Monster - Chapter 69
Chapter 69: Disorder Land
This was an office decorated with a modern industrial feel. The floor was bare concrete, and the large desk in the center was welded together from iron pipes and pegboard. Behind the desk was a high-backed, brown leather sofa, and behind that hung a map with a green background and white lines. Written above the map were the words "Disorder Land."
The territory of Disorder Land was extremely vast, its terrain highly diverse. According to the map, it contained large primeval forests as well as plains and high mountains.
Various decorative deer heads hung on the office walls, each painted a scarlet red, as if the color could trap their souls.
Zhang Jun sat behind the desk, his hair neatly combed back, gleaming under the incandescent light. His gray-blue, custom-tailored suit jacket hung on a nearby headless mannequin that consisted of only an upper torso. He himself wore just a white shirt and a matching gray-blue vest, his head lowered as he signed some documents.
"The surgery for Lin Sandie has been arranged," Kang Yi said as soon as she walked in.
Zhang Jun glanced up at her before lowering his head to continue signing. "Lin Sandie might not be that important in that Outsider's eyes."
"It's better than nothing. The most important thing now is to get back the items left by Xu Yao and Yan Ting as quickly as possible."
Zhang Jun grunted in acknowledgment and handed a stack of papers to Kang Yi. "Distribute these."
Kang Yi took the papers and saw that the top sheet was titled "Hunting List."
Flipping to the first page, she saw a photo of Lou printed on the top sheet. Lou was no longer imitating Lin Sandie by wearing gold-rimmed glasses. She smiled openly at the camera, revealing two small canine teeth, her eyes slightly narrowed. She looked like a carefree youth, but her obsidian-black eyes were chilling enough to make one's heart grow cold, even when viewed through a photograph.
Whoever observed Lou was, at the same time, being observed by her.
Kang Yi tore her gaze away from Lou's face and looked at the text below the photo: Lou, S-rank hunting target, 60,000 points bounty.
"Distribute these to all members, including probationary ones. According to the old rules, probationary members must kill any three targets on the hunting list, or one A-rank or higher target."
"I understand." Kang Yi looked down at Lou's smiling face again, the corners of her own mouth lifting into a smirk.
At the same time, in a stretch of wilderness, Lou sat on a low rock. She wore practical trousers and black combat boots, with a simple white T-shirt and a denim jacket on top. One hand propped up her cheek while the other held a palm-sized rabbit doll. She was looking down at the rabbit in silence.
A campfire blazed before her, its light flickering across her beautiful and delicate face. The night wind swirled around her. She possessed a chaotic, dangerous nonchalance that intimidated the monsters lurking in the shadows, yet the look in her eyes as she gazed at the rabbit doll was as clear and pure as that of a deity exiled to the wasteland—silent, and lonely.
After staring for an unknown length of time, Lou put the rabbit doll away in her Space Bag, raised a hand, and whispered a command, "Display."
A dark gold circuit pattern on Lou's wrist projected a dark green screen of light, and a ghastly green glow reflected in the depths of her dark eyes.
"This place is just as chaotic as the Lord God said. To think it could simulate the Main World's mission and points system to this degree." The crow Miu, perched on Lou's shoulder, sighed in slight relief upon seeing the dark green screen and began to speak with the Lou who had emerged from her possessed state.
The Main World it spoke of was a world composed of humans and non-humans. The human world was a normal society where people lived their own lives. The non-human world, however, was dominated by gods and composed of various creatures who formed a society different from that of humans. They were generally divided into two main categories: Sentinels and Guides. Sentinels and Guides were often born in unstable Tower Worlds. After being chosen by a god or a divine official, they would be taken from their initial Tower World to the Main World. From there, they would travel to various Tower Worlds to carry out missions and maintain their balance. In the process, the points they acquired could bring them wealth, skills, longevity, and more. Once they accumulated a certain amount, they could become divine officials, and eventually, successors to a fading god.
To put it simply, for creatures in the Sentinel and Guide community, earning points was the path to godhood.
Yet this world, Leviathan, had somehow managed to simulate such a system and its rules. Everyone who entered the Disorder Land grew a dark gold, circuit-like pattern on their wrist, which could also display a screen of light, just like the one Lou possessed. The difference was that the screen produced in Leviathan's Disorder Land was dark green, while the Main World's panel was a deep blue.
"There's still a difference. You don't have the new pattern on your wings. This place only recognizes humans, not non-human creatures," Lou said.
"A cheap knockoff," Miu said dismissively. "The list of wondrous items here isn't as extensive as our original version, and their functions only apply within Leviathan."
"Previously, when we defined Remnants, the answer we got was that they are items left behind after a monster's death, carrying a strong imprint of the monster itself and possessing a certain vitality. They will try to find their way back to the person or thing they were most attached to in life. For example, the phone I'm holding, left behind by Yan Ting, is trying everything it can to get back to Lin Sandie."
"That means even if you obtain one of Leviathan's wondrous items, it will try to escape."
Lou began her analysis. Ever since Pie had told her to focus on the mission in Leviathan, she had become much more dedicated than before.
"Do these escaping items automatically go to a specific place and become available for exchange with points?" Miu asked, looking at the list of wondrous items displayed on the screen.
"That's not the right way to think about it, Little Crow. Why are you being such a nerd? If you obtained something that was always trying to escape, and it happened to be something you couldn't use, what would you do?"
"Sell it," Miu realized. "So their list of wondrous items is equivalent to merchandise in a shop. You can trade items for points, or use points to acquire items from the list. Oh, and you can also use points to get money."
"And because the more powerful a wondrous item is, the more unruly it becomes, and the stronger its ability to escape. The shop system we're looking at right now might not have the best items, but its administrator must have some way to gather and subdue them," Lou added. She then suddenly turned her head and grinned at Miu, a laugh that made the crow's feathers stand on end.
"Wh-what is it?"
"Little Crow, what if I put you up for sale? You count as a wondrous item. We could use it to see how this Leviathan shop operates."
"Screw you!" Miu shot into the air, its harsh caw echoing for miles across the wasteland in an instant. It shouldn't have worried about Lou. Even when she was possessed, even with her tragic past, she was still just as infuriating.
"But the wondrous items I have from the Main World's system are still unusable. I wonder if there's some kind of restriction here..." Lou opened the blue screen belonging to the Main World. All the items in her collection were still grayed out, impossible to retrieve or use. "I'll have to find a way to get more of Leviathan's wondrous items."
"By the way, Little Crow, do you remember that monster we saw get hacked to death back in Monkey Town?"
"Of course. After the monsters from the other faction killed it, they took its corpse with them," Miu answered cautiously, now perched on another nearby rock.
"We just said that wondrous items can be bought from the shop, or they can be...?"
"Dropped from killing monsters... but a monster's Remnant will try to escape. So, maybe some people raise monsters, fattening them up before the slaughter." As Miu spoke, it hesitated. It must have imagined something horrific, because it suddenly felt the urge to retch.
If that was the case, wouldn't it be just like raising pigs? Worse, it would be like killing the pig only after it had developed feelings for you, so that its Remnant would willingly stay by the side of its killer.
"So this place is likely far more complicated than simple survival of the fittest. I wonder if Lin Sandie will be able to get used to it when she arrives?"
Having just undergone surgery, Lin Sandie was curled up on the bed in her room, covered only by a gray blanket that left her entire gaunt back exposed.
Her hair, once neatly tied in a bun, now hung limply on either side of her neck. A thin sheen of sweat covered her slender, swan-like neck. Further down, her two shoulder blades, delicate as bone china, rose and fell faintly, seeming to hover on the verge of shattering with each breath. Between them, a silver alloy scorpion lay prone atop her spine, devouring her emotions.
Tears streamed from her eyes. Lin Sandie drew her legs up, buried her face in her knees, and her entire body trembled with pain.
The scorpion on her back was clamped to her spinal canal through a thin layer of skin, its countless dense tendrils delving deep into the spinal cord within. This caused the skin on either side of her spine to thin, revealing a network of capillaries like the veins of a leaf. They looked as if they might split open and bleed at any moment, a stark contrast against her unnaturally pale skin, like vermilion ink on white snow.
Low whimpers echoed throughout the room. More tragic to Lin Sandie than the physical torment was the realization that her hatred and hostility toward Kang Yi and her people were fading at an unbelievable speed. She no longer wanted revenge, nor did she desire to kill. She felt herself becoming hollow. Her weeping, once born of sorrow, was now a simple reaction to pain. The very things that had shaped her into the person she was were rapidly vanishing.
Lin Sandie knew she had long since lost her knack for expressing her feelings, but she didn't want to lose them entirely. She wanted to hate, to love, to shine brightly like Lou because of something that made her unique. She wanted to live in a magnificent palace, not turn into a cold-blooded, emotionless insect dwelling in a basement.
Lin Sandie, you have a reason you absolutely cannot die.
Lin Sandie repeated the words to herself, struggling. But her gaze only grew colder, the thing within her called humanity gradually fading away. Her indignation, her resentment, her hopes... all these emotions were becoming nourishment for the silver scorpion. Entrenched on her back, it rose and fell faintly with her weak breaths.
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