The applause and cheers slowly receded when the red figure disappeared into Bliss. The crowd had thinned out and only a few people were left. Gripping tightly to the windowsill, Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath, the air so cold it chilled her blood.
“How do you feel?” The tavern owner’s voice rang out like a piece of purple satin unfurling in front of her. “Congratulations. You finally saw Ms. Jezebel.”
Lin Sanjiu did not reply.
Regardless of whether it was the owner, the guests in the tavern, or the crowd of posthumans in the street, everybody knew the woman in the red blouse was Jezebel. If she was Jezebel, then who was the black-haired woman in the pool?
Lin Sanjiu stared at the building for a long while, her brain a quagmire of confusion. The snow was now soiled by dirt and mud after getting trampled by the crowd. There was still a handful of people pacing back and forth in front of the entrance, hoping to see Jezebel again.
“You will know whenever she is here.” The tavern owner’s words reverberated in her head once again, and it was only now that Lin Sanjiu saw the light.
During her first two encounters with “Jezebel”, there were no posthuman waiting in front of the entrance of Bliss.
Lin Sanjiu dropped back to her chair with a plop, almost knocking over the horn-shaped cup.
Their first encounter happened in the pool on the top floor of Bliss. There were no other guests or staff around them at that time. During their second encounter, the third person who saw “Jezebel” was Silvan. However, she was certain that Silvan did not know the true appearance of Jezebel; he might not even know who Jezebel was. After all, if he was someone obsessed with beauty, he could just look into the mirror every day.
The black-haired woman took advantage of Jezebel’s absence from Bliss and created a fake identity for herself, and what was more surprising was that none of the staff members in Bliss were aware of her presence. However, there were several things Lin Sanjiu found strange. How could she bump into the woman twice in a row? Did she purposely wait for her there the whole time? And most importantly, who was she?
The Reverie Libretto had given her a clue, but the more she thought about it, the more confused she became.
Walking out of the tavern and enroute to the hill, Lin Sanjiu was dazed and couldn’t untangle the severely matted knots in her brain. Ever since she arrived in Heaven Underworld, the people she encountered went missing one after another. Starting from Ryuji, then Timo, and now “Jezebel”.
She had no idea why, but it felt like…
Her hands found purchase on the rock as she wedged herself through the narrow and rugged path in between the stones. After she turned around the mountainside, she stepped onto a flat clearing area. She looked around. There was only a thin forest near the top of the mountain. She peeked through the branches and bushes, and looked at the empty hills below. Mid Mountsburg was totally out of her sight.
She felt that there was a hidden agenda behind the entire incident and she was being kept out of the loop. Intuitively, it seemed to her that it was not just someone trying to kill her.
She forced the agitation away and pulled out a communication device
Originally, there was no clearing on top of the mountain. In order to find an unobtrusive spot to land the aircraft, Lin Sanjiu and Yu Yuan spent two days clearing a large area of bushes and turning it into a small tarmac.
Right now, there were several patches of grass sprouting out from the perimeter of the tarmac as they swayed in the wind.
“You’re already there?” Yu Yuan sounded a little surprised. “It is a little early today. Don’t you have to stake out some more?”
“Don’t mention it,” Lin Sanjiu sighed. “It’s a long story. I will explain it to you after we’re back at Exodus. How are things on your end? Any good news?”
“Well,” Yu Yuan laughed bitterly, “I went around for a second time, yet still haven’t found anyone who has a spacecraft on sale. Doesn’t Ubume control all the transportation in the Twelve Worlds? Somebody suggested that I should try my luck at Ubume…”
Things weren’t going very smooth. After she heard what Yu Yuan said, Lin Sanjiu sighed again and rubbed her temples. Her veins were pulsating, and there was a throbbing pain in her head. After she hung up the call, she looked around and found herself a spot. She set a canvas cloth on the grass and laid on top of it. It would take Yu Yuan at least an hour to get to her location. She could make use of the free time to do a lot of things while waiting for Yu Yuan, but she didn’t want to do anything. Staring into the clouds fluttering across the sky, her thought slowly slipped away.
She hadn’t been so tired in years. Right now, she just wanted to turn back time and return to how she was before the doomsday wreaked havoc in her original world.
Not long after, slight footsteps came from the wind and snapped her back to reality.
Even though her field of vision was blocked by the bushes and trees, she knew it was Yu Yuan. The footsteps were quick and drawing near. It was as if the person knew very well where he was going. As he neared the clearing, Lin Sanjiu continued to remain lying on the ground. She was so overwhelmed with her weariness that she did not even want to speak. Even though she knew there might be a chance Yu Yuan might not be able to locate her, she couldn’t bring herself to stand up right now. She just wanted a five minutes break from all the crap in the doomsday.
‘Maybe it isn’t a bad idea at all to stay in the Data Stream Library with the grand prize…’ she thought.
“Hmm? This is weird,” Yu Yuan said after he couldn’t find Lin Sanjiu. Judging from the voice, he was about ten steps away from her.
Lin Sanjiu knew it was time for her to get up and face reality. She expelled a long sigh and her breath rustled through the grass. Just as she was getting up, she suddenly realized something and froze.
That was not Yu Yuan’s voice.
It was the voice of another young man. Perhaps it was because of this that she had not realized it right away.
‘Who is that?’
The footfalls started anew, and the person got closer and closer to the clearing. The patches of grass were about half a human tall, so they perfectly concealed Lin Sanjiu’s presence. Holding her breath, she curled herself up and assumed a battle-ready posture.
It was very unlikely that he had roamed to this mountain without any purpose. There wasn’t anything here that would attract posthuman. What’s more, he did not seem like he was lost.
Considering all the facts, Lin Sanjiu was almost a hundred percent certain that he was coming for her. However…
The man stepped onto the perimeter of the clearing, bringing his appearance to the light. Lin Sanjiu angled her head up a little and squinted her eyes, sizing the figure up and down.
No matter how much she looked, the man’s figure couldn’t ring a bell in her mind.
The man was only standing at about 175 cm tall. He was draped in a jacket that shrouded his body stature. Truth to be told, whether it be a man or woman, thin person or fat person, everyone who donned this kind of clothing looked similar to each other. If he hadn’t shown up here, Lin Sanjiu wouldn’t have noticed him, as almost all posthumans shared the same look.
The head of brownish hair turned around, as if the person was looking for something.
“That’s weird,” he murmured again, “I remember it being here.”
Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but the young man’s voice gave her goosebumps. It felt as if a snake was crawling over her body. His voice wasn’t deep or particularly harsh to the ear; in fact, it was pretty normal. It sounded just like one of her colleagues during her days in the office.
Even though his voice had a casual tone to it, Lin Sanjiu still felt discomfort. It was as if the abyss had turned into a human and was whispering beside her ears.
“Ah!” The young man patted his forehead and exclaimed, “Silly me! I should have thought of this earlier!”
‘He doesn’t seem too bright to me…’ Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly.
She held him in her gaze and readied herself to pounce on him once he turned his head around. However, the man did not turn his head but stretched his arm and walked forward.
“What is he doing?” Lin Sanjiu whispered. As soon as the words spilled out of her mouth, realization instantly dawned upon her. She wanted to jump on the man, but her inner self held her back. She remained hiding in the grass and examined the man who was brandishing his arm aimlessly.
When his hands fell on something unseen, he began humming a tune. Using his fingers as his guide, he walked around the invisible thing and then stopped on the other side of the clearing. His hand was still held high in the air. It looked as if he was holding an invisible pole.
However, Lin Sanjiu knew it wasn’t an invisible pole. It was one of her aircraft’s “scythes”.
Even though Lin Sanjiu knew nobody would come to this mountain, for safety purposes, she still enacted a layer of [Camouflage barrier] around her aircraft. Be that as it may, as its name suggested, [Camouflage barrier] was merely a camouflage. If someone like the young man physically touched the thing under the barrier, then she would be busted.
Lin Sanjiu’s jaw was set tight. Harsh lines ran down both sides of her face, and she could feel a vein bulging. She thought she was already careful enough, but…
Just where did the young man come from?
