Chapter Thirty-Nine: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them; If You Can’t Join, Report
“Bang——!”
To suppress the constant surge of desire within her, Luxianbei threw the remaining core of the urban legend into her suitcase, forcefully snapped the lid shut, and took several deep breaths to calm her emotions.
Although at that moment, being forced to stop her consumption felt like watching a movie that suddenly cut to an educational channel just as it was reaching a climax.
However, Luxianbei felt that no matter how much her body craved it, she had to take the time to digest the effects brought on by the core of the urban legend.
To put it seriously, it was greed and overreach, too much of a good thing can be bad.
Simply put, the fear of d*ath overcame the desire to consume.
After tidying up the uneaten core of the urban legend, Luxianbei turned and looked back at the several strange figures observing her in the shadows.
“Lady Witch… are you alright?”
“I…” Luxianbei hesitated for a moment, scrutinizing the urban legends, feeling that their inquiries were not particularly kind, “I’m fine. Do you have something to say?”
“No, no, we were just asking out of curiosity.”
Luxianbei furrowed her brows slightly, “Since you have nothing to say, then you should go do whatever it is you do! I’m going to rest.”
With that, she picked up the Ming King statue with one hand and carried the suitcase up with the other, heading towards the stairs. The next moment, a cold, eerie cheer came from behind her.
“Sending off Lady Witch!”
Luxianbei, “……” Why does that sound like they’re sending me “on my way”?
Forget it, they probably can’t control themselves either; urban legends making such noises is not surprising, but can they still call themselves urban legends?
She thought, glancing out of the corner of her eye at the suitcase in her hand.
I should find a place to hide these things first?
Pondering, she climbed the stairs.
Just a few steps in, Luxianbei heard a rustling noise coming from the living room. She stopped, pressed against the wall, and peeked out.
With a cold expression and silent movements, it resembled a homeroom teacher peeking outside the window during class to catch someone playing on their phone.
Looking towards the coffee table, Luxianbei saw a bizarre scene.
A group of urban legends floated around the tea table, surrounding a porcelain bowl containing the core of the urban legend, rubbing against it as if they were licking the bottom of the bowl.
Luxianbei, “……”
Is it really necessary? It’s as if I were abusing them; if someone sees this, won’t my reputation be ruined?
It’s just a little bit of the core! I can afford it.
Luxianbei thought, battling the urge to consume the core, she bent down and took half of it out of the suitcase, hurrying to the kitchen to grab a kn*fe, cutting off four tiny pieces. Amid the cheers of the urban legends, she walked back to the living room.
Listening to the cheers, Luxianbei’s eyebrows lifted slightly, feeling a surge of pride.
I, Luxianbei, am just that generous!
However…
Watching Luxianbei feed the tiny pieces of the core to the many urban legends in the apartment, the mindless coat felt a wave of grievance.
Why was I forgotten?
Oh right, I seem to still have a treasure here! Can I…
Oh no, just a little bit should be fine, right?
……
Amid the excessive flattery from the urban legends, Luxianbei returned upstairs.
Then, in the storage room upstairs, she found a relatively hidden corner to store the suitcase, covered it with some miscellaneous items, and finally pressed the Ming King statue on top.
After examining the storage spot repeatedly, ensuring that externally it looked like there was no suitcase hidden away, she muttered, “This will have to do for now.”
Although she vaguely felt that hiding the core of the urban legend at home wasn’t very safe, she couldn’t think of a better way to store it at the moment.
Having stored the suitcase, Luxianbei exited the storage room and glanced at the electronic clock on her bedside table.
The time was 6:13 AM, with a little over two hours until dawn, and it was already too late to sleep.
She could only lie in bed and rest briefly, quietly waiting for dawn.
Lying on the bed, which was just the right size, Luxianbei felt an emptiness as she stared at the ceiling, her mind swirling with chaotic thoughts.
So, among all those who participated in the daring challenge, was Du Sixian really the only one completely uninvolved?
Why does it feel like a sand sculpture mixed in with a group of vengeful spirits, and the atmosphere is all wrong? The key is, in the end, she alone survived!
As this thought crossed her mind, Luxianbei suddenly felt that Du Sixian girl had some inexplicable luck.
Could it be that she has some incredible luck, turning danger into opportunity like a protagonist in a story?
Luxianbei pondered, as segments of memories that didn’t belong to her began to resurface again, causing a sharp pain in her head, and the four deceased individuals began to haunt her once more.
To suppress the flood of memories that kept surfacing in her mind, Luxianbei began to think aimlessly about various peculiar things, hoping to distract her attention from those painful memories.
She thought, who am I? Where am I? Where am I going?
Why does the world exist, what’s the value of life, what is the meaning of living… and those guys downstairs, what absurd things are they doing right now?
She thought, once this is over, she should be able to eat regular human food again, so what should she have for dinner?
She imagined, if she were driving a gleaming train, with a group of kids smashing figurines tied to the left track and a middle-aged man doing something pervy tied to the right track, how could she drift the train to crush both sides?
She thought, if Mr. Rabbit and Jiang Li fell into the water at the same time, how could she find a way to throw Water Brother in too?
Perhaps it was the deluge of silly questions that puzzled the side effects of consuming the core of the urban legend, but Luxianbei felt her thoughts gradually calming down.
Once she momentarily settled her mind, Luxianbei realized there were still many things she hadn’t figured out, particularly concerning the Solar Eclipse Society.
After experiencing the side effects of consuming the core of the urban legend firsthand, Luxianbei suddenly recalled the scene from her first successful hunt.
Uh, although she also had a smidgen of credit from Gu Qiqi in her success.
However, at that time, she just thought that mysterious man in black was simply rushing to grab the monster and bullying newcomers. Now she felt that his actions were imbued with a strong sense of purpose.
Could the mysterious person know about the side effects of directly consuming the core of the urban legend, which is why he tried to stop her from consuming it? Preventing her from foolishly consuming it and going crazy on the spot?
Luxianbei’s deduction wasn’t completely baseless.
According to Jiang Li’s comments and her firsthand experience of Bug Man’s combat abilities, it wouldn’t be particularly difficult for members of the Solar Eclipse Society to hunt down a core of the urban legend.
The mysterious person didn’t need to snatch the core from her.
The chance of him simply wanting to mooch off it was slim; how could there be so many people in the world who love to mooch? Not everyone is Luxianbei!
Moreover, after the mysterious individual snatched the core, he should have realized that he was under the influence of the Black Sun Totem, falling into an unusual state, yet he didn’t take the opportunity to ambush her.
This indicates that he truly wasn’t there for the “wine.”
The combination of these two factors made Luxianbei start to doubt the real purpose of that mysterious person.
“No, no! The Solar Eclipse Society is a bunch of harmful people, they can’t be that kind-hearted!”
In the darkness, Luxianbei whispered to herself, interrupting her thoughts, and began to think from a different perspective.
According to Jiang Li, the members of the Solar Eclipse Society are extreme terrorists.
Thus, their actions shouldn’t be viewed from a standpoint of goodwill.
Perhaps their goal was simply not to let her obtain spirit energy? Luxianbei mused, thinking this explanation might be more reasonable.
She felt uncertain about what might happen if she failed to hunt successfully this time and didn’t fortuitously receive some spirit energy from Uncle Zhang Shan, continuing to starve.
Perhaps out of hunger, she would lose her rationality and might even commit m*rder on the streets.
Luxianbei had a nagging feeling that the Solar Eclipse Society might be plotting a grand conspiracy.
That conspiracy likely involved many innocent people like Yun Meng and also implicated herself.
“Ah——!” She sighed, softly talking to herself, “I must think of a way to deal with this!”
As the saying goes, a person without foresight must have immediate worries.
Although she felt overly involved in matters related to the Solar Eclipse Society was very dangerous, they were already targeting her, and she couldn’t just sit idly by.
She had to think of a way to deal with them! A glint of ferocity flashed in Luxianbei’s eyes, wanting them to be too preoccupied to deal with her, so she could have ample time to develop.
Since Yun Meng had come into contact with the Solar Eclipse Society, perhaps that could be leveraged.
Her situation likely wasn’t an isolated case; if left unchecked, more people would likely be targeted by the Solar Eclipse Society and face misfortune.
It seemed she would need to think of a way to concoct a story to hint at Jiang Li. From her reaction the last time I mentioned that strange totem, she would definitely take action.
That’s right, it’s just like “Drive the Wolf Away and Eat the Tiger,” I’m a little genius!
If you can’t beat them, join them; if you can’t join, report! This is reasonable!
This is not old silver coins; this is a rational use of public resources to effectively combat crime.
Let me think for a couple of days, and when I next go to learn at the Siye Society, I’ll tell Jiang Li the story I’ve crafted. Luxianbei thought.
Meanwhile, she should also think of a way to see if she could convert from a temp to a full-time position; after regularizing her status, she should be able to acquire more information from the Siye Society, which might include methods to mitigate the side effects of the urban legend core.
Luxianbei felt that she would definitely experience hunger again in the future, and when that time came, she would have to hunt again and consume the core of the urban legend once more.
To prevent her mind from experiencing issues, she needed to quickly find a way to eliminate the debuff effectively.
