Chapter 65: Or Should We Think of a Way to Make Her an Enemy First
Gray-black raindrops continued to fall from the sky, making the streets outside the car window look hazy. In the distance, the sound of a horn echoed, like a dying lament, resonating over the Grand Canal; it was an Ariel Shipping Cargo Ship.
After eight in the morning, as the corpse retrieval workers finished their day’s work, it was as if d*ath and filth had never existed. One cargo ship after another appeared on the cleaned river surface as usual.
Driving back on the road to Hailake Community, Luxianbei was casually chatting with Vivienne.
Although he wanted to use his special eye abilities to observe what had happened to the corpse, and whether it was related to Zhipianxian, he could only suppress that urge with Vivienne around.
At first, he asked some questions about the residents of Hailake Community. When he sensed that Vivienne’s guard had relaxed a bit, he casually steered the conversation toward the real question he had.
“Half of it is already dead…”
“Hmm?” Vivienne furrowed her brow slightly.
I remember you mentioned on the way here that half of the city is already dead? What does that mean? I can’t help but feel some curiosity about it…
The things he had seen and heard in the few days since arriving in Free City made him feel that this “half of the city” being “dead” could not be taken literally; it might hide some kind of terrifying urban legend.
One half of the city was prosperous and thriving, while the other half was dilapidated, abandoned in the corners like a diseased limb that had been excised, gradually rotting and stinking.
It’s not that there’s anything unreasonable about a city’s decline; it’s just that a situation like Free City, perfectly split between north and south with such a huge difference, is quite rare.
Even the climate varies!
Just a moment ago, while he was by the Grand Canal, Luxianbei noticed… on the northern side of the riverbank, although the rain was falling heavily, it appeared to be perfectly clean, as if it hadn’t been polluted at all. The river’s surface, nourished by the rain in both the north and south directions, displayed two distinct shades, one dark and one light.
It was somewhat magical.
It felt just like something out of an urban legend!
According to the Siye Society’s standards for judging the dangers of urban legends, any event capable of causing the destruction of a city had already reached the cataclysm grade.
However, not all cataclysm grade events result in destruction within a short period.
Often, “chronic d*ath” is much harder to detect and prevent than instantaneous destruction.
Vivienne was resting her chin on one hand, staring blankly out of the car window. When she heard Luxianbei’s follow-up question, she glanced at him with her peripheral vision and said nonchalantly, “Nothing special. Didn’t you go to the northern city last night? You should have seen the situation there; the answer is obvious when you compare them, isn’t it?”
In silence, Luxianbei studied Vivienne’s profile for a few seconds without expression and said, “Fine, I thought there might be some urban legend causing this!”
He couldn’t read any clues from Vivienne’s face, which left him somewhat discouraged.
He had thought being unable to read someone’s face was his unique skill.
By the way, I noticed something strange while wandering around Hailake Community yesterday.
So far, the bizarre situation of the enormous differences between the north and south of Free City seems unrelated to the matter Luxianbei wanted to investigate.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he adjusted his thoughts and tried to gather other intel.
“Oh? What is it?” Vivienne looked at Luxianbei.
“I found that it seems there are no Ariel Corporation products in the stores in our community.” Luxianbei said, “Is it because there was a conflict with Ariel Corporation here before?”
“Ask a question you already know the answer to?” Vivienne rolled her eyes, “Would you use things from your enemies?”
“Of course! I would use them hard and then not pay.” Luxianbei silently thought to himself, glancing at Vivienne and nodding, “I thought it was to avoid being monitored! It seems I was overthinking it…”
Vivienne squinted at Luxianbei and smirked, “It’s not that you were overthinking; there is indeed part of that factor involved… no one likes to live under someone else’s surveillance, right? At least not the Hailake Community.”
Vivienne’s rather indifferent reaction surprised Luxianbei; he hesitated for two seconds before asking, “Don’t you want to know why I suddenly asked you these things?”
“What else could it be?” Vivienne shrugged casually, “In Free City, aside from a few areas like Hailake Community, almost all places have level 3 or higher spiritual ability users and urban legends under constant surveillance by Ariel Corporation.”
After a pause, her gaze lingered on Luxianbei for a few seconds before continuing, “Although you don’t remember what happened before the shipwreck, the spirit energy fluctuations cannot lie… If you weren’t so dull, you would have figured out long ago that Ariel Corporation was secretly monitoring you.”
The majority of high-level spiritual ability users and urban legends in the entire city are under the surveillance of Ariel Corporation? Luxianbei was somewhat taken aback.
He initially thought that the “gaze” on him was due to his encounter with the Mid-Thunder God’s d*ath Scene.
But wouldn’t that cause public outrage? After all, doesn’t everyone have a few dirty and perverse secrets? Who could stand being watched all day?
Or is it that they don’t want to be angry, but are too intimidated by the corporate monster to express their anger? Luxianbei thought.
While he was surprised that the spiritual ability users and urban legends in Free City could endure being monitored by the corporate monsters, he felt it might be good news for him.
With so many spiritual ability users and urban legends under simultaneous surveillance, there should be some oversight in their scrutiny of him, right?
Luxianbei stared out the car window, pondering for two seconds, then fabricated a small lie, “I discovered it while delivering goods to the northern city last night… I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched from the shadows; after some searching, I found the source of the gaze was actually those brands.”
“Just get used to it!” Vivienne scoffed, “Usually, they only monitor you covertly; as long as you don’t do anything that could harm the company’s interests, they won’t target you.”
“So… it’s become like this now! After all, there’s no way to resist Ariel Corporation; letting them see won’t cost them any flesh, so most spiritual ability users and urban legends just choose to endure.”
“Alright, we’re almost at the place; pull over on the side ahead.”
“Huh?” Luxianbei pressed the brakes and pulled the truck over to the roadside, stretching his head to take a glance at the strangely unfamiliar street scenery outside the window, throwing a puzzled look at Vivienne.
This street was near the Chaos Area, empty and desolate, with half-finished buildings on both sides.
What are we stopping here for? Is she thinking I’m asking too many questions and wants to eliminate me? But doesn’t she realize how much of a gap in strength we have? Luxianbei thought.
In his view, killing someone in this haunted place and dumping the body in a half-finished building would probably go undetected for a few years.
As if sensing Luxianbei’s thoughts, Vivienne pointed to the rusty road sign ahead, which was almost unreadable, then pointed at the truck’s cargo compartment, and said, “Turn at the fork ahead; it’s a more discreet path that leads to the Iris Hotel.”
Eliminate “Yu Yinchuan”? She doesn’t have the capability for that now.
Didn’t you just ask me to help take care of that corpse back there? The best place to deal with such a troublesome corpse is the Iris Hotel.
After saying that, Vivienne opened the car door and jumped out, went around to the back of the truck, opened the cargo compartment, and easily lifted the body already packed in a special corpse bag onto her shoulder. Then she walked back to the driver’s seat and knocked on the door.
“Just head back to the community first; I’ll come back after I finish with the body.”
After giving a simple instruction and without waiting for Luxianbei to respond, she walked ahead on her own.
“Sasa!”
The soft sound of pen on paper echoed in the car.
[I have a feeling that girl actually knows a lot but doesn’t want to tell you.] Nanling Fanghua handed the small notebook she had written on to Luxianbei.
“Who says not?” Luxianbei shrugged, “But if she doesn’t want to say, we can’t force her, can we? We have no grievances or enmities…” Or should we think of a way to make her an enemy first? That way, we could comfortably interrogate her.”
[Not necessary at all.]
A moment later.
In the Kitchen Preparation Room of the Iris Hotel, beneath rows of gleaming knives, a body wearing deep purple tight-fitting clothing lay on a metal cutting board, looking like a disassembled hog that hadn’t been processed in time.
This was the Iris Hotel, a place for receiving special corpses during non-peak hours. Like most black market kitchens, it also hid a passage leading to an underground laboratory.
Vivienne leaned against the nearby wall, with a cigarette hanging from her mouth, searching the kitchen with her eyes, then she pursed her lips with mild disinterest.
A kitchen without alcohol can hardly be called a kitchen, can it?
“Take a look first! If there’s nothing wrong, just charge the usual price.” She withdrew her gaze and said to the tall, blonde man standing before the cutting board, who wore protective gear and a mask. She couldn’t remember his name; she only vaguely remembered that he seemed to be the assistant to the manager of the Iris Hotel. Except for the first time she came to this kitchen, he had always been the one to welcome her.
Although this man, despite being distanced by the large protective gear and mask, was still somewhat handsome, it was indeed a bit strange that she couldn’t remember his name, but Vivienne didn’t mind.
“Alright, Miss Vivienne, I will start inspecting the goods now.” Koliat nodded at Vivienne, then turned around and began to search the body.
Beep beep
A few seconds later, accompanied by a series of sharp alert tones, the tightly wrapped tight-fitting clothing around the corpse slipped off like a shedding reptilian skin.
The body, bloated, twisted, hideous, and covered in scars, was exposed to their view, emitting a horrid, sticky fluid that pooled on the cutting board.
That body seemed to have suffered inhumane torment while alive; it was swollen and covered in large areas of bruises, with deep, bone-visible wounds in certain parts of the body as if it had been pierced through.
Thin, scalelike, tail-like tentacles emerged slowly from the deep wounds, writhing slightly.
Vivienne, being a seasoned corpse retrieval worker on the Grand Canal, and Koliat, as a staff member of Iris Hotel, were both worldly people, and neither of them reacted much to the ghastly condition of the corpse.
After a brief exchange of glances, Koliat took a small kn*fe from a rack and efficiently made several small incisions on key parts of the corpse to start his examination.
A few minutes later.
Koliat put down the small kn*fe in his hand and turned to the waiting Vivienne, raising his hand, “I’m sorry, Miss Vivienne, I can’t give you the usual price this time… I can only charge according to the price for Nightfall Syndrome victims.”
Vivienne looked at the corpse on the cutting board and then at Koliat, frowning, “Why? Don’t tell me it’s because the condition of the corpse is bad; that kind of excuse only works on newcomers.”
“Of course not.” Koliat turned around, pointing at the area on the body’s chest where numerous tentacles were gathered, “You should know that these vigilantes from the northern city mostly derive their spirit energy from the implants in their bodies; the most valuable aspects about them are those implants…”
“Unfortunately, I found no implants on this body. I suspect they were either removed or destroyed beforehand.”
Vivienne: “…”
