Monster - Chapter 134
Chapter 134: Snowfield - The Only Important Thing
"You became a Guide?" Lou felt her Line pierce through a barrier before it stabbed Lin Sandie's puppet. That was Lin Sandie's Island, although it was still very fragile.
Not letting the Line continue its attack, Lou tilted her head and looked at Lin Sandie opposite her.
"Not officially registered yet, just awakened some skills." Lin Sandie's gaze seemed to be glued to Lou. Her face was still expressionless, but her eyes were very gentle.
"Who initiated it?"
"No one." Lin Sandie stepped toward Lou and controlled Wei and Mike to return behind her.
"How strange." Lou waited for Lin Sandie to enter before closing the still-dilapidated room door.
Lin Sandie glanced at the skeleton on the hospital bed, didn't ask any more questions, and found a chair to sit down.
Lou had left Star City without a word. Lin Sandie had been searching for her for a month before finding her at this location. Now, she was travel-worn, her heart filled with worry for Lou.
She had already seen the bodies in the hallway. All the dead were mutated monsters. But the man and woman from just now hadn't mutated. Lou had told her before that her bottom line was not to kill people, but after hesitating, Lou was still prepared to kill that pair of assassins. This meant that Lou had already decided to abandon her bottom line.
It wasn't obvious from her appearance, but Lou had indeed decided to let herself go mad, to let herself fall into depravity.
"Sorry for leaving without a word. I told you before, I've been looking for someone. This might be her." Lou said without much apology, pointing to the skeleton.
Simple-minded Sentinel.
Lin Sandie cursed inwardly but showed nothing on her face. "What do you plan to do next?"
Lou sighed. "I still need to confirm her identity to the greatest extent possible."
"What about your mission?"
"...The mission isn't that important to me anymore, Lin Sandie. Right now, I only have one important thing." Lou fell silent for a moment, then answered softly before continuing to wrap the skeleton in the bedsheet. "I'm going to the southern part of Leviathan, to... her hometown."
Lin Sandie raised a hand to rub her aching temple. No one spoke in the room for a while.
Lou finished wrapping the skeleton and was about to put it into her Space Bag when Lin Sandie suddenly grabbed her wrist.
"Lou..." Lin Sandie was about to say something when she saw Lou looking at her with an ugly expression, her eyes filled with impatience and hostility.
Lin Sandie's heart felt stuffy and pained. She let go. "I... I wanted to ask if there's a way to get someone else to help you with the identification, so you don't have to go through so much trouble yourself, only to get an inaccurate result."
"I've looked for Pie, but She didn't answer me." Lou frowned, putting the skeleton into her Space Bag.
"Uh, there should be more than one way to find Her, right?" Lin Sandie said in a gentle voice. "After everything you've been through, you're in a difficult situation. For the only one who can help you, you should have a more powerful way to find Her. For example, summoning? Pie is a god, isn't She? Does She have a revered name?"
Lou paused and thought carefully. The relationship between her and Pie didn't really require such a primitive method. She had known Pie since she was very young and had never felt the need to use a method like forced summoning to communicate with Her.
"I've never tried, but it's worth a shot. It's a more powerful summoning force."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Summoning Pie in a place like this... She obviously wouldn't like it. So we need to find a clean place first." After determining that Lin Sandie's idea was feasible, Lou immediately strode out the door. "Let's go to the top floor. There's a reasonably clean office there."
Lin Sandie hummed in agreement and followed behind.
"Summoning Her requires various spiritual materials. It's not easy to find them in this world. My blood will do, but some things are essential... Can you help me find 16 pieces of eight-sided, diamond-shaped obsidian, each 16 centimeters long?"
"Such precise dimensions will take some time."
"It's fine. The summoning requires a large amount of blood. I can't draw it all at once. I'll need some time to gather enough."
The two arrived at a spacious room on the top floor with "Dean's Office" written on it. Although the decor inside was old, it was much cleaner than the hospital room they had just been in, and there was no unbearable stench of decay.
As soon as Lou entered the office, she immediately got to work, clearing out an empty space.
Lin Sandie said no more, lowering her head and tapping the phone screen with both hands, searching for a craftsman who could make the eight-sided obsidian pieces.
Meanwhile, after clearing a space, Lou sat down on the office sofa, took out a blood-drawing kit from her Space Bag, and began to draw her own blood.
Lin Sandie glanced at her, recognizing the kit as the same one Lou had used to draw blood for her last time. She looked away, her expression dimming.
"Are there any purity requirements for the obsidian?"
"The higher the purity, the better."
"I found a craftsman who can cut the obsidian you need. It will take two days. He's in Silver Stone City. Do you want to go there, or have him deliver it?"
Lin Sandie didn't mention the price. Of course, she was no longer concerned with being fair and equal with Lou. In her eyes, she had to bear most of the responsibility for Lou becoming the way she was now.
If only she had given Little Fool more security, if only she had been more persistent with Little Fool's education, if only she had been more vigilant about Tree's intentions... In Lin Sandie's heart, all these "if onlys" were the reason she was now trying hard to restrain her feelings and interact with Lou with the most ordinary attitude possible.
She was Little Fool's Guide. She couldn't let the latter continue to wallow in the past. She had to use the most appropriate method to lead her away from her bedeviled state.
"It takes more than two days to get to Silver Stone City from here, right?"
"Four or five days. Remember the Cactus Campsite we passed on our way to Thriller Paradise last time? If you want, we can make the trade there. It's a day and a half from here." Lin Sandie explained patiently and meticulously.
Lou looked down and thought for a moment. "Let's go there, then."
Lin Sandie put away her phone and walked out with great efficiency.
Lou gave her a strange look but quickly shook her head, putting the doubt out of her mind. Right now, she only had one important thing.
This time, Lin Sandie had come to Thriller Paradise with three "people" by her side: Wei, Mike, a long-haired woman named Chelsea, and a dog.
She gave the Red Phone to Chelsea. Chelsea, Mike, and Summer were in one car, while Lin Sandie, Lou, and Wei were in another, with Wei driving.
Even if they arrived early, the time for the craftsman to make the obsidian plus delivery would take three days in total. So, on the way to the Cactus Campsite, they rested normally. The first night, they chose to camp in the wild. Of course, since everyone except Lin Sandie and Lou were "the dead," only the two of them rested by the campfire at night. The others stayed inside the cars.
However, for some reason, the two cars kept a great distance from each other. In any case, no matter how far apart they were, Lin Sandie could control the puppets' actions.
Resting in the car behind them, Chelsea held a red phone. She had just received a message from Jian Yi. Lin Sandie, who was sitting silently by the campfire, immediately saw the content of the message through Chelsea's eyes.
"I've checked for you. The craftsman selling the obsidian is from Madness Material. He's a businessman, basically harmless. You can trade with him."
Chelsea's originally lifeless, deep red pupils grew profound, resembling Lin Sandie's usual thoughtful expression. After a moment, she typed a message to Jian Yi on the phone: "Leak the information that the buyer is Lou, the one who caused a rampage in Star City. Also, that she's the one who killed Enzo and the main culprit behind the collapse of the Dream Castle."
"???" Jian Yi replied with three question marks. Did Lin Sandie hate Lou that much?
"If you want to cooperate, then show your sincerity." Lin Sandie replied and then ignored Jian Yi.
By the campfire, Lou was hugging her knees, lost in thought. Lin Sandie shifted her attention back from Chelsea. Seeing Lou still in this state, as if she had lost all vitality, Lin Sandie noticed the wrist peeking out from under her sleeve. Apart from a faint scar, it looked significantly more fragile than before.
"Want something to eat?" Lin Sandie asked.
"Eat what?" Lou asked subconsciously.
"What do you want to eat?"
"...Egg cake?"
Lin Sandie smiled, but her expression turned a little ugly. Of course, she remembered the first thing she had treated Little Fool to was a children's egg cake she had bought casually. For her, less than half a year had passed, but for Lou, it had been nearly 500 years.
Why remember someone like me for so long? Don't you get tired? Don't you know when to give up?...
Lin Sandie looked down and bought some egg cakes from the Points Mall. She took out a packet, tore it open, and handed it to Lou.
"Sigh..." Lou let out a deep sigh. This was so unlike her.
"You... you seem like a different person," Lin Sandie asked softly.
"This is who I've always been, Lin Sandie." Lou took just one bite of the cake before lowering her head and burying her face in her arms. Her voice was muffled, as if something was pressing on her nerves. She was both decadent and terrified. "I'm just a restless spirit who refuses to close her eyes."
"Maybe... maybe you can find another reason to live?" Lin Sandie's voice was frighteningly hoarse and dry.
Hearing this, Lou tilted her head slightly. Her eyes, a lighter shade than most people's, looked at Lin Sandie as if she were a lifeless object.
"Lin Sandie, I've met many people like you. So many that I've forgotten just how many." Lou's tone was ruthless and cold.
"To me, you're just an NPC in a game that doesn't feel real. The things I've done with you, the experiences we've had together, the joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness you've felt—I've experienced the same with countless others."
"I've always had that feeling." Lin Sandie looked back at Lou without flinching. "No one can redeem you, and no one can heal you, because you're already dead, aren't you?"
Lin Sandie had also grown much thinner during this time. Her eye sockets were sunken, her hair lacked luster, and her lips were dry.
Lou reached out, her fingertips touching Lin Sandie's cheek, touching the small mole in the exact same spot as her own.
"But whenever I see your face, sometimes I wonder... if I had lived your life, what would I be like?"
Lin Sandie closed her eyes, turning her face slightly to nuzzle against Lou's hand. "If I had lived your life, I probably would have been just as stubborn as you."
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