Chapter 211: The Siblings Finally Reunite
Lin Sanjiu clearly remembered that Reno 2 (without the mark on his wrist) was on this floor. Even though she didn"t constantly check his wrist, she was sure that before Reno entered the bathroom, his hands were clean, and he didn"t have an "X" mark.
"But that explains things…" Mrs. Manas mumbled as if she had already figured out something. "Reno 2 is also fake. Even though we don"t know how Reno 1 managed to come to this floor and replaced Reno 2, Reno 1 did step out from this bathroom. Thus, he could activate his almanac ability…"
"Is that really the case? The fake Rena had already expected Reno 1 to step out from this bathroom so she devised that plan? But, how did Reno 1 come to this floor... " There are too many points that don"t make sense..." Lin Sanjiu kept feeling that there was something wrong. She had just managed to get some clues, yet the situation was immediately messed up by reality again. She thought silently for a very long time. In the end, she still couldn"t come up with a reasonable explanation to convince herself.
The worst thing about this situation was that she couldn"t use her [Consciousness Mimicry] to mimic Nüwa"s thought process. Mrs. Manas had emphasized this to her many times, "Don"t keep thinking about it. You might think that you theoretically have enough higher consciousness to activate the ability, but you don"t have a body right now. If you used up all your higher consciousness mimicking Nüwa"s thought process, you might really disappear from this world! Those two siblings aren"t in any lethal danger right now. But, even if they"re about to die, I"m not going to let you take that risk!"
Lin Sanjiu understood where Mrs. Manas was coming from. When she was killed, she could have become a duoluozhong of Kisaragi Station if not for that little bit of higher consciousness which protected her consciousness and thoughts. When she was alive, using up her higher consciousness just meant that she would enter a deep slumber. When she wakes up, she would recover her higher consciousness. However, now that she was dead, she could only recover and grow her higher consciousness because of the primary source from the "nucleus" of her body. Mimicking Nüwa required an incredible amount of higher consciousness and if she accidentally used up her primary source in that "nucleus"...
"Oh, you mentioned that you remembered something?" Mrs. Manas interrupted her thoughts, "How did you figure out who was real and who was the imposter?"
"Forget it…"Lin Sanjiu replied disappointedly, "I think I"m wrong. It"s ok even if you don"t know. Let"s talk about it some other time. While she spoke with Mrs. Manas in her head, she slowly flew toward the Reno who was on the sofa. "Should I call this Reno with the mark on his wrist, Reno 1?" Lin Sanjiu thought hesitantly.
Since he had proven that he could use his almanac ability twice, this should be the real Reno. Since living humans can"t hear Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu didn"t find it necessary to be cautious about that.
"Where is that spirit?" Reno asked. When Lin Sanjiu flew closer to Reno 1, she noticed that he was still s.h.i.+vering. He must have been badly affected by that attack. His teeth were still chattering when he asked, "Where is my sister?"
From his reaction, he just stayed in the apartment unit. He probably didn"t notice that he had been s.h.i.+fted down a floor. Lin Sanjiu found the situation a little hard to explain.
"No, if Rena 2 was fake. Rena 1 (who has the dirty socks) is real." Considering this, she had already figured out how to identify the real Rena and Reno. Lin Sanjiu couldn"t help sighing a breath of relief in her mind. Even though there were still many mysteries surrounding their situation, her priority was to find for the both of them and make sure that they were fine. Next, they must leave this dangerous place at once.
"Let"s look upstairs," she spelled out to the Reno 1. The teenager seemed a little less worried. Without any delay, he stood up, still s.h.i.+vering, "Lead the way, let"s go."
Surprisingly, they found Rena 1 without much of a ha.s.sle.
Lin Sanjiu thought that the weird situation with multiple 15 floors would happen again and even prepared herself to search the entire building. However, when Reno 1 and Lin Sanjiu climbed up one floor and walked out of the stairway, they met Rena coming towards them unexpectedly. She was visibly alarmed and showed a guarded expression.
Since the girl"s white socks had streaks of dirt, just as Lin Sanjiu remembered, she was probably Rena 1. After that incident with Reno"s almanac ability, Rena 1 did not wear her accessories. At first, when Lin Sanjiu saw the accessoryless Rena 1, she almost thought that she was that imposter spirit that she had nearly destroyed.
Lin Sanjiu"s current form (a brain partially covered by half a skull) was too eye-catching and Rena 1 immediately recognized her. When the girl saw Lin Sanjiu, she called her with a sobbing tone, "Lin Sanjiu! You a**hole! Can you stop running away without telling me!" While she said this, she put down her fists and wiped her eyes.
Meanwhile, Reno 1 walked out from the stairway. Rena 1 heard that noise and looked up and found herself facing him directly.
"Rena? Are you okay?" Reno 1 looked at her suspiciously. "Since that spirit was hurt quite badly, it shouldn"t be able to recover quick enough to scare us again." Thinking about this point, he walked over to her hesitantly.
Somehow, Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered a matter. Just moments ago, the same Reno said that he found Rena 1 suspicious and that she wasn"t like his sister. Even though that spirit she hit was almost killed, how could they confirm that there was only one spirit here?
Even without considering other possibilities, other than that spirit who posed as Rena, there was another one posing as Reno. If that thing wanted, it could change its appearance to look like Rena so that it could get closer to them. "Is it that hard to create the appearance of a few dirt streaks?"
But if Lin Sanjiu continued spiraling through her what-ifs, things would get too complicated. Lin Sanjiu looked at the Rena in front of her and decided that she was overthinking things. After all, Reno 1 might have made a mistake.
Both siblings seemed a little guarded. They only relaxed slightly after they exchanged a few words cautiously.
"This stupid place is too creepy," Rena 1 sounded a little aggrieved as she mumbled. "It is so spooky, but there is nothing around. I"ve already been scared a few times… Getting scared in Kisaragi Station World isn"t something good."
"Why?" Lin Sanjiu spelled out midair, feeling puzzled.
"The more frightened you get, the easier it is for dark matter to invade your body," Rena 1 replied Lin Sanjiu. "We have anti-dark matter outfits and we can also see duoluozhongs, nothing scared me much since we arrived in this world. However, I can feel that I am gradually being corrupted by dark matter…"
"Huh?" This was the first time Lin Sanjiu heard about this matter. That explained why she was corrupted by dark matter in just one day. After thinking for some time, she tried her best to shorten her question, "Protected. But your eyes?"
"You"re stupid! We can"t protect any part of our bodies not covered by clothes," Rena retorted, "It isn"t some protective s.h.i.+eld. They are just generic items produced by The Munitions Factory."
From the kids" outfit, it must be summer in Red Nautilus. Since Rena was wearing a Tulle dress, she actually didn"t have much protection. Even though Lin Sanjiu had many unanswered questions about this place, she felt that they should leave immediately now that they have found Rena. Lest, more problems arise.
However, Lin Sanjiu needed to do something before they left.
While the siblings chatted, Lin Sanjiu slipped away when they weren"t noticing... Following the edges of the ceiling, she quickly flew one floor up, back to the floor where she fought with the spirit. She flew to the end of the corridor and floated to one of the corners. Then, she reached for something in that corner.
"Don"t do this again. In your current form, you are using your higher consciousness every time you use your ability. If you use up all your higher consciousness, there is no telling what will happen to you…" Mrs. Manas naggy voice sounded in Lin Sanjiu"s mind once again.
"I know. I did this because I had no choice. I can"t be in two places at once," Lin Sanjiu replied. A white glow appeared at the corner of the corridor and it disappeared into her "body" once she touched it. "Yes, yes. And I won"t try to bathe myself again…"
While she said this, she looked at the Diary Card she just retrieved. Originally, Lin Sanjiu thought that all her cards were kept in her body, so she a.s.sumed that she couldn"t use her Diary Card and her Nostradamus"s Card. A few days ago, Lin Sanjiu didn"t even think about them. When Lin Sanjiu sighed and commented today, "Too bad I don"t have my Diary Card", Mrs. Manas immediately began to stammer. That was when Lin Sanjiu forced the truth from that teacher.
Lin Sanjiu"s Diary Card and Nostradamus"s Card are not converted from tangible things. They are abilities which branch out from her [Planar World] so they are not bounded by her body. Mrs. Manas hid this from her because the effect of Lin Sanjiu"s Diary Card lasts for 3 hours. She was afraid that Lin Sanjiu would use her abilities successively and without restraint and use up all her higher consciousness in the end.
"Hey, I am not stupid…" Lin Sanjiu grumbled while she read the first page of her card. Her Diary Card didn"t have the ability to tell Lin Sanjiu who the imposter was, so it only recorded the situation using names like Reno 1 and Reno 2. This didn"t help Lin Sanjiu much.
However, when she looked at the second page, her "heart missed a beat".
"Oh no!"