“Mrs. Manas! Mrs. Manas!”
Lin Sanjiu called out to Mrs. Manas in quick succession, her adrenaline spiking up. Scanning the crowd, her breathing was rapid and she broke out in a light sweat. “Where are you, Mrs. Manas? I need your help right now!”
It was impossible for a grown man to vanish completely and without any traces. The skybus was now flying a thousand kilometer high in the air. There must be a place for the man to go!
Lin Sanjiu’s first thought was that the man had changed his appearance and outfit while she was looking at the floor. After all, she wasn’t the only one who had a [Mask].
“Mrs. Manas, hurry up!” She hollered out again in panic. Her eyes hopped from one passenger to the next over and over again, desperately looking for the man. For her, anyone could be the suspect. “Did you capture the footage just now? Quick! Replay it for me!”
“Just what do you think your subconscious is? A tape recorder? Do you really think your subconscious mind would record everything you see?” Mrs. Manas said slowly. Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, Mrs. Manas’s voice rang out again, “But since it happened not long ago, I will try to look for it. Perhaps your subconscious mind did capture something.”
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath to calm herself down and then activated the [Defense Forcefield]. Since she had already exposed herself and if the man was hiding amongst the passengers, then she had to be cautious.
“Are you ready?” Mrs. Manas returned with good news very soon. “I’m now pushing the footage into your conscious mind.”
After Lin Sanjiu gave the green light to Mrs. Manas, an image unfurled before her irises. Then, just like a video, the people in the image began moving.
However, she was disappointed when the “footage” stopped.
A few minutes ago, she had been examining each and every one of the passengers present in the skybus, so she had memorized all of their faces. Yet, every passenger in the footage captured by her subconscious mind was standing right in front of her—except for the man.
Not willing to give up yet, Lin Sanjiu recounted the faces in her mind again, for she feared that she might have overlooked something. Be that as it may, since there were only a handful of passengers behind the bus, her effort availed her nothing. After she’d cross-checked multiple times, she unwillingly dismissed the probability of the man using a mask to masquerade as another person.
‘Could it be he has a Special Item that could conceal his presence?’
Without wasting any seconds, she rummaged through her card and pulled out the [Truth Revealing Candle]. Ignoring objections from the crowds, she took out a lighter and lit the candle. Holding the candle, she slowly turned around.
The [Truth Revealing Candle] could dispel any disguises. The last time she used it, she had successfully exposed Hegel, who was wearing the [Criminal Suspect Suit] at that time and forced him out of the dark. However, everything remained the same this time.
Overwhelmed by disappointment and dejection, she blew out the candle. She was totally clueless about where the man had gone and how he disappeared from the sky. She took a deep breath and decided to collect information from the passengers around about the situation. Just when she spun around, she found that most of the passengers had surrounded her in a half-circle behind her. All of their faces were grim and ugly.
“What the hell are you thinking,” a woman growled, her arms coiled in front of her chest and her face livid, “Do you not know how dangerous it is to light up a candle in a bus?”
“If you don’t want to take the bus, then get off the vehicle,” a bald, stumpy man added angrily, “This vehicle belongs to the Ubume, so you’d better watch your manners.”
Lin Sanjiu was certain that the man had no relation to the Ubume and that he was just using the name of the organization to fortify himself. After all, when an overwhelming power gap existed between the confrontation of two posthumans, even if there was no physical exchanges, it would serve as a deterrent against both sides doing something stupid.
Lin Sanjiu did not wish to argue with them, so she paid them no mind. When the skybus descended in Black’s Market, she was the first one to alight the bus. No one seemed to have any connection with the man, and no one looked at her when they got down the bus. She watched as the skybus began to rise into the air, slowly leaving her sight as it merged into the sky above.
She was so fraught with anxiety that she wanted to kick something.
Black’s Market began to wake up from its slumber after the sun had completely submerged into the horizon. Countless beams of strong lights filled the air with a livid light. The famous slogan was cast into the sky, and the voices and laughter of people began to spread across the market as the cold night turned warmer.
Walking elbow to elbow with the rest of the patrons of Black’s Market, Lin Sanjiu found that the feeling of novelty and the dazzling fascination she previously had about Black’s Market was gone tonight. She only felt that the hollering of the crowd was irritating and the iridescent lights hurt her eyes. Just as she was about to push the woman in front of her, the communication device that was strapped to her body buzzed to life.
“Where are you?” Yu Yuan asked. “I thought you said you were waiting for me here? Anyway, I am already inside of the aircraft.”
Lin Sanjiu had forgotten about Yu Yuan after being distracted by the man. She expelled a long sigh and rubbed her temples as she said, “I am at Black’s Market now.”
“Black’s Market? Why did you go there?” Yu Yuan replied, half crying, half laughing. There was a slight whirring coming from the speaker, and Lin Sanjiu wondered what Yu Yuan was doing. Perhaps he was adjusting the chair? She didn’t know.
“It’s a long story. I think somebody is shadowing me…” Lin Sanjiu said.
“Somebody is following you?” Yu Yuan’s voice took on a serious tone.
Suddenly, she was assaulted by a sense of uneasiness. She turned around, but her eyes found nothing. Even though it was impossible for anyone to wiretap the communication device, she still felt queasy. Every posthuman looked suspicious to her, and she daren’t dispel her [Defense Forcefield]. “I will explain it to you when we meet.”
Perhaps Yu Yuan could help her to figure something out.
“Okay sure,” Yu Yuan said. After some contemplation, he continued, “How about this? After you come out of Black’s Market, find a spot you think is safe and wait for me. I will come to pick up you.”
“That’s not necessary…”
“The day has gotten dark. It will take a hell of a lot of time for you to get to Mid Mountsburg and climb the mountain. Besides, if someone is keeping tabs on you, the sooner you get rid of them, the better it is for you. Also, it is safer for us to fly at night.”
The image of her aircraft merging into the night sky appeared in Lin Sanjiu’s head after she listened to what Yu Yuan had suggested. His suggestion might be the best possible approach, but there was something she needed to tell him. “Oh yeah, when I was waiting for you at the mountain, I saw a man. He—”
However, before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a commotion. She raised her head and looked ahead. Somebody shouted, “Stop him!” as a figure barreled out of the crowd in front and dashed towards her. He was holding something in his arms, and they were falling off along the way. Just when he was about to ram into Lin Sanjiu, she stepped aside and made way for him. The man’s reaction speed was obviously slower than hers. He couldn’t stop his momentum and nearly fell to the ground. As he stumbled past her, Lin Sanjiu retracted her gaze from him.
Not only did she feel as if she knew the man, but the scene was familiar as well.
“Stop that thief!” a sharp voice erupted from a shop nearby. “He stole my stuff! Somebody stop him!”
Most of the people paid no mind to the owner’s plea and just craned their necks to look. However, there were a few warm-hearted people who went after the man. Lin Sanjiu backed a few steps, only to hear Yu Yuan’s voice, “Hey, are you okay? What is happening over there?”
“I am fine,” she backed away from the crowd and stood under the eaves of a shop, “Just a robbery.”
With a faint whirring, Yu Yuan’s relieved voice rang out, “You scared the hell out of me. By the way, what was the thing you wanted to tell me?”
Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, another figure, a man of portly stature, shouldered through the crowd and appeared in her sight. He bent his body and picked something up from the ground along the way.
Like the thief, he looked very familiar to Lin Sanjiu. She frowned and fell into deep thought.
“Watch your steps!” the fatty exclaimed as he picked another thing up from the ground. “You have to pay for it if you step on one. Twenty Ronde each!”
Thanks to the Scrooge McDuck’s Power in her body, the price stirred up her memory. Just like the man, she felt as if she had heard the price from somewhere before. Stunned for half a second, she lunged forward and picked up the merchandise before the fatty.
It was a plastic box in the shape of jelly.
“Hey! Give me back my “Smile”!” the man shouted as he wiped the sweat on his forehead.
‘No wonder he looks so familiar…’ Lin Sanjiu then returned the “Smile” to the man. As he went away grumpily, Lin Sanjiu then realized she had bought a “Smile” from him. It was a very interesting object that would make you happy for hours.
“Hello?” Yu Yuan called out to her again.
“Yes? I am sorry,” Lin Sanjiu replied. “It’s okay. It is the unfortunate shop owner whose shop was robbed. What I wanted to tell you is when I was waiting for you, a man came to the mountain…”
“Okay, then?”
As Yu Yuan spoke, Lin Sanjiu heard the engine of the aircraft. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat. She asked, “Have you taken off already?”
“Yes? What’s wrong?”
“Get off the aircraft now! The man found the aircraft. I don’t know what he did to it. He just touched it and then—”
However, Lin Sanjiu was too late. Before she could finish her words, the sound of an explosion blasted out of the device. Then, the communication device fell silent.
The call had been cut off.
