Monster - Chapter 138
Chapter 138: Snowfield - Consequences
Lin Sandie's face flickered, her features constantly appearing and vanishing. She herself was unaware of it, already too weak to perform any further self-examination.
She sat with her head bowed in the melting snow. Chelsea, who had just collapsed, stirred and woke again. She slowly walked over to Lou's head and gently picked it up.
Returning to Lin Sandie's side, she placed Lou's bloodstained head in her lap. Then she walked over to Mike, who lay on the ground, a faint smell of decay emanating from his body now that the Remnants were no longer sustaining him. She pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket.
Lin Sandie cradled Lou's head, looking at the face identical to her own. Its eyes were shut tight, and at some point, it had become soaked with tears.
"It wasn't until I wanted to let you go completely that I realized how difficult it is," Lin Sandie said, hugging Lou's head tightly. "I understand even more now why you were so determined to find me... and how happy it made me that you came."
Lin Sandie wept silently.
Cheng Gui, possessing Chelsea's body, sat back down beside Lin Sandie and started to smoke.
"...I don't know why you were so set on killing Lou, but were you reluctant at first? Did you want the Madness Material to do it for you? It's just that they're all a bunch of trash. Well, that, and Lou is just too damn strong."
"Maybe you also planned to weaken her bit by bit. Weren't the Rose Society's people on their way too? Were you trying to wear her down until you could land the final blow?"
"Ever since leaving Star City, you've wanted to kill Lou and severely wound the Tree. You actually managed to pull off both at the same time..."
Cheng Gui was about to say more, but he looked at Lin Sandie, who was now unable to speak. Seeing her face covered in blood and filth, tears streaming endlessly from her eyes, even he—the embodiment of Leviathan's impartial and merciless law—couldn't bear to continue. He fell silent and turned his gaze to the distance.
As the Tree withdrew the Remnants and their wondrous abilities from its influence, the wasteland, which had been cooling and snowing ever since the Khan's death, finally returned to normal. The white snow began to melt, gradually revealing the ochre earth beneath. It was a messy, mottled patchwork of yellow and white, much like the current scene—impossible to ever make clean again.
Just then, the sound of an approaching vehicle came from the distance. Cheng Gui's expression tensed. He dropped his cigarette and moved to pick up the heavily injured Lin Sandie to flee.
Lin Sandie pushed him away, still crying, her voice frighteningly weak. "It's Bite Mark."
Cheng Gui stopped and gave her a long, deep look.
In truth, he had been hesitating about how to get her out of there. She looked so fragile right now that a single movement seemed like it would shatter her into pieces.
But he truly hadn't expected Lin Sandie to have arranged everything so meticulously in such a short amount of time.
First, she had slowed Lou down, stopping her from rushing to the south of Leviathan in search of some "Little Rabbit." Instead, she made her try to summon Pie, leading Lou into the first layer of the trap. She used the Madness Material to weaken her, but Lin Sandie's calculations included not just Lou, but the Tree as well.
Lin Sandie knew of the Tree's sick tastes; she knew it would find a way to observe a battered and broken Lou up close. Somehow, she had learned that whatever Lou summoned would be replaced by the Tree. So she set this trap, severely wounding the Tree while also successfully killing Lou. She had even arranged for herself and her puppet to be the first line of support, with Jian Yi of Bite Mark as the second.
She knew this hunt would cost her life. Whether against the Tree or Lou, if it came down to pure strength, Lin Sandie was nothing more than an ant before them. And yet, she had actually done it.
No wonder the Tree had repeated, "Lin Sandie, you're really something."
Now, Cheng Gui was thinking the same thing: Lin Sandie, you're really something.
A short while later, Jian Yi arrived with two subordinates in a modified ambulance. The moment she saw Lin Sandie clutching Lou's head, her expression grew grave. She ordered her people to move Lin Sandie and the headless body of Lou into the vehicle and get away from this troubled place. She herself moved from the front passenger seat to the rear compartment, preparing to perform emergency surgery on Lin Sandie immediately.
"You're Cheng Gui?" Jian Yi asked, glancing at the striking long-haired woman before her, a little puzzled by the strange name.
"Yes," Cheng Gui replied succinctly.
"Are you coming with us?"
"Yes. I'll be staying with Lin Sandie from now on."
"Then get in the front. Any more delays and I really won't be able to save her."
Cheng Gui nodded and, without another word, walked straight to the front of the ambulance.
Jian Yi began her attempt to save Lin Sandie. The injuries on her body were almost all fatal. Not only had she been shot in the thigh and shoulder during the encounter with the Madness Material, but Lou had also drawn a great deal of her blood. She was already a spent force, yet she had pushed through a dual collapse of mind and body to fight Lou. If Lin Sandie hadn't already been a Guide with some degree of defense, a single palm strike from Lou in her Spirit Separation state would have been enough to kill her.
"How is she still alive...?" one of Jian Yi's subordinates murmured, looking at Lin Sandie's gruesome state. It was incredible that she still had a heartbeat.
"Less talk, more work." Jian Yi was displeased to see Lin Sandie, a perfectly good person, so grievously injured. This was the accounting talent she had her eye on, after all.
"...Boss, her... her 'Scorpion' seems to be broken."
"She's too badly injured. Deal with the external wounds first." Jian Yi's heart skipped a beat. She quickened her pace and kicked the side of the compartment, urging the driver to go faster.
"Oh, right." The talkative subordinate also sped up, thinking that the sooner they saved her, the sooner she could continue studying the 'Scorpion' she was truly interested in. But as her hands moved faster, her mind didn't slow down, and neither did her mouth, as she kept thinking about what her cursory examination had just revealed.
"Boss, Lin Sandie's 'Scorpion' seems to have been destroyed from the inside. It wasn't damaged by an external force. This is the first time we've seen this, right?"
"You have a theory?"
"I do!" The subordinate's hands didn't stop their life-saving work, but she spoke excitedly all the same. "You said before that Lin Sandie really loved her sister, and that her sister was the reason she could endure the 'Scorpion' without succumbing to monsterization. But today, for some reason, she killed her sister. Looking at her, she must be in extreme pain. Do you think, in that instant she killed her sister, her emotions were so intense that even the 'Scorpion' couldn't handle it?"
"You're saying the 'Scorpion' basically choked on Lin Sandie's emotions?"
"Yeah! That's the only way to explain why our super-sturdy 'Scorpion' could be destroyed from the inside." The talkative subordinate was so excited that her local dialect started to slip out.
Jian Yi's expression, however, grew even more solemn. She glanced at Lin Sandie's bloodless toes, then shot her subordinate a cold look.
"Qu Nana, we'll talk about this when we get back."
The subordinate named Qu Nana pouted under her mask but sensibly focused on the task of saving Lin Sandie.
Still, she knew why her boss had looked at Lin Sandie's feet. Through extensive observation of test subjects, they had confirmed that anyone whose 'Scorpion' was damaged—dead or alive—ended up paralyzed.
Of course, most of those with damaged 'Scorpions' had died. The few who survived all became paralyzed, non-communicative monsters. Lin Sandie's monsterization didn't seem to have progressed very far, so she might still be able to communicate, but the paralysis... that was hard to say.
An accountant in a wheelchair can still be a good accountant, right?
At this thought, Qu Nana secretly glanced at her boss's grim face and couldn't help but pray.
Let's hope Bite Mark's nearly-dead accountant doesn't have to use a wheelchair...
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