Chapter 1433: Lin Sanjiu"s Wit
Advaita had a clear mind and meticulous thoughts. If she had kept an eye on Lin Sanjiu, Lin Sanjiu might have found herself in a difficult situation. But the person constantly beside her was Chen Hanwu, which boosted Lin Sanjiu"s confidence.
If she couldn"t deceive Advaita, couldn"t she deceive Chen Hanwu? The young man appeared inexperienced, and traits formed in a civilized society hadn"t been completely eroded by the apocalyptic world. Having received instructions from Advaita, he even felt somewhat embarra.s.sed when facing Lin Sanjiu afterward.
Lin Sanjiu liked people with such thin facades.
As they followed Advaita to the frontline, starting from the G2 shelf, Chen Hanwu pointed to the nearest aisle. "So, shall we search each aisle? It"s a pity we can"t see the deep shelf numbers from outside. We have to go to the end to check..." The mall had made it a point to place the shelf numbers prominently, but due to the angle, one couldn"t discern the numbers of the distant shelves unless they ventured into the aisle.
Lin Sanjiu nodded amicably, her mind working on how she might use this to her advantage.
As they hastily made their way down most of the aisle, she cleared her throat. This cough seemed to wind up Chen Hanwu as he tensed up, turning his head to ask, "Wh-What"s wrong?"
"I"m friends with Silvan, you know that," Lin Sanjiu said, adjusting her facial expression to portray a subtle concern. "So, I"m quite familiar with some of his tactics... He"s been lurking around here recently, right? It"s making me uneasy."
Chen Hanwu swallowed hard, asking, "Why?"
"He"s from the Munitions Factory." Or, more like the Munitions Factory belonged to him now. "He has many combat tools, beyond what you might imagine. I know he brought a lot of traps with him this time."
"Traps?" Chen Hanwu halted, looking around. "What kind of traps?"
"There are many. For example, low-frequency nanotech combat units. They"re invisible to the naked eye but can cover half an aisle. If someone steps on them, they"ll be immediately reduced to a carbon base. There"s also a kind of tile that can scramble your nervous system randomly," Lin Sanjiu said, observing his reaction to the bluff. "I"ve seen it firsthand. Neural strands flowing out of the nostrils like noodles."
Chen Hanwu"s mouth hung open, caught between disbelief and fear, rendered speechless.
"I do have a Special Item specifically for detecting traps. If I can use it, I"ll feel much safer," Lin Sanjiu said. "Of course, if you don"t trust it, it"s fine. After all, Silvan and I are friends. I don"t think he would use anything too ruthless on me."
While she was friends with Silvan, Chen Hanwu was not. The dark-skinned young man obviously realized this. Under his unease, he asked several times about the nature of the Special Item and whether it could truly prevent them from stepping into traps. Eventually, after weighing the pros and cons, he agreed to let Lin Sanjiu take it out.
Getting him to agree to the first step was crucial to baiting him further.
When Caster was once again released into the world, she twirled in place as if her memory had been frozen just before it had been carded. Checking herself and finding all limbs intact, she lifted her head and said, "I—"
"I didn"t call you out to chat," Lin Sanjiu said, raising her hand to stop it. "When you detect a trap set by Silvan up ahead, tell me."
She wasn"t sure whether Caster"s intelligence setting could truly grasp her intentions. Caster looked puzzled for a few seconds, gazing blankly down the aisle, seemingly unsure what to do next.
"Is this reliable?" Chen Hanwu eyed it suspiciously. "Humanoid Special Items are expensive. This is my first time seeing one. Why does it seem a bit..."
"Just relying on it won"t suffice." Lin Sanjiu discreetly nudged Caster"s back, signaling her to take a step forward and act as if the path ahead was safe. "If it detects a trap, then what? The traps are surely next to the valid shelves. If we can"t pa.s.s, we still can"t retrieve anything. I have to use another ability in conjunction."
"What ability?"
Lin Sanjiu shook her head with a smile. "Sorry, we"ve just met, and I don"t think it"s appropriate to share the details. Let"s just say, when the opponent uses a certain item... well, you"ll understand."
Chen Hanwu"s curiosity was clearly piqued. "Targeting the item... Can you destroy the opponent"s item?"
"No, no, that would be too powerful. But it"s something... somewhat similar, just a bit weaker," Lin Sanjiu said, encouraging his guess.
"Then... can you render it useless?"
"Not entirely useless, just the most crucial part..."
"Almost there. Come on." Lin Sanjiu suppressed her impatience. She couldn"t put words in Chen Hanwu"s mouth.
"Oh, I get it," Chen Hanwu said, his face lighting up. "You can disable the core functionality of the opponent"s item."
Lin Sanjiu let out a long sigh of relief in her heart. Underneath the bandage on her neck, the [Pygmalion Choker] began to heat up. This thing was very picky regarding ability descriptions; if someone framed it as a question, it wouldn"t activate. Fortunately, Chen Hanwu was quite confident in his guess.
She couldn"t help but smile, stretching her shoulders, and gave Caster a slap on the back. The ability recently granted to her by the [Pygmalion Choker] was instantly applied to Caster. When Caster jerked in surprise and turned its head towards her, the ability had already taken effect.
Caster"s core functionality was disabled.
"Oh, the entire corridor ahead is safe," Lin Sanjiu said, turning to Chen Hanwu. "Let"s hurry up and move a bit faster."
Without waiting for the young man to respond, she grabbed Caster"s arm and rushed forward. Chen Hanwu shouted, "Hey!" from behind and hastily followed her. With the wind rus.h.i.+ng past her, every step Lin Sanjiu took, she intentionally stamped her combat boots heavily on the ground. Along with Chen Hanwu"s shouts of "Wait up!" from behind, for a moment, even she couldn"t hear anything beyond the chaos.
She lowered her voice and whispered to Caster, "You can"t predict the future now, can you? No functioning as Caster for a while?"
Caster frantically shook her head.
"Good. Now, tell me what Silvan said, word for word."