Monster - Chapter 105
Chapter 105: Thriller Paradise - Cheng Gui
Cheng Gui sat in the back seat with Lou. He looked incredibly melancholic, as if he had weathered many storms. As soon as Lin Sandie started the car, he pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket, shook one out, and stuck it between his lips. Then he held it out, offering one to Lou, who had been staring at him the whole time.
Lou, whose eyes had been in a constant state of scanning since they entered Disorder Land, glanced at the pack. They were just ordinary filtered cigarettes. She reached out and took one, her large, slightly downturned eyes never leaving Cheng Gui. He pulled the pack back, took out a lighter, lit his own cigarette, and then offered the flame to Lou.
Neither of them spoke during the exchange. Lou sized up Cheng Gui unabashedly, watching his every move. Her gaze made it perfectly clear: I'm watching you.
Cheng Gui took a drag from his cigarette. Unlike other smokers, he didn't exhale rings of smoke; instead, he inhaled it all into his lungs, swallowing it down.
"Leviathan's laws were tainted by the Tree long ago," Lou said. "Things like revoking a Citizen ID being a capital offense, and all those brooches that let you create laws within a certain range and command citizens to obey. You claim to be the law of Leviathan. Aren't you ashamed?" Instead of questioning Cheng Gui's identity, Lou simply treated him as the law and ridiculed him.
Laws can be enforced because they are backed by the machinery of a state—a system of courts, prosecutors, police, prisons, and an army. But Leviathan wasn't like that. There was no concept of a nation, no army. While prisons existed, they were only for minor offenses. Serious criminals were exiled to Disorder Land. Even the death penalty was carried out by exiling someone to Disorder Land.
Although places like courts and the Inspectorate existed, their deterrent effect was limited. The reason people obeyed the harsh laws was due more to some kind of mysterious force. Of course, based on Lou and Miu's observations, not everyone feared this mysterious force, or there wouldn't be any crime.
Miu speculated that it was related to a person's mental strength. Those with stronger mental fortitude had better resistance, making it easier for them to commit wrongdoing. And it just so happened that those who turned into monsters had much higher mental strength than ordinary people.
However, there were also people like Lin Sandie who hadn't turned into monsters despite possessing high mental strength. This was related to their individual circumstances.
"The Tree can distort Leviathan's rules," Cheng Gui said, swallowing a mouthful of smoke as if reluctant to speak on the matter. "And in Leviathan, He is omniscient. He's had his eye on you for a long time."
"The intel I have says the Tree can't kill enemies directly. He can only modify the rules gradually and make changes subtly. He's a very strange Sentinel."
Pot calling the kettle black.
Lin Sandie thought silently as she drove. She rolled down the window. Although there were two heavy smokers in the car now, Cheng Gui didn't exhale smoke, instead swallowing it directly. So most of the secondhand smoke she was inhaling came from Lou, who was puffing out smoke rings with abandon.
"Killing directly isn't the Tree's style. He likes to toy with his prey before torturing them to death."
"Oh? And you're being tortured right now?"
"More or less."
"Tell me about it. Consider it your fare for the ride."
Cheng Gui glanced at Lou, took a drag from his cigarette, and swallowed the smoke before speaking. "You have a 'Trojan Horse' inside you, too. So does the lady driving. Hers is a bit more serious than yours."
Lou watched Cheng Gui, waiting for him to continue. His melancholic face was reflected in her obsidian-black pupils.
"It's not just people. Everything in Leviathan has been infected with the 'Trojan Horse,' including the rules, the laws, people's hearts..."
Hearing this, goosebumps rose on Lin Sandie's arms as she drove, but her emotions remained steady. The car continued to move forward smoothly.
"'Trojan Horse' is one of the Tree's abilities. He can use it to lie dormant in everything. That's why all of Leviathan's people consciously obey his laws. If he wishes, he can use the 'Trojan Horse' to dismantle a target's defenses from the inside out, step by step, until he gains complete control and replaces them."
Lou pondered this for a moment, her expression unchanged. This was, after all, what she and Miu the crow had been investigating all along.
"Have you been replaced?"
"I'm special. It's related to my nature. As long as there are people, the law can never completely disappear. However, the 'Tree' has grafted me onto a physical body, severely restricting my range of activity. I can no longer fight against him."
"Is that so?" Lou tossed her cigarette butt, pulled out her pistol, and shoved it in Cheng Gui's face. But the moment the gun touched his face, it immediately disintegrated into pieces.
"The law is sacred and inviolable, don't you know?" Although Cheng Gui had been weakened by the Tree, he still retained some of the inherent properties of the law.
"I didn't violate it. Can't I even offend it a little?" Lou argued illogically. She dropped the remaining gun grip from her hand and took out the Legislator brooch Lin Sandie had lent her.
Before Cheng Gui could react, Lou gripped the brooch and declared, "I hereby decree in my name that no living being with male physical characteristics is allowed within five meters of me."
Lou's "law," of course, had no effect. Cheng Gui remained seated beside her. He glanced at her, then calmly lit a second cigarette.
"When two laws conflict, the one with the higher rank takes precedence. Didn't you know?" Clearly, Cheng Gui, as the law itself, ranked higher than the Legislator brooch in Lou's hand.
"I don't know anything about law," Lou huffed, putting the brooch away.
"You don't have to be so guarded around me. Your enemy is the Tree, and my enemy is the Tree."
"How do I know you haven't been corrupted?"
"Whether I've been corrupted or not doesn't really affect your actions. I just want to pass on the information I have about the Tree to give you a better chance of winning when you face him."
"So you're one of the good guys."
"As for my reward, whether you expel the Tree or kill him, as long as you can severely wound him, that will be reward enough for me."
Lou's mind raced. She decided not to question Cheng Gui's true reasons for being there and instead asked, "How do you determine the level of infection from the Trojan Horse? Why could you tell at a glance that Lin Sandie's infection is worse than mine?"
"If I had to say, there's no standard ruler to measure the infection level. I just looked at her eyes..." Hearing them talk about her, Lin Sandie, who was driving, glanced at the rearview mirror, her eyes meeting Cheng Gui's. "Her eyes are very cold, but her nature isn't evil. At least, she's never broken the law. I know that thing called the 'Scorpion' is popular in Disorder Land right now. It's connected to the Tree. I suspect it accelerates the Trojan Horse's infection in people."
Lin Sandie looked away. She thought about feigning shock but decided it was unnecessary. The truth was, she felt nothing about what Cheng Gui had said. She just mentally reviewed what she needed to do next.
Lou, however, glared at Cheng Gui, thinking, How are Lin Sandie's eyes cold? She was just crying in front of me a little while ago...
Seeing Lou's disbelieving expression, Cheng Gui continued, "You need to constantly watch yourselves for any abnormal behavior. The 'Trojan Horse' makes people do things that go against their original will, and it makes you believe that it's what you truly wanted to do."
"Then how can we prevent the Trojan Horse's invasion?"
"Mental strength. I once spoke with a Guide from your world. People with strong mental fortitude are not easily invaded by the Trojan Horse."
Lin Sandie's mental strength isn't weak, but her Trojan Horse infection is deeper than mine because of the 'Scorpion'? The thought flashed through Lou's mind.
The two continued to exchange a great deal of information about the Tree. Over an hour later, Lin Sandie, who had been driving in silence, announced, "Dream Castle is just ahead."
Looking out the window, they saw an old, imposing castle ahead. It stood starkly on the slope of a low mountain, surrounded only by black gravel. It was now afternoon, and the sky was dark, threatening rain. This shrouded the castle in a gloomy atmosphere, as if a storm was brewing. Unlike the bright sunshine of the ghost town, this place also completely failed to live up to its name.
Cheng Gui kept his word. Just as he'd said, he got out of the car as soon as they arrived, said his goodbyes, and left. Lou, however, remained slumped in the back seat, still smoking, not moving an inch.
The negative side effects of Lilo's Poetry Collection were an urge to smoke with frequent use, and the requirement to stay in a comfortable indoor space after using a poem's buff. Failure to do so would result in 24 hours of continuous heart palpitations, restlessness, and difficulty breathing.
"Is it that bad?" Lin Sandie asked, looking back at Lou after parking the car in a spot concealed by a pile of rocks. She had given Lou a poem from Lilo's Poetry Collection earlier. The positive effect had worn off, but the negative side effects were now making themselves known.
"I just don't want to move..."
"It looks like it's going to rain, and this isn't a good place to camp." Not wanting to keep inhaling secondhand smoke, Lin Sandie got out of the car and took a deep breath.
She gazed back the way they had come. There was no shelter from the wind and rain anywhere nearby. For miles around, there was only the gloomy castle on the mountainside ahead and their car.
After standing outside for a while as the sky grew darker, Lin Sandie took off her suit jacket. She took the tent meant for camping from the trunk and spread it over the car's roof to cover the broken sunroof. To keep the wind and rain from blowing it away, she secured the ropes tightly to the car's body.
From a distance, the car, covered by the grayish-brown tent fabric, blended into the wilderness. Lin Sandie wiped the sweat from her forehead and let the wind blow on her for a while longer before climbing back into the car.
The car was thick with smoke; there was no telling how many cigarettes Lou had gone through.
"..." Lin Sandie snatched the cigarette from Lou's hand, opened the window, and threw it out.
"So annoying~" Lou whined, wanting to wrap her arms around Lin Sandie's waist and act cute. But then she suddenly saw that the back of Lin Sandie's white shirt was covered in mottled bloodstains. They ran from her cervical spine all the way down to her waist, like a crimson snake slithering down her back—a shocking sight.
Comments
Post a Comment