Monster - Chapter 93
Chapter 93: A Little Intel
Tower World Leviathan, Disorder Land.
The black suit jacket covering Lin Sandie's head slipped down onto her shoulders, revealing her slightly pale face.
She was still sleeping soundly. Lou would glance at her sleeping face from time to time. The latter's brows were furrowed, as if she were dreaming of something that made her angry. It was an expression rarely seen on the usually restrained Lin Sandie, and Lou found it quite novel.
Lou looked identical to Lin Sandie, but she had never seen her own sleeping face, so naturally, she was curious about Lin Sandie's. Lou didn't always pay attention to beautiful things; what drew her to Lin Sandie was never her beauty, but the fact that she looked just like her.
However, after spending so much time together, not just Lin Sandie, but Lou herself would often forget they looked the same. When she looked at Lin Sandie, she would subconsciously notice the latter's slightly dry skin, the bloodshot eyes from lack of sleep, the faint dark circles, and the small mole below the left corner of her mouth that lifted when she smiled...
These physical traits, which made Lou feel a sense of warmth, were the reason she couldn't help but look at Lin Sandie.
Right now, for instance, Lin Sandie's lips were a bit dry and chapped, their original color faded. The spot where she had bitten her lip was even more noticeable, the cracked skin darker in color.
Lou stared at Lin Sandie's lips for a moment before turning her head back to focus on driving.
"There's a motel 50 kilometers ahead, but it looks full. Some of them are probably waiting to ambush you." Miu the crow, who had been out scouting, flew back and landed on the roof of the car, communicating with Lou on the "team channel."
"I'm not really in the mood for fighting and killing today. Let's spend the night in the wild." Thinking of the constantly weary Lin Sandie and her sleeping face, Lou made a typically willful remark of hers.
"Then take the fork in the road 5 kilometers ahead. There's a large patch of cacti over there. We can camp and rest there for the night."
"Okay."
"It's almost 3 o'clock. Lin Sandie still isn't awake?" Miu the crow hopped in through the car window and perched on Lin Sandie's shoulder. The latter was still sleeping soundly.
Lou shrugged noncommittally, not planning to wake Lin Sandie up.
"I think she might need to see a doctor. Maybe she has some weird kind of narcolepsy." Miu tilted its bird head to stare at the nearby Lin Sandie, first checking to see if she had any signs of illness.
"Lin Sandie is perfectly healthy, just a little tired," Lou said with a smile, perhaps finding the idea of someone as serious as Lin Sandie having narcolepsy to be quite cute.
"I'll give her some reflex training later. Have you Guides ever done that? No matter if you're sleeping or doing something else, as long as you're not unconscious, if a knife is thrown at you, you have to catch it immediately." Lou chatted idly with Miu. This was a skill all Sentinels had to train.
"A knife could kill her, you know?" Miu retorted. "Usually, you'd use small pebbles for reflex training."
"Oh~ Pebbles work too. I'll tell Lin Sandie when she wakes up."
"Starting with that kind of training is too much for her. Don't expect a Guide to have the constitution of a Sentinel," Miu said, exasperated. "It's a shame we can't use a lot of our standard training regimens here. Otherwise, I really think we could do some mental strength training for Lin Sandie."
"It doesn't matter if she doesn't do mental strength training. Lin Sandie is already very strong in that area."
"It's strange, though. You're the same person from different worlds, but your attributes are opposites."
Lou fell silent, no longer discussing Lin Sandie with Miu, lost in her own thoughts.
After a while, she glanced in the rearview mirror at the boy, Carlo, sitting timidly in the back seat. "How many people are in your family?" she asked.
"Eight. I have four younger brothers and sisters, my dad, my mom, and my grandma. But my grandma became an employee at Thriller Paradise this April. My dad runs a breakfast stall outside the park," Carlo answered meticulously and very seriously. "Once we earn enough for the travel fare, we'll set off for Star City."
'Employee' probably means she became a zombie...
The same thought occurred to both Lou and Miu. They figured Carlo's parents must have sugarcoated it when they told him, so they didn't press further.
"Why go to Star City?"
"Dad says there are lots of job opportunities there, and they don't discriminate against people like us."
"Oh~ I've heard Star City can accommodate all sorts. It's the most liberal city in Leviathan," Miu chimed in, recalling some information it had heard before.
"How did you go bankrupt?"
"Because we couldn't ship the grain we grew. We used to sell it to the cities outside the Disorder Land, but in recent years, the roads out have been guarded by some people. You have to pay a lot of money to get through. But we couldn't raise the price of the grain, so we couldn't keep farming."
Lou nodded. She guessed that after people started turning into monsters, the already chaotic turf wars in the Disorder Land had intensified, leading to major roads being carved up by various factions. This was a painful and unavoidable reality for civilians. For a small farmer to ship his grain out and get a good price, he would probably have to pull some strings.
Carlo's father had clearly been pushed out in that game.
"Are there many people like you?" Lou continued, doing some necessary homework before heading to Thriller Paradise.
"A lot," Carlo replied, his still-childish face showing an adult-like helplessness. "Lots and lots. We were all forced to leave our homes and head for Star City. We can only try to find odd jobs along the way, but too many people need work and food, so we often can't get any. We only stopped when we got to Thriller Paradise."
"How long have you been staying near Thriller Paradise?"
"Almost three months. We rented a small room in Sally Village near the park. There are so many bankrupt farmers like us there, all trying to earn enough for the fare to Star City."
"What's Thriller Paradise like? Have you been inside?"
"I've never been in. You need points or money to enter," Carlo said, licking his dry lips. "But I've heard it's like ruins inside, with lots of zombies wandering around. You can get points for killing them."
"Do the zombies get harder to kill based on their age and abilities?"
"What's that? Uh... right, I think I heard something like that before. Younger zombies are worth more. What does that mean?"
"It's nothing." Guessing that Carlo still didn't know his grandmother had become a zombie, Lou didn't elaborate. She changed the subject. "Have you ever seen Enzo, the owner of Thriller Paradise?"
"No, but I've seen his dog. Ma'am, are you planning to go to Thriller Paradise to have some fun?" Carlo seemed to have just realized this and asked a question of his own.
"Something like that. Enzo's dog? A big Doberman?" Lou recalled the information the red-haired girl, Yi Li, had given her back in Silver Stone City.
"Yes, that dog is super impressive! When it stands up, it reaches my shoulder. Its short fur is so shiny. I heard it eats meat every day. I wish I had a dog like that." Carlo seemed to love dogs. His expression warmed up as he talked about the Doberman.
But Lou wasn't interested in that. She pressed on, "Besides being impressive, is there anything special about this dog? Anything different from other dogs?"
"It... it can understand human speech!" Carlo stated a feature that left Lou speechless.
"A lot of dogs can understand human speech. Is there anything else special? Like, can it breathe fire from its mouth?"
Carlo giggled, imagining a fire-breathing dog and thinking it would be even more impressive. Seeing that Lou was waiting for his answer, he quickly stifled his giggle. "It can't breathe fire. Its name is Gale. But its teeth and claws are really sharp, and it runs super, super fast."
"These people have never fought Enzo. The information they have is too limited," Miu complained on the "team channel." "Maybe you can ask him if he knows anyone who's trying to take Enzo down."
"Do you know anyone who wants to go after Enzo?"
Carlo was silent for a moment, then said in a small voice, "I once overheard some people talking. They seemed to want to go after Enzo. They were planning to enter Thriller Paradise and cause trouble for him at the main control station inside."
"Do you know their names?"
"No, but one of them had a tattoo on his wrist that looked like two crescent moons. Is that information useful to you?"
"Yes. They're from Bite Mark." Lou nodded. "There's bread and water on the rear deck. You can have something to eat."
Carlo's eyes lit up. He had been starving and thirsty for a while but had been too shy to ask Lou, who had kindly taken him in.
Taking the bread and water from the rear deck, he started talking happily to Lou while he ate. "Ma'am, your accent sounds like you're from the south of Leviathan. My grandma is from the south, too."
"Did your family move to the Disorder Land during your grandparents' generation?"
"Yeah. My grandma told me that when they were young, farmers could make a good living in the Disorder Land. Even though it was chaotic, people generally didn't mess with farmers, and they were treated much better than they are now."
"When we get to Sally Village, if you see anyone with a crescent moon tattoo on their wrist again, contact me." Once they reached Sally Village, Miu's scouting abilities would likely be focused on Thriller Paradise, so it would be better to have someone keeping an eye out for routine intelligence.
"Ma'am, how do I contact you?" Carlo asked politely, his big, innocent blue eyes wide as he took a large bite of bread.
Lou glanced at him. She figured this poor boy probably didn't have a phone and couldn't even afford to use a public one. It would indeed be difficult for him to contact her if they separated.
"When we get to Sally Village, I'll tell you where I'm staying. If you see them, just come and let me know. I'll reward you."
Carlo nodded eagerly, swallowing the bread with difficulty and taking a large gulp of mineral water.
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