Monster - Chapter 142

Chapter 142: Center City - Fear and Regret

After a heavy snowfall, the air grew even colder. Lou jumped down from a small van, and just a moment in the biting wind was enough to turn the tip of her nose slightly red.

She first surveyed the industrial park before her. The buildings here weren't tall, offering an open view. Most had gray-white walls, and security guards in black uniforms moved between them. The scene had a grim, austere feeling in the dry, cold air.

After a quick glance, Lou immediately walked to the back of the van and opened the doors. Inside sat two people wearing blindfolds and restraints. She led them out of the vehicle. Lou and her companion from Bite Mark, who had arrived in the same van, stood on either side of the restrained individuals, awaiting the next command from their squad leader.

After hesitating for more than half a month, Lou had finally made up her mind to come to the Bite Mark organization's base. Following her usual habit, she had blended in with the latest batch of escorts for the "volunteers."

Once all the volunteers who had agreed to undergo Bite Mark's experiments to suppress monsterization had gathered, their squad leader instructed the escorts to stay by their sides and move toward a three-story building ahead. Lou followed the orders, leading the person she was responsible for into the building.

The interior of the building had a two-level, semi-open structure. Looking up, one could see more than a dozen people in white lab coats and masks bustling about behind the thick glass walls of the second floor.

Lou led her volunteer through the glass doors on the first floor. Beyond them were many partitioned glass rooms. Following the assigned number, Lou locked the volunteer inside, then returned the special key to the guard at the entrance.

Throughout the process, Lou was uncharacteristically cooperative, as if she were truly just an ordinary escort.

However, as she was leaving the building with her squad and heading back the way they came, an arm suddenly reached out from behind and hooked around her neck. A cheerful voice sounded behind her. "You came all this way without telling me first. That's not very nice, Lou Lou."

A knowing smile appeared on Lou's face as well. She turned to look at Jian Yi. "I was planning to find you later."

In truth, she had wanted to first confirm if Lin Sandie was really at the Bite Mark base. The answer was obvious. The moment she entered a certain range, she had immediately touched the edge of the Island Lin Sandie had released. This was also why Jian Yi had been able to locate her so quickly. On the other hand, it also indicated that Lin Sandie's collaboration with Jian Yi was deeper than she had imagined.

Otherwise, Lin Sandie wouldn't have told Jian Yi the moment she sensed her entering the Island.

Jian Yi gestured for the others to continue on, then slung an arm around Lou's shoulders and led her toward a similarly low-rise office building nearby.

"Is there anything I can help with in what you're doing now?"

"Are you being that nice?"

"I'm super nice."

"Did you investigate every possibility and decide that my way is the only breakthrough?"

"I was asleep for a while. You and Lin Sandie have already arranged many things. I don't want to disrupt your rhythm, after all."

"Wow! You really have become super nice!" Jian Yi exclaimed, looking at Lou with exaggeration. She leaned in so close their noses almost touched.

Jian Yi's reflection appeared in Lou's dark, pitch-black eyes. A sudden chill emanated from them, causing Jian Yi's hand on her shoulder to loosen involuntarily. The smile on her face stiffened.

The chill was fleeting. Lou blinked, and a grin spread across her face, as if the coldness she had just radiated was merely Jian Yi's imagination.

"So, what are you and Lin Sandie busy with now?"

Lou's hand, tucked in her pocket, was clenched into a fist. When Jian Yi had gotten close, she had smelled the scent that was unique to Lin Sandie. It made her want to grab the woman before her, tear her apart, and toss her aside. The impulse startled not only Jian Yi but Lou herself.

She realized she seemed to have developed too many instincts regarding Lin Sandie.

An instinct that told her Lin Sandie belonged to her. An instinct to follow everything about Lin Sandie.

For a Sentinel, instinct was a very dangerous thing.

Jian Yi stood dazed for a moment. It wasn't until she remembered she was still outdoors, wearing only a thin lab coat, that she shivered from the cold. She wrapped her arm around Lou again and headed toward their destination. "Lin Sandie doesn't want to see you. Besides, I'm about to give her a physical exam. If you want the details, you'll have to wait for me."

After leading Lou into a warm office, Jian Yi picked up a tablet from her desk and began tapping on it. Her expression was no longer as flippant as before; instead, she seemed somewhat reluctant to be around Lou.

"Leviathan has gotten so strange. I thought we were all more or less the same kind of people."

Lou glanced at Jian Yi again. The other woman hadn't mutated into a monster. She heard her continue, "But Lin Sandie has a special skill. The moment someone gets within a certain distance of her, she senses it immediately. If it's someone she doesn't want to see, they can never get close. Their vision would always be distorted. Do you know why that is?"

"It's not really convenient for me to explain that to you." Lou took the tablet Jian Yi handed her. The screen showed a surveillance feed. Lin Sandie was sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a white hospital gown backward. Her back was to the camera, and on her spine rested a red scorpion with sharply defined joints, different from the one Lou had first seen.

"She…"

Just as Lou was about to ask, Jian Yi was already heading out the door. "I have to go. I'll explain later."

The office door closed. Lou didn't bother chasing after her. She found a chair and sat down, her eyes glued to Lin Sandie on the tablet screen.

Lin Sandie was wheeled into an operating room. She seemed to have completely lost her mobility. When the medical staff helped her up, Lou saw her ankles hanging limply. She was lifted entirely and placed face down on the operating table.

Her facial features seemed to be constantly erased and redrawn by an invisible eraser, and her skin had become dry and withered, like a monster on the verge of monsterization.

Lou watched as Lin Sandie lay on the table. The ties of her hospital gown were undone, revealing the red scorpion more clearly on the monitor. Through the camera, Lou could see that Lin Sandie's almost translucent white back was covered in a network of blood vessels. With every breath, her entire back spasmed and trembled.

A moment later, Jian Yi entered the operating room in surgical scrubs. She first scanned Lin Sandie, and after a full-body examination, she began to administer an anesthetic dose far exceeding the normal amount. Only then did the constant, pain-induced spasms in Lin Sandie's back slowly subside.

Next, Jian Yi picked up a prepared instrument—Lou couldn't tell what it was—and began injecting something, needle by needle, into the joints of the scorpion. Lou noticed Lin Sandie's hands begin to tremble unnaturally again.

Throughout the procedure, Lin Sandie's electrocardiogram showed a faint, steady beat. After Jian Yi had emptied more than a dozen syringes into the scorpion on Lin Sandie's back, she picked Lin Sandie up like a child. The motion gave Lou a clearer, more direct view of just how frail Lin Sandie had become.

The moment Jian Yi left, Lou had used her Line to follow her. Although she hadn't rashly tried to invade the other's Island while Lin Sandie was still conscious, now that Lin Sandie had lost consciousness due to the anesthetic, Lou attempted to enter her Island with her Line.

Her vision wasn't distorted. This meant that the unconscious Lin Sandie was not resisting her approach.

After the "physical exam," Lin Sandie was carried out of the operating room. Lou dropped the tablet, walked outside, and deliberately avoided everyone as she observed Lin Sandie being taken to a separate two-story residence. Jian Yi left shortly after.

Lou waited until she was certain Lin Sandie was alone, then vaulted over the wall and entered her room. For the first time in half a year, she saw Lin Sandie.

Lin Sandie was lying on a special medical bed, her eyes tightly shut, her face withered and gaunt. Her hair had turned black but was completely devoid of luster. Even in her sleep, her brow was furrowed in pain.

Lou sat gently on the edge of the bed, quietly watching her.

Over the past few days, she had thought about so many things concerning Lin Sandie. She thought about the first time they met, when Lin Sandie had politely asked her to let her pass. She thought about the first time she gave her a blood transfusion, how she had cried and screamed that it hurt. She thought about all the times they had traveled together, her angry expressions, her smiling face. She had even tried to imagine many times what kind of life Lin Sandie would have led if she had never met her.

But no matter how she imagined it, she couldn't change the fact that Lin Sandie's life had been altered because of her.

If they could return to the Main World, the wounds and the scorpion on Lin Sandie's body could surely be removed. But in her current state, could she really hold on long enough to go to the Main World as a Guide?

Lou couldn't help but make another assumption. She took Lin Sandie's hand, and its weightlessness once again struck her heart like a heavy hammer.

I'm not worth it… Lou wanted to say, but the words felt like a fishbone stuck in her throat. She stared intently at Lin Sandie, at the features that kept disappearing and reappearing even in her sleep. She suddenly realized that if she did nothing, Lin Sandie might truly vanish in the end. She would mutate into one of those cold monsters. She would die. She would disappear from her world forever, just like Little Rabbit.

The thought made Lou's entire body burn up, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

Just then, the hand Lou was gently holding twitched slightly. Startled, Lou saw Lin Sandie open her eyes. A pair of emotionless eyes were now fixed on her.

Lou opened her mouth, but her voice seemed to have been stolen, leaving her momentarily speechless.

The seconds ticked by. Lou didn't know how much time had passed before she finally managed a grin. "Hey~ Long time no see, Lin Sandie."

After she spoke, Lin Sandie remained silent for several seconds before asking, "Are you still planning to seek death?"

Another silence fell as Lou pondered the meaning behind Lin Sandie's question.

After a long while, she nodded. "After this mission is complete, I plan to use the points I've saved up to buy an item called the 'True Heart,' sacrifice my own heart, and find where Little Rabbit is."

"Besides, even if I don't do that, I'm suffering from a severe bedeviled state that's uncontrollably pulling me into the abyss. Death is very close."

"…I understand. You don't need to come looking for me anymore."

"Lin…" Lou was about to speak, but her vision distorted. She saw a vast expanse of gray, and Lin Sandie's figure was already far in the distance.

She had been expelled from Lin Sandie's Island.

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