Chapter 1516
Lin Sanjiu silently took a deep breath, stepping out of the courtyard gate.
The feeling of being intently watched suddenly surged overwhelmingly, almost making her stumble. It felt as if there were several pairs of eyes on her at least. Fortunately, she did not trigger any traps or get caught in any textual snares. After leaving Zhou Xian"s territory, the hallway stretched silently ahead. Her gaze reached beyond a vacant area at the end, where she could vaguely see a part of the rotunda.
It seemed they did not suspect her; they only monitored her, probably because they all thought she was the ninth game maker, believing that text would not affect her.
Before she followed Zhou Xian into the house, she had not felt this sensation of being watched. It could have been because her self-introduction in the rotunda had been overheard, or Zhou Xian had a secret way of communicating with others and had already tipped them off.
Regardless of the reason, by this logic, since most of the game makers thought she was a newcomer, it proved that Poe hadn"t contacted most of them, so he was still trying to win over what he thought was the ninth person. If they had a secret method of communication, and Poe contacted them, wouldn"t Yu Yuan be in danger? Separated from his "vessel" and stuck to a corpse, he was much more vulnerable than usual.
As Zhou Xian closed the door behind her with a "bang," Lin Sanjiu was about to take out [Migratory Letters] but restrained herself in time. The sensation of being watched came from all around her; she couldn"t be sure that her writing would not be seen.
How could she contact Yu Yuan? She couldn"t just walk up brazenly, right?
Lin Sanjiu strode into the rotunda, and as she pa.s.sed a chair, she suddenly flung it away. It crashed heavily into a food cabinet nearby, splitting awkwardly. The loud noise startled her, making her realize how frustrated she was.
"Hold it," Mrs. Manas immediately said. "Don"t accidentally reveal your true strength."
True strength—if it was a matter of strength, these people together would only be enough to warm Lin Sanjiu up; the wear on her wouldn"t exceed three band aids. Yet these people had her constrained, undecided, and even unsure how to deal with them. This frustration was far more annoying than being controlled by a stronger force.
Lin Sanjiu could endure pain, but she hated being restricted. Just as she was about to kick a hole in the food cabinet, she held back and headed straight to the next game maker"s room.
The more they hid, the more direct she would be.
Under the watchful gaze, she approached a concrete house that looked unchanged and knocked on the door. The feeling of being watched continued, and she couldn"t contact Yu Yuan, but surely she could within a game maker"s room, right? If she wanted to know if they had a secret communication system, she could just visit them and observe their reactions, right?
Almost the instant her fist hit the door, a sound of a lock was heard from inside; she hesitated and waited a few seconds, but the door did not open. Clearly, the person behind the door was busy locking it. A slightly m.u.f.fled male voice asked from behind the door, "Who"s there?"
It seemed to be that Master Zhang. Lin Sanjiu was about to answer when she paused.
She had only raised her hand, and he had started locking the door simultaneously, without even the sound of footsteps rus.h.i.+ng to the door. Master Zhang must have known she was coming to his room, and had been standing by the door, ready to lock it—he was probably one of those watching her. He didn"t know that even if he didn"t lock the door, she couldn"t enter.
"h.e.l.lo, I"m new here," Lin Sanjiu replied.
"Oh?"
"I"m lost."
Master Zhang seemed not to expect such an answer and could only respond with another, "Oh?"
"What on earth are you saying? Did your mouth turn into a goldfish? If I hear one more word, I"ll want to punch through the door and flatten your face. These people all have protection from words; I have no idea what they are guarding against. It"s nonsense."
Holding back her anger, Lin Sanjiu said, "Can you please show me the way? If you"re worried, you don"t have to open the door completely. Just open a crack, point the way, and that"ll be enough."
As long as there was a crack, she could use her strength to force the door open. The surveillance from behind could be blocked by her body; as for Master Zhang, she was confident that she could silence him before he could shout.
Master Zhang hesitated for a moment, thinking about something before slowly replying, "How would I know where your room is? Even if I wanted to help, I couldn"t."
There were only nine rooms, one of which was empty, the rest occupied by the eight of them. Where else could the new person"s room be?
Master Zhang"s lying was one thing after another, a real waste if he didn"t get what was coming to him. Lin Sanjiu was about to speak when she suddenly felt a chill and quickly bit her tongue.
He obviously knew which room the newcomer would be in; Master Zhang was clearly testing to see if the newcomer knew that he knew. Since Lin Sanjiu had to play the role of the ninth person, she had no reason to know anything that happened before her arrival.
"What should I do then?" she said and pretended to sigh in disappointment. "I"m about to start writing a game. What will happen if I don"t get back in time?"
Master Zhang remained silent, which was expected.
"I"ve already thought about what game to write," Lin Sanjiu muttered, taking two steps back from the door as if to leave. "I want to take away their abilities."
"You"re being naive," Master Zhang finally couldn"t help but say, still not opening the door, merely speaking from behind it. "Even if you could extract their abilities as punishment for losing a game, you can"t take them for yourself. Do you think we haven"t tried that?"
"But just before, the big brother told me he succeeded."
Master Zhang, hearing her voice moving further away, quickly opened the door and called out, "Wait, you mean Zhou Xian?"
Lin Sanjiu slowly mumbled a reply as she walked back. When she approached the door, she grabbed the handle and with a forceful push, thrust both the door and Master Zhang into the room, shouting, "I can"t stay long!" as Master Zhang fell to the ground.
"What are you doing..." Master Zhang"s face was a mixture of anger and paleness. "You, you"re—"
Lin Sanjiu summoned a small sphere of Higher Consciousness to block the door (Mrs. Manas remarked, "Well, there goes another one"), and without even looking around the room, hastily pulled out her [Migratory Letters], pen in hand, ready to leave a message for Yu Yuan.
If Master Zhang hadn"t locked the door, he would have realized that this unimpressive man wasn"t one of the game makers; but he had, so he did not suspect that Lin Sanjiu"s forcefulness was due to her lack of authorization to open the door. Spitting with anger, he spluttered, "What"s this? A robbery? You"re a newbie who knows nothing. Did you know that words don"t work on other game makers, let alone the protection I have?"
Lin Sanjiu ignored his ranting. The last message she had left for Yu Yuan was still "Wait a moment," and she didn"t know what he was doing now. She hastily wrote, "You don"t need to call Edgar Allan Poe. I"m already out. Be careful, I suspect they..."
She hadn"t finished writing the word "have" when a "beep" sounded in the room.
Lin Sanjiu looked up.
The room was set up like a hotel"s presidential suite, decorated in an extravagant royal style from a decade ago. She and Master Zhang were standing in the entrance hall, and on a long table against the wall was a telephone.
"h.e.l.lo," Edgar Allan Poe"s voice came from the phone. "That girl, what was her name, Little Demon? She isn"t dead. Just letting you know the situation. If you want to make a move, wait a couple of days."
Master Zhang slowly turned to look at Lin Sanjiu.