Chapter Sixty-Four: The Dead Vigilante
At first, there were only a few small bubbles surfacing on the river. Soon after, as if something was about to emerge, the water slightly bulged upward.
Finally, the muddy river water flowed to the sides, revealing Zhang Chang’s face, abruptly entering the field of vision.
That’s about it.
This was the entire process of the corpse appearing before Vivienne. She shrugged nonchalantly and said, “Thanks to Mother Nature for her gifts.”
After speaking, she bent down and grabbed the collar of the corpse, pulling it forcefully out of the water.
It was a male corpse, dressed in deep purple tight-fitting clothing, wearing a half-masked face guard.
The metallic mask had a serpentine totem engraved on the forehead, covering the upper half of the corpse’s face, exposing only the slightly outlined jawline.
In the slightly opened mouth, the tongue appeared to be sliced by some external force or perhaps had undergone some unknown mutation, split into ten or so segments stacked together, reminiscent of a fruit called Buddha’s hand, though the color was entirely different, with an inner hue that was quite nauseating.
The material of the tight-fitting clothing was special; it looked somewhat like a sharkskin diving suit, completely waterproof. As soon as it was out of the water, it was already dry, with protective plates attached to the joints of the arms and legs which are prone to injury.
Underneath the tight-fitting clothing, there were several strange protrusions on the corpse’s body, resembling tumors, slowly writhing and emitting weak and uncomfortable spirit energy fluctuations, seemingly possessing some bizarre vitality as if some terrible organism would suddenly tear through the clothing and emerge.
After carefully observing the corpse, Luxianbei noticed that at the corpse’s feet, there were a large number of broken strands of water plants resembling hair, and he furrowed his brows.
Unexpectedly, such a person truly existed.
Just now, could it be that this corpse was entangled in the water plants, and only when Vivienne arrived did they break away in the current, allowing the body to surface?
Although… that seems a bit too coincidental, doesn’t it?
It would be more believable to say that Vivienne summoned it, Luxianbei thought.
At that moment, Vivienne’s voice broke the stream of his thoughts.
“Don’t just stand there dumbly, come over and give me a hand, this guy is too heavy!”
“I’ll lift the head, you lift the knees, and then I’ll count to three; we pull together and get this guy to the shore.”
“….” Luxianbei responded and stepped forward, grabbing the corpse’s knee joints under Vivienne’s guidance. Then, after a splash of water, the corpse was finally completely freed from the muddy Grand Canal and came to rest on the riverbank.
“Hey? This guy…” After examining the corpse, Vivienne exclaimed in surprise, pondering for a few seconds before pulling out a spring-loaded kn*fe from her coat, “clicking” as the blade sprung out.
A weak spiritual energy fluctuation emanated from the cold blade, which Luxianbei sensed, raising an eyebrow.
Though not a high grade, this should be a spirit energy item? The next moment, Vivienne raised her hand sharply and plunged the spring kn*fe into the corpse’s chest.
When Vivienne pulled out the spring kn*fe and aimed for the corpse’s chest, Luxianbei thought it was a traditional act of “respect” from the corpse retrieval team in the Free City.
After all, isn’t it respectful to deliver a finishing blow? She has always respected corpses; not only would she deliver a finishing blow but also provide cremation and soul elevation services.
Not to mention that the area under the tight-fitting clothing was still slowly writhing, seemingly having begun to turn into an urban legend.
Could she not deliver a finishing blow?
In the Grand Canal of the Free City, the level of Night Invasion was higher than in most places, and just moving the corpse and making contact with the water, Luxianbei already felt a sense of impending disaster stirring.
A corpse that once possessed spirit energy, immersed in such water, was essentially breeding mutated urban legends.
Perhaps this was the real reason the Ariel Maritime Organization’s retrieval team collected corpses, rather than some excuse like “floating corpses affect the normal operations of the shipping company…”
To prevent a corpse from suddenly turning into an urban legend and being attacked, it was only reasonable that the retrieval team delivered a finishing blow as soon as the body was on shore.
However, to Luxianbei’s surprise, Vivienne’s spring kn*fe did not inflict any damage on the corpse.
“Ding!”
As if scraping metal, the tip of the kn*fe glided over the corpse’s chest, accompanied by a crisp sound, creating a spark.
Seeing this, Luxianbei finally voiced his doubts, “This corpse seems off?”
“Uh-huh,” Vivienne nodded, “If I’m not mistaken, this guy should be one of the more active vigilantes from the North City.”
“Vigilante… What’s the problem with that?” Luxianbei pressed, “Isn’t it entirely normal for people like him to suddenly drop dead?”
In a ghostly place like the Free City, “interfering” could easily lead to getting targeted in revenge—it was all too normal.
In the wild, you’ll pay your dues eventually!
Those who are neither welcomed by spiritual ability users nor urban legends are akin to randomly spawned egg boss encounters—everyone wants to take a slice; if you don’t d*e, then who will?
“The problem is…” Vivienne gestured to the body and explained, “He has no external injuries on him, nor are there any residual spirit energies on the surface caused by spells or abilities. Remember that stab I just made?”
Luxianbei nodded, “I thought you were going to deliver a finishing blow.”
That’s exactly it; the material of the suit he’s wearing is made from a special alchemical material produced by Ariel Corporation, so standard firearms or spells have a hard time hurting him…” Vivienne continued, “Yet he died without any wounds, and it happened shortly before he began to turn into an urban legend. What does that sound like to you?”
…” Luxianbei remained silent for two seconds, shaking his head, “I don’t know. Maybe in the past I could think of something, but now I can’t remember anything.”
He obviously knew what that implied.
It meant that the cause of this young vigilante’s d*ath was very likely spirit patterns going out of control.
For spiritual ability users, the result of spirit pattern failure was nothing but various forms of sudden d*ath or mutation, a combination of sorts.
Simply put, either d*e, or it would be worse than d*ath. Still pretending, huh? I want to see how long you can keep this up! Vivienne rolled her eyes and raised her voice a notch, “It means he most likely died from power going out of control!”
“Power going out of control? Isn’t it spirit patterns going out of control?” Luxianbei frowned, a sense of foreboding arising in his heart.
He suddenly recalled that before they set off, Zhipianxian had just mentioned to him that those vigilantes in North City who liked playing role-playing games controlled their powers through items rather than spirit patterns.
When Zhipianxian ditched those vigilantes, he had used his power from the Pink Fluffy Rabbit to cause a malfunction with the spirit energy items they obtained…
Could this be the reason they lost control of their powers? Even though he felt a bit uneasy due to Zhipianxian’s words, Luxianbei maintained a blank expression, “Such things happen to spiritual ability users all the time, right?”
They really do happen all the time… Vivienne nodded, turning suddenly to stare straight into Luxianbei’s eyes, “However, before we set off today, Annie told me that you encountered some vigilantes from North City last night, and you chose to let her go first, facing those vigilantes alone.
If the ‘Yu Yinchuan’ in a normal state wanted to deal with three vigilantes, it would be an easy task.
Luxianbei looked at the corpse on the ground, then glanced at Vivienne, who was pointing at her own nose, “Are you suspecting I killed this person? I can assure you I’ve never seen him before! Well, whether Zhipianxian has seen him or not, I’m not sure…” Luxianbei added silently to himself.
“Don’t get agitated! It’s not suspicion but confirmation…” Vivienne sighed quietly and explained, “I just wanted to confirm if this guy’s d*ath has anything to do with you.”
“You don’t think I would do something to a vigilante for no reason, right? I’m not that kind of person! Even if it was you who did it, it was to protect Annie, right?” After a slight pause, Vivienne added, “If his d*ath is related to you, my way of dealing with him might be a bit different…”
Simply put, it means disposing of the body.
As long as we send this corpse to the Iris Hotel and leave it to them to handle, no one will know where it went…
Though doing this would mean much less income than if I handled it myself, it’s still better than being hunted down for revenge.
A little loss to avoid disaster.
Then,
Luxianbei’s eyes twitched slightly, and he whispered, “You decide how to handle it differently?”
So, you really did k*ll him?
Vivienne tilted her head, her tone becoming grave.
“I didn’t, I didn’t, don’t say that!” Luxianbei shook his head, defending himself, “But—this is just in case! You know, I’m not really clear-headed right now; what if last night, while covering for Miss Annie, I did something unconsciously?”
Vivienne, “…unconsciously going berserk and killing enemies? Do you think you’re some sort of hero in a hot-blooded comic?”
Grumbling silently, she rolled her eyes, “Since you say so, then you’d better not be! Don’t worry, I’ll handle this corpse well; now… let’s hurry and move this body!”
Though she recognized that Luxianbei’s words were somewhat flustered, she also acknowledged his “just in case” remark.
You see, many of the active vigilantes in North City come from powerful families in the Free City.
Without substantial family support, they couldn’t possibly have the time and money to play this sort of superhero role-playing game.
The d*ath of a vigilante isn’t exactly a major issue; the trouble arises if their influential associates catch even a whiff of something amiss and start pursuing the trail.
That could bring great trouble to the Hailake Community…
