Chapter 185

Chapter 185: Claiming Found Items

On the outskirts of Tivyán, outside the east gate of the Royal Sacred Crown University, lies Green Shade Town.

The gentle afternoon sunlight bathes the tranquil streets of Green Shade Town. This environment-friendly town, specially designed to serve students, is home to numerous shops, mostly restaurants selling various cuisines. There are also many sports equipment stores, cosmetics shops, and bookstores. Apart from the shops, most of the houses in Green Shade Town are residential, housing university lecturers and professors, as well as many economically capable students who prefer not to live in dormitories. Dorothy is one of them.

Under the shade of lush trees, the quiet streets are lined with various small buildings. Dorothy’s current residence is among these buildings.

On the second floor of one of these buildings, in an independent tea room facing the street, Dorothy, dressed casually, sits at a small table, sipping coffee while admiring the street view through the window.

This is the house that Dorothy rented in Green Shade Town, number 17. It is a two-story wooden building with a small garden, featuring a living room, kitchen, study, and guest room on the first floor. The second floor has a master bedroom, bathroom, tea room, and balcony. Well-decorated and comfortable, Dorothy was very satisfied when she first saw it. She eventually rented this house for 8 pounds per month, with three months prepaid rent and one month deposit, totaling 32 pounds.

This is at least seven or eight times more expensive than the apartment Gregor rented for her and himself in Igewent’s Southern Flower Road. However, fortunately, for the current Dorothy, paying this amount is not a problem. Or perhaps, each time she spends money on mundane matters, she feels it is worth it. She didn’t even bargain with the landlord, who treated her like a young lady from a wealthy family.

After adding enough sugar, Dorothy stirs the coffee in her cup with a spoon, dissolving all the sugar cubes she poured in. Then she picks up the cup and starts savoring it, occasionally glancing out the window toward another two-story building across the side street, which is number 23 in Green Shade Town.

Although in Dorothy’s eyes, the distant building seems unremarkable, in other perspectives, she has already noticed unusual circumstances.

Birds circling in the sky, geckos clinging to trees, mice lurking in the garden… Dorothy’s small zombie puppets have long spread around number 23, conveying all the information they sensed directly to Dorothy’s mind, allowing her to minutely control her surroundings.

Unlike before, this time, these small zombie puppets were not there to monitor number 23; instead, they were monitoring those who wanted to monitor number 23. And they had already found such people.

One is a man sitting in a chair across the street pretending to read a newspaper but actually using his peripheral vision to look at the distant house. Another is a young man dining in a restaurant opposite number 23, looking at the house opposite him while eating, and occasionally asking the server something.

‘Everyone has arrived… and it looks like no one is willing to visit openly to buy anything; they all prefer to observe covertly.’

‘Very good, you think you’re being covert? That’s perfect.’

Watching the two suspicious figures around number 23, Dorothy thought. In Green Shade Town, Dorothy lives at number 17, and number 23 is also rented by her, costing about 30 pounds altogether. But this time, she used a zombie puppet to act. She obtained a fake identity from the black market in Tivyán for 5 pounds. As for the location of the black market, she bought it from Beverly for 10 pounds.

Dorothy placed a lost-and-found notice in the school newspaper, hoping to attract members of the societies within the university by using an item labeled “Enlightenment” as bait. Of course, she couldn’t fill in her true address as the confirmation target; instead, she filled in the address of her zombie puppet.

At this point, Dorothy has realized that apart from herself, there are likely no other “Enlightenment” practitioners left in this era. Therefore, the “Enlightenment” spiritual storage item, which has both divination and anti-divination effects, has become extremely precious and important.

Thus, few societies could resist the temptation of the “Enlightenment” spiritual storage item. She was certain that the society hidden within the school would come to confirm it after seeing the lost-and-found notice, even if they only intended to try it out. Furthermore, this society had just been slightly weakened by Dorothy’s divination using “Enlightenment.”

Of course, the other party might suspect it was a trap and thus would not visit directly but would first conduct covert investigations, confirming the background of the person who found the item before making a decision, like now.

However, Dorothy had anticipated this. She had already spread her small zombie puppets around number 23, waiting for these surveillance investigators and then monitoring them in return.

To avoid having a “Silence” practitioner using ghosts for investigation, Dorothy lived in a place where she could see number 23, activating her spiritual vision and monitoring together with her zombies, always paying attention to the veil ring on her hand, observing the consumption of spiritual energy inside, and defending against a “Lamp” practitioner using a wide-range extraordinary search. If she perceived such a search, Dorothy would immediately use the range-clearing sigil she obtained from Sodod to counter-search the opposite side.

After making ample preparations, Dorothy set the trap. She did not care what abnormalities her zombie puppets discovered; she just needed to identify the society members who came for investigation, which would be equivalent to catching their tails, like now.

‘I originally thought they would use some extraordinary investigative methods, but they still rely on surveillance and inquiries. Perhaps there aren’t any large societies among the students, so they save their spiritual energy or sigils by not using them.’

Monitoring those who thought they were doing the surveillance, Dorothy thought in her heart. Her goal had been achieved; she successfully lured out the hidden society members within the school. All she needed to do now was track them back to find their base.

Just as Dorothy was thinking this, suddenly, her bird zombie puppet noticed a figure walking down the distant street.

It was a woman, seemingly around eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing a simple white dress and white blouse. She had a distinctive face with bright eyes, brown-black hair that was wavy and reached her waist, and skin with a slightly dark tone, tending towards wheat color. She held two books in her arms, and the prominent bulge in her chest trembled slightly with each step, suggesting she was a student from Saint Crown University.

Walking down the street, the woman looked around, apparently searching for something by checking the house numbers. When she saw the number 23, her eyes lit up, and she quickly walked over. The two men monitoring number 23 and Dorothy couldn’t help but be surprised.

Arriving at the door of number 23, the woman rang the doorbell. Seeing this, Dorothy immediately controlled the zombie puppet that had been waiting inside number 23 to stand up and open the door.

Holding the books, the woman waited at the door. Soon, the door opened, and in front of her appeared a young man wearing round glasses, neatly combed hair, and a scholarly appearance. He looked at the woman in puzzlement and asked:

“May I ask who you are…”

“Hello, classmate. My name is Nephynice Boyle, a 24th-level archaeology student. I saw the lost-and-found notice in the school newspaper. The craftwork you found is likely mine, so I came to claim it.”

With a smile, the college student named Nephynice said. Hearing this, Dorothy was taken aback.

‘d*mn… Two waves of people? Can this catch two fish at once? Also, senior sister, can we keep our secret societies a bit more discreet? Don’t come directly to the door. Can’t you learn from the two hiding ones!’

Although she was inwardly complaining, Dorothy did not neglect her actions. She manipulated her zombie puppet to respond with a smile:

“Archaeology student, huh? My name is Brandon. Please come in. The item is inside. We will verify it and return it to you if it’s yours. Is that okay?”

“Mm.” Nephynice nodded and followed Brandon into the house, closing the door behind her. The two men monitoring the situation paused slightly and then left their positions, planning to get closer to number 23 for further surveillance.