underworld rippled out from the corpse's massively decayed throat.
Then, a voice that was as soothing as the stream in the mountains crackled from the communication device and shattered the silence, "Sis?"
It was the grand prize!
It really was him!
Ignoring Mrs. Manas's warning, she quickened up her pace and strode towards the communication device.
"Sis?" There was a clear hint of anxiety in Ji Shanqing's voice though nobody could tell if he had just returned from a fight or if he was worried about Lin Sanjiu. "Can you hear me?"
Everything happened in just a split second. "I'm…" Before Lin Sanjiu could spill out the rest of her sentence, the dead body jerked around and lifted its leg. Then, the next thing she knew, it appeared right in front of her.
"The…the murderer is…"
Ever since its appearance, this was the first time Lin Sanjiu heard it speak. Its voice was exceptionally harsh to the ears and did not sound human. Nobody could have told if it was speaking the human language were it not for its hardly discernible phonetics, much less identify its gender.
"The murderer is…right…here…"
Lin Sanjiu was greatly taken aback, but she regained her senses when the arctic-white and highly decayed shoulder appeared very close in her vision. Her words became stuck in her throat and she suddenly stopped. She lunged towards the side and rolled on the ground. Even with her agility, she could still feel a gush of cold air graze past her back and make her hair on her nape stand on their ends.
As soon as she avoided the corpse's ambush, she turned her head and shouted, "Grand prize!"
However, she did not know whether Ji Shanqing could hear her or not. At the same time that she yelled, the dead body picked the communication device up in the dark and smashed it hard against the wall. To her utter horror, the device broke into various pieces and fell on the ground.
Chapter 841 - Look For A Chance
The silver beam from her [Ability Polishing Agent] jolted in tandem with the rhythm of her steps, shattering the silence of the night and thrusting it into a limbo of light and dark. As she sped up, she could see nothing but shattered pieces of the night sky. She could also hear nothing but her own rapid breathing and the echo of footsteps that reverberated far and wide into the night.
The grand prize had given her more than one communication device. As soon as she could shake the dead body off, she could ring him back.
That was the first thought that appeared in Lin Sanjiu's mind when the communication device shattered into hundreds of pieces. She had already called out another card containing the communication device, but she did not expect to hold the card in her hand for a long time without the chance to stop and call Ji Shanqing.
Gritting her teeth, she turned her head around. Through the dark, she could see the corpse gaining speed on her. With its two arms dangling limply by both sides of its crippled body, it moved sideways like a crab and was gaining speed exponentially. With every step it took, there would be a pop released from its bones and skin into the air, causing Lin Sanjiu's skin to burst into gooseflesh.
The communication device was fragile and the signal would become unstable if the person carrying it kept moving around. As a result, all of her calls could not be established. Nevertheless, there was little Lin Sanjiu could do because whenever she stopped running and tried to make the call, the corpse would blink and appear right in front of her.
Left with no other alternatives, Lin Sanjiu made the decision to keep her communication device away and replaced it with the [Power of Word Picture]. At the very least, the effect of this Special Item would not be dampened when she was running.
"The grand prize must be worried sick," she said to Mrs. Manas. She was both anxious and angry—anxious that she was not able to call her grand prize, and angry at the dead body for putting her in this situation. "By the way, what the hell is going on with the corpse? How can it suddenly move so fast?"
"Not exactly." Mrs. Manas sighed. "When I recall back, I realize that it's been speeding up over time, and its speed skyrocketed after the call."
"How do you know that?"
"Do you still remember the last time Ryuji warned you about the approach of the corpse? Well, it was not his fault for being late. It's just that the movement of the dead body has sped up."
However, right now, Lin Sanjiu was not in the mood to think about what caused the dead body to become faster over time as she had her heart set on Ji Shanqing. After a short hesitation, she asked, "The grand prize...he wouldn't think I've been killed, would he? No, he shouldn't. After all, the voice of the dead body is so much different from mine."
"The voice of the dead body doesn't sound like anybody," Mrs. Manas emphasized, "Since it doesn't sound like anybody, it could be anyone. There are a plethora of ways to die in the doomsday. Anything is possible. Besides, the corpse is the one that picked up the call…"
"Can you please shut up if you don't have anything to say? Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?"
"I'm your consciousness!" Mrs. Manas refuted, "That means what I think is what is on your mind! You can't run away from that!"
Mrs. Manas was right. Lin Sanjiu let out a heavy sigh and raised her [Ability Polishing Agent]. Through the silver beam, she looked for the corpse. After ascertaining its location, she darted towards the opposite side of the warehouse. Ryuji was now standing on the side of the warehouse that was not covered by any wall, feeling extremely lost. It was only when he saw Lin Sanjiu running towards him that he was forced out of his reverie. He quickly asked, "What's going on with the dead body?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Lin Sanjiu said exasperatedly, "It just said that the murderer is here, and all of a sudden, it went mad."
"The murderer is here?" Ryuji asked as he stared at Lin Sanjiu zooming past him after answering his question. "But you're the only one in the pocket dimension."
'You tell me!'
Lin Sanjiu was on the verge of exploding after several consecutive failed attempts to contact her grand prize and shaking off the corpse. She wanted to lash out at Ryuji, but she swallowed h
er anger in the end and ignored him.
All of a sudden, Ryuji's voice burst out as though full realization had dawned on him. "Hey, could your role in the pocket dimension be the murderer?"
'Murderer? Me?'
Lin Sanjiu was stumped for a moment and she recoiled. However, she did not allow such a feeling to set in and picked up her pace once more. She darted straight towards the corner of the wall opposite her. She had just been here not long ago.
"Only the murderer needs to get out of the locked room…" Ryuji moved around the warehouse, but since there was a wall on the other side, his voice had become considerably lower and harder to discern. "If you can figure out how the murderer created this locked room, maybe you'll find a way out."
His speculation was reasonable and fair, thus Lin Sanjiu nodded then said, "It seems that your years of immersing in detective fiction didn't end in vain after all. However, before that, I have something else more important to do."
She stopped and spun her head around. The row of racks which she recreated while on the run several minutes ago were standing in the dark. After she having gone at full speed and ran like her life depended on it, the corpse was now very far away from her. Even though the distance was not far enough for her to take out the communication device and call Ji Shanqing, it was more than sufficient for her to do something else.
Crouching low, Lin Sanjiu leaped and hopped into the mid-air in a leap. She caught the edge of the rack, and with a quick flip, she settled herself down at the top of the rack. After that, she took a breath and looked downward.
The corpse waggled to the rack and stopped.
With the help from the silver beam, she could only see half of the neck that was buried deep in the c.h.e.s.t and the cruelly shattered bones in the neck that formed numerous bumps.
Lin Sanjiu stared at the dead body for a while, then called out for the communication device.
However, scarcely had she looked away from the dead body, then the rack suddenly shook so violently that she almost dropped the device. She then peered down the rack, and the fine hair on her back stood up.