Chapter 947: Advancing into the Sky
If Hu Changzai had also come along, it would have been perfect.
Lin Sanjiu steadied her breath and finally stopped, leaning against the wall behind her. The surroundings were pitch black. The railroad tracks beneath her feet were submerged in darkness, and the raised edges clearly pressed against her boots. One of her hands still tightly grasped Twelve’s arm, specifically holding onto the broken part of the bone. She was so wary of this person that she hadn’t even forgotten to envelop her palm in the [Defense Forcefield].
"Is this... a train station?" Twelve asked weakly. The broken bone continued to tug, rub, and collide within his flesh, just the thought of it was unbearable. But beyond his pale face and drenched in cold sweat, Twelve seemed to be quietly enjoying this pain.
"No one will come here for now," Lin Sanjiu said coldly. Although she had taken all defensive measures, Twelve had been quite cooperative all along the way, not even attempting to escape once, which made her secretly alert. "Gong Daoyi especially won’t be able to find this place... I doubt he can even leave the Munitions Factory gates now."
Twelve sighed without any hint of regret, leaning against the platform behind the two of them.
"You should be well aware of why I brought you out," Lin Sanjiu felt disgust even though she held his arm through the [Defense Forcefield]. "I can turn twelve personalities into eleven now... You better have a good reason to stop me from doing so."
"Hah," Twelve chuckled softly and ambiguously. But before the second half of his sentence left his lips, it was suddenly interrupted by a faint glow around his neck. The crescent-shaped halo quietly floated in the darkness, illuminating half of Twelve’s face from below: his chin, the tip of his nose, the depths of his eyes... It gave his appearance a completely different look.
Lin Sanjiu kept her face tense but breathed a slight sigh of relief in her heart.
With the help of an additional Special Item, she could finally relax a little.
"I have two things to remind you of," Twelve lowered his eyelids, retracted his chin, and looked at the halo around his neck. He spoke softly, "First, I haven’t resisted at all, and I haven’t tried to escape until this thing started working again. It’s because I didn’t want to run. I chose to stay voluntarily. After all, I am a personality. Although I have matured to be similar to an ordinary person now and am subject to the same constraints... I still have a way, something that ordinary people like you don’t have."
He obviously didn’t finish his sentence, and Lin Sanjiu tightly pursed her lips without asking "why."
"Secondly, you can’t turn twelve personalities into eleven—at least, you can’t maintain that number for long."
Those words made Lin Sanjiu feel like she didn’t understand.
"Are you saying that your personalities can die and be reborn?" After a few seconds of thought, she cautiously asked. Septimus had mentioned that a personality only had one life, but she wasn’t confident in his words.
"No, they can’t."
What puzzled her was that Twelve’s answer came too decisively, without any uncertainty. Upon careful consideration, it seemed there was something illogical about it. If all twelve personalities were still present, how would they know that they only had one life?
"Mature personalities and a normal human being, essentially, are not much different... except for the fact that we can return to the host personality’s body."
This point matched the basics of what Septimus had said earlier, and Lin Sanjiu made a mental note of it.
"So when we suffer fatal injuries, we die like ordinary people and cannot be revived." Twelve smiled suddenly as he continued, "You knowing that I will die doesn’t matter because I truly... don’t care about dying at all."
Lin Sanjiu believed this was the truth. For someone like Twelve, life was probably just an overpriced mental accessory—whether it belonged to others or themselves.
"Would Luther split into new personalities to fill the void?"
Twelve paused, and his whitened eyes swept across her face.
"You are surprisingly perceptive in certain aspects. No, Luther wouldn’t split into new personalities," he said softly, "but you used a word, ’void.’ That word is more crucial than you think..."
"Don’t beat around the bush like you’re giving a lecture," Lin Sanjiu interrupted him. "What I need to know now is about the Chicky brothers, not some rules that constrain your personalities!"—She could even temporarily put aside the question about Marcie that she had just asked.
"Oh, you really don’t want me to say it?" Twelve turned his head, and the skeletal lines of his face were clearly illuminated. His expression, distorted by the light, appeared to be a smile, but it also seemed like a malicious scrutiny. "This is your only chance."
The instant anxiety sparked by that statement was so overwhelming that even Lin Sanjiu herself couldn’t believe it. Twelve held the information she desperately wanted to know, as if he could poke at her brain with a stick, playing with her emotions—it didn’t even seem like he derived any pleasure from it. He did it simply because he could.
The "void" he wanted to talk about must be important information. However, if Lin Sanjiu allowed him to continue, he would surely take his time, leading the conversation at his own pace, wasting her precious time as if toying with a dog.
Although she could use Little Hole’s ability to make him confess... as someone who had firsthand experience with the Pinhole ability, she knew very well that the other person could ramble on endlessly.
After thinking it through, she made up her mind. Her Higher Consciousness was running low, but she had a little bit left, which should be enough to activate Consciousness Mimicry.
"Speak."
She took a step back and stood in the center of the tracks, concealing herself in the darkness. This way, Twelve wouldn’t perceive any changes in her expression or demeanor.
"Twelve personalities occupying twelve positions. When one person is missing, a position becomes vacant... and when there’s a vacancy, you have to fill it with a carrot. So, you can’t decrease the number of personalities."
Ji Shanqing was not only intelligent but also had nothing to lose in this world except for Lin Sanjiu. When she no longer cared, that profound calmness seeped into her mind like mist. In an instant, doubt surfaced in Lin Sanjiu’s mind.
Twelve’s statement was initially too illogical. It was because Luther had split eleven times that there were twelve personalities, not the other way around—having twelve positions that were then filled by the personalities. This was a very shallow causal relations.h.i.+p. He couldn’t possibly think she would be fooled by such words, could he?
No, that’s not the point!
Lin Sanjiu suddenly raised her head, her voice resolute, "Who would fill the vacancy with a carrot?"
Twelve smiled silently.
"Not Luther, of course," he softly replied, his two broken and deformed arms hanging limply.
"And not you," Lin Sanjiu immediately continued coldly, "because based on the implication you revealed earlier, even if I kill you, Luther will soon have twelve personalities again."
Certainly, the deceased personalities couldn’t fill the vacancy with a carrot. The sudden realization struck her like lightning, causing a tremor to ripple through her. She blurted out, "Not you, not Luther. In other words, someone—very likely one of the twelve personalities—has the ability to fill the personality void corresponding to Luther’s ability?"
Yes, that was her plan. If she couldn’t force Twelve to reveal the truth through sheer power, then she would use the grand prize to grasp any clues and a.n.a.lyze the information Twelve knew.
Finally, he showed a hint of genuine surprise. Before this moment, all of Twelve’s emotions were like a layer of mist floating on a mask.
"But you also said that Luther won’t continue to split personalities. I a.s.sume that statement of yours is true," Lin Sanjiu paced back and forth, unconsciously adopting Ji Shanqing’s manner of speech, reminiscent of a gentle breeze pa.s.sing through a mountain spring. "So, my question is... where do the personalities that fill the void come from?"
"What have you done?" Twelve’s interest was piqued, and he suddenly straightened his body from the platform, taking a step forward. "What method is this? Evolution ability? Special Item? How did you transform into someone else?"
Lin Sanjiu was startled—this was one of Ji Shanqing’s flaws in mimicry, being too easily startled—and almost instinctively, she immediately deactivated Consciousness Mimicry.
"Don’t be afraid," he chuckled ambiguously, immediately realizing her emotions and gazing at her with bright eyes. "You see, I can’t do anything to you..."
Twelve wasn’t truly human at his core because his prey was humans. However, it was often the hunters who possessed an innate sensitivity to the weaknesses of their prey.
Lin Sanjiu regained her composure, and the fear brought by Ji Shanqing quickly subsided, replaced by a sudden surge of anger. She took a step forward and grabbed Twelve’s collar—regardless of whether he feared death or pain, she intended to force him to try. However, just at that moment, a sharp and loud siren suddenly resounded, followed by a faint rumbling beneath her feet.
"The Heaven Zone is about to enter Level 1 security lockdown," an indistinct announcement came from somewhere outside the train station. "Repeat, the entire Heaven Zone is requested to prepare for Level 1 security lockdown..."
Lin Sanjiu glared fiercely at Twelve and pushed him with force, releasing her grip. He still wore that indescribable expression, somewhere between a smile and malevolence. She pondered for a moment, then called out a flashlight, took a quick look around, and suddenly turned and walked away. Restricted by the circle of light around his neck, Twelve had to quicken his pace to keep up with her, intermittently asking, "Where... where are you going?"
Luther was on a large aircraft, but Lin Sanjiu had no idea where it was at the moment. Her Exodus was undoubtedly in the hands of the Chicky brothers. Logically, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to stay put. If it were her, she would definitely pilot the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and leave quickly.
In other words, her current target should be in the sky...
And in the Heaven Zone, there happened to be a dock for docking aircraft.