Monster - Chapter 132

Chapter 132: Star City - Worry

After recovering, Lin Sandie quickly changed her clothes. It was just after four in the morning, but she wasn't willing to wait a moment longer. She wanted to see Lou immediately.

Arriving at the door to Lou's room, Lin Sandie knocked for a while, but no one answered. She used her "Island" to probe the room and found it empty, which filled her with a strong sense of unease.

Without pausing, she immediately returned to the front desk in the hotel lobby and learned that Lou had left about an hour ago. "That lady also booked a suite and checked a family in."

Checking in with Carlo's family, soaking wet in the middle of the night, had left a deep impression on the receptionist. She explained this to Lin Sandie.

"Could you please tell me which floor that family is on? I worry about my sister sometimes," Lin Sandie said with a smile. Her identical appearance to Lou was very convincing, and the receptionist believed every word she said, quickly telling her the family's room number.

"Thank you." Lin Sandie quickly made her way to the family's room. After confirming that it was indeed Carlo's family inside and that they were still awake, she rang the doorbell.

Carlo's father, who answered the door, was startled by Lin Sandie's face—so identical to Lou's—and stumbled backward, trembling.

"I'm Lin Sandie." Seeing the middle-aged man's terrified expression, Lin Sandie spoke in a soft, gentle voice. "What happened to Lou?"

Carlo, standing behind his father, also trembled uncontrollably the moment he saw Lin Sandie. It took him a while to realize that the woman before him was Lin Sandie, whose personality was different from Lou's.

"Sister Sandie, Lou, she…"

"Tell me everything that happened after you saw her." Entering the room, Lin Sandie first noticed three sofas with obvious water stains, then turned to see two bullet holes in the wall.

It was clear a gun had gone off here. Fortunately, Carlo and his father were unharmed.

Finding a dry sofa to sit on, Lin Sandie listened as Carlo and his father haltingly recounted the story of Lou's sudden and drastic change in temperament.

Lin Sandie's emotionless eyes swept over the father and son as she waited quietly for them to finish. Her beautiful face remained devoid of expression, but this unapproachable indifference, paradoxically, had a calming effect on them, as they had been terrified by Lou's earlier sudden rage.

"You can stay here for now. If Mrs. Mel is discharged from the hospital, she can also stay here," Lin Sandie said, glancing around the rather large hotel suite. "I will pay for all your daily expenses here."

Lin Sandie raised her hand, displaying her light screen, and motioned for Johnny to show his account number. She then transferred 500 points to him.

"I will also cover Mrs. Mel's delivery costs. There's 500,000 in this card, and the PIN is on the back. If it's not enough, call me. This is my number." After transferring the points, Lin Sandie took a bank card from her Space Bag and placed it on the table. Then, she picked up a pencil and paper provided by the hotel and wrote down her phone number.

"Wh-why…" Johnny was baffled by Lou's actions, and equally so by Lin Sandie's.

"I will investigate what happened. I don't know what will happen next, but staying in this hotel will be safer for you than where you were before." Lin Sandie looked at Johnny and made an offer he couldn't refuse. "Stay in this hotel for two months. When it's over, I'll give you another 500 points."

Right now, threats or emotional appeals would be a waste of her time and could have unpredictable consequences. So, Lin Sandie chose the most time-efficient method: making Carlo's family an offer they couldn't refuse to ensure they stayed put, which would facilitate her subsequent investigation.

"Why? We didn't do anything… That young lady, will she be okay?"

"I will investigate." Lin Sandie stood up and walked toward the door. She said nothing more. When she opened the door, a tall, burly man was standing outside.

"His name is Feng. He will take care of you from now on." Lin Sandie walked out, but ultimately decided a little intimidation would be safer. She turned slightly, her gaze fixed on Johnny's eyes. "Stay here. Don't overthink things. And don't do anything that might get you hurt."

Outside the hotel, only the streetlights glowed. Lin Sandie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. At this moment, she was somewhat grateful for the Scorpion on her back. If this device weren't devouring her emotions, she would be absolutely incapable of thinking calmly right now.

First, I can be certain that Zhao Anfu is definitely not Little Rabbit. Because I am.

At this thought, Lin Sandie's fist clenched tightly, then slowly relaxed.

As she reached the hotel entrance, a black SUV pulled up right in front of her. The driver was Mike—dark-skinned, with dreadlocks and sunglasses, built like a bear. In the passenger seat sat Wei, a tall, slender woman around forty with a gaunt, serious face. In the back seat was Lin Sandie's dog, Summer. Aside from Summer, everyone else was one of Lin Sandie's puppets, including Feng, who was now looking after Carlo's family.

Lin Sandie got into the back seat, put in her earbuds, and pressed the red phone in her hand before giving an order. "Tell me where Lou went after leaving the hotel."

The screen of the red phone flickered a few times, and the long-unheard voice of Yan Ting sounded in her ear. However, compared to the real Yan Ting, this voice was extremely lacking in emotion, more like an AI synthesis.

"After leaving the hotel, Lou first went to find the organizer of tonight's auction. She interrogated him and learned that some of the auction items were dug up from Thriller Paradise. She asked about the whereabouts of the bodies they were taken from. The answer was that the bodies with Remnants were transported to the abandoned mental hospital inside Thriller Paradise. After the Remnants were removed, the bodies were unceremoniously discarded inside the hospital. Lou killed everyone involved and then left Star City, heading in the direction of Thriller Paradise. Her movements after that are unknown."

"…Call Jian Yi." Lin Sandie stared out the window, her expression grim, one hand unconsciously stroking the head of Summer, who was crouched beside her.

"Hello~" The phone rang for a while before Jian Yi's cheerful voice came through, accompanied by the sound of loud music in the background.

"What are your reasons and conditions for wanting to cooperate with me?"

"Let me think where to start… The Scorpion was a project my friends and I took on. Of course, at first, I didn't know it was for the Rose Society. As you can see, after I found out, the relationship between Bite Mark and the Rose Society became… not so good."

The Rose Society sent an assassin of Wei's caliber to eliminate members of Bite Mark. Their relationship could hardly be described as "not so good," Lin Sandie retorted silently.

"The data monitoring authority for the 'Scorpion' is with the Rose Society, but I left a backdoor to monitor some core data. It's very interesting to me. When the Scorpion was handed over, it was still in the experimental phase."

"I wanted to see the feedback from all the Scorpions installed on human bodies, but I don't know what method you used. Your location was shielded, and some information wasn't transmitted in a timely manner. It took me a while to find the serial number of the Scorpion you have. By the way, your batch of Scorpions belongs to the second experimental phase."

"Do you have any conclusions?"

"Hold on, let me find a quiet place."

After a short wait, the music from the other end stopped, and Jian Yi's voice became clearer.

"The full name of the 'Scorpion' is the Human Exoskeleton Emotion Suppression Device. I just made that name up; it sounds more official on a contract."

"I'm not interested in that."

"Oh, San San, you have no sense of humor," Jian Yi chuckled lightly before getting to the point. "The test subjects were people who hadn't undergone mutation. After being fitted with the Scorpion, they would no longer mutate. However, most people couldn't stand it for more than a month. They would try everything to get the 'Scorpion' off their backs, putting themselves in danger. In fact, not many people who had the Scorpion installed have survived for more than a month. You're one of them."

"When a Scorpion is installed on a mutated monster, they collapse within one to two weeks, without exception."

"What are the characteristics of the people who survived for more than a month?" Lin Sandie pondered for a moment before asking this key question.

"According to the monitoring, these people who survived for over a month do share some commonalities. They all have one or more emotionally stable people around them—people who are often with them, whether friends, family, or lovers, serving as a kind of anchor. For example, you have that cute little sister of yours." At this, Jian Yi seemed to remember Lou and chuckled again. "You asked for my reasons and conditions. The reason is that I want to complete the Scorpion; it's still just a half-finished product, after all. I need more data to support it. I hope you'll let me periodically inspect the Scorpion on your back and answer some of my questions. On my end, I guarantee I won't leak any related information to anyone else, and I will prioritize trying to safely remove that Scorpion from your back. What do you think?"

"Fine, but not now."

"Hey, of course, it has to be on your time. But are you about to do something dangerous? Want me to send a few bodyguards? I'd be very sorry if something happened to you."

"Miss Jian, I'm not yet certain if you can be trusted."

"So let me prove myself. No bodyguards? Need some other help?"

"Help me monitor the Mel family in room 301 on the 12th floor of the Monica Hotel. Keep an eye on everyone who contacts them."

"No problem~ Miss San San, have you considered joining us? Our organization happens to be short an accountant."

"I'm not an accountant." Lin Sandie lowered her head and gently rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"It doesn't matter if it's not your major. It's you I'm interested in." Jian Yi's words had a roguish, underworld air to them, as if to say, if you refuse again, you're disrespecting me. It made Lin Sandie want to hit her.

"By the way, my people saw your sister leave Star City and head east. Did you two have a fight?"

"She's very dangerous right now. It's best not to get near her."

"Is that so? Well, in that case, can I release her identity and location? Let those annoying guys go get themselves killed."

"…I'll contact you again, Miss Jian." Lin Sandie hung up and sighed silently.

Carlo's family was a minor matter for Lin Sandie. The real challenge she had to face was a broken Lou.

She recalled her encounter with Cheng Gui, who claimed to be the law of Leviathan. He had said that direct extermination wasn't Tree's style; Tree preferred to toy with his prey before subjecting them to a death by a thousand cuts.

Tree has been targeting Lou from the very beginning, but I don't know the parameters of Lou's mission, so I have no way of deducing how Tree knew about her…

No, it's the title.

Lin Sandie suddenly realized, remembering a question she had asked Pie back in the Aztec world. Pie had said that in the Main World, only two people had ever held the title of Lou. Little Fool was the second to receive it. Tree must have been the first, but after his falling out with Pie, he came to Leviathan.

Because of the title "Lou," Tree knew about Little Fool's connection to Pie from the start.

As Lin Sandie was lost in thought, she suddenly noticed a dark figure appearing on the road ahead, not long after the SUV had left Star City. Using her Island, Lin Sandie saw that it was a severely mutated monster. In the Disorder Land, she had grown accustomed to monsters of this degree of mutation. But now that she had regained her Guide abilities, she could use her Island to restore the monster's original appearance.

It was a very presentable-looking woman with long hair. She was wearing a white shirt, a black tie, and a black robe over it, and she was waving at their vehicle.

The SUV stopped. Lin Sandie opened the door, looked at the woman she was meeting for the first time, and asked, "Cheng Gui?"

The feeling the other person gave off was all too familiar, like the Cheng Gui she had traveled with for a short time.

"It's me, Miss Lin. Mind if I catch a ride?"

"Where are you going?" Lin Sandie made room for him to sit next to her.

"For now, I hope to travel with you until we leave the Disorder Land together."

Lin Sandie thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "Alright, but I'd like you to drive."

Cheng Gui looked at Lin Sandie, puzzled.

"I might need an unknown puppet soon. I know you can transfer your consciousness into the dead at will. Transfer your consciousness into Mike, the driver, now."

Unsure of what Lin Sandie was planning, Cheng Gui shrugged, indicating he didn't mind.

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