Monster - Chapter 68
Chapter 68: 'Scorpion'
It was past 3 AM when Lin Sandie arrived in Disorder Land. She wore a black trench coat, her long pink hair tied into a bun. As she stepped out of a small white minivan with her suitcase, the sight of the strange building looming in the darkness gave her the illusion of being exiled to another planet.
The building's exterior was coated in a flamboyant scarlet paint. From the outside, there were no windows, only white light seeping through cracks in the walls. This made the structure look like a red box about to crack open, its pearlescent treasures already showing through.
Lin Sandie used this light to survey the building. In truth, the night was starless and moonless, with no other light in the vicinity, only gusts of night wind carrying the scent of damp earth. After the minivan drove away, Lin Sandie looked around and saw nothing but wild grass as far as the eye could see. The wind swept past, and everything before her was silent yet teeming, as if all the things hidden in the darkness were watching her with gleaming eyes.
She pushed her glasses up, suppressed the unease in her heart, and maintained a calm expression as she strode toward the scarlet building. The structure's red main door was four or five meters high and covered in dark gold circuits. The intricate circuits were raised, as if embellished with gold glaze, making the door resemble a solemn and magnificent piece of porcelain. Next to this "porcelain" was an inconspicuous sign that read: Rose Society.
As she neared the tightly shut door, Lin Sandie felt something scan over her. Then, the magnificent red door opened automatically. Inside, she saw a small compartment. At the far end was a thick desk, and behind it sat a short-haired woman. The woman looked to be in her twenties or thirties, with a white buzz cut and numerous silver piercings on her ears, nose, and lips. She wore a black tank top, and her exposed arms were covered in colorful tattoos.
The woman was looking down at her phone, ignoring Lin Sandie. It was Kang Yi, sitting on a bench to the side of the compartment, who greeted her first.
"Nice hair." Kang Yi's voice was as sweet as candy. She smiled as she complimented Lin Sandie's new hairstyle. The latter had cut her hair short and dyed it pink, making her seem quite different from the demure Lin Sandie of the past. But her essence hadn't changed. In Kang Yi's eyes, Lin Sandie was even more restrained and cautious than before, and this restraint was no longer born of fear, but because she was assessing and observing.
"Good evening, Ms. Kang." Lin Sandie looked at Kang Yi. Her makeup was exquisite, and she was dressed in a black-and-white pinstripe suit. The cropped trousers revealed her ankles, and she wore a pair of red high heels, looking like the toughest negotiator in any workplace.
"Register first." Kang Yi didn't move, merely gesturing toward the trendily dressed woman. Hearing this, the woman finally lifted her head lazily from her phone. Her eyes, with more whites than pupils, looked at Lin Sandie. She pulled a piece of paper from under the desk and pushed it across the surface, still not saying a word.
"Alright." Lin Sandie compliantly put down her luggage and walked over, her mind on what Lou had told her on the phone during the day. Registering to enter Disorder Land required you to list your abilities.
Walking up to the desk, Lin Sandie picked up the pen on it, then looked up at the short-haired woman who was staring at her.
The woman rested her chin on her hand, suddenly seeming to take an interest in Lin Sandie. "Want a tattoo? I can give you a discount."
"No, thank you," Lin Sandie replied politely and lowered her head to look at the registration form.
I wonder if Lou has any tattoos? The thought drifted through Lin Sandie's mind before she refocused and carefully examined the form in her hands.
It followed a conventional format, asking for her name, age, height, weight, and so on. What was unusual was the section asking what items she was carrying, requiring a detailed, line-by-line list.
"Check your items carefully before filling that part out. You can take your time," the short-haired woman said.
"Okay," Lin Sandie replied, but she began filling it out without hesitation, listing the clothes in her suitcase. Her meticulousness was not for show; she remembered clearly how many pairs of socks she had brought on this trip and what color each was.
Of course, she knew the Rose Society wasn't really interested in her socks and clothes. They wanted to check if she was carrying any supernatural items, and Lin Sandie's only two supernatural items were already with Lou.
My relationship with Lou is really inexplicable. Lin Sandie thought of Lou again.
After listing her personal belongings, she moved on to the section for special skills. This stumped Lin Sandie, as she felt she didn't have any. She couldn't very well write "proficient with Excel spreadsheets," could she?
After a moment's hesitation, Lin Sandie wrote "None" in the special skills section.
Once she finally finished the form, Lin Sandie handed it to the short-haired woman. The moment the woman's fingers touched the paper, she said, "You're good."
"Let's go, then. There's a surgery to be done." Kang Yi, who had been waiting quietly, stood up.
Lin Sandie's brow furrowed slightly at the word "surgery."
"Regretting coming here?" Kang Yi smiled at Lin Sandie. She pressed a spot somewhere in the compartment, and a section of the wall on the other side opened to reveal an elevator.
"I had to come here eventually. Whether I refused or ran, it was bound to happen. The only choice I had was the manner in which I came here." If Lin Sandie had refused, she wouldn't have been able to survive outside Disorder Land on her own. Not only would Yan Ting's family have come after her, but she might have had to participate in more of those life-or-death performances.
As for whether it was better to arrive in Disorder Land knowing nothing or as a member of the Rose Society, Lin Sandie couldn't say. Because while the Rose Society offered protection, it also meant she would have to pay a price.
There was, in fact, another option: relying on Lou. The latter had invited her, but Lin Sandie didn't want to always have Lou rescue her. She couldn't quite explain it—perhaps some useless self-esteem was acting up—but she truly wanted to handle things as best she could on her own.
"Very calm and rational." Kang Yi praised her again and stepped into the elevator first. "I like dealing with calm people. It makes conversation easier, without having to handle too many superfluous emotions."
Lin Sandie followed her in, waiting for Kang Yi to continue.
Kang Yi handed Lin Sandie a small red booklet. "This contains an introduction to the factions in Disorder Land and a brief on our Rose Society. The current president of the Rose Society is Zhang Jun. You should know who he is."
"I do." Lin Sandie took the booklet, feeling more and more like this was an induction ceremony.
"Lin Sandie, do you know the truth about this world?" Kang Yi asked, watching the numbers on the elevator display descend.
"Lou told me some things." To this day, Lin Sandie was still a "clean slate." The Rose Society knew neither that she possessed a Legislator Brooch nor that she had already learned about the mutated monsters through Glory Road. While this was partly due to Lin Sandie's own caution, Lou had also helped cover for her.
Back in Center City, Lou had said that if Lin Sandie went to Disorder Land, she could blame anything that was hard to explain on her. After all, she was an "Outsider," and someone with nothing to lose has no fear.
"She said people in Leviathan are turning into monsters, and only certain people can see them. But seeing is believing, and hearing is just hearsay. I don't have a real sense of it. I just feel that the people I've come into contact with in recent years do seem emotionally unstable."
"Oh?" Kang Yi turned to look at Lin Sandie, as if assessing the truth of her words.
"...Did my younger brother become a monster too?" Lin Sandie asked after a moment of silence.
"Yes. Spend some time here, and you'll naturally be able to see the difference between people and monsters," Kang Yi revealed a piece of information Lin Sandie didn't know. "Did Lou tell you why people turn into monsters?"
"She said it might be related to emotions, but she's still investigating the details."
"What do you think of Lou as a person?"
"When I'm with her, she's always leading the way. She's very capable. She's curious that I look just like her. She said meeting me was a low-probability event." Lin Sandie paused for a moment, speaking one hundred percent the truth.
"Is there anything unusual about her?"
"That crow that's always with her. It seems like it can spy on people." Although she knew Kang Yi was really asking if Lou had any supernatural items, Lin Sandie played dumb and stated a piece of information everyone knew. And she wasn't lying, just telling a partial truth, one that could withstand any verification from Kang Yi and the others.
Kang Yi nodded slightly.
Ding. The elevator stopped at the 9th basement level.
"Becoming a monster is indeed because of emotions. Human emotions are too abundant and uncontrollable. The surgery I mentioned is to install a device to suppress your emotions. In Disorder Land, it's easier for people to become monsters."
Lin Sandie remained silent, following behind Kang Yi with a heavy heart into a spacious operating room.
Right now, Lin Sandie was like a speck of dust in the mortal world, forced to go wherever the wind blew her. She had no control over anything. Even after escaping Yan Ting, her life was still off the rails. A fate beyond her control was bearing down on her from all sides, and Lin Sandie had nowhere to hide.
"May I know the details of this surgery?"
Kang Yi gestured to a middle-aged man in the operating room, who nodded.
"They'll take it from here. I won't be staying."
Lin Sandie silently watched Kang Yi's departing back, a faint guess forming in her mind.
She wasn't important to the Rose Society. The only reason Kang Yi had come to pick her up personally today was to probe for information about Lou.
"The device you're about to have installed is called the 'Scorpion,'" the middle-aged man in the white coat said after Kang Yi left. He waited for Lin Sandie to put down her luggage, then led her to an office in the back. After she sat down, he handed her a thick stack of documents.
On top was an X-ray. Lin Sandie saw it was a scan of a human back. Along the spine, starting from the cervical vertebrae, was a palm-sized, scorpion-shaped alloy device. To call it a device for suppressing emotions was an understatement; installing something of this scale in a human body was more like a modification.
Lin Sandie bit her lip, suppressing her inner fury. She composed herself and asked, "How does it suppress emotions?"
"After the 'Scorpion' is installed, your memory and intelligence won't be affected. But if you have intense emotional fluctuations, the 'Scorpion' will eat them. Your greed, anger, obsession, love, hate, and desire will be controlled at a minimal level."
"Does installing the 'Scorpion' lower the risk of becoming a monster?"
"Of course. This is a new device that just came out this year. We have tracking data. Everyone who wants to join the Rose Society must undergo this surgery."
"And if I want to have this device removed, will it harm my body?"
"It's still being researched," the middle-aged doctor answered very casually.
Lin Sandie's hands, resting on her knees, clenched tightly. She continued to ask with a deadpan expression:
"Is everyone else rushed like this? I mean, I was brought to the operating room immediately after arriving."
"That's how Sister Yi arranged it for you." The doctor shrugged.
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