Monster - Chapter 26
Chapter 26: The Excitement Method
After enjoying a rather delicious meal of fried chicken and beer, Lin Sandie's hands were immediately cuffed, her eyes were covered with a blindfold, and she was stuffed into a car heading to an unknown destination.
Kang Yi did not accompany her, and during this time, no one spoke to her. She could only hear the occasional car whistling past the window. As the vehicle moved, she judged her location based on the number of turns the car made.
Lin Sandie was not interested in where she was going. The only thing she was thinking about now was how she was going to survive the coming fight.
Reasonably speaking, facing such a catastrophic disaster, she should be panicked, screaming, or even hysterical... But these emotions, which everyone in danger would possess, had ceased to exist in Lin Sandie four years ago, after she was grabbed by the hair and slammed into a concussion by Yan Ting, starting her visions of alienated monsters.
Perhaps she might feel terror and helplessness in her heart, but such useless emotions were quickly suppressed beneath her calm reasoning.
Yan Ting was right about some things. It was she who had trained Lin Sandie into a seemingly perfect girlfriend. To meet Yan Ting's expectations, she stopped eating junk food, exercised at least three times a week, cleaned her residence regularly, wore beautiful but uncomfortable clothes, applied various styles of makeup, cooked, cracked inconsequential jokes with humor, and treated everyone except Yan Ting with polite detachment...
At the same time, Yan Ting had also drawn out traits that even the old Lin Sandie didn't know she possessed: cruelty, self-interest, cunning, and evil. Encouraged by Yan Ting, who was ten years her senior, Lin Sandie had forcibly elevated her acting skills to a level she had never imagined.
When necessary, Lin Sandie would turn into a humble, helpless, and pitiful woman to gain certain advantages.
Sitting silently in the car, lost in thought, Lin Sandie noticed the vehicle slowing down after an unknown amount of time. About a few minutes later, the car stopped. Lin Sandie was grabbed by the arm and dragged out of the carriage.
The blindfold over her eyes was not removed. Perhaps her quiet and weak demeanor had garnered a shred of goodwill from the person responsible for transporting her; after being taken off the car, the hand gripping her arm relaxed slightly, though it continued to pull her toward a destination.
Lin Sandie smelled a mixture of mold, dust, vehicle exhaust, and gasoline, guessing she had been taken to an underground parking lot.
Next, she walked a long distance while still blindfolded, then entered an elevator. The elevator did not go up, but continued to descend.
Stepping out of the elevator, Lin Sandie felt the surrounding temperature drop. Wearing only a white shirt and a thin trench coat, she couldn't help but shiver slightly.
The person who had been silently gripping her arm and leading her forward seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon continued to pull Lin Sandie along.
At that moment, a faint male voice drifted into her ear.
"Choose 7."
Lin Sandie paused, knowing the stranger pulling her was giving her a hint.
After walking another considerable distance, Lin Sandie was pushed into a room. Hearing the door close behind her, the blindfold was removed from her face.
Before her was a room of about 30 square meters. Two fluorescent tubes on the ceiling emitted a pale light. The first thing Lin Sandie saw was an alienated monster. It wore a severely keratinized white coat and had two arms covered in eyes. The index and middle fingers of its left hand held a hand-rolled cigarette.
Lin Sandie took out the glasses she had stowed in her trench coat pocket. Through the lenses, she saw that the monster was actually a man of about sixty. He was wearing a white lab coat, sitting on a long bench with his legs crossed, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette while reading a magazine spread open on his knees.
Seeing Lin Sandie enter, the old man raised an eyebrow. His eyebrows were thick and black, looking somewhat comical when raised. Combined with his wrinkled face and head of white hair, he gave off the impression of a crafty old fox.
"A girl, huh? This old man hasn't seen a girl come in here for two or three years." The old man shifted his attention from the magazine to Lin Sandie. His voice was old and raspy, but not unpleasant to hear.
"Hello." Lin Sandie bowed slightly in greeting, but her gaze moved uncontrollably to the rows of small, hollowed-out compartments on the wall to the right.
The small compartments were sealed with glass doors, and inside lay daggers of various lengths, styles, and patterns. Below each compartment hung an oval iron tag with a number.
From 001 to 035. There were actually more than 30 types of daggers hanging on this wall.
Lin Sandie understood the meaning of "Choose 7." She looked at the dagger numbered 007. It was a strangely styled recurve blade. The blade curved inward, and the tip swept upward. At first glance, it looked a bit like a dog's leg.
"My name is Liu Shier. You can just call me Old Liu."
Hearing the old man's introduction, Lin Sandie turned to look at him. "I met a lady named Kang Yi before coming here. do you know her?"
As she asked, Lin Sandie didn't go to take the dagger. Instead, she slowly walked over to sit beside Liu Shier. She noticed a black leather suitcase at his feet.
"Yeah, she's our boss. You seem very calm. The boss probably has a good impression of you; she hates people who make a fuss."
"Being uncalm wouldn't help," Lin Sandie said, turning her head to look at the display screen hanging above the entrance. It now displayed her photo and data, along with a man's photo and data, and a countdown:
14:36
14:35
14:34
...
This was the countdown to Lin Sandie's match. Even without a watch or phone to see the specific time, seeing this countdown, Lin Sandie basically guessed what it meant.
The man in the photo on the screen looked to be in his thirties, with a face full of whiskers and a fierce appearance.
Qian Kun, Weight 65kg, Height 172cm, Age 34. Right, Odds 1:2.
Lin Sandie, Weight 46kg, Height 168cm, Age 25. Left, Odds 1:100.
Her odds being so high also represented how little she was favored to win...
"Want one?" Seeing Lin Sandie looking at the screen with a heavy heart, Liu Shier fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He popped the paper lid open with his thumb toward Lin Sandie, offering comfort through action.
This was also something Yan Ting had forbidden her from touching.
Lin Sandie looked down at the pack of cigarettes, thought of Yan Ting again, and reached out to take one.
Liu Shier immediately lit it for her.
"Cough, cough, cough..." Lin Sandie took a fierce drag, but was quickly choked into a violent fit of coughing.
"Why smoke if you don't know how?" Liu Shier threw his remaining cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his foot, and smilingly lit another one for himself.
"I want to relax my nerves." Lin Sandie's cheeks and eyes were red from the choking smoke, but she brought the cigarette to her lips again and took a heavy drag.
"Relaxing is easy. I'm the one responsible for injecting you with stimulants later. Do you want the injection before the first half starts, or during the second half?"
"Do I pick a dagger myself after the injection?" Lin Sandie gestured with her chin toward the glass cabinet of daggers facing them.
"That's right. Whichever dagger you fancy, press the surface of the glass cabinet and it will open. But you can only choose one."
Lin Sandie moved her gaze back to the small glass cabinets embedded in the wall, hesitating whether to follow the stranger's advice and choose the dagger numbered 007.
"Once you've picked your dagger and the time is about right, you go out through that door," Liu Shier said, pointing to another closed door in the room.
"Let me take a look." Imitating Liu Shier, Lin Sandie threw the half-smoked cigarette to the ground and crushed it out, then stood up to look at the daggers.
"Hurry up and decide. I still need to inject you with the stimulant." Liu Shier familiarly picked up the black leather suitcase by his feet.
Generally speaking, the effects of stimulants included enhancing muscle strength, improving endurance, reducing pain, and soothing the mind and body. It would improve the user's abilities in all aspects for a short time, which was why news of athletes illegally using performance-enhancing drugs was so common.
"I won't take the injection for now." Lin Sandie shook her head, continuing to look at the daggers.
In fact, no matter which one she chose, none were handy weapons for her. She had never used such things, let alone held a dagger to slaughter an alienated monster.
So choosing dagger number 7 wouldn't be the worst option.
Lin Sandie pressed the glass cabinet for number 7 and took out the dagger that resembled a dog's leg.
"Oh my, a Kukri. You really know how to pick, don't you?" Seeing Lin Sandie choose this knife, Liu Shier raised his eyebrows again. "Have you played with knives before?"
"No." Lin Sandie looked at the silvery-bright blade. This type of knife had a wide belly and a forward-curving blade. There was a V-shaped notch at the junction of the blade and the handle, used in combat to direct the flow of blood and prevent it from contaminating the hilt. At first glance, it looked somewhat comical, as if one were holding a dog's leg.
Holding the knife, Lin Sandie sat back down beside Liu Shier, waiting for the "performance" to begin.
"Let me remind you first, don't think about killing this old man and escaping. I can take ten of someone like you. Plus, there are people guarding outside." Seeing Lin Sandie holding the unsheathed Kukri as she approached, Liu Shier warned.
"I understand, Mr. Liu." Lin Sandie nodded.
Seeing Lin Sandie so calm, as if she had accepted her fate, Liu Shier couldn't quite figure out what this woman was thinking. He simply started chattering about idle matters. "Before, there were a few blind fools who thought they could kill me, Liu Shier, and run out. Hmph, they didn't bother to check what kind of people we are."
"What kind of people?" Lin Sandie asked curiously.
"We have all participated in ten such performances and survived them all."
"Ms. Kang as well?"
"Of course. Boss Kang has participated in at least fifty matches."
Lin Sandie was somewhat surprised. She hadn't expected that elegant beauty to be such a formidable person.
"Alright, enough talk. Are you really not going to inject the stimulant first? With that physique of yours, if you don't use the stimulant to get excited, you might not live to see the second half."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because everyone grew up under civilization and order, and we must abide by the strict Leviathan Civil Code. Unless they go mad, it is very difficult for ordinary people to muster the courage to hack at another human being. Even when it's do-or-die, this old man has seen many people unable to bring themselves to attack others. That is when the stimulant becomes especially important."
"Wouldn't it be fine if I just didn't treat the other party as human?"
"That's not easy." Liu Shier looked at Lin Sandie with some surprise.
"I'll use my own excitement method first." Lin Sandie continued to refuse the injection.
Liu Shier stared blankly for a good while before saying, "You really aren't afraid of death. What excitement method?"
Lin Sandie did not answer. She simply raised her hand, took the gold-rimmed glasses off the bridge of her nose, and placed them into the pocket of her trench coat.
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